Coolest Spy Gadgets

Ever wish you had a Q-Branch to foresee the troubling situations you’d get yourself into and give you a pocket sized device to get you out of it?

Ignoring Austin Powers’ penis enlargement pump (and his other tools), we’ve picked some of the coolest spy gadgets in film.

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Bondage

Of course we have to start with 007 - Bond is famous as much for his trick watches and lux cars as for his style and choice in women. 

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Lotus Esprit

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Machine guns, surface to air missile launcher and the ability to drop landmines ain’t bad but this car converts to a submarine with a torpedo launcher!

Live and Let Die (1973)  - Rolex “Buzzsaw” Submariner

Cuts ropes and is also equipped with a high power electromagnet for the handy purpose of deflecting bullets…or unzipping a dress…

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From Russia With Love (1963) - Dagger Shoe

A little poisoned blade at the tip of a nice pair of loafers is a classic, killer shoes man!

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Goldfinger (1964) - Bowler Hat

A hat with a metal ring capable of slicing through stone and metal.

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Thunderball (1965) - Electrocution Staff Chair and Jet Pack

As parodied so nicely in Austin Powers, bad-guy Blofeld reprimands his staff with instant death and disposal with electrocution chairs around the conference table, that dump the body and come back up clean.

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The jetpack is my favorite, best yet it’s a real toy!

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You Only Live Twice (1967) - Mini-Rocket Cigarette and X-Ray Desk

Smoking kills.

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See what your clients bring to your next business meeting.

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Never Say Never Again (1983) - Pen Gun

Explosive penmanship. 

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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Ski Pole Gun

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Moonraker (1979) - Perfume Flamethrower

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Octopussy (1983) - The Crocodile Boat

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The Living Daylights (1987) - A Philips Keychain

One little keychain contains a capsule of stun gas and an explosive charge, activated by a whistle, and a lock-pick. 

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License to Kill (1989) has a plethora of fun devices.

Explosive toothpaste and an exploding alarm clock “guaranteed never to wake up anybody who uses it,”

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and a sniper rifle camera.

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The World Is Not Enough (1999) - X-Ray Glasses

Stop villains and check out ladies.

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Unbound

Moving away from Bond, other spys impressed us with their ingenuity as well.

Inspector Gadget (1999) - The Copter Hat

Mission: Impossible (1996) - Explosive Chewing Gum

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I Spy (2002) - Contact Lens Video Camera

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Get Smart (2008) - Swiss Army Knife

Not just a pocketknife, Maxwell Smart’s Swiss has a flamethrower, blowgun with poison-tipped arrows, and naturally a crossbow.

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Men In Black (1997) - Neuralyzer

More effective than heavy drinking.

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What are your favorite spy gadgets?

This Is How We Do It

The evolution of “how we do it” from camera tricks and monster suits to CGI.

WARNING - This post will shatter your dreams. Proceed with caution.

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Alice in Wonderland (2010) So many of our films today are basically reliant on post-production.

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The Avengers (2012) Before CGI.

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Lincoln (2012) Before CGI.

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Iron Man 2 (2010) Before CGI.

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Prometheus (2012) Before CGI.

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The Avengers (2012) Before and After CGI.

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Avatar (2009) Can you imagine acting in that suit?

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Inception (2010) Blast from the past - anyone remember walking through these in Fun Houses? Glad to see practical effects here too.

But maybe the next set of pictures is most telling of the amazing work that Rhythm & Hues (now bankrupt) did for Life of Pi (2012).

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But before CGI there were fun camera tricks like

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Star Wars (1977) The rolling title in the beginning, anyone?

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The Matrix (1999) Suspending actors from wires isn’t so revolutionary, but to achieve the “bullet time” effect they shot all those little black cameras almost at once.

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Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) This one shattered my dreams the most - such a treacherous journey with a silhouette. 

And cool “toys” like

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Jurassic Park (1993) Go-motion and latex covered robots was the plan for the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park until they decided to adopt new CGI technology during production.

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E.T. (1982) But it’s so common to find aliens at romantic California overlooks…

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Titanic (1997) The kiddie pool was used to keep the actors warm, while the final scenes were filmed in a large (and legitimately cold) pool.

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Star Wars (1977) Really? Painted backdrop and mini action figures? Mind blown.

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Star Wars (1977) The Death Star isn’t quite so massive as it appears floating out in space, even George Lucas couldn’t fit inside it.

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Star Wars (1977) The set was essentially an adult playground.

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Jaws (1975) A large mechanical troublemaker.

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Back to the Future Part III (1990) More fun miniatures to push around.

And dangerous stunts like

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Batman (1966) Climb that building men!

And lots of actors in suits. Lots of them.

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The Muppet Movie (1979) Just pretend we’re not here…

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) One of the last days before CGI.

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Halloween (1978) How did they make Michael Myers so scary? A spray-painted William Shatner mask, obviously.

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Ghostbusters (1984) Just a man in a rubber suit, walking on some miniatures. 

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Alien (1979) 7’ 2” (2.18 meters) design student Bolaji Badejo was tapped to play Alien in Alien. 

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Godzilla (1984) Something about miniature sets and actors in rubber costumes is timeless.

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Godzilla (1984) So scary.

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Star Wars (1977) Who can resist that furry face? Either of them?

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Lord of the Rings (2003) Apparently the majestic Gandalf can’t ride horses. Meet his stunt doubles.

And to finish…

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) We bet you didn’t know that Dobby was played by an actor on location! 

What do you think?

What I Discovered Today: Multiple Connection vs. Tests

SynopsiTV is proud to introduce “What I Discovered Today,” a blog series by our programmers for our programming friends out there. Enjoy.

Today I came across a problem with testing when I used a master slave replication.

If you have configured a multiple connection in your Django project and you want to test master slave replication or similar things using both databases, you need to configure your slave connection as a mirror of the master connection:


DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'my_database',
        'USER': 'my_user',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': 'master-db',
        'PORT': '5432'
    },
    'slave': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'my_databse',
        'USER': 'my_user',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': 'slave-db',
        'PORT': '5432',
        'TEST_MIRROR': 'default'
    },
}

In this example I have one master database called default and one slave database called slave.

If I run tests, I tell the test runner that the slave connection is a mirror of the default connection. All inserts or updates that we make with the default connection we will see in the slave connection.

I use Postgres as a database backend and it didn’t work for me. The slave connection doesn’t see data inserted by the default connection.

Where was the problem?
All tests run under transaction. The test runner calls a rollback at the end of each test. Rollbacks set the database state back to the initial state so that the test runner doesn’t need to create database structure at each test start. But the side effect is that you don’t see modified data for one connection in the second one.

And solution?
After a while I found that I need to inherit my test case from TransactionTestCase. All worked as expected after I did this.

—pk

Hollywood Goes Green

…or at least it should.

The movie industry always faces criticism. Exploitation, manipulation, and domination are –tions that we typically hear thrown at Hollywood. What about something less obvious?

It’s a hot issue these days, and although the film industry faces pressure about on-screen violence and gun control, that is not our topic. The –tions I want to investigate are pollution, generation, and consumption.

The Environmental Cost of Film Production

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As far as industrial leaders in destroying our planet go, the film industry is certainly not one that would first come to your head. But consider that just the hydraulics for the Pirates of the Caribbean At World’s End final battle scene required one thousand gallons of oil per minute to run at speed, and you see the environmental impact that our entertainment choices have (see this video and this).

While this level of film production does not exist in many places across the world, the film industry in California competes with petroleum refining, clothing and apparel manufacturing, the hotel industry, aerospace, and semiconductors as one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, carbon, and air pollutants (data compiled by researchers at UCLA).

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Some of our favorite movies - including those boasting environmentally friendly themes and actors - seem to be more than innocent entertainment.

Let’s take a look at what can be done and what is already being done by some of the leaders in the industry. It’s far from a lost cause.

“We owe it to our children to make our industry the greenest in the world. It’s a huge challenge, but well within our grasp if we work towards it step by step.” - David Heyman, Producer of the Harry Potter films

It’s Not That Easy Being Green

But it’s also not impossible, in fact over the past 10 years many organizations have popped up specifically to provide or assist with these processes. For example, the movie GreenLit follows the attempt of Reel Green Media to help a film go green. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t free. But it’s a start.

Where exactly to start? From the generators to the caterers, Heyman mentioned working towards greening the industry step by step. Here are ideas about greening production throughout each link of the supply chain.

Transportation

On-location filming is among the most expensive and carbon-intensive stages of production. In addition to travel, temporary sets need to be built, lit, and powered. During shooting of The Dark Knight, 50 people flew out from the States to Hong Kong for a 15 minute sequence. 

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Might we suggest a little technological help with that one?

Rather than flying crews across the globe for some skyline shots, why not digitally reproduce them (exactly how you want, remember) with your graphics team? Green screens are green…especially when located inside new eco-friendly sets and studios. 

If flying is necessary,

  • Stick to commercial carriers and minimize the air traffic
  • Buy carbon off-sets
  • On ground, follow the example that Disney and NBC Universal set by using hybrid vehicles, bikes, and carpools when possible.

Energy

During shooting of Iron Man, Director Jon Favreau wanted to see Iron Man’s breath as he was help captive in a cold cave. So they froze the set.

Might we (again) suggest a little technological assistance with that one? I think they’re called your Special Effects Team.

Warner made up for this (slightly) by building its soundstage from recycled materials and using solar energy on set. 

Consumption of precious resources like gas on set is huge, by far the leading cause of the industry’s heavy eco-footprint.

  • Generators are required during almost every shot so production should consider finding solar generators or somehow reducing their use of gas.
  • Again, carbon offsetting is always an option.

Location

Most companies have their own studios that can be easily equipped with:

  • Eco-friendly technologies (LED lighting, solar panels, etc.)
  • Built with sustainable, reused, recyclable, and/or locally sourced materials 
  • Sets can be reused and shared among productions.

A service gaining popularity is set deconstruction and recycling where good pieces go to charity and raw materials are repurposed.

Materials

There are many ways to reduce consumption just by being smart about what small things are used and where they come from. For example,

  • Animal friendly and sustainably produced hair and make-up products
  • Recycled film and tape stock
  • Recycled office materials
  • Make use of digital distribution rather than prints and packaging
  • Recycled and organic cotton costuming
  • Second-use wardrobes and sets
  • After-production donations of sets, costuming, materials, etc.

Food

Focus Features has begun to recycle food waste and utensils, amounting to up to 5,000 tons of waste. They always swapped 15,000 plastic water bottles for refillable stainless steel ones. 

Reduce waste with:

  • Reusable dishware
  • Food donations
  • Buying local to be supportive and reduce shipping and packaging

This won’t solve everything, and many of these solutions would not do very much at all to solve the green issues of a high-intensity action movie like At World’s End, but it’s a start and as avid consumers of Hollywood products, we need to support and demand a general shift in this direction. 

Want to help? Reblog, retweet, email, and share this message with all of your movie-going friends and show your support to the following organizations:

Are you a filmmaker? We’d love to hear your thoughts on what you think the industry can and should do to help reduce the environmental film footprint! Contact me at vollzen@synopsi.tv

SynopsiTV’s Earth Day Special Credits

- Written by Christy, with graphics by Michaela from your SynopsiTV team

Money Can’t Buy Me Love - Part 2

We saw in the first installment of this blog that in the 1960’s huge money went into the set and the talent of the blockbuster Cleopatra. Do these heavy hitters still drive up movie production budgets today?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is criticized for being a three-hour long filler piece, made to tie together obscure plot threads. Most of the film is talk, although beautiful talk shot in places like Black Point Beach on St. Vincent and Capucine Point on Dominica. 

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Hard to reach coastlines like on Hawaii’s Molokai are part of the reason budget went up, as helicopters flew in and out hauling equipment, and cast and crew scaled volcanic rocks to get to their places.

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And where better to shoot the end of the world than at Niagara Falls? Producers used footage of the falls to create the base of the graphically altered edge of the world as experienced by the crew of the Black Pearl. 

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Despite Niagara Falls being a wonder of the world, here is where natural beauty reached it’s limit in POTC, and the unique blend of camera footage and CIG, expertly accomplished in this movie, began.

As for other locations, Singapore is central to the film but 18th century pirate-filled Singapore obviously doesn’t look like this.

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So production designers constructed buildings designed loosely on Chinese and Malaysian cities of the same period within a tank. The tank was filled with water and used to create a naturally humid atmosphere with specific lighting, complete with real fungi. 

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While Cleopatra was shot primarily in one location, cast and crew (minimum 400 people) of POTC regularly packed their bags to head abroad, contributing to another substantial part of the budget.

Big Fancy Boat(s)

They weren’t necessarily traveling by pirate ship though (usually renting out commercial airplanes), and in fact the Black Pearl didn’t often travel with them. For At World’s End, three different replicas of the Pearl were constructed for three separate locations.

Shooting for Davy Jones’ Locker brought them to the Salt Flats of Utah, where the crew built a replica of the front half of the Black Pearl on the back of a semi-trailer.

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The original Black Pearl was just a wooden front built upon a steel barge. This meant that it would float, but had to be towed into position for filming and constantly readjusted (for a great Behind the Scenes of The Curse of the Black Pearl click here). 

For the second and third movies, producers decided to make the Pearl a sea-worthy sailing vessel. So in Bayou La Batre, Alabama they built her around the hull of the ship HMS Sunset, manufacturing all the pieces to match the period.

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But Above All Else…

The incredible cost of At World’s End and the third Black Pearl (constructed for only one scene) can be summarized in one word. Maelstrom. 

Maelstrom: 1. A large, powerful, or violent whirlpool. 2. A restless, disordered, or tumultuous states of affairs.

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For two pirates ship lost in their final battle, what more fitting and dramatic than sticking them on opposing sides of a giant oceanic whirlpool, leading all parties involved to sure and imminent destruction? That’s what Director Gore Verbinski figured.

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Visual Artist and Production Designer Rick Heinrichs is quoted to say that “this is one of the most elaborate and ambitious action sequences I’ve ever seen conceived for a film.” 

Producers wanted a hyper-extended special-effect action climax, in old-Hollywood style. Verbinski said these types of movies don’t come along often anymore, since producing them became too expensive. But “with the advances in digital animation you have started to see these types of movies coming back,” and bring it back he did.

For interviews with Verbinski, Heinrichs, and more of the crew on the inspiration for and construction and creation of this incredible sequence, as well as mind-blowing numbers and trivia, watch this amazing behind the scenes feature. 

A combination and coordination of several departments – visual effects, stunt crews, special effects, etc. – shot with one of the biggest blue screens in film history in an air hanger in Palmdale, California to create an epic pirate battle on the open stormy seas. 

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Here they rebuilt a full-sized replica of the Black Pearl for the final time, as well as the enemy ship the Flying Dutchman. The ships were built deck-up and mounted on a massive hydraulic motion base, with the ability to lift either end of the ships up 15 feet, simulating the motion of the ocean. 

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The building process took three months, from building the ship decks, welding the towers, designing the computer operational system, and tuning the hydraulics. See a time-lapse of building the set here

The rain seen in the movie is real, not CGI (computer-generated imagery). Such a massive volume of water was falling that it could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 13 minutes. The water was then collected and pumped back up to fall again.

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Once built, a team of up to 100 stunt actors accompanied the character leads in filming an intricately choreographed battle (for more about their training see this clip and this). 

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Besides sword fighting at 30-degree angles, the cast had to wear wetsuits under their costumes; and crew suffered in freezing conditions throughout the whole shoot because the set was kept cold to prevent bacteria growth in the recycled rainwater. 

That was just the physical set.

As mentioned before, the Maelstrom was shot with the biggest blue screens in film history. A lot of the scene was CGI. A lot of the characters were too. Check out this comparison shot of pre- vs. post-production to get an idea of the role of CGI

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Many in the industry cite visual effect prices as the source of increased production costs. It is true that the visual effect budget for movies like At World’s End can be close to half of the total budget (i.e. reaching $250 million).

But when you see the depth of Verbinski’s involvement in each and every sequence (really, watch this feature!), you see what visual effects can contribute to realizing a director’s vision.

The visual effect teams are involved with everybody from stunt directors to cinematographers to costume designers to understand and make the difficult or impossible possible. In order to create outstanding visual effects as they did in At World’s End, each shot needs specific references and Verbinski allowed for the appropriate time, budget, and preparation for smooth combinations of footage and effect.

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Prices run high because of the often very short and hurried time-spans crews are given to finish a piece. At World’s End visual effect team finished their work in 5 months, compared to the 2 year span that shooting took place.

The work itself is incredibly precise and detail-oriented and good artists have a competitive salary, while studios often minimize their profits to compete with outsourced workers.

It boils down to the fact that it is cheaper to create a Maelstrom in post-production than it is to build two pirate ships and drag them out into the ocean during a storm. Not to mention safer.

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For more information about the value and cost of visual effects have a look at this nice blog.

If VFX took the 1st half of the budget, Johnny Depp took the 2nd.

OK, not really. But dear Captain Jack did walk away with $75 million in just one year of shooting the POTC series. He is the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

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We have to be grateful that a chuck of change was reserved for cushy salaries, because it ensured that the talent stuck around.

But, Johnny Depp bought new water proof jackets for 500 crew members on the set to protect them from the cold weather. He spent a total of $64,200 from his own pocket, so whatever.

Fun fact, Johnny Depp’s pirate sash was made specifically for him by a hill tribe in Turkey. Wonder what that cost?

I can’t emphasize how massive this undertaking was. If you haven’t yet, check the video. Verbinski says, “take a moment to enjoy the fact that we will never make a film this big, ever again, in your life. It’s the end of an era my friend.”

Why would it be the end of an era? Could 300 million dollar films not be sustainable?

Stay tuned, we will take a look at the environmental cost of big production films. The question remains, is it worth it?

-Christy from your SynopsiTV team

Money Can’t Buy Me Love

Movie budgets can be extraordinary. What in movie production could possibly cost 300 million dollars? I took a look at two of the highest budget movies, one from the 60’s, one more recent, to see what happened.

How many of you loved the Pirates of the Caribbean? What about the sequel, Dead Man’s Chest?

But how many of you can say that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End makes it on your Top 10 list, hell, your Top 50 list? Did you even watch it?

In 1963 the movie Cleopatra cost $44 million to produce. Considering inflation, that amounts to $300 million today. Pirate’s At World’s End also boasted a $300 million budget. Cleopatra, at least, is considered a movie that changed Hollywood.

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What does it take for a movie to rack up $300 million, and is it worth it?

Check out this two part blog for production information on these two movies and find out what makes movies so expensive.

Part 1 - Cleopatra

Cleopatra’s Pre-Production Difficulties

Cleopatra faced many unforeseen issues, causing production to go over budget more than once. Not by a little, the original budget for the film was $2 million.

The final budget was up to $44 million, totaling over $300 million today. It almost bankrupt 20th Century Fox.

Some of this was due to the prolonged illness of Elizabeth Taylor, the leading lady, who suffered from a bout of pneumonia and had to have a tracheotomy after shooting had begun. Scars on her neck from the surgery can be seen in the film.

Some shots had been completed, but because she was in almost every scene production had to stop until she recovered.

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Originally, Cleopatra was to be shot in England, but the months of delay and inactivity eventually closed production down. Taylor would be unable to work in England’s weather for several additional months, so they disassembled the entire set and moved to Rome.

Production Designer John DeCuir (Hello Dolly!, Ghostbusters) had to rebuild the massive set of Alexandria three times. First in Hollywood, then re-directed to England, and finally to Rome.

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That was no small, nor cheap task in the days before blue-screen. Just take a look at that massive construction.

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The delay caused by Taylor resulted in other significant changes. Leading actor Peter Finch (A Town Like Alice, Network, Sunday Bloody Sunday) withdrew during the delay, leaving the role of Julius Caesar to Rex Harrison

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Stephen Boyd (Ben Hur, The Man Who Never Was) resigned due to a scheduling conflict. Boyd was signed to star in The Fall of the Roman Empire, fatefully opening the role of Marc Antony to Richard Burton

His participation in Cleopatra resulted in the beginning of Taylor and Burton’s famous and turbulent love affair.

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The move to England brought the budget from it’s original $2 million to $6. The addition of Harrison and Burton brought the budget to $15, already earning it the title of most expensive film in Hollywood history, followed by the move to Rome landing production at around $21 million.

Director Rouben Mamoulian also resigned when production was so delayed, and when replacement director Joseph L. Mankiewicz joined in January 1961 in England, he found himself in charge of a production already $5 million over budget.

So along with the $5 million debt there was also no useable footage. All scenes had to be re-shot with the new actors, on the new sets, in the new location (and without Burton’s then wife, Sybil Williams, who fled the set once Burton and Taylor’s affair began).

20th Century Fox stopped almost all other productions, putting their fate into a film with an unusable script and no start date.

Good way to start.

Spendin’ All Your Money On Me

Elizabeth Taylor today is as much remembered as a “shiny” and “sparkling” goddess of old Hollywood, as for her love affair not with men but with jewelry. Could this be a result of the pampering she received for film Cleopatra?

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The costume budget for Cleopatra was the largest budget for costuming in Hollywood history, put together by designers Renié, Irene Sharaff, and Vittorio Nino Novaresse. For an incredibly inclusive photo collection, see this costuming blogspot. Most famously, Taylor sported a dress made from 24-carat gold cloth.

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Their work won them the Oscar for Best Costuming.

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Taylor cost the company more than time and gold however, becoming the first actress in history to strike a million dollar contract. Her contract stipulated that for the first 16 weeks of work she be paid $125,000, plus $50,000 per following week, plus 10% of the gross earnings.

By the time the actress recovered from her illness in England, she had already earned over $2 million. It wasn’t until 1966 that 20th Century Fox and Taylor settled on a $7 million salary. 

If You Touch It I’ma Start Some Drama

My favorite tidbit about budget costs for Cleopatra though, is the fact that Taylor’s extras actually went on strike to demand bodyguards. Apparently the other (Italian) (male) extras were getting a bit too handsy with Cleopatra’s servant girls.

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Another good visual is something that happened while filming Cleopatra’s exultant entrance into Rome, one of the most extensive scenes in the whole movie (check it out on YouTube). 

Thousands of extras were called to work all day in the hot Italian sun, and in good tradition one of them was caught on camera peddling gelato to others. It ruined the shot, obviously, and everything had to be rolled back to start again.

I suppose this cost is one of the reasons digital editing has become so valuable. 

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The shooting of Cleopatra’s entrance and the parade that precedes it were shot months apart. They wanted the light to hit her directly. See how the light changes in different shots.

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This was a shame for the first boy casted as Cleopatra’s son, because due to the delay he became too tall to play the role and was re-casted. 

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Now Consider the Pirates

Like Cleopatra, At World’s End started filming before the script was finalized. In fact Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski started shooting this alongside of the Pirates sequel, Dead Man’s Chest. Quite a challenge. Despite shooting two movies at once, Dead Man’s Chest still racked up a huge price tag.

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But unlike Cleopatra, At World’s End and the rest of the Pirates franchise did not suffer from the outdated ills of unruly Italians (only unruly Captains).

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It did suffer from bad reviews. While this movie did take in over three times it’s $300 million budget at the box-office (just like Spider-Man 3 with an equally extravagant $260 million budget), it ranked just third of the four in the series in both total gross and critical review.

So what makes a movie like this so expensive? How does 21st century film making compare to 20th century?

Find out next week!

Why Facebook’s New Timeline Isn’t All That

SynopsiTV has received a few comments from our users regarding the latest update for your Facebook Timeline, concerned that their new movie share feature will render us obsolete.

True? No way.

While it will soon be possible for you to make lists directly on Facebook, SynopsiTV is about way more than that.

Nowhere else do you find a service analyzing your specific viewing habits and trends to produce unique personalized recommendations.

SynopsiTV is at it’s root, after all, a recommendation generator. The social aspects, TV show tracking, and playlist building are bonus features.

Listing Movies

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What you will be able to do on Facebook is not actually novel. They’re just categorizing your Likes. You can file movies into Like, Watched, and Watch Later.

One user even asked if Facebook stole the idea from us, which is a lovely sentiment (thanks Dad!) and goes to show that we are on the right track.

Sharing Movies

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First of all, SynopsiTV users can already share what they watch on Facebook.

What is new is the integration with Netflix in the U.S. Sharing what you watch in realtime is something Netflix has been pushing a long time. The integration was previously illegal in the U.S. due to the Video Protection Privacy Act (VPPA), prohibiting sharing of an individual’s video rental history without approval or a police warrant. 

This Act was (one of the only things) recently reviewed and updated by the U.S. Congress in order to allow this Facebook integration.

International users of Netflix were not previously banned from this activity.

Netflix Recommendations

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What this means for Netflix users is that their Netflix recommendations will now be built upon what their Facebook friends watch. For us, this is not an improvement.

The movies recommended to you by SynopsiTV are not reflective of your 100+ frat boy friends on Facebook, your great Aunt Merthel, little sister, or even your best friend. Because we strongly support and want to cultivate your individual’s taste. We don’t group you with the herd.

So that’s that. We love the new design and layout of the updated Facebook Timeline, and it is always lovely to organize things, but does it matter much for us? No, not really.

Good New Shows - Winter 2013

Have you seen any of these new shoes? There’s a bunch of new crap out but also some good picks. Here are a few, let us know what you think.  Click to watch their trailers and start tracking ones you might want to watch.

The Americans

The title should be in quotation marks. Story focuses on KGB officers living as Americans in Washington DC during the Cold War. After airing only 5 episodes, FX already bought a second season, and this one I actually started watching. Premiered Jan. 30.

The Carrie Diaries

I had my reservations when hearing that this would be a Sex and the City prequel series, but AnnaSophia Robb captures the Carrie essence and the writers do a great job of staying true to the original series. Premiered Jan. 14.

The Following

If you’re into serial killers and their copycats, this one is for you.  Vivid imagery and inventive disgust. Premiered Jan. 21.

House of Cards

Innovative, and not only because it is was produced by Netflix and is only available online. Kevin Spacey is a cunning Southern congressmen set to seize power in Washington, DC. Released Feb. 1. 

King of the Nerds

I just want you to watch this trailer. Yes, this is real. Premiered Jan. 17.

Legit

Maybe comedies are the funniest when they’re about comedians? Premiered Jan. 17.

Ripper Street

Detectives are on the case of Jack the Ripper in Victorian London. Second season is already ordered. Premiered Jan. 19

The Taste

Anthony Bourdain officially isn’t cooking anymore, with another eating show from Jan. 22. New cooking competition with a combination of amateurs and professional chefs.

Enjoy!

and the Oscar goes to…

Best Picture

Argo - Produced by Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney

Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis - in Lincoln

Actress in a Leading Role

Jennifer Lawrence - in Silver Linings Playbook

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz - in Django Unchained

Actress in a Supporting Role

Anne Hathaway - in Les Miserables

Animated Feature Film

Brave - Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman

Cinematography

Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda

Costume Design

Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran

Directing

Life of Pi - Ang Lee

Documentary Feature

Searching for Sugar Man - Malik Bendjeloul and Simon Chinn

Documentary Short

Inocente - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

Film Editing

amourArgo - William Goldenberg

Foreign Language Film

Amour - from Austria

Makeup and Hairstyling

Les Miserables - Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Music - Original Score

Life of Pi - Mychael Danna

Music - Original Song

Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth - “Skyfall” from Skyfall

Production Design

Lincoln - Rick Carter and Jim Erickson

Short Film - Animated

Paperman - John Kahrs

Short Film - Live Action

Curfew - Shawn Christensen

Sound Editing

Skyfall - Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers

Sound Mixing 

Les Miserables - Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Simon Hayes

Visual Effects

Life of Pi

Writing - Adapted Screenplay

Argo - Chris Terrio

Writing - Original Screenplay

Django Unchained - by Quentin Tarantino

Subscribe to our Oscar Winner Playlist here!

and for some fun…

We love her. Jennifer Lawrence’s interview after winning the Oscar for Best Actress.

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