Film and Future...

[Darorinag]

Originally posted by dusken I never mentioned evil or badness among the human race. I think you misunderstood my original post.

i think i did, too.. but i'm not sure.. i thought u were talking about ways of representing those.. ? after all, you did talk about how the future was depicted in "fearful" terms or characters.. hmm.. oh well..

[jahannam]

Re: Film and Future...

Originally posted by dusken

Maybe film makers should do this: make movies that would normally take place in the present, but make the setting the future. All the things in the present that invoke a feeling of warmth should do so and everything in the present that invokes an uncomfortable feeling should be the same in the future. Why can't a stereotypical highschool drama take place in the future? Identification? Maybe. But isn't that a philosophy to be expressed in itself?

interesting thread.
hmmmm...
but what do u mean by the "setting of the future"?
cuz in the beginning of your post you've talked about the plain boring architecture and spacial qualites of those "futures". so somehow I smell contradiction.
secondly, these movies often take place in the very far future, where such understandings as high school or "warm feelings" are going to be very different, if they will exist at all.
so my question is... why do you want today's drama? are you looking to RELATE to this kind of movies?
cuz if theres gonna be today's drama and today's buildings, then what do u think would make a piece of film "set in the future?"

[dusken]

Re: Re: Film and Future...

Originally posted by jahannam interesting thread.
hmmmm...
but what do u mean by the "setting of the future"?
cuz in the beginning of your post you've talked about the plain boring architecture and spacial qualites of those "futures". so somehow I smell contradiction.
secondly, these movies often take place in the very far future, where such understandings as high school or "warm feelings" are going to be very different, if they will exist at all.
so my question is... why do you want today's drama? are you looking to RELATE to this kind of movies?
cuz if theres gonna be today's drama and today's buildings, then what do u think would make a piece of film "set in the future?"

I did not say "setting of the future." I think if you reread it you may understand what I mean. The idea of all of this is that, from a production standpoint, films of the future tend to be shot the same way and romantic comedies or teenage dramas tend to be shot different ways. Now as much as I hate the latter two, there has become an expectation that a movie set in the future is going to have a certain visual effect to it. I am not necessarily saying that the architecture itself or the clothes should be the same as they are now but production approach is becoming tiring. A lot of the futuristic films take place between 50 and 70 years into the future. If you go back to the mid thirties you would see that, of course, the technology is at a much earlier stage but the humanity is the same. It seems that films are produced to take that warmth out by focussing on elements that invoke a feeling of detachment. Is it a guarantee that we will no longer have forests or theme parks or comedy clubs or art or passions or people whistling as they walk? I don't think so. I am not saying it's wrong; I am only saying that the reduction that takes place is a tired attitude.

[whitelotus]

yes i agree, many film makers tend to show the future as being very boring as in sleek lines, abstract shapes, clean cutt everything. Either boring colors or the opposite- very vibrant colors.

but i guess everyones idea of the future is different.
Some think of it as getting more simple as in the tools we use, the way we do things, get easier because technology advances. But i tend to think the future gets even more difficult because problems in society and the world in general are getting more complicated then they were in the stone age. I think as technology and humans advance, so do all the problems and tasks we have to do in the future.

why cant we all just live in the moment, instead of making films on the future. we arent happy with what we have now, we strive to step into the future or to predict it too much. Just injoy your lives now and the beautiful things you see around you now.

[Darorinag]

ok, let me spill my views on Blade Runner and why I think it's a great "future" / sci fi movie.

I think it's great because it preserves the very basic element that seems to be greatly lacking in "alien" movies - human beings. perhaps the main character is a human being, but the interaction is mainly between a specific human being and some other creatures, rather than human-human and/or human-creature and/or creature-creature. Blade Runner shows all three, packed in one. It shows the relationships (well, not in a heterosexual sense of the term) between human beings, the relationships between humans and replicants, and the relationship between replicants themselves. And I think that's what makes it a great movie, in addition to its thematic proposition that replicants are not always evil (Rachel).