The Names Bond, Basil Bond, Licenced To Sell Pile Cream
Not a big fan of Daniel "Mr.Cheez" Craig, but this movie is getting back to classic Bond movie, looking forward to it.
The Aston Martin; a martini, shaken not stirred; the Walther PPK; cool one-liners. These are the four elements of the James Bond films that have become established in our collective psyche as trademarks of Ian Fleming’s secret agent. But there’s something else that’s also become a Bond trademark, and transformed what could …
I've seen it (saw it on the 23rd) - it's less Bourne and more Bond. A great opening sequence, good stunts, lots of great humour; it's even a bit emotional. You will love it and Craig is great. If you are a Bond fan (ie. seen most of the films) there's even a bit of nostalgia and Bond background in it.
Making something invisible from an arbitrary direction isn't easy, since every LED has to give off different amount of light depending on which direction you observe it at.
Though if you want to make your PC screen look transparent, you can find software to do it at littletinbox.co.uk
Just need an LCD TV as big as your car...
"Making something invisible from an arbitrary direction isn't easy, since every LED has to give off different amount of light depending on which direction you observe it at."
Quite.
I came up with a similar concept (on a space craft) in a science fiction story when I was at school in the early eighties, though I think I referred to "micro-projectors" rather than LEDS... and after I'd written it, I read it through and concluded that it was a crap idea precisely because the "invisibility" would only really work when viewed from one specific point, so I tore the whole thing up and rewrote something else entirely.
Then all those years later I saw Die Another Day and realised they'd used what was basically the same idea.
Grown up people being paid lots of money used an idea that a thirteen or fourteen year old had discarded in about 1982 ish on the basis that it was so flawed it was utter crap.
I still love the Bond movies, though. :)
The object that needs to be invisible needs to be inside the metamaterial and the metamaterial itself is fully visible in the visible part of the EM spectrum. Metamaterial tech currently makes objects inside them invisible to radar, but only perpendicular to the cylindrical surface of the metamaterial. To be invisible to radar in all directions the object would need to be fully enclosed in a sphere of metamaterial - which makes moving it and/or seeing out very tricky!
I hated the invisible car in Die Another Day - I've only watched it once and can't watch it again - if it's not the horrible invisible Aston, it's ruddy Madge and her utterly terrible acting.
Moorgate wasn't a train "out of control" for certain. We discussed this During Driver Training when I worked on the Northern Line some years back. To this day NO ONE can say why it happened.
No defect was found with the train the signaling or anything else that would explain what happened. The train was apparently (motoring) under control when it hit the stops inside the over-run tunnel, and a number of safety features such as simply releasing the Dead Mans Handle (Dropping the handle in trainman parlance) would have both applied the brakes and disabled the traction motors via a pneumatic switch that prevents a train motoring with insufficient air pressure in the system would have at least mitigated the impact if the driver had reacted.
I hate it when people make generalizations.
I remember this well, it was on the UK Beta HiFi demo tape.
Lots of people looking surprised at the picture and sound, cannot find any online, I might have to dig it out and transfer to the PC.
Can't remember if it was with my VTCM40 or my SLHF950
My first taste of home cinema sound.
I obsessed about the BD5 as a child, then upon getting older learning that Bond's jet was in fact a real aircraft made the movie all the better. I for one would pay for a version with the original "nausea inducing" flight scenes intact. Blu-ray too please.
finding out now that the gas station scene had a basis in reality..priceless!
I still have very fond memories of standing in the fields behind Northolt Airport watching some of this scene being filmed. They had a Land Rover driving around with a model of the jet on its roof.
And I don't care that it's a silly idea: I also still want a convertible Range Rover.
As mentioned in the article, there's the 007 sound stage at Pinewood (or is it Elstree?). This has been used for many Bond movies, not just Spy Who Loved Me. I'm almost certain it was used as the Nazi submarine base in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not to mention crashing a tube train through one (as described in Skyfall).
I always wondered how the builders, carpenters, electricians et.al felt when they saw all their hard work being blown to hell-and-gone at the end of the movie. Any comments from these craftsmen?
Colin
Google 'seaside rock' and you should get the idea. Basically a traditional treat sold at seaside resorts such as Blackpool here in the UK made from pure sugar (granulated and syrup form) in the shape of a cylinder, brightly coloured and usually with writing (typically the name of the resort/attraction) embedded all the way through it, like the rings in a tree trunk.
Interesting article with just a few errors as pointed out by other Reginistas plus a few in the comments:
1) Moorgate wasn't 1973. It was 1975. I remember it because I was in Companies House (at its then location) on that day, intending to take the Northern Line tube back to Bank at lunchtime. Luckily, I was delayed by a few minutes and saw the doors of the train closing and the train going off without me, en route to Moorgate. The Bond movie 'Die Another Day' was, I thought, pretty much crap. But its title still has a certain resonance.
2) The Connery movies were filmed at Pinewood. Again, my luck re time and place was in during the mid-60s because I was a regular visitor to the studios and often met the legendary art director Ken Adam. Ken's vision was responsible for the 'epic' look of the sets and set-pieces. Cubby was more in evidence than Harry; I think Cubby lived nearby at Stoke Poges or Farnham Royal. And the production crew -- carpenters and painters especially -- were amongst the best bunch of people I've ever known, not least because you could go for a drink with them, something you can't with a desktop PC.
CGI and bloody computers had never been heard of in the early Bonds -- thank God -- and so the potential for disaster during production was always recognised and, as far as possible, avoided. But something went wrong with the armory in that sequence where a huge explosion occurs in Ken's giant volcano set (can't remember which movie, Golden Gun? Moonraker?) and around a dozen extras were carted off to hospital. No serious injuries, thankfully, and mainly short-term deafness. Nowadays they'd be able to hire a grubby TV money chaser and claim for that along with being missold insurance.
Thanks, El Reg, for a reminder of Swinging 60s film and TV -- let's not forget that a mere six or so miles from Pinewood, Gerry Adams was pratting around in Slough with a giant table-top sandbox in which Thunderbirds were go and lots of luvvly bangs left the room swirling with smoke, a fulfilment, it seemed back then, of Betjeman's exhortation.
I still hanker after that crazy world when there was no M4 motorway and it instead took 14 minutes to drive from Pinewood into central London. Progress, ahhhhh. . . .
Erm point 2.
As a local I can tell you that Bond films are still filmed in Pinewood, (That's Pinewood studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire) Not Elstree or Shepperton as the author and some comments have said.
The 007 sound stage is still there, although it's been burnt down twice. It's used for a lot of major modern films (Mamma Mia, Pirates of the Carribean, Tomb raider, Quantum of Solace etc).
The backlots are used for a constantly and so is the local country park "Black Park". Infact most of "Snow white and the Huntsman" was filmed in Black Park, quite interesting to come across snowy scene in the middle of august.
Pinewood is still Britains Premier studio and the latest plans are for it to double in size so Bond will still be there for years to come.
Another interesting and well written bond article , really like this series.
Though I have to disagree with the premise that it's just the action that makes a great Bond flick.
For me it has always been the very english sense of humour and the dry wit in the dialouge.
The Union Jack parachute and the tuxedo under the wetsuit sort of thing.
Whitout this it would just be another blockbuster action movie.
Actually...
If the petrol station also sells kerosene/paraffin it's quite possible to refuel the jet--Jet-A fuel is virtually identical to kerosene. Many service stations in the US sell kerosene as a fuel for portable heaters, stoves, or lamp fuel. While it might not give full performance, it'd probably be good enough for an escape from the minions of evil.
Incidentally, the BD is a contraction of the designers' name--Bede. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bede
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