Day 358: Vans Labyrinth

Christmas Eve… and a not very Christmassy tree…

Christmas Eve, and I was expecting to give you a placeholder pics like one below, but then the Vans Labyrinth gag wormed its way into my brain. I couldn’t resist.

Only a week left of the challenge to go after today. I’m looking forward to having two hours of my day back again. And I still haven’t decided how to celebrate the last day. Well, how to celebrate online, anyway. I’ve got a good idea how I’ll be celebrating in real life.

And SFX has managed to sneak in one extra piece of freelance work for me between Christmas and New Year too. I’ll have to make sure that’s finished before celebrating.

Happy Christmas for tomorrow!

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Day 353: All You Need Is Love And Monsters

Beatles Vans and Christmas Doctor Who titbits…

Admittedly today’s Beatles Vans really should have been accompanied by Thunderbird 4 photo (a yellow submarine), but I’ve already done that (here). Plus I received an unexpected email from BBC publicity yesterday saying that spoiler-free online previews of the Doctor Who special were fine to post from today.

Well, I’m hardly going to pass up on that opportunity, especially as it’s likely to get the charity challenge a few extra hits, and, hey, you never know, maybe a bit more sponsorship. So if you are a Doctor Who fan lured here by some link somewhere, I’ve reposted my “Top Doctor Who Posts Of The Year” infographic at the bottom of this page to give you an idea what I’ve been doing all year, so please consider bunging a fiver towards Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Before getting on with my Who Christmas thoughts, here’s a closer look at the Beatles Vans, on loan from Will Guyatt and really rather fab. Geddit? Fab?

Also fab is Doctor Who “Last Christmas”. Regular readers of this blog will know how much I loathe reviewing episodes form the BBC preview site because of the low quality, but honestly, after 10 minutes of “Last Christmas” some kind of festive magic occurred. The pixellated pictures seemed to fade and I truly felt like I was watching on Christmas night. For me, it was the perfect blueprint for a Doctor Who Christmas special – very, very Christmassy but a great classic Doctor Who story to boot.

And – crucially – it has real heart. I’ve always been impressed by Steven Moffat’s plotting, ideas and dialogue, but thought that Russell T Davies had the edge when it came to emotional scenes. But not here. There are scenes that are packed with emotion, without spilling over into gloopy sentimentality. The relationship between the Doctor and Clara is especially sweet with a wonderful pay-off.

I’d go as far to sat it’s my Capaldi Doctor Who story yet, and possibly my favourite Christmas special. It’s both gloriously silly and incredibly creepy; at times I was thinking, “This is going out at 6.15pm???” Father Christmas is Father Christmas through and through, and Nick Frost gets some great lines. Whether he’s real or not…? Well, that’s all part of the fun.

Here are a few non-spoilery teasers in good old SFX-style:

• There’s the return of an old favourite from previous Christmas specials, and it’s more prominent than ever

• There’s an absolutely glorious song and dance routine (I’m not joking, but neither does that quite mean what you might think it means)

• At least two plot elements scream: “This is not the last you’ll be seeing of this…”

• Nathan McMullen from Misfits makes a brilliant elf but Dan Starkey’s teeth are off-putting because you keep thinking, “Don’t they belong to Strax?”

• If you’re thinking something reminds you of something then somebody in the episode does to, though the Doctor doesn’t because he’s never heard of it and think it’s racist

• There’s a shot of The Tower Of Westminster (aka, Big Ben to non-pedants) that’s the stuff of Christmas legend

• It’s very, very twisty turny…

• It features a particular thing regularly used in film and TV (a production thing, not a script thing) that usually prompts critics to write, “God the [redacted] was awful!” But not here. It’s very good indeed

• The Doctor calls somebody unexpected sexy

• And if you haven’t heard already, the title of the next episode is revealed

These things are all relative. I loved it; some heartless Scrooges will not doubt hate it. I can only say that personally I was totally won over by it; it hit all the right notes for me, and I cannot wait to see it in high definition on Christmas Day (when, maybe, the thing that I thought looked really good may not look quite as good… but hopefully not).

See you tomorrow!

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Day 346: Darth Trainers

I’ve turned turned to the Dark Side…

Another last minute change of plans today. I spent ages this morning prepping a photo and writing a blog, then just as I was about to post it… I realised it might be big spoiler for any Sole Of Sci-Fi followers watching Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD at UK pace.

So, I’ve quickly rewritten it so I can post that blog tomorrow instead (you can have some fun spotting where “tonight” has been replaced with “last night”), and performed an emergency reshoot.

These Darth Vader Vans are an early Christmas present from my sister, Paula, and she gave me special dispensation to be allowed to wear them early. Well, it’s all for a good cause. I’m sure Santa and Jesus Christ wouldn’t mind, what with them being made up and everything.

I did have this pair earmarked for a blog next week, but I’m going to a gentlemen’s club for a pub quiz tonight, and while they relax their dress code a bit on such nights, they much prefer “sober” colours to the kind of Dayglo running shoes that form much of the rest of my current pool of trainers (what regular readers will know as “The 220 Triathlon Collection”).

They’re pretty brilliant, though, aren’t they? The Vans Star Wars range really is the gift that keep on giving. Jus think, in a year’s time something like these could be on sale…

I bet you want to get your preorders in now, don’t you?

See you tomorrow!

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Day 335: “Obi-Vans Has Taught You Well…”

“…You have controlled your feet.”

Ah, Star Wars Vans, the gift that keep keeps on giving. Believe it or not, these aren’t just a ordinary pair of black Vans slip-ons that I’ve pimped myself. You can actually buy these from… well, I would say all good shoe shops, but that’s not true. They’re only available from one chain store, and I would tell you which, except that they’ve ignored repeated requests this year for support for The Sole Of Sci-Fi, so I don’t feel need to give them any publicity.

You can probably guess, anyway.

Anyway, it’s stupid o’clock in the morning and I’ve got to cycle to Bristol to work on Procycling so it’s a brief blog today. My bike was service last week, so I’m going to see if it make any difference to my journey time.

See you tomorrow!

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Day 331: Awesome Trainers

And if you don’t understand the headline watch the Lego Movie now!

Right, cards on the table. I’m writing this yesterday, a few minutes after being informed by TalkTalk (yeah, I know, change the record) told me I probably wouldn’t have any internet until today (Thursday).  I didn’t want to spend another morning wondering whether to hang on in case in the internet returned (and I bet it doesn’t). Plus I have a few hours of transcribing that I have to crack on with, and I want to get into the groove with that as soon as possible. Upshot, I thought I’d get Thursday’s blog done on Wednesday so I had no distractions.

And yes, the background is from a photo I shot earlier in the year… I’m just getting fed up with photos in my tiny back garden.

I will be wearing the Vans on Thursday, as I don’t have to leave the house. They’re brand new, on loan, and I don’t think Jamie wants them back all muddy and wet.

Not much else to report, except that one of my loyal followers, Tim Norris, contacted me yesterday to point after my blog on CSO yesterday that Special FX are, technically speaking, physical effects (models, explosions, flooding sets with foam, etc) while visual effects are those created “in-camera”, which also these days includes digital effects.

And he’s dead right. I admit, I made a mistake (and having written in this area for decades, I should know the difference). However – and I say this next point not in the sense of justification, but more just by way of musing – I think to the hoi polloi it’s a bit of a vacuum cleaner/Hoover situation. One day, the only people who are going to care are people who work in the industry, lawyers and subs.

See you tomorrow!

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Day 330: CSO Sole

Special FX done the old-fashioned way…

Welcome to CSO: Sole. That’s CSO not CSI, though back in the ’70s CSO did leave a blue halo around objects like a cobalt version of those chalk outlines you see around people in crime shows. It stood for Colour Separation Overlay, and was en electronic effect (ie, it could only be achieved on video) used by the BBC in the ’70s and ’80s that was a quick and easy way of “cutting out” one image and overlaying it on another. The object that needed to be “cut out” was shot against a blue (or sometimes yellow) background and that background colour could then be made invisible before the object was combined with a background. (This has, of course, developed into the green screen work we see today).

Alternatively, as in the shot above, the “view screen” would actually be a solid blue (or yellow) and another image to be inlaid into it.

Except, the effect was rarely invisible. Apart from the blue (or yellow) halo, often the blue or yellow background would cast a blue or yellow hue on any objects or clothing in the vicinity. Which is why the Cyberman above has blue shoulders; he’s reflecting the blue from the actual screen, rather than the image overlaid onto it.

(As a side note, Doctor Who often opted for yellow screen rather blue screen work because the TARDIS was blue, and so if it were in a CSO shot where blue was the colour that would be matted out, it would have vanished even when it wasn’t supposed to!)

Anyway, that history lesson over, I can tell you I’m still pissed off that TalkTalk hasn’t fixed my internet, Im still using my iPhone to tether my laptop to the internet, which is still glacially slow. To be honest, I can’t recall if I’ve used this Cyberman image before (I don’t think so) but it would currently take an age to search through previous SOSF blogs to find out, so I’m hoping I haven’t.

So the moral of today’s episode is, don’t sign a contract with TalkTalk.

See you tomorrow!

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Day 316: 28 Days Later… I’ll Still Be Doing Sole Of Sci-Fi

But at least then it’ll only be 21 days to go!

Okay, I’m getting in the “my socks are biohazards” gag before some wag on Twitter does (Nurse Darry, I’m looking at you).

I would never describe myself as a Danny Boyle fan, but I was surprised recently when after somebody asked in the pub once, “Are there any directors who you’ve seen all their films?” that Danny Boyle is probably the only one in my case (I will add, there was an addendum – the director needed to have directed more than five films, otherwise I could count Joss Whedon and various one-time-only horror directors whose films I’ve had to review).

I mean, I am a massive Hitchcock fan, but there are a few early black and white efforts of his I haven’t seen. With Spielberg I’m missing Amistad, Empire Of The Sun and, would you believe, Saving Private Ryan (I know, I know, how can I have seen War Horse and not Saving Private Ryan? It’s a travesty). I haven’t seen a Tarantino film for years and even if I get to see Interstellar in the next couple of weeks, I have yet to see Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia or Following. I have seen every Ray Harryhausen film, but he’s not a director.

But I have seen every Danny Boyle film (though not all his TV movies), and most of them have been marvellous. Hell, I even genuinely like Sunshine, though I had to listen to the commentary to fully appreciate it (and to realise that the random killer plot wasn’t as random as it seems, though it stills feels a little like HAL in a different guise). The Beach is may be his worst-received film, but even that is far more interesting failure than a lot directors’ best efforts. His attempt to go a bit Nolan with Trance doesn’t quite come off, but it’s still a fine film, and A Life Less Ordinary Is… frankly, I haven’t got a clue what or, indeed, why it is. But as a wonderful, bat’s-arse folly, it kinda fun.

And 28 Days Later gave us speedy zombies. I have no problem with that.

I still haven’t forgotten him for letting the Doctor Who moment get dropped from the Olympics opening ceremony though…

See you tomorrow!

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Day 302: Hanging About In Thunderdome

We don’t need another heel-o… (I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry)

Looks like I’m the one who’s not leaving Thunderdome. I was trying to make this pic look like I was was dangling from one of those harness in Mad Max 3’s action set piece, but it looks instead like I’ve just been sent to the scaffold. Ah well, that still feels like it’s right for the tone of the movie.

Yesterday was another work, work, work day, so there’s not much to wibble on about today. I did watch the pilot for The Flash, which was very entertaining in a goofy kinda way, though I became distracted by his trainers… they were both hideous and yet immensely desirable at the same time.

I also became very excited with the news the Marvel is prepping an Inhumans film. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the company also announced a whole bunch of other films at the same time, but I’m way more excited about Inhumans than Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther or Captain Marvel.

Having said that, being the bleeding heart liberal that I am, I have to say, “About bloody time” to a Marvel movie with a female lead. And I heartily approve that it’s the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel, who at least has a modicum of feminist kudos, rather than Black Widow, who is, frankly, mostly just eye-candy.

But Inhumans is the one I care about most, and I hope it has a very different tone to the rest of the MCU. Just as there’s room for the more comedic Guardians Of The Galaxy, I think there’s room for a more austere Inhumans. To me, Inhumans has always been one of the most beguilingly mysterious and complex title in the Marvel catalogue, so in my head the film should have a harder edge, more like Game Of Thrones in space – lots of politics and intrigue (though not as much sex).

And  I can’t wait to see Medusa’s hair brought to screen life.

See you tomorrow!

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• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Day 301: Check This Out

Have you seen these Vans?

Don’t worry. It’s not really Judgement Day (I’m using the “e”, because UK spelling is the correct spelling, just as the way we order dates is the correct and logical way to order dates – why the hell would you want to put the month first?). And the T-1000 isn’t really looking for this pair of blue checked Vans.

Just as I prefer Alien to Aliens, I’m also much more of a fan of The Terminator than Terminator 2. The original film is a lean, mean sci-fi thriller, while the second movie – while a great action film – is a little flabby and flaccid in places. I also prefer evil Arnie Terminator to nice Arnie Terminator, although admittedly, if Cameron hadn’t included this twist, the sequel would have been a dreary case of “bigger budget, same old story”. And we wouldn’t have been introduced to the T-1000, who’s the best thing about the film by far.

Moving from movies past to movies future – Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, eh? Now there’s a piece of casting that I’m genuinely excited about. Apparently, earlier this year Marvel was in talks with Joaquin Phoenix about the role, a decision presumably based entirely on the guy’s moustache in Her. I’m glad that didn’t work out; Benedict, for me, is a much better choice, as he radiates “strange” anyway, whereas Phoenix radiates “odd”.

The minute I heard the news, I could see Cumberbatch in the cloak. However, I couldn’t picture him with a beard. After a quick Google search I’m going to suggest the unthinkable… maybe he should play Strange without the facial furniture.

The film is set to be directed by Scott Derrickson, most famous for The Exorcism Of Emily Rose and The Day The Earth Stood Still, the latter of which was pretty much a 100% disaster, so I can’t honestly say I think he’s one of Marvel’s more exciting choices. He’s also a out and proud Christian; many of his interviews reveal that his Christian world view informs his filmmaking. I have no problem with that (the Christ allegory isn’t what scuppered Day, just a dull script, and arguably Derickson’s beliefs made Deliver Us From Evil a more interesting film than it otherswise might have been) but I do wonder how he’ll approach a film about the occult. I’d like to see a Strange film embrace the occult completely, not introduced some religious rationalisation for his powers.

I’m ready to have my doubts about Derrickson proven foundless, but  I’d have loved a more left field choice for a director for Doctor Strange. Like Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks) or James Bobin (The Muppets) perhaps.

Finally today, a MASSIVE thank you to my Twitter follower GeekCliché and his workmates at Staffordshire & Shropshire Health Informatics Service who donated a very healthy £50 to the charity total. “It’s the office tuck box profits, so it’s all down to chocolate addicts & stress,” explains Mr Cliché. I’m not sure I’m any the wiser, but I’m very, very grateful.

See you tomorrow!

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• Current total: £1,270 

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything  from 8 to 10) contact me at davegolderSFX@gmail.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Day 297: Mad Vans In A Blue Box

Sole Of Sci-Fi visits the newly-revamped Doctor Who Experience…

I’ve been in Cardiff today, visiting the launch of the new Capaldi-ised Doctor Who Experience. I hope the lateness of the blog today is counterbalanced by the photos I’ve got for you today. Though this one below on the Tennant TARDIS set went all a bit timey-wimey (by mistake).

As with previous years, we weren’t allowed to photograph the walk-through “Experience” itself, but I can reveal that it has been massively overhauled. They haven’t just refilmed and rewritten the Matt Smith video clips with Peter Capaldi; there’s a whole new storyline, some new FX footage, and an extremely impressive new clips montage with a voice0ver from Romana, voiced by Lalla Ward herself!

To show you how different the Experience is, everybody who enters is given one of these Gallifreyan Crystals. Not only do they light up, they also vibrate, so you might find yourself involuntarily reaching for your mobile at some points.

So even if you’ve been before, it’s worth another visit. And the kids there today loved it, partly because they’re encouraged to participate even more this time round.

Rather than wibble on, I’ll let the pictures of the exhibition area do the talking, with some help from a few captions.

There are now loads of different TARDIS interiors and exteriors on the ground floor of the exhibition area.

Roundels, roundels everywhere!

 

You looking at me?

The wooden Cyberman is a work of art.

I never realised Aggedor made a cameo in “Robot Hood”!

The Doctor’s costumes have moved upstairs…

…And they include the War Doctor’s ensemble.

Oddly, the Skovox Blitzer looks more impressive in the flesh (or should we say the tin?) than it did on screen, even though it’s surprisingly titchy.

Okay, the “Trial Of A Time Lord” ship model isn’t new, but I still love it, so here it is…

The Teller made a guest appearance at the launch…

…And look at the impressive kit required to animate his head!

Hurrah! They haven’t changed the timeline photo-montage in the reception area, so my cameo lives on!

See you tomorrow!

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• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything  from 8 to 10) contact me at davegolderSFX@gmail.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!