MovieChat Forums > Dragonslayer (1981) Discussion > A masterpiece of pre-CG effects

A masterpiece of pre-CG effects

posted 12 years ago by matt-baen
3 replies | jump to latest

The dragon's movements are smoother than the stop motion in Robocop years later and it has more physical presence than any CG. The most glaring issue is the differences in light and contrast in superimposed images. But that is easily overlooked in light of a great script, memorable characters, political subtext, and a dash of medieval realism.

A CG effects person wrote in a comments section that a lot of people think practical effects looked better because directors shot around the effects to cover up their limitations, while with CG studios want every penny on the screen. So CG creatures are brightly lit and perfectly clear, with a ton of screen time. And consequently it looks more fake, lacking in mass, and videogame-like the more we look at it. (It takes only seconds for the fakeness to become evident in the Jack the Giant Slayer trailer.) In contrast, in Dragonslayer the visual effects - including the dragon, magic lights, sets, costumes, props, and backgrounds - are presented fully within a cinematic context that includes careful framing, mist, fog, shadow - and yes, grain (screw super-HD, 3D, and 48 fps!). If CG was shot the same way it would look way less crappy. (Come to think of it Cloverfield is an example of a believable CG monster for this very reason.)

[–] sascha-17 12 years ago

A CG effects person wrote in a comments section that a lot of people think practical effects looked better because directors shot around the effects to cover up their limitations, while with CG studios want every penny on the screen. So CG creatures are brightly lit and perfectly clear, with a ton of screen time. And consequently it looks more fake, lacking in mass, and videogame-like the more we look at it.

That's pretty much how I see it. In the old days, they simply couldn't do a lot of things with their creatures.. these days, you can put your virtual model of that creature into pretty much any environment and have it do anything you want. Both of which are not neccessarily a good thing.

(screw super-HD, 3D, and 48 fps!). If CG was shot the same way it would look way less crappy.

The new "The Thing"-movie is a prime example of this. In the original, they had to be very careful how they lit and shot the creature-FX or else they would've looked fake. In the new version they didn't have to be careful, since it was all CG ... They put the Thing center-stage and in plain sight .. and sure enough, the new Thing looks completely fake.

To me, even most of the better current CG-fests look nowhere near as impressive as an old school effects-film. I guess it's a psychological effect: When your brain just knows that none of the stuff you see on screen is "real" (like the gigantic battles in a Transformer-movie) you simply switch off. But when you know how much thinking, ingenuity and hard labor went into something like the space-battles in the original SW-films, it's just so much more impressive.

S.

[–] Alfabeta 12 years ago

The dragon's movement in the cave is the most impressive scene in the movie. You can tell it's stop motion, but polished to perfection.

[–] AccidntlTourist 11 years ago

Great points.

The eyes: I think it was a scene in the lake of fire in the cave where the dragon came face to face with the slayer and I really expected to see the eyes light up or turn red or some other gimmick when it focused it's stare angrily (or maybe vengefully after it discovers its babies killed. I was so pleased that the monster-makers didn't have to stoop to such a cliche.

Speaking of the cave movement. I don't know if I've ever seen a bat moving on the ground, but the dragon's sort of tucked-wing dragging thru the tight passages made me think of how a bat might drag itself awkwardly thru tight passages where it couldn't fly.

Also, maybe slightly off topic, I recently re-watched Pitchblack and maybe that was a good use of CG? not showing the monsters in every detail in every scene; mostly partial views coming out of the darkness. But, by the end of the movie your mind (or mine) could fill in the gaps and "picture" some pretty scary monsters.