BFCA roars approval for Kong's performance
Imagine a future award category for best performance by a big misunderstood ape or a nasty little ex-hobbit. It won't be created this year because the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. plans to bestow an honorary prize on. Jan. 9 to Andy Serkis, the man inside the monkey suit in "King Kong" and behind Smeagol's sly snarl in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
But watch out for such bizarre developments at kudofests beyond.
How to acknowledge human performance behind computer-generated imagery on film is the hot new challenge facing showbiz awards. It didn't matter just a few years ago during the production of the first installment of "Lord of the Rings." New motion-capture technology merely aped an actor's general body movement. Gollum's facial expressions had to be rendered by animators who took their lead from watching tapes of Serkis performing the role as a human, not a hobbit.
Soon thereafter, however, CGI production took a gorilla-size leap with the second "Rings" installment, "The Two Towers," plus "The Polar Express." Serkis' and Tom Hanks' most subtle facial expressions could suddenly be captured thanks to the placement of more than 100 markers on the actors' faces before they did their roles. Strategically placed cameras could then shoot a 3-D record of their performances, not missing a nuance.
The technology recently reached sophisticated — and thrilling — new heights.
"Many BFCA members wanted to vote for Kong for best actor because they were so impressed by the astonishing way in which he expresses love, lust, humor and rage in the tradition of the finest human actors," says the group's president, Joey Berlin.
If this trend continues, imagine a future best actor race pitting Garfield against Spider-Man, a Flintstone, a mummy and one of those seven dwarves. My money would be on Garfield. That cool cat is never shy about expressing himself.
Photo: If academy voters would acknowledge Kong's fearless scenery-chewing, he'd give a great performance at the podium at the Kodak Theater next March.
(Universal Pictures)
Animators have been doing this for years ... "acting with a pencil". So now Tom and Andy and that Jar-Jar guy act with dots plastered on their face and they want to give the ACTORS the awards, when the animators are just as much responsible - if not more - for the character.
>"Many BFCA members wanted to vote for Kong for best actor because they were so impressed by the astonishing way in which he expresses love, lust, humor and rage in the tradition of the finest human actors," <
Oh give me a break ...
Posted by: kcholt68 | December 22, 2005 at 11:01 PM