Revealed: The Visual Effects Behind The Great Gatsby

Several days ago, Chris Godfrey, the VFX supervisor on the latest film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, posted a remarkable “before and after” film on Vimeo.  Running four minutes, the short compilation reveals the many sets and scenes created with computer generated images. It’s all pretty impressive from a technical point of view. No doubt. And yet this wizardry contributed to making what’s widely considered a mediocre film. In The New Yorker, film critic David Denby writes:

Luhrmann’s version is merely a frantic jumble. The picture is filled with an indiscriminate swirling motion, a thrashing impress of “style” (Art Deco turned to digitized glitz), thrown at us with whooshing camera sweeps and surges and rapid changes of perspective exaggerated by 3-D…. Luhrmann’s vulgarity is designed to win over the young audience, and it suggests that he’s less a filmmaker than a music-video director with endless resources and a stunning absence of taste.

Sometimes, as they say, less is more….

via Richard Brody

Related Content:

The Only Known Footage of the 1926 Film Adaptation of The Great Gatsby (Which F. Scott Fitzgerald Hated)

Seven Tips From F. Scott Fitzgerald on How to Write Fiction

F. Scott Fitzgerald in Drag (1916)


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