Friday, February 1, 2019

Tomb Raider - Alicia Vikander (2018) - View from the Peak, Hong Kong

Okay, I'm off for a few weeks for Chinese New Year and will return with the Strangers posts at the end of the month. But before I go here is a quickie involving last year's reboot of Tomb Raider

Perhaps in a bit of a homage to the previous version of Lara Croft, some of the action from the reboot supposedly takes place in Hong Kong and we are given a typical Hong Kong harbour view in order to establish that that's where the action has moved to.


However, it turns out (after some of the scenery in the background didn't make sense to me, see bottom image) that the key Hong Kong-based scene - supposedly shot in Aberdeen Harbour when Croft goes to find the boat her father was on - wasn't filmed in Hong Kong at all but was actually shot on a well crafted studio set in South Africa.

I must admit it had me fooled for a few seconds because it blends real superimposed shots of the harbour with what appears to be computer generated buildings. So I have included a couple of examples below. The first image shows a superimposed view along the real Aberdeen Harbour in the top half of the screen, with the South African set in the bottom half. You can achieve a view like this if you stand on the breakwater at the western end of the harbour, but there are no flat concrete piers there. Still, it's very convincing.

Real Aberdeen top, fake Aberdeen bottom

The next shot shows where the CGI buildings appear. They look sort of Hong Kong style I suppose but anyone familiar with Aberdeen will know that there are no buildings like this at that location. They look okay on film but closer scrutiny reveals the slightly computer-generated quality to them.

Fake Aberdeen top, fake Aberdeen bottom

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

When I saw the movie last year I have a feeling that the typhoon shelter scene didn't look right. They have explained it in the bluray bonus section how they shoot it.

T

Phil said...

Hi Thomas, I must admit to only being a newcomer to the world of bluray...I'm about 10 years behind the technology at least :). Actually, the scene was well done because I had to take a really good look to figure it out, so I take my hat off to the special effects dept because it is very convincing. Cheers, Phil

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

I have an impression that none of the scene was actually filmed in Aberdeen. I will watch the Bluray Bonus section again and get back to you.

T

Phil said...

Hi Thomas, yes, that was my point. None of it was filmed there. I am sure the actual Aberdeen background was most likely taken from stock footage. Cheers, Phil

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