Slashdot Mirror
Qatsi Trilogy to be Completed
Karl_Hungus writes "Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, the first two installments of Reggio and Glass' trilogy are to be joined by Naqoyqatsi, due out next month. Naqoy.com has some stills, and some fascinating Flash. A brief discussion of the technical side includes the figure of 3.5 terabytes of images collected in the making of the film."
I always wanted a D26 to generate random names.
I'd like to buy a vowel...
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
...they'll have anything of the Twin Towers in the film?
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
Is anyone else very confused?
That being said, it's not traditional geek material, but it's fascinating and wonderful
I made a post, no matter how sophmoric on my SITE about this film. The originals in the trilogy are absolutely stunning and breathtaking. With the inclusion of digital technology and even simple "conventional" improvments in film technology, this part definately shapes up to be the best.
:).
If you haven't seen these movies before go see them at your rep theatre. Simply the most brilliant use of image and film I've ever seen. Esp, Koyaanisqatsi.
Umm, and apparently they are really good if you smoke green stuff. Not that I'd know anything about that
Btw, Incase you haven't heard Philip Glass is preforming in a town near you. Doing either live accompaniment to the Trilogy or new work to shorts by Godfrey Reggio (the director) and Atom Egoyan.
Go see it.
I don't know how many of you have actually seen any of these films, but in my opinion, the first film Koyaanisqatsi is one of the finest films ever made. It has no plot, no dialogue, simply 90 minutes of footage set to a brilliant score by Philip Glass. They finally released the first two films in the series on DVD September th 29th, and you'd better believe I had them preordered weeks in advance. I highly reccomend that anyone who has not already seen them do so, but be sure you have time to devote to REALLY watching them, trust me, it is worth it.
Ok..maybe I'm not as big of a geek as I thought - but what the hell is this item talking about? Quatsiwhatsi? What is this? What's going on?
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
It is clear from his comments and style of filmmaking that Reggio is not the least bit interested in exploring why people might find technology FASCINATING. Nor does he pay the scantest attention to how many people are selflessly working to use technology to PRESERVE the environment he so clearly reveres, and HELP the indigenous humyns he empathizes with.
Instead, Reggio uses his considerable talents, budget, and technology to develop one-sided propaganda that belittles ordinary consumers (so inferior to big important filmmakers and composers!) and preaches to the choir.
Seriously, I generally try not to complain about the topics they post on, but what the fuck is this crap?
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
With imagery like that (which looks more like a crazy montage of everything at deviantart.com), they ought to have Aphex Twin or Autechre do the music. If it's just Philip Glass alone with his orchestra, that will seem out of place..
last I heard, the films were going through some sort of legal wranglings over ownership and money, that meant that dvds of the first two might never be released.
They are two of the greatest films in the history of cinema, IMHO, and the news of the release of a new film, and the dvds, has made my day.
Hurray for CowboyNeal.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Knock knock.
Who's there, dammit?
Knock knock.
Who the hell is it?
Philip Glass.
> Is anyone else very confused?
Yeah, probably the FBI agents assigned to monitor Slashdot. I can see them frantically flipping through their printous of the Jargon File even as we speak.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It may not have been their choice to film at 30fps; they may have chosen to use digital video cameras that were fixed at that rate. In any case, it will be interesting to see if the DVD release uses the 30fps source or the 24fps source...
thats exactly what i was thinkin
wtf is this?
Looks like somebody learned how to run a negative image filter on war footage, IT'S ART!
In my opinion, everyone should watch this movie once a year. It really puts things in perspective. And besides that, the visual and audio artistry are incredible, although Philip Glass isn't everyone's cup of tea.
Koyaanisqatsi is partly about the modern lifestyle, but in the more general sense, it is about humanity itself. It takes the us out of our routine life, up into a wider viewpoint, where individuality loses its meaning and we can see our lives as closer to what they are. Individual movements blend grossly to show the patterns of life. We are not unique. We follow the same routine. We swarm.
There are great visual ironies to the film. After showing clips of people rushing around like mad, it shows a person playing Robotron like mad. After showing a bird's eye view of a city, it shows a circuit board.
Some say that this movie is an environmentalist, or leftist in some way. I think the movie trancends political viewpoints. Watch it once a year to get back your sense of scale. We are statistics.
From just this sentence, it sounds a lot like Baraka (1992), another 'movie'/feature/whatever, that was basically just a bunch of beautiful and mesmerising pieces of footage placed together. No real story, just footage of beautiful places around the world. I would recommend renting the Baraka DVD if you're ever bored one night.
Baraka also had a wonderful score/sound production. I'd be sure that the Qatsi Trilogy will too.
The Naqoyqatsi concept almost beat my utterly amazing imaginary data transfer wireless data transfer method ;) -a groundbreaking innovation. It consists of maxicode encoding data and displaying them as a stream on your display and to be captured by a digital camera to achieve a amazing bitrate of 32000 bps. The results after watching the maxicode show is probably very close to what you get by watching this movie.
I linked to the forum to check out the flash.
I decided to create a profile, and was surprised that it requires you to print out a 2 page legal waiver {PDF ALERT} and fax it to them before you can participate in the forum.
Since the film is being released by Miramax, the release gives them permission to own in perpetuity throughout the universe anything that you contribute.
Now that I have posted...I will check out that flash...
________________
All my sig are fjdklafjkldafjkldafdaklf
"A great movie. It was incredibly brought about with the scenic views and such an interesting plot. It was a long 87 minutes. It was very waffling and it got me standing up in my seats. I am a very heavy man and I love to watch movies. Of the many movies I've seen this ranks among the top ten. A wonderful story, rent it and enjoy."
Apparently this film is very waffling, especially among very heavy men who like to watch movies.
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
Count me in. :-)
Qa... wha?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
> although Philip Glass isn't everyone's cup of tea.
Yeah, some pundit once described modern composer John Cage as "a Philip Glass with brains". I think that's way too harsh, though admittedly my response to Glass varies from piece to piece. Some don't interest me, and some are tasty but don't wear too well, but a few are f*king incredible.
To wit, IMO one of the best legal highs you can get is to listen to Glass's Akhnaten while lying on the floor in a pitch black room with the speakers suitably arranged.
YMMV, of course. If you're fond of boy bands, this definitely won't be for you. It's an opera, but not of the "fat lady" type your local classical station plays on Saturday afternoons. The lead role is, in fact, sung by a male soprano. The structure, orchestration, and vocals are austere by traditional operatic standards, more like the Who's Tommy than something by Mozart or Rossini. Most of the libretto is taken from ancient Egyptian texts, though one song is in Hebrew - presumably a nod to Freud's famous theory. (I rather suspect that there are several subtexts to this piece.)
If anyone does decide to give this a try, get the CBS Masterworks edition, use a changer (yuck) so you won't have to get up just when you get into the groove, and set the volume so that the opening bars are rather quiet, so you won't blow your eardrums together later.
It's not perfect; in fact I would probably have cut out one scene both for the length and the redundancy, but for most Slashdotters it is probably unlike anything you've ever heard, and the atmosphere is so rich you can get lost in it.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I remember when Philip Glass and his Minimilism
was the rage. Frank Zappa stepped forward and called it what it was: music for and by academia wankers. Glass' overrated sound track was amusing for K-tki but was absolute boring terror for P-tki. I haven't checked the site, but hopefully Telepopmusic or Fatboy Slim, Gus Gus even, or Beck, hell I'll even take N'Sync and Brittany Spears, just please don't bring back Philip Glass.
Anybody know where that's from? It may not be as great as I recall it, but it's been bugging me for a long time trying to recall where I heard it. And yeah - I like classical music, baroque mostly. I even like a chunk of modern classical. I don't particularly go in for Philip Glass, however.
--
Evan (no SF reference)
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
In 1500, Europe was a shithole. It would still be a shithole today if Europeans didn't colonize the rest of the world, steal the resources, and bring the resources back to Europe.
And they used these stolen resources to get a lot of people hooked on all kinds of luxuries and a higher standard of living. They used the stolen resources and slavery to create a middle class where before there was only a small high class and the rest of the population were extremely poor.
Lots of poor people are not consumers. A small number of very rich people are not consumers either. Only the middle class make effective consumers and made it possible to bootstrap an industrial revolution.
Without the fruits of this industrial revolution the countries robbed by colonization could not have fed their exponentially growing populations so in a way they are getting some compensation for the cruelty and injustice inflicted upon them by colonization.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
I submitted this story about a month ago and of course it got rejected. Now it gets accepted and it lacks all of the *good* information, such as the fact that a Quicktime trailer has been out for over a month now for Naqoyqatsi.
:) If you buy the Baraka DVD, try to find the original DVD edition (not the special collector's edition), I've heard lots of complaints that the film->DVD transfer is better in the original DVD.
The first two (Koyanisqatsi and Powaqatsi) have just been mass released on DVD, in advance of the upcoming theater release of Naqoyqatsi (these words are roughly taken from the Hopi language).
Godfrey Reggio is an interesting chap -- he grew up in a monastery and when he left, he turned to film. Probably the best thing he ever did was to find Ron Fricke, who is the directory of photography for all 3 qatsi movies. Ron Fricke put out his own film, Baraka -- the quality of the photography in Baraka is WAY better than in the qatsi movies (because it was filmed 70mm camera rigs of Fricke's own design instead of the 35mm that was available for the qatsi movies), and Baraka takes a less moralizing approach to the imagery. Not to mention Baraka's music is better -- Philip Glass is OK, but the qatsi movies aren't his best work.
And to the slashdot editors -- I know this might get modded down as offtopic, but do a better job. Why not look back through your old rejected stories when you're about to post a "new" (shitty) one?
"one-sided propaganda"? What, as opposed to "fair and balanced propaganda"? [chuckle]
He has a point of view, and he expresses it. This isn't journalism, where balance is a virtue. It's art, where depth of feeling is a virtue. They are very moving works; it's unlikely a viewer will walk away indifferent to the experience. Angry perhaps, but not indifferent.
If you don't like his message about the dangers of technology, perhaps you should see a movie where technology is heroic? How about The Matrix? Oh... wait, no, that's not going to work. Terminator? No, that's no better... Dr. Strangelove? Missed again. Logan's Run? Tron? Gattaca? Minority Report? 2001? Blade Runner? Akira?
Perhaps Mr. Reggio isn't alone in his view?
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Cheesh,
Finally an interesting post on Slashdot, first in a long time, and this is what happens...
I know you all want your dose of M$ did this today, they are bad boo hooo... but come on, this little website here is supposed to open doors to new things to al of you jaded hax00rs (and overload servers while it's at it), now that something comes up, all of you are acting like little kids, making fun of the new kid in school because you don't know him (or her your choise). I understand that some of you don't go for this 'artsy fartsy' stuff, but some slashdotters do.
Just because in your head your're thinking Nago... naqo.. what a funny name... doesn't mean you have to post. Please, there's enough garbage in this world, I expect slashdot to be a little better.
That's it for my rant, mod me to hell.
Total coincidence: I was listening to Powaqqatsi as I read the slashdot story, in the middle of an XSLT/XML debugging session. Not only is this an excellent record, but it is very well suited to software development work!
BTW I never saw the movie...
Any suggestion on where to buy the K/P 2-DVD set for
region 2? I've checked amazon, but only the US one
carries it, and it's region 1. (For Baraka you can find the region 2 on the french site).
Thanks in advance guys!
DeeK
Not that it will make a big difference to the viewer? Why is it interesting to see which choice they make?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I watched Powaqatsi a while back, completely straight. It had a big impact on me, I have no idea what the film was trying to potray and don't care, what struck me was the contrast betwean first and third world (especialy being in the eighties). It ledt me with the feeling that modernization/industrialization or whatever drives it is like a parasite on our subconcious.
:
I feel like a crack whore wokring in technology - love it, can't get out. OK, maybe just a karma whore
i'm going to be seeing koyaanisqatsi oct 13 in san francisco with the philip glass ensemble orchestra playing the score of the film live. apparently they're doing a tour, coming to about a dozen cities in america in october in conjunction with the release of the 3rd of the trilogy. tour dates/locations can be found here:
http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/events/events.php
there's other info on koyaanisqatsi.org, as well.
Long ago, when studying film scoring as part of my degree towards music, our final project for the course was to write music for a portion of Koyaanisqatsi.
I had to write music for the very end, when the rocket goes into the air, and explodes, falling, before an image of a native American work of art fades into view (then the credits).
Thinking about the film's point, I thought I'd write some of the most contrived music I could imagine for the rocket scene. To that end, I serialized the '90210' zip code (in not-so-fond memory of the soap-opera bearing that name) into musical notes, using that sequence to guide everything, from the rhythms, harmonies, and melodies of the poor score. It had precisely the effect I wanted. A work of music utterly devoid of soul.
It's amusing to me, now, to learn that Philip Glass rejected serialism when he was only 19 years old. I knew what I was doing to the movie was dirty, but I had no idea of the full depths I had sunk.
And so it goes.
I saw this in Cleveland last October, and it was truly worth the while going out there from Pittsburgh. They are coming to Pittsburgh this year, and I'm planning on going to the 'shorts' show.
Lowmag.net
Next year, January 11th or so. Find information (and book tickets) at the Barbican Centre. It's being performed in the Barbican Hall and Philip Glass will be there.
Tickets are £20 for the best seats, £10 for the.. 'worst'.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Reading this info about Naqoyqatsi, it seems like it's like DJ Shadow. The filmmakers have taken 'samples' of other videos and remixed them into something new and cool.
The first two films were not like this, but I look forward to this one anyway.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Really? I thought that 24fps was cinema speed (film) and 25fps (50 interleaved) was for NTSC video.
That was what this thread was about, but apparantly your short attention span meant that you'd missed that ... the same way you miss the point of "artsy" stuff.
... I'll watch sports and comedy and current events too, and I'll go out and do things also, "artsy" is just like the chocolate sprinkled on a cappuchino (grin!) fine for those that like it, but not necessary for those who like their coffee strong and black.
You are fine the way you are, and if you're enjoying life then that's wonderful.
I hate self-indulgent "artsy" crap, but I do like stuff that makes me wonder or dream and the Qatsi films have done this for me. Beautiful scenery, wonderful camera work and a soundtrack to relax into (almost "trance"). You might find it soporific and boring, that's certainly a valid viewpoint. I found it uplifting and intriguing.
I happen to like good design (in pens, cars, computers etc.) which all come from the "artsy" side of things. You don't have to like them, ok?
I like to listen to music, which isn't productive or useful. I like to watch a nice sunset, also not productive or useful. I like to drive to places, look at them, and come home again (not productive or useful). I like to watch sitcoms on TV (certainly not productive or useful!) Life, for me, is a balance between what must be done to survive (e.g. a job to earn money), and those bits that I do to enjoy my life that cost money/time but give me enjoyment.
"A moving picture version of a national geographic magazine". Oh, you didn't get the point then? Never mind, you probably wouldn't have enjoyed any of the rest of the film and it would have been a waste of your time. I'm sure you spent those 90 minutes more productively and usefully (feeding the hungry? housing the homeless? ending crime? All those are certainly better things to do with that time than watching a film you don't enjoy)
Have a wondeful life (really!) but don't be too hard on those of us that happen to occasionally enjoy something "artsy"
There are better descriptions scattered below between the flame bait and other comments.
... like all the cars zooming along the streets of New York at night, stopping and going at bank after bank of traffic lights)
The first film (Koyaanisqatsi) came out when I was at college and was recommended as a film to watch while stoned. I don't/didn't do drugs so I went and saw it straight and still enjoyed it very much.
It's basically beautiful cinematography using speeded up and slowed down footage of things like the moon rising behind office blocks, clouds shooting across the sky, thousands of people zooming up and down escalators etc. intercut to show the beauty and balance in nature and the "out of balance" city life (but even the city footage is glorious and has been used in so very very many ads since
And with almost hypnotic music by Philip Glass.
If you like that sort of thing, then this is the among the best examples. If you don't, then don't watch it. Some people like this stuff, some like slasher films, so go to see the next Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler movie, everyone is different.
But it's not SciFi, Anime or anything like that, so I'm not sure why it is Slash-dot. Except that the strong rhythmic patterns in the music and the camera trickery is the sort of stuff that a lot of us nerds happen to enjoy!
As busy as he was then, he has stayed among the most prolific composers of his generation. He has produced rock albums (mmmm, "Polygon" I think the group was, short-lived early 80's "math-rock" new wave-ish), as well as scores from operas and operettas (he did a wild and disturbing version of Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" which does not seem to get produced much for some reason) down to solo piano pieces. I have seen him on tour, even, at local small colleges, playing some of his piano stuff. The general public tendency is not to think of composers as "working their asses off," but Glass does, still to this day.
All that said, his score for Powaqaatsi was dreadful IMO, but the Kowyaanasqatsi CD has travelled with me from work, car, home since it was first released. It is brilliant, in every sense of the word.
If any of this has made you think twice (or even for the first time) about checking Glass' stuff out, and you're looking for an accessible place to start, I can heartily recommend The Photographer, a "music-theater" piece he did about the life of Edward Muybridge, the photographer whose pictures of horses in motion first clued us in that there are times when the beasts' feet aren't all on the ground (Glass has a knack for selecting bizarre and -- dare I say it? -- geeky topics).
If you're looking for early and "seminal," and/or want to get out of the lease on your apartment, go with "North Star."
Hmm, I seemed to have screwed up the link to the CD on Amazon. Here's the cut and paste version:
Q H/ qid%3D1033126360/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-0 475882-2078215
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000025
The theft from the colonies line is Marxist rubbish.
The simple proof is that European economies picked up once they got rid of their colonies. More money was spent on colonies than was generated from them. Armies, navies, administration (including education and health care), all cost a lot of money that the colonies didn't return. The economies of Europe used the raw materials from the colonies but the real wealth was generated in Europe. Wealth is built through processing of materials, not their gathering. For instance the Netherlands were a greater source of income for the Spanish Empire than the gold mines of South America. The British Empire became noticeably richer after the burden of the American colonies was removed (the British attempts to tax the colonists were motivated by a wish to cover the costs of protecting and administering the colonists, not to buy King George a new palace). Etc.
European wealth wasn't built on theft but on trade and production. Europe isn't rich because it stole but because it worked innovatively. Thieving empires (Spain after it destroyed its economy supporting its warfare and colonies, the USSR, late imperial China, Rome after 100AD) collapse as external theft is never as good a source of wealth as internal generation.
The developed world is not rich because the rest of the world is poor. Its rich because it started using better methods to produce, manufacture and trade earlier.
at our annual non-denominational pan-conreatational winter solstice festival on December 22nd! As long as it doesn't have any specific references to the symbols/ideas of any one religion...
[basso rumble]"Happy happy happy...everyone is happy"...
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
oops ... left off a " ... here's the link
In my opinion, everyone should watch this movie once a year. It really puts things in perspective.
Like...Wow, you don't have to have talent to score a movie? That kind of perspective?
Granted, I think Glass is an idiot generally, mainly because he practices "Emperor's Clothes" minimalism, where "you know, if I make some pretty sounds and repeat them endlessly rather than actually working to craft something and claim it's part of an intellectual tradition instead of Backstreet Boys for yuppies, Profit!!!!" Steve Reich also took an experiment that should have remained a grad school exercize to influence later, real music to ridiculous extremes--but he's far less pretentious and actually has talent. (Good minimalism is practiced by John Adams.)
Case in point: there's a big sweep up a cliff that then breaks out over the water of a lake. Now basic timing of music to movie isn't hard (I've done it by hand, and accuracy within a 3rd of a second is pretty easy), and Glass's mind-numbing 1-5-1 theme keeps repeating as you sweep up this cliff. It's SUPPOSED to burst into a moment of actual chords when you break out over the water. And it does--about two seconds previous. It doesn't sound like much, but I was watching and thinking "uh, ok, what am I supposed to see?" Then two beats later, the water appeared. It wasn't an error of tracking the two together, it was Glass's error.
The images are nicely done in a technical sense, but the "irony" they project is not even close to new, either in technique or style. It was kind of hackneyed five minutes after Metropolis was released.
Someone else mentioned this movie was best enjoyed with chemical alteration of your bloodstream. I couldn't agree more. In another context, though, it's called "beer-goggling."
25 is PAL, 29.97 is NTSC.
I am not Herbert.
The film was shot on 35mm with a flat, 4:3 aspect ratio. Widescreen movies shot on 35mm film use special optics to horizontally squeeze a wide image onto the narrower film during shooting, and more special optics to unsqueeze the image during projection. To get an undistorted image on a TV screen (also 4:3), the wide image is either cropped horizontally (pan & scan) or letterboxed.
But with Koyaanisqatsi, no special optics were used; the original film is 4:3. This is how the movie is presented on the $180 special edition DVD. To give the appearance of a more artsy film, the regular DVD was released in a widescreen ratio, by cropping the top and bottom. You get less of the original picture, not more! Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I suppose this just sets them up to release another version later, with both "widescreen" and full-screen versions. I'd really like to see a running commentary as well, but for now, the 20-minute interview with Reggio is good.
*** Work like a king, command like a slave, create like a dog.
Or rather, it's interesting for about 10 minutes, and then it's repetitious, and then it's tedious, and then it's just pedantic.
It's a SPECIAL EFFECT. It's a whole movie about ONE SPECIAL EFFECT.
Don't get me wrong, when it was made the imagery was fairly ground-breaking, so it's got artistic significance. On the other hand, you can see the same thing in beer commercials now.
It's like the musical Tomfoolery: any given five minutes of it would be fine, but sitting through all of it becomes very tedious. (IMHO the book Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer is a perfect example of something that has its true name.) Why? Because it's just more and more of the same, and it GETS OLD. There is no plot or characterization to carry the movie along.
So, if you want to watch it, watch it on TV sometime, maybe it'll crop up on the Independant Film Channel or something.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
[To view Region 1 DVDs in Region 2,] Modify / flash your player.
This may not be legal in the UK, which adopted a circumvention ban (UK copyright law section 296) in 1988, ten years before the US Congress voice-voted the DMCA.
Do electronics shops in the UK modify DVD players to be region-switchable under the table?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I can't believe you didn't mention the people-coming-off-of-escalators/hotdogs-in-factory transition. Especially because the viewer gets fairly well slapped with it, several times, for good measure.
Yeah, it's the kind of item that if I had moderator points right now I'd want to give them to the submitter, or maybe to the guy who submitted three weeks ago, or even to Cowboy Neal for letting it through. Hey maybe I should just vote for him in more polls.
... fortunately given how history turned a not quite successful day ... I watched K & P back to back in a local art/nostalgia theatre, since sadly departed.
Not needing chemicals to get into trouble, my heaviest dose of K & P came at the end of a long winter's day outside municipal polling booths
Right now I have a problem with my P CD which unfortunately diappeared into an unnoticed slit between my car CD player and a defunct tape player when I was trying to put it in the CD slot during a recent interstate drive, but that isn't stopping me listening to it on iTunes as I type.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
is awesome. You have to check it out. http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/naqoyqatsi/.
You won't find these at your usual video store. I've only seen the first one. It is an "experience", but not your traditional "movie".
***General Consultant to the Human Race*** My opinions are free. You get what you pay for.
PDQ Bach (aka Peter Schickele) also did a spoof called 'Prelude to "Einstein on the Fritz"'. It's found on his "1712 Overture" album.
I actually find Einstein to be good music to program to. Does a good job of masking people talking in the background and seems to help me keep up a good pace.
I was just over at Netflix last month, to see whether they had Koyaanisqatsi for rent. Their little recommendation thing said:
"If you like Koyaanisqatsi, we think you may also enjoy: LA Lakers: NBA Finals 2000."
(When I told my girlfriend this story, expecting a perfunctory chuckle, she said "Wow, they have the 2000 Lakers DVD? Dude! I'm totally renting that!")
Can any Reggio/Shaq fans enlighten me as to a possible connection?
spawn_of_yog_sothoth
Why is it that many people think that just because a film doesn't have a plot means it is pointless?
In fact, I'd have to say that in the case of Koyaanisqatsi (haven't seen the second one), anything more complicated would dilute the impact of the message: that with all the modernization and mechanization humans have brought on this world, perhaps we've lost sight of the basic relationship between Man and the Earth.
OK, at least that's the message I got out of it (completely sober, btw); your mileage may vary. But don't you think that had there been a plot to the film, it would rather limit this kind of personal meaning?
# Users are merely variables. I prefer to comment them out.
Knock-knock
:)
Who's there?
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Philip Glass
Glass-bashing aside, yes, these are some of the most beautiful movies ever made. With the "mute" on
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
Stupid hippies.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I don't see the propaganda that everyone mentions. I groove on the music and let the images wash over me. I tried chemically enhancing the experience once. Anything other than a good scotch is distracting.
I had the good fortune of seeing Koyaanisqatsi in a theater with the Philip Glass Ensemble playing live. If you ever get change, do it. I also got to see Einstein on the Beach live in Princeton where they did there warmup gig before touring back about 95 or so, but thats another story.
I'm still waiting for the DVDs to arrive. We have a 'sqatsi fest planned for next week at work. There are more than a few Glass-loving geeks here in the office.
Obviously, I am looking for to the last part of the trilogy. I just wish I could see these films in IMAX...
-xbytor
If you don't like his message about the dangers of technology, perhaps you should see a movie where technology is heroic? How about The Matrix? Oh... wait, no, that's not going to work. Terminator? No, that's no better... Dr. Strangelove? Missed again. Logan's Run? Tron? Gattaca? Minority Report? 2001? Blade Runner? Akira?
For really pro-technology movies one probably has to go back to the cheesy monster-attacks-the-Earth flicks of the '50's. The ones where the white-coated scientist and his plucky prone-to-screaming female sidekick defeat the alien menace by utilizing clever inventions with glowing coils and giant computers with lots of blinky lights. Those were the days!
> It takes the us out of our routine life, up into a wider viewpoint, where individuality loses its meaning and we can see our lives as closer to what they are. Individual movements blend grossly to show the patterns of life. We are not unique. We follow the same routine. We swarm.
This is much more true for an LSD trip. Everyone should do it once a year.
--
If you moderate this, then your children will be next.
Just as a data point, my official Koyaanisqatsi VHS copy is 4:3. I was going to buy the DVD, but now that I hear they letterboxed a non-letterbox movie, I will stick with the VHS.
Avumede,
There is a LOT of merit in your suggestion - and I would have ben taking you up on that one over the last 15 years had it been available on video before now. The release of Koyaanisqatsi on DVD is a truly fantastic thing.
As for your final comment, anyone who discounts this film as "environmentalist, or leftist in some way" simply doesn't know how to let go of their own cognitive investments long enough to accept new ways of looking at things. This film is modern art, and requires the same open mind to appreciate what it has to offer.
Scott
"Perhaps the Purpose of Humanity is to evenly radiate the planet's surface so that the egg can hatch..." - J.S., 1983.
The 24fps source would be for the NTSC DVD release, and the 30fps source for the PAL DVD release.
No, that's not right. As other posters have mentioned, NTSC is (approximately) 60Hz interlaced, while PAL is 50Hz interlaced.
For PAL, generally what they do is speed up the 24fps source to get it up to 25fps, and interlace it so the result is a 50Hz interlaced picture.
For NTSC, you've got a problem not unlike when you buy hot dogs in packs of 12 and hot dog buns in packs of 8. But in this case, they have to get a 60Hz interlaced video stream out of a 24fps source, or 5 interlaced fields for every 2 progressive frames. It's really a rather kludgy technique that introduces a bit of "judder" into the picture---particularly when the camera is panning slowly. But hey, it works, and people have been doing it for years, long before DVD.
A progressive-scan DVD player can reconstruct the original 24fps sequence and send it out at 60Hz progressive. That's an improvement, but even that can't completely get rid of the judder. Some home theater equipment (and PC-based DVD players) can support refresh rates other than 60Hz, so they can potentially get rid of the judder problem altogether by choosing, say, a 72Hz refresh rate.
But back to this movie. Since they have a 30fps version of this scene shot already, they will basically be able to do for NTSC just what they do with PAL normally---except there's no need for the 5% speedup.
The reason we used 30fps (actually approx. 60 fields per second) was that it was sort-of the "least common multiple" of the many native frame rates of the material we were reviewing for potential use while editing the film. 80% of the film was acquired footage, from stock libraries, news archives, etc and NTSC was the most practical starting point. When the show was almost finished we re-constructed it at 24 progressive frames per second, first as video (in an Avid Symphony system), then as 2K data to feed a laser film recorder.
The 20% of the film we did shoot was shot on 35mm film, mostly at very high frame rates (150 fps and up).
I imagine that the DVD will be mastered from a HDTV transfer we made of the original film output negative. It hasn't been done yet.
Joe Beirne,
Producer of NAQOYQATSI
Another poster here is quite right, do a bit more film scoring mate! I score for contemporary Dance and some short video and a big faux pas is to constantly synch music to movement in a 1:1 fashion. We're not making a video game here folks, there need not be a modulation or new movement everytime a scene changes. But then that's just what the MTV generation expects. Weened on the teet of shitty music videos. As for Glass and minimalism in general, hate to bust up your post, but take a contemporary music history class. Irrespective of one's like or dislike for minimalism, the movement and the composers who started it are equally as important if not more so than Cage. Without minimalism we'd still be forced to compose in the serialist idiom pushed by Boulez and his gang of serialist wankers. I challenge anyone to try and enjoy Un Marteau sans maitre. Aweful atonal, arhythmic, intellectual stochastic wankery!!! And very lastly, anyone who thinks that a contemporary american composer is making serious money is severely in need of a reality check. There's programmers here who rake in far more than Glass or Reich does in a year.
The DVD produced by MGM of both KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI are letterboxed to the originally envisioned 1: 1.85 theatrical projection ratio. At the time the films were shot there was thought to be no viable market for letterboxed films on video (the biggest TVs were 27" and there was only a glimmer of some future HDTV widescreen home video format). The goal of the MGM release was to produce an affordably priced version of these films that had so long been out of circulation. Consequently, the decision was taken to make a 1.85 (theatrical) version, as only one version could be realistically be done for this DVD. You are not "missing" any part of the image on these DVDs any more than the original film audience was "missing" anything when they saw the film projected at Radio City Music Hall in 1983. The director and the DPs simply "protected" the area above and below the theatrical frameline for use on TV. The 4x3 version is perfectly valid, but it does not reflect the director's original intent any more than the other does. It is ironic that these DVDs have been criticized by cinephiles for this reason: the standard practice has of course been to wantonly "pan and scan" widescreen films for video release. Blockbuster for instance has only _very_ recently allowed distributors to sell any letter-boxed theatrical aspect ratio versions of feature films through their stores, citing the number of consumers complaining about the black band on the bottom and top of the screen! Joe Beirne Producer, NAQOYQATSI
Haha the pundit just put his own foot in his mouth and sucked hard. Cage is Glass with Brains? Cage was nearly 6 feet under by the time Glass burst onto the international scene.
I've never quite understood America's reverence for Cage. The man basically free jazzed modern music. I can see how it was influential as Cage was the only major figure to go against the leading modern music movements of the time, which were all atonal and aweful sounding. And that certainly gave the ensuing generation (Glass, Reich, Monk et al) the freedom to break away from Academic status quo, but still his music on his own is pretty wank. One can write a program in 3 minutes that could generate hours of Cage's Music for Chance.
Albeit I must admit, sonatas and interludes for prepared piano is wonderful. Hell! prepared piano in general sounds amazing.
Steven Soderbergh was the Executive Producer on NAQOYQATSI. The film had not been begun when Soderbergh stepped in to back the project. He is very much responsible for its coming into existence: the film had existed only on paper - for 11 years - before his involvement. Miramax acquired the film (while it was in production) in the summer of 2001 and is releasing it in October of this year. Joe Beirne, Producer of NAQOYQATSI
...and in the coming days, i'm going to smuggle some clips online...i'll provide links to where you guys can see them, as well as some more info on the machines and software we used. i'm going to try and get some of the filmmakers to post their thoughts on here, and hopefully even answer some questions, that is, if there's any interest. just let me know!
Just like Bach and Mozart in fact. Music by the numbers.
... ... and you certainly won't like Irish music sessions where it is the same "widdle-dee-widdle-dee" music for hours on end (A twice, then B, then back to A, now switch to another almost identical jig and repeat)
And let's not get started on some of the "dance" and "trance" stuff
Glass music is fine for what it is, background music that has a "texture" but rarely a tune . I only sit down to "listen" to Glass music when I want my mind to go blank and unwind, and that's pretty much perfect for these films!
God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
-- William Bragg
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