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Robert Zemeckis Thinks Performance Capture Should Get Its Own Oscar

Posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

Robert Zemeckis

Should a performance capture computer animated film production be considered for Best Animated Picture? Best Picture? Or should the Academy create a new category for this new emerging hybrid? Robert Zemeckis thinks the Academy should do just that, of course! The director of performance capture films such as Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol told latercera that “the appropriate thing would be to create a new category, like when Walt Disney made the first animated movie. He got a special award since no one had ever done that.”

Zemeckis is referring to the honorary Academy Award that Walt Disney was presented with in 1939 for “a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.” But does Zemeckis just want an Oscar for his contributions to this filmmaking innovation, or is he looking for a new category to be created specificly for these types of movies?

Right now Zemeckis is the only game in town… but that won’t last long. James Cameron’s Avatar heavily uses Performance Capture, but also combined with live-action. And Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in Tintin’s adventures will begin in 2011, using roughly the same technology.

But Walt Disney had to wait 62 years for the Academy to create a category for animated feature films. And something is telling me that the Academy isn’t going to create a motion capture category any time soon… but who knows?

via: FilmDrunk

Comments

Rolland

It's sad enough that Zemeckis has turned into a motion capture obsessed hack, but now he's comparing his still ugly technology to Walt Disney's innovation. Talk about a big ego.

vegabro

Yet Pixar is genius and must be considered for Best Picture as well as Best Animated Feature...

super_aj

Well, that's different. Pixar movies are GOOD. When Pixar has two movies (WALL-E and Up) that are each considered by many critics, and average viewers alike, to be the best movie of the year, then yeah, It deserves to at least be nominated for Best Picture. According to Rotten Tomatoes scores, Wall-E was the best reviewed movie of 08. and likewise for Up. Your comment relating motion capture getting it's own category (which is ridiculous btw) to an animated movie being nominated for Best Picture is completely unrelated and irrelevant.

vegabro

What I was saying is that people grade animated movies on a curve because they are children's movies. They are GOOD movies for kids but completely inappropriate as legitimate cinema. And lay off Zemmicks. He's fucking trying to innovate cinema, give him a chance.

sambafish

....and what does this have to do with anything?

Kyle C.

Let it go Zemeckis, This mocap as the second coming shit is gettin old!

mbellerbrock

I really don't think millions have been charmed with Polar Express, Beowulf, or A Christmas Carol. And this is way too early for any type of award like this.

I'm really starting to dislike this Zemeckis character. Go back to your old filming ways... I mean, Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Contact, Cast Away? These are amazing.

VanDammit

This just in! Robert Zemeckis compares himself to Walk Disney! Tries to make annual Oscar grab for "i-was-actually-animated" movies!

-V

VanDammit

for "i-wish-i-was-actually-animated"

Ha!

-V

Slatters

Why are you signing your posts? Are you afraid people are missing your user name at the top?

vegabro

HE'S A V! GET HIM!

efearon

lolled big time :D

[A]

If they ever create that category, Andy Serkis should get not one but two Oscars. Retroactively, of course.

fanboy_d

This. My first thought was TOO LATE, ANDY SERKIS.

spikeshinizle

I guess it's official, the Zemeckis we once knew has totally gone. Giving motion capture it's own award is a terrible, terrible idea....at least at the moment. I think the general public (and us film geeks) have yet to be convinced that it's such a revolutionary tool/medium/whatever.

Mecline

completely agree, besides exactly how many other full mo-cap movies actually get made that aren't directed by Zemeckis.

doogleberrywinkler

His films are under the banner of "animation" whether he likes it or not! The physics behind the way characters/objects move in a mo-cap film or a Pixar film is in the same ball park. It's akin to Apple vs. PC.. different... but... STILL friggin' computers!! With these forms of computer generated animation, the end result is the same - who cares about the scientific formulae that was used to replicate movement across an x and y axis in a computer.

If anything, hand drawn or claymation films would get a category before this. They require a whole different form of artistry all together.

mrmarkrobson

i understand his desire for absolute control, and his desire to get shots that are normally difficult due to physical limitations of a camera in reality....but maybe he should look to other places for inspiration.... like Children of Mens car crash scene is stunningly shot...i never would have thought CG was involved...but it is employed to cover up the limitations of an otherwise impossible shot.

im thoroughly impressed when completely animated pieces so brilliantly simulate the handiwork of a true camera...i remember seeing a short at an animation show where a character gets up, and as he stands, bumps into the camera a bit, setting it to rock... it brought an added sense of reality to the weird short

not to mention...Peter Jackson did lots of these things he strives for, by blending both CG and live action together so well in LotR, Gollum is still better than any of the mocap Zemeckis has captured, and thats because Jackson is still backed up by talented animators, who add in subtleties or embelish on what technology currently can't capture

dasfoster

They could call it the “Zemeckis” category. That being said the movie he directed in the past (pre-motion capture fetish days) are, in my personal opinion, are some of the best movies ever. Back to the Future alone is still one of those movies that you can watch 100 times and still love at much as the first time you saw it. Once again just my opinion.

PS. I would love, LOOOVE to see his version of The Yellow Submarine

cinefan

The tool should get an Oscar for the 'sciences' part, but the 'arts' belongs to the performer (and/or animator(s)): therefore no new category.

Something has distorted Zemeckis's artistic sense. It often happens to directors when they pass middle age. Here's hoping that James Cameron hasn't gone down the same road.

Joe

"The director of performance capture films such as Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol told latercera that “the appropriate thing would be to create a new category, like when Walt Disney made the first animated movie. He got a special award since no one had ever done that.”

... but those movies suck?

jasonb26

this guy is unreal. he's exactly the way south park depicted mel gibson in 'passion of the jew': bat shit fucking crazy.

implying that he's as important as walt disney, or that he should be given an award of any kind?! what a pompous fucking ass. somebody put him out of his misery & keep him the fuck away from roger rabbit 2.

MrCavanagh

This is like having a band play a few songs and then having the lead singer ask for a round of applause.

MonsterKilledThePilot

Tron Legacy is gonna have mo-cap.

presto117

doesn't mind a mo-cap zemeckis film every once in a while, but when he does it BACK TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK with little imporvements between, then it gets old.

NEONBEAR

of course he does, then he would win something.

Captain_Howdy

Better yet, Spielberg and TinTin will put him to shame in 2011.

wonka bar

Here's an idea Robert, how about you quit worrying about winning awards and focus on the real reason you should be making movies....to entertain people. Oh and by the way Robert, the story and characters is what makes a movie good...not the technology.

Brianimator

AAAAARRRRRGG!!!!!! Motion capture is NOT animation! It's a special effect, a process more akin to burying actors under elaborate make-up than anything else. Did we invent a special Oscar category just for make-up effects films? No. If Zemeickis wants an Oscar he should have to compete with every other FX laden live-action film, STAY OUT of the animated feature category where he doesn't belong, and stop his arrogant pleas for special attention.

Justin

Seriously, what is going on with Robert Zemeckis?

Weyland_Yutani

You have to wonder. Completely gone. I wouldn't be surprised if her started growing a birds-nest beard and declared himself a rap singer.

ake

Zemeckis is an idiot. Can't be serious?

Sean

Never seen a Mo-Cap Zemeckis film and now never will

quintushalls

So a special category for rotoscoping? or a separate category for 3D films? Seriously, whatever the art form, it should still be able to compete in all the generic categories.

P.

Can someone please let Robert Zemeckis know that Academy Awards are intended for movies that actually DESERVE awards and not anything like the horrendous pictures like Beowulf?

Burt Waldo

He wasn't the first to do a whole motion capture movie! Remember Final Fantasy, released in 2001!! An awful film, but still way before the dreadful mo-cap films that Zemekis is making now.
I hope this trend dies a death soon. It really seems pointless. The thoughts of the next Roger Rabbit films having all mo-cap actors in place of live action, makes my stomach turn.
It's so hard to believe that this is the same guy who made Back to the Future, one of the best films of the 80's.
Motion capture is better suited to video games, not movies.

GLucas

they should give out an oscar for the best film to merchandise property.
suck on that, Zemeckis.

The_Kid

LAME!!! I can't believe he would want that, he's a really good director, I love the BTTF series and Forest Gump. But his motion capture films are just okay, in my eyes I still see them as animation. If he really wants an Oscar that bad, why doesn't he just make another good movie in live action instead of this mo-cap crap.

YazzyDream

A new category? Ahahahaha, AHAHAHAHAHA, what a stupid idea.

Christ

then it should be another category for claymation, another one for rotoscoping, another one for hand drawing stop motion, another one for 2D computer animation, another one for 3D... this is just stupid. what else does he want? best CG character in a supporting role?

An animator

I think they should create the category, just to show him that even if they create an Oscar category specifically for his films, Zemeckis will still never win it.

Stephanie Smith

I loved Pl oar express but Beowuld over the top....not oscar worthy

Steph
http://www.isopurewater.com/

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