Gravity is the kind of film I can believe in, something that takes amazing orbital videos and presents them embedded in a something like a story line, possibly even with a plot. Yes, I do know just how easily amused I am.
The fun for me in this super short video segment is not in the video itself, although it is built quite well. Rather, I enjoy it for the irony of the dialog, where the creator talks about trying to build a video using masking and compositing of video source material. Kind of a nice touch in a video that can only exist by using those technologies.
There is a wonderful Fake Geek Girl musical rebuttal called Nothing To Prove by The Doubleclicks that you really ought to watch. Thanks to the folks at Wired for the heads up on this one.
MechaCon is the largest Anime Con in New Orleans, and runs this year from August 23rd to the 25th. There will be a ton of things going on there, including Cosplay and AMV competitions, with a wide range of guests to see and events to attend. What makes this memorable for me is the Red Carpet Affair, their opening night formal dance and party. The theme this year is When you wish upon a Deathstar, and they are encouraging costumes that are a blend of Disney and Star Wars, in honor of the franchise changing hands. I particularly like the Deathstar as Micky Mouse image, it is quite a hoot.
Yesterday I mentioned that the JAPAN FILM FESTIVAL of San Francisco was going to be running Library Wars on Friday, but they have a number of other amazing films you will also want to see on the big screen if you can make the festival (note: it started several days ago, so a time machine would be useful. But it also runs for at least another week).
They have a large selection of Anime films, but if I had to pick just one to attend it would be the US premiere of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, a reboot of the classic Evangelion mecha masterpiece. This is the third of four films in the new series, and things are not looking good for Earth or humanity at this point in the war. My live action pick is Space Battleship Yamato, a classic story previously done as an Anime. The groundbreaking original ushered in science fiction anime, and this live action adaptation looks pretty amazing. I like the fact that they kept to the original ship design and costuming while bringing modern special effects to the mix. There are a bunch of other great films, anime and live action both, if you are going to be in town during the event be sure to check it out.
Europa Report is the planetary adventure this week, searching for life on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon. While not the largest budget film ever, this one looks very interesting indeed. The other one I would really like to see is Library Wars, if I can just make it over to the Japan Film Festival of San Francisco. In 2019 a new law is passed, which allows the government to create an armed force to destroy objectionable printed material. Opposing this is the Library Force, teachers and librarians out to protect all books, and they too are heavily armed. I know which side I would be fighting on! Or you could just go for the action roller coaster and see 2 Guns; it’s not genre, but it looks like a lot of fun. Notice how I didn’t even mention Cockneys vs Zombies?