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Firefly: A Special Feature
Philip B. Gaines writes "Philip B. Gaines announces the completion of an independent multimedia commentary project, "Firefly: A Special Feature", a DVD based on the FOX television series created by Joss Whedon. A free examination copy of the project is available for those willing to provide feedback about this media experiment. "Firefly: A Special Feature" is a 3.5 hour multi-module review of Whedon's innovative space western series. The interactive review features a variety of interpretive and analytical components--all intended to further discussion of this seriously underappreciated show. The bottom line of the project is dialogue, not promotion. If you have seen "Firefly" before and found it intriguing--or even if you haven't--this project will make you think, argue, and perhaps even learn a bit. For "Firefly: A Special Feature", I have acted as writer, video/sound editor, and media producer, working with complete independence from the producers of the show or anyone else whose influence might bias the analysis. Plans are underway to do this kind of project again, so I would appreciate feedback on all levels. See the website for a formal description of the project Email pbgaines@pbgaines.com for a copy of the DVD."
biotch.
I poop on first post
I can't believe that a country that speaks so highly of freedom and human rights is still handing out death sentences which most civilized nations on earth have long abandoned.
I do so hope that this ad is being paid for.
I mean, really. If I wanted to look at ads I'd go to fark.
/. marketing...how wall street...
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
Islam is the religion of peace (tm). If you want world peace, you must convert to islam, convince your friends to do the same, and commit suicide bombings against everyone else!
I find state-sponsored murder objectionable.
I eagerly awaited Firefly, as I am a big JW fan and think that the writing in BVS and Angel is superb. But Firefly was boring rehashed bad scifi.
What was the last thing that went through the firefly's mind when he hit the spaceship's windshield?
Yeah we liked Firefly a lot (insert futuristic Chinese gibberish here), but come on guys, when has /. become the "come and we'll give you free plugs" website??
Oh wait.. Do subscribers get to see this post?
Karma: Bad (but who really cares anyway?)
instead of sending the DVD, market it out in DiVX or XViD format, even AC3 is possible
people will buy your DVD if you add the special features, booklet, commentary,packaging etc
Don't you get it man? Just because a TV show is set in outerspace or in the future doesn't suddenly make it "intelligent". It's still just a fucking cheesy TV show. Do you consider "Xena: Warrior Princess" or "SomeFuckinGuy's Lost World" intelligent too? Because they are just low budget shit shows. Seriously TV is shit. All of it. This includes cartoons (japanese or otherwise), Reality TV, Sci-Fi TV, Cop Shows, Soap Operas and any other bullshit.
Don't you realize just because a show is in outer space doens't magically make it non-vacuous? It's still crap. Ohhh this show is in outerspace that means its a very highbrow show that really challenges the intellect, NOT.
I mean, I'm glad that this isn't a DVD with fan fiction style sex scenes and unplausible dialogue, but fan documentary? Is that any better?
--- http://foo.ca
God i miss that show. Only 5(?) episodes and i was hooked. All the good shows get dropped and friggin family/friends situational drama's and lawyer/cop shows hang around. ANYONE ELSE SICK OF THESE PILES OF STEAMING FECES? I know network tv panders to the masses, but please keep some of the shows worth watching. Firefly was totally excellent from day one.
FOX(or any other network) BRING IT BACK!
Advertising pretending to be news... again...
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Congrats on working with a great series that should have had a bit longer time on the air for people to get used to it.
;-P
And congrats on the free ad space
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Or am I trolling here?
Sorry to say that a death sentence,appeals,execution costs MUCH more than just housing them for life.
If it comes down to money, death sentence is NOT cheaper.
IMHO
*Yawn*
-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)
Moderate the parent "Troll." The "person" who "posted" it clearly has no intellect. He does not "get it."
Someone "beat" this "person" with the "clue stick" until he "gets it."
There are statistics that show that a person sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole will cost his state 35-40% less than one sentenced to death.
I can't find any good resources that you wouldn't declare biased, though.
This may be of interest to you.
How many angry readers will you censor by modding them down until you realized that you placed a disguised advert as an article?
.
And everyone against it will be modded down by anonymous cowards (slashdot editors)
i think this is fantastic. i envision how wonderful it would be to go see a movie and then be able to watch it again listening to the commentary of someone who's opinion i admire ....or just to hear the thoughts of someone i've never met on a movie that i am watching.....
sounds very interesting!
I liked Firefly a lot, and was pretty pissed off at the mental midgets at FOX for replacing it with that vacuous teen cop show.
You apparently haven't been wathcing Fox for that long then. These are the same folks who canceled Married With Children (probably the best satire of the American family ever on TV) becuase it wasn't "family-friendly" but who think that 7th Heaven and similar shows reflect actual American families.
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
That's not a bug, it's a feature!
Thanks.
1. Never heard of "project Firefly" before.
2. Never heard of "Whedon's innovative space western series" before.
3. The extensive introduction fails to explain what it is actually about.
4. The extensive introduction is not enticing, rather boring.
5. The article is submitted by someone heavily involved with the project.
6. Firefly is called a "seriously underappreciated show". Red flag goes up.
7. From the site: " "Firefly" is a television program that aired on FOX Network from October to December of 2002. After low ratings, more than $25 million dollars, and 11 episodes, the program has been cancelled."
8. Even on the site, it does not become clear what is so great about Firefly.
9. How is this "news" for nerds", how is this "stuff that matters"?
10. This whole thing looks like someone carried away too much by his own dying project and trying to get some attention.
My karma ran over your dogma
Thanks
"you"
There were actually 13 episodes. The first 10 were aired in the states, while the last 3 were in the UK. Fox has to be blamed for its low Neilsen ratings since it aired the episodes out of order which probably confused the audience.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Therein lies the problem. A bullet only costs a few cents. If you really want to do it on the cheap, just use an axe which is reuseable. Once a verdict has been rendered, dispense with the lawyers and carry out the sentence immediately.
A solution I can heartily endorse! And a bargain, too!
1 bullet x Convicted murderer,
1 bullet x each defense lawyer,
1 bullet x each prosecution lawyer
=
A start!
...Science Fiction shows ever put on television (imho). At first, I didn't think I could get use to the "space cowboy" feel, but this show was absolutely fantastic. It was a much more realistic look at what a potential "space wandering" humanity could become (when comparing to something like Star Trek). The cast and acting was great, the episodes, plots, and storyline, all very intriguing. It still completely shocks me that Fox took it off the air. Several friends of mine and myself still wallow in frustration as to why it ever got taken off the air.
I highly recommend picking the series up on DVD, available at Amazon Dec.9.
java guy, tech blog...
The show was only "innovative" if your idea of "innovation" is defined by Microsoft. Every aspect of the plot has been done before, and in the case of Star Trek, Farscape and yes, even BattleStar Galactica, done better. I can't think of a single aspect of the show that was new or different.
The linked article is interesting but Mr. Gaines writes that his target date for completion is July 2003. Wonder if he intended that to read 2004?
An "analysis" written by fans - or even worse, a fan - is generally guaranteed to be uncritical garbage. As far as I'm concerned if you're going to produce/consume masturbation material about a show/series, stick to fanfics stay away from slashdot. This seems like a good place to start for Philip and Hemos .
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
(See subj line for what JHV has done for you!)
The extremely low ratings have nothing to do with the fact that the show was pure shite.
'Space Above and Beyond', which was quite an excellent SciFi show, it lasted something like one and a half to two and a half seasons before having the plug pulled on it.
It used revolutionary (for television) special effects for the space scenes. If I am not mistaken, I believe that it was the first to use computer generated graphics for the entirety of the space scenes, from the large cruiser/carrier the space marines were using to the sleek starfighters that that marines were using...
The stories were rather compelling as well. Especially with the whole back history of the clone warriors and the human-looking androids. It's to bad that they ended the whole show as it was beginning to really grow... (I feel that most shows take a good two to three seasons to really get their legs and start running...)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
i'd hate to be your ISP b/c the bots are gonna make your inbox go boom real soon, aren't they?
good work, though.
ed
The commentary lasts longer than the actual television series! I thought Firefly was actually an OK show. Not great, but not trash either. It's definately better than "The OC" though. What a crock of shit. .2 * "The Family Guy".
I don't get why all you geeks ejaculate for Firefly. I'll admit it was an interesting show, but not nearly as good as you all make it out to be. Personally, I think Andy Richter's show was 100 times better. On a scale of "The OC" to "The Family Guy", I would give Firefly about
By the way, the scale is logarithmic, so "Andy Richter Controls The Universe" != 20 * "The Family Guy".
I liked the show , and thought that the dialogue alone was head and shoulders above ANY show (not just scifi or western) previously or currently broadcast, but that isn't relevant.
Isn't the topic here the interactive multimedia approach to the show's episodes ? No one has commented on that yet.
"Nothing is impossible for the man who refuses to listen to reason"
Too bad we'll have to wait years before this sand nigger gets the needle.
While he's in prison, I hope the GNAA finds him.
One of the unaired episodes of Fire Fly is on Space tonight at 8pm EST it's called Trash.
Space is a Canadian Si-Fi\Fantasy Station.
Never Underestimate A Human Being
...so that I don't have to read about this dead sci-fi show every week on Slashdot. That's what imdb.com is for.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
As seen with family guy, if a cancled series released on DVD gets a high volume of sales, producers start to catch on that they made a mistake .
I know I'll be purchasing my copy when it becomes available! It really was an interesting show, a departure from the typical StarTrek/Babylon5 mushy sci-fi.
Fine, your a fan... i'm a trekkie but you won't see me preaching about the hidden meanings of an Enterprise episode.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Serenity, Part 1
Serenity, Part 2
The Train Job
Bushwhacked
Shindig
Safe
Our Mrs. Reynolds
Jaynestown
Out of Gas
Ariel
War Stories
Heart of Gold
Objects in Space
Trash
The Message
Oh damn. I was hoping for a documentary that exposed brain-dead MIT Media Lab dotcom ventures.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Call me crazy, but I felt the whole space cowboy theme was a little much. I watched it, but I don't feel the angst that so many fellow slashdotters feel for its removal. What I do share is the angst of what they replaced it with. They went from mediocre to just plain crap.
Now when they pulled Greg The Bunny, that really pissed me off!
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
(pop) culture and advertising? not a rhetorical question. i share people's irritation with advertisements showing up everywhere, but what we consume as entertainment is always selling us something. Talking about that is a good thing. I would trust a geek conversation about it more than one in most other populations...
Hmmm... not sure I agree with that one. I didn't feel I was watching anything special, and in fact it felt rather dull. I think the first sci-fi series to incorporate frontier motifs was Galaxy Rangers, which rocked the cartoon world hard for the two or so seasons it ran. I loved that show, and I thought it was great that there was some real violence in it.
Must admit, I never watched the show. Cowboys and the whole "Western" genre is a big no-no for shows in need of cross-cultural support. Nobody but white anglo saxon folk is drawn to such characters. "Some poeple call me the space-cowboy..."
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
Hey....I detect some stealth marketing going on here.... Knock it off!
Um, nope. Sorry. Yes, fans *can* be rather blind in their love of something, but that does not mean that every single one of them is an uncritical mess. I have many things I love as a fan that I know damn good and well how badly they suck. It's only the loudest and the most rabid you hear, drowning out the silent crowd whose love for a show is no less but just more realistic. Who do you remember; the screaming fanboy who writes elitist "oh my god this is sooo kewl and if you don't like it you sux" reviews, or the quiet author of a webpage that has a huge informational libray and nice images?
I'm a huge Firefly fan, and was pretty eager to see what this project would be like. Sadly, if the "What is Firefly" multimedia project that's available on the website is any indication, the project is going to be little more than a revisiting of a fan's favourite clips along with a voiceover filled with harsh invective and "woe is the world for the cancellation of Firefly!" mopings.
The show was, IMHO, very unique. It took me a while to get around the mix of high and low tech, and I think it took the writers a while to work it through, too, but by the end of its run, it had done an admirable job of building a believable future society where frontiersmen had to do what was "right" without benefit of the law's judgement. I wish that the voiceover focused more on how the show espoused classic Libretarian ideals in an easily consumable medium instead of simply whining about how it was "the best show on television" and "too ahead of its time for FOX executives." The latter gripes are subjective and weaken any analysis of what actually made the show worth watching in the first place.
It is too bad about "Firefly" not receiving the support it needed from Fox, because I've noticed something about ALL of Whedon's series. The first season is just the setup.
If there had only been one season of "Buffy," no one would remember it now. The first season has some good lines and is solidly done, but what made the show special was how Whedon developed the characters and situations he'd established in that first year.
"Angel" was much the same. The first season set the ground rules, and then he started to screw with them.
I enjoyed the episodes we saw of "Firefly," but what I really miss is seeing how it would get fiddled with, as the series progressed.
Make a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Yeah, okay.
See, the term "fanboy" has been twisted into yet another attempt to seem superior - it's now used on anyone who actually (god help them) likes something. I mean, heaven forbid, someone who "likes" Firefly were to write about it! It's instantly total crap!
I mean, really. Please. Get the slightest shred of a grip on reality? By extension of your assumption, there can only *be* negative reviews, since if you like it, you're automatically an idiot.
The show was cancelled because it just wasn't that great. It didn't take watching more than the first 10 minutes to know it wouldn't survive. And this had nothing to do with any evil Fox conspiracies or not being family-friendly. Had the show merit, more people would have watched it and it would have survived.
What producers and directors of science-fiction shows (apparently including Whedon) don't seem to get is that their potential audience wants big stories, large scale, photon-cannons-blazing action and adventure backed up by solid, plausible science fiction. The the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, a few episodes and story arcs from the various Star Treks have hit on this, but weren't able to sustain it.
Unfortunately, what we seem to get more often is dull, inane dialog, pithy humor, sexual innuendo, fist-fights and character-worship.
WHOOSH
'cause I never heard it in firefly, but can't think of a single episode of the others where I didn't. And don't get me started on a 'near miss'.
Ads are broken.
Philip was kind enough to send me a copy of his DVD project a week and a half ago, and while I have yet to finish watching what is unarguably a massive project, everything I've watched so far is fantastic commentary. He exhibits extremely strong character analysis (essential for any discussion of Firefly) and is acutely aware of a plethora of layered subtleties in the show that I somehow completely missed, even having rewatched the episodes time and time again. Pay (if he's asking for money at all) whatever he's asking for material and/or S&H, because the project is well worth it. What I've watched of the DVD I've walked away from having an even greater appreciation for Firefly, and I didn't think that was possible.
Hopefully someone "up there" (that is to say, Whedon) will notice Philip's exemplary work and integrate it into the mythos somehow, because it deserves nothing less. Highly recommended.
You know, you don't have to do a DVD of your own to put in your own commentaries on films. The guy's site mentions he was inspired by Ebert's Dark City track--well, another idea Ebert had, and one that's even been covered by Slashdot in the distant past though I lack the time to dig up the URL for the story, is DVDTracks, a site that hosts do-it-yourself commentaries recorded as MP3s, meant to be downloaded and played simultaneously with the DVDs. I've even done one myself, for the Miyazaki movie Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro , and it was great fun.
There's a lot of other great stuff there, too. Check it out.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Yes, both Westerns and space SF have been made before. Combining both in the same show has not, to my knowledge, and I doubt it had even been considered, being such a bizarre concept and all.
By your criteria it's hard to think of anything that could possibly be considered innovative that involves actors talking and interacting.
Someone gave me a bunch of Firefly tapes. Am I the only person so uncultured and dumb to think the show was dull and the dialogue painful? (God, if you're going to use slang, you have to slur your words a bit in an accent.. you can't just use perfect English and throw in "ain't" here and there) Maybe the quality took leaps after the first season but boy was the writing bad.
The only show worse was that one with the living spaceship and the astronaut who accidentally got bumped into another universe. If this is "quality sci fi" then good riddance.
...is to "roll my own" and run a Firefly-based rpg. Notes available here.
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Not too familiar with the Fudge rules, but there is a "western"-like space faring rpg in various incarnations:
;)
Classic Traveller at http://www.farfuture.net/
GURPS Traveller at http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/
d20 Traveller at http://www.travellerrpg.com/T20/
easy framework to mod and expand on; lot's of material, fan based and commerical. my fave is Classic, 'cause I already have the little black books. two d6 is all ya need for Classic!
Sci-fi is relegated to too much of a niche compared to other forms of entertainment. Movies can afford fantasy and sci-fi special effects but even there most "sci-fi" is a glorified action or war movie which people can relate to.
People want to relate to what they are watching. A sci-fi movie or TV show can do well if you manage to explain the technology and the world without bogging down the plot and by creating a plot and characters people can get into.
Firefly was too good. It created a whole new world, but it tried to make it familiar by throwing in a very very clever wild west element. It was so subtle it didn't seem camp, just a light seasoning that made me believe "hey, its possible!"
The problem was it was centuries in the future, there is no America, no Russia, no islamic fundamentalists, and no cute teens agonizing over frivolous issues. Not enough people in the US like sci fi enough to make it successful beyond UPN or the sci-fi channel. It's a demand thing, and it sucks.
And to be honest, its not because people are frivolous or stupid or just want the same old thing. It's quite simply because perfectly nice and reasonable people just don't relate to sci-fi.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Jesus Christ on crutches, let me clue you in : HOMER did it all first in the fucking Odyssey. What is this nerd hangup over so-called originality? If that is your metric then Star Trek (three words: Hornblower in space) and, yes, especially that horridly acted, insipidly plotted, wannabe Wagontrain piece of third rate bantha shit Battlestar Galactica were the worst about lifting homeric themes directly. Farscape was a sight better, but really: The Fugitive... in space... with more guns and boobies!
I liked Firefly not because it was original - I consider it Mark Miller's Traveller on TV - but because it was ballsy. For everyone who ever wanted Picard to just beam some annoying Ferengi twit into the nearest star, Firefly payed off in the first ep. But if you want something fairly original and different (for TV, scifi literature has treaded this ground repeatedly) how 'bout: no aliens?
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
It was never clear to me whether the series was set in a large solar system or a small galaxy.
Why did the ships pass each other so slowly?
I only managed to see the first four(/five if you count the split first one) episodes because it was not aired in my country.
I also noticed that it was full of the usual 'wrist-strap', and so on, incidents. (That's where the hero suddenly wishes that his gun/laser had a wrist-strap...usually complete with cut to gun rattling on floor)
Don't these shows ever get a technical review? Perhaps they could post their script here and we could edit the fun out of it.
One of the things I did when planning my Firefly game, to get ideas, was to take a look at a bunch of Traveller websites. There's quite a few good sites out there.
I considered just running a Traveller game, but several of my players are Firefly fans (like me), so we went with using the Firefly 'verse.
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
We are tired of your facist tactics.
You called us all geeks while simultaneously making up a logarithmic scale to rate your favorite TV shows. Brilliant.
But hey, all name-calling aside, I just liked the show. Opinions are opinions, though-- so I won't bother justifying it anymore than I would try to convince you to adopt my favorite color as your own.
I don't care if Firefly was innovative. It was boring. I watched two weeks in a row and was so bored, I fell asleep. Why? The story sucked. Tell me a story. Keep me engaged. I will watch it. Drone on and on and do silly things like have cowboys in space WITH OUT REASON and I will turn away.
Gorkman
Honestly, how bad taste can you lot be? I tried to make myself sit through some of this crap show and found it to be shallow, awkward and uninspired. It's like taking wesley crusher and giving him his own show. Minus any plot, and without the bald tv-sexiness of picard.
This is quite seriously one of the worst tv programs ever made. It takes itself too seriously, and it's as bad as seaquest dsv.
Was that the show with muppets or the one with space cowboys? Either way, both sucked.
Mod -5, irreverant
so we went with using the Firefly 'verse.
And, ain't a power in the 'verse can stop you...
On a closely related note, we LIKED Jewel Saite.
Carthago delenda est!