BOOK REVIEW:
Back
in 1993, the term “visual effects” were pretty
much ignored by Hollywood executives until a certain bearded
man came up with a dinosaur movie that stormed the box-office
records worldwide. And that perhaps lead three wise men by
the name of Scott Ross, James “I-am-King-of-the-world”
Cameron and Stan Winston who saw the potential in it and founded
one of the industry’s best effects house called “Digital
Domain” besides ILM.
This
hardcover book traces “Digital Domain” from their
roots in showcasing their technology in movies such as “Apollo
13”, “The Fifth Element” and “True
Lies” to creating effects for MTVs and commercials.
Ironically, Piers’s intention was to introduce the cutting-edge
special effects techniques applied to the audience using the
most layman terms ever. However, his way of writing apparently
doesn’t really seem to go well with readers. Large chunks
of text are dedicated to the tedious processes for example,
CGI morphing, rotoscoping ignoring the fact that a picture
says a thousands words.
Although
there’s enough lavish generous pictures layout but somehow,
it’s insufficient to create much of an impact. It’s
an added pity that movies such as “Fight Club”,
“Interview with an Vampire” and “X-men”
are not given much attention despite being pretty well-known
movies.
Digital Domain's performance in the industry seem to be rather
sluggish in recent years after their Academy-award winning
"Titanic". Two reasons could be one, greatly shadowed
by better, cheaper emerging effects houses and two, the movies
they did were pretty much mediocre and forgettable. In 2007,
Director Michael Bay purchased his way into the company and
Digital Domain did part of Bay's Transformers' effects.
VERDICT:
A
definite must-read for fans
of digital art and visual effects or Cinefex.
Review
by Linus Tee
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