Why is good sci-fi so hard to make!? (movies, tv series, etc)

UxoriousMagnus


I was just needing to vent and wondered if other sci-fi addicts are frustrated with the newer movies coming out?
[/quote


Are you a film maker? Your Avy say's you might be.

Be the change you seek and forget the big production companies. If you have a compelling story and engaging characters you could get funding to make your own movie. Some fantastic features are now being made with technology readily available to everyone.

Start here....

www.celtx.com...

I once was having a discussion about some science fiction movies at lunch with a group of fellow workers when someone chimed in "I don't like science fiction, I prefer real fiction" , followed by nodding agreement of a number of heads.

When I questioned what they felt was real enough to become fiction but why science could not be real enough to be fictionalised they admitted they didn't understand it. So I guess there lies one of the basic problems of science fiction. It's not the fiction, it's the science people don't get.

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


I agree we should be seeing more of those style movies, they are my personal favorite.

Personally I am waiting for the Mass Effect movie, even though it is a few years away, I believe that will be the next Sci-fi movie to that list.

As a fan of the game, I can garrentee the movie is just going to be outrageous. They wont release the movie until it is perfect because all the die hard fans.

It has the possibility to rival or succeed starwars and startrek. The depth of charactors, the emense storyline and relationships, the fact that they took the time to explain in detail every feature of everything that goes on in that universe will create at least 3 or more movies. the thing is it will have to be done right, if so, I can see it being just as huge as starwars, but less cheesy and more realistic

olaru12

UxoriousMagnus


I was just needing to vent and wondered if other sci-fi addicts are frustrated with the newer movies coming out?
[/quote


Are you a film maker? Your Avy say's you might be.

Be the change you seek and forget the big production companies. If you have a compelling story and engaging characters you could get funding to make your own movie. Some fantastic features are now being made with technology readily available to everyone.

Start here....

www.celtx.com...

no....my avatar has a deeper meaning than that....but I do love movies.

edit on 20-2-2014 by UxoriousMagnus because: (no reason given)

snypwsd
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

I agree we should be seeing more of those style movies, they are my personal favorite.

Personally I am waiting for the Mass Effect movie, even though it is a few years away, I believe that will be the next Sci-fi movie to that list.

As a fan of the game, I can garrentee the movie is just going to be outrageous. They wont release the movie until it is perfect because all the die hard fans.

It has the possibility to rival or succeed starwars and startrek. The depth of charactors, the emense storyline and relationships, the fact that they took the time to explain in detail every feature of everything that goes on in that universe will create at least 3 or more movies. the thing is it will have to be done right, if so, I can see it being just as huge as starwars, but less cheesy and more realistic

I am with ya on this

I'm betting my money on Interstellar.

reply to post by mirageman


Sci-Fi is just not for everyone. I think Sci-Fi is the ultimate genre of fiction.

Alot of todays technology came out of government programs to come up with technology that was in these shows and movies.
Ion Drive motors (startrek)
Tasers (phasors Startrek)
Lasers (granted tesla discovered it, but it is tied to project starwars)
Cloaking devices (any sci-fi program)
Cell phones (startrek communicators)
TR-3B's (man made triangle shaped ufo)
And the list can go on and on.

Sci-fi tromps everything but documentries in my books.

If your friends like a more "real fiction" program thats still sci-fi, get them started on Battlestar Galactica. Im sure you know that is one of the more realistic sci-fi shows around, given that we have some of the technology used in the shows.

boncho
District 9.

Neil Blomkamp perfected the art of shooting sic fi on a budget with the former.

James Cameron perfected the art of shooting on a big budget with Avatar.

Moon, perfected the art of story telling and character driven scifi (only one actor the whole movie.)

That's all I could think of off the top of my head.





Big studio productions for the sake of producing are just lame. Cargo, a German scifi movie I recommend. It's really good. Not so good you will say "Damn this is a really good movie." while watching it… But very interesting and leaves a lingering impression.

edit on 20-2-2014 by boncho because: (no reason given)

District 9 left me a little ... I don't know...hungry. Like I went to someones house for dinner and they underestimated how many guests were going to show up and everyone had to just take a taste of everything.

And I can't put my finger on why either. I think it had a bunch of very cool things in it.....something just bothers me about it.

But it was ten times better than Riddick.

Thanks for the suggestion of Cargo....I will check that out

It actually comes down to a more dollars related point on how and why they can't make good scifi (and honestly, it's stupid)

We were having this discussion elsewhere as in another year and a half it will be Trek's 50th anniversary and CBS/Paramount to this point has NOTHING in the works for it. Now a lot of people think those effects you se ein scifi shows and movies are pretty easy right? Just open up a computer program and tell it what to do right?

Well because I just happen to be working on the darn ship right now, and because it's being gotten ready for TV, and that's not easy, you guys can see what a Federation Starship looks like before all that lengthy post processing goes into it..




And finally after a lot of work and texturing and processing and lighting you have this still


But it's still just a still, that took about 6 hours to render out and fix up, now when you consider that film is 35 frames PER SECOND, just imagine animating this ole girl....

And there you have why there is no good scifi anymore, it's just too time and cost prohibitive unless you want everything looking like the final episode of Nu-BSG where you had Cylons floating above the ground plane because they were in such a rush to make it..

vkey08

Well because I just happen to be working on the darn ship right now, and because it's being gotten ready for TV, and that's not easy, you guys can see what a Federation Starship looks like before all that lengthy post processing goes into it..

I also work in the entertainment industry [SAG/AFTRA and IATSE] and usually showing pictures like that violates the non disclosure agreement we sign when working on a show. At least on the productions I've worked on.

Nice pictures though!

olaru12

vkey08

Well because I just happen to be working on the darn ship right now, and because it's being gotten ready for TV, and that's not easy, you guys can see what a Federation Starship looks like before all that lengthy post processing goes into it..

I also work in the entertainment industry [SAG/AFTRA and IATSE] and usually showing pictures like that violates the non disclosure agreement we sign when working on a show.

If the NX Refit were "just for" a TV program you would most likely be correct, however, the refit, and all of her modifications have been done publicly with fan input (even when ignored LOL) and out there in calendars, book covers, and about 200 or so renders that i've had to do over the past year with her, it wasn't until recently that the ship even was noted that she would be seen anywhere else (she was Drexler's baby up til recently, and he had the final say on where and when she gets shown) as such, my orders are clear, I can use THIS ship anywhere I wish and for whatever purpose as long as it's tasteful..

vkey08
my orders are clear, I can use THIS ship anywhere I wish and for whatever purpose as long as it's tasteful..

Just curious...

ATS is tasteful?

reply to post by vkey08

unless you want everything looking like the final episode of Nu-BSG where you had Cylons floating above the ground plane because they were in such a rush to make it..

Ha, never noticed that and I've watched those episodes several times. As a hardcore scifi fan for over 50 years my take on it is true fans can overlook some tiny details as long as the storyline is good and the actors/characters are believable.

Since you have some contact in the industry I'll put in a shameless request that you please ask someone, anyone to do a movie of Philip K Dick's "UBIK." Totally scifi and way better than Minority Report. It would be a blockbuster.

/end shameless plug

reply to post by Bassago


Daybreak 2 when the big battle scene is going on between the old style (1978) and the new Style (2003) Centurions is taking place, all of the older style ones are about 5 mm's off the ground plane and look like they are floating, in some scenes even their leg motions aren't really there they just glide..

Considering the whole scene was done in CGI (I have both centurions on my computer, so I know that there's no way other than laziness not to have them resting on the ground) it wouldn't have taken a lot more to snap them to the ground.

For me, it's all about the story, lately, those suck worse than a box of rocks!

They've been so bad I've been inspired to try putting together something better. But I've not been working in sci-fi strictly speaking, unless superheroes are sci-fi.

What can I say? My husband got me hooked on 'em.

I don't know much about whether or not hard and soft have a major divide in fandom. If they do, I straddle both sides, but as I said, I go in for the story. I like action and lots of explosions and fighting, but only if there's a good reason in the plot and story for it.

I differ in that I didn't like Chronicles all that much. It just didn't make that much sense, and the wire-foo was just plain silly.

I loved Pitch Black. It has a simple overall plot with a bit deeper character examination.

ketsuko
For me, it's all about the story, lately, those suck worse than a box of rocks!

They've been so bad I've been inspired to try putting together something better. But I've not been working in sci-fi strictly speaking, unless superheroes are sci-fi.

What can I say? My husband got me hooked on 'em.

I don't know much about whether or not hard and soft have a major divide in fandom. If they do, I straddle both sides, but as I said, I go in for the story. I like action and lots of explosions and fighting, but only if there's a good reason in the plot and story for it.

I differ in that I didn't like Chronicles all that much. It just didn't make that much sense, and the wire-foo was just plain silly.

I loved Pitch Black. It has a simple overall plot with a bit deeper character examination.

I agree....Pitch Black was very good at building tension and characters and an interesting story line.....which is why they bring back a certain characters father in Riddick....but ....that is what makes Pitch Black a great example of what can be done on the cheap ... so to speak. Chronicles ... dumped a ton of money into the production (by comparison) and lost much of it's gritty feel....but I thought was still good but in a different direction. Riddick felt like it was trying to get back to it's origins but couldn't find it's way home.

vkey08
reply to post by Bassago

 

Daybreak 2 when the big battle scene is going on between the old style (1978) and the new Style (2003) Centurions is taking place, all of the older style ones are about 5 mm's off the ground plane and look like they are floating, in some scenes even their leg motions aren't really there they just glide..

Considering the whole scene was done in CGI (I have both centurions on my computer, so I know that there's no way other than laziness not to have them resting on the ground) it wouldn't have taken a lot more to snap them to the ground.

so....you do some sort of "armed" employment and also work on sci-fi...."stuff".... and have a double major

ok....so maybe I was wrong about you......

you may be the sexiest woman alive.....

reply to post by olaru12


I liked Celtx until they switched to subscription based service.

I recommend Trelby if you want a straight forward script writing program with no bells and whistles. Also, It's free ware
Trelby

Failure of imagination.

The aforementioned Battlestar Galactia is a perfect example of this failure.

Instead of coming up with something new or using one of literally thousands of science fiction stories that have never seen the screen, they just lazily recycled an old TV show. They tired to update it by making it "topical" (ripping off plot ideas from the War in Iraq), "historical" (by ripping off WW2) and "modern" (Look, a pilot is on drugs!) They expanded the ties to mythology, probably because they heard about Joseph Campbell in their screenwriting class, and that was about it.

The only vaguely interesting bit was the Cylons, and they did very little with that idea. First they were robots whose spines glowed when they had sex (and someone must have pointed out to the writers how "doing it" in certain positions would reveal who was a Cyclon, so they dropped that idea and made them clones instead). And don't even get me started on that series ending.

Seems like the audience is not as big, so less money to be made. There are exceptions.