In space, no one can read your out of office

I should be away this week somewhere far far away, but I am here.  That is both good and bad.  But ultimately, there is a choice to be made and I made the right one.  Some call it work-life balance, as if there is some perfect "newton's cradle" somewhere that beats perfectly and rhythmically between the demands of home and family and the machinations of the office, or the word-processor, or some other work-place.  There isn't the perfect balance between either or both, I am sure, but I took some good timely advice, and enjoyed the rain with the Queen and the rest of London on Jubilee weekend.  Thanks to an ever thoughtful friend, I went to the World Premiere of Prometheus last week.  The pre-release buzz had been wonderful, helped by a nifty and inventive online viral marketing campaign, some neat teaser trailers for the trailer, but most of all, simply 30+ years anticipation of film-fans wanting to know "what the hell happened on the planet before Alien and what exactly is that big fossilised "Space Jockey?"  There are some bigger questions posed by Ridley Scott's long awaited return to Science Fiction (who are we?, where are we from?, etc.) But I couldn't stop thinking about the original Stargate movie from 1994, which had the same "aliens/pyramids/map of the stars" concept.  Elsewhere some reviews have pointed to Swiss author Erich von Daniken who wrote Chariots of the Gods in the late 1960's, but it's well-trodden science fiction territory.  Maybe someone will pick up another esoteric tome - Graham Hancock's Fingerprints Of The Gods and adapt some of the completely nuts, but compellingly written nonsense in that book too?  In Prometheus, there are a couple of wonderful set-pieces, the CGI/VFX are stunning, the soundscape is fantastic, the sets deeply creepy and awe-inducing.  Prometheus is intense and compellingly made, but it never really answered that Space Jockey question to the satisfaction of this viewer at least!  What it did for me though was remind me of the astounding amount of CRAFT that goes into a production like this.  The Premiere audience rightly cheered Ridley, but as the titles rolled, everyone from the Casting Director to the Editor were cheered through the great space that is the Empire, Leicester Square.  Which got me thinking on "work-life balance" again.  Did the junior VFX techies, or other set-crew on Prometheus roll over and groan when the alarm clock went off?  Did they resignedly look miserable on their way to Pinewood, or some other production house and bemoan the balance between the demands of the job?  I hope not.  And if they did?  It is a miracle that they made such a spectacle of light and sound as this.