movies, Uncategorized

1039 – Bumblebee (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1987 California ixnn8lg76ge11Bumblebee is a 2018 American science fiction action film centered on the Transformers character of the same name. It is the sixth installment of the live-action Transformers film series. It was developed as a spin-off and prequel, and later declared a reboot of the franchise. (wiki)

imdb


Transformers

animation, games, Uncategorized

1022 – Dead Cells (2017 video game)

s543181744429673150_p1200_i6_w1488

Dead Cells is a roguelikemetroidvania video game developed and published by Motion Twin. Following about a year in early accessDead Cells was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 7, 2018.

In the game, the player takes the role of a slime-like creature that takes control of a corpse in a dungeon, through which they must fight their way out. The player gains various weapons, treasure and other tools through exploration of the procedurally-generated levels to fight undead creatures within it. At times, the player may gain “cells”, a type of in-game currency that can be used to purchase permanent upgrades or unlock new items for the player if they reach the vendor between each level. Dead Cells uses a permadeath system, causing the player to lose all cells and other currencies or items upon each instance of death.

gwenael-masse-deadcells-brutalupdate-web

The plot of Dead Cells is minimalistic, only giving bits of information to the player. Taking place on an unnamed island, the player character is referred to as the Prisoner, a humanoid with a pile of gelee or plantmatter in place of a head. The Prisoner is immortal, as every time he dies his “head” manages to lurch its way back to the starting prison. According to a guard, the Prisoner is said to have been executed for some crime, but the nature of the crime is never specified.

thomas-vasseur-skullig

Every time the Prisoner dies, the island reconfigures itself, which serves as an explanation for the rogue-like mechanics. In the game, the reason for this is specified as the island being a living organism that evolves over time. In the end, he kills the Hand of the King and stabs the real king only to explode and wind up back at the start like nothing happened. (wiki)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 7+ / Processor: Intel i5+ / Memory: 2 GB RAM / Graphics: Nvidia 450 GTS / Radeon HD 5750 or better / Storage: 500 MB available space / Additional Notes: DirectX 9.1+ or OpenGL 3.2+


Easter Eggs and References 

steam   /   dead-cells.com

animation

1021 – Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985)

timespace coordinates: distant future – subterranean Mine-World / planet Trinia

MV5BZDY3YjZkOGItZGI2Ny00YjI1LWFkYjktYWRjODJhZGE5YmJjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAyODkwOQ@@._V1_

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is a 1985 animated science fantasy film directed and produced by Steven Hahn, and written by Jeffrey Scott. It was originally released in 3D by Atlantic ReleasingStarchaser: The Legend of Orin was one of the first animated movies to mix traditional and computer animation, as well as one of the first to be released in 3D.

imdb

movies

1006 – Madeline’s Madeline (2018)

MadelinesMadeline_reduced

Madeline’s Madeline is a 2018 drama film, written and directed by Josephine Decker. It stars Molly ParkerMiranda July and Helena Howard. Howard plays a teenage actor Madeline who is encouraged by her theater director Evangeline (Parker) to blur the lines between the character she’s playing and her actual identity. The film is known for its experimental visuals and the improvisational process Decker used to create the story, not unlike the characters themselves. (wiki)

madelines-madeline-copy_800

imdb   /   rt

movies, music

1005 – Mysterious Skin (2004)

timespace coordinates: summer of 1981 > Christmas Eve 1991 Hutchinson, Kansas / New York City

717CxJnyoxL._SL1393_

Mysterious Skin is a 2004 Dutch-American drama film directed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki, who also wrote the screenplay based on Scott Heim‘s 1995 novel of the same name.

Mysterious Skin tells the story of two pre-adolescent boys who are sexually abused by their baseball coach, and how it affects their lives in different ways into their young adulthood. One boy becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous male prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction. (wiki)

The film score was composed by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie.

mysterious-skin-md-webimdb


animation

0992 – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

MV5BMjMwNDkxMTgzOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTkwNTQ3NjM@._V1_

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man,

It is the first animated feature film in the Spider-Man franchise, and is set in a shared multiverse called the “Spider-Verse”, which has alternate universes. The film was directed by Bob PersichettiPeter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman and a story by Lord. The film stars Shameik MooreJake JohnsonHailee SteinfeldMahershala AliBrian Tyree HenryLily TomlinLuna Lauren VelezJohn MulaneyKimiko GlennNicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales becomes one of many Spider-Men as they team up to save New York City from Kingpin.

Lord and Miller wanted the film to feel like “you walked inside a comic book”, and were excited to tell the story in a way that the live-action films could not. Persichetti concurred, feeling that animation was the best medium with which to honor the style of the comics, allowing the production team to adapt 70-year-old techniques seen in comic artwork into the film’s visual language. Completing the animation for the film required up to 140 animators, the largest crew ever used by Sony Pictures Animation for a film to date.

l0qpctcgss911

The CGI animation for the film was combined with “line work and painting and dots and all sorts of comic book techniques” to make it look like it was created by hand, which was described as “a living painting”. This was achieved by artists taking rendered frames from the CGI animators and working on top of them in 2D, with the goal of making every frame of the film “look like a comic panel”. Lord described this style of animation as “totally revolutionary”, and explained that the design combines the in-house style of Sony Pictures Animation with the “flavor” of comic artists such as Sara Pichelli (who co-created Miles Morales) and Robbi Rodriguez. To make it feel more like a comic book, it was animated without motion blur, and rather than using animation principles like squash and stretch they came up with substitute versions of them; “so that in texture and feel it felt different, but it still achieved the same goal — to either feel weight or anticipation or impact or things like that”.

The film’s directors all felt that the film would be one of the few that audiences actually “need” to watch in 3D due to the immersive nature of the animated world created, and the way that the hand-drawn animation elements created specifically for the film create a unique experience; Persichetti described this experience as a combination of the effects of an old-fashioned hand-drawn multiplane camera and a modern virtual reality environment. (read more)

4ce06d24c9f14cde35b0a7bbe4fb3a5b

Sequel and spin-off

imdb