A Scanner Darkly mystery artists
A Scanner Darkly mystery artists
Apr 09So, I’m pretty excited about the new Philip K. Dick-based movie, A Scanner Darkly. It’s hard to say why, other than a) I’m a fan of PKD and b) the art-style looks fantastic. The picture is rotoscoped, which according to a recent article in RES magazine, let them shoot for under 9 million, and still visually achieve some of the crazy effects the story calls for (most notably the scramble suit) – not to mention the effect lends itself to a story centered around a group of drug addicts.
I wrote a whole big, long bit, but you can read that after the jump – right now I want to talk about the trailer and a mystery it contains – well, a mystery to me. And mysteries where there’s an explaination within reach just drive me nuts. I’ve been watching both trailers over and over. I’m too busy to totally obsess, but if I had the time, I would. Actually, after you read this, you may decide that I did obsess, but trust me, I’m fine now.
Something in the trailer caught my eye – in a couple of places, computer displays flash pictures of people being monitored by the police. So I went through it frame by frame and the headshots are, at first, amusing (one guy has a halo and the suggestion of wings) and then interesting – each headshot has slight style variations, which led me to wonder, who are these guys? If I had to guess, they are some of the artists that worked on rotoscoping the movie, perhaps submitting a self-portrait of themselves in the style of the film. I dunno. But the mystery appeals to bugs the hell out of me – it’s the kind of thing I like.
So, perhaps to no purpose, I’ve pulled the headshots out; maybe someone can shed some light. Or maybe it’ll just bug me until the DVD comes out and the mystery is (hopefully) explained.
In the meantime, just posting them will allow me to put the trailer aside for awhile.
I will point out that three were fading in from black, so while they can be suggested more than seen (one dude’s got a short mohawk, I can see that), I include them for completeness. And one dude was from a different shot, same idea.
Other freeze-frame fun;
a) Most text on monitors is the screenplay to Bladerunner.
b) All the addresses are fake, but in Anaheim.
c) Everyone has the same phone number, which is an unused line inside some company phone system.
d) Winona is five-four, but can apparently play five-seven.
I won’t lie to you, I haven’t been too happy with all but one of the PKD adaptations – do people use PKD because they’re afraid to say “dick”? – of all the Dick adaptations, I, as a fan of Dick, can only say I loved Bladerunner, and that’s not what you’d call a faithful translation. I kinda liked Paycheck, but that’s mostly because I got to visit the set, shake John Woo’s hand, and be irrelevant to Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman.
An now, I’m going to wander off on a tangent – studios holding previews for their movies often co-opt various companies to get the preview passes out, like newspapers, radio stations, etc. The companies get to hand the passes out as prizes, or staff, and in return their name is stamped on the oversized ticket. Radio stations love it, typically sending a DJ or two to MC… does that work? Can a DJ MC? Whatever, they dig it.
On rare occasions they jump onto smaller companies that might have some relevence to the movie – like a comic shop. I worked at a comic shop during university and we got tapped as a co-sponsor for Screamers. A Dick movie with Peter Weller in it – make your own joke.
I figured, dammit, they’re using us to promote the movie, we should get some talk-time, not just the radio station – so I convince my boss (Another Dimension Comics, Calgary – ask for George or Penny) that we should demand some time on the em eye see. He says fine, and delegates the job to me. The radio people were surprised by the request, but they said ok, and at the end of their bit, I take the mic and thank the crowd for coming – these were lean times for sci-fi movies and I said as much and how good it was to see a geek crowd.
Small historical fact – in 1995, geeks were not proud. I was proud – I was here, I was queer for Star Wars, get used to it – but they were not. Calling them geeks went over like a rock slide. There were complaints later – people who were regulars at our stores complained to the boss that they were offended. At the time it stung – I don’t particularly like people being unhappy with me. But here’s how I looked at it. We were geeks. And maybe YOU were a self-hating geek, but I wasn’t. I thought we were a group and how often did that group come together to share a geek movie? Not often.
So, eleven years later, those of you who were offended (right, like they’re reading) here’s two secrets – you’re a fucking geek. You were then and you are now. You were standing in a comic shop, complaining to the owner, that some guy offended you at a Dick movie. Geeeeeeeeeek. And you know you complained about the movie afterwards, because it was only average and you’re a geek.
The second secret is that because the movie sucked, George thought the controversy was the best part of the show.
The hell was I talking about?
Oh, right. A Scanner Darkly.
I can’t wait.
