Showing posts with label estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label estate. Show all posts

Sunday 12 April 2020

IS IT BAD TO LOVE THE ROGUE ONE? THE RESURRECTION OF CGI TARKIN TWEAKED


#WATCHWITHCUSHING! 'Is it wrong to love THE Rogue One? Well, here's a confession, I am very fond of this film and have a lot of respect for what Industrial Light and Magic and Guy Henry achieved in the finished film. We've posted a feature about this today at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE . .. For those not up to speed with what happened four years ago...here we go! In the 2016 anthology film '#RogueOne', archive footage and a digital scan of Cushing's life mask made for the 1984 film Top Secret! were used to create a 3D CGI mask which was augmented and mapped to actor Guy Henry's face. Henry had studied Cushing's mannerisms many years previously for the lead role in British TV show 'Young Sherlock', but insisted on a screen test as he was not comfortable that his vocal imitation was accurate, stating he sounded more like "Peter O'Toole than #PeterCushing". 


THE ILM team searched through hours of footage to find suitable material of Cushing to build from, footage from 'A New Hope' was lit very differently to the lighting used in 'Rogue One' and had to be digitally changed. The more they manipulated the lighting to match the other actors in the scenes the less like Cushing the character model looked, which meant creating a balancing act between "a digital figure" and "one who looked precisely like Cushing". The owners of Cushing's estate were heavily involved with the creation and had input right down to "small, subtle adjustments".



ABOVE: THE PCASUK STORY ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

THE RESULT, which has been called "one of the most complex and costly CGI re-creations ever", received a mixed response. Recently, Derpfakes who is quite the dab hand at creating some quite stunning CGI creations and sharing them for critiques on YouTube. Here for your analysis, is his tweaking and nudging, of the ILM job on Tarkin's appearance in 'Rogue One' (2016) ... There are some interesting chances... for some I am sure, there will be little difference. Later, if you like me have always thought the ideas and concepts of 'Star Wars' were very original and new, join us later 😉 - Marcus

Thursday 15 June 2017

REMEMBERING: SANDOR ELES : BORN TODAY


REMEMBERED: TODAY WE REMEMBER Hungarian born actor SANDOR ELES…. Known for a lot of work on TV he guest starred in shows such as The Saint, One Step Beyond, The Avengers, Danger Man and a regular role in the UK Soap 'Crossroads'.... 




IT HAS ALWAYS surprised me why Hammer films didn't use Eles more often in their features. If Cushing and Lee signed up for every film that Hammer offered them, Hammer would have very pleased, they were bankable, they didn't pay well, but they were always on the wish list of Hammer casting. IF they passed, then it appears that often Hammer liked to cast actors of similar skill set, style and appearance, like John Carson, Francis Matthews, sometimes having a air of nobility, aquiline features... Eles certainly fitted this bill...



COULD ELES HAVE PLAYED THE ROLES THAT MATTHEWS AND CARSON PLAYED FRO HAMMER FILMS? . .  NOT SAYING BETTER, BUT AS GOOD AS?

IF YOU TAKE a quick look at the casting and budgets of the films, he did appear in with Peter and Hammer, it looks like it comes down to the age old problem with Hammer.... money. Which, is a shame and leaves behind it a whole raft of missed opportunities...Eles did a lot of good and interesting work, given the chance. He made appearances in The Avengers, The Professionals Strange Report and Upstairs, Downstairs. One of his most memorable film roles was as the mysterious Paul in the Brian Clemens thriller 'And Soon the Darkness' in 1970. The screenplay was written by Brian Clemens and Terry Nation, both of whom had contributed to The Avengers, as well as to several ITC crime series made in Britain. The film was directed by Robert Fuest.


Even though his accent was good, casting agents often pigeon holed him in generic 'foreigner' roles (diplomats, waiters, desk clerks), he most often played Frenchmen. Éles became a British citizen on 10 January 1977.


FOR MANY, signing up for long term contract in a television soap opera, is thought of the final hole on the leaking ship of a once buoyant career. Eles joined the cast the UK long running tv series, Crossroads in 1982. The series was still popular and Eles seemed to cultivating a new interest. He left the series in 1985 and followed a trail of opportunities propping up the plot in several tv movies and mini series.


IN 1996, Elès returned to his cultural roots, appearing as the narrator in the Bartók opera, Bluebeard's Castle. The concert performances, were given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, and were recorded for CD release. His last movie appearance would be in 1996  playing 'party guest' in Anthony Hopkins' 'Surviving Picasso'. Small theatre roles followed in provincial tours. Sadly Eles would be dead from a fatal heart failure just six years later. He was just 66.... 



HIS LAST PRESS NOTICE was in classified and public notices section in the newspaper of the London Borough of Brent, seeking to notify family members and parties who may have an interest in 'unclaimed estates'  'Jozsef Sandor Eles was born in Tatabanya Hungary on Monday 15 June 1936. He died in Kilburn London NW6, on Tuesday 10 September 2002 at the age of 66. He was unmarried at the time of his death. Information on file states that the deceased's parents are deceased and buried in the family grave. His sister is also deceased and buried with her parents. There are suggestions of a niece in Hungary but her wherebaouts are unknown.Deceased was a retired actor and was found dead on 10 September and was last seen alive on 4 September'. 

Thursday 4 May 2017

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU: TARKIN : SPEAKING OUT


#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: It really doesn't seem like a whole year, since last we celebrated #MAYTHEFOURTH #STARWARSDAY! But, here it is! Since last year, the biggest news for us here in our Cushing Star Wars Universe, has been the release of 'ROGUE ONE: A Star Wars Story', with inclusion of a CGI Grand Moff Tarkin in the cast, and the unprecedented interest in all things Peter Cushing! And what a mixed bucket of Ewoks, that has been. For over a year, we covered first the rumor, the clues, the hoaxes and finally, the reveal.



OUR BEST BET was always that actor Guy Henry, was in someway connected with the role and that CGI was also involved. The first story that appeared in the press, spun stories about CGI staff at Disney and Lucas film, digging around in the dusty film archives, looking for 'footage' of Peter Cushing legs and feet... which we also always suspected to be a step too far. Either way, what was archived was well worth the wait, and ROGUE ONE did indeed, come up the goods, as a more than worthy addition to the Star Wars sage. Now we wait, for 'The Last Jedi' and if whispers are to be believed, it too will be a smash! HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!


BEFORE "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," 56-year-old English actor Guy Henry was best known for his work on the BBC and in classical theater (he was also Pius Thicknesse in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"). But now he has played one of the "Star Wars" saga's best-known characters, even though his face was not in a single frame of the movie.Henry is the man and voice behind the most talked-about character in "Rogue One": Grand Moff Tarkin, who was brought to the screen through the magic of motion-capture computer graphics after being played by Peter Cushing in 1977's "Star Wars: A New Hope." Cushing died in 1994.


THE EVENTS in "Rogue One" happen just before what we see in "A New Hope," and to connect the dots, "Rogue One" director Gareth Edwards wanted to prominently feature Tarkin because of the character's role in the main plot point of both movies: the Death Star. But to do that, he and the team at Industrial Light & Magic decided to do something unprecedented: use a living actor to basically be the skeleton of their Tarkin and then replace the actor's face with a digital version of Cushing's.

ON MAY 5TH 2015, "Rogue One" casting director Jina Jay contacted Henry's agent and asked whether the actor could meet up for lunch in London with Edwards. "They chose a very secret lunch in one of the most public media places in town, the Dean Street Townhouse, which I thought was very clever of them," Henry recently told Business Insider of getting the role. "So we talked very quietly." In fact, Henry remembers that a table beside them recognized him from a show he does on the BBC and the diners came over to say hi. But this was one of the rare moments when visibility wouldn't help an actor land a role, since it was Edwards’ job at the lunch to persuade Henry to play the CGI Tarkin. "It was a very strange thing to get your head around," Henry said about the offer. "Normally as an actor you're presented to be another character, but there's another added complication here — it's me pretending to be Peter Cushing pretending to be Grand Moff Tarkin." Before Henry agreed to the role, he suggested that Edwards do a screen test of him, just to confirm the director's hunch that he would be right for the role. Henry acted out a Tarkin scene from "A New Hope," doing his best Cushing voice with his hair slicked back and makeup to make him look older.



EDWARDS WAS CONVINCED by what he saw, as were others at Disney and Lucasfilm. But Henry, who says he was always told he sounded more like his idol Peter O'Toole than Peter Cushing, was still very nervous when he agreed to take the job. "I wasn't comfortable throughout the whole process," said Henry, who spent a month of prep constantly watching Cushing's Tarkin in "A New Hope." "I was constantly plagued by the thought that I was going to be the tall idiot from London who let the whole thing down. When they look you in the eye and say, 'This has never been done before in the history of film, but we think we can do it,' you really don't want to muck it up. For them but also Peter Cushing, who was an actor that I always admired genuinely. I didn't want to go through this slightly weird process and let him down." Henry's Tarkin scenes were shot during principal photography in the summer of 2015. During his three-week schedule, a car picked him up at 4:30 a.m. every day for the hour-long drive to London's Pinewood Studios ("Rogue One" production was under the code name "Los Alamos"). 


AFTER PUTTING on the gray Imperial officer's uniform, Henry would then go to the makeup room where he would get his hair slicked back and a transparent mask with small holes all over it on his face. Then with a black eyeliner stick, the makeup artist would mark dots through the holes onto Henry's face. A person from ILM would then put the motion-capture dots over the marks on his face. Then right before a scene was about to start, a head cam would be placed on him, which would capture every facial movement Henry made.


BEFORE EVERY TAKE, Henry would repeat a Tarkin line from "A New Hope": "You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system." "It would just get me into the flow of the Cushing voice," Henry said of repeating the line. Henry would then perform the Tarkin scenes on the set with the other actors. Henry said he didn't always do the Cushing voice — sometimes Edwards would ask him to do takes "as Guy." "I did as much of a Peter Cushing [voice] with the rolling Rs as I could, which was f---ing difficult," Henry said. "I'm pleased that people don't find it a jarring voice and it seems to have worked, but I'm not a mimic. I did every take every day, including reshoots, and all along I just tried to do my best."


HENRY SAID THAT he actually told Edwards and the "Rogue One" producers numerous times that he would not be offended if they wanted to bring in a voice actor who could do a better Cushing voice. Henry even insisted on doing an ADR session during post-production so he could have another pass at the dialogue. "I can't pretend that it wasn't really frightening," he said. "When I offered the option of having someone else do the voice, they said, 'We don't want that, we want your performance, we chose you because of who you are, and we want you to inhabit the performance.' For better or worse, it's my performance." Henry wrapped on his three weeks, but that turned out to just be the start of his time on "Rogue One." With constant rewrites of the film's plot during production, along with reshoots, Henry said he was called back every other month or so up until November 2016. "I would always think, 'Back to the dots, back to the fear,'" Henry said.


ONE OF HENRY'S FAVOURITE moments was when Tarkin had to be his typical authoritative self and get under the skin of Krennic. "He gets into the mood and has got all guns blazing," Henry said of Mendelsohn's process. "So there was one scene where I play Tarkin particularly imperialist behind the camera to get him worked up, which I succeeded at beyond my wildest dreams. Ben thought I was looking at a monitor behind him, but in fact I was just being dismissive and he suddenly shouted, 'Don't look into the fucking monitor, Guy!' But honestly, we got along famously." Other than a brief look at a rough assembly of a Tarkin scene while the movie was in post-production (which eased his anxiety about what the filmmakers were trying to achieve), Henry didn't see the finished CGI Tarkin until he went to the film's London premiere a few weeks ago. Having to keep his involvement in the movie a secret to everyone he knew for over a year, he finally saw the fruits of his efforts. "I didn't eat all day," Henry said of the premiere. "I went in full of white wine and my heart in my mouth, but after the first Tarkin scene, I enjoyed it. I mean, I didn't get the whole script, so I was working in the dark. I was watching a film that I knew little about. I'm proud and relieved that it has been positive."

LUCASFILM received permission from the Cushing estate to show his likeness in the movie, and Henry said he had heard that Cushing's longtime secretary had seen "Rogue One" and enjoyed the Tarkin scenes. "If it had been done as a joke or a gimmick, that would have been stupid," Henry said when asked about the ethics issue. "But in this case it was an honorable attempt to tell a story with one of the most famous characters from the 'Star Wars' saga. I thought it was worth doing. If it doesn't impinge on the real living or dead person's sensibilities, I think it's another tool in the box. But I'm not in a hurry to repeat the process — I'll tell you that."


DESPITE THE anxiety around the role, Henry has no regrets and says the experience is unlike anything else he's done in his career. He looks forward to seeing the movie again — with less white wine in his system. 'I think it was an honorable tribute to Peter Cushing, and I'm very happy for that," he said.
(January 2017)
Interview Credit: HERE



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Friday 16 December 2016

CONFIRMATION CUSHING ESTATE WAS INVOLVED WITH ROGUE ONE TARKIN


Kathleen Kennedy on the set of Rogue One with Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed and Producer Allison Shearmur Credit: Jonathan Olley
THE TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER UK 16th December 2016: 

#STARWARS producer Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the Cushing estate was involved in the CGI appearance of Peter Cushing in the film  #ROGUEONE. She has revealed in an interview with The Telegraph that the technology was full of "small, subtle adjustments – constant conversation and scrutiny". But Cushing's family only saw the final result at the London premiere of the film.


"WE WERE RIGHT DOWN to the wire,” she said. "And it never came down to one thing. If we tweaked one aspect, it threw something else off."



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