Posted by admin on 17 Feb 2010 under movies
Matt Hayden
Like many cinematic genres science fiction has benefited greatly from the amazing advances in CGI that have occurred over recent years. The technology has enabled sci-fi directors to realize their visions much more thoroughly, and it has been a crucial factor in the creation of some truly stunning films.
However, I don’t feel that these advances always bring something positive to the process. In a paradoxical way, they often seem to detract from the genre. Now that directors can put pretty much anything they can imagine onto the screen using CGI, making it look very close to real, they seem to consistently go overboard.
An example is the movie Alien Versus Predator. While it’s not absolutely jam packed with CGI, there’s quite a bit in there.
The director doesn’t hold back, and goes all out to realize his vision. All the events occur in rapid succession. The editing is frenetic and the action comes very think and fast. However, the characters have very little depth, and their relationships are not interesting or well developed. The film is certainly stylish, and has a lot of energy. But ultimately it’s pretty forgettable.
The original movie, Alien, is very different in almost every regard. Being made in the late seventies, there’s no use of CGI. The editing is not particularly slow, but there are a lot of long shots and set pieces that play out gradually, increasing the tension. The story seems to unfold in real time. The cinematography is just brilliant – crisp and clear and atmospheric. The characters are all deep and complex, as are the relationships between them.
All these factors combine to create an amazingly suspenseful movie that you can watch over and over again without getting bored. And the film contains scenes and images that people will never forget. (You’ll no doubt remember the famous chest bursting scene. That was done with puppets and exploding sachets of fake blood!)
It’s as if the limitations that the film-makers had to work within back in those days actually made them more creative, and they came up with a more memorable, brooding, and original sci-fi movie as a result. Matt Hayden is a writer in Sydney Australia. He has an often humorous blog about politics, news and popular culture.
Article Source: CGI is a Blessing and a Curse For the Science Fiction Film Genre
Posted by admin on 25 Jan 2010 under movies
Al Case
Many of the martial arts, like karate are fiction. Slam somebody on the nose with a palm and bone shards will spear into his brain and kill him, except there isn’t any bone in the nose, its all cartilage. And all those old legends, a lot of them are good for washing the hog, if you have a willing hog.
But, there is a certain science that has proven true in the martial arts. This is the science of how to use geometrical energy potentials. I discovered this field while reading a series of books called the Lensmen Series.
I suppose the first time it hit me was when E. E. Smith, the author, described spacemen fighting on the hull of a space ship. They were hooking their feet under hand grips so they would not fly into space when they hit somebody. They were anchoring themselves so they could apply force, and not have the force dislodge them.
Soon I was swallowed by a universe where weapons created incredible geometries of force. A death ray was a beam, and it could be deflected by a well built shield. And if a shield could deflect, then a shield thrust sideways could slice the first shield apart.
Soon I was enraptured by images of fleets of space ships creating their own particular brand of strategy. Fleets of space ships would form globes around other fleets, and cones of spaceships would swallow globes of fleets. Each time a geometry was described, my mind struggled to keep up with the wash of new concepts.
Then, shock of shocks, fleets of spaceships gave way to mental powers. Those same rods and globes and cones and shields, made real in the extreme of space combat, became the stuff of mind to mind encounters. How do you slide your awareness through the grid of another but alien mentality?
And, ultimately, done with the books, I began extending these outer space alien mind combat strategies to the martial arts. I sank my weight and planted my stance so I would not fly back from my own force. I described cones with my arms, and engulfed globular fists as they flew out of space at me.
When I tell people about this they generally think I am a bit crazy, or they know me a genius. Reading sci fi for inspiration, who would have thought. Yet, isn’t the martial arts an art, and shouldn’t it be filled with creativity and expression and beams of force and mind to mind conflicts?
Al Case has researched martial arts for 40 years. A writer for the magazines, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology. You can find out about Matrixing by getting his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.
Article Source: The Effect of Spectacular Science Fiction on Martial Arts