Comments on: Along came a spider ...

Along came a spider ...

bwg — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:44:01 -0800

"... straight out of Down-Under, explosive stuntman-editor-producer-writer-actor-director Nash Edgerton delivers his latest effort, "Spider", a 9-minute action-thriller that gives an all-new meaning to old Peugeots, stunning blondes and love-jokes."

By: daq

daq — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:59:06 -0800

Ouch... That had to hurt.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:04:50 -0800

Nothing says quality like a Camry.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:15:51 -0800

Man that was some dark shit. Special effects/stunts/editing was top-notch.

By: djrock3k

djrock3k — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:20:22 -0800

KA-POW! that was GREAT! Give that guy a budget, pronto, he's got the touch.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:22:22 -0800

buffering...buffering...is this available somewhere else in a format that doesn't suck dead dingo's balls?

By: kavasa

kavasa — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:25:59 -0800

Ubu, the format is absolutely fantastic, it has, GASP, quality! Just pause and let it download the whole thing, then play it. God. People get a free short movie in better-than-youtube quality and they start talking about dingo testicles. Unreal. Anyway! Good lord. I totally gasped and covered my face at both of those. I think I might have gone "omigod!" at the second, too. :p

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:32:04 -0800

ah, it didn't seem to be downloading on pause. i've got wombat out back that needs fellating. i'll do that & come back later to see if this thing's downloaded by the time we've finished.

By: metaculpa

metaculpa — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:33:50 -0800

>i've got wombat out back that needs fellating. Why is this such a good metaphor for the internet?

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:29:40 -0800

BUFFERING... (the wombat's going to work on the dingo now)

By: Megafly

Megafly — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:41:06 -0800

He has a thing or two to learn about pacing if he wants to be a director. And what the hell are "love jokes" how can something give a whole new meaning to a nonsense phrase?

By: empath

empath — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:51:56 -0800

oww

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:57:22 -0800

I suspect that of the 122,322 views, around 90% must be people refreshing their browsers again & again becoz the damn thing simply refuses to go beyond 2:29. Seriously, gimme YouTube anyday. Regardless of the quality, at least it *works*.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:28:46 -0800

for Megafly

By: papakwanz

papakwanz — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:40:46 -0800

Ubu: just turn the volume down and let it play all the way through in another window. Come back 10 minutes later and voila.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:04:48 -0800

I didn't have any problems with it loading. The direct link to the FLV file is http://en.qoob.tv/content/video/289.flv if you prefer. I did feel that it was a bit of an elaborate setup just to do a couple of effects gags. Don't get me wrong, the effects were very professional and well done, it just felt like aside from the fx there wasn't much else.

By: buriednexttoyou

buriednexttoyou — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:05:44 -0800

Great ending, really tickled my dad and I. He really did do a lot with very little.

By: bru

bru — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:21:44 -0800

SPOILER ALERT. I let it load. I called my wife. We saw it together. We waited. We waited. We laughed. We rewinded (old media, I know) the last few minutes to be sure. We laughed again. It's definitely not an action-thriller. It doesn't need this kind of misleading-mad-max-tongue-in-cheek promo to be amusing, but thanks for the laugh, bwg, we had a nice moment. :-)

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:25:12 -0800

papakwanz: the problem here is that if the video plays through to the end, the player is just dying to pop up this fucking frustrating "other videos" screen: it's like "ok, show's over, whaddya wanna watch now?", with no option to "play again", or drag the slidebar back to the beginning. either i have the stupid today, or else it's shite interface design, or maybe poorly tested (Firefox, Flash 9), but it shouldn't take a fucking IT professional two hours to (not) view 9 minutes of video over ADSL. admittedly, i haven't done a whole lot of tinkering with browser settings, but nor should i have to, if the medium is set up intelligently. that's what i mean about YouTube at least working. no nonsense, no bullshit, no unexplained unsurmountable obstacles to viewing. maybe i'll give IE a crack at it. perhaps switch off the firewall. enable popups. disable cookies...? ah, fuck it. it'll be on at the sydney film festival. i'll boycott it there.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:32:33 -0800

(Rhomboid: how did you find the direct link to the file?)

By: disgruntled

disgruntled — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:40:01 -0800

Action-thriller? It's an exceptionally well-done dark comedy.

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:54:31 -0800

I don't know if Rhomboid used FireBug, but that's what I used. Load the page, pause the video, open firebug, hit the Net tab, and find the one big FLV file at the end of the list. Et Voila.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:05:04 -0800

awesome! thanks, Skorgu!

By: empath

empath — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:04:12 -0800

Ubu.. okay we all got the fucking point the first time, did you have to shit all over the thread?

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:17:14 -0800

(can't you show any empathy for a frustrated little ubu?)

By: andywolf

andywolf — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:20:32 -0800

now that's not being very empathetic.

By: Pinback

Pinback — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:24:45 -0800

The man certainly likes his car accidents - see 'Lucky' from a couple of years ago. I'm sure Australian film and writing schools supply their lecturers with a single big red stamp that says "not enough exposition!", which gets used too liberally during marking. Dragging things out for too long before the punch is a common failing of Australian shorts, although this one has some nice stuff going on with setting up the argument and the fill-in characters at the servo. And I love that long moving pan at ~ the 6 minute mark. "I quite enjoyed it; I'm giving it a four. Margaret, what did you think?"

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:27:41 -0800

(anyway, sorry. there's just nothing in the world that shits me more than online media that simply won't play, with no help or troubleshooting files, and no settings that you have any control over to rectify the problem. oh, hang on. mosquitoes shit me more. but nothing else) on preview: "Well, I don't know, David..."

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:28:54 -0800

"Action-thriller? It's an exceptionally well-done dark comedy." it may in fact beat out the.. DARKEST SKETCH! DARKEST SKETCH! DARKEST SKETCH!

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:50:36 -0800

(God, how I love Robot Chicken. I suspect that despite being 40 my brain ceased becoming any more spohisticated beyond age 13.)

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:54:28 -0800

Well, you just knew it had to end badly with her dramatically-ironic warning, "You always take it one step too far." The major surprise was the denouement and come-uppance (is Edgerton working under the Hays Code?). The spider thing might seem over-the-top, but then, spiders are serious business in Australia, especially around Sydney, even if they're no longer as deadly. Anyway, Edgerton has talent, but I suspect it lies closer to editing or producing than directing. The production on this was excellent. As noted, pacing is his weakest point, and it's easy to direct people when one of them is yourself, and mostly they have little to say.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:04:09 -0800

(having seen it now, can i redeem myself with the tidbit that the indian guys in the petrol station are talking about english cricketer monty panesar, and calling him a sisterfucker?)

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:29:39 -0800

It will probably be available in quicktime soon at the blue tongue films website. Not that that is a better format.

By: spacelux

spacelux — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:57:58 -0800

I was annoyed, then I snickered, then I laughed. Thanks for the vid!

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 15:01:05 -0800

Enh. I've seen really gripping shorts; this was a couple of schlocky shock stunts wrapped in really nice production values.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:38:34 -0800

Anyone else notice the theme song was performed by Ione Skye? That's weird. Furthermore, Enh? I'm looking at you, ikkyu2. Does the internet really need another three letter expression of apathetic discontent?