[00:00.000 --> 00:01.760]  We decided we want to go on a tour.
[00:02.500 --> 00:11.160]  So, me, as the Soviet ambassador, we started going to different countries, to the States, to France, anywhere, U.S. government property, no trespassing.
[00:13.300 --> 00:14.380]  Well, we didn't bother.
[00:15.240 --> 00:17.780]  And I actually got kicked out of a Disney party.
[00:18.180 --> 00:24.480]  I showed up as a Soviet ambassador at a Disney party in the Marriott Hotel in San Diego, and they kicked me out.
[00:24.580 --> 00:26.560]  It was really wonderful.
[00:26.880 --> 00:28.940]  We did a couple of performances like that.
[00:30.000 --> 00:36.320]  And we had a couple of embassies at different hacker camps and art festivals.
[00:36.340 --> 00:38.060]  That was in Holland, for example.
[00:38.360 --> 00:39.240]  It was really nice.
[00:39.400 --> 00:42.760]  We got inspired by... what was his name?
[00:43.240 --> 00:44.740]  The guy with the domes, whatever.
[00:45.640 --> 00:46.420]  Vakmester Fuller.
[00:46.540 --> 00:47.960]  Vakmester Fuller, of course.
[00:48.220 --> 00:49.100]  He was not a Soviet.
[00:50.000 --> 00:50.560]  So...
[00:50.560 --> 00:52.160]  No, the Soviets invented it first.
[00:52.300 --> 00:53.260]  Yeah, yeah, you know.
[00:53.760 --> 00:58.240]  And then in 2009, we created a second computer game.
[00:58.240 --> 01:03.660]  But back then, we already thought about, should we go on with the games?
[01:03.700 --> 01:09.460]  Or should we go to the next level and have a different kind of format to tell the story?
[01:09.840 --> 01:17.700]  So, back then, we started discussing a lot the state of narrative cinema nowadays.
[01:17.700 --> 01:21.080]  And that's what I actually wanted to tell you today.
[01:21.720 --> 01:31.340]  There is a fundamental problem with traditional narrative cinema as we see it in the last hundred years.
[01:31.700 --> 01:36.180]  So, there's lots of drama about cinema and the drama of cinema.
[01:36.380 --> 01:36.800]  Why?
[01:37.040 --> 01:37.360]  Okay?
[01:38.160 --> 01:40.820]  We, at monochrom, we like movies.
[01:41.160 --> 01:43.500]  Movies is a great medium.
[01:43.980 --> 01:47.780]  I never ever cried when I played a computer game.
[01:47.980 --> 01:53.240]  But I cried, you know, like... like a dying pig when I watched Titanic.
[01:53.440 --> 01:53.900]  Can you imagine?
[01:55.140 --> 02:01.820]  But still, I'm just picking that example because it's so horrible and so obvious at the same time.
[02:02.460 --> 02:05.560]  Cinema, like books, but cinema even more.
[02:05.720 --> 02:08.840]  Cinema is a very emotional medium.
[02:10.000 --> 02:14.720]  You embrace, you indulge yourself into another world, another universe.
[02:14.940 --> 02:21.240]  You sit there for two hours and you let the story guide you in a certain way and emotionalize you.
[02:21.420 --> 02:22.420]  We really like that.
[02:22.600 --> 02:25.840]  So, the medium of the cinema is not dying.
[02:25.840 --> 02:30.780]  It's over a hundred years old, but still, it's out there.
[02:30.980 --> 02:39.240]  The problem we, at monochrom, always had with the traditional narrative cinema of the early 21st century is...
[02:39.240 --> 02:48.020]  The traditional narrative cinema of the 21st century is completely ignoring what's going on right now in our world and what's important about it.
[02:48.380 --> 02:49.480]  I'll show you.
[02:51.040 --> 02:52.740]  Movies are about action.
[02:52.740 --> 02:57.960]  You need movement that the camera can point at.
[02:58.180 --> 02:59.840]  You need action, explosions.
[03:00.040 --> 03:01.500]  You need love scenes.
[03:01.640 --> 03:09.880]  You need something that's happening in order to film it to make it attractive for the medium of cinema.
[03:10.260 --> 03:25.020]  The problem nowadays is that we live in a world that is almost, in all the aspects that are important nowadays, completely deprived of things that can be filmed.
[03:25.620 --> 03:26.580]  What's going on?
[03:26.760 --> 03:31.140]  It's about the so-called displayability of what's going on nowadays.
[03:31.780 --> 03:36.300]  It's kind of easy to film a computer because a computer is really important nowadays.
[03:36.660 --> 03:38.060]  But it's boring.
[03:38.200 --> 03:39.680]  Why would I film a computer?
[03:39.680 --> 03:49.620]  The important stuff is going on in the computer in abstract processes that cannot be told in...
[03:49.620 --> 03:53.580]  That can be told, of course, but nobody wants to tell those stories.
[03:54.240 --> 03:55.780]  So, let's go on to the next slide.
[03:56.060 --> 03:57.780]  The movement I was talking about.
[03:57.860 --> 04:01.340]  There's a really great term by the French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze.
[04:01.340 --> 04:03.740]  And he talks about the movement image.
[04:03.980 --> 04:11.180]  You need to film action to make something visible or interesting in traditional cinema.
[04:11.420 --> 04:15.960]  Traditional cinema is a great way to also spread ideas.
[04:16.280 --> 04:18.640]  So, for example, I mentioned before Titanic.
[04:19.160 --> 04:24.840]  Titanic, of course, is a multi-million dollar film about dying people on a ship.
[04:24.840 --> 04:29.640]  At the same time, James Cameron told the story, and that's really important.
[04:29.980 --> 04:37.600]  Cameron told the story about two different people in the class structure of the early 20th century.
[04:37.820 --> 04:41.560]  So, it's a love story between upper class people and lower class people.
[04:41.740 --> 04:44.440]  And that's actually the narration of the film.
[04:44.560 --> 04:49.420]  It's not all about the ship and how it's falling apart and people are dying.
[04:49.420 --> 04:54.520]  The emotional story is this love story between two members of different classes.
[04:55.480 --> 04:57.940]  So, and that's exactly what I'm talking about.
[04:58.120 --> 04:59.360]  We need stories.
[04:59.620 --> 05:04.040]  We need narrations that tell the stories of what's going on nowadays.
[05:04.560 --> 05:07.860]  And that's very important.
[05:08.800 --> 05:14.580]  Filming a movie about a bank robbery is pretty easy and it will go on forever.
[05:14.580 --> 05:22.080]  But filming or creating a movie about the real crimes of the 21st century is pretty hard.
[05:22.280 --> 05:24.740]  Because the real crimes of the 21st century look like this.
[05:25.320 --> 05:35.360]  The real crimes are abstract algorithms somewhere in the data systems of our world.
[05:35.640 --> 05:38.580]  That's what's defining what's going on nowadays.
[05:38.580 --> 05:46.400]  That's what should emotionalize us, but it's not going on because nobody is telling those stories.
[05:46.580 --> 05:47.580]  There are, of course, documentaries.
[05:48.000 --> 05:53.460]  There are people like the Yes Men trying to break it down in interesting bits and snipplets, yeah?
[05:53.760 --> 06:03.900]  But still, we need more movies because movies are a mass medium, an emotional mass medium that tell the story of that crime.
[06:03.900 --> 06:05.080]  What's going on?
[06:06.520 --> 06:11.920]  There are hardly any movies... I mean, like, there are almost a billion people using Facebook.
[06:12.100 --> 06:17.860]  Why there is almost no Facebook or interaction on social networks like Facebook in movies?
[06:18.100 --> 06:20.420]  Of course, to a certain extent, that's boring.
[06:20.560 --> 06:27.980]  It's boring filming Facebook or you end up with a suit or something because you film a website and you don't... whatever, yeah?
[06:27.980 --> 06:38.300]  But what I mean is that the stories of Hollywood are still the same that were told in the 1920s.
[06:38.580 --> 06:39.420]  What the f*ck?
[06:39.560 --> 06:40.240]  What's going on?
[06:40.520 --> 06:50.860]  There should be a new era right now of movie makers and film makers and creative people who take the everyday life they live in.
[06:50.860 --> 06:54.080]  And I mean, my life is 60% online, yeah?
[06:54.600 --> 06:56.020]  Why is that not shown?
[06:56.200 --> 06:56.920]  Of course, it's hard.
[06:57.180 --> 07:00.400]  Of course, you have to find special ways to tell those stories.
[07:00.720 --> 07:02.080]  Maybe it's a fairy tale.
[07:02.240 --> 07:04.900]  Maybe it's a fable or something.
[07:05.040 --> 07:14.820]  Of course, those abstract formats here, they can't be reduced to like a simple filming what's going on.
[07:14.820 --> 07:16.380]  It doesn't work that way, yeah?
[07:16.740 --> 07:18.740]  But there are so many creative people out there.
[07:18.940 --> 07:26.880]  Why is there no creative discourse about how to tell the stories of the 21st century?
[07:27.240 --> 07:39.520]  So we need to tell all those love stories and crimes and dramas that are actually abstract, but they are actually creating our lives and we create them.
[07:39.520 --> 07:41.540]  So how can we do that?
[07:41.760 --> 07:43.920]  There is a quote from the Internationale.
[07:44.080 --> 07:46.940]  It's called, To be nothing, don't carry it any longer.
[07:47.260 --> 07:50.840]  And to a certain extent, I think that's true for cinema.
[07:52.800 --> 07:58.760]  Because the traditional narrative cinema is getting more and more obsolete over the years.
[07:59.140 --> 08:01.320]  And that's bad.
[08:02.520 --> 08:09.880]  Brecht, nice guy, I hope you like him, in the 1920s, 1930s, he actually said something really true.
[08:10.280 --> 08:19.980]  He said that an image of a factory, a Krupp factory, does not explain how the factory of Krupp is working.
[08:20.220 --> 08:22.220]  And that's exactly what I'm talking about.
[08:22.580 --> 08:25.780]  Filming a computer is not explaining how the computer works.
[08:26.000 --> 08:30.000]  Filming the Wall Street bull is not explaining how Wall Street works.
[08:30.780 --> 08:40.660]  We need to find ways to make those abstract things graspable for regular people out there, who want to cry about that shit.
[08:40.820 --> 08:43.720]  They want to cry about that stuff like they want to cry about Titanic.
[08:44.060 --> 08:48.340]  But there is no one trying to make that stuff accessible for them.
[08:48.460 --> 08:51.160]  And then you're talking about eggheads and stuff like that.
[08:51.160 --> 09:02.860]  It's true, to a certain extent, because there are no people out there trying to pack all that complex material into interesting stories that people want to consume.
[09:03.020 --> 09:04.820]  And I'm really saying want to consume.
[09:05.240 --> 09:05.720]  Good.
[09:06.500 --> 09:13.020]  All those stories have to be modeled and remodeled and shaped in a certain way.
[09:13.020 --> 09:15.720]  I think many people out there have ideas about that.
[09:15.820 --> 09:20.880]  I think that you should write screenplays and not the guys in Hollywood.
[09:21.100 --> 09:24.300]  Or at least you should be the advisors for those guys in Hollywood.
[09:25.060 --> 09:29.220]  I mean, the film about Facebook was pretty much okay like two years ago.
[09:29.400 --> 09:34.340]  But it's a film about pretty much the rivalry of two guys.
[09:34.840 --> 09:39.240]  It's not telling a lot about how global capitalism nowadays works.
[09:39.480 --> 09:41.420]  And why Facebook is so big nowadays.
[09:41.960 --> 09:42.200]  Okay.
[09:42.700 --> 09:44.060]  So, be aware.
[09:44.920 --> 09:46.880]  And that's why I'm telling you the story.
[09:47.060 --> 09:51.760]  Because we, two years ago, three years ago, we decided that we want to try it.
[09:51.860 --> 09:54.080]  Because nobody tries it, so why not we?
[09:54.260 --> 09:55.040]  Let's start with it.
[09:55.300 --> 10:00.700]  So, you have to be aware, if you want to make a movie, you easily sell your soul.
[10:00.700 --> 10:03.940]  Movies are big, complex processes.
[10:03.940 --> 10:05.280]  You need a lot of money.
[10:05.540 --> 10:07.580]  You need many, many people working on it.
[10:07.820 --> 10:12.380]  And over course, you can probably easily lose the track.
[10:13.560 --> 10:18.740]  You probably fail doing it, but that's not the reason not to do it.
[10:19.340 --> 10:24.820]  There is the danger of getting investors who don't understand what you're doing.
[10:24.820 --> 10:35.260]  There is the problem that some investors might want to break down your message into a more consumable format.
[10:36.500 --> 10:37.920]  There are many problems.
[10:38.120 --> 10:41.520]  There are the problems of that some stuff is actually really hard to display.
[10:41.520 --> 10:52.520]  But we were thinking about that when we came to the end of the computer games we did about Soviet Unter Zürgerstorf.
[10:52.660 --> 11:09.840]  And we said, why not taking this, like, crazy idea of the Soviet Unter Zürgerstorf guys in the middle of nowhere, and using that as the basic setup to tell a story about the digital age, about the 21st century revolutions, and the stuff that's driving society,
[11:10.180 --> 11:13.320]  but nobody tells movies about that.
[11:13.460 --> 11:21.640]  Why not taking these obsolete Soviet people and make them save the world of the 21st century?
[11:21.640 --> 11:24.140]  That's pretty much what we tried.
[11:24.540 --> 11:35.700]  So, the film is called Zero Zulu, and it's actually not about the Soviet guys, but the Soviet guys are very important in the film, but it's about the United Nations.
[11:35.980 --> 11:46.020]  Because the United Nations, we thought, is a really important figure in global politics, but at the same time, it's the big failure of global politics.
[11:46.020 --> 11:57.940]  I'm so happy that the UN exists, but at the same time, the UN did so many things wrong in their existence, that I can't even start talking where, okay?
[11:58.160 --> 12:06.240]  So, what we did is, we created a United Nations camp between the free world and the Soviets.
[12:06.620 --> 12:16.560]  And that's the camp that is pretty much like the main characters in the film are those United Nations guys sitting in the camp, and they have nothing to do, really nothing.
[12:16.940 --> 12:22.580]  For example, that guy, that's the Scottish UN soldier.
[12:22.800 --> 12:25.920]  He built himself his own whirlpool out of like a...
[12:25.920 --> 12:32.220]  He just like dug a hole in the mud and put a barrel into it and heats it and has like a...
[12:32.220 --> 12:38.940]  He's kind of like the maker in the film, and he remade this vacuum cleaner so he has the bubbles in the whirlpool.
[12:38.940 --> 12:41.520]  So, that's what they're doing for five years.
[12:41.700 --> 12:53.940]  They're sitting there, nothing to do for them, and they're only there because, well, they have problems with authority, they're drunkards, they did some shitty stuff in Kosovo nobody wants to talk about...
[12:54.460 --> 12:55.580]  So, that's why they are there.
[12:55.780 --> 12:58.440]  And they never ever saw a single Soviet.
[12:58.720 --> 13:03.900]  So, they're just there and doing their job, which is doing nothing.
[13:05.060 --> 13:13.840]  But suddenly, in the beginning of the film, there's a giant explosion on the horizon in the Soviet country, in Soviet under Zirkusdorf.
[13:14.000 --> 13:15.220]  And that's when the story starts.
[13:15.440 --> 13:18.720]  So, the UN guys have to find out what is going on.
[13:18.800 --> 13:20.800]  For the first time ever, they have to do their job.
[13:21.580 --> 13:24.320]  And that's actually pretty tricky for them.
[13:24.320 --> 13:28.100]  It's a film, I can't tell you anything more.
[13:28.480 --> 13:39.300]  It's a bizarre conspiracy about industrialist espionage, media madness, political intrigue, and it ends up with the Soviets saving the digital future of mankind.
[13:40.360 --> 13:45.220]  Well, that sounds pretty crazy, but actually, it works out.
[13:45.220 --> 13:47.840]  A couple of the storyboards I wanted to show you.
[13:48.080 --> 13:54.900]  That guy is the one cosmonaut they have, who will never ever fly to space, by the way.
[13:56.060 --> 13:57.060]  That's their crane.
[13:57.300 --> 13:58.500]  They really like their crane.
[14:00.120 --> 14:01.940]  It's called categorical imperative.
[14:03.120 --> 14:06.000]  Or that one, the one athlete they have.
[14:06.260 --> 14:09.220]  The one athlete and the one skyscraper they have.
[14:11.460 --> 14:13.960]  So, you think, what's going on?
[14:14.040 --> 14:15.540]  They are really like backwards.
[14:15.820 --> 14:17.020]  Why can't they save the world?
[14:17.260 --> 14:20.840]  And I don't want to spoil a lot, yeah?
[14:21.120 --> 14:37.320]  But over time, you find out that those Soviets actually understand the way that the digital world works way better than the media conglomerates, United States, espionage, people, whoever.
[14:37.320 --> 14:41.460]  So, they are like the hackers of the 21st century.
[14:41.740 --> 14:53.900]  And only because their utopia failed so big in the 1990s that the Soviet dream collapsed because it was like a whale that stranded on a beach and killed itself.
[14:54.240 --> 15:13.040]  Only because they are so unimportant nowadays, they have this remaining utopia left in their soul that they can finally kind of like play out their Trump and their Trump card and save all our future, including WikiLeaks.
[15:14.280 --> 15:19.700]  We have great filming locations that really exist.
[15:19.820 --> 15:20.840]  We didn't Photoshop that.
[15:21.940 --> 15:24.000]  We did a little bit of Photoshop here.
[15:24.000 --> 15:25.540]  We have to... of course.
[15:26.480 --> 15:28.160]  And we have nice props.
[15:28.580 --> 15:31.660]  That's actually from the Stasi Museum in Berlin.
[15:32.000 --> 15:36.220]  So, we were like trying to get interesting stuff.
[15:36.600 --> 15:37.380]  The workforce.
[15:37.880 --> 15:44.260]  That's why I'm to a certain extent here talking to you is because we still need people helping us on the whole thing.
[15:44.260 --> 15:53.260]  So, if you are interested in helping us with CGI or stuff like that, or if you want to help us in any way, we have a couple of cool people on board.
[15:53.520 --> 15:54.480]  Mark Mothersbaugh.
[15:54.560 --> 15:58.900]  You might know him as the guy who always does the soundtracks for Wes Anderson.
[15:59.100 --> 16:03.200]  He was one of the lead guys of Devo in the 1970s and 1980s.
[16:03.200 --> 16:04.260]  He will do our soundtrack.
[16:05.260 --> 16:07.280]  Aaron Mosalski, SF Slim.
[16:07.540 --> 16:12.580]  He is an old veteran of Lucasfilm and ILM.
[16:12.580 --> 16:14.400]  So, he will help us with the CGI.
[16:14.620 --> 16:16.020]  He's our CGI supervisor.
[16:16.740 --> 16:22.440]  Chris Brown did a lot of casting even for Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro.
[16:23.160 --> 16:24.980]  Steven Toland will create our creature.
[16:25.220 --> 16:25.940]  There is a creature.
[16:26.180 --> 16:26.600]  Oh, yes.
[16:27.000 --> 16:27.820]  Oxblood Ruffin.
[16:27.920 --> 16:28.760]  I guess you know that guy.
[16:28.980 --> 16:30.800]  He's part of the CDC.
[16:30.800 --> 16:33.200]  He's our digital politics advisor.
[16:33.540 --> 16:37.080]  He had a couple of really good points of input.
[16:38.660 --> 16:39.700]  And performers.
[16:39.700 --> 16:42.760]  Well, first, I want to tell you...
[16:42.760 --> 16:44.660]  I have to show you a short video.
[16:44.920 --> 16:46.680]  So, please turn down the lights.
[16:46.700 --> 16:48.400]  I want to show the video.
[16:48.740 --> 16:50.940]  And turn on the volume.
[16:51.180 --> 16:52.300]  Pump up the volume.
[17:06.130 --> 17:13.070]  Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our glorious home country of Soviet Unterzegesdorf.
[17:13.230 --> 17:15.350]  This is Ambassador Kruzov.
[17:15.510 --> 17:16.770]  This is Blogger.
[17:16.890 --> 17:17.490]  I blog.
[17:17.990 --> 17:25.170]  Our little country is a proud one because we are the last Soviet Republic on the planet.
[17:25.170 --> 17:29.970]  We are in Central Europe located there.
[17:30.570 --> 17:31.210]  There.
[17:31.930 --> 17:32.270]  Yeah.
[17:32.670 --> 17:37.790]  We want to tell the West the story of our greatest triumph.
[17:38.270 --> 17:40.110]  And how do we want to tell that story?
[17:40.270 --> 17:42.650]  We want to make a feature film.
[17:42.950 --> 17:44.450]  A dark sci-fi comedy.
[17:44.910 --> 17:46.690]  Because we know you will like that.
[17:46.830 --> 17:47.350]  Don't touch it.
[17:47.410 --> 17:52.730]  This is a United Nations camp with the name of Sierra Zulu.
[17:52.730 --> 17:54.890]  The film will be about this camp.
[17:55.030 --> 17:57.590]  And this United Nations camp is on the border.
[17:57.770 --> 18:03.390]  Between our wonderful home country of Soviet Unterzegesdorf and the West.
[18:03.550 --> 18:05.390]  The so-called free world.
[18:06.690 --> 18:08.050]  Here it is.
[18:08.450 --> 18:09.910]  In a symbolic fashion.
[18:10.310 --> 18:10.750]  Kick it.
[18:10.970 --> 18:11.530]  Kick it.
[18:11.730 --> 18:12.510]  Destroy it.
[18:12.690 --> 18:13.490]  Crack it open.
[18:13.770 --> 18:15.130]  Free market wankers.
[18:15.250 --> 18:16.030]  We had you.
[18:16.190 --> 18:17.730]  But we need you.
[18:17.990 --> 18:19.090]  Why do we need you?
[18:19.090 --> 18:23.110]  The Internet is made for corn and crowdfunding.
[18:23.370 --> 18:25.250]  And we need money from the Internet.
[18:25.570 --> 18:27.110]  So we also have a cat.
[18:27.250 --> 18:27.550]  Yes.
[18:28.110 --> 18:32.730]  We attracted a number of glorious actors already.
[18:33.030 --> 18:35.350]  They signed us letters of intent.
[18:35.570 --> 18:37.010]  They cannot say no any longer.
[18:37.090 --> 18:39.730]  It is Robert Picardo, a doctor.
[18:39.730 --> 18:41.750]  We have Amber Benson.
[18:41.810 --> 18:43.510]  She was a lesbian on Buffy.
[18:43.690 --> 18:44.830]  This is the was.
[18:45.090 --> 18:45.930]  Fruit computers.
[18:46.190 --> 18:46.790]  We have...
[18:47.750 --> 18:48.990]  What is his name?
[18:49.150 --> 18:50.130]  Jello Biafra.
[18:50.250 --> 18:51.790]  He was a punk singer indeed.
[18:52.430 --> 18:53.030]  And...
[18:53.030 --> 18:53.530]  And...
[18:53.530 --> 18:54.190]  And...
[18:54.190 --> 18:58.010]  This guy, nobody recognizes him because he was a Ferengi on Star Trek.
[18:58.170 --> 19:00.330]  His name is Max Prudentschik, the Rome.
[19:00.870 --> 19:00.990]  Yes.
[19:01.370 --> 19:02.410]  From Star Trek...
[19:02.410 --> 19:03.210]  Deep Space...
[19:03.210 --> 19:05.050]  Top Space Voyager.
[19:05.050 --> 19:05.510]  Yeah.
[19:05.810 --> 19:06.230]  And...
[19:06.230 --> 19:07.690]  We want your money.
[19:08.030 --> 19:08.330]  And...
[19:08.330 --> 19:09.530]  We have to say...
[19:09.530 --> 19:10.010]  Please.
[19:10.830 --> 19:11.310]  Because...
[19:11.310 --> 19:12.670]  We cannot force you.
[19:13.250 --> 19:13.670]  Good night.
[19:26.530 --> 19:27.990]  Oh, I hope you get the money.
[19:28.790 --> 19:30.170]  Because I'm sick of this shit.
[19:30.470 --> 19:31.750]  Look at the heat, it's so warm, Wesh.
[19:46.630 --> 19:47.110]  Okay.
[19:48.010 --> 19:48.490]  So.
[19:50.010 --> 19:50.490]  Um...
[19:51.790 --> 19:52.270]  Yeah.
[19:52.730 --> 19:53.190]  Uh...
[19:54.310 --> 19:55.510]  I have to do that.
[19:55.630 --> 19:56.670]  I have to beg for money.
[19:56.810 --> 19:57.150]  Please.
[19:57.150 --> 19:57.690]  Please.
[19:57.950 --> 19:58.730]  I beg for money.
[19:58.910 --> 19:59.250]  But...
[19:59.250 --> 20:01.650]  I also beg for your cooperation.
[20:02.190 --> 20:03.270]  Because we not only need money.
[20:03.470 --> 20:05.690]  We also need people who help us with all of that stuff.
[20:05.810 --> 20:07.310]  And you might hopefully be interested.
[20:07.710 --> 20:13.550]  In case you want to donate some money via Kickstarter, that's a couple of the rewards we have.
[20:13.710 --> 20:14.770]  For example, gravel.
[20:15.110 --> 20:16.150]  You get real Soviet...
[20:16.770 --> 20:18.530]  On a Zygostov gravel with a certificate.
[20:18.990 --> 20:19.130]  Okay?
[20:19.670 --> 20:20.110]  Or...
[20:20.110 --> 20:20.690]  Uh...
[20:20.690 --> 20:21.590]  You get that media.
[20:21.730 --> 20:23.550]  You get a DVD if it's out.
[20:23.730 --> 20:23.810]  Yeah?
[20:23.970 --> 20:24.230]  Yeah.
[20:25.150 --> 20:25.630]  Uh...
[20:25.630 --> 20:27.170]  You also get, uh...
[20:27.170 --> 20:28.190]  If you like, uh...
[20:28.190 --> 20:28.910]  You get a felony.
[20:29.190 --> 20:32.870]  Because we have this, like, Soviet under Zygostov entry stamp.
[20:33.110 --> 20:34.470]  And we'll stamp it into your passport.
[20:34.470 --> 20:35.210]  If you want.
[20:35.510 --> 20:36.350]  But it's a felony.
[20:36.530 --> 20:37.350]  But you can still do it.
[20:37.410 --> 20:37.810]  If you like.
[20:38.890 --> 20:39.370]  Uh...
[20:39.370 --> 20:40.350]  And if you...
[20:40.350 --> 20:41.390]  And if you pay...
[20:41.390 --> 20:42.590]  The top...
[20:42.590 --> 20:43.470]  The top level.
[20:43.650 --> 20:44.690]  You not only get a party.
[20:44.790 --> 20:45.690]  A communist party.
[20:45.910 --> 20:47.710]  You also get, uh...
[20:47.710 --> 20:50.410]  Me eating a pint of my own blood.
[20:52.130 --> 20:52.730]  So...
[20:54.390 --> 20:54.990]  Yeah.
[21:00.080 --> 21:02.220]  It's for the Western plutocrats.
[21:02.360 --> 21:04.020]  Who like a decadent reward.
[21:04.740 --> 21:04.860]  Yes.
[21:04.860 --> 21:05.880]  I'll eat my own blood.
[21:06.080 --> 21:06.220]  Yes.
[21:06.340 --> 21:07.340]  It's, uh...
[21:07.340 --> 21:07.820]  It's good.
[21:08.900 --> 21:09.500]  Uh...
[21:09.500 --> 21:09.900]  So.
[21:10.040 --> 21:14.840]  We need heroines and heroes to finish all that crap.
[21:15.460 --> 21:15.980]  Uh...
[21:15.980 --> 21:17.140]  In a personal, uh...
[21:17.720 --> 21:23.060]  Conversation, I can tell a little bit more about the secrets of Soviet under Zygostov and the film.
[21:23.060 --> 21:26.460]  Because I don't really want that on film right now.
[21:26.660 --> 21:28.480]  Because it's kind of spoiling a little bit.
[21:28.900 --> 21:29.360]  But still.
[21:29.920 --> 21:30.560]  Uh...
[21:30.560 --> 21:30.680]  Our...
[21:30.680 --> 21:31.540]  Real...
[21:31.540 --> 21:34.760]  Our interest in doing that whole project is...
[21:34.760 --> 21:38.020]  Taking a really silly story as...
[21:38.020 --> 21:38.600]  Uh...
[21:38.600 --> 21:39.260]  As the...
[21:39.260 --> 21:42.640]  The medium to deliver a pretty serious message.
[21:42.960 --> 21:45.060]  So we want to talk about intellectual property.
[21:45.220 --> 21:46.960]  We want to talk about, uh...
[21:46.960 --> 21:49.740]  The ways the power elites work on the planet.
[21:49.740 --> 21:54.920]  The way how international relationships are dominated by corporations.
[21:55.860 --> 21:56.980]  And, uh...
[21:56.980 --> 21:58.740]  And very strong, uh...
[21:58.740 --> 21:59.760]  Key figures on the planet.
[21:59.940 --> 22:03.880]  So, we kind of want to break down the network structure of the power elites.
[22:04.220 --> 22:08.200]  Project that onto Soviet under Zygostov and the small UN camp.
[22:08.200 --> 22:13.640]  And tell a fable or tell a fairy tale about what's going wrong nowadays.
[22:13.960 --> 22:16.140]  And how we can probably fix it.
[22:16.440 --> 22:17.380]  So, that's...
[22:17.380 --> 22:18.580]  That's our...
[22:18.580 --> 22:19.100]  Our...
[22:19.100 --> 22:20.580]  Our big goal.
[22:20.900 --> 22:23.200]  I hope we will succeed doing that.
[22:23.200 --> 22:24.540]  But, uh...
[22:24.540 --> 22:25.420]  The good thing is...
[22:25.420 --> 22:28.220]  A couple of people are really, really interested in helping us.
[22:28.360 --> 22:29.640]  I mentioned them, uh...
[22:29.640 --> 22:30.180]  In the video.
[22:30.480 --> 22:33.400]  Robert Picardo, who was the hologram doctor on Star Trek.
[22:33.680 --> 22:35.680]  He will be, uh...
[22:35.680 --> 22:35.960]  The...
[22:35.960 --> 22:38.240]  The supreme Soviet of Soviet under Zygostov.
[22:38.520 --> 22:39.240]  We'll have...
[22:39.240 --> 22:39.920]  Uh...
[22:39.920 --> 22:41.140]  We have the yes men in there.
[22:41.280 --> 22:43.660]  With a really small and nice, uh...
[22:43.660 --> 22:44.420]  Appearance.
[22:44.620 --> 22:45.040]  Uh...
[22:45.040 --> 22:46.040]  We'll have, uh...
[22:46.040 --> 22:46.680]  All the other guys.
[22:46.820 --> 22:49.290]  Jello Biafra as a decadent U.S. diplomat.
[22:49.940 --> 22:50.840]  And stuff like that.
[22:50.960 --> 22:51.180]  So...
[22:51.180 --> 22:53.120]  And that's only the people I can talk about.
[22:53.320 --> 22:54.340]  Because we have more people.
[22:54.460 --> 22:55.880]  But they wanted to sign a contract first.
[22:56.020 --> 22:57.220]  But that's why we need some money.
[22:57.900 --> 22:58.240]  Uh...
[22:58.240 --> 22:59.900]  In fact, the film is...
[23:00.340 --> 23:01.660]  Partially, uh...
[23:01.660 --> 23:03.140]  Subsidized, uh...
[23:03.140 --> 23:04.140]  By the Austrian government.
[23:04.420 --> 23:06.380]  So we got a grant by the Austrian government.
[23:06.860 --> 23:07.720]  To film the film.
[23:08.060 --> 23:10.920]  Because, of course, we asked for $50,000 on Kickstarter.
[23:11.260 --> 23:13.260]  You cannot do a film for $50,000.
[23:13.680 --> 23:15.640]  Especially not a film that we plan to do.
[23:15.920 --> 23:17.540]  But the good thing is, is...
[23:17.540 --> 23:19.800]  That with the Kickstarter money.
[23:19.800 --> 23:21.600]  And the grant money from Austria.
[23:21.940 --> 23:24.680]  We can apply for the next level of grants in Germany.
[23:25.220 --> 23:25.700]  Uh...
[23:25.700 --> 23:26.800]  And with that money in Germany.
[23:27.080 --> 23:29.680]  We can actually make the movie happening.
[23:30.040 --> 23:30.260]  Uh...
[23:30.260 --> 23:31.400]  And film it next March.
[23:31.600 --> 23:33.260]  So we have a pretty tight schedule.
[23:33.580 --> 23:35.300]  So in case you want to help us.
[23:35.720 --> 23:36.000]  Uh...
[23:36.000 --> 23:36.740]  Please do so.
[23:36.740 --> 23:39.280]  I have a shitload of flyers.
[23:40.360 --> 23:40.800]  Uh...
[23:40.800 --> 23:42.080]  Actually, 2,500.
[23:42.520 --> 23:44.040]  I think I'll probably...
[23:45.120 --> 23:45.800]  I don't know.
[23:45.940 --> 23:47.620]  I'll burn them or something later on.
[23:47.740 --> 23:50.240]  Because I'll never be able to use all of them.
[23:50.400 --> 23:51.260]  But they smell good.
[23:51.440 --> 23:51.900]  I mean, that's...
[23:51.900 --> 23:53.120]  That's a good thing, yeah.
[23:54.260 --> 23:54.700]  So...
[23:54.700 --> 23:55.200]  Uh...
[23:55.200 --> 23:57.380]  I think I've talked too much already.
[23:57.380 --> 24:01.520]  I'll switch to the social media info.
[24:01.940 --> 24:03.700]  Actually, it should be socialist media.
[24:04.000 --> 24:04.060]  Yeah.
[24:04.540 --> 24:04.740]  Uh...
[24:04.740 --> 24:05.700]  And, uh...
[24:06.600 --> 24:09.480]  I would like to open the panel.
[24:09.500 --> 24:12.640]  So if you have questions for me, please go ahead.
[24:12.640 --> 24:15.040]  And I will hand over the microphone.
[24:15.220 --> 24:16.040]  Because that's actually the...
[24:16.040 --> 24:17.120]  The question...
[24:17.120 --> 24:18.120]  Questioning microphone.
[24:18.800 --> 24:19.640]  To whoever.
[24:23.580 --> 24:24.260]  Thank you.
[24:25.080 --> 24:25.520]  Uh...
[24:25.520 --> 24:27.840]  By the way, a big applause for the guys doing that.
[24:27.960 --> 24:28.960]  It's really...
[24:28.960 --> 24:30.740]  Working class of hope!
[24:34.350 --> 24:35.470]  And I'll use that one.
[24:35.990 --> 24:36.230]  Okay.
[24:37.170 --> 24:42.680]  Uh-huh.
[24:43.920 --> 24:46.280]  I'm just curious if you can know about the spoiler of your film.
[24:46.340 --> 24:48.460]  Sort of tell us how you're trying to get away with...
[24:48.460 --> 24:49.540]  Get away from that problem.
[24:49.680 --> 24:52.060]  How you think other people in Hollywood could do a better job.
[24:52.060 --> 24:54.760]  Of sort of capturing stuff that doesn't look like...
[24:54.760 --> 24:55.040]  Yeah, I think...
[24:55.040 --> 24:55.940]  I think it's not...
[24:55.940 --> 24:56.460]  Yeah, thanks.
[24:56.620 --> 24:56.800]  Thanks.
[24:56.980 --> 24:57.380]  Great question.
[24:57.640 --> 24:59.820]  I think it's not the problem that it's not possible.
[25:00.140 --> 25:02.000]  The problem is that people don't want to do it.
[25:02.320 --> 25:03.480]  And I don't know why.
[25:04.440 --> 25:04.880]  Uh...
[25:04.880 --> 25:07.160]  If that stuff shows up, it's always...
[25:07.160 --> 25:08.700]  I mean, it's quite interesting.
[25:08.700 --> 25:11.900]  There is one film in the last 20 years.
[25:12.120 --> 25:15.380]  That really used the whole element as a key element.
[25:15.720 --> 25:18.100]  And that's this, like, shitty one with...
[25:18.100 --> 25:19.960]  With Tom Hawks...
[25:19.960 --> 25:21.220]  Tom Hanks and...
[25:21.220 --> 25:25.440]  And the email, like, this love story about the email, which is kind of like...
[25:25.440 --> 25:26.060]  They copy...
[25:26.060 --> 25:26.300]  You've got mail.
[25:26.440 --> 25:26.620]  Huh?
[25:26.620 --> 25:27.580]  You've got mail, yes.
[25:27.780 --> 25:32.680]  They copy-pasted this, like, 19th century idea of, like...
[25:33.440 --> 25:35.580]  This, like, letter novels or something.
[25:35.700 --> 25:35.960]  I don't...
[25:35.960 --> 25:38.400]  I'm not a scholar of Victorian literature, yeah?
[25:38.560 --> 25:44.320]  But they took that idea and transferred it into the present and just, like, exchanged letters with emails.
[25:44.860 --> 25:47.620]  And I mean, that's a good idea, I have to say.
[25:47.760 --> 25:48.620]  And it was a nice film.
[25:48.640 --> 25:49.920]  But that can't be it.
[25:51.900 --> 25:52.860]  There is...
[25:52.860 --> 25:54.860]  So many people do stuff, for example...
[25:54.860 --> 25:56.780]  I'm always talking about James Cameron.
[25:56.920 --> 25:57.640]  Why do I do that?
[25:58.340 --> 26:01.660]  James Cameron's last one, Avatar, was really shitty.
[26:01.940 --> 26:06.220]  But at least he made the point of that he doesn't like exploitation.
[26:06.220 --> 26:09.720]  I don't like exploitation of indigenous populations.
[26:10.100 --> 26:12.640]  That's pretty much, like, the content of the whole film, yeah?
[26:14.280 --> 26:15.460]  And that's very...
[26:15.460 --> 26:24.300]  I mean, a film is pretty much a short story of 15 or 20 pages put into a different medium and put onto the screen.
[26:24.300 --> 26:28.200]  So the content of a film can't be too complex.
[26:28.200 --> 26:44.000]  But still, I think there is a ton of possibility out there to take interesting stories that are beyond the Robin Hood films of the 20s, 40s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and the present, and go ahead and use that.
[26:44.480 --> 26:46.860]  In our case, we are always...
[26:46.860 --> 26:59.780]  We think that the way to use a grotesque fantasy setting or a comedy is very accommodating for the idea, because you can be very specific about that.
[26:59.780 --> 27:01.140]  At the same time, you can be funny.
[27:01.380 --> 27:05.360]  You don't have to be too detailed about, is this stuff really possible?
[27:05.680 --> 27:10.440]  But then we have the sci-fi aspect that lifts stuff away from that.
[27:10.640 --> 27:15.640]  So there are tons of possibilities, and I don't know why more people are seeing that market.
[27:15.880 --> 27:17.560]  And the market is definitely out there.
[27:17.760 --> 27:20.540]  I mean, nerds are mainstream culture nowadays.
[27:21.540 --> 27:32.900]  Why... I want to do a film that some guy who is 14 years old and coming to HOPE can see and enjoy the same way that my 60-year-old mother would enjoy.
[27:33.160 --> 27:33.480]  You see?
[27:33.620 --> 27:45.060]  There is no reason why there shouldn't be a common ground for all those things, because the 14-year-old guy is affected in the same way by the digital politics out there like my mother.
[27:45.260 --> 27:47.040]  My mother just doesn't know about it.
[27:47.220 --> 27:50.360]  She has to be told in a way that she can understand, I think, yeah.
[27:50.860 --> 27:50.900]  Hmm.
[27:51.640 --> 27:52.140]  Okay.
[27:52.560 --> 27:55.760]  I hope my long answer was not derailed.
[27:56.380 --> 27:56.700]  Okay.
[27:57.020 --> 27:57.520]  Servus.
[27:58.880 --> 28:00.720]  I think I have an answer to that.
[28:00.920 --> 28:01.160]  Okay.
[28:01.360 --> 28:04.120]  And it has to do with something I've noticed.
[28:04.280 --> 28:05.200]  I'm from Austria, too.
[28:05.480 --> 28:10.260]  But I've lived here for a while, so I've had, you know, opportunity to compare.
[28:10.560 --> 28:10.780]  Okay.
[28:10.780 --> 28:16.540]  And one of the things I've noticed is there is a system here, and it's very old.
[28:16.560 --> 28:25.100]  And I believe what's taking place here is a generational ceiling, not a glass ceiling, a generational ceiling.
[28:26.100 --> 28:28.180]  Let's take James Cameron, for example.
[28:28.960 --> 28:39.360]  His generation, I don't believe that's the generation that uses the media to the extent that younger people do, but they're in charge.
[28:39.360 --> 28:47.780]  And similar things take place on the educational level, the political level, and I think that's a big part of it.
[28:48.100 --> 28:56.200]  Aside from that, a subject matter like that, that anything that has to do with socialism is pretty much outlawed here.
[28:56.200 --> 28:56.640]  I see.
[28:56.780 --> 29:14.440]  In our case, we took this, like, completely obsolete communist state structure, because we thought it's a perfect way to tell the story, because people, when they hear about the Soviet microstate, they, of course, immediately laugh.
[29:14.800 --> 29:16.880]  It's kind of like, it's so absurd.
[29:17.380 --> 29:19.100]  We don't have to take it serious.
[29:19.280 --> 29:25.080]  But I think that's a great way to have, like, malware embedded in that stuff.
[29:25.080 --> 29:26.160]  It's like the payload.
[29:27.560 --> 29:31.260]  The format is absurd, and the format is like, what the f*ck, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
[29:31.360 --> 29:33.160]  But the payload, the content...
[29:33.700 --> 29:35.560]  There's this wonderful quote by Mao.
[29:35.940 --> 29:37.740]  I'm not a big Mao fan, I have to say.
[29:37.920 --> 29:40.300]  But he says, we need sugar-coated bullets.
[29:40.740 --> 29:43.720]  And I think a sugar-coated bullet is exactly what we need.
[29:43.920 --> 29:49.960]  We need to tell political, interesting stories in a way that they're easily consumable and even funny.
[29:50.280 --> 29:50.420]  Yeah.
[29:50.600 --> 29:54.620]  I love the idea, but the relationship to the Soviet Union is a little bit different here.
[29:54.620 --> 29:57.000]  I think, than what we experienced in Europe.
[29:57.280 --> 29:57.440]  Yeah.
[29:57.700 --> 30:03.740]  What it reminded me of a little bit, too, was Asterisk and Obelix with the Gauls and the Romans.
[30:04.180 --> 30:04.960]  Definitely, definitely.
[30:05.140 --> 30:06.000]  A very European thing.
[30:06.160 --> 30:09.820]  I've met Americans who have never heard of Asterisk, which is kind of, shoot yourself.
[30:11.960 --> 30:18.760]  But then again, it makes sense because Asterisk, from a political level, Asterisk came up in the 1960s.
[30:18.760 --> 30:25.080]  And it's heavily based and grounded in French anti-Americanism of the 1960s.
[30:25.180 --> 30:30.180]  Of course, Asterisk is a film about the Gauls who fight against the Romans.
[30:30.460 --> 30:34.840]  But of course, it's France fighting the domination by America.
[30:34.840 --> 30:34.920]  Yeah.
[30:35.380 --> 30:39.220]  So, even in Asterisk, Asterisk is a very political story.
[30:39.700 --> 30:43.260]  At least it was in the beginning and then it kind of dried out, I have to say.
[30:43.500 --> 30:46.940]  And I'm not in favor of anti-Americanism, I have to say.
[30:47.580 --> 30:48.060]  Yeah.
[30:48.240 --> 30:49.200]  That's bullshit.
[30:49.860 --> 30:49.940]  Yeah.
[30:51.620 --> 30:52.400]  No, really.
[30:52.640 --> 30:52.780]  Really.
[30:53.060 --> 30:59.920]  Because anti-Americanism always ends up in this crazy anti-Semitism of the East Coast jews running the world and all that bullshit.
[31:00.840 --> 31:05.400]  Really, there's an upcoming leftist critique in Europe.
[31:05.800 --> 31:09.400]  And they almost sound like they're Nazis.
[31:09.800 --> 31:11.800]  Because, like, ah, the jews, they're running the world.
[31:11.940 --> 31:12.940]  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[31:12.940 --> 31:13.200]  Not a little.
[31:13.320 --> 31:14.680]  Of course, that's happening here, too.
[31:14.840 --> 31:21.600]  But there's a tendency in European countries to be very anti-America.
[31:22.580 --> 31:24.500]  And they think they're anti-capital.
[31:24.600 --> 31:28.180]  But, no, they're only anti-America and they're stupid anti-Semites.
[31:28.280 --> 31:34.100]  They are not criticizing capital because they can't even grasp how global capitalism is working.
[31:34.240 --> 31:38.340]  You cannot take global capitalism and find a scapegoat for...
[31:38.340 --> 31:39.800]  I mean, I'm part of capitalism.
[31:39.840 --> 31:40.900]  We're all part of capitalism.
[31:41.020 --> 31:41.980]  That's the problem of it.
[31:41.980 --> 31:43.200]  It's not...
[31:43.200 --> 31:47.700]  You can't find the five people who are in charge of that the world is bad.
[31:47.940 --> 31:48.980]  We're all part of it.
[31:49.560 --> 31:55.760]  That's the big disillusionment I have discovered in the last couple of years.
[31:56.300 --> 31:56.740]  OK.
[31:57.060 --> 31:57.820]  Any more questions?
[31:58.060 --> 31:59.640]  If not, I'll get a beer.
[32:02.760 --> 32:03.240]  OK.
[32:03.660 --> 32:05.560]  Thanks a lot for listening to me.
[32:06.460 --> 32:08.920]  I only had, you know, like 40 minutes or something like that.
[32:08.920 --> 32:11.680]  In case you want to learn more, go to our website.
[32:12.000 --> 32:13.380]  Drop in a couple of bucks.
[32:14.360 --> 32:21.380]  And tomorrow there is a photo opportunity because the Soviet ambassador arrived today on a cargo ship.
[32:21.380 --> 32:22.540]  So he will be here tomorrow.
[32:22.740 --> 32:24.160]  And you can shake his hand.
[32:24.500 --> 32:25.040]  Good night.
[32:25.260 --> 32:25.340]  It's great.
[32:25.700 --> 32:26.060]  He will be here tomorrow, therefore.
[32:26.060 --> 32:26.080]  Here they are.