Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

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Friday, April 18, 2008

Books to Movies

I was listening to David McCullough and Tom Hooper on NPR's Talk of the Nation speak about HBO's John Adams. When asked about the differences between the movie and the book David McCullough that the difference between movies and works of biography is like "A simular melody being played by two different instruments." This is just an amazing quote to me.

I have been hard on movies for not understand the source material. Often the problem is with comic book movies is they do not understand comic books. If you are going to play the melody you need to understand the source, but you do not need to play every note the same. That can even be a little boring. As a fan of the source it is important to not get too hung up on the movie being that different.

Labels: David McCullouch, hbo, NPR, tag overload, Talk of the Nation, Tom Hooper

- Rich, 8:38 AM |

Sunday, April 13, 2008

One Term Presidents

I have been watching John Adams on HBO. When I was watching the show I could not remember if John Adams was a one or two term president. Of course I looked on Wikipedia and found the answer. I found out how many days every U.S. President served. I think this is a cool list. I am not sure if it correct, but it is still cool.

Labels: hbo, John Adams, president, Wikipedia

- Rich, 10:01 PM |

Friday, May 11, 2007

Content Provider New Speak

I hate when people try to change language to fit there needs. Oh, consumers think that DRM is a bad thing, we need to start calling it something else. If we do that people might not realize that we are still controlling the rights of the content.

"I don't want to use the term DRM any longer," said Zitter, who added that content-protection technology could enable various new applications for cable operators. One example could be "burn-to-own DVDs," where a consumer would use a set-top box with a built-in DVD burner to record a movie onto an optical disc, thus eliminating the costly current process of pressing DVDs and distributing them physically at retail. Another possibility, says Zitter, is "early window exhibition," either in the form of making a movie available through video-on-demand (VOD) the same day as the home video release or allowing home theater users to pay extra to see a high-definition version of a theatrical release in the comfort of their home.

I really do not mind HBO not offering HD content On Demand. This is a market choice they are making. Other companies can provide HD content and HBO can miss out. They have to be able to measure how many subscribers are not signing up for HBO because of this.

What I don't like is the idea that they want cable providers and hardware companies to limit the use of their hardware because HBO is afraid of what people might do with their content. I do not want my hardware limited. I think this is where DRM gets the bad name you are trying to avoid.

Reading the comment above has a funny comment about "burn-to-own DVDs." People already think they have this right. They do not think that they would have to pay HBO extra money for home recording. Since they could do it with VHS and DVD, they are not expecting not to be able to do it with HD-DVD. I wonder what consumers will do when they find out.

I would really like this to come down to business choices. A movie studio would never refuse to screen a movie because there is a chance it might get bootlegged. Getting bootlegged is a cost of doing business. In the end, what HBO does not want is for the market to set the value of their product. They want to find barriers to keep the value of their content high. I think this is a mistake.

Labels: content, DRM, hbo, HD DVD, On Demand

- Rich, 4:12 PM |

Monday, January 08, 2007

Legend and Facts

I was watching Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl on HBO. The show is Robert Wuhl teaching a college history class. The show is all about the difference between history and what really happened. He had the idea that history is just pop culture.

He illustrates this point with a quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance "The Man When the Legend becomes fact, Print the Legend." This is such a great quote.

I usually hate movies based on history. Any of my friends can attest to how much I hate JFK. It gets so much history wrong, it just drives me crazy. Some of my movie making friends tell me that the director as the duty to make a good movie, not a duty to history. That always drives me crazy. I was in college when JFK came out. I cannot tell you how many people I was in college with thought JFK was the truth.

In another 200 year, if the world is still around, more than enough people will think that the movie JFK shows history how it was. I think that is why film makers have a duty to get history right.

Labels: Assume The Position, hbo, history, Robert Wuhl

- Rich, 10:14 PM |

Monday, September 25, 2006

The Wire

Today I was having a conversation about The Wire. Tommy said is because said the third Season of The Wire might be the best season of any TV anywhere. I had to think about it when he said that. I liked the third season of The Wire, but that is now what I thought when I watched it. I watched the show in reruns because I did not have HBO when it aired.

After a few moments of thinking about Television I could not disagree with what Tommy said. There are shows seasons of television I have liked more than the third season of the Wire, but I know that taste does not equal quality. There are plenty of things that I like that are just awful, like pro-wrestling.

One of the reasons the show is great is because it was not structured like any police drama before it. The show was about policing, not a specific crime. There was no big case in the show. The show was about a lot of high level police ideas. It was not about an investigation.

The show is also great because of the level of realism in the show. The show is shot on the streets of Baltimore and it helps the show. The drama is very realistic. I do not feel like I am watching actors when I watch this show. It does not feel like it is written by people who write screen plays for a living. It does not have the same kind of moral lines that the rest of TV has.

The forth season of the Wire has just started. They are running a marathon of the shows that have already aired this season. If you have HBO you should watch it. If you do not have HBO rent the other seasons and Netflix and see for yourself if Tommy is right or not.

Labels: cop drama, hbo, Netflix, police, television, The Wire, Tommy

- Rich, 6:28 PM |

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