In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« Ask FlickChick
Pirates, '70s Hottie P.J. Soles, Bruce Campbell and More Questions!
Bill Nighy in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest courtesy Walt Disney Pictures
Questions about motion capture animation -- is it cheating? -- John Wayne, P.J. Soles and more.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
Question: I've been reading a lot about the behind-the-scenes technology used to created the tentacle-faced Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and keep seeing the term "motion capture." But none of the articles have explained how it's different from old-fashioned rotoscoping. Can you enlighten me, oh FlickChick? -- Brad
FlickChick: The difference is computers. Rotoscoping is a process invented by animation pioneer Max Fleischer -- creator of Betty Boop -- in 1914. It allowed artists to hand-draw over motion picture footage of real subjects frame-by-frame so that the instantly recognizable weight and flow of real human motion was maintained while the specifics of the image could be changed to the animator's content. Some purists claimed rotoscoping was a form of cheating, but I've always thought that was a narrow view: Rotoscoping is just a tool in the animator's arsenal. Nevertheless, as early as 1937 dancer Marge Champion – then a teenager – was told by nervous Disney executives not to tell anyone that rotoscoping was used extensively in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and that she was the model for Snow's every step and gesture.
With motion capture, real life footage of a flesh-and-blood person (top-flight English character actor Bill Nighy, in the case of Davy Jones) in a body suit studded with sensors is fed directly into a computer; the image manipulation takes place there, rather than on a plastic animation cel. But the end result is the same: Davy Jones' body has the heft and flow of the real actor underneath, while his beard of tentacles curls and writhes like the real cephalopods I have no doubt were filmed to assist animation of his barely once-human face.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: Is the guy in the new Old Spice ads an actor? My boyfriend says I probably just saw him on another commercial, but I think he's a real actor. -- Lori G.
FlickChick: Tell your boyfriend FlickChick says he needs to wise up. The guy in the brilliant new Old Spice ads -- which make the venerable drugstore cologne seem cool through hipster mockery -- is none other than longtime Sam Raimi associate Bruce Campbell, seen most recently as a snippy French maitre d' in Spider-Man 3. I have to say, if there's anyone in the world who could tickle the ivories in his Nick Fury bachelor pad while crooning Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" to a bevy of mini-skirted beauties with such self-deprecating savoir faire as Campbell, I can't imagine who it would be.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: Whatever happened to P.J. Soles from Halloween and Stripes? I keep thinking I'll see her on one of those "I Love the '80s" specials, but so far she's a no-show. --Tige
FlickChick: You're not the only one wondering -- witness alternative rockers Local H's 2004 album Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? In a nutshell, Halloween's (1978) "totally" girl got married, had children and is now making her way back into movies: '70s horror buff Rob Zombie recently cast her as a pretty, middle-aged soccer mom who gets carjacked by killer klown Sid Haig in The Devil's Rejects (2005).
Born Pamela Jayne Hardon -- really; married briefly to musician J. Steven Soles and kept his surname - who can blame her? -- in 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany, P.J. Soles was raised all over the world courtesy of her father's job with an international insurance agency. Her dad was Dutch and her mom was from New Jersey. Soles intended to be a U.N. interpreter, but as a college student in New York she fell into modeling and then took up acting. Her credits include a mean girl in Carrie (1976) – a role she got during the mass Star Wars/Carrie audition for teenage girls Brian De Palma and George Lucas conducted together -- and ultimate Ramones fan Riff Randell in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1987) -- directed, by the way, by Heroes producer Allan Arkush -- a part she reprised in the 2003 video "Too Bad About Your Girl" by neo-punks The Donnas. She was married to Dennis Quaid for five years; that marriage ended in divorce, as did her third, which produced two children.
Even though Soles spent much of her career playing the kind of girls I hated with every fiber of my being, I have always had a soft spot for her and hope that rumors she'll be part of Zombie's Halloween reboot are true.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: Where was the John Wayne movie Big Jake filmed? -- Vera B.
FlickChick: John Wayne's Big Jake (1971) was shot in the State of Durango, in Northern Mexico, where Wayne owned property -- complete with its own movie studio -- called Rancho La Joya. He first shot in Durango with 1965's The Sons of Katie Elder, and returned for The War Wagon (1967), Chisum (1970), The Train Robbers (1973), Cahill, US Marshall (1973) and, of course, Big Jake.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2007 12:51 PM
|
Why is "Send your movie questions to FlickChick." after every single question? I think once, at the end of the column, is sufficient.
Sorry to be so anal about this, I don't want to be one of those people who only complain about everything, but it's really annoying to see that a million times in 1 article.
|
|
May 31, 2007 3:27 PM
|
Leah - Although I don't know, I'm guessing that the reason the notice appears after every answer is because,
unlike we die-hard fans, not everybody has the time to read the whole column at once, yet might want to submit a question. Or, like most writers, even FlickChick has to answer to at least one editor, and if there's room for only
one question and answer in a given column, and if someone wants to submit a
question, they may do so. FlickChick:
would you like to weigh in on this?
|
|
May 31, 2007 4:21 PM
|
Maitland - thank you for the great column!
Big Jake and Chisum not only used the same location and studio but also used the same identical house and it's surroundings!
|
|
May 31, 2007 5:00 PM
|
|
Is Big Jake the one where is grandson is kidnapped?
|
|
May 31, 2007 5:04 PM
|
|
Leah - Re: Big Jake: yes, that's the one where the grandson is kidnapped; in fact, the working title was The Million Dollar Kidnap, and used Wayne's grandson as the victim.
|
|
May 31, 2007 5:57 PM
|
|
Leah - yes that is the one. Everyone that comes into contact with Jake McCandles says "I thought you were dead".
|
|
May 31, 2007 5:58 PM
|
In all honesty, I'm putting the "send your questions" link after every Q&A because I'm getting so few reader questions and so little posting to Ask FlickChick that this column is in danger of being cancelled.
I can't think of any other way to encourage readers to interact.
|
|
May 31, 2007 11:04 PM
|
I wondered if that was why. Maybe if they would put a link to it on the front page of the website or something. I mean, the column is kinda hidden (as are most of them). They are NOT easy to get to. That's one of the things that really needs to be worked on with this website, the navigation.
Do you think maybe some of it has to do with imdb? I think a lot of the questions that I see can easily be answered there.
I do want to add that I read this column every week and I enjoy it and look forward to it.
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 2:08 AM
|
Maitland
The death of this column would be a major tragedy-ditto for the Tuesday column-which does seem to be getting more contributors lately.
If you go then I'm probably outta here too. I find a lot of the other columns precocious and uninteresting-more concerned with cutesiness and peddling their signature merchandise. There is a regrettable lack of Q and A stuff on the site. They haven't even replaced Televisionary. And while I enjoy interacting with other readers/post-ers I can pretty much do the same thing with my friends-not that I haven't made a couple here and elsewhere on the site.
FlickChick is special. You are a great source of information and just turning me on to the Pusher Trilogy would have been enough to make me forever grateful to you. But there's been much more. And where else are we going to find anyone so lackng in pretentiousness and so full of good giggle through the fingers humor to make a joke about the wisdom of not calling herself P.J. Hardon?
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 3:53 AM
|
|
Maitland - Would a letter-writing campaign to TV Guide to continue Ask FlickChick do any good? If so, what address should we use and to whom should they be addressed? (I'm serious: I'm one of your biggest fans.)
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 6:09 AM
|
Wow... what a nice outpouring of support (for the column, of course, but also for the P.J. Hardon crack).
Jay: In all honesty, what would help is getting the numbers up. If you can get your friends to visit both Ask FlickChick and DVD Tuesday, that would be great -- goodness knows, no one is ever going to find either without help. If they post and/or ask questions, so much the better.
Oh, and DaMess: I finally got hold of Christ in Concrete and you're right. It's a terrific movie. As soon as I have a free minute, I'm going to get a review into the movie database. Thanks for the tip!
And thank you all for being great readers.
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 9:06 AM
|
|
Save "Ask Flick Chick"!! My son says that anyone who supports Bruce (don't call him "Ash") Campbell is great!!
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 10:07 AM
|
There is a bit of a disconnect when you are looking to have movie fanatics connect on a TV site. I think the best way to generate readers is for regular blog contributors to spread the word on other movie sites (without being too commercial about it).
It may attract just the low hanging fruit, but I think there will be many readers there who will appreciate a woman who eschews the Hollywood pablum while indulging in a good 80's slasher.
And anyone who appreciates both Nashville and Serenity is aces in my book!
Maitland, is your vodcast available for subscription via iTunes like the TV Guide Podcast? That would be valuable...
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 11:38 AM
|
There is a bit of a disconnect when you are looking to have movie fanatics connect on a TV site.
That makes since. Maybe you could answer tv questions too?
|
|
Jun 1, 2007 1:14 PM
|
|
|
