Slashdot Mirror
DVD Format Changing Movie-making
rgmoore writes "The Los Angeles Times is running an interesting article on the impact of DVDs on the movie making process. They briefly mention the possibilities of end-users being able to re-edit the movie (with a veiled reference to The Phantom Edit) but focus more on the way that it's starting to influence directors and producers during the course of making the movie."
Well dip me in shit and roll me in post-toasties.
with all the pirate sites like slashdot telling people they can copy movies for free
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Q: 32a. Can non-African Americans say the word?
A: The answer is 99.9% NO! If you have to ask, the question for you is moot. If you didn't grow up in a neighborhood where it was used on your front porch about *you* by your friends, then don't even try it.
Q: 32b. If black people say 'nigger' and not be racist, why not whites?
A: The best analogy I can come up with (for white folks) is this: What does your father call your mother when they are having sex? Even if I was your best friend in the world, you would never want me to call your mother that name. She probably wouldn't even want her second husband to call her that. That is the level of intimacy 'my nigger' connotes.
Which also serves as a lesson to African Americans. You cannot assume that black folks don't mind the use of the word in the casual form.
The bottom line truth is that 'nigger' is a white supremacist epithet. Who uses it does not change, and will never change that history. Nigger is always disrespectful.
A: 32c. What about 'my niggaz'?
A: That is between you and your niggaz. We don't know you that well. You don't know us that well.
Q: 32d. Some black folks call everybody niggers. What about that?
A: What about it?
Q: 32e. What about the use of the word in an artistic context?
A: That is subjective. Take the two cases:
Art Imitates Life:
'reality rap' Real people use the word in real life. There is no reason art should not imitate life. If the word is used gratuitously, then it is obviously disrespectful.
Life Imitates Art:
'message music' here is a good example
David Nelson, one of the first members of The Last Poets, authored "Die, Nigger." He explains that it was about how "the nigger needs to die so that black folks can take over." After NWA sampled and completely misused (from a contextual viewpoint) "Die, Nigger", Nelson wrote his response:
"It's about nigger and Niger, the difference between a mule and a tiger
It's about Niger and nigger and the difference is getting bigger
'Cause the mule works hard in the heat of day, foolishly giving his work away
The tiger waits in the cool of the night, waiting for his prey to come into sight."
A sound criticism of an artistic work cannot be made soley on the use of the word.
old enough to set the table, old enough to pass the meat
Here is a mirror.
Alan Thicke's Journal
My Slashdot ads say "
THis would help in editing the bad content of movies (cursing, nudity, etc.) and making some movies out there viewable for the whole family. I like this and hope to see this soon.
I do hope though that this is not limited in any way, if I want to cut the movie up and make my very own "KDENCE's Cut" I should be able to.
"Entertain the Brutes"
Does this mean I can change the end of the recent "Planet of the Apes" so it makes sense and doesn't suck? I'll add my own commentary too -- anything is better than the sham that Tim Burton slapped together on that disk.
~dlb
It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
Sail on, on a distant highway
I've got to keep on chasin' a dream
I've gotta be on my way
Wish there was something I could say.
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of your front door.
It's been such a long time. It's been such a long time.
Well I get so lonely when I am without you
But in my mind, deep in my mind,
I can't forget about you
Good times, and faces that remind me
I'm tryin' to forget your name and leave it all behind me
You're comin' back to find me.
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I'v e been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of y our front door.
It's been such a long time. It's been such a long time.
Yeah. It's been such a long time, I think I should be goin', yeah
And time dosnt wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
There's a long road, I've gotta stay in time with
I've got to keep on chasin' that dream, though I may never find it
I'm always just behind it.
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' along
Takin' my time, just movin' along
Takin' my time, takin' my time...
old enough to set the table, old enough to pass the meat
According to the article, it sounds like they are trying to make things better
for the consumer, considering things like camera angles and music to make a
more enjoyable home experience. I guess since we can more easily see what
mistakes, or whatever go into the movie now, they are trying to take that into
consideration.
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
In case you're not familiar with it, you can read all about it here.
Thats what I bet one of the biggest changes has been. Now almost any half-assed movie is gonna have a "making of" featurette on the DVD release.
I don't know about any of you, but I predict that DVD as a form of data storage will soon become a LOT more popular. DVD movies have been out for a few years now, but DVD as a form of data storage hasn't had much of a chance because of availability. With DVD-Burners becoming much less expensive, it'll be easier to backup our data on to these. I'll also mention the fact that a HUGE portion of new "pre-built" computers, whether they be crappy name-brand or corner-computer-store generic, come with DVD drives as a standard.
I'm also going to guess that movies will move on to something different. I haven't personally used a DVD-Burner yet, but I would assume that it's just as simple now to copy a DVD as it has been to copy a music CD for the past few years.
The movie industry likes money..... I think they'll move on to something they can have a stronger grip on and get more out of (bigger is always better, anyways, right?).
-kwishot
How is THIS story pertainant to anything Slashdot regularly comments on??
And wasn't michael supposed to be fired after he posted that repeat story about the face-motion-recognizing-cell-phone technology? That's what one of the comments by other editors said... followed by someone else saying "how many times does it have to be said before it's true"?
Everyone's a critic, I know but this story doesn't fit.
(since I am too lazy to read an article at 11:30 at night) but I remember reading that now actors are charging extra for all of the outtakes, deleted scenes, making-of footage, and commentary tracks that may or may not even be in the final DVD (and was, before this, basically all thrown away).
Of course now the "commentary" track is being ruined. Take Eye of the Beholder: Ewan McGregor[sic], Ashley Judd, Nonsensical everything, Shittiest movie Ever. And IT has a director's commentary track. Wild Things. Battlefield Earth. WTF? Are they STILL trying to snowjob you? Not like they need to after you shelled out 24 bucks for the DVD. At least if they were fucking honest on them.
Director: Now Ashley Judd starts crying here. [Puffs on cigarett] You know, I must have blacked out here 'cause I don't know what the hell I was thinking...
Instead it's like this:
Director: You can really see Denise Richards reach deep for that emotion. People say that she's just a hot piece of dumb ass but I really think she made a statement with this film...
Goddamn and Goodfellas DOESN'T have a commentary track? AND it's on a two sided DVD?
Kurosawa would never talk about his own movies. That wasn't his business. Let the scholars talk about them. What would he respond when people would as him what his favorite movie was? "The one I'm currently working on."
Says a lot (... damn, Eye of the Beholder!!! Now I'm in a really bad mood. Damn, Slashdot...)
What is music when you despise all sound?
I know this aint exactly on the radar of geeks, but the question becomes if comsumers can change the content of the movie, what happens to the Director's Intent. What I mean is we all know of movies that seemed to suck when they first came out, but then everyone finally caught up withe Director's ideas in the movie and becomes a classic.
Will this make Director just slap shit together and tell consumers to maek it better?
What if a Director doesnt want You changeing his movie because he has an exact reason for every scene but you still change it? Are you still watching the same movie the Director made?
Sigs are dangerous coy things
Quote:
Those developments, and video on demand in particular, had the potential of endangering the lucrative retail home video market in much the same way that the free downloading of songs eventually hurt the music business.
ah. what I find so weird about this quote is that the ONLY way MP3s have hurt the music industry is by the RIAA's alienation of consumers. I enjoyed the rest of the article, though...
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
So they can insert their product placements into existing movies viz:
Goon 1 : "Do you know what they call the Whopper in France?"
Goon 2 : "No? What do they call it?"
Goon 1 : "They call it 'Le Whopper'."
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
Mama was sweet, gentle, smelled alternately of home-made light bread and/or Mentholatum which she applied regularly to herself and me for a variety of reasons --anything short of brain surgery.
She taught me to fish, dig for and thread a worm on a hook, catch a grasshopper for bait in a pinch, and how to throw the line from a cane pole. She could kill a water moccasin with a fence post and did on more than one occasion. Other creatures threatening harm also got the fence post. She gave added dimension to the term, fencing,
She was a devoted Fundamental Baptist who practiced foot washing; whose favorite hymn was "Farther along we'll know all about it; farther along we'll understand why." She had her own version of scripture inspite of the fact that she rested secure in the inviolable, unchangeable Word -- 'It says what it says, but this is what it means. "
She could comfort my perpetual skinned knees and stumped toes using some kind of ointment and a torn sheet bandage split in two on one end and tied about the wound.
Mama was endearing and beloved and, as it dawned on me later in life, an enigma. Hearing about her as a friend, sister and mother acquainted me with someone else, somebody I didn't know. Now that I am a grandmother, I've discovered what Mama may have sensed or known. Grandmothers can reinvent themselves in behalf of both themselves and grandchildren, becoming suitable to time and place.
You're welcome!
old enough to set the table, old enough to pass the meat
There's no copyright infrigement if you can get The Phantom Edit in the form of a small file containing timings on a DVD that are to be skipped (or retained).
Of course, you won't see any commercial DVD player offering to play dvds with fan-edits because, well, users shouldn't be interested in doing that.
That leaves it to hobbyists. So where is my fan-edit enabled DeCSS-based player, and where can I get timings for a Jar-Jar-free playback of my TPM dvd?
I thought that various movie studios wanted these extras removed because of production costs (although the Warner Bros. spokesperson declined to disclose any information as to what the production costs were).
I think that these ideas are great (i.e. end-user re-editing) but it's all up to the studio as to whether or not we see these features.
when it was a VHS copy that was edited.
Could that be...Sum of All Fears based on Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears??
I looked around. The landscape was unfamiliar. Susan and Paul
said that this street ran into Green Street, where the Vertigo Club was,
but they also said that if I came to a McDonalds I had gone too far. I
should have asked for directions at my hotel, because the McDonalds was
ahead, with no sign of Green Street. I was dressed to kill, for a night
out in the town with my old college roommate and her boyfriend, across
the country from where I lived. I had on a little black dress that fit
my small curvy frame, and black high heel shoes. So you can get the
picture into your head, I have dark blonde hair and green eyes. I'm 5'2
and weigh 116.
I turned around, and began strolling in the opposite direction at
a quick pace, anxious to get to the club. It was getting dark, and I
didn't like the looks of this neighborhood. Nobody was around. Suddenly,
as I passed an alleyway, I felt a hand reach out and cup around my mouth.
My heart was pounding. I screamed into the man's hand, but he kept it
tight over my mouth. He was strong and large, and I was frail and
skinny. His other hand wrapped around my waist and he began to drag me
back into the alley. I kicked at his legs to no avail. I noticed an open
door at the back of the alley, and I grabbed his arm that was around my
mouth with both of my hands, only I couldn't budge it. He got me inside
the door and slammed it shut. His arm that was wrapped around my body
tight squeezed harder, pressing the air out of me, while his hand
squeezed my breasts - 36C a nice hefty handful for him.
The inside of the building was an old warehouse. I was surprised
to see fifteen or so guys standing around, some of them playing dice,
others smoking or drinking 40 oz beers, but I got the impression that
they were just waiting here.
"I got one," my assailant said. The men gathered around. They
were all sizes and colors, city kids in their late teens or early
twenties. They looked unwashed and dangerous. The man took his hand off
my mouth. He was white, but I couldn't turn around to see him.
"Hi, I'm Rick. Tell my boys your name, sweetheart."
"It's Marilyn. What are you planning to do to me?
"Well, Marilyn, we're going to fuck you silly and after that
we'll see."
"You'll never make me," I shouted, trying to get away and get to
the door. One of the guys hauled over a dirty mattress and dropped it on
the floor next to me. His friends made room.
"Ok," Rick said, pausing, "If you don't want to fuck, you don't
have to." He let me go. Surprised I turned and stared at him. He was a
teenager, short, well under six feet, with bulky powerful muscles beneath
a black T-shirt and black Raiders hat. His jeans were baggy, practically
falling off. One of Rick's front teeth was gold, I noticed as he smiled.
The repulsive tooth gleamed at me. Suddenly, a big husky guy with a
long beard pushed me into Rick. Rick shoved me hard into another one of
his friends.
"I thought you said you'd let me go," I cried to him.
The guy pushed me to someone else and that kid shoved me back
into Rick. They laughed at me as I tried to get away.
"Lemme see your purse," Rick said. Before I could react, he
snatched it from me and handed it to a skinny guy next to him. I tried
to follow what they were doing with it, but Rick slapped me across the
face, hard.
"What can you do for us if I let you go?" he asked. "Get on your
knees and blow me and I'll let you go home." With that, he unzipped his
fly and pulled his semi-rigid dick out.
"Please, I'll do whatever you say, except for that, though.
Please! Just let me go, OK?"
"Then blow me."
"Come on, you have my purse, please, you're not going to get away
with this. Let me go home," I tried reasoning with them.
"Fine you dumb bitch," Rick punched me in the stomach and threw
me down onto the mattress. He jumped on top of me.
I was crying and they were all screaming and yelling things like
"Fuck the whore, fuck her!"
"No, no!" I pleaded. Rick's hand flew up my skirt. His other
hand began to squeeze my tits, hard, mauling them. He kissed me, a
brutal kiss on the lips, shoving his tongue into my mouth. I bit it.
He yelled out and spit blood onto the cement floor of the
warehouse. The he punched me in the face. And again.
"Bitch!" I was too dazed to resist as he pried my legs open and
fondled my crotch, grabbing between my legs. He yanked my black satin
thong panties off with one hand. They looked tiny in his big meaty fists
and it was then that I realized how helpless I was. He tossed them aside
and pulled up my dress, one hand leaning on my shoulder to hold me down.
I cried out, but didn't struggle. Some other guys came to hold me down,
so Rick could get his jeans and boxers down to his knees. He shoved two
fingers inside of me. I was dry, and I jumped a little bit.
Then Rick climbed between my legs and put his cock at my opening.
He shoved it hard into my dry cunt. I yelled out. The crowd of men
started going crazy, making vulgar sounds and yelling. Rick grabbed my
skinny shoulders with his thick hands and started pumping himself in and
out of my body.
"Oh that hurts," I whimpered, "Please stop."
He was grunting and humping fucking like crazy. One of his hands
was squeezing my ample chest through my dress. The other had a handful
of my hair, which he pulled while he was rutting like a pig. In fact,
his face got flushed and his nostrils widened. I felt sick to my
stomach.
Through my tears, I saw the other guys laughing and cheering him
on. Rick let go of my hair and stuck his middle finger up my asshole,
causing me to cry out again. I tried to squirm away. He was banging me
like a maniac, his powerful legs spreading me apart.
No-one had ever abused me this way before. "Please, please,
stop, I'm begging you."
"Hold on," he growled, firing his load into my struggling body,
squirting cum up into my belly, so much that a little leaked out onto my
thighs. I fell it up in me, wet, with a warmth that wasn't mine, and
smeared all over the inside of my thighs. He reached down and stopped a
drop trickling out of me before it hit the mattress and rubbed it on my
lips.
"Come on, try it, it tastes great," he laughed. I kept my mouth
sealed, and he pulled out of me with a slurping sound.
Maybe it was over, I thought. Maybe he'll let me go.
The tall, tall skinny kid who had my purse before took Rick's
place. His hair was reddish brown, and there was a permanent sneer
attached to his face, it seemed. His pants were already off and he slid
his dick into my now wet tunnel. The kid started fucking me, almost as
hard as Rick did.
I couldn't believe this. I couldn't possibly take this again. I
struggled against the hands holding me.
A fair haired man, also thin and wiry, probably in his
mid-twenties gripped my blonde hair and pulled my head to the side so
that I was staring at his bobbing cock.
I tried to bring a leg up to the red-headed kid's groin. He just
smirked and punched me in the stomach.
"All right, Ray!" Rick yelled.
"Open up bitch," the blonde-haired guy instructed me. "Suck
Greg's dick, come on now," he coaxed, like I was a misbehaving horse or
something
"No, I'll bite it off," I gasped, while Ray was banging me silly.
Greg put a knife to my throat. "Do it."
Oh my god, a knife! I remembered thinking. I ceased struggling.
He nicked my neck with the knife. It burned.
"Open!" he ordered, and I opened up my mouth. He put his long
thin penis inside. I stared into his light colored pubic hair. "If you
bite, I'll cut you till you ain't gonna win no beauty contests."
"SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!" the crowd chanted.
Quietly thankful that his cock wasn't too big, I began to suck
him off. I felt Ray's jets of sperm gush inside of me. Thank God he was
done.
"Ha-keem, Ha-keem, Ha-keem" the men started to repeat. I was
confused, until I saw the big black man walking over out of the corner of
my eye, his 11 inch cock fully erect in front of him. "Yeah, Dominican
power," someone yelled, like this was a sporting event.
I popped Greg's dick out of my mouth, "No, I can't, I won't!!"
He popped it back in and I continued sucking, fearfully trying to see
what Hakeem was doing to me. One man held each of my quivering legs,
while Hakeem eased down to mattress level.
I had to get out of here. This guy was going to rip me to shreds.
He put his long thick tool right at my slit. I felt a trickle of white
goo run out and down my ass crack. I hoped and prayed that I wouldn't
get pregnant. Hakeem shoved in as hard as he could. He slammed against
my cervix, dazing me with the pain, as Greg shot his cum down my mouth.
I gagged and tried to spit it out as I wiggled under the 11" cock.
Greg held my mouth closed, "Swallow, it's good for you."
Hakeem smiled at me while I was impaled on his long rod. He
ripped my dress open. Shocked by the searing pain of that thing inside
me, I swallowed down the load of cum. Another dick, long and thick was
shoved down my throat immediately. I felt Hakeems balls slap against my
asshole. He suddenly blew his load all over my insides, until it was
leaking onto the mattress, and pulled out.
Rick took his place. The men pulled my legs way back. Not a
second time, I thought.
"Guess what I'm going to do?" He put his cock at the rim of my
pink asshole lips.
"No, no, please, just take my money, not that!"
The man in my mouth pulled his cock out and sprayed sticky cum
all over my face, hair and breasts.
No-one'd ever fucked me in the ass before. Rick drove into me,
showing no mercy to my bottom. My sphincter protested and spasmed as he
went deep. "Oh yeah," he crowed.
I screamed as he stretched my ass with his big cock. My open
mouth was filled with a third cock. Rick pulled out and drove back in,
raping my ass. It hurt so bad. When I came to, he was filling my bowels
with a load of semen. "I'm done for a little while," he told his men.
I felt cum in every orifice of my body. They ripped off the
shreds of my dress and unsnapped my bra. Hands turned me over. Someone
entered my doggy-style. I cried out again as he entered me. He rode me
like one would ride a horse, making my hips buck against his. He wasn't
quite as painful as Rick in my ass though. Another man was at the front,
his dick in my face. The man behind me came in me and was replaced by
another man, then another.
A guy laid down on the mattress. "Straddle me," he commanded. At
this point I obeyed his orders. When I was on top of him, with him in my
cunt, another guy entered my asshole. Then a dick was stuffed in my
mouth, so I had three in me at once. I knew there was nothing I could do
but submit. The hours dragged by. I gave blowjobs until my mouth was
sore and wouldn't stay open anymore. I took cock after cock in my pussy.
They fucked me in every degrading position they could think of, spraying
cum inside of me and all over me until my hair and face were slick with
it and my pubic hair was matted with white globs. I wasn't struggling at
all anymore, I was just letting them fuck me however they like. They
banged my ass until I was screaming in pain with every thrust. I had
never seen so much cum or felt so much agony in my life. It seemed like
they all had at least two turns at me.
When they were done, I got up. My panties were nowhere to be
found. I buckled my bra back on and put my torn dress on, trying to make
it cover me decently, but finding it impossible. The men were not paying
much attention to me, lying around tired or drinking. I was an old toy
that was broken now. I got up. Then I felt a stinging lash on the back
of my bare legs. It was Rick, swinging his leather belt and laughing.
The men all seemed to come to life. I was crouched in the fetal position
on the mattress. Blows and boot kicks came raining down on me. They
wrenched my head away so that a punch split my lips. Someone kicked me
in the face and it all blacked out for a second. They beat me up until
they were bored with that too, and then they dumped me onto the cold
rough floor of the warehouse, throwing the mattress aside. I saw,
through tears and swollen eyes, all the men pull out their penises. They
pissed on me, the stinging liquid soaking into my bruised and cut skin.
They joked and laughed. Fifteen guys drinking forties makes a lot of
piss. I was drenched. I lay in the puddle until they went away, then
got up, trying not to slip and fall back down into the yellow urine.
Rick opened up the door for me. I was crying harder then before, because
I thought that I was going to get to leave. Instead I got beat up and
pissed on.
"Club Vertigo. Take your second left. It's your first right off
of Montgomery. Green Street it's called. You can't miss it."
I didn't ask how he knew where I was going. "I'm free to go?"
My face was bruised and I was dripping with piss. I felt cum leaking
down my leg.
He nodded and I turned around and left. It was almost midnight
now. I walked into the McDonalds and the clerk called the police. They
went back to the warehouse, but of course there was no-one there. The
officer said that he had complaints about the place before, said that it
was used as a crackhouse and a hangout for gangs. They never caught
them. The rest of my vacation was spent in the hospital with Susan and
Paul visiting.
old enough to set the table, old enough to pass the meat
'Mostly for the worse' indeed, assface. Would it
fucking kill you to keep your assface opinions out
of the alleged news you're allegedly reporting,
assface?
Let the assface censoring of this post begin.
DVDs lend so many possibilities for extra content. As a person with close connections to the documentry film world, I know that there is a conflict between people wanting 2 hour specials, and people wanting FOX like 15 minute ADHD adapted summaries. The ability to include both is a real opportunity. Since so many people watch DVDs, they can watch what they want. Unfortunatly, people will start coming out with crap made just to fill up the 4.7 gigs of space. So film has found a new media, perhaps we should concentrate on making good use of it, instead of filling it with crap. How long until everyone will get Holiday DVDs with 4 hours a family footage? Sounds like the 7th level to me.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
The article mentioned something about homebrew SW:Ep 1 DVD edits and it got me to thinking:
*If I could use this technology I'd be able to edit out Jake Lloyd from Star Wars. What Glee!
*Oohh! Jar Jar has to go... I shoulda thought of him first.
*Ooohh! And ALL of the freaking gungans!
*And so on...
until it became apparent that my new "movie" was nothing more than Natalie Portman footage and light saber duels.
Alas, who was the cinematic Atlas that put DVD fire in our lowly mortal hands?!
:)
PS. I'm still not totally convinced that my home edit would be worse than SW: Ep 1.
If you would READ the post.
"They briefly mention the possibilities of end-users being able to re-edit the movie (with a veiled reference to The Phantom Edit) but focus more on the way that it's starting to influence directors and producers during the course of making the movie."
Q: Why do faggots wear ribbed condoms?
A: For better traction in the mud.
Q: What does a faggot and an ambulance have in common?
A: They both get loaded from the rear and go whoo-whoo!
Q: What do you call two faggots on a waterbed?
A: A fruit float!
Q: Have you heard about the Faggot Patch Dolls?
A: They come with A.I.D.S. and a death certificate.
If you run a business and you provide what the customers are asking for, your sales go up and so does your profit!!
Wow - what a concept!!
To bad the movie and music industry still don't understand this.
(And that does not mean Darwin Venereal Disease)
It's only natural that things would be adapted for new technology. I'm willing to reckon that within my lifetime Pan-n-Scan will be a thing of the past. (Resulting in letter box, not more widesceen tv's)
However, the DVD won't make the plot any better, or the writing any better, which is a SERIOUS Problem. When they make enough DVDs worth having with DECENT fetures, then even the hardcover VHS people will be overtaken. The American Beauty DVD got my non-tech parents to swear by DVDs (even if the only one they can work is the PS2 and they Can't work the controller)
Btw, I missed this but the Jerk is on DVD! Now those are some commentaries worth listening to!
I just hope that TV Will catch up to the movie industry's acceptance. We want commentaries on our TV shows too! I want to hear alllll about The Prisoner.
oh, and hey hollywood? Scripts on DVD players suck.
Took less than two minutes to get '-1, Offtopic'. FUCK YOU, ASSFACE.
Maybe more standard movies outside the adult film industry will start using this feature. Many movies are filmed using dozens of cameras and then only one shot is used in the movie. I think a lot of people would like to view certain key parts of a movie from diffrent angles (Again standard movies not adult movies)
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Elizabeth was thirty-two years old, tall and slim. Short, auburn curls framed an ..." ..." ..." Her voice trailed off and she watched, her terror growing, while a ." She made a sweeping movement with . .."
attractive face, her breasts were not large but still nicely shaped, and long, tapering
legs promised an enticing picture when helped by high-heeled shoes and stockings.
She had two children; one ten and one eight, and so there had been ample time for
her body to recover some of its pre-pregnancy qualities. The family was watched
for two weeks leading up to the abduction: Her husband left for work at
seven-o'clock in the morning. At eight-thirty she took the children to school, then
picked up groceries before returning home. At four-o'clock she returned to the
school to collect the children. Her kidnappers broke into the house one morning
while she was out. When she returned, they were waiting for her and she stood
no chance against the three men.
They toyed with her for an hour before driving her away. They took her upstairs
to her bedroom and made her fetch out all of her lingerie. Elizabeth was ordered to
undress and when she had done so, her attackers took turns in choosing items of
clothing for her to wear. She was made to parade around the bedroom in skimpy
underwear that concealed nothing, but titillated her audience. Ransacking the
bedroom, the men discovered Elizabeth's vibrator. Humiliating her utterly, they
forced her to use it on herself, and were not satisfied until she had brought herself
to a climax. Then, selecting a brassiere, pantyhose, and a dress and shoes from
her closet, the kidnappers ordered Elizabeth to get dressed. Finally, she was
drugged and, before she lost consciousness, hurried to a waiting van.
Elizabeth waited in a dark cell for two days before she was taken to the place
where the torture-films were made. Her dress and brassiere were removed, and
she stood semi-naked, her attractive breasts pouting, in front of several men and
women. Two men took her by the arms and Elizabeth watched a narrow belt being
placed about her waist.
"W-what are you going to do?" asked the terrified woman, as the men fastened a
buckle and placed her wrists in cuffs attached to the sides of the belt. Suddenly,
powerful overhead lights came on, bathing Elizabeth in their illumination. A woman
stepped into the light and stood in front of Elizabeth.
"We are going to make a movie - several movies, in fact - of you being tortured in
a number of different ways. Extremely unpleasant ways for you, but very
enjoyable for those who buy the films. And for some of us who make them." The
woman, who was older then Elizabeth, smiled grimly.
"Oh, my god!" gasped Elizabeth. "Please! No! I don't want to be h-hurt
"Of course you don't," agreed the woman. "That's one of the entertaining
aspects of what we do here. The market for scenes of consensual torture is tiny
compared with that for those staring unwilling victims." As she spoke, cameras on
large dollies were being wheeled up and arranged about the spot where Elizabeth
stood.
"Wha-what is g-going to happen?" stammered Elizabeth.
"You'll see," said the woman. Reaching out, she took Elizabeth's left breast in
one hand. The nipple stood large and erect. Elizabeth tried to back off, but the
men at her sides held her secure. The woman produced a cord in her free hand.
The cord ended in a small noose which the woman deftly slipped over the delicate,
enticing tip of the breast. The woman tugged the cord and the noose tightened,
causing Elizabeth to suck in her breath. "Now give me the other one," the woman
said, and moments later she was leading her unfortunate victim forward, into the
focus of the lights, by both nipples.
A smooth, round, horizontal bar pressed against Elizabeth's belly. The bar was
too high for her to step over and she was obliged to bend forward as the woman
holding the two cords continued to move back. She let out a groan, then a plea to
be released, as her breasts and nipples became extended. She was bent almost
horizontally when she saw what the woman intended for her. Then she cried out
aloud for the first time. The woman threaded the cords under metal loops, set
into the top of a wooden stock like inverted 'U's. The loops, large enough only for
a finger or thumb to pass through, were about as far apart as Elizabeth's breasts,
and when the stock was pushed forward until it rested beneath her inclined torso,
her nipples were drawn through. The woman pulled on the cords, eliciting cries of
pain from Elizabeth, until the tan haloes were squeezed through the small openings.
Out of the dimness surrounding the illuminated area, came a man with a mallet.
With two swift, accurately gauged blows he drove the loops of metal into the
stock, trapping the tips of Elizabeth's breasts and causing her to shriek in pain.
Elizabeth bucked, and screamed, but her breasts were held secure and she only
managed to hurt them more by moving. Her head had been drawn back, so that
her face looked up, and fastened in that position by tying off her hair to the band
around her waist. The bar over which she was bent had been raised until her feet
came off the floor, and her ankles secured so that her legs were straight but wide
apart. She bucked again and another agonized sound escaped her throat. In fact,
each time the man standing behind her pressed the tip of the electrically-heated
needle into her clitoris, Elizabeth's body made a vain attempt to convulse, and the
restrained paroxysm was accompanied by a resounding scream. And every
moment of this torment was being captured by the cameras that stared without
emotion upon the scene.
The man lowered the instrument and rested. The muscles controlling Elizabeth's
abdomen and genital region were quivering. A dozen times the needle had been
used on her and she had no reason to assume that more were not forthcoming.
The pain in her clitoris was agonizing, and she sobbed continually, choking out
entreaties to the people who stood watching her. The woman who had bound
Elizabeth's nipples appeared from among the audience. She was carrying a clip-
board. The sounds of the cameras had stopped.
"That was interesting," the woman remarked in an amused tone. "I haven't seen
that before
"Please! Don't hurt me any more," Elizabeth managed to beg in a coherent voice.
"Let me go, for god's sake."
The woman chuckled softly. "Let you go? Of course we're not going to let you
go - not yet anyway. That was an excellent ten-minute short!" The woman
studied her clip-board. "We have you scheduled for another half-dozen scenes,"
she added casually, patting Elizabeth's cheek and walking around the fastened
figure to where the man with the needle stood. As she did so, a desperate wail
emanated from Elizabeth.
The woman stood holding the device the man had used to induce the intense pain
in Elizabeth's clitoris. A long, fine, silver needle protruded from the pistol-grip in
her hand. She was surprised when she pressed the trigger and saw nothing
happen. The man saw her surprised look.
"You were expecting to it glow." he said rhetorically.
"Well, yes," the woman replied.
"If it were that hot, it would have destroyed her nerve-endings. Not much fun.
Just a short-lived burn. Right now, all of her nerve tissue is very much alive," he
said smugly. The woman moved close to Elizabeth, so that she could inspect what
had been done.
The gusset of Elizabeth's pantyhose had been cut away. The entrance to her
vagina was closed, still guarded by the two pairs of lips, but the small fold of
fleshy tissue normally covering her clitoris was pushed back and seemed to be held
like that by something resembling a peculiarly bent paper-clip. Exposed was the
swollen organ, the twelve angry marks on its surface showing where the heated
metal point had entered. The woman pressed the tip of a finger against it, and a
scream filled place.
"See what I mean," said the man. "She wouldn't have felt a thing if I'd charred
it."
The woman directed the crew, having them shift lights and cameras into place for
the next scene.
Elizabeth was still in severe pain and she moaned softly all the time, but, when a
lamp was maneuvered into position above her fastened breasts, she began to
whimper.
"Not there," she pleaded to nobody in particular. "Please, not there. I couldn't
stand that
camera was pushed next to the stock, and a man focused the camera's lens on her
right breast.
The woman had wheeled a cart up to the stock, and then pulled a low bench next
to Elizabeth. She sat on the bench, stroking the large nipple at the tip of
Elizabeth's right breast with her fingers. From a tray on the cart, she retrieved a
small bowl of clear liquid and a cotton-ball. She swabbed the nipple with the
liquid. Moments later Elizabeth's eyes widened and she drew in a long, sibilant
breath before allowing a gurgling noise to leave her throat. The nipple grew torrid,
and the volume of Elizabeth's screaming increased. After a few minutes
Elizabeth's nipple was swollen to twice its normal size and the skin covering it as
tight as a drum-skin. Elizabeth's shrieks had become maniacal. For a further five
minutes she thrashed in a fit of agony as much as her bonds would permit,
screaming at the top of her voice. Perspiration covered her naked torso, and her
bare skin shone in the camera lights. The pain climaxed and Elizabeth's voice
became mute for a few seconds before her lips formed a near-perfect circle and
she began to emit a drawn-out 'Oh'. The sound came to and end finally in a hoarse
rattle.
Elizabeth's agony subsided as rapidly as it had mounted, and she collapsed
suddenly; draped over the metal bar, hanging limply by her imprisoned breasts. She
cried pitifully, her words hardly audible or intelligible, begging her torturers to
release her.
It was the Needle-Man's turn to express surprise.
"What is this stuff?" he asked, picking up the bowl and carefully, suspiciously,
holding it under his nose.
"Carbon tetrachloride," the woman informed him. "It's a de-greasing agent. I
removed all of the natural oils from her skin, leaving the tissue unprotected from
the air."
"I didn't know the air was that dangerous," the man replied, quickly putting the
bowl back on the cart.
"The oxygen is. It burns."
"Without doubt," the man concurred. He looked at Elizabeth, who was breathing
heavily but still limp, still uttering her almost silent entreaties. He looked at her
right nipple. The swelling had not subsided; the skin was still smooth and shiny
and taught. He watched the woman take a scalpel from the tray, then carefully
apply the blade to the very tip of the nipple. The skin split with an audible pop,
and a second later, the air was rent by the last sound Elizabeth made before
fainting.
"Cut the cameras!" the woman ordered. "Take five, and start running again
when you see her regaining consciousness." She stood and, with a fingernail,
touched Elizabeth's ruptured nipple, flipping back a piece of loose skin that still
clung to it. Turning to the Needle-Man, she said: "I'll wait until then before
peeling this off. The effect will hold your interest for a while, I promise."
The Needle-Man was not disappointed. Elizabeth's eyes rolled back in their
sockets and the veins in her neck bulged while her nipple and the surrounding halo
were decorticated with dreadful slowness. As the viable dermis beneath the outer
layers of skin was exposed, the pain became so excruciating that Elizabeth fainted
for a second time. She had to be revived with ammonium salts so that she would
suffer the full agony of the procedure.
When the woman had finished, and Elizabeth's pleas for mercy were no longer
understandable, the Needle-Man asked:
"Do you have any more tricks like that one?"
"Of course," the woman told him. She gently placed a fingertip against
Elizabeth's intact, left nipple and went on: "This one will end up just like its mate,
but not in the same fashion. There's more than one way to skin a cat, you know"
she grinned.
"Or a nipple," the man suggested.
The man carefully prepared Elizabeth's labia; going through a well-practiced
procedure developed to expose the two pairs of delicate lips protecting his victim's
vagina.
Elizabeth's pubic hair had been removed, leaving her voluptuous mounds and
hollows (which, the man noticed, had been untouched by the Sun's tanning rays)
as clean and as smooth as polished alabaster. Onto the delicate, depilated skin he
painted adhesive. Then, working with one pair of lips at a time, he peeled the
pliant tissue open, folded it back and held it like that for a minute or so; until the
adhesive had bonded. When he had done this to both pairs of lips, the textured,
rosy inner surfaces were revealed like the petals of a flower. The entrance to
Elizabeth's vaginal canal was presented to him unobstructed. Moving two fingers
into the passage, he pressed the coruscated wall and felt the strong muscle tighten
as Elizabeth reacted to the unwelcome intrusion. For a few moments he allowed
himself the pleasure of exploring the cloister, receiving enjoyment from the
resistance Elizabeth put up in her vain attempt to prevent him from delving further
into her. While his fingers groped indelicately, he dropped his gaze to the shapely,
elegant legs that were pinned open, allowing him the access he needed. His free
hand moved over the alluring curves of Elizabeth's calf and thigh, stroking the
shimmering material of her pantyhose and delighting in the sensual feel of it.
Elizabeth moaned; the tone of her voice betraying her knowledge that the torture
was about to be resumed. At last, the man withdrew his fingers, though only
partially satisfied that Elizabeth was cognizant enough to understand what was
happening to her. He had been astonished by the amount of pain she had
sustained from the simple excoriation of one of her nipples. But he had also been
concerned that his victim may have become numbed to any further, protracted
agony. In order to repudiate his concern, he pressed a fingernail against Elizabeth's
clitoris. The immediate, convulsive response, accompanied by a gasped shriek,
convinced him that Elizabeth's senses were fully operating. He reached down; his
right hand grasping a dentist's drill on the end of an articulated arm; the other
picking up a cloth that had been soaking in a pan. Bracing his right arm against
Elizabeth's thigh, he started the drill.
The tiny, surgically engineered bit turned twelve thousand times every second,
and carried a little brass-wire brush in its jaw. The raw ends of the bristles kissed
the inner surface of Elizabeth's major lip for only an instant, but during that small
fraction of a second, they stripped a tiny piece of flesh, the diameter of a pencil
and the thickness of a pencil-lead, from the sensitive tissue. The man removed his
drill, then quickly pressed the saturated cloth against the flayed area. The
astringent aroma of a styptic caught in his nostrils. However, the impact the
strong odor on his senses was overwhelmed a moment later as Elizabeth dredged
from her lungs a frenzied, frenetic shriek that assaulted his ears.
The man kept Elizabeth screaming for twenty minutes before what he was doing
to her made her lapse into unconsciousness. He had been able to extend his torture
much longer than the woman had managed. And he reckoned that the cries he had
elicited from Elizabeth had been louder and more drawn out than those she had
offered before, in trade for mercy, while her nipple was being peeled. He examined
the results of his efforts. In twenty minutes, the drill had made its brief encounter
with Elizabeth's skin twenty times; both of Elizabeth's large lips bore half-a-dozen
wounds, while the remainder of the scour marks from the wire-brush were shared
between the two smaller, more sanguineous - and more sensitive - lips.
The woman admired what she saw. Each of the score of tiny injuries, now
flecked with pin-points of blood - but not bleeding, had drawn an animal scream
from Elizabeth. The woman glanced upwards and noted how the lights and camera
had been situated. A satisfied smile crossed her lips; both the cause of Elizabeth's
agony and the effect it had had upon her had been well captured on celluloid. She
bent in order to inspect the mutilated labia more closely, then drew away
suddenly, wrinkling her nose.
"Vinegar?" she said in a startled tone. The man smiled.
"Sort of," he replied. "Dilute acetic acid, actually. In addition to contracting the
blood vessels, the styptic solution has a mild anaesthetic effect. The acid
overcomes that and heightens the pain."
"You don't say," the woman chuckled.
The woman studied the ubiquitous clipboard.
"You've written 'Fiber' on this," she said, addressing the man whose techniques
for torturing Elizabeth she had found fascinating. "But you have a question-mark
after it." She gave the man a quizzical look. The man had disassembled his
drill and was stowing the pieces in small trunk.
"Yes," he replied in a leisurely fashion. "I actually have something else in mind,
but it would take a little co-operation."
"What do you mean?"
"You have something planned for her other nipple, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then go ahead with your arrangements, but load a new film-can into this
camera." The man pointed above his head, to the camera which had been used to
film the agonizing flaying of Elizabeth's labia. The woman looked worried.
"I can do that. But I need twenty-minutes of action from the next two scenes.
You're asking me to make them run concurrently."
"Don't worry," the man urged. "We'll get that long - at least. Just let me know
when you're ready to begin, and then give me a few moments to finish my
preparations. You'll find this quite entertaining."
"As long as the customer does, too," the woman said, acquiescing to the
man's suggestion.
The man rested his elbows against the smooth cheeks of Elizabeth's bottom. In
his fingers he held a short length of steel wire that he had snipped from a coil. The
end of the wire, left purposefully jagged, was located at the entrance to Elizabeth's
urethra. Using his fingertips, the man began to rotate the wire, urging the sharp
extremity into the highly sensitive vascular duct. He felt Elizabeth's body stiffen
and heard her sudden intake of breath. He continued turning the wire while
introducing it further into the narrow, flexible passageway. Elizabeth cried out,
begging him to stop. The man knew that the pain he was currently causing was
only acute; as soon as he had scored the entire length of the integument and
removed the wire, Elizabeth would stop screaming.
Until, he told himself, she urinated.
The woman sat in front of the stock that still held Elizabeth's breasts. Her hand
was poised. Her fingers held a spigot from which a long hose fell in a loop to the
floor. She watched the man hold a bag aloft, until its contents had drained through
a catheter into Elizabeth's bladder. She saw him step sideways - clear of
Elizabeth's body - and remove the catheter. After a few moments, she saw a thin
stream of liquid arise from between Elizabeth's thighs, and watched it describe a
graceful arc. But, before the first drop of fluid touched the floor, she heard
Elizabeth's strident squeal. Then she saw the emanation abruptly cease and,
shifting her gaze to Elizabeth's face, saw a look full of pain, astonishment, and
utter disbelief. Moments later Elizabeth screeched again; a high-pitched, shrill
piping that accompanied a second attempt to evacuate her more-than replete
bladder.
The woman waited, watching Elizabeth's mounting effort to control herself. Then,
when the woman gauged that all of Elizabeth's concentration was focused upon
not urinating, she pressed a trigger on the spigot. She saw a short, thin, nebulous
stream emerge from the tip, heard the attendant hiss, and aimed the spigot at
Elizabeth's left breast.
She quickly drew the jet of steam from the edge of Elizabeth's aureole to the tip
of her nipple. Almost immediately, the path of the steam became visible; betrayed
by a narrow line of skin that turned pearl as fluid built up instantly inside the
blister.
When the pain reached Elizabeth's senses, she lost her concentration and cried
aloud because of the new agony. Her bladder began to empty involuntarily,
sending caustic liquid into her urethra. She closed her mind to the searing pain at
the tip of her left breast and, with almighty effort, clamped the sphincter that
controlled the evacuation of her bladder. She was rewarded with a second white
line on her aureole and nipple.
The man had been right. The scene of the combined tortures had lasted twenty-
two minutes. Elizabeth had endured the double agonies for almost half that time
before passing out with flecks of froth staining the corners of her mouth. Then the
liquid remaining in her bladder had flowed freely. The summit of her left breast
was covered with a pattern of red and white lines, all beginning at the
circumference of her tan-colored halo, and converging to the tip of her attractive
nipple. As before, the woman had waited for Elizabeth to regain consciousness
before proceeding to remove the skin. That had consumed another ten minutes,
while the woman pierced each blister, and squeezed the fluid from inside before
lifting the sliver of skin free. Elizabeth had screamed continuously, lasting until the
woman swabbed the freshly exposed tissue with saline solution.
"I don't believe she can absorb much more of this treatment without a respite,"
the woman said.
"Not if you want to keep her viable," the man pointed out. "Besides," he went
on, "the last scene is mine; I need her taken off of this contraption." He pressed a
finger against the bar over which Elizabeth had been bent for nearly three hours.
"That's okay," the woman told him. "As long as I can have the film in the
editing-room by tonight." She looked at her watch, then turned to one of the
crew. "Get her out of this and take her back to the cell. Let her stay there for a
couple of hours." Then wiping her forehead she added: "We all need a break."
On the way out, the man said: "I'll need a Delivery Table. Do you have one?"
The woman looked at him, mildly astonished.
"You mean a table from a hospital delivery-room - the maternity department?"
"Yes."
"They're not in much demand in this place. We have a GYN table, though. Will
that do?"
"Does it have stirrups."
"It did, the last time I saw it."
"Then it'll do fine."
The two reached the foot of the stairs and the outside door.
"By the way," the woman said. "If I hadn't agreed to running the two scenes
together, what was your other plan? What did 'Fiber' mean?"
"Fiber-glass," the man replied. "Fiber-glass insulation comes in sheets about as
thick as your finger. Rolled tightly and inserted into the vagina, it is quite
diabolical"
"Why?" the woman inquired.
"The fibers are only as thick as a human hair, but they are brittle. When they are
brushed against the vaginal wall, the fibers break off and become embedded under
the skin and in the muscle. This creates an irritation that gradually evolves into a
burning sensation. I've heard that women tortured in this way have gone insane
after a couple of hours."
"Quite diabolical," the woman commented.
"Where shall eat?" the man wanted to know.
The device was simple, but cruelly effective; a length of flexible tubing
surrounded by an inflatable bladder near to one end.
The man partially inflated the bladder and oiled its surface. The black rubber
object resembled a thick pipe. The man placed the end of the tube in the entrance
to Elizabeth's vagina and pushed gently. The opening opposed the bladder at first,
but gave way under slight pressure. After that, Elizabeth's muscles allowed the
object to intrude without further resistance, and the man inserted the bladder -
carefully and slowly - ensuring that the lubricated surface did not bind and fold, or
wrinkle. He encountered no difficulty until the end of the tubing reached
Elizabeth's cervix.
Elizabeth emitted a sharp groan when she felt the object reach the
innermost extent of her vagina. She lay on the examination table, firmly secured
by her upper and lower arms, unable to raise her body. Her feet had been placed
in the stirrups and fastened there; her legs were hardly more capable of movement
than the rest of her. She could, with utmost effort, raise her hips enough for a slim
hand to slide freely between her bottom and the surface of the table. The top of
her pantyhose was missing; cut off around her thighs, creating the appearance that
she was wearing ordinary stockings.
The man turned the bladder, maneuvering the end of the tube passed
Elizabeth's cervix. It entered her womb. The man began to inflate the bladder
further, slowly dilating Elizabeth's vaginal passage, increasing her pain.
When the man was satisfied that he had created a seal between the rubber
and the wall of Elizabeth's vagina, he stopped the flow of air into the bladder.
Then her started pumping air through the tubing into Elizabeth's uterus.
Elizabeth's womb expanded. In just a few minutes the man created an
effect that took Nature nine months to produce; Elizabeth's belly was hugely
swollen. Her screams reverberated. Only the whites of her eyes showed. Her
back was arched and every muscle in her body strained. The abdominal expansion
was clearly excruciating, her agony augmented by the awful dilation of her vagina.
But not forgotten entirely were the lacerated and denuded nipples, the scorched
clitoris, the wounds in her delicate labia where the flesh had been macerated in a
score of places, or the biting pain left over from the fluid that had burned her
urethra. Elizabeth was the perfect picture of applied torment. The camera lenses
saw her agony and the microphones heard her screams. All of this was faithfully
recorded.
Now, the man would show off his coup-de-grace; the denouement.
When he supposed that Elizabeth was reaching the limit of what she could
stand, he released the air from the bladder; slowly at first and then more rapidly.
Elizabeth's vaginal muscle contracted, maintaining its grip on the deflating and
unwanted intrusion. But when the bladder began to shrink more rapidly, the
muscle, which had been stretched for too long, would not relax fast enough.
The seal was suddenly compromised. The air trapped inside Elizabeth's
womb found its deliverance. Filling the gap between the bladder and the tissue, it
began to escape. At that moment, the man stopped the bladder from deflating
further. The vaginal muscle closed around it, threatening to shut off the airway
once again. But the pressure of the air was too much. Elizabeth's stomach
collapsed in one enormous muscular effort and her vaginal passage dilated in an
instant.
In a fraction of a second, the extensible tissue comprising Elizabeth's vagina
was stretched to the very brink of rupture. Elizabeth was overwhelmed by the
shock of an agony far worse than anything she had ever known. Her eyes
widened, her mouth opened and her lips formed a gaping 'O'. She passed out, the
unuttered cry of the demented hanging silent in her throat.
The place was quiet for an eternal moment; quiet for first time in a long time
so it seemed. Only the sound of the whirring cameras broke the silence.
"Cut!" shouted the woman. "Wrap it up!" She paced around in a tight
circle. "Perfect!" she exclaimed. "Perfect! Perfect! Perfect!" She stared at the
man, the disbelief at what she had just witnessed obvious. "Did you see the look
on her face!" she shouted, then stopped, turned and threw her head back and
called to the man in the boom high above the GYN table. "Did you get that look on
her face?"
"You bet I did, lady," asserted the cameraman. The woman walked across
to the man, who was cleaning the bladder with a cloth.
"That was the most fascinating scene I have ever put onto film. It was
damned perfect. I could watch you do that to her all night."
"I don't believe she'd last that long," the man chuckled. "But the trauma is
not as bad as it might seem. You want to see it again?" He stopped wiping the
bladder.
"There's no point in filming the same thing more than once, but if you can
wait around until all this is cleaned up. . .
her arm encompassing all of the studio equipment lying about on the floor.
"Sure. I can wait. She can handle it again. Perhaps a couple more times."
"I don't know if I can," the woman smiled. She patted the front of her skirt
at the base of her belly.
Old Jake stumbled and tripped. It was still early evening, but almost dark
beneath the viaduct. He groped around in the gloom for his lost bottle. Then he
found the body. That was strange. Old Jake was usually the first of the local tribe
of winos to arrive looking for a dry place to spend the night. He peered into the
face. "W-who are you?" he asked in a curious rather than demanding tone.
Old Jake climbed the embankment and scanned the parking lot above. With
distance vision much better than his reading eyes, he located the familiar black and
white car. He ambled towards it, but the patrolman saw him coming and got out
before Old Jake approached too closely.
"Hold it there," the patrolman said when the wino was still ten feet from the
car's bumper. "What's up?"
"Better come looksee," Old Jake replied. It was too early for his speech to
be unintelligible. "Some woman. Babbling. Says her name's Lizabet or
something. Can't understand her."
"Is she hurt?" the patrolman wanted to know.
"Don't look it. She ain't drunk, either. Been taking other stuff, I reckon."
Old Jake turned and made his way slowly back to the embankment. The
patrolman locked his vehicle and followed the retreating figure of Old Jake.
"Yeh. Female. Five-feet-eight, five-feet-nine. Hundred-and-thirty pounds.
Light brown hair." The patrolman was looking down at Old Jake's discovery, and
talking over the radio to his duty officer. "No, no identification - I can't see a
purse. No, I haven't moved her. No obvious signs of injury, but you'd better get
the paras rolling. And ask Jeff to send his big boys. If she's been stuffing
hallucinogens, she could more than a handful of trouble. . . What's that? . . . Yeh,
a red dress, black shoes . . . Let me look . . . Yeh, she's got a mole on the left
side of her mouth. I guess we've found her. How long's she been missing? . .
Probably just got bored and went on a spree. . . . We'll probably find she's been
popping ecstasy pills for the last three days . .
Don't underestimate the contribution the adult film industry has contributed to all sorts of video formats. According to Ron Jeremy, "People in porno have always been the leaders in new eras and new things--on tape, on CD. [...] ...Adult films have always been leading the way when it comes to technology."
Just think. If it wasn't for porno, we might not have the DVD format today. Just like porn was the pioneering format for VHS when it was first introduced. Kinda the reverse of the article's direction when you think about it... porn has probably had more of an impact on video formats than video formats have had on the film industry.
On the downside, DVDs allow perfectionist filmmakers the opportunity to keep tinkering with their creation, adding things here and deleting things there. I wouldn't be surprised if a filmmaker has already decided to shoot brand new extra footage exclusively for the DVD as a way to boost sales.
I think one of the greatest things about dvds is that the director can show you multiple ways to watch the same movie. Once you're done with a movie, if you really like it, you can listen to the director talk about how he made it. I did this for American Beauty.
Also more directors are able to put out the movie in wide screen, and I'm sure they love that. It's much more similar to the actual way we view things, and the film doesn't have to be "modified the film to fit your screen".
Anyways. Hooray for DVD.
Symptoms. The primary symptom of infestation is itching in the pubic area. Scratching may spread the lice to other parts of the body; thus, every effort should be made to avoid touching the infected area, although this may be difficult.
Diagnosis. Pubic lice are diagnosed easily because they are visible to the naked eye. They are pinhead size, oval in shape, and grayish, but appear reddish-brown when full of blood from their host. Nits, the tiny white eggs, also are visible and usually are observed clinging to the base of pubic hair.
Treatment. Lotions and shampoos that will kill pubic lice are available both over the counter and by prescription (see our "hair" section). Creams or lotions containing lindane, a powerful pesticide, are most frequently prescribed for the treatment of pubic lice. Pregnant women may be advised not to use this drug, and a physician's recommendations for use in infants and small children should be followed carefully. Itching may persist even after the lice have been eradicated. This is because the skin has been irritated and requires time to heal. A soothing lotion such as calamine may offer temporary relief.
Prevention. All persons with whom an infested individual has come into close contact, including family and close friends as well as sex partners, should be treated to ensure that the lice have been eliminated. In addition, all clothing and bedding should be dry-cleaned or washed in very hot water (125 F), dried at a high setting, and ironed to rid them of any lice. Pubic lice die within 24 hours of being separated from the body. Because the eggs may live up to six days, it is important to apply the treatment for the full time recommended.
I'm gonna edit the Memento DVD so that it plays in correct chronological order and my idiot roommate can work out just what the fuck is going on!
ROOMMATE
(perplexed)
My head hurts! What just happened then??? Who's John G? What the?! Who the?!
ME
Here you go somewhere else and watch THIS version! Away with you!
:)
woo hoo! this will make porn 10 times better!
But seriously, I am happy that LOTR-FOTR is being released in a four-hour version. I really like the idea of DVD-directors cuts. I'm pretty confident FOTR would have made a lot more money if it had only been 2 hours long, because it could be shown five times a day per screen, rather than three. There is a lot of pressure on studios to avoid long movies. They want people to pay and free their seats as fast as possible. DVD releases are not under that same pressure, so I think we will see more "unshortened" versions of movies.
I hope that enough people buy the FOTR DVD for the extra footage that movie studios actually learn to always shoot extra scences (character-development, background explanations, and cheap stuff like that) that don't appear in the theater release, but show up on the DVD to drive up sales/rentals for people who loved the movie in the theater and want to see more. FOTR is one movie that definitely needs another hour or so to make it seem less rushed.
According to the phantom edit forum (only thing I can get to right now, the site is down for "6 hours" right now) a new 2001 aka DC version (what's with the city names?) has been released. One person provided an ftp to download it from, but the ftp is dead. As someone who is just now hearing about this for the first time (and has too many SW-obsessed fans for friends) I'd be *very* interested in seeing this, or really any of the 3 (LA, NY, or DC) versions. Anyone out there have a mirror of any of them on a descent connection and be willing to share with the community or know of someplace we can get this from?
I for one think that this phenomenon is opening new possibilities for the filmmakers to tell their story. A director might be able to include on a DVD the version he or she wanted to create but could not do so within the confines of the major studios. The final cut is no longer the final cut.
However, I don't think that having the ability to "interactively" select a film rating is a good idea. The ratings system has already done much to stifle films tackling serious subjects. The NC-17 rating is a financial kiss of death. (perhaps not that extreme, but close). I fear that people would self-censor themselves in some kind of denial that serious subjects and issues and violence exist. Whenever I see a movie that has been censored, time compressed, cropped and edited for the masses on a television I am saddened that I am not seeing the whole movie the way it was supposed to be, and thus may not be getting the messages at all that the film was meant to convey but did not due to the cuts.
As high quality digital tools become available at lower and lower prices, the democratization of the filmmaking process will be interesting to watch to see what happens. DVD at least offers a way for the stories to be retold or restored to the way they were intended. I hope that trend will continue. Please no more censorship, we have enough already.
yes - but in the article (you did read the article right? :-), it mentions that DVDs were introduced only for the movie industry to get more money from a saturated VHS market.
And then when DVD sales rocketed, it took the movie industry by surprise.
So my point is that the movie industry still hasn't figured out that giving consumers what they want increases sales.
You sully my soul
Liberate your mind in two clicks or less.
Yeah, I mean, it's not like William Gibson, Neal Stephenson or John Brunner wrote about digital technology. No, they just wrote about... er, computers changing society.
For instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $75,000 to do a two-hour commentary for the recent Total Recall DVD. Artisan, the producer of the disk, has to decide between paying for that and reducing profit/raising price, or dumping it and alienating fans/Arnie.
Bottom line: don't blame the movie industry for everything. Worker bees can be greedy too.
THis would help in editing the bad content of movies (cursing, nudity, etc.) and making some movies out there viewable for the whole family. I like this and hope to see this soon.
I've been thinking about and half-heartedly working on this idea for quite some time.
What I'm working on is taking an open-source DVD player (I picked Xine, but I'm questioning the wisdom of that decision) and hacking on-the-fly editing capabilities into it.
The basic idea is that for a given DVD, a person can go through the movie and carefully "mark it up", generating a file that annotates all of the portions of the video and audio tracks that are potentially offensive, tagging each one with descriptive information including the nature of the material, relevance to the plot, etc. Then, an individual can create a personalized "viewing stylesheet" that specifies how he or she would like kind of offensive material to be handled. Obviously, some default stylesheets could be provided as well. The markup and stylesheet languages will both be extensible, (so you can add the "Jar Jar tag"), and you should be able to edit pretty much anything that's marked up in any way you want. A buddy of mine wants to make himself a stylesheet that will show *only* the offensive parts ;-)
Then, of course, when you play a DVD on my hacked-up player, it would look up the markup file and use that and your personal viewing stylesheet to automatically edit the movie.
I think it would also be cool to provide another sort of editscript that allows more sequential editing, rather than a rule-based system, so that you could do more "artistic" edits, grabbing snippets of video and audio from various places and maybe mixing them with your own. That's not my major interest, though, mainly since such edits probably wouldn't be done 'on the fly' anyway.
The project has been languishing for a few months, though. The Xine support for playing DVDs is quite rough and doesn't seem to be improving quickly. The Xine developers had been talking about a 1.0 release in December, but it hasn't happened yet, AFAIK (haven't checked for a while). Actually it's the dvdnav plugin (which supports menus and such) that has been really lagging, and the regular DVD plugin doesn't support encrypted DVDs, which makes testing difficult, since I don't have any unencrypted DVDs.
What I have done is implemented various edits (masking blocks of the image, skipping short scenes [long skips are much harder; seeking doesn't work in dvdnav yet], muting the sound and substituting alternative snippets of audio, altering subtitles, etc.) to verify that it can be done easily. I have also found what I believe is the best way to insert the editing stuff architecturally; as part of a general filter plugin architecture. I've also begun to define the markup and stylesheet languages (both in XML).
I've mostly been waiting on Xine, though. Just recently I've gotten tired of that and I've started looking into some of the other options. Ogle, VLC and gstreamer are three I'm considering.
If anyone knows of other players I should look into, or has any interest in helping me with the code, drop me a line.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
So my point is that the movie industry still hasn't figured out that giving consumers what they want increases sales
"The Olsen Twins.. Grown up.. and XXX-RATED"
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
DVD Format Changing Movie-making
Its changed the Movie Buying experiance all right.
THEN: I just went to blockbuster and grabbed a movie on VHS and bought it.
NOW: go on internet.. search sites.. Collecters Edition has X amount of footage, Directors Cut has Y amount of Footage and comments. the SuperBit version has Better footage but no Z and no Y. and of course finding a review that says EXACTLY what one has over the other is hard to find.
and obvisoly i go to the store and they dont have that version i wanted.
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
Can we edit the movie to include cursing, nudity, violence, etc. I would wait until a lot of movies were on DVD just to get the uncensored NC-17, x rating that many movies avoid just to make more money in the theatres.
I'm not sure how that will effect compressing them into DivX / MPEG-4 format to share over the network though.
Hmmm. RIAA is currently unhappy that digital technology
(particularly broadband and P2P software) will soon make
it feasible to copy and download movies.
Solution: keep expanding the content of a typical movie
so the average viewer feels it's cheaper and easier to
just go buy it, rather than spend 10 hours downloading.
To quote an old MTV ad, "Too much is never enough".
So, a typical "movie" in 2010 might include 32 different
camera angle choices for each scene, dubs for most major
languages spoken on earth (complete with CG airbrushing
to resync the actors lips), etc. etc. etc.
>;K
>;k
Are you new to DVD's?
From the article:
"Sales of DVDs last year reached $4.6 billion, 21/2 times their 2000 revenue, according to the L.A.-based DVD Entertainment Group, a consortium of the major studios and distributors."
Isn't this just another reason why we don't need digital controls on hardware and yet another reason why we don't need the sssca?
- I think so.
From the article:
"New low-cost digital technology gives enthusiasts the chance to be desktop filmmakers, shooting new footage and combining it with existing movies. While DVDs are encoded to safeguard against piracy and copying, and the studios vigorously pursue civil and criminal proceedings against people they catch, more sophisticated computer users still find ways around that. With DVD-writing software, and illegal but fairly easy to find encryption decoders, not only can adventurous viewers reedit movies like "Star Wars" on their computers--removing "characters from a movie that they don't like," as Coppola suggests--but there's the possibility of creating entirely new movies from existing ones."
Couple interesting things here. In this article we are not criminals, we are sophisticated computer users.
And number two, it seems to me that there is support for this behavior by the directors of these films.
Maybe they realize that this is not a crime, it is simply our fair use right when we buy the dvd.
- Just my 2 cents.
I could be the first person (legally) to cut up Memento and put it reverse order so the story makes sense from the beginning thereby wrecking the novelty of the twisted ending.
to-en-Mem
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
The article went a bit too far in casting DVDs as a heroic art form. What was most irksome was it failed to mention the single biggest reason I was an early adopter of the DVD format. Yes, the directors' commentaries are fascinating. Yes, the deleted scenes, making-of documentaries, bios, trailers, and other assorted doo-dads are keen. Yes, the improved picture and sound quality are wonderful. However, even if DVDs were missing all that, I would still be buying them at a voracious rate for one simple reason -- they don't degrade.
The back end of my twenty year old VHS collection is crumbling away. In another twenty years the front half will be gone too. But in 100 years all my DVDs will play with the same quality they do today. You never really own a VHS tape. You're renting it from a decaying universe, and every 15 or 20 years you have to make the rent payment again or you lose your lease.
Man, the film industry is going to get *killed* by the games industry in a few years, and it seems they don't see it coming.
Seriously, 'interactivity' is not about downloading a flick and laboriously re-editing it (a process of questionable legality in the curent political climate), it's about the viewer/audience being able to influence the content at 'run-time'.
DVD offers minimal interactivity, and everyone who has ever tried to 'interact' with a DVD knows this.
The moviemakers are just trying to talk up their pathetic 'interactivity' to make it seem like they aren't still just rehashing the same old shit and ripping off the viewing public over and over again.
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
The underlying force to storytelling is pace. The rhythm of storytelling can perhaps adequately be referrenced by Ezra Pound's injunction that music must never stray far from the dance and storytelling (poetry) must never stray far from music. Film as we experience it in a moviehouse demands suspension of belief while the storyline carries us along. Those of us who have difficulty relinquishing the critical faculty perhaps best enjoy the polished gems extracted from the narrative stream which all too often demands too much naivety especially as the neverending story flags after viewers attain an adequate understanding of their culture (such as the western civilization's troubadour traditon of courtly love and trial by ordeal or contest). Is it possible that the DVD experience will disenfranchise movie makers as viewers are able to revisit the storyline at will and learn the tricks of the trade to the extent that only the special effects gems and big punch of the climax is culled from the 'usual filler' that serves only to set the tempo for the storyline? Will pushing so much of the film maker's technique into the public in the hope of wringing the last bit of revenue prove to be a misstep, or, will it up the ante and provide the impetus to break free from the traditional storylines of our culture and provide film makers an opportunity to educate a new audience?
Just a thought. To hold the mirror up to the nature of our culture... but now I have to go listen to my fav two hours of radio drama shows from the 40s and 50s
:)"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
The DIVX goons specifically did NOT allow porn, softcore or hardcore, on their format. In the post mortum analysis that followed, I remember that this prohibition was compared to a lack of porn (I don't know if it was actively blocked or not) on the Betamax format. Most people tend to believe that blocking porn was one (of many) reasons why DIVX failed.
:-)
On the other hand, the porn industry threw their support completely behind Open DVD (just like they did for VHS), and you can see where the state of things are today...
just picking a nit, but someone interviewed the article mentions that "nowhere in SF was digital technology's impact predicted"
Spinrad's "riding the torch" comes pretty close in my opinion, and it's from the early 70s. I first read it in the mid '90s, and my immediate thought was, "groovy, he's talking about the internet."
Of course, in the 80s a great deal of people starting thinking about digital communication & media, not least of which was Gibson...
i won't go into details, you can find them out by doing a google search but while it is possible it is not nearly as easy to copy a DVD, especially if you want a true duplication of the original disc.
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
And what about letting Joe Blow edit other works of art too, like the Mona Lisa maybe? Really, who wants to edit a film except a film student, for experimental purposes? Yet another great idea doomed to failure. Someone, once again, should be fired...
The original.
Too many movies are chopped and edited for home release. I liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I loved the tearing up of the garden. The obsession of enhancing the train layout is missing. The finished hill looks nice and all, but they needed to keep in driving the wife crazy getting all that dirt into the living room. Too bad they chopped it up for home release to add the extra footage at the end.
Disney is doing this way too much. I loved the scene in Pete's Dragon with the song Candle on the Water sung at the top of the lighthouse. Don't look for it in the home tape version, it was chopped. They cut the beautiful sensitive moment. I think the song ran in the closing credits, not in the movie. Some Disney movies are even released with a new title for home release. The Unidentified flying Oddball and A Spaceman in King Arthurs Court is one example of one movie with two titles.
I am not buying these on DVD just to see if these scenes are back in the movie. When you buy a home verion of a movie, It's like a box of chocolates, you just don't know what you are gonna get.
The truth shall set you free!
Is an opinion flamebait? So I take it just cause a comment such as the one I made causes a string of replies then that means that it was my intention to spark up conversation or arguement? Common, give me a break fellar! My commnet was just that a comment. I am getting tired of individuals mod'ing my comments as if I had nothing better to do on a Sunday night than to post a "flamebait" comment (I think this is either my second or third since I have started posting). Give me a break, look at my history of articles and see if that is my style. Sorry if I sound a little ticked off, however I think that it is silly that because of a moron with a mod point who decided to use this against me and better yet a tag of "flamebait" on my comment which I made with a sincere heart and I think is true just will not get seen by individuals who might think like me that this would help bring cleaner entertainment into our homes. Anyway, tahnks for lending me your eyes and minds in ths gripe session! "Entertain the Brutes"
In the 1920's, American exploration firms discovered the world's largest oil fields under the eastern Saudi desert. As a result, the Saudis and their small neighbors became the richest nations in the world, far surpassing in per-capita product and income long established industrial nations. Not content with this enormous wealth, the Saudis spearheaded the creation of OPEC. It is a price-fixing cartel, which would be totally illegal under U.S. anti-trust laws. This cartel has managed to increase the price of oil by more than tenfold. In doing so, the members of OPEC -- primarily Saudi Arabia -- were able to amass almost unimaginable riches. At the same time, they caused grave economic dislocation to the western industrial nations and brought ruin and famine to many of the so-called third world countries.
What do the Saudis do with all this wealth? Much of it goes to the maintenance of the most extravagant lifestyle of the Saudi "royal" house and hundreds of "princes" and their hangers-on. Some of it goes for ostentatious public projects. But much of it goes to bankrolling terrorists and troublemakers in the Middle East and in the rest of the world. For example, Saudi Arabia is the main support of the terrorist PLO, which would financially collapse were it not for Saudi Arabian aid. Saudi Arabia finances Syria to the tune of $750 million per year. Syria is a close ally of the Soviet Union, a state based on terror, and a sworn enemy of the U.S.
The Saudis have participated in every one of the Arab wars against Israel, since Israel's founding in 1948. They are totally committed to continued warfare until what they hope will be the destruction of Israel and "recovery" of Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia has systematically thwarted any peace initiatives to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict, continues to maintain a state of war with Israel, refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, and perpetuates, through the Arab League boycott, an international economic warfare intended to strangle Israel.
The Saudis clamor constantly for more and more sophisticated weapons from the U.S. They claim to need these weapons in order to protect their kingdom, their oil installations, and the Gulf shipping lanes from the Iranians. They have purchased $2.9 billion of war materials from the U.S. and vast additional quantities from Western Europe. But now that this arsenal is available and could be engaged, do they use it? Of course not! They call on the U.S. for help.
Because of their unwillingness to assist in their own defense during the Gulf war, we had to put over thirty war ships and much other material in the area and thousands of U.S. sailors, whose lives were at risk and quite a few of whom were lost. Why, then, if they refuse to defend their own country, do the Saudis need all this expensive and deadly hardware? To quote the Saudi defense minister: "It is focused on Israel." And he was echoing King Khaled, who said, "When we build our military power, we have no designs on anybody except those who took away our land and holy places in Jerusalem, and we know who they are!" The way things seem to be planned by the Saudis, it may not be too long before their F-15's will join to fight Israel's F-15's in another devastating Middle East conflagration.
Are the Saudis grateful to the U.S. for being so generous with protection? Despite the fact that the U.S. Navy was and still is in the Gulf for their protection, the Saudis have steadfastly refused to put any of their installations and bases at the disposal of the U.S. The cost to the U.S. taxpayer is a minimum of $200 million so far. Will the Saudis pick up any of that tab? Of course not! When the Iraqi fighter plane attacked the "Stark" and killed 36 American sailors, the U.S. urged the Saudis to pursue the Iraqi plane and to bring it down if necessary. What did the Saudis do? They flatly refused!
Saudi Arabia is not "moderate." It bankrolls Syria -- the Soviet Union's ally and client state -- and is the paymaster of the terrorist PLO. Its arsenal is not destined to the defense of its territory against Iran, but for the next "jihad" -- what they hope will be the final war of extermination against Israel. They are no friends of America or of the West. They do not cooperate with us in the defense of our strategic interests-- they single-mindedly pursue their own agenda. As to the "oil weapon," they wield it ruthlessly to amass the riches of the world and to disrupt the economies of the West.
Here's an idea that's been dancing around in my head. Let me see if I can make sense of it. Basically, I'm thinking of a program that would allow people to produce custom edits of DVD's. It would depend on someone owning the actual DVD for the video, but could import audio tracks (for commentary) and tracking scenes (for custom edits).
In essence, you end up with a little script that tells the end user which audio track to play when and where to "drop the laser" on the video. No explicit IP problems that I can think of.
MikeAtIF*ckStuffedAnimalsDotCom
How about pulp fiction?
"The Olsen Twins.. Grown up.. and XXX-RATED"
Ewwww! I feel.... dirty... somehow. Now how do I get that horrid image out of my head?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
"Horrid images"?
What fucking gender are you -- have you seen those two lately?
They'd make some fucking amazing porn.
Too bad thier mommy and daddy played intelligently with thier money, and they aren't that broke yet
I wonder what the director commentary for the "Girls Gone Wild" DVDs is like.
"This film has been described by Video-Audio Canada"
No DVD burners on the market have anything like the capacity of the discs being sold commercially with videos on them, explicitly so you can't copy them.
So, the whole storage medium (and thus, the progress of computer science) is being held back because they want to make it hard to copy videos.
The Olsen Twins.. Grown up.. and XXX-RATED
It may happen yet. The Olsen Twins could be subject to the same phenomenon that prevented Shirley Temple from ever becoming a successful adult actress, that being that they will always be seen by the public as some kind of pre-pubescent ideal. When an icon of pre-pubescent virtue like Shirley Temple or the Olsen Twins becomes publicly sexual the public gets creeped out. I know I do. And I'm not even heterosexual. If I were heterosexual, I'd probably be forced to sever my genitalia out of sheer terror upon seeing things like this.
At any rate, we need Jon "My Sworn Duty To Explain The World To Its Oblivious Residents" Katz to handle this kind of social pontification.
until it became apparent that my new "movie" was nothing more than Natalie Portman footage and light saber duels.
Your point being...?
c-hack.com |
I'm still waiting for my copy of the Really-Super Extra-Special Director's Cut edition of Blade Runner
Commercially available DVDs hold up to 9GB of data. This is divided between 2 platters (typically referred to as layers but I thought platters made sense visually for this explanation) that are basically glued together. Note that this is not the same as dual sided discs which are capable of holding 9GB per side for a total of 4 layers. The first platter can hold 5GB and the second holds 4GB. The second platter is read through the first layer and therefore can hold a little less data. Consumer level DVD burners can only write to the first platter/layer. Without a fairly radical technology departure from current burners, they never will. Therefore duping a commercial DVD is impossible with currently available hardware.
Note that this does not include the actual DVD production machines that are surely in use by large scale pirate rings. Also of note is that using DeCSS, you can rip the video data, recompress and store to the medium of your choosing. I assume that neither of these solutions is what the original poster meant by "copy."
-matt
I suppose. Or maybe audiences just got desensitized to mishmash logic and gaping plot holes, because their attention spans were shrunken past the Schwarschild radius... I happen to believe that the influence of music video directors on mainstream media has been a disaster that's consigned nearly a whole generation of films to the dustbin of failed art.
And don't even get me started about the influence of advertisement directors....
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Pretty much every movie out there is made on a DVD-9 (9 gb), dual layer disc, while all burners you see DVD±R(W) are about 4.5gb, single layer disc. So, no, you can't copy them directly.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You mean, by empowering end users and thus driving further sales of things they would otherwise not buy? Oh, yeah, I guess it's true. Exactly the same way the VCR "killed" Hollywood.
It disturbs me to see such a misreading of the actual trends (hmmm: Napster peaks, CD sales soars; Napster shut down, CD sales contract) slipped so quietly into an article about something else.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Typically, most movies only have 1 camera rolling at a time. For instance, when two people are facing each other and speaking (the typically camera looks at one, then the other, then back scene) the camera is only photographing one actor at a time. Then the other actor is filmed. Sometimes when one actor (actor A) is being filmed, the person they are acting with (actor B) in the scene may be unavailable and the scene will be shot with someone else so they can get the shot of Actor A.
So my point is that you would have to re-edit in all this extra footage and it isn't even shot at the same moment.
The exception is that explosions are often shot on mutiple cameras so they are sure they captured it. it would be too expensive to redoo if they fucked it up.
Currently, some DVDs use the multi-angle function in the extra features for comparisons between the storyboards and the finished edit.
-matt
Aah, the usual argument from an elite that feels the ground slipping out from under it. (Believe me, I don't despise elites... just ones that can't provide enough extra value to maintain their survival). "Demystification" is a tired rallying cry used by people defending the status quo... It boils down to, "I can't tell you why I am an expert and you are an uninformed boob, but it's just so. Now listen to me!"
Again, we see that a major concern of the Content Cartel is not preventing illegitimate copying or even maximizing profit. It's about maintaining control. It boggles my mind that in a culture that purports to embrace individuality and democracy in politics, we suffer the arrogance of people who despise that impulse in art. If art is about universal human truths, maybe actual humans should have a say.
Coppola points out the impetus behind things like CSS and the proposed CBDTPA:
'Cause as my man Cosmo said, "It's about who controls the information... what we see and think".
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Me, I'm against it. I remember the first time I heard of this was when Titanic came out on video and some video store in Utah started selling versions of Titanic that they had edited to remove the nudity. Nevermind the people screeming as they died a freezing death - that's all OK for little johnny and jane - but a woman's bare breast (!) banish that! Let's all just forget that every child (well almost - a few people choose not to) suckled from their mother's breast and it was also probably in use during their procreation. But death due to tragedy - bring it on! No one is too young!
Sorry for the rant. As I see it, film can allow for a small amount of growth in a person. One can see lives of other people and places. You may not like what you see and that is your perogative but at least you've been exposed to it. The bare breast scene in titanic was an important part of who those people were and the ways in which they had grown together. If you want to remove it then you just don't get the movie at all. And by not letting your children see it, you are sending a message that being naked is bad - regardless of circumstance.
Sorry for the rant #2. I really am interested to hear what others have to say on this topic both for and against. Are movies as important as I have made them out to be or are they just weekend filler?
-matt
To better illustrate my point, would anyone bother to do a re-edit of a "classic" like, say, 2001. It seems that the only movies which are getting the "interactive" (re-edited) treatment, are those which have been hopeless butchered to appease some market demographic by a director who has always been overrated (like Star Wars EP1).
Perhaps, guys, rather then playing this up as a "feature", you should take some heed now, to lift your game. After all, how long does it take before these same people tire of fixing your crap, To find out that they could do a better job with their cheap-arse Dvd-cam, making your chosen occupation redundant.
However, I feel that with so much money coming in from dvd sales you can always lobby congress, to make any form of creativity, which doesn't directly benefit you, illegal.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
I want to be entertained by my films and told a story. I want to be presented with a work of art.
When I play games, I want things left nice and open, so I can do what I want, but with films I want to see the directors vision up there on the screen.
My Journal
Whilst I totally agree with the original poster about DVD's being hardy, I'm not sure 100 years is an accurate figure.
There are 2 main problems:
1) Stability of the product
Lets face it these things are churned out in high volume, the double sided disks are 2 thin disks glued together... despite simulated 'rapid aging' of these materials do we really know how stable the plastics / aluminium playing surface / glues are going to be.
For instance I have early CD's that are now unplayable because sulphor from packaging / acrylics corroded the aluminium foil playing surface.
And don't get me started on CD-R - it is not an archive format, I'd give most discs 5-10 years tops before the playing layer degrades due to UV and physical damage - the only advantage is you can regenerate the digital data in a way you can't with analogue data.
2) Hardware
Lets face it, DVD hardware is going to change and evolve. With CD we've been lucky because it was ubiqoutous and had solid standards, so support is still good. But when the 'next' DVD standard comes out, and they have to use the second head in the DVD+ deck to support the 'old' DVD format, then support for CD will probably die off.
Hardware is good for ~10 years, after this the head lasers tend to go as anyone with older cd-players will already have found. And you can bet when they do go there will be few spares.
Ironically the source material will almost certainly outlast the technology to play it back. Ask NASA about some of its early data!
Why are you comparing a notably good movie (2001) to modern Hollywood tripe? Are you suggesting any movie directed prior to 1980 was better than anything directed after? How about I use your argument but with Shichinin no samurai, it is a classic and a notably good movie, anything not directed by Akira Kurosawa is crap and ought to be reedited in the Kurosawa style. Please. There's plenty of good directors and plenty of bad ones, comparing all directors to a "classic" or merely your favorite movie is stupid.
Fan re-edits are an indication that directors aren't doing their job? Nobody is sneaking into a film studio to take all the movie's raw footage and make a fan cut of it, they are just rearranging scenes to better suit their preference. That is not a fucking reedit. I don't think you've got the skill to edit a movie, if you did and had edited ANYTHING before you wouldn't make such retarded comments. By the time you're done editing anything, be it music, video, or literary you've seen it so many fucking times and are so displeased with it (even if it is good) that you can hardly stand to watch it. It isn't like people don't make their own movies, people make movies all the time just most people don't like them. Where can I buy a Dvd-cam anyhow, it would be interesting to get ahold of one of those.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Any particular reason you feel compelled to post
your propaganda here on Slashdot under a DVD story?
You almost smell of a Scientology activist.
lets see, we'll take this movie...it came after these other ones, but we'll change the roles of everybody, and while we're at it, muslim terrorists arent good right now, so we'll go with neo-nazis, and...
COME ON! I know that movies rarely follow the books, but this is too fucking stupid. maybe the dvd will have the option of actually following the book.
Guns are like umbrellas and condoms. Better to have one and not need it, than need it and not have one.
There was a time where the people who made the movies where the ones which where passonate about the movies Now, movies seem to be glued together without much thought, and normally by people whose interests are not in making a good movie, ie producers. Sometimes only wishing to make a buck.
That it is getting to the point where the fans of these movies, have to correct the mistakes that these people make, I mean, half of that Star Wars should have been on the cutting room floor, and would have been a good movie had that been the case (as the re-edit proves).
Also that these are the same people who will be making movies in the future, sometimes without the cost of having to rent a stdio, or overrated hollywood actor, or crappy over-promotion (unless its made illegal ofcourse).
I never said that there weren't examples of good direction today, or acting or writing. rather that marketing movies just cause of a bunch a extras is a road that hollywood shouldn't be follow. Or, to the extent of forgeting about making decent movies to begin with.
btw, could you name one good movie from today that has been re-edited?, hell, its called the star wars correction.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
Remeber the Slashdot slogan? News for nerds, stuff that matters. This doesn't exactly qualify as news and it sure as hell doesn't matter one damn bit.
Slashdot is getting to be more and more like the mainstream news media. I hear 2 minutes about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and 10 minutes about the bus driver's strike, and another 10 about how all the movie stars dressed at the latest hollywood function.
Who gives a damn? It's not important in the slightest. Besides, if we kept up on all the rumors and assumtions on what's going to happen in hollywood, there'd be tons to read about, and 1 in 10,000 would actually have a small bearing on reality.
Go right ahead and mod me down if you like... I'm posting at +2 because I've got too much karma to care, and this is a rant. But it's informative, insightful, ontopic, and neither flamebait or a troll.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Because a large portion of European copyright law is based on it ("moral rights")—contrary to freedom-loving Americans, there are those that think the author has non-transferrable rights to the work that even go so far as to allow retraction of the work if it's not received according to the author's wishes. A previous /. story talked about this where some half-baked /. submitter agreed with Michael Fraase's article that America should adopt European artists rights, perhaps not realizing that doing so would grant an author the power to squelch parodies of their work. Moral rights, like "property" talk and "idea protection" (a growing body of law that will be the next battle for freedom-minded Americans) create the ability for copyright to limit the use and distribution of ideas (which copyright explicitly does not protect) instead of expressions.
What Fraase's conclusion doesn't acknowledge a full awareness of is that US copyright law evolved as a utilitarian bargain among authors, publishers, and the public, while European copyright evolved as a way to reward artists and authors for building culture. As Vaidhyanathan explains in his book far better than I can here, Mark Twain was integral to American copyright, he fought for perpetual copyright (see Twain's "The Great Republic's Peanut Stand") so his heirs and estate would be benefitted forever. He liked the control moral rights gave authors. He thought the public's claim on his works was unjustified and therefore undeserved. Unfortunately his influence exceeded his prescience and he didn't realize moral rights help threaten, not support, creativity. Modern corporations share Twain's motivation—greed—and they share the same conclusion as Twain—everlasting copyright power.
Instead of reading the all-too-short Fraase article, read Siva Vaidhyanathan's "Copyrights and Copywrongs" (ISBN: 0-8147-8806-8) for more on the exchange that built American copyright and why preserving the idea-expression dichotomy is so important for freedom and maintaining democracy.
Digital Citizen
Where have we already seen these groundbreaking developments?
Porn, that's where. Where the porn industry (and niche market filmmakers in general) innovates, Hollywood trails along, years afterwards.
Want the know the Next Big Thing? Real time audience generated scripts. I'm thinking ho cams chat sessions, I'm thinking Troma and their script contests, especially the one where each scene was written by a different fan. Throw some budget at it, put a film crew and some Semi Big Names in a shiny van with a satellite uplink, webcast the filming and solicit "what happens next?" in real time from viewers. Zoom around Hollywood (or Toronto, more likely) with a lawyer and a light meter, spending bushels of money to shoot a quick scene in this cafe or that warehouse among real honest Joe Public, then edit it up and release a movie/DVD of the final version, complete with various alternative scenes, "the making of" documentary, and some stuff about the scene submitters. Cinema verite on steroids: "Yeah, my aunt's boyfriend's dog walker wrote this scene! Look, that's him in the credits, telling Harvey Keitel what to say!"
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Finally, I can make every movie I watch End in a porn scene! A true techies dream.
Listen to the commentary to that movie. I loved the movie, but the director had a few things to say.
I actually thought the Seven Samurai Criterion guy got better as he went along. He talked about Kurosawa's brother and other effects upon the actor, the production of SS (which almost bankrupted Toho), and other little technical throw away stuff (like the scene of chopping firewood).
But the best DVD Commentary Track? Chopper on his autobiographical movie Chopper! Hands down! Mark "Chopper" Reid: psycho crim, proletariat sociologist, best selling Aussie author, humorist. I mean it has it all.
You can hear him pitching back the beers while their recording, its great!
Just hear him say "The year two-THOUSAND???" is worth the 20 bucks itself!!!
What is music when you despise all sound?
Imagine how much better pr0n will be!
-- dan.sherman
And it wouldn't have taken up that much space on the current disc, so I'm surprised it's in an R2 edit but not R1
A few things:
First, the Canadian release is nowhere near the picture and sound quality of the US release.
Second, watching Memento in chronological order is an unbelievably boring and predictable experience. It's brilliant backwards, but it's also a very simple story: it had to be, or no one could follow it.
Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here, and go to the digital bits for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).
For lame romance movies: "If you are male, please leave the room for the next 2 hours"
For chain smoking movies: "There will be 259 cigiaretts smoked during this film, one every 1.5 minutes. Please keep that in mind when the actors profess to want a clean environment."
Chain smoking movies #2: "Warning, the director had 20 extra minutes of film to use for manipulating a cigaratte"
For lack of dialog via using too many cliches: "Warning, there is no actual dialog in this film, turn the sound down and make up your own"
What's risky? Why is the filmmaking process "mystical" and what's the big deal if it's demystified? I must be missing something since I didn't realize it was "mystical" in the first place.
Not in my mind.
It's great idea to boost DVD sales, but from movie point of view it's bad imho.
I mean why would I want it? It's like having 100 types of icecream.
Movie is a piece of art (at least the ones I watch), and it's complete. Especialy on DVD where director can put what he wants.
Movie should leave certain expression in the end.
If you fool around with the DVD Edition of Made (by Jon Favreau of Swingers fame), you'll see an example of in-DVD editing.
You're allowed to 'edit' a few scenes. The tone and feel of one scene in particular, the 'pottery painting' scene, can be completely changed by your editing. Basically, the DVD splices the scene up into three or four shots, and gives you three or four options for each of these shots. These shots include the one used in the movie and some that were left on the cutting room floor. Once you've finished selecting your shots, the DVD shows you your completed splice. Granted, the splice is a little rough on the edges, but, man, what a cool-ass feature.
The editing feature not only gives you an insight into what an editor's job is like (having such control over the tone of a scene is really amazing), its just a fun toy. It also neatly showcases the incredible power of DVD.
If you haven't rented it, the DVD is worth a rent - packed full of special features, and just a good movie to boot. Highly recommended.
--
Disclaimer: The above statement probably includes half-truths, because real truth is too complicated.
Before you can interact with a DVD movie, MPAA will slap a heavy lawsuit to ANYONE want to get the hands on every video editing software for DMCA/CBCDTA/etc. violations. This guy is out of his freaking mind to even suggest such a possibility even exist to anyone but these blood sucking studios themselves.
Making movies isn't a fucking commitee action. Just because you're a "fan" of a particular movie doesn't mean you somehow have a better idea on how the movie should be directed. That is foolishness. Are you going to go in and add a Gundam to Starry Night because you think it would fucking look better? What ridiculous crap. If you think you're such a badass editor why don't you do it for a living and make your badass movies that "fan" don't have to reedit. It is so easy to do of course you shouldn't have a problem.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
porn had multiple camera angles years ago
Spinal Tap.
You know, the hilarious mock-rockumentary?
The commentary track is by the 3 main actors (and band members), which is no biggie.
But the whole thing is done completely IN CHARACTER. As the band, commenting on the DVD as if it is still a real documentary. Complaining about this and that, ripping the "director" to shreds, filling you in with "backgroud stories" and telling you about the "stuff that got cut out".
It's like a whole new Spinal Tap movie, all over again. Funniest damned thing I've ever seen.
>When an icon of pre-pubescent virtue [...] becomes publicly sexual the public gets creeped out.
;-)
Then how do you explain Drew Barrymore?
It seems a lot of people here have a lot of opinions about what should be included with a DVD. Being this is "News for Nerds" it might be a good idea to know how they really work. Not the simple imac stuff. I work in Multimedia for the largest Fiancial services company on the planet. We do a lot of Corporate video and recently we turned from VHS to DVD. Which basically ment I had to figure out how to do it. The company shelled out 5K+ for the just Sub-Hollywood burner and software (Spruce DVD Virtuoso).
DVDs are just like anything else in the computing world. You have to program it. You have to say what happens when you press whatever button at whatever time.
Also something to keep in mind is that video at this resolution is really freakin big. Video is anything from 6 - 9 Mbps. Imagine a 4 hour movie with maybe a half hour of "extra footage" plus menu screens. That's maybe 9 Gigs of Data if encoded at 7 Mbps.
Needless to say I can no longer really enjoy DVDs for the content. I was blown away by the Zoolander DVD. Not because of the movie, extra stuff, or commentary but because of the freakin cool way they programed the DVD.
-- No Comment
What the fuck do you care? If fans want to play around with a movie and re-edit it, who are you to say otherwise? Especially if the end product turns out to be more popular than the shit released to the theaters?
There is no mystery here; being employed in the industry doesn't grant one automatic access to skill. Nor does *not* being employed in the industry somehow guarrantee that a fan won't be as good as the as the people who get paid for job.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Uh, I hate to break it to you, but they already mention the Whopper in that scene.
Here's a question that'll never see the light of day.
Are there any publishers putting out enhanced books on DVD?
So now the directors can shoot a whole bunch of (possibly crap) footage, slap together something that resembles a basic film and then expect us to re-edit it ourselves using our DVD players?