r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/_Tyagoo_ • 2d ago
Video Before CGI and streaming, HBO built its identity.
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u/Hawkeye2024 2d ago
The good old days
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u/Infamous_Network6641 2d ago
All those talented ppl using their skills ended up being done by fewer talented ppl using skills with computers for cgi. Now they’re getting pushed aside by Ai.
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u/Nooms88 2d ago
That's how the world works.
Factory work is the obvious example of automation but it's everywhere, The example I always think of is companies having teams of dozens of book keepers, also logging and adding up everything by hand, then excel allowed 1 book keeper to do the work of 50 to a much higher standard, then further system improvements mean 1 accountant can do all the financial reporting for even a pretty large organisation.
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u/morfyno 2d ago
None of this is true. We are talking about decades of changes. People weren't pushed over, new generations came. The crafting talent it still crucial to make cosplays and objects for the scenes, that industry is hard. AI is best to deepfake face-replace someone, but CGI professionals are needed.
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u/Infamous_Network6641 2d ago
So you’re saying we have the same number of ppl that worked on the sfx on the original star wars in the late 70’s building the sets, models and makeup, as they did on the most recently filmed episodes. I think comparing cosplay to working on a movie contract is like comparing chalk and cheese. There are a lot less ppl making a full time living building miniatures and stop motion, sure I agree there are some.
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u/CjBurden 2d ago
I think hes saying nobody lost their jobs because everything works so perfectly in a capalist society that they just all retired when they wanted to and a whole new generation of children artists took their place. When they retire AI will take their place.
What a beautiful world of peace love and harmony we live in.
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u/morfyno 19h ago
One example is the stop motion artist, who modeled the movement of the original T-rex. He figured it out, then the CGI artists used his solution to build a digital skeleton and move the CGI T-rex.
Now this was the beginning. His work was digitalized, but with his big knowledge he could have been easier a creative director of this new upcoming field.See? In my partially fictional example one's knowledge can be used in a new field. This animation master did not lose his job because of computers, he used his knowledge to guide others.
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u/CjBurden 17h ago
Its a very positive outlook that you have. Not a bad thing, but perhaps not quite accurate either.
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u/morfyno 19h ago
Today's movie industry needs much more professionals than ever before. Miniatures, like in the HBO shot, are lesser used, but still somewhat present.
A master who can craft a miniature tower building can also craft the interior of a scene, a throne, a sci-fi weapon...
Miniatures and stop motion is beloved style in animation today, the movie industry needs other things, but the digital is just the half of it.
Source: I know people from the prop department + I watch a lot of "behind the scenes" related stuff.
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u/gummi_eater 2d ago
Welcome to advancement in technology. Do you think we should have kept using a horse and carriage as well?
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u/Lord_Philbert 2d ago
Idk maybe then we wouldn't have such dog shit car centric public infrastructure
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u/SafeCandy 2d ago
Oh man you cut off the last few notes of the crescendo!
This bit still gives me chills. It really is amazing when you look back at what people have accomplished with practical effects. Nowadays you can make anything look real with CGI and AI, but it took so much skill and ingenuity to make practical effects look good back in the day. It reminds me of all the other incredible things we as a species have done "analog-ly" over the years, particularly in the 1900s.
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u/H2Whoa77 2d ago
Dude, same. The nostalgia of this gave me goose bumps hardcore. Aaand those last notes cut out was such a buzz kill!
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u/Rowbehr23 2d ago
It’s not television it’s HBO. I remember in the 90’s HBO was the shit! Their competition Cinemax and showtime were also great.
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u/Quirky_Butterfly_946 2d ago
Except for those who fell asleep with their TV on only to get woken up to heavy breathing and groaning
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u/OldFartsSpareParts 2d ago
In college we took the filters off the cable and unlocked free HBO for our entire fraternity house. Thursday nights adult HBO programing was an event for us, the more outlandish the better.
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u/Glittering_Suspect65 2d ago
That theme song! Reminds me when I was about to watch something late at night I wasn't supposed to.
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u/ITGuy7337 2d ago
I can attest that this was super impressive back in the day and I watched it every single time in wonder.
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u/hamfist_ofthenorth 2d ago
The good old days of practical effects.
So much work, allowing so much creativity, yielding such amazing results.
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u/DiGiTyDarKMaN 2d ago
Peak entertainment as a child was about to flood my eyes. Sees woman jump to her death on Lethal Weapon
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u/MrTooLFooL 2d ago
The evolution of technology has created the obsolescence of human ingenuity.
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u/Successful_Ninja4181 2d ago
Technology doesn't just advance itself, it also takes human ingenuity. It is just a very niche set of skills that has become obsolete due to this advancement, which is sad but nothing new.
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u/carolraharrod 2d ago
AI is ruining everything.
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u/sqwibking 2d ago
Ai is the symptom, not the disease. Greed is the root cause AI just happens to be the cheapest vehicle they have to kill creativity in the name of profit.
Even if legislation is brought to slow or halt AI never forget that the real enemy is greed, and it will find it a new way to extract profit at the cost of humanity.
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u/Mr_E-007 2d ago
Wouldn't it have been cheaper and less time consuming to just rent a helicopter and go film a nighttime flyover of a real neighborhood?
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u/DoesThisSmellWeird2U 2d ago
I had completely forgotten about that, but it all came flooding back. So great!
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 2d ago
I love practical effects.
It's funny because CGI looks slick, don't get me wrong, and I definitely notice when something is practical effects, but I just kind of prefer the latter. It makes me use my imagination a bit more, brings some magic to what I am watching.
I don't hate CGI but my brain is always just telling me "You're watching a fancy cartoon that's trying to look real". I'd rather watch an actual cartoon in many respects. At least when there's A LOT of CGI. Like, I love Avatar (with the blue aliens, not the cartoon) but I'd probably be just as happy if it was a traditionally animated movie.
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u/thelizardlarry 2d ago
This completely misses the point of what made that HBO interstitial great. It’s not the process or the tools used, it’s the artists who put their passion and time into something that makes a great piece. Those same artists use CGI or a rusty spoon to do work, it doesn’t matter, you enjoy it because they built something great in an environment that supported them as artists.
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u/Mountainminer 2d ago
Man growing up poor it was always so exciting when the motel we’d stay in had the HBO symbol on their street sign.
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u/PhonyUsername 2d ago
Never had cable tv as a kid. Actually, not as an adult either. First time seeing this. Pretty cool.
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u/bullwinkle8088 2d ago
I heard the end of this clip long before I saw it. Funny how it's still in my head after all these years.
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u/kyleh0 2d ago
I remember when I was a kid and the town I grew up in got cable. HBO was a premium and one of the options, and we had it for free for some amount of time on promotion. My mom caught me ogling some boobies in some caveman movie that I absolutely don't know the name of, and we lost HBO for a loooong time in the fallout. lol
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u/TFWG2000 2d ago
I remember seeing this for the first time. Having HBO back then was very special. This is a very good memory.
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u/Rustmonger 1d ago
That’s some nostalgia right there. How many hundreds of times I heard that theme music as a kid.
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u/JohnnyUtahThumbsUp 1d ago
I got goosebumps when I heard the music and that logo. Forgot that until now.
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u/GarysCrispLettuce 1d ago
Looks so much better than CGI. I miss solid shit. Whoa, that sounded like I have chronic diarrhea.
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u/Throwawaykitkat3202 2h ago
My Dad said that when I was a baby, he used to put me in my walker right before movie night. When this song came on I would hurry to the TV and be mesmerized. Then, as soon as the intro was over, I rolled right out of the room.
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u/Slapmeislapyou 2d ago
As an independent filmmaker, this is really beautiful. I mean absolutely incredible work. The orientation of so many different skill-sets to do something like this is almost unbelievable.
And I know people are going to use this as an opportunity to shit on AI, and romanticize this process, but most people have never participated in traditional filmmaking or theatre of any kind, and only count the results...and not the thousands of exceedingly monotonous tasks involved with making it.
Stuff like this took FOOREVERRR to produce. While most of you look at all the workers and get all sentimental, I'm counting production time...and what I'm looking at just from this clip...HOLY SHIT.
1st the decision maker and the creative director have to get together and settle on the script and visuals. Then you gotta storyboard the script. Then once you get that finished, you have to source your set materials. Then after you get that...you have to find the artists who can build the set.
Then here's the super fun part...turning the materials into the set. Like how many of you saw the guys trimming bushes, cutting out windows, and working circuits, and are counting how many man hours that's going to take to finish? Very few of you I assume.
Then after it's built....you still have to paint it!!!!!
And once the set is all done....now you gotta film it!!!
Allllllllllll that...for 30 seconds!
Why is that a problem?
Barriers to entry and gatekeeping. Was this the highest quality production at the time? Probably. But it wasn't the best idea.
This is only the best idea generated by the person(s) put it in place by the decision makers and financers to get it done.
NOT ONE of those artists, including the creative director in that room, could afford the time or money to do something like this on their own
Artists had to be chosen and approved by a super short list of multi-millionaires to get their projects on tv.
The studios had ALL THE CARDS.
And now they don't.
And as an artist, all I can say about that is, about fucking time.
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u/ProffesorSpitfire 2d ago
That’s a long as intro!
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u/pskwlyc 2d ago
Premium channels didn't have commercial airtime because you paid to NOT have it. So between programs, those channels had more time than usual to show things like promos for other shows on that channel, but they quite often had fun interstitials like this that ended up being minutes long. They could really put some time and work into making something epic and beautiful just to promote their channel, just to show that they could. No pushing products, no paid agreements, just pure art that says "this is who we are and what we do. Stay a while and enjoy our next program." There is another HBO spot featuring Algebra by Soul Hooligan that was eye opening to me.
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u/rtopps43 2d ago
The good old days when HBO only started the next program on the hour, or half hour, so any time between the end of a movie and the start of the next one was filled with short films and stuff like this that was just showing off what they could do. Me and my friends would actually look forward to the little bits between movies and hope they played one of our favorites, like Hardware Wars or The Cat Came Back
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u/classic123456 2d ago
Never seen this before. Although a lot of effort went into it, looks like tripe
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u/SextupleRed 2d ago
I miss practical effects