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RECREATING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT page 8
FINDING HUMANITY IN THE FUTURE page 14
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN SCIENCE & CINEMA page 20
OF
TABLE CONTENTS 04 CONTRIBUTOR’S PAGE
A quick introduction to the creators of Flashframe
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS A message to the readers from the writers
THE FILMMAKING PROCESS Five steps explaing how movies are created from start to finish
RECREATING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT Understanding the crafting of period pieces centered on our past
THE EVOLUTION OF CAMERAS How cameras have changed since their creation
FINDING HUMANITY IN THE FUTURE How current fears have caused the sci fi genre to grow darker
MONEY IN THE FILM INDUSTRY Eight different film producers and how much money they make
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND CINEMA How scientific discoveries and revolutionary inventions have influenced films
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THE
CONTRIBUTORS
PAGE
SARAH LUCAS loves watching movies, even if she can’t as often as she’d like to because of her huge load of homework. Her favorite thing about films is that they are able to connect people of all backgrounds. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, and playing the piano and violin.
SAVANNAH JACKSON has always had an interest in the sci fi and fantasy genres, and can spend hours imagining other worlds. She believes that storytelling is a large part of our culture, from novels to film to music. Savannah has played an instrument since she was four and been writing novels since she adapted Cinderella in second grade.
AUSTIN BARRON is a confidently short Mexican who was raised around good films. Art has played a large role his life, and Austin has various fond memories of Friday night trips to the movies. Since he was young, he has enjoyed science fiction nearly as much as he has loved the sound of a viola.
LETTER THE
FROM
EDITORS
Dear Reader; There are only a few things that can bring complete strangers together. For the three of us who ended up collaborating for a school project, that one thing was film. Capturing stories on screen has the capability to raise awareness about current issues and concerns, or reminisce about past events. We believe that film can express important and innovative ideas, and show different perspectives. In Flashframe, we will explore film throughout our stories. Each story relates to film in a different way; spanning from how period films are rendered, how our current society is affecting science fiction films, and how scientific discoveries have influenced film. We hope you enjoy Flashframe. Most of all, through this magazine, we hope to share our passion for film with you. Thank you for reading, Austin Barron Sarah Lucas Savannah Jackson
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THE FILMMAKING PROCESS [by SARAH LUCAS]
To create a film, filmmakers typically follow a five stage process that includes development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution.
DEVELOPMENT First, the filmmaker must develop an idea. The idea will become part of a director’s vision, which describes the narrative structure and look of the proposed film. It’s one of the longest stages, as a focused idea is critical to a film’s success.
PREPRODUCTION During this process, the scriptwriter will begin writing the script. Production design begins to create the set. Props are made, actors are cast and a shooting schedule for the film is planned.
All information gathered from the article “Five Phases of Filmmaking� by Glen Berry via Film Underground, filmmaking.com, Wikipedia and thestoryofmovies.org.
DISTRIBUTION POSTPRODUCTION PRODUCTION In the production stage, the raw footage of the film is produced. Shooting and recording relies on the planning and storyboarding that took place during pre-production. It is critical to follow the script to successfully render the film. This part of the filmmaking process mainly features the work of actors.
During post production, the film comes to life. Raw footage is now turned into a film ready to present to the audience. Traditional editing is the first step in post-production. The audio and special effects are then also considered. In some aspects, this stage might be considered even more critical than the actual filming.
The final stage of the filmmaking process is distribution. During this stage, the film reaches the audience. The audience can view the film at cinemas or home viewing using DVDs and the Internet. Filmmakers must employ marketing tactics to allow for a wider distribution of their final product.
RECREATING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT [story by SARAH LUCAS]
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HE YEAR IS 1836. One of the crucial events of Roland, who frequently reviews period pieces and has a the Texas Revolution, the battle of the Alamo, has B.A. in History from the University of Texas at Austin, just begun. Mexican troops under the powerful attributes the importance of period films to their command of President Santa Anna have surrounded the prevalence to the common man. vulnerable compound against the vastly outnumbered Texan defenders, who have vowed to fight until death. As a historian with a B.A. in History from the University As the Mexican army converges, the brash Santa Anna of Texas at Austin, and frequent reviewer of period pieces, valiantly leading them, William Travis fires an immense Roland attributes the importance of period films to their cannon at the southwest wall. Today, these historical prevalence to the common man., and says they do not events are rendered to the only serve to entertain the general silver screens in period VISUAL MEDIA IS THE PRIMARY public, but also are useful in an pieces like “The Alamo” educational sense. WAY PEOPLE CONSUME (2004). “I think historically-set films can HISTORICAL MEDIA NOW. These details -- from be very useful objects of study for -NICHOLAS ROLAND what the fortress looked students of history, just as novels like to what accents the written about or during certain characters spoke with -time periods can be useful,” are required in for the present to Roland said. According to Daina Berry, an Associate successfully capture the essence of the past. Period films, which convey stories of historical fiction, require accurate depictions of the period to be convincing. The major caveat of some of these works is their failure to capture the essence of what life was at the time. In order to construct a convincing set up of the story and successfully bring the audience into the world, historical consultants must use various techniques to emulate the details of the time into the film.
Photo courtesy of PBS
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“Visual media is the primary way people consume historical knowledge now,” Nicholas Roland said.
The Alamo, a key fixture of the Texas Revolution, has been the subject of a multitude of period films. 8 FLASHFRAME
Photo courtesy of PBS
In this screenshot from “Downton Abbey,” kitchen staff prepare a meal in traditional wear of the 1920s.
Professor in History at the University of Texas, period pieces are currently in an all-time resurgence because of technological advancements.
of popular books and characters. Additionally, they may have passed into the public domain by the time the historical work is produced. Such is the case with Sherlock Holmes, which boasts a myriad of adaptations. The highly successful “Downtown Abbey,” “Mad Men,” and “Les Misérables” all constitute as period works.
“We learn more because of the age of the internet -there’s so much more information put out there.,” Berry said. “Before you had to go to an archive, and you don’t know what you’re looking for. Now people can put digital “When paired with more traditional historical narratives, information or a photograph and think ‘Wow, I want to these shows or films can give nuance to how we imagine know more about that’, and there’s going to be a film on a certain time frame culturally, and this imagining of it. So there’s a lot you can do with a time period can be incredibly the way technology has changed, powerful for our culture and YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE society,” Radio-Television-Film and I think that’s allowed us to look THE AUDIENCE, YOU’RE Ph.D. candidate Charlotte Howell with a deeper lens into the past.” GOING TO LOSE THE said. On the other hand, historian Roland IMPACT OF THE STORY.” believes there’s a waning of interest In order for a period film to be of period films. Apart from war successful in this movies, period pieces seldom serve mission, however, many details -NICHOLAS ROLAND as feature films must be considered. today. However, he notes this This is a job that often requires as “reflective of people’s lack of external assistance from interest in history,” which makes period films all the historical consultants. These consultants may serve more important. With the engaging nature of film, as full time advisors on films, or professionals with Roland said it “can be a great medium to show and get a research specialization appropriate to the film’s people interested of things in history that they would subject. For Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, a professor in Radiootherwise ignore.” Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin, her research specialization on American film and media The public interest in period films is not solely attributed history led to her recruitment for a documentary about to education efforts. Period films also constitute several Mary Pickford, a pioneer of early cinema. well-known works, and are often likely adaptations “In part, I talked as a consultant about
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Photo courtesy of public domain via Imgkid.com
trying to help them understand what audiences of the day would have thought about her films,” Fuller-Seeley said. A consultant’s role isn’t limited to the conceptual phases of filming, nor does it necessarily end when the camera stops rolling. Sometimes, research gathered by consultants serves to further reassure the filmmakers that they’re heading in the right direction. The process includes fact checking on part of the studio for a historical consultant to look at what they’ve already done. A professor in the Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin, Daina Berry has served in multiple roles as a historical advisor for films. “It could be after the project is complete, or they could get in touch with you during the process of thinking about how they want to do the film,” Berry explained.
A screenshot from “Downton Abbey,” a widely-acclaimed period drama television series. The show’s scene is a fictional scene based off of the British Edwardian era..
“They might want to bounce off some ideas to make sure what they’re doing is not too far off of the historical record.”
Photo courtesy of China Crisis
Regardless of when they review the film, the role of a historical consultant remains the same. Their influence is responsible for ensuring the film’s plausibility for the time period, which they do by finding key details.
“The historian has to find those most important sort of turning points or emblematic episodes that illustrate a great many things that are kind of essential to the story and most essential about the character,” Fuller-Seeley. said However, there is a certain balance on details between historical accuracy and creativity. This detail conflict is especially pronounced in a period film, where the depiction of history comprises an integral role in a film’s success. On one hand, getting bogged down in too much detail really mires the whole storyline, but on the other, lack of detail leads to the film becoming too unrealistic.
Costumes serve an integral role in ensuring the plausibility of a period film.
Roland brings up the “The Alamo” (2004) as a prime example of this conflict,which serves as one of the main fallacies in historical filmmaking. The battle of the Alamo is one that has been tirelessly recreated in scores of adaptations, so the newest adaptation in 2004 was not groundbreaking in the least. Citing Chapter 10 in “Mission Statement: The Alamo and the Fallacy of Historical Accuracy in Epic Filmmaking,” he offers a closer look at what was behind the epic box office flop. The film’s failure at the box office arose from the filmmakers’ unwavering attempt at historical accuracy rendering the
film forgettable cinematically. As critic Carla Meyer said in the chapter, “‘The Alamo’ covers all the bases, but in doing so dilutes its message of sacrifice for the greater good.”
Another reason why it’s so difficult to focus on a particular theme in addressing the detail conflict is that history is ever changing as it continues to be reevaluated. As a whole, evaluations of these famous characters and famous people can change, according to these themes and perspectives that they choose to pick.
“It’s a little bit different in making sure you show every single little event that occurred in telling a narrative,” explained Roland. “You’re going to lose the audience, “This year’s villain could be next year’s unlikely hero,” you’re going to lose the impact of Fuller-Seeley said. the story.” THIS YEAR’S VILLAIN Despite all of the potential fallacies COULD BE THE NEXT This conflict is addressed through in period films, they still hold a firm picking out central themes for the place in the film culture of today. YEAR’S UNLIKELY piece to focus on. The lack of a Period films remain unique in their HERO.” cohesive theme is what brought nature of being able to place different “The Alamo” to a epic box office perspectives on history, a dynamic flop, explains Professor Fuller-Seeley. -KATHY FULLER- SEELEY study of the past that shapes the world today. Moreover, it can even change “If you don’t have a sharp theme, their former understanding of the past you always have to balance the by influencing our knowledge and creative and the factual because you’re trying to tell beliefs. everything, but if you include everything it becomes what historians sort of call ‘one damn thing after another,’” “We might learn something that we didn’t know about. Fuller-Seeley said. It also gives us context, gives us a context to something that’s going on today or just gives us more information Sometimes it’s hard to let these details go when focusing as to why there’s a history that might be more volatile or on a theme, especially because losing them in turn means difficult, and if you see a film that really talks about or losing some aspects of historical accuracy. It’s also a addresses that history, that’s going to change whatever challenge to stick with a singular theme itself. In films, knowledge that person may have had about that period. this often means sticking with a singular viewpoint rather It’s going to change the way they think about it,” Berry than portraying multiple perspectives like in written said. works. “Or it might confirm things that they had already “History can present you with really complex arguments, assumed. If anything, it opens up a dialogue. I think but film and media presentations tend to go for crafting a conversation is healthy, and is also a space where we can particular theme and carrying that one theme throughout educate one another.” the whole film,” Fuller-Seeley said.
Photo courtesy of Bradley via flickr
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A man and woman outfitted in period dress from the film “The King’s Speech.”
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E v olu t i on OF C a m er a s [by SAVANNAH JACKSON]
Photo courtesy of
hy via Falcon Photograp
flickr
The film industry has evolved alongside the camera, from stop motion films to 3D panoramic films. This ability to capture moments and tell stories has changed our society, starting with the creation of the camera in 1827. Sources: http://abt.cm/1b0NkMs, http://bit.ly/1cqHtHu, http://bit.ly/1PCOpOt, http://bit.ly/ZoESIf, http://abt.cm/1ASqR13, http://bit.ly/ZoESIf
Camera
Obscura
The first photograph was taken by Joseph NicephoreNiepce in 1827.
It took over nine hours for the film to develop.
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Invented by a friend of NicephoreNiepce, this camera only took seven and a half hours less time to develop the film. Daguerreotype
Photo courtesy of public domain
Colored photographs became commercial 1940’s
1839
Photo courtesy of The Style Note
1827
The first attempt to create 3D film was in the late 20th century when two screens were “merged” to create a 3D effect
camera
Photo courtesy of Joe Haupt via flickr
1991
Texas Instruments creates the first filmless camera in 1972, but it is not available to the public.
Oculus rift technology allows viewers for a high definition, panoramic view that makes the reader feel like they are actually in the movie. This technology is also being used outside the film industry for video gaming and navy training, as shown above.
2001 The first commercial camera phone was sold in Japan, ten years after the first digital camera was sold. Camera
n
Nikon and Kodak create the first commercial, digital camera in
Photo courtesy of Official U.S. Navy Page, via flickr.
ic domai
Camera
publ urtesy of Photo co
Digital
Phone
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FINDING HUMANITY IN THE FUTURE [story by SAVANNAH JACKSON]
People are clamoring for more action-packed, science fiction thrillers. According to the-numbers.com, more than 320 million tickets for science fiction movies sold in 2014, more than 100 million over the previous year. This is a far leap from nine years ago when only 27 million tickets sold. Current films portray futuristic worlds as dark and colorless, with corrupt governments
A boxshot view of the digital art for sci-fi sharp shooter video game “Project Icarus,” portraying ravaged and lawless cities. This dark view of the future can be seen in video games, movies, and television shows. 14 FLASHFAME
Photo courtesy of Indie DB Games
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HE GIRL CLUTCHES her younger sister, praying she won’t make a sound while the officers search the streets for rebels. As the officers come into focus on the screen, the audience notices the metal glinting beneath the officers’ camo uniforms. The audience watches, hoping for cyborgs as they shove popcorn into their mouths.
Photo courtesy of public domain via Imgkid.com
overrun by self-aware technology, while other plots search for another planet the remainder of the human population can escape to as Earth dies. “In older films and television, technology and futuristic creations were maybe presented with a more optimistic view of what they could be and what they could do for us,” Reid Lansford, a programmer and the registration director at Other Worlds Austin, a science fiction festival, said.
Nova Prime is the futuristic city that “After Earth” begins in.
He has noticed differences in how film portrays the future. When Marty McFly travels to 2015 in “Back to the Future II,” he finds self-lacing shoes and brightly colored hover boards. Nearly half a decade after “Back to the Future,” it is clear to see how portrayals of the future have changed. “Elysium” shows a future with crumbling buildings, grey landscapes, and men with machinery embedded in their skin to help them survive. “If we imagined a utopian futuristic society then life now would feel miserable,” Breanne Hull said. “Dystopian societies make us feel like we’ve got it good and need to protect what we have.”
Texas. He said, “science fiction is a way for people to test out how a trend in society might go too far if it continues unchecked.” Current worldwide issues concerning hunger and poverty are exaggerated on the big screen. The recent “Interstellar” shows humanity coming together in an effort to survive despite food shortages as they search space for new, habitable planets. In the new television show “The 100,” humans spent years in a spaceship, used all of their oxygen, and attempt to return to a ravaged Earth.
As the managing director at AMS Pictures, a creative media company based in Texas, Hull knows how the media can plays a large role in our society. Despite the seeming abundance of resources in America and much of Western Europe, the media shows the horrors THE REALITY IS THAT TECHNOLOGY other countries face, Breanne Hull said IS SMALL - IT FITS IN THE PALM OF such as war, famine that many of the and disease outbreak. OUR HANDS. older films of the According to the World BREANNE HULL science fiction Food Programme, one genre depicted in nine people do not the future have access to the food incorrectly. In older movies, “technology they need, while in America food is unnecessarily wasted. was bigger,” Hull said. “It was portrayed Movies such as “Elysium” and “Upside Down” show clear a big spaceships or big living areas in distinctions in the future between amplified poverty and space. The reality is that technology is success. small -- it fits in the palm of our hands.”
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Beau Thorne wrote the science fiction film “Max Payne,” starring Mark Wahlberg, and is currently writing another futuristic action movie while teaching at the University of
The first computer, used for military purposes in 1936, covered 1800 square feet of floor space. The first cell FLASHFRAME 15
Photo courtesy of Kārlis Dambrāns via flickr
As a personal assistant, Siri can set appointments, call contacts, and open apps.
phone sold in 1973 for almost $4000. It weighed two and a half pounds and measured 10 inches. According to Vanessa Mokry, who teaches Audio and Video Production at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, the revolution of technology can be tracked throughout the science fiction genre. “Cell phones came out only about twenty years ago,” Mokry said. “[They] started showing up in films in different ways, so much so that you can easily date films now.” iPhones, first released in 2007 for only $500, can now perform the same actions as computers, but are portable and can fit [TECHNOLOGY] in a pocket.
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would become a constant companion who could make sense of the complex questions where Siri falls short. This advancement shows how we are much closer to creating the self-aware technology seen in many science fiction films today than we were when the idea of a selfaware machine became popular in 2001 with the movie “Artificial Intelligence.” “Technology is advancing by the minute, it seems, and has become an inescapable part of life,” Lansford said.
“Short Circuit,” made in 1986, preceded many science fiction movies that would focus on machines becoming self-aware or developing a conscious and humanistic attributes. These movies HAS BECOME AN provide examples of humans and robots PART OF LIFE. attempting to relate.
INESCAPABLE - REID LANSFORD
“Everyone over a certain age is aware of how much technology has changed within their own lifetime, and it’s fun to imagine where that continued progress will lead,” Thorne said. iPhone’s personal assistant, Siri, debuted in 2011, and is now a part of every iPhone. However, she often has difficulties answering simple requests. Apple inventors are currently working on a more advanced assistant named Viv. Installed in more than just iPhones, Viv 16 FLASHFRAME
““Her” showed how the loss of interpersonal human communication can drive us to have too strong of a connection to our technology,” Lansford said. Set in the 2800s, the recent family movie “Wall-E” portrayed humans who, after 700 years in space, resemble marshmallows in spandex onesies who chose to watch holograms instead of talking to their neighbors. When the people do choose to talk to people, while drinking liquified food, they do so through their voice activated holograms.
“It’s people reacting to a changing world and some of their fears and the fact that we’ve become more isolated,” Mokry said. To reunite humanity, the human captain of the spaceship in “Wall-E” must destroy the software that prevents them from returning to Earth. Even once they take control of their spaceship, they return to Earth to discover they will have many more obstacles in making it habitable. “People want to see characters they care about struggle to overcome big obstacles keeping them from a better life,” Thorne said.
“Our lives can occur in a small bubble if you want it to; you don’t need neighbors to survive anymore,” Mokry said. “I think that is mirrored in some of those post-apocalyptic movies where the lone hero tries to find other people and connect - and bring society back.”
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PEOPLE WANT TO SEE CHARACTERS THEY CARE ABOUT STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME BIG OBSTACLES KEEPING THEM FROM A BETTER LIFE. - BEAU THORNE
“The peace we currently live in is fragile, and we all hope that if things took a turn for the worst, we would stand up for what was right,” Hull said. “We hope that our individual moral code is stable enough inside of us that it can withstand the destruction of society as we know it.”
Photo courtesy of Collider.com
For many of these futuristic movies, that obstacle is technology. Although movies such as the transformer series portray technology aiding humans in their adventures, other movies force humans to come together in order to defeat the technology that threatens humanity.
Released in 2014, “Transcendence” questions the possibility of robots maintaining humanistic qualities when a dying man’s consciousness is uploaded to a computer. Once digitized, the man quickly loses his moral code and those around him struggle to maintain relationships.
From “Ender’s Game,” set in 2135, spaceships and plain uniforms create an aggressive feel for the story that focuses on children forced into military programs in the future.
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MONEY IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
HOW MUCH MONEY 8 TYPES OF CONTRIBUTORS MAKE EVERY YEAR OR EVERY PROJECT
BY: AUSTIN BARRON
THE YELLERS: DIRECTORS UPPER END DIRECTORS HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO MAKE AS MUCH AS
$170 MILLION THE ST ARS: ACTORS HIGH TIER ACTORS CAN MAKE UP TO
$65 MILLION
THE DREA MERS: PRODUCERS ALTHOUGH THEY WORK YEARS ON PROJECTS, PRODUCERS USUALLY MAKE LESS THAN
$5 MILLION
THE EDUCATED: SCREENPL AY WRITERS PER MOVIE, TALENTED SCREENPLAY WRITERS CAN MAKE UPWARDS OF
$1 MILLION
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INFORMATION GATHERED FROM http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ http://www.howmuch-money.com/ http://www.chron.com/
ILS: STUNT ME V E D N A RE D E
THWHILE WAITING TO DO SOMETHING
DANGEROUS, STUNT MEN CAN MAKE AN AVERAGE OF
$70, 000
THE
QUIET: EDITORS THEY MIGHT STITCH THE MOVIE TOGETHER, BUT AT THE END OF THE YEAR, THEY ONLY TAKE HOME
00
$60,0
THE F ABULOUS: COSTUME DESIGNERS WHILE THEIR PAY MAY START AT $19,000, EXPERIENCED COSTUME DESIGNERS CAN, IN ONE PROJECT, MAKE
$60,000
DPs, AKA CINEMATOGRAPHERS, HELP DIRECTORS WITH THE CRAFTING OF THE PRACTICAL VISUALS IN MOVIES, AND GAIN
$50,000
THE VISIONARIES: DPs FLASHFRAME 19
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND CINEMA [story by AUSTIN BARRON] them tick, and why they express those things in film.
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HE EYES OF millions ride on the same ship that carries three men to the moon. Hopes and dreams tangle themselves in the fumes of the vessel that tumbles into outer space. Even on a pixelated, colorless television they can see the stars flickering in the background as they sit on their living room floor on a cool summer morning. Alongside that first lunar landing in 1969, countless other scientific discoveries have led to the creation of hundreds of movies, books, and stories made about the wonders of the universe. In fact, the top ten grossing and ranked science fiction films on IMDB followed our trip to the moon, with the resurgence of interest in the universe ushering the film industry to begin capitalizing on science fiction films. Movies about space exploration started attracting larger audiences, and the film industry saw a new place to make a profit. “A lot of the sci-fi movies way back when popped up for various things, like American fear, cold war stuff, and that’s where some of the sci-fi came from, but, we’re always going to dream.” Vanessa Mokry said. Mokry is the Audio Video Production teacher at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. Film has been her passion since childhood, and she credits movies and television with helping raise her. Film has played a large role in the shaping of our society. As an artform, film reflects the discoveries and interests of the culture it comes from, and is no exception to the way science and space exploration has affected the way the world works. Figuring out the science behind science fiction, the science that motivates mankind enough to include it in it’s art, can lead people to better understanding their human nature: what interests them, what makes
“I would like to think that it is all of our collective hope and dream that someday humanity actually does achieve things like that, but in the mean time we keep telling ourselves these stories of science fiction to keep us going,” Alison Earnhart said. Throughout her life, Earnhart has held a deep interest in the natural sciences, earning degrees in both Physics and Mechanical Engineering, along with taking multiple astronomy classes. She now teaches at the Liberal Arts
and Science Academy, where students study everything from biology to aeronautics. Science has been the passion and dedication of thousands of hardworking individuals since people can remember. From Copernicus’ Heliocentric theory in 1543 to the creation of the Hubble telescope in 1990, humans have been enthralled by the universe that surrounds them, spending entire lifetimes to prove, explore, and question everything they know.
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“To me, astronomy seeks to answer those fundamental questions of how we got here and why things are the way they are,” Earnhart said. “And if you don’t think that’s important and worth investing in, you’re probably just not the kind of person I want to talk to.”
of ardor. Directors and producers spend years working on and perfecting their films, with a prime example being James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Cameron spent 15 years developing the science fiction film, and succeeded in earning the title of highest grossing movie of all time. Just three years later in 2012, consumers spent a worldwide total of $62.4 billion on films, and that number has grown by 2 percent every year since. People spend hundreds of dollars each year watching movies, doing so in order to pass the time, entertain themselves, and to connect with other individuals.
A LOT OF TIMES IN SCIENCE FICTION, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN STORIES THAT EXPLAIN WHY THE UNIVERSE IS THE WAY IT IS, OR WHY THINGS WORK THE WAY THEY DO,” -ALLISON EARNHART
Like science, film inspires people to work towards greater goals, and instills in them a desire to work diligently and passionately, wrapping them up in a nest
“Movies and TV, nowadays, the calibre we’re at with television
drama, tells the story of the human experience so well,” Mokry said. “In a form that relates to the masses the most.” The human experience thrives on curiosity, and in Mokry’s eyes, humans are just innatelycurious. Humanity strives to satisfy curiosity, and everyone takes their own unique endeavors to meet these interests. “There’s always that ‘what’s gonna happen,’ ” Mokry said. “ ‘Cause we’re always thinking of the future, and the future is fascinating,” We make science fiction films, and just films in general, to explain and quantify the unimaginable from the times. Some science fiction films are more scientifically accurate than others. Movies like “Contact”, which was based off of a book written by astronomer Carl Sagan, follow the science surrounding them in a way that isn’t just plausible, but imaginative. You see examples of science fiction films that included at-the-time recently discovered science, such as “Jurassic Park” and the genetic studies done in the 90’s, and “Deep Impact”,
Center: Picture of the Carina Nebula taken by the Hubble Telescope in August 2009, and said to have taken part in inspiring director Christopher Nolan. Courtesy: NASA
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which took its own original spin on asteroid deterring. No matter how exact the science is, science fiction is inspired by either the people or the history being made around it.
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“Movies probably reflect more than they instigate on things, and yeah, I mean something new happens, and there definitely are things that occur... that do end up in movies,” Mokry said.
I THINK THE SHORTEST EXPLANATION IS WHEN YOU REALLY TRY TO GRASP THE SIZE AND QUANTITY OF THE UNIVERSE, IT JUST MAKES YOUR BRAIN HURT, PLAIN AND SIMPLE
yet to see any other sentient beings in the universe. What humankind doesn’t understandis the perfect inspiration for a lot of movies and stories.
“They have a differentset of physical rules and things like that, and I feel like that speaks ALLISON EARNHART to our desire to understand the universe, and when we don’t The things that surround a culture, understand things, we do like the questions asked, and the puzzles that fascinate it, making up stories,” Earnhart said. they integrate themselves in film. Humanity will never stop searching for answers, and luckily, the universe People enjoy making up these stories because they help contains a lot of unanswered questions: what the shape them handle who they are. By expressing their thirst for of the universe is, what the origin of our worlds are, and knowledge through film, the results are almost remedial. why we have
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Center: Space Shuttle Endeavor on the edge of the stratosphere: one of the engineers that worked on it, Homer Hickam, later had a movie based on him. (Courtesy: Center: Space ShuttleNASA) Endeavour on the edge of the stratosphere. An engineer on the project, Homer Hockin, later had a movie based off of him. Courtesy of NASA 22 FLASHFRAME
“The realm of science fiction where we’re making up stories about what we don’t know is sort of like a self therapy thing,” Earnhart said. Trying to understand our origins, and just the pure vastness of space is extremely difficult, and leads to awestruck wonder in people. A scientific theory has arisen over the years, one that focuses on the idea that, since we are beings that exist within the universe, we may never be able to sincerely grasp the universe and its secrets. We are humbled by the cosmos that surrounds us, and knowing that we may not “physically have the capacity to truly understand or comprehend the universe the way that it truly is” leads to us making movies and stories about it. Because of its size and magnitude, it forces us to dream, and to create worlds larger than that which we can ever experience ourselves. “It helps us think of a better future where we can actually achieve these great scientific things and go explore these places, because,” Earnhart said. “I believe that’s part of the human mind. It’s wired into our brains that we want to be explorers.”
Right: A graphic representation of the human brain’s function. Multiple news sources, including NPR, have crafted articles regarding the possibility that humans may not have the physical capacity to understand the universe, due to its infinite size. FLASHFRAME 23
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