Button Stopped
Last night's Los Angeles DGA screening of The Curious Case at Benjamin Button was stopped after running a half-hour, according to In Contention's Kris Tapley. A "color channel on the digital projector" made the image look "washed out," and so director of photography Claudio Miranda had publicists call director David Fincher to explain the problem, and thereafter the plug was pulled. A makeup screening will happen Saturday.
Tapley says "we liked what we saw. And after just 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure the film will take the Oscars for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects walking away...pure magic." Spoken like an elite mafia hitman who specializes in quiet kills. Hearing that a film has great technical pleasures is like hearing from a friend who's set you up with a blind date that "she has a great personality." The more people talk about Button's tech triumphs, the more this film is going to get shunted aside in people's minds as a "very admirable but no Best Picture Oscar" type deal.
If I was a Paramount publicist working on Button, I would put out a mass e-mail to all journalists, columnists and bloggers saying, "Will you guys give us a break with the technical praisings (visual effects, photography, makeup) already? You're killing us !"
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 21, 2008 at 7:41 AM
comment #1
actionman
says ...
If I was at that screening last night I'd have been royally pissed. I still think digital projection is not all that it's cracked up to be.
I remember when the digital projection of Spiderman 3 shit the bed in the dome at the Arclight about 20 minutes into the film. Too bad they fixed the problem and started the film back up.
I also remember the digital 3-D projection of Beowulf crapping out at the Arclight.
Posted by actionman
at November 21, 2008 8:11 AM
comment #2
YRG
says ...
After the unfortunate mess of Kaufman's Synectoche, Button may be the nail in the coffin for vignette-style filmmaking.
Posted by YRG
at November 21, 2008 8:29 AM
comment #3
/3rtfu11
says ...
Fincher has always been 60% visual style and 40% the quality of the screenplay his working from.
Posted by /3rtfu11
at November 21, 2008 8:44 AM
comment #4
Rich S.
says ...
Remember, the initial hook on Forrest Gump was that "you will believe he attended all these historical events." Look how that turned out.
Posted by Rich S.
at November 21, 2008 8:49 AM
comment #5
/3rtfu11
says ...
*he's working from
Posted by /3rtfu11
at November 21, 2008 8:53 AM
comment #6
Edward Havens
says ...
It's not like regular film projectors never crap out or film platters never spin their film off because there's too much static on the print and the speed regulating arm gets stuck.
Shit happens. It doesn't mean digital projection isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It just means, like anything else motor and/or electronic-driven, it has normal wear-and-tear issues.
Posted by Edward Havens
at November 21, 2008 8:59 AM
comment #7
actionman
says ...
I just feel that after watching a bunch of films in digital, I am not getting the full representation of what the filmmakers were setting out to provide. Everytime I see a film in digital, it looks too bright or washed out or pale.
Shooting on film and projecting on film looks so much better. At least to me.
Posted by actionman
at November 21, 2008 9:04 AM
comment #8
Chase Kahn
says ...
I think we should back off the 'technical aspect' backhanded compliment -- he only saw 30 minutes, he's not gonna shake around his top 10 list on 1/5 of the movie...
And I don't think ALL of Fincher's movies have been 60-40 visual. ZODIAC was a great looking movie, but Vanderbilt's script and the acting in there was terrific.
In the case of FIGHT CLUB, PANIC ROOM, etc. I'll give you that...
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 21, 2008 9:22 AM
comment #9
Nick Rogers
says ...
I agree with Chase. Can you imagine someone's response after just a half-hour of "The Sixth Sense" or "No Country For Old Men"? Now, a Brad Pitt movie at which I wouldn't have been sad to see the print die was "Babel." At my screening, it went on the fritz 90 minutes in. I honestly didn't care if it came back up. (Unfortunately, it did.)
Posted by Nick Rogers
at November 21, 2008 9:38 AM
comment #10
Deathtongue_Groupie
says ...
Soon as I saw "Spoken like..." before the break, I knew where this was going - a very Jeff place.
Tapley's entire piece is about the problems, whereas his makeup and SFX kudos are a throwaway sentence at the end. Clearly, his intent was to wait but to satisfy those who would otherwise pester him with "well, did at least that much look good?" emails and comments.
Besides, who wants to go out on a limb and foolishly claim "I don't need to see the other 2 hours - Best Fucking PIcture!"
Well, who besides Jeff?
FYI - you've got it wrong about who called Fincher, as Tapley very clearly writes it was the publicists who got on the horn. How ironic on a day when you are on one hand calling for magnanimity only two items down for the PMK/HBH firings, you fail to properly credit an occasion when the PR reps acted in the best interest of a film.
In the end, I call this Exhibit A in the very common practice of journos who have a supposition and come hell or high water they will cram whatever they can into the article to argue that hypothesis whether it fits or not the particular worldview they are pushing.
Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie
at November 21, 2008 11:05 AM
comment #11
storymark
says ...
"Besides, who wants to go out on a limb and foolishly claim "I don't need to see the other 2 hours - Best Fucking PIcture!"
Well, who besides Jeff?"
Freakin' classic. And so very true.
Posted by storymark
at November 21, 2008 1:32 PM
comment #12
Luke Y. Thompson
says ...
I was there too, and in all fairness, they gave us a ton of free food and booze afterwards to make up for it.
I was coming from Santa Ana and had been in my car for nearly three hours, so missing the movie was no fun, but getting a decent meal made me no longer mad.
Posted by Luke Y. Thompson
at November 21, 2008 2:34 PM
comment #13
Luke Y. Thompson
says ...
Also, it's impossible to properly judge the acting based on just what we saw, but the technical stuff is clearly pretty great already.
Posted by Luke Y. Thompson
at November 21, 2008 2:35 PM
comment #14
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 19, 2011 1:43 AM