Smaug on the Colbert Report

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Posted by josabby
December 13, 2014 1:36 pm 		#1



It's pretty epic, in case any anyone hasn't seen it yet.  Some have questioned whether or not it actually was benedict in the interview, but the aftermath video pretty much confirms it was. 
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/mfxigz/sign-off---aftermath-of-smaug

Last edited by josabby (December 13, 2014 1:40 pm)

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"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
Whoa.  Sherlock was quoting Spock who was quoting Sherlock....Mind blown!!

 
Posted by nakahara
December 13, 2014 11:51 pm 		#2

Oh, so it´s confirmed it was Ben!
I was wondering... 

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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

 
Posted by sj4iy
December 14, 2014 11:22 pm 		#3

I loved the interview.  Especially when Smaug called Benedict Cumberbatch "a hack" XD  And also when they showed Smaug, the dragon, dressed up in the motion capture equipment.

Last edited by sj4iy (December 14, 2014 11:24 pm)

__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
 
Posted by maryagrawatson
December 14, 2014 11:42 pm 		#4

I saw this a couple of days ago and laughed so hard! There were a couple of moments where I really heard Benedict's voice, so I'm glad it wasn't my ears tricking me.

Mary

John: That's clever. So you scratch their backs and...
Sherlock: Yes. And then disinfect myself.
 
Posted by Ah-chie
December 18, 2014 1:25 pm 		#5

It was brilliant!

I am huge fan of Steven Colbert and of his show (don't get me started on how much I will miss it when it
Is over tonight)!! 

And to see that segment with BC in all his dragon-y goodness was... well, just sublime.

My favourite line was the "That hack Cumberbatch" as well.  So much pin-pricking the pomposity of his own self-importance - hilariously delivered by BC!!

I saved the whole programme on my DVR just for that one line alone.

-Val

"The only shipping I know is shipping containers."
                                           -Benedict Cumberbatch
 
Posted by Vhanja
December 18, 2014 1:32 pm 		#6

Stupid question, but... how did they do it? I thought Smaug's movements - and creations - were all CGI? That much movement on a puppet?

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"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 
Posted by Ah-chie
December 18, 2014 1:59 pm 		#7

As I understand it, they do it through process called "motion capture".

There's a pretty thorough explanation of this on Wikipedia (sorry I can't give you a link - still trying to figure out how to do this on my iPad!!) if you want all the details, but short explanation is that it is a very complicated form of animation that is directly linked to an actual person's body to capture and reproduce their natural movements on film.

BC's participantion in the movie was so much more than just supplying a voice to the animated character.  When doing motion capture work an actor has to go through all the body movements that his character does but he does it with all sorts of equipment attached to his face and body without the direct interaction of any of the other non-animated actors in the scenes while he is delivering his lines. 

It can't be an easy task!

-Val

Last edited by Ah-chie (December 18, 2014 2:04 pm)

"The only shipping I know is shipping containers."
                                           -Benedict Cumberbatch
 
Posted by tonnaree
December 18, 2014 2:30 pm 		#8

They had to have worked it all out and prepared Smaug's part way ahead of time.  The dragon was CGI'd in to Colbert's set and the lips and facial movements all matched Ben's lines.  It was brilliant.

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Proud President and Founder of the OSAJ.  
Honorary German  
"Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not".
 -Vaclav Havel 
"Life is full of wonder, Love is never wrong."   Melissa Ethridge

I ship it harder than Mrs. Hudson.
    
 
 
Posted by Vhanja
December 18, 2014 4:32 pm 		#9

I know how they did it in the movie, but I thought the scene here was live. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 
Posted by tonnaree
December 18, 2014 4:40 pm 		#10

Vhanja wrote:

I know how they did it in the movie, but I thought the scene here was live. 

 
There's no way it could've been completely live.  Colbert would've had to reherse his part ahead of time so that they could match things up.  They would've had a script for the whole thing.  Then for the live show they would have Smaug up on the monitor while Colbert did his lines.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Proud President and Founder of the OSAJ.  
Honorary German  
"Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not".
 -Vaclav Havel 
"Life is full of wonder, Love is never wrong."   Melissa Ethridge

I ship it harder than Mrs. Hudson.
    
 
 
Posted by ukaunz
March 3, 2015 4:53 am 		#11

I just found this interview, how cool was it  I just wish I could hear/understand more of what Smaug was saying, it was a bit hard to hear his voice over all the laughing and cheering from the audience. I think he had a good opening line just after he burst into the studio, but I could only hear something like "... is in the house". I love how insulting he was, especially to Benedict Cumberbatch (love how he can take the mickey out of himself ). And later when he talks about the "Khaleesi rat-lizards from Game of Thrones". What was that bit about milkshakes?  (actually I googled that, it's a Daniel Day Lewis/There Will Be Blood reference apparently!).

Wish there were subtitles! I could definitely tell it was Benedict's voice though.

Edited to add another link, as the one at the top doesn't seem to work any more

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cdt4m_stephen-colbert-interviews-smaug-benedict-cumberbatch_fun

Last edited by ukaunz (March 3, 2015 5:13 am)

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