“Star Wreck – In the Pirkinning” is not the greatest movie ever made. It is jam-packed with kitsch acting, puerile jokes and amazing CGI – just like the 100 million dollar Hollywood action blockbusters it parodies.
You can download it for free from www.starwreck.com
You’ll need Divx and bittorrent. Download the one with English subtitles!
There are several unique facets to this movie that give us hope for the future.
Firstly it was made totally outside any kind of studio system, Hollywood or otherwise. In fact it was made totally outside any kind of institutionalized moviemaking. It was made by a bunch of passionate young Finns, some of them unemployed, from Tampere, an industrial city in middle Finland. They made it in their spare time, using dozens of friends, ordinary computers for rendering the CGI, a small studio with a blue linoleum wall and semi-pro HD video equipment.
Why is this movie important?
::flippancy::
Star Wreck is important because it was designed to be downloaded for free. I haven’t talked to them, but I would guess that a) There are not too many costs to recover, so b) the business model involves what they will make off self-distributed DVD sales, self-distributed merchandising and rebellious fame. And c) it uses the BitTorrent rallying cry of `Give and you will receive’.
It also exploits the same convergent technical possibilities that the movie Sin City used – that you can create any kind of simulated worlds, environments and locations using computers and place real people fairly seamlessly in those worlds. To shoot the actors, you need only a small studio, minimal but creative lighting, a blue screen and lots of careful planning.
But perhaps the most interesting fact for the future of moviemaking is the whole concept of distributed moviemaking. When hundreds of people can make a small contribution to a large project, amazing things become possible. The world is full of `free’ video cameras, editing programs, layering and 3D programs. In fact you can buy the whole technology for yourself with change from 20k €. But why do even that=
In a world that is becoming increasingly wiki-ised, you no longer need big budgets and big organizations. As I’ve said before, if a million computer owners give just one hour of their time to assist in a major project, that is 1 million hours of work – ie over 100 YEARS OF WORK.
Some exec from Nokia told me once that all we have in Finland is trees and brains. This movie is an example of the innovative thinking that comes about when necessity breeds invention. Star Wreck is a pioneering work which will inspire countless others – just as has happened in the music industry following the so-called bedroom music explosion,
Star Wreck made me laugh a lot because I love kitsch. I hope you enjoy it too. Even if it is not your cup of tea, you have to admire the sheer technical balls that it took to bring the movie to your screen.
So what if the script is hokey? So what if the acting is amateur? So what if the CGI is as good as anything you’ll see? This type of distributed moviemaking will only get better. These people from Tampere were finding their way – inventing their own wheel. What they show us is that we don’t need Hollywood so much any more, just as newsblogs will eventually do away with newspapers.
Star Wreck is a celebration of creativity, not business. It is a celebration of free speech. It is also celebrates that `we the people’ can entertain ourselves in the way we want to be entertained – not as a member of some advertisers target group.
After watching this movie I became suddenly more optimistic about the future.
X-posted at ET
Thanks for the diary. I am downloading the film as I write this. What I find amazing is that right now there are over 1800 other people currently downloading this (through Bit Torrent) and another 1800 who are “hosting” the film — that is, they have completed downloading the film and are helping the other 1800 download it (kind of hard to explain if you don’t know anything about Bit Torrent).
I used to hate Hollywood. Then I moved to Los Angeles (we’re talking a long time ago). What I learned was that most of those involved with the movie business are just “working” — if they didn’t live in LA and were making movies they would be frying hamburgers at McDonalds in some small town in Iowa. As for the movie executives, they would simply be running a McDonald franchise in some small town in Iowa if they weren’t running a multi-billion dollar movie studio.
So just remember that the next time you pull into some fast-food joint and the person hands you a fish sandwich instead of the hamburger you ordered: if circumstances were different this same idiot could be starring in, or directing, or producing, a $100 million Hollywood feature. There is only a sliver of difference between indigestible food and an American movie.
Me too!
I hope you enoy the movie. They’ve had 500,000 downloads in two days – the movie is being hosted in several mirrors,
With HIM (Dark Light) hitting 18 in the US music charts this first week of release, we are building up for a Paradigm shift Finnish-style
So cool!! You might have fun checking out Starship Exteter made right here in Austin. Click on cast and check out Harris — she is one of my sons’ goddess-mothers — I give her a hard time about her “British” accent, but she has had a lot of fun making these!
She just found out that she’s having a little girl (due in February) — don’t know if they will be writing her pregnancy into later episodes or not!
Wish I could be in PA to meet you, Sven!
Ah, pack up the car, we’ve got room at the cabin…
I believe they had very low production costs, and made them back very quickly through direct DVD sales to fans.
I’m a dinosaur in all matters BitTorrent, so can I hope that Aki Kaurismaki will direct their next production…? With music from the Leningrad Cowboys?
Please?
I shall tell him next time I see him or his bro at their Corona bar in downtown Helsinki. It’s one of my haunts – especially the pool tables. Downstairs is the Dubrovnik bar which has a stage and two bars, and their 100 seat Andorra movie theater – although I haven’t seen it in use lately.
Do they have a Liechtenstein lounge? Or is it Luxembourg?
Cca where is it in Helsinki? (I spent 2 weeks there 4 years ago, mostly around the University, the Esplanade, the railway station, a beach not far from the Sibelius monument, and Tallinn Drank lots of nice red wine too!)
Corona bar is on Eerikinkatu (Eric’s Street), Next door is another small bar which they own (or owned) specialized in vodka which was called the Lenin Bar. I walked past a week ago and the sign was gone.
Maybe they are working away at Star Wreck II?
I just happen to own a pair of reindeer fur boots, and would welcome this.
You are already an honorary citizen of Finland, just as I am an honorary citizen of Oklahoma. Your boots alone qualify you.
As for a colony…I don’t know…do we Finns really need all your problems? Tell me what’s in it for us – other than some majestic geography and even a few intelligent friendly people.
Because if we did do this (and I am not saying we will), first all the guns will have to go. Your military forces would be strictly limited to peacekeeping duties. The salary differential in any company can be no more then 30:1. Universal Health care with large proportion tax deductible. Mass transit. Regular nakedness. More mushroom eating. All cars must do better than 6 litres per 100 kms freeway driving. Sex to be encouraged, violence to be limited. And the entire penal system would be dedicated to rehabilitation, not punishment.
But I just don’t think you’re ready for this
Well, how about, just for starters, the very best ketchup in the whole world!
Just imagine happy Finnish children squirting it on their breakfast lutefisk.
But wait, there’s more! Finns disillusioned with Hollywood? Colonize the US and it’s yours!
How about the Tiina Lillak story, starring Cameron Diaz?
Oh, and the Rockettes. You get them, too. And don’t forget Broadway. The venerable old Lapp elders will just love Cats!
You are just too, too amusing – the Tiina Lillak story, indeed!
But I may dispute the ketsuppi theory. You have obviously never tasted Felix.
And Cats is not exactly quintessentially American – though the Rockettes certainly are. All in all, I find your list of benefits to our proposed invasion of ‘Vinland’ (note: Finland) sadly lacking. But we’ll think about it, as you have better looking strippers than here…
Unfortunately, while the Finns may be sticking it to Hollywood, Finland is capitulating to the content cartels just as fast as the rest of the world. As part of an EU directive, they recently enacted some draconian new legislation that is, effectively, a nastier version of the United States’ dreaded DMCA.
yes, and many of us are going to do something about it if possible
Excellent! Give those bastards a good, solid kick for me, would you?
Well a number of us are going to resign from the copyright organizations and try to administer our own rights. It won’t mean much, but we have the possibility of sueing companies who misuse our rights without the blanket permission of the copyright organizations.