The second to last Adicolor podcast, ‘Yellow’, was released on May 3, a science fiction short film in the same genre as Ridley Scott’s 1982 futurist film Bladerunner. The spot begins with a man stopping by the prone body of a uniformed soldier. The voiceover, by Slovakian Dušan Marušák, fills us in on what’s happening, taking us on a tour of a robotics factory.
“I can explain it this way. You start with the basic source code for artificial intelligence. And then you add something like some will have emotions, some will have memories, some will have ways to interact with humans, and you mix them together. We’ve distinguished them by the color. Red, blue, green, yellow, whatever. ”
We move out of the factory and onto the streets of Shanghai. The voiceover continues…
Five different versions. Five experiements were created but one is different. I was excited to think that we had created something that obviously could think for itself. We all were. But it was smart enough to escape from the institution and to live in society for eighteen months, making decisions, and observing us at will.”
We see shots of a young man walking the streets of Shanghai, boarding trains, walking among pedestrians.
English translation text is provided for the next speaker. “We tracked it across many countries. Albania, Burma, Singapore. Eventually we tried to take it down in Shanghai.”
We now move to the final stage, an abbatoir in which a butcher is slicing up a chicken carcass.
“Our orders were simple, shoot to kill. Yellow was different. Sure, they were all coded differently. But that didn’t matter. Yellow had the capacity to learn. They were created in complete secrecy. Make a better human. Make a smarter human. Take away emotion. Take away failings. Now living amongst us the greatest weapon and the deadliest threat.”
Soldiers track the Yellow android into the abbatoir, attempting to shoot it down. Instead, they are beaten at their own game.
“Once it begins to it will spread… into every area of our civilization. Perhaps now is the end of our era and the birth of something new.”
See if you can find the Adidas logo in the ad. It’s being worn by the Yellow android.
Yellow Credits
Script for Yellow Adicolor was written by Terri Tatchell and Neill Blomkamp.
Yellow was directed by Neill Blomkamp via RSA Films, with producers Robin Hays and Shannon Worley, executive producers Jules Daly and Fran McGivern, and director of photography Trent Opaloch.
Visual effects were done by Neill Blomkamp’s own VFX company Ratel, by VFX artist Blomkamp, lead visual fx artist Tristam Gieni, lead modeler Paul Copeland, 3D modelers Ali Maleka, Nick Boughen, Les Quinn, Wes Sargent, Dan Mayer, Ho Sung Cheon, Mark Breakspear, and art director Kirk Karasin. Other staff included makeup artists Sarah Bergeest, Jennifer Beebe, extras cast agent Katrina Bancroft, tactical advisor Dan Pelchat, armourer Craig Myers, SPFX co-ordinator Eric Vrba and 1st assistant Scott Pringle, props Amanda Christmas, construction Ken Sullivan and craft services Anne Fotheringham. Prosthetics were developed by Willard Cochrane, Sarah Bergeest and David Black.
Adidas Adicolor Yellow features actors Julien Phipps, Giddon Karmel, Jason Bell, Jason Lee, Bob Dong, Hamish Cameron and Irene Astle.
Sound design and mixing was by Kim B. Christensen at Noises Digital, Berkeley, California.
Music for Adicolor Yellow
The score for Adicolor Yellow was written by Gary Pozner, Whirled Music and incorporates music from Pro Radii by Autechre, English electronic music duo Rob Brown and Sean Booth. “Pro Radii” is on Untilted and is available from Amazon.com.