Top 15 Quotes & Sayings by Shawn Anthony Levy

Explore popular quotes and sayings by Shawn Anthony Levy.
Last updated on November 6, 2024.
Shawn Anthony Levy

Shawn Anthony Levy is an American film critic, author, podcaster, and blogger. Born in New York City, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Irvine, Levy was the film critic of The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon, from 1997 to 2012 and of KGW-TV, Portland's NBC affiliate, from 2009 to 2016. He is a former Senior Editor of American Film and a former Associate Editor of Box Office. His work has appeared in major newspapers and magazines in the United States and England including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Independent, Film Comment, Movieline, Premiere, and Sight & Sound.

Born: 1961
I think that, on the one hand, our audience, our culture is so savvy now to an assumption that teaser effects are not fully representative of the final product. But in the same breath, I would say there's no shot in the teaser that I'm not really happy with.
I would say, while I think audiences are savvy enough, I think that the effects work in the teaser is quite a bit more than presentable. I think they look good and representative of the film. The harder thing with the teaser, interestingly enough is, how much to show.
One that we can admire aesthetically and participate viscerally in. So the goal here, and we've had some early, small screenings, what seems to be kind of happening is that you come in thinking you're going to see a cool robot boxing movie, you don't expect this emotional underdog, father/son movie. And it's not one that's soft and overly sentimental, but hopefully it's one that's poignant.
And this movie [Real Steel] definitely looks like nothing else I've made, which was the point. I think also, Evangeline and Hugh are such a fantastic... Their chemistry is so genuine. And also it's a good balance to all those visual effects. It'll give you more of the tone.
I'm not sure that I could give notes to someone that I revere. That's a general challenge of directing, giving notes to someone you revere. The other big contribution to this, which most people I show footage to take note of is Mauro Fiore's cinematography is unbelievable.
There's a very interesting article or symposium to be written on just the real difference between comedy filmmaking and non-comedy. Because, you know, when you work in comedy, you depend on audience screenings to tell you about your movie.
I've learned that, I wouldn't say I've made that mistake, but I've learned on some of my other movies, like, you always want to show everything that you feel works — © Shawn Anthony Levy
I've learned that, I wouldn't say I've made that mistake, but I've learned on some of my other movies, like, you always want to show everything that you feel works
As opposed to a movie [Real Steel] where everything feels fantastical, it was really important to me, and I recognise it's not the first movie with robots in it, but that blend of naturalism in performance, writing and design with the futurism of this sport. That was the idea.
Because to me, what is interesting about this movie [Real Steel] is its combination of relationship naturalism with. It's like a single conceit movie. The world and the people are very much the way we know them to be, but this sport has evolved.
Because I've never made this kind of movie before, so I've never even been to Comic-Con. And Hugh and Evangeline keep telling me, 'Oh, my god... This is such Comic-Con fodder. We're going to have such a fun summer!' Is this the kind of thing they show? That length?
There is a reality to the way the actors play the scenes, given that there is a real, animatronic, moving robot in the room. So the level of nuance and realism in performance was higher because we built the real ones, and it keeps the visual effects guys honest.
To be very honest with you, there were two big factors: One was that we were initially coming out in that week before Thanksgiving where both Twilight 3D and Happy Feet 2 are coming out.
The dozens of people working on this at Digital Domain, they knew that you couldn't get away with almost photo real, because we had real real in the room. You have real real in the cut every four or five shots, so you have this constant yardstick built into the footage by virtue of there being no real robot there. So it became the standard of photo reality that the VFX team had to match.
We know it's being referred to as the robot boxing movie [Real Steel], but truth is, 70% of the movie is the relationships.
If you go to any fight, whether MMA or boxing, there's a whole musical soundscape to these events. There's pre-event pump up/psych-up music, there's fighter introductions, there's between rounds, so my musical needs are really diverse.
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