Ridiculous Things Actors Have to Do for VFX

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Filmmakers use Visual Effects to create the illusion of achieving things that, to do for real, would either be too dangerous, too expensive, too complicated, or just plain impossible.

Whether it's to give someone superpowers, make them fly through the air, or fall from a massive height, make them look like they're interacting with a Computer generated beast, or actually becoming one themselves.

The hardest part for the VFX team is finding the best method, or inventing the right technique to obtain the best result possible.
The hardest part for the actors is trying to remain in character and give a convincing performance whilst looking like, well, like a bit of a twit.

For Alice in Wonderland, the visual effects teams made. Matt Lucas perform as Tweedledee and Tweedledum dressed in a fat green costume on stilts, they made Johnny Depp talk to a green stick, Mia Wasikowska fight against, well, absolutely nothing and Crispin Glover ride this odd-looking contraption.
Interestingly enough, for this shot, they only used Crispen's head, everything else was CGI, which begs the question,
Why bother with the whole contraption in the first place? and,
Is everything the VFX teams do, really necessary? or are they just having a bit of fun making the actors look stupid?

[katesansom]

The thing with Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug was that he did the full body motion capture as least partially for his method acting. It helped him get into character and figure out how to sound, use the right tone of voice, behave, etc.

[truthpower]

"Was it really necessary to wear the helmet?" Yes. It's necessary so the actor knows where his/her eyes are supposed to be focusing; it's important so the VFX editors can render scale consistently without making size variations in different shots.

[cobeycobb]

The "seemingly pointless exercises" are important for actors to get into character. It's a lot easier to "be a dragon" if you are crawling around like one compared to just sitting in a chair.

[odeketown]

Utmost respect to the unsung heroes of our generation, VFX ARTISTS & EDITORS!

[jacksonkerr]

What's helpful to understand with CGI and motion-capture is that it's not exactly or not always puppeteering a digital model, but gathering reference footage from which the animation team can work. So while they may not use all the shots of seemingly silly footage of people in greenscreen costumes, the way the actors move will make the end result much more convincing because it comes from a performance. That isn't to say that animators can't put character into their animations, but, from what I've seen, their jobs seem to be much easier when they get a great performance out of the actors.

[sarahprice]

Benedict Cumberbatch looked like he was having a blast with Smaug. That must have been such a trip (I think originally they were just going to use his voice)

[nystemy]

As stated in the end. It is better for the VFX artists to have too much material to work with, rather than too little.
But likewise can dressing up the people that play the fully VFX characters be important, since it can help the actors keep track of who is what. And where things supposedly are.
As can be seen in Marval's behind the scenes, they often have a cardboard cut out of the character's head rigged up on a pole from the actor's back. So that the other actors knows where head height is going to be. So that the VFX team doesn't also have to correct their gaze in post.

[ClaudioYanes]

Voice is body, ask any voice actor and wait until they stop cringing at you to see what they say about Benedict Cumberbatch not needing to do any of that... There is no drama without action.

[angosalvo]

The helmets are useful for actors to have the correct point to aim their eyes to.
As for the lotion capture for the dragon, it could be used to help animators to find the right place in body movement

[rtyuik]

a lot of it boils down to exactly whats on the tin-- the actors are Acting...whether that means hugging a giant plush cushion (which will be CG'ed into a pig-puppy thing) or wearing a super-inflated suit (to be CG'ed into Beauty's Beast), it gives the actors more material to Act with...before "Fellowship of the Ring" filmed and edited the Balrog Bridge scene, no one even knew what a Balrog was supposed to look like; they just figured "it HAS to be at least This Tall, right?" and stuck a tennis ball onto the end of a long pole...Ian McKellen was tempted to shout "YOU SHALL NOT...BOUNCE!" to the ball, but in the end, Gandalf was 'looking at' the Balrog, making direct eye contact...

...years later, for filming part of The Hobbit, Gandalf's height-difference over the Hobbits was accomplished by filming separate shots-- one of a "full-sized" scene complete with props (all made bigger to make the actors look smaller), and one of Ian McKellen alone on a stage of green boxes of various heights...it was such a heartbreaking method to superimpose the two shots together, making Ian exclaim "this isnt why i became an actor!" before finishing the scene...

[remesh]

Most of them are for reference, some of them are for both reference and to help actors to have something to interact with, which will also help to glue the scene together much better.

[vizthex]

behind the scenes footage seems to have died recently, but i always love seeing it purely because of the free comedy you get.

[henryhurtado]

You said it at the end of the video and mostly people who work in the industry we know the reason. We don't have time to mess around on set. Long hours and stressful times all along

[leonardgiovano]

All the silly helmet, costumes and those physical things that the crew brings using green or blue colors before the VFX production is actually meant for the VFX to obtain the right scale that the directors and the writers wants. Because its quite difficult for the VFX artist to create such an amazing scenes if they need to just estimate the height and the scale of the creature if they dont have an actual things to measure.

[jenxiao]

From an editing point of view its all down the final cut. It may seem unnecessary at the end as certain shots or angles are removed. Alot like deleted scenes in movies our extended versions of films. Think of it as starting a painting, u buy all the colours and brushes, and dont know what u might need until u start/finish the project. But its better have it all there ready before putting brush to paper x

[HorrorofQuinn]

IDK about all the other ones. BUT Funny enough Benedict Cumberbatch asked to get on all four so that he could find the right voice and attitude towards it. Lol by far the most motivating video to watch if i ever want to do voice acting stuff haha also very entertaining.
EDIT: Also I HAD NO IDEA Channing Tatum wasn't actually there, WTF WOAH.
Also I like how you created this quick and simple idea to help blow up and now this is the first video I've seen where you break down Film. I like this channel.

[gerasymovareal]

This is called art: creativity to the level beyond imagination.

[bennylloyd-willner]

@2:03 I don't think they wanted the arms specifically, but more the movement of the rest of the body when he waves his arms. The same with the "fake horse contrapment", the proper head/body movement gives a template for the Vfx artists.

[Geeksmithing]

The Benedict Cumberbatch/ Smaug behind the scenes is one of the coolest & most impressive bits of acting I have ever seen. To just gloss over that is frankly a shame.

[jondoe]

It's not about having reference as much as having 2 options. Directors want to stay with live action as much as possible to avoid an overly digital look. But that method often doesn't work and they have to replace it with full digital imagery. If it was all about reference they wouldn't be putting everything in green screen, which is the last thing you'd want for reference. They're shooting live action with those mattes (at great expense) hoping it might make the final shot, but they can't know for sure.