Brian Flemming's Weblog
W H A T ' S G O I N G O N
My most recent film, The God Who Wasn't There, is available on DVD at the official site and elsewhere.
Bat Boy: The Musical is currently being staged in productions of various sizes around the world. A movie adaptation directed by John Landis is in development, with no casting announced or shooting date set.
My next feature film, Danielle, remains in development.
Bill Gates is still dead.
B L O G R O L L
FILMMAKING:
Cinema Minima
Filmmaker
HD for Indies
indieWIRE Blogs
Hollywood Liberation Army
The Movie Marketing Blog
FREE CULTURE:
Creative Commons
Copyfight
EFF Deep Links
Freedom to Tinker
Lawrence Lessig
POLITICS:
Atrios
Daily Howler
Orcinus
The Raw Story
Talking Points Memo
OTHER FAVORITES:
Boing Boing
GreenCine Daily
Nora Murphy
Pharyngula
J O I N
Original text in this weblog is licensed under a
Creative Commons License
A R C H I V E S
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
powered by
THIS ENTRY:
Here's a reprint of the "Nothing So Strange" newsletter that went out today. If you're not on the list, you can subscribe right here: ============================= "Nothing So Strange" Newsletter -- July 18, 2003 ============================= + SCREENINGS: New York premiere Monday,...
|
July 18, 2003 "Nothing So Strange" NewsletterHere's a reprint of the "Nothing So Strange" newsletter that went out today. If you're not on the list, you can subscribe right here:
============================= + SCREENINGS: New York premiere Monday, July 21 ============================= + SCREENINGS: New York premiere Monday, July 21, 7:30 pm If you are in or around New York City, don't miss the New York premiere of "Nothing So Strange," the groundbreaking documentary-style drama about the assassination of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The details: Monday, July 21, 2003, 7:30 pm ============================= + NSS IN THE NEWS: Site hack causes Korean stock market crash While "Nothing So Strange" has a pretty convincing Web universe, we are always very clear to date the Gates assassination as occurring on December 2, 1999. However, a computer hacker recently copied our fake CNN story about the assassination and re-jiggered it so that it appeared to be dated whatever day you came to the hacker's site. This hack caused a $3 billion loss in the South Korean stock market when somehow somebody got hoodwinked. The BBC reports: "There's nothing like the internet for making people look foolish. "The latest outbreak of red faces is in Seoul, where Korean journalists and investors have been caught out by one of the oldest online hoaxes around. "On a slack Friday afternoon's trading, the Korean stock market dropped by 1.5% - a value loss of more than $3bn - after local TV reported that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates had been assassinated. "Mr Gates, who personifies many of the hopes of the global technology industry, was reportedly shot by a lone gunman at a charity event in Los Angeles - 'facts' eagerly retailed by three Korean channels, MBC, YTN and SBS. "In fact, the story was a hoax, lifted from a - admittedly, highly accurate - spoof of the CNN website." see: Unsharp Mask, LLC, the company that produced "Nothing So Strange," is fully cooperating with the authorities investigating this incident. ============================= + LATEST REVIEW: "Brilliant, one-of-a-kind faux documentary" Can you count the number of times that "brilliant" has been used to describe "Nothing So Strange"? Neither can we. Joining the bandwagon is Gerald Peary, who writes in the Boston Phoenix: "'Nothing So Strange.' It's the perfect title for Brian Flemming's brilliant, one-of-a-kind faux documentary, which begins with Microsoft's Bill Gates getting gunned down at the bandshell of LA's MacArthur Park. Is the killer the black man who's shot dead in turn by the LAPD? Or someone unknown? This movie traces the search, over several years, by a left-liberal don't-trust-the-police ad hoc group called Citizens for Truth to find out what really happened. 'Nothing So Strange' is in no way a 'mockumentary': the search is a straightforward affair, and it's completely credible, the people on screen being immersed in their obsession. You almost have to pinch yourself to say, Wait a minute, Bill Gates is alive!' But he's stone dead in this movie's meta-universe, which extends into the end credits, where we're told the 'characters' played themselves and reminded that they're all members of Citizens for Truth, for which there is a solemn Web site." We recently put up a page on the official "Nothing So Strange" site that links to some of the other print, TV and web press this movie has received. You can read the Drudge Report's proclaiming the film "cinematic shock," the Seattle Times front-page story headlined "Gates Shot! But don't worry, it's only a movie," and Salon's report on the NSS cast and crew "Doing the Sundance shuffle." There are also QuickTime movies of lead actress Laurie Pike's interview on the Fox News Channel by an openly hostile Neil Cavuto (don't miss this surreal clip) and director Brian Flemming's interview on CNN Headline News. READ STORIES, WATCH CLIPS: ============================= + NEW ONLINE: The Open Source Footage Store On February 12 of this year, to riotous applause at the San Francisco IndieFest, we announced that "Nothing So Strange" was officially the first "open source" feature film in cinema history. While our version of the film itself is protected by an "all rights reserved" copyright, the raw footage that makes up the film is "open source." Once you get your hands on some raw footage, it is yours to use as you please. However, announcing that the raw footage is open source is different than actually delivering the footage, which is a logistical challenge. To take the first step toward a solution, we have created the "Open Source Footage Store," where you can purchase short clips and download them to your computer. Prices for the clips range from 5 cents to 25 cents. We are using a wonderful new "micropayment" technology called BitPass, which makes it easy to spend tiny amounts on the Web (which means we can pay for the bandwidth to deliver the clips). So if you're not one already, become a filmmaker today. We've taken care of that pesky "going out and shooting something" part of the process. Editing is where a film is really made anyway. Think "Nothing So Strange" director Brian Flemming missed the mark with his analysis of the Gates assassination? Show the world where he went wrong. Grab some clips, start editing, narrate it, add music, combine with your own footage--make this footage say what YOU want it to say. Then share your work--give it away, sell it, make a DVD and put it on eBay, BitPass a download on your own site, whatever you want. Once you buy it, it's your footage. EXCLUSIVE TO NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS: Right now, for a limited time, the clips at the Open Source Footage Store are FREE. Download all you want. The clips will cost money after we make a wider press announcement. But you're the first to know about the Open Source Footage Store, and, for now, the clips are yours for the clicking. Presently stocked at the store are several clips of the assassination, the full audio of the LAPD interrogation of Julia Serrano, four music MP3s and more. DOWNLOAD OPEN-SOURCE CLIPS AT: ============================= + RUMOR MILL: Watch "Nothing So Strange" on the Web? While it isn't official yet, "Nothing So Strange" hopes soon to announce that it will be the first feature film to be released on the World Wide Web using the new BitPass micropayment technology. (This is separate from our sale of short clips at the Open Source Footage Store.) We're working on the timing, implementation and price structure of this Web download. It costs a lot, unfortunately, to deliver video over the Web, and the image quality is not nearly that of DVD. However, we have had enough requests that we can't ignore the fact that some people would like to experience the film this way. Please help us by taking the new poll on nothingsostrange.com. TAKE THE POLL: And please feel free to send us any additional feedback on the Web-downloading idea. Would you buy a little QuickTime movie (i.e., 160 x 120) for $3? What's the maximum file size you would download? 100MB? 600MB? 1GIG? EMAIL FEEDBACK: ============================= Get the latest. Visit Visit the Gates-assassination Web universe: ============================= |