So how much of those wonderfully detailed scenes in 'Hugo' are real? Not a lot it seems, but that does not, for me, detract from the intense beauty of the film. Isn't that the magic of fiction, of art generally, to enhance, exaggerate, colour, heighten, extend reality? Isn't this exactly what a story teller, a politician, a preacher does to "make a point".
Arguably we might not be creators in the strictest sense of the word, but we can still imagine. They can't take that away from us. Imagination is the stuff of
wonder and wonder is what makes things wonderful.
You can find several youtube videos on 'the making of Hugo' but
this one on Vimeo is perhaps the best and it is in HD. Colour separation overlay or
"chroma-key" is used extensively - this technique has been around since the early days of TV but here of course it is enhanced by animated backdrops created by computer.
 |
| Chroma-key in action |
The original author
Brian Selznick whose book the film is based on mixes some real history of
Georges Méliès with his plot and so it is no surprise to find that Hugo's train-crash nightmare is based on a
real accident in which a train forgot to stop in a terminus station.
 |
| Train wreck at Montparnasse 1895 |
 |
| The Hugo version |
 |
| in perspective |
How I would love to be involved in the making of such a film - behind the scenes of course - I greatly admire the likes of
Asa Butterfield but the only acting I can do is the fool.
No comments:
Post a Comment