Who'd like the idea of having classic KR scenes modernized?

[Michael Pajaro]

Here's the problem: real cars can't leap into the air all by themselves. If we want them to go without CGI, then we're going to have to settle for the same cheats we saw 20 years ago: strategically placed bushes and cars to hide the ramps and quick camera edits to create the illusion of a smooth take-off and landing. Personally, I'd rather see something new: no bushes, no edits, just one big happy turbo boost.

[knightendo]

well maybe they could use a LITTLE cgi on the take off for a few seconds that maybe we wouldn't notice, but as for being air-born and the landing i think real stuntwork will always be more spectacular than cgi any day in a movie such as knight rider. big disaster movies like day after tomorrow, or the new take on the war of the worlds currently being planned, these movies ofcourse need cgi i'm not denying it can be used to great effect at times... but knight rider should be about the real stunts as much as possible.

[Skav]

i'm with phil, i have no prob with cgi being used as a last resort and being used to do things that are really impossible to do in real life...but what do you think would get a bigger reaction...amazing stunts that are performed in real life...which is what made kr so special...or cgi stunts that would get a moderate, same old same old, reaction from audiences with cgi?

if the new film is to be special, they should do real stunts.

btw, sith, your argument about models being the equivalent of playing with a train set is flawed...why watch the show in the first place if you can't tolerate them?

it's all personal opinion, i think models look good and more artistic than cgi. as phil said, crap cgi like in the new bond hardly looked artistic did it?

since everyone put their own personal choice of film down to use best cgi...i would go for T2...and that was the beginning of the big phase of future films to use cgi....apart from a few choice films like jurassic park, a lot of cgi looks very poor indeed, because, i feel, they overdo it.

T3 was good cos they went back to old fashioned robots and animatronics again, mixed with cgi.

i want to see more of that.

i also agree that wire work fighting isn't that great..there was a bit in freddy vs jason where freddy got thrown into some pipes and the way he went back into those pipes was up and straight back...very robotic like.

eugh.

[knightendo]

nicely said lee. some movies you know going in that they're going to be filled with cgi and if the movie is something like the perfect storm that's ok, that looked great and there was no other way of achieving that. but when you go to see knight rider you're not expecting it all to be cgi. spm in cgi while KITT is moving would look great, and maybe use it to touch up a turbo boost or something... lee is right T3 looked spectacular because of its blend between top of the range cgi and real stuntwork and animatronics. this should be the way forward, but instead T3 is the exception rather than the rule and a lot of directors want to use nothing BUT cgi... which is a very boring way of doing things.

T3 showed, in the same way as jurassic park did, that a mix of whatever techniques are called for works best, rather than going in with the attitude of "this is going to be all cgi" before even thinking about what would be the best route.

[Lost Knight]

Back to the opinion that original episodes shouldn't be touched....I agree with this for the most part. My opinions were basically geared toward any possible future Knight Rider movies rather than the original question of going back and touching up the old show itself.

Anyway, the reason I say for the most part is: our Knight Rider DVD set is not left alone, it has been touched up. And I'm not just talking about any digital transfer work for a sharper picture, I'm also talking about cropped shots to hide microphones sticking out and little things like that. It may be like a type of correction, but it is still not technically untouched.

Of course I don't have a problem with this at all, I love the clearer picture and other changes. I'm just saying that I think the only cases in which an old picture should be altered are to clean up things like "snow," ect., not in cases like Star Wars where CGI effects are placed into old shots and things like that.

[Skav]

i have to ask this since i didn't get a response in another thread...just where were these microphones sticking out?

i, for one, didn't spot any technical faults like this.

[Lost Knight]

I never knew about any of this either before the DVDs, but I think the reason you didn't spot any technical faults was because of the tweaking.

[Skav]

i am talking about watching it before the dvd's came along. never saw any mikes of sort.

[Lost Knight]

I do remember in one episode seeing a black visor over the camera lens at the top of the screen, at least I assume it was a visor to prevent sun glare. I'm really not sure here and don't remember the title of the episode, but I think it might have been the one where some criminal recognizes Michael as Michael Long. It was definately in either season 2 or season 3.

As for season one, I would have never remembered any mics or other things visible because that season I've seen the least on syndication. I was also much younger the last time I saw any season 1 episodes on TV and wasn't as observant as I am now having the DVDs. A lot of people think that no shots were even cropped at all in the first place.

[Skav]

that's what i mean...:S...i haven't noticed any difference between the original and remastered dvd's apart from superior pic and sound quality...no other technical changes, i've noticed.

oh well.

[knightendo]

didn't forget me not from season one have a visor of sorts over the camera visible when KITT was releasing himself from the cars the valet guy had pushed up against him? it's not in the DVD, was that fixed or am i thinking of another episode from another season...?

[Skav]

watching Slammin Sammy's today, i have noticed something....usually, you could see michael's hands on the round steering wheel from the front view at the bottom of the screen...on the dvd, you just see his hands making a steering motion...guess they cropped the picture to cut that out, which is a good thing.

it was always distracting.

must say, Slamminy Sammy's did have poor camera direction, which if noticed, does destract from the great stunts achieved in the ep.