FA+
Shop
A declaration of war
11 years ago
My oldest and greatest enemy: Conventional sci-fi
I might be wrong on this, but I have a distinct feeling that the kind of sci-fi I want is a niche greatly unfulfilled, at least in this day and age. I keep seeing so many things dance upon the precipice of where I want sci-fi to go, only to pull-back before things get too strange or too extreme, or even play it all off as a joke. It is outright frustrating and aggravating me lately... and I think that's it: that's the sign, isn't it? I hate to sound cliche or even pompous, but it's reached the point that I feel "if you want something done right" and so on. I have spoken with friends before about some rather ambitious projects, things that I honestly thought would remain more-or-less in the conceptual stage perpetually. This is no longer feasible. In order for me to be happy, I think these things must be made reality, and they will be.
So remember that, and remember this journal.
Leave your comfort zone now, because it's going to be nowhere in sight once we go down those rabbit holes I plan to take you through. We are literally traveling into the unknown from this point on.
I might be wrong on this, but I have a distinct feeling that the kind of sci-fi I want is a niche greatly unfulfilled, at least in this day and age. I keep seeing so many things dance upon the precipice of where I want sci-fi to go, only to pull-back before things get too strange or too extreme, or even play it all off as a joke. It is outright frustrating and aggravating me lately... and I think that's it: that's the sign, isn't it? I hate to sound cliche or even pompous, but it's reached the point that I feel "if you want something done right" and so on. I have spoken with friends before about some rather ambitious projects, things that I honestly thought would remain more-or-less in the conceptual stage perpetually. This is no longer feasible. In order for me to be happy, I think these things must be made reality, and they will be.
So remember that, and remember this journal.
Leave your comfort zone now, because it's going to be nowhere in sight once we go down those rabbit holes I plan to take you through. We are literally traveling into the unknown from this point on.
finally. I support this.
Slither
There was one scify horror that involved slugs that could reanimate the dead regardless of decomposition.
These are some of my favorite scify and horror movies. Though slither did what you complain of, passed it off more as a squeemish black comedy.
So, I throw down the gauntlet. Give me your best shot.
He (James Gunn) sent a script to marvel and they sent it back saying "It's good but make it more James Gunn!"
GotG 2008 is one of my favorite comics and everything points to the movie being spectacular.
It sorta fits the movie version of the costume but comes across more like a mix of Star-Lord's helmet and Jakk Flagg's to me.
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/_.....-Lord_gear.jpg
That right there is the actual mask from the movie.
I have no earthly idea how I'm going to make it to august
Night of the Creeps more than likely.
Fucking
Yes
THE SYNX!!!!!
There are still authors you'd like around, but I'll admit they've become the rarer breed and most of them are old writers who are still just floating around (Like John Varley or Roger Zelazny). I think part of it is that tech is becoming a frightening thing to people, moving faster than society can keep track of, and this paranoia tends to feed cyberpunk tropes. It's a great genre, but it's also a genre about pulling back and resisting rather than just going nuts with wacky ideas.
I've seen the cast list list for Guardians, they're not pulling their punches with the weird Chariots of the Gods cosmic shit. Am I saying Guardians is the type of sci-fi you're looking for? Not exactly. While bizarre by big budget Hollywood standards it's no more strange that, say, Mass Effect. Only two characters in the script are human, but Groot and Raccoon aside the 'aliens' take the 'they're human, but blue' route. What I am saying is if Guards does well it'll open the doors for other weird sci-fi. Hell, Del Torro has been pushing for a faithful adaptation of Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness' for years, and Lovecraft is probably the weirdest the average movie audience will take. We might finally see that if Guards can turn a profit.
Long story short; go see space raccoon and talking tree, cross fingers for big budget Shoggoths.
And we've had a couple of attempts at high sci-fi in the past decade. Just a pity they kinda sucked. Prometheus was panned by critics and Disney's John Carter bombed so hard it would have killed a lesser studio.
Yesyeysyes
I thought District 9 was the closest to that sci-fi feeling in a long while, to me at least. But I do miss the likes of Alien, The Thing (1982) and even some of the campy, classic sci-fis from the 50/60s era. Of course we are talking about movies, and movies are only about money to large studios so they do what gets box office money. More of the "artistic" portions happen in independent films or international studios. Moon was a good one I could remember well, then there is Pandorum though that does fall into the "triumph of the human spirit" issue.
For me...
Bring on the Fermi Paradox Already! I want Aliens to not be innocent and kill each other to the point they can no longer reach the stars. I don't want unified nations who have benevolent absolute monarchs who don't manage to be corrupt. I want aliens who kill in there own way and for there own reasons, not because of the elections in future America, or because we have yet to get energy from stars despite being year three-thousand-something. I want factions, not a good side and bad side.
The entire reason I watched you in the first place is because your art takes me very far out of my comfort zone, so I'm sure you won't disappoint in that area.
If that happened, then I wouldn't even believe I was in the same reality anymore. I'd sooner believe we'll have colonies on the moon in the next decade.
So bring it on CS, I want to see this amazingly beautiful world of unseeable things you have in store. My body is ready.
BRING IT OOOOOONNNNNN
Sci-fi has been disappointing me for years now. It's honestly saddening. I greatly look forward o the things your twisted, warped, Synxy mind can think of.
I'm looking forwards to seeing all the wonders you shall create!
So woo, go synx go!
One quote which I read in those long ago books was: 'thats the trouble with aliens, they're alien.'
THAT'S what I wish more people would get. They're not humans in rubber/furry/feather/scaled costumes. Thoughts and actions and concepts so out there, you cant understand them because they're ALIEN.
Problem is usually this ends up going the same route. Right to the horror extreme. Obviously their so strange that they wantto kill us all and eat our babies. *sighs*
so either we get horror from the deep bent on vicious bloodthirsty conquest, or humans in suits. Personally im tired of this black and white dynamic and so much want to see the sheer range of possiblity that imagination is possible of.
So, with that in mind, I fully support this endevour and would love to help however I might be able to.
(Typed up with a tablet, apologies for any typos.)
I call bullshit. Humans are animals with thumbs. I loved Skyline, but I have to turn it off about ten minutes before the end, because then it's an awesome "everybody dies" movie where a bunch of stupid and ultimately unlikeable human characters all get EATEN, and it's... just great. As you say, they copped out at the end with a "triumph of the human spirit" ending.
I'm the happy cynic. Humanity sucks, and I like it when everybody dies.
Sci-Fi runs into the problem that by and large, most authors are human. Few are creative enough to convincingly portray a non-human thought process, so everyone thinks like a human, with human like motivations and emotions. It's not believable.
We need more stuff to cross that line. It can border the line and still show human qualities, but at least cross the damn thing and be in the red.
I too wish to bring some weird films to life, once my camera-power level rises, ,and once I learn to sculpt and cast better in silicone, latex, etcetera. I wish you luck in your own endeavors.
I think an all alien cast could work. Assuming the way they acted and thought at least made sense I think it would still be interesting, even if it wasn't entierly relateable or "human". There is still plenty of situations that you can put characters through to make them sad, happy, or angry that are detached from human life, but still very much understandable and even sympathetic. I connected pretty easily to the characters in the Age of Reptiles: a book about regular dinosaurs. Basically every other page was dinosaurs killing one another, as you would expect dinosaur life to be like, and of course there was no words because they're dinosaurs. Still, it managed to have clear antagonists, protagonists, plot as well as sad, introspective and sympathetic moments. If a silly book about illustrated dinosaurs can pull this off, why can't sci-fi do it more? Sci-fi has limitless potential in regards to intelligent life and sapient thought, but we're rarely exploring into the depths of that nor are we trying to reap the benefits of that exploration.
Also, I don't think aliens have to be ENTIRELY alien, but I expect a little more then "this one is like humans, but more greedy", or "these ones are like humans, but more brutal" ala 'bad StarTrek'. 'Good StarTrek' had some pretty neat ideas though, like the crew of the Enterprise meeting a species with a third gender, which opened up a whole slew of moral conflicts that opposed everything humanity believes to be right. But it's not that either side was right or wrong on their stance, which I really liked. It showed that what humans believe to be right is not the definitive answer of "right", but rather just a system thats right for us. This is important, because most of our stories, conflicts and ideas are directly related to our system of morality. I am excitedly curious about the kinds of stories and situations aliens could get themselves into going by their concept of morality. I simply think it has the potential to be refreshing.
On a side not Have you heard of the R'ha film project? (The student short that sparked the project can be viewed here. It seems promising.
But ambitious projects like this need true artists, like you.
You're able to plunge into your imagination and drag out, writhing and screeching, any strange creatures you find within.
And with such great skill commit them to the page, where we can all marvel at them (at a safe distance!).
Your work stirs the imagination in others, and inspires a great deal of people, including myself.
"Sci-fi done right" has you written all over it.
I'll be so thrilled to see what comes out of all this. Best of luck!
They really stood out as something different as compared to most that are just "humans that are better at X".