Shooting A Model Spaceship

I personally like the Gor robot in the original The Day The Earth Stood Still with the guy in a robot costume over the CG Gor in the remake. The guy in the costume looks more organic than the illustration.
 
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I thought you were trying to make it look realistic. But if this is the look you want...well, then do it.
 
CG rarely looks realistic even in high budget movies.

It has a TV budget look to it, which works like Space 1999 or an old Star Trek show. The market is the small screen and not the big screen.

I:m NOT paying a lot for CG that will look like an animation 9 out of 10 times anyway.
 
As I said to my prop master, its a shame we don't have a budget to replace the VR sets with studio sets and a sound stage. But every expense has come out of my pocket and we have to crawl before we can walk.
 
Don't make excuses for it. At this point there is no point in "defending" your choices.
Im guessing you had to compromise your vision to get this "done." Well, "Thems the breaks" as my momma used to say.

I don't think anybody is going to think "wow, million dollar effects" but I think they will find them fun and wonderful, just not in the Spielberg way...

In other words, regardless of how you got "here" this projects IS campy, low budget sci-fi fun. So sell it as such. Make everyone believe this is exactly what you intended, that if you had a million dollars to spend it would have the same retro "homage" feel that it does now.

This does not make it any less a "serious" project or diminish you as a filmmaker. After all, if it brings happiness or takes the viewer away to another world for a few moments, your doing a good thing!
 
That's why we will market it as a sci-fi action comedy. The production has humorous lines and scenes. So, it will work. The Wonder Woman tv series was campy and made cheap and entertaining
 
You are on the right track

99.9% of misguided visual effects result from production teams naively thinking things will be easier and cheaper than history has proven. Whether it's CGI, miniatures, or matte painting; if you keep it simple, clean, and within your means it can look 'good'.

You've already completed dozens of green screen comps so you're right where the rubber meets the road. So, ignore the naysayers and shoot that miniature. It can look good.

If you have something specific you need advice on, just toss me a line and I can send you some notes/diagrams that might be helpful.

Thomas

beefcramp@gmail.com
 
Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
CG rarely looks realistic even in high budget movies.
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I'm sure you've seen a lot of movies where you didn't even notice CG was there...

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
It has a TV budget look to it, which works like Space 1999 or an old Star Trek show. The market is the small screen and not the big screen.

I:m NOT paying a lot for CG that will look like an animation 9 out of 10 times anyway.
Click to expand...

Good CG doen's look like animation at all. Good work with miniatures can give you a great result too.
Since I thought you were not doing very well with the miniature I simply made a suggestion to use CG.
You made a choice of not using CG. It's your movie, your choice. Do whatever you want... just don't blame CG. That way it seems you're not using CG because it sucks, when the truth is you're not using CG because you DON'T WANT to.
 
I have to accept a campy style for my budget range like many enjoyable tv shows lots of us grew up with because of budget. The trick is to make it entertaining like Irwin Allen did with Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Lost In Space, and Land Of The Giants. There are lots of fans for Godzilla movies too and it looks like a guy in a rubber suit knocking down model buildings. And there are fans for this stuff. Later, Irwin graduated to bigger productions.


Have you ever seen Lexx? A giant bug living spaceship with a laughable crew--where is the realism there?
 
gebo said:
I'm sure you've seen a lot of movies where you didn't even notice CG was there...



Good CG doen's look like animation at all. Good work with miniatures can give you a great result too.
Since I thought you were not doing very well with the miniature I simply made a suggestion to use CG.
You made a choice of not using CG. It's your movie, your choice. Do whatever you want... just don't blame CG. That way it seems you're not using CG because it sucks, when the truth is you're not using CG because you DON'T WANT to.
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Having friends who work for the studios I know the small percent of realistic cgi movies.

Don't try to convince me the cgi version of Beowolf looked real. It looked fake. Give me their budget and I'll show you what I can do. And that is just one example.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had cgi that fooled a lot of people.
 
I'm not talking about obvious CG effects like Bewolf which is fully CG. I'm talking about more subtle and believable CG/VFX. CG without good compositing is useless.

Some good examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFHKwaW4Um8&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2e_tWVq_Ws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-0njxZrVbY&feature=related
 
There is a cg spaceship in the film's prologue for the ship the cyborgs left Earth in to travel to Delta Four that looks like an animation that cost me an arm and a leg when I had it made by a 3D animator in the USA. In the budget range I have I can't expect much better. Even finding a qualified stunt coordinator for sci-fi is not doable. I'm bringing in a Hollywood pro with all the right experience for my next production who is a friend.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
There is a cg spaceship in the film's prologue for the ship the cyborgs left Earth in to travel to Delta Four that looks like an animation that cost me an arm and a leg when I had it made by a 3D animator in the USA. In the budget range I have I can't expect much better. Even finding a qualified stunt coordinator for sci-fi is not doable. I'm bringing in a Hollywood pro with all the right experience for my next production who is a friend.
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Where can I see that? Is it online?
 
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