CGI trickery in Punch-Drunk Love extra?
07-02-03, 05:55 PM
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CGI trickery in Punch-Drunk Love extra?
Almost all the reviews I've seen of the Punch-Drunk Love DVD reference the Mattress Man commercial with Philip Seymour Hoffman. They all are quite shocked by the nasty fall Philip took from the mattresses stacked on the car, only to land face first into the ground. I must admit, I too was surprised by the harsh impact.
But then I decided to watch the clip more closely. If you play it frame-by-frame, you'll notice that when Philip falls in front of the car, there is a slight frame-shift of the immediate background around Philip -- specifically, the body of the car with respect to the rest of the background. This makes me think the scene might have some CGI tweaking. I'm thinking that slight blur is the composite of two different shots. One of Philip falling off the mattresses onto a protective cushon, and the later falling from a smaller hight onto the ground. Composite the shots together, and you have Philip taking a rather nasty plunge.
I may be crazy, and the shift may just be a blur in the video encoding process, but to me there definitely appears to be some computer wizardry going on. I'd like to know what you guys think!
Thanks!
-- Carlos
But then I decided to watch the clip more closely. If you play it frame-by-frame, you'll notice that when Philip falls in front of the car, there is a slight frame-shift of the immediate background around Philip -- specifically, the body of the car with respect to the rest of the background. This makes me think the scene might have some CGI tweaking. I'm thinking that slight blur is the composite of two different shots. One of Philip falling off the mattresses onto a protective cushon, and the later falling from a smaller hight onto the ground. Composite the shots together, and you have Philip taking a rather nasty plunge.
I may be crazy, and the shift may just be a blur in the video encoding process, but to me there definitely appears to be some computer wizardry going on. I'd like to know what you guys think!
Thanks!
-- Carlos
07-02-03, 11:14 PM
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DVD Talk Special Edition
I wouldn't doubt that there's some CGI in there--it would be pretty dangerous (and probably against PSH insurance on the movie) to jump off that roof. Hilarious, nonetheless.
07-02-03, 11:45 PM
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07-02-03, 11:47 PM
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Hah, I hope they used CGI, I doubt he'd do that by himself. But even if it was CGI'd, what would the REAL shot look like? Was there some sort of mat there before but was digitally removed later... maybe. An interesting special feature at the least. I wonder exactly why it was made, it wasn't in the movie.
07-06-03, 11:51 AM
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DVD Talk Platinum Edition
It's probably the same process they use when they need someone to walk into traffic and get slammed by a bus. Or like the end of One Night At McCool's, when Paul Reiser gets a dumpster dropped on him. There's actually a pretty cool featurette on that disc in regards to how this trick is done.
