AFI and the passing of A.C. Clarke
Mar 18th, 2008 by Frank Fox
As I began writing this blurb about my presentation at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab production cycle orientation I learned that Arthur C. Clarke had died at age 90. What would the state of today’s technology have been like without the imagination of Clarke? I shudder to think. There went a mind well shared! He brought real life to science fiction and science fiction to real life - and what a long life he had! I will consider myself very fortunate if I could someday look into the mirror for just one morning and see a man of 90 smiling back. Wow! That just made me think of Dr. Dave Bowman sitting in the white room near the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Now to the AFI news: this coming Thursday afternoon, March 20th, I will have the distinct pleasure of presenting a machinima demonstration using Moviestorm to a group of folks starting their production cycle at the Digital Content Lab in Hollywood. You really must read about AFI’s DCL at their site for the best explanation of its purpose. This blog post just couldn’t do justice to the work people will be putting into finding and nurturing the next latest & greatest things in mass media.
My fifteen minutes of fame (literally) will consist of me making a quick machinima movie using Moviestorm before an audience made up of mostly those uninitiated in the ways of Anymation, and then trying to answer any questions which may be tossed my way. My part has nothing specific to do with any of the DCL’s new projects being started (at least not that I know of). It’s billed as simply an after-lunch diversion for the group as part of their day filled with “Go here,” “Meet them,” “Do this,” “Learn that,” activities.
Thank you to AFI’s Lisa Osborne and the folks at Short Fuze for inviting me to participate.
I don’t know whether I should ask you, dear reader, to wish me luck or tell me to break a leg. Actually, I’ll appreciate either.
Good luck with breaking your leg. How’s that for covering all bases?
I was an avid absorber of all sorts of sci-fi as a youngster, and ACC really fired my imagination.
Good luck with Demo, break nothing, especially not parts of yourself
Thanks for the thoughts about Clarke. I’ve always loved his science fiction writing. Childhood’s End is one of the best SF novels ever written. And he’s been such an important part of developing our ideas about science and progress. He will be missed.
Good luck on your presentation. I hope it goes well!
Good luck, Frank - say hi to the good folks at the AFI from us all back here!
Successfully resisted the temptation to watch 2001 last night - we decided to be heretic and watch Dune instead.
Did you say Hollywood? Great! Good luck.
Thank you all for the kind sentiments! The presentation was very fun and the group was quite receptive. Turns out most of them had heard of machinima, probably because their wide-ranging professions were Internet related, so that was one less hurdle for me to overcome.
I got to meet plenty of interesting and highly motivated people, so I’ll do my best to make another blog post and delve into more details of the day. Thanks again!!