6 ms·

The NASA Rocket Countdown Came from a 1929 Fritz Lang Film

114 points by prismatic 11y ago

tyingq 11y ago
Pictures of the clock from when it was being dismantled: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4558-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4558-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4559-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4559-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4560-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4560-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4561-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4561-s.jpg
SCAQTony 11y ago
...And his follow-up contribution to illustrate a modern economy circa 2015 was "Metropolis." "...Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city's ruler, and Maria, a poor worker, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city. ..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)
- weinzierl 11y ago
  Metropolis has quite an interesting history: The original cut was lost and only fragments survived. Since the 80s the most popular version was one made by Giorgio Moroder (the same guy that worked with Daft Punk on the Album Random Access Memories). Over the years different versions and scenes were found all over the world and since 2010 there is version that is considered close to the original. Popular culture is full of references to this movie, from "The Fifth Element" to Queen's "Radio Ga Ga". I can also highly recommend "M"[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_%281931_film%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_%281931_film%29
  - djloche 11y ago
    I also recommend M. Given the fame of the original film, it is a little bit surprising that they haven't remade it recently.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      There is a 2000 Anime and Manga remake of Metropolis. Very interesting variation. (but not close to the original)
jonas21 11y ago
I went looking for a picture of the retired analog countdown clock from the article, expecting to see a giant clock face with hands. But as far as I can tell, the analog clock they're referring to is the one in the photo on the right here [1], which most people would probably consider digital. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/new-display-counts-down-for-new-generation https://www.nasa.gov/content/new-display-counts-down-for-new...
- webkike 11y ago
  It doesn't use a digital display, so how can it be considered digital?
  - dandelany 11y ago
    "Digital [adj]: (of a clock or watch) showing the time by means of displayed digits rather than hands or a pointer."
    - usrusr 11y ago
      Imagine the confusion in an alternate universe where the clockmakers of old decided to call the pointing sticks "fingers" instead of "hands".
  - soperj 11y ago
    I think scoreboards would be considered digital displays even if they use lights to make the numbers.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - tyingq 11y ago
    FWIW, It's not just the AtlasObscura writer. NASA calls it analog on the page referenced: "Workers remove the analog countdown clock from its mount..."
    - 11y ago
chizzl 11y ago
Fritz Lang, in turn, may have been inspired from the old portrait photography days whereby the subject is counted down to -- to indicate that the long process is almost over after many many minutes.
beloch 11y ago
The Nazi party had this film withdrawn from release. They felt the film was realistic to the point of giving away German technological secrets.
- arrrg 11y ago
  I was just skipping through it. This film gets things right many scifi films don’t to this day. Which is astonishing, really. There was no real need for it to be this accurate. I mean, there just was no space flight, so you could just as easily have picked stereotypes about what it’s like to fly to space … it’s not like anyone (safe some scientists) would have noticed. (I love the scene with the water bottle in zero g with some nice special effects. They got the nice round water bubbles right, but didn’t quite go for space travelers catching them with their mouths. I don’t think putting those bubbles in a drinking glass would be as easy as they show it to be. But probably easier from a special effect point of view.)
rocky1138 11y ago
If the article is about a specific item, there should be a picture of the item in the article. Without it, it's nearly worthless.
- dandelany 11y ago
  The second picture in the article shows the countdown clock. The article just confuses it by calling it "analog" and comparing it to a wristwatch, but in fact most people would consider it digital.
weinzierl 11y ago
The whole film is on Youtube. If you are just interested in the countdown scene the link is below: https://youtu.be/9MVga1D6rRQ?t=5626 https://youtu.be/9MVga1D6rRQ?t=5626 EDIT: The clip is also in the original article but a bit different. This link shows only the last 10 seconds, it has English translations of the titles and has no modern background music.
- WalterBright 11y ago
  I'm a big fan of colorized history over on Reddit. The old pictures become much more appealing this way. Wouldn't it be great to colorize these classics, and also remove the title cards and hire some foley and voice artists to create a soundtrack for them?
  - kuschku 11y ago
    Not really, the pacing is completely different from modern movies. And there still is an audience which watches it in cinema in 2015, so there's no need to vandalize it for mass appeal.
    - WalterBright 11y ago
      I know that colorizing it will offend some people, but the originals are not damaged and people who want to see the originals can. Is it so much different from converting existing movies to 3D? I watched a restored print of 1929 "Wings" and they added a few foley sound effects here and there. It dramatically improved watching the picture. The flick is already in HD, and looks great. Colorized, foley soundtrack, and dubbing will make it much more fun to watch. I know a lot of younger people who simply refuse to watch anything in black&white, and I don't blame them.
  - ollifi 11y ago
    These are artworks, and even though they are made with limited technology they are built to those constraints. You can't update the medium and not lose the essence of the piece. You don't make super mario more appealing to modern audiences by rendering it from first person. We should build emulators so that people can play the original. Or you can draw inspiration from the original and make a new piece that works in modern ways. So I think it would be waste of effort. Colorizing historical photos is cool, but I don't think it's the same thing.
kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
This attributes a little too much insight to Lang. Multi-stage rockets had already been invented. It is quite likely that people developing rocketry at the time were already using count downs and Lang was inspired by what he witnessed. This is the first documented countdown on film. It doesn't necessarily represent a novel invention.
peter303 11y ago
It should be on every nerds bucket list to view live rocket launch.

114 points by prismatic 11y ago

Pictures of the clock from when it was being dismantled: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4558-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4558-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4559-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4559-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4560-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4560-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4561-s.jpg http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/images/small/2014-4561-s.jpg

SCAQTony 11y ago

...And his follow-up contribution to illustrate a modern economy circa 2015 was "Metropolis." "...Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city's ruler, and Maria, a poor worker, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city. ..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)

weinzierl 11y ago
Metropolis has quite an interesting history: The original cut was lost and only fragments survived. Since the 80s the most popular version was one made by Giorgio Moroder (the same guy that worked with Daft Punk on the Album Random Access Memories). Over the years different versions and scenes were found all over the world and since 2010 there is version that is considered close to the original. Popular culture is full of references to this movie, from "The Fifth Element" to Queen's "Radio Ga Ga". I can also highly recommend "M"[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_%281931_film%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_%281931_film%29
- djloche 11y ago
  I also recommend M. Given the fame of the original film, it is a little bit surprising that they haven't remade it recently.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    There is a 2000 Anime and Manga remake of Metropolis. Very interesting variation. (but not close to the original)

jonas21 11y ago

I went looking for a picture of the retired analog countdown clock from the article, expecting to see a giant clock face with hands. But as far as I can tell, the analog clock they're referring to is the one in the photo on the right here [1], which most people would probably consider digital. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/new-display-counts-down-for-new-generation https://www.nasa.gov/content/new-display-counts-down-for-new...

webkike 11y ago
It doesn't use a digital display, so how can it be considered digital?
- dandelany 11y ago
  "Digital [adj]: (of a clock or watch) showing the time by means of displayed digits rather than hands or a pointer."
  - usrusr 11y ago
    Imagine the confusion in an alternate universe where the clockmakers of old decided to call the pointing sticks "fingers" instead of "hands".
- soperj 11y ago
  I think scoreboards would be considered digital displays even if they use lights to make the numbers.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- tyingq 11y ago
  FWIW, It's not just the AtlasObscura writer. NASA calls it analog on the page referenced: "Workers remove the analog countdown clock from its mount..."
  - 11y ago

chizzl 11y ago

Fritz Lang, in turn, may have been inspired from the old portrait photography days whereby the subject is counted down to -- to indicate that the long process is almost over after many many minutes.

beloch 11y ago

The Nazi party had this film withdrawn from release. They felt the film was realistic to the point of giving away German technological secrets.

arrrg 11y ago
I was just skipping through it. This film gets things right many scifi films don’t to this day. Which is astonishing, really. There was no real need for it to be this accurate. I mean, there just was no space flight, so you could just as easily have picked stereotypes about what it’s like to fly to space … it’s not like anyone (safe some scientists) would have noticed. (I love the scene with the water bottle in zero g with some nice special effects. They got the nice round water bubbles right, but didn’t quite go for space travelers catching them with their mouths. I don’t think putting those bubbles in a drinking glass would be as easy as they show it to be. But probably easier from a special effect point of view.)

rocky1138 11y ago

If the article is about a specific item, there should be a picture of the item in the article. Without it, it's nearly worthless.

dandelany 11y ago
The second picture in the article shows the countdown clock. The article just confuses it by calling it "analog" and comparing it to a wristwatch, but in fact most people would consider it digital.

weinzierl 11y ago

The whole film is on Youtube. If you are just interested in the countdown scene the link is below: https://youtu.be/9MVga1D6rRQ?t=5626 https://youtu.be/9MVga1D6rRQ?t=5626 EDIT: The clip is also in the original article but a bit different. This link shows only the last 10 seconds, it has English translations of the titles and has no modern background music.

WalterBright 11y ago
I'm a big fan of colorized history over on Reddit. The old pictures become much more appealing this way. Wouldn't it be great to colorize these classics, and also remove the title cards and hire some foley and voice artists to create a soundtrack for them?
- kuschku 11y ago
  Not really, the pacing is completely different from modern movies. And there still is an audience which watches it in cinema in 2015, so there's no need to vandalize it for mass appeal.
  - WalterBright 11y ago
    I know that colorizing it will offend some people, but the originals are not damaged and people who want to see the originals can. Is it so much different from converting existing movies to 3D? I watched a restored print of 1929 "Wings" and they added a few foley sound effects here and there. It dramatically improved watching the picture. The flick is already in HD, and looks great. Colorized, foley soundtrack, and dubbing will make it much more fun to watch. I know a lot of younger people who simply refuse to watch anything in black&white, and I don't blame them.
- ollifi 11y ago
  These are artworks, and even though they are made with limited technology they are built to those constraints. You can't update the medium and not lose the essence of the piece. You don't make super mario more appealing to modern audiences by rendering it from first person. We should build emulators so that people can play the original. Or you can draw inspiration from the original and make a new piece that works in modern ways. So I think it would be waste of effort. Colorizing historical photos is cool, but I don't think it's the same thing.

kevin_thibedeau 11y ago

This attributes a little too much insight to Lang. Multi-stage rockets had already been invented. It is quite likely that people developing rocketry at the time were already using count downs and Lang was inspired by what he witnessed. This is the first documented countdown on film. It doesn't necessarily represent a novel invention.

peter303 11y ago

It should be on every nerds bucket list to view live rocket launch.