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Apr
13
Quote to remember
Filed Under Open source/IP/DRM, New models, Film, Quotes, Trends, Web/Tech, Media | Leave a Comment
It’s not about the money, it’s about ALL the money.
- description of the entertainment business in Wired article Myka: One Set-Top Box to Rule Them All?
Jan
22
The long tail of production
Filed Under New models, Film, Tools and applications, Trends | 1 Comment
This is very cool, especially being able to see how it was made:
Technology doesn’t create amazing things like this, people do. Technology helps people to do that and maximises the chances of new and better technology. And more amazing things being created.
What’s new is that the new camera/apps are steadily coming becoming like a word processor — both pros and amateurs use the same one. The great script is not due to a better word processor; it’s how the great write uses it. Likewise, a great film is not due to better gear. The same gear needed to make a good film is today generally available to amateurs — which was not so even a decade ago. Film making gear is approaching a convergence between professional and amateur, so that what counts in artistry and inventiveness.
The long tail of production is the effect of technology being widely available and, in case of videos, making the physical limitations of video production (expensive equipment, video editing suites, studios etc) slowly dissolve just like the physical limitations of music stores were bypassed by online distribution of music, books and films. On the production side, it means that more people can produce and the story is in watching what kind of things they will make.
Nov
29
Power to the Persons!
Filed Under Social web, Film, Tools and applications, Web/Tech | 2 Comments
The real sense of achievement is from not mentioning Web 2.0 or social media even once!
Here is version 1.0, may need to revise bits of it later - first time attempt at screencasting, new software and not used to Apple, blah blah blah…. 
Sep
6
The Largest Model of the Universe
Filed Under Science, Film | 4 Comments
Jul
19
End of the internet
Filed Under Film | Leave a Comment
via American Digest (hat tip Alec)
Jul
1
The Lives of Others, the movie
Filed Under Personal, Film | 2 Comments
Last week I did something I rarely do, I watched a film during the day. Shock, horror! A sign I haven’t fully recovered from my mysterious lurgi. I finally got hold of The Lives of Others, which my friends recommended to me. I didn’t expect to like it because I couldn’t imagine a film capturing what it was like to be monitored, interrogated and have your life destroyed by the communist system. With assistance from its ‘little helpers’… One of them was the main protagonist. To my surprise, the film succeeds to convey a few important things, it has tragedy, betrayal, love, empathy, baseness, insecurity, idealism.
The countries of the Soviet empire shared some characteristics and talking to a Pole, East German or a Hungarian, we would find common experiences. Each country had its local ways too. For example, East German Stasi was known for its prolific recruitment of informants. Not that Poland and Czechoslovakia were far behind but still.
It is hard to believe that there was a time when people of a European country couldn’t travel at will. It is even harder to imagine that there were circumstances under which most people accepted this. I grew up in a place like that, and yet the absurdity of it hit me as the film brought the point and memory of such restrictions home. Knowing that you will never be able to visit most places on earth, that you have to live with and adjust to what is around you in ways that can destroy your will, identity and soul… because you have no choice. You can’t leave. You are stuck. For as long as you live.
I realised that there were different types of dissent. One has to wonder where all the rebellion in teenagers and natural contrarians went to? It had to go somewhere… Some lashed out at the system on their own and paid a heavy price. Flagged up, deprived of any meaningful future in the existing society and never safe, they learnt that rebellion is far from a romantic pursuit. Then there were the intellectuals, who found refuge in another -ism(s), whether it be nationalism or philosophy. The ones that seem to have survived best were those for whom faith was a source of moral strength. Faith provides support for the individual as well as for the community. It helps in times of persecution, when an individual has to face the regime alone and also when a community is brought together under pressure.
I also realised that although I know what it feels like to be a dissident - understanding the system you are fighting and the evil it causes, I don’t really know what it was like for the people who propped up the regime and served it in thousand little ways. How did they get through their lives? What about those who couldn’t delude themselves as their actions were beyond justification?
One of the main characters (there are three, I think) is a captain in the Stasi. Unwavering in his dedication to the regime - due to his idealism we are led to believe - and therefore incorruptible, persistent to the point of being inhumane, and lonely. An expert on breaking people and extracting
information from them about any ’subversive’ activity, he uses sleep
deprivation and justifies his brutality by pseudo-scientific
observations of human psychology. In short, nasty stuff. He is given the task of monitoring one of the leading poets and playwrights in the country. Not because of any serious doubt about his loyalty to the regime - he is a close friend of Margot Honecker, the wife of Erich Honecker. The plan is to ferret something that might discredit his protectors, to be used in internal party power plays. The writer lives with one of the county’s leading actresses. She is part of the reason for the monitoring and is a complex persona with her loyalties and strength of character unclear. It is worth pointing out here that anyone of any importance in a communist regime owes his or her success to the powers that be. Without exception.
During his assignment the Stasi captain gets involved in the couple’s lives, which is helped by his fascination with the actress. He starts covering up the poet’s activities, which turn anti-regime after the suicide of his close friend and colleague, who couldn’t take his career ban and isolation any longer. The plot thickens, people’s behaviour gets more complex and twisted but the central theme is a transformation of a grey, lonely bureaucrat without a life of his own into someone with sympathy. His own career is destroyed as a result of protecting the couple. The message of the film, I believe, is that someone who is ultimately driven by idealism and belief can commit great evil but also great good. It is those who have nothing to believe in that come out worst in the film.
How do I feel about that? I think that there weren’t many idealistic people working for the regime that was openly totalitarian for decades. When you joined the communist party, you were not doing it to build a utopia. At least not for other people. Perhaps for yourself but that was a delusion. And in the 1980s there really wasn’t much room for idealism. Also, being a Stasi expert on interrogation techniques does not exactly allow for much justification about one’s motivation. And yet, the character is somehow credible. People are more complex than any -ism would like them to be. Life is full of surprises and even in the darkest moments, human beings can rise to unexpected heights (and descend to unspeakable depths). And as they say in the Christian circles, it is about one soul at a time, each being important and unique. (I know the film has no religious dimension.) And this time it was about the soul of the Stasi captain. The final words of the film are like a blessing, a redemption of the individual who emerged from the grey nothingness of the state organs by his own will and actions.
But even with its human and mildly upbeat ending, the story cannot
outweigh the tragedy of the thousands, millions, who were not spared the communist brutality…if that was its purpose. Still, it is an excellent film well worth seeing.
Jun
27
Driving in Addis Ababa
Filed Under Film, Travel | Leave a Comment
May
21
Consumers want a divorce
Filed Under Film, Advertising, Funny | Leave a Comment
Alright, Microsoft is behind this but still… good stuff.
May
9
Paris, Je T’aime - the movie
Filed Under Film | Leave a Comment
Last night I went to see Paris, Je T’aime at the Charlotte Street hotel, which has a lovely screening room - comfortable orange leather seats, plenty of leg room, drinks allowed. Jackie organised a very cool event about MySpace there and I have been to a private screening there before. Btw, I wonder if it would make sense to self-organise screenings of films as they come out - gather enough people (via social networks), pay a manageable extra compared to a normal cinema ticket to hire a screening room. In return, you have a special occasion with friends, no disruptive strangers, queues etc etc. Might be an entertainment/distribution model in this. But I digress.
The film was tres French, oh so French. Probably because of a fair number of Americans involved who injected it with theatrical OTT Frenchness. If I wanted to be cynical, I’d say that the French need to get American tourists back to Paris. But let’s not be beastly. None of this detracted from my enjoyment of film. Here is the blurb:
In Paris, Je T’aime, celebrated directors from around the world, including the Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne and Olivier Assayas, have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined. .. With each director telling the story of an unusual encounter in one of the city’s neighborhoods, the vignettes go beyond the ‘postcard’ view of Paris to portray aspects of the city rarely seen on the big screen.
Whether it is as never before imagined, I am not sure. But the film does look at the varied aspects of love, placing them in Paris, the city of love. This is a cliché but fortunately those behind the film realise that love is not and manage to create a memorable mosaic of it. The shortness of the ‘vignettes’ - 18 in total - can be an advantage. Brevity and compactness add poignancy and punch. The kind of simplicity that let’s in complexity via back door. But I am coming out all French and philosophical here.
Here’s my take on the stories whilst avoiding too many plot-spoilers, which is not as important as you might think.
Montmartre - probably most French of them all, a man anxious about not finding someone, expressing the loneliness with trivial concerns finds a soul mate by a freak coincidence.
Quais De Seine - love across religious divide. Sweet despite skirting the edges of political correctness.
Le Marais - love at first sight, intuition without many words, at least from the wooed one. Although this is about love that dared not to speak its name in the past, there is no political or PC charge here. Rather charming, if teenage. Marianne Faithfull is in this one, but I completely missed to notice.
Tuileries - the most surreal of them all. In French without subtitles (unlike the rest of the film). Dead give away that the film is for an American audience. A really strange guidebook crucial to the plot.
Loin du 16eme - a moving tale of maternal love, not from the usual or obvious perspective. Good acting.
Porte de Choisy - burlesque-like, odd and mildly disconcerting. But only very mildly. Must be the Asian angle.
Bastille - an old story retold with a twist. Won’t mention the ending, just quote one line: A man acting in love with his wife, finds himself in love again.
Place des Victories - Juliette Binoche is an amazing actress, which comes across in this story about a mother mourning her son.
Tour Eiffel - mime-bashing with a twist. Meant to be touching, but ends up mostly farcical.
Parc Monceu - most confusing of them all. At least for me. Nick Nolte’s the known face.
Quartier Des Enfants Rouges - also rather alien one for my tastes. Acting profession and drug dealers involved, not familiar with the vibes. Maggie Gyllenhaal in this one.
Place Des Fetes - one of the most moving ones. Love, death and depth for those without glamorous existence. Lagos is mentioned.
Pigalle - fading love being rekindled by some unorthodox means, well, for respectable people. Humorous and sweet in its own way. Bob Hoskins and Fanny Ardant do add spice.
Quartier De La Madeleine - Elijah Wood is no Frodo in this one. Most fairly-tale like, presents the dark side of Paris, as I like it. Blood plays an important role.
Pere-Lachaise - one of my favourite I think. Resonates probably as it has Oscar Wilde in it. Guys remember, sense of humour is very important for a girl. At least to this one.
Faubourg Saint-Denis - love without sight but powerful visual kaleidoscope of memories. Brilliantly shot and powerful. One of the best in the collection.
Quartier Latin - deep connection can endure everything. Even divorce and old wounds. Gerard Depardieu makes a fine restaurant owner.
14em Arrondissement - the ridiculous, the clumsy and the lonely can have their share in deep understanding too. Love of life transcends mediocrity.
Final verdict - definitely worth seeing. UK release is 29th June. Here is a trailer although I must warn that it doesn’t convey the flavour of the film at all. But what trailer does?
May
4
There is no other public than.. the public
Filed Under Social web, Film, Web/Tech, Media, Weblogs | 1 Comment
Mr Ayers a senior executive at the AACS] said that while he could not reveal the specific steps the group would be taking, it would be using both "legal
and technical" steps to prevent the circumvention of copy protection.We will take whatever action is appropriate," he said.
"We hope the public respects our position and complies with applicable
laws."
The 700,000 802,000+ pages you see in Google results - that’s your public. An industry turning on its own markets is doomed.
This is a clash of cultures:
The hacker, known as muslix64, has been able to access the encryption keys which pass between certain discs and the player.
The hacker said he had grown angry when a HD-DVD movie
he had bought would not play on his monitor because it did not have the
compliant connector demanded by the movie industry.
Note that the hacker bought the HD-DVD, he paid for the movie. The industry got its pound of flesh but it just wasn’t going to get any blood. Only when he discovered that it will not play on his monitor (I mostly watch DVDs on my computer), he tried to access the key. Online you make things work, if you can. He could, so he did. Companies can protect their content if they wish. But if they impose arbitrary limitations on our hardware, we are not going to play along. This is a culture of control vs. the culture of your-broken-business-model-is-not-our-problem…
Update: Cory Doctorow has more on the same article. Love this bit:
The companies that made AACS spent millions and years at it. The
hackers who broke it did so in days, for laughs, for free. More people
now know how to crack HD-DVD than own an HD-DVD player.
Apr
1
MacBook babushka
Filed Under Film, Advertising, Funny | Leave a Comment
In the clip, she says: What is so interesting, eh?
Incidentally, this is an alternative to advertising with small a, i.e. stuff about products and people using them. It differs from Advertising with capital A i.e. the entire industry producing ‘content’ and shoving it down our throats, in that it is not produced by an agency, or even the company, it wasn’t ‘promoted’ by a campaign. It is simply a glimpse of reality in which the ‘product’ features, whether naturally or oddly. I found it and I am passing it on. It’s fun.
via English Russia
Mar
9
Piracy - market’s way of giving movie industry a finger?
Filed Under Film, Web/Tech, Media | 11 Comments
An industry that treats its markets as enemies and abuses customers is in trouble.
hattip: Head Lemur
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London VRM meetings
