The Making of King Kong

December 19, 2005 11:59 AM

King Kong's Post Production Diary - videos of weekly progress, on all aspects of filmmaking, starting from the first day of post-production, upto the premiere.
posted by Gyan (18 comments total)

Ok. Not ALL aspects.

/pre-empting da snark
posted by Gyan at 12:02 PM on December 19, 2005

Broke down and saw this sucker.

Not horrible. Kept me entertained. Farily decent retelling of the story through most of it, though kind of goofy in parts, but then it IS about some giant ape falling for a blonde in a nighty.

The CGI really varied from great on Kong to pretty silly on the dino-stampede (Or was Kong all models/masks too?) A bit too much blurry-slow-mo stuff which seemed like a coverup for the weaker CGI parts. Insect scene was nice, but I guess that was all with actual models.

Strange that the news pundit brought up the racist angle on this as if anything it's much more sexist than racist.

Misandrist in its regarding males as being unable to resist the urge to go anywhere simply because there's some skinny blonde bimbo there. Also in that males are primitive monsters until some sweet thang comes and reforms them with her feminine 'beauty'.

Misogynist in its take that a women needs a raw monster man to sweep her off her feet, and has to play games to win her over. Upfront honesty surrenders.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10
posted by HTuttle at 12:20 PM on December 19, 2005

This is just a prelude to Peter Jackson's 4.5 hour Director's Cut.
posted by geoff. at 12:40 PM on December 19, 2005

I thought they took these down when they started selling the production diaries as a DVD?
posted by smackfu at 12:42 PM on December 19, 2005

HTuttle: huh? It sure seemed to me like the woman ended up with the sensitive writer, who she had a crush on the whole movie. She displayed affection for the Ape, yes, but I like to think women are capable of a wider range of emotion than ignore/lust. I thought her characterization was subtle and great - she recognized the intelligence and emotion in the Ape, but still tried to run away when she got the chance.
posted by freebird at 1:00 PM on December 19, 2005

I went to the picture, was gettin' a bit tired of all the animal fights...; half-way through left the cinema went across the street to the local pub - had a couple of drinks, chatted up the barmaid - walked back across the street, back into the cinema, and Monkey Boy was still fighting dinosaurs...
posted by jettloe at 1:21 PM on December 19, 2005

Strange that the news pundit brought up the racist angle on this as if anything it's much more sexist than racist.

You didn't think the aggressive, jet-black savages uulating and writhing, eyes rolled back in their heads as they sacrifice snow white cuite-pie Naomi Watts to a giant, lustful, native ape was a tad bit heavy handed?

I'm not saying they're meant to be racist, but Jesus, if ever there was a sterotype of the savage native it's in King Kong.
posted by SweetJesus at 1:43 PM on December 19, 2005

smackfu writes "I thought they took these down when they started selling the production diaries as a DVD?"

That was just the pre-production stuff (and possibly the production, I'm not sure).
posted by brundlefly at 1:43 PM on December 19, 2005

Advice to those who have not seen Kong yet:

It is good but long, so here are a few scenes you can safely skip out on and not miss anything relevent:

1. The dino-stampede: go buy your snacks and popcorn. You have a good 15 minutes, so maybe enough time for bathroom break too.

2. The bugs attack: 10 - 15 minutes. A good time to step out and check your voicemail, have a smoke, maybe bathroom.

3. The 3 T-rex trapeze act: Probably the most intolerably ridiculous abuse of CG in modern film... but the finale of the T-rex vs. Kong fight is sorta cool so if you don't need to pee you might want stay seated.

The last 40 minutes of the film builds into a great ending so I was able to forgive the three scenes mentioned here.

Yeah, I'd buy the DVD too.
posted by StarForce5 at 2:02 PM on December 19, 2005

so these production videos, which have been available on the website for the last 14 months, are now the best of the web.

Don't get me wrong, I've watched them, nearly all of them, but did it weekly, as posted. and while I can't find it, I thought it was already posted...

I like how the last entry has Jackson answering questions from fans, and he says one of the biggest surprises of making the movie was the length.
posted by Busithoth at 2:24 PM on December 19, 2005

Fascinating stuff. Thanks, Gyan.

Busithoth: "so these production videos, which have been available on the website for the last 14 months, are now the best of the web."

So you're saying the production videos were the best of the web when you saw them, but they're not any more? Righty-ho.
posted by jack_mo at 2:36 PM on December 19, 2005

Cool stuff...thanks, Gyan.

Hmm...I would've sworn the guidelines said "most people haven't seen it before," but darned if they don't say, "Busithoth hasn't seen it before."
posted by kirkaracha at 3:59 PM on December 19, 2005

You know what's funny about the movie? Everyone has different parts they disliked.

Me, I *loved* the midsection. The "horrible abuses of CG" were every bit as audacious and jaw-dropping as the ORIGINAL effects were in their day, and I have no doubt that was intentional.

Conversely, I found the third act the most annoying, because I feel like he descended into to pure melodrama and maudlin sentimentality. "Cry, damn you! CRRYYYY!!!!" he seems to be shouting as he spends 5 minutes in slow-mo as Kong ever-so-slowly slips off of the building.

The original version downplayed the tragedy. Jackson hits the audience over the head with it.

(that said, I still enjoyed the hell out of the movie, don't get me wrong. I just wish he had respected the audience a bit more in the end)
posted by InnocentBystander at 7:25 PM on December 19, 2005

Review of King Kong (1933)
posted by rxreed at 7:49 PM on December 19, 2005

wow, I guess it's a testament to my own bubble, as I'd thought people might've peeked at the previous FPP on the videos. I guess I'm suffering withdrawal from newer videos being released (though the previous FPP was more a reminder that I'd let a month pass without catching them).

Or maybe I was trying to give Gyan the snark he expected.

polly logies, wankers.
posted by Busithoth at 10:38 PM on December 19, 2005

Busithoth : "the previous FPP on the videos"

I blame Google and Yahoo.
posted by Gyan at 12:06 AM on December 20, 2005

King Long is seriously boring, almost as boring as these repeated discussions of it here on MeFi - oh, and don't believe the talk about cutting edge CGI - except for Kong, it is some of the shoddiest work ever...
posted by fairmettle at 5:17 AM on December 20, 2005

fairmettle, you're absolutely correct: ignore the focus of the film, Kong, and you've got an incredibly boring film. Surely the sky could've been more lovingly rendered...
posted by Busithoth at 8:28 AM on December 20, 2005