Movies | April 03, 2009 | 3 comments

Virtual sets move Hollywood closer to holodeck

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"High-end filmmakers aren't just making movies these days. They're building virtual worlds before shooting a single frame of film, using digital tools that blur the lines between animation and live-action, virtual sets and physical soundstage, photorealistic cartoon characters and motion-captured human beings.

Over the past few years, digital moviemakers have mastered new technologies and learned to micromanage massive teams in order to bring complex collaborative visions to the screen. The goal: to create truly immersive movies that knock the socks off even the most jaded moviegoer.

"Every technological advance in filmmaking points directly to something like Star Trek's holodeck, where you don't go in and watch the stories — you are actually in the bar or you're climbing the rock or whatever is there," said Phil "Captain 3D" McNally, the stereoscopic supervisor, who handled the 3-D elements in DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens, which opened Friday. "That's lucid dreaming as realized by Star Trek technology. If you have a choice between watching a movie and going on the holodeck, I guarantee you'd be going on the holodeck."

As with earlier advances — from silent films to "talkies," from black-and-white to color and from sound to surround sound — the new technological tools at moviemakers' disposal are changing not just what audiences see and hear, but the way directors and their crews work.

Unlike previous 3-D cartoons, Monsters vs. Aliens was conceptualized from the get-go as a story designed for depth."
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