AAAHHHH!!!
Oh my goodness!
There's something very special about the shot. 
There it is.
*in shock* Hold up!
Clint: They’re not filming in black and white!
They’re not!
It’s not in black and white!
Let's do a slate like this...
Niko: Welcome to VFX artists react to bad and great CGI, where we applaud the genius of good effects...
and blame the producers for all the bad effects.
*Group laughter*
[Wolverine Origin]
Niko: Wolverine
Wren: Oh this is Wolverine?!
Niko: This is a combination of rushed and bad ideas all in one.
Clint: Wh-why are there sparks? 
He barely touched it!
Clint: You alright in there?
Niko: Flush flush. Everything's fine!
Niko: These are some straight-up iPhone compositing like, -
- get an iPhone app to put claws in your hands.
First off, the tracking on his right hand ever so slightly...
...jiggles.
It's hard to see frame by frame -
- but in motion it just doesn't quite feel attached.
Even more so there's no freaking shadow on his knuckles!
Wren: Yeah, yeah, yeah there's no shadow...
Niko: All you got these just like the CG model sticking out of his hand.
They don't even have proper motion blur highlights in this either.
Like, notice when the motion blur is on the bright parts of the blade,
the bright part gets dimmer.
Whereas that bright part should be bright enough cause reflective metal that it stays bright.
Imagine my flashlight is a bright part of a blade -
- I go like this, it doesn't turn gray.
It stays white.
Wren: I bet they probably didn't have a proper HDRI for the scene.
Basically capturing the proper lighting of the scene -
- But also recreating the materials in a very scientifically accurate way.
They probably just kind of winged it.
Maybe they were running out of time, they had to do the scene really quickly.
Niko: The biggest question is why aren't they practical?
Wren: That's exactly it!
They have a special type of blade holder -
- that's like you literally just hold your fist and the blades like can form perfectly around your knuckle and it looks real!
Clint: That's a great point do it practical when you can.
Dude this scene...
...sweet.
Wraah, oh, are you serious? No!
NOOOOO!
Niko: The guy is watching all this happen, he's so calm.
Clint: Oh what it floated for a second!
Wren: Yeah it was kind of...(battle sounds)
Clint: They animated position and scale,
you know, it's just like a Stock image of a helicopter that they they made grow larger.
Wren: Do you recognize those mountains in the background at all?
They filmed lots of scenes here including scenes from like Chronicles of Narnia -
- famously Lord of the Rings, they filmed a lot of stuff in that area and that specific Valley is where Isengard is located.
Oh, yes speaking of which Lord of the Rings, Hobbit. We've seen your comments.
It's been very highly commented about.
So we're definitely gonna be doing an episode comparing the two very shortly.
And if you'd like to see other movies TV shows,
anything at all for us to react to please leave a comment below we read them all.
What's wrong with his eyes?
Not his eyes,
Sir Patrick Stewart eyes.
Niko: Just Mr. Clean.
I think it's just an example of like,
they're probably just going in and taking out all the wrinkles and doing some patchwork on his face,
but in doing so they're not staying quite entirely true to the lighting on his face -
- and where the shadows would be and where the wrinkles would be.
Niko: This shot is soooo bad!
[Group laughter and cringe]
There’s no shadows!
There's fo- there's footprints!
They're leaving footprints when they run.
Why are they leaving footprints and not even having a shadow?
Like at least a fuzzy soft dark matte underneath their feet would help.
This movie had the same budget as transformers and this is the quality that the effects in this movie.
This is the like the last stage of an artist just eyeballing it and being like,
'I guess the background and probably be this bright, let's bump it up!'
Versus like, 'Hey, I went out there and got like light meter readings, and I took my photo samples and I use my HDRI, -
- and I have a scientifically accurate and measured moment for what that should look like.'
Transformers looks so good -
- because that's what they did for all the Transformers.
Everything was physically accurate measured with HDRI's, proper surface simulations and -
- mmh that looks good!
Wren: Well, that's a real truck.
Clint: That's a real truck.
Niko: Michael Bay does what I think is the perfect approach for CG which is -
- blending practical and visual effects together in one shot.
Like that truck is real... just kidding, the truck is NOT real!
[Group Laughs] 
Wren & Clint: Got 'em!
Niko: This bus shot, something special about this bus shot, -
That bus is real! That explosion is real!
That bus, they already had it chopped in half and they tear it apart in the middle of the scene. That's all real!
The only thing fake is the robot going through it.
Clint: Oh, wow, they have wires, they have wires on the edges of the bus pulling it apart -
- it looks so good.
Wren: And this movie is 12 years old by the way.
Clint: Something that's helping Michael Bay, he's putting the camera in a realistic place.
It's very grounded. You're in a car, you're in a chase cam, you know, you're seeing it from these angles.
That's so cool!
N: And the huge challenge with that though is you're literally filming something that's not there.
So you have to have, what we call our "CG goggles",
You have your CG goggles on and you have to be imagining that robot coming through.
When Optimus gets tackled there, right here -
- it's like slightly out of frame. It feels flawed in a real way.
W: I don't think people give Michael Bay enough credit for his filmmaking skills.
C: Absolutely not.
[Attack Bear Noises]
C: Oh my god, this is brutal man.
N: And that fur looks so good.
W: That wet matted fur.
N: Dude, right here, where it like kind of picks him up and like bites and moves him. That looks really good.
He's like, 'Get in the frame! I need to see your reaction!'
[Group Laughs]
W: Also, it hasn't cut yet by the way.
Oh, dude! The fogging of the lens. Wow!
N: Do you think that was real fog? No, it can't because the bear wasn't real, duh.
C: What an effective... [gagging noise]
C: What an effec- [gagging noise]
What an effective scene though, man.
W: What sells this shot is the fact that Leo is actually being moved around physically in real life.
C: Hey, wasn't there a guy in place of the bear?
W: I mean Arthur worked on this movie.
Call Arthur! Call Arthur! Right now, do it.
N: I'll do it. I'll call Arthur real quick.
Arthur VO: Hi, how's it going?
N: It's good. It's good.
Hey, so we're here watching the bear scene from the REVENANT and we're wondering, -
- did they have like a dude that was pulling Leonardo DiCaprio around or was like he on wires? Like how did they do it?
Arthur VO: So he had a guy in like a blue suit with bear arms, that was kind of one part of it -
- just kind of being the inspiration for the movements.
N: He had bear arms?
Arthur: Yeah.
[Group Amazed]
Arthur: Leo was in a harness that was pretty complicated -
- wire contraption to several different trees so that the wires would pull him in different directions.
One of the things that was really critical was rehearsal because we had to know what the, quote on quote, -
- fight choreography was between the bear and Leo so that the guy in the suit and Leo being pulled can all be in sync, -
so that, when they did put in a bear it would line up.
N: So are there some hidden cuts on this like long take?
Arthur: Tons of hidden cuts. Tons of blends and merges.
N: Thanks for the info man, trying to figure out how they did it.
Arthur: Yeah, of course.
N: A match cut is basically when you have a cut from one piece of footage to another -
- but an element in the footage is basically in the same spot.
C: Like in 2001,  the bone turns into a spaceship
N: But match cuts can also be a visual effects technique or basically a magic trick where, ya know -
- you're doing basically like a whip pan, and right in the middle of that whip -
- and you're just match cutting right in the middle that whip when things look the same.
Like that's still a match cut. It's not like an artsy match cute..
C: It's a hidden match cut.
N: But sometimes hidden cuts are hidden by making the match cuts, -
- sometimes they're hidden by things wiping the frame,
And I think it's time for us to look at the master class of match cuts and hidden cuts.
C: Kingsman is a great movie. Super stylized Matthew Vaughn tearing it up!
W: Oh man, look at that high shutter speed style. Everything's just super jittery.
[Niko chuckling]
N: Yeah, the CG doesn't look so great there but you know what, who cares!
He's gonna dislocate a shoulder. Oh ma-
[Group in shock]
C: That's Incredible.
W: How is that the most visceral moment of this entire scene?
People are getting their heads blown up, and that woman just got her neck chopped, -
- but somehow a dude crumpling up like that,
Against a wall!
N: Dummy shots are so funny.
W: It's a realistic-looking head dummy.
All right, I think we should go back to beginning this scene,
just take a moment and show you where abunch of the hidden cuts are,
and then talk about how they did them.
All right, right there.
Right there for sure.
Right there, cut.
Boom, cut.
W: I think the reason why there are so many hidden cuts in this scene is because, -
- this is an incredibly complex choreography.
C: It's like in a video game. You can't beat the whole level without save points.
W: I bet a lot of these different stunts require very specific setups that you can't do with -
- the camera going through the entire scene.
N: And what they're doing here, like, our eyes are super sensitive to motion, -
- to the point where we don't really read details in them.
So that guy wiping the frame, as he wipes the frame, they're rotoscoping the edge of him -
So everything gets revealed as he wipes is from the next shot.
It's one thing to have hidden cuts, it's another thing to have the intricacy of this puzzle of a fight scene,
where you're doing all these tricks and taking advantage of those hidden cuts.
W: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Is that Lieutenant Dan?
N: Forrest Gump, it's actually a treasure trove of amazing visual effects shots.
There's something very special about this shot.
There it is.
W: *in shock* Hold up, hold up!
N: The actor has legs by the way.
W: So there's one very very small thing that they did here that helps sell that he's missing legs.
Clint, did you see it?
C: Yeah, so if the actor has his legs, which I assume he does,
then how does he swipe his legs past the coffee table?
W: Yeah, exactly!
So here's what I think they did.
That table wasn't there when they filmed Gary's knees -
- and they added that table back in.
Because notice he never actually interacts with the table.
He walks behind the table, the other guy walks in front of the table.
The other guy being Tom Hanks.
N: And if you look really closely you can totally see the mask fringing on the table.
W: Oh, yeah, dude, we're right!
N: Yep.
C: So they had to recreate the stumps essentially, right?
N: Just, all in all, excellent, excellent CG work, but there's little touches like,
'Oh, lets have him swing his legs to where there's a table',
That just brings the world together and really, like, drives home the fact that like,
this character does not have legs.
N: So this one.. have you guys seen this movie before? 
W: Wait, is this the... is this...
Spider-Man, 1932?
N: Pleasantville.
W: PLEASANTVILLE! That's it.
N: The general premise of this movie is that, 
Peter Parker here has gone back in time -
He's gone back to like an idyllic 'Leave It to Beaver' style TV Show -
and he's basically broadening everyone's horizons, introducing them to modern America.
She's embarrassed that she's become colorized because she's becoming modernized -
She's becoming a modern woman,
 but she doesn't want her husband to see her that way.
So, she needs to have her face painted back to black and white.
W: So is it like,- what is he like putting on like green screen makeup and they're just coloring it to be silver?
N: You got it.
So all they're doing is putting a green screen key on it,
- and desaturating it and that's all they're doing. 
W: You could do this in DaVinci Resolve.
N: I don't know how they did this. The world is black and white
How do they get yellow light to shine on the characters and things in the world? 
C: Well, they're not filming in black and white
W: I haven't seen any yellow light yet
N: All right, so the yellow light on the fence there
You see that? The yellow light on the black? The black and white tree has yellow light on it.
C: Yeah, that's because they're not they're not filming in black and white
W: Yellow reflections on that truck. All right. Is this the results of a clever magic trick?
*Clint freakout*
C: They're not filming in black and white! They're not!
It's not in black and white! They're color correcting it
So it is in black and white and then they reveal it so that it looks like it
N: But that doesn't make sense Clint. 
C: What of course it makes sense! You just mask it and just track your mask
W: I mean, I agree with Clint on this that makes sense to me
you just do a luma key on anything that's like brights in the shot and then specifically mask out the
Spots that you need that are gonna be yellow, 
N: But I guess that fire truck can't be red, -
- that flag can't be red white and blue that house has to be painted white already because if you're going to let the colour through -
- the stuff that would have a color needs to be black and white for that colored light to be on it.
If you guys have any guesses as to how they did the yellow light shining on a black and white world here leave some comments below
If you happened to work on this movie, leave us an email.
W: I feel like this isn't that hard
C: It's just masks. they're just tracked masks
N: How are you tracking? If a guy has orange skin and I shot a yellow light on you...
C: You tint it. 
N: All right. I 'll show you guys a historical VFX shot
C: show me the one. 
N: This isn't computer graphics. The question is: Is this special effects or visual effects?
W: Whoa!
Okay the wig I get but there's like no cut. There's no transition on her face evolving and transforming.
N: How do you think they did it?
C: I know the answer
W: It's obviously some sort of optical effect here. 
C: Yeah, she's painted right?
N: Yes
C: It's a it's a transition revealing... So how would you hide the paint?
N: So I'll give you a hint? This is an effect that's only possible in black and white
W: Is there some sort of like lens filter that can't see a certain shade of makeup? 
N: Mm-hmm
W: Is that what's going... How would they... Okay, how would you do that? How would they change the optical filter?
N: It's quite simple actually
It's just a red and blue filter just like when you have like 3d glasses and where like
the red side doesn't let you see the red lines and the blue side doesn't let you see the blue lines
So you have a red filter in front of the camera and it's filtering out any red on her
So you have like all these red marks on her face,
But you can't see any of that because the red filter is cutting all of it out
You transition it to a blue filter and suddenly all those red splotches become bright and you can see all the luminance difference
Well, let's go to black and white
Now, let's just show only the blue channel because colors are made up of red, green and blue channels
So we show only the blue Channel this should look
Relatively dark and this should look relatively bright. Now if we flip it over and go only to the red Channel
This should look pretty dark and this should look bright when you go specifically to certain color channels
You get different luminance values and that's basically what they're doing with her face
W: The greatest thing about old movies like this is that they're still doing these crazy, for all intents and purposes, visual effects
But they don't have the same sort of tools that we have today and they have to be really really
Creative with how they go about achieving these visual results. Oh, oh my god. Is it finally happening?
Are we finally reviewing the worse that...
N: We can't do this? We can't do this here
W: Do you think we're gonna cover this scene? Get out of here!
N: We're gonna come back,
We'll hit on one of the worst effects shots of all time...
W: I don't think we should ever review this shot
N: You know what I think we should do?
I think we should try to fix this shot. If you guys want to see us do that video, please subscribe
W: And that's it! Thank you so much for chilling on the couch with us, as we learned some new things about visual effects.
C: That was a blast you guys! I'm just doing my best Wren impression right now. Thanks for watching -
- If you guys liked this video
Please subscribe to the channel
If you have a video or a movie or clip that you would like us to react to, hit subscribe
Leave a comment. We read them all. It's a blast
N: Wow. Dude am I surrounded by two Wrens?
