Posts filed under 'movie'
Watch films?
I preface this post with a caveat: I am not entirely sure about this site. It’s definitely questionable but so far no tragedy has befallen me (I just feel a little foolish for falling into this situation after all these years online).
Here’s the story.
I was informed, by someone I trust but who shall remain nameless in case this all blows up in my face, of a movie download site http://iwatchfilm.com that offered very cheap downloads. Now, I am usually wary of such offers, but as I said, I trusted the source and they reported they were happy with the service they had received so I signed up with iwatchfilm.
So far, so good.
I downloaded a few films, each in standard definition (or close enough) and played them on my home cinema system. They all looked and sounded indistinguishable from DVD playback on a 52" screen. I tried an HD film (which took an age to download but was otherwise okay) and it was similarly successful, very good quality.
Still looking good.
Only later did my ‘little grey cells’ kick in. I started to wonder how on earth they could offer new releases at $2.99 for DVD quality. Yeah, I know, “if it’s too good to be true…”. I decided to do a simple test (one I should have done before!), I searched for Avatar, and it came up! Avatar. You know, the one that is still showing in the cinema theatres. The one that is not yet available on DVD. Suspicious, no? So I did some digging.
A google search for iwatchfilm.com shows up confused results. One poster has put the same complaint on several sites claiming iwatchfilm defrauded him, but that’s the extent of the complaints so far as I can tell. This has put me on alert though, so I am checking my credit card statements more carefully than usual for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, this will be a false alarm raised by someone who confused themselves over some credit card charges because there is certainly not a flood of complaints one might reasonably expect for a real fraud/phishing site (also none of the usual fraud report sites, such as McAffee, are reporting any problems with iwatchfilm).
There is also a claim that iwatchfilm is associated with zml.com. The sites are essentially identical albeit with different window dressing so this is a credible claim. zml.com has garnered something of a reputation for making excessive charges, but I suspect this is as much stupid people not understanding ZML’s charge policy and once again many of the posts are identical so evidently submitted by the same person to several sites. ZML state that for 99cents you get one day’s downloading or 10 films, whichever comes first, but you are committing to monthly charges of $39.90 thereafter. The way the fees are presented (after you have signed up for a free account) and the fact that the $39.90 charge is taken on the second day not being highlighted (although it is mentioned) is disingenuous but not fraudulent. People complained about the monthly charge after taking the 99cent offer, believing they were victims of a bait-and-switch. I remain sceptical and think they simply misread or misunderstood the ZML charge model.
iwatchfilm works differently. You place a deposit in your account against which films are charged as you select and download them. No monthly fees. Simple.
So, there is some small indication that iwatchfilm and zml may not be all they claim but on balance I do not think there is enough credible evidence to suggest they are actually fraud sites.
Some people seem to have the idea these sites are run out of Russia because both sites are attempting the same trick that AllOfMp3 tried, using licensing from the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS) to avoid paying studios excessive (or any) royalties. This tactic did not work for AllOfMp3 and it probably won’t work for iwatchfilm either. Worse, if iwatchfilm is operating out of the US then they are probably not covered by ROMS.
Jeff Bardin has done the heavy lifting on tracking down ZML. It is clear in his piece that Jeff disapproves of the site and he implies heavily that it is a fraud while carefully avoiding a direct statement to that effect. iwatchfilm.com has a suspicious domain history with many relocations and changes. Suspicious, but my no means conclusive of purpose.
The fact that a company it registered in Cyprus, operated by someone in France, and the site served from the US may be no more sinister than an attempt to veil the operators, confuse jurisdiction, or simply be practicality (I have hosted websites in the US when the price was right). International operations like this are commonly used to exploit legal jurisdiction or, in this case, to make is difficult for organisation like the MPAA to pursue the company and its operators. This all makes iwatchfilm legally questionable but does not suggest any nefarious intent toward their customers.
On the flip side, Jacqui Chang reviewed zml.com for Ars Technica back in 2007. Although Jacqui raises the obvious question of legality there is no indication in the article, nor is there any follow up, that the site is engaged in fraud or phishing.
So where does all this leave us?
Firstly, I am wary but not overly concerned about these sites being outright fraud sites. The reports of ‘fraud’ are actually related to the monthly charge mix-up, not out and out fraud. There is simply not enough credible evidence to support the idea of these sites being used for fraud, but I will keep a closer watch on my credit card bills for a few months just to be sure. If it were not such a monumental hassle I would cancel my credit card but since I have no evidence of actual fraud this seems like a bit of an overreaction at the moment.
Contrary to a couple of claims on-line, the movies I have downloaded so far have been excellent quality. Download speeds seem to have improved since some people complained since I easily achieved 200-300kB/s, which is typical for my line.
As for the issue of legality. Jury is still out (probably literally given the very muddied water around this whole issue) with regard to the licensing, but there is absolutely no question that the newer releases are being obtained by questionable means.
My advice? Caveat emptor. If I knew at the beginning what I know now I would have played safe and avoid the sites iwatchfilm and zml. Since I’m involved now, I will keep you posted if anything happens.
6 comments January 2, 2010
Avatar
Let me preface this review by saying that I enjoyed Avatar. It is a pleasant enough way to pass 162 minutes.
This film has everything. Natives presumed by the human invaders to be primitives. The arrogant humans exploiting a worlds natural resources, with careless disregard. Gung-ho marines. The dedicated marine who sees the light and joins the natives to fight of the humans. In summary, the story is trite, preachy and packed with cliche. Don’t get me wrong, this alone does not make Avatar a bad film and Cameron produces enough visual interest to distract from the lack of originality in the story. I cannot help but think that Cameron is tipping-the-wink to audience that the plot is weak by calling the material sought by the invading humans Unobtainium. (Unobtainium is term used by writers for a substance necessary to move along the plot, but serves no other purpose.)
If your taste in films is for eye-candy then Avatar does not disappoint. WETA Digital have produced another masterpiece. The visuals are stunning and nothing less than we have come to expect from big budget films. It is easy to forget that you are, for most of the film, watching an entirely digital world. The soundscape is similarly detailed and beautifully constructed.
I watched Avatar in 3D and true to his word Cameron resisted too many of the obvious ‘ooh look, it’s 3D’ moments. On the whole the 3D aspect of the film worked well. The problem with 3D films, and this one is no exception, is that the director controls the focus of the image. We accept this in normal 2D films, but in 3D films it tends to be distracting. In normal life we choose the object of focus. Objects in real life do not go in an out of focus on their own account. A 3D films attempts to present a 3D world, but the director then forces objects in this world in and out of focus. The dissonance this causes throws me out of the film and is migraine inducing when too vigorously applied.
The performances are excellent and, storyline aside, the script tight and, to be fair, largely character driven once you’re past the Unobtainium. Casting is spot on and each of the main characters is believable.
Is this film a revolution in the cinematic art as many are claiming? The technology used to produce Avatar will undoubtedly be used in future films. It is a natural progression from previous technology and the one thing we can depend on from Hollywood is that a novel cinematic technique will be flogged until dead (bullet time anyone?).
From an audience’s point of view it does not matter how clever the technology used to produce a film is, it is the product that is important. Cameron has invested a great deal of time and effort in creating Pandora. The Na’vi language invented for the film is interesting if you know it is a language created for the film and not just noises made to sound vaguely like a language. Similarly, it is rather obvious that everything in the film was constructed specifically for the film but the additional information that Cameron had experts review the flora and fauna to ensure it was feasible is interesting but hardly contributes to the film otherwise. The point is, all this background work may have helped in the making of the film, but it is hard to see how their omission would be a detriment to the final product. I just wish Cameron had invested some of the care lavished on the visuals on that pesky distraction called a story. This film is like a stunningly beautiful woman. With the IQ of a table lamp.
Add comment December 18, 2009
Childhood memories of Superman
Once upon a time a small boy lived in army housing in a small village, well not even a village really, called Longcross in Surrey. He wiled away his summer vacation playing with friends in the woods that surrounded the street on which he lived. All the usual pastimes of a pre-teen boys were theirs to enjoy; tree climbing, building tree houses, making fires (that they were, of course, forbidden to do), cycling to the local town (another forbidden pleasure), and generally getting into (and usually out of) scrapes.
One day the friends, on one of their regular sorties onto the common that lay just beyond the woods, came across an odd sight. Indeed it was also and odd site, because a large area of their common had been covered with a low scaffolding structure just two feet above the ground but covering a large area. What, they thought, could be going on here?
With time to spare, it was after all the summer vacation, they returned to the odd site each day and observed with increasing fascination as, day by day, a street appeared on their once wild and open common. Yes. A street. Supported just above the heather by the scaffolding, appeared a mid-western American street.
Closer inspection revealed that the marble stairs to the bank were in fact painted wood. The buildings all lacked, well a building. Each house, shop and bar consisted of nothing more than a wooden facade painted to look like stone, or brick, or in some cases plain old wood. The flowers were plastic and the church on the distant hill was actually at the end of the street but much smaller, no more than ten feet tall in fact.
Finally the boys plucked up enough courage to ask one of the men working to build the street what it was for. His reply surprised and delighted the group.
“Their filming Superman two here.”
Wow! How frickin’g cools was this. Superman. Here. In England. Superman!
The boys continued to visit the site, or as they now rather sophisticatedly referred to it ‘the set’, each day hoping to meet Superman.
They saw many wonderful things. A man being pulled on a wire through a wooden wall. A man having a gun ’shot’ from his hand by a baddie using laser beams from his eyes (this required some imagination from the boys because there was no laser, in fact there was no baddie, just a man throwing down the gun and pretending by be blasted backwards). A building was burned too, well, even more interestingly, a build was made to look like it was burned without actually being set on fire. And, perhaps best of all, a car was launched through a building and landed on a car sales lot.
Emboldened by their earlier encounter and their growing sense of familiarity with ‘the set’, the boys began to chat with the workers on ‘the set’. Later the boys would increase their kudos among friends unable to attend by referring to their ‘friends on the crew’. This bold familiarity brought with it another bonus – doughnuts!
After ‘the crew’ had finished with the tea trolley that was delivered to ‘the set’ each afternoon by (oh how the boys enjoyed this piece of insider jargon) ‘craft services’, the boys were allowed to feast on leftover donuts. This caused some puzzlement and small concern with mothers when the boys regularly announced that they were ‘really not all that hungry, so could we please have a small dinner?’
All too soon, the summer drawing to a close, ‘the crew’ packed up their things, dismantled the street and left. Leaving behind no trace more substantial than a small boys memories that either the street, or ‘the crew’, had ever been present.
Did the boys ever meet Superman? Sad to report that they did not. It seems that in this scene Superman was absent, much to the disappointment of all concerned. But, despite this, that summer remains one of the most keenly remembered among that small group.
Add comment September 3, 2009
