How Wes Anderson uses miniatures

[@charlieg2262]

Weird that everyone in the comments is only complimenting Wes Anderson. Simon Weisse is clearly a master at what he does!

[@granturismoKL]

Same here! Scrolling through the comments, hardly anyone mentioned him

[@unworthy.potato]

Well, the topic of the video is Wes Anderson, so it’s gonna make sense for all the comments to be on Wes anderson

[@SPNMEDIA]

Agree, I was fortunate enough to see the french dispatch minature set with Simon and his whole team are true artists

[@blindedeathh]

the video should have just been about simon

[@iflick7235]

Frankly, I watched about forty minutes of this and it bombed. Characters attempting to be eccentric appeared simply dull. I happened to have been born in the 50's. Even with poetic license, people didn't behave that way. I was bored with it and shut it down.

[@ICharlyl]

Ive always felt like wes Anderson's movies are just pure passion, movies filmed, acted and edited with pure joy and love for cinema.

[@petschitt2252]

That is the very reason I love his films. ❤🎥

[@sweetbabyrodney]

Like you know that he put his absolute best in his movies!

[@ohshamelessgravity]

Simon Weisse is a genius and a master at what he does. Wes Anderson on the other hand is equally smart for actually wanting people to recognize that he's using miniatures for his films and at the same time they're conveying a sense of realism. I salute them both!

[@linksauce_1]

I always can spot the miniatures in his films, but I’m never bothered by it like I am with most other movies. It’s that Wes Anderson Magic™

[@jamesmcinnis208]

"actually"

[@nigelcarren]

My name is Nigel Carren and I am a professional miniature medieval armour maker. I typically working in 1/6th and 1/12th scale and each hand-forged steel knight is typically comprised of 73 separate parts. WE enjoyed this video immensely thank you! Best wishes from me and all the mice in the workshop. ⚒️🐭🐁🐭🐁

[@christinaapplegate5281]

Yes it’s so wonderful to see a resurgence in the art form overall. And your hobby and passion can truly become a career if that’s your goal. I just enjoy making my Miniature houses, rooms, and all the things that go inside. And now that I’m no longer working I enjoy the company and knowledge of fellow miniaturists at my local miniature society. ❤

[@mareecuree]

i love love miniatures. it excites me to see the whole process on how these artists put all those tiny little details to make every piece look and feel realistic.

[@sophiaisabelle027]

We Anderson is a brilliant filmmaker with a vast color palette. His films are willing to go the extra mile. The cinematographies and stories all work together seamlessly to create masterpieces onscreen.

[@wxlurker]

I absolutely love the craftsmanship that goes into making miniatures and props.

[@theawesomer]

So happy to see that miniatures and practical effects are being preserved by masters like Simon!

[@las1147]

These miniatures and practical effects is what makes the Lord of the Rings movies hold up so well 20 years later

[@elizabethpatitsas565]

Also why 2001: A Space Odyssey still holds up 55 years later

[@LizziesLukas]

but the Hobbit series are gonna feel outdated much sooner

[@gasdive]

I was surprised that you could make a film about large scale miniatures and not mention Weta.

[@alexpotiomkin]

I was waiting for this commentary. LOTR was groundbreaking in every special and visual effect technique available, including miniatures. The camera movements are fantastic!

[@TreeStump-and-CheeseKetchupIT]

There's the opposite effect in LOTR too! Some shots used an oversized ring to bring out the details.

[@zaneverovati]

The thing that had me fall in love with Wes Anderson's filmmaking is the fact that I feel like I'm constantly pulled in through the screen onto the set, most of the time by the miniatures but also by the feeling that the film sets, and then I get into this sort of swaying back and forth, back onto the seat in the movies as a spectator watching a film, and then back inside of the set, and so back and forth, it makes me enjoy his films on a whole another level. And the miniatures themselves make a part of that feeling, being made in such a glorious way that they don't interrupt that feeling, yet still making themselves apparent - I know they're miniatures, but they're made so good that it doesn't matter, the momentous "okay, it's a miniature, but it's a part of the story so it's just another way for Anderson to convey his storytelling" is there for a second and it just makes the miniature blend in and feel as a natural part of the story. It's apparent that it's a miniature, but it's not tacky, B-movie style, but rather gloriously made sculpture, put there to help with telling the story.

[@ojtheaviator1795]

Miniatures feel real not because they fully authentic to our world but because they are fully authentic to their own. They are a 'real miniature'. And there's a charm to that which can't be understated.

[@Aloddff]

Physical effects are really captivating

[@mikesouthworth]

This video was really well done. Great job of showing the process in layman's terms while still making it exciting and interesting.

[@5MadMovieMakers]

Great video about the pros and cons of a unique filming method!

[@XavierRogers-y3t]

Wes Anderson films are the romance of Film making, just beautiful.. So much respect for these artist .

[@RafaelBernatto]

Disclaimer: Just because tightening the 'aperture' 5:38 "decreases how much light you let into the camera" does not mean that by "reducing the light" you'll end up with a wider depth of field ("every part of the model" in focus). There are a bunch ways for you to decrease light: ND filters, faster shutter speed, light absorbers/black flags and so on... It's not about decreasing light. It's about the >aperture< and the way it filters and shapes the light passing through the lens. Also, the bigger the sensor or film format, more shallow the depth of field. Aperture doesn't (just) mean less light. 🇧🇷

[@drlong08]

I can't show this to my photog/ film major son because his comment will go on for at least an entire 15K words on this one...yes, he's on the scale.

[@andybearchan]

Can you do a video on matte paintings? So many movies from the 80s and 90s had amazing detailed paintings. Do they still exist? Do people collect them?

[@Harleylover14]

I have the greatest respect for any director who can and will still use practical effects. It's truly an art.

[@davidcashin1894]

Always love to hear about model building for movies and set building in general. There are a lot of us tabletop wargamers who work in scale models all the time and it is fascinating to see what other model builders do. Especially people who have limitless budgets ;-) compared to a game that is.

[@Noumm]

Asteroid city was excellent and all the projects this amazing Simon Weisse worked on Anderson's movies !!! Love his way to talk about his work you can feel the passion !

[@chas4life]

Asteroid City is a photographic masterpiece. The details in the sets are genius.

[@TheFatblob25]

Absolutely beautiful filmmaking for a relentlessly boring & confusing plot.

[@alastairbattson5123]

I am glad that people like Simon Weisse are still around and doing the work allowing the likes of Wes Anderson to make the movies in the style and techniques he would wish, especially as a movie every 2 years from Wes probably doesn't offer Simon enough work to live off.

[@mastermavrick]

Great video, miniatures like stop motion are rare but amazing artistic works and this goes over why you get that feeling from it.

[@milonso650]

i was lucky and got to see the grand budapest model in weisses workshop before it was even used. such stunning work done by these guys... feels surreal somehow.

[@DippedInInk]

The world of miniatures and dioramas are amazing. As an artist to be able to capture realistic things in a small scale is truly a talent.

[@Thebreakdownshow1]

Wes Anderson films are the romance of Film making, just beautiful.

[@rickfazzini22]

I’ve always been in love with the art that is miniature model making. Thanks for sharing this great little film, what’s a treat!

[@Sabotage_Labs]

His work with Wes Anderson is just amazing. It has to be I suppose with Anderson's incredible attention to detail. He tells such great stories on so many levels.

[@artlovepeace42]

Thank you so much for showing this! These artists are the epitome of talent! Would be an incredible video to go to a model shop and show all the departments and artists working through a large scale model, start to finish.

[@rohitmishra670]

its amazing to hear from Simon Weisse . I can feel the enthusiasm he has and emotion of fun he has doing the work.

[@pocketrocket6494]

As someone who is into the hobby of large scale rc cars everything here is literally flipping awesome

[@JJadx]

just delightful to look at these, i wish scale models where more commonly used as an art form the way paintings on a wall are.

[@joiedevivre9861]

makes me respect directors like wes anderson & christopher nolan all the more for how much they know about & show their love for filmmaking :') loved this insightful vid!

[@tomwatts703]

Having grown up on Thunderbirds and other Gerry Anderson shows, I've always had an appreciation for miniatures and practical effects like this

[@RapidActionAnimations]

It’s unfortunate that miniatures aren’t used as often as they once were as they are an amazing art form. Practical effects just made films so much better.

[@bigsam653]

Using miniatures for Blade Runner made all the difference. The buildings with real fog looked super good

[@harrazmasri2805]

man this doubles the work, it's amazing just how much effort they spend for such movies

[@heckensteiner4713]

Miniatures are my absolute favorite form of film trickery!

[@kazpaapzak8637]

The novelty of computers and perfection is wearing off and we are now moving towards a place where the character and artistic style of a film is once more the most applauded aspect. It’s the same with camera lenses, cinematographers want hand built anamorphic lenses over the ‘perfect’ new lenses because they have more character and add to style of the film

[@theraphman]

This magic is the reason why I enjoy watching movies 🎥…

[@StrawberryFeildsforNever]

I pray that they sell these. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to get my hands on the grand Budapest hotel

[@Jiilaker]

Finally I understand how they create those spectacular scene in box office movies in the era of early computer

[@OxburgerStudios]

Long live miniatures, stop-motion, and other traditional visual effects techniques! This was a great watch, thanks for putting it together VOX.

[@ALIBIMusicOfficial]

Something about this style emits so much happiness. Even if its intended to be creepy its always endearing

[@thewillsfamilyaccount6486]

I glad I found this rediscovered this channel! Did not realize how good it is and how vast the subjects are.. Nicely done!

[@YanceyLu]

Really love to see more stories of amazing people with amazing craftsmanship.

[@xaviconde]

The Millennium Falcon bit in the video is actually CGId, not the model. That scene was added in the Special Edition of Episode IV.

[@passtheparcel2007]

Quite amazing! All together now, "It's a small world after all"...

[@AAWagner]

I’ve always been fascinated by miniatures and how they are used in all ways including cinematography.

[@dathorndike4908]

I remember the original Star Wars trilogy and how they used mostly miniatures for alot of the ships. It was a great example of making more out of less in film.

[@pushbikeman]

This video was simply fascinating I loved Asteroid City funny amusing and visually abstract looking like a model railway table.

[@jerryrichards8172]

As a model builder since the late 60s I love seeing models in movies

[@BobJackJillZorroKoshekZuko]

I love miniatures, I hope they make more movies using them. My favorite is stop motion, the pink house in Coraline is so good,

[@passtheparcel2007]

I remember being suitably impressed, when that space ship (Star Wars) passed overhead, it was huge! I had never seen anything so big an it took so long to pass...

[@thecasualfly]

I love practical effects and all the artisans who are involved with it.. miniatures are so rad too.. great stuff

[@Durmomo0]

It was a beautiful spaceship, glad they went with the green...

[@DCDSG]

I love that a lot of the old stuff is not dying yet and maybe still has a bright future ahead. Like vinyls. Thrifting. Etc. Might not be super commercial / popular but will keep an important place.

[@martinstent5339]

It's a shame they didn't mention the ultimate model in terms of looking real: The 2001 spaceship. At F22 every frame over 1 minute!!

[@EdBabb]

VFX Artist here -- that shot of the millenium faclon you used was CG, not a model, from the reissue Lucas did in the 90's.

[@-Alberto-Bolanos-]

again this is a introduction of a master class filming....... merci beaucoup

[@withconfettiinmyhair]

Been really enjoying every Edward Vega essay I've seen so far!

[@Blasharga]

feels wrong not to mention Lord of the Rings in this context. Minas Tirith especially.

[@freds3265]

The clip you used of the Millennium Falcon taking off at 3:18 isn’t actually a miniature. That scene was added in the special editions of a new hope so the Falcon is actually a digital model in that shot. Nice video, just a funny mistake.

[@andrews.]

Is Lord of the Rings considered old now? They used HUGE miniature sets to bring the story to life. The Rivendell Model is amazing if you have seen it.

[@KhanStopMe]

Love the video! A small correction: 5:39 - You say “you need to decrease how much light is let into the camera” which is not exactly true. You need to reduce the size of the aperture of the lens in order to bring more of the image into focus, the side effect of that is less light is let into the camera but just dimming all the lights in the room for example isn’t going to deepen the depth of field even though you have decreased how much light is let into the camera

[@michaelhollinger7034]

Weirdly brought up Game Night and I worked on that film. I drove through that neighborhood that you referenced as use of models. I’m pretty sure we used Tilt Shift to create that look and not models. Don’t remember ever seeing models in our Art Department.

[@GERntleMAN]

I'm not entirely surprised he is German since building miniature stuff is almost embedded in our older generation. Basically every grandpa built everything in small scale and the bestest grandpas of them made it the smallest and most realistic. Many attics are still filled with a lot of miniature worlds.

[@survivingworldsteam]

Not restricted to Germany though. It was, and still is popular in the UK, North America, Japan, and elsewhere. Check out large scale miniatures like Miniatur Wunderland, Northlandz, Grand Maket Rossiya, Our Home and Miniature Land, and Madurodam. Thankfully the art of model building and model railroading is alive and well; 3-D printing has breathed new life and new possibilities into the hobby.

[@WrvrUgoThrUR]

Fascinating! Thx. This kinda stuff got me into media production some 50 years ago as a 10 year old who had just seen Star Wars in the theater.

[@DOI_ARTS]

There is this old show in Discovery Channel Movie Magic, I love it so much they explain the movie techniques and made me understand how movies were shot.

[@sjbechet1111]

The size of the APERTURE defines the depth of field - not how much light you let in. The amount of light can be less or more with aperture but this can also be controlled with cutters/screens, ND filters and shutter speed.

[@sabersight908]

with a video all about bigatures im surprised it has not been mentioned ones that they are not miniatures but bigatures xD great video about the mini world in the film industry i already knew quite a lot but i keep learning some new things.

[@gieselats]

It so amazing what you can do. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge ans experiences. I adore your work. I could listen to you for hours and hours.

[@ThePCDealer]

Thanks for such amazing video. The real hero here is Weisse.

[@elyornoyovanna5482]

Creí que hablarían del estilo pausado y caricaturesco tan característico que tienen sus películas Stop motion Al presentar el ambiente no satura la pantalla de tantos elementos, ésa simpleza es increíble

[@QuizWriterMark]

I can finally watch this now I’ve seen it!

[@toddjones1480]

It's actually possible to make extremely convincing miniature bricks and concrete, but maybe not at 1/18. At 1/12 any defect will give away the game so you'll need to scrap about half of what you make. Bigger scales are more forgiving.

[@jucaropis]

Magnificent video, a talent on the part of the team of layout designers as well as the filming team. They are cinema geniuses!

[@VietVuHunzter]

Wes Anderson is when you can do what you really love and the audience happen to love it. too.

[@AlbertaRose94]

The use of miniatures in Asteroid City added to the old time vibe.

[@yay-cat]

I once heard that for the lord of the rings miniatures of like rivendell they used salt flowing to mimic the waterfalls because water wouldn’t have looked right

[@zakariajaiathe]

Was great to film with Wes Anderson and see how he works closely.

[@bazza5699]

wow i'd love to have the skills to be able to build models like that

[@Deecosta]

Thought I was just going to watch something entertaining - but ended up learning a good few things I can apply to my miniature making endeavours! Well done on a great video. 🎉🙌

[@skycaptain3344]

I am still impressed to this day with the miniatures used in True Lies.

[@DOI_ARTS]

The Florida keys bridge explosion and the Terminator Judgement Day Nuke scene

[@bitspacemusic]

4:54 Long lenses only crop more. Perspective (compression) is the same for all lenses when shot from the same position.

[@dada-pm5cd]

2:28 he's soooo real for using the metric system bc same

[@DrawnInk1]

Fascinating upload thanks.

[@cedricklyon]

Don't forget to visit the miniature and cinema museum in the old town of Lyon, France !

[@nazru8]

still remembering nolan did the plans crash in TENET, where he completely avoided miniatures.

[@protorhinocerator142]

In Asteroid City, I could absolutely tell that the mountains in the background were mini. At first they looked good, but then those sideways crawl shots allowed me to parallax the distance better. They weren't miles away like the movie implied. They were very close. If they had instead done a spin shot or a pan up, it would have hidden the real distance much better.

[@Thehackerguy2000]

A lot of the assets in CoD are miniatures that were scanned in, and I’m talking big assets like a building.

[@blackparadoxx9656]

Didn't know Wes Anderson was so old.

[@morganroberts]

Remember, the focal length itself doesn’t compress, the relative distance does that. Focal length just allows us to fill the frame with what we need AT that distance.

[@tyrson4331]

My favourites are Lord of the Rings ones

[@Kausan1]

Was about to say the same thing

[@Immafuggin182]

The miniature crew for Lord of the Rings is in a league of their own. They sho for over 1000 days and were still shooting for the extended cut even after they had won their Oscar for Return of the King. Those shots and miniatures still hold up today because of the seamless blends Weta Digital and Weta Workshop produced.

[@aaronleverton4221]

Eon Productions basically created a real time evolution of the art of miniatures. Dr No's bauxite mine looks like the oil rog in Dr Who two decades later and we all know how low the Doctor's budget was. But, the Piz Gloria six years later is superb. Derek Meddings' Moonraker shuttle launch facilities possibly top ILM's concurrent work and the Afghan bridge in The Living Daylights and the Goldeneye antenna array in Goldeneye hide their actual scale almost perfectly. There's something about the tactility of miniatures that the human brain can still distinguish from purely digital creations. I think it's why things like Helms's Deep feel so real in The Lord of the Rings. Because they are "real".

[@killerdinamo08]

Knew that E-type was a Bburago model from the first moment due to the widespread 265 WK license plate 😅.

[@alex35agm]

One of these genius effects people was Derek Meddings,who did the miniatures for all the Gerry Anderson tv series and some of the early Bond films.

[@anarey-oktay2683]

This makes me so happy.

[@matthewbenoit3098]

Big fan of models!