Post SIGGRAPH Brain Rot

SIGGRAPH always seems to fall on my birthday, and between the two of them I am ready to be completely dysfunctional for a month.   When we return (in a day or so) we will begin with a few notes from SIGGRAPH, some commentary on the VES visual effects "state of the industry" report, and some more civics regarding the Snowden affair.

Thank you for your patience.

Vast Government Conspiracy to Make Bad Movies and Influence Third World Revealed in Foreign Affairs

Isn't it convenient that Ed Snowden forgot to expose our Government's secret multi-decade program to influence world affairs through manipulating Hollywood movies? In failing to do so, in allowing his integrity to be compromised and bought off, he confirmed what right-minded people have been saying all along: that the movies Hollywood makes is not the result of some sort of implausible and incomprehensible "development process" but is the result of a vast secret government program to influence what movies get made in order to control the world.

A recent post on the Foreign Affairs web site implicitly exposes this foul plot, in The Myth of the American Superman by Ahmed Shafi and Najib Sharifi, here, they reveal the shocking truth about how Rambo III and Titanic were both used to influence and control unsuspecting Afghani's in order to support the American Way of life.

But not even Shafi and Sharifi are willing to go the full distance and ask how it is these insane movies were created in the first place.  No observer of Hollywood and Washington shenanigans could believe that these things "just happened" because of a "development process".   If there was an invisible "black hand" that directed the creation of mediocre and mindless entertainment then at least this is an explanation that does not rely on the idea that all studio executives are stupid, tasteless and desperate to imitate each other.

But to start with the Shafi and Sharifi evidence, they cite three horrifying examples of American influence to create an image of America in Afghanistan that is far from the truth and thus influence regional politics. Two of these examples are major Hollywood motion pictures and the third is an odd story from the 1830s, nearly two centuries ago, the story of Josiah Harlan. Apparently this Pennsylvanian got himself named Prince of Ghor for Perpetuity in the 1830s and this made a very positive impression about Americans for Afghanis, as implausible as that may seem. I guess they are also romantics. (See note 1)

But it is their second and third examples that happened in the 20th century that seem to fit all to well to our conspiracy theory:  apparently two movies have had a huge impact on Afghanistan in the last 20 years. One is Rambo III (1988) and the other is Titanic (1997).

In the words of our Foreign Affairs correspondents:

But perhaps the most important contributions to this ethos have come from Hollywood. In the late 1980s, the film Rambo III, in particular, embodied the Superman image of America for Afghans. In the movie, Rambo, with his buffed muscles and thirst to kill Soviets, made all of the right moves to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. He braved the towering mountains of Afghanistan on a horseback. He displayed his ghairat (enthusiasm and honor) by accepting an Afghan challenge to play buzkashi, a national sport which is similar to polo. And he impressed Afghans further by effortlessly beating the best and toughest chapandaz (players). He even took up arms and joined a ragtag group of Afghan fighters to blow up a Soviet military base.

Hey, watch me play some Buzkashi!

The movie was such a big hit in Afghanistan that even high ranking officials in the communist regime loved it, despite having initially banned the film. Thousands of VHS copies of the film were smuggled into Kabul and provided a massive boost to America's image. Afghans loved seeing the American superhero on their side, sharing their sorrows, and fighting ferociously against the "evil" communists.

I actually like Sylvester Stallone and will talk about First Blood (the first Rambo movie) in glowing terms in another post.

The second example is also shocking. During the Taliban regime, watching Western movies was forbidden. But Afghanis were so moved by the dreadful shmaltz-fest Titanic that they risked their lives smuggling in VHS copies and watching in secret movie appreciation meetings or "cells". The Taliban was so determined to crack down on this abomination that they would detain any youth who had a "Titanic haircut". I would have done the same thing myself.

Prohibited Titanic haircut example on left.

I can hear the conspiracy theory skeptics sharpening their pencils ready to cast ridicule and doubt on this idea.   I challenge them to generate another explanation that some modicum of plausibility.  Please, please, please do not recycle the idea that Hollywood makes the movies it does because "it just happens that way".  No senior executive of American corporation could make that many bad decisions in a row without being deposed by their shareholders.  Isn't that what we are taught about our free enterprise system?  And remember these people are not paid well.  Many of them struggle with a modest 7 figure salary plus bonuses.

A government conspiracy cloaked in secrecy which attempts to control the world by making bad movies would at least make some rational sense however vile these motivations may be.   The alternative is to believe their story about the "development process" and no one in their right mind could believe that.

Rambo III (1988) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095956/

Titanic (1997) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/

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1. The story of Josiah Harlan is, on the face of it, completely implausible. The son of Quakers from Pennsylvania goes to Afghanistan in order to get himself declared King of the Afghans. Having been abandoned by his fiance while overseas, he posed as a surgeon for the British East India Company and after a time migrated north to the Punjab. There he befriended an exiled King of Afghanistan and travelled further meeting the current King, his brother, then met a Maharaja where he was appointed governor of a province of Afghanistan and later named Prince of Ghor in perpetuity for himself and his descendents.

Josiah Harlan.   Was he secretly working for Andrew Jackson?

I should only have to mention that this was during the Jackson administration in the 1830s for a knowledgable American to immediately smell a rat.  Was Harlan working for the infamous Pres. Andrew Jackson the whole time?   Someone should do a FOIA petition and try to pry the truth out of Washington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Harlan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghor

Art, Fine Art and Ender's Game

If one wants to know the very essence of Hollywood creativity, look no further than Ender's Game. It is the very height of what makes Hollywood great: shallow, stupid, yet empty of ideas, it contains the most predictable twist ending in the history of science fiction.

I first read the screenplay, or at least a screenplay, for Ender's Game in 1991. A very good friend who was trying to find me work after my studio, dWi, crashed and burned, gave it to me with the hopes that I would be so enthusiastic that I would literally bubble up with a billion ideas (I guess about how to use computer animation on it, which was by no means an accepted technique at the time), that all my free ideas would somehow magically make me a consultant to the project, to "be attached" in some way. What I knew and he knew (but would not admit) is that those who are associated with a project early on are rarely called to the altar when the project goes for real. The reason is simple: when the director is selected everything changes. It is the director (and his/her producer) who selects the team. Anyone associated with the project from before that has a less than average chance of being involved unless you are contracturally written into a project (which is unlikely, very unlikely, unless you are "above the line" (1), and people in visual effects are not).

Presumably our hero getting his suit calibrated on the game grid in Ender's Game

And so my friend was one more time disappointed in me when I refused to show any enthusiasm for this crass and juvenile property. Misplaced enthusiasm is a sine qua non for participating in Hollywood, and a worthless tool such as myself is expected to be endlessly enthusiastic and work for free in the hope that the Master will smile on their broken and exhausted slaves sometime in the future.

As I read this worthless piece of space kiddie porn, I thought, who are they kidding ? The book is a well-known and trite sf book for children by a well-known and well-meaning hack who has not, so far as I know, emerged from his very serviceable but pedestrian writing youth. Its an entertaining piece of fiction for children, relatively young children, about how studying for video games in an elite academy leads to saving the solar system from the alien menace.

Ender's Game in its original form.

Can you say "Last Starfighter"? Good. Now, say "Last Starfighter only much bigger" and you will get the idea.

But at least Last Starfighter (1984) had two things going for it.  First, it was the last film performance of the great Robert Preston.   And second it was a genuine use of computer graphics & animation in entertainment.   I am pretty sure that this is a III (Information International) project and one that John Whitney, Jr had a hand in selling (e.g. getting the filmmakers excited about using computer animation in their film).   

The youthful video game player, notice the graphics game control in the heavens above him.  Look familiar?

Our future savior of the galaxy or solar system (I forget which) playing what used to be known as a "video game" in its "coinop" days.  I love the term "coinop".

But don't worry. They have major actors to "open the movie" as we say in Hollywoodland. We have Harrison Ford! Well, thats nice, I like Harrison Ford. But having Ford is not going to make a shallow plot less shallow, or an obvious ending less obvious.

And how sad for Digital Domain, the prime effects supplier, (2) to end their long streak of movies on this piece of overhyped crap. From Titanic to Ender's Game? Is that it? Now that they have their new Chinese Masters, controlled by the Tong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Chinese People, we will see where they go from here. I wish them all the best.

After all we are all going to be working for the Chinese, so its really not so different from what the rest of us will experience.

Ender's Game (2013) on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/

The Last Starfighter (1984) on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/

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1. "Above the line" is a Hollywood term meaning many things.  In classic Hollywood there was literally a line in the budget separating the producer, wrtier, director and stars from the rest of the crew.

2. Nancy St. John is the effects producer for the production and is one of my favorite people in this so-called business.  Among other things, she is an alumni of Robert Abel & Associates, Digital Productions and Industrial Light and Magic.

Mary Poppins Remix by Pogo (Nick Bertke)

An electronic musician named Nick Bertke (aka Pogo) creates remixes of well-known films using sounds and images from the film with some rhythm added.

Check out his Mary Poppins remix "What I Likes".

Julie Andrews is pretty spectacular even if she is vocalizing syllables and not complete words in this version.   Notice the sense of relief when it actually drops into some Mary Poppins music about 2/3rds of the way through (when they are cleaning the children's room).  

But most of all, notice the amazing backgrounds and paintings (were these done by Peter Ellenshaw?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5w6XI5lfdg

SIGGRAPH 2013: A Strategy for Attending SIGGRAPH

Update Aug 1 2013

This is the second part of my little SIGGRAPH review.  In this post I discuss a "new" procedure for attending SIGGRAPH.   Well, its new for me anyway.

The problem(s) were legion but the big ones were that there was too much to do in the time allowed, the motion picture / entertainment industry stuff was annoying, the technical program could easily be missed if one wasn't careful, and although there were things like the "job fair" there was not in fact much to find in the way of projects or employment.

The "solution", for me, anyway, was to concentrate on the technical program, ignore the Hollywood stuff, and give up on finding a job / work / projects at SIGGRAPH.

So here is the plan that evolved and which I recommend to anyone who attends SIGGRAPH who is interested in the technical program.

1. Register for the Full Conference, but at half price.  There is an "unemployed" special rate at SIGGRAPH but they do not advertise it. It is equivalent in price to the Education rate, which is exactly what I proposed to SIGGRAPH a year ago (perhaps they heard me?). So for $495 you get the full conference, proceedings, receptions and film show. In other words, you can fully participate.

2. Attend the Fast Forward event which is usually on Sunday at 6PM. This means that you must be at SIGGRAPH no later than about Sunday at 4PM to register and find the right hall. The Fast Forward is essential for figuring out which of the papers you want to see.  The titles are often not sufficient to make that choice.

3. Really, seriously try to attend the Technical Papers.  That means getting up early to be at the conference by 9 AM, not going for 4 hour lunches, etc.    Use your program guide to determine which of these sessions you want to attend and which you can miss. Only time spent in the darkened room counts. Since they run these papers simultaneously, you normally have to choose 1 in 3 sessions anyway. I move around. I saw perhaps 1/2 the papers I wanted to see, which is a very good percentage for me.

4. Attend the "Awards Talks" which is a new feature this year.  The Awards have been augmented with "Awards Speeches" which includes an introduction by the head of SIGGRAPH, Jeff Jortner. This was the best of SIGGRAPH for me. All the talks were worthwhile.      

5. Avoid all the Hollywood stuff.  Just pretend it is not there and maybe it will go away.   Dont get me started about what that stuff is really all about, I would have to use bad words.  By ignoring them, I had much more time to see the Technical Program and I was in a far better mood.  

6. Receptions if possible.  Parties if invited.  You have to be considered important enough to be invited to such parties as the Disney R&D Mixer, and this year I was not important enough. Their failure to properly recognize my genius will be their undoing.  Maybe next year.

7. Trade Show during periods when there is no technical paper you want to see.  The tradeshow floor is now concise enough that you can see it in two 4 hour sessions.

8. BOFs or Birds of a Feather if interested and time allows.

9. Electronic Theatre is totally optional.

10. End of conference "non reception" reception if you are available Thursday evening.  At the Conference Hotel. 

So in summary, with this  new approach I really attended the Technical Program, got a copy of the electronic proceedings, saw the awards talks, and blew off the Hollywood crap.  It was a much more productive SIGGRAPH for me.

Now more on what I actually saw and other opinions and issues in Post #3.

SIGGRAPH 2013: Electronic Theatre Gratuitous Human Meat Display

[revised]

Whatever the Electronic Theatre is or should be at SIGGRAPH, we can all agree that it is not what it was and it can not be what it was. In its earliest period it was the premiere of new work in synthetic imagery to a community of people who were inventing that media. Today, the community has expanded and fragmented, and it is no longer the premiere of just about anything given that most of these "films" are available on Youtube or even at your neighborhood theatre.

This year's Electronic Theatre was the first I had attended since 1991. In 1991 there was a political event that was so obnoxious that I just threw up my hands and wished them all the best, and ignored it. It did not really matter. The theatre had become sample reels, and ways for large corrupt media organizations to recruit, and so forth. Thats fine, but who cares.

I kept hoping that I would either be invited to a jury or in some way be in a position to help recreate the theatre but that never happened.

So this year I decided to give it a shot and see what it was.

I lasted about 7 films until I walked out.

It started out very strong with two very amusing pieces. The first was the Centrifuge Brain Project, which you can find on Youtube at the URL below. And the second was a series of bumpers for the FMX Conference. Both were very amusing and well done.

Centrifuge Scientist Discusses His Vision

SPHEROTHON Centrifuge, 1982

The Centrifuge Brain Project on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w

Then we had some silly art films or something which were pleasant and inconsequential. Certainly a lot of work, but not particularly new or original or ... well anything really except a lot of work. No problem.

The 7th or so project was a very well done shock piece that used photoreal images of people turning into garbage hamburger shit as part of some sort of political statement. I could just see a bunch of trendier than thou assholes in England showing off to their friends how fucking crude they could be.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures.  I do not even remember the title.  I do know that they had some sort of rendition of "God Save The Queen" as soundtrack.

The film show had a warning that the content contained "Adult material". I thought they meant kinky sex, I did not think they meant gratuitous human meat displays.

Whatever, its not what I want to see the technology I helped invent used for.  But, if you want to see this garbage, thats ok with me.   There it is, go for it.  I can always walk out if I don't like it, and I did.

SIGGRAPH 2013 Post Mortem Delay

There will be a delay while I go to Los Angeles and deal with my various doctors.  Sorry about that.  I have about 10 or 20 posts that come from SIGGRAPH, which is too much material, and I want to be at my best when I write this up.

Among other things, we had a very interesting interview with the SIGGRAPH Executive Committee Nominations Committee, a number of very interesting conversations with past and present members of the Executive Committee, and a number of comments about the technical program.  I loved the awards talks, and hope they continue that every year.   I was able to force myself to watch the technical program, and it was very useful to me (the need to be forced has nothing to do with the technical program per se, it has to do with my ability to get up in the morning and go into a dark room at 9 AM).

We had a visitation from Harvie.  No Michael Naimark.  I missed the MIT Reception, unfortunately.  

Of great interest was the realization that Anaheim has a Chinese Islamic district, but that their restaurants were closed for Ramadan.

So this is called a zone plate, eh?  I used to call it a render torture pattern.

There is a tree to the front of the Anaheim Convention Center, in the front right of the Arena as you face the center, that has a history.  I do not know what it is.

To my amazement I was interviewed for the Pioneer's History project of Frank Foster and Joan Collins.  Its a complicated topic and like Rashomon has many points of view of people who were there but saw different things.

I tried to attend the electronic theatre for the first time since 1991, and walked out after the 7th or so film.  I have a problem with splatter movies.  The first film, which you can find below, was very amusing however.

The Centrifuge Research Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w

More in the days to follow.

Special thanks to Tom Duff, Greg Turk, J Walt, Jerry Weil and others for trying to cheer me up.   MK Haley who was chair of SIGGRAPH this year spent many emails being very pleasant to me, and I appreciate that.  Special thanks also to Ken Perlin for financing this escapade indirectly through his project.   

At SIGGRAPH For the Next Week

I will be checking my email now and then, but the best way to reach me is by calling or texting my phone at 323 833 9087.  

Hope to see you there.

Self-Portrait in NYC

My bedroom in NYC. 

Notice the Hudson River outside the window.

I think I look like a cartoon character in this picture.

Richard Yuricich on Event Horizon

Richard Yuricich, ASC is one of my favorite people in the world.   Here he is on the set at Pinewood and in London on the movie Effects Horizon (1997).    As the date back on my little camera says, this must have been 1996.

 

Somehow Richard got me to London to help design "blood in space".  RY is a stickler for detail and he had accumulated zero G fluid photography from the Soviet space program.   We had lunch at the Commissary at Pinewood Studios, where Hitchcock ate every day.  I doubt there has been any production that has treated me with so much courtesy.




Effects Horizon on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/combined