Lunatics! Episode 1 has dropped. And I have thoughts!!!
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
Lunatics! is a Open-Movie project by Rosalyn Hunter and Terry Hancock. I was following their socials ( mainly their Peertube account ) for quite some time now. And today, about an hour ago they released an unfinished version of episode one. Why does it matter? Well, they are working on it, if I understand correctly, since 2003, ( based on this video ). This unfinished episode is, therefor, 23 years in the making. My Moria's Race short-film with its 3.5 years is nothing in comparison. ↩ Reply
How is it though? Is it the most spectacular achievement ever? Well it depends on how you look at it. ↩ Reply
In the grand scheme of things this is a "Prologue" of sorts to the project that is "Lunatics!". They probably have written more than one episode of that stuff. And I kind of want to read some of it. But for, I think, the wrong reason. ↩ Reply
I'll be blunt. If they didn't spend a bazillion dollars recording all of the dialogue for the entire series, I believe there is a possibility to morph the writing sensibilities a bit, into something worth while. ↩ Reply
Based on their "Kickstarted video" they recorded the voices of episodes 1 and 2 in 2012. I mean... This is some unfathomable stretch of time. Holly shit! But since they didn't record anything else ( and since they probably will need to re-record the first 2 episodes, for continuity with the rest of the series, ( the main character is a child and she probably doesn't sound the same now ) ), there is still stuff you can do to the script, to hopefully excite some juice into that whole pulp. You know what I mean? ↩ Reply
Let me say that, even though some of the models in the thing I just watched are quite amazing, and must have taken some time to make, the 23 years of making is not about the complexity of the project. This is not some James Cameron stuff. I believe they took so long making it, because they themselves hardly believed in the project to begin with. And that was because it is quite a drag, to be honest. ↩ Reply
The first episode has 3 main scenes, with filler stuff in between. We have a small exchange between the kid Georgiana Lerner ( Ariel Hancock ) and her mother Hiromi Lerner ( Karrie Shirou ) in the train to the space-ship. We have quite an interesting middle scene where press interviews our main characters about their journey to the moon. And we get the suit-up and launch scene. ↩ Reply
All 3 scenes have potential. All 3 scenes have sources of tension. And at least 2 of those 3 scenes have some sort of conflict of sorts. But none of it is quite up there, to make it work. ↩ Reply
Take the launch sequence. We have a child that goes to space. You have an amazing source of tension there. You could make it feel like the launch sequence in Damien Chazelle's First Man. Where you grip the sits with utter horror as you get closer and closer to the launch. ↩ Reply
In that film Chazelle creates this sense of dread in multiple ways: First, toward the middle of the film, while Neil Armstrong prepares for his mission, a different mission ( Apollo 1 ) goes catastrophically wrong and kills all the crew. He shows us a step by step analysis of how everything went wrong. And then mirrors these steps when Neil Armstrong goes into his mission in the end of the film. And then secondly, Chazelle shoots the scenes strictly from the point of view of Neil. This makes us not just see what happens, but feel what Neil feels. And because he is utterly terrified, so are we ( even though we know how it will end anyway ). ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/lunatics1.jpg "The interview scene")
Let's take the interview scene. On the surface it is just an info-dump. A scene designed strictly for expositional purposes. There is conflict between the interviewers and the interviewed. I mean those people are rather confused about the child going to space. And so our hero mother need to justify her decision. ↩ Reply
But here is an alternative way I would write something like this: ↩ Reply
INT. CONFERENSE ROOM. DAY.
GEORGIANA ( child ), HIROMI and TITOV are sitting on one side of the glass window. On the side there is press. ↩ Reply
We are all wondering... The entire nation is wondering... The entire world is wondering... What kind of mom are you?
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Everybody on the press side are chuckling. Not HIROMI. GEORGIANA looks at HIROMI all confused. ↩ Reply
I'm so sorry. I'm just trying to ask....
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If you think I'm a bad mother for allowing my daughter...
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( talking over )
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We don't think...
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( talking over )
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If you think I'm a bad mother!...
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( talking over )
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We just want to know why you take your daugher with you? We know the how. We know the what. Georgiana... right? ... ah, here is a national tresure. Everybody talks about how cool she is. What people are wondering is kind of like "what lead to it?".
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HIROMI is all serious. She is not buying the tone of REPORTER 2. ↩ Reply
( desperately trying to be calm )
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I don't want my child to live without her father. We wanted to make her, you know... to have kids, up there. But the procedure is long. It takes time. So the situation arrived. I'm trying to deal with the situation.
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You know how dangerous it is? I mean... I know...
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( talking over )
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Dangerous? You know more than I, if you did any reporting at all about this, how much preparation went into...
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( talking over, yelling )
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Apolo 1 Fire! Soyuz 11 Decompression! Challenger! Collumbia! Apolo 13! Should I continue? I'm sorry, but in my opionion taking a child into such a hostile environment is at least some sort of neglence. But taking into account her weak, fragile build and the kind of G-Forces one experiences even only to safely ascend into space, I fail to recognize as something lesser than an attempt at manslaugher.
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HIROMI puts her hands over GEORGIANA's ears. As she does it the sound cuts off. We see Hiromi scream and shout, but we can't hear anything. ↩ Reply
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This, or something similar to this, would have been so much stronger. And would have made the launch scene so much better. Especially because Georgiana heard the words of the concerned reporter and is now also concerned. If she is scared before going into the rocket. If she stops. If she shakes from fear and uncertainty, but then still goes through and ends up strapped into that seat. That is some shit! You know... ↩ Reply
The first scene ( the one in the train ) I don't know how to save. There is a thin suggestion of something going on. Georgiana doesn't want to eat. Is she nervous? Is this the buildup of tension? Is this the stuff I was talking about? Maybe... But the scene itself is pointless in the grand sceme of things. If anything it is a yet another scene to introduce some information. To do bad exposition. They are on the train toward a rocket. A boy comes by and recognizes the girl as the wonder-austronaut-child. That is all there is to it. ↩ Reply
Look don't get me wrong, the whole wonder-austronaut-child concept is kind of cool. It has the vibe of Spy Kids. It is ( if pulled off properly ) a stupidly good first ingrident to an ingenious Corruption of the Audience. In a way, my libre film Moria's Race is doing quite a similar type of corruption. I love this kind of shit. But you have to play with the concept, do something with it, to make it work. ↩ Reply
All "Lunatics!" does with it ( at least in the first episode ) is a very bad attempt at an argument about justifying it. ↩ Reply
But that's not all I have to say about the movie. Oh no. I happened to be somewhat versed in the art of Blendering. And the art of film-making. So I have thoughts about this aspect too. ↩ Reply
I don't know who was the "director" on this picture. Based on my intuition I strongly believe the "director" of this movie is Terry Hancock. Rosalyn Hunter is listed in the credist more as a writer of the film. And the writing I already broken down. Terry Hancock is only one left. Unless they both took turns "directing" the shots. ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/lunatics2.jpg "Orthographic shot")
A lot of this movie is in Orthographic mode. In Blender there are 2 ways to view a model. The Perspective mode, where the farther something is from the camera, the smaller it appears. And the orthographic mode, where all sizes are the same no matter how far they are. ↩ Reply
A lot of "Lunatics!" feels Orthographic. Even if some of those shots actually, technically have perspective, the focal length is so absurd that it looks absurd. What even is this? ↩ Reply
Composition-wise the movie is all over the place. Some shots look fantastic! This one for example: ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/lunatics3.jpg "Fantastic shot")
Others look like somebody forgot basic lessons in composition. Like this one: ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/lunatics4.jpg "Not so good of a shot")
While in the same scene there would be a shot from the same angle that has a better composition out of nowhere: ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/lunatics5.jpg "Same, but a bit better.")
I know that it isn't finshied yet. And a lot of those compositional things still could be fixed. And I cannot tell nothing yet about how it would feel together as a finished project. ↩ Reply
I could say, some of the transitions were freaking good. Too bad a lot of those happen in the pointless filler section of the film that could be completely cut out. I know that maybe it is "important" or something for the creator. But it doesn't feel important to me as a viewer. ↩ Reply
For example, the train scene. Or the going around and looking at monuments scene. Those could be good. If you have a strong sense of tension. If you have characters that are afraid of their space-odysse. But the tension isn't there. ↩ Reply
If you would say, take my suggestion of how to build tension, from the little script-piece I wrote and put it right in the very begining of the film, then the going to the monuments scene feels sort of proper. The characters don't want the rocket. They are scared of the rocket. Especially Georgiana. So they distract themselves with all those "important" places. That is some good drama there. ↩ Reply
IDK. I understand those are unprofessional people trying their best to survive a very hard animated project. I understand that a lot of much better film-makers would say shit like this, about my films. I understand that I don't want to expect 2 people with a libre mind-set to compete against fucking Avatar. ↩ Reply
But on the other hand, it would have been so cool if we could do that. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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This, or something similar to this, would have been so much stronger. And would have made the launch scene so much better. Especially because Georgiana heard the words of the concerned reporter and is now also concerned. If she is scared before going into the rocket. If she stops. If she shakes from fear and uncertainty, but then still goes through and ends up strapped into that seat. That is some shit! You know... ↩ Reply
The first scene ( the one in the train ) I don't know how to save. There is a thin suggestion of something going on. Georgiana doesn't want to eat. Is she nervous? Is this the buildup of tension? Is this the stuff I was talking about? Maybe... But the scene itself is pointless in the grand sceme of things. If anything it is a yet another scene to introduce some information. To do bad exposition. They are on the train toward a rocket. A boy comes by and recognizes the girl as the wonder-austronaut-child. That is all there is to it. ↩ Reply
Look don't get me wrong, the whole wonder-austronaut-child concept is kind of cool. It has the vibe of Spy Kids. It is ( if pulled off properly ) a stupidly good first ingrident to an ingenious Corruption of the Audience. In a way, my libre film Moria's Race is doing quite a similar type of corruption. I love this kind of shit. But you have to play with the concept, do something with it, to make it work. ↩ Reply
All "Lunatics!" does with it ( at least in the first episode ) is a very bad attempt at an argument about justifying it. ↩ Reply
But that's not all I have to say about the movie. Oh no. I happened to be somewhat versed in the art of Blendering. And the art of film-making. So I have thoughts about this aspect too. ↩ Reply
I don't know who was the "director" on this picture. Based on my intuition I strongly believe the "director" of this movie is Terry Hancock. Rosalyn Hunter is listed in the credist more as a writer of the film. And the writing I already broken down. Terry Hancock is only one left. Unless they both took turns "directing" the shots. ↩ Reply
A lot of this movie is in Orthographic mode. In Blender there are 2 ways to view a model. The Perspective mode, where the farther something is from the camera, the smaller it appears. And the orthographic mode, where all sizes are the same no matter how far they are. ↩ Reply
A lot of "Lunatics!" feels Orthographic. Even if some of those shots actually, technically have perspective, the focal length is so absurd that it looks absurd. What even is this? ↩ Reply
Composition-wise the movie is all over the place. Some shots look fantastic! This one for example: ↩ Reply
Others look like somebody forgot basic lessons in composition. Like this one: ↩ Reply
While in the same scene there would be a shot from the same angle that has a better composition out of nowhere: ↩ Reply
I know that it isn't finshied yet. And a lot of those compositional things still could be fixed. And I cannot tell nothing yet about how it would feel together as a finished project. ↩ Reply
I could say, some of the transitions were freaking good. Too bad a lot of those happen in the pointless filler section of the film that could be completely cut out. I know that maybe it is "important" or something for the creator. But it doesn't feel important to me as a viewer. ↩ Reply
For example, the train scene. Or the going around and looking at monuments scene. Those could be good. If you have a strong sense of tension. If you have characters that are afraid of their space-odysse. But the tension isn't there. ↩ Reply
If you would say, take my suggestion of how to build tension, from the little script-piece I wrote and put it right in the very begining of the film, then the going to the monuments scene feels sort of proper. The characters don't want the rocket. They are scared of the rocket. Especially Georgiana. So they distract themselves with all those "important" places. That is some good drama there. ↩ Reply
IDK. I understand those are unprofessional people trying their best to survive a very hard animated project. I understand that a lot of much better film-makers would say shit like this, about my films. I understand that I don't want to expect 2 people with a libre mind-set to compete against fucking Avatar. ↩ Reply
But on the other hand, it would have been so cool if we could do that. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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