Context (C3)

• Distributor


  Sony Picture Classics
• Visual effects company


  Cinesite
• Cinematographer


  Shaw
• Stars


  Sam Rockwell
• Score


  Mansell
• Film was written a s a vehicle for Sam Rockwell
• Low-budget - affected the films’ aesthetic as the team could not afford to use CGI – they used a studio and constructed miniature models for the scenes set outside the spacecraft
• "We decided that we weren't going to do any on location shoots, we wanted to have completely controlled shooting environments, so we did everything on soundstages" -Jones 
• They had two soundstages - one was for the interior of the moon base and one for the exterior which they built
• There was a ‘lack of romance in the moon as a location’ --> desolate and empty
• The cinematographer only had a very small lighting kit that he carried around with him
• For the exterior, they built a chunk of lunar terrain and pulled around model minatures - "we had the benefit of Cinesite who beautified and fixed all the obvious problems" -Jones
• "We tried to capture as much as possible in camera in order to save ourselves the money and give the film a different, hybrid look that felt more real" -Jones
• Jones worked with Bill Pearson for the models – the supervising model maker on Alien
• Well received critically - “a film about what it means, and takes, to be human” -The Times  
• Political/ historical...
• The film’s retro approach to space exploration by mining on the moon – based on a historical appreciation of dystopic, pessimistic sci-fi  
• There are clear similarities in terms of setting and iconography to 2001: A Space Odyssey  
• The film follows in the anti-corporate science fiction tradition  
• The euphoria of the space race is over but the race to put tourists in space is still evident as we see in recent successful space rocket launches by billionaires   
• Auto- biographical...
• Jones is naturally drawn to the sci-fi genre as the son of David Bowie who wrote many space themed songs --> “Everything I am is a reflection of the experiences I went through growing up” 
• This could be the cause of Moon’s nostalgic feel for old sci-fi films