Director Robert Rodriguez, a big fan of this graphic novel series maintains that he only wanted to make a screen translation of the comic, and not an adaptation.
The 1998 film, Pleasantville, much like this, employed the same visual technique of showing everything in black and white with only the occasional person, object or scene shown in color. This is one of those very few movies in the film-noir genre.

Rodriguez and Miller planned each shot in the movie by using the panels from the original book as storyboard.

But how do you shoot Miller's world?

First guess might be color-desaturated film, or maybe actual B&W film stock. But, no. Nearly every set (or "environment") is a virtual CG construct--adding to the disorienting play between real and surreal scenes--which meant all the talent would be shot on greenscreen.

However, it should be noted that three of the sets on the film were practical (i.e. constructed by hand). They were:

• Kadie's Bar, where all of the major characters make an appearance at least once and also the only location in which all objects are in color.
• Shellie's apartment. The front door and kitchen are real, while bathroom and corridors are artificial.
• The hospital corridor in the epilogue. Although the first shot of walking feet was done on greenscreen, the corridor in the next shot is real. The background becomes artificial again when the interior of the elevator is shown.

As each sequence of this film was shot separately, new cast members were added and incorporated in the stories throughout the production. In many cases separate footage was composited in post-production to look as if it were all shot the same day.

Achieving the ‘look’ of Sin City quickly became the focal point. Rodriguez ultimately decided against shooting for only black and white and admitted some gray scale into the shots. This was a fortuitous decision; his use of gray scale allows the viewer to perceive more detail and also lends a silvery richness and depth to most scenes. The look goes way beyond what most B&W movies give us while still retaining Miller's style of remorseless black and white.

Keefe Boerner, the visual effects producer and post supervisor for Troublemaker Studios describes the movie's post challenge as one of integration, trying to make the backgrounds match the lighting and make it look right. “The biggest challenge was trying to match the books and still be somewhat realistic, but it's liberating that you don't have a real set that you need to tweak and tweak.”

To make Sin City this way, Rodriguez, Troublemaker and the film's three visual effects houses graduated to Sony's new high def SRW-5000 deck, which boasts 10-bit, 4:4:4 processing. Sony designed this format for those who might want to add some visual effects to their footage.

The movie is rated #82 in iMDB’s all time top 250 movies.

For trying the Sin City effect for your home video using Sony Vegas, click HERE.

For achieving Sin City effect for your home videos using Adobe After Effects, click HERE.

Film for next Issue - Transformers

Professor Samarjit Chakraborty

Professor Samarjit Chakraborty is a faculty member at the School of Computing. He has been an assistant professor in SoC for the past five years, after obtaining his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. His Ph.D. thesis dealt with several aspects of designing network packet processors which are specialized chips used in high-speed network routers. Professor Samarjit has been a part of the Real-Time and Embedded Systems Special Interest Groups (SIG) for the past two years. During this time, he mentored undergraduate students who are interested in exploring research issues in this area.

“Embedded Systems” – unlike general-purpose computers (e.g. our notebooks and desktops) – are specialized computers that are embedded into many devices that we use in our everyday life. These include programmable washing machines or microwave ovens that can be “programmed” to carry out our desired washing or cooking cycles (e.g. soak, wash, spin-dry, etc. for pre-specified time durations).

When asked to describe the importance of

embedded systems, Professor Samarjit highlighted that there are far more “embedded computers” in this world compared to desktops or laptops which we commonly think of as the only computers. Today, high-end cars have more than 70 processors in them which implement several functionalities such as brake control, automatic cruise control, etc. Designing embedded computers require different techniques compared to designing general-purpose computers. This is because many embedded computers are deployed in safety-critical scenarios (e.g. those in cars). Your Internet browser crashing might only lead to minor irritation, while the software-implemented brake controller crashing might result in a car accident and loss of life. Embedded computers also function under several constraints, for example, those related to battery life, size, cost, etc., which typically do not arise in the context of general-purpose computers. All of these makes embedded systems are an interesting and challenging field to explore.   

Some of the MODULES suggested by Professor Samarjit for students who are interested in specializing in embedded systems include CS3271 (Software Engineering for Reactive Systems), CS4271 (Critical Systems and their Verification), CS4275 (Programming Real-Time Systems), etc. Concepts learnt in CS4237 (Systems Modeling and Simulation) and CS4212 (Compiler Design) will also be helpful while studying specialized modules on embedded systems.

The world’s cheapest laptop now costs just 173 Singapore dollars. It is called impulse NPX-9000 and has a 400MHz processor. It comes with the Linux OS. Find out more about the laptop and other cost effective laptops and desktops HERE.

With the new Sneeze-sensing software your avatar can now automatically recognize sounds you make and generate facial expressions. The software can recognize laughs, cries, sneezes and yawns. The software is still in the testing phase. A demonstration of the software can be found by clicking HERE.

The Swimming Robot

AQUA is a fully independant amphibious (works on land and in water) robot which can explore underwater environments and gather data with minimum disturbance of the marine life. A demonstration of how the robot works can be found by clicking HERE.

The new robot in town, TeMo, is a “tele-operated internet robot” and uses a cellphone to control the wheels and arms of the robot. It can be controlled from anywhere in the world where there is cellphone network coverage. To find out more about this ingenious project and to see a demonstration of how the robot works click HERE.

PortoMedia, a start-up in Ireland, is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive. The kiosk will be stacked with 350 to 5000 titles and the user can buy or rent a movie. This idea will eliminate the need for DVDs. For more click HERE.

Believe it or not, but it's true. Getting a high score in this game called Foldit could actually fetch you a Nobel prize. The game is designed in a way that it could lead to important medical findings that could in turn lead to a better understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's and HIV. For more click HERE

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