Alex Szalay movie projects

     



    In the 1970's I have worked on several movie projects, mostly with my friend, director Gábor Bódy. These included a variety of things, composing electronic music, sound design and computer animation.
     
    My links on IMDb are [a], [b]



 

Mozgastanulmany 1880-1980


 

Pszichokozmoszok

    In 1976 with Gábor Bódy and Olivér Hollós we created the first computer animation movie in Hungary, called "Pszichokozmoszok". The animation grew out of a simulation of colliding gas molecules that I wrote. Bódy had the idea the drop Newton's "action-reaction" principle, and rather have particle A be attracted to particle B, while B was repelled by A. This simple change gave rise to a very interesting, almost human dynamics. The animation was done on a Hungarian copy the DEC PDP-8 computer, located at the Department of Atomic Physics, the Eotvos University, Budapest. The computer had a small (320x200 pixel) graphics screen, drawing was done by turning individual pixels on and off. Ferenc Deak developed a somewhat higher level library with line-drawing routines. The code was written in FOCAL, stored on a paper tape with punched holes. The camera was triggered by the computer, once a new frame was rendered. Recently, this work was shown at the National Gallery of Arts, at an exhibit of early Hungarian Computer Art([1],[2],[3]).
 
 

Narcissus and Psyche

    In 1978-79 I have worked on a large format (6 hour) movie called "Narcissus and Psyche", also directed by Gábor Bódy. The music was created by László Vidovszky. I was working on sound design, programming the sysnthesizers we recorded all the music on. There was also a shorted, 3-hour version released, formatted for TV. A short clip is on youtube

Caucasian Chalk Circle

    In 1978 I participated in a TV version of Li Xingdao's "Caucasian Chalk Circle", also directed by Gábor Bódy. The music was created by László Vidovszky. I worked with him on sound design, using the EMS AKS synthesizer. The particular challenge was that the whole performance was recorded live, so all sound effects had to be created "in-flight", there was no opportunity for either post-processing or overdubbing. A short clip is on youtube.

Omega, Omega, Omega

    In 1984 I participated in a large concert project for the Hungarian band Omega, where the video, called Omega, Omega, Omega was directed by Miklos Jancso, one the most influential Hungarian movie directors. I was working on the computer animation and electronic sound effects. The members of our band Panta Rhei, Andras Szalay and Kalman Matolcsy were playing sythesizers on stage. this is in full on youtube.