Surface Detail
Neill Blomkamp
I urge you to all check out the trailer to Neill Blomkamp’s District 9. I’ve been following the work of this South African director for years ever since working on my thesis on digital spectacle in advertising, and it’s fantastic to finally see a full feature film being directed by the guy and produced by Peter Jackson. You get the feeling that Jackson is really grooming Blomkamp to be the Next Big Thing, and I think rightly so if you have ever seen some of his portfolio which very successfully blends gritty documentary styled cinematography with simple but effective CGI. The resulting effect is a highly believable aesthetic (see, for example, the Tetra Vaal video) that opens up a whole new way of telling the sci-fi stories that – while obviously fictional – are very much grounded in the realities of the current world.
If District 9 turns out to be a good film – and I have high hopes – I think we will be seeing many more interesting films come out of the Blomkamp/Jackson partnership.