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Documentation and Support.
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- CommentAuthorCasey Moore
- CommentTimeAug 17th 2009
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CommentAuthorJonathan H
- CommentTimeAug 17th 2009
Good list. I'm glad to see they put "Save the Green Planet" on there. Definitely wish more people had seen that movie.
Saw "District 9" last night. Really dug it. The film snob in me had a few problems, but the nerd in me that likes over-the-top violence and alien weaponry had quite a thrill. It made me believe that Neil could've pulled off the Halo movie if it hadn't fell through. I would rather see him make a Half-Life movie though, personally. -
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I'm so happy this thread has hung around in a casual way, and is still getting good links added to it!
I saw both Moon and District 9 this past weekend. Both were brilliant in different ways. Two of the best real science fiction films in a long, long time. Both have great performances at their centers, worth it just to watch those actors alone.But all the stuff around them is also good. Moon is cerebral, but heartfelt. District 9 is action/suspense but humane. Both highly recommended!
I agree you can't really consider District 9 to be lo-fi, but I guess I'm not too hung up on setting hard boundaries on the label. It's lo-fi in spirit, in that it was low budget relative to it's genre and contains great ideas written in an unlikely way. The main character was wonderfully realized. I loved how his amiable racism played out, in that it seemed rooted more in an excessive respect for the law, and the blind presumption that anything illegal is also immoral, with no thought to the possibility of a morality that might exist above legality. Even in the middle of his doing some horrible things in those early scenes ("It sounds like popcorn popping") he is clearly, gleefully fascinated by the aliens. Too bad that the legality surrounding them defines them as lawbreaking sub-persons, funneling his genuine fascination down a destructive course. Until his overconfidence in his authority leads the mistake that rather dramatically forces him to question his previously unquestioned faith in the law. It is a very unpleasant education. You can't really call the end of it uplifting, even though it ends with lessons learned. It's not easy to trade comfort for truth, and this movie doesn't pretend that it is. All this, and alien power suits!
Moon, I think, is firmly lo-fi. It was made for very little money. The screening I went to had a Q&A session with the director, which was really interesting. They figured out how to do some of the effects from watching "making-of" features on a DVD of "Dead Ringers". They wanted to do a science fiction film in the style and tradition of early 70's movies like "Silent Running" and "Outland" - and there are nods to these and several other films of that period throughout the movie. No mainstream science fiction film would aspire to such a forgotten niche of the genre, nor have pulled it off so well. -
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CommentAuthorOld Moon Face
- CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
I love this thread so much. I adored Moon, and am very excited for District 9 (not out in the UK for a couple of weeks). I had no idea D-9 was adapted from a short, nor that Blomkamp had such an interesting body of work already. Great stuff, thanks so much for this! -
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The young boy in me loved the fact that people exploded into tiny bits of blood and gore when hit by the alien weapons. Also, the alien Christopher was more 'human' than every human in the movie.
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I, too, saw District 9. I was a bit miffed the third act had to devolve into a Iron Monger-esque, guys-grabbing-guns-and-yelling fest, but overall it was good. Not nearly as good as Moon -- I consider Moon in that upper echelon of film (think 2001), it's 10x better than District 9 is -- but definitely worth a see in the cinema. Does that make me a "snob"? Maybe. But I'm cool with that.
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@ Phranky - Perhaps compassion, warmth, love, etc. are more prawn traits than they are human traits? Would Wikus (main character)have created flowers out of scrap metal for his wife as a human?Perhaps not.
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It's said that Wikus made things for his wife at the start of the movie so I think the ending is a carry on from that.
There seemed to be a caste system to the insect-like aliens with Christopher being a leader and as such very intelligent. The others barely seemed capable of making any decisions which is perhaps a result of them being workers... those types didn't have any problems with killing and getting high (on cat food).
The fact that the Prawns have weapons tells me that on a whole they aren't as compassionate as Christopher. With that said I hope we don't see any war in the sequel... that wouldn't fit this type of movie. Keep it small. -
With that said I hope we don't see any war in the sequel... that wouldn't fit this type of movie. Keep it small.
I couldn't agree more. -
- CommentAuthorCasey Moore
- CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
Not sure if it fits your definition of Lo Fi, but Rian Johnson who directed Brick and The Brothers Bloom is working on a time travel movie next called Looper. Last budget I saw was $14 million, which is a lot; but compared to most films is still low.
I missed Moon sadly when it was playing here in NOLA. Definitely on the list to see when it comes out on DVD. -
@Oddbill
The slavish respect for the law - despite the inhumanity written into the law on all levels - was a central feature of the apartheid era. Even though Blomkamp left South Africa in his late teens, it seems that he was politically conscious from a young age. -
- CommentAuthorMatt Gamble
- CommentTimeSep 2nd 2009
@Sonny Wickus' wife talked about early on that he made paper mache animals for her all the time. Its not that h was incapable of loving acts, its just that he had to lose his identity to gain his humanity. BTW, whereabouts are you in Minneapolis? I'm one of the Asst Managers of the Landmark Edina Theatre, so you just might have watched Moon at my theatre.
If people are still up for checking out lo-fi sci-fi films my friend Jay Cheel recently posted his short film Colore Non Vedenti online. Its 25 minutes long but the site also has three commentary tracks and some behind-the-scenes footage of the filmmaking process for those of you into that stuff. As for the actual film, I don't want to say too much but it essentially involves alien Jell-o that turns you into zombies. He thinks of it more as a dark comedy but to me it reminds me of an episode of The Outer Limits if it was directed by Mario Bava. Probably the most amazing thing is the film was made for $900. Don't let that number scare you, as Jay is a major talent. He's been shooting short films (primarily documentaries) for years and he's just signed a distribution deal for the feature length documentary he has just wrapped shooting on. Check it out and I think you'll come away impressed and entertained. -
Well this can't be right? Haven't anyone mentioned Luc Besson's Le dernier combat (1983)?
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If people are still up for checking out lo-fi sci-fi films my friend Jay Cheel recently posted his short film Colore Non Vedenti online.
That short is great! Thanks Matt Gamble!
I haven't watched the commentaries or any of the behind the scenes stuff, but the film itself is really very good, and looks many orders of magnatute better than it's $900 budget. Nice and creepy in the run up, and then about the point where music from the soundtrack of Fright Night kicks in it became pretty funny too. Acting much better than normal for a film with such a low budget, and the final gag was well played.
Exactly the kind of movie I hoped this tread would attract!
@Draug - I've never seen Le Dernier Combat - I know it's b&w and has almost no words or music in it. What do you think of it? -
In some aspects it was brilliant, to tell a story with so simple means and still making it captivating and visually it's great. But some passages are a bit slow and mellow even for my tastes, at times it felt a bit like those movies that feels funnier to have seen than they are to actually see (if that makes any sense?). I ended up giving it a 3 (out of 5) so I would watch it again.
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- CommentAuthorMatt Gamble
- CommentTimeSep 4th 2009
Glad you liked it oddbill.
The budget was helped that the main character is an actual actor who was friend's with Jay and was able to recruit a couple other people to donate their time to the production. I believe most of their money was spent on feeding people as most of the equipment Jay either owned or was loaned to them at little charge.
I highly recommend checking out some of his other films at jaycheel.com. Dude is a flat out talent. Two of my favorites are The Goblin Man of Norway, which are a series of viral videos he made for the game Too Human, or then there is his documentary on time travel called Obsessed & Scientific. -
Found some interesting titles over here io9: Five Short Films That Should Get Big Screen Treatment
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I imagine this could be quite good if only my computer and flash would get along better...
The Mercury Men, an original episodic web serial -
Man, I'm not understanding all the Moon love I'm hearing in general. I felt that it was certainly a well acted and visually interesting movie, but ultimately the plot was super shallow and trite once certain aspects of it are revealed. It seemed like the climax raised some interesting questions, but was so hurried the film doesn't get a chance to really explore any of them.
I was super unimpressed with Moon. -
- CommentAuthorgovernment spy
- CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra I think fits your bill as "lo fi" but it was a modern made sci fi movie designed to look like a 1950s era B-grade flick.
Definitely worth checking out if you need a laugh, the effects are very, very lo fi, and the dialogue fits the film era.
*scientist looking out over the night sky, watching the meteor/spaceship crash* "I wonder what that could be..."
*other scientist on the other side of the forest watching same meteor, unaware of the other scientist* "...I also wonder..."
Campy, cheap effects, a wierd dance number, and it's in black and white, filmed around 1999, out of DVD.