Dirty Laundry (Anamorphic)

[QuickHitRecord]

WARNING: Contains violent imagery.

 

This is making the rounds on the internet today:

 

http://youtu.be/bWpK0wsnitc

 

Look at that bokeh. Incredible. I wonder what they used to shoot this...

[jeffpb7]

Nice! 

[Sean Cunningham]

I still prefer Ray Stevenson as the Punisher, but I do like Thomas Jane and the fact that he wants to do it again bad enough to make this short happen, I'd be there with bells on if he returned for a third film.  Do it Marvel.  Just do it.

[Joseph Moore]

Nice. All of the talent was good...I particularly like the Ron P. cameo. The only thing that screamed no budget was the flat digital blood.

[jgharding]

This was pretty cool. Ron Perlman was boss, yeah the blood looked really silly! Cinematography was cool. The anamorphic looked quite mad though, made a tad distracting TBH!

[Sean Cunningham]

Nice. All of the talent was good...I particularly like the Ron P. cameo. The only thing that screamed no budget was the flat digital blood.

 

On the one hand, I could see the bad blood effects being an aesthetic that works, if this were for an overall "grindhouse" style production.  The blood was very reminiscent of the look of similar effects from Machete, which looked to be a lot of "Action Essentials" quality stock footage.  That stuff can't be used for anything approaching "real" but used in a comic, campy way it can still work effectively.  

 

The keying process for stock footage blood robs it of all its visceral impact and wetness, not to mention, nobody seems to CC it to not have some weird color shift and not be a muddy red-brown color, or orange, or dirty salmon.  When folks go further than stock, generally, with full-CG blood, they tend to make it too particular or too blobby.  They make it too opaque.  Liquid effects are very, very expensive and only a small minority of VFX professionals exercise the finesse and patience to do them well.

 

Anyway, I think The Punisher is an IP that is served well with this sort of paired down budget and style, using the non-realism to allow the filmmaker to push the violence into what would otherwise demand an NC-17.  They could be making three, or four, or eight of these for every one Spider-Man sequel I couldn't give a crap about.  

 

Marvel, to date, has made the mistake of trying to be too slick with him.  

 

PS> That Yoo-Hoo is at least one Vegany Violation for Jane ;)

[jleoncamera]

Beautiful bokeh. Terrible VFX!