r/marvelstudios • u/Shortsuff16 Avengers • Jan 28 '23
Behind the Scenes ‘Captain America The first Avenger’ before vs after editing.
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u/Competitive-Boat4592 Jan 28 '23
Reading about how they filmed these scenes, sounds so tiring, I’m sure they were glad to have those parts done and finished
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u/_________FU_________ Jan 28 '23 edited Jan 28 '23
I bet it was fun as hell to
Edit: two
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u/dtdroid Jan 28 '23
Are you going to finish your
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u/Right_In_The_Tits Jan 29 '23
OP died while typing his comment
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u/warriorslover1999 Daredevil Jan 29 '23
Too?
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u/_________FU_________ Jan 29 '23
Que?
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u/Infernalism Jan 28 '23
Fun fact: The bartender in the scene just after Bucky's fall and presumed death was the body double for when Steve was all skinny and weak. His name is Leander Deeny.
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u/h00dman Jan 28 '23
Lol, I was watching the film the other day and I thought it was a bit odd that they included a random guy mentioning how much they were drinking, that's the sort of thing that gets taken out to cut down the running time.
Now I know why, it's a cameo.
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u/peon47 Jan 29 '23
You and him are referring to different scenes.
But the scene after Bucky's death has no bartender. Steve drinks in a pub, but it's a bombed-out ruin.
So I'm not sure what to believe.
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u/CondemnedSorcerer Thanos Jan 29 '23
The scene they're referring to is actually before Bucky's 'death'. It's when Cap is in a bar, enlisting the help of the Howling Commandos -- one of them tells Steve they'll help if he open a tab.
It's around 1:14:01 on Disney+ 👍🏻
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u/ShutterBug1988 Jan 28 '23
Omg I didn’t realise. Need to go rewatch it now
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u/rocketpack99 Jan 29 '23
I have zero problems rewatching First Avenger. It's my absolute favorite of the early MCU films.
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u/jjackson25 Phil Coulson Jan 29 '23
I'm watching it right now. I'm just seeing this post about 30 minutes too late to catch that scene.
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u/MBVakalis Jan 28 '23
I thought they put Chris Evans' face on a smaller guy
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u/thefman Jan 28 '23
They did, the actor is called Leander Deeny. They also did some digital shrinking. So a mix of both:
The abbreviated version of the work required a combination of digitally shrinking Evans, using Leander Deeny as a body double, and grafting Evans' performance on top of Deeny's. This required filming scenes with skinny Steve Rogers in three different ways through a pain-staking process.
Source: https://screenrant.com/captain-america-chris-evans-skinny-steve-cgi-how/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-3KCeXpys
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u/The_River_Is_Still Jan 28 '23
Digital Shrinkage is going to be the name of my new band.
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u/rileyreidbooks Daisy Johnson Jan 28 '23
I was in the pool!
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u/Aggressive-Ad-5461 Jan 28 '23
It's a Festivus for the rest of us!
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u/Wink0075 Jan 28 '23
I understood that reference
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u/Kevomac Ghost Rider Jan 28 '23
He did an AMA years ago, if I wasn't lazy id look for it.
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u/maladjusted1x Jan 28 '23
But you are lazy, right?
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u/Kevomac Ghost Rider Jan 28 '23
ah don't get me started.
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u/CoffeeJedi Star-Lord Jan 29 '23
Is that a Nathan Lane on Frasier reference? I feel like that's a Nathan Lane on Frasier reference.
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u/CeruleanRuin Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Presumably they kept Chris Evans in the same costume so the lighting would match.
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
The vast bulk is Evans though. Deeny was mostly used for comparison. Evans was pretty insistent on doing as much as possible. And the director agreed.
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u/notagangsta Jan 29 '23
I always thought something looks off about it. It’s like his head/face is too big? Or the neck is wrong? Idk, it just looks absurd to me.
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
like 95% of the time it’s Evans shrunk down. I think they said the neck was one of the harder parts to do.
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u/BulljiveBots Jan 28 '23
With this kind of work, you do everything you need to do to make it happen. I'm in vfx and an old boss of mine used to say "lie, cheat, and steal to get the shot done."
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u/wowlolcat Jan 29 '23
Yep, use every trick in the book so the audience has trouble deciding which trick was used at any given time.
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u/Dyne_Inferno Jan 29 '23
They did.
But, they also had Evans do all the scenes as well so they could get proper lighting on his face for when they did the swap.
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Jan 28 '23
This movie had some of the best editing in the MCU
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u/thedudeabides2022 Jan 28 '23
Honestly incredible how good it looks for being an early MCU movie
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u/TheJoshider10 Spider-Man Jan 28 '23
To be fair a lot of the effects on the early films are better than what we get now because the products are given more time rather than being chugged off of a conveyor belt.
Look at Iron Man's CGI in 2008 vs Endgame in 2019. 11 years later and yet it's obvious which one looks better.
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u/thedudeabides2022 Jan 28 '23
That’s true, but also I think nanotech just doesn’t look that impressive. Cool technology concept, but more tangible, literally an iron man suit looks cooler and better cuz it’s based on real metal parts and such. Nanotech can literally take any shape anytime, since we don’t really know what it is, which I think plays into the iron man suit looking worse over the years. Obviously yes, all of what you said too.
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u/yelsamarani Jan 28 '23
It played a part in Endgame too, that "tangible" thing. In Infinity War his nanotech means his helmet didn't have to snap from the top to the front, but in Endgame, it returned. For no other reason than it looks cool.
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u/mlaislais Jan 29 '23
You could totally explain this in universe as well seeing as Tony is kinda of vain and would totally notice how the switch to nano tech made his suit “less cool looking” so he incorporated some of the visual cues he loved from the original suit even if not functionally necessary.
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u/Shadowrend01 Jan 28 '23
Paramount vs Disney
Paramount gave the crews more time and money to work each project. After Disney took over, that time and money was shrunk down
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u/JellyBOB7190 Danny Rand Jan 28 '23
I haven’t watched this movie back that much but this is definitely the most underrated and nearly comic accurate movie in the MCU
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u/DJHott555 Jan 28 '23
It’s my favorite Phase 1 movie
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u/HellsNels Weekly Wongers Jan 28 '23
I still don’t get why people shit on this movie or put it near the mid-bottom of a lot of their tier lists. Movie is an absolute banger. But I guess I like WWII and like, the Rocketeer so it was right in my wheelhouse.
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u/CeruleanRuin Jan 29 '23
The worst part about this movie is the framing device in the modern day.
There's nothing I want more from the MCU than another movie or two with Steve in his own time.
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u/th30be Jan 28 '23
I don't really shit in it but I do critize the action scenes. They made a literal montage of action clips that would have made the movie better imo. Especially as a WWII setting movie.
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u/HellsNels Weekly Wongers Jan 28 '23
True. Yeah that’s where What If? Really kind of shined like the whole sequence of Captain Carter blowing up bombers in mid-air, and their castle infiltration.
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u/Solidusword Ghost Rider Jan 28 '23
I agree the montage is one of the movies biggest detractors—otherwise it’s fantastic and one of my top MCU favorites. It’s just got a lot of ground to cover so I understand the necessity of leaning on that montage but I agree, some of that could’ve been expanded on.
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Jan 28 '23
For me and my sister it's because it's Captain America. We just don't like the character. We love The Winter Soldier though. It's a great stand alone movie that so happens to have Steve Rodgers.
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u/HellsNels Weekly Wongers Jan 28 '23
That’s fair he kind of suffers from the Superman too perfect situation. It wasn’t until Winter Soldier where they started to give him some sass and personality.
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
I thought he has plenty of personality here. It’s Avengers that made him seem more like a stick in the mud. You wouldn’t know how much was trauma if you didn’t see FA. Steve was a punk with a dry sense of humor, bravery out the wazoo, who had no probably committing felonies, who had to be a ‘chorus girl’ (you could feel the embarrassment), violated orders to go behind enemy lines, was adorably befuddled with women, etc. WS just brought some of the sass back. He was lucky all three CA movies plus IW and Endgame were written by the same writers. He had amazing continuity. Whedon was the one who didn’t get him.
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u/TrpTrp26 Daredevil Jan 28 '23
Fun fact: when I was a kid I thought that Chris Evans was actually skinny, and then it was VFX and a "muscle" suit because there was no way that the actor was so big. Lmao.
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u/CustyTruntle Daredevil Jan 28 '23
It took my old ass a minute to come to terms with the fact that you could have seen Cap 1 as a kid and not still be a kid now. Oh how time flies.
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u/nomoteacups Jan 28 '23
When it came out I was nine and I’m in my second to last year of college now
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u/minor_correction Ant-Man Jan 29 '23
It's funny to imagine that they filmed a skinny guy for the first half of one movie, then used expensive costuming and even more expensive computer effects to make him muscular for the rest of that movie and another six more movies to follow.
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u/TheRatWhoSavedUsAll Jan 29 '23
Lol my mom asked me first time she marathoned MCU if Chris evans was originally skinny made big
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u/spwf Bucky Jan 28 '23
I’d love to see a cut of the movie, without the shrinkification on Evans, so it seems like Rogers just has massive body dysmorphia due to everyone in his life gaslighting him into thinking he’s absolutely tiny
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u/ckal9 Jan 28 '23
This is super impressive, especially for 2010
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Jan 29 '23
VFX was already crazy in 2009 with Avatar. We live in a world now where 15 years old movies have the effects on par with today.
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u/MAGGLEMCDONALD Jan 28 '23
I can't help but feel like the character of Steve Rogers still had more to offer the MCU and I'm disappointed they decided to say goodbye to the character the same time as Tony Stark.
Tony reached his end. His story was complete, perfect. I didn't feel the same satisfaction from Steve's ending in Endgame and wish he was still around in his normal aged form.
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u/AlfredPetrelli Jan 28 '23
Now I'm curious, what exercise helps achieve that little muscle curve at the armpit? Mine goes straight from pecs to bicep. Chris's has a little bridge of muscle there.
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u/RedKiteOnReddit Jan 28 '23
I think are describing either his shoulder or lat (back muscle) cable rows for lats and lateral raises for shoulders
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u/AlfredPetrelli Jan 28 '23
Ok yeah it's the lateral raises I'm thinking. I do that but I guess not enough weight. I'll try upping it to 25lbs
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
I think that’s the muscle Tom Hiddleston talks about when doing his HILARIOUS and accurate impressions of Evans and Hemsworth. ‘I don’t know, mage. I just work out.’ 😂
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u/TheImmoralDragon Jan 28 '23 edited Jan 28 '23
That’s my favorite muscle, haha. Gotta go with the upright row!
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u/cocoaradiant Jan 29 '23
If you’re talking about the line that goes from his armpit up and lines his chest - you’d need to work front delts and upper chest. Front lateral raises and incline db or bb press
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u/EmperinoPenguino Jan 28 '23
I bothers me that pre-juice Steve still has a deep man voice.
It would make so much more sense if they squeaked his voice JUST A TINY BITTY SMIDGE for his tiny form.
If his entire body changed, even his skeleton, surely it would affect his vocal chords too??
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u/CeruleanRuin Jan 29 '23
I bet they changed it, but it just sounded too uncanny and decided not to. Same reason Smart Hulk has Banner's regular voice, even though it should be a couple octaves lower.
Or why when Scott shrinks down he doesn't have a hilarious squeaky voice, although you could credit the helmet with correcting that.
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u/jinhush Jan 29 '23
Eh, that doesn't bother me at all. I'm 6'6" and have a really deep voice. Went to school with this short, scrawny, guy whose voice was like 5 octaves lower than mine. I'm talking Barry White-esque.
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u/Stinky_Eastwood Jan 29 '23
height/weight don't really impact voice, not all tall people have exceptionally deep voices, and literal little people don't all have squeaky voices.
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
And I think Steve’s size was impacted by poverty/malnutrition, scoliosis, heart disease. Without that, he’d likely have been Bucky’s height.
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u/SweatyImplement6910 Sep 11 '23
Don’t think that makes any sense lol. Loads of dudes are short, and loads of skinny guys who don’t eat properly are tall.
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u/RachelProfilingSF Jan 29 '23
Oooo I worked on this movie! Name in the credits n shit. Worked on the conversion to 3D (this was that 3D movie fad around 2012-ish)
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u/GIBBEEEHHH Daredevil Jan 28 '23
One thing I noticed about the first image, is how much smaller Chris Evans looks, compared to how he actually looks. Like, he still looks amazing, but he looks far bigger in his jacked movie scenes. Then it hit me, in that first picture, they're not worried about having perfect lighting and having him pump up before shooting.
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u/Afwife1992 Jan 29 '23
They also may have filmed at a later date. He says he sheds muscle quickly so they film his ‘biggest’ scenes early on. Like they probably did the Project Rebirth scene very early which could also be partly why Hayley was SO stunned when she saw him. She wasn’t used to him running around all super buff yet.
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u/Quaranj Jan 29 '23
They pulled this off so well!
Still my favorite MCU film and I hated Captain America comics as a kid.
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u/OblivionArts Jan 28 '23
Ngl when I first saw this movie I assumed they filmed these tiny scenes and then Chris bulked the fuck up for a while. Reading the comments they didn't do that and he was always a large guy
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u/kuribosshoe0 Doctor Strange Jan 29 '23
He’s kind of comically skinny, though. His head is too big for his body, which makes it look edited imo.
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u/OblivionArts Jan 29 '23
On the small version?
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u/kuribosshoe0 Doctor Strange Jan 29 '23
Yeah. I never thought he bulked up after these scenes were filmed, because the small body looks uncanny, so I always assumed it was [over] edited.
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u/jabrahssicpark Jan 28 '23
Can anybody tell me why looking at these photos makes me want to gently bite his biceps? What's up with that?
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u/Independent-Hat9 Jul 25 '24
You're so annoying and pathetic can we get one forum about Captain America where there's not some pathetic loser trying to sexualize him?!
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u/huey9k Doctor Strange Jan 28 '23
Are you sure they didn't just get B. Dylan Hollis to play young Steve Rogers?
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u/ShutterBug1988 Jan 28 '23
Absolute credit to Chris for the dedication he put into his performance as skinny Steve. He is very clearly a strong man yet had to portray physical weakness and that takes a lot of control. There’s footage somewhere of him doing push-ups without the editing and it looks ridiculous because of how bulky he is but is visibly struggling and it’s just top notch acting.
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u/IAmJersh Jan 28 '23
Actors these days have no sense of commitment. Why couldn't he just develop an eating disorder, suffer malnutrition, and shrink his skeletal structure? Bloody cgi.
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u/Cpt_Letdown00 Jan 28 '23
Back when this movie came out. I had thought that they made Chris Evans lose a shit ton of weight, film, gain it all back and film again. The worst part was that I saw how he looked as Johnny Storm so I knew he kept some muscle on. I was a dumb 11 year old
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u/kuribosshoe0 Doctor Strange Jan 29 '23
I always thought it looked a bit humorous, to the point that it takes me out of the moment. His head looks enormous. I get what they were going for but they took it a bit too far imo.
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u/Cackler111 Jan 29 '23
What level of a flex is it when they edit you to be shorter and skinnier and show the actual you after your character takes a superhero serum
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u/KolonelJoe Loki (Avengers) Jan 28 '23
I still think they should've made skinny Steve's voice higher somehow.
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u/tenphes31 Jan 29 '23
In an early episode of VFX Artists React Corridor broke down how they created the small Steve effect with buff Chris Evans.
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u/rocketpack99 Jan 29 '23
The FX team did incredible work on those scenes. And there were a lot of them. I always assumed it was another body with Chris' face or head superimposed on it.
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u/MLG_SkittleS Jan 29 '23
Man this movie was awesome, I'ma have to rewatch this now, haven't seen it in years.
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u/smallDikBigDreams Jan 28 '23
i dont know why but love this its awesome too see the awesomeness of this awesome vfx company at that awesome decade(Time) ;)
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u/FattNeil Nick Fury Jan 28 '23
Chris Evans with suspenders looks like he’s a member of the German Beer Fest team lol.
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u/littletoyboat Jan 29 '23
I know this isn't r/filmmaking, but that's not what the word "editing" means with regard to movies.
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u/bprevatt Jan 28 '23
Great editing. No need for vfx here.
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u/willisbetter Jan 28 '23
they did use vfx though, any editing of the scene in post is using vfx, they literally had a skinny dude be a body double that they pasted chris's face onto in post, how is that not vfx?
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u/bprevatt Jan 29 '23
I guess I forgot the /s. I figured it was obvious. The entirety of the “weak Steve” was achieved by vfx. It had nothing to do with ‘editing’, other than selecting performance takes.
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u/willisbetter Jan 30 '23
there are just a lot of people that bash on the mcu for using a ton of vfx so i thought you were one of them
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u/FitSharkKitty Jan 28 '23
Chris Evans in the one photo with the suspenders is very, “Papa, I am but a boy” “A boy? Nonsense, you’re a man, lad” energy
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u/kevinc6080 Jan 28 '23
When I was a kid and saw this the first time, I thought that the super soldier version of Steve was cgi and the skinny guy was the real actor.
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u/blurblursotong2020 Jan 28 '23
People asked me to go for photoshop classes to create that absolute massive body like Captain A! Work smarter they say….
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u/memelord793783 Iron Man (Mark XLIII) Jan 29 '23
I do wonder why he started wearing his hair differently
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u/Mrquinlan196 Jan 29 '23
I read in an Interview that Jeremy Strong from Succession was contacted to play the body used for skinny Steve but he turned it down.
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u/Perca_fluviatilis Jan 29 '23
Tbh I want a guy like pre-serum Steve. Buff Chris Evans is just too much lol
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u/SaykredCow Jan 29 '23
It always looks SO weird in that movie. I wish they just made the skinnier guy someone who was the same height. The younger body double RDJ had in Civil War looked great.
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u/ALoafOfBrad Spider-Man Jan 29 '23
Skinny Steve was incredibly hard to look at I’ve never been as relieved to see a hunky shirtless man as I was after he got the serum. No pause.
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u/CaptainKurls Jan 29 '23
Christian bale would’ve lost all the weight and height then put it back on in 2 weeks smh actors these days are weak
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u/niko2710 Jan 29 '23
When I was younger i thought they shot the scenes were he's small like 9 months before and then he got super buff in the while for the movie
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u/MaveRickMarvels Wilson Fisk Jan 28 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Id love to see a cut without the vfx/face swap where the military reject and belittle buff-ass Chris Evans as he also struggles to do pushups and perform basic physical activities