In Contention

Tag: Ben Snow

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Visual Effects

    This year the visual effects branch of the Academy followed the lead of the sound editing category and widened its net to five nominees. It did not, however, follow suit by eliminating the superfluous bake-off process, which whittles the contenders down to seven before deciding on the ultimate slate of nominees.

    This year the two films that missed the cut after making the bake-off were the inventive “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and, famously, the effects beast of the year “TRON Legacy.” The latter was shunned as a result of shoddy de-aging work despite having quality in spades throughout the rest of the film, but regardless, a drama with a single effects scene of note and a sequel with nothing new to offer managed to slide in instead.

    The nominees are:

    “Alice in Wonderland” (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
    “Hereafter” (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
    “Inception” (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
    “Iron Man 2” (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Visual Effects — Volume I

    How often do you go to the movies to escape? To be immersed into a different world, whether it be fantastical, thrilling or action-packed? For many movie-goers, if not most, the answer is “frequently.”

    Visual effects often play a massive role in this experience.  Studios invest heavily in them and frequently try to sell films on the strength of their effects as much as their directors or their stars.  Given this, it is unsurprising that the films that are nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects are almost always big titles, often with huge budgets and almost invariably with massive revenue.

    Dozens if not hundreds of individuals collaborate on the effects work of any given film. Only four supervising members of the crew can share the award, however. While there are certainly many dazzling crafts artists who are embraced in this category year after year, the branch has opened up to newcomers considerably in recent years.

    The visual effects category will be changing its dynamic this year as it will be expanding to five nominees after years of using the traditional bake-off method of determining three nominees. How this will impact trends is a matter that will play out in this year and years to come. But from this vantage point, we can only look to the past.

    Oddly enough, however, if there was one category where I’d put down money on the final nominees from this perch, this would be it. Not that I’m in any way guaranteed to be right. In fact, I doubt I will be. Too much can change. But five titles make the most sense right now.

    (more…)