Without giving anything away about the computer-generated film, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, let me say that this film is the best advert for Adobe AfterEffects ever made. If some one had told me that a multi-million $$$ film that I would actually like a lot could be made with only 26 days of actors in front of blue screens (no not the Microsoft blue screen of death) and a lot of work with Adobe products, I would still be laughing had I not seen Sky Captain.
Not only that but I would have never guessed that the fantastic new technologies for the film were off the shelf Adobe filters for the most part. Thanks to the trivia posters at IMDB for letting all this out and more.
I thought that Laurence Olivier was dead for example but there he was in the movie and in the credits. I saw him! I swear!
There is much more, but I’ll have to say that this is a beautiful movie. Comparing it to Indiana Jones is a big mistake. This movie is more about textures, focus, color and the like than anything from Spielberg.
Day: October 2, 2004
I was among the select few at the Future of Music in the Triangle talk this afternoon. Too bad we were few, because the panel and discussion were top notch. We were select however with musicians and geeks heavily represented. The panel was taped so it should be made available in a short while.
Rather than summerize, I point you to the tape (once it’s online, probably at the Independent Weekly site). I was caught up in the various takes by Tor of Yep Rock/Redeye, a label/distributor; by plucky punk rocker Dave who does it for love; by Cesar C who wants to be sure that he and his crew are in a position of power when negotiating with labels; by Whitney B who has more experience in the belly of the beast than most anyone around; by Jennifer who can explain why the Creative Commons license is perhaps a stopgap until real copyright change might be made; by Fred who can actually quote the Sampling license; and of course by Fiona who put it all together and asked great questions.
Is iTunes the only thing we have standing between us and being forced to be CD with one hit and 12 b-sides? Or is the album, the LP, which rose from hit collection with filler to concept container (Tommy more than Whitney’s fav Led Zep 2 from the same year — 1969) still a viable form?
69 Love Songs comes closest to anything that brave and experimental in the CD era for me. Few of the extended CD live up to the versions of the vinyl sitting on my shelf.
But no sooner than the talk had ended, Danny Hooley writing in the News and Observer reminded me that the concept album is having a rebirth in releases like Green Day’s American Idiot, but also in the long gestated Brian Wilson Smile.
I was asking Tor what was up with Nonesuch how come it was such a good and interesting label recording all kinds of eclectic stuff. The NYTimes Magazine answered with a long write up on Nonesuch. Turns out that Nonesuch is album/concept/tone oriented as are the bands it signs.
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