The Kitchen features Top Boy star Kane Robinson (aka Kano) as the lead character Izi. The setting is a dark and futuristic version of London, which is quite fitting for a filmmaker who made his big breakthrough as an actor in Black Mirror. The story focuses on a ghetto occupied by people from the bottom of society. Leading actor Kano plays a desperate man who plans to make it out of the kitchen at all costs.

Daniel talked to GQ and expressed his thoughts about The Kitchen in detail. I liked his words about the dehumanisation of his people and how he intends for his movie to humanise them. The writer observed that in The Kitchen ‘there is no why, to the oppression and the violence that befalls the residents’. The essence of Daniel’s response is the why, is a privilege that these people don’t get. The people of The Kitchen don’t get to know why bad things are happening to them. They just have to deal with them.

“All the people I grew up with are gone, have left the estate that I grew up in. I was one of the last people that stayed”

– Daniel Kaluuya, GQ Interview

Casting Ian Wright was an interesting choice. Fans of his will be happy to see him play Lord Kitchener, the Pirate Radio broadcaster. This may lead to a whole new career for the ex-professional footballer. I found an interview with Wrighty, which delves deeper into his personal experience of The Kitchen.

Another good choice was bringing in Labyrinth to work on the soundtrack. The Radio Times interviewed The Kitchen’s Co-Director Kibwe Tavares about his sonic aesthetic. When you look at the track listing, some of the artists look like they come from a Kitchen version of London. I recall hearing the likes of Ruff Squad and Donae’o during the movie too. Lord Kitchener dropped some bangers for his residents. You can subscribe to Apple Music here and check out my playlist of songs from the movie.

The Kitchen’s themes include poverty, gentrification, police brutality, family, community and the underdog’s struggle for a brighter tomorrow. Legendary Grime artist Kano has become an accomplished actor and puts in a strong performance. I found the scenery to be very well put together and wondered where the directors may have drawn inspiration from. If you liked The Kitchen, you might enjoy what may have inspired it too.

Black Mirror

This long-running Netflix series is known for being a dark, violent and often futuristic critique on society. Daniel Kaluuya had a stand out role in a short film where he played Bing, a man who reaches the end of his tether. It’s no coincidence that the 15 Million Merits star has similar elements in his directorial debut.

Top Boy

There’s an obvious Top Boy connection in The Kitchen – Kano played a starring role in Top Boy as Mafia boss Sully. Some may also recognise another familiar face from that show. Hope Ipoku Jr played Aaron, an aspiring student who was the younger brother of a notorious gangster. In The Kitchen, Hope becomes Staples, the leader of a pack of brazen youths. Another connection that may not be so obvious involves a spoiler for those who haven’t seen the highly-rated Netflix show. I’ll spare you the details, but I couldn’t help thinking that the final season of Top Boy must have been a huge inspiration to Kaluuya. If you watch it, you’ll see what I mean.

Blade Runner

Alien director Ridley Scott made another epic sci-fi movie which will be remembered as one of the greatest in Its genre. Blade Runner was originally released in 1982, then brought back to life with an awesome sequel decades later in 2017. I would recommend watching both. There had to be a Blade Runner comparison even if it is a bit of a reach. It’s a tale of people struggling to survive who are being pursued by law enforcement. For me, this firmly puts The Kitchen in Blade Runner territory. Especially when you look at Blade Runner’s gritty futuristic backdrop. A lot of other movies were inspired by that too.

Alita: Battle Angel / Gunnm

A classic Manga and Japanese animation published in 1993. The story is an emotional one centred around a surrogate father and child relationship. A bit like the relationship between Izi and Benji in The Kitchen. It’s another futuristic setting where the struggling protagonists fight for a better tomorrow. The 2019 live-action version is an excellent adaptation. Written by James Cameron, directed by Robert Rodriguez, staring Christopher Waltz and Mahershala Ali. With credits like that, Alita: Battle Angel was always going to be good.

Also Read: Retro Review: Blade Runner at 40

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Top Gun’s story is centred around a training academy that produces the very best pilots. Tom Cruise plays the ambitious main protagonist (Maverick) who wanted to be number one and Top Gun shows us the rivalry Tom’s character has with the current number 1 (Ice) played by Val Kilmer. Tragedy, coming of age, romance and action, with a cracking 80’s soundtrack. I found that Top Gun is still an entertaining watch as an adult.

Val Kilmer

Val Kilmer plays the confrontational Ice Man. The rival to Tom Cruise’s Maverick. The American actor later starred in Heat (1995), Batman Forever (1995) and worked with Top Gun Director Tony Scott again on True Romance (1993) and Deja Vu (2006).

In his interview with the New York Times Kilmer revealed he had developed a tumour. It was 2014 when a doctor diagnosed him with throat cancer. The treatments that followed involved chemotherapy and a tracheostomy. The Batman beat Cancer, but was left in a debilitating condition. His ailment meant that he now has to eat through a tube and use an electric voice box in order to speak. Kilmer featured in the autobiographical documentary Val (2021) after his recovery. You can hear how the actor sounds post throat cancer towards the end of the trailer.

Remarkably, despite his unfortunate circumstances, Val is still able to work. How could an actor who uses an electrolarynx be able to work? Through the power of technology.

Sonantic

John Flynn and Zeena Quereshi founded Sonantic in 2018. Their aim was to improve upon the common and robotic-sounding text-to-speech solutions that convert written text into spoken words. They achieve a hyper-realistic outcome by creating a model of an actor’s voice using the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In 2020 Sonantic created Faith, who they claim is the first AI that can cry. Check out this demonstration of the emotion their algorithm is capable of conveying.

Return of the Ice Man

The Washington Post reported that Sonantic were approached by Val Kilmer’s representatives to make a custom AI voice model for him. The usual process involves having actors record a script and feeding the recorded audio into their Voice Engine (VE). The VE then trains the AI model. But because Val couldn’t record, Sonantic had to research and implement new algorithms. This resulted in more than 40 different voice models, so Sonantic selected the best one to use for Val. After the model is chosen, it can be fine-tuned in Sonantic’s desktop application. You can read more about the full process here and check out a clip of Val’s voice model below.

Sonantic developed desktop software with a beautiful UI (User Interface) that resembles DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) tooling. Operators have options to choose what kind of emotion the audio is delivered in and choices range from anger to happiness. One could opt for a shouting style and even configure the intensity. Perhaps a director wants the actor to convey a high amount of fear in a scene? Well, there’s an option you can toggle to make the voice sound like it is extremely fearful. A custom dictionary allows one to add new words to the model. Editors can adjust the pitch, the pacing and alter the emphasis too. One can even batch process multiple voices at once. It sounds powerful, doesn’t it? Check out the video demonstration to see this all in action.

Is an AI Voice Model Ethical?

Kilmer felt confident enough in his audio doppelgänger to pitch an idea to Top Gun Maverick Director Joseph Kosinski. The voice model and accompanying software offer filmmakers unparalleled control over an actor’s voice. But this leap forward in voice technology raises ethical questions. What if the actor is deceased? Should the model still be used? What if the software is misused in combination with deep fake technology? Could the actor be impersonated? Sonantic addresses these valid concerns in an article sharing their guidelines and principles.

The AI audio pioneers offered their assurances to actors worried machines are coming for their jobs. Sonantic’s mission is to empower actors, not to replace them. A synthetic voice can be used on multiple projects simultaneously. This could drastically increase earning potential and give actors a passive income. Film production budgets will be able to retain funds that would otherwise be used to cater for actors on site. Maybe the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?

Conclusion

I previously wrote about A Space Odessey 2001. A movie which featured the computer AI – HAL 9000. Back in 1968, the fictional precursor to Siri and Alexa was voiced by an actor. But in 2022 the actor could be at home while his voice model went to work for him. Synthesised voices do carry concerns about potential misuse and some may be wary of their potential to replace actors. But Val Kilmer’s story is a shining example of the good that voice tech can do to empower actors. Hopefully, fans of the original Top Gun movie will be glad that Sonantic’s Photoshop for voice exists. After all, you wouldn’t be able to bring back the Ice Man without it.

Also Read: Artificial Intelligence: The New Art of Storytelling?

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The Matrix (1999) established itself as the definitive movie of the 1990’s CyberPunk culture. Building on concepts shown in movies such as The Lawnmower Man (1992) and Johnny Mnemonic (1995), The Wachowskis told a surreal story that was different to anything the world had seen before.

What is The Matrix?

The story was written and directed by The Wachowskis. 2 Americans of Polish descent born in 1965 and 1967. The siblings grew up in Chicago, went to separate Colleges in New York and Boston, but both of them dropped out and returned home to run a business together. In 1993 the Wachowskis became writers for the Ectokid comic. By the mid 1990s their first movie script had been purchased and the writers became Directors. Their first movie was Bound (1996), a Mafia inspired crime thriller. Their second movie turned out to be a movie that won them the Saturn Award for best Director, picked up 4 Academy Awards and made over $450 million in the Box Office – The Matrix.

The Matrix is a story set in a distant future where mankind is at war with machines. Unlike the war we saw in The Terminator movies released prior to The Matrix, this war is being waged on 2 planes. One is the real world and the other is a virtual world. By the time the first movie starts, the war had gotten so bad, mankind had been forced underground due to inhospitable conditions on the surface. The machines became desperate for a power source and decided to capture humans to harvest them as a source of bioenergy. Captured humans had their minds thrust into a simulation of the real world. This virtual world is known as The Matrix – The place where the story begins and where we encounter the main characters Neo, Trinity and Morpheus.

The Matrix mythology is vast. So much rich subject matter to explore that the story could be told over various forms of media: A trilogy of movies, video games and a web-based comic series (later condensed into two physical volumes). There is also an animated series. All the forms of media added something new to The Matrix mythology. The Animatrix gave us the backstory before the movies started – The story of how the war between Humans and machines began. That backstory alone made the Animatrix my personal favourite non-movie Matrix media. Check out the following link for a glimpse at the official licensed book which includes incredible storyboards that formed the basis of the mythology: The Art of The Matrix.

Follow the White Rabbit

The Filmmakers are very open about their numerous influences. Alice in Wonderland is an obvious one that likens Neo to Alice – someone going down a rabbit hole to a whole new world. Actors were instructed to read Simulacra and Simulation (1994) by Jean Baudrillard. Amazon’s #1 best seller in Academic Philosophy even appears in the movie.

In a 2013 discussion at DePaul University, The Wachowskis mentioned books by William Gibson had a huge influence on them. Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) is widely regarded as a pioneering book in the CyberPunk genre.

Blade Runner (1982) vs ET (1982) was an interesting talking point at DePaul. ET was the hugely popular family-friendly movie of the time. Blade Runner was a darker, more niche adult movie. The Wachowskis tell us Blade Runner was initially criticised due to having a completely different aesthetic to what was currently popular. However, it went on to change the happy and family-friendly narrative of Science Fiction movies in the 1980’s. The popularity of movies such as The Terminator (1984) and Robocop (1987) attest to the post Blade Runner shift in Sci-Fi aesthetics.

The Directors continue to talk of how important aesthetics are in their movies. Lana tells us the goal of The Matrix is to be a framework of meaning and the audience is meant to decipher this meaning.

Lilly speaks of ‘genre bending’ in her 2020 Netflix interview. Reflecting on the Matrix, she ponders on possible Trans influences and the character ‘Switch’. A Wiki page has an insight into why Lilly’s character didn’t quite play out with the residual self-image she might have wanted. She also touches on wanting to have moments in the movie that felt like an Anime, a Western, or a Kung Fu movie. John Woo and Hong Kong action movie wire work can also be added to the list of Matrix influences.

The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

Amongst the numerous other themes, The Matrix addresses the problem with VR and the potential pitfalls facing an entire society plugged into a simulation. Going back to their 2013 interview, the filmmakers talked about an ‘aesthetic genealogy’, which I interpret as a philosophy that builds on other philosophies. So what are these other philosophies?

Should a person have the right to choose or should a person be given orders? Dictatorship or Democracy? Fascism or Socialism? Choice is a continuous theme throughout the Trilogy. A theme highlighted in the iconic scene where Morpheus asks Neo to choose his destiny. The Architect reveals the importance of choice when he tells Neo that previous versions of the Matrix failed until Humans were given a choice. If you think about it, would you like to live in a world where all outcomes were predetermined? Or do you want the ability to choose how things turn out? Choice is important, even if we only have the illusion of choice.

The Merivignan’s conversation with Morpheus delves into the topic of Causality – cause and effect. The Oracle tells Neo not to worry about breaking the vase. This information startles Neo causing him to react. His reaction knocks the vase over causing it to break. After Neo breaks the vase, The Oracle asks him to ponder if he would have broken it if she didn’t say anything. Causality has been accredited to Aristotle. A philosophy that lies in the realm of metaphysics.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is woven into this story. Cypher chose the red pill but regrets his choice and wants to return to the Matrix. He is akin to the prisoners in Plato’s Cave. The prisoners do not desire to leave their prison even after one of them breaks free and returns with news of their deception. Adam Curtis’ documentary HyperNormalisation (2016) applies the Allegory of the Cave to modern-day life and discusses how the real world can be hidden away from us. An artificial world can be constructed to keep us compliant. Much like in The Matrix.

From Greek philosophy to Greek Mythology, the subtleties are no accident. In Greek Mythology, Morpheus is a God who takes human form when appearing in dreams. A fitting name for Laurence Fishburne’s character. Rama Kandra (the exiled program) speaks of Karma in his conversation with Neo at the train station. Rama is a Hindu deity known for chivalry and virtue.

Matrix Explained has a great series that takes a deep dive and reveals more philosophical meanings in the movie that casual viewers may have missed. They uncover Hermetic principles from The Kybalion like ‘As above, so below’. This can be tied to the duality between The Matrix and the physical world. Another interesting find is their explanation of the child program with no purpose, whose parents try to save her. That story showcases the themes of love and consciousness.

Reloaded

Neo’s death and resurrection with superpowers draw inspiration from Christianity. It was only through death that Neo could be resurrected with so much power that he could fly. Much like the resurrection of Jesus Christ allowed him to ascend to the Heavens. Christ the Redeemer, the Saviour and Messiah. He died and was resurrected.

The main protagonists Neo, Morpheus and Trinity have similarities to the Holy Trinity of Christianity. The Son (Neo), The Father (Morpheus) and the Holy Spirit (literally named Trinity). Salvation would not have been possible without the miraculous acts of all three characters. The Telekinetic child monks allude to an influence from Buddhism. The link to religious symbolism is a clear and obvious one.

The Desert of the Real

The phrase was coined by Sociologist Jean Baudrillard and quoted by Morpheus in the movie. Fishburne’s character used it to describe the real world, as it has become a post-apocalyptic desert but was also alluding to Baudrillard. However, the Sociologist might use this term in a different context.

You could say there is a dearth of reality on Social Media where people use filters, photoshop images and create a facade – The desert of the real. I believe this is closer to Baudrillard’s original concept.

However, the desert of the real could also be describing The Matrix. A place where nothing is physically real. But of course, Morpheus questions Neo on what real means. The Captain of the Nebuchadnezzar states that the electrical impulses experienced by your brain are what makes The Matrix real and if you die in The Matrix then you do die for real. If nobody lives on the surface of the Earth in the real world and they live in The Matrix, then The Matrix is real and the physical world is the desert of the real.

Simulacra

As revealing as it is, dialogue only contains a fraction of the film’s messages. The team behind Matrix Explained dissect the trilogy and reveal the abundance of visual symbolism. From hand gestures to numerology, lighting, colours and props. Anything and everything can have a hidden meaning in these movies. Even the music.

In his article Simulcara, Simulation and the Matrix (2006), Sven Lutzka wrote ‘The Matrix has triggered off an avalanche of studies focussing on different aspects of the movie’. Some of those studies can be found in Jacking In To The Matrix Franchise (2004). This is an anthology of Matrix writings from a number of contributors. In this book, Matthew Kapell discusses a number of themes that the film trilogy and multimedia story encompasses: Gender, Race, Philosophy, Epistemology, Ontology, Ethics, Post-Humanism, Mythological and Religious Studies, Feminism, Radicalism, Cosmology and Theology. This is not a definitive list of all the themes covered either. One could easily add war, peace, control and rebellion too. The subject matters covered are broad and complex.

Kapell writes of the dark overtone encompassing the Matrix franchise – Human beings being subjugated to a programme of exploitation, treated as commodities and drained of their natural resources by an elaborate system. One could liken this fantasy theme to how citizens feel they are exploited by governments and corporations in the real world today. The Matrix attempts to connect with the audience in this way.

Jean Baudrillard wrote of simulation theory. The Matrix adapts his ideas and asks us the question – is everything as it seems? I remember watching the Matrix in 1999. The movie blew my mind. As I left the cinema I was looking around and questioning reality. Are we in a simulation?

The Architect

In Making of The Matrix (1999) Andy shared his belief that their biggest visual effect came from having Hollywood stars perform authentic Kung Fu like in a Hong Kong Kung Fu movie. Before The Matrix, the norm was to use a stunt man for fight scenes. The Wachowskis actually made the stars learn Kung Fu and perform the fight scenes themselves.

Making of The Matrix is a fascinating watch that gives you the complex ideas of the movie from various people involved in the production. The shots on set give you a sense of the camaraderie they shared. Recruiting John Gaeta to be the Special Effects Supervisor and create the Bullet Time VFX proved to be a wise decision. As was Hiring Yuen Wo Ping to do the Fight Choreography and Gun Fu. Illustrated storyboards cut to narration from the cast and crew help to complete the understanding that a lot of thought went into these movies and everyone felt like they were doing something exceptional.

Laurence Fishburne said they trained in Kung Fu daily for around 6 months. The directors revealed they saw CyberPunk as a way to convey a sense of disconnection or alienation. Such was the mood of the CyberPunk culture. One of the narrators notes how he thought the Wachowskis were unusually meticulous and unlike most Directors, they knew exactly how they wanted things to be.

According to Jonas Ceika, Jean Baudrillard declined the opportunity to work on the Matrix sequels. His involvement could have drastically impacted the final cut of Reloaded and Revolutions. In contrast, Laurence Fishburne said he signed up for Reloaded without even reading the script. Everyone from the first movie signed up again for the sequel and the filmmakers tried to outdo what they did in the original. Sets were bigger and more extravagant than before. Stunts were more ambitious than before. Carrie-Ann Moss said she broke her leg in the 2nd week of training.

The actress who played the Oracle (Gloria Foster) passed away during the production of the 3rd Matrix movie. The script had to be rewritten and another actress (Mary Alice) was brought in to replace her. The 3rd movie in the trilogy contained an epic fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith. They were fighting in mid-air like something you’ll see in Dragonball Z. This was no easy feat. In order to replicate Z fighting in real life, the actors were filmed in a zero-gravity device used to train astronauts.

Resurrection

As mentioned earlier, the Wachowskis were inspired by William Gibson books when they made The Matrix. Gibson is said to believe that The Matrix is the ultimate Cyber Punk artefact. It’s no coincidence that a CyberPunk video game starring Keanu Reeves (CyberPunk 2077) went on to win various awards and became the highest selling digital game launch at the time. This is the legacy of The Matrix. With such a strong legacy in place, why would they need another movie?

In a discussion at the International Literature Festival of Berlin, Lana shares her story of a personal tragedy that inspired the continuation of a once concluded masterpiece. It was the demise of her parents that brought back her connection to Neo and Trinity. Lilly felt like she was done with the Franchise so for the first time, we will see a Matrix movie made by just one of the Wachowskis.

At the time of writing, two Matrix Resurrections trailers have been released. In trailer 1 Neo appears to be back in the Matrix and seeking therapy for bad dreams that he thinks are real. The black cat appears at the start of the trailer. Neo thought he was experiencing Deja Vu in the first movie when he saw a black cat. He meets with Trinity and they appear to not know each other. Have they lost their memories? He meets a younger-looking Morpheus and seems to go through the awakening process all over again.

If it was only a hint in the first trailer, It’s unmistakable that Agent Smith has returned in the second trailer, except he doesn’t look how we remember him. Neo starts to recollect being in the training simulation. We get a glimpse of an aged Niobe looking like she’s been in a war and also speaking of war! Neo displays an ability to manipulate force and Trinity displays powers of her own. It definitely looks like Neo is on a journey to find his memory. Some old characters have new faces and brand new characters appear too. From what I saw in the trailers it looks like Resurrection will introduce new elements but also have a continuity of the old story.

Awaken

In fine Matrix tradition, another form of media has been utilised to give participants an interactive Matrix experience. The Matrix Awakens is a brief and free to play open-world game exclusively available to owners of a Playstation 5 or XBox Series X. Fans of the franchise will be treated to a cinematic intro before they are thrust into some frantic Arcade style action. After completing the mission the open world is yours to explore and it looks fantastic. You can download The Matrix Awakens here.

Keanu and Carrie-Ann discuss a number of topics in a post Resurrections interview by The Verge: The plasticity of images and Intellectual Property, Cryptocurrencies and NFTs, even the use of their likeness in Virtual Reality and Pornography. They also share their thoughts on The Matrix trilogy and the new movie too.

Revelation

More than a movie, The Matrix is a philosophical story told across various forms of media. I found it transformative in the same way a good book can be. I was not the same afterwards. The journey through multimedia is a unique and interactive experience. The story covers thought-provoking themes like reality, faith and the very ideas that societies are built on. We explore consciousness, examine Humanity, Artificial Intelligence and see there may not be that much difference between us.

The Matrix tells a tale that peaks into the future of Transhumanism. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is currently developing Brain Interface technology. Will this tech allow us to download a program to learn Kung Fu, or fly a helicopter like the movie showed us 20 years ago? The timing of the latest instalment in the franchise couldn’t be better. The biggest Social Media company in the world have transitioned into a Metaverse company. The Matrix is a movie about a Metaverse from 20 years ago, resurrected for release in UK cinemas on December 22nd.

Also Read: NFTs For “The Matrix” & “Pulp Fiction” Announced As The Film Industry Embraces Blockchain

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We previously reviewed 2001: A Space Odyssey back in 2019 and offered an opinion on the movie. This time we’ll be taking a closer look at how the movie came to life and what makes it so special.

Path to Glory

The late Stanley Kubrick was an American Film Maker born in 1928. A New Yorker born and raised. A child of Jewish migrants from Austria, Romania and Russia. His father gave him a camera for his 13th birthday, which sparked a keen interest in photography and eventually led to a job as an apprentice photographer at Look magazine. In 1958 Stanley used his savings to create a documentary film Day of the Fight (1951). He continued financing his own films and in 1956 his work caught the attention of Hollywood. Soon Kubrick would be directing the likes of Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960).

Kubrick decided to move to England and his first UK release was Lolita (1962). After gaining much critical and commercial success from movies like Dr. Strangelove (1964), Kubrick earned the artistic freedom to work on whatever projects he desired, some of which never materialised.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was a collaboration with English sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. This was followed by A Clockwork Orange (1971), which rivalled Lolita in controversy. Kubrick went on to release a film adaptation of a Stephen King novel The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Kubrick passed away before he could complete A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) so his friend Steven Spielberg helped the movie to cross the finish line. Kubrick discusses much of his early life and films in the documentary The Lost Tapes (1966).

One Small Step for Man One Giant Leap for Mankind

Let’s consider what was happening at the time 2001 was made. The Vietnam War (which claimed the lives of over 3 million people) was being waged and did not end until 1973. The Hippie counterculture had emerged in opposition to the war. The Cuban Missile crisis of 1962. The Equal pay Act of 1963 was signed by the Liberal President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in the same year. Jim Crow laws from the late 19th Century were abolished when the Civil Rights Act was penned in 1964. The assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th 1968. 2001: A Space Odyssey debuted in theatres on April 6th 1968. Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969.

The Making of a Myth

Arthur C. Clarke is a well known sci-fi writer who Stanley Kubrick partnered with to write the screenplay for 2001. In the documentary 2001 the Making of a Myth (2001), Clarke shared that Kubrick believed there had been no great sci-fi movies made before theirs. Other Sci-Fi movies of the time included Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and Fantastic Voyage (1966). Kubrick must have been aware of those notable Sci-Fi movies but is thought to be directly inspired by the documentary Universe (1960) and a movie shown at the New York World’s Fair – To the Moon and Beyond (1964).

Captain Kubrick assembled a crew to embark on a mission to create what he believed would be the first great Science Fiction Film. Key personnel were brought in to advise and engineer. Space Scientist Fred Ordway was brought in as a scientific consultant. Illustrators Roy Carnon and Richard McKenna created concept drawings, sketches, and paintings of the space technology, in part, influenced by the work of Chesley Bonestell. A 55 foot long model of the Discovery One spacecraft was built. Engineering company Vickers-Armstrongs was hired to construct a centrifuge that would simulate artificial gravity. Design consultants who had worked on films for NASA and the US Air Force were brought in and 4 Special effects Supervisors were appointed: Douglas Trumbull, Con Pederson, Tom Howard and Wally Veevers.

In 1966 filming began at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood. The production team developed and used a number of techniques including:

• Slit-scan photography
• Rotating Movie sets
• Front Projection
• Motion Control
• Rotoscoping

Production costs soared to in excess of $10m and went $4.5m over budget. The screens we saw in the spacecraft were made to look like computer graphics but were actually a combination of photography and animation. Actors were attached to wires and filmed from beneath to give the illusion of floating in space. The psychedelic Stargate Sequence was achieved by using a custom-built machine and thousands of high-contrast images. Kubrick opted for creating all the visual effects “in camera” to avoid degradation of picture quality which may occur when using Blue Screen techniques. Kubrick’s demands are what led to the project costs spiralling out of control. But this also resulted in the visual effects of 2001 looking spectacular and ahead of its time. A video essay published by Vulture gives a brilliant overview of the feats of engineering that were required and how the innovative cinematographic techniques were implemented in the Space Odyssey production.

To the Moon and Beyond

2001: A Space Odyssey is a sci-fi movie that tells a story of mankind, our relationship with progress, technology and the idea that there may be extra-terrestrial life. The movie builds on Darwin’s theory of evolution and asks us to question what the next stage of human evolution could be. Kubrick gave 2001 a curious ending that is open for debate. You can watch an expert panel give their take on what the movie means to them here. Does the ending suggest there will be another stage of human evolution? One that enables humans to travel through space without the use of technology? In a rare interview more than a decade after the film was made, the reclusive Director gives us his own take on the ending of the movie.

Whatever your thoughts are on what the ending means and what the movie represents as a whole, it is a fantastic look into the future told with masterful visual storytelling. A movie that gave us a glimpse of Video Calling at a time when that technology was not available. A movie that modelled the future with photorealistic realism but contained no computer graphics to achieve that goal. A movie that has inspired filmmakers and viewers alike. A movie that will be remembered as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Also Read: The Best Sci-Fi Films of the Decade

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In the late 1970s, Lucas gave us Star Wars, which turned out to be a very special space fantasy. Star Wars – A New Hope was released at around the same time that George Lucas’ company (Lucasfilm) was beginning to focus on computer technology. Lucas gave us the Indiana Jones franchise in the early 1980s, and during that time, Lucasfilm also developed the first computer-animated sequence in a feature film. This was for the movie Star Trek II.

Star Command

In 1986, Steve Jobs (the founder of Apple Computers) bought the Computer Division, a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, and re-established it as Pixar. This is when the collaboration with Disney began, resulting in the revolutionary Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) technology. 1988 saw the usage of Pixar’s rendering software (RenderMan). The 3 short films they released utilising their cutting-edge animation technology had been critically acclaimed. Tin Toy went on to win the Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated). Lucasfilm movies dominated my childhood in the late 1980s. This George Lucas influence was set to sail into the 1990s, but with a new captain and with a whole new way of telling stories.

Reach for the Sky

Toy Story is the world’s first computer-animated feature film. This ground-breaking film became the highest-grossing movie of the year (1995), making $362m. With numbers like that, it’s needless to say the movie was a resounding success. It gathered several Oscar nominations and took home the prize for Special Achievement. Several Pixar movies followed Toy Story’s formula and everything Pixar touched turned to gold.

Everything about Toy Story was special. The main characters were played by A-List actors (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen). It was the directional debut of John Lasseter (also Director of A Bugs Life and Cars), who was a Senior Creative at Disney, that went on to become one of the most successful filmmakers of all time.

Lasseter was involved in writing the story for the movie that captured the hearts of children and adults alike. It was innovative, funny and endearing. A true landmark in cinema, which became the blueprint for how to make animated movies. Another notable thing about this movie is that one of the greatest minds of the time, Steve Jobs, was one of the Executive Producers.

In the year 2000, Pixar moved to a new building in Emeryville, California. By 2006, Disney decided to buy out Pixar Animation Studios. In 2018, The Incredibles 2 marked their 20^th Computer Animated Feature Film, which has grossed over $1.2bn worldwide. With Toy Story 4 due to be released in 2019, Disney/Pixar looks set to have another big year on the horizon.

You are a child’s plaything

So now that we’ve got an appreciation for what Pixar has accomplished, let’s take a brief look at how they did it. These are the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) basics that go into in every Pixar movie:

Storytelling, Illustration, editing, colouring, modelling, rigging, set building, animation, simulation, texturing, surfaces, lighting and rendering. It’s not easy being an animator. Watch this short video for a cool explanation on how these movies get made.

A big help to the animators is Pixar’s Render Man. This rendering software has been at the forefront of CGI in movies since its inception in 1988. Key features include 3D modelling, animation, lighting and of course rendering. The latest incarnation is version 22, which boasts a redesigned architecture, improved workflow and various tech that allows for creating more photorealistic graphics, amongst other things.

In 2D animation, you must draw every frame. So if you draw a character and you want it to move, you then have to draw every single movement. Like drawing a flipbook.

The difference with 3D animation is that you would draw your character, rig it and record it moving. Rigging a character is like creating a skeleton with joints in CGI software. This is a tedious process that needs an understanding of geometry, physics and anatomy to pull it off. But when a character is properly rigged, it enables an animator to move a character like a puppet, which gives it an amazing sense of realism.

Although rigging may seem like you get one up on 2D animation because you don’t have to draw every frame, one of the challenges in 3D animation is controlling what happens when a character isn’t in motion. This is known as a moving hold; when a 3D character looks completely dead if it isn’t moving. There’s definitely a lot of skill involved in 3D animation, and an animator will need some good tools to achieve a polished end product.

Let’s go home and play

Thankfully, there are a number of 3D animation software packages out there, and animators may use something like 3DS Max or Blender to do their character rigging. All3DP have a pretty cool list, which shows some of the many options available.

Pixar’s own RenderMan software is now available for non-commercial use. This is exciting news because so many of those incredible-looking movies that we all know and love are made using this software, and we can now get our hands on it for free! If anyone ever wanted to get into Visual Effects, the Khan Academy has partnered with Pixar and is offering a free online training course, too. George Lucas and his team of pioneers didn’t have it this good! It’s amazing to see how far the animation industry has come over the years. Maybe you’ll be the one to take it further? How much further can it go? To infinity and beyond.

The post Pixar and the Story of Toys appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Why would an A-List Hollywood Director, film a movie on an iPhone? Well because Steven Soderbergh (SD) is not your typical A-Lister. In an interview with Hey U Guys Steven Soderberg said it was a creative choice, as he saw the iPhone 7Plus as being a small capture device which gave him a flexibility he couldn’t get from a bigger device.

It seems the iPhone was instrumental in pulling off certain shots in this movie. So instrumental, that Soderberg also said he’d use the device again in the future! Well if It’s good enough for him, it must be good enough for us, right?

iPhone vs Arri

So now that we’ve realised we have a Hollywood capable film camera in our possession right now, it kind of begs the question: What do we actually need from a movie-making machine and what’s the difference between the iPhone and a proper film camera? There are actually many things to consider when choosing your capture device for video production: resolution, frame rates, audio bit-rate, sensor, lenses, how the camera reacts to light.

At the time of writing, a popular film camera used in Holywood is the Arri Alexa. This camera could be considered an Indusrty Standard and has been used to film movies like The Avengers, Drive and a million other huge titles. Let’s take a brief look at how that compares to the iPhone used to film Unsane.

iPhone 7Plus Vs Arri Alexa
Resolution: 4K (30 fps)  Vs 2K (60 fps)
Frame Rates: Up to 60 fps Vs Up to 120 fps
Audio: 44.1KHz Vs 48 KHz

Potato Jet did a video review which shows that although the iPhone can produce good pictures, it really doesn’t compare to the might of the Alexa. You’ll lose something in terms of quality, but then you’ll gain in terms of mobility and It’ll be great for your budget.

iQuality

With filmmaking being an art, it’s always difficult to debate whether the increasing pixel count of the new technically superior digital cameras are actually producing better images than those of analogue film cameras. Does sharper and more crystal clear actually mean the story will look better? We’ve gone from grainy black and white pictures, to full-colour Standard Definition, all the way up to 4K and beyond. But someone out there will tell you they prefer the way a vintage Alfred Hitchcock movie filmed on a Mitchell BNC looks, compared to the sharp and polished 4K look you get from a modern Red One.

iMovies

Rage (2009) may have been the first major theatrical release shot on smartphones and there’s been a number of notable smartphone movies since. #STARVECROW is the world’s first selfie movie and Tangerine was filmed completely on the iPhone 5s. This iMovement has picked up pace since it’s inception in 2010 and now the iPhone Film Festival judges received over 2000 submissions in 2017. IndieWire has some interesting movies in their iMovement list if you want to find out more about this sub-culture.

iGear

Dougal Shaw (Senior Video Journalist at the BBC) decided to delve into iPhone videography himself and his kit list included the following: iPhone 6S Plus, Filmic Pro App, some sort of rig to stabilize the phone, a collection of lenses, a tripod, a microphone and a computer with video editing software. All of this is so much cheaper than getting a pro Arri Alexa setup!

iMoney

The fact that Steven Soderbergh did shoot a movie on an iPhone, is proof that you don’t need a huge budget to film a movie. Having said that, there’s a lot more involved in shooting a movie then just having a camera and pressing record. Also, the budget for Unsane was pretty low for a Hollywood movie, at $1.5m. But that’s astronomical in terms of a low budget indie production. Unsane only made $10.7m in the Box office, which is Soderberg’s lowest grossing movie by far. I wonder if a better camera would have equated to better box office sales?

iDirector

If iPhone’s are so great, do you need to bother buying a camcorder or DSLR? This is where personal preference comes in. Me personally I know how things can go wrong with technological devices and I prefer to have separate bits to do specific jobs. The thing is sometimes we’re short on space (so we buy a printer and scanner 2 in 1). Sometimes we’re short on budget (so I bought an all-rounder DSLR instead of a camera excellent at taking stills and a separate video camera). Using your iPhone all day to film movies will drain your battery and constant charging will shorten the lifespan. Steven Soderbergh has years of experience, a team of professionals and a million dollar budget. His iPhone movie would be awesome but I doubt you could get the same results. If you’re asking me could I film a movie on an iPhone? The answer is yes. Would I? No. But Steven Soderberg did.

Check out the trailer for Unsane. The full movie is available to purchase on Youtube now.

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