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Topic: The Day After Tomorrow

Dan Chilton
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 191
From: Springfield, MO
Registered: Mar 2004

posted 05-30-2004 03:05 PM

Terrible CG tornadoes. "Twister's" CG tornadoes were engineered almost 10 years ago and they still look twice as good as the ones that slowly made their way through LA. Very unbelievable.

And the wolves? Psh, Jurassic Park had better effects and they were compiled over 12 years ago! The moral of the story is that CG artists need to share their particle generating source code.

[ 05-30-2004, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: Dan Chilton ]

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-30-2004 06:39 PM

Muvico Egyptian 24, Arundel Mills, Maryland.

Saw this one in house #11. Quite a big auditorium. Huge screen. I actually liked the movie. The quality was not that great, some scratches and the bulb was not focused properly.

I understand all the commments about the politics, but I did not feel it hindered the film at all.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-30-2004 07:05 PM

I have not seen this movie nor do I plan to, but from the stills I have seen it looks as if the CG scenes of water and smoke/wind are very bad. I've seen very few films with properly done CG water/smoke/wind. Yes, I can tell it's fake even by looking at a small picture in a newspaper.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 05-31-2004 12:03 AM

I will have to agree with Dan on the CGI work done on the tornado scenes in Los Angeles but the work done on the wolves were ok. As far as the movie itself, it was a rather enjoyable film and not as bad as almost everyone said it was. I saw the film at a almost sold out performance at the Dole Cannery 18 in one of the larger auditorium in SRD with THX this afternoon. When I did not experience the sensation of the wonderful use of LFE in the THX "Tex" and the SRD "EGYPT" sound trailers. I knew I was not going fully appreciate the movie's original soundtrack. The sound was actually not bad and so was the picture. By the way, I did not feel the movie was political at all and nor ditd it try to be

-Claude

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-31-2004 12:25 AM

LFE? Oh yeah. That's what the home peeps call a subwoofer. (Just givin' ya a hard time, Claude). [Razz]

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Aaron Garman
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: Toledo, OH USA
Registered: Mar 2003

posted 05-31-2004 04:08 AM

I really liked this one. I actually enjoyed the second half of the film more than the first, CGI fest first half. I really felt for the characters and totally saw where Jake Gyllenhal's character was coming from: been there, done that. Also, the whole setting of the NY library reminded me of Ghost Busters. "GET HER!"

AJG

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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 06-06-2004 10:12 PM

I saw this last Friday night. It was definitely a long way from "Independence Day" in quality. The special effects were cool, but otherwise, it was just a run of the mill disaster movie.

10 degree per second drop in temperature, at the time when the breeze stopped? Isn't air a good enough insulator that this kind of temperature change can't propagate through it that rapidly, especially without a breeze. We see rapid freezing making its way into buildings. Sorry. It takes time for metal beams to loose their heat. Then after the deep freeze where everything was freezing instantly, people could walk out in it and be OK.

There was just too much that was unbelievable. Lots of bad physics.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-07-2004 12:00 AM

I have not seen the film (yet), but would like to add to the comments about the fake looking tornadoes. I laughed at the footage I saw on the trailers and TV commercials. Don't the CGI companies do any kind of subject study/research anymore?

Here in Tornado Alley, people know how tornadoes look. We see them in real life and on lots of weather reports. With the proliferation of video cameras, more are caught on tape than ever before. Tornadoes have a certain "design" to them in how they look and move. "Twister" had the only convincing looking tornadoes out of any modern film I've seen, and even a number of their CG tornadoes looked fake. The CG twisters in "The Day After Tomorrow" just don't look convincing at all. They looked stupid. I mean, the fat end of the tornado is at the bottom in some of their footage. Where is the debris cloud? It just doesn't work.

It may be an old movie, but I thought the tornado effect in "The Wizard of Oz" was pretty effective.

Those CGI companies really need to study videos of tornadoes and work harder on breaking down their mechanics. Right now all they're doing is just animating a dressed up barrel. Perhaps they're doing more than that, but I sure don't see it in the results. Some of it smacks of low-bidder cost cutting. You have various CGI firms working against each other on contracts for each effects sequence. Compromises get made in order to win the bid. Here's one tip for them which might save money. Most tornadoes I've seen appear only as a dark silhouette.

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Nick Engstrom
Film Handler

Posts: 23
From: USA
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 06-07-2004 08:44 AM

I wouldn't exactly call Oklahoma, tornado alley, but to each his own I guess.

As for the tornadoes, I agree, they blew chunks, I especially enjoyed seeing the helicopters fly inbetween them *rolls eyes*

Overall I enjoyed the movie, but as pointed out, physics problems are really what hampered the film for me.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 06-07-2004 01:48 PM

Today's CGI trumped by a muslin stocking 65 years ago?:

http://www.noplacelikeoz.com/Page4.htm

quote:
The twister scene from "The Wizard of Oz" was perhaps one of the most stunning special effects creations of its day. Re-creating the Kansas cyclone that transports Dorothy to the land of Oz was no easy feat. The effect was achieved through the construction of a thirty-five-foot muslin stocking affixed to a gantry crane traveling the length of the stage. The tornado-shaped cone was rotated by a speed-controlled motor. The dust and thick clouds were created using Fuller's earth, and dangerous chemicals such as carbon and sulfur with of course, little or no proper ventilation. The ferocious sounding winds were produced through the use of compressed air and wind machines. Creating the realistic sound effects was no simple task, according to the following MGM press release:
"Delicate mathematical calculations were conducted by the man Albert Einstein pronounces one of America's five greatest mathematicians, to work out a formula for the sound of a cyclone in terms of decimals and electrical requencies. The object was to reproduce the noise of such a story for The Wizard of Oz......As sending sound apparatus in search of unpredictable cyclones was impossible, O.O. Ceccarini, mathematician, was put to work. From scientific weather figures he obtained the pressure, velocity, air density and electrical characteristics of cyclones. From these facts he calculated volume and pitch of the sounds that would naturally accompany these phenomena. These calculations completed, he worked out practical methods of creating the sounds; 4,698,271 separate figures and algebraic symbols had gone into 200 pages of calculations before the task was completed."
The result was a remarkably realistic tornado sequence. In fact, various takes of the Oz tornado sequence were used for the climactic scenes of Cabin in the Sky in 1943 and in High Barbaree in 1947.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-07-2004 05:49 PM

quote: Nick Engstrom
I wouldn't exactly call Oklahoma, tornado alley, but to each his own I guess.

Tornado Alley is not confined to Kansas, and Oklahoma gets quite a few tornadoes every year. The most powerful tornadic storm in recorded history originated just a couple miles north of where I live back on May 3, 1999. That thing tore a path along I-44 from the Medicine Park exit all the way up through Moore, OK -and then even had enough gas left to go further up the turnpike where it flattened the large outlet mall that used to employ much of Stroud, OK.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-07-2004 07:08 PM

We saw this at the AMC Pleasure Island 24 in Downtown Disney last week, on their digital screen.

As for the effects, I liked them except for the hailstones. These filmmakers have obviously never seen real hailstones. The ones in the movie looked like broken-up blocks of crystal-clear ice. Real hail is white and the stones are round (duh). The damage that can be done by hail was shown realistically, however.

As for the story, I agree with most here, it was stupid.

One thing (not movie related) I noticed right away, is that they were not "promoting" the digital screen at the complex in any way. No standee or signage outside the auditorium, nothing in or on the building in any way that I could see. (It was noted in the newspaper ad, however.) The only tipoff at the theatre itself was the letter "D" after the title on their computerized marquee. (The other screens said DAY AFTER, and the digital one said DAY AFTER-D.)

I was disappointed in the picture quality. As others have said elsewhere, the blacks were too gray, in fact the whole picture seemed to have a gray cast to it. Not having seen it on film, I don't know if film would be any better, but we'll be playing this one after "Potter" so I'll get to check it out then.

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Jeremy Fuentes
Mmmm, Dr. Pepper!

Posts: 1168
From: Corpus Christi, TX United States
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 06-07-2004 09:25 PM

I liked everything about this one except for the tornadoes. The movie- [thumbsup]

, the twisters- [thumbsdown]

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 06-07-2004 09:43 PM

Wait a minute, did Evans use the word "quality" in the same sentence as "Independence Day"???

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 06-12-2004 06:48 PM

I can live with occasional mediocre CGI. If we all hold out for perfection, we'll never enjoy a movie. I know... crappy rationale, but it seems the way the system works right now.

I walked into the screening, anticipating a product on par with ID4... it was, after all, a major hyping point.

At the end, the two comments that first came to mind were... OK picture... HATE the preaching.

Cmon... really... if we were evacuating the lower half of the country, do you think some reporter would be squawking about "illegal (reverse) immigration".... well, maybe on Air America [evil]

GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

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