In Noah, Darren Aronofsky draws a clear comparison to the “slaughterhouse planet” we’ve become with our global dependence upon meat. It is partly the cause of Global warming and if it doesn’t stop soon, we’re all doomed. The Humane Society noticed that Aronofsky was using CGI instead of real animals and has decided to award him for it. Press release as follows.
“Noah” Director Honored for Use of CGI in Place of Real Animals
in the Making of the $359.2 Million Worldwide Box Office HitNEW YORK (October x, 2014) – The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced it will bestow the inaugural Humane Filmmaker award to director Darren Aronofsky at its “To the Rescue! New York 2014” benefit gala on Friday, November 21 at Cipriani. The award was created to recognize Aronofsky’s leadership and commitment to animal protection and welfare, as he demonstrated using CGI visual effects instead of live animal actors in his recent box office hit, “Noah,” which has garnered $359.2 million worldwide to date.
“I’m honored to accept the Humane Filmmaker award from The Humane Society of the United States,” said Aronofsky. “When I started working on ‘Noah,’ an early question was how to express the vastness and complexity of the animal kingdom on the big screen. It was quickly apparent that working with live animals would be dangerous for them. It was also morally ambiguous considering we were making a film about the first naturalist, Noah, who saved and cared for all the varied species on the planet. Luckily, CGI has evolved to a point where filmmakers can do almost anything and bring any creature to life. I was happy with the results, and I encourage other filmmakers to look at digital solutions before enlisting live animals.”
“We are thrilled to present Darren Aronofsky with the Humane Filmmaker award and applaud his compassionate decision to use CGI in ‘Noah,’” said Michelle Cho, Vice President of the Los Angeles office for The HSUS. “Darren’s ingenious film is a testament that animals can remain a cornerstone in entertainment without their welfare ever being put in jeopardy, and the worldwide box office success of ‘Noah’ proves that audiences find digital animals just as effective in storytelling.”
Plus, let’s face it, 4 times now, Michael Bay has made a Transfomers movie without the acting of real transformers.
Or, arguably, the acting of real people.
The Humane Society noticed that Aronofsky was using CGI instead of real animals and has decided to award him for it.
The use of animals in film is an issue that has concerned me for some years now. I think The Artist did it for me. Watching Uggie soullessly shuffle a skateboard across a talk show studio floor with nothing but desolation in his eyes killed a part of me, and awoke another part in its place.
That’s a fair point in describing him. I’ll take that.
Everything that you’ve just said is right, but it still leans more toward “we don’t want any nasty shit being talked about our movie” than “we care so much about animals that we’re going to give them a break”. When I think about Darren Aronofsky, the first words that pop into my head aren’t “animal lover”. More like “perfecionist and a relentless control freak (and by all means I see them as positive qualities in a director), who would probably loose his shit trying to direct live animals and would kill some of them himself in the process”.
Koles, of course a lot of it probably had to do with saving money but I can totally believe they also did it for the safety of the animals and to avoid controversy. As far as safety goes, would anybody really believe an elephant, a dog, a chicken, a snake and a tiger could all walk up against each other and not feel the need to attack? Also the show Luck got cancelled due to the death of multiple horses. That plus The Hobbit animal deaths I’m sure the last thing Aronofsky and company wanted was anything that would bring negative press to a movie that was already steeped in controversy. Could you imagine if real animals died on set? There would be a headline like, “Movie about saving animals from extinction has multiple animal deaths.”
Quite an interesting spin on the fact, that they were using CGI simply to lower the costs and have full control over the animals on screen. A CGI elephant does not have a trainer, does not need to be fed or rest every now and then, does not throw a fit or need to be transported to the set each shooting day. Sure, it’s nice that no real animals were in harms way, but I have a hard time believing that the decision was made because of safety reasons.
Not only did Darren Aronofsky make a movie with animals in it, without animals, he made a pretty darn good movie too.
Plus, let’s face it, 4 times now, Michael Bay has made a Transfomers movie without the acting of real transformers. 🙂
The CGI was very impressive for this film. I remember hearing L&M saying it was the most complex rendering they’ve ever done.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/11172519/Vegetarians-have-much-lower-sperm-counts.html
’nuff said! Males need to keep eating meat or else it’s the end of us.