I've found that the same triggers hit me over and over again. I tend to like the same scenarios (mad science! spies! magic! revenge!) and as long as the description of the inflation is interesting, I can forgive everything else -- silly plot, bad plot, no plot. But that doesn't mean I don't like to see people trying new things. Artistically, it's nice to see people taking a different road, even if that road is bumpy.
I think that's why I'm so intrigued by Slow for a Saturday Night, the latest BE inflation vid from TaylorMadeClips. Even they describe it as an "odd" clip that didn't quite turn out the way they thought it would. It's atmospheric, it's got a guy boring a bartender to death, and it's got low lighting. It's also apparently got sound effects from a water cooler and it turns hardcore in a hurry; the ending seems tacked on.
But you know what? It's a short movie with atmosphere and characterization and and implied history and all that stuff we always look for in inflation stories, and for a while there, I was sucked into its world. It's a noble experiment and it made me stop and think about what people could or should be doing with the medium.
It's tricky because the only people currently making inflation/expansion videos are doing it for a profit, so on one hand I think it's wise to stick to the formulas that work or simply base their work on the requests of their paying customers. But on the other hand, I like surprises and respect artistic attempts.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
And now a rant about piracy
It's 2009 and I still see stupid shit like this posted on inflation community forums:
"Sorry, but I'm a personal believer of, 'If you don't want your stuff stolen, don't put it on the Internet.'"
Do I even have to explain why that's fucking moronic? Attitudes like this are what kills communities like ours. It certainly demotivates anybody who
It always starts with a bedrock of amateurs following their bliss, nice enough to publicly post their private fantasies as stories or drawings or morphs or renders or what have you. That's awesome; it's the lifeblood, and the main investment is the creator's time. But every so often you get someone who wants to take it a step further. What about animation? How about video? What about actors? The desire is there; the ambition is there. But the costs are there too.
So, more sophisticated content means higher costs. The obvious answer is to charge for the content and help defray the costs. There's a difference between a backyard camcorder movie and an art-house film, even if the spirit that drives them might be the same.
The logic behind the "don't post if you don't want it stolen" is beyond asinine. Similarly, "If you don't want a bullet in your head, don't walk outside when I have my gun in my hand." Or "If you don't want to get run over by my car, then don't leave your house when I happen to be driving on your sidewalk." The suggestion that personal responsibility no longer counts because the delivery medium is digital is staggeringly stupid.
I've seen both Bambi Blaze and Johnny Swell fight leech communities to have their paid material removed from public postings. I don't begrudge BB and JS for charging for their work. But if they can't win against pirates, what does that say to the next person who would like to aim their content-creation sights a little higher than average? There's no motivation to even try to raise the bar, because jackasses will beat them to death with it if they so much as try to ask for compensation for that effort.
It's 2009. For fuck's sake, we need to grow up.
"Sorry, but I'm a personal believer of, 'If you don't want your stuff stolen, don't put it on the Internet.'"
Do I even have to explain why that's fucking moronic? Attitudes like this are what kills communities like ours. It certainly demotivates anybody who
It always starts with a bedrock of amateurs following their bliss, nice enough to publicly post their private fantasies as stories or drawings or morphs or renders or what have you. That's awesome; it's the lifeblood, and the main investment is the creator's time. But every so often you get someone who wants to take it a step further. What about animation? How about video? What about actors? The desire is there; the ambition is there. But the costs are there too.
So, more sophisticated content means higher costs. The obvious answer is to charge for the content and help defray the costs. There's a difference between a backyard camcorder movie and an art-house film, even if the spirit that drives them might be the same.
The logic behind the "don't post if you don't want it stolen" is beyond asinine. Similarly, "If you don't want a bullet in your head, don't walk outside when I have my gun in my hand." Or "If you don't want to get run over by my car, then don't leave your house when I happen to be driving on your sidewalk." The suggestion that personal responsibility no longer counts because the delivery medium is digital is staggeringly stupid.
I've seen both Bambi Blaze and Johnny Swell fight leech communities to have their paid material removed from public postings. I don't begrudge BB and JS for charging for their work. But if they can't win against pirates, what does that say to the next person who would like to aim their content-creation sights a little higher than average? There's no motivation to even try to raise the bar, because jackasses will beat them to death with it if they so much as try to ask for compensation for that effort.
It's 2009. For fuck's sake, we need to grow up.
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