A small shop near Reading is to provide stuffed animals for The Golden Compass movie. The owner, Ms Tubb, said, “The producers have asked me to make polar bears, rats and ferrets for them.” The shop is providing about 30 lifelike stuffed bears – which will be photographed close up so they appear lifelike on film. Ms Tubb remarked that it would be strange to see her bears – currently being made – on the big screen. But she promised, despite mingling with Los Angeles’ elite, none of her toys had turned into prima donnas and all had their paws steadily on the ground. Read more.
A quick search on their site gives you lots of bears to peruse.
Is this a joke?
I can appreciate the challenges of CG work but come on, stuffed animals? Pull the other one.
Well I figure they're using these more for the actors sake than anyone elses. I'm sure what they intend to do with these is just to provide something a bit more tangible on set for the actors to interact with, rather than a green box or tennis ball on a pole.
Hoobits is correct, on most heavy CG films there is need of a sort of "stand in" to help the actors do their job. Getting the right reaction, eye level, it's amazing how much it helps. Sometimes it's just a stuffed head on a stick, sometimes the whole body is needed. It's really not a joke JV, it's a filming technique.
Oh yeah. I actually thought of that after I post that but I went out so I couldn't say anything. Yeah, that actually makes sense, good idea. It was just the bit where they say "they'll appear more lifelike on film" that obviously meant the dailies footage and not the finished film. That's how I got confused.
Good. For a moment I lost faith completely in the filming industry.
Well keep in mind these things could end up in the finished film. The smaller daemons could appear on shoulders or in the arms of their humans in crowds via wide shots and we wouldn't know the difference.
Also, consider this; they could have Dakota sit atop one of the polar bear models (dressed in armor) for when Lyra rides Iorek. This would be an economical way of shooting her close ups or medium shots for those segments.
I think they're cute :laughing:
Mm, I think that should work out well enough. :wassat: But…won't they be using any real animals in the upcoming movies, as well? 🙁
Small shop? Ms Tubb? Is this a local shop for local people?
Just don't tell me that Pan, Stelmaria, the monkey of mrs. Coulter, Iorek and others will be stupid soulless toys! That's awful! 🙁
That will be like in our Russian screen version of Bulgakov's novel, where the enormous black cat Begemoth looks like Shrek with dark hair!
Of course they won't! Read the other posts! They are most likely for crowd scenes and stand-ins, NOT the more important daemons in the movie.
Witch-girl, they'll use real animals as models; Chris Weitz said so. But I don't imagine that either a real snow leopard or a stuffed one will be too cooperative with Daniel Craig on set, so the daemons will be mainly CGI, I suppose. Thank the Republic for WETA innovation etc…The daemons will look fantastic given the advances in technology these days.
I should probably add that the bear in the news post isn't the most representative of their work. Just the cutest. :tongue:
Have you guys seen The His Dark Materials Spot at Fanpop? It looks like it could be pretty cool and is starting to grow: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/his-dark-materials
Two friends of mine are invlved on the film, one is working at the shepperton studios prop workshop, making beautifully detailed life-like animal puppet-type models to stand in for the CGI on set.
The other friend has been employed as on set puppet handler who is providing puppetry for pantelaimon and other creatures for the actors.
All sounds very exciting, apparently the golden monkey fits the 'beautiful but deadly' description perfectly.
This is very exiting….Can you give us more details if you know??
Apparently not so stupid, StupidHead!
What are we thanking Weta for?