Pushing the Boundaries

About every year or so a film comes out that pushes the boundaries of filmmaking to a new, interesting and revolutionary level. Examples would be Jurassic Park, the Matrix, Titanic. Was there any movie that pushed the boundaries this year and really added something to the world of movies?
 
About every year or so a film comes out that pushes the boundaries of filmmaking to a new, interesting and revolutionary level. Examples would be Jurassic Park, the Matrix, Titanic. Was there any movie that pushed the boundaries this year and really added something to the world of movies?

Seems to be a trend... https://www.facebook.com/theryanconnolly/posts/636551019738529




But whatever I'll bite; After watching the Behind the Scenes of Gravity it is incredible what they set out to do and how they achieved it.

I haven't seen it but it sure sounds like the Wolf of Wall Street pushed the R rating boundary.
 
Tough question.

Gravity

Many great and unique elements (story, sound design), but the techniques used to shoot the space sequences had never been done before.
 
Although it didn't push the boundaries in a technical way (like your examples suggest) I think Spring Breakers did something that has never been done in cinema before.
 
Last edited:
Could you elaborate?

I can't really put my finger on it. Some combination of the editing, sound design, repetitive dialogue, colors, visuals, music... It was very hypnotic and dream-like, while maintaining such a tragic and poignant comment on spring break culture. I can't think of any other movies like it.
 
I guess you're going for technical innovations, right?

I haven't seen or heard about how groundbreaking the techniques used for Gravity were. What's so groundbreaking about them?

How about the Hobbit films for introducing HFR?

I don't know if any innovative techniques were really used for Upstream Color. Maybe nothing that hasn't been done before? But I feel like asking if we should consider it, I don't know, for editing or story technique, or something. It seems sort of innovative somehow. Or is that just lazy thinking?

Maybe the litmus test is whether or not a film affects other filmmakers or the industry?
 
I guess you're going for technical innovations, right?

I haven't seen or heard about how groundbreaking the techniques used for Gravity were. What's so groundbreaking about them?

How about the Hobbit films for introducing HFR?

I don't know if any innovative techniques were really used for Upstream Color. Maybe nothing that hasn't been done before? But I feel like asking if we should consider it, I don't know, for editing or story technique, or something. It seems sort of innovative somehow. Or is that just lazy thinking?

Maybe the litmus test is whether or not a film affects other filmmakers or the industry?

In it's 4 year process, they created many ways to pull off the effect of being in space. One of the most notable is the lightbox, a huge box with tiny LED lights on all sides. Bullock was lowered into it through a rig, and the LED lights were made to mimic light conditions in the scene. There was also various forms of puppeteering and CG.

Yes, The Hobbit and Upstream Color are considerable as well.
 
for me it was only god forgives, i beg you to find me something that is as visually beautiful as that film, the set design and effectiveness with the colouring is unlike anything iv seen and is truely inspirational.. especially on a low budget
 
^ Only God Forgives.

Maybe both its beauty and its ugliness, especially on a low budget, could be considered inspirational. =)
 
I haven't seen or heard about how groundbreaking the techniques used for Gravity were. What's so groundbreaking about them?

The use of the Atmos system for the mix was rather special. It definitely opened the ears of a lot of folks. Most of them will probably use it just to be cool rather than to enhance....
 
I haven't seen or heard about how groundbreaking the techniques used for Gravity were. What's so groundbreaking about them?

The normal way to simulate people in micro-gravity is to move them on wires, or shoot very short takes while in an aircraft flying a parabolic arc (known to NASA as the 'Vomit Comet'). But that wasn't going to be sustainable for a whole movie. So the Gravity team decided, instead, to move the camera and lights while the subject (still suspended on wires) remained relatively still.

This presented a problem, though. To simulate low Earth orbit, you have to replicate two light sources - a very hard light (the Sun) and a very soft light (reflection from the Earth). The hard light is easy. But a soft light would normally be achieved with a large reflector or soft box. But that's very difficult to move around quickly, freely and precisely in the way they needed. Instead, they came up with the 'lightbox' containing 10' x 10' panels each containing thousands of carefully matched LEDs that could be controlled in such a way to create the effect of a moving light.
 
Back
Top