Man in the moon, Ballyhoo.
http://media.roets.co.uk/sa/man-in-the-moon.mp3
Johnny calls the Chemist, Fallin Mirror
http://media.roets.co.uk/sa/chemist.mp3

Die tema lied vir Misdaad.

http://media.roets.co.uk/misdaad/misdaad.mp3

Die tema lied vir Derrick.

http://media.roets.co.uk/misdaad/derrick.mp3

CGI doctored Franschoek

If you grew up in the seventies in the Boland in South Africa you may have thought it to be on a different planet. According to the BBC you where right. The flagship BBC sci-fi show, Outcasts was filmed in the Boland with some famous places, including Wemmershoek, standing in for a far off planet.

The basic premise of the show is very straightforward. 40 odd years in the future and the world is overpopulated. This leads to international tensions – sometimes with nuclear results. A worldwide volunteer organisation organisation sets up expeditionary settlements with ships filled with chosen settlers flying 5 to 10 years to habitable planets. The best and the brightest, that sort of thing – for the future of mankind.

One such outpost is Fort Haven, the main and only town on a planet called Carpathia. Strangely enough the vegetation and geography looked VERY familiar. That is because Carpathia is the Cape Boland and Fort Haven is Franschoek, (with the help of a CGI tweaking including a gigantic spaceship placed in the middle of the town).

The show was a bit of a hit-and-miss, doing some things right but some bits where just plain off. There are also all to obvious similarities with Galactica, the Emmy award winning US series.

Galactica, the first time around in the seventies, was an action serial. Week one the end of the world, week two pilots all have some fun adventures in a casino! The second time around it got serious – sci-fi used as a tool to allow for topics such as philosophy, morality and politics. So far it is the only series, which looked into and portrayed suicide bombing and its causes, by placing the protagonists in a situation where it seems their only logical opportunity to fight back! – Hence the critical acclaim for the drama.

There are a lot of character similarities and even a shared actor with Jamie Bamber, Galactica’s Lee Adama, also make an appearance.

Main Protagonists:
Politicians; President and Security chief. (Same as in Galactica but sexes are reversed)
Military; 2 Male and a female (Same as in Galactica)

Main Antagonists:
Human creation becoming a deadly enemy: ACs, genetically modified humans, as opposed to deadly robots in Galactica.
Traitor; Julius Berger instead of Galactica’s Gaius Baltar . ( Same as in Galactica they even have a shared Caesar’s name)
These two characters are superficially very similar. However Berger in Outcasts is a straight forward villain while James Callis acting in Galactica put layer on layer of vary human traits together to make one of the most interesting characters on television in decades. He did bad things but you still loved his character, flaws and all. You also never knew if you wouldn’t do exactly what he would do (would you sign an execution warrant if someone out a gun to your head?)

Topics are similar spiritual and philosophical questions connected to morality of survival and pressures on relationships in extreme conditions.
In short major elements felt like a watered down copy rather than something new and if we are going to be seeing a second series remains to be seen. This is a pity as the actors as a whole deserved a better vehicle.

If you live out there send me a mail if they are filming again?

Franschoek mountains

Wemmershoek dam

Tron Legacy

Tron, the original visionary movie that brought us the future of moviemaking is finally receiving a sequel.

The big idea is one again center stage. In the first Tron it introduced the audience to the then novel concept of virtual worlds and digital animation. This was something that left most of the audience nonplussed but made it an instant classic with a part of Generation X.

This time around the big idea is much more subtle. The virtual world is evolving toward naturalism away from digital simplicity with its own weather patterns and complexity of architecture.

Jeff Bridges plays two versions of himself and the one version has been digitally ‘youthened’.

A computer re-modeled younger Jeff Bridges

The real Jeff Bridges

In Avatar the computer generated imagery was used to create aliens, albeit very realistic and recognizable ones – but as much as you can see Sigourney Weaver it is still a blue skinned, broad nosed, 10 foot alien non the less.

In Tron we have an established actor being in effect ‘animated’; motion captured and then digitally re-modeled.

What does this mean?

After the first movie some people laboured under the misconceived idea that the computer ‘did’ the effects instead of it just being a tool.

In this film a existing tool is used in a different way. In the future, effectively now, you will still have actors, this method can only happen when someone has acted and has been motion captured. However in post-production the actors can then be digitally re-modeled to be younger or even look like someone else.

It is about the acting and not how someone looks. Think of it as digital make-up.

The big implication though is that they can be made to look like someone else.

Ever wanted to see Marilyn Monroe and Steve McQueen headlining again? In effect nothing is stopping that from happening any more.

Go watch the trailer to see all the more realistic pieces than the quick snapshot I got here.