Thursday, April 15, 2021

Not Sitting There Pushing Computer Keys --- Days 9/349 & 350

Walk: 1. Hood  2. Hood

Distance: 1. 3 miles, yoga  2. 2.5 miles,  yoga

Viola Davis

Viola Davis as Ma Rainey

So, yesterday Ciwt learned somethings about Special Effects Oscars.  Those are the ones that have their own awards ceremony with the winners names announced at the Academy Awards.  

Probably like many people Ciwt vaguely assumed the competition in all the technical categories - eg, sound design, visual effects, hair simulation, miniature microphones, and more - was among technical wizards sitting alone at their computers.  Geeks not artists.  

No, even the most tech sounding innovations involve maybe 80% or more artistry.  For instance if mouth movement must be altered or added to the film version of a character (animated or live) the 'technician' must visualize and reposition at least the entire head, chin, shoulder area because they all change with the mouth.  And this must be done word for word, for many exacting hours.

Even the categories Ciwt thought she understood are much more artistically complex than she assumed. For example, see that wavy 20's style wig Viola Davis is wearing above in Ma Raineys Black Bottom? It is made from horsehair - French horsehair - because wigs in that era were.  And wigs in this era aren't - many are synthetic if not human hair.  So the wig designer had to locate the hair from French suppliers, then wash and comb the dust, tangles and, yes, manure out of it before hand-creating the wig single strand by single strand.  That took 80 hours and was just a small part of turning the delicately beautiful Ms. Davis into the 300+ pound, raunchy, sweaty Ma Rainey.   Maybe the artists involved in all the parts of that transformation would have welcomed a computer where they could just push buttons.  

No, the ones Ciwt saw and heard are true artists - taking enormous pride in their painstakingly artful solutions and accomplishments

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