Sci-Fi Films, 1920s-1970s

Metropolis (Lang, 1927 Germany)


Frankenstein (Whale, 1931 USA)


The Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935 USA)


Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Bebee/Taylor, 1940 USA)


The Day the Earth Stood Still (Wise, 1951 USA)


The War of the Worlds (Haskin, 1953 USA)



Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956 USA)


2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968 USA)


The Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968 USA)


Young Frankenstein (Brooks, USA 1974)


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977 USA)


Alien (Scott, 1979 USA)

"Hurt Locker" Producers Follow RIAA ootsteps

By Greg Sandoval, CNET
May 12, 2010

For years now, film industry executives have giggled at the mention of the music industry's legal campaign against individuals who illegally downloaded music.

The movie folks have long quietly mocked the music industry's attempt to protect their copyrights by suing fans. To them, the strategy--abandoned by the recording sector over a year ago--was a fantastic public relations flub that the film industry largely avoided. Apparently, the producers of the critically acclaimed film "The Hurt Locker" didn't get that memo.

The Hollywood Reporter, a trade publication for the film and TV sectors, reported Wednesday that Voltage Pictures, the producers of the Oscar-winning film, are on the verge of filing possibly tens of thousands of lawsuits against people who downloaded pirated copies of the movie.

Thomas Dunlap, of the U.S. Copyright Group, a law firm working on behalf of Voltage, told the Reporter that the complaints should be filed this week.

Representatives from Voltage and the Copyright Group were not immediately to comment for this story.

It's not difficult to guess why Voltage managers are so fired up. They won an Academy Award but only pocketed $16 million in the United States. According to the Reporter, the film leaked on to the Web more than five months before the U.S. release.

One thing must be made very clear, the Motion Picture Association of America is not part of this campaign. That may be another reason the producers may feel the need to file the suits. The indie movie wasn't made by any of the big studios and that means it doesn't have the MPAA helping to prevent leaks or lean on Internet service providers to help thwart file sharing. Producers must pursue their own antipiracy strategy.

It's probably frustrating for the producers to have earned so little from a movie that generated so much critical praise. How much piracy can be blamed for that isn't clear. One question that hasn't been answered is whether or not the producers of the film will recoup any losses after paying legal fees and other costs.

Official "Super 8" Trailer Released Online

Journal Response 2

In an April 2010 Newsweek web column, Ramin Setoodeh argued that, "While it's OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain), it's rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse." He further argues that unlike straight actors who play gay, the sexuality of gay actors who play straight is an issue because "the fact is, an actor's background does affect how we see his or her performance." Not surprisingly, the column has resulted in a sharp rebuke from the gay arts community.

What do you think? Is an actor's sexuality really only an issue for audiences when he or she is gay, but playing straight? When you are watching a gay actor play straight, is his or her sexuality an factor in believability of the role? Next, why are there currently no major openly gay actors or actresses? Finally, if Setoodeh is indeed correct, what must change so that gay actors are allowed more freedom onscreen?

Due: Wednesday, May 12

Week 15: Science Fiction

MORPHEUS
Unfortunately, no one can be
told what the Matrix is.

—Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus in
The Matrix (Wachowski/Wachowski, 1999 USA)

M 5.10/W 5.12: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. I”
Screening: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jones, 2004 USA)
Due: Journal Response 2

UPCOMING:

M 5.17/5.19: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. II”
Screening: Moon (Jones, 2009 UK)
Due: Journal Response 3

"The Cove"'s Dolphin Slaughter Town Logs Dangerous Mercury Levels in Residents

By Jay Alabaster, The Huffington Post

TAIJI, Japan — Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary "The Cove" have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.

The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease. The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town's roughly 3,500 residents.

"The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans," Director Koji Okamoto told reporters at town hall.

Mercury accumulates up the food chain, so large predators such as dolphins, tuna and swordfish tend to have the highest levels. The latest studies published by the Japanese government show that meat from bottlenose dolphins had about 1,000 times the mercury content of that from sardines.

Fetuses and small children are particularly vulnerable to mercury, which affects the development of the nervous system. The Health Ministry recommends that pregnant women eat at most 2.8 ounces (80 grams) of bottlenose dolphin per two months.

Environmentalists have long protested Taiji's dolphin slaughter and Japan's whaling activities, and have adopted the mercury issue as part of their cause.

"If you're eating dolphin meat, you're eating poison, and if you're eating a lot of dolphin meat, you're eating a lot of poison," said Louis Psihoyos, director of "The Cove," which won an Academy Award earlier this year. He spoke to the AP by phone from Los Angeles.

Taiji had been considering adding a mercury test to its standard set of health checks for several years. The town government last year contacted the institute, which agreed to perform and pay for mercury tests as part of its research, according to Yoshio Kaino, a Taiji official who oversaw the program.

Various tests were done from June of last year through February. On Sunday, a town hall meeting was held to explain the results, and about 100 Taiji residents who attended were told that there was no need for most of them to change their diet, although future tests are necessary.

Individuals with the highest levels were advised to cut back on large fish and sea mammals. Although it can damage the nervous system permanently, mercury naturally fades from the body over time, halving about every 70 days. A person could flush most of it from their system by completely cutting it out for a year.

At lunch after the town hall meeting, council chief Katsutoshi Mihara rejoiced as he carefully dipped raw slices of a striped dolphin into soy sauce.

"This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able keep my lifestyle," he said.

As served at "Moby Dick," a hotel run by the local government, the red and pink dolphin sashimi was chewy and faintly fishy, its mammalian consistency more like meat than fish.

Despite the high mercury levels found in the Taiji tests, institute officials said neurological tests on the 182 citizens who wanted them found no problems. Follow-up tests are planned by March of next year, with outside experts possibly invited, and a separte study is under way to track mercury levels in the local catch.

At a presentation for the press on Sunday afternoon, many reporters questioned how there could be no health effects despite such high mercury levels, with some challenging the competency of the lab.

Joanna Tempowski, a scientist who works on chemical safety at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, said the Minamata institute was a respected institution that was trusted to provide technical assistance. Without seeing the Taiji results, she said that some damage from mercury might not appear immediately.

"At some point in the future they might start to show health effects," she said.

Mercury poisoning is a sensitive topic in Japan, where a disorder now called Minamata Disease was linked to a chemical company that dumped tons of mercury compounds on the southern island of Kyushu.

The disease causes spasms, sensory loss and birth defects and can be fatal. The pollution continued for years after it was discovered, and Minamata disease became an international symbol of environmental damage and corporate corruption.

First-Run Movies Go Home

Studios get a waiver granting limited use of technology to control piracy. Some films could be viewed in the living room at the same time they're showing in theaters.

By Richard Verrier, The Los Angeles Times
May 07, 2010|

The way has been cleared for movie lovers to enjoy watching a blockbuster film on opening weekend without budging from the couch.

Federal regulators have granted a controversial waiver to the Hollywood studios that will allow them to show first-run movies in the home shortly after — or even at the same time as — their release in theaters.

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday granted a petition from the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the chief lobbying group for the major studios, that would permit for a limited-period use of "selectable output control" technology for watching movies in the home. The technology disables video and audio outputs on set-top boxes that prevent illicit recording.

Hollywood studios are preparing for the day when they can debut "event" movies directly into the home, charging a hefty premium for a special showing. Studios are eager to experiment with shorter release "windows" to keep up with the changing habits of consumers, who want to see movies on big-screen TVs or portable devices without waiting months for the DVD or video-on-demand release.

Currently, movies are available for people to watch in the home via video-on-demand three to four months after they appear in theaters and when, or soon after, they are released on DVD. However, fear of piracy has been an impediment to delivering first-run movies directly to consumers in the home: A pirated copy of a newly released movie could wreak instant financial havoc on the picture.

Calling the FCC's ruling an "important victory," MPAA interim Chief Executive Bob Pisano said "it is a major step forward in the development of new business models by the motion picture industry to respond to growing consumer demand."

But movie theater operators view warily any move by the studios to push up the showing of major Hollywood movies before they come out on DVD, fearing that it would undercut ticket sales.

Walt Disney Pictures confronted a revolt among theater owners in Europe earlier this year over its decision to accelerate the release of its upcoming 3-D film "Alice in Wonderland" on DVD, with major chains threatening to boycott the movie until they received assurances from Disney executives that such decisions would not become standard.

"The FCC's decision is not surprising," the National Assn. of Theater Owners said in a statement. "Movie theft is a serious problem. The issue of the theatrical release window, however, will be decided in the marketplace."

Also unhappy with the FCC's decision are consumer groups, which say that disabling the video and audio outputs on the set-top box will limit the ability of people to record programming and require consumers to buy new equipment to watch movies on TV.

"We are disappointed that the [FCC] has succumbed to the special-interest pleadings of the big media companies and ignored the thousands of letters from consumers," said Public Knowledge, a Washington-based public interest group. "The order allowing the use of 'selectable output control' will allow the big firms for the first time to take control of a consumer's TV set or set-top box, blocking viewing of a TV program or motion picture."

The Consumer Electronics Assn., which represents device and TV manufacturers, also was unhappy with the ruling. "The fact that the motion picture studios want to create a new business model does not mean that functioning products should be disabled by them,'' the group said. "The decision is not in the public interest and harms the very consumers that the commission is in place to protect."

Under the ruling, studios could use the technology for a window of 90 days, or until the movie is released on DVD, whichever comes first. After the 90-day window, the studio would no longer have the security protocol. The limited granting of the waiver was a concession to consumer groups that opposed it.