GHOST IN THE SHELL: a króm kegyelemkettes [Hungarian review]

Messziről kezdem, hosszú leszek, mint a Kuang Eleven. Filmrecenziót írni duplán jutalomjáték: rásütheted bármire, hogy szar, aztán beszaladhatsz a szabad véleménynyilvánítás polkorrektre szopott indoka mögé, akár értesz ahhoz, amit írsz, akár nem. Nehezebb már úgy recenziót írni, hogy nem ismeretlenek a gyártás körülményei: akár azért, mert pontosan tudod, hogy az adott film hogy készült; akár azért, mert voltál már a gyártóoldalon és tudod, hogy alsó hangon is több tucatnyi ember sokhónapos (vagy sokéves) megfeszített, egyben láthatlatlan munkája tartja a bunkerajtót a kritikusok ellenében. A marketingkampány részét adó werkfilmek pont ezt mélyítik el: egyszerre mutatják és magyarázzák, hogy mennyi munka volt a designnal, a koncepcióval, a worldbuildinggel, a fegyverekkel, a hangokkal, a zenével, a mindennel, pont olyan, mint az ideális szülinap, gruppen vagy ezek kombinációja: sokan voltunk és mindenki nagyon szerette, meg hátha olyan lesz, mantrázzuk a mozi felé gyalogolva, mint a Firefly, azt is szeretetből rakták össze, aztán 9/10 felettre hegyezik még mindig a rajongók az IMDB-n, hát hol romolhatna el ez az egész. TL;DR elmondom: pont ott és úgy, amikor életed legbombázóbb nője olyan ostobát mond sztriptíz közben, hogy inkább laprakonyulva nindzsázol haza falmentén, hogy még a CCTV se lásson. Tudjátokmit, részletezem is.

Ami a designcsapatot illeti, szégyenkezésre semmi ok: egyszerre kapjuk meg a nyolcvanas-kilencvenes évek neonkarcos, érthetetlenül fényes, méretes és hangos, platformidegen hirdetéseivel terhelt városképet, a hi tech lo life meg a style over substance erős keverékét. Sőt, továbbmegyek, annyira erős a design, hogy szívem szerint kiszedném a hangsávot a film alól, alávágnék odaillő zenét és a megfelelő szinkroncsapattal újramondatnám a menet közben amúgy teljesen átírt dialógust, amik egy teljesen más történethez is passzolnak. De erre kitérek majd később. A városkép mellett a taktikai osztag felszerelése is jól tükrözi a korakilencvenes évek hangulatát, a sorok között kikacsint a WETA team szakértelme, a feedekben meg a premier óta ömlik Maciej Kuciara meg Ash Thorp ujjai közül, hogy miért vannak a termoptikai páncélon a vágásvonalak pont ott, ahol vannak és miért pont olyan és úgy a motor, amilyen (és ahogyan), sőt, a látványba annyira bele lehet süppedni, hogy még az üvöltő Honda product placementnél sem böffen ki belőled a gyűlölet a corporate bármi ellen, pedighát.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KosBvDyWgnA

Továbbmegyek: nem zavaró a film még megjelenés előtti első problémájaként felhozott whitewashing sem, sőt, indokolatlannak tartom az ostobaságig elcsúsztatott polkorrektséget is (másodjára emlegetem, biztos gondom van vele, gondolja az osztagpszichológus). Okkal. A film alapjául szolgáló manga, majd anime (és erre kitértem amúgy itt a blogon már korábban, illetve a Cinegore-nak írt anyagomban is) ugyanis írd-és-mondd a japán nemzetbiztonsági szakszolgálat cyberbiztonsági elhárító osztagáról szól: japán bel- és külpolitikáról, japán szerzőtől, japán szereplőkről, japán olvasóknak (és nézőknek) a japán mindsetből megfogalmazva. Ha Amerika hozzányúl a témához és remaket akar belőle csinálni első körben észak-amerikai, második körben európai fogyasztóknak, kötelező elemként fogja denipponizálni a stáb fő elemeit, erre a mozzanatra pedig az eredeti kiadóként működő Kodansha legalább annyira rábólintott, mint maga Masamune Shirow, a manga készítője is, mondjuk olyan jogdíjhozam mellett igen erős érzelmi indok kellene ahhoz, hogy ne bólintsanak rá. A probléma ugyanis nem ott van a castinggal, hogy Scarlett Johansson europid (és nem Rinko Kikuchi vagy Chiaki Kuriyama kapta meg helyette a szerepet), hanem ott, hogy semmilyen nemzet tagjaként nem adja jól a meghasonlott gép-ember ügynököt – ami azonnal elránt minket a film (és az azt követő recenziók) legnagyobb problémájához: az anime támasztotta elvárásokhoz.

Rinko Kikuchi.
Rinko Kikuchi.

Az 1995-ös anime ugyanis a cyberpunk szubkultúra egyik alapköve. A net születésekor, a technokultúra virágzásának kellős közepén, a misztikusan távol levő, érthetetlen és amiatt még izgalmasabb Japán közepéből érkező anyag a legjobb időben ásta be magát a popkultúra tudatalattijába: kérdései pedig 2017-ben ugyanannyira időszerűek, mint az 1995-ös premier pillanatában. Részei-e a gépek az evolúciónak? A kibővített transzhumanista embereszmény több-e az embernél vagy a szingularitás után már egy más jellegű folyamatábrán kell-e követnünk a tudatos lények fejlődéseit? Egy cyberaggyal bíró ember ember-e még vagy már gép? Ha egyik sem, mi van a kettő között? És bárhol is legyen, megkaphatja-e még a szabad döntés illúzióját? És ha már cyberagy, biztonságtechnikailag hova helyezi ez nemcsak a védelmi cégeket (vagy a katonai és polgári szakszolgálatokat) vagy politikai és döntéshozói elitet, hanem magát az egyszerű, sarki boltba járó civileket?

Mindezen, bármely földrészen értelmezhető kérdésektől függetlenül azonban a forrásanyag japán mivolta nemcsak a babaként látható vagy felfogható gépekben rejlő lélek körüli kérdésekben ütközik ki, hanem a kötelesség tekintetében is. A főszereplő Motoko Kusanagi őrnagy ugyanis szolgál és véd és akkor is szolgál és véd, ha előtte pár másodperccel emlékeztetik arra, hogy nemcsak a szolgálatában áll a kormánynak, hanem a tulajdonában is, ő pedig csak egy bevethető egység, bármilyen jó is legyen. Európai (és sokban civil) szemmel értelmezhetetlen az a rábólintás és lojalitás, ami ezt a helyén kezeli – és Sanders filmje ezen a ponton is csúszik el igazán.

scarjo

A Ghost in the Shell ugyanis amerikai scifiként buta, japán scifiként labdába sem rúghat, Sanders pedig nem döntötte el igazán, hogy melyik akar lenni. Igaz, említette korábban többször is, hogy gatewayfilmet akar gyártani hollywoodi pénzből, amivel ráhúzhatja a közönséget a forrásanyagra, ez pedig önmagában dícsérendő. Ennek tudatában, ezzel a címmel és ezzel a komplett franchise-zal a háta mögött azonban ez a film egyszerűen kevés. A cselekmény kényelmesen belehasal a klasszikus ember-a-rendszer-ellenbe, ami egyfelől ellentmond mind az eredeti japán anyag történetének (nem megváltoztatja, nem átértelmezi, szembemegy vele, remakenél ezt azért valahogy nem várnánk), mind pedig az osztagpszichológiának, a mangából ismert zavaróan bő és dús worldbuilding eltűnik, helyette akkor és úgy jelennek meg a karakterek, hogy a cselekmény továbbhaladhasson éppenhogy, persze, lesznek apró utalások meg eastereggek meg elrejtett apróságok, amikbe persze beleláthatunk olyanokat, hogy Sanders kikacsintott a nézők felé, hogy Avalon lakópark meg Mamoru Oshii kedvenc kutyája, a basset hound, de egyfelől kell a filmen dolgozóknak is a jutalomjáték, hogy ilyeneket becsempészhessenek, másfelől ezektől a film elviselhetőbb lesz, de jobb, nos, jobb az nem.

bassethound

Az alapvető kérdésekből azok szerepelnek csak Sandersnél, amik egy mamafórum tagjaiból egy kávétól paranoidabb gyermekfektetés utáni estén is kiszaladnak: jó ez nekünk igazából? Aztán itt meg is áll az okosság. Kapunk egy nemzetbiztonság által korábban már ledossziézott lázadót, akiből megpróbálnak tökéletes katonát gyártani, 99 félresült prototípus után az első működőt, akit egy évvel az átépítés után már elnökvédelemre küldenek ki, ki láttamozta ezt a protokollt és hol voltak benne a failsafek? Ezen a kényszertabularasázott katonán keresztül látjuk meg tehát a technológiát, az utca emberén keresztül sosem tudjuk megfigyelni igazán. Az anime szemetesautósofőrös mozzanatai például a legsanyarúbbak és egyben a legrealisztikusabbak is civilként, a film viszont teljesen átépítette ezt is (és olyan felszerelést nem teszünk vallatószobába, amivel öngyilkosságot lehet elkövetni, miért tennénk, ki hagyta ezt is jóvá), kiszedve ezzel azt a pontot, ahol azt éreznénk, hogy a jövőben a mi agyunk is törhető lesz és a saját taknyunkon csúszva ébredünk majd fel az évek óta felmosatlan konyhában és kiderül, hogy évekig más dolgait csináltuk a sajátunk helyett, ráadásul a nevünk, a nemünk és az életkorunk is más. Ehelyett csak annyit látunk, hogy termoptikai álca, robotkurvák meg műszemek, ami tökéletesen meg is felel a style over substance filozófiájának, előremutatásnak azonban kevés és ez is a legfájdalmasabb – a legizgalmasabb cyberpunkok (és scifik) ugyanis még a mai napig is képesek előremutatni, ez a film pedig testben ottvan, fejben viszont nagyon-nagyon nem. (Ez egyúttal meg is magyarázza, hogy miért tetszik ez a film annyira azoknak, akik még nem látták és olvasták az eredetiket.)

section9

Külön kérdőjeleket vet fel a casting és maga a karakterlista is. Toronymagasan viszi a legjobb screentime díját a Batout alakító Pilou Asbaek, közvetlenül mögötte ott figyel karakterszínészi mivoltában Beat Takeshi, aki most nem yakuzafőnököt alakít, hanem osztagdirektort, nála ütközik ki a film egyik legbutább kultúrrasszizmusa, miszerint ő japánul beszél, mindenki más angolul. (Itt kell megjegyeznem, hogy az egyik legvártabb cyberpunk játékot fejlesztő CD Projekt RED fejlesztői nemrégiben jelentették be, hogy a játék színhelyéül szolgáló városban sok nemzetiség lesz és mindenki a saját nyelvén beszél majd, ha nincs fordítószoftverünk vagy nem beszélünk az adott nyelven, semmit nem fogunk érteni a bábeltornyából.) A Section 9 osztag többi tagját, ha nem láttam volna az animét, meg sem tudnám nevezni, a történethez költött másik nőkarakter pedig genderperspektíva ide vagy oda, de nettó felesleges (erősebb Motoko, ha ő az egyetlen nő a csapatban, aki egyben az operatív főnök is), a megmaradó screentimeban helyett lehetett volna árnyalni Togusát, Ishikawát vagy Bomát jobban. Michael Wincottot eltüzelni az első tíz percben hatalmas vétek, ellenben az ő dialógusainál jön ki az, hogy a film tényleg ostoba lesz és nem a jövőnek szól a jelenből, hanem a múltnak a múltból, mert 2039-ben, amikor már több embernek van mesterséges agyi beültetése, mint ahánynak van Facebook-accountja most, nem úgy kezdünk beszélni a technológiáról, mintha egy óceánon keresztül hoznák szentelt páncélos lovagokkal. Ha a nyelv nem tükrözi a világ állapotát, akkor a forgatókönyvíró (vagy a korrektora) rossz és ezt elnézve nem lehet finomabban mondani: a forgatókönyvíró rossz. (Is.) A főgonosz Kuze szó szerint rendszerhibás amalgámként tévelyeg az eredeti forrásanyag főgonoszai és az észak-amerikai tudatalattiban bújó vendettaéhes emó tinik között, az utóbbi persze győz, a világépítés pedig nála sem következetes, az ilyen félresült kísérleteket szokták igencsak gyorsan levadászni, hogy később ne okozzanak bajt.

Külön fájdalmam a háttérzene, nem is kicsit. Make-or-break dolog a zene egy filmben és bármennyire Clint Mansellnek köszönhetjük a filmzenét, nem ül. Felismerhetetlen vagy megjegyezhetetlen motívumok nélküli string- meg padmunkában ülök majdnem két órán át, hogy kétszer-háromszor dühös legyek amiatt, hogy a Kenji Kawai-féle női kórushoz hasonló minták be-bekerültek, csak hogy érezzük, hogy ez mégiscsak a franchise része, de az igazi hangulatfestés elmarad. Sem az igazi sintoista filozófiát idéző elemek (ha KK zenéje nem passzol a dollokhoz, akkor semmi), sem a szomorú, lassú, füsttekergős lila és kék érzetű bárok, sem a tizenhatod- vagy harminckettedbasszusos veretések nem érkeznek sehonnan – ellenben többször felmerült a Michael McCann által jegyzett Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack hangzása és hangszerelése, amire jobb fülű cyberpunk megadja a tízpertizet, mielőtt rátesszük az idegi megszakítót és megnyomjuk a nagy, nagy fekete mattgombot rajta. Persze a kilencvenes évek elején az iparizenefórumként funkcionáló rec.music.industrialon elhangzott, hogy “a cyberpunk zene az, amit a cyberpunkok hallgatnak”, de Steve Aoki meg Tricky helyett jobban megült volna a hangzásképben a Front Line Assembly, Haujobb, Hecq vagy Comaduster (vagy éppenséggel bármelyik ex-Tympanikos zenész), persze a hitelesség kérdése a közmédiában önmagában értelmezhetetlen játék.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyG6YMLEWus

De, mint mondtam, el tudom képzelni, hogy x évnyi vagy hónapnyi munka után milyen érzet lehet lófaszláncot olvasni a gyártó stáb helyében, úgyhogy nem összesítem a fentieket még egyszer. Viszont remélem, hogy a Neurománc sosem készül el sem sorozat-, sem filmváltozatban, másfelől pedig javaslom, hogy szinkronozzátok és újrazenézzétek az eredeti képanyagot. Ki tudja, a végén még lehet, hogy nemcsak csinos, de okos is lesz.

VERDIKT: Hang nélkül, pizza mellett, otthon, nagyon nem egyedül.


REGULAR RECAP ROMP [2015.004]

Weekly news recap from Planet://Damage, a magnet of cyberpunk, glitch, music production and anything else that can look black and neon-tinted at the same time. Enjoy your stay.

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This week's "best find" title goes hands down to the Mothmeister duo. Their seriously thwarted taxidermy photos depict a world not unlike the one I'm working on in my novel at the moment and their photos are brilliant, both technically and aesthetically. And they're clearly disturbing, according to a lot of commenters who blame it on their fear of clowns, a phobia I'm unable to relate to, maybe because I wasn't scared of It in the first place? Still, if you're as much in awe as I am (and I hope you are), go check out the post on BoredPanda that began it all, then go and follow Mothmeister on Instagram!

Click on READ MORE for obviously more poor impulse control about music and tech!
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DAMAGE CAPTURE FILE 03: a tree in the shape of WTF [cyberpunk, glitch and counterculture]

Hello. Etape 3 for Capture File: a coffeebreakful voyeurism into cultural products of cyberpunk, futurepresent, glitch culture and whatnot, every Friday from now on in the eurozone. This week: @dawe_'s idea of what it can be like in my head nowadays in the form of a Japanese abstract/glitch video (above, HiDM2_9 by Japanese visual cacophony masters BRDG), followed by stuff like: a possible reason for the Neuromancer movie's delay, news about the Blade Runner 2 script, loads of music finds and some music production links as well. If you have anything to add, share or comment, do so in the comments or drop me a mail to info@planedamage.com. And, yeah, have a great weekend.

BALLISTIC AUDIO LOOT:

My recent ballistic audio loot is pretty much governed by a refueled interest to write music again. I was into *FastTracker 2.08 a lot at the end of the nineties (you can check some of *my stuff I've uploaded to Soundcloud), a bit of *Rebirth.. and after reacting quite badly to a Hungarian music producer's reponse (who thought that you can only make music with real gear, not softsynths... a year later Yonderboi's LP came out, all done on a single PC... fate is apparently not without a sense of irony) I finished writing music. Time to re-evaluate. So I'm pretty much motivated by lots of oldschool stuff at the moment. (Or I'm just getting old and nostalgic, could be either at this point.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0W8rPPbelI

VANDALAZE's new EP "Dog Jerk" is something I've listened to a lot on Bandcamp recently.. love the cheesy 80s sound with the industrialish/cyberpunkish overtones Cory flavours his tracks with - combine that with the Dog Jerk music video's look that clearly has a lot in common with early MTV days, it\s just a must-have. Review will be coming up soon on it, until that, *grab this EP from slimetrax.bandcamp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgPHVTDjbFA

Synthwave, outrun electro, retro electro or however you call it, a heartfelt return to the 80's pop/synth sound is making a comeback now and I've been listening around for powerful artists.. if you want to take a quick bite, *PERTURBATOR is the guy you'll need. Amazing production quality, great tracks, very coherent production, mind-blowing atmosphere. His recent new album Dangerous Days is a further proof of godlike qualities. If you want to grab more synthwave stuff, try *CARPENTER BRUT or *VOGEL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5dHl2kDyh4

There's always room on my Nexus for soothing ambients. Pete Namlook & Mixmaster Morris' project DREAMFISH is something I don't delete from my music-storing devices ever, but here's a close contender, the first track off the 2011 album "Someone Gave Me Religion" by Arnaud Rebotini (of the Black Strobe fame). Delete the ambient channel from GTA IV and play this in your car on repeat! (As a subtle side effect, it's gonna rain. Always.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STcVIPvr6lE

I have a lot of demoscene music in my queue, but this one should be the very first, a mixtape of Amiga tracks with a whole lot of beat to them... and be prepared for some great demoscene materials in the upcoming Capture Files!

MOVIE NEWS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUwxc8LmY5k

Opinions on AUTOMATA, the latest android-craze movie featuring Antonio Banderas went (and are still going) from fiery to icy.. personally I would really love to see a different and realistic take on AI portrayal, without big budget movie clichés, as a form of compromising for a wider audience. The possibility is there but I won't say anything until more materials emerge... shown from October 10th in the USA. And as for other news:

  • Minority Report TV show reportedly in development: "The director is reportedly working to turn his classic sci-fi film into a television show, which would be produced by his company Amblin Entertainment. Amblin is reportedly looking toward Max Borenstein, writer of this year's Godzilla, to write and create the series — it isn't clear if Borenstein has signed on just yet, but he has been thanking people who congratulate him on Twitter.
  • Peter Hoffman Can't Escape Prosecution Over Film Tax Credit Fraud: Hoffman, who is an executive producer on the upcoming $60 million budgeted Neuromancer, is known as an important middleman between Louisiana tax breaks and film companies. The case figures to be closely watched by insiders.
  • Blade Runner 2 script finished and "damn good" according to Ridley Scott: The story will bring back Harrison Ford, who starred in the 1982 film as one of the eponymous replicant hunters. Scott says that Ford's character is "a survivor after all these years," which, certainly, is a curious fact in and of itself given the ambiguous ending of certain cuts of the film.

MUSIC TO LOOK OUT FOR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6GpiJbFzSk

*THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON, one of my favourite projects of all time, returns with Environment Five, an album that contains 13 all-new tracks that were composed in the first half of 2014! It's a concept album focusing on "the space / time / dimension that exists when we die". That's gonna be some real interesting bardo work when this gets released on September 15th!

Texan splatter industrial gods *MENTALLO & THE FIXER release the 3CD pack `*Zothera` on Alfa Matrix this autumn. Two CDs contain their seminal albums Revelations 23 and Where Angels Fear to Tread, whereas the third CD entitled Apocrypha would contain rarities, remixes and the like. Release: Sep 26th, expect a review a lot sooner!

New-wave EBM powerhouse duo *YOUTH CODE are about to punch us all in the face with their new EP "A Place to Stand" that comes to us sooner than a month via *Dais. Pitchfork *shared a track off the new LP (embedded on top) - is that an indication as to where the new LP is headed? Release: Sep 23th!

*Tympanik Audio's always amazingly cerebral compilation Emerging Organisms just got to its fifth etape. Contains stuff from a whole generation of great new artists, from Zinovia to Idlefon, from Tangent to Ocoeur... release: Oct 7th!

STUFF THAT WILL SEND YOU REELING:

http://vimeo.com/102919605

Mike Winkelmann aka *beeple. His stuff came to me on half a dozen platforms in a week or so, so I have to share his greatness with you: his site's *here and one of the best sites this year, The Creators Project, recently released *this post about him.

These are "audio life forms", 3D objects that react to bird sounds in a droolingly glitchy matter. Amazing. Visualizing is done by Andy Thomas who shared a lot more from his amazing work *on his site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGkfEZk4t1M

cEvin Key of *Skinny Puppy telling great stuff about the bass grandiosity of *SubPac and the not so great stuff about how touring can turn your ears into flipflops.

Facial projection mapping. I got this from literally everyone, a bit sad that I ended up sharing this with you a lot later.

MUSIC PRODUCTION LINKS
A buddy of mine started writing music in *FRACT OSC (which is a game about returning sound into a silent world and also about setting up a sequencer and some oscillators in the meanwhile) and I'm busy making an ambient tracks with *Caustic's Modular synth but I fail every time because the loop I made sounds so good I just put it on repeat while I'm working on my new book and then two hours later I realize I didn't tweak a single knob. Caustic's actually free for PC, so feel free to download it and have a go, the *YouTube tutorials are AMAZING.

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It's one thing that the *Glitchmachines site is full of amazing high-res wallpapers (they're not categorized as wallpapers per se, but it's hard not to use them as wallpapers when they lok this good) but they also have a HUGE batch of free sample packs (around 1.5 gigs altogether) and also two great plugins, one for buffer effect, the other one's for glitch delay. I'm weeping now, obviously.


ROBOCOP remake Second Trailer launches - finally has brains

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLSpmAtc1Q

Classic first-generation cyberpunk's been having a mild comeback: the new episode of Deus Ex (best aspect: music), the relaunch of the Shadowrun universe, the remake of Total Recall (best aspect: music), the renewed plans for the movie adaptation of Neuromancer (no words from the four-minute trailer screened at the American Film Market 2013 event), the live-action version of Ghost in the Shell (and the new OVA called Arise), the script for Blade Runner 2.. moviewise it's all coming together nicely.

The Robocop franchise is also under rehash - and the second trailer for the movie (screening from Feb 14th, 2014) sports a few great ideas about market penetration and the creative brainstorm (however much I might loathe the word). How do you introduce a robotic father figure into a robophobic society? By human sacrifice, of course. How can you chip off all those splinters of disinterest or hostility? José Padilha will show you how. (And it's going to come in black.)

Joel Kinnaman


New info on NEUROMANCER: THE MOVIE - teaser imminent, script finished a long time ago

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SCRIPT
Vincenzo Natali, the actual director incarnate to helm William Gibson's visionary cyberpunk work has launched his horror movie Haunter. The exclusive Crave Online interview with him also sheds some light on his involvement and the state of the script. If you're interested, head over to Crave for more intel on Haunter, Splice and a lot more!

What’s the latest progress on Neuromancer?

It continues. It seems to be indomitable. It’s a long haul, like all good things and all things like it that are audacious and challenging. It’s not on the fast track but it’s very much alive and I’m hopeful.

How close do you think the script is to a final draft?

Oh, the script has been ready for years. That’s not the holdup. The challenging part of this is putting the money together. It’s big movie.

So you cracked the script?

I think I have, yes. Strangely, that wasn’t the hard part. I benefited, first of all, from developing the script very much with the influence of William Gibson, which was tremendously helpful. Then I also had, frankly, the benefit of looking at all the versions previous to mine and learning from their mistakes. I had a lot of beta testing before I went in and did my version. Actually, I’m quite faithful to the book. I basically went back to the book and made some alterations to contemporize it but it’s in there. The book is very dense, but the trick is just kind of knowing what strands to follow. In fact, it wasn’t all that difficult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p0jmewhXeU

TEASER REEL

Seven Arts Entertainment, according to their press release on Yahoo, is going to screen a four-minutes long teaser reel at the American Film Market 2013 (starting on November 8th, which luckily coincides with the debut of Almost Human, a cyberpunkish TV series that seems to be quite the rehash of the series Total Recall 2070 that noone seems to remember.) Read the complete press release here.

At the upcoming American Film Market, the Company will introduce a four-minute teaser reel for its upcoming production "Neuromancer", created by the renowned previsualization house The Third Floor, Inc. ("Third Floor").
CEO Kate Hoffman stated, "I am thrilled that Seven Arts' association with Tony Lytle has got off to such a great start and have every confidence in continued success going forward. We are also very excited by the Third Floor previsualization which we believe will progress the production of our film based on the legendary science fiction novel "Neuromancer"."

All in all, ladies and gents, this November seems to fulfill quite a promise - hold on to your neon coffeemugs and retinas until the blast.

If you're interested about more intel about the movie adaptation of the seminal cyberpunk novel, check out these links, also brought to you by planetdamage.com:


PROJECTION MAPPING: Box

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo

Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping on moving surfaces. The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera.

Bot & Dolly produced this work to serve as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration. It is the culmination of multiple technologies, including large scale robotics, projection mapping, and software engineering. We believe this methodology has tremendous potential to radically transform theatrical presentations, and define new genres of expression.

Find out exactly how "Box" was created in our exclusive behind the scenes video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6...


REMEMBER ME: Live Action Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tCK1TAtu0M

The latest Live Action trailer for Remember Me gives us a reflective and somber look into the final thoughts of Antoine, the Founder of Memorize, and shows Nilin being taken to the Bastille where she will wake at the beginning of the game.

The postcard of cyberpunk adventure games, I guess. REMEMBER ME coloured the world we've only seen in monochrome in RENAISSANCE (below), giving us a glimpse in how style will feel like in the future when it matures just a little.. and took out all opportunities of world exploration, meticulously driving us through a landscape of cognitive dissonance gutters and high style mass mind control. There's a review brewing... watch this and check back often.


Goth Icons As Superheroes

Wow, this has been hiding in the Bookmarks folder for an amazingly long time. Originally appearing as Post-Punk/New Wave Icons As Superheroes on IO9.. missing Andrew Eldritch as Doctor Doom or Carl McCoy as Preacher...


BLADE RUNNER: Pris on the 30th anniversary

pris-710

PRIS / Bastien Lecouffe Deharme
Created for the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner.
(via roman-noir.com)


CONTROLLER: Chinese arthouse Akira

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu8NBUppyzA

A girl that can control everything perpetrates her own rescue by taking control of her boyfriend.


AKIRA out of producer hell with Jaume Collet-Serra

jaume-collet-serra-akira-director

Jaume Collet-Serra is in discussions to return to the “Akira” directors chair, signing on to helm Warner Bros. adaptation of the popular anime pic. The helmer left in early 2012 after production stalled.

[...]

In early 2012, the studio shut down pre-production so that fixes could be made to the script, including tightening the budget from its original $90 million range. At the time, Collet-Serra was in such high demand coming off the recent success of the Liam Neeson action pic “Unknown,” that he decided to leave instead of waiting for the changes to be made so that he could pursue other projects.

[...]

WB acquired the potential tentpole project for a seven-figure sum from Japanese manga publisher Kodansha in 2008. Set in New Manhattan, the cyberpunk sci-fi epic follows the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments.

Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran are producing with Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar. Katsuhiro Otomo, who wrote and directed the 1988 Japanese anime pic of the same name, will exec produce. (more at variety)

Well, all 80s/90s cyberpunk source materials are knee-deep in production hell, so I wouldn't exactly get my hopes up.. Neuromancer, The Diamond Age, Ghost in the Shell, Idoru, Battle Angel Alita, Akira... and to be honest, I'm definitely not surprised at all. Many of those materials are so thick and dense with ideas (that could spin off entire books, series and franchises on their own) - many of which dripped into mainstream movies and books and our daily lives -, that production crews, producers, directors and screenwriters would need to machete many of them off and re-lace them with new ideas and the steady and deliberate moronization of the audience would not allow that to happen. Books are still the best drug to turn to if you want to get away. Or a pen and a paper. Don't trust your tablets. Trust your grey meat, pen and papers.


THOUSANDTH STREET: get a glimpse into Blade Runner done the French way

http://vimeo.com/69375721

Tip your hat to P://D regular reader and contributor Riplakoidase who's just sent me a great find: Montpellier-based special FX/3D company ArtFX hides a few gold nuggets in their reference pool, one of them being a short teaser entitled Thousandth Street. Wouldn't necessarily call it a short film as it's a situation without a solution and so much without any sort of closure that it hurts a lot, almost physically.

Great work on a blue-tinted Blade Runner feel (do I hear well that there are samples of the Blade Runner Voigt-Kampff examination scene?) AND SHUT UP EVERYONE YOU CAN'T HAVE A BAD MOVIE WITH SO MUCH RAIN EVEN THE MEASURE OF PRECIPITATION ALONE SETS THE BASELINE FOR A CYBERPUNK MOVIE and the soundtrack is nothing short of fuckingamazing - Perturbator made a great job nudging the overall ambiance towards classic Vangelis and turning to stompy 80's-infused techno for the outro.

NOTES:
1, That hamburger looks... odd. Transmetropolitan odd.
2, The first time you see the cop in his car, does he strike you as a twin brother of Trent Reznor?
3, Great ideas about UI/UX... why the slow response rate, though, is it lagging?

Also, here's a Making Of video. Don't stop.

http://vimeo.com/69374303


POSTHUMAN: cyberpunk short, almost Aeon Flux

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC2liU3cFR8

Colliculi Productions' new cyberpunk short is a gorgeously cheeky melting pot with MTV Liquid Television (all the Aeon Flux ambiance, oldschool, obviously), Scooby Doo (far-fetched, maybe, but look at the protagonists in a team and try extrapolating to a darker, grittier feel of team dynamics in a dark and gritty world), Elfenlied (come on, that's gore all the way!)... and some more. Consistent and coherent, PostHuman's gotten quite a few awards and nominations (read the list in the description) and we're all looking forward for more shorts like these. Or OVAs. Or series. Or movies. Note: I can't help but wonder: if the future has remote control surveillance bees, why aren't security systems retrofitted for such intrusions? Nevermind. Go watch this now.

Set in an adrenalized future of espionage, assassins, and out of control super science, PostHuman follows a genius hacker and his dog as they help an enigmatic young woman to free the remaining test subject of a black ops ESP test lab.


RUBIX: Folding Cities Like Origami Silk

http://vimeo.com/68214079

“The aim of the rubix project was to develop an animation that described a conceptual tool for deploying these malleable virtual environments that could be used by their creators to shift space around us. The rubix concept stemmed from the need for an algorithmic formula for controlling the use of redirection techniques; it allows for many different spatial combinations whilst a level of control is constantly maintained. In the animation the initial Escher-esque space is a representation of our perceptual system where huge amounts of information arrive in the brain from multiple streams. The process of perception involves the brain selecting and rejecting contradicting pieces of information leading to a perception of reality that only gives us glimpses into the world we are in.” (more at TARDIS: Architectural Thesis)

I'm actually more supremely impressed by Chris Kelly's thesis than his movie accompanying it. Rubix, his five-minute short deals with malleable, almost fabricesque qualities of urban spaces, shifting our perception, turning ready-made buildings as hindrances or signposts of attention into trenches of possibilities and absences of space to fill. I'm definitely nowhere near professional architecture, but I'd say reallocation of urban space has already been an important factor, especially in Japanese destruction porn anime/manga (wherein architecture itself is endowed with a phoenix-like constant resuscitation) - and that destruction is apparently mirrored in recent superhero movies like The Avengers or Man of Steel.

Folding (or real-time manipulating) urban space is not an old trick in mindbending SF: we've had Dark City, Inception or even The Matrix dealing with that issue and demoscene products are also abundant with swirling cityscapes (as it hits you conceptually as much as visually and that procedurally generated process is not just kinky, it's quite crunchable) - and parkour's obviously something of a mindset we cannot overlook. And, oh, do you remember Bruce Branit's brilliant VR-melancholy piece World Builder?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8

This obviously doesn't mean for one single second that you shouldn't shove your face into Rubix - it's infused with Avalonesque sepia sadness and some Brian Eno, if I hear it right. Brilliant work and I'd love him to work on some mental, mental conceptual work for a mental, mental video game. But check out his thesis on Issuu (godly PDF), it's mouthwatering.


Street Fighter Motion Sculptures (And Forms. And Toribash.)

http://vimeo.com/66115264

The Irish art director used Cinema 4D and Vray to mimic the fighting moves of Street Fighter characters - specifically Ken, Chun Li, Ryu and Blanka - while turning their bodies into abstractions of colour and form. Each character is easily recognizable from these alone, but Dan the Ad Man focuses on the animation of their signature moves to bring the forms to life (check out Chun Li’s Spinning Bird Kick). Each character’s movements are extended and energy released in a fluid manner, accompanied by familiar theme music and colourful explosions of geometric forms. (more at artsandsciencejournal)

That clearly drives us to this video's inspiration - Forms..

a collaboration between visuals artists Memo Akten and Quayola, a series of studies on human motion, and its reverberations through space and time. It is inspired by the works of Eadweard Muybridge, Harold Edgerton, Étienne-Jules Marey as well as similarly inspired modernist cubist works such as Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase No.2″. Rather than focusing on observable trajectories, it explores techniques of extrapolation to sculpt abstract forms, visualizing unseen relationships – power, balance, grace and conflict – between the body and its surroundings. (more on Forms' Vimeo page)

http://vimeo.com/37967381

Both these videos - especially Dan the Ad Man's - remind me of the fairly obscure 3D turn-based indie fighting game TORIBASH - definitely not as appealing as these vids but equally abstract. requiring you to find multiple ways to circumvent expectations of your enemies. Here's a trailer. You'll be thrilled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzjl0Cu9HgM


CYBERPUNK: New Deus Ex game `The Fall` ... for iOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1b8k469DbY

The Deus Ex universe just got a stillbirth. Oh wait, right. Political correctness. Sacrificing street grime on investor paychecks, the new Deus Ex game, elegantly demo'd in the video above looks very much like a highly interactive ad for James Swallow's Icarus Effect. Signature yellow-and-brown, it is brazen in its looks, LEGO-like implants and its fight mechanism with the well-known takedowns - looking fiercely mild and terribly, horridly bland. Best thing about the new Deus Ex revival? Still Michael McCann's brilliant soundtrack, the OST I once claimed to be on par with Vangelis' Blade Runner score. Haven't changed my mind. Note: read my review on Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It was a while ago - sad to inform you it's sort of still very true.

PS: Just found this great interview with McCann about the DE:HR OST.


LINKBOX: Bookmarks for 2013-05-19

hiversaires_jeriaska

"I wrote a story for Hiversaires, but about halfway through development I decided not to show it. In my early testing I realized that people were trying to figure it out and making up their own stories. For me that was much more enticing and interesting than just spelling everything out. When I realized that there would not be an explicit story, that aspect turned out to work really well." (Aliceffekt about his game Hiversaires on indiegames, photo by Jeriaska)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_onv9-fHoEc&feature=youtu.be

Max Keiser of Russia Today drops by to explain the genesis and implications of the digital currency Bitcoin, why The Federal Reserve and the banking system should apologise to the people for manipulating interest rates, how Warren Buffett is complicit in the Mexican drug trade by purchasing Wells Fargo, and Max's crazy times in the 1980s as a New York City stockbroker by day and punk-rock party animal by night. (via londonreal.tv)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQLeNiNTtbc

That's just the weirdest and cheesiest Nine Inch Nails mashup I've ever heard, Trent basically rickrolled on his 48th birthday?

choppedbacon

Bacon udon from Skankynavia via Zeta, the flatmate of ROCK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMYl1w09Wz4&feature=youtu.be

Features on these issues provide subjects for discussion and enhance the conversation on Talking Germany. This time we're looking at how the Pirate Party's recent ballot box successes have added to the challenges of finding common positions and translating them into a comprehensive political program. We'll also discuss the Pirates' opposition to the planned global anti-copyright violation pact, ACTA. And we'll ask her about the role-playing games she enjoys in her free time. (more info on dw.de, coming via comwedge of machetegirl)


TRAILER: Europa Report (coming this July)

http://youtu.be/cbw9hlBnG74

EUROPA REPORT follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. When unmanned probes suggest that a hidden ocean could exist underneath Europa’s icy surface and may contain single-celled life, Europa Ventures, a privately funded space exploration company, sends six of the best astronauts from around the world to confirm the data and explore the revolutionary discoveries that may lie in the Europan ocean. After a near-catastrophic technical failure that leads to loss of communication with Earth and the tragic death of a crewmember, the surviving astronauts must overcome the psychological and physical toll of deep space travel, and survive a discovery on Europa more profound than they had ever imagined.

europa-report-header1-550x276


`Riddick` debut trailer rolls out, full of desert porn, Sackhoff and Pitch Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDxDEjDMreA

Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of merc, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal. With time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won’t leave the planet without Riddick’s head as their trophy.

Director: David Twohy
Release: 9/6/2013
Studio: Universal Pictures
Starring: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Jordi Molla, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, Dave Bautista, Conrad Pla, Raoul Trujillo, Nolan Funk, Keri Hilson

riddick-3-vin-diesel-throne

Post-BSG Katee Sackhoff, a solid dose of Pitch Black and random monsters with nothing but claws? Sure. The Riddick franchise finally gets an overhaul by David Twohy and it's finally not in the unlucky vein of urban retro-desertpunk-futurist Chronicles of Riddick. Join me in a London IMAX in September. (thx Riplakoidase!)


This is how Detroit's Robocop statue will look like

robocop-statue-header

The RoboCop statue has been in the works for a couple of years now, having raised money on Kickstarter after the mayor originally shot down the idea. (Understandably, since the city has more important things to spend its budget on right now.) The photo below isn’t of the completed statue — the 10-foot figure still needs to be cast in bronze — but it’s “basically how the final product will look,” according to MLive (via Badass Digest).

If you're interested in what's happening to the Robocop franchise now apart from the Kickstarter-founded Robocop statue, head over to Slashfilm - extra words of wisdom there about a Frank Miller graphic novel and Jose Padilha's remake! (via Slashfilm)

Robocop-statue


LOOT FOR THOUGHT: Future Glitch Art Porn

pd-foodforthought-01

I call the overlap of the personal microenvironment and the comfort zone a bubble. Bubbles are best maintained by porn high-intensity intellectual stimuli. This week I've managed to sink my teeth into a ludicrous amount of great stuff - go and sample them yourself.


VIDEO PODCAST: Channel Hell 003

Channel Hell is a Monthly A/V Mixtape Series by THE LIAR of Angelspit.

ANGELSPIT.NET

Tracklist

"Fuck The Revolution (16volt RMX)" - Angelspit
"Smaida greizi nakamiba" - Oyaarss
"Mortal Bass" - Broken Note
"I Do Not Divert My Eyes" - Chrysalide
"Fast Lane (Stendeck RMX)" - Architect
"Neighborhood Sniper (XI RMX)" - Eazy E
"Violence" - Angelspit

For Promo Use Only, Y'all.

Mixed Live in NYC


MUSIC: 2013-04-10, Recommendations

charlixcx

  • Witch-house-diva-cum-trash-pop-goddess CHARLI XCX releases her debut album True Romance next week, featuring all her great tracks we came to love so far like Nuclear Seasons, You (Ha Ha Ha), Cloud Aura or You're The One. Here's a complete gig video from last year's iTunes Festival.

  • Crime League Presents: A Thing About Machines: The second in a series of compilations focusing on electronic music that makes us groove. Showcasing another direction of the future of Crime League's pay-what-you-can digital EP's.

    Music for night drives, exploration & time travel.

    New songs by Architect, Heiki Sillaste, Deline, Displacer, Jakob Thiesen, Famine, Anklebiter, l'Ombre, waveTangent, C.Dubsound, Jamie Irles, Wire Fences, F(x) Function, Guise, Diff_cult, Synkro & Procedure.

    thingaboutmachines

  • And for something completely different, here's the new PV for `Lovers` by pop noir outfit THE GOOD NATURED. Debut album `Prism` is due this summer.


  • BOOKMARKS: 2012-04-06

    sweaterweatherts

    (via katiecaro.tumblr)

  • AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL NIELSEN OF TYMPANIK: Artists like r.roo and Access To Arasaka say, represent more of the type of material I tend to gravitate towards when considering new releases for the label; a darker, more cerebral and complex electronic sound that can still manage to sound beautiful and inviting.
  • Upstream Color is the first masterpiece of the year: But Upstream Color is way less of a puzzle than Primer was -- it's much more about burrowing inside your head with the weird lovely pictures, and making you identify with two characters who are fatally dysfunctional. Also, where Primer was a film about technology, with lots of sequences of the main characters geeking out about their invention, Upstream Color is about biology, and the ways in which it shapes us beyond our understanding.
  • This New Camera Stabilizer Could Change Cinematography Forever: Shots like [the iconic Goodfellas scene] are based on a counterweight system, where heavy weights are suspended below the camera, which sits on a low-friction gimbal. The new system gets rid of the counterweight completely, allowing the camera person to move around much easier. For added control, the camera's movements can be operated remotely via joystick.

  • It’s Almost Impossible To Believe There’s a Robot In This Suit and Not a Real Human: Boston Dynamics—the folks behind the brick-tossing BigDog—has released some new footage of one its other incredibly unsettling robotic creations. Petman's designed to serve as a testbed for hazmat suits and other military garb, and is so realistic it's hard to believe there's not a real dude inside that suit.
  • The Knife Made The First Social Justice Goth Album: Shaking the Habitual is not dry and academic, or strident, or overly cerebral. It's actually one of the most physically and emotionally evocative records in recent memory: a collection of songs that explores issues of identity and gender with the visceral urgency of a great horror movie.


  • MUSIC MAKING: COSMOSf, a graphical morphing engine for sound

    “Stochastic morphing with distribution range for altering the morphing position, speed and interpolation control. Built-in mathematical functions to automatically and precisely move the morphing pointer in the space. Precise audio rate parameter update with the possibility of reaching amazing morphing speeds (44100times a second!) turns Cosmosƒ into a super oscillator by accumulating up to 4 different presets in heterogeneous micro event mixing mode prior to the morphing phase. It delivers an unheard medium by reaching the untouched points of the sonic universe.” (via evolver.fm)

    cosmosmorph2