Slightly OT: Sternbach's Art for Carl Sagan

[Rick Sternbach]

Was that cavernous "bridge" set a real set, or was it chroma key FX like so many others in the COSMOS mini-series?

The bridge was a real set, though it appeared bigger than it really was probably due to the lens used to shoot it. The forward viewscreen was simply a big hole, beyond which was a front projection screen. The projector was mounted on the top of the front section. Carl sometimes stood before a smaller side screen, which I believe was either black or chroma key blue.

Rick

 

[Rick Sternbach]

...how valuable SF can be as an educational tool for science -- something which I wish mass-media SF would catch onto rather than continuing to abuse and misrepresent science.

Yeah, unfortunately, the folks who make crappy SF films need the most education. What they don't seem to get in their little heads is that sure, you can make garbage like Megasharktopussigator and you'll get some kind of audience, but if you make smart, interesting, thought-provoking SF films, you'll also attract an audience, especially if you don't beat them over the head with the science but work it in cleverly (preaching to the choir here, of course). I see better stories in some video games than I do on television or in some theatrical features. Thank goodness we have a boatload of choices; I just don't bother with the crap.

Rick

 

[JES]

...how valuable SF can be as an educational tool for science -- something which I wish mass-media SF would catch onto rather than continuing to abuse and misrepresent science.

Yeah, unfortunately, the folks who make crappy SF films need the most education. What they don't seem to get in their little heads is that sure, you can make garbage like Megasharktopussigator and you'll get some kind of audience, but if you make smart, interesting, thought-provoking SF films, you'll also attract an audience, especially if you don't beat them over the head with the science but work it in cleverly (preaching to the choir here, of course). I see better stories in some video games than I do on television or in some theatrical features. Thank goodness we have a boatload of choices; I just don't bother with the crap.

Rick

Especially the Megasharkipussigator and whatnot. I mean, sometimes I'm like, if your going to make a genetic-experimenting gone wrong flick, focus more on why genetic engineering isn't something that should be played around with, and less on blood and gore. I mean every time I see one of the characters get disemboweled by a simple swipe with the jaw or tail, I just shake my head.

 

[Klaus]

Megasharkipussigator

Word of the year!!!

 

[Rick Sternbach]

Megasharkipussigator

Word of the year!!!

No, no, no...it's Megasharktopussigator. Get you Linaean nomenclature correct. Megasharkipussigator is a completely different genus and doesn't live anywhere near Megasharktopussigator's natural habitat. It's definitely an example of iso-cohesive recombinant devolution where both creatures appeal to the same species of couch-tubers who are missing significant cortical lobes but still manage to subsist on a steady diet of Monster Energy Drink, Axe Body Wash, Burger King, and Jinx protective garments.

Rick

 

[Captain Robert April]

Hence, why they tend to prey on self-centered teenagers.

 

[JES]

Megasharkipussigator

Word of the year!!!

No, no, no...it's Megasharktopussigator. Get you Linaean nomenclature correct. Megasharkipussigator is a completely different genus and doesn't live anywhere near Megasharktopussigator's natural habitat. It's definitely an example of iso-cohesive recombinant devolution where both creatures appeal to the same species of couch-tubers who are missing significant cortical lobes but still manage to subsist on a steady diet of Monster Energy Drink, Axe Body Wash, Burger King, and Jinx protective garments.

Rick

Right, Megasharktopussigator. My apologies.

Then again, there is most certainly nothing natural about them. Their habitat happens to be wherever they genetically constructed and given birth, whether in some cell deep underground in New Mexico, or in the case where they escaped, some remote wilderness, in which case they subsist on whatever has the dubious luck of encountering them. And contrary to common belief, they are more related than you realize.

 

[Wingsley]

I recently got as far as Cosmos episode #8, "Journeys in Space & Time", and episode #9, "The Lives of the Stars". The "ten years after" updates by the older Carl Sagan are really interesting to see on YouTube.

Silly question: will the 1980 Cosmos ever be released on BluRay, or has it been? Or was it shot and laid down as an SD-format show?

 

[spockrocks]

Cosmos came out when I was in high school. I loved it.

 

[Christopher]

Silly question: will the 1980 Cosmos ever be released on BluRay, or has it been? Or was it shot and laid down as an SD-format show?

As I recall, it was shot on film, and in 1980 it would've been edited on film as well, so the bulk of it would be HD already and could easily be remastered. The special effects would be a different matter, depending on the techniques used. I would imagine that most of the astronomical animation was done using conventional film techniques and might grade up fairly well (depending on how many film generations were used), but the Magicam composite shots, using video techniques to superimpose Sagan into miniatures, might look kind of dated.

But I'm sure Rick would know more than I do about how the FX were created.

 

[TIN_MAN]

On a related note. Who would host the show? My vote would be
either Michio Kaku or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

 

[Maurice]

Silly question: will the 1980 Cosmos ever be released on BluRay, or has it been? Or was it shot and laid down as an SD-format show?

As I recall, it was shot on film, and in 1980 it would've been edited on film as well, so the bulk of it would be HD already and could easily be remastered. The special effects would be a different matter, depending on the techniques used. I would imagine that most of the astronomical animation was done using conventional film techniques and might grade up fairly well (depending on how many film generations were used), but the Magicam composite shots, using video techniques to superimpose Sagan into miniatures, might look kind of dated.

But I'm sure Rick would know more than I do about how the FX were created.

I believe anything put together using the Magicam process (such as the library) would have been SD only, if I recall correctly from my studies on the Magicam system (I've been trying to gather enough info to do a thorough Wikipedia entry on it and how it worked).

 

[largo]

On a related note. Who would host the show? My vote would be
either Michio Kaku or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

i think Brian Cox best expresses the sort of wonder and intellect as Carl Sagan.

 

[Christopher]

On a related note. Who would host the show? My vote would be
either Michio Kaku or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

I'm not sure what show you're referring to, but they actually are developing a Cosmos sequel which Tyson has been pegged to host.

 

[dayxday1000]

This from Wikipedia regarding previous updated versions:
Cosmos had long been unavailable after its initial release because of copyright issues with the included music, but was released in 2000 on worldwide NTSC DVD, which includes subtitles in seven languages,remastered 5.1 sound, as well as an alternate music and sound effects track. In 2005, The Science Channel rebroadcast the series for its 25th anniversary with updated computer graphics, film footage, digital sound and updated scientific knowledge that had occurred in the past 25 years. Despite being shown again on the Science Channel, the total amount of time for the original 13 episodes (780 minutes) was reduced 25% to 585 minutes (45 minutes per episode) in order to make room for commercials.
In 2009, Freemantle Media Enterprises released in the UK, a 5-disc DVD set of the original series plus with bonus science updates. The DVD set was digitally restored and remastered. Although a little grainy in places, it is without question, the best reproduction of the original series to date."

I recently enjoyed Brian Greene's 4 part Nova series based on his book called "The Fabric of the Cosmos".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html

Much like Sagan, he is able to convey complex ideas in a way that even someone like me (a math moron) can understand conceptually and I think he makes a very good "heir apparent" to what Sagan did for bringing science to the masses.

 

[Christopher]

This from Wikipedia regarding previous updated versions:
Cosmos had long been unavailable after its initial release because of copyright issues with the included music, but was released in 2000 on worldwide NTSC DVD, which includes subtitles in seven languages,remastered 5.1 sound, as well as an alternate music and sound effects track.

That's surprising. Aside from the Vangelis cues, most of the music in Cosmos was public-domain stuff -- classical music, traditional ethnic music, things like that. Don't tell me they had to dump the Vangelis cues. It wouldn't be Cosmos without them.

Despite being shown again on the Science Channel, the total amount of time for the original 13 episodes (780 minutes) was reduced 25% to 585 minutes (45 minutes per episode) in order to make room for commercials.

That hardly seems fair, cutting its length by fully a quarter. Why not recut it so that it ran for 17 episodes? Then you'd only need to cut 15 minutes in total -- okay, maybe more since you'd need to cut in new titles in each one.

I recently enjoyed Brian Greene's 4 part Nova series based on his book called "The Fabric of the Cosmos".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html

Much like Sagan, he is able to convey complex ideas in a way that even someone like me (a math moron) can understand conceptually and I think he makes a very good "heir apparent" to what Sagan did for bringing science to the masses.

Actually I'm underwhelmed with Greene as a science popularizer. The superficial reason is that he's not as charismatic or pleasant a speaker as Sagan. The deeper reason is that the information he provides in his TV specials often places simplicity or flashiness above scientific accuracy. I found a number of the ideas he conveyed in The Fabric of the Cosmos to be misleading, frivolous, or outright inaccurate. Like when he was talking about a "slice through time" intersecting different parts of the universe and completely ignored lightspeed time lag, assuming a simultaneity across intergalactic distances that simply does not exist. Or when he presented vanishingly improbable fringe concepts -- like quantum teleportation being used on humans or an infinite multiverse allowing duplicate Earths -- as if they were reasonable possibilities. Sagan didn't do that. He presented science in an entertaining way, and he used science fiction conceits like a starship and time travel as rhetorical devices to escort the viewers to the places and times he wanted to talk about, but he didn't embellish the facts, didn't compromise accuracy for the sake of sounding cool.

 

[TIN_MAN]

On a related note. Who would host the show? My vote would be
either Michio Kaku or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

I'm not sure what show you're referring to, but they actually are developing a Cosmos sequel which Tyson has been pegged to host.

Well, considering that the discussion had meandered into the possibility of a new Cosmos series, I thought the show I was referring to was obvious? I Guess not.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, it wasn't clear because, as I said, Tyson has already been chosen as the host of the Cosmos sequel.

 

[TIN_MAN]

Well, obviously, I did not know that things had gotten that far concerning the new cosmos show, nothing in the thread so far indicated that it had. But still, it should have been obvious what I was referring to.

 

[Christopher]

^I don't know why you're making such an issue of this. I thought that might be what you were referring to, but I couldn't be certain. Better to ask and find out for sure than to make assumptions.