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Watch the First 9 Minutes of Serenity
An anonymous reader writes "As reported on FireflyFans.net, Universal is attempting further promotion of the sci-fi action film Serenity by making the first 9 minutes of the movie available online. The clip contains the opening backstory that sets an Alliance assassin on the trail of the ship's crew; it's an effective hook. On Yahoo movies, Serenity is ranked as the number 1 film currently in theaters and is hanging in a top-ten spot in the highest rated movies of all time. Slashdot has previously covered Orson Scott Card's review, the film's opening, an interview with Joss Whedon, and much more. It's all out of love..."
I have to wonder, if this works to boost revenue for Serenity, what will the MPAA's response be? It only took them, what, ten years to realize the internet can help them?
The movie depends quite a bit on the overall backstory from the one season of the television show. If you haven't seen the show, it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.
Luckily "Firefly - The Complete Series" is available on DVD.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
"Unfortunately, the Operating System you are currently using is unsupported."
Evidently it only works for people with the "right operating systems".
Is it so hard to use a standard media type?
Why do companies feel like it's right to mave stuff like this that's actually MORE trouble to make incompatible with non-MS/Mac systems?
Seriously. I just do not get this mindset.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
Come on now, it's obvious to me that Serenity's fans are boosting the review averages all over the place. Nothing wrong about that, but keep that in mind. Best film of all time?? Let's get serious here, it's a good 2 hours of entertainment, nothing earth shattering here.
On Yahoo movies, Serenity is ranked as the number 1 film currently in theaters and is hanging in a top-ten spot in the highest rated movies of all time.
As with the majority of slashdot posters on here, I am a total sci-fi junkie, but does Serenity really qualify to be within the top 10 movies of all time? Granted, this is a yahoo poll and probably was saturated by people so desperate for anything with a futuristic theme they're willing to hump a movie which was written by a guy who make a witch turn lesbian in another show with declining ratings.
I seriously cannot understand what is so great and original about this movie. Sci-fi meets cowboy theme has already been stretched in 26 episodes (plus a movie) of Cowboy Bebop.
I don't even see Bladerunner on this Yahoo top 10 of all time list. Dune? Seriously, are you going to tell me Serenity is better than Bladerunner?
Here's the direct link to the video file, although I still don't know of a Linux player that can handle it:
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/viv/3-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Universal Exec : Ok guys, let's do something completely new : We will make the first nine minutes of Serenity available online !
Henchman : Ok, but how much do we charge them for it ?
Universal Exec : Nothing, we just let them see the first...
Henchman : Ok, popups ? Right, popups ?!
Universal Exec : No, we will just let them see...
Henchman : I got you : Ads, right ? Banners !
Universal Exec : No, we will JUST let them see the first nine...
Henchman : Ok, but we HAVE to annoy them somehow... How about some proprietary plugin instead of going for the normal formats ? Let's screw a littlebit with their minds before they get their free content.
Universal Exec : Fuckit, it's lunchtime.
The only shame I feel about this movie is that it is a gem released during such a mundane (IMHO) year for theatrical releases, so although it stands out from the 2005 crowd, that in itself unfortunately isn't saying much at all. Still, I'd recommend it very highly to those who havn't seen it yet. And if you are even a more moderate fan of the series, then what the hell are you waiting for? Gogogo.
One thing that did dissapoint me was the lack of the theme tune, unless I missed it, but I didn't hear even a snippet during the whole movie :-(
She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
Because you might steal that free promotional download and show it to other people, that's why! Then how would Universal make money on that free promotional download or the movie that the free promotional download is promoting?
:)
I mean, come on, it's not that hard! You must tightly control the distribution of free promotional downloads, otherwise filesharers will destroy your company!
-EvilMagnus
Already tried it; it just says 'data', so file doesn't know about it. I've tried it with a number of players so far (xine, mplayer, realplayer, even Windows Media Player running under Codeweavers' crossover) and none of them can read it.
My guess is that it's an mpeg wrapped up in some sort of drm that requires their encryption key to play it.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Am I the only one distrubed by JW's obsession with them?
I haven't really seen this discussed anywhere. On the other hand, I haven't looked very hard.
Just curious.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
1) The
2) There's a Java archive (jar) on the page that is automatically selected for Windows or OS X that has a file extension of
3) Inside the Java archive is a Java applet, PlayerApplet.class, that apparently does nothing but act as a proxy for another file inside the class, a DLL file in the Windows version, probably something similar in the Linux version
Looks like we're out of luck.
Dlugar
[1] There are actually four files which you can find here:
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/p
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/p
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/p
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/p
They're each JAR files (which are basically just zip files) so the more enterprising can download them and figure out exactly what they do.
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
Not all nerds want to hear about MS, Linux, New Case Mods, Ham Radio Operators, New Space Probes, Creating Life Out of Amino Acids, Monkeys Learning How To Fly, Reconstructing the 1918 Influenza, etc, etc. But a lot do, or would, if it were to happen. Guess what? Slashdot tries to cater to them all, at least to some extent. Is every single nerd going to be thrilled with every single story? No. Oh well. Are there going to be a slew of nerds out there getting pissed because they're hearing too much about any of the above, including Serenity? Yes. But guess what? Bitching about it won't change a fucking thing. I'm not sure what to tell you if you really don't like it other than a: do it yourself, b: go somewhere else; or c: create a firefox plugin to strip out stories that contain whatever-words-you-don't-want-to-hear-about.
I'm not saying you can't bitch, I'm just saying you're wasting your time, and unless you get some sort of thrill out of playing the down-modded martyr, in the end, it's not going to be worth it.
But, hey, do what you want.
Correction to the submission: this is being released by United International Pictures, the company responsible for international release of Serenity. Since UIP is partially owned by Universal, it might be seen as semantics, but UIP has a distinct marketing plan for the movie from that of Universal.
It's also important to note, because it might seem like odd timing for Universal to release new marketing materials for a movie already released - it might even seem a move of desperation to get "butts in seats" before it leaves theaters... but it makes more sense as new marketing released by UIP for a movie they are opening today or within the next few weeks.
Okay.
I'm one of those people who reads slashdot regularly, runs linux on his computer, and has NOT watched the show Firefly and did NOT go see the movie the week it opened.
However, I do love sci-fi, I just never took the opportunity to get hooked on this show. (I have enough vices already!)
In any case, look: Advertising, after a movie has been released, is to encourage those who have not seen the movie or may not have been following it so closely but who _might_ be interested, to fork out the $10 and go check it out. I admit, the trailer was sort of interesting but nothing that really grabbed my attention. Mostly it's the hype I've read on this website that has kept me interested, and is what is making me want to go see it. I have no idea about the Firefly story, but since everyone seems to think it's so amazing I might be pursuaded to go see it, especially with a little enticement like showing me the first few minutes of the movie.
Now. I run linux. So I can't watch this "teaser". Let me repeat: I AM PRECISELY THE TARGET AUDIENCE for this advertisement, and yet the message I get when I actually make the effort of clicking on the link and going to the website to check it out is: You can't watch this, your operating system is not supported. This is not something that happens by accident. They are ACTIVELY dissuading linux users from watching the teaser. I had to click "view source" just to find the file, and I'm downloading it, but I realize it's very unlikely I'll be able to watch it. They are publishing in some stupid non-standard format. And for what reason? I can't think of a single one. They are giving it away for FREE, why would they be worried about copyright? At the VERY least, if you don't want to get into weird IP battles by using "frowned upon" formats like DivX (though I don't see the problem with OSS formats like Xvid), publish it in straight MPEG, even if it's low resolution, but my goodness, don't DENY your target audience the ability to watch it.
Whoever is in charge of marketing has no clue.
As it is, I still don't know if I'll bother going to see it, especially considering how expensive the theaters are these days and how little time I have.
If only I could watch the teaser...
It finished downloading by the time I typed this out. And look, mplayer and VLC are both out of luck.
How is parent flamebait? It's the persons opinion. Has slashdot become the republican party, where we must supress views we don't agree with?
Whedon simply didn't get the difference between a solar system, a group of stars with solar systems, and a galaxy. He may have been straightened out later.
I was butting my head on this for a while: after all, if the new solar system was colonized by Earth, then - bloody hell! - they had interstellar drives. For hundreds of millons of passengers.
But the series never shows anyone making star hops. They're all fusion rockets, and they only travel a few million miles, spending weeks or days en route. Probably deuterium/tritium fueled.
What happened to the mighty starships? What happened to the Terran supertransports? And didn't anyone read "The High Frontier" on Earth? Why go to another star and terraform planets when you can stay around our solar system and build land areas in habitats with congomerate land area millions of times that of Earth's surface?
The confusion rattled me after I figured out that Serenity wasn't a starship. If the author can't figure out the difference between a solar system, a group of stars WITH solar systems, and a galaxy of Earths, he ain't writing science fiction -- he's using the form instead. Sci-Fi instead of SF. With the caveat that his universe doesn't make any sense.
However, I ignore all that and love the movie. I just wish they taught astronomy in writing classes.
I suppose it makes things a little better that these planets have many moons, all of which are terraformed and include artificial gravity (I know, hard to imagine - and all conveniently have the landscape of southern California). But there are laws of physics (maybe math, actually) about how close together planetary orbits may come in a stable solar system. There just can't be many orbits in the habitable zone. (Anything outside of the bands of Venus and Mars would not look like California no matter how good the terraforming is.) So why aren't the outer planets cold?
You're right, many other details are thought out, but Whedon is delinquent on giving us a map of the settled planets, or even a sketch. I imagine he wants to, but can't make it fit with the requirements of the narrative. What the narrative requires is something analogous to an archipelago on the sea - a space that is densely populated with many moons and planets. That's just not gonna happen; the more you say about it, the sillier it would sound, so Whedon just ingnores the subject. If I were him, I'd have been more direct about it up front, bit the bullet on superluminal travel, and made Serenity an interstellar ship. This would explain the huge interstellar migration you mention... The downside is that Serenity seems too crappy to be superluminal... but then again, the Millennium Falcon was also a piece of crap and nobody had problems picturing hyperdrive. But there is something weird about people who can afford an interstellar spaceship but still use revolvers to shoot each other. Yes, a quirk of the show.
So with the solar system thing, I think Whedon is digging himself deeper, and he should have worked out these things when he first conceived the show. Absent that, he just shouldn't address the issue. Anything he says about this will only make matters worse.
IFilm now has the first nine minutes available in three other formats: streaming Windows Media, QuickTime and Real Player
Are those more accessible to your OS?