Television: May 2005 Archives
Yesterday I received the first of many screeners from the Academy.
The one I received was from HBO. It was a very elegantly prepared box which contained a large number of HBO's miniseries, series, specials, and movies from the past year. I haven't even jumped into seeing what's actually in the box itself, but there must be 40 DVDs in it!
Earlier in the week I received a small set of DVDs from the Sci-Fi channel. It seems they've cut down on their budgeting for sending out screeners, because this year they only sent two DVDs, one of their miniseries, Legend of Earthsea, which was nominated for a VES award, and a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the other. Last year they send out four DVDs in some really nice packaging, and the year before that they send four as well, in a huge sphere which mimicked the Sci-Fi logo. It was very cool. I think I'll have to start taking pictures of these submissions to share!
The bulk of all these DVDs will probably come during the summer, and I'll be voting in three categories down the line for the Emmy Awards; my peer group category, Title Design and Special Visual Effects, and then two other categories of my choosing.
I have high hopes for the future of visual effects in TV, simply because while the budget is usually not the same as a film project, there is just as much creativity and dedication with the artists that create those TV effects. Now that HD is becoming more and more prevalent in todays shows, the resolution is approaching that of film, and the effects are getting more and more elaborate. One can only imagine a fully computer generated character such as Gollum in a weekly series!
I saw the pilot/season premiere on DVD last night, and it looks promising.
Even though I'm a couple years behind the curve, the upcoming movie Serenity is supposedly based in this world. I thought I'd catch up and see what I've missed before I see the movie, and I've heard good things about the cancelled series.
Joss Whedon, the writer and director, has created a sci-fi world loosely based, it seems, on the anime Cowboy Bebop, which focuses on bounty hunters in space. The characters, so far, have been fairly well established in the first 90 minute premiere, and the atmosphere of the series has been set. Similar to the new Battlestar Galactica, the zooms and views of ships in space are similar, which leads me to wonder if the crew on Battlestar saw Firefly as an inspiration to create a decrepid, dank world of future spaceships that feel used, unlike the sterile ships of the Trek series.
The visual effects of the show are pretty good. Not garish in any way, and the ships and environments have been appropriately weathered from age and flight. I look forward to seeing how the series progresses. It's a shame that FOX likes to cancel decent shows, and keep crap on the air.
