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POSTED BY: Zicsoft
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 7, 2002 10:18
VIEWED: 7480
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TINYTIMM

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 8:38 PM

Quote:

How can you have a dramatic battle scene with no sound?
Sure hope Joss knows what he is doing!

Joss is of the TV generation. He isn't writing for radio and understands that TV is a VISUAL medium. Drama can be enhanced with background music or the sound of people in extreme circumstances. Example, using a track of communications during battle or the sound from the bridge of a doomed ship.

Jeff
Who loves the sight gags in Buffy

COMMONSENSEMAN

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 9:08 PM

Well I think the silence will work.

I remember when I saw the movie Robot Jox yes I will admit to seeing that.

It was a decent enough B movie but what really impressed me was the 30 seconds of the film that was shot in space.

The Robots flew up into space and had a mini battle then fell back to earth, and the entire space scene was silent except for the music.

And the music was scored just right so it accented the action, it was great.

And thst's the way it is in Firefly, it is almost more dramatic to see the ship use it Boost silently than it would be to hear a big roar.

But hey you get plenty of noise when the ship is in the atmosphere doing it's thing so don't worry.

Out......................

All are welcome at http://theannex.curvedspaces.com

ZICSOFT

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 10:54 PM

Quote:
How can you have a dramatic battle scene with no sound?

I suspect that any fighting will be more personal. Goes with the theme of the show (people, not technology). And besides, it's been done to death. I guess there's still an audience for Yet Another Star Wars Ripoff -- but I'm sure not part of it.

ZICSOFT

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 10:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TinyTimm:
Joss is of the TV generation. He isn't writing for radio and understands that TV is a VISUAL medium. ...

Jeff
Who loves the sight gags in Buffy

Well, yes and no. As I've said before, it was the visual cleverness of Hush that hooked me on Buffy. But there's a limit to what you can do with that -- which is why The Gentlemen only appeared in one ep.

All these silly space battles are just ripoffs of Star Wars. Which itself was just a ripoff of WW II movies, at least as far as the space battles go. It's been done to death.

And if you must have your quota of blood and thunder, go to a movie. That sort of thing loses all its effect on TV anyway.

SHUGGIE

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 10:34 AM

Are we talking silent space scenes or are we talking no engine noise.

A score is inherently artificial so unless you're continually trying to make the point that there's no sound in a vacuum - which would be tedious - I think a score is ok.

Even so - a score-only or even silent battle scene could be very dramatic. You'll almost certainly want to cut between shots of ships in space and characters on board - and the contrast between silence and sound could be very effective I think. I've seen this kind of thing done in other genres but the only example I can think of off the top of my head is the scene in Face Off with the little girl listening to opera on her walkman whilst in the midst of a gun-battle. That was good - if very stylistic - I'm sure there are better examples.

Shug

TINYTIMM

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 8:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
All these silly space battles are just ripoffs of Star Wars. Which itself was just a ripoff of WW II movies, at least as far as the space battles go. It's been done to death.

I don't want no silly space battles. I want NEAT space battles. Show me the hired physicists from JPL!

I seriously think a space battle would be visually boring. Like a sub vs. sub battle where the usual results are both being destroyed. With ranges in Light Minutes and weapons fired on probabilites.

Jeff
Who hopes the gunfights are written by people who have seen the police training videotapes not old "B" movies. Cross Reference: http://www.ayoob.com/

COMMONSENSEMAN

Thursday, July 25, 2002 5:48 AM

That is correct the only sound you will get in space is the score music and any talking between the people over the comms if they are outside.

The music was very haunting when they where showing Serenity flying thru space.

Out...............

All are welcome at http://theannex.curvedspaces.com

MILLERNATE

Thursday, July 25, 2002 5:13 PM

I should probably be in bed (feel sick as a dog) but I just feel like replying...

Quote:

All these silly space battles are just ripoffs of Star Wars. Which itself was just a ripoff of WW II movies, at least as far as the space battles go. It's been done to death.

And if you must have your quota of blood and thunder, go to a movie. That sort of thing loses all its effect on TV anyway.

Now to me it isn't so much that something like this *needs* space battles but that it needs the *capability* to do them for reasons of logic. Now it stands to reason that if space travel is as relatively easy as seems likely for Firefly that cargo is frequently transported through space.

Now unless greed has been extinguished (which, from the sound of Firefly it likely hasn't

) then that greed would lead to people trying to hijack that cargo (piracy being easier than theft "off the dock" so to speak) which in turn would lead to the transport ships developing weapons to stop other craft from boarding to steal said cargo and the other ships developing to counter those. Thus it seems only logical that space craft develop *some* kind of weapons (be they lasers or something else entirely).

Nathan
"Being popular and well liked is not in your best interest. Let me be more clear; if you behave in a manner pleasing to most, then you are probably doing something wrong." - Janeane Garofalo, from "Feel this Book"

ZICSOFT

Thursday, July 25, 2002 5:55 PM

Quote:
...which in turn would lead to the transport ships developing weapons to stop other craft from boarding to steal said cargo and the other ships developing to counter those.

Well, yeah, a space captain would want some kind of weapon to fire at an attacking vessel. But want and get are two different things.

Look at the history of naval warfare. Sea travel has been around for maybe 25 centuries, but it's only in the last three centuries that ships acquired the ability to damage each other at a distance. Even after the invention of gunpowder, it took a very long time to incorporate cannon into ships. Lots of technical difficulties.

So for most of history, naval battles were basically infantry actions taken out to sea.

There appear to be strong parallels in the Firefly universe. The spaceships don't have magic buzzword drives that allow them to maneuver through deep space like a WW II Spitfire. Instead they move around ballistically. And, as the whole SDI nonsense showed, hitting one ballistic object with another is damned hard.

By the same token, intercepting a ship in deep space for a boarding action would also be just about impossible. So if you're a space pirate in this universe, you have to wait for your target to enter an atmosphere so you can force her down and steal the cargo.

Which is, presumably, why there are no little guns sticking out of Serenity's hull.

ZICSOFT

Thursday, July 25, 2002 5:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by CommonSenseMan:
That is correct the only sound you will get in space is the score music and any talking between the people over the comms if they are outside.

The music was very haunting when they where showing Serenity flying thru space.

Out...............

All are welcome at http://theannex.curvedspaces.com

Hey guy, could you put all the little details between [ spoiler ] tags? Some of us want to get this stuff from the show itself.

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