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The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day means something. It is important.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
In today’s pic we get another great example of Spielberg’s use of miniatures as Glenn Erickson fiddles with a very familiar country road during the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Enjoy the shot! Click to enlargen.
If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.
Tomorrow’s pic shows that I really prefer to lay down on the job.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page Two
Readers Talkback
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off topic, but since AICN said it wasn't happening I had to.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 2:35 p.m. CST
Love the pic, but I'm more excited that I finally got to say "first".
by skelly
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Aug. 14, 2012, 2:36 p.m. CST
Making minitures and monsters suits are a soon to be lost art form!
by Sumatran_Rat_Monkey
Like painted poster art and stop motion effects.
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Practical effects will never go away.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 2:44 p.m. CST
LAST! Nobody else better post on this story, I'm warnin' ya . . .
by elmo
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Sure, they don't make MANY ...
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Will never die!
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Not today? Of all days? What are ya, some kinda half-assed astronaut?
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Aug. 14, 2012, 2:58 p.m. CST
Hated when during the "special edition" the UFO's stop and shine their spots on the billboard..
by openthepodbaydoorshal
..that was when product placement was cute.
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Apples and pumpkins, I know, but Close Encounters is amazing.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 3:23 p.m. CST
I love practical effects, but lets be realistic: imagine The Avengers with practical effects for just one serious moment.
by Arcadian
and there you have it. With practical effects, The Avengers would have looked like a high budget TV show instead of the awesome that it was.
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...in your living room!
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Black Widow's ass. Best visual effect in the movie.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 3:35 p.m. CST
How sweet it is that this road is instantly recognizeable?
by Darth Macchio
While I don't disparage cgi and absolutely think that good-cgi can hold it's own to good practical effects...I doubt seeing a picture of some techs coding pixel shading on Po's chubby cheek's would have the same impact as seeing this miniature practical effect of such a great scene in a truly brilliant movie. KFP was also a brilliant movie but I doubt those making of shots would have such sheer geeky awesomeness... But then, this is absolutely nostalgia related on my part and who's to say what might bring about those same feelings for someone else 15, 20 years from now?
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Aug. 14, 2012, 3:39 p.m. CST
Did LOTR Trilogy look like an expensive tv show? And Avatar even had miniatures.
by Farrokh
Although I don't think any miniatures were used for Avengers (unfortunately).
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SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD! Do-da-dee-do-duuuuuuuuuuum!
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Aug. 14, 2012, 4 p.m. CST
The end of the avengers looked The Power-rangers with a bigger budget.
by Ingeld
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They might have actually had to write a story and interesting characters instead of just showing a bunch of neato shots of shit getting blowed up.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 4:16 p.m. CST
I can't wait for the day when we say CG is a lost art becaue of holograms...
by Dranem
So sick of hearing about practical vs CG effects. If either are done right, they are great. Some of you act like there are no models used in movies any more. Even the Star Wars prequels had a ton of model work in them, it was just blended in with the CG.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 4:21 p.m. CST
ultratron - I know your out there somewhere - Question...even when working in CGI, aren't models still needed for scanning, texture, and lighting purposes?
by openthepodbaydoorshal
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They are just relegated to miniatures wargamers and model railroaders. You should see my father-in-law's basement, holy Crazy Train batman. Little HO scale trains all over the place and CCTV for the tunnels. He even has a hinged bridge he scratch built that runs in front of the fridge. You can fold it up when you need a beer. Most impressive. That reminds me, I need some purity seals and wolf pelts for my Space Wolves. Ebay, don't fail me now!
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still a shitty movie.
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So I'm ok with no JAWS BTS pics today.
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Quint should have posted a bts pic with Hitch.
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As long as there's a French Quarter in New Orleans there shall always be Buggy Whips.
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I always wondered who made the mashed potatoes and if they had to do make more than one batch to get it to stay up when Ray sculpts with them.
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That mountain of mashed potatoes was an inspiration to them all.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 6:38 p.m. CST
I thought the quote was from 2010 when Roy Scheider and John Lithgow were discussing the kind of mustard to put on ballpark hotdogs.
by Doctor_Nefario
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I never suspected. I thought the UFO's were light effects added to film of a real street.
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...who first thought this was a UHF BTS pic?
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IN YOUR LIVING ROOM...GONNA BUILD A MOUNTAIN...AND IT'S GONNA BE KEEEEEN.<p> Cool pic.
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Aug. 14, 2012, 8:20 p.m. CST
OUTSTANDING! Sad to have seen practical effects fade over the years...
by obijuanmartinez
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(I'm a Ken doll.)
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Aug. 14, 2012, 10:24 p.m. CST
When a shot like this comes along everyobody bitches about how practical effects will be missed. Yet some of the biggest effect shots in movies in the last ten years have been practical shots.
by Emperor_was_a_jerk
I know it is en vogue and geeky to talk crap about digital effects but if they were around 30 years ago, every movie would have used them. Practical effects were out of necessity, not choice. I think the love most of us have for them are out if nostalgia. Besides, from the Pod Race in episode I to the chase scene and big-rig flip in The Dark Knight, practical effects are still being used by filmmakers. In fact they have gotten so good at them, most don't even know they are models and just assume they are digital effects!
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had some amazing practical effects. It also had some amazing CG VFX. The point is, if it looks great, then it is great. Who the flying fermenting squirrels gives a crap about what tool was used to do the effect? I am a CG animator, and I love practical effects. When they are done well. Hell, I prefer them if it is easier that way, and looks better. Many times, the reason CG is used is because shooting with practical models limits the camera move that can be done on them. It also limits the lenses that can be used. If the plate was shot first, then getting a move on a practical model that matches the original camera move of the background plate shot earlier is VERY difficult. Often it is far easier to make some or all of a shot like that in CG, so the director can change things at will (and that is a whole other story). Practical effects are fantastic for shots where the camera move is decided ahead of time, or done at (basically) the same time as the live action. You guys endlessly debate about CG vs. Models. Back and forth, over and over, which one is better? "Real is always better!" some of you say. "CG is more flexible!" say others... When the real debate going on behind the scenes is "Which one is better for this particular shot?" Or... which one can we afford (yes, there are still budgets, even on $300 million dollar films). Stop it already, it makes my head hurt, and it doesn't matter one bit because at the end of the day we are going to do what is best for the shot, the director, the budget, the movie, etc.
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You truly are a Closet Case of the Nerd Kind. Thanks for the laugh! Cheers!
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oh he made a movie thats cool i wasnt born yet.
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Aug. 15, 2012, 8:07 a.m. CST
practical effects have will always have one advantage...
by MoneyGrabSequel
they're really happening and unexpected coolness can be recorded. with CGI everything has to be thought of down to the slightest detail - which way will the blood splatter, how much shrapnel will the explosion make, etc etc... both are making movies awesome
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Is the latest blu the definitive?
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Look at art, look at music. Digital is making sharks jump in all creative areas. Digital itself isn't really evil, but it throws off a huge weight that, until it's gone, you don't realize was a big part of the source of what made the work special in the first place. Look at things like Star Wars and ESB. Those were, in many ways, indie-like films. There was no template for doing what hey had to do to make those films work. They had to be amazingly resourceful, with a staggering diversity of talent among their team, to make those films work. Craftspeople of all types did things they never had before, turning their limitations into genius. Now? Most filmmakers have access to tools that allow them to do things that could only be dreamed of two or three decades ago. Yet the result feels less special. You still have towering works out there, like LOTR, but overall there's just not much feeling of achievement, of *special*, in most digital work these days. Guys who do the stuff will disagree, I'm sure. But art, music, writing, effects, you name it - there's no getting around that 'hunched over a computer screen for hours' as the convergence point of all forms of creativity is NOT going to stir the soul of humanity to greater heights.
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Spelling is quickly becoming a lost art form too. When you wrote 'minitures'... wasn't it underlined in red as a misspelling?
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