Fiona wrote:
Also, I personally consider a lot of things about B7 very visual.
Yep. I *like* all that concrete and harsh look, I like the magic bangles and the odd guns (I was sad when the Scorpio season ditched both), I like the clothes (except the red mummy suit) and, well, the whole look of it. And I also like the cheapness - it looks almost stylised and abstract to me. I adore the outline teleporter effect, for example, and the credits with the dinky toy Liberator... And both Travises look fantastic, evil leather pirates, ooh... Of course, I've never been interested in special effects, or seen why movies and tv should really be any more "realistic" than a stage set, and I watch far too many cartoons, so my taste might be highly personal... As far as I'm concerned, anyway, B7 is highly visual, and not merely because of Seravalan's gowns and Soolin... It has a distinctive visual style, and I love it.
I'll admit I'm glad there weren't very many non-humanoid aliens, though... <wince>
Of course, I was watching "Pressure Point" this weekend when my 8 year old brothers wandered in. (I don't usually watch it around them becuase of concerns with its violence.) And when Gan met his fate, they didn't get upset, they howled with laughter, and when I asked them why, they said because cardboard couldn't hurt anyone... And now, everytime I criticise Digimon <sniff>, they say, "Well, you watch a show made out of cardboard!"
Kids today are so cynical...
As for the art: Una's right. Posters *would* have been a cheap but effective way of conveying a totalitarian system, and one with which the viewer could have immediately identified, being familiar with contemporary Civil Defence posters as well as with wartime propaganda posters of all sorts around the place. One wonders why they didn't.
Perhaps it was just too familiar?
In fact, I recall from a DWB article on the B7 title sequence that the original title sequence was going to feature the printing of "Wanted" style posters of Blake and Co.
Oh, how cute!
XXX Kanna-Ophelia Femmeslash: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/femmeslash The Pokeslash Playground: www.tvheaven.pokemon.com Diversion Tactics: www.geocities.com/diversiontactics
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Kanna Ophelia said:
I'll admit I'm glad there weren't very many non-humanoid aliens, though...
<wince>
Oh, I don't know--I bet one thing they'd do differently nowadays would be to give at least a few speaking parts to actors in alien suits with french fries on their noses. It would have been interesting to explore what "human" means in this context--we don't really get much about how Cally reacts to non-Aurons and vice versa.
-(Y)
--- Kanna Ophelia rosemaybud@one.net.au wrote
(quoting Fiona)
As for the art: Una's right. Posters *would* have
been a cheap but effective
way of conveying a totalitarian system, and one
with which the viewer could
have immediately identified, being familiar with
contemporary Civil Defence
posters as well as with wartime propaganda posters
of all sorts around the
place. One wonders why they didn't.
Perhaps it was just too familiar?
I suspect that it was considered too familiar and not modern enough. Pity, might have made a good scene in the Way Back. Blake, appalled by the suggestion that he could ever have been involved in rebel activities, storms out of Fosters meeting, narrowly avoiding the Federation Troopers who proceed to massacre everyone there. Confused and terrified he runs off down a series of blank passages where, after turning a corner he goes catatonic with shock. The troopers find him and drag Blake away, the face on a "Wanted" poster staring impassively after him.
Stephen.
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Dana Shilling -
Kanna Ophelia -
Stephen Date