Video vote

Dear everyone,
We still have to choose the videos for the film
nights after reading week. Here are the suggestions that I got from the
Ascot last week. The one with the most votes wins. The special Star Wars
editions are already chosen. If you have any other suggestions, feel
free to pass them on, but you must beable to get hold of a copy from
somewhere.

The Frighteners
Judge Dredd
Star Gate
Outbreak
One of the Aliens films
Screamers
Ghost in the Shell (a manga film, ask Chris)
Dragonheart
Eraser
Doctor Who tv movie
Rocky Horror Show
Escape from LA
Let me know what you think
Luke

Luke wrote:
OK
Good - I have a copy if you want to borrow it.
I thought we had shown this film before ?
OK
All excellent, I have the special edition (extra 20mins)
if you want to borrow it, maybe put this one on just before Aliens 4
is released to cash in on all the hype...
Manga films are always popular, speak to Adam who has
a large collection.
This film is a kiddies film and is crap, avoid like the plague.
Maybe a cult-films evening ?
The movie was not very popular, what about having a poll of everyone's
favorite episodes, then showing the winner. I have most of the Dalek
episodes
and Phil has nearly ALL Dr Who videos available.
Would be popular.
Been done already.
Could do a double bill with Escape from NY ? (Dazza has a copy)
Remember that we have all the ST:TNG and X-files videos available.
I also have most of the V series and some Starfleet (anyone remember
that?)

Anyone got any G-force/Battle of the planets on tape ?

Hope this helps...

Paul.

Paul Ilsley
Paul.Ilsley@, tel 0171 434 8728 (work)
Pauli@, tel 01784 431150 (home)

Gatchaman is it's original name in Japan. Has actually been dubbed
into English twice once as Battle of the Planets and the second
time as G-Force. The BBC got really confused by this. :-)

It's supposed to be out now with sub-titles and I was planning to go
and look for it next month. (Unfortunately it's getting difficult
to find manga now that the craze is over. Actually thats not
quite true, it's difficult to find _good_ manga, now that the
craze is over). Theres supposed to be a hideously butchered version
of Battle of the Planets on the cartoon channel, if anyones got
cable.

Damn, I'm beginning to sound like Phil when he's talking about Dr Who.
I shall go back to my corner now.

Later,

---

Adam Hattrell, Support, Cimio Ltd. adam@

Whats the voting procedure? Do we just vote for one film or rate
them in order of preference? I'll do the later here...
Cool.
A chineese ghost story - I know it's on the planned at some point
list, but I didn't notice it on the following list. It's a rather
cool film based on an old chineese story. Frankly it's a classic.
Outranks all those listed below. Place: 1.
Possible the best film Michael J. Fox has ever made (not saying much).
Good film. Good story. Nice plot twists. Good special effets. I
little bit to out there for the mainstream, the style is reminicent
of Hudson Hawk. Place: 2
This ain't really the comic book Judge Dredd. For a start he takes off
his helmet. Far to Americanny, if you know what I mean. Err, there
must be something nice I can say about this film... Ah yes nice guns.
Kind of rotary cannon things. Place: 12
Nice choice. For those that haven't seen it (where have you been?),
remember that epic sci-fi we were promised with ID4? Well this is
actually it. Good plot, excellent special effects. A little old.
Just one question really, how did that probe manage to send back
it's location in the universe? Place: 5
This is actually rather good. Nice build up of tension. Spoilt a
little at the end, but hey, gotta have a happy ending. Place: 6
NOT 3. Otherwise, I suppose. Would have thougth everyones seen them
to many times by now though. Place: 13
Utter crap. If you can immagine Tremors, but without the humour and
set in space you'll be close. Place: 14
Rather large budget manga (japaneese animation). Manga splits into three
main categories, the zany, the mysterious, and the over the top. Ghost
in the shell fits into the middle catagory. It's a Gibson-esque future
with mysterious corps moving behind the scenes. We follow a "police"
black ops team trying to track down a rather nasty oponent. A worthy
introduction into that type of manga. However, it did have one of the
largest budgets and production team of any manga film, so don't expect
all other mangas to have that kind of visual quality. Place: 7

(Incidently if you want an example of the other to types of manga try,
Dominion Tank police - for zany - or Legend of the Overfiend - for
over the top. Be warned though the latter film depicts rape and
slaughter on a grand scale. If thats likely to offend then a better
choice would be one of the episodes of Legend of the 4 Kings.)
Not seen it, so I vote for it to be watched first. :-) Place: 3
Probably worth watching once. However, seen one Arnie film seen them
all. Not really anywhere near enough one liners in this though.
Place: 9
I'd advise making this a triple biller though and doing it on a
different night. Place: 11
This film never actually hits the potential it offers. You can see
where the director was heading but it never quite makes it. On the
other hand it isn't a bad film, it just could have been so much more.
Nice special effects, some funny moments. Place: 4
Only if people dress up, otherwise you loose all the fun. Hmm, I can
just see Dave's face when people tromp into the Ascot THAT night...
Place: 10
Same old hokum. If you haven't seen the first in a while, or you
haven't seen the first, then it might be worth watching. Be warned
though it is essentially the same film. In fact you get the feeling
that Jake's done this so many times he knows the plot by heart.
I can't wait for the third film, Escape from Harlem - "Jake Pliscin,
I thought you were white...". Place: 8
Well there you go.

Later,

---

Adam Hattrell, Support, Cimio Ltd. adam@

|
| Dear everyone,
| We still have to choose the videos for the film
| nights after reading week. Here are the suggestions that I got from the
| Ascot last week. The one with the most votes wins. The special Star Wars
| editions are already chosen. If you have any other suggestions, feel
| free to pass them on, but you must beable to get hold of a copy from
| somewhere.
|
| The Frighteners

Never heard of it.


| Judge Dredd

It's a bit weak. He takes his helmet off, and kisses girls. How could
2000AD sell out like this?


| Star Gate

OK. Worth seeing on a big screen with a good sound-system.


| Outbreak

Never heard of it.

| One of the Aliens films

Not seen A3. Others are OK.

| Screamers

Never heard of it.

| Ghost in the Shell (a manga film, ask Chris)

Heard of it and would like to see it.


| Dragonheart

Heard of it and ... strangely curious...

| Eraser

Arnie by numbers. See another one first.


| Doctor Who tv movie

Bit poor. And same objection as Judge Dredd - the Doctor actually kissing
girls?


| From Dusk to Dawn

Slapstick violence. "Total Recall" is better.


| Rocky Horror Show

With water-pistols, rice and newspapers? You should advertise this one
seperately - you will get lots of non-IFIS people along.

| Escape from LA

Not seen either of them. Richard tells me they are crap - repeatedly. I'd
still be curious.


| Let me know what you think

Never heard of it.

| Luke

Oh.



As for other recommendations, I would recommend obscure stuff and old
classics that new students might not have seen: "Dark Star"; "Brazil";
"Flash Gordon"; "Doctor Strangelove", "Quatermass", "The Birds" and such.
The problem with this sort of thing is that you will not get obscure films
to win a popularity contest. They may be excellent films - but because most
people have never heard of them, they will not get the votes and not be
shown. Can I suggest that you mix some of these in with the popular ones?

Manga would come under this category - but please let's give "Legend of the
Overfiend" a miss, eh? Watching little schoolgirls get raped then torn to
pieces is hardly my notion of a tasteful SF film. At least tell people what
they can expect to see, and at what level of detail.

"A Chinese Ghost Story" is another example - and one I would heartily
recommend - and so is Rocky Horror.

We have also seen an effect in the past where lots of people vote for the
films that they think are good - because they have already seen them - and
then don't turn up, because they have ... already seen them.


BTW, if you continue on Thursday evenings it is unlikely I will see them
anyway.

---

Simon

---
"This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind" -Ecclesiastes 4:16

simon@ | Not affiliated to any religion
simon@ | Not affiliated to any politics
H (+44/0)1784 431998 | Not affiliated to any ideology
W (+44/0)1784 434568 (GMT/BST) | What does that make me?

"I have been asked to point out, as if you couldn't guess, that my rantings
are not the opinions of One Chip Solutions. So now you know, don't you..?"

Oh for goodness sake. When will people stop going on about this?
It's not as if he's got a choice in whether to take his helmet off or not.
And he doesn't so much kiss her, as just stand still while she gives him a
quick peck. He doesn't move his face at all.
It all looked 'believable' to me.
I thought this film was very good. It captured the images from the comic very
well, and had a halfway reasonable plot.
Just about.
So you don't recommend it for an IFIS video evening then....
Don't.
This was a bit more odd. A more major departure from background personality.
His personality always changed a bit, but this was a tad too far. At least in
Judge Dredd the personality was essentially consistent with the source
material.
I'm sorry.
You seem to be mistaken.
Bad move.
This needs to be a big Union event, with a larger screen, and a big hall full
of people in kinky underwear. Don't try it at an IFIS video evening.


Dominic.

"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself."
[Bill Hicks]

[...]
| > | From Dusk to Dawn
| >
| > Slapstick violence. "Total Recall" is better.
|
| I'm sorry.
| You seem to be mistaken.
| From Dusk Til Dawn is prime contender for best film ever made.

Bwaaahhhaaahaaahaahaaahaaa...

Oh, you're serious. Perhaps there are two films of the same name? The one
I saw was made within the last few years, and had the breathtakingly ugly
Quentin Tarantino in it. Which one did you see?



| > | Rocky Horror Show
| >
| > With water-pistols, rice and newspapers? You should advertise this one
| > seperately - you will get lots of non-IFIS people along.
|
| Bad move.
| This needs to be a big Union event, with a larger screen, and a big hall
| full of people in kinky underwear. Don't try it at an IFIS video evening.

Well, if the ENTS officer is doing his job properly, this sort of thing
should be able to be arranged. By charging an entrance for a
society-sponsored event, IFIS should be able to raise shitloads of social
fund, too. At least that is the way it was back in the Good Old Days(tm) -
maybe things have changed.

Perhaps combine it with a Timewarp Disco(tm)? I dunno. These things can be
organised. It seems your objection is that it would be too popular - which
was precisely my point. Bizarre.

Anyway, we are neither of us on the committee. So perhaps we should leave
the idea to those who have the Power and Responsibility, now we have made
our humble suggestions.

---

Simon

---
"This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind" -Ecclesiastes 4:16

simon@ | Not affiliated to any religion
simon@ | Not affiliated to any politics
H (+44/0)1784 431998 | Not affiliated to any ideology
W (+44/0)1784 434568 (GMT/BST) | What does that make me?

"I have been asked to point out, as if you couldn't guess, that my rantings
are not the opinions of One Chip Solutions. So now you know, don't you..?"

I think Mr Pot is in danger of starting a discussion thread he won't like.
No. My objection was that a TV screen in a lecture block would be a crap
location for this sort of event, and I didn't think IFIS was up to staging it
properly. A half-arsed Rocky Horror night where only three people turn up in
costume, and get surrounded by two dozen IFIS members in jeans and metallica
T-shirts would be a PR disaster.

If IFIS can book the Union hall, and arrange for a big screen, with a disco
afterwards, that'll be great. If they can publicise it widely and
provocatively, it might even work.

Doesn't sound like a video evening though.
On the other hand, we are just CHATting about Rocky Horror evenings. It's what
this list is for.

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Richardson <simon@>
To: ifis-chat@ <ifis-chat@>
Date: 21 October 1997 12:13
Subject: Re: Video vote
Is this the one with the famous hopping vampires of old Shang-Hai? If it is
then I'll agree with Simon, it's a very good film.

You may want to consider the following classics as well,

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Klaatu Baruda Niktu to you as well.
The Day the Earth caught fire - not related at all.
THEM! - Still a classic.
Lost in Space - the original movie featuring Mr. Lennier before the Minbari
abducted him.
Metropolis - better than most modern so called SF Films.

Dave (did I miss a 24hr RPG recently?) Barlow

Technical Support.
Melnibone Software Ltd.
Your pain is our pleasure

It has been alleged that Simon Richardson uttered:
Why not just post my list of films that I really ought to see? That way I might get
to see some of them! If only I'd known television and films had been invented 26
years ago... I have seen Flash Gordon, went to see it on an alter boys (presumably
I must have been good once) outing when it came out, never heard of any of the
others though. :-).

Yours somewhat behind,
S.

Would it be possible/popular to not show videos every Thursday, but show
some on another day? I say this for two reasons:

1) it would be nice to think the Thursday evening meeting has not been
completely taken over by video showing.

2) I would like to see some of those films, and I cannot make Thursdays. I
am sure I am not unique in this. Perhaps showing films + some TV stuff would
go down well on some Saturdays. If you publicise it well, you may draw in
new members.

As for the films, I would like to see:


Escape from LA and Escape from NY.
Perhaps as a double-bill on Saturday?
Very silly.
Chinese Ghost story
I think this is very cute. Also, it is a bit less likely to have been seen
by most and you should show it. (PS Jim Smart owns it, and it might be
borrowable)

I hate the Aliens film, but again a yuk triple bill seems appropriate (if
anyone hasn't yet seen them.

Jenny Gould

---
jenny@

"Share and Enjoy"
-Marketing Division, Sirius Cybernetics Corporation

(The above opinions do not represent a policy statement for or on behalf of
One Chip Solutions)

Jenny wrote:
Possible, probrably. Popular, I doubt.
Obviously I can't speak for the chairman, but I can explain how the
format came into being. Basically, when picking a day for video
evenings you always run into problems. Which ever day you pick
some people are going to miss out. Gamesoc holds their meetings
on Mondays. Wednesday is the most popular day for other clubs and
socs to hold thier events because of the half day. Fridays are bad
because, most students have a social life. Weekends are bad because
such a high proportion of students go home. That leaves you with
Tuesdays and Thursdays. Clubs and socs are technically banned from
holding regular events on Tuesdays, because it would clash with the
SU general meetings. Of course thats never stopped anyone in practise.
Thursdays, however, have the rather major advantage, that
a) very few other societies meet on Thursdays and;
b) most IFIS regulars have already put aside Thursdays for IFIS.

Now for some statistics. Way back in my first year, I joined IFIS
and attended most of the video evenings. They generally got a dozen
regulars attending the Bob being the only new first years to make it.
In my second year, it was fairly similar, with two exceptions. First
the night we showed Demolition Man we got a good 40 showing up, with
most leaving after the first film. Secondly the manga evening got
a fairly large number of people showing up.
In the third year we hit jackpot, we moved the video evenings to
Thursdays and cut them to one film. Not only did we regularly fill
the room, but we got at least half a dozen new members signing up
for each evening. At the end of the year we had over 180 members
on the books. Thats the highest I've ever seen it. Considering
we started with about 40 (a bad year) we did rather well.
It isn't. Being as only one video is shown at about 7:00 people
will generally get to the pub for about 8:30 or 9:00, which is
a long time before a number of other regulars make it.
Well you may not be unique, but you probably are a minority.. As I said
most regulars already keep their Thursday nights open for the pub meet.
The greater good for the greater number.
Perhaps, but I would tend to doubt it. Still fortunately for you
I'm not on the comittee anymore, so you never know.

Later,

---

Adam Hattrell, Support, Cimio Ltd. adam@

How about an evening of some really schlocky 50s sci-fi films?
(for example, Forbidden Planet, which I had to analyse in a seminar once
and of which I have fond memories.) And pleeeease do a Rocky Horror
evening, as I would love to get the chance to see it with lots of people
dressing up etc, but have never had the opportunity.
Mary-Jane

In message <7163823F2EDACF1188610000C0F06ACF2156AB@>,
Roebuck M <M.Roebuck@> writes
I think this is an excellent idea, it gets my vote.

---

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