John August

The Nines

Easter Eggs for Halloween

Geek Alert, Projects, The Nines

Although we’re still in theaters, we’re busy at work on the DVD for The Nines, which should hit store shelves sometime after the New Year.Before you ask, it’s a traditional DVD, rather than a Blu-Ray. And it would be Blu-Ray, as opposed to HD-DVD, because Sony is the home video company. There are going to be quite a few special features on the disc, but it’s the Easter Eggs that have me blogging today.

My question for the DVD gurus out there: How hard is it to find an Easter Egg? Searching online, I can find scores of sites that list eggs, but none that talk through how to find them in the first place.

Can a clever geek simply run a program revealing the hidden files on the disc, or does one have to click buttons endlessly? I ask because I’d love to have some sort of competition for finding them — but not if someone can simply hack the disc. Your answers will change how we do it.

Remembering the Alamo

Asides, Projects, Rave, The Nines

The Alamo Drafthouse is what you wish every movie theater could be: laid-back, but on its game, and run by people who genuinely give a shit about movies. Plus beer! My thanks to them for hosting The Nines last night. (And every night onward, as long as people keep coming to see it.)

Trailer Competition: The Winners

Follow Up, Projects, The Nines, Video

We had 57 official entries. That’s a lot, and it’s about the most I could handle without my eyeballs exploding.Someone asked yesterday what I would have done if a thousand people entered. I would have curled into a fetal ball and rocked myself through tears. I’m happy to report that many of the entries were quite good, and it was genuinely a pleasure to watch them. Most of them.

I feel like I should pad this opening bit with a few more paragraphs explaining the organizational process (a shared Google spreadsheet), judging criteria (uniqueness > believability) and common elements (nearly every trailer had Hope Davis’s boobs getting groped). But all you really want to know is who won.

So without ado…

Best “Pure” Trailer
—-

“City of Untamed Lust” by [Michael Bell](http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=198338721)

[Link](http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=18842951)

Note that the “pure” category means trailers that use only the footage provided, not that they’re necessarily true to the spirit of the movie. The latter really deserves its own category, so I’m going to use executive privilege to create one.

Could Have Been The Actual Trailer Award
—-
The Nines Trailer by [Ed Jones](http://www.youtube.com/user/DELT55)

You can see a much higher-res version of the trailer [here](http://stage6.divx.com/user/Lupino/video/1672732/The-Nines-Trailer—Competition-Entry).

Best Mash-Up
—-

The Nines (Holiday Version) by [cmikes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsmbbeQYRTw)

While these are the award-winners, there are a lot of honorable mentions and notable efforts:

* Most Lynchian: [DougJ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODwSlBKCNUQ)
* Best Tone Poem: [Jeff Campbell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luR7aD1MkeM)
* Best Music Video: [Klaudio](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vgW_8Q95os)
* Notable Achievement in Cutting: [chicago3j](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZlM-jrgDA)
* Most Merchant/Ivory: [Andreas Climent](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej5cBydCnjA)
* The “Without A Trace” Award for Aggressive Color-Timing: [gpschnyder](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uen9tSvrMCc)
* Best Tic-Tac-Toe: [joelarue](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HVaX2Ux4uc)
* Most Punk Rock: [takahlah](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KONqGftVpY)
* Props for the French New Wave: [CostaBravler](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCaYWzsAFf8)
* Feels Small But Good Award: [joelnorn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf1KwKG6fIg)
* Best Sitcom: [Marcelo Iglesias](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VV6F0WYr3A)
* The KevanRCraft Award for Generosity in Commenting: [KevanRCraft](http://www.youtube.com/user/KevanRCraft)

There were at least another half-dozen that were solid, mostly ones that played it fairly straight. They didn’t stand out because, well, they didn’t stand out. As much as one tries to keep fresh eyes, after the first 20, it’s the novel ones that get noticed.

A general observation is that the successful trailers were the ones that picked a simple concept and stuck with it. Many trailers felt like they were driven by what footage was left in the bin.

Even though the official contest is over, I’ll keep seeding the footage, so if seeing these trailers has inspired any non-participants to try their mouse at it, by all means go ahead. There’s a [new thread](http://lookforthenines.com/forums/topic/post-competition-cut-your-own-trailer-thread?replies) set up to keep track of post-competition entries. I’ll be checking in occasionally, and if one catches my eye I may post it here (and at [lookforthenines.com](http://lookforthenines.com/)).

Thanks and congrats to all who participated. It was really refreshing to see the movie cut to ribbons reinterpreted.