Hacker Cinema
Pitch Black
2000 · Film · 108 min
Part of The Chronicles of Riddick Collection
Directed by David Twohy
When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in the light.
3 positive7 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
I don't think your entire family will be streaming 4k at the same time on a Comcast budget connection, as the NOC would start capping your bandwidth rather quickly.
Something about media compression that drew our attention to quality versus efficiency:
"Typically, the production style of low quality media of the same duration creates smaller compressed video data." (Joel's corollary 6)
This was mostly because the producers increased the number of re-used video clips like stock-footage/B-roll, lower grade non-broadcast quality audio, and filming style focused on simpler tripod work with low-textured similar looking environments at fewer locations. Thus, the self-similar nature of low budget films made relatively smaller files, and were compressed into shorter track lengths on storage media.
While the budget constraints are very indicative of bad film, it does not necessarily always mean relatively smaller video files for the same media playtime indicate lame content. However, of the thousands of titles we processed at that company, it was correlated most of the time if all other factors were held the same. Now some people did like "The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black", but with perceptual compression it was a tiny track-length compared to most other films.
I'd wager streaming media ultimately has similar unconscious fiscal incentives to create lower quality content that decreases distribution costs.
Best of luck =3
BingChat says it's Helliconia[1] by Brian W. Aldiss.
Nightfall and the movie Pitch Black also go in that direction.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helliconia
In some alternate universe 1984's "The Terminator" is a movie with a similar plot to "Pitch Black" in our universe (yes I know it's an eclipse in "Pitch Black").
I think climate change is real and that human activities contribute. I think climate change is a more accurate term than global warming.
I also liked what one of my professor's said: "We are like fleas on the butt of a dog trying to figure out which way the dog is going."
I've enjoyed some fictional stuff, like episodes of the various Star Trek series, that had stories about planets experiencing catastrophe caused by increasing levels of asteroid activity or similar events out in space. I liked the detail that the plot for the movie Pitch Black hinged on a long period of darkness caused by an eclipse on an alien planet.
The earth is a living, evolving world and the layer of human-friendly biosphere is impacted by many long-term processes that we little understand and are ill equipped to accurately predict. Change is real. The need to adapt is real. This is actually stressful and all for humans across the globe.
That doesn't mean we are doomed and it doesn't mean we really know what comes next.
It's a prop from Pitch Black, the Vin Diesel movie. This YouTube clip shows it: https://youtu.be/11uE0vKMPKQ?t=7m20s
Pitch Black's planet situation reminded me of Nightfall (Asimov/Silverberg)[0], though there weren't six suns like in the book, and the occurrence of the "night" in the movie seemed to be shorter increments?
[0] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99245.Nightfall
If I remember right Pitch Black wasn't a tidally locked planet, but rather an _extended_ eclipsed caused by the other planets in their stellar system.
Astronomy nerdship aside, I loved Pitch Black. Such a good movie. I haven't watched any of the sequels, though.
The first game that they released, surprisingly for a movie to game adaptation, was also quite good.
Of course. Vin Diesel movies have their place and are fun. Pitch Black was great. Riddick is a good anti-hero.
For example gravitational forces probably lock the same side of the planet in perpetual daylight, while the other side is in perpetual night.
Should I admit on HN to having watched a Vin Diesel film? Pitch Black, anyone?
Well, it didn't work for me. If it is any consolation, no recommendation service usually does.
Here is the problem: recommendation engines usually try to match common variables between the movie you like and other movies - kudos to nanocrowd for doing this at a more sophisticated level than "it has the same actor in it" - but most fail to weigh heavily enough the quality of the movie (Netflix is notorious bad at this). More to the point, the movies that people really love have some personal connection with them that I am not sure is open to crowdsourcing.
I will now give you an example: I love the movie Pitch Black. Why? Yes, there's the action/horror tension, and the fabulous spaceship crash, and the charismatic lead - but the reason I love that movie is because of its kernel which is a highly moral tale about the salvation of caring for someone other than yourself, and of the powerful human need to seek redemption.
Now I am not going to reproduce this here, but go put in Pitch Black in nanocrowd and you will see the problem: it focuses on the superficial properties of the plot, and none of the movies recommended come even close.
What is the closest movie in feel that I have seen? The Station Agent. Now the day I type in "Pitch Black" in a recommendation and get back "The Station Agent" is the day I am going to sell all my wordly goods to buy stock in that company.
(That said it is safe to say most people aren't as picky as me, and I am sure you can find some success with this model especially if you harness it to something people visit a lot anyway, like IMDB or Netflix).