1997
In 1997, The Residents created the soundtrack for the art-house film Conceiving Ada, which was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th. The film was directed by Lynn Hershman, a video artist whose work appears in many museums. She has worked with The Residents before, who wrote music for her works Endangered Species and Shooting Script. One of the soundtracks went on to become the basis for For Elsie. Conceiving Ada is her first 35mm feature.
Conceiving Ada was released in theatres in the fall of 1998, and was shown at the San Francisco Film Festival on May 1st, 1998.
The movie stars Tilda Swinton as a computer programmer who has discovered a way of sending virtual agents back through time to retrieve information; and Karen Black as Ada Lovelace, with whom Tilda's character is fascinated. Timothy Leary also appears as Tilda's character's mentor, Simms, in scenes shot 9 days before his death.
The story concerns Tilda's character as she, guided by Simms, develops her system for tracking information through time. The science fiction angle of the movie is rather weak, but is mainly a frame to get the lead talking to Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and the first computer programmer. The film follows her mathematic obsession and her work with Charles Babbage on his "Difference Engine" (an early mechanical computer) in the 19th century.
The historical segments of the film were, for the most part, filmed using virtual sets. Victorian-era rooms were photographed and the images digitized. The actors then performed in front of a blue screen while being filmed (digitally) and the video signal was then piped through a computer, which composited the photographs in on the fly.
According to the Cryptic Corporation, the music is conceived as "electronic Victorian". It is rather unusual for The Residents, very melodic and understated, with rich, orchestral instrumentation.
The title track from the soundtrack appears on the dot.com collection.
