Even if I don't like this movie, I have to admit that this is a fairly experimental and forward-looking movie.
The beginning of the film begins with the appearance of a man covered with insects. The picture reminds me of the color separation in PHOTOSHOP. If the purity of the colors is higher, it will make people immediately enter the pop era. Psychedelic drugs, rock music, the Beatles, the Beat Generation, maybe this is the real background era of the blind spot walkers.
Even if this film has all the conditions of a commercial film, such as a big-name director, a gold script, a gorgeous cast, a selling point of shooting, and being positioned as an R-rated film, it probably still cannot become a mainstream commercial film. Compared with the stance of most R-rated blockbusters sweeping the world, "Blind Spot Walker" is quite "condensed" in North American theaters, and the box office situation is almost bleak.
The psychedelic theme itself is a rather obscure subject that requires the viewer to have a certain understanding of the background of the story. This is especially true of this movie. Most people have a very hard time watching the movie. They have to concentrate and keep up with the rhythm. If they are not careful, they will be left behind by the plot, and then they can only watch more psychedelic images in a half-dream.
It is not the first time that the director of this film has used Rotoscoping to make a film. When comparing it with his previous film of the same type, "A Half-Awake Life", I clearly feel that the technical means "Blind Spot Walker" is much higher than its previous works in terms of performance, but in terms of film reviews and box office, the latter is far behind the former. Could it be that the cycle of liking the new and disliking the old is so short? The reason is probably not entirely in the audience.
•Half-dream stage
If we go to the source of this seemingly very advanced animation technology, we will find that it has been invented as early as the 1920s. It has never become a mainstream film or mainstream animation, but was only used in some short films until the director of the film, Linkley, put "Half-Awake Life" on the big screen in 2001 and people can appreciate it so closely. it. The film was well received by the industry and many film and animation fans.
Whether it is film or animation, it is a combination of technology and art. This is also true everywhere. Art needs the support of technology, and technology needs to be realized through art.
If it is "Half-Dream and Half-Wake Life" that gave the director a good inspiration and encouragement, the technical expression in "Blind Spot Walker" has indeed been greatly improved. The shaping of the characters, the expressions of the characters, and the design of the scenes are all relatively smooth and realistic. It is especially worth mentioning that the "magic" uniforms worn by the undercover police officers in the film invisibly increase the psychedelic color of the film in the constant change. The director deliberately added faint shaking and changes in light and shadow in the character movements and camera transitions, which also made the film's psychedelic style more prominent. Although the method of real-life shooting was adopted in the early stage, the director put a lot of effort into how to increase the artistic effect without destroying the original realistic expressions and movements of the characters in the post-production. It can be said that in the process of independent production, the director has brought his consummate technical means to the extreme according to the needs of the plot, so that the audience can fully appreciate the fantasy and real feeling brought by the "D substance" in the film.
However, this is precisely the case. Too many jumping shots increase the difficulty for viewers to understand the film, and also bring great challenges to the coherence of the entire plot. From the perspective of the content of the script, compared with the plot movies, science fiction movies are more or less fictional because of their backgrounds, characters, plots, etc., so they put forward higher requirements for the director's personal narrative ability, of course, also Because of this, it also gives many directors more space to develop their creations. The director of this film uses the works of Philip K Dick, who has a considerable position in the science fiction world, as a platform for his own technology, so as to hope that his technology can be better played through the plot.
It would be unfair for the director and creators to say that it is unsuccessful to evaluate this film based on my personal opinion or the box office performance of the film. In theory, the film's sense of form and content are quite harmoniously combined. As for why the final effect is not well received by many viewers, it may be that it is too special background content and novel technical means cannot adapt to people's usual aesthetic methods for the time being. This is an experimental film that opens up a stage of half-dream and half-awake.
As for whether Rotoscoping can be carried forward in the future film market and animation market, or whether it will continue its niche market, or it will even be able to occupy a wider art media market with the continuous innovation of technology. All of this requires the support of a director with an independent creative spirit like the director of this film and the support of major media companies. Even if some of the works seen now cannot receive widespread attention and applause, in the future, those who are half-dreaming and half-awake The struggling minority on the stage may soon become the pioneers and pioneers in these fields.
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