And he wasn’t afraid to let anyone know it.
As most people reading this will likely know, the contributions actor Andy Serkis has made to the field of motion capture technology in cinema have been, well, precious.
This began with the actor’s work as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and has continued to his more recent work on the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy. Serkis is even reportedly working on a motion capture adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Wired recently interviewed the actor and deemed him ‘the world’s greatest motion capture performer’ when they shared the video on social media. The 5 minute long video sees him break down the history of motion capture technology:
Andy Serkis, the world’s greatest motion capture performer, breaks down the history of motion capture technology: https://t.co/NwVWe4jE8Z pic.twitter.com/d03VEVBzpz
— WIRED (@WIRED) October 26, 2017
The tweet hit a note though with Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best and while the Star Wars character is pretty much the most unanimously agreed-upon annoying character in the sci fi universe, the character undoubtedly had a big role to play in the VFX field.
Best took to Twitter to express his frustration at this lack of recognition and brings up some good points.
I don’t know how to retweet this and not sound bitter, but I feel I have been forgotten. No disrespect to the great @andyserkis https://t.co/4F3VBPV8Aj
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 27, 2017
1) thread: Thanks for the love today especially the Star Wars fans. Jar Jar is bigger than just me or my performance. As much as we actors
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
2) are on the front line when it comes to the success or the failure of characters we play, what's more important is the accomplishment of
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
3) bringing the work to the screen. Jar Jar helped create The workflow, iteration process and litmus test for all CGI characters to this day
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
4) on some days the code was being written in real time as I was moving. To deny Jar Jar's place in film history is to deny the hundreds of
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
5) VFX technicians, animators, code writers and producers their respect. People like John Knoll, Rob Coleman @arfkeldo and scores of others
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
6) who I worked with for two years after principal photography was ended to bring these movies to you. There's a joke I like to use when
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
7) talking about this stuff, Jar Jar walked so Gollum could run. Gollum ran so the Na'vi could fly. Thanks for lifting me up today.
— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017
Via Twitter
