The Film Building
vlicata | March 31, 2016The Martian is a feel-good, science positive, uplifting film about the power of the human spirit, botany, and engineering. It looked, from the credits, like it had at least 8 scientific advisors from NASA (and possibly other places). Too bad that Ridley Scott only half listened to them. As one of the primary sci-fi filmmakers working today, it’s kind of amazing how a lot of the science in Ridley Scott’s films sort of leaves a chalky taste in the mouth. (Take a look at this link for a scathing review of the science in Prometheus).
It’s clear that The Martian is science-positive – the main…
vlicata | June 12, 2012I recently saw the beautiful (and beautifully ugly) National Theatre production of Frankenstein – written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle, and projected into cinemas around the world (just like opera simulcasts). Here is a review of the play, written as an open letter to Dr. Frankenstein:
Dear Victor,
I just saw the most recent portrayal of your exploits – the Nick Dear authored, Danny Boyle directed, broadcast version of the National Theatre play. What a masterpiece production – one of the best versions of your story I've ever seen – largely because of the intense focus on the…
vlicata | April 8, 2012I recently read David Kirby's new book on science film consulting. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone even remotely or subconsciously interested in being a science consultant for the next Iron Man or Transformers, or smaller budget real-life dramas with real-life science in them. His book is both easy and interesting to read - and is filled with information. He explores the history of science-consulting, going all the way back to "Woman in the Moon" and of course the still canonical "2001: A Space Odyssey", and discusses a large number of recent examples. He does not glorify…
vlicata | August 14, 2011Even in the small theater where I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it was clear that this is, to some degree, a father and son movie - there were several father and son pairs in the audience - more than I've seen in any other movie. "Yes, son, now you will see why our planet eventually will be taken over by apes." "Yes, dad, now you will see how CGI replaces this Roddy McDowell person you keep talking about."
Caution: spoilers.
Andy Serkis's Caesar and the rest of the ape-men were wonderful, as was slow build of the story. I also loved that the apes' goal was not world domination but to…
vlicata | May 9, 2010Going to a party at Tony Stark's house would be awesomely fun, and Iron Man 2 has its fair share of highly enjoyable scenes, though not as many as Iron Man 1, but it definitely could have used some science consulting help. Despite Tony Stark's apparently scientifically flawless use of a soldering iron in #1, here in #2 he constructs what appears to be a cross between a laser and a small synchrotron (which shot light in the wrong direction, inward instead of outward - or possibly looked like it might have been diverting the whole beam, which wouldn't work for more than about a nanosecond -…
worldsfair | February 12, 2009A few months back I had a chance to be involved with Dawkins' visit to Vancouver, and here we had a chance to record his speech. Not a bad way to spend an hour on this particular day.
Actually, Richard's presentation is very good (quite humourous at times) and definitely worth checking out. Click on the image below which should transport you to an enabled video site (the actual movie is protected to only play at terry.ubc.ca).
worldsfair | September 2, 2008So I'm pleased to show off a goofy little video I prepared using the great suggestions made at a previous post (Hopefully, the start of a definitive list of things to avoid at all cost when speaking publicly.).
It's being used to promote a student conference I'm helping with - the one that borrows the TED conference template and makes it available within a university setting. Anyway, more on that later. For now, let me know what you think.
Thumbs up? Then do spread it on - the student conference could do with as much viral love as it can get.
worldsfair | July 14, 2008A few days ago, I had a chance (with other ScienceBloggers) to check out Randy Olson's new flick, Sizzle. Now let me first start by saying that I'm hardly a movie aficionado - my favourite movie is still Star Wars, and to be honest the last few movies I saw before this one were Camp Rock, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Kung Fu Panda - can you guess we have kids at my household?). Still, I think I do have a decent handle on the ins and outs of communicating science, which ultimately this movie has as a central device.
The movie itself is a mockumentary and highlights Randy's plight to produce…
worldsfair | July 8, 2008I doodle a bit, and sometimes, it has this Breakfast of Champions look to it - which to be frank is deliberate, since I think it's a great visual style, especially for the purpose of teaching.
Anyway, since, I'm playing around with my relatively new flickr account (mainly set up so that I can start to organize my slides properly on my popperfont site), here's a video of a few goofy slides that highlights a variety of biological "modifications" that can occur. Full narrative below the fold by the way.
Again, the point is that the resultant organism can be different due to nuances at…
worldsfair | November 10, 2007I have to say that I really enjoyed this presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. Well worth the twenty minutes. Curious about comments too from you educators out there.
Ben, do you think this guy is a contender for our advisory board?
bcohen | November 22, 2006Robert Altman died on Monday. M*A*S*H was his first hit, way back in the day (the 1970 day, that is). There were many more. And so here are some obits: this one (from the NYT), that one (from The Guardian), and the other one (from the world's most reputable source).
McCabe & Mrs. Miller was one if his several masterpieces. And my personal favorite. And here is a review of it by Roger Ebert.
Ebert also has a series of commentaries and thoughts on Altman, and here are some. And here is an "appraisal" by NYT film critic A.O. Scott. Plus, check out this nice essay about Coppola and…
worldsfair | October 22, 2006The question humming around ScienceBlogs at this particular moment is about Science TV, so I thought I would pipe up for one of me and my kid's current favourite shows: Peep and the Big Wide World.
This is maybe a little different from other Sb responses since mine is very much directed towards your 6 and under set. But, you know, I like the show so much that I even made mention of it in the very first piece for the Science Creative Quarterly:
On most mornings, somewhere in the landscape of children's television, you can hear Taj Mahal singing and Joan Cusack narrating - not about sharing…
worldsfair | September 21, 2006Here is an example where an artist, perhaps unknowingly even, is consuming less. A short animated movie, using only the reused, recycled, or (at the very least) the very old, that shows how aesthetics can be achieved through any means.
By someone who goes by the name of PES, who I think could be MacGyver. Worth watching (click here), as well as spending a little extra time checking out the "making of."
worldsfair | August 24, 2006Well, it looks like units of our Psyche Strainers are shipping robustly. So much so, that we are perhaps close to thinking about bankrolling a possible movie venture. In this respect, we're thinking specifically of adapting a screenplay from a previous SCQ piece called "WHO IS THE GREATEST SCIENTIST OF THEM ALL,", but having taken a lesson from the "Snakes on a Plane" phenomenon, we have decided to promote this venture as "SCIENTISTS DOING ULTIMATE FIGHTING."
Catchy right? And assuming the Pysche Strainers continue to do well, we figure we can raise enough funds to attract even the…
worldsfair | August 4, 2006Scienceblogger question is asking the following:
What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally....
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Star Wars yet, so I'm going to pipe up for Han Solo et al. The first one in 1977, in particular, was a big one for me, and although it didn't necessarily reflect my yearning for science (and certainly doesn't uniformly follow robust scientific critique), I can't imagine it not having that effect on the countless other techno savy…
bcohen | August 4, 2006Asking a Scienceblogger...
What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally....
The first legitimate answer that occurred to me was the 1995 Angels & Insects
On Darwinism, gender and science, class and science, natural selection, based on A.S. Byatt novellas.
This is a beautiful film, an excellent story, and a solid science-based one at that. I really can't overstate how beautiful it is. (It seems that IMDB and Rotten Tomato reviewers aren't as enamored, but they…
bcohen | July 17, 2006This is but a link to an interesting summary article about the topic of scientists (physicists) in film. It's by Sidney Perkowitz, who teaches at Emory, and who I've seen speak at the meetings of and know has long been involved with the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA) -- which I call Salsa, but not sure if anyone else does, and which was long called just the Society for Literature and Science (SLS) until a name change a few years ago.
Salsa has a highly respected journal, too, Configurations, which is often fairly theoretically inclined and generally tip top. In fact,…
worldsfair | July 8, 2006Looks like the movie Hollow Man 2, a movie which used my lab for a scene or two is finally out.
And straight to DVD too. Check it out here. You can see it as the first locale in the "Guess Who" Watch the Trailer option (ooh, a flask breaks).
worldsfair | June 15, 2006Hello, those of you from boingboing.net. Please take a moment to peruse the site. In a nutshell, this is a site that is all about looking at things from both the humanist and scientific perspectives. The World's Fair is run by two science academics, who write things for McSweeney's and the like. We even have a puzzle if you think yourself the clever type (hey, that rhymes!)
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Since I brought up Al Gore a few days back, I thought I may as well let you in on a cool little film that is available in Issue #1 of McSweeney's Wholphin DVD. Essentially, it's a short 15 minute movie filmed by…