
A Visual Study of Computer GUI in Cinema - franze
http://Accessmaincomputerfile.net/
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DanielBMarkham
The cool thing here is that since the GUIs were designed to be a part of a
larger movie, they were specifically designed to advance the plot along. So
when looking for a bad guy in a criminal database, for instance, the UI
displays just what the audience needs to know to move the plot along -- "Bad
guy just released from prison. Previously arrested for homicide"

Even when the UI is complex, it's to advance along a certain plot point --
that the actor is interfacing with or observing some hugely complicated
computer system. _And even then, whatever you need to know clearly stands out
from the background UI art_

Contrast that to the way people actually interface with computers -- all the
information that is not necessary, the searching and ferreting out of little
bits of data here and there that you then need to assemble, or the waste of
time absorbing information that advances nothing at all (lolcats, anyone?)

At first, back when they thought a cool UI was simple text, nobody noticed.
But now as computers become more immersive, it's clearer and clearer that the
idea of a computer advancing along an external story is becoming tougher to
dramatize -- because life isn't external to the system like it was before. The
good guy doesn't do a bunch of outside, physical stuff and then type a
question or two into a simple terminal and then get a simple answer. Instead
stories are more about how technology melds with the person. Because of the
change to immersive versus interactive relationships with technology, I think
these stories are going to be much more difficult for writers and directors to
master. For instance (trying to make up some example) little 10-year-old Joey
may spend all his free time playing his favorite game, until he meets a killer
online and over the period of several months the killer worms his way into the
household, setting off a conflict between all of Joey's family. There could be
a hell of a lot of drama and tension if hat happened in the real world, but
trying to put that in a video format in a 2-hour slot looks really, really
tough.

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caioariede
Was Tron using Ubuntu? lol

[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj6wytUwrf1qd...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj6wytUwrf1qdhhtjo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1302360062&Signature=cu%2BW5x7HS6KlkciUNUyb%2BT3DaFc%3D)

~~~
pohl
_In addition to visual effects, I was asked to record myself using a unix
terminal doing technologically feasible things. I took extra care in
babysitting the elements through to final composite to ensure that the content
would not be artistically altered beyond that feasibility. I take representing
digital culture in film very seriously in lieu of having grown up in a world
of very badly researched user interface greeble…. In Tron, the hacker was not
supposed to be snooping around on a network; he was supposed to kill a
process. So we went with posix kill and also had him pipe ps into grep. I also
ended up using emacs eshell to make the terminal more l33t. The team was
delighted to see my emacs performance — splitting the editor into nested panes
and running different modes. I was tickled that I got emacs into a block
buster movie._ \-- Josh Nimoy

Source:

<http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178>

P.S. I love the word "greeble":

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble>

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Sapient
This is quite a cool trip down memory lane and kinda makes me miss those old
text based interfaces.

The other thing I always enjoy checking out is the "code" being edited on
screen - I remember spotting some great code in the movie Antitrust, but I
cant remember what it was unfortunately.

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TeMPOraL
Same here; I tend to pause movies and read stuff out of the GUIs/code
displays. I remember that on StarGate: The Ark of Truth movie there's some
JavaScript-like webpage code that was supposed to be the source code of
dangerous aliens. StarGate TV series also featured some C and Java-like code;
surprisingly, some of those places should actually contain a meaningful text,
not code.

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hectorhector
A lot of these are laughable, but I think Tron: Legacy did a really good job
of mixing something realistic as well as futuristic.

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Ruudjah
I hate it when the scrollbar extends while scrolling. Please don't do that.

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ciupicri
Not to mention the disappearing caption.

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jcarreiro
I think the idea of the disappearing caption was to let the reader guess the
source of the screen grab without spoiling it.

FWIW, I completely agree that adding more stuff to the page when the user
scrolls to the bottom is just annoying.

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aidenn0
It's a shame that the sneakers one does not show a UI, but what was supposed
to be encrypted data. There were several UIs that appeared in it (banking,
telephone, power-grid).

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davidamcclain
It's a shame they're just static images, the sound effects that go along with
the GUIs are the thing I get the biggest kick out of!

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swah
I wish the design of this page wouldn't hide the elements (perhaps just make
them white?) so I could Ctrl+F...

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gourneau
It is amusing to see how many of these look like proto-facebooks

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TeMPOraL
I'm surprised that LCARS interface is not there.

EDIT: Request sent.

~~~
ChrisArchitect
yeah, legendary and omitted? maybe too much source material for that..hehe;
and if you wanna talk about the sound fx that go with the GUIs.....the insane
work and science behind all the Trek sounds is craziness....all for a few
blips and beeps..hehe...

