Pixar Animation Studios is part of the Disney franchise and creates film through computer animation. Pixar is well known for its realist graphical design. Since the existences of Pixar in 1986, the company has made fourteen feature films. Including the Toy Story Trilogy, Finding Nemo, Up and Monsters Inc. Thirteen of the fourteen film films have received financial and commercial success. Twenty Seven Academy Awards in its short time has seen this young company develop into a leading film production company.
Founded in 1979, Pixar was first known as the Graphics Group and part of one third of the Lucasfilm which was behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones. By 1982 the company started to contribute to the special effects of films including the Genesis Effect in Star Trek: Wrath Of Khan and the stained glass widow night on young Sherlock Holmes. The company became independent after the revenue stopped once Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi had ended through being part of Lucasart. Steve Jobs who founded Apple invested five million dollars into the company to buy the rights from Lucasfilm. Pixar became a top of the range computer hardware company selling products to the government and medical facilities. However Disney bought one which they used for there secretive computer graphic scheme CAPS. Poor sales of the Pixar product saw Steve Jobs plugged more and more money into Pixar. Pixar was on the edge of bankruptcy. Pixar sold much of its technology and cut staff, however the company was still known for its state of the art computer graphic design with small shorts. Disney came back with a twenty six million dollar funding and a deal to make three films. The first film was Toy Story.
Steve Jobs was still contemplating whether to sell Pixar but critics success from Toy Story saw the company stay on and become the success it was predicted. Steve Jobs took a more leadership role and became the CEO of the company through the films success. Toy Story became the first fully computer animated film and this computer animation was noticed for its innovation. Once the film had debuted many other film production company became interested in the technology. It wasn't only film industries that were interested by Pixar's animation. Gaming developers wanted use the graphics for video game games. The success of the first film helped build a new studio. Completed in 2000, Toy Story shows the changing fortune from a almost bankrupt company to being able to build a brand new studio (above).
The three film plan between Pixar and Disney was still in existence, however the production of Toy Story reached the first of many disagreements between the heads of Pixar and Disney. Pixar wanted the film to go straight to DVD but that was not part of the three film deal. Eventually the film did go to the cinema too. Conflict between the two companies saw Steve Jobs openly say he want to end the collaboration with Disney and go somewhere else. Eventually a deal bought tensions down with a distribution deal, meaning Pixar owned the film but Disney could distributed the film. This deal fell through when disney bought Pixar and all its stock markets for seven point four billion dollars. the deal went through meaning the distribution deal only worked for Ratatouille, Steve Jobs was to have no more with Pixar as Disney took full control. Since then the company has expanded its films and company through being part of Disneyland and Disney memorabilia.
Taking a step aside from the troubles Disney and Pixar had, Pixar has created some memorable family films, including Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars. Known for its state of the art detail and realism. Pixar has been easily ahead of over film companies computer animation. Pixar's troubles with Disney did not disrupt the originality and creativity the films they created. Pixar is seen in the categories for an academy award in best animated feature almost every year if not every year. The success brought has seen the company grow with a new studio in Vancouver.
Finally, Pixar is very well known for its traditions in its films. Every Pixar film has a short animated sequence off topic from the film at the start or end, before any credits for the real film begin or right at the end of the rolling credits. These shorts show off Pixar's originality and creativity with unconventional story's about clouds, umbrellas, a guy playing chess on his own and many more. The shorts also show off the latest in computer animated technology fro example the short about the umbrella shows off the design in water and rain making the scene looking almost real. Another tradition is including certain objects from the Pixar universe from previous films in the backdrop of new films.
Science Fiction is a film genre that has existed since the 1920's roughly, with the introduction of Metropolis created in 1927, seen as the first in a long line of great science fiction films. Science fiction has stayed in our cinemas in all that time with some incredible movies coming from it. Science Fiction also shows off the best special effects of that time and techniques film creators did to create realism and how the human imagination can cross with science.
1920's 1920's was a time when cinemas, movies and actors/actresses all started. Films were being made to entertain audiences around the world and science fiction was on the horizon. Metropolis is now scene as a great from that era. Created in 1927 film, this silent film is about a futuristic city divided by workers and city planners. The film used some pioneering effects including for the first time: miniatures, a camera on a swing and most notably the Schufftan process. The Schufftan process was using mirrors to convince the viewer that the actors were in the miniature sets. This idea was used a few years later by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is still recognised today and it is ranked 86 in top 250 films on IMDB by users. Metropolis was seen as one of the most expensive films at the time the film is seen as a great of the silent era, especially with its special effects. The films was so influential that Metropolis in the Superman comics was called this because of this film. Its also reported to be one of Hitler's favourite films and the robot (right) helped inspire C-3PO from Star Wars. This film was recognised by powerful figures and helped inspire great science fiction and even comic ideas. 2 years later the first Academy Awards was held through the masterpieces of movies coming out at that time. Although Metropolis didn't win a Oscar as it was not in the time frame from when the awards were judged. Films like this saw the film industry come to life.
1930's
Academy Awards, films stars and famous directors were surfacing and the thirties bought some films know by people all around the worlds. The 1930's saw many monsters come into the movie world. The Invisible Man was released in 1933, based on H.G. Wells novel, this film was know for its "Ground braking" special effects. This is what gave the film success. Sequences where The Invisible Man held objects but gave the impression like nothing was supporting it, to the viewers.That was achieved through attaching props to thin wire. Another sequence is when The Invisible Man takes clothes off or puts them on. This was done by getting the actor Claude Rains to wear a all black velvet suit put him against an all black background and then take his clothes on and off. This was then merged with the shot of the location. The trailer above will show these special effects at work. The Invisible Man was a huge success as it Claude Rains career ignited and the film got four other films. This film sparked many remakes and is seen as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.
1940's
Sequels and remakes dominated the 40's. The Invisible Man Returns (Sequel to The Invisible Man 1933), Son Of Frankenstein, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf man & House Of Frankenstein (Sequels to Frankenstein 1931) and a remake of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. The 40's were heavily affected by World War 2, as rationing and enrolment to join the army swept America and Europe. Many of the films like the remake of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde flopped at the cinema and couldn't get the money or resources needed because of the war.
1950's Films out of this world dominated the science fiction age in the fifties and the introduction of films set in space began. The decade begun with The Day The Earth stood Still, created to portray the destruction humans create especially with the cold war era beginning. The film is about an alien telling humanity to be more peaceful or be destroyed. This is one of the first film to use a space concept, this was influenced by the space race as Russian man Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. The film had a robot played by 7ft giant Lock Martin, who wore a costume filled with robotic wiring to give a more realist look. This unconventional idea was one of the first costumes to use actual robotic technology in a movie. This technology was then taken to the next level with Robby The Robot (right), featured in Science Fiction classic Forbidden Planet, this was a one of the first real robotic icons of science fiction. Forbidden Planet's space age robot ideas influenced other Science Fiction. Star Trek and Doctor Who creators based much of there work on this.
1960's
Dominated by one movie, still described today as the best science fiction film of all time by many leading film magazines and sources. 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film concept of what humanity would be be like at the start of the new millennium, this got the attention of thousands. Ideas of Pan Am space flights, BBC 12 and flights to the moon loved by thousands of people in the time of the space age between the USA and Russia. The films idea of the future can be shown in today world, maybe not space flights but computer giant apple, had it's iPad sued by Samsung for basing the iPad's design on tablets seen in the original film. Also Apple application Siri uses "I'm sorry I can't do that", referencing to the HAL computer in the films when asked to open the pod bay doors. However the films contribution to science fiction was through its Oscar winning special effects. The (right) shows a pen floating under zero gravity, this was achieved by sticking the pen to glass and placing the glass in front of the camera, with two people moving the glass slowly to give the impression it was floating. Another well known effect is the space hostess walking on the ceiling (right). This was done by rotating the entire set but keeping the camera in the same spot and having the actress walk on the spot. Theses scenes were only a few of the memorable special effects used. Huge model space ships, futuristic sets with incredible detail, won this film an Oscar. This science fiction film influenced George Lucas the creator of Star Wars and Stephen Spielberg who would do Science Fiction classics like A Close Encounter. Special effects techniques in 2001: A Space Odyssey would be used in many other films to create realism. This film connotes the impact it had not just on science fiction by showing audiences at that time, the beauty of our universe in a time where men going to the moon was becoming a reality.
1970's
Space was starting to be used conventionally in films now. Star Trek and Doctor Who were both in action. Doctor Who was running its TV series, whilst Star Trek exploded from TV to movies. But it wasn't till the end of the 1970's that two films showed reflections of Stanley Kubricks' 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both came out on the same year and both were directed by well known directors. The first is Close Encounter: directed by Stephen Spielberg this film ideology is through the UFO ideas of that time, especially with the widely known story of Area 51. The plot of the film is a line worker feeling drawn to a wilderness part of America to witness something incredible after encountering a UFO experience of his own. Awarded an Oscar for its cinematography, this science fiction film includes some amazing special effects of space ships. This film however is known for its five note song. Recognised by millions this short piece of music is used to make contact with the aliens. Since then the sound has been used in films such as James Bond film, Moonraker, many TV references such as The X-Files and even then Simpsons. Its also been used by Canadian DJ Deadmau5. Close Encounter of the Third Kind will stay as a Science Fiction great through its original ideas of government cover ups from the true life case of Area 51 and because its five note piece. Nevertheless an even greater science fiction film came out and bought the world to its knees. Star Wars: A New Hope was the start of a incredible trilogy of films across the seventies and eighties. Star Wars was created through everything that had happened in science fiction before that time. Influences from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Metropolis gave this film it's space age and futuristic design. Influences however didn't just come from films, dogfights between spaceships came from World War Two, enemy assaults pictured in the film came from the Dambusters and fictional planets came from science fiction books. Star Wars recognised all the great thing that make a good science fiction movie needed to be, for example loud music that creates attention like 2001: A Space Odyssey and robots that serve humans like Robby The Robot from The Forbidden Planets. Star Wars erupted the film industry and influenced directors like James Cameron to go into the film industry who would then make The Terminator and Avatar, Ridley Scott who created Alien and Prometheus said he was heavily influenced by Star Wars and Peter Jackson said Star Wars helped him create realism when making fantasy blockbuster Lord Of The Rings.
1980's The 1980's begun where the 70's left off, aliens crammed into science fiction with films like E.T. and another Star Wars film setting the decade as alight. Alternatively Star Wars's influences like Blade Runner were not the main change of science fiction. Although special effects might be getting better, but in 1982 Disney released TRON a unconventional film which brought a new meaning to science fiction. The films ideology came from the computer game Pong released in 1976. Computer engineering was growing with company's like Apple starting to make a name for themselves, Steven Lisberger who created TRON saw this technology and wanted to incorporate it into a film. The film was a major step forward in movie making as the filmed combined early computer created visuals and back lit animation to live action sequences. The film was one of the early pieces of computer generated imagery and helped create Disney company Pixar with the animation group saying without TRON, Toy Story would never of been created. The film also inspired French electronic dance music group Daft Punk who have a real fascination with the films futuristic attributes. The French duo would later score the music for the 2010 sequel TRON: Legacy. This new computer animation would start to be recognised in more and more films at the turn of the eighties and would develop to a whole new level in the nineties.
1990's
Computer generated effects created more realism in the 1990's with dinosaurs in Jurassic Park looking as real as some of the effects in today's film industry. Through TRON's ideas of incorporating computing to science fiction. The Matrix was released in 1999 and showed off the dramatic change in effects from set designs and action scenes to create the realism compared to past computer effects. One effect in particular was bullet time. Which allows a shot be in slow motion but have the camera going at normal pace. This effect is used in the film to show the control the characters have whilst in the Matrix. The films concept of bullet time and being one of the first films to use slow motion influenced modern day films like Inception and Dredd. The films was influenced by TRON and after Disney saw this and how computer generated effects had evolved, Disney was influenced to make another TRON movie. In similar consequences to the growing special effects, the Star Wars prequels begun and turned out to be one of the biggest film let downs in years. Although it had huge financial money success through its huge following, the film bought science fictions first major blow in its prestige history, however the hype this film had was always going to be compared to the originals and maybe the greatness of the originals brought this film down. Star Wars: Episode I shows that science fiction of the eighties was difficult to match now. This can be linked to the new TRON film which was not well received on its release.
2000's and 2010's The new millennium saw the prequels of the Star Wars franchise limp to a possible good recovery with the last film. This decade was full of remakes of classic science fiction films such as The Time Machine, War Of The Worlds and The Day The Earth Stood Still. These films similar to Star Wars and TRON failed in making any real film impact compared to its predecessors had achieved. It was the end of the millennium when Avatar broke box office records for truly capturing the modern day films humans can make. Not even set on Earth, a paraplegic marine must choose between the native aliens and humans. Special Effects were used in the movie that hadn't been used by any other film company before. A specially designed camera allowed the actor's facial expressions to be used on the native aliens through animation (above). We don't know how this film has influenced people as its so new but the technology in the film connotes how science fiction has is leading the technology race, by being the first in pioneering new methods of film making to the world.
Over the last 90 years, science fiction has led the technology front in film making. Most visual effect Oscars go to science fiction films. The supposed greatest science fiction film of them all 2001: A Space Odyssey shows this clearly when compared to other films of that era. Science Fiction will live on with the growing technology in the real world like social media, being incorporated in the film world, questions might be asked however on whether planned films like the next Star Wars trilogy (set to be released in 2016) and new Independence Day films (2016-17) will be a movie flop like many other science fiction films remade or have sequels, which could create damaging consequences on science fiction.
Tom Sixis a dutch director who is famous for his brutal, gory, horror franchise ''Human Centipede". Born in Holland this director is know for making body horror films and creating huge controversy. Tom Six has only directed six movies, The Human Centipede (Trilogy), Gay In Amsterdam, Honeyz and one short video I Love Dries. Although Tom Six has not directed many films the main focus of his career is The Human Centipede films as they've sparked huge controversy.
However before Human Centipede, Tom Six helped come up with the idea of Big Brother with dutch company Endemol. The success this brought, Tom went on to travel around teaching about the concept of twenty-four film making. From this he became interested in making his own film. He became a director. Tom and his sister started a film company and made Gay In Amsterdam, Honeyz and the short video of I Love Dries. But Tom directing didn't get noticed till the creation of Human centipede.
The first film was The Human Centipede (First Sequence) the film received a 5.2/10 out of 91 leading film review companies on average. Although the film got low ratings its concept of mouth to anus shocked audiences around the world, Tom Six quoted "I get a rash from too much political correctness. I love it when films dare to have political incorrectness." Tom Six made Human Centipede to make shocks and even though the film was a low budgeted almost "B-Movie" Tom Six's ideas of sick horror and personal distaste of happy endings made the film get a sequel.
The Sequel to the first films was called "The Human Centipede (Full Sequence)'', this film was far more brutal and far more unconventional than the first. Tom Six describes the change by saying "I has always intended to create a trilogy. I made the first film to get viewers comfortable with the idea of the Human Centipede.The second film I wanted to hold nothing back", the second film connotes Tom Six's sickest ideas but on picture. The film was originally banned in the UK for being "tasteless and disgusting. Tom Six made just under three minutes of cuts to make the film acceptable. From this he expressed his views on the hatred he gets from when films have to be cut. However the cuts were made and Tom Six's film was able to be released in the UK. The film connotes extreme gore shown directly at the camera, the gore is so intense that at the premier of the film, complimentary barf bags were issued to audience member and a ambulance was stationed outside. However a female audience member was so physically ill that paramedics had to treat her from watching the film. This perfectly represents Tom Six's ideas of creating a huge shock and implications that don't make the audience scared but make them feel sick.
Incredibly this body horror, that caused so much gore and shock by Tom Six has a third film in the making (As of 18th October 2013), little detail of this film has been made, but the film will feature Hollywood actor Eric Roberts (right). Tom Six's sick films has brought his budget up to be able to afford a well known actor.
Also the film will supposedly feature a five hundred man centipede, showing the gore and shock will stay and could be conventional to the second film or even worse. Tom Six will direct the film and bring his sick director ideas to this too. He will be bring his controversial film idea to this film, however this will be the end of his Human Centipede concept. No further plans of whats next for Tom have been announced.
In Conclusion, I believe Tom Six has traits many horror directors have. The desire for gore and create huge attention can be seen in Tom. However the Human Centipede films are a huge step compared to a conventional horror film. And could be seen as the new horror. Horror usually involves teenagers, murders and gore. But Tom Six's sick, twisted Human Centipede has been recognized by thousands and has gone from a low budgeted B-movie to staring a big Hollywood actor and have got Tom well know for his unique dark directing techniques.
Jawsis a 1975
adventure/ horror film about a gigantic shark terrorizing a small island town
of Amity. This leads to a fisherman, a marine biologist and a police chief to
“find it, catch it and kill it”. The reason I love this film is through its
uniqueness as a film. Use of a giant mechanical shark makes (left) the film is great as
the actor had to work around this large beast and not pretend with CGI included
later unlike most films today. The film also includes its legendary theme tune
composed by John Williams, the soundtrack creates huge tension and fear as the
song is heard only when the shark is presence. This is used in a clever way by
director Steven Spielberg who uses the soundtrack to make the shark more
menacing when it could be hard to install fear in the audience, as the shark
might not look real to some. Finally the film is cleverly sequenced with the
shark appearance. The shark is not shown
in roughly three quarters of the film. It’s not till the hunt for the shark
that the Shark makes its appearance. This creates a mysterious villain of the
film bringing tension to the audience. When the Shark does make an appearance,
the main character (Chief Brody ), says the famous film line, “were going to
need a bigger boat’’. I love this film for its famous movie scene recognised by
many and how the film sparked my personal interest in Sharks.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film about
humanity finding a mysterious object a Monolith buried in the lunar service
that leads to a quest to find its meaning. Directed by Stanley Kubrick this
film is one of my favourite films as it’s made me love science fiction. The
film in particular is unique as nothing like it has ever been made. Huge model
spaceship to show off the space age the sixties was in, is connoted throughout the film. The ideas of
what the future would be like is filled with “BBC 12” and “Pan Am Space” all
ideas of what the people thought the new millennium would be like. However the
thing that stands out to is the monolith(left). Black, flat, rectangular solid. What
makes it so special to me, is the first part of the film is “The Dawn of Man”, and
this scene shows the earliest ancestors of man. The primitive apes wake up to
find the monolith confused and dazzled by its appearance, this changed the apes
to develop weaponry and tools but is never revealed how this happens but just
it happened after the monolith came. Is the monolith the start of our vast
technological development? I believe the monolith is some sort of God or
creator. However the monolith is made by unknown aliens. So questions cannot be
answered. At the very start of the film the first three minutes are just black
with this strange echoing sound is this looking straight at the monolith or is
it what the universe looked like before life and everything around us was
created. The end of the film is a mindblower as astronaut Dave Bowmen looks
into the monolith and sees the universe and creates huge questions on what he
exactly saw and what the audience saw. The film is filled with famous movie scenes and
made with a soundtrack that gets the world’s attention. This film is something
that’ll never be seen like a again and will always leave questions the world
will never know.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusadeis the third film in the Indiana Jones
franchise. Made in 1989, Dr Jones’ father is kidnapped whilst pursing the Holy
Grail. Indy has to stop the Nazi’s and rescue his father. Filled with great action and comedy this is my
favourite film of the Indiana Jones films. The main reason is for Indy’s father,
Henry Jones Snr., played by Sean Connery. A fantastic actor who I've loved from
his James Bond stint, to playing the Irish policeman in the Untouchables, I've always loved his acting. One thing the film and the other Indiana Jones films
do is create incredible, well detailed sets. The tombs that Indy explores are
always filled with cobwebs and booby-traps. In particular the location of the
final scene is an incredible set piece that is an actual ancient structure.
Al Khaznehv situated in Jordan was used as the location of the Holy Grail.
Using real ancient structures creates more realism to the audience. Finally, the events inside the Al Khazneh at
the end of the film finish the great film in style. The tests Indiana Jones has
to face to save his Father and get the Holy Grail are truly intense, using
great SFX to replicate an invisible bridge and the death scene of the bad guy
are incredible work and make this film so good. The film is one of my favourites
not just because of the action and adventure but also the slight comedy
included to make this the film it is.
Back to the Future
is a Science Fiction films about a young typical American teenager who
is best friend with a scientist that comes up with a time machine sending him
back to 1955 from 1985. I’ve always loved time travel films and to me this is
the best film out of all time travel films for one. The Delorean is the main
focus point. An incredible car that had
so much thought and design put into it making it an ionic car today. The car is
something not seen in other films. Famous cars can be thought of in films but
this car is so unique and different. Filled with wires and a dashboard telling
what year it is. This is great piece of movie production work. And will stay in
our lives forever. The film is also a love for mine because of its use of
casting. The same actors are used in 1985 and 1955. And are used in the other
Back to the Future films, from the future all the way back to the Wild West.
Great makeup and costumes make these characters so well to remember. Finally
time travel is something I always like through the way we can see the same locations
but in different times and Hill Valley is the fictional location that the film
is set and we see the town change from the eighties to the fifties. Cleverly
done through set design and props to make the setting more realistic. From this
Back to the future will be favourite of mine forever. And what is even better
unlike the other film trilogy’s all three of the Back to the Future films are
fantastic.
