The Ark of Truth

I bought The Ark of Truth yesterday and we watched it last night. It's a good, fun movie - and a good ending to the Ori story arc. The opening sequence, flying over the gorgeous mountains of British Columbia, Canada, is breathtaking. More great mountain scenes are when Teal'c (Christopher Judge) is walking towards Celestius.

The story is a comfortable place for Stargate fans, with a couple of nice surprises. It's like returning home after a long absence. Over the ten years of Stargate SG-1's run, the characters have become like good friends to their fans. We know how they'll react to other characters and most situations.

The acting was top notch, as I expected from this strong cast. Special kudos to Tim Guinee, who played Tomin, an Ori warrior who turns against his Prior, but not necessarily his faith.

Christopher Judge, as Teal'c, had a wonderful dialogue with Tomin, describing Teal'c method of dealing with being a former Goa'uld soldier who killed hundreds, if not thousands, of enemy soldiers and innocent civilians while serving the false god Apophis. We joked that Teal'c spoke more in that one speech than he did in an entire season of early SG-1!

Michael Shanks, as Daniel Jackson, was very expressive, especially when talking to the Ascended Ancient, Morgan Le Fay. He also had one of the movie's best lines:

Jackson: Oh, God.
Doci: Your gods cannot save you now, Daniel Jackson.
Jackson: Actually, that's just a statement of general dissatisfaction.

Claudia Black's role was small, but she was excellent as usual, and her exchanges with Adria were powerful.

Amanda Tapping, whom I am eager to see this fall in her show, Sanctuary, did a wonderful job as the smart, talented, and kickass Lt. Col. Sam Carter. My only complaint is that in her initial firefight with Ori soldiers that she didn't hit more of them. Sam Carter is a much better shot than was shown in that scene!

Ben Browder's Lt. Col. Cam Mitchell, the last character to be introduced on the show, got his butt royally kicked, but he was strong, brave, kicked some butt back, and funny at the right times. His character is different than John Crichton on Farscape, but there are those "Browderisms" that appear in both characters. Another favorite line was Mitchell's, "Owww" after defeating his Terminator-esque foe.

There were more great actors and roles, but you'll have to see the movie to enjoy them.

The writing was very good, with only a bump here and there. The 1.5 hr DVD, was shot on 35mm film, so the look is more dramatic than a typical television show, or Stargate.

Did I like The Ark of Truth? Indeed!

Wanna Know the Truth?

www.stargatehub.com

Update on Video Contest

The finalists were announced for the Ultimate Stargate Atlantis Super Fan contest. Sadly, I am not a finalist. Five of the finalists were selected by most views and the others were selected by the contest creator. I think several of the finalist videos are very well made.

Still, I am glad I made the video. I learned even more about chroma keying (using a green screen to superimpose one video element over another), lighting, color correction and alteration, picture-in-picture effects, background music, and all of the technical details that go into a video production.

I am eager to use this knowledge in future video projects for my clients and myself!

Latest Video Contest Entry - Technical Report

I've entered the following video in the Ultimate Stargate Atlantis Super Fan Contest.



I recorded my portions using a Panasonic AG-DVC60 and a Sony wired lavaliere microphone. I edited the video in Adobe Premiere and added some FX with Adobe AfterEffects.

I had been using a Matrox RTX.100 video card and software in conjunction with Premiere, but had a software crash that caused me to have to reload Premiere, thereby losing the Matrox plug-ins. (There's a technical reason why I didn't reload the Matrox software.) I missed some of the transitions, color correction, and keying features of Matrox, but not enough to deal with reloading the software.

Currently, I'm using Premiere Pro 1.5, and I find the transitions lacking in scope and customizing. I purchased Pixelan's SpiceMaster, which has many of the transitions and effects I need, at the very reasonable price of $40 (plus $20 to get the extra transitions).

After the holidays, I'll be upgrading to Adobe CS3 Production Premium suite. This will help me provide even better quality products for my clients and myself.

NOTE: As I said before, I was happy with the features offered by the Matrox RTX.100 card, when combined with Adobe Premiere, but by not reloading the Matrox software, I had a significant reduction in software crashes. I would say at least a 75% reduction.