By

Richard Vezina

Published on/by

Vimeo

Accompanying text

Mankind’s Destiny is a mash-up/homage to space exploration and science-fiction films set in space. The combination of historical space conquest events with sci-fi cinema may seem unusual due to the differences between fiction and reality. However, an increasing number of sci-fi movies opt for technical realism close to actual current and future space conquest accomplishments. The selection was made based on the movies’ visuals and impact. Space opera-style films (such as Star Wars) were partly or completely skipped; however, some scenes were taken from movies like Star Trek, simply because of their beauty. However, many interesting movies on this subject were not selected, because their visuals did not match the project.

– Why are 1950s and 1960s science-fiction classics missing?
Aside from Forbidden Planet, no footage from any other movies from that era was used. The special effects’ quality in such films simply does not fit in with the effects found in more recent movies.

– Why is there so few Soviet archive footage?
The amount of footage available from the Soviet space programme is very low compared to the American programme. Also, most of the available footage is in low resolution. Since this is not a documentary, but rather an art piece, it was impossible to include more of them.

– About the Nedelin catastrophe
The Nedelin catastrophe isn’t directly linked to the Soviet space programme. In fact, it was closely related to the launch of ICBM missiles. However, the technologies that were tested were to be integrated to the space programme. In Russia, October 24 is a day dedicated to the memory of the people who gave their life to space conquest, and no rocket launch can be held on that date. This is why this event can somewhat be linked to the Soviet space programme.

– Earthrise
The Apollo 10 Earthrise shown in the first part wasn’t the first one ever witnessed by human beings. The first occurrence dates back to the Apollo 8 mission and was immortalized on a classic photo by William Anders.

– Image modification
Some image manipulation was required to better integrate the selected footage to the project (inversion, rescaling, colour correction, etc.)

– Lisa Gerrard – Abwoon (Our Father)
The selection of this song was made strictly for its music. There is no relation between this project and the lyrics’ meaning.

– Distribution
This project started in the fall of 2015. A public screening of the first version was held in Montreal in the summer of 2016, during Fantasia Festival. Editing was done entirely with Premiere Pro CC.

– Who am I?
I live in Montreal and work in a field outside of video editing. I create such projects during my free time, as a mere film lover.
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Music: John Murphy, Sigur Rós, Lisa Gerrard, James Horner, Johann Strauss II
Films: 2001, 2010, Alien, Apollo 13, Armageddon, Avatar, Blade Runner, Cargo, Close Encounters, of the Third Kind, Contact, Elysium, Ender’s Game, Europa Report, Event Horizon, First Orbit (audio), Forbidden Planet, Gagarin first in space, Gravity, Interstellar, Love, Mission to Mars, Moon, Moonwalk One (audio), Outland, Prometheus, Red Planet, Silent Running, Solaris (Tarkovsky), Solaris (Soderbergh), Space Cowboys, Sphere, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek The Motion Picture, Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Stargate Atlantis, Sunshine, The Core, The Day the Earth Stood Still (Derrickson), The Fountain, The Martian, The Right Stuff, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Earth from space, For all mankind, How russia won the space race, IMAX – Blue planet, IMAX – Mission to mir, IMAX – The Dream is alive, In the shadow of the moon, Last flight of the space shuttle, NASA Archives, Race to the moon, Roscosmos Archives, Columbia Space shuttle disaster, The space shuttle last flight, The space shuttle a horizon guide, To the moon (audio), When we left earth