The Fur Diaries I
Diaries are cool…With this idea I want to, kind of, show you guys what it took to make me doing what I’m doing artistically today. It’s been a long way from there to here and now. The most important thing I want to show with this is that you cannot learn stuff within a few days. It all needs a natural process called… ‘time’.
In the beginning…
…there were movies. Movies like starwars episode IV. I remember when I first saw it. I was born 1982 and this made it impossible for me to be part of that lucky generation that had the chance to see it on the big screen in 1977. So when I saw it… it was sometime between 1991 and 1993. Unfortunately I don’t know exactly when. But what I still do know is that I watched it with my grandpa. It was a summer. A soft wind came through the opened window when we both watched ‘a new hope’ on vhs. When the deathstar blew up and the movie was finished, we both were kind of stunned. What a story! What great fx! A wonderful movie. It was one of the moments that started something in me. I started to be interested in special fx. That evening with my grandpa was one of the most peaceful moments I ever had the pleasure to enjoy. He was always there to watch a good movie with me. Later it was Jurassic Park. For me, even today, the visual effects they created for this movie, are still some of the most realistic ones. Remember that raptor jumping on the table in the kitchen, with the two kids trying to hide there, at the end of the movie? Awesome! That was the time when I started to be interested in digital special effects. That movie kind of changed everything. The first time I watched it was with my grandpa on the big screen. I remember it like yesterday. We both were amazingly fascinated about how realistic everything was. And… I couldn’t sleep that night! lol
I’m a fan of movies…
Magic moments in cinema history. Magic moments for me. Today I wonder what my grandpa would say to what I’m doing now. Creating all these worlds in my paintings. He died in the late 90s. For me the 90s were a very very hard period of time. I lost a few people. And I miss them a lot. This decade changed a lot of things…. life and interest wise.
Movies and games…
Beside the movies, that obviously fascinate me, there were pc games. I always was, and still am, a big fan of the wing commander series. Not necessarily the movie, even if it has some glorious moments. Back then I was blown away by the fact that there were games that come along in shape of a MOVIE. And the best thing was you were able to manipulate the story of the movie with decisions you make within the game. Another interesting fact that came with wing commander were the actors that took part in these ‘interactive movies’. Actors like Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from the starwars movies), John Rhys Davies (known from Indy Jones and later the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy playing Gimli), Tom Wilson (the bad guy in the Back to the Future movies) or even a very renowned actor like Malcolm Mcdowell (Clockwork Orange and other Movie classics). All these high class actors playing these amazing characters… with you right in the middle. Wing Commander III – Heart of the Tiger and Wing Commander IV – Price of Freedom really influenced me to a certain point. Not only the quality they brought up… it was also the design of the games. The design of the fighters, carriers and places. For Wing Commander (v) Prophecy they even hired a renowned Concept Artist Syd Mead to create the very organic looking aliens and their ships. I really miss the series and would love to see a new game with the newest technology of graphics they have now with directx 10. Another game which, with both the design and the production quality, blew me away… Privateer 2. The character you played in that game was given by an actor named Clive Owen. Today we see him in Elizabeth II and saw him in movies like King Arthur, Sin City, Children of Men and and and. In todays games they got away from live action sequences. Today they use the game engine itself. And they really got something going over the last 5 years. The experience of playing Crysis recently really gave me an insight on how games will look and be made in the future. Same with the Unreal 3 engine. It allows so much freedom. You could create entire movies with these engines, with graphics on a very high quality level and that’s quite a powerful thing if you ask me.
As you can see there’s some ‘interactive media’ history lesson going on up there. And I guess all that it is what results in me going into lots of movies and wasting a sh’tload of cash for the cinema. I can’t help myself studying the movies I love. Into detail. You’ll find almost no dvd case in my dvd collection that does not say ‘special 2-4-6 disc awesome mega ultra edition’ in its title. And I watch everything. All the ‘making of’ discs and everything else. Just recently 3hrs production diaries from Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Pretty awesome. And no… I’m not going so far to play all the movies in slowmotion just to see every pixel of every sfx in a movie. Unfortunately no time for that. lol
It’s inspiration. It makes me appreciate the movie even more. To know how much work went into it. I experience it myself. The paintings I do. It’s fun sure… but it’s work too. It definitely is WORK too.
All these things marked the beginning of what I’m doing today and i could go on forever talking about movies, games and what/why i like them so much. And if you’re asking me who’s the best movie director out there… then I have to answer with Ridley Scott. It seems like every scene in his movies are paintings. He manages it to sign all his movies with an overwhelming composition.
Movies recently watched. Incl extras on most titles (last 4 weeks):
King Kong
The Empire Strikes Back
Shawshank Redemption
Batman Begins
Capote
Das Boot
Death at a Funeral
Mimzy
Superbad
The Astronaut Farmer
AvP 2
Punk!
I Am Legend
Michael Collins
The Machinist
BSG – Razor
1984
This marks the end of part 1. A hellish load of text here. Lets see how much I’ll get together for part 2. ;p To waste even more of your time! It was nice to look back. To remember a few things. :)
Next time we will review the time when i seriously started my venture into digital imaging.
Thanks for your interest.
Regards
February 3rd, 2008 at 17:58
nice start, man
haven’t seen AVP 2 yet, wasn’t so sure about the first one, what’s your conclusion about this sequel?
February 3rd, 2008 at 21:18
if you’re not a fan of the first… then don’t watch the second. ;p wait for the dvd i would say.