Unauthoritative Pronouncements

This is a great video —and it has Todd Vaziri! Todd is a smart, talented guy who is very aware of common misconceptions that most people have about what VFX is. People think they see “CGI” when there’s some fantastical element on screen, but they really don’t comprehend the extent to which modern filmmaking —and television— augment photography.

As someone who is intimately familiar with audience misconceptions, it’s heartening to see Vanity Fair take an interest in providing Todd with a venue to impart this information.

From Todd’s short blog post on the video:

I want to thank everyone at Vanity Fair for making me feel so welcome and comfortable, especially director Adam Lance Garcia, editor Matthew Colby and everyone at ILM PR for this opportunity.

In the visual effects world, we frequently gripe about the prevalence of misinformation in the public discourse about “CGI” and the role of visual effects in Hollywood, but rarely do any of us tell our own stories about innovation, creativity, problem solving and teamwork to the general public. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to tell some of our stories about what we do.

Studios have marketing departments that do their very best to minimize discussion about VFX because they know that audiences react poorly to the notion that something isn’t real. They go so far as to despill bluescreen and greenscreen behind-the-scenes photography (look for gray backdrops in BTS stills and photos, it wasn’t gray). I don’t know why there’s a public fascination with the talented deception of “is it cake?” but an aversion to discussing set extensions.

It’s also important to remind moviegoers that there are people —just like Todd— who’s experience and ingenuity solve problems. When people think that it’s all just computers that do this then they think that the creativity is synthetic. It’s not adding and removing things based on probability, but on multi-layered storytelling.

My two favorite parts of the video were things that I didn’t know before, and would have never discovered, if it wasn’t for Todd telling us, and that’s the reconstruction of Sophia Lillis’s performance for a camera move, and the addition of rope in Skeleton Crew.

I’ve had to do similar things with retiming performances for storytelling purposes, and like Todd’s work, no one would ever know about it. Low-tech solutions like the rope are also things that are impossible to convey to the audience even though there’s a huge endorphin rush when you execute it.

Todd also touches on a common lament of film “fans” where they point at Jurassic Park and Transformers and say that things used to look more realistic than they do now. Todd gently bursts that thought bubble by talking about how creating a plan, and sticking to it, have a huge impact.

VFX artists don’t get a special merit badge for doing things that are very difficult, but don’t end up looking great. That happens a lot. We especially don’t get a merit badge for all the invisible work we do on projects great, and small. Kudos to Todd, and Vanity Fair.