Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:
Clive Owen in “The International” (2009)
“Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” (2011) H/T: Enzo N.
Daniel Craig’s stunt double in “Skyfall” (2012)
Liam Neeson in “Taken 2″ (2012)
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Fenster on De De Mollner’s Sunset Strip (With a Few Detours Along the Way)
- De De Mollner’s Sunset Strip (With a Few Detours Along the Way) | Uncouth Reflections on Arthouse Movie Posters
- De De Mollner’s Sunset Strip (With a Few Detours Along the Way) | Uncouth Reflections on Shakin’: An Interview With De De Mollner
- Blowhard, Esq. on Long Beach Bike Festival
- Melissa Balmer on Long Beach Bike Festival
- Blowhard, Esq. on Long Beach Bike Festival
- Sandra Pimentel on Long Beach Bike Festival
- chucho on 2 Higher Education Readings
- Toddy Cat on “Margot at the Wedding”
- Big Underpants Again | Uncouth Reflections on Letter from China: Just Big Pants
- Fenster on Linkage
- Paleo Retiree on European Polyphony and Low Tech Brain Hacking.
- Blowhard, Esq. on “Margot at the Wedding”
- Fabrizio del Wrongo on “Margot at the Wedding”
- Sir Barken Hyena on European Polyphony and Low Tech Brain Hacking.
Blowhard, Esq.
Sir Barken Hyena
Callowman
Enzo Nakamura
epiminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Would it be better if they were women and they weren’t wearing clothes?
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lneou4od4r1qhea8jo1_500.png
They certainly remind me of a bunch of supine women and the male response thereto.
The Orient looks least exotic in the harsh afternoon sun with nothing casting strong shadows for contrast. That video game also looks uniformly bland, no strong chiaroscuro. Low-contrast lighting drains the strange location of any potential to feel other-worldly — it looks too clinically sterilized and sanitized, like’s it’s nothing more than an ethnographic shot of everyday life. I wouldn’t even want to see that in a documentary, let alone in an action movie. Give us something striking to look at.
Then again, maybe today’s movie-goers dig the boring crappy look.
Striking lighting must be one of the hardest things to program into a video game. I’ve never seen a screenshot where the figure stood out from the ground because of lighting — they all have this washed-out look where you can’t tell what you’re looking at, even aside the fact that the shot is also always cluttered with too many things to tell what is supposed to be important.
Or maybe video game players just dig the boring crappy look.
Jean-Leon Gerome painted several panoramic views of a city outdoors during the afternoon, but there are enough pockets of shadow, where the figures are finding shade, to relieve the sun-bleached monotony. There may be parts of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven that look like that too, since the style is similar, but I don’t remember about exterior shots in particular.
Shooting a strange location indoors or at night makes it a lot easier to achieve chiaroscuro. Indoors also lets us experience the other-worldly environment more vividly, since we’ve gained entry rather than been kept out. Gerome was not much of an exotifier compared to the Romantics, but the single set of choices related to chiaroscuro makes his paintings look so much more fascinating than his clinically dull Victorian contemporaries.
It’s like the appreciation of the strange location is supposed to be cerebral/conceptual rather than emotional/visceral. “Wait a minute, there are no domes and minarets where I live — Oh, I get it, it’s like, somewhere else.” If that’s the audience you’re targeting, then why bother with how the domes and minarets are delivered or presented by the cinematographer. Just barf them right on top of the shot.
Another thing that those shots need is an anamorphic lens to make the depth of field more shallow, again to direct our attention to what’s worth attending to and remembering. The space goes so far back, and there’s a pretty deep focus, causing too many objects at too many distances to be clear = information overload. An interior shot right in front of a wall doesn’t need any help, but these panoramic exterior shots need all the help they can get to make the interesting parts stand out from all the rest.
I nearly always hate the light in videogames, and in computer-animated movies too.
Did the chase-over-the-Istanbul-rooftops cliche get started with “Topkapi”?
Probably. Maybe this is evidence that people are paying more attention to “Topkapi” these days?
Wouldn’t that be a hoot. And, if so, how to explain it? (No real need for an answer to that one, btw.)
It was probably referenced in a Lady Gaga song. Or a porn gif.