battlestar galactica themes

Battlestar Galactica season 3 has just ended and before I start THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS HERE. If you haven't seen ANY episodes it is probably best to not read any further and just go out and buy yourself the mini-series.

What a show. It actually is the best thing on television right now IMO. And I'm not a tub-thumping sci-fi geek either (well maybe a little ;) but what this show has is guts and intelligence. It is superbly written and brilliantly acted. And it has everything you could want in a show: love, action and drama.

Set in a distant galaxy there is a popluation of humans living on twelve planets named after our star signs, for example Caprica or Saggitaron. Each world has it's own set of beliefs and culture yet all are human and all speak English it would seem. As this species of human progress in their technological abilities they are able to create an artificially intelligent robot called the cylon who is supposed to work as a slave race to this people of man. But the cylons evolve and soon break off and a war erupts. The human race is ultimately successful and the cylons remove themselves to a far off world and no one hears of them for forty years. And this is where the new series of Battlestar Galactica starts off. Human memory of the cylons is fading. Their guard is down. What they have failed to realize is that the cylons have infiltrated earth at its very core having developed the ability to build new cylons in the form of humans. This infiltration leads to the biggest shut-down in these twelve planet's defences and ultimately to the surprise attack by the cylons on all twelve worlds. These attacks are deadly and all planets are nuked with only Caprica having a few survivors left. It is aboard the aging ship the Battlestar Galactica that a commander who is just about to retire had the mean task of leading a group of ships away from the devastating blows the cylons have generated. His ship was not networked to the fleet (him being a little 'old' fashioned) so the computer virus that spread through the rest of the fleet did not strike his. And so his crew flee along with a band of refugee ships to regroup and rethink their strategy. 50,000 people are all that remains of the human population. And things look bleak. Their water supplies are low and their fuel cells dwindling. Emerging from the ruins of this people is a new leader who is 52nd in line to the presidency before the attacks but is now raised to the position of leader and must rise to the challenge this brings. But what they do not have is hope, that is until Commander Adama tells them of a tale whereby human ancestors left many years ago and discovered a place called Earth. All at once there is a purpose. A glimmer in the distance. Something to aim for. And with that the fleet set off. This series is about the people involved. Their trials and struggles. It is a show that constantly challenges us. The characters are far from perfect and it is gritty and bleak. And yet it hooks you.

What fascinates me is the themes that it addresses. For one there is RELIGION. Humans are polytheists. Cylons are monotheists. The humans worship many gods with names such as the Romans worshipped, like Aggatheon and Apollo. The cylons worship one. There are underlying themes of faith. Both sides believe blindly without any proof of their God's existence and yet most if not all seem fixed in their beliefs. There are few athiests in the show. It would seem in many ways that the events have been predestined. There are people and events in place that seem to be there by chance but the human cylon Caprica 6 is often quoted as saying that God has a plan and a purpose in all that happens.

Then there is the idea of ETHICS. The cylons have just destroyed billions of people in their attacks on the twelve home worlds. And yet in many ways they are sympathetic. They come across as kind and caring. Almost as a parent looks over it's child which is ironic as the humans created them. The children have grown up and are facing their parents as we all do at some point and realise them for the people they actually are. The humans are generally flawed and not one is ever all good. In the case of President Roslin she has made some very dubious decisions, threatening to throw people out of airlocks and keeping a human/cylon child to raise away from it's parents. Commander Adama has also made some questionable decisions and is responsible for many lives. They come from a place of good yet their actions are often grey morally. We have even seen the side of cylon occupied 'new' Caprica where humans have banded together to form factions of suicide bombers. This puts us on the side of current issues in today's world. Making the American people the cylons. Now that IS controversial. You are never really sure which side you should be on. And this makes great television.

lcd soundsystem

So I'm really enjoying LCD Soundsystem at the moment. Their sound is fresh and if you have yet to hear them check out Someone Great over at iTunes as a great taster to their electro beats. I saw this in the Metro and thought it was an interesting way to promo an album. The marketing people over at Motomedia have had the foresight to take over an empty shop window filling it with their album art and a way via bluetooth to download LCD Soundsystem songs to your phone. There is also some cool video. So as people pass the Liverpool St. venue they are enticed to view what is going on and to sample a new sound. Genius :)

torchwood

Torchwood is the BBC's latest sci-fi offering aimed squarely at adults. A Doctor Who spin-off from the pen of Russell T Davies who also brought the new series of Doctor Who back to life. This sees Captain Jack Harkness, a character from an earlier DW episode, as hero. Set in Cardiff, Wales, this is Torchwood 3.... the other Torchwoods being in London and Scotland.

Ok so my first impressions of this show (have only seen the first two so far) are that it is great! It is smartly written, tongue firmly in cheek. Yet very adult. The second episode dealt with an alien who literally screws her victims to death and breathes in the sexual energy. Some parts are cheesy.... "This is Toshiko she's a computer genius" pointing to the Asian girl (can anyone say stereotype). But sweeping shots (making full use of the new set) and shots of the Torchwood staff hard at work (cheesy) are then matched by everyone laughing at pretending to be so serious having put on a show for the new girl. The characters are great: all seem totally flawed in some way or another and there seems to be a definite character arc as we are slowly learning a bit more about each of them. Oh and a series story arc too reminiscant of Buffy. The similarities to Buffy do not end there as Cardiff, it seems, sits on a riff of time and space where the universe's flotsam and jetsum seem to end up (Hellmouth?).

This is new and inventive and great for adults who found the new Doctor Who a bit lame. But I'm sorry no amount of flybys over Cardiff central (as best seen in CSI!) can make this city look 'cool'. Good stuff none-the-less.

museum of lost interactions

The museum of lost interactions is a collection of forgotten communication and entertainment media. What is interesting is that gadgets we consider modern technology were actually born a long time ago. For instance, iTunes may be dominating now with their music download service but it was with the acoustograph back in 1925 where familes could request musical compositions via morse code down a telegraph wire, that the idea was born. Or the text message: actually first invented as the social communicator back in 1932 using wireless morse code technology people could commuincate throughout the bustle of a city. And when do you think portable video was began: try 1979, with the release of the video case, VHS on the move complete with an ashtray. Check out the complete collection as it makes for a fascinating read!

purple and brown

The guys over at Aardman are back with their classic claymation creations here with Purple and Brown. And they are back doing what they do best after a not so great success delving into CG animation with Flushed Away. What is great about Purple and Brown is that there are no voices used, only sounds and grunts. The communication is done through gestures and expressions. It is genius. Enjoy the short and if you love it there are loads more on youtube for you to enjoy.

TED

When I was kid I used to wonder how it would be possible to live in heaven without getting really bored. This is the opening preamble to TED which is a conference where the best minds in Technology Entertainment and Design converge and share ideas. Now I wanted to share this guy because he is just SO inspiringly pretentious (go on click on the link above). So bad it's good. I have to disagree with him though that most of the interesting people will be in hell and we'll all be having a whale of a time. But that is hardly inspirational now is it. And how could he sit on his pedestal and look down on the rest of us from hell :) Anyway TED looks like a blast and I would love to go one day. Some of the best minds in the world are there and all talking about the future. Super cool ;)

michel gondry

So we went to see the Science of Sleep last night, Michel Gondry's follow up to the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And what a treat it was. Gondry is the master of creating twisted realities with his artful blend of experimental film techniques. In this he melds stop-motion with blue screen effects to create a world where dreams meet reality. Gondry is famed for his work on music videos which is a medium where his creativity can be explored. The Science of Sleep is his third foray into feature film and with it the challenge of creating a narritive flow over the course of 90 or so minutes. Hating CG effects he often goes to great lengths to achieve the shot he wants. I remember watching the making of Eternal Sunshine where Gondry wants his two stars to be laying on a sheet of ice on a frozen pond and a car with headlights on passes beneath. From a budget and technical point of view it just wasn't possible although probably achievable with some heavy After Effects work. His style is extremely distinctive and I really wanted to share this in my choices and highlights of his music video work. I am hoping that this little taster will encourage you to watch his movies which are undoubtedly challenging but ultimately rewarding.....

The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be (look out for a narrative style very similar to the Science of Sleep and obviously a great jumping point)



Gary Jules - Mad World (from an organisational point of view this must have been really challenging)



Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World (the narrative flow picks up on itself as past catches up with future)



Bjork - Joga (just visually stunning)



Daft Punk - Around The World (a classic)



The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl (anything involving stop-motion and lego is great in my book)



The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar (incredible mix of film to match the music.... watch this to the end)

faithfull

I love love love Faithless anyway but this video is just a gorgeous realisation of their vision. Inspired by light painting (check out my light painting blog post tags), this video is edgy and sublime. Exactly how dance music videos should be. Inspiring. Love it.

today's sound

pssst did you know about this band....... what a great sound!!!! And what a voice....bless her and her knitting

adidas us

So Adidas have got themselves a 3D foot scanner in their brand new store along the Champs Elysses. This is a good idea but is quite limited and fairly gimmicky in it's execution. Presumably you have to wait your turn before using the scanner and once you leave the store what good is it going to do you? I propose something a lot more radical. Why don't your high street stores invest in a full body scanner. You could start it out at your flag ship stores as a gimmick but could roll it out to other places once the idea catches on. What this would do is scan your entire body and calculate your exact measurements (shoe included). It would then create an avatar for you that you could access online. That way whenever you wanted to do some online shopping it would know what would fit you and make recommendations for you. Online shopping would actually become practical when buying clothes. The online avatar you create would look like you and would show exactly how these clothes would look on you. You could see what colours work for your skin tones etc. You could also see what your clothes would look like in different environments and surroundings. As your body shape changes you could alter the dimensions or simply get rescanned. You could store all your exact measurements on your phone and then use RFID technology to let the shops you go in know what size you are and let you know what will fit you for each garment.

big brother state

This short film goes towards securing my fears about the direction this and many countries are heading. With the UK having one of the largest CCTV networks in the world you have to wonder who is watching who and for what purpose. As our freedoms and liberties are eroded in the name of national security and the war on terror who exactly are the real victims?

This leads on from my other post about Google domination.

foreign office

If you haven't yet seen Children of Men then go out and see it NOW. It is by far one of the best movies of 2006. The movie portrays a chilling and fearfully accurate vision of a not-too-distant future. Part of this is some advertisments that appear on bill-boards and the sides of buses. The folks over at foreign office are responsible for these little gems and a showreel can be seen lo-res below or if you have time the hi-res version is here. Advertising of the future? Thanks Kit for this link :)

the future is nigh

So with all the media attention being firmly on Apple and the imminent release of the iPhone we should really look at why this technology is important. It is not because the product looks pretty (which inevitably it does) and certainly there is nothing ground-breaking about what this device is capable of. What is revolutionary is the interface that has been developed and with it an era of 'multi-touch' technology. What Apple is doing here is actually taking existing ideas and creating a viable product with an intuitive user-interface (the iPod and Newton are past examples of this). This MT system has been around for a quite a while though, with the likes of Jeff Han working on some incredible interfaces (check out his work in the video below). The product was created after the inventor studied the effect of his finger pads on the outside of a glass of water noticing where his fingers actually made contact. You have to wonder as to the influence of science-fiction in many of these new technologies with Minority Report being an obvious example. Or is this just an evolution of the way in which we interact with our devices? Are we tired of using a mouse and keyboard and is this the next step? Of course there are new things to learn. Gone are terms like 'point and click': enter terms like 'pinch-zoom'. Are we bringing in a new energetic way to interact? Certainly it is much easier to interact with the physical world and actually being able to move objects around a screen using our fingers seems like a great (if a little tiring) way to interact.



So what is the future going to hold for us in this field? Will there ever come a time when we can simply look at an object and will it to move around a screen? Sounds far fetched? Well believe it or not scientists have developed a system whereby a person's actions can be represented as brain activity in a computer. This computer can then be trained to respond to that same activity even if it is only a thought and not the actual action: hence the ability to move objects with the power of your mind. Check out this crazy monkey brain control video here (thanks to blunt for this one). But this is not the stuff of small research labs, this technology was showcased this week at a gaming conference in San Fransisco. A device that scans the brain can interpret brain activity as intended action and move objects about onscreen. This is cutting edge stuff and we are a long way off having home computers with the computing power to read our minds in an effective way. But the work has begun and the technology is there. Science fiction becomes science fact.

Everything you can imagine is real.
Picasso

auditricity

I quite like this ad in terms how it has been made. It is dynamic which I love (basically animations of this sort fall into two camps.... timelined and dynamic, where a timeline animation will always look the same). It seems to have been made by having three movie clips that react to where the mouse cursor is and stretch to meet that point from original points on the car. Nicely done. From an actual ad point of view does it actually get across its message? Well its not bad. A pretty good idea. And with all ads of this size simplicity is key. Check the ad out here

iWant

Quite simply "i want". I know it would look good in my kitchen and I promise to do all the laundry from now on ;) Well errrrr at least it would look pretty....

sky view

With an emphasis on colour and pattern this photo set really is absolutely gorgeous. I seem to remember a book called Earth from Above and I hope that this site isn't just a blatent copy of images from there. I absolutely love the photographer's (of which I'm sure there are many) eye for capturing the beauty that surrounds us, be it a focus on colour, texture or shape. Some absolutely jaw-dropping sites to be seen here.

lapses in light

This is worth watching if only for the Ferris wheel at the start and the night's sky at the end. I'm assuming that this is done by piecing together time-lapsed photographs. Very nicely done and a great effect. As you can tell if you follow my blog I am a bit obsessed with time-lapse and stop-motion at the moment. I feel a project coming on :)

virginia slims circa 1969

Aaaaaah simpler times. When the trend in selling your product was to nod towards women's lib with a "Look how far you've come". How fab does this woman look though? With a flavour she likes and now in a slim feminine size. Genius. I now know why my granny smoked these. Because you looked SUPER COOL. I'm sold :)

etsy

I really like this novel way to navigate through a site. It is basically a time machine of sorts allowing you to go back and see what you have been looking at in the past. Say you are browsing for items in Amazon this feature would be a visual way of navigating through your past choices. I think the execution of this is really nice and the spiral of images works well. I also like the way you can toss images to one side (this could be used in a different way: I'd like to see it implemented as a selection method whereby you could toss things onto an area and that would set up say a wish list for want of a better example). Check the site out here

renaissance

Just finished watching this devastating movie: Renaissance. Shot in an intriguing way the movie makers used motion-capture to gain the actor's performance then transferred this information into a 3D modelled environment, before using a computer generated rotoscope effect leaving only a black and white 2D image. The effect is startling. A hi-tech futruristic world is created in and around Paris. Set in 2054, significant advances in the world have transformed this iconic city into a crazy world where architecture meets technology. The story is that of a more traditional detective tale and film-noir is heavily referenced and highly accentuated by this delicious style.

It is great to see new and experimental mediums being generated in this way and also wonderful that this movie came out of France instead of the more powerhouse animation studios. The movie is not for everyone and it definitely requires a second viewing. Check out the really good flash website used to promote the movie here where a good use of the movie's style is incorporated.

lo-res trailer below | hi-res version here

eatPES

I found this rather lovely stop-motion advert for Bacardi from the guys over at PES films. I particularly like the first lemon advert. The thing with great stop-motion (as the guys over at Aardman will tell you) is you have to start with a great story. The genius comes with how the cheeky script is realized through stop-motion. This really is such a painstackingly labourious medium to work in that I have such great respect for anyone doing this kind of work. I'm not sure if I have the patience.

This one by PES will also make you titter :) roof sex

and this one is just wrong!!!! beasty boy

gt work

I thought you'd like to see some of the brilliant work that is coming out of the digital agency where I'm working right now. Ok so I haven't actually worked on either of these projects but that's no reason not to blog about them. To be honest it is inspiring for me to see work of this quality being produced and the hope of doing a microsite soon is really cool (life beyond banners yay). So here is the work that has been done for Adobe..... be sure to follow the link at the end of this video for a TREAT!!!!!!



...and this is the work just out for Christian Aid.... a nice little twist on an idea and definitely makes you think

climate change