Slashdot Mirror
Digital Dailies and the Matrix Sequels
rkischuk writes: "IGN FilmForce has gathered several tidbits about the Matrix sequels. Among the most interesting of them is that the dailies from the shooting of the film in Australia will be transmitted electronically to the U.S. using TRW's Picture Pipeline."
Why not just use limewire?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I could swear that I just saw CmdrTaco post another article on the Mandrake based supercomputer cluster. I clicked on the link to mod him down as redundant and a man in black told me that there was "nothing to see here."
On returning to the home page, I find the posting gone and this Matrix one in its place. Too strange.
According to the article, the dailies will be transmitted over the internet and will be Triple DES encrypted plus PGP CAST 128 for the files.
I humbly wish to propose the target subject of the next distributed.net project....
Each time you decide to short stock, not travel, or condemn a movie sequence based on what happened 9-11-01, you are providing validation to the terrorists that performed that act by allowing them to control your actions.
Patriots, spend money! Watch movies with exploding buildings! Go on a vacation! Don't let these bastards win, control your own destiny!
I don't THINK you're trolling, so...
In the first film, the helicopter crash is accidental. They're using the helicopter as a mobile gunmount to free Morpheus, and it goes down when the AGENTS shoot at it and they have to bail out or die.
It's all about the intention; this is different than the New Line direct to video movie that got released last week about terrorists hijacking a plane specifically to fly it into a city. Airborne vehicle + building isn't always a WTC reference. If we're going this far to look for inappropriate content, it's time to think twice.
I don't see how the Matrix lends itself at all to a sequel. It was a pretty intriguing movie with some interesting questions. Can the sequels hope to acheive anything close to the same level of intrigue and interest with the closure of the first movie in mind, or will it simply be a cheap grab for more boxoffice bucks?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Even Neo would have trouble cracking into the system that uses "Triple DES encryption over network, PGP CAST 128 encryption on disk, firewall, [and] intrusion detection."
I bet Trinity could slice and dice it in just a few days, tho...
Seriously, it's great to see encryption mentioned in anything other than a 'Only Terrorist Use Encryption' context.
It's a good time to start using encryption just for the sake of using it. Abilities that are not excercised tend to atrophy. If enough people see that its good to exercise crypto in this manner, we'll have a lot more people install it and grow used to the feeling of security it will give them.
Even MS Outlook users can use PGP...
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
When I was in college I interned briefly (more of a class really) at Kliezer Walzack (sp?) Construction Company (I think they are www.kwcc.com).
it was a husband and wife team and they did some micheal jackson vids, judge dread, the spiderman ride at universal and I think Honey I blew up the Kids... all bad films, but cool special effects. At the time, Jeff Lew was there - he is a huge name in the character animation field.
anyway, Jeff (Klisier - again I don't know how to spell it) was one of the owners and his first real film was Tron. According to him, they'd program all the efffects, then never really see them until the process of putting the data to film was complete, then the film would be mailed back to them, they'd watch it, and then make corrections. It was amazing how well and how fast they did it all considering that was the case.
eveyrthing is now net based, so this isn't as big a deal - a much bigger deal that the whole movie is done this way - but as far as adding in digital efects, they've been doing it for awhile now (Sending the stuff over the net that is).
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
thematrixonline reports that rumored replacements include Stacey Dash (from Clueless) and Brandy Norwood (singer, star of Moesha).
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
Australia has the largest sound stage in the world. The second largest one is in England, but the Australian one is cheaper to use. Lucas and company made comments about this while making The Phanton Menace. A Huge sound stage is obviously a requirement for doing some of the large scale CG scenes that are found in the matrix and TPM.
-JungleBoy
"You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet might be running loose in your pants."
-Calvin
Gloria Foster, the actress who played the Oracle, died last weekend. She finished most of her role in the sequels.
May she rest in peace...
Link
----------
"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
The Matrix left more questions unanwered than Star Wars and really presented a much smaller victory if you think about it. So Neo can fly around in the Matrix now, big deal. Can he free humanity? Can he defeat the machines in the real world?
I think the movie left plenty of interesting questions unanswered and there is still room for the sequels to ask more. Even if the new movies aren't as interesting as the first they will still have lots of sfx and kung-fu magic which will be more than enough to attract a large percentage of the /. crowd.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Just to explain the gaping plothole:
"They're powered by batteries made out of people! PEOPLE!!!
...
Oh, yeah, and they have cheap cold fusion."
"But Morpheus, why do they need human batteries if they have..."
"Shut up and watch the pretty VR, Neo."
A dumb assumption based on nothing more than the author's own admitted lack of vision for the sequels?
It was intended, from the beginning, to be a trilogy.
The authors have barely scratched the surface of their own mythology. Did you feel that the end of the film rendered sequels impossible? Remember the final quote, with Neo addressing the creators of the Matrix which STILL enslaves almost all of humankind?
The entire film is simply a set-up so that the sequels can TELL THE STORY OF THE ATTEMPTS OF A SMALL-GROUP OF SELF-AWARE REBELS TO LIBERATE A HUMAN POPULATION FROM MENTAL CAPTIVITY. In short, THE STORY HASN'T BARELY EVEN BEGUN YET.
As you may or may not know, the film- in addition to being one bad-azz science-fiction masterpiece- is a profound philosophical statement, as well. It is a message to YOU and to ME, about our OWN captivity by OUR MEDIA, which represents a FALSE version of reality that most assume to be TRUE. The Matrix is real- it is being fed to us through television sets 24/7. It is being delivered to us every morning by the paperboy. It is being used to create WANT, so that CORPORATIONS can SELL products we don't NEED but CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT.
In order to hope to escape it, we must first know that it exists- and that it is distinct from the existence we assume to be real.
SPOILER ALERT.
"The Matrix" sequels are going to touch upon many subjects it hadn't yet addressed in the first. We already know that much of what will be taking place to propel the plot will be sci-fi versions of "culture jamming"- in which the lucid rebels use the tools of the Matrix to waken the sleeping citizenry. Television sets which help to keep the population dumb and entertained ( in both the films and in our real world) might suddenly be overrided by the hackers- so that unexpected, jarring programming comes through- perhaps warning them of their enslavement, or of the reality of the Matrix, or whatever...
There are acts of culture-jamming going on all around us right now. They aren't simply random, unrelated happenings like some dork running onto the stage at the Grammys naked with the words "SOY BOMB" on his chest. They are a part of a movement, one that you might not even be aware of but should be. A movement to fight an enemy common to all of us.
Give the sequels the benefit of the doubt. If you want to speculate about spurious sequels for the express purpose of generating major bucks at the box office, get out your light sabre and take a few swings at George Lucas.
Here endeth the lesson.
Cheap grab for box-office bucks? Hardly.
First, you assert rather blatantly and incorrectly that "movie-making is a business, of which entertainment is a by-product". Filmmaking is an artform. Hollywood is an industry which uses and very often abuses the artform in the pursuit of wealth. The establishment within Hollywood largely, but not exclusively, pursues films which cost less to make than they can probably be assumed to gross. The artform, then, often suffers, because marketing forces affect both the sort of films which are made, and frequently the way in which films are made.
Having clarified that, let us move on.
Filmmaking is an artform, and certain films are universally recognized as being fantastic works of art- regardless of the processes or powers that created them. You can not look at many of the masterpieces of modern cinema and pretend otherwise. Tell me, was "Taxi Driver" a cheap-grab for box-office bucks? "Citizen Kane"? "Sex, Lies and Videotape"? "Run Lola Run"? "This Is Spinal Tap"?
Few films are both artistic masterpieces and box-office blockbusters. Nevertheless, some films are, and it is elitist and cynical to be dismissive of high art that just happens to be popular and financially successful.
"The Matrix" is, regardless of your somewhat low-regard for the film, a true masterpiece of science-fiction. Yes, the creators of the film offhandedly said the "Matrix is about robots vs. kung fu". That comment was a humble, joking hypersimplification. Sorry if you missed that.
Do some reading. Consider Simulacra and Simulations for starters (a book which Neo has early in the film). Read up on Culture Jamming. There is a war underway, RIGHT NOW, for the control of the minds of mankind. "The Matrix" is a film which addresses that very subject- co-opting the form of a shoot-them-up-sci-fi-FX-supermovie in order to make a bigger point than most of you seem to have realized.
The 60s were a period of great civil unrest and cultural change. Many great films of the day reflected the social upheaval our nation experienced- touching on the subjects of the civil rights (for minorities and women), the counter-culture, etc.
As we speak, a new war rages- but it is a quiet war, an invisible one. The war is being waged by corporate interests, using media and advertising, to create and control a complete version of reality, one which allows them to encourage endless consumption and one that discourages them from questioning the reality. The rebellion is being fought by individuals and groups that realize that the consumption culture is creating empty shells of all of us. It is isolating us from family and community.
The rebellion has no leader- it has no center. It is a thousand small pockets of rebellion, each attempting to use novel means to awaken others to the war. Noteworthy authors include Thomas Frank (One Market Under God), Adbusters, Neil Postman ("The Disappearance of Childhood" and "Amusing Ourselves to Death"), Mark Osborn ("More" (a FANTASTIC short film)and so many, many others.
The film "The Matrix" is a part of this movement. It isn't just a cool sci-fi. Yes, the film is being marketed and used by the Producer Joel Silver to generate a serious mint. The system is necessarily co-opted to subsidize the creation of the expensive, incredibly complex work. Is this hypocritical? You decide. Do the ends justify the means? I would say yes. I'd rather see "The Matrix" realized as a $100M work than see what the Brothers would've been able to come up with using only the money they made painting houses and doing their first film, "Bound".
Watch the movie again with these facts in mind. Research the culture-jamming movement and read everything you can if you want to be a part of the fight. If you don't, at least be aware that it is being waged- and that you minds are the spoils if the powers win the war.