Alternative Non-Maya Scene Assignment

My initials are R.O.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

The presence of gravity is evident basically everywhere. Most people know that when you drop something, gravity will force it to fall to the ground. In fact, as soon as any item is dropped from any height, it is automatically considered falling. To get complex, one must account the weight or the force applied to a falling object to properly calculate the time and the way an object will fall. However, since people’s minds move at such a fast rate, it is easy to forget about how gravity is applied to everyday life. The media, for years, has flaunted this aspect numerous times in films. Whether it is death-defying leaps, falling scenes from skyscrapers, or over exaggerated jumps, there is usually a sense of faulty gravity. One must realize that a scene in a movie is not generally shot with a single camera. Moviemakers will use effects to their advantage in various ways in that the scene is reenacted several times using different angles, lighting, and composition in order to portray a more dramatic effect. When it comes to movies, real applied gravity does not actually matter because it is all in the intention of the director to make a good movie using things like effects to their advantages in order to please audiences world-wide.

In many of the kung-fu films with dramatic fight scenes, the fighters portray swift and intricate movement when engaged in fighting. And just like any stereotypical action kung-fu film there needs to be swordplay and constant running. The movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, not only plainly over exaggerates this stereotype, but also seems to eliminate the laws of gravity thus allowing them to float from building to building. Some of the characters in the movie are somehow able to effortlessly jump on the tops of buildings and trees when fighting.

The specific scene that portrays these obvious flaws in gravity is when the masked thief, who is secretly the character named Jen, goes at night to steal the legendary sword called the Green Destiny from the village of Yu Shu Lien. Yu spots Jen in her mask and then pursues her through the village. This scene is remarkable because as soon as Yu sees Jen, they start running on walls and jumping from house to house as if they had powers that allowed them to do that. The scene was definitely action-packed and the fast kung-fu fighting would have anybody sitting at the edge of their seats.

Though the scene was entertaining, there are times when they were fighting that seemed too graceful and uniform as they fought. It is obvious to know, as the audience, that wires are carrying the actors as they jumped and fought throughout the village. Clearly one could see that the characters are merely jumping and floating as if they had the same gravity as the moon. They could jump to another building with ease and without the having to roll as they hit the ground because of their gracefulness with the wiring setup. As they fought, Jen would try and jump away from Yu, but Yu would always grab her and pull her down smoothly. If when Yu pulled her down while in Jen’s mid-jump, the real reaction would be that she would likely fall at a faster and harsher rate leading her to possibly trip and fall to the ground. There is another part in this scene where they would run along the wall reaching probably over fifteen feet with ease from a simple run starting only a couple feet away. Again, the wires are obviously being used for this stunt, as gravity would have been a major factor attempted in real life. For someone to even run up a wall at a diagonal angle over even ten feet, they would have to have accumulated a significant amount of speed and maintained a grip with their shoes that didn’t allow gravity to pull their center of gravity, which is at about the waist area, away from the wall and ultimately make them lose traction.

A lot of the movements in this scene are unbelievable but one has to admit that the scene was indeed gripping. All of the fast paced fighting and quick camera changes along with the flying through the village really made the scene enjoyable.

Another movie that presents major flaws in gravity is in the movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. This movie is based off the popular video game made by Square Enix. Though, the actors are based off of fictional characters in the video games, they all possess their own special abilities. Pushing away from the fact that they are just video game characters, it is easy to see that the laws of gravity would be over exaggerated for kids and players sakes. The movie on the other hand portrayed the video game type of genre very well, seeing that they can move extremely fast when fighting.

In the final scene, the main protagonist, Cloud engages in a dual with the evil Sephiroth along a city with the intentions of saving the world. The laws of physics is probably the last thing on people’s minds in this scene. The scene is utterly brilliant in that the intensity of the fight between the two in combination with the epic soundtrack and fast camera movements, that it is easy to forget one is watching computer-generated imagery; a definite thumbs up to the movie maker.

Upon further analyzing the physics of the film - disregarding the special powers that some of the characters possess – the character’s action are hardly believable if not totally surreal. They are carrying around huge swords with ease, cutting through boulders with a simple, but swift swipe, and also jumping and fighting in mid-air. When Cloud delivers his final attack, they are literally suspended in the air - even talking for a second - somehow splits his sword into several pieces, which spreads around Sephiroth, and quickly slashes Sephiroth with each one before all the swords fall to the ground. This would be unthinkable if done in real life.

Now, unlike Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the CG animation in Final Fantasy allows a more eye pleasing fight scene as opposed to the evident wires carrying the actors. The CG animation played well with the fast paced action in this movie because they could obviously speed up frame rates or make characters movie lightening fast and still make it believable, without making it too uniform. One must realize when applying proper physics in real life, this is totally impossible, but since it is merely a video game with fictional superhuman characters, these movements are possible with just a little over exaggeration from the moviemakers.

A movie that is a little different that the fighting scenes mentioned above is Inspector Gadget. This movie was obviously made for a younger audience where the subjects of physics do not really apply. A lot of the movements or actions in the movie are highly over exaggerated where the director most likely did it for comical purposes. Since this movie is based off the old television cartoon, it is only respectful to maintain the cartoon-like feel when Inspector Gadget gets himself into a crazy situation.

Along with the over exaggeration of physics portrayed throughout the movie, the scene which probably made the least amount of sense, when thinking of the aspect of gravity, is the final scene when Inspector Gadget and Brenda are falling down from a high skyscraper. Needless to say, they are probably falling at such a fast rate since they are combining both their weights as she was basically hanging on to his back. The unbelievable part of this scene is when his hat produces a simple umbrella to come out of his hat, which allowed them to float down to safety. To think that a simple umbrella would hold up the weight of two adults falling from a tall skyscraper is ridiculous. But one must remember that this is based of a cartoon and this movie was posed for younger audiences where an umbrella would be suitable for a comical relief. Allowing an umbrella to save the main characters definitely maintained the humorous feel of a cartoon, which made bending of the laws of gravity plausible in this movie.

From the examples mentioned above it is evident to see that these movies are mainly poised for entertainment to the viewers. When the movie’s storyline is good, it makes it easier to delve into the story. One has to realize that if most movies were and could only be realistic, the media today would not be where it is today. It would be like comparing a high action-packed adrenaline filled movie to a documentary about slow moving animals. Without the over exaggerations of gravity in certain scenes, a lot of the scenes would be less anticipating and ultimately dull. It all comes down to what the director wants to accentuate in each scene, that really makes the scene.

From zero gravity kung-fu movies to intense sword fighting in mid-air to floating down to safety using an umbrella, the laws of gravity has shown the flaws in these scenes. But although they may contain flaws, that doesn’t mean the scene does not please the viewer’s eye. These over exaggerated scenes were appropriate for the type of movies they portrayed. The stereotypical kung-fu film, the video-game based movie and the cartoon-based movie, all allowed the bending of real gravity to show a movie effect. Again, it is all up to the director or moviemaker to choose which aspect of a scene to highlight or stretch. As an audience, we must remember that, the directors use these effects to make a good movie and more importantly make the viewers satisfied.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Broken Laws of Gravity

I. Introduction

-State and explain laws of gravity.

-Some concepts and movies break the laws of gravity.

-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

-Final Fantasy

-Inspector Gadget

-Thesis Statement

II. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

-Introduce movie and background.

-Flaw: Characters can jump/float onto buildings. No gravity

-Only certain characters can float. Possibly a power?

+Explain movie advantage.

-conveys “stereotypical” kung fu film.

III. Final Fantasy

-Introduce movie and background.

-Flaw: Characters can jump and fight in mid-air.

-They jump high numerous times and able to regain posture quickly.

+Added movie effect for dramatic feel.

-Posed for action.

-based on the RPG video game and other anime.

IV. Inspector Gadget

-Introduce movie and background

-Flaw: Gadget seems to get blown away farther than physics allow.

-Since he is a man with gadgets, he is able to do things abnormally.

-Goes flying when gets hit.

+The movie is based on a cartoon and is targeting child audiences.

-Comical effect.

V. Versus

-Using examples from movies.

-Entertaining versus dull

-Realistic versus Fake

+End all, it is up to the movie director

-The viewer’s opinion is all that matters.

VI. Conclusion

-Summary

-Own point of view

-Restate thesis

Stop-Motion Character Animation

In this video I used two transformer toy cars to animate an intense car race scene. I used a Nikon DSLR camera propped on a tripod and staged the toys on a desk. I basically just posed the transformers in each shot and used camera angles to give the movie more of an action feel. Also, in using specific camera angles, I was able to animate some parts without needing to stand the toy (which was very hard to do) and just holding it to show certain parts. All in all, the assignment was tedious, but fun.