random thoughts about some of your surface world culture.
Some people have been searching for “banksy prints” to find my post about “free banksy prints” and I noticed that, in addition to the free stuff changing every so often, this message has popped up on the site: “Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries” Seems like good information to know if you’re interested in obtaining some of his work.
…and here is the list of movies:
100. Night of the Living Dead
99. Laura
98. Dead Poet’s Society
97. Bladerunner
96. The Lost Weekend
95. Ocean’s 11
94. Star Wars Continue reading ‘100 Movies, 100 Quotes and (more than) 100 Numbers’
How one Walt Disney Cartoon was made:
(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs behind-the-scenes)
Here are a couple quotes from the documentary:
“…the thousands of pencil drawings go to the inking department. Here, hundreds of pretty girls…”
“The inked celluloids next go to the painting department where more pretty girls apply the final colors.”
Damn…Walt Disney was a bigger genius than I ever realized. Unfortunately, to some degree, we also have the Disney Company to thank for possibly being detrimental to cultural diversity. One can argue that a rich, continually replenished, public domain is necessary for continued artistic creation. Disney as we know it wouldn’t exist if the current copyright laws were in place years ago because many of Disney’s animated films are based on Nineteenth Century public domain works, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alice in Wonderland, and The Jungle Book.
There has never been a time in history when more of our ‘culture’ was as ‘owned’ as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now. (pg. 28 of Free Culture)
Free Culture is a book about the social dimension of creativity: how creative work builds on the past and how society encourages or inhibits that building with laws and technologies.
get a digital copy of the book for free
And here’s a humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms:
A Fair(y) Use Tale
the work that must have gone into this…woah.
I’m so out of the loop that I just found out about the 25th anniversary Blade Runner plans by watching the trailer for Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner. (also: I think it’s particularly interesting that the unicorn clip is included on that page.)
Here’s some more info:
Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition) (2007)
In celebration of Blade Runner’s 25th anniversary, director Ridley Scott has gone back into post production to create the long-awaited definitive new version. Blade Runner: The Final Cut, spectacularly restored and remastered from original elements and scanned at 4K resolution, will contain never-before-seen added/extended scenes, added lines, new and improved special effects, director and filmmaker commentary, an all-new 5.1 Dolby® Digital audio track and more. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Joanna Cassidy, Sean Young, and Daryl Hannah are among some 80 stars, filmmakers and others who participate in the extensive bonus features. Among the bonus material highlights is Dangerous Days, a brand new, three-and-a-half-hour documentary by award-winning DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika, with an extensive look into every aspect of the film: its literary genesis, its challenging production and its controversial legacy. The definitive documentary to accompany the definitive film version. The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard’s own briefcase. In addition, each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, and collector’s photographs, as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.
Disc One
RIDLEY SCOTT’S ALL-NEW “FINAL CUT” VERSION OF THE FILM
Restored and remastered with added & extended scenes, added lines, new and cleaner special effects and all new 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio. Also includes:
Disc Two
DOCUMENTARY DANGEROUS DAYS: MAKING BLADE RUNNER
A feature-length authoritative documentary revealing all the elements that shaped this hugely influential cinema landmark. Cast, crew, critics and colleagues give a behind-the-scenes, in-depth look at the film — from its literary roots and inception through casting, production, visuals and special effects to its controversial legacy and place in Hollywood history.
Disc Three
1982 THEATRICAL VERSION
This is the version that introduced U.S. movie-going audiences to a revolutionary film with a new and excitingly provocative vision of the near-future. It contains Deckard/Harrison Ford’s character narration and has Deckard and Rachel’s (Sean Young) “happy ending” escape scene.
1982 INTERNATIONAL VERSION
Also used on U.S. home video, laserdisc and cable releases up to 1992. This version is not rated, and contains some extended action scenes in contrast to the Theatrical Version.
1992 DIRECTOR’S CUT
The Director’s Cut omits Deckard’s voiceover narration and removes the “happy ending” finale. It adds the famously-controversial “unicorn” sequence, a vision that Deckard has which suggests that he, too, may be a replicant.
Disc Four
BONUS DISC – “Enhancement Archive”: 90 minutes of deleted footage and rare or never-before-seen items in featurettes and galleries that cover the film’s amazing history, production teams, special effects, impact on society, promotional trailers, TV spots, and much more.
Disc Five
WORKPRINT VERSION
This rare version of the film is considered by some to be the most radically different of all the Blade Runner cuts. It includes an altered opening scene, no Deckard narration until the final scenes, no “unicorn” sequence, no Deckard/Rachel “happy ending,” altered lines between Batty (Rutger Hauer) and his creator Tyrell (Joe Turkell), alternate music and much more. Also includes:
The above information is copied directly from: Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition) (2007). (I hope it’s correct.)
30 Days of Night was one of the better graphic novels from 2002 and if you’ve not yet read the comic I highly recommend it. I’ve been waiting to see what they were going to do with the project since it was first announced. (and I still regret not finishing the sequel, Dark Days, because it started out great.) Now there’s finally a trailer and it looks like they came about as close as possible to recreating the look of the comic art.
Pulp Muppets
The international trailer was released a few days ago, but the quality was kinda ‘eh’ so I didn’t mention it. Now there’s a domestic version in HD (with only a couple added bits) and a poster:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD trailer
I really didn’t care for the first movie because it seemed like the adaptation to the screen somehow drained the magic from the story…and the second film wasn’t much better. Because of Alfonso Cuarón (and the time-travel!) the third installment has been my favorite so far…the dark tone and the look of the film really worked for me. And even though it seemed like half of the story was left out of the fourth movie I still liked that one okay.
The progression was much different in the books…each new story was better and they seemed to get more intricate…the high mark being the fourth one. The Order of the Phoenix was slightly disappointing to me in written form, but I was expecting quite a bit. Now the movie is almost here and this new director seems to have appeared from nowhere, but it looks like he might provide a fun ride. I really wish there wasn’t a clam* in the trailer though.
(edit: a small update with my ratings of all the Potter movies and books.)
*a joke that has outlived its shelf-life. (It’s the third example in the explanation on this page.)
“Spiderman 3 went way over budget, and to finish the film, producers had to use product placement to generate more money. Spiderman 3, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, spins into theatres May 4. Sponsored by Doritos.”
this is a video response to 300 (PG version)
Severance | the Tripper | Shrooms
Psychedelic drugs already have a terrible reputation and it seems like the new trend for horror writers is to make it even worse. It’s bad enough that in some movies the characters hallucinate cartoon birds when they take cocaine, just to use one example. Unrealistic portrayal of drug-use is essentially lying and can only hurt society in the long run. The most dangerous drugs are already legal anyway, and demonizing the drugs that have the most potential to help the people of the world can’t possibly be a good thing. Maybe this is a new tactic in the war on drugs, but hopefully not…since the similarities with Prohibition and the futility of the drug war are apparent even to former narcs and police. (Sorry that I’ve gone a little link crazy with this post, but the topic has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time now.)
(edit: this seemed too official to pass up-> Was Timothy Leary Right?)
Severance starts out with a harmless enough drug trip, but the fact that horror-type things happen afterwards makes it almost like a Friday the 13th approach to sex…if you know what I mean. I liked the film overall and there was one scene (that they just about ruin in the trailer) involving Laura Harris (from season 2 of 24) with a shotgun that I thought was excellent, but a lot of the rest seemed like stuff I had seen before. The reviewers seem to like it a bit more than I did though: and why did they change the poster?
Okay…I don’t know much about this one except the basic idea that “a Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert”, but it seems to be continuing the thread I mentioned before. It’s David Arquette’s directorial debut though (and he supposedly did some “research” at Burning Man), so maybe the message won’t be totally counterproductive…and the fact that Jason Mewes is in it gives me even more hope.
Shrooms trailers (russian site)
I know even less about the movie Shrooms, but supposedly “a group of college students encounter tragedy while on hallucinogenic mushrooms” and with a premise like that it’s easy to imagine associations being made between tragedy and mushrooms (and if I’m sure of anything it’s that those two things should never go together.) The tagline, however, is “Get Ready to Get Wasted” and I have to admit…that’s pretty clever.
To continue the drug theme in this post I will leave you with something that I think is completely awesome: Kirsten Dunst believes the world would be a “better place” if more people smoked marijuana. I wish more people in prominent positions around the world had the guts to speak their minds when they disagree with the current system. I’ve already stated that cannabis is not my thing, but I think people should have the option if they want it. Besides…illegalizing nature just doesn’t even make sense.
I still haven’t seen 300…
but here’s another parody video
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