Month: May 2010

Peter Serafinowicz on why “he steals movies”

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 15, 2010

Back in the day when I was working in the film & TV industry, I learned that engineers working in this industry was viewed as a “necessary evil”. That’s good, because I felt that film studios and their management were a “necessary evil” as well, since they paid my employers who in turn, paid me.

The ultimate irony was that we had to have multi-region DVD players (I’m assuming they had to either be chipped or had to use manufacturer’s remote control codes to enable multi-region – at the very worst we’ve had to import the players from abroad) to play content from people we were being paid by to do work for. When artists working on big budget Hollywood financed productions required to watch reference material on DVD (usually either other films, but sometimes expensive stock footage on DVD), we couldn’t allow them to play commercial DVDs on their Linux workstations because no official and legal CSS playback library was available. They had to play them on a small portable DVD player (usually the artist’s own), or go into a producer’s office and watch it there on the chipped/multi-region DVD player. There was, of course, a representative from the film studio whenever a screening was put on, to ensure that nobody ever went into the screening theatre with possible recording equipment. Contradiction city! They make it hard for us to do our work, and then eye us suspiciously when we want to see what we’ve done for them!

But then again, the film industry IS one big contradiction, and it’s high time it sorts itself out once and for all. And this is why I love this article from Peter Serafinowicz – actor writer, producer, director – who explains why he sources his films and books the way he does. The fact he has to download a torrent of a movie he is in to be able to include footage in his own showreel, and that his work for a promo video is region restricted, prove that the entertainment industry keeps both it’s fingers in the ears and is shouting, “la la la la la la – I can’t hear you!”. If it’s THIS difficult for people at his level getting them to co-operate with them, the consumer has no chance whatsoever for a reasonable fair use policy.

Recommended viewing .. Blood, Sweat and Luxuries (BBC) & Three In A Bed (Channel 4)

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 14, 2010

We’ve been following this excellent series (link to first episode on iPlayer) over the past few days in which seven young well-to-do people who regularly splash out on luxury items such as shoes, jewellery, iPods/MP3 players, etc. etc. get to visit countries where these luxury items are mined, manufactured or produced. These Brits get to work down mines, shovel gravel, prepare animal skin for tanning, work on a coffee plantation, and everything else in-between to earn the equivalent wage that an ordinary worker would earn. They stay with the workers and find out everything about their lives.

While the series isn’t exactly an eye-opener (there have been plenty of documentaries prior to this which show the exploitation of poorer nations in producing luxury goods), it does make for an excellent travelogue and shows how the human spirit is still there despite the poverty. People have to do what they have to do in order to survive. The series very much reminds me of Welcome to Lagos (BBC), but Blood, Sweat and Luxuries is more of a reality show format than just a pure documentary like Welcome..

One of the “stars” of the show, Oscar, a “former model” and Harrods shop worker, occasionally gets on everybody’s nerves with some pretty outrageous thinking (although I’m sure he means well). He is by far the most controversial out of the group. That said, everyone generally seems to get on well with the environment they’re placed in as the series progresses and some of the gang even volunteer their own money to help those that they meet along the way with establishing education funds or equipment (as in the case of the Ghanian children who work on the rubbish dump used for unwanted British electronics – masks, shoes and T-shirts).

I have an idea for a future series that I’d really like to see made regarding the entertainment industry. Fingers crossed somebody in TV land considers it.

Three In A Bed (Channel 4) is essentially Come Dine with Me, but with bed & breakfasts. Three couples who run B&Bs visit each other’s establishments and have to pay their host what they believe is a fair price for their stay. The couple that win are those that have been paid the closest to, or have exceeded, their regular prices.

It’s an interesting take on something like the Hotel Inspector – although these are established and mostly profitable B&Bs, some with official star ratings, some are not. You don’t have a top businessman/woman advising them – you’ve got fellow industry folk offering up their advice. And sometimes that gets a bit bitchy, but ultimately everybody seems to take on board what’s said. It’s a fun format and is certainly a good way of promoting your B&B to the public – I’m certainly interested in staying at the Arthouse B&B in Canterbury after watching this week’s show. They seem to have the right attitude to everything – especially breakfast, and the rooms look comfy. Pricing is very reasonable too.

My own in-flight entertainment..

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 13, 2010

Assuming the ash cloud doesn’t drift too much between now and Monday, we’ll be off to Kenya next week to enjoy some quality time in the sun. But we’re flying with a carrier which doesn’t offer seat back TVs, so I’ve been stockpiling some gadgets to keep me occupied during the 9 hour flight. My biggest problem is that I can’t really sleep whilst flying. If I’m really tired, then one or two hours are the most I can manage. But for the rest of the time, it’s thumb twiddling, reading, or watching movies.

I have a Kensington mini-external battery for the iPod (works fine with the 3rd gen iPod Touch) which will provide enough juice to power my iPod to watch a selection of the 40+ hours of video I’ve uploaded, including several episodes of Caprica, Stargate Universe and the pilot to the re-imagined series of V. I also have the entire 50+ collection of Robert Llewellyn’s Carpool episodes featuring in-car interviews with famous and not-so-famous interesting folk. That will occupy many many hours just by itself.

Then there is the 27+ hours of movies, most of which have been transcoded from DVDs in my collection into iTunes. I have the “digital copy” of Watchmen to add, and Iron Man comes directly from iTunes, but the bulk of the stuff comes from transcoded movies using Handbrake. Yes, I do own the original physical shop-bought DVDs before anybody asks. So what choices do I have? Well, there’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both already seen, but always worth a second or third viewing. I have Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle – both excellent Miyazki films. There’s Brewster’s Millions which I keep starting but never finish, I need to transcode Stripes which is classic 80s film that I’ve not seen .. well .. since the 80s. There’s Finding Nemo from Pixar – haven’t seen that in *ages*. I’ve just added Topsy Turvy, a fantastic Mike Leigh film about the lives of Gilbert & Sullivan, and I’ll be adding Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin, one of my all time favourite films, to the list as well.

And if I’m bored of TV and films, there is always the choice from 3008 tracks (or 299) albums via Spotify and iTunes library to listen to. I’ve given up trying to import my previous purchased Audible books because their brain dead download client keeps breaking and iTunes refuses to acknowledge the final downloaded files.

So I’m not going to be bored during the flight.

Kick-Ass Hot Tub Time Machine: a film for those that lived through THE best decade EVER

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 12, 2010

Last weekend we went to see the intriguingly titled, Hot Tub Time Machine. Starring John Cusack, Clarke Duke (Kick-Ass), Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Lyndsy Fonseca (also Kick-Ass) along with Crispin Glover and Chevy Chase (now that’s a name I’ve not seen on the silver screen in YEARS), HTTM catapults four men through time to 1986 – in a hot tub – to an alpine ski resort they used to visit as teenagers (all except Clarke Duke’s Jacob who wasn’t born yet).

There are plenty of BJ jokes, vomit jokes, future references jokes (“what’s an email?”) and everything else in-between. Clarke Duke gets some wonderful one-liners, including some techno-babble that Jacob attributes to him being a Stargate fan fiction writer and is that sort of thing is his bread and butter. It’s a kind of Animal House meets Monty Python and Back to the Future. But with a hot tub.

We found it hugely entertaining and very funny, and loved the 80s references as well. Great comedy, great performances and good writing. Well worth watching.

And now on BBC One: Prime Minister Who..

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 11, 2010

Cue exciting action music with a rhythm not unlike: dumadee dum, dumadee dum, dumadee dum, dum dum dum, dumadee dum..

A cloud tunnel bursts on to the screen with a flying door, black, with No. 10 bouncing around the tunnel. Electric storms sizzle around the door and the cloud..

In bold, 3D lettering comes..

GORDON BROWN

into view, which then falls back into the tunnel, only for..

DAVID CAMERON

to appear in it’s place. The name falls back into the cloud with..

NICK CLEGG

to emerge and triumphantly on screen. In the tiniest letters, “With Special Guest Appearance by Nick Griffin as Davros, leader of those racist Daleks” pops up before quickly vanishing as quickly as it came.

The cloud tunnel now turns to fire and the door to No. 10 disappears into the fiery void..

TO BE CONTINUED!

A BBC^H^H^HMurdoch Broadcasting Corporation production.

Ex-editor of Daily Telegraph fined for TV License avoidance due to ‘protest’

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 11, 2010

It’s not often I’d agree with the TV Licensing Authority, but in this case they did the right thing in this case. Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily Telegraph, refused to pay his TV license out of protest against the incident involving Jonathan Ross & Russell Brand’s phone call to Andrew Sachs, and was consequently fined £262.

Where Mr. Moore went wrong was that he continued to watch TV on a TV. He was quoted saying, “The question was, how to protest. Normally if you don’t like a service or a political party, you can at least withdraw your custom and choose another. With the BBC, there is no such option.”

WRONG!!

He should have donated his TV to charity (or sold it) and watched programs via a device that does not contain a TV tuner. Providing he does not watch live television via the Internet, he could have easily have watched non-live TV via services such as BBC’s iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player, or See Saw. Sky has Sky Player which doesn’t require a TV for it’s non-live shows. Then there’s iTunes for downloading TV programs and films which can be bought on an individual or by-season basis. He could have also listened to delayed OR live radio without ever paying having to pay the license fee and without the risk of prosecution.

There is an alternative to the TV License fee. If the BBC doesn’t change it’s policies regarding what services are covered by the license, that’s their problem. Most of what I watch these days comes from Channel 4 and their video-on-demand service is supported by advertising.