What REALLY happened to VFX?

[@memento81]

A huge problem with the current industry is how much it has moved a ton of decision making into post. Many design decisions that in previous decades had to be made in pre production (like settling on a costume design) are no treated with a "we'll figure it out in post" attitude that puts tons of additional and uneccessary strain on already overworked vfx houses. And practical effects are no solution to this, because those require the most pre-planning, they are often clunky and unflexible and often only work well under very specific conditions (lighting, camera angles...). If studios and directors were willing to frontload all those decisions they could just as well go with CGI, because with proper planning before the shoot they have a high chance to look excellent. But clearly Marvel/Disney movies suffer from a lack of creative vision, where no decision is final before the post-shoot early cut focus group test tells them what they their movie should be like. And then it gets hastily reedited, reshot and VFX needs to fix a ton of avoidable indecision

[@mestudiosofficial]

Oh absolutely- the amount of things that aren't planned for just end up killing the quality. If they pick a process and stick with it the whole film benefits. Thanks for the input and checking out this video!

[@AycanCevik]

First of all, congratulations. I'm someone who enjoys watching channels like Corridor Crew and video essays, though I don’t have a professional interest in VFX or cinema. Here is my to cents: If you delve a bit deeper into your research, use more varied stock footage and up the tempo of your edit a little, add your own commentary to the narrative and end the video with a concluding point, you could make even more engaging video essays. Godspeed young one. Take my subscription.

[@mestudiosofficial]

Thank you SO much! I appreciate the advice and I'll definitely work on implementing it!

[@noobguy3547]

Good short essay, man! Keep it up!

[@mestudiosofficial]

You're very kind, thank you for watching!

[@SorryImCanadian]

I feel like it is also the writing that is partly to blame. Its easy to pick a bad story and pick out bad VFX from the bad story, but we are somehow willing to overlook bad VFX when the story is good? I agree with the issue of quantity over quality from the VFX houses, the fix it in post mentality is partly to blame for that. The lack of being grounded in reality also is a problem. However, I think a major issue also exists where we don't acknowledge good VFX like the planes in Top Gun Maverick. They were shot in reality and then changed in post, when most movies would just do full CG planes and landscape. Overall it feels to me like the VFX we have problems with are used more for spectacle and less for giving the most relevant imagery to the story, yet if you removed all VFX then costs would skyrocket because you would have to make a full practical set in the exact look of what you want the final product to be. A lot of explosions now are just included to add thrill, and while I am not against that it also doesn't add to the story often, and you may as well at least take your time to have it enhance the story instead of just be there. If the explosion doesn't destroy something important then it doesn't need to be the focus of the image unless it poses a threat to the development of a character. Story development over raw spectacle. And give the spectacle you do include time to actually look good and threatening. As a full time video editor myself I sometimes find that I want to do an advanced cool visual, but it doesn't actually add to the video most of the time and ends up getting replaced by something that does. And when something complex does make the final draft its because the parts that made it complex were added to the simple to blend it together. Dynamic story > epic fx

[@mestudiosofficial]

I'm getting so many good pieces of input on this video! Thanks for sharing your insight, I strongly agree! Story is definitely a huge element.

[@mestudiosofficial]

Also, I gotta say, your username is fantastic- 😂

[@ClassicMusicChannel3000]

Nice vid man!

[@mestudiosofficial]

Thanks so much!