Anyone notice this?

[Kalfear]

I just saw the commercial for Lost Planet on the Xbox 360 and their graphics were better and more impressive then 90% of the sci fi movies and TV shows on the current market!

 

WTH? If a gaming company can use actual game play to advertise their games in depth graphics, why cant we expect TV shows and Movies to at least attain the same level or detail?

 

Right now the ONLY movies that compare are the huge budget ones. I seriously doubt a xbox 360 game costs 100 million to produce so why cant middle budget movies and upper rated TV shows do the same?

 

Im serious, everything in this commercial was better then ANYTHING you will see on BSG. And about equivilant to the HD scenic shots of Atlantis on Star Gate Atlantis. But as we all know, The rest of the SG:A show isnt as pretty as the scenic shots of Atlantis.

 

Really makes me wonder, the technology is out there, its easily accessable, should we expect this as the norm now rather then the exception?

[Diamond]

I'd speculate it is mostly due to the fact that TV shows main value is in something else than computer-generated graphics: games need better graphics to keep the edge over competitors, TV shows can keep an edge using more cost-effective means. Just different medium and audience.

 

I agree though, most TV series look "cheap" compared to full-length movies and computer games.

[kumquatq3]

I'd imagine having to work with live action and green screens complicates things

[thepixiesrock]

Sure, everything in the commercial looked good relative to the fake computer generated people, but if you tried to compare that to actual real people, then the results would be just as bad, if not worse looking than any cureent effects used.

[Surreptishus]

I just saw the commercial for Lost Planet on the Xbox 360 and their graphics were better and more impressive then 90% of the sci fi movies and TV shows on the current market!

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This is hardly remarkable given that 90.000000000000001% of current sci-fi TV shows and films are garbage with respect to effects.

[LadyCrimson]

It'd help if I knew better by what you mean as "better graphics." ie, overall clarity of image quality or more about special effects.

 

I've noticed w/HD and big screen TV that while live-people shows in HD are pretty amazing, animated films still beat them in terms of looking really sharp or...something. There's something about animation that gives a hyper-reality to lines and the overall sense of "quality" and vividness vs. real-life video/film.

 

Thus, since most games are graphically animated, I'd postulate that this effect is one reason they can give the impression that TV shows look more dowdy by comparison.

 

Watching Rome and 24 etc. in HD on 50" seems quite fair to my eyes, tho...I can see every wrinkle and every pore and every badly done make-up line. In terms of clarity, at least, it's actually more so than you'd notice w/your own eyes in real life. I think soon they'll have to figure out new ways to put make up on actors....

[Laozi]

I blame SciFi channel. I mean if your a production company looking to make a SciFi film why spend money to make something good when they manage to sell advertising spots for Griffon and Pterodactyl.

 

 

 

Also Killface avatars supercool.

[LadyCrimson]

I was pretty disappointed that Sci-Fi wasn't in HD. There's some channels that broadcast BG in HD later, but it's more like a HD conversion and is a lot more grainy than 1st run HD stuff.

 

And any old series/films converted to HD always look more icky than newer stuff. That's just age/film limitations, mostly.

[thepixiesrock]

I blame SciFi channel. I mean if your a production company looking to make a SciFi film why spend money to make something good when they manage to sell advertising spots for Griffon and Pterodactyl.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I hear that

[Calax]

I blame SciFi channel. I mean if your a production company looking to make a SciFi film why spend money to make something good when they manage to sell advertising spots for Griffon and Pterodactyl.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I hear that

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

scifi pictures are always horrible. but their shows rule.

[Laozi]

scifi pictures are always horrible. but their shows rule.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Nope, everyting on SciFi is tripe, the trick is not to kid yourself when watching it.

[astr0creep]

Nope, everyting on SciFi is tripe, the trick is not to kid yourself when watching it.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

<_<

 

 

On topic:

 

First, movie budgets are overblown to extreme proportions. In my estimates, from experience, about 50-70% of Hollywood moola is spent on very trivial things, like "trying" stuff like blowing up a submarine to test if it would look good on screen.

I remember watching the Making Of Phantom Menace and thinking WTF??? a few times because I couldn't believe how much money is wasted all over, not to mention time and ressources on things that were "just for fun".

 

My guess is they need to keep the unions busy, whatever the cost.

 

Second, a camera doesn't capture images the same way a computer does. When the whole digital thing came about a few years ago, led by Darth George, many directors didn't want to jump on that band wagon because they believed(rightly so imo) that something is taken away when "filming" digitally. The mechanics of a camera count when filming, Directors and DPs use this to express their vision with the way the machine captures the light, etc.

 

Many movies that are very heavy on SFX are showcases for new technologies, demos for the R&D departments. They can't afford that on TV so they stick with tried and true stuff like blue/green screens and stop-motion models and animations.

It doesn't look as nice but it's cheaper.

 

A lot more can be said about this but comparing XBox 360 CGI graphics and animations to SciFi special effects is like comparing the Digital effects of Revenge of the Sith to those of Return of the Jedi.

 

Imho.

 

 

Did anyone notice that the Purple-Bellies of Firefly are wearing the uniforms/armor of the soldiers in Starship Troopers? "