Watching

Stuff about TV or movies.

May 092009
 

If you happen to be in Toronto, the Hot Docs 2009 Festival is showing a documentary I’m in called Another Perfect World (which I haven’t seen yet!). It premiered last night, but there’s another showing tonight. Thanks to Tony Walsh for the heads-up.

You can go here to learn more about the film.

Another Perfect World is a documentary about digital utopias, about online worlds created as places for work, play, friendship and love.

People have always created utopias, worlds that reflect the greatest, most enlightened and noble ideas of the period in which they live. The utopias of the future will be created online, in digital worlds capable of rendering photo-realistic depictions of whatever the mind can imagine with technologies that allow people from around the world to join in. We now have the chance to build a new world from scratch.

If you were going to do so, on which principles would you establish it? What is more important: freedom of expression; an active marketplace to encourage social interaction; or laws to define the limits of social relations?

UPDATED: They killed Dollhouse

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Apr 092009
 

And the last episodes will only be on DVD.

‘Dollhouse’ Cancelled and also here.

I have to admit that the show felt like a miniseries, not a long-running series. But after it got past the frist few episodes, it was a good miniseries. I’ll preorder the DVD for sure, and my kids will be greatly disappointed.

Edit: updated info from Whedonesque:

Media reporter Alan Sepinwall tries to clarify Dollhouse finale limbo. He writes “Fox network won’t decide the fate of “Dollhouse” until Upfront week, near the end of May, and the decision not to air “Epitaph One” has nothing whatsoever to do with renewal”.

Edit two, from Tim Minear:

Because we scrapped the original pilot — and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps — we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome.

And more edit two, there’s plenty of reports elsewhere now saying that it isn’t cancelled.

Apr 072009
 

Boy, am I neglecting blogging lately. Even my Twitter has gone mostly silent.

There have been several stories that caught my eye. For example, this one about musicians making decent gig money in Second Life was interesting, in part because some of what a virtual environment provides is an easier way to do marketing. As I have said before, I think the future of a lot of the arts is around personal relationships with their fans because of the way the landscape is shifting around information and money, and there’s something about virtual worlds that helps build fandoms.

Speaking of personal relationships, while at the IGF and GDC awards, I was struck by the clear signs of “celebrity” that some of the event had. Some of this was due, no doubt, to the fact that Tim Schafer’s performance as emcee was funnier and more entertaining than that of the emcees for any televised awards show. Some of it, though, was the evident fact that the creators of indie games are getting known as names, in large part because they produce quirky and individualistic games at a rapid rate. Which brings me to mention The Croopier, just because it’s a neat project.

Which reminds me that there’s a new documentary premiering on journalism in virtual worlds — talk about a profession that is in upheaval thanks to changes in business models and the value of information! I’m halfway through a galley copy of Cory Doctorow’s upcoming novel, in which a journalist figures pretty prominently… and struck by how prescient Bruce Sterling was when he said “information wants to be worthless.”

Which leads me to idly speculate… if anything that can be digitized will be, and anything that is digitized becomes worthless, then what will eventually remain both undigitizable and therefore monetizable?

I am really really jealous

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Jan 092009
 

I’ve mentioned many times here my love of Neil Gaiman’s work. Well, check out what happened to this other blog that apparently mentioned it more times than me. 😉

A little over a month ago I was privileged to be able to share with you an interview with artist Lisa Snellings. The last comment (currently) in that post was from someone named ‘Coraline’ that read, “Hi there! I’ve got a question for you – can you please email me at [email address removed]“. The link to Coraline’s name took me to a website featuring information on the forthcoming film of the same name based on the beloved contemporary children’s classic by author Neil Gaiman.

With great anticipation I sent off an email and quickly received a response from one of the members of the Coraline Team, the group of animators who worked with director Henry Selick to bring Neil Gaiman’s book to life.

I was informed that the Coraline Team would like to send me “something special. Something handcrafted. We only made 50 of these something specials, and we think yours will be right up your alley.”

— Stainless Steel Droppings » Blog Archive » An Unexpected Pleasure.