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The Art Of The Matrix
When we think of sci-fi films and the people who make them, we usually think of actors, directors, screenwriters and visual effects TDs. We rarely think of production artists, concept artists and storyboarders. But modern sci-fi films owe a lot to these people: Tight visual effects budgets (no matter how high, they're always tight) and armies of people who need to be organised mean that the planning must be meticulous, right down to the last detail.
Maurice Zuberano, production illustrator and art director for such films as Dick Tracy, has called the storyboard the "diary of the film." It's the private record of the visualisation process, and one of the reasons why you generally won't find them intact after the film is completed. Steven D. Katz, in his classic textbook on film direction, even suggested the storyboard is often "the evidence that the look of the film was the work of someone other than the director."
The storyboards and concept art for The Matrix needed to see the light of day, and only by flicking through this book can you fully appreciate why. The first and largest section of this book contains the boards and concept art for most of the key scenes in the film. The black and white boards by Steve Skroce read like a comic book without the words (Skroce used to be a comic illustrator for Marvel and the brothers Wachowski used to be writers) and truly stand out on their own. The colour boards by Tani Kunitake and Collin Grant cover several of the key sequences (the initial Layafette scenes, the Power Plant, the History Program and the final Sentinel Attack). The artwork is interspersed with comments by the artists on specific characters' shots, how they were developed (usually with the Wachowskis getting them to tweak and re-tweak until it was exactly what they had in mind) and differences between what was boarded and what was finally shot, which serious fans will certainly appreciate.
As an example, from the Government Lobby scene, Skroce notes:
Trinity was always a PVC chick. In the storyboards, Neo was a bit more army fatigues; he's definitely got more fashion sense in the film, looks cooler. The trench coats and sunglasses were always Larry and Andy's idea. Especially in this scene, the glasses were there to look cool, but also as a safety consideration for the actors in the midst of all this debris. (p 142)
After the boards are some of the conceptual designs by Geof Darrow. Most of the pages are fold-out, in order to give you a better idea of the detail of these images. Darrow also supplied comments on how the sets developed since these initial drawings. A special bonus is a mech-like battle suit which didn't make it into the first film, but may turn up in one of the sequels.
Following the concept art is the shooting script, as written by Larry & Andy Wachowski. It's not exactly what was in the theatrical release (some parts were changed during the ADR and editing phases). If you're used to reading screenplays, you know how dry they often are. Not this one. The Wachowskis know how to paint a picture with just a few well-chosen words, the sort of prose that you would normally find in a well-crafted novel. To give you a taste, here's an excerpt from scene 30, when Neo is released from the power plant:
He is standing in an oval capsule of clear alloy filled with red gelatin, the surface of which has solidified like curdled milk. The IVs in his arms are plugged into outlets that appear to be grafted to his flesh.
He feels the weight of another cable and reaches to the back of his head where he finds an enormous coaxial plugged and locked into the base of his skull. He tries to pull it out but it would be easier to pull off a finger.
To either side he sees the other tube-shaped pods filled with red gelatin; beneath the wax-like surface, pale and motionless, he sees other human beings.
Fanning out in a circle, there are more. All connected to a center core, each capsule like a red, dimly glowing petal attached to a black metal stem.
Above him, level after level, the stem rises seemingly forever. He moves to the foot of the capsule and looks out. The image assaults his mind.
Towers of glowing petals spiral up to incomprehensible heights, disappearing down into a dim murk like an underwater abyss.
(pp 304-5)
Included after the screenplay are notes on production by Phil Oosterhouse (assistant to the directors) and some parts cut from the script during pre-production, in both screenplay and storyboard form. The notes provide some great anecdotes from filming. As for the cut scenes, there are some extremely interesting ideas in there, which I won't spoil for you. You'll just have to look for yourself.
Finally, there are some miscellaneous bits and pieces to fill up the end of the book. The full credits, the acceptance speeches from the 2000 Academy Awards(R), key art (including theatrical posters) and stills from the film interspersed with the corresponding boards to show how faithfully the film emulated their comic book style.
This book is a must for any serious Matrix fan, and extremely valuable for those interested in how movies get their look. You won't find anything else quite like it, and it will remain a treasured addition to your coffee table for decades to come.
My one quibble is that I would have preferred to have the complete storyboards so I could enjoy The Matrix as a comic book, rather than just having the key scenes. However, I understand why they did it this way. Storyboards of long conversations without the dialogue written in probably aren't very interesting to look at.
I'll leave the final word to William Gibson, who writes in the the afterward:
Keanu's Neo is my favorite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely.
You can purchase this book at ThinkGeek.
The thing about this is that ignorance is bliss. Do we really want the unwashed masses, the moronic corporate drones and idiotic menial workers, to be introduced to these issues? Our entire society depends upon everyone being dead and asleep, unaware of wider issues while those of us who are curious and alive to the world can run things and dictate reality for everyone else.
So, it is irresponsible to wake these people up in this way. We should be confirming their prejudices, and making them believe that their narrow viewpoints and limited shortsighted worldviews are correct.
We should give them bread and circusses, not wake them up to the truth like this. Where ignoarance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, and it is better for the masses if they exist in joyful prejudiced ignoarance. I think that the matrix should never have been released for this reason.
- A.P.
--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
We rarely think of production artists, concept artists and storyboarders.
Sure we do. We don't have a choice any more. Once upon a time you could watch a movie, and then watch it again six months later on video if it was any good. These days, you have to watch the 'making of' on television, an ad masquerading as a documentary before the film's released. Then you read the shitty novelisation[0]. Then you watch the movie. Then you buy the action figures. Then you get the limited edition storyboards, featuring unused concepts!
I flicked through this book; I'm a fan both of the film and of Geoff Darrow (anyone not read Hard Boiled, written by Frank Miller? Sheer excellence), but I have no desire to spend money on a book I'd flick through once.
Sorry to go off like that. Backroom boys do deserve some credit, and books like this are a way of giving them that credit. But that's only a secondary objective. Ever since the Star Trek Blueprints to a Ship that Appeared in an Episode Once Volume VII, these sorts of items have been used as another item of merchandise, instead of supplementary material on the DVD.
[0]Unless the film is the Abyss, and the novelistion is by Orson Scott Card, of course.
Also, read "By his bootstraps" the Heinlein short about the time travelling hermaphrodite who's his/her own parents. Takes solipsism to the extreme.
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Needless to say, popularizing SF and exposing it to the masses would never do
This has already happened, to an extent. Most of the prime time shows on the Sci-fi channel are nothing more than soap operas with aliens. I can divide my friends and co-workers into 2 camps: those who watch 'Sex and the City' and those who watch 'Farscape'. True mind-expanding sci-fi, though, which I guess Matrix would have to fall under, is scarce - but how many people who saw it enjoyed it on that philosophical level? "Carrie is hot!!!" Duh. You can popularize sci-fi all you want, but you can't ever make people get it. Simply exposing people to brilliance doesn't make them enlightened. You have nothing to worry about, geeky sweetie: I think most folks would take the blue pill.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
[joke begins]A professor is teaching a philosophy course, and he explains to his class solopism, the theroy that reality is a creation in ones mind. After the lecture, several students rush up and introduce themselves to the professor and explain that the theroy was really intune with how they felt and its really opened their minds and they just wanted to tell him in person how the felt about his lecture ... to this the professor replies "Thats wonderfull, so rarely does one solipsist meet another."
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Where you said that you have seen all the special effects before, you really showed your ignorance. If you cannot differentiate between the special effects in HK action flicks that preceded the Matrix, and the Matrix, you don't know what to look for.
You claim to have some philosophy education. Well, I do to. That is my primary field of study. What exactly is it that reeks of beginner philosophy? Obviously, the whole movie is a variation on the "Brain in a Vat" hypothesis, which is really just a rehash of Descartes "Deceptive Demon". That is an example used to explain why skeptics are skeptics. If you can give a good explanation as to why that hypothesis is not a good one, please let me know, because I know a lot of philosophical skeptics who would really like to hear it.
The movie is an action flick with Science Fiction as its plot generator. That is it. It is a relatively simple idea (hence the broad appeal) that was implemented well, and made to be entertaining.
To answer your primary question, I think most people were excited about the idea of an interesting story, acted out by quite a few fresh faces, with never-before-seen special effects.
Finally, I must say that a story doesn't have to be philosophically deep to be meaningful. The American Revolution was about not wanting to pay taxes on paper and tea, among other things of that sort, and the Cuban Missile Crisis was about not wanting big freaking missiles pointed at us. These are not particulary deep (read "convoluted") stories, but they are important issues. They were to the people at the time, and they are today. Take that into consideration the next time you criticize something because you aren't the only one who can understand it.
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For those of you who haven't seen it ... you can check out very cool storyboards and conceptual art hosted here at the Matrix Website.
And if thats not enough you can get your arses over to the Hack The Matrix website and enter "Darrow" or "Skroce" as the codes to see some more amazing art.
Some of the strips even show Neo in army fatigues that some of you are talking about. The comic Neo character is WAY cooler than Keanu. I am just waiting eagerly for Matrix-II.
SPOILER: can you spell v-i-r-u-s!
...used to make Keanu seem like an emotionless "dude-bot," rather than his typical Shakespearean self. Very believable.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
into a literary ghetto populated by geeks, loners and weirdos. So that all these strange, revolutionary ideas will be disregarded by the masses.
Science fiction is by its very nature, a revolutionary, subservice literature, so it must be shunted aside by the man into a secluded ghetto. Sometime this works to well, as science fiction is one genre of literature that proliferated in the Soviet Union, and was even given it's blessing by the Politburo. True, most of it was rah-rah first Soviet on the moon,but quite a lot of subversive anti-Soviet literature became published, if you doubt me, check out Lem's Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.
The last time SF attempted to get itself out of the ghetto was during the New Wave movement of the '70's, led by Ellison, Dick and Pynchon. Needless to say, popularizing SF and exposing it to the masses would never do, also, raising the consciousness of the geeky SF readers by exposing them to drugs, sex and politics would also upset the status quo of the miliary-industrial complex. SO the military-industrail complex reacted, making REndevsous with Rama beat Gravity's Rainbow for the NEbula in 1973, funding Niven and Pournelle to write right-wing spacve opera, and generally silencing the left wing New WAve movement. Have we heard anything much from Delany, Dick, Pynchon or Ellison since?