Episode 5
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Most movies contain some blue screen in some way (some, green!). If your movie is full of complex special effects, or set on some vast, wholly imagined alien world, you need that blue (or green) screen to be able to insert those computer generated backdrops, with your actors in the foreground pretending to be in that world. In the early 2000s, brothers Kerry and Kevin Conran had an idea..... what if they could shoot a complete movie using these blue screen backdrops, set in an alternative 1939 New York, where robots attack the city and only a brave pilot and a smart reporter could save the world?!
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was the result of years of painstaking hard work and determination. Its effects were revolutionary for the time, and paved the way for modern movies. You think Sin City or 300 started this revolution? Nope, it was Sky Captain!
Whilst the visuals don't always hold up 15 years later, the premise and ambition of the movie really does. Plus Jude Law is super hot, but this episode isn't 30 minutes of me telling you something you already know!
Simply put, a lot of today's movies owe a great debt to Sky Captain, including the MCU, not only for the remarkable visual effects but also in other ways you might not realise....
I also talk about the Ottensian dieselpunk style of this movie, and reference a particular article - the link for which is below - if you're interested in knowing more about the differing styles of dieselpunk:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110612203223id_/http://ottens.co.uk/gatehouse/dieselpunk_articles-4.php
I would love to hear your thoughts on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow! You can get in touch on
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The battle for tomorrow is about to begin...
Special thanks to the following people for their contributions to this episode:
Rich from @WooLongTalks
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