Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Part 2

[redhawk23]

I am also 32 and do love a few older movies. What I like about the new Apes franschise is that they use human abuse as a motivation for the Apes (their leader Koba) to start the war. This is much closer to the book that sets up the Apes as slaves to mankind in the future.

I mean that's also the exact plot of Conquest, which Rise was pretty much a remake of.

 

[kedrell]

Well nice to see it's passed $600M WW and likely expected to finish over $700M. Man, that $700m WW number has been a popular range this year, hasn't it? GotG is expected to finish there as well. That'll make 6 for the year and should THG3 see a slight 10% dip from the last film's WW total then it might be 7 for the year. I could also easily see Interstallar winding up in that range.

 

[Lord]

Great to see it making such a good number, 700 million is probably too much, but i'm sure the film will end up in the top 10 highest grossing of the year. THG3 won't drop, i realy doubt that.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I think THG will grow a little internationally and drop slightly here in the states. The sequel was really well liked so I wouldn't understand a 10% drop worldwide.

Apes is great, I'm really happy for it's success.

 

[kedrell]

I'm not expecting a 10% drop for THG3 either but it's just that if it did drop then it wouldn't take much for it to wind up in the $700m WW range. And while I think the odds are somewhat against a drop(2 to 1 against that happening), it isn't like it's never happened before to a film like it.

 

[MrMaooz]

Total Lifetime Grosses

Domestic: $208,369,846 29.5%
+ Foreign: $498,882,853 70.5%
= Worldwide: $707,252,699

 

[MrMaooz]

Fox Wants Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination for Andy Serkis in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’

For the last few years Andy Serkis has been at the center of the conversation about actors in performance-capture roles being nominated for Oscars. The Lord of the Rings series brought Serkis huge attention for his work as the actor behind Gollum, and in the years since he first dominated the screen in The Two Towers we’ve seen performance capture become a frequent, even routine part of the filmmaking process.

Now Fox has revealed that it will campaign for Serkis to land a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Yep, that’s a supporting actor nomination, rather than a reach for recognition in the Best Actor category.

THR reports that Fox will, in fact, push for several members of the Dawn cast, including Serkis’ fellow performance-capture actor Toby Kebbell, to be considered in the Supporting categories across the board. And it makes sense, given that this year features a particularly strong batch of lead performances.

Nothing guarantees that Serkis will even get the nod, but Fox’s thinking is likely based on the idea that he’s a lot more likely to get the nomination in the Supporting Actor category than as a lead. Remember, the Oscars are all about campaigning and visibility.

The Academy and the industry in general has been slow to recognize performance-capture work with the same accolades it gives to traditional performances, despite the fact that studios sure do love the money brought in by films featuring performance-capture work. The Oscars will recognize performance-capture performances sooner or later, and the work by Serkis (and Kebbell) this year is a great place to start.

Hopefully, that will be just the beginning of a slow process that could eventually lead to more recognition for digital artists in motion picture craft across the board.

http://www.slashfilm.com/andy-serkis-oscar-campaign/

 

[Bruce Malone]

I think this was debated in another thread here but there's a lot of controversy with regards to how much credit Serkis should get for the role vs the actual digital animators.

The animators seem to feel the studio especially pushes Serkises contributions at the expense of theirs when it's more like 50/50 in the end.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I love Serkis but I don't think a mocap performance will be nominated anytime soon because the animators do play a massive part. It's not like he's just wearing make up.

I remember last year when people were pushing for Scarlett Johansson to get an Oscar nomination for her voice over in "Her" and despite the excitement surrounding the vocal performance I knew that she didn't have a chance in hell at getting a nomination. I think the Academy will see it as mostly a vocal performance and thus a nomination has no chance of happening.

 

[jmc]

Supporting? Caesar is the lead character. Even if you could overcome the mo-cap issue you're going to have a hell of a time convincing voters he's a Supporting character.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Nah, the Oscars often fall for category fraud.

 

[MrMaooz]

I need to watch this again.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Me too, I loved it in theaters.

 

[terry78]

As long as you got someone actually doing the animating it won't ever get a nod in the "real category" VFX are a lock though.

 

[jmc]

The only way a mo-cap performance gets nominated is if a special category is created where credit goes to both the actor and VFX team. 'Best Collaborated Performance' or something along those lines. We are a long way from that happening though.

 

[Jaspertian1105]

Fox Wants Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination for Andy Serkis in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’



http://www.slashfilm.com/andy-serkis-oscar-campaign/

As an animator i really don't want to see this. To nominate Serkis alone for his performance is just unfair for an army of people behind him, he is a valuable part of the process but he is a very small part in the whole pipeline.

I think a guy like Doug Jones deserves a million times more an Oscar than Serkis. That man really embodies the character physically and the performance you see on screen is what you get. Of course make up artists and puppeteers are fantastic but i think the actor deserves most of the praise just for the physical effort of being on camera under that make up and the hours upon hours of applying all that stuff on him. So when they say digital make up i think is a double insult for the talented artist behind the camera.

Mo cap is a totally different beast, you can use the performance, re touch some stuff or just throw way what the actor did and do another pass totally key framed, thats up to the director. Plus all the stunts that actors cant do animators take the lead. Ruffalo can talk about the hulk as well but most of his performance i bet was scrapped and didn't do anything heavy physical.

Serkis i think he plays the game well, knows the system and acts accordingly to the technology. He is a decent actor but i don't think he is great by any standards , he has mastered the mo cap technique but doesn't make you a solid performer. If you put daniel day lewis on that suit then we would really see what this tech can do, until then what Serkis does is serviceable.

I wouldn't mind that much but his ego and award hungry attitude just pisses me off. He could be a lot more humble and recognize that this is and always will be a team effort from a lot of people, artists that are overworked and under-payed around the world which his attitude only makes their job harder. The tech for some things is great but you dont have to be a *****e and take all the credit for something you clearly aren't 100 percent the author

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

I think Toby Kebell deserves a nod more. His performance as Koba was amazing.

Just watch this.

[YT]5CC2XQ78Sok[/YT]

Mo-cap actors out a lot into the characters, they have to act more imo than traditional actors.

For the award just have it a shared award between the actor and animators. But to say the actor is a small part is incorrect imo, they lay the groundwork for the animators to build on. The acting is what gives the characters character, the animation is what brings them to life with realism

 

[Jaspertian1105]

Great animators are great actors as well. Actors play an important part but in the overall picture is small, animation as well is a small part, there is modelling, rigging, texturing, simulation department, each part comes together to bring the character to life.

The problem is when some actors want to take the whole freaking credit. Cumberbatch attitude was far more classy than Serkis in my opinion, and he is a far superior actor. Of course you need a groundwork but animators have used their own groundwork for decades, using reference since the 2D days of Disney. When you see the work on screen you have to think what is more essential the actors or the whole crew behind it? With only their vocal performances from the actors, i think animators can achieve as great performance as any actors you see in those suits (unless you put someone like Day Lewis, Streep or other high caliber actors). Actors of course are very valuable part of the process, but they are part of a pipeline. Its a tricky subject for sure but overall i think Serkis attitude should be far better

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

I think the movie should get a nod for acting and a win for visual effects.

The visual effects were some of if not the best I've seen in a movie and they should be celebrated, but the acting was also top notch, for instance Kebbell as Koba gave a much better performance than the actor as Blue eyes.

 

[jmc]

The only fair term to call what Serkis does is a collaborative performance. Without the actors there's no reference for the animators, without the animators the character doesn't come to life. The reasons there are two side to the Oscar argument is because there's two sides working on the one character. It's a 50/50 split as to who deserves the credit. The Oscar issue I think needs to be put to bed with this unless a special category is created, but there's not nearly the amount of mo-cap characters going around for that to be a viable category.

 

[flickchick85]

Indeed, they need a new category or special award or something, because Serkis alone wasn't responsible for bringing that character to life.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

So what about having exceptional mo-cap performances and the animation be nominated for both acting and visual effects?

Surely the acting is the acting despite if animation is layered upon the actor in post. And the visual effects includes the character design & animation

 

[Jaspertian1105]

I think the movie should get a nod for acting and a win for visual effects.

The visual effects were some of if not the best I've seen in a movie and they should be celebrated, but the acting was also top notch, for instance Kebbell as Koba gave a much better performance than the actor as Blue eyes.

To be fair thats a totally different script and role, to compare both i dont think is quite accurate. I wish people could see a lot of what goes behind mo cap , i have seen lectures from top guys from WETA and it would surprise a lot of people how this tech is used. For instance in the avengers when RDJ says to Thor the line making joke of his clothes, that actually isnt his body. Animators acted out that on the suits because what RDJ gave wasn't what the director wanted so the only thing in that scene that is his is his voice and face. Its also used a lot for twist and flips and stuff like that difficult to act it out from imagination but its all heavily modified after.

I think for the oscars the VFX award is fine, there is no need for another. They could include the actor among the winners of the award but if you give an award for mo cap and another for vfx , is almost like giving the same award twice. Or in fair game, submit the raw performance of the actor, no tweaks at all

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Or in fair game, submit the raw performance of the actor, no tweaks at all

They should do that. They can see the acting beneath the animation and see if it deserves a nomination.

 

[jmc]

The problem is that's like showing the concept work of the final film. You can only judge by what the finished product is, it's not fair towards other films whose performances are being judge on the final product.