In an int erview with Spielberg and Cruis, Roger Ebert learns about a novel application of algorithmic/computational robotics [2], specifically motion planning:
In an int
erview with Spielberg and Cruis, Roger Ebert learns about a novel
application of algorithmic/computational
robotics [2], specifically
motion planning: (warning, the interview has quite a few spoilers; I think
I’m going to suspend my reading until I’ve seen the movie)
Spielberg: Another shot I want to talk about is the overhead
shot when the spiders first swarm into the tenement building. We’re looking
straight down into all those rooms, and the camera follows the spiders over
to a girl’s face, and to a guy sitting on the john–all these people in the
building.Now that looks like it must be a computer shot but it isn’t. That’s a real,
physical set. I tried to storyboard it, but it was so complicated, and
finally Alex McDowell [the art director] suggested we try designing the shot
on the computer. No set had been built yet. And we asked the computer, “How
do we get this shot?” and the computer said, “You need a crane that goes in
and out.” There happens to be a TechnoCrane than telescopes in and out like
a car aerial, and the computer told us where to put the crane, how to move
it, how to get all the shots I wanted, all in one take. Then Alex built the
set. So, no, there’s not a single CHI [sic] shot in that sequence–but a computer
told us how to do it!