EZCNN 易英网

Cinema FIX: Amused by Illusion 电影特效：寓乐于幻

 

课文朗读

 

课文讲解

 

繁體中文譯本

 

At the climax of The Return of the King (2003), moviegoers witness the armies of men battling legions of scaly-faced orcs as the Black Tower collapses in the background. What allowed director Peter Jackson to realize such strikingly convincing and complex visual phantasmagoria?

在「王者再临」(2003)的高潮戏中，观众目睹的场景：前景是人类军队和满脸鳞甲、多如潮水的半兽人部队打战，背景则是邪黑塔整个崩倒。导演彼德杰克逊用了什么魔法才得以实现这样逼真而又复杂的视觉奇观？

 

To answer this question, our story begins in Paris on December 28, 1895, when the Lumiere brothers publicly unveiled the motion picture projector. For those audiences, moving pictures themselves were special effects. Film historians love to recount the screams of audience members convinced that the flickering image of an approaching train would crush them.

要回答这个问题，首先要追溯到1895年12月28日，当时卢米埃兄弟向大众公开了电影放映机。对那些观众来说，电复印件身就是特效。电影历史学家很喜欢叙述，当时的观众看到忽隐忽现的火车影像朝他们驶来，深怕会被辗毙而惊声尖叫。

 

Soon after, a Parisian magician named George Melies accidentally discovered that by stopping the camera, moving objects in the frame, and then restarting the camera, impossible movement could be depicted. This stop-motion photographic technique and a host of other cinematic “tricks” came together in his whimsical landmark, A Voyage to the Move (1902), legendary for its sequence showing a rocket flying into the eye of the Man-on-the-moon.

不久，一位叫乔治梅里叶的巴黎魔术师无意间发现，藉由关掉摄影机，在镜头中移动物体，再开机摄影，可以展现令人匪夷所思的动作。这种单元格摄影技术还有许多其他电影「撇步」融合运用在他异想天开的代表作「月球之旅」，其中有艘火箭飞向人面月球【注】眼中的片段最为人所称道。

 

If Melies wrote the book on special effects, his was a rough draft compared to 1933’s King Kong. By compositing stop-motion photography of a model ape with separately filmed footage of the screaming beauty Faye Wray, Hollywood scaled the Empire State Building!

如果说梅里叶是电影特效的创始者，他的片子和1933年的电影「金刚」相比较就像是小巫见大巫。藉由合成单元格摄影拍下的模型猩猩和另外拍摄的尖叫美女菲芮，好莱坞的技术让金刚爬上了帝国大厦。

 

【注】：根据一项欧洲传说，在月圆时，月球表面可看到人脸的影子。

 

Vocabulary

单词发音

 

legion [ˋlidʒən] n. 众多，大量[（+of）]

scaly [ˋskelɪ] adj. 有鳞的

orc [ɔrk] n. 海怪；妖魔

phantasmagoria [͵fæntæzməˋgɔrɪə] n.【文】如梦般变幻无常的情景﹐ 梦幻景象

projector [prəˋdʒɛktɚ] n. 电影放映机; 投影仪

recount [ˋri͵kaʊnt] v. 叙述，讲述

flickering 闪烁的, 一闪一闪的

photographic [͵fotəˋgræfɪk] adj. 摄影（术）的

whimsical [ˋhwɪmzɪk!] adj. 古怪的; 异想天开的

voyage [ˋvɔɪɪdʒ] n. 航行

legendary [ˋlɛdʒənd͵ɛrɪ] adj. 非常有名的﹐大名鼎鼎的﹐传奇式的

sequence [ˋsikwəns] n.（电影中描述同一主题的）连续镜头

rough draft  初稿  a preliminary version of an essay, letter, book, or speech

composite [kəmˋpɑzɪt] v. 合成; 混合  make a composite of

 

 

Sentence of the Day

Melies was a past master of illusion long before the invention of the motion picture camera.

梅里叶早在电影摄影机发明之前，就是资深的幻觉大师。

 

past master  对某种技艺有丰富经验者

 

 

 

课文讲解

 

Special effects truly came of age with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – a film that attempted nothing less than to show the past and future of humanity. Using motion control photography, a technique in which a camera shoots high-precision close-range tracking shots of miniature models to create the illusion of enormity, Kubrick introduced moviegoers to highly realistic images of spacecraft.

特效在史丹利库柏力克导演的「2001：太空漫游」──一部简直是在叙述人类的过去和未来的电影──达到了成熟的阶段。库柏力克使用一种称为动态控制摄影的技术，摄影机以高准度、近距离在缩小模型边移动拍摄以制造浩瀚无边的幻觉，藉此让观众欣赏到极为逼真的宇宙飞船影像。

 

George Lucas’s stunning Star Wars (1977) raised the special effects benchmark another notch. Lucas and his ILM Studios changed filmmaking by employing a panoply of special effects techniques, including incredible makeup effects, fabulous puppetry and props, along with bluescreen filming. Bluescreen photography involves filming subjects in front of specially colored backgrounds, which allows subjects to be superimposed onto other backgrounds with spectacular results.

乔治卢卡斯石破天惊的「星际大战」(1977)把特效的水平又拉到另一个高峰。卢卡斯和他的ILM片厂使用各式各样的特效技术，包括维妙维肖的化妆特效，神乎其技的傀偶制作和道具操控，还有蓝幕摄影，因而改变了电影制作。蓝幕摄影是在特定色彩的背景前拍摄主体，再把所拍的主体重迭到其他的背景，创造出惊人的效果。

 

The latest revolution in special effects, computer-generated imagery (CGI), also came from ILM Studios. Following 1993’s Jurassic Park, the nearly limitless possibilities of CGI have redefined the limits of special effects.

最新的特效革命「电脑动画影像」(CGI)，也是由ILM片厂研发出来的。自从1993年的「侏罗纪公园」上演后，几乎没有什么影像创造不出来的CGI从此让特效可以尽情地天马行空了。

 

Returning to our original question, Peter Jackson’s awe-inspiring special effects are clearly the synthesis of a century of cinematic development. To realize J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy, Jackson liberally combined bluescreen photography, makeup effects, and motion control filmed models, all of which he composited digitally, then lavishly overlaid with CGI.

回到我们之前的问题，彼德杰克逊让人瞠目结舌的特效显然是集一世纪以来电影发展之大成。为了具体呈现托尔金的奇幻史诗，杰克逊以电脑合成的方式广泛地结合蓝幕摄影、化妆特效、和动态控制摄影拍摄的模型，然后再大量地以电脑动画影像迭合润饰。

 

Vocabulary

单词发音

 

come of age  成熟；发达  to reach maturity

nothing less than  无异于, 完全是

high-precision [ˋhaɪprɪˋsɪʒən] adj. 高度精确的

enormity [ɪˋnɔrmətɪ] n.【口】巨大，深远

benchmark [ˋbɛntʃ͵mɑrk] n. 水平点；基准

notch [nɑtʃ] n. 等级﹐水平

panoply [ˋpænəplɪ] n. （尤指令人印象深刻的）一整套，全套[（+of）]

puppetry [ˋpʌpɪtrɪ] n. 木偶戏；木偶制作

prop [prɑp] n.【口】道具（= property）

superimpose [͵supərɪmˋpoz] v. 使〔图画﹑图像﹑照片〕重迭﹐使迭加

redefine [͵ridɪˋfaɪn] v. 重新定义

awe-inspiring [ˋɔɪn͵spaɪərɪŋ] adj. 令人起敬畏心的；令人惊叹的

clearly [ˋklɪrlɪ] adv. 显然地，无疑地

synthesis [ˋsɪnθəsɪs] n. 合成

fantasy [ˋfæntəsɪ] n. 幻想﹐想象

liberally [ˋlɪbərəlɪ] adv. 大量地；充足地

composite [kəmˋpɑzɪt] v. 合成 to make a composite of

 

 

Sentence of the Day

Special effects keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

特殊挑逗观众的视觉，让他们看得目不转睛。

 

on the edge of one’s seats  被影片情节紧紧抓住; 引人入胜

 

 

 

课文讲解

 

Stephanie and her boyfriend Huge have just watched the director’s commentary on the extended edition DVD of The Two Towers:  史达夫妮和她的男朋友修刚看了「双城奇谋」加长版DVD的导演解说：

 

H: Man, I just can’t believe the work that went into those special effects! All those soldiers fighting in the background at Helm’s Deep weren’t extras, but a CGI artificial intelligence program.

哇，真难相信那些特效花了这么多心血！那些参加圣盔谷之役的士兵可不是临时演员，而是电脑动画影像用人工智能程序创造出来的。

 

S: Jackson’s digital effects were amazing, but how about those makeup effects? The layers of latex and paint on those slimy, scaly orcs are really convincing!

杰克森的电脑特效真是太神奇了，但化妆特效岂不也是巧夺天工？一层层的乳胶和油彩涂在黏答答、满布鳞甲的半兽人脸上真是栩栩如生。

 

H: And then there’s Gollum. His facial expressions and movements were modeled on a live actor, but his final appearance is completely digital product.

还有咕鲁。他的脸部表情和动作是根据一位真人演员来塑造模型的，但最后的外貌却是完全电脑化的成果。

 

S: Right. But to get his skin tone just so, the CGI team brought in a makeup artist to digitally “paint” the right look. Talk about blurring the line between makeup effects and CGI graphics.

没错。但为了让他的肤质自然逼真，CGI小组引进一位化妆师以电脑化的方式画出符合要求的外表。这真是模糊了化妆特效和CGI影像的界线。

 

H: It’s fitting, I guess, that Jackson is revisiting a classic special effects milestone – his current project is a remake of King Kong.

杰克逊正要重新诠释一部特效经典作品──他现在的案子是重拍「金刚」──我想这时拍真是最适合不过了。

 

S: I wonder if that’ll mean a whole slew of updated Hollywood monster movies. Jackson sure set the tone for this summer’s releases: We’ve got swords-and-sorcery in King Arthur and swords-and-sandals in Troy.

我不知道好莱坞是否会重新推出一窝蜂的怪兽电影。杰克逊的确影响了今年暑假电影的走向──我们看到了有斗剑和魔法的「阿瑟王」，以及有斗剑和凉鞋的「特洛伊：木马屠城」。

 

H: Maybe, maybe. But Jackson’s based in Wellington, New Zealand, not L.A., so he’s really a Wellywood director.

或许吧。但杰克逊主要在纽西兰的威灵顿工作，而不是在洛杉矶，所以他其实是一位「威莱坞」导演。

 

－by Iain Ferguson

 

Vocabulary

单词发音

 

commentary [ˋkɑmən͵tɛrɪ] n. 评论

extra [ˋɛkstrə] n. 临时演员

artificial [͵ɑrtəˋfɪʃəl] adj. 人工的，人造的

intelligence [ɪnˋtɛlədʒəns] n. 智能；智慧

latex [ˋletɛks] n. 胶乳; 〔尤指橡胶树的〕橡浆

slimy [ˋslaɪmɪ] adj. 黏糊糊的

just so  完全一样[同样]地

talk about [口](表示惊奇, 厌恶等情感语气) 简直太...了! 这就是所谓...!  used informally and often ironically to add emphasis to a statement

blur [blɝ] v.（使）模糊

remake [rɪˋmek] v. 重新摄制; 重新录制

slew [slu] n.【美】【口】许多

set the tone for  定下…的基调

sorcery [ˋsɔrsərɪ] n. 魔法﹐ 妖术

 

 

Sentence of the Day

Jackson took some artistic license in adapting Tolkien’s novels into a movie trilogy.

杰克逊把托尔金的小说改编成电影三部曲时，运用丰沛的艺术资源，以自己的风格诠译书中的情节。

 

 

 

A Voyage to the Moon (1902)

 

King Kong (1933)

 

Kong climbs The Empire State Building (1933)

 

A Space Odyssey Trailer (2001)

 

 

 

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Trailer