Tag: Sci-Fi

A Behind The Scenes Look At The Clone Wars: The Phantom Apprentice

Carl Setzer

I have really enjoyed the final season of Star Wars: Clone Wars. The animation is amazing, and the stories, well, for me at least, perfect. I’ve reconnected with the characters enough that it’s going to hurt when Order 66 goes down.

Last week’s episode, The Phantom Apprentice, was powerful. Part of that was bringing back Ray Park, who performed Maul in the Phantom Menance, and an exceptional martial artist. The team used motion capture to create this dynamic, engaging piece of film (can I call it film if it’s only digital?).

Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the episode. Well worth watching if you’re fascinated by the production of movies and tv.

Comic Art Inspired by Dune’s “Litany Against Fear”

Carl Setzer1 Comment

Frank Herbert’s “Dune” holds a key spot in my soul. The “Litany Against Fear” that Herbert created spoke power to my soul back as a teen, carrying forth to this day. Gavin Aung Than’s art inspired by the litany holds power, too, speaking to today.

Two Geek Culture Videos I Recommend

Carl Setzer

First, a short film “FTL”. I’ve seen this before, and found it delightful. It showed back up in my YouTube recommendation feed.

Second is the trailer for the new series “Picard”. I’m quite excited to see this concept expanded. I find Picard’s character compelling and interesting. Plus, TNG explored some very rich ideas, challenging ideas about the future, social order, and about how we interact with technology.

My weird brain, sci-fi and technology 

Carl Setzer

​My love of things geek manifests in strange ways at times. A huge fan of Ghost in the Shell, I wonder about Wi-Fi protocols and data throughput when people “think” at each other. 

Or how many servers are on the Death Star? RAID drives? How much email gets sent daily? What kind of data connection is needed for holographic communications? 

What about the Rebel Alliance’s security chief? I’d be wondering, loudly, why you’d throw someone with as much critical detail regarding the Alliance as Leia into operations with a high likelihood of capture and exposure to, um, enhanced techniques. 

Imagining Rebel IT. I’m picturing Hoth. When we see Vader enter the base, all the equipment looks rather operational. I would’ve, at least run some kind of worm that destroys everything. I’d rather pull the hard drives, and bring them with us on the evacuation craft. Or manually destroy them. 

So, that’s how my brain works…at night, when I’m weary. 

“Captain Rex In Return Of The Jedi – Star Wars Explained”

Carl Setzer

I’ve come to love the character Captain Rex from the Star Wars universe. A main character in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, this clone of Jango Fett is a very complex and interesting character.

Anyways, the idea that he survived from the Cline Wars to the end of Return of the Jedi.

 

Star Wars, Geek Culture And Visioning The Future

Carl Setzer

I’ve spent the evening troubleshooting stuff on my son’s computer, and binge watching Star Wars stuff on Youtube. This got me thinking: Star Wars, Star Trek and all such stuff really are envisioning the future. Geeks are all about loving, and creating the futures we envision.

It’s really fascinating to me how these myths play out and inspire us, challenge us towards a tech-centric future. Inspiration, building and growing drive. A critical element for this future building I’m so enthralled with.

With that, here’s the Rogue One trailer. The Star Wars universe is a buzz with speculation building out of this and the reported leaked script for episode 8.  It’s been a delight to play in this space. I adore this stuff deeply. What about you? Let me know.