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Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner
Paul M. Sammon Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0061053147 |
Book Description
The 1992 release of the "Director's Cut" only confirmed what the international film cognoscenti have know all along: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's brilliant and troubling SF novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, still rules as the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential SF film ever made.Future Noir is the story of that triumph.
The making of Blade Runner was a seven-year odyssey that would test the stamina and the imagination of writers, producers, special effects wizards, and the most innovative art directors and set designers in the industry.
A fascinating look at the ever-shifting interface between commerce and the art that is modern Hollywood, Future Noir is the intense, intimate, anything-but-glamerous inside account of how the work of SF's most uncompromising author was transformed into a critical sensation, a commercial success, and a cult classic.
Customer Reviews:
Tabloid Trash.......2006-05-28
Interesting but lacking in proof.......2005-07-05
Minute Production Details, No Proof of the Filmýs Influence.......2002-10-26
The book reads easily and well, Sammon's style informal. He writes as one BR fan to another, a great approach. The production details are thorough, insightful, and wonderful to read, 441 pages in 18 chapters, with nine appendices containing interviews, production details, the cast list, etc. Sammon is a total BR devotee, I compliment and commend him on his achievement and the recognition of those who worked so hard to make BR.
There is vast information throughout from all members of the cast and crew, all of them supportive of Sammon's effort to tell their story. There is surprisingly liberal information from the movie's principals, Ridley Scott, Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Michael Deeley, Syd Mead, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. One disappointment is the absence of direct input and comment from the soundtrack maestro, Vangelis. Sammon nevertheless gives him thorough justice.
Wonderful esoteric tidbits abound through the book, such as the revelation that the original lead was not Harrison Ford, but Dustin Hoffman. Edward James Olmos provides great background on his preparation for his role as Gaff and his detailed construction of his Cityspeak dialog (most of it sadly unused). We learn of fantastic special effects scenes never realized, and that in the background in one of the aerial city shots is a painted Millennium Falcon model. We learn that the process of creating this movie was a years-long, highly personal effort, first by Hampton Fancher to secure rights and create a screenplay, then later by Ridley Scott and other members of the team who continued to craft the film even after they were fired by the production company. It is a story of dedication to craft and art from a group of artists looking to raise diverse artistic, social, moral, and ethical issues with this genre-transcending film. I often was reminded of the documentary Hearts of Darkness, the story of Francis Ford Coppola's unending dedication to and struggles with the making of Apocalypse Now.
Highlighted superbly in the book is the true key to BR's success, Ridley Scott's intense attention to detail, his relentless questioning of the larger context and physical placement of the story. For example, Scott insisted on instructions painted on the futuristic parking meters in the street scenes. Absolutely illegible in the finished film, this sort of detail nonetheless set a compelling, even subconscious tone for the set and those who worked within it.
Particularly entertaining is Chapter 8, the scene by scene account of the shoot, with comment from the actors, producers, specialists, crew, and Scott. Also very useful for the true BR fanatic are the appendices listing all of the various BR versions, their formats, availability, and catalog information. Sammon does the same for the various soundtracks and musical compositions heard throughout the film, even the music and lyrics from the advertisements sported on the ad-blimps. Especially enjoyable is Appendix C's detailed list of "blunders," a compendium of the film's both obvious and subtle continuity errors, dubbing flaws, and inserted footage.
There are dozens of illustrations throughout the book, and Sammon gives due credit to BR's still photographer for the hundreds of stills that BR fans know and collect. The main problem is that the ONLY color photos in the entire book are on the front and back covers. The B/W photos in the book are small, grainy, poorly reproduced, and do not reflect Sammon's praise. These sorry photos do not allow the reader, who hasn't seen many of these never-before-published stills and production drawings, to revel in the details.
Sammon is overly obsessed with cataloging ALL of the different versions of the film, and detailing the most minute differences. We have chapter after repetitive chapter discussing the differences between the Workprint, the pre-release revisions, the theatrical release, the various video, broadcast, and satellite releases, as well as the competing director's cuts. The fascinating core tale of the political, economic, and artistic fights over all of these versions of the film is lost as Sammon loses track and focuses too closely on the details of the different versions, obsessing to the point of irrelevance on miniscule details. For the BR fanatic this is invaluable, but for most readers this makes the narrative tedious and repetitive, given this technical information is available also in Appendix B.
Sammon's promised discussion of BR's influence on sci-fi film is absent. His subtitle, "The Fascinating Story Behind the . . . Most Influential SF Film Ever Made" promises a discussion of BR's influence on filmdom. His discussion is poorly introduced, disorganized, and sorrowfully weak on supporting facts and testimonials, leading ultimately to the conclusion that BR simply is NOT the most influential sci-fi film of all time. In fact, the paltry six-page discussion of BR's influence is one of the shallowest, most poorly researched and organized parts of the entire book. Sammon's strength and enthusiasm clearly lie in the film's production details. Nowhere in the book does he cite any filmmaker, actor, editor, producer, or special effects artist describing BR as an influence.
This book is an invaluable acquisition for any die-hard BR fan, and a great memoir for any student of filmmaking. It's not for the casual BR or film fan; it's a cult book, just as Blade Runner is a cult film. Disappointingly, Sammon fails to deliver a crucial element of his work, a thorough and convincing discussion of BR's influence on cinema and its place in greater filmdom.
Blade Runner Bible.......2002-10-04
The novel is simply an overwhelming wealth of information on all things Blade Runner; chapters focus on every minute detail such as the evolution of the story as it passed through the hands of Phillip K. Dick's novel, Hampton Fancher's screenplay, then into the hands of David Peoples and Ridley Scott. Chapter VIII is such a delight, as it meticulously works through each scene in the film, stopping along the way to add tidbits of info such as exclusive interviews with the actors. Sammon apparently also had the luxury of roaming the set of Blade Runner, and he reveals things such as the futuristic magazine covers he would see on the magazine racks and many other incredibly obscure decorations the design team threw in that are virtually impossible to see when you watch the film.
Like the other reviewers, I agree that Sammon is not perhaps the most skilled writer, and the prose of the book is very choppy and (especially in Chapter I) pretty corny. What troubles me most, though, is that Sammon has a particularly annoying habit of throwing out names without properly introducing them and explaining their role in the Blade Runner universe. Mercifully, there is a cast and crew listing printed as an appendix, which is a great help. This, and some of the other errors in the book seem quite obvious, and it leaves one wondering who was in charge of the editing.
Anyhow, the book allows great insight into the workings of the film, all gathered from what must be piles and piles of notes and cassette-recorded dialogue Sammon collected over the years to produce a rather well-organized book for fans of the film to read. I have seen the film countless times, and the new perspectives and ideas gained from this book keep the film fresh and wondrous as the years go by.
Absolutely fascinating.......2002-07-20
Mr Sammon's writing is somewhat overenthusiastic, reading like a fan's website. But the sheer quanitity and interesting nasture of the material makes up for this.
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Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. (book reviews): An article from: Utopian Studies
Peter Fitting Manufacturer: Society for Utopian Studies ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B00097MM50 Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Utopian Studies, published by Society for Utopian Studies on January 1, 1997. The length of the article is 486 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Future Noir : The Making of Blade Runner
Paul Sammon Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OEN7R0 |
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Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music
Peter Guralnick , and Ernst Jorgensen Manufacturer: Ballantine Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0345420896 Release Date: 1999-10-05 |
Amazon.com
On the heels of Peter Guralnick's acclaimed two-volume study of the rise and fall of Elvis Presley (Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love) comes a book that chronicles the same epic tale in a manner that's far less weighty than the preceding tomes, but almost as telling. For this quick-hit chronology of the Elvis story, Guralnick and his collaborator, archivist/record producer Ernst Jorgensen, were given access to 35 tons of Presley flotsam that included everything from his first income tax return to a mother lode of unpublished candids. Freed from a narrative structure, the authors chronicle the cultural icon through snippets that capture the mundane (Elvis gets his first Tupelo Public Library card, February 13, 1948) and remarkable (Elvis enlists in the battle against drugs when meeting President Nixon in the White House, December 21, 1970). Little by little, the fragments fit together to form the picture of a man hurtling toward the precipice (March 24, 1977: "Elvis's stage wardrobe is limited to two jumpsuits that he can fit into"). In this sense, Day by Day's scrapbook appearance is deceiving; this is serious business, indeed. --Steven StolderBook Description
From Elvis' foremost biographer, Peter Guralnick, author of the bestselling two-volume biography, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, and Ernst Jorgensen, the premier archivist and reissue producer of Elvis' recorded work, comes a unique chronicle of Elvis Presley's life and music. Granted unprecedented access to hundreds of thousands of photos, documents, letters, artifacts, and memorabilia by Elvis Presley Enterprises, Guralnick and Jorgensen present the King as you've never seen him before. Elvis Day by Day is a complete account of public, private, rare, forgotten, and renowned moments, captured with such detail and immediacy they read like diary entries in a life--from first steps to the first time the young "hillbilly cat" stepped on stage; from the creation of a revolutionary new sound to the last days of a universally known, tragically misunderstood music legend.Customer Reviews:
How information for book was obtained.......2004-01-09
The archives are located in 5 warehouses not open to the public and the authors were granted rare access to the archives.
The public usually only sees the "hot" items such as the flashy outfits and gold records. But the housed artifacts include items such as grocery receipts from Tupelo, Army leave papers for some R&R in Paris, casual notes, canceled checks, furniture invoices from when Elvis decorated Graceland and other odds and ends.
Obviously, no one person is going to know exactly what Elvis did everyday of his life but with as many items that have been archived, the authors give a more fuller picture of Elvis' life than you might expect.
Discover all 16,217 days of Elvis Presley's life........2003-05-20
My Favorite B-S book of all time.......2001-08-02
I have just a few questions:
Just how would these two "Elvis wonders" know what went on EVERYDAY of Elvis life?
Were they there with Elvis every moment?
Were they a fly on the wall in a past life?
Did a psychic tell them EXACTLY what happened to Elvis and when?
Maybe they were Elvis reincarnated?
If these men knew Elvis' daily happenings, they would have to be at least 10 years old in 1935, to remember anything ... and that would make both men around 76 in age, right?
ONLY ELVIS CAN WRITE HIS DIARY --- NOT THE MASTERS OF THE ELVIS UNIVERSE!
Elvis is....Elvis.......2001-01-14
The 'Definitive' Elvis history book........2000-05-10
From the very 1st pages you will learn more about Elvis's family that has ever been told. The records are more than just accurate, their are TONS of factual pictures and documents that have been scoured up from all of the Presley family and elsewhere. It is outsatnding! For the devout Elvis fan, I guarantee you will learn new tidbits, especially his early life in highschool, how many times they moved, and ALL the odd jobs he had.
The day-to-day history is simple to read, and full of very amazing trivia. Short enough to keep you interested, yet very detailed. The only con I have with this book is that it lists many of his early booking dates, with no more than the location and those get a bit tedious after a while.
The pictures throughout the book are amazing. Never have I seen a collection of Elvis pictures, and I'm sure many of them have never been in print before. The occasional full page 'splash' pictures capture The King in all his splendor from different periods of his life, whereas this book can almost be considered an art/photography book. (I really liked his judo poses throughout the years in his different costumes backstage-amusing)
In addition to the life of Elvis, we see the corresponding day by day accounts of Col. Tom Parker, Priscilla, Vernon, Gladys, and tons of other characters that somehow would come to touch Elvis's life. Truly a treasure, you will not be disapointed with this book at this price! Now I gotta buy another one as the first gift I intended it to be.
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Elvis. Day By Day. The Definitive Record of His Life and Music
Peter and Ernst Jorgensen Guralnick Manufacturer: Ballantine Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OVTLU0 |
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Techniques to Technology : A French Historiography of Technology
S. Bhattacharya Manufacturer: Orient Longman Limited ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0863110622 |
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Techniques to Technology: A French Historiography of Technology (New Trends in the French Social Sciences)
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya Manufacturer: Vantage Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0863110614 |
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Here on Gilligan's Isle/the Professor's Behind-The-Scenes Guide to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gilligan's Island, Including a Complete E
Russell Johnson , and Steve Cox Manufacturer: Perennial ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0060969938 |
Customer Reviews:
The Professor speaks . . ........2004-01-21
In this wonderful book, Johnson tells his life story in a modest and entertaining fashion. His good nature, and sense of fairness is evident throughout. The book covers Johnson's life as "Professor Roy Hinkley", his remembrances of the Gilligan's Island years, and thoughts about his fellow island castaways. The book has a multitude of terrific photos, many from behind the scenes. With nothing mean-spirited to say, this is a warm "feel good" read, that is over much too quickly.
There are many fascinating stories of interest to hardcore fans. Perhaps the most significant for the author, concerns the pilot episode. Shot in 1963, but never aired until 1992, the pilot featured different actors as The Professor, Ginger and Mary Ann. Circumstances led to the recasting of these roles with Johnson, Tina Louise and Dawn Wells.
Most fans know that the show's theme song was re-recorded for the second season to include "The Professor and Mary Ann". But in this book we learn that the musical group that performed the second version, later appeared on the program as the rock group "The Mosquitoes". Johnson devotes some time to the assortment of guest stars that visited the island, and the issue of censorship. Also covered are the post series years, and the events leading to the rescue movie, and other related Gilligan's Island projects. The "Ship's Log", a brief summary of the 98 episodes, concludes this thoroughly enjoyable book that all fans of the series will appreciate.
A few comments.......2002-12-10
Almost 35 years later this same question came up at a lunch with a bunch of my work associates, most of whom are middle-aged computer geek types or engineers like me. The funny thing was, everybody agreed they still liked Marianne. I guess some things never change.
But after her, the Professor was my favorite character on the program, and years later, when I was a college instructor briefly myself, I attributed it at least partly to the example Russell Johnson set on this show, as silly as that might sound. That maybe, and the original Star Trek, which made science and technology glamorous and sexy and very ungeeklike.
Well, for all those who loved this show like I did and were in some way inspired to do something in their lives because of it, this book is full of great behind-the-scenes stories and trivia about every aspect of the show and characters. This book will be appreciated by all fans of this classic American 60's comedy series.
Superb!!.......2001-05-19
The Only GILLIGAN book you'll ever need!.......1998-07-18
Great reference for fans.......1998-05-28
This comprehensive work is full of photos and interesting facts. A recommended reference for any fan.
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Here on Gilligan's Isle
Russell Johnson , and Steve Cox Manufacturer: Audio Literature ProductGroup: Book Binding: Audio Cassette ASIN: 1558008888 |
Customer Reviews:
A very enjoyable recording of the book.......2000-01-28
This Author Is Sooo Gloomy.......1999-06-12
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Here on Gilligan's Isle/the Professor's Behind-The-Scenes Guide to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gilligan's Island, Including a Complete E
Russell; Cox, Steve; Gilligan; Skipper; Mary Ann; Professor; Movie Star; Millionaire; His Wife Johnson Manufacturer: Perennial ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OEZGO2 |
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Here on Gilligans Isle Signed
Russel Johnson Manufacturer: HARPERCOLLINS @ PUBLISHERS ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000TXK6AC |
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Here on Gilligan's Isle/the Professor's Behind-The-Scenes Guide to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gilligan's Island, Including a Complete E
Russell; Cox, Steve; Gilligan; Skipper; Mary Ann; Professor; Movie Star; Millionaire; His Wife Johnson Manufacturer: Perennial ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000P9F45W |
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