A History of Weight Loss (In 54 Hours)
10-Apr-07
Jupiter’s Thunder
09-Apr-07
The Decline and Fall of Human Worth
09-Jan-07
Isn’t it weird how we all hit on things together? Today’s Diesel sweeties shines directly on some things I’ve been thinking about regarding Cuaron’s Children of Men as well, of course, as the Wire.
First, let’s take what Simon says is the primary thesis of the Wire: Humanity is increasingly expendable.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Fixing Movies Online
20-Sep-06
So I’m not even going to touch delivery to the living room, because that’s still a big question (but Tivo + Netflix is a match made in heaven).
iTunes is getting pretty close to giving people what they want when it comes to downloadable movies, but they *still* complain about the time it takes to download the movie. They want to start streaming it now, it takes too long to download. Who cares? Its a frickin’ movie!
How do we fix it? Turn on the netflix stylee:
Give people a queue, and give them a delivery box (amazon Unboxed was close)- some kind of app that is not a web browser. The box runs in the background and gives you a little “shelf” that shows the titles you have. You watch the titles and send them back. Then they deliver you the next title in your queue.
The real key here is get rid of instant on video, and get rid of progress bars! Have people play with their queues and make sure they know when their media is “delivered”.
We’re just shifting the netflix model onto the net. We’re shifting people’s expectations from “instant on” to “Netflixing” their movies. Watch them when they arrive, send them back when they’re done- all online.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Scanner Darkly
16-Jul-06
House of Sand and Fog
05-Jul-06
So I watched House of Sand and Fog the other night. What a fantastic film. It really crystallized a lot of things I’ve been thinking about lately about the way we live in America. Hell, it could be construed as a metaphor for America’s efforts to democratize the middle east. Pointing it out may put me firmly in the realm of ‘merica haters to some (aboslutely not), but the movie really shows us just how screwed up and wasted we’ve become. A country of enternal children who are too lazy to get anything done properly and then have the nerve to bitch about it when things don’t go their way.
Apparently some have problems with the likelyhood of the events of the movie realistically taking place, and they don’t like Connelly’s character because she’s so “weak.” I think the real problem is that they were uncomfortable watching some honest to god truth telling before their very eyes. Watch how the cop immediately suspects the “foreigners” (American citizens by the way) are revelling in Kathy’s misfortune. Watch how they quietly conspire to exploit the family’s status as immigrants. Yes the film does go to extremes, and yes Kingsly’s character is no angel, but it really is does dare to show us a bit of ourselves we really don’t want to know about, and to that I say bravo!
Popularity: 11% [?]
Blip Then v Blip Now
23-Apr-06
What a difference some coverage makes:
Email about terms of service prior to BLIP TV HAVING ANY:
Hey Luke,
>>
>> It’s embarrassing, but we don’t have a ToS or EULA right now! What I
>> can tell you, though, is that there’s a very simple one sentence
>> release in the file upload form saying that you agree to give us the
>> right to distribute your video, because without that blip wouldn’t
>> work. You retain all ownership and copyright to the video, you’re
>> just giving us the right to distribute it.
>>
>> I can also personally promise you that if you e-mail advice at blip.tv
>> and ask that your video be removed from our servers, we’ll do that.
>>
>> We absolutely, positively, 100% believe that your video is yours, and
>> we’ll do what you want us to with it and no more.
>>
>> Does that help?
>>
>> Yours,
>>
>> Mike
>
The Terms of Service as they Read Now
Notice:
When you upload or post content to Blip.tv, that content become public content and will be searchable by and available to anyone who visits the Blip.tv site. Blip.tv does not claim ownership of the materials you post, upload, input or submit to the Blip.tv site. However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your content to Blip.tv, you are granting Blip.tv, its affiliated companies and partners, a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transfer, transmit, distribute and publish that content for the purposes of displaying that content on Blip.tv or for any other non-commercial use of that content.
and also:
The content on the Blip.tv site, including without limitation, the text, software, graphics, photos, and videos, is owned by or licensed to Blip.tv, subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under United States Copyright Act and trademark laws, foreign laws, and international conventions. Blip.tv reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the website and said content. Other than as expressly permitted, you may not engage in the unauthorized use, copying, or distribution of any of said content.
Granting that I own the copyright of my published work, and if I’ve cc licensed it there is an expression of ownership, they have the right to do whatever they want with your video, without your permission.
Popularity: 22% [?]
When Making a Biographical Film
15-Jan-06
You must do the following:
Granted, you are condensing a person’s life into a few hours, so you are going to have to do some condensing, but all of these movies are the same- Pollack, Friday, A Beautiful Mind, Kinsey- they are all more or less the same. It always feel like by trying to tell the story of a person’s life, they forget about that person’s humanity, what they truly did, their relevance. I’m not sure if part of it is a desire to attract an audience or the simple inability for filmmakers to see beyond cliche.
Popularity: 27% [?]
STREET FREEKZ
09-Jan-06
Free with your one year paid subscription to Thrasher.
Technorati Tags: funny, movie, skating
Popularity: 13% [?]