Dashed off - or why piracy sometimes works best when it's messed up.
In one way this is timely, since UK copyright law is about to be wrenched into the digital age with rather more sighs of relief than kicks or screams. Crazy though it sounds, ripping a CD you've bought and plonking it onto your MP3 player has technically been illegal here since the days of the original vinyl/tape dichotomy. (Vince Cable, Business Secretary, does his "bemused old man" thing in an embedded interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14384268) However, in another way, the subject of this entry serves to highlight why even hardened illegal downloaders get fed up with criminal incompetence verging on the retarded, and occasionally side with the majority of law-abiding citizens queuing up to buy legit versions of things. In yet one final way, it is an example - and a very rare one - of the needs of the cineaste being well-served by the pirates...but by mistake, and with the sort of credibility-sapping consequences which can ruin reputations in the "scene".
Most of you will be aware that I'm quite a fan of John Carpenter's films. It goes back a long way - as far as Dark Star, actually (classic poster tag-line: "Bombed out in space with a spaced-out bomb!") - and I kept the faith even when most fans (and a few studios) were having some doubts about his...choices. Sorry, but I loved H.F. Saint's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man", and had no problems whatsoever with Chevy Chase in Carpenter's much-derided film version of the novel. Anyway, with all the fuss over the remake of Escape From New York fading away, I was buoyed by the news that his 2009 return to the horror genre, The Ward had finally got a distribution deal, thanks in no small measure to the presence of Amber Heard in the cast (a woman so powerful that she was able to make me grit my teeth and put aside my loathing of the presenters of Top Gear...for a week). This was a movie I definitely wanted to see and, in keeping with my collection of Carpenter DVDs, the Director's Commentary would be a highlight. For the uninitiated, Carpenter usually teams up with a cast member for these (if you get the chance, check out the Kurt Russell two-handers on The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China as they're exceptionally entertaining), and offers genuine insights into his craft.
Despite some shortening of waiting times for UK releases, there's still quite a gap after the US release and, as luck would have it, I managed to miss the ridiculously tiny window of opportunity afforded The Ward in cinemas, so was resigned to hanging on for a DVD release, as it would effectively kill two birds with one stone anyway. Then, this week, I got an e-mail from a friend:
"DASH have put out the Blu-Ray rip of The Ward with the wrong audio on it - it's the commentary track. http://www.rlslog.net/the-ward-limited-2010-bdrip-xvid-dash/ Expect a proper when enough people have moaned about it."
True enough, people were actually moaning. Funny old world, isn't it? This is exactly the sort of thing which drives home the sense that there's something altogether cheap and nasty about the knockoff scene, and that it's not really designed to cater to actual fans of films, whom - I suspect - would embrace the opportunity to sample such a bonus feature. In fact, one of the complaints most often expressed on the sharing sites, and a reason why sales of discs hasn't been as impacted by piracy as you might expect is exactly that lack of additional material. (You do occasionally see it, though - one recent example was the collection of extras sneaked out from the Nic Cage film, Drive Angry, although God knows why.)
The next day, DASH tried to remedy their efforts with a "repack" of the Blu-Ray rip, but ballsed that up too, leading to a "real" repack (third time lucky, although I suspect their next release will be previewed with considerable suspicion): http://www.rlslog.net/the-ward-2010-limited-real-repack-bdrip-xvid-dash/
The scene is ludicrously competitive, and one can't help feeling that it's populated by people who may mostly know what they're doing, but tend to be slapdash. The number of rushed releases with out-of-sync sound and numerous other technical glitches is testament to that. Nevertheless, on those rare occasions when happy accidents occur, despite a cacophony of derision and abuse, it's hard not to salute their enthusiasm.
Most of you will be aware that I'm quite a fan of John Carpenter's films. It goes back a long way - as far as Dark Star, actually (classic poster tag-line: "Bombed out in space with a spaced-out bomb!") - and I kept the faith even when most fans (and a few studios) were having some doubts about his...choices. Sorry, but I loved H.F. Saint's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man", and had no problems whatsoever with Chevy Chase in Carpenter's much-derided film version of the novel. Anyway, with all the fuss over the remake of Escape From New York fading away, I was buoyed by the news that his 2009 return to the horror genre, The Ward had finally got a distribution deal, thanks in no small measure to the presence of Amber Heard in the cast (a woman so powerful that she was able to make me grit my teeth and put aside my loathing of the presenters of Top Gear...for a week). This was a movie I definitely wanted to see and, in keeping with my collection of Carpenter DVDs, the Director's Commentary would be a highlight. For the uninitiated, Carpenter usually teams up with a cast member for these (if you get the chance, check out the Kurt Russell two-handers on The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China as they're exceptionally entertaining), and offers genuine insights into his craft.
Despite some shortening of waiting times for UK releases, there's still quite a gap after the US release and, as luck would have it, I managed to miss the ridiculously tiny window of opportunity afforded The Ward in cinemas, so was resigned to hanging on for a DVD release, as it would effectively kill two birds with one stone anyway. Then, this week, I got an e-mail from a friend:
"DASH have put out the Blu-Ray rip of The Ward with the wrong audio on it - it's the commentary track. http://www.rlslog.net/the-ward-limited-2010-bdrip-xvid-dash/ Expect a proper when enough people have moaned about it."
True enough, people were actually moaning. Funny old world, isn't it? This is exactly the sort of thing which drives home the sense that there's something altogether cheap and nasty about the knockoff scene, and that it's not really designed to cater to actual fans of films, whom - I suspect - would embrace the opportunity to sample such a bonus feature. In fact, one of the complaints most often expressed on the sharing sites, and a reason why sales of discs hasn't been as impacted by piracy as you might expect is exactly that lack of additional material. (You do occasionally see it, though - one recent example was the collection of extras sneaked out from the Nic Cage film, Drive Angry, although God knows why.)
The next day, DASH tried to remedy their efforts with a "repack" of the Blu-Ray rip, but ballsed that up too, leading to a "real" repack (third time lucky, although I suspect their next release will be previewed with considerable suspicion): http://www.rlslog.net/the-ward-2010-limited-real-repack-bdrip-xvid-dash/
The scene is ludicrously competitive, and one can't help feeling that it's populated by people who may mostly know what they're doing, but tend to be slapdash. The number of rushed releases with out-of-sync sound and numerous other technical glitches is testament to that. Nevertheless, on those rare occasions when happy accidents occur, despite a cacophony of derision and abuse, it's hard not to salute their enthusiasm.