The Leviathan (2015)

I suppose you could call it a cautionary tale: Back in 2015, Ruairi Robinson created this stunning Proof of Concept Teaser Trailer for a film he hoped to sell to the studios, with the help of Bord Scannáin na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board and a script by Jim Uhls, who wrote the screenplay for

Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You (2019)

Between his debut feature, Antiviral, and his second feature, Possessor, David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, made this eerie and visually dazzling short film. It may only be a little over Nine minutes long, but its surreal sets, its bold colors, its jarring editing, and its decidedly uncomfortable premise all add up to an unexpected kick in

Living with Monsters (2024)

There are a lot of people out there creating absolutely incredible little films. There problem is that very few of them appear to be in Hollywood these days. Lost Utopia films is one of those fairly new YouTube channels which has put out a lot of interesting Godzilla footage. However, most of it has been

Another side of H.G. Wells: The Tonic; Day-Dreams and Bluebottles

It’s always interesting to see what someone famous does on his day off. Although the truth is that, despite our image of him as a Science Fiction writer, H.G. Wells wrote nearly all of his most famous works within about eight or nine years. And, after that, he wrote very few works we would describe

Michael Radford’s Addicted to the Stars — from Ten Minutes Older

Back in 2002, producer Nicolas McClintock launched a new film project to mark the beginning of the new Millennia. Inspired by a 1978 short by Herz Frank, he invited a selection of prominent filmmakers to create new ten minute short films on the subject of time. Ultimately this resulted in not one film, but two

The Predecessors of 2001 — Lifeline: Aerospace Logistics Tomorrow

Every great innovation had to start somewhere. And Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was no exception. When Kubrick started his massive project, he went out and located a small company called Graphic Films Corporation, which had created stunning space vehicle effects for a series of documentary films produced by a number of Aerospace companies

Maska [Mask] (2010)

I’ll be honest. I’ve never read Stanislaw Lem’s story “Maska.” I have no idea what it is like. However, I’m reasonably certain that it is nothing like this strange little animated short from the Quay Brothers. Now the Quay Brothers, Stephen and Timothy are known for their surreal animated films, and their work often gets

Ijon Tichy Returns — For the First Time…

Last time, we talked about the 1999 short film which kicked off one of my favorite TV series of all time, the incredible German lo-fi production, Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot. But, as I pointed out, it was one of two films the creators made while they were in college. Here is the second, Aus den Sterntagebüchern

Ijon Tichy — The Prequel…

Elsewhere, I’ve written about the wonderful German TV series, Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot, an all too brief version of the classic Stanislaw Lem stories, notable for its deliberately unrealistic lo-fi take on space opera, with a French Press standing in for a rocketship, the star’s real life apartment pretending to be its interior, and a lot of

What Might Have Been…

I have to admit that I love the old practical effects, particularly stop motion, which I’m afraid may become a lost art one of these days, even with creators like Brett Piper, Richard Svensson, and Ray Lengel still hard at work. Recently I came across a lost treasure: Pete Peterson worked as Willis O’Brien’s assistant