VFX Module: Other Inspiration

During my pre-production stage I wanted to do some research into a number of different films that dinosaurs in so that I had something to work towards when I began the modelling stage of my project. I wanted to look at a few different films which were all produced after Jurassic Park in 1993 and my reasoning behind this is that Jurassic Park was a ground breaking film which created very realistic looking dinosaurs, which, in my opinion, have yet to be beaten. So moving on from the obvious winner, I also looked at different films to see how they compared and whether I could take aspects from different ones to create something just as convincing along with looking briefly into films and television programs which was to do with time travel.

King Kong (2005)
The next film I wanted to look at was Peter Jackson's King Kong. Although a film about a giant gorilla it does have a number of different dinosaurs in it. Although they are mostly seen during the chase scene in the middle, when they get to the island, you can pick a few out which do look good. The T-Rex, which is the main dinosaur which I looked at as its the one which is on screen for the longest, is very well designed. It fits into the world well and matches up, size-wise, with the gorilla King Kong. The sounds that have been associated with it are also very good to listen to and they have added an interesting mix of sound effects to make it unique to the film and also fit in with the environment its in.

Land of the Lost (2009)
Land of the Lost was produced in 2009 by director Brad Silberling, staring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Holly Cantrell. In terms of story this was mediocre and a little bit poor as far as films go, but the area that I wanted to look at in particular is the dinosaur; the T-Rex. In terms of how we would normally see the T-Rex this film does it well and accurately; it looks realistic, fits into the scene well and is about the right size, if not slightly smaller than how Jurassic Park showed them. Along with looking good they make the overall movement of it, at the start of the film anyway, fairly stompy with quite a laboured movement which works well for the size of the dinosaur.

Where this film was a let down for me was when they gave it more characteristics than necessary. Throughout the film, Will Ferrell's character explains qualities that we guess that the T-Rex would have based on scientific studies of there bones and other fossils. This film aims to challenge this, taking these qualities and flipping them upside-down; giving the T-Rex fantastic eyesight, infinite stamina and the ability to jump, if I might add leap, over a small canyon, along with a few facial movements . These are what makes me stray away from this film as they just make it look ridiculous. I know this film is mean to be able the humour but it just seems a bit to much for my liking. Although saying that, the CGI on the dinosaur is impressive and looks realistic; its just a shame they had to ruin it with the humourous qualities that just didn't quite work in places.

Doctor Who (2005-Present)
A very good television program to look at for this module is Doctor Who due to the time machine references and the influence that I will be taking from them. Doctor Who is probably one of the best sci-fi programs around that includes superb CGI but also the time travel ability that I want to look at. The time travel is done in a really nice way and moves through the time vortex by flying through cloud like places which can also be lots of different colours. Its a nice effect that I could potentially add into my own film. Another aspect of this program that I like is the time machine itself; the TARDIS. The general look is something that I really like and it suits the nature of the program as it looks child friendly.