cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/16194286
I do miss the “making of” features that showed behind the scenes but as computers got better and movie execs got cheaper it wasn’t that interesting to just be like “well we did it with a green screen and then in post.” for fucking EVERYTHING…
It was much more fun watching pure artists at their craft making models and explosions and trick camera work for practical effects.
My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
I think it takes the same amount of knowledge to do well.
But cheap CGI looks better than cheap practical effects. Or it can be made cheaper. Maybe both.
Anyway, even Empire Strikes Back involved using computers for some work. Yep, late 70s’ computers.
It’s not one or another with these.
I think the reason for the drop in quality is moviemaking becoming corporate. Not “owned by corporations” kind of corporate (obviously that too), but “no way to get in without acquaintances or patrons inside” corporate, nepotism.
CGI gives the producers the ability to re-do complex shots over and over again. With practical effects you don’t get to say “That fireball isn’t red enough, make it redder” without a ton of extra work.
You can sort of redden it frame by frame, like they do when colorizing movies. A lot of work, yes.
My point was that a qualified person will do good things with CGI too. It doesn’t have to look worse.
But again, about time spent - for a hobby I can spend hours on making a burning torch look realistic in my POV-Ray scene. For actual work - I suspect they just take available things from enormous libraries of ready meshes, normals, textures, shaders, which sort of fit all cases, but are not perfect. But I haven’t yet even learned to use Blender, so.
One thing I always appreciated about the Fast and Furious movies were their lean to practical effects, at least the earlier ones.
I want to live in the world where the F&F franchise never stopped doing practical effects, and actually launched a car into space.
I did say goodbye to almost all DVDs, but I haven’t said goodbye to 4K Blu Ray discs, nor will I.
I am disappointed it feels like physical media is slowly going away though. It’s not only nice to have a physical collection in my opinion, but it directly supports the stuff you like, and you don’t have to deal with the bs that comes with digital “ownership” or the ever changing mess that are streaming services.
Check out bandcamp. It’s for music, but you can stream tracks to give them a listen, and then buying them nets you a straight up file download in an audio format of your choice.
A world where you can both support the creator online, and receive something you get to keep in return, is possible.
I hope we’ll get there for movies one day.
I just want to legally buy a DRM-free movie file containing multiple audio tracks and subtitles that I can slap in my Plex server and call it a day.
For the moment I’m doing it myself using my own Blu-Ray discs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i feel like my 24TB of movies and tv is a physical copy. i can watch over 2500 movies or 30,000 episodes perfectly curated with extras, commercial free and can hand a copy to my kids on a single drive.
I don’t mind having downloaded digital copies. I have a Plex server of stuff too. But sometimes it’s just easier to just buy a disk rather than find a safe/working torrent just to get it digitally
You don’t have to deal with digital ownership bullshit with existing physical media because some people broke the DRM.
The worst development for end users would be a normalization of physical media and new or (“updated”) physical formats and players.
With brand new DRM and more tightly controlled playback devices.
Discs mean too much hassle. I’d have to rip them all prior to storing the movies on my harddrives. Streaming subscriptions are convenient, but too limited and they don’t offer the best quality. IMHO, a download option is the best of both worlds.
I haven’t given up on DVDs. Don’t assume we’ve all abandoned the disc format, because I’m certain many of us still use them.
Making toxic trash and wasting resources just to be a hipster, we’re all proud of you
Ha no I’m not an iPhone user but regardless a phone is useful as it allows me to live more efficiently - not traveling to have every important conversation saves resources on its own and there’s thousands of other practical uses – wasting resources needlessly just to be a hipster is totally different.
I just find it funny that lemmy on one hand clmaours to cheer on terrorism in the name of the climate and all that stuff but simultaneous gets super mad any time anyone suggests the slightest lifestyle change for the sake of the environment - even if it’s objectively better.
DVD is a digital format so if you want to watch it in that lowered quality then you can download it in that codec and get literally exactly the same experience - but no, you need an entire wastful industry making short lived plastic disks just to make you feel superior to everyone using the objectively better technology.
Let the DVD factories close, stop making chemical coated plastic needlessly and grow up.
You’re a drip. I buy DVDs used from pawn shops and garage sales. I’m leaving a mouse-sized carbon footprint; there’s no “toxic trash” that didn’t already exist.
I really miss video rental stores.
walking in to the smell of fresh popcorn, getting an enormous bag of it for like 99 cents, walking up and down the aisles browsing the latest releases for something that non-algorythmically catches your eye to watch over the weekend.
Maybe even swinging through the game aisle to pick up the new game that just came out.
It was an experience that is lost and will never be replicated by streaming/rental boxes/etc/etc.
Worse, the loss of physical ownership. You do not own anything you buy on a streaming service. Sony as proven that on more than one occasion. You are also stuck to the whims of your internet connection.
But physical media? You can play that anywhere, any when, any how. WIth no worry for stable internet connections and other bullshit.
Physical media isn’t dead, you can still buy DVD/Bluray disks for popular content, unless it’s a platform exclusive.
So if you really value physical media, buy it and refuse to use streaming services. I rip mine to Jellyfin so I get the same streaming platform experience, while owning physical media. If my kids want to watch something, I order it and rip it. If my internet connection dies, I still have access to it because it’s on my local network. If someone wants to borrow it, I just give them a copy (or I can point them to my Jellyfin service, which is also available outside my house).
my local video store had the perfect setup. they were next to a pizza place and actually installed a window connected to it so you can order a pizza and look for a movie to watch while waiting for it to be ready. it was perfect. now its a stupid ass dollar store
Do you live where I live? Exact same scenario, including the fate of the building.
Yeah, it’s definitely a vibe. I took a wormhole (time travel) to 1991, walked into a blockbuster and keeled over from nostalgia.
Nostalgia is such a complex/convoluted feeling – you can’t have it if you didn’t have a past to draw the experience from, but when you do have it, it’s almost like a religious or philosophical experience both acknowledging and becrying (or grieving) the passage of time.
Unfortunately, even with a “time machine”, we the people who walk through the portals are ever changed. We won’t ever live in the past again. We can see those places and experience them in our present states, but…
Just like a glass shattering on the ground and the pieces scattering: Entropy cannot be undone.
It seems like the extras were for a specific limited demographic. When the costs of producing the extra content, and sales of the physical media are taken into account… I would guess that when a no-extras vs extras version of the same movie was available, the one that was cheaper with less content sold more.
I enjoyed the extra features on a handful of shows, but I think this is a smaller sales-base than the author realizes.
