Re: Computers in Movies
 

Maybe it's just because Jeff Goldblum plays such a clown even when he is trying to be a hero, but this is still my favorite. My son and I still laugh at the image of him sitting in the alien fighter ship (that he managed to "hotwire") and uploading a killer virus from his Macintosh laptop into the central computing system of the alien mothership. :p

Re: Re: Computers in Movies
 

TCP/IP it's a UNIVERSAL protocol... :)

I don't know if it's just me, but I didn't like how Hugh was dancing as he was programming in Swordfish. Does anyone really dance around his computer as he is typing?

33. All laptops are Mac Powerbooks/iBooks

all technology represented in movies/TV are skewed... I'm sure when The Original Start Trek aired... lots of people were like ::giggle:: WTF is that thing he's talking to in his hand?

I find it worse when most movies try to use "real" terminology. Most of the time, when they use real terminology, they use it wrong. Or worse, by the time the movie is out, that technology/terminology is already out of date or changed.

Remember "Hackers": everyone Oooing and Awwing over the "new Pentium Five" notebook...."RISC is good". Wrong and obsolete by the time it came out on video.

Movie makers should either do a computer scene REALLY well (like Matrix II) or they should leave it all abstract and try not to be "computery" at all.

Re: Computers in Movies
 

That's the truth! I love in movies when any computer at all makes a sound as text is displayed across the screen. I need to make my computer at work do that.

Re: Re: Computers in Movies
 

arrgh! i'd be aggravated at it more than i already am...

I'm with ya, Cynthetiq. In my last post 'love' = love to laugh at how stupid it is.

How did that infamous line in The Lone Gunman tv show go? MY GIBSON HAS BEEN HACKED!!@#!

Or something like that. Gave me a good chuckle.

I also look to see what OS they use too. It's either a Mac OS or something that resembles Linux.

Swordfish was the worst example of hacking I've ever seen in a movie. Made me cringe.

They filmed a movie here a few years ago called "Pass the Ammo".

Our C language instructer worked for ATT who provided the computers for some scenes.

He wrote a program that was basicly a slide show for a alarm system. You press space bar, it moved the "alarm" on the screen. The move made it look like as alarms went off, the computer reported it.

And there was a room full of printers running. Well, actually, they had a bunch of people lie under the printers and pull the paper through by hand. Then they added sound effects later to make it look live.

I still have a copy of that program somewhere :)

How about in wargames when Broderick has to hook up a voice thingy for his home computer and when they go to norad they get the same voice. I guess the one at home was still hooked up.

--and why does every puter have the software to
isolate a frame and the blow it up--and very clear...

Re: Re: Re: Computers in Movies
 

Classic!!!!

LOL
thats so true.
love it

Even PC's run MacOS.

And any file, whether it's a document or 3D blueprints to a top-secret government facility, can fit on a standard floppy disk

34. all the bad guys use IBM, all the good guys use Apple

ha ha, i never paid attention before, ,i guess now i am going to be pointing out everything i see.

hi-tech sophistimicated enhancement algorihms...duh! :D

35. All viruses display graphics on-screen at time of infection, taunting the gawking sysadmin with a 3-letter password and the backlit, sphere-keyed plexiglass keyboard. (Um, Hackers, duh.)

36. The most daunting task is to hack "THE MAINFRAME".

I loved in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 where they're hacking into an NSA spy satellite and you see seemingly random text scrolling down the screen - it's actually a parody of the dreaded Microsoft EULA.

Apple is the 1000 pound gorilla of product placement in movies and TV. If you can identify a computer in a movie or TV show, it's likely an Apple. Odd how they still don't get market share!

As for screen protrayal on the big and small screen, they never are real - no matter what type of computer is supposedly in use! I expect that the software makers want royalties for use on the screen which producers don't want to pay... furthermore, it's likely that the actual screens wouldn't work well on the camera - and made-up ones (larger font, better colors for the camera, etc.) work better.

While I'm on the subject of product placement: If you watch movies/TV you'd seriously doubt the existance of hand-helds or PDAs. They're NEVER used! Is the handwriting on the wall saying they're soon to go the way of the dodo bird and Beta?

James Bond?

(and you mean Betamax)

apple has a recognizeable brand and philosophy of easy use. But you still don't see the Apple GUI.

Royalties don't have much to do with it since product placement means either a Thank You in the credits or a bunch of loaners and a payment depending on how much screen time they actually get. I worked out a deal with Compaq when I was at VH1. I got tired of them not leveraging getting some new and exciting computer systems for on screen. If they don't want to pay, then they get the gaffer tape across the logo. Watch how many times you'll see the apple logo blacked out. It happens.

I know this has been said once...but I have to repeat it..

I was watching Sister Sister with my little ones...and Tia has a laptop, she setting up a date with some guy outta nowhere...and she's online using some kind of im..and I had to look twice..as there are NO wires..or from what I could tell external wireless cards anywhere near this thing...and when her sister Tamera walks in the screen is till on...after a while...that battery shoulda been dead!!

So yeah, I know what you are talking about...asshopo..my SO talks about it ALL the time when we are watching movies! Programmers...go figure!

It _IS_ a windows EULA....

Lotsa laptops have internal wireless cards.

But not those featured in a show that was around before the Pentium2 was on the market :P