I was on the Abyss crew and for some of the wide shots of Ed Harris doing the deep dive he was a marionette, about a foot tall, that my team and I operated. For reference I was given a video of all the raw takes of Harris underwater in the deepsuit and I can tell you, between taking a final breath, closing the visor, ACTING, then opening the visor and signaling for the regulator again, he was often holding his breath for a stunning length of time. I was also on set for the rat scene (there were a LOT of us just off camera - we all wanted to witness it) and yep, it was exactly what you see on screen. They did several takes, with a new rat each time, and they all came out just fine.
@@filmriot The shot where he passes the crane wreckage is the marionette, another is near the end of the descent as he falls toward the glow below. And most of the traveling shots with the NTI as well. Although, just to make things harder, they were shot separately and optically combined. Puppet Bud was shot bluescreen, but the NTI, being translucent, had to be shot against black. That was my actual job: lead NTI puppeteer. The Bud puppet stuff was just added onto that.
I wish more movies today did the things you guys pulled off in that movie. Astounding work for the vast majority of it. The only thing that was clear to me when I first watched it was when the mothership rose out of the water. Those shots were literally the only ones that looked like miniatures, and it was only because of the way the water looked and moved. The models of those spires rising out of the water would've literally had to have been more than twice the size to minimize that effect, and as I've learned, they were already pretty damn huge for "miniatures". I knew about the puppets, but could never tell for sure exactly where they were used in the edit. Such amazing work. I love that movie, to this day. And, thank you for sharing this.✌🖖
Dude, you worked on one of the GREATEST movies ever made!!! Still eagerly waiting for this to drop on UHD & Blu-ray as i still only have my Laserdiscs (slightly open matte Theatrical cut and fully matted Special Edition cut) to enjoy. The DVD was sadly letterbox and had terrible picture quality. Everyone who worked on this movie deserves my upmost respect, Sir. This is imho Cameron's best movie and all the hard work, pain and suffering was well worth it. it is one of my absolute all time favorites and my best buddy and i constantly quote this movie.
Those candles from the Dracula look like they're being sparked by pyrotechnics, not being blown out. Unless the shot has been composited, the woman's dress is flowing too naturally down the stairs to be being shot backwards.
The weirdest part is how did FilmRiot come to this determination? Did they find that reversed footage when researching this or did they reverse it themselves and just completely lie?
@@quinncanepa5461 I've seen some other BTS footage that shows them experimenting with backwards photography throughout the scene to find what looks "otherworldly", and maybe THIS footage is them testing the idea, but they finally settled on the practical trick candles. There's a close-up later of Lucy going back into the coffin, with Van Helsing using the crucifix, and that shot is DEFINITELY reversed. So it seems like just a goof on FilmRiots part, having seen the other tests.
I love that we see how they did stuff when it is now something that we could be done on a micro budget. Also to see all the details of what they worked out, that goes over the audience's head, but is important for the film.
Film Riot is such a great channel that it's one of those special channels that I must grab a coffee to not only listen doing other stuff, but to fully enjoy visually too. I looove this FX serie so much, too!
I'm not even making films or VFX, I only make "static" art, images that don't move :D but I've been subscribed to Film Riot for over 10 years at this point! It's amazing how far you guys have come, really inspirational! Keep it up, love your channel!
About LICKD ... it would be important to mention that they do NOT license for films or broadcast. It's only for social media as far as I can tell. Since your vierwership is composed of a LOT of aspiring filmmakers ... that might be an important clarification. Still pretty amazing.
Not backwards! 2:12 The scene with the candles must be a reshoot, you can see the smoke going up! Even Coppola talks about this effect (and the making of shows it) as a reversed shot but apparently didn't work because in the final movie is obviously a pyrotechnic effect. Boy I love this movie. (The coffin scene later is backwards, and the one when Jonathan enters the castle, this way his first step into Dracula's "world" looks eerie)
I was wondering this because her train is also falling forward. So unless someone is behind her moving her train perfectly it doesn’t make sense. It’s a pyrotechnic sfx.
With Ed Harris, they should have just used a double visor with water in the middle, like the magic cup that looks like it's filled with water, so he could be breathing O2 from a tank
The roar part gave me chills.... I heard of similar story on a french movie from some years ago. Film featuring Melanie Vincent, a little girl and lion. Yup the lion attacked the girl, but hey the parents and production dicided to continue the film..... That's freakin crazy ! Movie name is "Mia et le Lion Blanc" (Mia and the White Lion).
It’s amazing to watch Film Riot and witness the Connolly family’s growth over time. Yet, neither Ryan nor the rest of us have reached the level of directing a Hollywood movie. I admire Film Riot for being so transparent. 🙂
Yeah, I was watching them 10 years ago, I remember that film they made where Josh ran through some building fighting loads of people. I felt like "surely these guys will actually make Hollywood movies"
*Little Shop Of Horrors - 1986* The scene immediately following the song "Grow For Me" when tiny Audrey II forces itself (?) to grow and doubles in size after drinking blood for the first time, bursting out the sides of the coffee can. What techniques did they use to get that one-shot effect? It's literally the only scene in any movie that I still can't be certain exactly how it was achieved. And, every time I think I've figured it out, I see another little detail that proves that it couldn't have been done that way. It's short and deceptively simple, but it's fascinating, and a true example of real movie magic.
Harris publicly disowned The Abyss, saying "I'm never talking about it and never will." Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio also disowned the film, saying, "The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun to make is not one of them."
2:16 fun fact. The little girl was so afraid the actress playing Lucy she didn’t want to do any more than one take. In her vampire make up and outfit she Sadie Frost had to sweet talk the girl to letting her hold her again.
I still look back when Independence Day came out and the first teaser shots were shown of the GIGANTIC Ships breaking through the atmosphere and hovering above the Skyline of New York. This impressed the living heck out of me as a kid back then because i NEVER saw anything like that before or after. These shots still hold up SOOOO well just as they did in 1996. They really pushed the limits of possibilities back then and went beyond that.
An effect that I'm curious to know more about is the incredibly distinct blood spray achieved in the club scene of the first Blade movie. If you watch, you can actually see individual droplets of blood coming out of the sprinkler heads and spatter suspended in mid-air. Since it was a time long before CG particle effects of this level were commonplace, I'd love to know how they pulled that off in-camera!
Its pretty cool that you went to FullSail to and i had an instructor that mentioned you. I love the school and they are so good at teaching us what we need to know. Anyways i graduate in December and I'm excited to hopefully start my film career
Right when you showed 50 I was like I used to watch Movie Magic all the time and then you used clips from it. Great stuff. Abyss has some great miniature work in it too.
I love the "making of" bonus features. The one for Darby O'Gill and the Little People includes behind-the-scenes footage that shows how they created the forced perspective, and how they combined forced perspective with mattes. It isn't really an effect, but a couple films took the approach of hiring people who had the skills the characters needed, and then teaching those people to act (as opposed to hiring actors and teaching them the skills). Miracle (2004) hired hockey players to portray the 1980 US Olympic hockey team; before they could read lines, they had to demonstrate their skills on the ice. And The Cowboys (1972) used a hybrid approach. Half of the boys were portrayed by actors who had to learn rodeo skills, and half were junior rodeo champions who had to learn acting.
"Roar" was shown in a movie theater here in the mid-80s in a special showing just for school kids. We were about 8-10 years old. I remember it very well and we never worried about the dangers of filming, but we liked the big cats. The 80s were different :D.
I believe there was a morph between the feather in motion landing on the sneaker and that feather that was there. The morph was used to eliminate any possibility of a visible dissolve. The software was Elastic Reality which was also used in the hand shake and lip movement scenes.
May favorite behind-the-scenes quotes is this: Some Hollwood-VFX guy was watching footage the German technicians shot for Independence Day. "What software did you use for that lens-flare? It looks incredible!" -- "Ummm... we just shone a flashlight into the lens while we shot the model..."
You guys should look at the shot in Pitch Black where Riddick dislocates his shoulders to lift his arms up completely behind his back and over his head
...😮💨 thank you! Thank you film riot. For showcasing this. Cinecons turn to AI has made me feel anger.... It's so nice to see the appreciation and study of human effort. It has to come back. I'm going full practical for my next indie. Thank you for sharing and taking the time.
Walking backwards in the stairs would mean the train of the dress (what a strange term) moves up the stairs? Something does not add up here or not quite everything is told. Pulling the train with strings? These days simulating the cloth would be no big deal, but back then, and even then if they wanted to use "old tricks"?
2:20 Nope. Don't know where you heard that but her dress falls down each step as she walks so she's definitely not walking backwards & there's no wind/smoke before the candles light. Easy enough to ignite candles practically w/out going through the "reverse blowing out" method suggested.
My brother and I have had a fascination with the effects used in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'. The one we cannot figure out is the scene where Eddie Valiant is hiding Roger from the weasels. At the end of the scene, one of the weasels makes a threat to Eddie, reaches down into a sink of dirty water and somehow splashes it. We cannot figure out just how they did it given that the water is real and the weasel is a toon...
Hey guys thank you my external hard drive got stolen with all my effects i bought from film riot and I reached out and film riot emailed me back with all my purchases I did in the past Love you guys And great video
@@filmriot no no you all helped me thank you got the Email with all the stuff i purchased thank you from the bottom of my heart . I wrote in the response email “ I’m 50 years old and I look up to you and film riot I wish one day I can meet all of you I don’t care if it’s for 5min “
The more you learn about that film "The Abyss" the more you realise what a nightmare of a film it was. I'm sure Avatar 2 was a much safer working environment.
So, one thing about the candles and whatshername walking down the steps. They tried it backwards, but it didn't work because her dress wouldn't fall down the steps right. So instead they used an old pyrotechnic gimmick to light the candles. You can tell with the sparks as they light. There is smoke there because the fuses are lit and they had already tried it numerous times.
13:35 BS. A guitar string? nope. Pluck a guitar string on an electric guitar with no amp. Pluck one on an acoustic guitar. He MUST mean at least a BASS GUITAR string because you'd need a lot of energy to vibrate a cup of water that much THROUGH a vehicle. I would have thought just put a speaker hidden under the compartment on which the cups sat and just play a low note on a synth or bass and you got it. Note lasts for say .2 seconds and you have a nice bump that happens. A simple string did not create enough force to do that.
I was always fascinated by the oxygen-filled liquid in The Abyss when I saw it years ago, and often wondered if it was real. It's just a shame I can't see the movie anymore. No-one can, except for a horrible fuzzy DVD.
Ever since I saw The Abyss, I assumed that the breathable fluid was real. Having said that, I long believed that the load lifters from Aliens were real. Win some, lose some. :)
I know this is very very late... but if possible cause you're a amazing editor and inspire me to do edits... think you can do the Ted Lasso intro? Maybe in your own way as possible?
When child, saw documentary of these film magic tricks. There insert of one early 1930-1950? Soviet color film, where diver was under at seafloor, and presenter said that it s so complex that it is yet unknown how it was pulled off. Haven´t been able find documentary or title of original film yet
For liquid oxygen I would created double visor and put the fluid in between them, but first shot would be put that liquid for real, then cut away drains out and use the double visor to sell illusion, I think it would look more realistic, instead of unnecessary suffering and breaking the glass every time.. what you guys think..
The lights inside of space helmets make absolutely NO sense for the astronaut's sight (projecting light into their vision), but are needed to see the actor's face...
