secret easter egg hiding in “the plan”

Today is the big day, ladies and gentlemen!  Battlestar Galactica: The Plan  hits the shelves on DVD and Blu-ray, and with it so ends the final chapter of the new BSG.  I’m just as sad to see the show come to and end as the rest of you, but don’t get too misty-eyed on me, your old uncle Mojo has a little ‘going away’ present in store!  Of course, each and every one of you should pick up “The Plan” simply because it’s an intriguing film and features a juicy performance by the best bad guy in years, Dean “Cavil” Stockwell – but just in case you were looking for further motivation to add this DVD to your collection, it’s also hiding a very special easter egg…

phillips, mccreary wow crowd, eat cake

Saturday night in San Pedro, California was heaven on Earth for the nearly one thousand nerds who packed the historic Warner Grand theater to listen to an evening of music from Battlestar Galactica and other sci-fi favorites as part of a big ol’ birthday bash for legendary composer Stu Phillips.  Special guest Bear McCreary (seen above sharing a hug with Mr. Phillips after the final encore) also took the stage and shook the theater to its very foundation with his new BSG composition, proving once and for all that both versions of the series can not only peacefully coexist, but can actually rock the house together! 

report from concert rehearsal – holy frak!

Tuesday night was the rehearsal for this Saturday’s upcoming sci-fi music concert paying special tribute to composer Stu Phillips.  All I can say is wow.  Hearing a live orchestra belt out those first few notes of “Exploration” from the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack sent a shockwave through me!  I’ve listened to that music gods know how many times but last night it really pounded through my soul – in a good way.  It was also a treat to watch Stu conduct and give direction to the musicians – he may have written this music three decades ago but the passion, energy and dedication on display last night were that of a proud father making sure his newborn child is in good hands.  The guy may be 80 but he demonstrated more gusto that anyone in the house!  In addition to getting a preview of Stu’s set, we heard the suite from Star Trek: First Contact and a piece from composer John Ottmans’s upcoming Astro Boy, but it was Bear McCreary who provided total shock and awe with his newest composition…

coolest CGI shot of all time (with video)

A few months back we showed you how we created a brand-new CGI Viper from the original 1979 Battlestar Galactica.  Using a model built by the talented Derek Smith, I painstakingly recreated the lighting and studio look of the TV classic just to see how close a match we could get to the original.  But what about the Galactica herself?  Not too long ago, FX veteran Lee Stringer enlisted a few cohorts and spent quite a bit of personal time building an exact replica of the original filming miniature (as seen above – yes, he did this on his own time) so I thought I’d take a crack at creating a brand new shot of the girl and see how close I could get it to looking like a scene from the original series…

greatest night at the movies – ever (updated)

This coming Saturday (June 20, 2009) the American Cinemateque’s Aero Theater in Santa Monica will be screening the single greatest night of filmed entertainment in motion picture history: for this first time ever in this country, not one, not two, but all three old school Battlestar Galactica  feature films will be shown.  What’s that?  You knew the original pilot was shown in theaters in Sensurround but what the hell is all this gibberish about three  feature films?  Read on, old friend…

bsg vfx: anatomy of an (ancient) cylon

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched the second half of the Battlestar Galactica’s 4th (and final) season, you may want to stop reading now.

After discovering the depressing wasteland that turned out to be Earth, the crew of the Galactica did some digging as part of their search for answers about the burnt-out planet’s past. One key find was an excavated, centuries-old Cylon head (as seen below in a scene from the episode).  This “ancient Cylon” was only on screen for a few seconds so viewers never really a very good a look at it… until now!

Viper redux: turning shinola into shit

Over the weekend I posted the above image of a Viper from the 1979 version of Battlestar Galactica; as most people are aware, when that show was produced there was no such thing as CGI, so all of the visual effects were created “old school,” meaning the Vipers were actual, physical models, photographed with real lights and a real camera.  Thirty years later, visual effects on the new BSG are created entirely with computers, but, despite all this fancy new technology, the goal of most artists is to still have it look  like good old-fashioned miniatures and cameras!  Of course, on the new series, there never was a real  Viper model, so we have nothing to compare the CGI version with to see if we “got it right.”  However, there is plenty of footage of physical Viper models in episodes from the original BSG, so I decided to see just how close I could make a “fake” Viper look like a “real” Viper…

will the real viper please stand up?

So, you think you’re a sharp-eyed DarthMojo reader?  Do you have what it takes to spot the difference between real and CGI?  In the above image, one Viper is a frame-grab from an episode of the original 1979 Battlestar Galactica  and the other is 100% computer generated.   Can you tell which is which?  Click the image to get the full-size picture, put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and give us your best guess in the comments section.  On Tuesday, we’ll reveal the answer and give you a glimpse into how we produced the forgery!  May the Lords of Kobol be with you…

the true history of the cylons

There are those who believe that the Cylons were created by man.

Some believe that they were created by a race of highly advanced lizards who used them as foot soldiers in the war to exterminate humanity.

Well, it’s time to bring the rampant speculation and flame-wars to an end. Today, on the 30th anniversary of Battlestar Galactica,  the true origins of everyone’s favorite red-eyed, robotic menace will finally be revealed…

little gold statues

Yes, it’s that time of year again – school’s out, burgers are on the grill and everyone gathers around at poolisde as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announces the finalists for the Prime Time Emmy Awards!  Naturally, everyone skips to the Special Visual Effects nominees, since that’s where all our favorite shows reside.  Duking it out this year for the little gold statue will be…

eye of jupiter nachos

This is the most awesome thing I’ve seen since Bottlestar Galactica.  It’s from the Flickr album of some cat called Trioculus and if you click here you can see the full snack bar from one of his BSG viewing parties (he’s also got an algae dip).  Gods, I love this guy.  If any of you think you can beat the Eye of Jupiter Nachos  for sheer originality, send your own clever Galactica/food creations to BSGFood@aol.com and we’ll post them here.  I guess we need a prize… hmmm… how about this: the winner will get an extremely rare, custom made, not-available-anywhere “Cylon Raiders” T-shirt (I can’t publish a picture of it because it’s based on a copyrighted design, but trust me – it’s frakking cool).   Sound good?  Well, what are you waiting for?  Get cooking!

BSG wrap party (aka my canadian adventure) – part one

Some might say it was the most disastrous convention ever; the guest registry at the Sutton Place hotel in downtown Vancouver read like a who’s who of Battlestar Galactica – the writers, producers, cast and many behind-the-scenes artisans were on hand, ready to mingle and reminisce about their experiences on the show.  But where were the fans?

BSG VFX: REVELATIONS

Who would ever guess that this cheery image would become the poster-child for one of Battlestar Galactica’s  finest moments?  Now that the mid-season finale has been unleashed, fans across the internets have been closely examining the above image, scouring it for clues and hoping to unlock the secrets of what is to come.  Well, I have good news for you!  There are indeed secrets to be had and if you’d like to know the truth behind that image, click forward to read more.  Go on, I dare you…

Why Galactica?

The single most puzzling question no one has answered about Galactica’s triumphant return is why did it come back?   When I explain the history to people, it still boggles my mind: it was on for one season  thirty years ago.  One.  On top of that, it was never very popular and no one – not even the fans – regard it as high art.  Yet it retained enough of a dedicated, passionate following to insure that one day she would return.

But why?  What kept that mediocre one-season-wonder so near and dear to my  heart that seeing it come back was literally a dream come true?  I think the answer boils down to one word:  Cheeseburgers.

Legostar Galactica – UPDATED!

What do fans do while they wait for new episodes of Galactica?  They make their own BSG playsets out of Legos, of course!  This morning I received an email from my friend Liz, who wanted to share the Lego Viper her ten-year old son had made.  It was quite a complex undertaking for the little Viper-pilot to be, and as I sat back and stared at the Lego Viper that’s been sitting on my  shelf since the start of the third season, I began to wonder: just how many Lego Vipers are out there?

BSG VFX: A Thousand Points Of Light

Imagine you’re driving on a moonless night in a desolate area with no street lights.  Now let’s say your car’s headlights don’t work and you’re approaching an 18-wheeler who’s decided to have some fun by turning off all his illumination.  The above image is pretty much the last thing you’d see before a bright, orange and yellow fireball reminds you to get your headlights fixed.  It’s also what you’d see on Battlestar Galactica  if we didn’t put some lights on our spaceships! 

bsg lolcats!

Unless you’ve either been living under a rock or traveling through space looking for Earth, you’re probably familiar with the “lolcat” phenomenon.  Well, Craig from Puntabulous has cooked up a whole series of lolcats in a BSG stylee!