The Raveonettes - Heart of Stone

Great animated, Steampunk-themed music video. (click on the blue-outlined thumbnail to play)

Obvious to you

This one is for all the frustrated creative minds out there.

Werewolves and Greek Demi-Gods

It's not steampunk, but well worth the watch for fans of dark fantasy. Remarkably well done for a fan film, I'd go watch something like this in the theatre if it was a feature film and it had a larger FX budget.

Welcome to Hoxford, the fan film from Julien Mokrani on Vimeo.

From Vimeo: "Raymond Delgado is no ordinary prisoner...
On a good day he'll take the time to tell you he's the son of Zeus before he tears out your jugular. On a bad day, you won't even have a moment to call out for help.
After a yet another "incident" Raymond has been transferred to Hoxford, a correctional facility and mental institution known for its radical methods.
At Hoxford, Raymond’s not the only predator...
Come nightfall, under a full moon, bloodcurdling screams pierce through the darkness of the prison courtyard. It's hunting hour!
As the other Hoxford prisoners huddle in the obscurity of their prison cells trembling in fright, Ray cracks a smile. He thrives on confrontation.
Lock a human beast in a cage with a legendary monster and, in your opinion...
Who will devour? And who will be devoured?"

A Trip to the Moon

A conversation I had on Facebook about steampunk in cinema got me thinking about this film. Arguably the first Science Fiction movie ever made. Of course it doesn't hold up by today's standards, but at the time the special effects were absolutely amazing. Director Georges Méliès based his film loosely on Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells.

Why aren't there more steampunk movies?

I've been wondering this for a while. Is it because the few Steampunkish films released have done really poorly, like the Wild Wild West, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, or because Hollywood just hasn't caught on to how cool a well articulated Steampunk film could be?

Bloodrunsclear created this fake Weird West movie trailer by chopping up other films.


He did another fake trailer for the movie version of Leviathan.


And, I had to pick one actual steampunk movie. Here's the steamboy trailer.

Short Steampunk Documentary

A short PBS documentary on the steampunk movement, interviews with artists, thoughts about the roots and where things are going into the future. If you ever have trouble explaining to other people exactly what steampunk is, point them here.

Weekend Steampunk Videos

First up, a collection of projects in a steampunk workshop.



Internet memes translated into Victorian times.



Finally, the best corkscrew ever invented.

Weekend Videos

Here are a few steampunk animated films I enjoy. I have been an animator for over ten years so naturally I have a soft spot.

First up, The Invention of Love, amazing visual style, steampunk silhouette animation.



Next, an ad for Terry Gilliam's, 1884's Yesterday's Future.



And finally, the first reminded me of Michel Ocelot, an amazing French animator. This is one of his first works, which just happens to have a steampunk vibe.

Steam Guns

I have invented steam guns in my head, which I translated to paper but due to safety and practical reasons I have no intention of building in the real world. In the world I have created they are effective weapons but the man-portable variety, with a backpack boiler are only good for short range pummelling attacks. They can break bone but rarely penetrate the skin.

Today I thought I would look to see if anyone else had built a steam powered gun, to nobody's surprise, Adam and Jamie of Mythbusters beat me to it.



They use a different method than I had planned out but the result is about the same, a quick-firing inaccurate semi-lethal weapon.

The video below shows a steam cannon with a barrel being fired, despite the fact that it's a simple garage-built gun it obviously has some power.



If the two could be combined then you might really have something, I think the confederate system they copied on Mythbusters was highly flawed in the way it flung the balls out. A system with a barrel is necessary for any kind of power or accuracy, but I do like the gravity feed system they used. Having watched these two videos I have to say I think my design would be feasible and it overcomes the shortcomings of each design (Mythbusters lack of reliability and massive size, the Archimedes style cannon's unpredictable timing and slow firing rate). I almost wish I had a workshop big enough to build one.

Just for fun, here are Adam and Jamie again, this is a short video of a household water heater with all the safeties disabled.



Steam rocket! That's one of my favourite bits of video from all the Mythbusters episodes I've seen.