Nothing but a Movie

November 22, 2011 7:55 AM

"The following HTML 5 movie contains the sort of images that you see every day in the news, and thus might not be suitable for children. Turn your speakers on if you dare."

Inspired by Roberto Bolaño’s "The Colonel’s Son," with help from Jocabola, who previously worked on Arcade Fire's "The Wilderness Downtown." via

posted by jbickers (19 comments total)

Roberto Bolaño, you say?

(Goes off to look at pictures of puppies for an hour.)
posted by griphus at 7:56 AM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Zombies who are also ninjas?

"Turn your speakers on if you dare."
I was hearing quiet, atmospheric music without sound effects.

"contains the sort of images that you see every day in the news"
This is what your local news looks like? According to your profile, you live in Kentucky. If what you're saying is true, all the whiskey in the state wouldn't be enough to draw me there.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:18 AM on November 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

I love all the neat stuff we can do with NG web standards but once again the performance is lacking.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:23 AM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this was a bit strangely presented (re the "speakers" comment and the "everyday news", neither of those made sense to me).

I found the presentation odd, I couldn't watch that for much longer as my eyes tried to predict the next frame, read, and follow it... I want a bit more control over media I need to read.
posted by tomswift at 8:25 AM on November 22, 2011

Doesn't seem to run on the Android browser.
posted by octothorpe at 8:30 AM on November 22, 2011

Awesome work. Nota bene: Pain being a substitute for the hunger was a major plot point of Return of the Living Dead part 3.
posted by Renoroc at 8:33 AM on November 22, 2011

Proof that HTML5 is actually Flash (circa 2000), except without the plug-in.
posted by foggy out there now at 8:36 AM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

The music stopped halfway through for me. Was that meant to happen?
posted by Gordafarin at 8:51 AM on November 22, 2011

Thankfully, it's pretty short.
posted by CarlRossi at 9:39 AM on November 22, 2011

Not working in Firefox. I thought HTML5 was supposed to end all this bullshit.
posted by KingEdRa at 10:57 AM on November 22, 2011

So HTML5 is for "motion comics"? Tell Marvel they can now re-create their 1960's cartoons.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:03 AM on November 22, 2011

KingEdRa: "Not working in Firefox. I thought HTML5 was supposed to end all this bullshit."

I have a feeling that universal HTML5 support is going to be "just around the corner" for a long time to come. If ever.
posted by octothorpe at 11:16 AM on November 22, 2011

Doesn't work in Mobile Safari either.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:33 AM on November 22, 2011

I know it's a derail but I am sooooo sick of zombies now. I never thought I would be, but I am. Therefore, HTML5 sucks. No, just kidding. Please, HTML5, kill Flash. Flash is like the zombie infection that makes my computer give up.
posted by zomg at 11:52 AM on November 22, 2011

Flash, HTML5, whatever: If your website involves a splash screen and a loading progress bar, you have done it wrong.
posted by ook at 12:32 PM on November 22, 2011

Looks great in Opera. But it's an ad for Granta.
posted by Hogshead at 3:08 PM on November 22, 2011

I've seen spam that was more meaningful and entertaining.
posted by Goofyy at 5:36 AM on November 23, 2011

I think that would have been much better without the really odd news/speaker lines, both of which put me in an adversarial position with it which it lacked the substance to survive.
posted by neuromodulator at 5:52 PM on November 24, 2011

Granta Blue.
posted by chairface at 9:52 PM on November 24, 2011