Because of its many locations and logistical demands, the 160-day shoot was broken up into several stages. The production started in Sweden shooting all the winter exteriors and a few interior sets, and then went to Zurich for two weeks to shoot the banking scenes, as well as exteriors and interiors. The team then returned to the U.S. and shot all the remaining interiors on stage at the Paramount lot and the new RED Studios for some 10 weeks. Because the story also takes place over so many seasons, the filmmakers then returned to Sweden in mid-March, and also stopped off in London for two weeks to shoot scenes there, made a stop in Norway and then ended up in Sweden again.

Fascinating how this stuff gets made.

[via Coudal Partners]

This new Netflix terms of use just popped up on my Netflix login page and while I generally skim these things, hold my nose, close my eyes and hit “I agree” I took a closer look at this one given Netflix’ recent history of taking it’s subscriber base for granted.

Here are a few choice quotes from the Netflix Terms of Use which I have yet to agree to:

“Netflix reserves the right, from time to time, with or without notice to you, to change these Terms of Use…”

“We reserve the right to terminate or restrict your use of our service, without notice, for any or no reason whatsoever.”

“We reserve the right in our sole and absolute discretion to make changes from time to time and without notice in how we operate our service. Any description of how our service works should not be considered a representation or obligation with respect to how the service will always work. We are constantly making adjustments to our service and often these adjustments are not completely captured within these Terms of Use.”

“From time to time, we test various aspects of our service, including our website, user interfaces, service levels, plans, promotions, features, availability of movies &TV shows, delivery, and pricing, and we reserve the right to include you in or exclude you from these tests without notice.”

No doubt every terms of service has things in it like this but one would think that Netflix would notify users of its service that things are changing, or that those users are being included in a test of a new user interface, or, god forbid, that their account is being suspended. This says they can cancel my account for any reason they want at any time and not tell me why.

The irony is if you call Netflix with a problem they’re incredibly friendly and helpful, I’ve never had issues with the people who work the phones or with sending back a damaged DVD.

This sounds like it was written by the same person who came up with the Qwikster idea.

Andrew O’Hehir over at Salon reviews the new David Fincher version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I love the Swedish version, all three movies: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I love the acting, the directing, the setting, the music, all of it.

When I heard Fincher was working on an American version I had the same reaction to reading about and then seeing the American remake of Mostly Martha: No Reservations. Dumb Americans can’t deal with subtitles. But, O’Hehir thinks Fincher’s version of the first of the three Dragon Tattoo movies is good if not better than the Swedish version. Now I can’t wait to see it although I have a certain loyalty to the Swedish movies and the actors in them.

Here are the new movie trailers: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Pickin’ & Trimmin’ from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

I finally had time to watch this Matt Morris film and it’s well worth watching. Full screen, turn it up, enjoy a slice of life in Drexel, North Carolina.

[via Boing Boing]

Reed Hastings has tossed in the towel on “Quickster.”

Thank god (and God).

[via Huffington Post]

I’m not the sort of person who thinks much about the height of celebrities. (I’ve always assumed most famous people are about seven feet tall.) The fact that I caught myself wondering about Gyllenhaal’s height suggested there was something uncanny about it, in the way an unsettlingly warm afternoon can bend one’s conversation toward the topic of global warming.

Beautifully written and my guess is that any of us who have ever used the web to get to the bottom of some obscure fact (pre-wikipedia) have experienced this sort of thing.

Note: wikipedia has nothing on Gyllenhaal’s height.

I’ve also read dozens of posts about it, many of them very well thought out and written. No one seems to be defending DVD rentals for the reasons I’m going to list here.

1. DVDs have better image quality than streaming video. If you’ve invested in a decent HD TV, that’s meaningful.

2. DVDs have extras on them not available to streaming customers. I love the behind the scenes, making of, and other goodies on “loaded” DVDs and when I can, I always buy DVDs that have them. Many Netflix rentals have them as well. Streaming offers none of this.

3. The Netflix DVD library is extensive and Netflix may not be able to rip enough of it to make streaming have the long tail of content their DVD library has.

4. If Netflix could and did rip their entire DVD library and their entire 24 million person subscriber base moved to streaming, do you think the current internet could handle it? I don’t. Not at this point. While streaming is no doubt the future this Netflix move is premature given the current limitations of streaming to such a large user base.

My plan is to stick with the new Netflix and whatever the other company will be called for a while to see how it goes but if it doesn’t go well and gets even more expensive I’ll go back to buying DVDs for my collection and reselling them if I watch and don’t like them. I did this for years before joining Netflix and given that if I like a movie I’ll watch it multiple times, I’ll just do it again.

But I’d rather use Netflix, just the way it was.

An opportunity for public libraries

Some may be thinking that this Netflix misstep might be an incredible opportunity for local DVD rental businesses but I doubt that. Brick and mortar costs serious money. What it is however, is an incredible opportunity for public libraries.

Our little library in Warren, Connecticut (population 1000) has a growing collection of both video cassettes and DVDs. I’ve donated dozens of DVDs to them (nice tax write-off) and will continue to do this over time.

Public libraries are free and while their DVD checkout policies aren’t like Netflix’ they’re long enough so one has plenty of time to watch the movies checked out.

If I were running a public library I’d be buying up DVD collections like mad right now and hoping Netflix put their DVDs for sale at some point in bulk so I could buy those too.

No doubt libraries are hurt by Kindles and iPads and other e-readers but those who bet that the end of the physical book is on the horizon may be the same people who are betting that the end of the DVD is on the horizon.

That horizon isn’t in sight yet and physical media has a future. It may not be as commercially viable as it once was but public libraries aren’t money making institutions, they’re pubic services.

Given the economy, as services like Netflix/Qwikster become more expensive free public services like libraries become more attractive.

This post from Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, explaining the price increase: An Explanation and Some Reflections is what gives me pause. It’s a poorly written, convoluted explanation of a bad idea. Read the comments, they’re telling.

Here’s their video apology:

He makes no apologies for the price increase, just for not letting us know why Netflix has done it. The reason they did it is because they are separating their two businesses: DVD rental and streaming. The DVD rental business will be renamed Qwikster and the current web site will be rebranded with this name and a new logo and will sit at a new domain. It will have its own separate charge on your credit card.

While I agree that the future of Netflix is streaming movies over the internet this is the most awkward way to handle the transition I can imagine.

For a company that’s done well, it’s obvious to me that Reed Hastings and Netflix have no clue how their loyal customers are hurt by this and it’s not just the price increase, it’s the separation of the services into two web sites.

For me the appeal of Netflix is their web site where I can search for a movie, decide how I want to watch it (DVD or streaming if its available on both) and then, rate it when I’ve watched it. One web site, one search, decide on platform if possible, then one rating. And, the rating system helps fine tune the Netflix recommendation engine which has worked amazingly well for me, pointing me to movies I’d never heard of or considered before. I enjoy poking around the Netflix site rating and re-rating movies. The separation of the two services will mean I’ll have to do it twice.

At this point very little of the content I like to watch on Netflix is available through streaming so much of my business comes through DVD rental. Unless they’ve got much of their collection digitized and will be announcing it soon, I’d drop Netflix (streaming) before I dropped Qwikster (DVD rental).

It may be that the problems with the US Post Office will lead to enough of a price increase for mailing DVDs that the business model Netflix was founded on won’t work anymore. Anyone who’s thought about this for more than a minute understands that at some point in the future Netflix won’t be shipping out DVDs anymore but that transition from, as Nicholas Negroponte put it “atoms to bits” is as much about marketing and keeping “old skool” customers happy and in the fold as it is about an internal business model change that none of us customers were told about.

The mistake is the way they’re doing this, not the price increase on the service. This stumble may put them out of business.

This is a trailer for a new movie about to be released, Margaret.

Besides looking like an excellent new film by the writer and director Kenneth Lonergan who did You Can Count on Me, the film has a controversial production history which is worth reading about in the Wikipedia entry (read the Production notes).

It seems Lonergan had a hard time editing the movie and took so long that the producers freaked out, people sued each other, and the movie wasn’t released on schedule. No doubt many movies have a bumpy road from idea to release and many movies never get released. Reading about this one is fascinating to me because I’m a fan of what Lonergan did with You Can Count on Me and I know what it’s like to be controlling enough to not let go of a vision.

[via Devour]

Susannah Gora at Salon has done a great job of describing what is so spectacular about the 1989 teen romance movie Say Anything which was Cameron Crowe’s debut as a director, he also wrote the film.

John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler is about as good as it gets: walking the fine line between loser and a young guy who feels okay about himself. Incredible performance by a young Cusack.

We love this movie and it sits alongside the teen movies of the late John Hughes as a classic.