Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

The title of this film is very misleading. It makes it sound like a low-budget 50s scifi, but this is actually a very well made movie. I think it's on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1952), except this film had a lot more special effects. They used a combination of stop action and other practical effects as well as post processing techniques.

The guy who did the special effects on this film, Ray Harryhauser, invented a technique called Dynamation, a special type of stop action effect. He went on to work on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1956) which is probably one of the most well-known stop action/live action films of the era. But this film uses a wide variety of techniques as well as stop action.

The writing and acting are also top-notch. The actors weren't big stars but they were accomplished character actors. It has a fully developed plot and the dialogue was well written. Also, they got a lot of the science facts right on this one, at least more than usual for a Hollywood scifi. They even tried to explain special relativity, incorrectly of course, but they tried.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes old science fiction movies.

It’s just unfortunate that they gave this film such a cheap-sounding name. They even released it as a double-feature with The Werewolf. (I guess film marketing has improved since then as well as special effects. 😆 )
- - - -
#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #space #aliens #claypigeons #flyingsaucer #the1950s #ColdWar #hairy

- - - -

accessible image description:

an ugly movie poster with orange and white headlines, muted colors, with images of flying saucers that are shooting rays to the ground and robot creatures walking around, the large headlines say flying saucers attack! warning! take cover! earth vs the flying saucers, small headlines say flying saucers invade our planet: washington, london, paris, moscow, take cover!, a smaller inset image of a man and woman looking scared and holding each other.

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

The title of this film is very misleading. It makes it sound like a low-budget 50s scifi, but this is actually a very well made movie. I think it's on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1952), except this film had a lot more special effects. They used a combination of stop action and other practical effects as well as post processing techniques.

The guy who did the special effects on this film, Ray Harryhauser, invented a technique called Dynamation, a special type of stop action effect. He went on to work on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1956) which is probably one of the most well-known stop action/live action films of the era. But this film uses a wide variety of techniques as well as stop action.

The writing and acting are also top-notch. The actors weren't big stars but they were accomplished character actors. It has a fully developed plot and the dialogue was well written. Also, they got a lot of the science facts right on this one, at least more than usual for a Hollywood scifi. They even tried to explain special relativity, incorrectly of course, but they tried.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes old science fiction movies.

It’s just unfortunate that they gave this film such a cheap-sounding name. They even released it as a double-feature with The Werewolf. (I guess film marketing has improved since then as well as special effects. 😆 )
- - - -
#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #space #aliens #claypigeons #flyingsaucer #the1950s #ColdWar #hairy

- - - -

accessible image description:

an ugly movie poster with orange and white headlines, muted colors, with images of flying saucers that are shooting rays to the ground and robot creatures walking around, the large headlines says flying saucers attack! warning! take cover! flying saucers vs. earth, small headlines say flying saucers invade our planet: washington, london, paris, moscow, take cover!, a smaller inset image of a man and woman looking scared and holding each other.

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

The title of this film is very misleading. It makes it sound like a low-budget 50s scifi, but this is actually a very well made movie. I think it's on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1952), except this film had a lot more special effects. They used a combination of stop action and other practical effects as well as post processing techniques.

The guy who did the special effects on this film, Ray Harryhauser, invented a technique called Dynamation, a special type of stop action effect. He went on to work on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1956) which is probably one of the most well-known stop action/live action films of the era. But this film uses a wide variety of techniques as well as stop action.

The writing and acting are also top-notch. The actors weren't big stars but they were accomplished character actors. It has a fully developed plot and the dialogue was well written. Also, they got a lot of the science facts right on this one, at least more than usual for a Hollywood scifi. They even tried to explain special relativity, incorrectly of course, but they tried.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes old science fiction movies.

It’s just unfortunate that they gave this film such a cheap-sounding name. They even released it as a double-feature with The Werewolf. (I guess film marketing has improved since then as well as special effects. 😆 )
- - - -
#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #space #aliens #claypigeons #flyingsaucer #the1950s #ColdWar #hairy

- - - -

accessible image description:

an ugly movie poster with orange and white headlines, muted colors, with images of flying saucers take are shooting rays to the ground and robot creatures walking around, the large headlines says flying saucers attack! warning! take cover! flying saucers vs. earth, small headlines say flying saucers invade our planet: washington, london, paris, moscow, take cover!, a smaller inset image of a man and woman looking scared and holding each other.

#claytargetshooting #claypigeons #hares Another happy day popping clays in glorious sunshine. To make it better I had to almost physically remove a Hare from line of fire. We see a lot of wildlife at our ground, which is strange given that wildlife and shotguns usually have a bad relationship. We don't shoot live stuff, and what we do shoot is mostly in the air so real birds, hares, fox, bunnys whatever are safe. This Hare I think was marking out territory so we may see more of him. Rare treat.

#claytargetshooting #claypigeons #localsolutions #icandothat #moondust
A solution to the climate crisis: mining the moon, researchers say
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/08/moon-dust-moonshot-geoengineering-climate-crisis?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This sounds like a case of overkill. After a rapid round of testing me and my mates are confident that we can produce enough dust from clays to achieve the same effect. All we need is the NASA/spaceX/or whoever budget for shells and clays and a Railgun to launch the clays.
Public good and private fun all in one.
Easy.

#claytargetshooting #claypigeons A happy day spent making small flying clay ashtrays explode. Reasonably successfully as well, about a 75% hit rate. I've tried golf, fishing and loads of other age approprate (70+) hobbies but none give the same childish pleasure as making things go bang. I am keenly aware that by far the majority of people disapprove of my pastime - the idea of someone owning a gun for fun is somehow dirty and shouldn't be allowed. I feel much the same about pets.

#claytargetshooting #claypigeons Looking forward to a day shooting clays tomorrow (Wed). Just hope the weather stays fine.

#claytargets #claypigeons #clayshooting No shooting today cos freezing fog and zero visibility. Local ground is on the top of a hill so it's often clear even if the valley I live in is a peasouper. Not today tho. Spent a happy hour or so with mates drinking tea in the converted container we call a 'clubhouse'. It has a wood stove and is very cozy. Perhaps tomorrow it will be better.
Whilst they are good people I wish they would talk about something other than killing things. 😢

#claytargetshooting #claytargets #claypigeons A most wonderful day. Up in Yorkshire Dales in bright sunshine, bit of snow on ground and not quite freezing temperatures. Practice day on the clay traps, where my hit rate was around 30%. Sounds bad - but actually it's not. I'm trying Skeet, it's very fast an requires perfect technique, neither of which are my current strong points but I am hitting some of them. Also I know why I miss. YouTube time again I think.

#claytargetshooting #claytargets #claypigeons Happy day today cos I got 80% (40/50) of the clays. This may not seem like much but its good for me since I could hardly feel my fingers. The ground faces south so this time of year the sun is always in your eyes, and its very exposed, but that's part of the fun.
I'm getting a lot of cat jokes as well which is causing me to review who I buy tea for afterwards.