Ninja Assassin Effects Tech: John Gaeta Interview (Boing Boing Video)

This episode of Boing Boing Video is brought to you by www.wepc.com Academy Award-winning special effects designer John Gaeta (Matrix, Speed Racer) talks with Boing Boing about the technology and the human talent behind the forthcoming movie Ninja Assassin, directed by James McTeigue. Along the way, we explore a broader realm of questions about the future of games, movies, and interactive entertainment. Will movies become more like games, offering new ways for us to insert ourselves inside the stories? Who will create them, using what tools, and how will the experience be different? Will computer-generated actors replace human actors, or stunt persons — or will the two realms overlap in ways we can’t yet predict? All of this we ask of the guy who invented “bullet time.” Due in theaters this fall, director James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin follows the story of Raizo (played by Asian mega-popstar Rain), one of the world’s most deadly assassins. As Gaeta explains in this video, the movie merges blindingly badass Bruce-Lee-esque martial arts stunt work with tastefully integrated “virtual” work. BB blog post, with extended interview transcript of a longer conversation we had about the future of interactivity and “hybrid entertainment” — and why Hollywood is, in Gaeta’s words, “like a mule.” www.boingboing.net