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The Issue - Movie Stripe

Space exploration in movies

May 9th 2008 22:00
The Issue

It is argued that one of humanity's largest goals is to spread into space, to colonize other planets and solar systems, perhaps just to survive our self-destructing, environment demolishing nature, or if you believe in greater goals: to spread the miracle that is life throughout the universe. This thought has been tickling in the back of our minds for a long time now, and it's basicly the driving force of the sci-fi genre: both in literature and film.

The silver screen or the glowing box is a fitting environment for sci-fi, as the images can fly you literally to another time and place, and there is no age limit for awe. It can be more fiction or more science, the core is the same: imagining the future, places and things that are not possible right now, but they motivate you.

Several sub-genres are in sci-fi, and even the space movie genre has it's sub-genres: from documentary (Space Station 3D) to feature, from space opera (Star Wars) to hard science (2001 A Space Odyssey).

Listing all of them is harder than going through an asteroid field in Star Wars, but selecting a few great achievements is more possible.

First I'll start the list with two films vaguely similar, but oh-so different, a hard sci-fi thriller, and a milestone IMAX 3D film. I choose Sunshine and Space Station 3D in the common concept of science as the vehicle of humanity's survival. In both films the central story is man using science and technology to insure humanity's future.

Theatrical poster for Danny Boyle's Sunshine


In Sunshine, the situation is dramatic: in the not so distant future our Sun is dying, it's nuclear reactor is standing down, and the star is slowly burning out, leaving cold and death for Earth in it's trail. A group of astronauts are sitting in a symbolic Noah's Ark: a huge spaceship that's towing Man's largest nuclear bomb ever constructed to reignite the Sun. Ultimate destruction in service of life.

While the core theory itself is the most fiction-like part of the movie, it can be considered a hard science film. Why? There are no little green aliens, no WW2-like starfighters zapping through space, no sign of extraterrestrials at all, just technology, and the raw power and beauty of the universe, with our Sun as the god in center of it all.

The portrayal of life in space: hydroponic farms, massive space suits, hazards of vacuum, or portraying the power of sunlight is what makes this movie special. The astronaut in every boy and girl is revived, even if they became man and woman through the years. Discussing the ending would be too spoilerous for those who have yet to see this film, but the similarity with 2001 becomes clear with those scenes. It's far from a remake, but Kubrik's epic sci-fi was clearly an icon for Danny Boyle, the director.

Cinema City International's Hungarian poster for Space Station


Science in the service of humanity is even more evidential in my other pick: Space Station 3D, the IMAX movie is both spectacle and a monument of human ingenuity. This jaw dropping experience that I could only absorb a few days ago at the IMAX theatre in Budapest is true escapism. But it's escapism with a ray of hope. Hope that one day me and you might experience life in space, or on the Moon for example.

There are very few who are totaly neutral towards the possibility of space travel. You know, everyone wanted to be A, Fireman or B, Astronaut in their childhood. This movie brings back those memories, and will make grown men giggling like a schoolboy (at least that was the case with me). The powerful images of the International Space Station, with the Earth in the background, everyday life of the astronauts, interesting scenes of preparation, and the gut busting scenes of launches are the perfect example of inspirational IMAX, a thought from my previous IMAX education post.

All the above in 3D will put you on location, and in this case it's space and the space station we're talking about! What cooler place could you wish for? Well, perhaps the Bahamas would do it for a lot of people, but the true exploring spirit that drives our civilization tells us: NONE.


I will continue with my recommendations, two at a time, but here's the deal:

If you have one or two favourite sci-fi flicks, that you would like to pair or just explain separately in 2-3 paragraphs, please do it in a comment and I will insert them in this or the next similar post with your name included. This way a nice list should form over time, a sci-fi library if you like. Looking forward to your picks and comments!
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A little IMAX education

April 19th 2008 09:04
The Issue

Do you have a memorable moment from all the films you saw that changed your life somehow? If you think about the answer for this question, you will probably come up with a yes. The change can be minuscule, or something big, but movies do have an effect on us. IMAX movies try to utilize this fact as a tool of education.

IMAX 3D as children experience it


Why IMAX? As it exists for almost 40 years, it's hard to say anything new about it, but let's try to separate the essence. It's pretty obvious actually, right in front of us, so to say. A huge screen that engulfs you, with powerful audio, and for the last one or two decades, the 3D that takes you even further down the rabbit hole. Popular among adults and children, this kind of impression can easily plant the seed in minds. Young minds are more fertile of course, and if the right consonance is there, any movie experience can be the source of that seed. IMAX just magnifies the visual and audio factors of this.

Sample of an educational material in Hungarian


What about the content then? Documentaries, nature films, entertaining but educational themes. These make the majority of IMAX films, and although they are not the best docus overall, the presentation boosts their power to the sky. The influence of these was, and is in the visuals and the sound, an approach you might call shallow, but be honest: have you ever become a little child when you saw something amazing on the really-big screen?

In this first decade of the 21st century a profile shift can be seen in IMAX. More and more feature films are converted or made directly to the 70mm format, pure entertainment conquers more ground. Documentaries are still made of course, and you can't help but think about: is there a drastic change ahead in this department as well? Two concepts: digital and 3D. These may be the tools of change.

Just try to steadicam with THIS!


As you may know the conventional IMAX camera is a clumsy beast, and for decades it limited the filmmakers in the creative process. There is no official word about a new digital IMAX camera, but the first public IMAX DIGITAL projector is up ahead this summer, 3D has it's new renaissance and HD Digital cameras evolve almost every day. Well actually there is an official word on digital IMAX cameras, let me quote Mike Hendriks, Director of Camera Operations from IMAX corporation:

"At this point in time IMAX does not rent digital cameras to film production companies producing large format films. All IMAX owned cameras run 65mm negative film horizontally with each film frame being 15 perforations in length. That said, many 3rd party production companies have used digital cameras to capture images for IMAX released films (see James Cameron) however at this point in time IMAX does not feel the quality of digital cameras is sufficient enough to warrant adding such to our inventory of IMAX cameras."

It would be foolish to think that there is not a single research running somewhere right now to construct an IMAX worthy digital camera. We will see in the couple of years, but the point is that with the digital format, the mammoth of a camera that is IMAX will become an elegant gazelle, and the liberation of IMAX filmmakers will be a step closer. These cameras will still be expensive, but at least they won't need heavy and costly celluloid to feed them. Liberated working conditions and a less expensive equipment in the long term will result in a much larger talent pool, and more complex documentary and entertainment filmmaking.

Imagine the scenario where the spectacle of large format (or should I say HD?) and 3D teams up with content and depth of quality films. I say that will be the time when real education can move in the screening hall. Not to mention a new level of movie magic, but that is another story.

Link to the official IMAX educational page
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Dubbing your star

March 9th 2008 18:42
Let me introduce you to one of my future returning headings:

The Issue

In this section I will cover general or not so general themes of the movie business, that will try to grasp certain aspects of movie making and weave a thought around that theme. For the first edition it's about the dubbing procedure from a perhaps lesser known perspective, so please enjoy.


Dubbed movies. For the average audience B movies, poor voice acting and ridiculous dialogue comes in mind at first. There's truth to this, but much less if you change the language. What is a small and relatively unimportant part of the movie business in English speaking countries, has an own school of acting where foreign means English.

Many countries don't dub foreign films, subtitles are the natural solution. However in some places like in Germany or Hungary, dubbing has a larger role. It's interesting to guess why, but it would be even harder, than to find out why Finns like Heavy Metal. Point is that people like to hear their own language, and find reading subtitles distracting, a common attribute of many audiences. This demand gave birth to a dubbing culture that is virtually unknown in the US, since most mainstream films are in English. And a high demand means more people and a larger talent pool to gather from.

A tendency in Hungary in the last 4-5 decades shows that highly qualified actors, theatre actors give their voices to movie stars. The only US comparison would be when an actor gives his or her voice to a character in an animation movie, but you won't hear Eddie Murphy dubbing a foreign actor in a live action movie. Not the other way around! Since foreing movie cultures (non English) are still a small fish in the movie business, the players adapt, and it's not uncommon that an accomplished actor will be the recognized voice of large Hollywood movie stars. They can even voice a set of stars, and once the audience gets to like them, they will demand that specific voice. Dubbing directors will stick to the voice when a new movie comes out with that certain Hollywood actor. This way the same person could be the voice for Eddie Murphy, Michael Douglas and Bruce Willis. Yeah, that's right. One of the best Hungarian dubbing actors, György Dörner is usually the voice for these three, just to name some of his most famous roles.

György Dörner, Hungarian actor


And you can call those real roles. When actors voice an animated character, they act out as they visualize that role, and the animators draw the character around the performance. Now imagine that you're dubbing Robert De Niro or Anthony Hopkins. Or for that matter how do you approach an Eddie Murphy character and a Bruce Willis tough guy with the same set of tools, your voice? That's acting, that's playing a part. It's so much more than reading a translation. A voice actor will not only have to get in character, but also have to capture the visible actor, try to match the breathing pattern, mouth movement and so on.

What comes out at the end of that tunnel is sometimes average, decent, sometimes good, and in some cases brilliant. I dare to say this only softly: it's sometimes even better than the original performance. The result in these cases is an interesting blend of physical presence, visual acting and voice acting. Things get real twisted when the face and the voice welds together so well, that it becomes natural, more than the original voice of the actor. And remember, these are separate individuals.

It's unlikely that the English speaking movie world will experience this level of dub acting outside of animation. It could lead to interesting experiments though in filmmaking, and who knows? Maybe there will be a time when it will be hip for George Clooney to dub someone in a foreign indie film.
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