Friday 1 May 2009

Did I say overlords? I meant protectors...

Our robot overlords had clearly been working behind the scenes at Sci-Fi London before the Eyeborgs premiere on Wednesday night. Firstly they'd set up a cloaking/visual blurring effect of some sort so the Apollo really did look like this:

Secondly we, the Second Foundation, having come all the way from the Other End of the Galaxy, were hoping to see the winning entry in the 48 Hour film challenge - but as too few entries featured robots of any sort our mechanical masters deemed this entertainment unworthy. Perhaps they were also concerned that Eyeborgs, while it features a number of cool robots, has kind of an anti-robot message at its heart.

However, I can't complain - instead, we were treated to stop-motion short, The Day The Robots Woke Up, a sentimental piece of old-school animation with a doggerel narrative and a pro-robot message. Simply beautiful. You can watch it if you're in London this weekend, part of the Blink of an Eye Short Films Programme 2, shown on Saturday 2nd and Monday 4th May (see programme here).

I enjoyed the main feature - more on that coming up. After the screening, Eyeborgs director Richard Clabaugh came down with most of the cast for a very lively Q & A, where we learned that, even though the film includes more effect shots than Transformers, it was produced on what might be the catering budget for a Hollywood blockbuster, and actress Megan Blake described with great enthusiasm how she'd had to learn to fire a gun for her part.

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