Luimme tänään huolestuneena kulttuuri- ja urheiluministeri Stefan Wallinin tiedotteen, jossa kerrottiin uusista toimista nettipiratismin vastatoimien tehostamisesta. Allekirjoittaneet ovat itse työskennelleet luovilla aloilla suurimman osan vuosituhannesta ja osa heistä on tienannut elantonsa pääasiassa tekijänoikeuskorvauksista, joten artistin ja hänen tukijoukkojensa toimeentulo ei ole mikään abstrakti ja etäinen asia, vaan arkipäivän ero siinä, onko leivän päällä metwurstia vai pelkkä ylähuuli.

Silti tämä uusin isku piratismia vastaan sai aikaan hyvin voimakkaan “ei näin” -reaktion. Tässä tuhlataan nyt aikaa ja rahaa niin artistien kuin mediateollisuuden kannalta suorastaan haitalliseen tuulimyllyjä vastaan taisteluun.

Laillisen nettikaupan tukeminen

Tiedotteessa oli ehkä yksi totuuden siemen:

Tiedot osoittavat, että sähköisen luovien sisältöjen kaupankäynnin edellytykset Suomessa eivät ole kunnossa.

Mikäli tällä tarkoitetaan sitä, että nykyiset lailliset nettikaupat ovat etenkin videosisällön puolella täysin surkeita, eivätkä vastaa kuluttajien tarpeisiin, tämä pitää paikkansa. Semminkin allekirjoittaneita ihmetyttää, miksi tuhlata aikaa, vaivaa ja rahaa tehottomaan piratismin vastaiseen taisteluun, kun sama vaiva voitaisiin laittaa laillisen latauskaupan kehittämiseen ja tukemiseen. Nyt ollaan tuomassa lainsäädäntöön mahdollisuutta nettiliikenteen laajamittaiseen urkkimiseen ja pyritään antamaan viranomaisvaltuuksia yksityisille kaupallisille tahoille. Haluaisimme kysyä ministeri Wallinilta, hyväksyisikö hän koko maan kattavan puhelinliikenteen tai paperipostin seurannan siksi, että sillä voitaisiin estää talousrikollisuutta?

Kulttuuriministerin, mediateollisuuden sekä tekijänoikeusjärjestöjen ykkösprioriteettina tulisi olla laillisen nettikaupan tukeminen niin taloudellisesti kuin lainsäädännön puolelta.

Musiikkibisneksessä ja videopelien puolella nettilevitykseen on herätty ja käyttökelpoisia laillisia vaihtoehtoja löytyy – ja ihmiset ovat siirtyneet niitä myös innolla käyttämään. Elokuvien ja TV-sarjojen puolella tilanne on vielä täysin lapsenkengissään. Tässä tulee vastaan myös nuorten kuluttajien ja etenkin vanhempien päättäjien välinen teknologinen kuilu. Tekniset edellytykset niin elokuvien, musiikin kuin TV-sarjojen nettilevitykseen olivat olemassa jo vuosituhannen vaihteessa, mutta niitä ei teollisuuden puolella ymmärretty eikä haluttu ottaa käyttöön – eikä nettimaailman realiteetteja ymmärretä hallitustasolla vieläkään. Aktiiviset netinkäyttäjät oppivat nopeasti käyttämään verkkoa viihteen hankkimiseen – sekä sen, että mediasisällön hankkiminen laillisesti oli hankalaa ja vaivalloista, laiton puolestaan helppoa, ja vielä tietysti ilmaista.

Myös Suomessa on tarjolla joukko netissä toimivia videovuokraamoja, joista suurin osa on kuluttajan kannalta tavalla tai toisella hyvin hankalakäyttöisiä – tai viimeistään niiden perimät hinnat ovat täysin kohtuuttomia. Vaikka muut seikat olisivatkin kunnossa, viimeistään palvelun valikoima on niin huono, että se kalpenee keskimääräisen elokuvaharrastajan DVD-hyllylle.

Mikä on tämän vaihtoehto? Laittomat palvelut, josta elokuvan saa ladattua HD-tasoisena muutamassa minuutissa ja sitä voi katsella juuri sillä laitteella, kuin kuluttajaa huvittaa. Lailliset palvelut rampautetaan DRM-käyttörajoitteilla, jotka eivät käytännössä haittaa millään tavalla piraattien toimintaa, mutta vaikeuttavat lainkuuliaisten kuluttajien elämää merkittävästi. Musiikkipuolella tästä on päästy jo eroon, mutta elokuvapuolella ollaan toistamassa tismalleen samat virheet.

Allekirjoittaneista tätä asiaa käsitteli Timo Vuorensola viimeisimmässä Yle-kolumnissaan “Piratismi pelastaa elokuvan“.

Kuluttajien vastainen sota

Useat riippumattomat tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että netistä laittomasti lataavat henkilöt myös kuluttavat mediasisältöön enemmän rahaa kuin ne, jotka eivät lataamista harrasta – jopa kymmenkertaisen määrän. Myös käsitys nettilataajasta “kaikki mulle heti nyt ilmaiseksi” -teinipiraattina on mustavalkoinen yliyksinkertaistus, kätevä olkiukko ja mielikuvitushahmo, jota vastaan on helppo taistella. Tottakai jossain Gaussin käyrän hyvin terävässä päässä ovat nämä fanaatikot, jotka toitottavat, etteivät he halua koskaan maksaa mistään mitään. Suurin osa heistä kuitenkin kasvaa isoksi, hommaa työpaikan ja ryhtyy kuluttamaan rahojaan siihen mediasisältöön, johon nuorena tutustui. Nettilataamista harrastavat nuorten lisäksi ihan tavalliset perheenisät ja -äidit, ja se on monille paras tapa tutustua uuteen musiikkiin, sarjakuviin, elokuviin ja muuhun materiaaliin, josta sitten myös maksetaan. Ihmiset haluavat tukea suosikkiartistejaan.

Piratismin vastainen sota tässä muodossaan on sotaa kuluttajia vastaan.

Nykyisin mediateollisuus vainoaa aktiivisesti parasta ja innokkainta kuluttajasektoriaan. Tätä sotaa käydään pilaamalla nuorten ihmisten elämä täysin kohtuuttomilla korvausvaatimuksilla, joiden perusteet on useaan kertaan kyseenalaistettu. Laskutavan pohjana on useimmiten se, että jokainen ladattu teoskopio (tai pieni teostiedoston osa!) katsotaan menetetyksi myynniksi, jossa ei ole järjen hiventäkään. Huomiotta jätetään myös ihmisten ostovoiman vaihtelu talouden heilahtelun mukaan, levymyynnin siirtyminen esimerkiksi digitaaliseksi myynniksi, tai se fakta, että ihmisten rahoista kilpailee yhä laajempi kirjo viihdetuotteita.

Tekijänoikeusjärjestöjen esittämien lukujen epäilyttävyys alkaa valjeta myös kuluttajille, ainakin sen mukaan, mitä voi päätellä julkisesta keskustelusta esimerkiksi lehtien uutispalstoilla. Siinä missä pari vuotta sitten tällaisen uutisen kommenteissa olisi ollut 20 laittoman kopioinnin vastustajaa yhtä piratismimyönteistä kohden, suhdeluku on nyt päin vastoin.

Koko piratismisodan suurin tragedia on se, että teollisuus on kasvattanut kokonaisen sukupolven kuluttajia, jotka näkevät mediateollisuuden tyrannina, dinosauruksena ja vihollisena, jota on ihan ok vastustaa. Kuluttajia kielletään hankkimasta luvattomasti materiaalia netissä, mutta sitä ei kuitenkaan tarjota millään läheskään yhtä kätevällä laillisella tavalla, ei ilmaiseksi eikä rahaa vastaan. Surullisinta tämä on sikäli, että tähän huonoon valoon ovat joutuneet mediafirmojen ja tekijänoikeuslobbyn imussa myös artistit, jotka tilanteessa ovat kuluttajan ohella se toinen kärsivä osapuoli.

Sotiminen kuluttajia vastaan vääristellyillä tilastoilla ja hassuilla hahmoilla ei ole nyt se, miten tätä tilannetta pitäisi lähteä korjaamaan. Älkää nyt hyvänen aika pahentako asiaa enää lähtemällä kyttäämään ihmisten yksityistä nettiliikennettä. Mediateollisuuden pitäisi tehdä rankka imagokorjaus ja esiintyä kuluttajien silmissä kannustavana hyviksenä. Siinä tällainen tuulesta temmatuilla tilastoilla syyllistäminen ja uhkailukirjeiden lähettely ihmisten koteihin eivät todellakaan auta.

Laillisen kaupan edellytykset kuntoon

Luovan alan työntekijöinä ja kulttuuriharrastajina me allekirjoittaneet vaadimme Stefan Wallinia kulttuuriministerin roolissaan siirtämään painopisteen pois kuluttajien vainoamisesta ja keskittymään kuluttajien ja artistien kannalta toimivan, reilun ja valikoimaltaan laajan digitaalisen nettikaupan kehittämiseen. Hallituksen tulisi tehdä tekijänoikeus- ja muun lainsäädännön kannalta kaikenlaisen materiaalin nettimyynnistä niin helppoa kuin mahdollista, sekä pyrkiä kaikin keinoin houkuttelemaan myös ulkomaiset suuret mediafirmat tarjoamaan verkkokauppojaan Suomen alueella, suomalaisille kuluttajille. Tekijänoikeusjärjestöihin tällä saralla ei voi luottaa, sillä niiden toimintatapa näyttää olevan laskuttaa lyhytnäköisesti kuoliaaksi jokainen uusi innovaatio, joka pitkällä tähtäimellä toisi heille merkittäviä tuloja.

Toimimalla näin edistetään kulttuuria, turvataan sekä tekijöiden että heidän tukijoidensa toimeentulo, ja lähdetään purkamaan etenkin nuorten kuluttajien ja mediabisneksen tulehtunutta suhdetta – ei vainoamalla ja haastamalla oikeuteen innokkaimpia median kuluttajia.

Tässä pelleillään nyt hyvin konkreettisella tavalla meidän nykyisen sekä tulevan elinkeinomme parissa.

Janos Honkonen
Timo Vuorensola
Jarmo Puskala
Pekka Ollula

Päivitys 2.5.2010: Kulttuuriministeri Wallinin vastaus löytyy kommenteista.

(For our English speaking readers: This post is in Finnish, an open letter to Finland’s minister of culture, who is ramping up anti-piracy initiatives in a way we find destructive to the media business.)

If you have a passion for Space Nazis, sign up and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for your help. -Facebook

Am I the only one who thinks the above is slightly scary?

We really like Facebook, we’ve been using it for ages and it’s a great place to connect. But we’re not fans of their problems with privacy and security. Or their bullish ways of doing, well, pretty much everything. Not to mention the time they removed our page for alleged hate speech, even though we did get it back.

Couple of weeks ago Timo tried to leave Facebook, only to discover the existence of a “community page for Timo Vuorensola”. These community pages are the result of their new feature – creating pages for almost everything that has a Wikipedia page so they can be listed in the “interests and likes” section of people’s profiles.

Turns out this automation creates some problems for a company that tries to keep their nose clean of anything remotely offensive and Facebook now has fan pages for some rather unpleasant things.

So how about letting the world know you “have a passion for Nazism and Fascism” or that’ you’re into all forms of totalitarianism with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Or maybe you want to let the world know you like Child Sexual Abuse?

This is a good example of what’s wrong with Facebook’s plans for world domination. They want to be the one place for all things – but then there’s all the nasty stuff no-one likes. If they want to get rid of it it means they need to up the censorship, creating lists of banned words, or getting even more trigger happy with acting on complaints. And the more they try to clean up the world site, the bigger target they become for ridicule & litigation when something slips past their net.

If they want to be the one place for everything they need to give up control and re-think their strategy of reducing all relationships into “friends” and “likes”. The world just doesn’t work like that.

p.s. There’s little doubt these pages will be removed once the first complaints are made, so don’t be too surprised if the links don’t work.

There is a third thing people can do that really helps us, but it’s something they don’t necessarily think of as being useful or important. Moreover this is something that’s very easy to do and also free. This something is SHARING.

When we publish something interesting on our blog, the website, Facebook, YouTube or other place we frequent, go ahead and share it to your pals in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, forums you frequent and in your blog; Digg the article and submit it to Reddit, and so on. Also, drop in the www.ironsky.net/demand/ link with the stuff you share, because those red dots on the map are very important for us.

Why is this important? How is the fact that some guy or gal shares our teaser or blog entry to his pals in Facebook actually hugely useful for Iron Sky?

The thing is, publicity is enormously important for indie projects that are not backed by big money. When people think about movie publicity, they think about just getting people to the theaters when the movie is done – and that’s how it might be for the big studio backed movies. Those filmmakers can announce the movie, start producing it and then have the studio throw a few million euros for the marketing when the film is almost done. That’s really not how small or even multi million euro budget indie movies work, especially if it’s aimed for a wide theater distribution.

Indie movie makers need good publicity and buzz right from the moment they start making the film and trying to pitch it to production companies, distributors and people who finance the project. They must convince all those people that the idea is viable, it has potential and that there are people who are interested in it – and keep convincing them until the movie is done. For every Paranormal Activity there’s a dozen films that couldn’t get the buzz going. This is part of why indie projects seem to take an age to be completed: you don’t hear about big studio movies until they are almost done, but indie movies make noise right from the pre-production phase.

(Well, sometimes indie movies do take ages to make… )

So, for projects like Iron Sky publicity not just about the amount of potential viewers: at the production stage it’s almost literal currency with which we can get resources and freedom to make the movie we want to. A project on the scale of Iron Sky can’t get by on crowd funding and the personal finances of the creators alone, although both of those are often extremely important sources of finance. Projects of this size must deal and co-operate with the traditional side of movie business to function – and man, those guys are all about “how much, with whom and how many times”.

Distributors, investors and other such parties are very interested in how much buzz and potential a project has, and these people love numbers and figures. When negotiating with them, website visitor statistics, teaser viewership amounts, numbers of Facebook fans and amount of demands turn out to be cold hard cash and at times the most effective bargaining tool. Remember those red dots on the Demand map? That’s like catnip to the business people. “Here’s our movie idea, and here’s our ready made audience that can’t wait to see the movie – so give us resources and free hands to do our stuff!” It’s also the matter of artistic integrity: the more there is buzz about the film, the less chance there is that they panic and start demanding changes that would make the movie more “commercially viable”.

Don’t forget that Iron Sky is not the only indie project like this – check out for example Snowblind, The Cosmonaut, Project London and I’m Not Harry Jenson and give them a shout out too!

So, when it comes to indie movies, sharing is caring. Act now and join the fight for a new way of making movies: from fans to fans – with fans!

I just left FaceBook because that’s how I started to feel about the service, especially after its recent implementation of the Like-button. If you’re logged in to FaceBook, and go to a web page which has the new FaceBook’s Like-button, instantly FaceBook knows you’ve visited that site – without you necessarily taking any action on the site, whatsoever. For a much better article on the issue at hands, read more from here:

Philosophical Zombie

TechCrunch

The Like-functionality is almost like those bonus cards or loyalty programs in the supermarket chains – in Finland, S-kortti, Plussa etc. They exist only for one reason: to get to know what people buy to know how to sell their stuff to them more efficiently. But unlike FaceBook, they at least have the dignity to claim that they are paying back something for you for letting them know your shopping lists daily – in the form of bonuses and/or discounts. And – more importantly – I can easily decide not to use the cards when I don’t feel like it.

When it comes to the Internet, I’m not comfortable with the idea of somebody being able to monitor most of the websites I visit. It’s my own personal matter where I download my porn, where I find my Torrents and where I go “anonymously” trolling just for the fun of it. And although the new “Like”-button is not completely rupturing my privacy on the Internet – and definitively, it’s not the first one to do it like that – it offends me the way they slide this feature out as if it was something cool and fitting to the world of social media, sharing is caring and all that bullshit – forgetting to mention that fact it’s just their way to dig out my website history to be able to push their ads and who knows what else. We all know FaceBook like any company out there – has an agenda, and they won’t be stopping to this.

The reason this saddens me is because I like FaceBook. I was among the first ones signing up to it from Finland, and I’ve been using it quite a lot for both professional and personal matters – and I still do. Iron Sky group, or page, or Like-thing or whatever it’s turning and changing into – has been, is, and will be a very effective way to communicate the progress of the film to our fans. Same goes with ZombieRoom’s and Wreckamovie’s pages. I’m the first one to admit that I’m trying to exploit FaceBook to the max, without an intention to pay them a dime – and I’m getting the feeling that’s exactly their plan, too. And that’s just not OK.

Quitting FaceBook over the Like-button was not the main reason – if it was, I wouldn’t be using Google’s services, or basically any other social network out there. The thing is, I just don’t like their style. FaceBook is like the hunkiest douchebag in the bar. You know the type, the guy with enormous muscles and fake tan and bleached teeth. He gets to act just as badly as he wants, but there’s still always people swarming around him. Sometimes big online services just go into that path and never come back, and I don’t need that kind of shit around me.

But FaceBook always gets the final word. You can’t never leave FaceBook completely. Not even if you die.

I’m still up on the Internet, without FaceBook – you can follow me over Twitter, and read our blogs at Zombie Room and Iron Sky, watch how I Trek, or reach me via eMail.

Also, please note that this has no effect on Iron Sky’s presence on FaceBook in any way – Jarmo has been the guy updating it regularly, and he’ll keep on doing that also in the future. This is just for my personal FaceBook account.

Let’s start with a warning. If you’re not interested in the latest developements with Facebook & social media, feel free to skip this post. However, for those of you who care, I want to explain why you won’t be seeing Facebook’s new “Like” buttons on Iron Sky’s sites right now. You probably ran into these on many other site already:

The idea here is, that Facebook wants to take over the world web by having people “like” anything and everything they encounter online with their familiar Like-button. This in theory makes it a lot easier for your users and fans to spread the word to their friends. And that’s awesome, because internet is about sharing and being social…

The problem is, that it’s all a huge clusterfrak right now. And as much as us working on Iron Sky want to be in the forefront of being social, we’re goign to wait a bit and see if they can sort this all out. Now, let me explain what is the problem.

Facebook Pages

We’re all familiar with Facebook pages. They used to have “fans”, now it says something like 12,137 People Like This. Those who like the page will receive updates from the page and can post comments. And for Iron Sky the page has become quite active, we get a lot of comments, suggestion etc. It’s all very social. On our website we have a box that shows the latest updates and where you can start following our updates.

The new Like button

Now Facebook wants every website to have a “Like” button. Administrator of the sites can use meta tags to control what the like button likes, for us it would be “Iron Sky the movie“.

Now it starts to get complicated. We would add meta tags to all the pages the like button resides where we would associate Iron Sky the movie with Facebook users who can administer it and it would show up in their list of pages. Then they could send updates to everyone who has liked Iron Sky the movie.

So, basically the like button creates something that works like a Facebook page, except it’s not a Facebook page. It’s meant to present the whole concept of Iron Sky the movie. Except it’s tied to the name and url I have for it after 10 people have liked it.

The clusterfrak

Now, if we were to add this new Like-button to our site, we’d also have the “Like” in the box that connects to our Facebook page. They would look the same to users, but do different things. One would have them receive updates from the “not page” and one from our “Facebook page”. Right now there doesn’t seem to be any way to connect these two, so we’d have to select between the two. If we’d want to use the “not page” it would mean we’d have to start building the community from scratch. Or we’d have to update both of them and people who’ve liked both of them would receive the same update from both.

So what Facebook has done is to duplicate the function of existing pages, but made it a lot harder to administer and harder to understand. To use both would be confusing to users and admins alike.

That is why you won’t be seeing the like buttons on the Iron Sky site today, or this week. I’m first to admit that Facebook Pages used to be completely useless when they first came out, but now they’re great and have made groups obsolete. Maybe one day the this new functionality will in turn make pages obsolete. However, right now it’s difficult and while I like the idea behind it, I don’t like the implementation.

Update 23.4.

If you’re still considering using the buttons you might want to readthis article. That’s pretty much it, this iteration is a stillborn and needs to be fixed.

How often should you post updates on Facebook?

Facebook has become the place where many people spend most of their online time. And it’s way more personal place than say, MySpace. Because of this I think it really does matter how often fan pages post updates. If it’s too often it can get annoying. But how often should you update? In the spirit of democracy we asked fans of Iron Sky how often they’d like to see updates on from us.

167 people responded. Turns out almost half thought once a week is good. While 18% would like daily updates only 5% would like to see several updates a day.

That said, social media is not about doing it by numbers. That means we’ll still post updates when we’ve got something to say, even if it’s more often than once a week. But now I can stop worrying if Facebook should be updated as ofen as Twitter – it shouldn’t.

On a larger scale, this is just a small poll and you shouldn’t read too much into it. But what I think is safe to say is that you shouldn’t syndicate all your Twitter updates to your Facebook page. The two services are used differently and need to be treated as such.

“Nörtit” vastaan “oikeat ihmiset”

Tekstistä huokuu melko tiukka ja keinotekoinen kahtiajako “nörttien” ja “tavallisten perheenisien” välillä. Sanaa “nörtti” hoetaan blogauksessa siinä määrin tiuhaan ja aggressiivseen sävyyn, että äkkinäistä lukijaa alkaa huolestuttaa, rakennetaanko tässä nyt juoksuhautoja sen sijaan, että haettaisiin yhteisymmärrystä.

“Nörtti”-leimalla lyödään näissä keskusteluissa yleensä ihmistä, joka tietää tietotekniikasta ja nettimaailman realiteeteista enemmän kuin vastakeskustelija. Tästä voidaankin jatkaa siihen, että “nörtti” on selvästikin parikymppinen lapseton mieshenkilö, joka haluaa ladata kaiken netistä ilmaiseksi ja sallia lapsipornon koska se on sananvapauskysymys – ja niin ne olkiukot kahisevat. Todellisuudessa tästä “nörttien” joukosta löytyy niitä ihan tavallisia perheenisejä ja -äitejä, jotka vain sattuvat tietämään, miten digitaalisessa maailmassa asiat makaavat.

Hieman ironiseksi tämän nörtittelyn tekee se, että Rastimo kertoo järkyttyneensä siitä, kuinka hänen elokuvansa Myrsky on laitettu jakoon vertaisverkkoihin. Rivien välistä on luettavissa, että tätä pidetään nimen omaan “nörttien” tekosina. Kun kuitenkin tarkastellaan sitä, millainen elokuva Myrsky on – eli mainio ala-asteikäisille ja koko perheelle tarkoitetu seikkailu – se ei perinteisesti nörteiksi miellettävää kansanryhmää juuri kiinnosta. Henkilöt, jotka Myrskyä netistä lataavat ja levittävät, ovat tavallisia perheenisiä ja -äitejä: näitä Facebook-faijoja, joille tietokoneiden käyttäminen on arkipäivää. Siis juuri tätä tavallisten ihmisten kansanryhmää, jota Rastimo maalailee pahojen “nörttien” vastakohdaksi.

Piratismista prostituutioon ja huumekauppaan

Oma lukunsa on se, että kertoessaan yrityksistään ladata elokuvaansa netistä Rastimo paljastaa, kuinka vähän hän kyseisestä maailmasta tietää. Hän oli päätynyt sivustolle, joka tarjosi mainoksia vähäpukeisista naisista ja vaati luottokorttinumeron syöttämistä. Ongelma tässä on se, että kyseessä ei ole vertaisverkkopalvelu, vaan aivan puhdas huijaussivu, jolla ei ole mitään tekemistä oikeiden latauspalveluiden kanssa.

Tästä päästiinkin jo aivan uudelle kiertoradalle kun epäiltiin, myyvätkö köyhät thai-perheet lapsiaan netin musiikin ja elokuvien seassa, ja väitettiin, että nettioperaattorit tienaavat piratismilla, prostituutiolla sekä huume- ja asekaupalla. Tämä on yhtä absurdia kuin väittää, että autokauppiaat tienaavat välillisesti samoilla aloilla, sillä kuljetetaanhan prostituoituja, huumeita ja aseita autoilla. Ne kaikki myös käyttävät sähköä, joten epäiltyjen rintamassa lie myös Helsingin Energia?

Ennen tällaisten johtopäätösten tekemistä kannattaisi ehkä kuitenkin perehtyä hieman enemmän itse aiheeseen. Tällaiset kommentit ovat toki kovaa poliittista valuuttaa jolla kerää sympatiaa nettimaailmaa ja tietotekniikkaa tuntemattomilta äänestäjiltä, mutta todellisuuspohjaa niillä ei ole.

Lasten suojelu ja pesuvesi

Kirjoituksessa puhutaan myös hyvin paljon lastensuojelusta netissä sekä lasten suojelemisesta haitalliselta aineistolta ennakkosensuurin avulla. Tässä lie viitataan nettisisällön ennakkosensuuriin, josta päällimmäinen esimerkki on viime vuosina paljon keskustelua herättänyt lapsipornon suodatuslista. Sitä helpompaa riidanaloittajaa ei tietotekniikkaa tuntevien ja siitä mitään ymmärtämättömien välillä juuri ole.

Ironista ja todella, todella ärsyttävää tässä keskustelussa on se, että kumpikin osapuoli on samaa mieltä: lapsiporno on paha asia, sen levittäminen pitää estää ja sen tekijät pitää saada edesvastuuseen. Kukaan näissä keskusteluissa ei ole sallimassa lapsipornoa sananvapauden varjolla, kuten sensuurilistojen vastustajien usein väitetään tekevän. Ero keskustelijoiden välillä on vain se, että toiset tietävät mitkä tällaisten estolistojen realiteetit ovat, toiset kuvittelevat että estolistalla materiaali poistuu netistä ja ongelma on ratkaistu.

Blogauksen kommenteissa estolistan realiteetteja on esitelty useilla vertauksilla. Herää kuitenkin kysymys, mitä mieltä Rastimo olisi siitä, jos jonain päivänä Myrsky-elokuvan nettisivuilla tulisikin vastaan tieto siitä, että poliisi on sulkenut sivuston koska se sisältää lapsipornoa – ilman mitään tietoa mihin tästä voi valittaa? Kaukaa haettua? Ei ollenkaan, se riittää että samalla IP-osoitteiden alueella joku laittaa sivustolle kuvan, jonka poliisi tulkitsee lapsipornoa sisältäväksi. Tällä henkilöllä ei tarvitse olla mitään tekemistä elokuvaprojektin kanssa, vaan palvelimen asetuksista riippuen hän voi työskennellä täysin eri firmassa. Se voi olla myös ihan puhdas vahinko, tai kuvatiedoston on voinut sivuille sujauttaa joku keppostelija tai pahantahtoinen henkilö. Tilannetta selvitellessä voi sitten miettiä sitä, ettei se ongelmallinen kuva ole kadonnut netistä mihinkään, vaan se jää sinne kaikkien niiden selailtavaksi, jotka jaksavat viettää viisi minuuttia sensuurilistaa kiertäen. Tämä on nykyisen järjestelmän realiteetti.

Jos omia lapsiaan haluaa suojella netin kyseenalaiselta materiaalilta, se on äärimmäisen helppoa. Netistä löytyy useita suodatusohjelmia, jotka voi asentaa lapsensa koneelle, minkä lisäksi modernien käyttöjärjestelmien mukana tulee ilmaisia sisältösuotimia juurikin perheiden käyttöön. Ne eivät toimi täydellisesti, mutta suodattavat suurimman osan haitallisesta materiaalista. Mikä tärkeintä, kuten eräs kommentoija sanoi: me muut emme ole sinun lapsiasi, meille tulevaa tietoa sinun ei pidä suodattaa.

Piratismi ja tekijänoikeudet

Visaisempi kysymys on, mikä on ratkaisu toisaalta piratismin, toisaalta tekijänoikeuksien sekä ansaintalogiikan välillä. Riippumattomissa tutkimuksissa yhteys nettilataamisen kasvun sekä sisällöntuottajien tulonmenetysten välillä ei ole ihan niin suoraviivainen kuin maalaisjärjellä voisi olettaa – paljon lataavat esimerkiksi ostavat enemmän musiikkia, elokuvia ja muuta materiaalia kuin ne, jotka eivät lataa sitä netistä ollenkaan. Hyvin varmasti voidaan sanoa, ettei jokainen nettilataus ole automaattisesti yksi myyty levy tai leffa vähemmän.

Tulevaisuus tällä alalla näyttää tällä hetkellä kuuluvan niille, jotka eivät ole kiistan kummassakaan ääripäässä, vaan ymmärtävät sekä sisällöntuotantoalan että nettimaailman realiteetit. Nettilataaminen ei lopu, vaikka oikeuteen haastettaisiin kuinka monta varatonta opiskelijaa tai perheenäitiä. Kun suljetaan yksi sivusto, kaksi muuta aukeaa sen tilalle, kuten kävi taannoisen Mininovan tapauksessa. Toisaalta nykyinen sisältöteollisuus ei ole valmis ilmaislevitykseen asenneilmapiirin sekä rakenteensa takia.

Maailma on muutoksen tilassa myös tällä osa-alueella – nyt etsitään niitä kompromisseja ja vedetään niitä linjoja, joilla sisällöntuotanto ja levittäminen tulevat toimimaan seuraavat vuosikymmenet.

Ylilyönneistä yhteisymmärrykseen

Ylilyöntejä näissä keskusteluissa tapahtuu kummallakin puolella. Tietotekniikan taitajat turhautuvat selittämään samoja asioita sinänsä hyvää tarkoittaville henkilöille, jotka puolestaan uskovat siihen, että pelkkä hyvä tahto ratkaisee ylitsepääsemättömätkin tekniset ongelmat. Myös teknisten taitajien puolella on idealisteja, joiden ajatukset eivät välttämättä kohtaa tosimaailmaa, mutta hekin yleensä tuntevat tekniset rajoitukset. Verkkomaailmaa tuntevien pitäisi vain kärsivällisesti jaksaa selittää, miksi maalaisjärjellä hyvältä kuulostavat ratkaisut ovat huono idea niin teknisesti kuin eettisesti.

Harras toive olisi, että näissä keskusteluissa pystyttäisiin katsomaan näiden nörttileimojen ohi ja kuuntelemaan, mitä tietotekniikkaa tuntevilla ihmisillä on aiheesta sanottavana. Rastimon kommenteissaan esittelemä asenne siitä, ettei hän halua keskustella piraattien kanssa, koska “asiantuntemukseni tekijänoikeuksista, sisältötuottamisesta ja sen rahoittamisesta, levittämisestä ja jakelusta on niin eri tasolla kuin heidän tietämyksensä ko. aiheesta“, vetää aika helvetin hiljaiseksi ylimielisyydellään. Linjaus siitä, ettei keskustelua kiinnosta edes aloittaa, koska on niin paljon parempi kuin vastapuoli, ei varsinaisesti edistä rakentavaa ja kestäviin ratkaisuihin tähtäävää keskustelua aiheesta.

…ja yhteisymmärrys sekä kestävät ratkaisut ongelmiin lie se, mikä näiden keskustelujen päämäärän pitäisi olla?

- Janos Honkonen

- Timo Vuorensola

- Jarmo Puskala

Allekirjoittaneet ovat koko vuosituhannen tienanneet elantonsa tekemällä tekijänoikeuksen alaista luovaa työtä ja sisällöntuotantoa.

It’s once again time for my annual report of what I think are the coolest and most exhilarating movies of the upcoming year. I started this tradition one year ago to date, when I didn’t even have my own blog yet. That particular entry was also my very first official blog entry ever. So a big thanks to my friends over at Beyond the Iron Sky for releasing my first blog. I have re-released the 2009 edition here in Zombie room and you can read it here.

One of the best parts of being a total movie nerd is the feeling of anticipation for a new movie. Some movies you even wait for years. Some times you get let down big time like with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but some times your wait is rewarded with movies like Avatar and The Lord of the Rings. Last year there were 15 movies that made my list, but since I’m all about making things bigger and better, I decided to add a few titles to the list. So with no further ado, here’s a list of my most anticipated movies of 2010.

The American is the second feature film from director Anton Corbijn. His debut was the superb black and white Control which was a profile of Ian Curtis, the singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23. Corbijn is most known for his work as a photographer and the work he has done with music videos, but after Control he left no doubt of his abilities as film director. The American is a story of an assassin that hides out in Italy for one last assignment and it stars George Clooney.

I know not all of you are going to agree with this particular choice, but I’m just one of those people who like director M. Night Shyamalan, even his not-so-good work. He manages to keep interested. I do have to admit that The Last Airbender looks a bit weird and I’m some what worried how it’s going to turn out, but I’m still willing to give it a change and go see it non the less. The story follows the adventures of Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. And you know that it’s a true M. Night Shyamalan film, because even the trailer has a twist.

The Book of Eli is on my list mostly for superficial reasons only. Reason number one is how absolutely beautiful the movie looks (or at least what I can imagine from the trailer and images I have seen), and reason number two is the quite impressive cast that includes the always charismatic Denzel Washington who plays Eli in the film and Gary Oldman. The movie is directed by the Hughes Brothers who are an interesting duo, but in no means a safe bet. There is a lot of potential for good things in this movie. The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the cast list for The Expendables. In case you don’t know the movie has the manliest action cast ever, including Sylvester Stallone (who is also directing the flick), Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and even Arnold Schwarzenegger is credited. At this point I don’t even care that the movie is probably going to suck pretty bad, because with a cast like that even if they would just beat people up and say lame one-liners, it would be so cool! Too bad they didn’t get Steven Seagal and van Damme who both turned the role down. Big mistake.

Kick-Ass is an upcoming 2010 superhero film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar. Kick-Ass is a story about Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so. I have to admit that it took me while to warm up to Kick-Ass, but as soon as I saw a red band clip of Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy shooting bullets to his daughter, I was sold immediately. I’ve added it here instead of the trailer, because the trailer didn’t work as well for me as this clip below. If I’m lucky the film will be filled with black humor and crazy characters, just like in the clip below.

Greenberg is movie directed by Noah Baumbach who is a very talented writer and has written some pretty good stuff in his career, including the amazing The Squid and the Whale and a couple of collaborations with Wes Andersson. Ben Stiller plays a New Yorker who moves to Los Angeles in order to figure out his life while he housesits for his brother, and he soon sparks with his brother’s assistant. Doesn’t sound like much, but I’m expecting a well written and heart warming story. I’m also interested seeing Stiller in what seems a bir more serious role.

The Tree of Life is the new movie from director Terrence Malick. Personally this is the only piece of information I need to want to see it. But in case you are not convinced so easily, I did some digging around. The very impressive cast includes Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and the story centers around a family with three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence. Also it is credited as a drama/fantasy/sci-fi. The Tree of Life is only the fifth feature film directed by Malick during his 40 year long career and still he is considered as one of the most respected and talented directors out there. At least by me. So when he actually does do a film, I will be lining up to see it as soon as possible.

I’m guessing Iron Man 2 doesn’t need much of an introduction. Or even reasoning why it’s on my list. I would imagine this movie is probably found on everybody’s most anticipated list. And why not. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the first part quite a lot, mostly because of Robert Downey Jr, but still. In the second part we get to also enjoy the awesome Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow just to name drop a few movie stars. Nuff said!

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are still some of Pixar’s best work and one of my personal favorites, and for that reason alone I’m exited to see the third edition. Also it is in 3D, which should give a little depth to the movie. It has been ten years since the second part was released and also time has passed in the story. Woody, Buzz, and the rest of their toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, departs for college. All of the original cast, including Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, have come on board for the last adventures of these beloved toys. Sounds pretty damn good to me.

The Rum Diary is an adaptation of a novel by the same name written by Hunter S. Thompson and it stars Johnny Depp. The last time when the two collaborated, it wasn’t only movie magic, but a classic was born. I’m of course referring to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In The Rum Diary Depp plays Paul Kemp who is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Other cast members includes Giovanni Ribisi and Aaron Eckhart.

Machete is an upcoming action film from director Robert Rodriguez. It is probably the first of it’s kind because it is actually an expansion of a fake trailer Rodriguez directed for the 2007 film Grindhouse. It star Danny Trejo in his first lead role as the title character. The film also stars Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Rose McGowan, Robert DeNiro and even Don Johnson. Sounds good right? But you still haven’t heard the best part, which is that Steven Seagal will be in the movie!!! For me this is like telling that God himself has part in the film. So you can imagine my excitement of wanting to see it. Here’s the original trailer for Machete from Grindhouse.

Alice in Wonderland is director Tim Burton’s take on the classic tale by Lewis Carroll. In Burton’s story the 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. Burton’s number one actor, Johnny Depp, is of course cast as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter is The Red Queen and Mia Wasikowska is Alice. The whole look of the film is very Burtonesque as always and I’m expecting a fantastical adventure story only he could do. I’m also really looking forward to Depp’s performance as well. At least the styling of The Mad Hatter seems to be spot on.

The Danish Girl is an upcoming film adaptation of the novel of the same name by David Ebershoff. It is based on the life of Lili Elbe, the first person to undergo sex reassignment surgery. The film stars Nicole Kidman who plays Lili and Gwyneth Paltrow who will be his (or hers) wife. Kidman is producing the project via her production company, Blossom Films. Let the right one in director Tomas Alfredson was set to direct the film, but apparently left the project for undisclosed reasons. It is a real shame if he is no longer involved. Kidman will be playing a man in the movie and maybe this will be her Moster moment as it was for Charlize Theron back in 2003 when she won an Oscar for Best Actress.

Somewhere is an upcoming comedy-drama directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning. Dorff plays a hard-living Hollywood actor who re-examines his life after his 11-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit. In my eyes Sofia Coppola hasn’t done one bad movie in her career, in fact it’s quite the opposite. She has only done excellent films, much like her father, Francis Ford Coppola, before her. My expectation are very high, but I’m totally convinced that this is going to be another great movie from Coppola.

Green Zone is an upcoming thriller war film directed by Paul Greengrass. The film is based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran which is based in Green Zone, Baghdad. It stars Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson. Paul Greengrass is mostly remebered for great films like United 93 and the last two Bourne movies, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, in which he also worked with Damon. I have high hopes for this one.

The Social Network is a story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook, and it is directed by David Fincher. The film was adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 novel The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. And even if the subject might sound a little bit awkward to say the least, I have complete trust in Fincher, who is definitely one of my favorite directors. I would go see every single one of his films, no matter what. The cast includes (and I warn you, that now the movie gets even weirder) Justin Timberlake (I’m not making that up, trust me) and Jesse Eisenberg. It is definitely the most intriguing movie of the year.

Black Swan is a psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel. Nina (Portman) and Lilly (Kunis) are rival ballet dancers in New York City, and Nina wins the lead in the ballet Swan Lake. Things fall apart around Nina, and she begins a downward spiral mentally. One of the reasons why I’m so attracted to this movie is that it very much reminds me of a movie I was developing myself some time ago. So Black Swan coming out is bitter sweet for me. But if some one was going to do it, I couldn’t think of a better director than Aronofsky. But the main reason of course is the visionary director himself, whose work in the past has been one of the most interesting and ground breaking of the past decade.

The Green Hornet is an upcoming superhero action film directed by Michel Gondry. It is an adaptation of the radio and television character of the same name. Seth Rogen will be The Green Hornet, Jay Chou is Kato and the amazing Christoph Waltz is Chudnofsky. I’m extremely eager to see Waltz in a different role from Inglourious Basterds. Gondry is the mastermind behind movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. The participation of Michel Gondry feels almost too good to be true and we can most likely expect a very visual and original take on the whole superhero genre.

Here’s an example of how release dates change. Shutter Island was number two on my last years list as well, but as you can see it wasn’t released in 2009 as was originally planned. So it’s on my list again. Shutter Island is an upcoming horror thriller directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. In 1954, two U.S. marshals investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island in Massachusetts. They run into trouble when they are deceived by the hospital’s chief administrator, a hurricane hits and an inmate riot traps them on the island. There is more than enough proof to go around that Martin Scorsese together with Leonardo DiCaprio works beautifully, with no exceptions. So I have a hard time believing this would be their first miss.

I’ve had Inception on this list for a long time now, but as time went on it has slowly but surely made it’s way closer and closer to the top. Inception is a contemporary science fiction action thriller set within the architecture of the mind, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, and is written, produced and directed by Cristopher Nolan. For me this movie seems like Nolan wanted to take a break from Batman and do something completely different before returning back to portraying Bruce Wayne. Sure it’s not official yet that Nolan would direct the third Batman movie, but we can almost surely assume it. I have been very exited about this movie for a while now, but it climbed at least 5 places up because of this beyond perfect teaser trailer (also after it there’s the new trailer that was released on Christmas, so I will include that as well). After you see the trailer, I’m pretty sure you will share my enthusiasm towards this film. It is simply mind blowing.

And here’s the new trailer:

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Movies that didn´t make the list (but are still very interesting or at least worth mentioning), in alphabetical order:

The A Team, directed by Joe Carnahan

Clash of the Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier

Down and Dirty Pictures, directed by Kenneth Bowser

The Fighter, directed by David O. Russell

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, directed by David Yates

Hisss, directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch

Inside Man 2, directed by Spike Lee

Jonah Hex, directed by Jimmy Hayward

Kommandør Treholt & ninjatroppen, directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling

A Nightmare on Elm Street, directed by Samuel Bayer

Red Sonja, directed by Douglas Aarniokoski

Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott

Salt, directed by Phillip Noyce

Tron Legacy, directed by Joseph Kosinski

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, directed by Oliver Stone

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, directed by Woody Allen

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And then we have Hot Tub Time Machine…

Well there you have it. That was my list, but what about yours? Do you think something is missing from these films? Is there something that doesn’t deserve to be there? Drop a comment below and share your views!

Ps. I’m already working on the list for 2011 and oh man it’s gonna be good! Can’t wait to share that with you too.

(Via ZombieRoomTop 20 Most Anticipated Movies of 2010)

Star Trek and District 9 were surprisingly similar films in many ways. At first, they felt like a bite out of a fresh apple, but slowly they started to taste mealier, ditching head first into a pool of cliches and unanswered expectations. Visually, both were outstanding – at first. District 9 ran out of money somewhere around the midpoint, and JJ Abram’s visions of running around on powerplants and blinding the audience with lens flares became too apparent by the end.



And finally, both had quite amazing marketing campaings: Star Trek was sold to me as a teen gay drama in space, and District 9 as a harsh commentary on prejudicament and western immigration politics. Unfortunately, neither of the films eventually responded to things that made me interested. But they were both definitively remarkable films, and deserve to be mentioned.

10. METROPIA

Whine, whine, boo-hoo it was boring, the story was crappy, the world was shitty and nothing happened in it. Wrong. It was a great film, the atmosphere was amazing, the story was maybe the strangest and wildest of the whole year and the cast was excellent. Metropia was not flawless, but a brave, ambitious and exactly what the world of animation needs – completely different from Pixar/Dreamworks dominating the market nowadays. I think we’ll see loads of groundbreaking films from the director Tarik Saleh in the future. So quit whining and respect the film!

Here’s Essi’s review of Metropia.

9. UP!

Pixar never fails. I love everything they’ve done so far, even Cars, and Up! didn’t let me down. The first 20 minutes of the film is easilly the best and most moving 20 minutes in 2009 – hell, maybe in 2000’s. Unfortunately, as the film takes the absurd Pixarian twist, surprisingly enough the story doesn’t live up to the expectations (which is strange, since usually it’s exactly the absurdity that makes their films so excellent). Nevertheless, Up! is a lovely story and Edward Asner delivers one of the best lead performances of the year as the old man Carl Fredricksen. And as a viewer, I feel like somebody respects my time, unlike with most of Dreamwork’s pieces of shit they keep on spitting on the big screen every year.

(BTW. Ever wondered what’s the main difference between Pixar and Dreamworks? Well, here’s quite a good explanation.)

8. CORALINE

Stop-motion 3D animation is here to stay, and Coraline is a living proof that you don’t need a CGI-rendered animation when you have a visionary director working on a story that’s based on a book by one of the greatest modern storytellers. Those being, of course, Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick, in reverse order. Coraline is fun, atmospheric, brave, experimental, beautiful and dark and creepy enough! It’s a humble courtesy for the animaton lovers.

7. AVATAR

The film looks like one of those creepy airbrush-painted dolphin posters that were quite popular in among the most tasteless of us back in early 90’s. The story may not be the most original one – hell, you know exactly what’s going to happen from the very first minutes, and if not, make sure to watch a trailer, it’ll spoil the rest for you. But still, it’s a honest work of love from the grown-up nerd James Cameron, and if you’re able to leave behind the cynicism that’s probably fueling your lost fight against mediocrity, the film is quite damn enjoyable. Most importantly, it’s a film that will last quite long, and spawn heaps of sequels, TV-serieses, cool merchandising – and create a massive fanbase around it. You should enjoy it while you still can – it’s either theaters now, or never on your home telly. The 3D environment is such a big element of the whole film that watching it in 2D is almost like watching bad quality internet porn instead of… Well, the real thing.

Here’s Essi’s review of Avatar.

6. PONYO

The overlord Hayao Miyazaki is back, and takes a dive into the story of the Little Mermaid, giving it a surreal and fantastic twist, and delivering another masterpiece into a long line of masterpieces from the Ghibli Studios. Ponyo felt completely different from any other animation this year – honest and loving in a way only Miyazaki can do. His style is unique, and we sure should hope he stays in good enough shape to make at least few more, because as much as there’s nobody to step in for mr. David Lynch once his time is up, also Miyazaki is unique in this way.

5. MARY AND MAX

“So, you want to make a monochromatic animation about mental illnesses, and you want an all-star cast to it? Yeah, good luck with the funding…” Mary and Max was one of the biggest and most positive surprises – no, out-of-the-blues – this year. It’s a really touching, intelligent and extremely well-written animation about a life-long friendship between a girl in Australia and a man in New York. The story follows the letter exchange between these two, and builds up two perfectly believeable lives with all of the stranger-than-fiction odds and quirks life brings to you.

4. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

To be honest, I was a bit bored with Quentin Tarantino before watching Inglourious Basterds. I mean ever since Jackie Brown, his films haven’t been that impressive, and I started to feel like he had “found his slot” in the industry and descended from this once so promising young director into another retro freak repeating the same joke film after film. But I was wrong. Inglourious Basterds proved that there’s quite a lot of gunpowder still running through his veins, and he’s brave enough to do a film that’s basically long dialogues following each other, seasoned with hefty dozes of sudden violence. And there’s never enough of alternate history movies out there.

Here’s Essi’s review of Inglourious Basterds.

We got so excited about the film that we even did our own version of the trailer – sort of :) Enjoy “Iroun Sky Basterds”!

3. MOON

Semi-hard science fiction with slow pacing, great music, awesome performance and close relations to my next film, Iron Sky, when it comes to Moon as an environment, and Helium-3 as a new target for pure humane greed. Moon is the directioral debute for Duncan Jones who, with this film, catapulted himself among the most interesting directors of the next century. It was recently announced that he will direct the feature film adaptation of Escape from the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew by Alex Kershaw. Jones also revealed that he will be doing “another science fiction film, called Mute, which takes place in a future Berlin. It’s a Blade Runner-inspired piece, a little love letter to that film.” And he will also direct Summit Entertainment project Source Code, a Science-Fiction thriller from Vendome Pictures, which will be produced by Mark Gordon. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to play a major role in the film. So there you go, quite interesting films – and Duncan Jones is also a very active Twitterer.

2. A SERIOUS MAN

The Coen Brothers are able to “tilt my camera”, so to speak, so that suddenly everything around me feels a bit stranger and makes a little bit less sense, making life a little bit more exciting experience. A Serious Man was definitively one of those films – but it’s also a film you can do with two conditions: you need to be Jewish, and you need to have an Oscar to prove you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’d end up lynched.

1. DEAD SNOW

We’ve been raving about Dead Snow enough for one one year already, and to be honest, I’m not even sure if the film’s actual official release year is 2009 (that’s what IMDB claims, though, but I saw it in 2008 already) but who the hell cares? I just can’t get enough of the Norwegian Nazi Zombies, and Tommy Wirkola’s excellent timing in both comedy and horror genres is stellar. He’s among the few directors I’m following very closely, and I’m very interested to see how his next film, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, turns out!

Here’s my review of Dead Snow.

Everyone – have a merry christmas time and remember not to go outside after dark – who knows what’s lurking there!

Ps! I challenge other Energidiots to do their own lists, too!

(Via ZombieRoom)

The US version of Star Wreck has been released today. See the US trailer above and their website at starwreckmovie.com.

You can buy the DVD from Amazon, or rent it from Netflix.

So how does it feel?

Timo directing lt. Swagger back in the days of ancient Rome.

Honestly, back in 2005 we would have laughed at the idea of the film being released in the US. The whole idea of a Finnish film being sold there seemed far-fetched. But times change, Star Wreck isn’t even the only Finnish film released this month! The origins-of-Santa-Claus-film Christmas Story came out couple of days ago. Also low-budget horror Skeleton Crew from our friends from Ylöjärvi came out last month.

It seems that after Star Wreck and Jade Warrior the whole film industry has loosened their tie and opened couple of buttons from the well-starched shirt. And suddenly this more relaxed Finnish film has made sone new friends. And the best is yet to come, there are interesting projects going on, including a film adaptation of 80’s cult superhero comic Peräsmies that will absolutely destroy Hancock.

We Finns tend to compare ourselves to our neighboring countries, expecially Sweden that has always been more popular in foreign countries. And going down that road,w ell we still have a long way to go before Finland produces a game changing film like Let the Right One In. But it’s good to remember that before letting the right one in the best known Swedish vampire film was Frostbitten that was bit of a mess, even though it included a nazi vampire scientist.

Let’s hope that four years from now things have changed for the better once again.

Edit: Turns out November has seen a real Finnish invasion of the land of the free. Another DVD released yesterday was L.A Without a Map, from Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki who almost always casts Kari Väänänen – L.A Without a Map being one of the few exeptions. But Väänänen plays the Russian president in Star Wreck and Iisakki in Christmas Story.
Edit2: Turns out AJ Annila’s awesome horror film Sauna was also released just last month.