Notes for Common Room Appearance

I guest hosted on Common Room (Hadas/Sophrosune's podcast) on November 24, 2014. The topic was Interstellar and the renaissance of science fiction films in the last five years.

My focus points for good science fiction are good world building (including visuals), interesting and well-written stories, high quality character depth and development, solid science background and interesting technologies, and (if appropriate) bigger themes or underlying questions making a message

Here's the list of films and some notes I had from my reviews.

WALL-E

Her

Moon

Avatar

Elysium

Inception

Guardians of the Galaxy

Looper

Sunshine

Interstellar


My Other References
Gravity -
Lucy -
Snowpiercer -
Edge of Tomorrow -
Star Trek -
Star Wars -
Hunger Games - just for note about dystopian future, what makes Interstellar so compelling.
The Walking Dead - again, just for a note about lazy storytelling and breaking the rules of the world set up

Show Notes

Common Room Special Episode

MONDAY November 24th, 2014
Invite: 9:15 PM  Start: 9:30 PM Eastern

Contributors:

Fitz (Dave), Hadas, Vanessa, Cindy

• Introductions
• Going to try something new and say “who is in our Common Room today?” or something like that.
• H-
• C -
• V-
• Entertainment Segment
• Topical Dish: (Hadas) explain what it is
• Please prepare a question to ask the other two hosts in order to make your topical dish a conversation starter.
• D- Are you a Black Friday shopper, and if so, do you have any great war stories?
• C-
• V-
• H-
• 
  

• Main Discussion: Sci Fi Film Renaissance, films from the last five years or so that brought something new to the table. We will focus mostly on original screenplays and mention outstanding adaptations.
• Discussion Rundown:
• Please add topics or questions to this section using your colors and we will do the rundown immediately before the episode.
• World Building Analysis
• Visuals
• Oscar Worthy?
• Here we can talk about Gravity
• Technology
• Earth or Other?
• Dystopia or Utopia?
• Character Development
• Tropes?
• Role of Women
• Realistic (Gravity/Sunshine/scene in The Core/Deep Impact)
• Influence from past films/books

• Final List of Films we will FOCUS on:

1. WALL-E
2. Her
3. Moon
4. Avatar
5. Elysium
6. Inception
7. GotG
8. Looper
9. Sunshine
10. Interstellar

• Complete Film List
• Recent New
• Gravity
• Lucy
• Interstellar
• Her
• Avatar (2009)
• Transcendence
• Source Code (2011)
• Moon (2009)
• Elysium (2013)
• Looper (2012)
• Inception (2010)
• Recent Adaptations
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Snowpiercer
• Oblivion
• Ender’s Game (Estee)
• Limitless (2011)
• Returning Adaptations
• Star Trek
• Star Wars
• Godzilla
• Pacific Rim
• Planet of the Apes
• Hunger Games (need to confirm why this is placed here)
• Terminator (Terminator franchise - 1984, 1991, 2003, 2009)
• Total Recall (1990, 2012)
• Relatively Recent
• District 9 (2009)
• WALL-E (2008)
• I, Robot (2004 - Adaption)
• Sunshine (2007)  
• Riddick (2000, 2004, 2013 franchise)
• Prometheus (2012) (part of Alien franchise/prequel)
• Older Sci-Fi
• Alien (Alien franchise - Alien 1979, Aliens 1986, Aliens 3 1992, Aliens Resurrection 1997)
• Dune (1984, 2000 mini series on SyFy)
• Contact (1997)
• Matrix (Matrix Trilogy 1999, 2003, 2003)
• Metropolis (1927)

Common Room Questions

• Obsessions (V)  We've reached the final segment: Obsessions, where we discuss what we've been obsessed with recently. Share your obsessions with us in the comments!

DO NOT FORGET TO UPDATE THE SITE POST

Please prepare a question to ask the other two hosts in order to make your Obsession a conversation starter.

• V- Gossip Girl - I can’t believe I just said that. Out loud. The Sci-Fi Princess of Common Room is binge watching Gossip Girl.  This is all Netflix’s fault. But here I am on Season 5.  I love Dan & Blair. So ladies, did you watch the show?
• D- Hearthstone, once again I’ve been totally hooked by a Blizzard game! At least this one is free to play and on iPad, definitely scratches the competitive itch and appears to be growing. (If TV is more appropriate, then Survivor Blood vs. Water and Utopia have been our recent guilty pleasures).
• C-
• H-

• (H) Thank Dave/Fitz for being on the show. Plug his blog, podcasts, other projects
• healertrek.blogspot.com (written versions of audio segments on This Week in Trek and Current Geek podcasts)
• Talking10.com
• @Buckeyefitzy on Twitter
• Thanks! I amended the Sci Fi Month intro post too!

• Contact (C) And that wraps up our show. If you'd like to contact us don't forget to follow @commonroompc on
• H: FB,
• V: Twitter,
• C: Instagram
• H: Pinterest,
• V: and Tumblr
• C: We have playlists on spotify and youtube
• H: Please leave a comment on commonroompc.com
• V: and don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes

• Outros
• I’m Vanessa

• I’m Cindy
• And I'm Hadas
• Thanks for listening to Common Room!