Outer space screensaver from "Me And You And Everyone We Know"?
December 3, 2005 7:33 AM Subscribe
What is the screensaver used in the movie Me And You And Everyone We Know?
It was of outer space, with photos of galaxies and nebulas and stars in general. It's beautiful. It appears in the scene where Robby, the seven year old kid, wakes up at sunrise and listens to the metal clanking sound outside his window. His profile shadows the computer, whose space screensaver is active.
Does anyone know where I can find it?
It was of outer space, with photos of galaxies and nebulas and stars in general. It's beautiful. It appears in the scene where Robby, the seven year old kid, wakes up at sunrise and listens to the metal clanking sound outside his window. His profile shadows the computer, whose space screensaver is active.
Does anyone know where I can find it?
Not a screensaver, but if you like those sort of pictures the astronomy picture of the day site (featured on the blue not long ago) has some amazing photos.
posted by sarahmelah at 9:42 AM on December 3, 2005
posted by sarahmelah at 9:42 AM on December 3, 2005
the very slow zoom-in they do on each shot
Technically referred to as the "Ken Burns effect."
posted by kindall at 10:22 AM on December 3, 2005
Technically referred to as the "Ken Burns effect."
posted by kindall at 10:22 AM on December 3, 2005
It is not uncommon for a PC in a movie to running Mac OS since the prop [the computer] doesn't actually drive what's on the screen. For CRT monitors and TVs, you have to deal with synching with the frame rate in the camera. Not a problem with LCD panels. I shot a commercial with 30 Dell monitors and they were all showing a screen grab from powered from a single PowerBook [sorry Michael].
The other thing you'd want to do is have the screen being controlled off-camera so if the talent bumps the desk it doesn't wake from the screensaver or something. Sometimes the producers will create something on a loop so it seems real but isn't. Imagine having shot several takes of a scene, you're low on film, it is getting late, and just as the actor nails his line, the screen has a error message pop up. Sure George Lucas could take that out in post, but independent films. Nah.
I agree, it was a great film.
posted by birdherder at 11:11 AM on December 3, 2005
The other thing you'd want to do is have the screen being controlled off-camera so if the talent bumps the desk it doesn't wake from the screensaver or something. Sometimes the producers will create something on a loop so it seems real but isn't. Imagine having shot several takes of a scene, you're low on film, it is getting late, and just as the actor nails his line, the screen has a error message pop up. Sure George Lucas could take that out in post, but independent films. Nah.
I agree, it was a great film.
posted by birdherder at 11:11 AM on December 3, 2005
Kindall, sorry to chime in.
Technically, it's called a Mo-Co move - a motion control move. Ken Burns utilized it heavily due to the dearth of Civil War (and later Baseball) raw footage as film from that period. (IOW none.)
posted by filmgeek at 2:21 PM on December 3, 2005
Technically, it's called a Mo-Co move - a motion control move. Ken Burns utilized it heavily due to the dearth of Civil War (and later Baseball) raw footage as film from that period. (IOW none.)
posted by filmgeek at 2:21 PM on December 3, 2005
Sure. It's just that in iMovie, there's an actual checkbox that reads "Ken Burns Effect." It's Apple's term. (My use of the term "technical" was intended to be ironic.)
posted by kindall at 2:50 PM on December 3, 2005
posted by kindall at 2:50 PM on December 3, 2005
Filmgeek - (and sorry to derail here, Lush) camera moves on still images, as popularized by Ken Burns (but certainly not invented by him) would be technically be referred to as 'Rostrum' camera moves.
The technique and specific equipment to do rostrum work is disappearing with the advent of the cheaply available ability to do the move digitally in a motion graphics package such as After Effects or even directly in non-linear editing applications, like Final Cut Pro. For instance, take a high resolution JPEG or TIFF and animate it on the X, Y and Z planes in your chosen software. Not to mention the ability of Mac OS X to do this on at the OS-level! (I think that technology is called "Core Image")
Motion Control is a far more sophisticated version of Rostrum work, where the camera is on the end of a rig, usually in a large studio, and can move around an object or scene again and again. The most popular rigs are designed and manufactured by Mark Roberts . Most special effects shots in movies these days use them so that the shot can be repeated over and over to shoot the different elements of scenes, so they can later be composited together and mixed with 3D-generated elements that use data from the moves that were programmed into the MoCo rig.
posted by DannyUKNYC at 4:46 PM on December 3, 2005
The technique and specific equipment to do rostrum work is disappearing with the advent of the cheaply available ability to do the move digitally in a motion graphics package such as After Effects or even directly in non-linear editing applications, like Final Cut Pro. For instance, take a high resolution JPEG or TIFF and animate it on the X, Y and Z planes in your chosen software. Not to mention the ability of Mac OS X to do this on at the OS-level! (I think that technology is called "Core Image")
Motion Control is a far more sophisticated version of Rostrum work, where the camera is on the end of a rig, usually in a large studio, and can move around an object or scene again and again. The most popular rigs are designed and manufactured by Mark Roberts . Most special effects shots in movies these days use them so that the shot can be repeated over and over to shoot the different elements of scenes, so they can later be composited together and mixed with 3D-generated elements that use data from the moves that were programmed into the MoCo rig.
posted by DannyUKNYC at 4:46 PM on December 3, 2005
Response by poster: Okay, I checked out a PC-ported version of the Cosmos screensaver and watched the relevant part of the movie again, and that's not it. The galaxy and nebula photos are different from the ones in Cosmos and they fade in one after the other, with no special zooming in.
I was hoping it was a fairly standard screensaver someone who'd seen/used it before could easily identify. I just loved the quality of the photos, very hi-res and striking.
posted by Lush at 3:48 AM on December 4, 2005
I was hoping it was a fairly standard screensaver someone who'd seen/used it before could easily identify. I just loved the quality of the photos, very hi-res and striking.
posted by Lush at 3:48 AM on December 4, 2005
I asked about the slow zoom effect some time ago in this question.
I got good answers, and a link to a working windows screensaver. Load it up with your own pictures and let it go, it's absolutely captivating.
posted by tomble at 4:59 PM on December 4, 2005
I got good answers, and a link to a working windows screensaver. Load it up with your own pictures and let it go, it's absolutely captivating.
posted by tomble at 4:59 PM on December 4, 2005
Speaking of screen savers, I absolutely loved the After Dark screensavers running on my Win95 machine at one point. I don't even know if they'd run on my WinXP machine. Are there any comparable screensaver collections?
posted by apark at 1:28 PM on December 5, 2005
posted by apark at 1:28 PM on December 5, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, for others, see the movie. It's incredible. Although you'll also find plenty of people giving a mighty shrug about it. Note: it's got an R rating "for disturbing sexual content involving children, and for language"; it's a beautiful movie but kids should NOT see it.
posted by intermod at 8:50 AM on December 3, 2005