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New Film 'Zenith' Now Available For Free BitTorrent Download
airfoobar writes "This seems like a good week for libre culture. The first part of an surprisingly well-made cyberpunk thriller called Zenith has just been released as a torrent download through Vodo, and the third episode of Pioneer One is being released on the 28th."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V26bJN3KkY4
This film, Pioneer One and The Tunnel are all doing this, and it makes it seem like this is a potentially workable model. I hope the "buy a frame" and selling of merchandise make it financially viable... I'd love to see this become the norm. I was more than happy to buy a few frames for The Tunnel... as the money goes straight to the movie makers, and it still cost me less than a single traditional rental.
Down speed 3 megabit. ETA 1 hr for 720p. This model works. You just need enough people streaming legal content.
Sounds like a synonym for mediocre but hey it's free. I have yet to watch TFE (the fine episode) because my torrent download rate is surprisingly slow. But reading through the comments at the VODO download page, assuming they aren't anonymous astroturfers, I get the feeling that it's actually good enough for broadcast TV. They'd probably be right if by such quality you mean either Paranormal Activity or the Blair Witch Project, a threshold you can easily reach with a well-written script, a good director and a dedicated cast.
Sadly the better free beer movies I've watched appear to be fan-made movies (or movies produced without explicit permission from materials copyrighted by other people), e.g. The Hunt for Gollum.
Posted by madhouserevival 2011-03-19 05:06:22 Kudos UpDown
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Very smart, high quality production. Where did they find these unknown actors? They are as good as any on TV. As for the story, it's high brow and inventive. Had never heard of Vodo. Now I'm keeping my eyes on it as well as on Cinema Purgatorio.
Where did they find these unknown actors? Hmm, 7 Billion peeps on the earth. a low budget film, not filmed by any big studios.
ya, i wonder where they found unknown actors. I doubt it was from the various acting schools, colleges, drama schools that litter the earth.
After all, there is like only 300 different actors/actresses in this world and anyone else that does something is non union or something, i'm sure.
Be seeing you...
Downloading.. haven't watched the second yet (didn't know it was out) but the first episode was actually pretty intriguing. It pretty much had no effects, no stunt shots, just actors doing a good job of making us believe that something curious was happening.
It's nice to see homegrown sci-fi being done, since I have no doubt they'll manage to at least equal or even best what we've been seeing out of the networks lately, minus their over-reliance on special effects to "wow" their audience. Good stories can be told without a big budget. Considering the absolutely terrible job that television has been doing lately at making science fiction, it really reinforces the notion that good stories require good writing, above and beyond anything else that goes into a show; although editing, direction, production, etc., are all important, good writing and good acting are more important, and it happens that if you find some good talent, these can be had at low cost if you're careful about how you run things. Often the best art is made under difficult budget constraints.
at how the more slashdotters hit this the faster the downloads go for everyone, rather than the usual? No??...I may need a life...
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
the youtube link cynically removes the way you support the film
use
http://vodo.net/zenith
c'mon they're already torrenting it, do you - youtube link maker - really have to stripe the way you support the film?