Digital vs Practical

Digital vs Practical effects is one of those really epic questions, i thought about this a little more after watching a film called Splice by Cube director Vincenzo Natali. this was a really bizarre film which was really quite impressive visually. which i really feel was down to the amazing blend of practical and digital effects they used to create the creature. Which resulted in a really believable creation, which was pretty seamless due to the correct mix of these effects also some impressive acting which really knitted the whole concept together. The creature story in this film had been heavily influenced by a Frankenstein style back story with a sort of Cronenberg style twist, the whole complex science, DNA manipulation and the results.

 A creature that starts of quite beautiful influencing the creators on many levels until it is finally seen for the monster it actually is. overall i was really quite impressed with the results the film was quite weird but really very interesting to have such a detailed monster which was comprised of generally harmless DNA but the side that made it so dangerous was throwing human DNA into the mix almost ironic in a way. The final spiral into chaos was that the creator deprived the human side and it broke through the barriers and really stood out, the film did also remind me of the Species series but was allot more subtle and very tense which is typical of the directors style. the film really stood out and really did play on the modern fears of just exactly what are scientists doing with gene and DNA manipulation in their so called quest to cure the world.

A few thoughts

To be totally honest the last two lectures have been about animation and i have never really had any great interest in this area, i appreciate it, but it just doesn't entertain me to the level that i would go out of my way to see it. For example i can appreciate Bambi as a beautiful piece of animation that broke through some barriers but it bores the hell out of me. i enjoy some 3d animation but its generally something i stay away from,but if you do get the chance watch

 How to train your Dragon is actually quite brilliant for an animation the level of detail was really quite impressive and the film was quite amusing. put overall it was the effects in the film the fly sequence were really impressive how they really gave the animation a real sense of flight and tremendous power. i also found the dragons well thought out even down to each species had a different fire to breath, which certainly was an interesting touch. the animation of the fire was very impressive, it seem to really flow almost like a liquid, napalm so to speak, and the way it enveloped the scenery was really impressive.