Category: Sci-Fi

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Vital Force

How has it been two months since my last blog post? I have had a very busy summer this year but not nearly as busy as the summer of 2008. Ten years ago while attending Shoreline Community College I had the privilege of writing and directing a feature film. Nothing about that project was easy and almost nothing went according to plan.

It started with a short film series I produced earlier that year. Those who worked on the project insisted I move forward with a feature film in the same setting. My script was chosen as one of three summer films (the other two films were shorts). I had a very small stipend of money and a lot of college age kids with wacky availability. I managed to pool together some additional funds to secure some gear and a Director of Photography. With the generous support of another film friend of mine, we were able to shoot the film on an entirely new format using the Red One camera!

Like I said, almost nothing went according to plan. When working with a collection of student volunteers, I learned very quickly that not everyone who makes a commitment, sticks with it. I had engaging phone calls and meetings with people who seemed genuinely excited to work on the film and then not show up, not return calls, leaving me totally in the lurch. There were several points during that summer I wanted to quit. I was investing so much of my time and my own money (credit actually, I didn’t have any actual money at the time) and often I felt so alone. But I wasn’t alone. While some people may have bailed on me, I had a few dedicated cast and crew members who stood by me until the end of production. It was a relief when it was finally “in the can” and several months later we actually reassembled to film some additional scenes (those went way better!).

Once everything was shot, I went to work cutting the film and composing the effect shots. Nothing about post production went according to plan either! The problem with shooting on a new format is that software and codecs hadn’t caught up to it. My computer system was relatively new at the time and it was severely under powered for the 4K footage I was asking it to process. When I would compose an effects shot, I literally had to export the scene in tiny sections because any more than a few seconds and my machine crashed!

While I may have struggled with the editing portion of the film, I was fortunate to have some help with the audio. A good friend of mine worked with me to get the necessary ADR (automated dialog replacement, though there is nothing “automated” about it). I had a composer step forward as well as a team of guys who did some Foley work.

Time passed and life happened. My frustrations with the project made it difficult to complete and eventually my bank account required me to take a job out of state. Eventually I was able to upgrade my computer and Adobe was able to finally recognize native red footage. After a few years I went back to the film and was able to re-render entire scenes of effect shots and recompose the film.

I finished the film sometime in 2013, five years after it was shot. At that time I couldn’t upload a huge file to YouTube and the film was too long for my account (there used to be length restrictions on uploads). I burned a few copies to Blu-ray and “turned in” my film to Shoreline Community College. I had always intended on a big screening for the cast and crew, I also intended on finishing the film within the first year but…

My lead cast member asked me about the film the other day and I figured now was as good a time as any to put it out there. It’s not perfect and I can’t watch the film without seeing all the mistakes and shortcuts that were made to get it done. Still though, for a student film in 2008 made on less than a shoestring budget, I think it holds up pretty well.

If you haven’t seen the Vital Force web series, I recommend you watch that first as the film makes numerous references to the events in that series. Happy viewing!

Vital Force Feature Film

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Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

NOTE: Spoilers Ahead

I’m a fan of all kinds of science fiction and as such I tend to be a little more forgiving when franchises like Star Trek or Star Wars put out new material. I don’t generally pick it apart and compare it to the glory days of yore. Yet after seeing the latest iteration in the Star Wars saga, I felt the need to blog about my thoughts on the film.

I’ll start by saying that generally I liked the movie. I felt the story was cohesive with a good beginning, middle, and end. They left a few questions unanswered thus leaving the door open for more storytelling in the future. The soundtrack was amazing and the acting was top notch.

The film shows us how Han and Chewbacca met and became family. It was great to see this relationship in its infancy. The film also shows us how Han met Lando and eventually won the Millennium Falcon in a card game. These two elements are crucial to the future story and I thought the writers did a fantastic job with them.

If I’m going to be honest, I was just a bit disappointed at how Han was written. When we first see Han in “A New Hope”, he’s every bit the scoundrel Leia says he is. He “shot” first after all. He’s a guy who looks after himself above all else. To survive as a smuggler in desperate times this character trait makes every bit of sense. Through the original movie series, we see his character undergo change as he falls in love with Leia and works with the rebellion. He becomes a hero who puts others before himself. This character transformation is critical to Han’s story arc over the course of the original three films.

The latest movie starts out strong with Han ripping someone off with plans to get off Corellia, the terrible world he’s grown up on. Then comes “the girl”, I swear I did a mental face palm. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Emilia Clarke as an actress and the character of Qi’ra was very well written. I just wholly expected Han to be a sleaze at this point in his life. It makes sense that a young man desperate to get away from a life of destitution wouldn’t make deep connections with anyone purely as a survival tactic, yet we start the film with Han in love!

Han makes it off the planet but she doesn’t and he spends the next three years of his life trying to get back and rescue her. He meets a ruthless band of thieves and signs on to help them with their latest scheme hoping it will bring him closer to saving Qi’ra. He gets a kind of mentor with Tobias Beckett, the leader. Beckett is every bit the cold hearted selfish scoundrel Han should be. Becket imparts his scoundrel wisdom to Han but Han doesn’t appear to buy into Beckett’s philosophy. Beckett and Han fail to complete the job they were hired to do and must face the music. The two men meet up with the crime syndicate they’re freelancing for and Han discovers Qi’ra made it off Corellia and now works for the crime syndicate he’s in trouble with.

To set things right, Han and Beckett along with Qi’ra must pull off another heist. Long story short, they’re successful and make it to the rendezvous with the required material. Before they can make the hand-off, in comes a paradigm shift when a group of rebels attempt to intercept the stolen goods. The rebels are desperate to take down the various crime lords who oppress the people which reminds Han of his life growing up on Corellia. Should Han work with the rebels and turn over the material thus making an enemy of the crime syndicate? Should he give the material to the crime syndicate and attempt to free his lover from her obligations to them?

At the climax of the film, Han does the right, he plays the role of a hero. Han betrays Beckett because Beckett would have killed him otherwise thus he learned at least a few of Beckett’s lessons. He gives the goods to the rebels and the man holding power over Qi’ra meets a deadly end. Qi’ra has plans of her own leaving Han and Chewbacca to fend for themselves. As a standalone story this ending would normally be just fine but this is a backstory film. By making him a good guy and a man devoted to a woman he loves, it completely upsets the character transformation he undergoes in Episodes 4, 5, and 6! He ends the film a good guy so when does he become the selfish smuggler we see in “A New Hope”? Another backstory film perhaps?

Aside from Han’s character arc, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a pretty good film worth seeing for those who aren’t too particular when it comes to the Star Wars franchise.

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Sorry, not sorry

I have many personal heroes; unfortunately most of them live in the realms of books, movies, and television. It’s no secret I was a huge Star Trek fan growing up and Jean-Luc Picard taught me so much about integrity and standing up for the truth even when the consequences could be devastating.

I remember watching Star Trek: The Next Generation’s fifth season episode “The First Duty” and being disappointed at how long it took Wesley to admit he and his team lied about the circumstances surrounding a fellow cadet’s death. For those who aren’t familiar with this episode, Cadet Wesley Crusher and his academy flight squadron were engaging in a flight maneuver strictly banned by the institution. If they successfully pulled off this maneuver they would be lauded as heroes by their fellow trainees. Unfortunately for Wesley and his squadron, during practice something went wrong and his friend was killed as a result. His team tried to cover it up but as the saying goes, the truth will out. Picard invites Wesley to his ready room where he explains “the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth!”

As I’ve grown and garnered more life experience, I can sympathize with young Cadet Crusher more than I did as a teenager. While I think the death of his friend should have been more than sufficient circumstances to compel him to tell the truth from the start, I can understand how remaining loyal to his squadron commander and his friends, lying to protect them as it were, could create a difficult choice. In the end Wesley does the right thing to honor his friend who died. He tells the truth and willingly faces the consequences. He owned his mistake.

While I can’t say this episode alone taught me this lesson, it certainly reinforced concepts I had learned growing up. There have been times I’ve made mistakes or taken a shortcut for the sake of expediency. Most of the time those situations worked out but on the occasion they didn’t, I didn’t lie. I owned my failures and faced the consequences. I’ve learned that when you own up to your mistakes, admit wrong doing and make the effort to correct them, the disappointment by others is balanced by a level of respect for making it right.

Lately I’ve seen an unfortunate trend in American culture when a wrong is committed. The offending individual is quick to place blame elsewhere, often at the feet of the person they just victimized! Our instinct is one of self-preservation and when someone is caught doing something wrong, whether embarrassed, entitled, or ignorant the offender generally refused to own up.

You say something you shouldn’t and it hurts someone. Do you deny you said it? Downplay and dismiss the context in which it was said? Tell the person you hurt they are too sensitive and to get over it? Or do you own it and apologize? Would it really be so bad to just admit you made a mistake and apologize for it?

What happens to a society when the people chosen to lead said society are incapable of owning their mistakes? When our leaders are unwilling and unable to say “I’m sorry,” can we really expect the rest of the country to do the right thing when they’ve done something wrong? Why is admitting you’ve made a mistake perceived as weakness? We all make mistakes; every single one of us is flawed and prone to error. A quick apology can defuse a situation but denying wrong doing only exacerbates the issue turning a minor offense into a major ordeal.

I am grateful for Picard and other fictional heroes who have taught me so well. I’ll stick with them instead of the lessons many current real life leaders would have me learn instead.

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The Last Jedi

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I finally got to see the latest movie in the Star Wars saga yesterday and I wasn’t disappointed! I hope to see it again very soon. I liked ‘The Force Awakens’ but I was disappointed in how much it looked and felt like ‘A New Hope’. While ‘The Last Jedi’ has a few elements similar to ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ I think it stands on its own very well.

One of my biggest issues with Episode 7 was Kylo Ren. He was no Darth Vader and to me he came across more as a spoiled child who threw a tantrum every time he didn’t get his way rather than a sinister apprentice of the dark side. His costume was ridiculous as the character was perfectly healthy. Basically he was a poser. They must have heard that feedback from fans because Kylo was much more interesting in Episode 8. Supreme Leader Snoke told him to ditch the helmet early on and after yet another tantrum he did. After that point in the film, I felt Kylo began to develop into something much more interesting. He did early on what Vader couldn’t do until the end, he destroyed his master. At one point it looked like he might even redeem himself. But of course there is still at least one more movie and we need a villain so no dice on redemption for Ben Solo. I’m still not a fan of Kylo Ren but I don’t loathe him quite like I used to.

I was surprised at Carrie Fisher’s screen time in the latest movie. I was happy to hear they had wrapped filming on this movie prior to her passing. At several points in the film it looked like General Leia would be the next hero to die and it would make perfect sense to kill her off as the actress is no longer with us. But they didn’t! She survived to the end and her character had a much larger story arc than in ‘The Force Awakens’. I am interested to see what they do with her moving forward.

There are a noticeable number of women in this film with awesome leadership roles. Unfortunately this only seems to apply to the Rebellion. It would seem most women aren’t a fan of the dark side. Captain Phasma appears to be the only woman with any degree of power or authority among the First Order. It looks as if she meets her end in this episode but characters in Star Wars have a way of not being totally dead so we’ll have to wait and see.

BB-8 is quickly becoming my favorite droid of the franchise. His adorable antics in the film were fantastic and reminded me a lot of R2-D2 in Episode 3. I think the one thing I would have liked to see more of is BB-8 and R2 working together. I think there is some great chemistry between the droids but the story line really didn’t allow the two to interact.

The one element I felt went on too long was Rey and Luke. She spends a lot of time in the movie trying to pull Luke’s head out of his ass and Luke won’t budge. The writer also introduced a new trick in the force by making it possible for force users to project themselves physically across the galaxy. It’s a neat trick but I imagine that takes a lot of talent. Kylo and Rey exchange some fantastic dialog and chemistry using this interaction and this should make Luke very nervous but he appears completely oblivious to their shenanigans for most of the film. You’d think that level of force usage would be felt by him even though he’d cut himself off from the force. Guess that goes to show just how far his head was up his…never mind.

I have been surprised by some of the fan reaction to the film. While the movie went in a direction I probably wouldn’t have taken it, I think it sets up Episode 9 for a lot of potential action and drama. The second film in any trilogy has to put our heroes in absolute peril and make it seem like hope is all but lost. Indeed there isn’t much left of the resistance (at least Leia’s cell anyway) by movie’s end but each of them is hopeful. With such odds against them and with Kylo Ren now running the First Order, Episode 9 has to bring rise to the Rebellion in such a way as to defeat the First Order all in one movie. Will Kylo be redeemed? Will the First Order be defeated and the last remnants of the old empire finally destroyed? Or will there be a new order, a new balance to the force where there is no light or dark side?

I look forward to seeing what comes next in a galaxy far far away.

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Waiting for Discovery

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I have been tuning in every week since the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery eagerly anticipating the next installment of the latest iteration of my favorite sci-fi series. I won’t lie, I’ve usually been left disappointed on some level after each episode. That’s not to say I don’t like the series, I do like it a lot but after every episode I felt a little unsatisfied with the progression of the story.

The pilot episode set up a major conflict with the Klingons. While aspects of this set up are a little frustrating I can totally buy into it as part of the history of Trek and the story they want to tell. War makes for great and tragic dramatic story telling and some of Deep Space Nine’s best episodes were during the Dominion War.

As I began hearing about the premise of Discovery before it was released, I imagined a ship of science changing its focus as it found itself in the middle of the Klingon conflict. Kind and gentle Starfleet officers would have to learn a more militaristic lifestyle and that would create a great deal of internal conflict with the primary characters of the show. I haven’t really seen anything like that with the crew of Discovery. Most of them seemed kind of shady from the start!

As for external conflict, I imagined the Klingons would press the Federation with numerous engagements, seizing world after world until the Federation had no choice but to dig deep and stand up to them. We really haven’t seen that either. Since the pilot we’re seen one space battle, the opening of episode 8 ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’ where Discovery swoops in to try and rescue a fellow Starfleet ship (they fail). The only conflict involving a strategic world was episode 4 with the awesome title ‘The Butcher’s Knife Cares not for the Lamb’s Cry’ where a dilethium mine colony is about to be overrun unless Discovery can get there in time.

Instead we have a show where there is a large focus on a new way to travel through space. We know this form of space travel will inevitably fail because this is a prequel series and in the twenty-fourth century they still use the tried and true warp engine. We have a small story arc with Harry Mudd, a character who made an appearance in the original series. This had me excited at first as I was hoping for some kind of anti-hero; a character who doesn’t play by the rules but still has some kind of moral backbone. With the shadiness of Captain Lorca, I guess there wasn’t much choice but to make Mudd a full on villain.

So far the show talks a lot about war, the cost of war, and how they must win the war. While Discovery has had a few run-ins with the Klingons, most of the time the show just tells us they’ve done a lot rather than show us the action. The primary focus is Burnham’s character arc and redemption journey. This would be great if she weren’t hampered by years of Vulcan training on the suppression of emotion. She comes across as cold which in my opinion doesn’t work very well in your principal lead.

While the content of the show may leave me with something to be desired, the production quality is nothing less than spectacular. I absolutely love the musical themes and I wish they’d release the soundtrack. Visually the show is stunning and it’s easy to believe the world they’ve created. While it’s not the Star Trek of old, it is very much in line with the reboot “Kelvin” universe and utilizes the best of what’s available in current cinematic tools. It may not have the feel of Star Trek but it does make for great science fiction.

After every episode I feel like I’m still waiting, waiting to see where they go and disappointed they haven’t made more progress in getting there. At least that was the case until I saw the mid-season finale. All of a sudden everything comes to a head and it looks like everything gets wrapped up in a nice package. Discovery has a plan to unlock the secrets of the Klingon cloaking device and mid-execution of said plan, the security chief suffers an episode of PTSD! Burnham fights the Klingons, Discovery fights the Klingon ship, the spore drive is put to the test! We went from zero to warp 9 in a single episode! That too was not very satisfying as there are still at least six episodes remaining in season one. It’s possible this wrap up is just an illusion or the show could be taking a new direction. The latest episode does end on a cliffhanger so I guess I’ll have to wait until January to find out.

Looks like I’m still waiting.

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About a Girl

A Recap of The Orville Episode 3

When I first heard about The Orville I was super excited. The trailer made it look like a series version of my all-time favorite movie ‘Galaxy Quest’. It would be a space adventure but it wouldn’t take itself too seriously; after all Seth MacFarlane was behind it. But after watching episode 3, “About a Girl” I am simply blown away. ***Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk!***

The first thing that struck me about the episode was who directed it, Brannon Braga. He was an executive producer on Star Trek: Voyager. It wasn’t long before I noticed how the musical cues seemed Trek like in theme and tone. Even the shooting style of the episode screamed Star Trek (the 1990’s style not Kelvin). As for the story, I never thought MacFarlane would jump into something so controversial, especially for a show that’s advertised more for humor than drama. In fact, the episode’s humor felt almost out of place against the high stakes drama involved in the storyline.

Orville’s second officer Bortus and his mate Klyden just had a child. The only problem? It’s a girl and Moclan society doesn’t accept females. Initially both Bortus and his mate want an operation to change their daughter into a son. Their human counterparts aboard the Orville are shocked at the mere suggestion and after a little bonding over beer and an old Earth movie (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) Bortus has a change of heart. This leads to a tribunal where first officer Kelly Grayson must defend Bortus and his daughter against the Moclan status quo.

The episode brings up issues about gender choice versus culture and equal rights for women in society; and there is absolutely no subtlety about it. There is an attempt to play down some of the heavy drama with the use of humor. Grayson uses Orville’s human pilot as an example that not all men are smart. “The tribunal must acknowledge that there is no valid claim for gender based superiority,” Grayson argues.

As far as I could tell, the bias Moclan society has toward woman only seems to apply to the Moclan species. Grayson, a human woman, seems to have no trouble making a case during the tribunal. She appears to have the respect of the Moclan legal system. Grayson calls Orville’s security officer, a Xelayan female, to the stand and there is no objection to her testimony. Yet at the end of the episode when Captain Mercer finds a Moclan woman to testify, there is chaos in the courtroom. When it turns out that female is actually the Moclan’s greatest writer; those gathered react in stunned silence.

If this had been Star Trek, I believe the outcome would have been different. The testimony would have worked in favor of Bortus and his daughter and the child would grow up free to choose her gender. But Orville is not Star Trek and in the end, the entirely male jury sided with Klyden and the sex change operation was carried out. There were no jokes in the end, no way to make light of that outcome and I am grateful they didn’t try.

All this from a series that’s supposed to make fun of traditional space adventures! Nearly everything about The Orville feels like Star Trek including the use of social commentary. In a time when so many different issues test our faith in government and each other, it’s nice to see a TV show shine a unique light on difficult subject matters. I look forward seeing more of what MacFarlane and The Orville have to say!

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Discovering Star Trek: Discovery

NOTE: Minor SPOILERS ahead for the first episode. You have been warned!

A few of my friends and I gathered with pizza and ice cream on Sunday evening to watch the premiere of the latest iteration of Star Trek: Discovery. We settled around the television excited as we waited…and waited. The football game on CBS ran long so the premiere was delayed. Why a football game delays broadcast television is easy to understand. Why said game delayed the launch of Discovery on the streaming service CBS: All Access still leaves me scratching my head.

I could probably spend this entire post griping about how much I hate the fact I have to pay for yet another streaming service to get my Trek fix but I will save you all my grief and just say KHAAAAN!

I began watching Star Trek: The Next Generation in the sixth grade. Thanks to Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise I was able to watch Trek through high school and into my naval service. In fact I got to see the premiere of Enterprise while deployed on the USS Enterprise! Needless to say, I grew into an adult with Trek as my guide and my friend. Until Sunday evening, it had been more than a decade since I had seen a new episode. I’ll admit, even with the All Access crap, I was a little excited. How would my perspective of the show differ than the sixth grade version of me? Would I catch all the subtle social commentary? Would it be profound?

The playback started and there were Klingons (they were speaking Klingon anyway). There was a really cool music theme recorded not with computer generated instruments but with a live orchestra! There were Vulcans and starships and the prime directive and phasers ! It was all those things I remembered about Star Trek (except for the albino Klingon). A female captain AND first officer?! And neither of them is white?! Talk about where no Trek has gone before!

It felt different, modern, new, Kelvin. Wait, the ‘Kelvin effect’ was done with a budget, this show has a budget? It must, it looks so amazing! (for those that don’t know, Kelvin is what Trek fans call the J.J. Abrams reboot films as they take place in an alternate “Kelvin” universe, “Prime” refers to all other iterations of Trek (original series, next gen etc.)).

As for social commentary, the premise behind the show is a war with the Klingons. T’Kuvma, a devote follower of Kahless, contrives a way to unite the 24 noble Klingon houses in a conflict against the Federation. He does this with the help of a mantra “Remain Klingon” as if the Federation were somehow polluting the Empire. That sounds familiar. Qo’nos first!

So I liked it, no question. There’s action, drama, conflict and a myriad of social issues taking place today for the writers to weave into a Trek narrative. It doesn’t feel like the Trek of the 1990’s, but I think that’s a good thing. There is a generation of kids and young adults who need to experience Star Trek in a way that is relevant to them. I sincerely hope Discovery can do that (it could do it even better on broadcast television, stupid All Access).

Star Trek has been in hiatus far too long and America needs it now more than ever. We need a shining example of what our future could be, a future where we can live in peace with one another (except for maybe with the Klingons…and the Romulans…the Borg… gee maybe the future’s not so peaceful after all…).

LLAP (Live Long And Prosper)

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