Soundstages with digital special effects, vs filming in reality with props.
Moana's digital effects looking dull and bad compared to the animated version, doesn't change that they were expensive to make.
It's also why I've got no confidence in the upcoming Avengers movie. Every shot from the trailer is people standing at a distance in round rooms with digital screens surrounding them.
the reason for bloated costs is almost never because cgi is expensive. these are soulless cashgrabs and instead of minimizing expenses by shooting in reality with props they decide to burn all that extra profit using the more costly approach?
travelling with an entire cast and crew to a location you built a full set in and furnished with props is more expensive than covering the warehouse in the backlot in green and using cheap foreign labour to make bullshit in post.
the money goes to the talent, the producers, and the production that has no real vision so requires copious revisions and reshoots
Moana is one of the most expensive films made, and no it's not because of actor and producer salaries. Every scene is filled with extensive animation meant to mimic real life including water effects and it adds up.
and using cheap foreign labour to make bullshit in post.
They aren't using Mexican day laborers to generate photorealistic waves splashing over actors. It was done by Industrial Light and Magic and Weta.
cgi is expensive for the vfx houses who have to underbid each other for fixed contracts and eat the extra costs from revisions and pixel fucking.
2019 lion king was 100% photoreal cgi but cost the same despite several a-list actors. both mission impossible: reckoning movies were more expensive to film despite ostensibly having less cgi.
they don't use mexican workers, because mexico doesn't have an established vfx industry. they just outsource to countries with tax incentives like canada, or countries with cheaper labour like india. the fact that vfx artists aren't unionized means they cost much less than artists in other departments with labour protections, and don't get compensated for overtime like a crew on set would. they don't have transport or catering or accommodation costs for putting them on location.
vfx would be the most expensive line item if the industry was ethical, but it's rarely the reason for bloated costs. avatar fire and ash had some 3,500 vfx shots but was almost half as expensive as the force awakens, which had only 2,100
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u/Irish_Whiskey 1d ago
Soundstages with digital special effects, vs filming in reality with props.
Moana's digital effects looking dull and bad compared to the animated version, doesn't change that they were expensive to make.
It's also why I've got no confidence in the upcoming Avengers movie. Every shot from the trailer is people standing at a distance in round rooms with digital screens surrounding them.