Sci-fi Creative Corner

Quick notes on what was discussed.  MUTE - was a LOUD Hot Mess and all over the place!  Both Altered Carbon and Mute heavily influenced by Blade Runner, Altered Carbon WAY more!  Loved  Redditt comments about Director, Duncan!  Points covered in podcast:  Moon Nod was awesome!  Mute & Moon in the same universe?  Slash Film article.   ALTERED CARBON Will Yun Lee - played a better Takeshi Kovacs!  His love affair with Quell was great, they made a powerful couple!  One of the most multicultural shows around, and the only science fiction show/movie I've seen with people speaking Spanish!  Loved beautiful bad ass,  played one of many baby sitters, was also in Avengers Affinity War, Black Panther and Wonderwomen!

Part 2 Disney Parks may be creating a full on, Wakanda Land!! If so, who will they hire to be in the costumes?  Will we have another "Mickey Mouse is Mexican!" moment?  Quote from Dave Chappelle.   The synergy between African American’s working well with Africans in the narrative and in the characters, was beautiful, despite Sam Jackson's dividing critique of black British actors taking US roles - The Guardian. Marvel letting filmmakers express themselves in these movies, let the creators create! Michael Ganchino with Dr. Strange started making music that fits the character, also again in Spiderman.  In Thor – Mark Mothersburg was the dude behind Devo. And Coogler brought Ludwig Goransson used as many African sounds as possible - Hollywood Reporter  Forest Whitiker – gave us “FULL Forest!”  A beloved strong actor, but can he be too strong for this role in BP and in Rogue One? Denzel Whitiker – who played young Zuri, despite having absolutely no relation to Forest, he looked just like him, down to the eyes!! M'Baku's – (Winston Duke) performance was excellent given his small on screen time.  Could have been dicey if they called him a lot by his real name, Man Ape.  It was done respectfully due to a black writer!

#WakandaForever  We're super excited to be joined by several guests to celebrating the opening of Black Panther (BP)!  In the studio today, our regular hosts, Zak Vaudo with guest: Dubelyoo of Art Beats and Lyrics and girlfriend Kat. Here's a short list of bullet points and mentions in the podcast: Predicting they'll be a new Killmonger series on Netflix!   T'Challa's sheltered experience from the rest of his country and the world was going through. Vulture article on BP costume designer, Ruth E. Carter. Black people bringing back the ole Kente cloths and Dashiki and showing up in full Cosplay to the theater! Will Letitia Wright be the next Black Panther or play Riri Williams in Iron Man??  Where is Shuri’s character going in BP? Will it follow the comic version?  Also did you see her starring in Black Mirror's episode – Black Museum Didn't like Okoye (Dani Gurira) and W'Kabi's  (Daniel Kaluuya) tense relationship and potential battle.

(WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE)  Zachary Vaudo is giving a Spoiler-FREE review of Netflix’s first series of 2018, Altered Carbon! Released on February 2nd, it is a massive storm of cyberpunk detective goodness. Raw, intense, silly, and engaging, this adaptation of Richard Morgan’s early-2000s novel is visually stunning, highly entertaining, and surprisingly complex with concepts on multiculturalism, personal identity, and philosophy in the future.

We're discussing our expectations of Black Panther! Our concerns with the heavy handed marketing campaign. T’Challa’s sister, Shuri is the smartest person in the Marvel universe, out ranking Tony Stark - According to Comic Book Resources www.cbr.com/black-panther-shuri-smartest-person/ The great soundtrack with Kendrick Lamar. Anticipation for the return of Westworld - season 2. HBO working with MCSFO on promoting Westworld to a diverse audience. Other titles, actors, characters mentioned: Serenity/Firefly, Thandie Newton, Mr. Black, Sansar VR company, The Shape of Water Oscar nominations. Predictions and concerns for Ava Duvernay’s a Wrinkle in Time film, will it be more style over substance?? Excitement for Annihilation, with it’s strong all female cast and great Ex-Machina director, Alex Garland. New sf film, The Beyond gaining momentum! . MCSFO’s new sci-fi film festival for Children – Kids with S.T.E.A.M. and this year’s theme for the annual Atlanta Sci-fi Film Festival.

(Recorded Jan 25th) Remembering Ursula Le Guin, one of the best sci-fi/fantasy authors in our time, died on Jan 22nd. We’re discussing several of her books – Earthsea, The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness. And the Sci-fi Channel miniseries adaptation of Earthsea, and how Ursula’s main points in the book were sorely missed in the series. Issues with adapting sf books and how readers need to approach adaptations. Best example of an adaptation getting it right, The Expanse! Expectations of Altered Carbon and its challenge of being compared to Ghost in the Shell with its white washing issues. Cyber-punk movement is back! Is Netflix’s Dark series may be too dark for some? One of our hosts thinks so. Other sci-fi titles and authors mentioned: Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Samuel Delaney’s Nova, Amazon’s Tolkien series, Dune, Netflix’s Bright, ARQ, Fringe, X-Files, William Gibson, The Road, Blade Runner, Black Mirror.

Meet the Hosts of Season 2 of the MCSFO Podcast show - Zachary Vaudo, Mike Smith, Colin Sharpe and Amanda Ray! MCSFO Podcast is back with new hosts! Get to know each of us: our backgrounds, knowledge of sci-fi, and what we will each cover on the show. We’re also, covering diversity in sf and changes happening in the fast growing genre. Sharing our experiences falling in love with sf and from the perspective of an African American Women, Jewish bi-sexual male, and from 4 different generations!

Dr. Tobias WIlson-Bates closes out our 3 part series on World-Building in Science Fiction. Today, Dr. Bates focus is on time travel and technology in world-building. Dr. Bates has a PHD from University of Davis California, studied 19th Century Literature, with focus on novels, specifically on time and technology. He’s now a Marion L. Brittain Post Doctorate Fellow and teaches classes on Time Travel and Robotics at GA Tech.

oday Laura Grace is speaking with Dr. Bethany Jacobs - a Marion L. Britain Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech in the writing and communication program. She received her PhD in American Literature from the University of Oregon. She teaches African American women’s writing and science fiction and narratives of social protest. Here she discuss the results of an interesting world-building project she gave to her students this semester - where they looked into world-building in speculative texts by people of color.

The goal of this podcast show is to challenge filmmakers and writers to imagine greater! To inspire them to move away from dystopian narratives and tropes. To challenge themselves to create worlds with more favorable experiences, while still creating a world ppl can see themselves living in. GA Tech professors: Dr. Yaszek, Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Bates all discuss world-building from different perspective