Slashdot Mirror
Fan Group Creates Full-Length Discworld Movie
greenrd writes "'Almost No Budget Films,' a group of Terry Pratchett fans from Germany, recently finished a 9-month filming stint on a full-length dramatisation of pterry's novel 'Lords and Ladies.' A grand total of 300 euros were spent on this production, and all profits from this fan movie will go to the Orangutan Foundation. Check out the new English trailer for some grin-inducing special effects!"
And another 300 euros will be spent thanks to the direct video link on Slashdot.
The international film community has completely failed to create a "Good Omens" movie. But where the international film community has failed us, once again random germans have pulled through. Is it good? WHO CARES, NEITHER WAS "CONSTANTINE"
A grand total of 300 euros were spent on this production
Until they were hit with multiple times that in bandwidth costs after a slashdotting. Mohahahaha >:->
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Nice CG graphics :)
Actually it's amazing how people can do something like this; and let the profit go to charity...
A link to an avi in the summary, and it's not /.ed yet. Impressive!
I didnt know that the French need donations. ;)
my whet dreams come true ! :D
After the high quality displayed in the trailer for this Terry Pratchett project, I cannot wait to see their work on the upcoming "Peasant's Quest" movie
3 replies and link already slashdotted....
This will be funnier than those bootleg Live Action Anime films. Kamehameha, anyone?
Keep them away from money. This is a labor of love; do you want an exec fucking it up?
I could hear their server exploding from England!
qntm.org
Oook ook OOOk ook ook ook OOk ook ook ook ook.
[trans. I for one welcome our oragutan overlords]
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
Isn't that the TV show on Max Payne 2? That was a funny show.
my lord... my laaady...
"Check out the new English trailer for some grin-inducing special effects!""
Wearing too tight underwear can produce the same effect.
http://trackerwww.prq.to/download.php/3294903/lnlu ksm.avi.torrent
Site is nuked so get it from here.
Well, looks like their university hosting wasnt up to a good /.'ng :D
: www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~jknoblo2/LnL/Downloa ds/downloads.html+&hl=en
Google cache of the webpage at - http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:QuFjhiYyVvQJ
Then never mind moneys, give them some sandwiches
With so much power on the desktop it's becoming easier and easier to produce polished video products at home. There's even software to correct for shaky camera work, it's possible to redesign shots in the editing programs and digital effects are becoming very easy to setup now. (remember Lightsabre boy)
I love the idea of more and more content being produced by hobbyists, enthusists and other non-studio persons. We are at that point where knowledge passes from a few to many - much like the printing press took the books away from the scholars and gave them to the people. Screw the RIAA & DMCA, we are gonna start producing our own copyrighted materials and they'll lose out.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
Wonderfully entertaining, kitschy trailer.
For more stuff quite like this, check out Channel 101 and its New York sister site, Channel 102.
For an example of how brilliant zero-budget filmmaking can be, check out their winner for this month's contest: House of Cosbys.
If you don't laugh at this, you're probably Bill Cosby. And even then.... well, just click.
Screw Pratchett. We need a Robert Rankin movie. I vote for The Book of Ultimate Truths.
Cool!
But I just hope in Terry Gilliam to find the budget to start Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens"!
Wouldn't that be great?
---
Along with the standard computer warranty agreement which said that if the machine 1) didn't work, 2) didn't do what the expensive advertisement said, 3) electrocuted the immediate neighbourhood, 4) and in fact failed entirely to be inside the expensive box when you opened it, this was expressly, absolutely, implicitly and in no event the fault or responsibility of the manufacturer, that the purchaser should consider himself lucky to be allowed to give his money to the manufacturer, and that any attempt to treat what had just been paid for as the purchaser's own property would result in the attentions of serious men with menacing briefcases and very thin watches.
42.
Since so many others have commented along similar lines, here's my tuppenceworth.
Neal Stephenson's SnowCrash would be an Awesome film.
When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet melodiously
holy crap, YES!
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
somebody bittorrent it - next time _before_ announcing it on slashdot, please.
If done right (from your perspective) yes.
The problem with movies is that they leave very little to the imagination. Filter a good written story through a film and all you are left with is the movie
Films which I wish I had never seen include Millennium (from a fantastic short story by John Varley) and (Gibson)
http://michaelsmith.id.au
i so wish there was a tv show based on "Lords and Ladies" from Max Payne 2. If anyone who has played this game stood around the TV and watched this show would laugh immensely. A great easter egg that other game developers should strive for
I agree, but the book is awsome. And we don't have to view it as a movie of the book, just as a movie.
I do recognise that it takes something special to make a film that's anywhere as good as the book.
Other "cyberpunk" genre book-film conversions haven't gone as well.. Johnny Nmemonic springs to mind.
I do think, tho, that Snowcrash has a wide enough spread plot, that it coud be done with something for everyone.
When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet melodiously
...to link to http://dijjer.org/get/http://www.rzuser.uni-heidel berg.de/~jknoblo2/LnL/lnluksm.avi?
Johnny Mnemonic By William Gibson
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Just so long as it isn't in black and white, and doesn't feature a convenience store and the militantly non-personable employees thereof.
Specialization is for insects. -Heinlein
on a full-length dramatisation of pterry's novel
Pterry? Sounds like a Pokemon.
Back on topic... I sure wish real movie studios would pick up some of these Discworld novels to make a great expensive movie out of. I can see them as the next Star Wars or such, if they do it right.
Or, even better, a faithful recreation of Dune!
Some of the really major stumbling blocks I see:
1. Scenery/Models. Unless it is set in contemporary earth, this is one of the really hard ones. By models I mean models of castles, spaceships etc., which tend to look like they were made of Lego.
2. Getting enough angles. Particularly an issue in action movies, where my impression is the shot lacks angles (i.e. it was filmed once from one angle, instead of a commercial movie often mixing and matching between overview shots, action "highlights", close-ups of key people, pans etc.
All of that is used to form a good scene. It takes time, requires a good editor and provides very little screen time, but it really sets them apart. In particular, notice that you never see a "pan-up" scene done with rails/crane in an amateur movie. Same with aerial shots.
3. Acting of B-class characters. The leads usually have some acting skill. But the fringe characters (i.e. not the extras) suck donkey balls.
4. Cheesy CG/special effects. Yes, I know many of the effects are easy to make today. But more often than not, the program doesn't support (or it is too damn hard to figure out how) the effect you really want, but you settle for what you can. They tend to look plastered on top like a sticker from a Donald Duck magazine on top of your photo.
5. Audio effects. The music is usually decent, but the timing might be off. But more often than not, the audio effects sound "unmatched" or simply fake. No, changing the pitch and streching/compressing it still makes it sound like a horse/pig/dog/bird/animal of the day, and that was just you screaming.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Gavin Scott, the Butcher of Earthsea, should not be allowed to read or write ever again.
But you are right on the SnowCrash thing or A Diamond Age which I also enjoyed.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Here is a mirror of the english trailer:
http://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/temp/lnluksm.avi
i can't wait to see this after someone mirrors it or something. but i wish these kind folk had done one of the starter books, lords and ladies is definitely kind of into the series a little bit, although it pretty much doesn't matter with the discworld stuff.
pratchett's about due for a new one seems like - going postal's been out a while now. been reading the bromeliad triology last few days, it's fun.
what ever happened to gilliams good omens efforts?
I would still like to see how books get selected for movies, I mean given the amount of amatuer productions of books there appear to be some truly genius adaptations that could be made given proper backing.
I wonder if we could post a top 10 books-to-film list and see if someone actually pays attention to what the public wants... oh wait.. best interests of the public... movie industry... never mind.
Warning, comments may not have been passed by the sanity department of my brain.
unless it is uni-form-hot-chicks.de or something. But that kind of sites have their educational goals, anyway.
This is the end of cinema.
How we know is more important than what we know.
...if they can make "night watch" or "guards! guards!" with, say, 500 euros :-)
congtatulations for your work, guys. maybe anytime over the weekend your work will be un-slashdotted and visible :)
....eh shoulda used 16 mm film. But hey who cares if it looks like crap?
A really good sci-fi movie shot for a very low budget ($7000) I recommend is Primer.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!
Better learn to program in Ook! then before the jobs are outsourced to Sumatra or Borneo.
Spine World
Somehow the blurbs on his books sort of make me interested, but his horrendous style completely ruins any goodwill the (sort of neat) ideas might have created.
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Gates R'chmd wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Whatever that incantation means, I hope it works.
I noticed on LSpace that there's also a short of "Troll Bridge" being filmed by a bunch of Aussies.
They even got a quickie script rewrite from PTerry himself.
awesome!
...but I just can't see what you guys like about this Pratchett guy. He comes off as a wanky, half-baked Douglas Adams wannabe selling semi-ironically juxtaposed fantasy cliches by the gross.
In my somewhat severe opinion, I'd say the classic M.Y.T.H. series is far more sophisticated, far more entertaining, and most importantly far more funny.
Don't get me wrong- I've consumed all the works of both authors. It's just that I've come to the conclusion that Mr. Pratchett works at the same level as the likes of Piers Anthony or Cory Doctorow(not so good). Robert Aspirin and gang, on the other hand, operate more on the level of Zelazny or Niven (moderately acceptable).
fwiw, I prefer the works of Mervyn Peake to all of this pedestrian dreck.
www.mirrordot.org
this looks really promising, but will I be able/when can I see this? Also, If you miss the adventure games for discworld, check out the underdogs! http://www.the-underdogs.org/search.php?search_gam e=discworld
Ok;
I'll add Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood.
Terrific book, much film potential.
Hmmm. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to start a project to convert Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" into a television series.
Does anyone know what the copyright is on Terries work, because normaly you need to ask the auther before doing such things. Maybe theres a clause somewhere that you can make a film of a book as long as it's for charity, but I dout it.
http://www.gutenberg.de/english/index.htm/
It read like a Hollywood script!
I am really surprised that this has not yet been picked up by some studio.
I was not particularly impressed by the book, I thought the pacing was off, the characterization was amateurish, and it tried far too hard to be hacker-chic, but I really thought its style would appeal to Hollywood.
It felt like a movie far more than the Neuromancer series by William Gibson
I consider Gibson's literary works superior, but they are almost impossible to make into movies.
[Too much internal dialog and not enough action]
But, I suppose, after The Matrix any studio will have a difficult time doing an adaption of any Cyberpunk novel.
watashi wa bengoshi dewa arimasen!
I have been waiting for this to happen for so long! Thank gods (as Vimes would say)! Haha! If you are having Codec problems, google "Xvid" and download it.
eep app ork ah ah
[trans: I love you]
Cozinha para as massas (e para geeks)
ROFL... this is the most incompetent troll I've seen for a long time; everyone knows that the goatse.cx account has been suspended for *months*! (BTW, looks like its replacement, goat.cx has met a similarly tragic fate)
Good account name though...
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
you need divx. mplayer will run this in windows, bu its command line only. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
in the trailer when they sale "A tale best forgotten." i'd like to see a real movie based on Discworld. The special effects in this look like something I would do :P
Have you metaroderated recently?
Why are the old people, like the witches, played by young people ?
In the books, the witches are old.
Couldn't they have found some grannies ?
Or just, you know, download the correct codec (divx) like they advise at the top of the page...
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
You know who should do a Discworld movie and actually be able to pull it off? The guys who do the Harry Potter movies. I think they're just about the only ones who could pull off the style and keep the books intact.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
... I am unsure, from the trailer, whether it's overly self-serious or whether it's faux-overly-self-serious humor.
Could someone please enlighten me?
It works fine in the VLC Media Player. VLC is a great program - it plays just about any video and you never have to download codecs
siener's youtube channel
worse even than awfulness itself, which is, you have to admit, pretty awful.
and really... why lords and ladies? why not start at the beginning and do the colour of magic... i suppose L&L has elves. and the nac mac feegle. oh, and the witches. and cohen, it seems... can't remember that part...
as long as it has DEATH, it's all good in my book.
so, maybe not as awful as i thought.
be great if peter jackson would commit to the whole series. maybe as a... what do you call a trilogy with 37 parts? maybe after king kong...
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
but COME ON people!! That trailer is shockingly tat!! I could film a better movie with my camera phone and I could probably get better acting from a paper bag.
Someone please release the trolls.
My Portfolio
This looks like it could have come from the talented, professional Canadian movie producers!
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
when you have no budget, that doesnt mean you can make crap and say 'but we had no budget'.
... that is not a movie
it means you should work with what you have but still make it look good.
the CG effects... they were worthy of a 1991 era video game.
the lighting was awful.
the 'editing' was done faster than an MTV video.
you cannot tell what on earth is going on.
the dialog is redundant and pointless.
reading off a list of mythological characters
cribbed from tolkien
trailer unless you are a 10 year old kid.
real movies have characters.
for someone who has never read the books, this
looked almost unwatchable.
What about Asimov's Eternity-Robots-Empire-Foundation grand series?
I know this was probably already taken care of, and I can't really see him having any problem with it, but nowhere (with a quick skim through TFL and this slashdot article) have I seen anyone say that pterry actually approved this. Or are they keeping it in the Luggage, because I'm not going near that thing.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
To quote the cast list: :-)
Magrat Garlick (Julia Knobloch)
The German translation of "garlic" is "Knoblauch", only a little different from "Knoblauch - as "garlick" is different from "garlic"
And in fact, "Magrat Garlick" really is named "Magrat Knobloch" in the German translation of the Discworld series
That the grandparent poster is an executive trying to justify his pathetic existence and overinflated salary? Sorry, buddy, all wealth is created by the working class. Managers and executives are leaches on the backs of the productive, creative people of the world.
I can't tell from the website. Is the film in English or German?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Given that the script can not be classified as writing, yes.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
I saw an interview recently on the BBC's breakfast show (I think) where Mr Pratchett was asked if there were any plans to make Discworld movies. His response was something along the lines of.. "Nope, I'm rich enough, why would I let someone bugger up my books for Hollywood." So this amateur affair may be as good as it gets movie wise. He loves the theatrical versions as they are transient and mostly good fun but I can't see any big-budget (ie. enough to buy a car) Discworld movies coming soon.
~ Better a freak than a sheep. ~
I don't think Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels can possibly translate well to the big screen. A lot of the fun of a Discworld novel isn't in exactly what happens or what is said, but in how Pratchett describes it. Example, describing an assassin moving over the rooftops: "One might say that he moved like a cat, except that he didn't stop to spray urine up against things."
Is this the same group that did fanimatrix?
That would make an awesome porno
This film deserves an oscar !!111!
Good for them creating such a big project ... but it really doesn't look as good as the majority of the fan films I have seen. It doesn't really create the illusion of being in another world, which is really required for Pratchett. The effects are not very "special", given what is now available for your PC.
The 300 euros is a non-factor in my mind. We did over an hour of slide & video material for Dragon*ConTV 2004 last year and barely spent any money. It took months off of my life, but it was a lot of fun (already started on the next season). We borrowed a lot of stuff, so somebody spent money (just like "free" software still requires somebody to buy the developer's computer).
Nit picked.
I can't believe my eyes. Two links from slashdot. Directly to my university. In this very moment, I've got a ssh-shell open on the slashdotted server. And I am happy to inform you that it is working nicely. :-)
;-)
To give a few insider informations: This (rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~jknoblo2) is a student account. This girl is hosting her movie on the free account that every student in Heidelberg gets! Oh this is just so cool. Now I have to go out and find her...
Given Mr Pratchetts dismissive comments about Tolkien a few years back one wonders how he feels about the use of Howard Shore's LoTR soundtrack on the trailer
And that's cuttin' their own throats, that is.
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
Who could resist a film about Elvis travelling through time with a Brussel Sprout called Barry?!!!
cLive; -)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
I agree with you there about the book. I think that would be a pretty tough book to film though - the main character would have to vocalise much of his thoughts to give some indication of what is going on and I fear that if Hollywood got their hands on it, it might have a happy ending (Oryx lives! AArrrrrgghhh!) much as happened to the original cinematic releases of Brazil and Bladerunner, both of which had happy/er ending sequences bolted on.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
I really thought this was a joke after seeing similar material on homestarrunner.com. seriously http://www.homestarrunner.com/filmstyle.html
See if you can find out how much bandwidth this Slashdotting uses up. In fact, you could do a report on it and submit it to Slashdot, and be famous! :)
In perusing IMDB, I found that there's also Wyrd Sisters and Welcome to Discworld. Haven't seen either, although the later is supposed to be on my Soul Music DVD.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Fan productions are always fun.
row 2 column 2 = hotness.
A number of characters in the story, such as Granny Wetherwax, Nanny Ogg and the various wizards are supposed to be fairly old. Alas, you can see that the actors and actresses are much too young. Proper makeup would have helped, for those of us familiar with the series. Even so, it doesn't spoil the film, it's just a little bit of "that's not right; they're too young" when you first see them. I'm sure I'll stop paying attention to it quickly when I see it.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
and me with no mod points.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It doesn't really need the earlier books. _Nightwatch_ was the first Discworld novel I ever read, and it was excellent, even though I didn't have the benefit of knowing all that backstory.
Property law should use #'EQ, not #'EQUAL.
and then his estate will be more then happy to make more millions.
P.S. are you sure he didn't say Holy Wood?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This reminds me of another fan project, Heatherly and Julie's Fantasy Bedtime Hour. It's the film version of Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", but it's a spoof rather than a straight remake.
It's been running for the past two years on public access cable in San Francisco, or you can download the episodes from their website.
If you do not read the series in order, you will be seriously loosing out.
I was told they didn't need to be read in order when I started.
You miss out on a lot of humor, and refrences if you dn't read them in order. Sure, you can understand the story, but you miss the character releations and histories.
At worse, read them whin context groups. Read all the Vimes stuff in order, and the witrches stuff, etc. Of course, how is a new reader supposed to know whats what?
No my friends, read them in order. Every book store near me has them complete collection. Sadly, they don't get put into used book place very often; Which should tell you something about their quality.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Looks like a bad german porno... Perhaps they filmed on the site for Lord of the G-Strings?
There can only be one movie made at a time.
You do relze someone could to Rankin, and someone else could do Pratchett, right?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Google is your friend. Enjoy!
What about Asimov's Eternity-Robots-Empire-Foundation grand series?
Asimov has never been treated particularly well by filmmakers. I haven't seen the "I, Robot", but from what I've heard it might be worth a rental some weekend. However, that isn't the only movie to be made from his stories.
Remember "Bicenntenial Man", with Robin Williams, several years ago? That was a disappointment. Not that it was a horrible but the adaption seemed more like a thrid generation Pinocchio retelling, then either the original short story or the novella. (Of course it was better than the vanity piece Dustin Hoffman turned "The Postman" into!)
Mere text can not convey the pain induced by both attempts to make a movie out of "Nightfall".
So no, I don't want to see someone playing a Hollywood version Harry Seldon on the big screen anytime soon.
This is why we have birth control ...
Peace,Love and Magic
I can't tell from the website. Is the film in English or German?
That's exactly what I want to know. I couldn't find a hint on the uni-heidelberg pages.
I was also hoping to find more details on the contract with Pratchett.
Someone answer this, then the rest of you mod it up. :)
You write your nine symphonies, then you die.
OMG i can't believe it ^^ i know the locations, i know most of the people that appear, some even are at my school... and i also took part in the movie (but happily i haven't found myself in the trailer XD ) (i think the girl from heidelberg is the queen of the elfs but i'm not sure...)
http://www.icpnet.pl/~bartekj/boots_of_escaping.wm v
:)
Go grab those torrents.
That's a lame-brained analogy. Books and movies have a lot of overlapping areas: they both have stories, they both have characters, they both have settings, themes and tone.
Would you say that drawing badly translates into painting, or that pipe organ music badly translates into orchestral scores? Well, then Michelangelo and J.S. Bach would disagree. And these are closer analogies to books-into-movies than the contrived examples you came up with.
"Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
take a dekko at the Annotated Pratchett File it will explain quite a few of the jokes and references. you may miss out on the joy of catching them out later when you know more though..
Suchethalearn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Whilst we're on Stephenson, I always thought that Zodiac would make a great film, better than his other books. It's the right length, the right pace, has an asshole protagonist, and sweeping views of Boston Harbor.