Thursday, May 7^th

Get ready for another MinneDemo!

MinneDemo is the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo and networking event. Come for the demos, stay for the beer and conversation. We will be back at Intermedia Arts, a cool art/performance space in Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood.

Date:	Thursday, May 7th
Time:	Demos start at 7pm
Location:	Intermedia Arts 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408 (map)
Attendees:	All are welcome! Please RSVP.

Free Beer & Soda

Since MinneDemo is not at a bar this time, we’re brining in kegs, and it’s all free. Be sure to tip your bartenders. If you need to go all night, there’s tons of bars in the area.

Demos

1. ShortJournal — an open source developer journal with a REST API (Zach Johnson)
2. Skimmer — a lifestreaming app created by Fallon and Sierra Bravo that brings together your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube streams (Chris Wiggins of Fallon and Chris Black of Sierra Bravo)
3. Zeplay — a kick-ass multi-channel HD instant replay video server for live sports events (John Reilly)
4. tinyEscrow — Source code escrow for programmers, not for lawyers. (Corey Thompson)
5. Extendr — one link to rule all links. (Joseph Rueter)
6. SightWare and SmartWatch — SightWare is an RFID inventory system that integrates with the SmartWatch web application to provide real-time inventory management (Harley Feldman)
7. Cloudquad — a web-based student information system designed to streamline the daily workflow of school administrators, faculty, parents, and students while connecting the school community through basic tools for social interaction. (Kevin Whinnery)
8. Pen Manufactory — design your own pen using an online CAD program, then have as many as you want custom manufactured using computer controlled milling equipment. (Joseph Hoover)
9. Adagogo — hyper-local mobile ad platform created by DoApp (Joe Sriver)
10. pitchR — control your presentations using your Android phone. (Vladimir Kelman)

Resources

• MinneDemo.org
• EventBrite RSVP

Production still from "Moon" (2009) via www.cinematical.com

I was able to catch “Moon” as well as a Q&A with the director the very interesting Duncan Jones at this year’s Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Film Fest.

Duncan Jones is an interesting director.  Being the son of David Bowie may be the first thing that comes up in conversation about Duncan (aka Zowie Bowie, aka Joey Bowie), but his work definitely stands alone.  Through the Q&A he was smart, witty, and willing to discuss all.

This film was great, especially considering it was Duncan Jones’ first feature film.  The film’s budget was around $5-million and filming took a period of about a month.  The budget may seem like a lot for a independent film, but considering other independents with a $50-million budget it quickly is dwarfed.  Duncan first took this to Sundance Film Festival in order to get a distributor.  Which he gladly has found in Sony and is going to be released to theaters May 25th, 2009.

The Synopsis

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his contract with Lunar. He’s been a faithful employee for 3 long years. His home has been Selene, a moon base where he has spent his days alone, mining Helium 3. The precious gas holds the key to reversing the Earth’s energy crisis. Isolated, determined and steadfast, Sam has followed the rulebook obediently and his time on the moon has been enlightening, but uneventful. The solitude has given him time to reflect on the mistakes of his past and work on his raging temper. He does his job mechanically, and spends most of his available time dreaming of his imminent return to Earth, to his wife, young daughter and an early retirement. But 2 weeks shy of his departure from Selene, Sam starts seeing things, hearing things and feeling strange. — IMDB

The Technical Review

This film is an interesting homage to 70’s and 80’s sci-fi films past.  And maintains that style in terms of set design, effects, and delightfully restrained screen writing.  This is not some “Iron Man” special effects driven film.  The most notable films referenced are “Alien” (Riley Scott, 1979) and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) from which sets, characters, and effects are derived/distilled/borrowed.  In terms of story telling I found it very close to “Alien” in its Film Noir, silent suspense which I love.

Duncan wrote this film with Sam Rockwell in mind.  Gladly Sam decided to go along for the ride.  His acting in this film was great.  Being the only actor he WAS the entire film.  He played a very psychologically intense character who finds himself going insane after nearing the end of his 3-year solo contract on the moon. [OR IS HE?]

In fact the “Alien” connection is even closer in that the set looks strikingly similar to the main spaceship set of “Alien” (the brightly lit white room of the dining room from the chest burster scene). Duncan didn’t stop with only taking from “Alien”, he also created a robot named Gerdy that plays the same role as Hal in “2001: A Space Odyssey”; for which I waited the whole film to only to find out the one difference in characters is that Gerdy does not try to kill the main character Sam. The tension between the similarities of Hal and Gerdy were played out in a peculiar way in that he was made to seem malevolent.

The cinematography was amazing. At times it felt much like the more static filming in “Alien” where the one camera would film the scene statically mixed with close-up and first-person point-of-view (in this case since Sam is mostly alone the first-person is him looking at his computer screen then the computer screen looking back at him). This mixes with modern filming techniques as computer tracking shots so the camera can follow the same track as many times as needed so that Sam can be filmed in multiples with the same actor.

From the Q&A I gained some unique insight. The film was made with a $5-million budget. He compared it to his advertising work where he had roughly 2/3 that budget for 30-second clip for a popular beer brand. I found this limitation impressive, as the quality of the film did not show any strains due to budget. The 70’s era effects and costumes were done really well in that they did not distract but instead certainly enhanced the overall film. Most of the effects were done on a 30×30-foot sound-stage with minimal digital work (mostly as digital set extension to make the set seem moon sized).

This is Duncan’s first feature movie. He is a very young directory, out of a small film school in London. I enjoyed this film. I view it as an impressive first feature for Duncan Jones. Though if it weren’t for Sam Rockwell’s excellent acting the film could have been an unwatchable disaster. I look forward to a hopefully new feature from Duncan. I will be watching this film again when it comes back to Minneapolis at The Lagoon Theater in the end of June.

Additional Resources

• BoingBoing.net Interview with Duncan
• Bloody-Disgusting.com “Moon” Production Stills
• Sony Film’s “Moon” site

I’ll be seeing a few films this weekend and some scattered throughout the week.

Check out some of the buzz and find the parties on http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMIX/,  twitter. Google News.

27th Annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival