Category: media-and-expression

From the CCB the editors of The Matrix Dezionized, a special fanmade edition of Matrix – Reloaded and Matrix – Revolutions.

We got the idea, when we finally watched Matrix Revolutions and couldn't believe, how bad it was, pathetic, without purpose. The most important thing is, to realize what is wrong, why is this movie not working, what makes it so bad. We decided that the complete plot string about Zion and Zion's battle against the machines was rather distracting from the main Matrix plot than improving it in any way. So we edited both DVDs, took out plenty of scenes, wherever needed and made a new edition, about 90 minutes smaller (the length of an entire moive, yes) and combined them to one final Matrix chapter.
What you get is a complete story, the story of Neo and his being the one. Plenty of people already watched this and the feedback was nothing but great. Still we had to redo the thing over and over again, just to get rid of possible flaws, bad cuts or whatever seemed unnecessary to us. Of course you can have a different opinion. And if you do and still like the idea of a better Matrix 2 movie, make your own edition and let's watch it. Choice is the problem of the Matrix universe, but choice is the thing that means freedom for us. We all like to be able to choose between editions and switch to the one we like best, no
matter who has created it. This is not meant to take any credit from the great Wachowski brothers, we admire your work, we are not interested in credit at all and absolutely not in making profit or money. Our interest is to improve an already existing work of art. See for yourself, decide for yourself.

Watch the trailer here (encoded using Xvid)

I'm currently watching another remix titled The Matrix Regenerated. The Matrix regenerated has an alternative ending and seems to be a little more suttle with the cuts. There is a point between Part 2 and 3 which has the cliff hanger about neo, well they did some very good work to change that and make it a smooth flowing section. Generally I would have like to have seen a better quality 2CD version, as some scenes are a little pixelated due to the low bitrate. The sound is also plain stereo which sucks because the Matrix was made for a AC3 surround sound system. But I imagine editing in AC3 is still really difficult. I guess these people like myself already bought the dvds and copied them to there hard drive for editing, it really makes me want to do the same for a couple of films I own – Donnie Darko and Matrix included.

Wired did a shamefully small piece about the greatest graffiti artist I have ever seen – Banksy. Just on a side point, I grew up in Bristol and that means living and seeing Banksy anywhere and everywhere. But I was flicking through his latest outdoor collections and came across this one and some text, which I've copied into real text.

Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a living breathing thing which belonged to everybody, not just estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – its wet.

If your not quite getting the connection between banksy and the matrix remixes, your missing out on remix culture. Not until now have I really thought about banksy being the perfect example of remix culture. His help pages are a inspiration to all those involved in remix culture.

• Think from outside the box – Be highly creative
• Collapse the box and take a fucking sharp knife to it – If the box is too restrictive, take a fucking sharp knife to it and build your own. Creative Commons and Bit Torrent is a great example of this in action.
• Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for – Dont sit on your arse and simply consume. The internet was always meant to be a read/write medium, take advantage of that fact. Why cant this read/write ability apply to other mediums?
• Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access – Theres lots of parellels between graffiti artists and internet remixers. Its a crime yes, but there not really villains.
• The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit – This is very much the net too. Fame is a by-product of your actions online. You are no one till you start leaving a digital footprint.

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From the CCB the editors of The Matrix Dezionized, a special fanmade edition of Matrix – Reloaded and Matrix – Revolutions.

We got the idea, when we finally watched Matrix Revolutions and couldn't believe, how bad it was, pathetic, without purpose. The most important thing is, to realize what is wrong, why is this movie not working, what makes it so bad. We decided that the complete plot string about Zion and Zion's battle against the machines was rather distracting from the main Matrix plot than improving it in any way. So we edited both DVDs, took out plenty of scenes, wherever needed and made a new edition, about 90 minutes smaller (the length of an entire moive, yes) and combined them to one final Matrix chapter.
What you get is a complete story, the story of Neo and his being the one. Plenty of people already watched this and the feedback was nothing but great. Still we had to redo the thing over and over again, just to get rid of possible flaws, bad cuts or whatever seemed unnecessary to us. Of course you can have a different opinion. And if you do and still like the idea of a better Matrix 2 movie, make your own edition and let's watch it. Choice is the problem of the Matrix universe, but choice is the thing that means freedom for us. We all like to be able to choose between editions and switch to the one we like best, no
matter who has created it. This is not meant to take any credit from the great Wachowski brothers, we admire your work, we are not interested in credit at all and absolutely not in making profit or money. Our interest is to improve an already existing work of art. See for yourself, decide for yourself.

I'm currently watching another remix titled The Matrix Regenerated. The Matrix regenerated has an alternative ending and seems to be a little more suttle with the cuts. There is a point between Part 2 and 3 which has the cliff hanger about neo, well they did some very good work to change that and make it a smooth flowing section. Generally I would have like to have seen a better quality 2CD version, as some scenes are a little pixelated due to the low bitrate. The sound is also plain stereo which sucks because the Matrix was made for a AC3 surround sound system. But I imagine editing in AC3 is still really difficult. I guess these people like myself already bought the dvds and copied them to there hard drive for editing, it really makes me want to do the same for a couple of films I own – Donnie Darko and Matrix included.

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So yesterday I did make it to the NFT for Makoto Shinkai in Conversation which kicked off a short season of Anime at the NFT. To start off we were treated to She and Her Cat followed by the insanely popular Voices of a distant star. The nicely air-conditioned NFT2 cinema was perfectly dark, specially when compared to the Filmworks cinemas where half the lights were on through out the film (highly distracting). After which the somewhat conversation started. There was tons of clapping while Makoto Shinkai walked down the cinema followed by his translator. Well it seemed that way at first. See the translator was very tired and didnt want to translate slightly difficult questions. She was struggling with questions about what anime Makoto is looking forward to this year! When I asked the tricky question about what Makoto felt about remixes, fansubs and re-versions of anime for other audiences (such as the uk one). We must have spent about 10mins on it. In the end Makoto answered with a interesting answer. First he was not totally aware of alternative versions of his films but he believes in building on top of peers work which involves taking other peoples anime films apart is a fine. When you post it to the net for others to learn and build upon your in tricky ground. He some what supported this but followed with a comment about his publishers and producers would not support such a movement.

Other questions included the usual what influences you, did you really make the anime yourself, what applications do you use? Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. A japanese lady asked in japanese how old he was and did he have a girlfriend? Makoto covered his mouth when he replied out of shyness, but at only 32 he's still looking like 24. After the questions and answers Makoto signed tickets and DVDs (got mine done) outside in the lobby. Generally it was good event let down by the translator, which I understand is a bloody difficult job but its what you do.

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So I went and watched the Skeleton Key with Sarah on Wednesday night at the Filmworks, and walked pass this lit up poster. Its one thing to warning people not to record the movie but to start throwing together the words terrorist and pirates. I wont even get started on the single words which have been twisted and abused recently (last 20 years). But all I can say is, this is a seriously worrying trend. Without going into a huge post about the perception of piracy in this day of age. I'll stop here and repeat what Sarah said. In her own words, What idiot would pay money for a DVD when they could download it for Free? (big smile) You got love a little humour on such a negative subject.

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The Opentech 2005 recordings are up now at the main opentech site. There's a range of mp3s, mp4s and torrents for saving peoples bandwidths. Enjoy…

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Makoto Shinkai in Conversation: Friday 12 August– at the NFT, South Bank, London

Via my lovely self-sacrificing wife who doesn't even like anime (her own words). Its looks like Japanese Animation month at the NFT. The highlight of the month includes a discussion with Makoto Shinkai who created the simply amazing Voices of a distant star.

Voices of a Distant Star is the moving tale of Mikako and Noboru, high-school sweethearts who try to keep their romance alive against all odds. Mikako is sent into space as part of a team to save mankind from an alien threat, leaving Noboru at home with texting as their only means of contact. The further he moves away from earth, the longer the texts take to come back, and soon a whole lifetime stands between them. Made solely on a Macintosh computer, using off-the-shelf software, this is an astonishing achievement, and we are delighted to welcome Makoto Shinkai to the NFT to talk about it and his other films, including the earlier She and Her Cat.

Like the Donnie Darko screening this weekend, I'll be attending. London certainly is a great place to live.

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So yes, I come back from a nice holiday away expecting all my TV programmes to be downloaded ready to watch through-out the rest of the week but oh no, the bloody MPAA have targeted TV torrent sites. Damm you! I use to use ShunTV and BTefnet for all my American Television fixes now I'm going to gave to look elsewhere. Some good news is that PQRT has changed to http://www.rokanova.com and http://www.seedler.org has just launched. Shame there trying to be jack of all suprnova trades, and seedler does not have rss feeds. Oh well, as Sarah says, there will be others and there are other ways to get TV shows that just these sites. It also seems BTefnet was sued according to the IRC channel. Someone left a comment, saying BT Website is currently down. Releases are on hold until we have a better understanding of the current situation. We have NOT been sued or been contacted by the MPAA! More information about the closures can be found here at Slyck or the P2P website. It looks like either http://www.demonoid.com, http://www.torrentspy.com or http://www.zonatracker.com are the places to go for TV torrents now.

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Well after a whole week of ranting and raving about how Fox has turned 24 into nothing more than American government propaganda. I subjected myself to another thrilling episode of 24 last night. I said I would watch the rest of the season and I will do that at least. Sarah is not as convinced and decided to watch Star Trek on her laptop instead. Anyway, episode 19 didnt come up with many suprises.

Everybody thinks (on screen) John Kerry Presendant pussy is even more of a (choosing my words very carefully) left leaning, jewish, gay black librial commie than ever before (I hope I didnt offend anyone). Basicly the writers have there perfect token democrat and they wont give it up for anything. This time he takes offence to Jack over ruling his words and sends the secret service out to arrest him. While the not so secret service go after Jack, he his hunting down the head terriost and is only moments from capturing him when the secret service mess up the operation. What a dick, presendant pussy is what everyone on screen is thinking (I'm thinking what a load of bollox to cover up the government propganda). Anyhow they end up calling for Ex-Presendant Palmer to give advice to him for the rest of the season. Did anything get solved from last time? No, actually the above was used to prove Jack was right and that tourture is correct. They certainly smoke filled the screen with all this rubbish about John Kerry to cover the mess Fox has made of it.

Anyhow the highlight of the hour was one of the CTU technical operations agents (Chole) being sent out with 2 other unknown agents (you know these two are dead even before they leave for the mission) to follow up there one and only leads. Anyhow, a suspect comes along and starts to chase Chole and the witness (dont ask, its so stupid!). And after a lot of phone calls about what the combination of the in the car gun was finally the CTU agent kills the suspect. The funny thing is the agent in question is prune face Chole and if you know anything about Chole, shooting a weapon certainly isnt her thing. Chole up to this point has been yes a pain in the ass, but at least she hasnt said any Government Prop as of yet. But I got a feeling Chole will be following suite from this moment onwards. Shame, I believe she seems to be the only one left with a mind of her own.

In the end I didnt publish the video for 24 mainly due to web space and copyright considerations. The clip would have started at 25:00 exactly and end on 43:08. But I do have a nice audio clip summing up the whole thing by 2600 writer/owner Emmanual Goldstein. On his weekly show Off the wall, Emmanual gets equally pissed off with 24. It was broadcasted on April 19th in America but there is a mp3 file on the 2600 site which you can listen to. Otherwise check out my 3.6meg Mpeg3 or 2.6meg Ogg Vorbis audio edited versions which has only his rant which lasts almost 9mins in total. Enjoy!

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OK I'm putting my hands up! This is the last season of 24 I will be watching unless a U-Turn is done in the last 5 episodes. Sarah wrote a entry about this exact issue but I got my own unique way of covering this area. But first let me explain why me and Sarah are so pissed off with 24

This season of 24 has highlighted torture in ways which previous seasons have never done. Yes they had torture but in season 4 they have gone too far. I mean they are torture everyone who is supected of being a terrorist. But in episode 18 they went a step too far, a suspect which was captured with a supected terrorist was pulled into CTU (counter terrorism unit) and was about to be torture when Amnesty Global steped in and stopped them. Yes thats right Amnesty Global and they were called by the head terrorist when the suspect was captured as a way of stalling CTU from getting information out of him. (I mean this is so wrong on so many levels). Then this lawyer was poirtrayed as smug and getting in the way of the justice process. (yeah and some people actually believe this?). According to Sarah, this lawyer played a similar smug role to the one he played on Sex in the City (Evan Handler). (this could be pure chance or more likely a thought in the producers when hiring him). Anyhow, most of the CTU staff saw Amnesty international sorry, global (yes its so obvious that you cant help but accidentally say it – more on this later) getting in the way. Then the camera turns to Jack, who is the star of the show who just came in from one of his mini missions and I thought for one moment Jack would put them all right. But I was so wrong, yep so wrong! Jack turns round and can not believe this smug lawyer is getting in the way. He actually at one point questions the lawyer and comes to the conclusion that with the 10mins of capturing the suspect and this lawyer turning up, Amnesty international global must have had there strings pulled by the terrorist (make of the link what you will).
Anyhow, they never quite finished the issue as Jack came to the idea that letting the suspect go and leaving his job would be enough to allow him to torture the suspect without a link back to CTU. So when the suspect finally left CTU (yeah even he spelt the trap and wanted to stick around CTU) without the lawyer, Jack was waiting and broke his fingers till he told him the information he wanted to hear. In which sidestepping the political mess they had got themselves into earlier in the episode. Clever but in which opening up a can of worms about taking the law into your own hands.

Anyway, this certainly isn't where it ends. Me and Sarah are going to edit 24 and put it online for people to see and decide for themselves. If all goes well, we may also start going back through previous episodes and start pulling out previous tortures. This is all very timely when you have the tortures of Abu Ghraib. And lets also not forget the mass beating in our jails and prisons everyday. Yep as Sarah says, 24 has made its final steps over the line and into strictly Government Propaganda. There free to do what they like, but I do not need to watch no more.

Some reaction to 18th Hour/episode of 24.

Only 6 more hours…

Some things I learned from last night's 24:
1) It's okay for the government to torture maybe-terrorists to gain information
2) Amnesty International is able to help protect said maybe-terrorists
3) Keifer is total badass. Okay, this isn't new. I already knew this. But I think I heard about 12 fingers breaking when he was torturing Joe Prado. Is that possible?

Ryan wrote Why I hate Fox, Fox has ruined 24. He sounds honestly more pissed off that even me and Sarah.

Aside from the very, very obvious dig at Amnesty International, a well-respected NGO that works to stop persecution and torture around the world, Fox is clearly pushing the agenda that American agents should be free to use torture whenever and wherever they see fit.

He goes on and talks about Abu Ghraib and extreme situations. But then turns his attention to something which me and Sarah noticed but didnt get around to talking about because we so outraged with the torturing.

If this wasn't enough, the new President is essentially a poorly-done caricature of John Kerry. I think the only way they could've painted him as a weaker, more indecisive character would be if they had him begging the terrorists not to hurt him. It was brutal. Oh, and of course he agreed with “Amnesty Global”, so he's clearly the enemy of freedom.

Robert puts it bluntly, 24 – a right winger's wet dream.

Since the beginning of this season, I've noticed Jack Bauer's increasing bloodlust when it comes to torturing possible terrorist suspects.

Last night, the right-wing, fascistic neocon agenda was crystallized as never before.

Air Force One has been shot down, and the president is in critical condition. The 25th amendment has been invoked and the VP sworn in. The new president is portrayed as weak, fearful and indecisive — and his worst crime seems to be that he wants to check the legality of the issue before allowing Jack to torture an American citizen who hasn't been charged with anything. Why, that weasel! I was waiting for them to reveal that he's also gay.

But the first of the two really evil characters in last night's episode was the slimy “Amnesty Global” lawyer (read: ACLU) who wants to protect the terrorist; after all, it's clear that the ACLU hates America and loves terrorists.

Oh, and don't think we didn't catch the plot point that it was the terrorist leader who called in the ACLU, I mean, the “Amnesty Global” lawyer in the first place, because we all know that the ACLU is controlled by terrorists.

The other evil character was the unnamed and unseen “two-bit judge” who issued a restraining order that the American citizen who hasn't been charged with anything should not be tortured or have his Constitutional rights violated. Because we all know, after all, that judges love terrorists and hate America, that's why we simply MUST do away with an independent judiciary.

Malvolio joins in the kicking of Fox. Okay, 24 just jumped the shark.

But even more so, this is an obvious dig at all lily-livered liberal wimps who would rather protect evil people's rights than destroy terrorism. Except in Fox's fevered wingnut paranoid view of the universe, this could never happen. No judge would issue such an order without a hearing. Most judges, actually, defer to government (and then there's that secret Federal Intelligence Court that almost never turns down any requests for wiretaps or search warrants). This is complete bullshit, except on Fox.

Others talk about some of the other mistakes made in the previous 24. Some random 24 Thoughts

Jefferson City Iowa? There is no Jefferson City Iowa.
So they send in 15 agents to arrest one potential terrorist, but they send in only Jack to pick up the nuclear codes?
The Secretary of State ick Cheney look-a-like) stated that the convoy was struck in mountain area….in Iowa? Really?

. He also highlights the fact the liberal lawyer gets into a Mazda Miata, which indicates he could be gay too? Sarah also shouted at the TV when they suggested an area between Illinois and Iowa which has mountainous terrain.

Anaxila Babbles outlines the plot of the last 20mins better that I did.

1. the good guys caught the bad guy down “by the pier” and
2. transported him back to their field office in the middle of LA, where
3. they prepared a nice menu of torture but were
4. interrupted by the arrival of a pesky Amnesty International (excuse me, “Amnesty Global”) lawyer* – in person – who was
5. waving a court order from a Federal judge requiring that the lawyer be present for any conversations with said prisoner.

And leaving the best to last, found through my search in Blogdigger. television without pity's take on hour 18.

Hey, you! Yeah, you. Are you opposed to your government using torture to get information on terrorists? Do you think that organizations like Amnesty International actually do important work? Do you believe in the rule of law, due process, civil rights, and the Constitution? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the writers and producers of 24 would like you to know that you're a fucking pussy.

I like Monkeys and Typewriters thought there could be some wicked twist to the whole thing going on in 24, but like him/her episode 18 pretty much blew that out of the water. 24 is turning lame, its lost its edge. From the mistakes there making about mountains in Iowa (even I have been there and witness how flat that state is) to the stupid hyper time its taking people to get from one place to another, its getting silly! But if it was only that I could dump it and fill my time with something far better. bring in Richards is being used far too much and the politics is getting crazy now! The fine people at Amnesty International must be dumb struck at this lame attempt of American Government Propaganda. I dread to think whats going to happen next week, but I'm sure John Kerry, vice…, chicken…, damm it! Presendant pussy will do something very unpopular and maybe be overruled by Dick Cheney, I mean his look-a-likey….

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