Anim8rFSK wrote in
news:ANIM8Rfsk-9882B5.07545520092007@news.phx.highwinds-media.com:
> In article ,
> Agent Smith wrote:
>
>> Forge wrote in
>> news:MPG.215b34c3705f6444989711@newsgroups.comcast.net:
>>
>> > In article
>> > media.com>, ANIM8Rfsk@cox.net says...
>> >> In article ,
>> >> Agent Smith wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > I just This Island Earth, and really enjoyed it, but what struck
>> >> > me the most was the colors. Is the vividness of the colors on
>> >> > the DVD due only to the original technicolor process, or were
>> >> > they boosted in some way by whatever remastering was used to
>> >> > clean in up and put it onto the DVD?
>> >>
>> >> I recall it as always looking vivid, even on TV years ago and on
>> >> 16mm prints.
>> >
>> > Same here, not "Wizard of Oz" vivid, but yeah, good color. Faith
>> > Domergue looked just lovely. = )
>>
>> She sure was a succulent tomato, and I really enjoyed the grey
>> jumpsuits they wore. In the DVD version, the colors of the optical
>> effects and the pyrotechnics were definitely "'Wizard of Oz' vivid,"
>> although the miniatures were spectacular only for their design, but
>> not for their colors.
>>
>> There were two moments that were clearly optically enhanced
>> pyrotechnics. When the car blew up, right before the flying saucer
>> left earth, the explosion released a shower of red and green embers.
>> And just as the flying saucer was going inside the planet Metaluna, a
>> meteor struck nearby, and the cloud of smoke went from yellow to
>> blue.
>>
>> The reason I ask if the techs twiddled the optical FX for the DVD is
>> because I'm surprised to know that, way back then, they could overlay
>> optical FX onto pyrotechnics. But then, from what I hear,
>> technicolor was a pretty amazing technology, so maybe it's just a
>> question of these abilities not being used anywhere else except here.
>> This could be one reason why the film is so famous.
>>
>> And how about that triangular tv screen with the death rays? I can't
>> imagine putting death rays onto a tv, although you might argue that
>> they've been doing that since the 50's. :)
>
> There's an episode of one of the old Fantastic Four cartoons where
> Rama-Tut is talking to our heroes on a TV screen (in a pyramid!) and
> the screen swings down revealing the 3 cathode ray tubes and Richards
> shouts LOOK OUT! ELECTRON GUNS!! and everybody dives for their lives.
> Me, I fell off the couch laughing. :)
Sure, today's electron guns are only used in crt's, but just imagine how
nasty one of them would be, if you could make it work at atmospheric
pressure.
I don't know what the current status is, but I was a grad student at
MIT's Plasma Fusion Center when Reagan gave his notorious Star Wars
speech. Immediately after that, the director of the PFC gives a talk
about "non-neutral plasmas" in the second biggest lecture hall on
campus.
He was obviously gearing up for SDI grant proposals, in case federal
money should rush in that direction. But you can see where I'm going,
because "electron gun" vs. "non-neutral plasma" is just a case of
"potato" vs. "po-tah-to." :)
I've often suspected that Stan and other comic writers would browse
Scientific American, or in your case, perhaps Popular Science, looking
for cool jargon to write into their stories.
I have fond memories of the conclusion to Jim Starlin's Warlock #14,
where the hero returns from a long trip to distant reaches of outer
space, to find that his body has become as thin as wisps of gas, but
larger than the solar system. This effect was caused by the "expanding
universe."
>> I also loved the reference to "neutrinos" for seeing through lead.
>> In 1955, a reference to neutrinos was extremely advanced,
>> scientifically. That aspect of the science even made a little bit of
>> sense, unlike the part about transmuting lead into uranium. ?:(~
>
> How about the line "This is our cat Neutron; we call him that because
> he's so positive!"
That was a great moment!
> I still can't believe they cut that from the MST3K verion. :(
I suspect that the 3K producers had no clue about the charge on neutrons
vs. protons, and in fact, wouldn't know a nucleon from a hole in the
floor. But I thought that MST3K only mocked the crappy sci-fi films,
and, for all its faults, This Island Earth is commonly accepted as one
of the good ones. |