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Technical reseach publication "Bringing Impressionism to Life with Neural Style Transfer in Come Swim" coauthored by Kristen

posted 7 years ago by LLOwens (983)
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https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.04928v1.pdf

In her directorial debut, Kristen enters the realm of heuristics-based/style transfer algorithms and is on the cutting edge of the paradigm shift towards combining both aspects of neural style transfers into a single phase by tuning hyperparameters of deep neural networks, in order to redraw her "poetic, impressionistic portrait of a heartbroken man underwater," based on one of her paintings, and bringing these redrawn images to vivid realization to the big screen in Come Swim.

Yes, her short film was both figuratively and to a large extent, literally based on her artist rendering, in order to effectively communicate visually, abstract ideas which evoke the imagination along with the emotional and cognitive qualities of this "heartbroken man underwater" character, which such digital media, neural network techniques are being designed for.

It is no wonder then that the highly accomplished and visionary, 4-time Oscar nominated director Ridley Scott, the man who brought moviegoers Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, Prometheus, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Rain, Matchstick Men, Legend, Robin Hood, Hannibal, The Duellists, Body of Lies, Thelma & Louise, and The Martian, was impressed and offered praise to Kristen after watching it.

Just reading about this topic and taking a crash course on (IB-AR) image-based artistic rendering, makes my head spin--which indeed puts to rest the stereotype, well at least in Kristen's case, that home-schooled, strikingly gorgeous A-list celebrity actress types who have not graduated from a university, are brainless bimbos--as Kristen certainly appears to be one of those exceedingly rare gifted and talented Hollywood actresses who can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. I have no doubt in my mind that she will become a full-length feature film director in the foreseeable future.

[–] Ron2011 (907) 7 years ago

"Just reading about this topic and taking a crash course on (IB-AR) image-based artistic rendering, makes my head spin--which indeed puts to rest the stereotype, well at least in Kristen's case, that home-schooled, strikingly gorgeous A-list celebrity actress types who have not graduated from a university, are brainless bimbos--as Kristen certainly appears to be one of those exceedingly rare gifted and talented Hollywood actresses who can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. I have no doubt in my mind that she will become a full-length feature film director in the foreseeable future. "

I've always said that I found Kristen to be very intelligent and insightful in her craft. Even as a youngster she could explain with good clarity and depth ideas and themes related to her roles and movies she was in.

Other actors also didn't start with university degrees in acting and have done so very well. It's more about the person's ability and acumen in those cases, it would seem to me. Just like some successful entrepreneurs also haven't had college degrees, but have the intelligence and ideas to become successful.

As I've said before, seeing Kristen take on her first directing jobs, given her own personal style and take on movie story telling, has me very interested to see where she goes with it as she progresses.

[–] LLOwens (983) 7 years ago

Other actors also didn't start with university degrees in acting and have done so very well. It's more about the person's ability and acumen in those cases, it would seem to me. Just like some successful entrepreneurs also haven't had college degrees, but have the intelligence and ideas to become successful.

A third of all billionaires, including some of the most famous billionaires in the world, are college dropouts. Here is a partial list of household name billionaire entrepreneurs, some of whom are deceased, who've never received a college degree: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Ralph Lauren, Howard Hughes, David Geffen, Ted Turner, Jack Dorsey, Sheldon Adelson, Walt Disney, Paul Allen, John D. Rockerfeller, and Henry Ford.

[–] LLOwens (983) 7 years ago

Or, some may say, why doesn't Kristen enroll in film school if she's interested in becoming a successful movie director. What I'm about to say may boggle your mind--as several of the greatest directors of all time, in my humble opinion, never attended/completed film school. Of course it should also be stated that no famous director attended a film school during the studio era, as prestigious film schools were not in existence here in the U.S. until the sixties--but then again this would still be besides the point:

1) Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, Schindler's List, E.T the Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark)
2) Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon)
3) Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Roshomon, Ran)
4) Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest)
5) Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit Trilogy)
6) Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner, The Martian, Black Hawk Down)
7) Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic, The Green Mile)
8) Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento, Interstellar, The Prestige)
9) Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Kill Bill)
10) Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia)
11) David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, The Social Network, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Panic Room)
12) James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic, Aliens, Terminator 2)
13) Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King)
14) Harold Ramis (National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, Analyze This)
15) The Wachowskis (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending)
16) Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep, His Girl Friday)
17) Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life)
18) Fritz Lang (Metropolis, Fury, M)
19) John Ford (Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Searchers)
20) Luc Besson (Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element)

[–] CKid (3816) 7 years ago

Oh LL, I regret to inform you that you just made a serious omission on your list. So serious in fact, that the all-too-mysterious powers that be are considering revoking, or at least suspending for 50 to 55 seconds, your Kristen Stewart Fan card.

Yeah, I'm talking about Number 11 on your list, David Fincher. How in the name of all things Kristen could you neglect to include Panic Room in his list of films???

[–] LLOwens (983) 7 years ago

The thing is Carved, David Fincher, along with all the other directors I included in this list, directed so many good films that I couldn't include all of them or risk going over the word limit for this comment. So I limited film examples to the ones such directors were know primarily for and/or received the most critical acclaim and accolades for. For example, in Fincher's case I also wanted to include Gone Girl, The Game, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Alien 3. But since you bring up a valid point and considering that this is after all Kristen's MovieChat board, I made an exception and edited my previous comment to include Panic Room.

Since we're on the topic of David Fincher/Kristen's short film, I thought it should also be mentioned that according to Fincher's IMDb Filmography, 49 out of his first 50 director credits were "Video shorts", more commonly known as music videos, showing that even some of the best Hollywood full-length feature film directors started off small and without a degree from a prestigious film school.

[–] Ron2011 (907) 7 years ago

"Since we're on the topic of David Fincher/Kristen's short film, I thought it should also be mentioned that according to Fincher's IMDb Filmography, 49 out of his first 50 director credits were "Video shorts", more commonly known as music videos, showing that even some of the best Hollywood full-length feature film directors started off small and without a degree from a prestigious film school. "

Oh yeah, Kristen is just starting out in directing films. It's something she wants to do and she loves the film making industry, so she will have her own type insights and ideas.

[–] Ron2011 (907) 7 years ago

David Fincher does dozens of takes on some scenes. I wonder how that works with actors and crew? Must get so tedious and difficult for them, plus hard for actors to stay focused. And expensive as it takes much longer to complete scenes. I wonder how it all works out?

[–] LLOwens (983) 7 years ago

In Gone Girl, Fincher averaged 50 takes per scene, which I believe is his highest takes per scene average for any of his films. The 8-page dialogue driven opening scene of The Social Network with Rooney Mara and Jesse Eisenberg was shot 99 times. And for Panic Room--I must mention this or risk losing my Kristen Stewart Fan card as Carved pointed out--the scene where Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) attacks Meg (Jodie Foster), causing her to drop Sarah's (Kristen) medical kit containing her glucagon syringe, was shot over 100 times. Talk about being a perfectionist! And imagine shooting scenes in one tiny location, the panic room, for 100 days. Talk about tedious and difficult as you mentioned--even agonizingly claustrophobic if you ask me Ron!

[–] Ron2011 (907) 7 years ago

wow, 100 times shooting a scene! That seems way too much to me, not that I'm an expert on shooting films of course. But that seems to make it much more expensive to make a film and take much longer. A time of 100 days for a relatively small film with not a large amount of heavy special effects, that's over three months. I could see about a month for it would seem more reasonable.