Disney Invented a Better Green Screen… 60 Years Ago!

Plus: The Kickstarter Cinematic Revolution That Wasn’t

Author

Steve
April 09, 2024

Greetings Hollywood tech nerds!

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Disney Invented a Better Green Screen… 60 Years Ago!

This week, the folks at Corridor Digital put out a terrific video about the Disney-innovated sodium vapor prism, a device and method by which one can accomplish significantly-improved chroma keying, including for objects that are blurry or transparent! This is possible because the wavelength of sodium vapor light is emitted at a very specific and small wavelength.

If sodium vapor sounds familiar to you, it’s what many US cities used for nighttime street lighting. In fact, one of my most Luddite opinions as a longtime resident of Los Angeles is that its move to LED street lights has been a disaster! Without sodium vapor lights it’s impossible to see anything here when it rains and it’s also impossible for me to feel like Tom Cruise in Collateral (instead of “Steve is bothering his Uber driver”).

The aforementioned wavelength of sodium vapor light allows for easier keying; most colors can remain. There’s a reason the animated sequences of Mary Poppins look so impressive 60 years later!

The Kickstarter Cinematic Revolution That Wasn’t

IndieWire has a fascinating look back at the Veronica Mars movie, which just passed its 10 year anniversary and was supposed to usher in a new era of filmmaking: big ticket films funded via Kickstarter by passionate fanbases. So what happened?

The article names two culprits: Zach Braff and Netflix. On the “Brafflash”:

Braff’s Kickstarter project in particular ballooned into a big deal, with outlets like The Wrap and The Guardian — not to mention critics on social media — questioning whether a successful actor should ask fans to fund a passion project. (Complicating matters further was the revelation that Braff secured additional funding for “Wish I Was Here” from established film financiers.) Kickstarter stood by Braff during the ensuing Brafflash, and Strickler admitted it was “tough” to suddenly be on the defensive as an artist-focused company.

How does Netflix figure into this?

…certain celebrity-backed projects shifted away from the Kickstarter model after streaming services like Netflix saw the platform’s success with engaging existing fandoms of dormant IP.

My take is that these are both likely factors, but also: the average consumer willing to spend money on passion projects probably realized they would get more bang for their buck via a platform like Patreon.

Instead of just being a name in the credits on a Zach Braff film, subscribing to a creator’s Patreon gives you far more access for significantly less money. It feels better and it gives you more say! Accordion-player Alex Meixner will talk to me every month!

That’s not to say there isn’t room for film-funding on Kickstarter. Indeed, the articles goes on to describe some successful projects that have been funded there:

McCave cites the example of “The Legend of Vox Machina,” which started its life as a crowdfunded 22-minute animated special that eventually raised over $11 million from nearly 90,000 backers — enough to fund an entire season’s worth of episodes that eventually streamed on Prime Video, which paid for a second season out of its own pocket. “Machina” now holds the record for the most-funded Kickstarter Film & Video project, with the “Veronica Mars” film in fourth place.

The difference here is new voices. Got an agent at CAA? Take your begging bowl somewhere else!

Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:

The rise of anamorphic lenses on modern TV shows like Shogun. (link)

The best PlayStation VR2 games you can play right now! (link)

Paramount Streaming CEO Tom Ryan on 10 years of Pluto TV and more. (link)