Category: Various and Sundry

Producing Various and Sundry

How The Mandalorian’s sets go beyond Green Screen and Old-School Rear Projection

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

As some readers know, despite focusing more on audio fiction these days, I still am keenly interested in how films are put together, especially when it comes to speculative fiction stories… as they almost always employ some tricks to show the fantastical with as much thrift as craft. Last year, I learned more about how the latest version of Dune departed from traditional blue and green screens. I’ve heard a lot about the “virtual sets”…

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Acting Various and Sundry Voiceover

International Talk Like William Shatner Day

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think I’ve previously done a blog post about a little known holiday today. Sure, you knew it was William Shatner’s birthday today. Sure, you knew that, at age 92, he’s still making movies and even being blasted into space. But you might not know that today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day, a minor holiday started over 10 years ago, but really deserves to be a…

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Various and Sundry

I like Master and Commander and, yes, I’m a dad. Why do you ask?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Thinking of my biennial “Favorite Films” post this past December, it’s clear from last night’s Oscars, I’m not the only one who was bowled over by the bagel that is Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s definitely due a rewatch… but actually, I’m here to point out a recent article by Gabriella Paiella for GQ about how my top pick, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, was made and is now an…

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Various and Sundry

A Viewing Guide for Star Trek: The Next Generation

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

With the airing of the final season of Star Trek: Picard, my ranking of all the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episodes is getting a steady amount of traffic. So going from the viewing guide for one of the least watched series in the franchise, Enterprise, let’s go to a Trek series that still ranks as the most watched… and based on feedback is clearly one of the most beloved. Much like many of…

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Various and Sundry

A Solid Reason to Watch Star Trek: Picard

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

On Saturday, I linked to an article about actor Michael Dorn and his long-running portrayal of the character of Worf across multiple Star Trek series and movies. Last week, the third episode of Star Trek: Picard‘s final season gave him a glorious (formal) introduction that is already spawning memes across the Interwebs. In fact, the whole season promises to give us a measure of closure with the TNG era on many fronts. There’s the main…

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Various and Sundry

The Final Act of Worf’s Klingon Opera

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I never wanted a Next Generation (TNG) season eight out of Star Trek: Picard as many fans did, but I did want more satisfying closure with the Next Generation characters than was offered by Nemesis. With that in mind, I’ve enjoyed this latest and reportedly last season of Picard, still underway. As Dylan Roth explores for Polygon, perhaps no character deserves closure more than that of the quintessentially non-Merry man: Worf. As a huge Deep…

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Various and Sundry

Hark! The Traditional Elven Yodel!

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Longtime visitors will note that I do post about Tolkien from time to time, even if I’m not the prime Tolkien fanatic in the family. I couldn’t even tell you who the first lord of Dol Amroth was, which I’m pretty sure is the level of detail one needs to be a Colbert-level Tokien fanatic. If I were, I would surely know the specific countries and landmarks Tolkien thought of in our world which he…

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Various and Sundry

A Business Model to Optimize Crap

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Hey, if you think that’s a startling headline, the original title of the article by Cory Doctorow in Wired is not-safe-for-work. But it does touch on something you may have suspected or outright observed about social media sites and their lifecycle of desperately needing content and eventually not being that useful, but obnoxiously necessary. It may motivate you to think rather unsociable thoughts. In any case, I found it interesting and in line with many…

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Various and Sundry

Maybe You’re More of a Luddite than You Thought…

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

On Monday, I had another discussion with folks online about machine learning being employed for creative tasks and the inevitable “it’s inevitable” angle people who stand to benefit from that automation like to promote. One of the things I brought up is that people can not want technology to be implemented in a certain way and not be anti-technology, which reminded me of the term “Luddite,” commonly used these days to describe someone who is…

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