Bucks New University Faculty of Design, Media & Management Module: VM603 Course: Spatial Design Dissertation Title: What is the continuing importance of miniatures and physical effects in set design and why? Name: Robert Streader VMC Dissertation Tutor: Helena Chance Month and year of submission: January 2014 Word Count: 6,885 2 Contents Introduction Chapter One Miniatures and Cinema Chapter Two Craftsmanship and Design Chapter Three Physical Models in the Digital World Conclusion 3 Introduction The subject I will cover for this dissertation is the use of miniature effects and physical sets in the film and television industry. In the past models played an integral part in creating special effects. Films such as Metropolis, Blade Runner, Event Horizon and many more gained a great deal of praise for their use of models. Since the early 1990s the use digital effects has diminished to a degree the importance of miniature effects to film production. However, but even with the advent of computer generated effects miniature remains an important part to many film productions. Digital effects also don’t have the same value placed on them as model ones have. Noah Antwiler a critic who used to work for the website That Guy with the Glasses made a great point about computer and physical effects during his review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He slated the film’s use of computer effects saying: It looks like every time they’re not in a wide shot it just looks like they’re either in front of a matt painting or a green screen or in some kind of studio the movie just feels claustrophobic everything looks as if there's no depth to it1… and I know movie magic but they really are in front of a matt painting or they really are in front of a green screen most of m the time. But there's no illusion to it. It looks fake all the time. Part of what made the Indiana Jones movies so great in the beginning was the use of practical effects, they didn't rely on digital technology they didn't rely too much on green screen it felt like they were there because they were there.2 As I have had an interest in film for many years and wish to find a career with miniature effects after university I feel this would be an interesting and relevant topic for me to research. To that end I will study the advantages and disadvantages posed by miniatures to a film production. How the use of computer effects in movies has affected their use in film and for what reasons? Why a production team may choose one over the other? How and why digital effects diminished the use of physical effects? How do digital effects compare to physical effects? How people react to either and what the future, if any do models have with film special effects? Chapter one covers the use of models in film and analyses what difficulties a production team will face if they use models. Chapter Two covers the ideas of craftsmanship and design, how models are used outside of film, how this may affect people’s view of them and why the real is valued over the digital. Finally for chapter three I will look at how digital effects have changed films in both a positive and negative way and what status miniatures have in the age of computer effects. 1 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - A Rant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQW5rWMGqbg (05/11/2013) 2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - A Rant part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OipUKkawkx4 (05/11/2013) 4 Chapter One Miniatures and Cinema In this chapter I will look at how miniatures have been used in films what advantages and disadvantages using these effects and physical sets have. Since the earliest days of the cinema, miniatures have been an important part of special effects. Paul Franklin who was the special effects supervisor for Christopher Nolan's Batman films summed up what is best about miniatures in this quote: "The great thing about miniatures is they give you this chaotic reality that digital hasn’t quite gotten to yet. Using CG versions of complicated action like falling buildings, explosions or certain lighting effects are all predetermined by the nature of the software and the ideas that went into it. In the effects world, there’s still a lot of useful randomness in real-world physics."3 For me this is the most important factor for the continued use of miniatures. As they are real world objects their behaviour is that of real objects and thus more believable on film. An example of this is the model of the fictional royal navy ship Interceptor, used in the 2004 movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. While the production team had a full size replica ship for the same use, the script called for the ship to be shown in storm conditions and being blown up. As sending the real ship into a storm would have been both impractical and unsafe for the cast and crew4 and blowing it up simply wasn’t an option as it was on loan from the Grays Harbour Historical Seaport Authority5 and it would have to be returned in one piece. First of all the crew built a water tank to act as a ‘sea’ for the ship. For the Storm sequence the tank was rigged with wave machines, fans and raised water tanks designed to form giant waves to hit the ship for dramatic effect. Combined these elements recreate the conditions of a storm. With this method the crew were able to control the actions of the water and movements of the ship with a high degree of realism so they could get the best results, which would be used in the final cut of the movie. One of the great classic films known for its special effects is the 1927 German science fiction film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang. The film is set in a giant dystopian city in which the working classes are ruthlessly exploited by the city’s ruling capitalist elite. The architecture of the city used by the film reflects this, with the grandiose bourgeoisie city on the surface the machines which run the city below it and under that the slums which the workers and their families inhabit. It took 310 days and hundreds of technicians to make Lang’s vision a reality. To this end massive sets and models were constructed for the production, The images of the urban canyon set used in the establishing shots are show in Figs 1 and 2 should give you an idea of what scale the sets took. In order to place people into the model city the production team used an ingenious technique later known as the Schufftan process. This process used mirrors set at an angle to a model while an actor would be positioned behind the mirror. The silvering on the back of the mirror 3 http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dcp/news/miniatures-digital-world/44211 (24/10/2013) 4 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl bonus features DVD, An epic at sea, visual effects 5 http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Lady_Washington (5/1/2014) 5 Fig 1: Model set for the film Metropolis under construction. Fig 2: Production team moving each vehicle for the film Metropolis. 6 would be scraped off in the appropriate places so the actor could be seen by the camera.6 The image shown in Fig 3 may give you a better idea of how the effect is achieved. With this method the actor appeared to be within the model when filmed. Fig 3 How the Schufftan process is created. Even if a film doesn’t use miniatures in the final production, they can still play a role in creating a film. For example during the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark a model of the German excavation site was built on the studio floor, complete with scaled down vehicles and soldiers.7 The film’s director, Steven Spielberg then used this model to plan out where to place the camera for a particular take, what angles he wanted, the movements of the actors and how it would be lit. Models are also used by CGI artist for reference, as a three dimensional object makes it easier for the designers and animators to work out how things such as shadows and light should fall across the object. CGI artists will also use quickly constructed models to help them work out how an object moves or behaves in the real world. Then they’ll take this information and work it into their digital effects so they are more realistic in the final cut.8 Of course, miniatures also present a number of problems to a production team. The most problematic thing is the time and money which is needed to create them, often models and sets which are seen in only a few shots which are usually only a few seconds long, take weeks or months to construct, by a team of craftsmen. While a production 6 The Schüfftan process: From Metropolis to The Lord of The Rings, and the triumphs of Roberto Rossellini’s History Films http://brooklynvisualeffects.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/the-schufftan-process-from-metropolis-to-the-lord-of-the-rings-and- the-triumphs-of-roberto-rossellinis-history-films/ (15/09/2013) 7 Jake Hamilton Special effects in film and television -page 31 8 Miniatures In a Digital World http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dcp/news/miniatures-digital-world/44211 (24/10/2013) 7 can find ways to keep materials costs down, the cost of labour is inescapable.