Hacker News Reader

Comment by myself248 | Hacker News Reader

Captain D produces some of the most impressive technical content out there, wrapped in subtle and not-so-subtle zingers, and breathtakingly illustrated. Decomposing a frame into its brightness channel, rotating it, and collapsing the columns to make a waveform graph? Mind completely blown.

The debunk videos are his major stock in trade, but I personally love (and discovered him through) the explainers about frame rate and shutter speed, color spaces, interlacing, and other details of the video art.

And of course, his mindbogglingly detailed exploration of Flight of the Navigator -- if you've seen the film, make some time tonight and watch it.

View on HN

I have never watched the movie, only heard about it in CD‘s video. I have watched his documentation at least six or seven times now. It is that good.

Oh, it's worth a watch. The intro sequence (no spoilers, but when you get to the dog scene, you'll know what I mean) is just great, and there's a handful of classic lines I quote to this day. (Sarah Jessica Parker and the Coke question! No VFX needed, it's solid gold on its own merit.)

I honestly don't know how the film holds up today, especially from the eyes of a grown-up watching it for the first time. The overall narrative may or may not earn its keep, I guess. But all those VFX shots were in service of a larger story, and if nothing else I think you'll appreciate them more in context.

Flight of the Navigator wasn’t a good movie then or now. It is an excellent focus for childlike wonder, however.

It’s enjoyable, but the writers basically had a really good idea for the start of a movie and then no idea of how it should develop from there.

Somehow that puts me in mind of Explorers (1985).

the alien comedy monolog was hilarious to me as a kid, but I haven't watched Explorers in probably about 30 years.

Seems fair.

I recall Paul Rubens, jokes about Twisted Sister, morphing spaceships, time travel, Fort Lauderdale Florida (which seemed impossibly alien to this midwesterner), and a lot of pop culture references.

I watched it and will recommend. It's on HighSeasflix.

> HighSeasflix

i searched for HighSeasflix and got 0 results, is that just your way of talking about torrenting?

Only seaworthy ways of browsing the internet can be used to find it.

Most likely torrenting but could also be referring to the practice of using a vpn to access content available in another country on your streaming service of choice but not your home country

Arrr me hearty

I wore that VHS out as a ~four year old. Haven't thought about that movie in decades. Thanks for the recommendation.

It was more of a demo reel pitching himself to direct a sequel. Give him the job!

You should also watch his similar documetary on Back to the Future. :chefs_kiss:

Maybe the speed of sound was particularly fast that day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyixMpuGEL8

I can barely watch his videos because for some reason I find his humor really irritating.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com