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Short: Mech, Human Trials

This short film from Patrick Kalyn looks like a trailer rather than a short, giving me the impression I will see it posted to Kickstarter, looking to be funded into a full feature film. I would consider contributing if it was, because I like what I see so far. I also think he did a nice job with his PSA and the viral design web site Don’t Do Mech attached to it. Considering he is a Visual Effects guy who’s credits include Avatar, District 9, X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, Dead Like Me, and King Kong, plus being writer/director on 4 projects including Mech, I think he has a shot at making something interesting. Thanks to SF Signal for the heads up on this one.

MECH: HUMAN TRIALS from Patrick Kalyn on Vimeo.

Something to Do: Movies, 13Jun14

This week we get How to Train Your Dragon 2, the animated fantasy sequel. I enjoyed the original Dreamworks production and the first season of the TV show. I felt season 2 of the show had gone a bit down hill, losing touch with the stories original values in honor of getting a bigger audience share by emphasizing the adventure aspects. I am hoping that the second movie takes us back to the kind of heart and character expressed in the first one. If you are in the mood for something more serious, The Signal may or may not be an alien invasion story that some folks have compared to District 9 for originality when it was on the film festival circuit. Other folks have been less positive, but I do like the trailer, and it got nominations at Sundance, so I may just check it out. I will not be attending The Rover, partly because it is in limited release this week, but mostly because the description reads like yet another Mad Max wannabe, and I have already seen my quota of Australian post apocalypse movies. It may be better than I think it is, because it got nominated for Best Film in Cannes; and it goes into wide release next week, so anyone who is interested can catch it then.

Tango Studio Linux Live Disc

The Tango Studio Linux build is primarily oriented to folks who want to create, modify, and edit audio/music files, through all aspects of the process. But it also gives you a mighty impressive tool set for working with graphics, video, animation, 3D modeling, and pretty much the entire creative range of media production and creation. Being a Live DVD means you don’t have to install it; boot from the DVD you make from the .ISO file you download, and run it from the DVD, saving anything you create to a thumb drive. When you are done working with it, shut down the computer and eject the disc. When you boot without the disc in the computer, the normal operating system on your hard drive launches whatever system you have installed. As usual for an open source Linux OS and software collection, both the Operating System (OS) and all the software running on it are free for use and distribution. Once you boot the disc, you will find a number of worthwhile workflows to follow, depending on what you are trying to create. Try it out, and let me know what you think.

Jodorowsky’s Dune

Possibly the best Sci-Fi movie never made, Jodorowsky’s Dune spent years assembling the most amazing cast and creative talents, before finally falling by the wayside. The team he assembled included Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and Salvador Dali for the actors. It was set to a musical score by Pink Floyd and the art/design work was put together by H.R. Giger and Moebius (Jean Giraud). Because of this project, many of the folks involved became entangled with other Sci-Fi masterworks which would have been much poorer for their loss. Even though we will never get to see this version of the film, the documentary telling us how close we came is finally becoming available. You can see it on the big screen if you are lucky enough to be in one of those cities. For myself, it doesn’t look like I made it unless I do a 3-hour drive, so I will wait for the Blue Ray/DVD to come out instead on July 2nd.