Warren Lich, Steampunk Agent or Now I have to start with Steampunk, too...

[Comsquare]

Anybody seen this?
I think that was the last step to get me into Steampunk-Gaming

Enjoy

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Well, it;s interesting.

I like the masked guys, cool stuff.

I hate the way the film is made though, the lighting is so uncomfortable to view and they've relied too much on Green screen!
However, I am sure it is a low budget film, straight to DVD, so it's quite good really.

Nice take on steampunk, it's sort of light steampunk with dieselpunk and cyberpunk mixed in really. Very cool.

I'd give it a watch. 

[former user]

Oh, a train   

looks interesting - I thought Steampunk was more before 1920 or so, and Dieselpunk after.

Anyway, it looks cool, very much Metropolis/Bladerunner/1984/Batman
I guess they'll have to get the design more consistent,it looks very much like a wild mixture.

[Rob_bresnen]

I think that visually it looks a lot like Sky Captain- I might watch it on DVD, but I don't think I will go to the cinema. I is clearly dystopean, but is it really steampunk?

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Oh, a train   

looks interesting - I thought Steampunk was more before 1920 or so, and Dieselpunk after.

I don't give them dates, it's a style more than anything for me.
The exhibit at Oxford was a good example of that with the Gramophone with an i-pod dock... 

[former user]

I see

I always try to understand what Steampunk style actually is.
VSF is easy, that I understood.

For me, the trailer is very much in "Art Deco" style, and this has a "house Number", 1920-1940
So what does the Steampunk style actually consist of?

this is an honest question 

[Steve F]

So what does the Steampunk style actually consist of?

this is an honest question 

It's largely a question of attitude.  "Steampunk" got its name because it was a spin-off from the SF "Cyberpunk" movement (particularly by way of The Difference Engine), using VSF tropes with a cynical irreverence.  For example, one early example, Paul DiFilippo's Steampunk Trilogy, features a genetically modified newt replacing the young Queen Victoria on the throne, while Vicky herself is comprehensively rogered by Lord Palmerston.  This is not a scenario you would have found in Jules Verne or H G Wells, or more sober retro VSF like Stephen Baxter's Anti-Ice.

Precise definitions aren't possible, though.  If Michael Moorcock's Warlord of the Air were published today, it would probably be classed as "steampunk", but it predates that movement by at least a decade.  And there's lots of stuff inbetween: Christopher Priest's The Space Machine features some of the exuberant mash-up qualities of steampunk, but without its air of social and culteral transgression.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Supposedly the Warlord of the Air is considered one of the leading parts of the Steampunk movement.

Art Deco is a design movement, Steampunk has come into a few things.

Film Noir is part of Art Deco though. I think...

[Steve F]

Film Noir is part of Art Deco though. I think...

Not really.  Film Noir is a genre of fatalistic American crime movie shot in stark black and white and associated particularly with the 1940s, originally identified by the French magazine Cahiers du cinema, and spearheaded by expatriate German expressionist film directors like Fritz Lang.  Art Deco is a design movement, particularly noted for geometric decoration (hence "deco") which was a reaction to the sinuous plant-like nature of Art Nouveau.  It is generally associated with the 1920s and 1930s.  That, of course, was the period when much of the Hollywood and Los Angeles featured in 1940s film noir was built, which may be why you associate them.

[former user]

I think this might be the idea of "optical style" I mean when asking about Steampunk style

so, like in VSF the steam engine and pith helmet, what looks does define Steampunk as such?
don't want to nag, it is just because that I sometimes have an idea about steampunk and I hear: "but no, this is not steampunk..."

eg, the plastic Necromunda Bulkheads we all know, are these Steampunk?

[Westfalia Chris]

eg, the plastic Necromunda Bulkheads we all know, are these Steampunk?

Depending on how you assemble and paint them, I guess. Some of the more gothic items could indeed work for a steampunk look.

On the trailer, somehow it looks a bit too modern (too much electricity and electronics involved) for my taste to properly look "steampunkesque". That, and it seems to borrow quite heavily in its style from the aforementioned "Sky Captain" - maybe it's the harsh contrasts - I would prefer Sepia for Steampunk, or a grainier, turn-of-the-century black and white. This looks too much like "Sin City" for my taste.

If this movie repeats the artistic problems of Sky Captain, without being as innovative, I'll be reluctant to see it. 

[frontal assault]

To be honest as a film it isn't going to work for me, its to much like Sin City, but without any of the intelligent story lines.  Still it might be worth renting just for the Steampunk aspect.

As to what Steampunk is, well I'd always understood it to be somewhat like Warmachine or the Magna Britannia books.

[Comsquare]

Hei,

as the director states on his website, the trailer should just demonstrate the visual style of the upcoming movie, so I guess their will be a better storyline in the finished version.

He has also written that it is a no-budget trailer they they shot in 2 days in an old warehouse, and therefor it's not to bad.

And yes, it's more a mix of different genres than "pure" steampunk.
But, as mentioned before, there's no precise definition for the steampunkgenre, and as for dieselpunk is "just" an subgenre of steampunk (wiki), Warren Lich in the end is also "steampunk".

They are all a big family

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks interesting but it reminds me of 'Kashern' which was complete and utter tosh. And Rob's right, too much green screen 

cheers

James

[white knight]

I liked cashern.  It had gaping holes in the script (some were filled by the extras on the dvd) and you never really knew what was going on, but it also had some really cool bits IMO.

This reminds me more of "The Spirit" than "Sin City". Which is a bad thing.