Peter Jackson's KING KONG

[Pubrick]

if only cgi didn't look so shiny all the time, would it kill them to let ONE bit of image go unlit? it always looks like they're surrounded by spotlights. it might be nostalgia talking, but i don't remember Jurassic Park being so overlit. u'd think these creatures were HOLY or sumthing, emanating a spirit within.

[matt35mm]

it might be nostalgia talking, but i don't remember Jurassic Park being so overlit.

It is not the nostalgia.  You're absolutely right.  I always use Jurassic Park as a great example of CGI, even though it was one of the first instances of creature CGI.  Probably BECAUSE of the lower-res, they didn't overlight it.  As a result, it was better integrated with the rest of the world.

I also can't see the damn trailer.  This is the last straw: I'm getting Panther from my friend.  (Tiger's not worth the money to me)

[polkablues]

if only cgi didn't look so shiny all the time, would it kill them to let ONE bit of image go unlit? it always looks like they're surrounded by spotlights. it might be nostalgia talking, but i don't remember Jurassic Park being so overlit. u'd think these creatures were HOLY or sumthing, emanating a spirit within.

Thank you!  Plus, they always move as if Newton's laws don't apply.  "Jurassic Park 3" was the worst offender on that front.  These are supposedly huge creatures; they should move like they're heavy.

Plus, the depth of focus on the CGI elements rarely matches the rest of the shot.  Gollum always seemed way too in-focus.

[MacGuffin]

is it me or does the non-HD trailer not work for anyone?

It's cause you need GOD DAMNED Quicktime 7 to view it!!!  This is getting out of hand.. I DON'T HAVE TIGER!!!!  Why must I be left in the dust?

Okay, cause I thought you needed to upgrade to only see the HD trailers. I don't have the OS requirements to upgrade. If the studios knew they are passing on a lot of potential moviegoers, they'd have Apple change back.

[Kal]

You can see the normal version with any Mac and OS... but if you want HD, you need to have the latest of the latest... same as everything else!

[Ghostboy]

No, you have to have at  least OS 10.3.9 to run QT7. There are still a lot of people running 10.2.

[Kal]

Yeah but for the normal version of the trailer you dont need QT7... just for HD. Thats what I meant.

Anyhow... do you have to pay to download the upgrades of Panther? Ever since I had my Mac I had it always with the latest software and never had to pay for it. Then I sold it and when I got my new one also has Tiger, so thats a different story. But Panther is already old.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah but for the normal version of the trailer you dont need QT7... just for HD. Thats what I meant.

No, you're wrong... for the normal you need QT7.  It even says that right below the window as you "watch" it.

[killafilm]

All of the HD trailers are Purdy!

I'm not absolutely stoked for this.  I'm sure it will be fun and all.  I agree with the gripes about the effects.  I think the backgrounds on some of the shots bug me more than the creatures.

[Ravi]

The effects in the trailer may be rough and not representative of what is in the film.

[Ravi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051028/media_nm/kingkong_dc_1

DVD producer saddled with 'Kong'-size task
by Anne Thompson Fri Oct 28, 2:15 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There has been no rest for the weary on the Wellywood set of "King Kong."

Award-winning DVD producer Michael Pellerin and his team have been running as fast as they can to keep up with Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings" producer-writer-director Peter Jackson.  Somehow, while Jackson was in the throes of creating his three-hour, $207 million epic remake of his favorite childhood classic, the tireless filmmaker also was supplying commentary not only for the eventual "King Kong" DVD but also for a video set diary posted twice-weekly on the Internet, as well as a documentary for the long-awaited DVD of the 1933 "King Kong."

On scattered soundstages in Wellington, New Zealand, selected members of the "King Kong" crew participated not only in setting daunting new standards in digital effects for the new movie but also in painstaking recreations of six minutes of lost footage from the 1933 film, using the archaic special effects methods of that period.

Pellerin, a veteran laserdisc producer of many Walt Disney Co. deluxe multidiscs ("Snow White," "The Lion King," "Toy Story"), moved in the '90s to producing such DVDs as "A Bug's Life" and "Fantasia" before taking on Jackson's award-winning "Rings" series. Joining the Jackson team allowed Pellerin to indulge in producing the most elaborate, award-winning DVD content in his field. But, says Pellerin, nothing prepared him for his experience on "King Kong."

His long work jag started in late 2003, during preproduction of "King Kong," and continued through production and postproduction. In fact, Pellerin still isn't done: He will continue interviewing the "Kong" crew for several months after the film opens in order to "get perspective," he says.

After the end of filming "Return of the King," says Pellerin, Jackson was wondering how they were going to up the ante with the "King Kong" DVD. So the director came up with the idea of "using the camera as a diary or confessional therapist." During preproduction on "Kong," after every production, casting or script meeting, Pellerin went to Jackson with his camera and asked him for an update.

Then, in September 2004, on the first day of filming Universal Pictures' "King Kong," after Jackson spoke to the camera, Pellerin recalls, "he said, 'Let's put this up on the Internet."'

According to Pellerin, Jackson has always maintained a close relationship with his fans. But this ongoing set diary set a new standard of interactivity. Jackson arranged with the people behind his favorite "LOTR" fan site, http://www.onering.net, to throw up the "Kong" set diaries twice a week on the new "Kong" sequel site, http://www.kongisking.net.

They posted 90 in total over six months. "Truth is, it was guerrilla filmmaking," Pellerin says. "Universal was never involved, not one marketing person. We made it up out of whole cloth. It was raw. Every couple of days, we'd gather what we had. It was like doing the 6 p.m.ews. We were moving so fast, with no plan."

Pellerin's crew was housed right next to the "King Kong" production offices so that they were "right at the center of the hurricane," he says. "Peter was so busy making the movie that we were laying tracks just ahead of the train. The early ones were crude; they got more sophisticated."

Jackson helped Pellerin to come up with ideas and cajole the cast and crew into cooperating. "At first they were saying, 'What's going on?"' Pellerin recalls. "Then they started making up their own pieces.
Jack Black did a piece on his height. Andy did a piece on his revenge on the DVD team. The cast used to hang out at our editing facility to see what we were doing."

Needing more ideas, Jackson asked the fans to tell him what stories they would like to see. Pellerin combed through the hundreds of submissions and picked out the best ones, including a tutorial on how an Aero 434 movie camera works. "Jackson wanted people to know what each of the buttons do," Pellerin says. "It's a direct feed from the filmmakers to the audience, a communication patch with no filters."

What the fans really wanted to see was a day in the life of Peter Jackson. "He kept putting it off," Pellerin says. Suddenly, in the middle of the night on day 99, Jackson sent word to Pellerin that the day in the life would be day 100. Pellerin's crew hung close to Jackson on one of the film's most grueling long hauls. The director was shooting on a night schedule from noon to midnight, plus meetings, dailies and stints in the cutting room; he was getting about three hours of sleep a night. Pellerin wasn't sure if the filmmaker would want to reveal footage of him so exhausted that he nodded off in a meeting. But Jackson wanted people to see how tough directing really is.

While Pellerin continued to do his day job collecting footage for the "King Kong" DVD, Jackson told him the day before the 2004
Academy Awards that he also wanted Pellerin to produce with him the DVD of the classic 1933 "King Kong." "Otherwise, he said it would just be another disc of a classic film," Pellerin recalls.

Because there was little behind-the-scenes material left from the original, producing this two-hour, 40-minute documentary would be a challenge. Director Merian C. Cooper and his FX crew "didn't want anyone to know how they did the effects," Pellerin says. "We had some stills, blueprints and articles. But everybody's dead, even Fay Wray. How could we do this documentary with so little material?"

Jackson's solution was to stage a dramatic recreation of the legendary lost spider pit scene from "King Kong," using the same techniques the filmmakers employed in 1933, including stop-motion cameras in miniature environments, rear-screen projection and glass matte paintings. "We would show how it was done," Pellerin says.

Luckily, Jackson had some experience with emulating silent footage. His infamous 1995 mockumentary "Forgotten Silver," about the great silent New Zealand filmmakers, fooled many viewers in New Zealand. In fact, Jackson supplied some of the necessary period equipment for the 1933 documentary from his own personal collection, including a rear-screen projector from another gorilla classic, "Mighty Joe Young."

In the missing "Kong" sequence, a huge dinosaur chases the men onto a log, whereupon Kong throws them into a pit, where they are attacked by giant crabs and spiders. To help figure out how to piece together the scenes and seamlessly work them into the existing film, Jackson brought in writer-director
Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption") and makeup master Rick Baker (who worked on the 1976 "King Kong" and the 1998 "Mighty Joe Young"). Jackson also roped in key crew members from "King Kong" 2005.

They storyboarded the scenes, which Jackson directed and edited into six minutes that were inserted into the existing film with careful weaving of music, effects and just the right black-and-white film grain.

Fans who want to know more about the original "King Kong" will be able to rent or buy the 1933 classic DVD on November 22 (from Warner Home Video); the set diary DVD, which spans the first 54 entries, comes out December 13 (from Universal Home Video), the day before the new "King Kong" opens. And the ultra-deluxe "King Kong" 2005 two-disc DVD will go on sale in April.

Pellerin insists that they've saved plenty of goodies for the "ultimate DVD," he says. "In the 'Kong' 2005 set diaries, we couldn't show the cool stuff. We were banking 70% of all the original material for the later story, yet to be seen."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[hedwig]

haha, damn this dude's obsessed! i bet if you made a 'trekkies'-like documentary about the Kong fanbase, like 90 percent of the film would focus on Peter Jackson. KONGIES. 

i'm sure it'll happen, and be included in the eighteen-disc box-set he's secretly planning.

[Pozer]

I totally agree with Pubrick.  Remember how real/frightning the T-rex's in Jurassic Park were when you first saw it compared to how fake/not frightning the one in this trailer looks.  I still have high hopes for an entertaining movie, but when you see that trailer, do you not think 'is this really what 200 mill is going for these days?' 

[Gamblour.]

I honestly faked it when LOTR was out. I feigned love for some of the effects. Granted, Gollum was pretty damn amazing some of the time. It's always looked fake. Only Spielberg has gotten it right, forget Jurassic Park. Minority Report, lots of War of the Worlds, these are amazing effects.

[MacGuffin]

Kong 3-D Coming?
Jackson's big ape may reach out and grab audiences.

Peter Jackson's King Kong could be even more larger than life than originally anticipated. The Hollywood Reporter scoops that Kong may follow in the footsteps of a much tinier big-screen predecessor, current box office champ Chicken Little, and be released in 3-D.

In-Three, a postproduction company that converts live-action and animated movies into 3-D, is reportedly already at work applying their patented "dimensionalization" process to the effects-filled flick.

The company's technology involves providing audiences with shutter glasses and does not require theaters to have specially treated screens. Some exhibitors have resisted the use of special glasses because of replacement cost and the time-consuming cleaning process which must be done after every screening.

THR contacted Universal about the 3-D Kong plans and were told by a spokesperson, "No, it will not be shown in 3-D." But we all know how shifty those spokespeople can be, so stay tuned!