All Over Albany

That doesn't happen that often, but I left after one hour, at which point it was already 58 minutes too long. Boy did I want to put a fork in my eyes. Boring script, poor shooting, muddy picture, bad production values. The intro was promising and funny but the motion-sensored gimmick got old really fast for me. Anybody here stayed to the end?

... said Sebastien on Nov 14, 2008 at 12:09 AM | link

The show was pretty funky. Lots of jiggling cameras, which were not so good for a person who gets sick watching home videos. That said, the artists did a great job of creating the stark feel of 1931 New York, as well as a representing the dystopia of 2099.

Essentially the plot is this: the year is 2099. Because the ice caps
are melting, much of the land is underwater. Cities now are built on piles of floating garbage. The government has control over people: it is a consumeracracy: you are required to buy so much stuff by law. Also, you are not allowed to look back into the past or to study history.
The rules have spawned a black market for antique artifacts from the
20th century. Our heroine has created a device that scans old artifacts and displays an image of the past showing what the artifact
was used for. She is searching for her father, who went back in time
to 1931 to find out what happened to the family inheritance that was
stolen from them.

Time travel ensues. There are issues with the 2099 government doing a witch hunt searching for people accessing the past. Our heroine created a device that blocks the government from detecting her activities. The relative safety of her shape attracts other like-minded souls who do not want to forget the past.

The set in 2099 is very rough hewn. Brick walls, messy hair.
Mad Max with a Victorian flair.

The 1931 set is very super clean. Stark. Marble walls and floors abound. It feels empty.

Spectropia was a very interesting piece. The plot was all
right, but I felt that the twists and turns were a bit hard to follow
because of the technology innovations: essentially the artists could
control the playing speed of the film by "playing" a laser harp and
waving their hands about. It was intriguing, no doubt about it. Having the artists manipulate and change the playback speed definitely gave the piece a "live" feel, rather than the more traditional and passive approach used by a typical movie.

Coming from the perspective of a writer who likes cohesive stories, I found myself somewhat frustrated that the technology seemed to obscure the story at times. The technology felt like a gimmick as much as anything. Maybe I was just tired.

Then again, I don't think that the point of the piece is cohesive, passive storytelling with smooth camerawork. The 2099 world of Spectropia is not a comfortable, easily quantified environment, and I think the unsettled feelings the piece evoked in me are as much the point of the piece as the story and innovative technology.

Spectropia was challenging. Fun. Refreshing to see a period piece about an era that is not represented that often. Disconcerting to watch a film set in a post-crash era when we've just gone through that ourselves and continue to see the ramifications on a day to day basis.

Worth seeing to be sure.

... said Troy Represent! on Nov 14, 2008 at 12:15 PM | link