1982: Is the BRITISH SFX Industry in CRISIS? | Newsnight | Making Of... | BBC Archive
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- "If we are complacently British in our attitude towards special effects then we will go downhill."
Generally speaking, the British Film Industry is in poor health, but there is one area where British crews can still reasonably claim to be among the best in the world - special effects. The success of effect-heavy blockbusters like Star Wars, Superman and Alien meant that, until recently, British special effects technicians were very much in demand by the big Hollywood studios. Investment in the US effects industry, however, is growing rapidly - are the British effects crews in danger of being left behind?
Bernard Falk visits Arkadon - a new UK effects studio, helmed by Oscar-winner Brian Johnson (and seemingly surrounded by a minefield) - to investigate. Falk speaks to special effects designer Jon Sorensen - who worked on Alien and Flash Gordon - about whether he sees a future for himself and other young British special effects designers in the UK. Finally, Bernard visits Elstree Studios, where the third movie in the Star Wars series - Revenge of the Jedi - is in production, alongside The Dark Crystal, a new fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. The producer of The Dark Crystal is Gary Kurtz, who produced the first two Star Wars movies, and who feels that the special effects industry is particularly susceptible to changes in moviegoing taste.
This clip is from Newsnight, originally broadcast 8 December, 1982.
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This man would have won World War I single handedly.
Bernard nailed that opening. I'll bet he had fun doing it, too.
"Jon Sorensen is only 25, but the stress caused by the declining British special effects industry means he looks 40."
He looks like a typical 25 year old at the time.
😂😅
3:47 "They were very worried about their futures, they weren't bejng fulfilled. It's a symptom of the whole UK, it's the way things are here now. There's no investment, there's no oumph, ah, there's simply, simply no hope"
He could be describing any industry in the UK in 2023.
Chilling on a local industrial estate...with two Oscars just perched behind casually. Quintessentially British attitude right there.
Have you watched The Star Dreamer about Pavel Klushantsev? Oscar-worthy effects done with even more modest means.
Revenge of the Jedi, love that original title sign.
4:25
How about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death", they were concerned about being able to get a child classification.
Modern BBC reporters: this is how you present a story.
Precisely! No silly “presenting hand gestures”.
Now everything is done on computer. I miss practical effects.
btw at 1:30 Brian Johnson the FX guy for Alien etc There was a kidnamed Marc or Mark who lived behind my home in Lostock Hall near Preston circa 1985 who claimed that his grandfather worked to model the ship on Alien, I cannot remember his surname but he had a stepfather and a smaller brother and sister, he owned a Dragon 32 computer. Anyone know if he was pulling my leg or whether this was say, maybe his grandfather ? he sure does look like him.
Quite a surprise at the beginning.
Went off with a bang!
This was brilliant!
The story of British industry…
Indeed
The irony is that all the latest TV programs and films using CGI look really crap and totally unrealistic. I think I have nailed why, there is no depth of field, the CGI just looks 2D like you are playing a computer game.
Agree 100%,
It’s quite frustrating because depth of field, bokeh, and other optics artefacts can absolutely be simulated very accurately in CGI. But it takes longer to render the output if you’re simulating layers of optics, than it does to have a pretend pinhole camera with perfect sensitivity.
3D houses are already overworked and underpriced, so any house which tries to push for something better-looking and longer-taking simply gets passed-over for another identical contractor who gets it done faster.
@@kaitlyn__L I would have thought competition would have improved the industry, not restricted it. A recent example I can think of is the new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, the Enterprise looks really computer gamey, even the simulated hull plates look totally unrealistic whereas the Enterprise in the original films from the 80's look solid and I can see the distance between the models which my brain interprets as being realistic. The only recent CGI I thought was ok was the SU-57s in Top Gun Maverick - obviously there was no way they could use the real planes.
@@bluewinds10 competition can improve quality, or it can create a race to the bottom. It all depends on the context the competition occurs in. The competition isn't about quality, it's about speed and cost. CG artists are massively underpaid and overworked as a result.
Fortunately, the British film industry (and very much including SFX) is absolutely thriving now. Partly thanks to tax breaks, but quite a lot of it is down to organisations set up to actively help film makers source talent, both acting and technical. One irony is that it is now considerably cheaper to make good looking physical FX than it is to generate them digitally, which rarely look authentic even now.
I was hopeing that It was better now. As someone that is really interested in film industry and very interested in SFX.
I remember in the 90s I was confused as to why big-budget films didn't just use more of a mix of practical effects and CGI. I always thought CGI would be a good way to replace or supplement optical fx. It usually looks pretty good for backgrounds and larger-scale visual elements, but for real-life foreground stuff, it looks bloody awful.
Not a flinch. Amazing
it would be cool if you could find out where there are today and what happened
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Johnson_(special_effects_artist)
Well, this is a start. You should be able to find the rest on Wikipedia and IMDB to name a couple.
The second guy interviewed, Jon Sorensen, who said "I don't really see much of a future", turned out to be right. He did one other thing 17 years after this and that was it.
This is so glorious, it is meme worthy.
Nice cars sitting outside.
No doubt, ironically, in part caused by organizations such as the BBC paying bottom dollar for SFX on shows like Doctor Who
Clicked on this by accident and thought the first 45 seconds was a Monty Python skit.
It's!
This started off like a The Day Today sketch. Halcyon BBC.
[shows woman who works here]
"It's frustrating for men who work here to know what they achieve will-"
hmmmmm
Get over it FFS, how that must have ruined the whole show for you 😭😭
@@MASTERATCOD4 Whoa, buddy! You're getting pretty emotional there. Wildly heightened reactions. Definitely sensing a raised pulse rate. Are you good? You should calm down. Kind of apoplectic, that's how you seem to me.
@@joechapman8208 everything you just replied with is exactly how I see you're op, oh the injustice
@@MASTERATCOD4 I'm scared for you, man. Can you just give me a couple of rolling cry-laughing emojis, so I know you're truly not bothered?
5.08 Abraham Lincoln in the 20th century , god bless America
What’s needed is a modern movie of the USA explodes
not a single one saw the real wolf at the door - computers
Well, a computer does feature in this report.
A BBC module B?
@@davehunter2814 Not sure.
Brian "eyebrows" Johnson
The british are the best in sfx,
“The producer’s name is Abraham Lincoln.”
Asbestos roofing classic 80s.