The Future is Now

Any and all discussion about Dark Conspiracy, the RPG of modern conspiracy horror
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Linden
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The Future is Now

Post by Linden »

Article in The Grauniad about the difficulties of creating realistic sci-fi movie environment. It's not actually that good, the author comes across as a) a whinger, and b) a smart arse. However, it does refer to retro-elements creeping into futuristic settings so not without interest to Dark Conspiracy fans.
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ReHerakhte
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by ReHerakhte »

Man were you right, the author does come across as a) a whinger, and b) a smart arse.
I think he focused too much on what he thinks the future should be and spent too little time focusing on the tale being told (his focus seems to be entirely on the set dressing instead of the story).
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by Linden »

ReHerakhte wrote:
I think he focused too much on what he thinks the future should be and spent too little time focusing on the tale being told (his focus seems to be entirely on the set dressing instead of the story).


I think that would be forgiveable if he had some decent ideas of his own, which he manifestly doesn't.

Carping on about payphones in Bladerunner strikes me as particularly pointless. Not a lot of people figured out that mobile phones would catch on. Even William Gibson missed that one. Interesting that original Star Trek was perhaps nearer the mark.
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by ReHerakhte »

I remember an interview some time back with Gibson where he said (paraphrasing) "I really dropped the ball in regards to cell phones".
That statement,to me, speaks for itself - you can write about the future but there's no certainty you'll get it right, it is after all, speculative by its very nature.

Even Syd Mead doesn't always get it right and he's employed as a futurist and concept artist for futuristic movies. The mobile phone companies themselves didn't predict just how ubiquitous their product would become so it's quite unfair to harp on about the lack of such phones in a movie made in 1982.
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by Morthrai »

Apart from Gibson missing the cellular revolution, this is my favourite thing regarding personal communication devices. I was going to scan this in from my copy of the "Usborne Book Of The Future" but managed to find it online.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb25 ... orne44.jpg

I have had this book since I was about 13 and I still lift stuff from it for Dark Conspiracy :)
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by Linden »

Morthrai wrote:I was going to scan this in from my copy of the "Usborne Book Of The Future" but managed to find it online.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb25 ... orne44.jpg

I have had this book since I was about 13 and I still lift stuff from it for Dark Conspiracy :)


Obviously a piece of dark-tek. The retractable aerials are feed mechanisms that snap around the wearer's wrist and burrow into his flesh seizing him with the irresistable urge to go down his local butcher and snaffle a load of raw mince.
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by ReHerakhte »

On a lighter note, I remember that book and others like it so with some nostalgia I decided to trawl through the photobucket site you linked to (not the smartest decision in the world however, the page owner has some absolute shit posted).

It only seems to have a few other pages from the book but I see that the authors got a few things "right on the money" - faired-in plastic bumper bars, rear-view cameras and so on for vehicles for example
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by Zvezda »

Good thing you still have the death penalty for high treason in the UK! When it comes to mocking my religion I am really not much of a tolerant person. One does not simply speak ill of Blade Runner!
The article is strange. I mean he is right about the stuff that people in movies always look as if they are actors from the time the movie was made. An exception to the rule might be the Italian western movies. Maybe some of the soviet era movies. But that is a general problem. Cowboys look like actors, knights, cavemen you name it. I think a bit more originality would help but this works much better in a game than in a movie. If the actors for example move to far away from the beauty standards of the audience the film won’t be too successful in some countries. There is a simply explanation to the fact that cell phones became obsolete in blade runner. Either too much radiation, too many arcologies blocking the waves, tighter government control. It does not matter. It fits the story perfectly that Dekker uses the phone box. I like the idea in DC to return to a 50s style of design and clothing. Using styles from the past is always helpful in sf settings.
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by ReHerakhte »

And something else that the writer of that article fails to understand.
Some fashions come back into style decades after they first appeared.

For example, I remember in the early 1980s when Madonna was strutting around with fingerless lace gloves. All the teen/young women who wanted to copy Madonna were buying those gloves. My mother mentioned that she should have kept hers from when she was a teenager, she could have given them to her daughter instead of buying a pair for her.

I also remember here in Australia in the 1990s when trenchcoats made a brief resurgence amongst the 20-something age group.
And we see again in the 2000s amongst the hipster crowd a style of hat that dates from the 19th century - the fedora hat first appeared in the early 1880s as a womans hat and made a comeback in the 1920s but as a mans hat. It stopped being worn in the 1950s but after half a century, it's back in fashion.
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Re: The Future is Now

Post by Zvezda »

There was that Rockabilly Revival, and now we have some of the Goth kids dressing up in Victorian costumes and all that. Generally I think he is somewhat right. Many sf movies lack good ideas and sometimes it is even worth they have good ideas and interesting technology but the writers forget about them in the most crucial moments.
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