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2nd Term Paper: Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Stunts are a large part of action movies, yet in the course of creating visually impressive scenes directors usually get caught up in a tangled web of wires, computer graphics and physically impossible or incorrect stunts, of which turn into cinematic fiction. Jumps are an amazing tool that can be used to create suspense and show character, yet they are often skewed and exaggerated for that same reason. Based on the physics of a jump; action and reaction, jump push time and height, and path of action the movies: Bolt, Fearless, and Kill Bill Vol.1 bend these principals to do many stunts of which can only be explained as cinematic fiction, yet these examples can be easily fixed with some application of basic physics. Sometimes the drama created by a long slow motion jump can allow for the breaking of the rules of physics.

In the movie Bolt, a Disney Animation film, we are met with a problem in jump magnification and path of action. In the First scene of Bolt the main character bolt, a super charged dog, is being chased around the city at high speed by a group of technologically advanced henchmen bent on his capture and or destruction. In this scene, Bolts path is blocked by a helicopter hovering in a large cement crevice constructed near a harbor, and in order for bolt to get past and destroy the helicopter, he must take a leap of faith over the hovering, Black Hawk like, machine and gracefully land on the other side on the cement crevice, in doing so; bolt takes advantage of the heat seeking missile that was once trailing him destroying the helicopter in a single leap. Unfortunately, in the act of creating a compelling and visually stunning scene, the directors bend the laws of physics in order to get the character over to the other side. One of the ways they break the physics of a jump is in the jump magnification of the initial take off, according to the footage bolt approaches the jump yet only takes a 1 to 2 inch dip before he leaps 12 to 13 feet in the air. According to the principal of jump action reaction dealing with jump magnification and push force, bolts push time is short about 2 frames and push height being around 2 inches there is no way that he can leap as high as he actually does. In order for bolt to leap as high as he does he should have a push time of at least 2 frames making his push factor 9 and making his push height about one foot. This must be done, in order to get him at least 9 feet in the air and even then his path of action would have to be at the right angle to get him over the helicopter. Yet even with the incorrect action and reaction, bolts path of action is incorrect due to editing and need for a longer more dramatic jump sequence. In this jump Bolt leaps at an angle of about 80 degrees and lands at an angle of about the same angle, yet it is in the center of the arch that we have a problem. In between cutting between angle we get an up shot at Blot Leaping about 2 feet above the cockpit of the chopper which then flattens out his arch making his decent earlier and shorten then the one in the scene. In order to correct this parabolic arch Bolt take off angle should be earlier and at about 45 degrees in order for him to get the maximum airtime for him to leap over the chopper and onto the other plat form. Jumps in a straight line can be often skewed in action movie, yet in kung fu style action movies they can take forms in almost magical ways.

Jet Li is an amazing kung fu action movie star, and in the movie Fearless he is just that an amazing kung fu artist bent on being the best fighter in world. Throughout his journey he encounters many opponents on of which is a man who was once his childhood adversary, a bully who would terrorize him and mock his father’s fighting style. In this scene the two fight to settle the dispute of which fighting style is best, which in tales the two fighting atop a humongous tower constructed in the middle of the city. During the battle, many exiting acrobatic stunts are put n on display, yet one stood out above all. Just as the fight begins to turn; Jet Li in stuck on the edge of the pedestal, many stories above the city, coming closer and closer to descending to the city floor. Jet Li is then attacked with a sweep to his leg, but at the last moment Jet Li Jumps in the air with a crescent style jump, fanning his legs into the air off of the edge of the pedestal and swinging him back into the center of the fighting stage. It is here that we are met with cinematic fiction; in no way can this jump be physically possible, first of all his weight in completely off of the pedestal when the kick is attempted, yet he finds a way to erect in time to push off for less than a second propelling him about six feet in the air and fanning his legs in such a way that changes his path of action from landing back on to the edge of the pedestal to magically propelling him back into the center of the pedestal. With little to no push time the push factor of the jump could not be combined with the push height of fractions of an inch to create such a spectacular jump. In order for this jump he would have to have a push time of about 2 and a half frames and a push height of about on foot to get him as high as he got in the scene. Even then he would have to correct his path of action by flipping over his adversary in order to get out of the way of danger. Yet without this stunt his character would be lacking in depth, for his strength and power would not be displayed in his defeat of his long time enemy. Many Movies borrow from the style on wire fu which is a form of kung fu movies where wires are used in access in order to give magical superiority of a character, yet this can be used in excess to the point of being unbelievable.

Quinton Tarantino is a huge fan of classic kung fu movies and being a director there is no doubt that he would barrow from these movies to make one of his wonderful films. In Kill Bill Vol.1 Tarantino makes use of many fight scenes, the most recognizable the massive fight scene where the main character named Beatrix Kiddo battles dozens of bad guys, ending in the biggest gory massacre allowed on a rater R picture. In this scene she has to also take on the gang leader, the stronger and most formidable opponent in the gang, in order to show this Tarantino makes use of wires and other elements to show his superiority over the other lackeys. In doing so he breaks the laws of physics in a section of the fight scene where Beatrix climbs onto a catwalk where she awaits her next opponent, this is when the gang leader somehow takes a step on a box and is then suddenly propelled 24 feet into the directly onto the catwalk. Without any form of push time or push height, there is no physical believability to this stunt. One a way to correct it is in the same manner as the other jumps discussed in order to get at anywhere near 24 feet I the air he would have to have a push time of about 2 and a half frames and about a 3 foot push off height, only then could he even get close to landing upon the catwalk. Even after the take off, his path of action is such that he would have slammed directly into the railing before reaching the top of his arch. To correct this he should take off at an angle of about 80 to 85 degrees and an incredible jump magnification, just to get over the railing. Yet in the movie world the ability to display character through action is a powerful tool in storytelling.

In all three of these movies the rules of a jump are greatly distorted, yet with some simple tweaking we can make these jumps physically possible, yet we would lose the drama and amount of character revealed by the single jump. Without the bending of these rules we would lack the storytelling tool provided by the physically wrong jump and lack the amount of texture in the pacing to the story, so why correct them.

Science fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Intro

• Thesis: Based on the action reaction concept along with jump magnification and path of action, mainly principals dealing with jumps these three movies break these principals in many ways.
• Introduce movies: Kill Bill Vol.1, Fearless, and Bolt

Bolt

• Introduce Scene:
  
• Bolt Jumps over a hovering helicopter
  

• Explain Broken Principals: Jump Magnification, and Path of action
• When Bolt approaches the jump he merely crouches down about 2 inches before his leap, yet manages to traverse the hovering chopper.
• Bolts path of action seems to jump during the cut making him leap futhere then his original path
  

• Explain how these conflicts can be resolved:
• having his pause before the jump a little longer
• and following through the path during the cut
  

Fearless

• Introduce scene:
• fight scene on a towering platform in the middle of the city.
  

• Explain Broken Principals: Path of Action,and Action Reaction
• During fight the protagonist leaps from the edge of the tower fanning his legs out and and returning back to the platform in a crescent path parallel to the floor.
• his original jump does not hook up with the reaction to the rest of the stunt

• Explain how the conflicts can be resolved:
• By tracking his path of action and changing the jump completely
  

Kill Bill Vol. 1

• Introduce Scene: Large fight scene gang boss chases the protagonist onto high catwalk.
  

• Explain broken Principals: Jump magnification, path of action, and action /reaction
• The Boss runs up the wall in a matter that's physically impossible with no preparation for the leap
  
• his path of action is severely flawed
• the action of his foot grazing the wall does not match his reaction propelling him on to the catwalk
  

• Explain how these conflicts can be resolved:
• he needs a push factor in order to leap as high as he does
• his path of action should require more pedestals for him to reach the top

Conclusion

• restate thesis
• digress
  

Rubber Romper

sorry for some technical difficulties but here it is in all its glory





this was done with kneaded eraser and a little bit of planning but tons of fun

Whachu Know Bout: "Reverse Video Reference of Walking."

Physics of Hot Rod

The movie Hot Rod is an action packed comedy full of high flying stunts, falls and fall off your seat comedy that only a select few have had a chance to fall in love with. Hot Rod is a movie about a guy, named Rod played by Andy Sandburg, and his quest to gain the respect of his father. The only way he can achieve this is by doing stunts in order to show his father that he is a true man, that can stare death in the face, yet he is thwarted by the judgmental attitude of his stepfather. Eventually, Rod is presented with the opportunity to prove this to his stepfather by doing one big stunt, jumping 11 busses, so that he can raise money to pay for his heart surgery.

Because this movie is full of stunts, I have the opportunity to study some of the physics of the CG action scenes where wire tricks and green screens are used to mimic the laws of physics, yet are flawed by the need for story and comedy. First, we have a training scene in which Rod takes up street luge, in order to train himself to withstand g-forces. In this scene he impacts a trailer home at a seemingly high rate of speed, yet in doing so there are a few flaws in the physics, which can only be explained by the use of real stuntmen and the directors need to keep them alive. Another scene in which the physics are flawed: is a scene in which Rod in hit with a Van at a high speed, this is done in a very starling, yet physically impossible manner. And finally, the Big Jump in this scene the director uses a CG bike and wires to portray Rod flying through the air, over 11 school buses, only to fail and wipe out in front of the entire viewing audience, in doing so; the laws of physics are broken for the sake of story telling.

In the street luge scene, Rod lays flat on his back on a modified skateboard, and is then pushed down a hill with a very steep grade of road and at the bottom of the hill is a trailer home, in which he impacts; damaging it and himself in the process. At the beginning of the stunt, Rod is pushed down the hill by two of his friends. Mid-stunt we get a down shot of Rod traveling at about 22 inches per or 25 to 30 miles per hour, as indicated by the length of his head inside the helmet (being about 1 foot), yet at the end of the stunt his speed is decreased substantially to about 10 mph, which is 7 inches per frame. Rod then impacts the trailer smashing out the windows on the other side of the trailer traveling at 5 mph. Due to the law of acceleration he should have at least stayed at a constant speed before impacting the trailer, and should have impacted the trailer at a higher rate of speed than he started off with and ultimately tearing through the side wall of the trailer and putting the life of the stuntman in danger, but ultimately adding to the jolting slapstick comedy of the scene. In the end, unless through friction the stuntman was allowed to sow his speed using his shoes as breaks he should have impacted the trailer harder.

After being told that his real father was not really a stuntman, yet a victim of pie murder (He choked on a piece of pie during an eating contest) Rod rejects his life as a stuntman and goes to the liquor store to buy “groceries”. When confronted by his friends, he walks across the street with his shopping cart and is impacted by the teams van, at a speed and stopping power that just doesn’t seem to make any sense. It seems as though the van is traveling at a high rate of speed at the beginning of it line of action, then it abruptly stops at the impact of rod, and the stuntman is then flung at a slower rate of speed then the van began with. Although at the amount of acceleration the van was picking up, it could have never been able to stop it the amount of time it did. As the van enters screen left it was tracked at about 15 to 22 inches from frame to frame, using the vans wheel width as a point of measurement, which means that the van was traveling at about the speed of 20 to 30mph and stops dead in its path of action, within about one to two feet from the impact. So the action of the van moving was not equal to the reaction of the breaks and the momentum built up at the speed it was once traveling. Another observation is that the stuntman is flung just after impact, at a distance of 7 to 15 inches per frame, which means that the van only translated about 10 to 20 mph of speed into the its victim. Throughout vigorous observation I have come to notice that the van might have come to a stop due to some sort of cable restraint, so as to not let it get in the way of the character of Rod whom is obviously green screened into the picture and also yanked off screen by a cable system. A truly unsuspectingly funny scene created by surprise and exaggerated physical instances.

The final scene I chose to explore was: the final stunt Rod decides to take on in order to save the life of his father. In this stunt Rod decides to jump 11 school buses which is, about 396 feet (Every bus being about 35 inches wide and giving each bus about a foot of parking clearance) a huge feat for any stuntman including Evel Knivel himself. This is why the movie directors decided to employ a stunt team along with various cables pulleys and a green screen, in order to create the pseudo jump done by Rod. This intern creates flaws in the physics of the stunt, but lends itself to the story. Let’s begin with the take off; from the start Rod hits the ramp going at a speed of about 25 mph with what looks to be the perfect pop at the lip of the ramp. The director also chose a wide shot, which helped me to see the parabolic arch created by the jump. The arch looked to be just enough to get him to the landing ramp, yet in the middle of the jump everything goes wrong. Rod, in mid jump, takes the time to look at the crowd and in his excitement take one hand off of the handle bars in order to give everyone a thumbs up, in doing so; he unknowingly loses his grasp on the motorcycle and begins his painful decent to the ground. It is here that the cables and pulleys take effect, for he is then thrown off of his original path of action and is somehow lifted higher then the motorcycle, separating the two by about 2 yards. All of this action is shown through a medium shot in front of a green screen. After this shot we are shown a wide shot of the both Rod and the motorcycles decent, it is here that the bike begins to fall faster, lower and with an awkward rotation. This rotation takes many different forms from shot to shot; the main one is this during the wide shot when it then begins to wobble left to right mid air without any real rotation or tumble during its decent. If it were in true free fall it would carry through with the rotation in way or the other. In another shot the bike goes in a full rotation end over end, which is probably when the bike is truly falling sans cables and pulleys. After this is the impact, in this section of the fall the parabolic arch of the bike is still intact, except when the bike suddenly decides to make a turn in mid-air to screen left, propelling itself into the stage (Where a band was once playing) about 10 to 15 yards to the right of the landing platform. So, not only does the bike impact first it decides to fall to the right of its path of action, if the physics of this jump were correct the bike would have not only landed at the same time as the stuntman due to the law that states that the distance that an object falls does not depend on its weight as long as the force of air resistance is minimal, but since their arcs were set on the same path from the beginning the bike would have fallen onto the landing platform along with the stuntman. Although flawed, the scene adds wonderful drama and suspense to the movie, which leads to a very funny comedic dream sequence.

The opportunity to study some of the physics of the CG action scenes with wire tricks and green screens, allowed me to truly study some of the made up actions which allowed for story and comedy to be shared with the viewing audiences. The luge scene, the van scene and the Big stunt all lead up great moments in the movie, yet they were all mutually flawed in the aspects of physics.

Whatchu Know Bout Physics In: Hot Rod

· Intro

o Explanation of Movie

o 3 Hypothesis’ intro

§ Street Luge Stunt

§ Van Accident

§ The Final Big Jump

o Thesis

· Hypothesis #1

o Street Luge Stunt

§ Explanation of scene

· Goes down a street on a hill with a steep grade but keeps a steady speed

§ Hypothesis

· The end of the stunt he impacts a trailer at a speed of around 10 mph

· He also successfully lifts himself off of the board right before impact should be impossible according to the impact which shatters glass on the other side of the trailer.

· Hypothesis #2

o Van Accident

§ Explanation of scene

· Rod is crossing the street and is impacted by a van at a supposedly hi speed

§ Hypothesis

· Van is slowing down yet Rod flies further and faster than the speed of the van

· Hypothesis #3

o Final Big Jump

§ Explanation of scene

· The final big stunt Rod Jumps 11 buses on a motorbike and crashes

§ Hypothesis

· In the air the doesn’t realize that he released the bike and the two fly through the air at one point the bike seems to pick up speed and go ahead of rod

o The bike also takes on a different parabolic arch and flies way below rod

o The bikes stays in a the same position as it falls yet the rotating wheels on the bike should have made it rotate and or tumble within its path of action

o On the impact the bike hits the ground after the Rod of to the side and further then rods initial impact

· Conclusion

o Restate

§ Thesis

§ Hypothesis

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My Mini Portfolio

Well... here is a little bit of the work that i have accrued during my stay at SJSU. starting from the top: this is a graphite rendering preliminary drawing for a larger painting which is yet to be scanned, under that is a finished color rendering in acrylic of a piece if tree bark and a crawdad claw, under that the video is my final sack pantomime animation for last semesters and one finally the second video is a 3D animation of a character walk, which is a model walking the catwalk.

So a little about me, my full name is Marvyn Jay G. Aguilar ( the G is for Garcia) and i am at the moment a aspiring story artist hailing from the tiny city of Soledad CA. I am a 3rd year student at San Jose State as a Animation/Illustration major I have made it through the Portfolio review and looking forward to working on the BFA project for my fourth year.

This My 1st Postst

Post it!!!= ones knowledge of self blog-usury...?