How's everyone doing this afternoon?
Feeling good? Fam time going well? Enjoying your peace, if feasting alone?
...No?
Well, here's some "nudes", if it'll help.
🤗 Hope your day improves.
@MLClark Hmmm ... Interesting question.
I was always intrigued by the pulsing prosthetics worn on the heads of the Talosian actors in "The Cage."
I got a kick out of the Andorians' antennae finally working in ENT (and DS9?).
In the 1953 "War of the Worlds" (AKA, "Let's Drop a Nuke on Where Stephen Grew Up"), the Martian ship miniatures were suspended on cables. We couldn't see the cables until the original negative was digitized for DVD.
The original "Gojira" also had clever effects.
@MLClark I have on the shelf the DVDs for Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927) and "Woman on the Moon" (1929), two early attempts at effects-heavy SF.
An obscure favorite is the 1936 Soviet silent film "Космический рейс" (rough translation, "Cosmic Voyage"). Mosfilm was right there in rivalling Lang for state-of-the-art.
Oh, great choices for fun TV effects! (The antennae were a triumph for sure.)
And yes! Silent-era films are a *wonder* of practical effects & filmcraft. There's a version of Frankenstein from 1910 that illustrates the talent even in a very new medium. Cosmic Voyage, Metropolis (do you have the extended version, or the original cut?), & Woman in the Moon are beautiful visions.
They also speak to how much SF was a natural storytelling mode for Modernists. The themes fit perfectly.
@MLClark This is the version I have of "Metropolis":
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Metropolis-Blu-ray-Brigitte-Helm/dp/B0040QYROK/
Fascinating documentaries on the film's history and restoration.
(One might argue it's a prequel to "Tomorrowland.")
The Berlin Rocket Club provided the technical advice for the film. Among its members was Wernher von Braun. They were supposed to build a working rocket for the film but were unsuccessful.
@MLClark This 2015 article talks about the ties between "Before Tomorrowland" and "Metropolis."
“There are always Nazis involved in these types of stories and we have a mad scientist named after the mad scientist in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Dr. Rotwang.”
https://ew.com/article/2015/04/08/tomorrowland-deep-dive-alt-history-prequel-novel-ews-jeff-jensen/
So many layers in that film's universe!
The amount of love put into Tomorrowland and its secondary storytelling vehicles really stands out. What a gem. :)
@MLClark I found more "layers" when I researched the fanfic. I'm pretty sure there were connections I discovered that they had in reserve in case of future installments. Too much lines up for them all to be coincidences.
Anyway, watching VOY, will have a review in a bit ...
@WordsmithFL
Oh, but I do love the craft that goes into so many earlier set pieces. The animatronics for The Thing? The costuming in Alien? (And the set of the crashed alien ship, which they used kids for to give it a sense of scale!) The lovable robots for Silent Running? The goofiness of The Blob?
The amount of work that went into creating those experiences before CGI became the "easier" go-to is always endearing.
Do have a favourite practical effect or set piece from your life in TV-land?