Live from the Mars Hotel – Space Locations and the Film Industry
£5.00
D. Sivier (2002), JBIS, 55, 188-192
Refcode: 2002.55.188
Keywords: Space, film, television, sport, tourism
Abstract:
Space exploration is the subject of intense media interest in a way unparalleled in any other branch of science. It is the subject of countless films and television programmes, both fact and fiction, many using original footage from space. Astronauts have broadcast live from the Moon, and TV journalists have travelled to Mir, similar to the use of exotic terrestrial locations for filming by professional film crews. Although prohibitively expensive at the moment, the next generation of spacecraft may lower launch costs to an affordable level, so that space locations become competitive against computer graphics and model work. The construction of orbital hotels will create the demand for human interest stories similar to those set in holiday locations like the south of France and Italy made just after the Second World War, at a time when mass tourism on foreign holidays was just beginning, aided by the development of large transport aircraft able to cater to the demand for mass flight.
