Click here to view the embedded video.

YouTube has introduced a new YouTube Movies section, which offers about 400 free full-length films.

If you’re looking for YouTube to offer an alternative to Netflix or Blockbuster, this ain’t it.

On the other hand, if you want to take a trip back to the 70′s drive-in grindhouse, you have hit the motherlode!

The selection includes classics like Cheerleader Zombies, above, and Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other grindhouse classics include Blood Sucking Babes From Burbank, Dorm Of The Dead, Satan’s School For Girls, The Corpse Grinder, Extreme Chickfights and the zombie underground fighting film, Fist of the Vampire.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first episode of Universal Dead – a web series about the undead – is up and it looks like it’s going to be chock-full of hungry zombie goodness.

Here’s the synopsis:

Earth is ravaged by a strange disease that turns people into mindless murderers.

As civilization struggles to survive, a small team of US Navy SEALs must protect a doctor from the Center for Disease Control on a mission to evaluate the claims of an erratic scientist who may have discovered the secret to mankind’s salvation.

It’s available on SpatterTelevision’s YouTube channel or at the Universal Dead site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Variety reports that YouTube wunderkind Lucas Cruikshank is making the jump to television, taking his “Fred” character to Nickelodeon via a series of TV movies:

Fred: The Movie is based on the YouTube character Fred Figglehorn, created and played by Lucas Cruikshank.

“Fred” centers on a socially awkward and emotionally immature kid with a wild imagination. Cruikshank’s videos have been viewed over half a billion times.

“Fred: The Movie” also stars John Cena, Siobhan Fallon and Pixie Lott. Sharla Sumpter Bidgett and The Collective’s Gary Binkow and Evan Weiss are also producers.

Are You Ready For A “Fred” Movie?

Click here to view the embedded video.

The original Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope) is a classic – cheesy acting and all.

But the crowd-sourced Star Wars Uncut may end up challenging the original for the position of second best Star Wars movie ever.

Organizers cut the original movie into 15-second clips and 473 indie moviemakers are recreating the scenes, low-budget style. From what we’ve seen so far, the clips are hilariously awesome, cheesy acting and all.

Once all the clips are done, they will be stitched together to create a new version of the movie, Star Wars Uncut.

Organizers expect the movie to wrap up in December. Until then, here are a few more samples:

Click here to view the embedded video.

via Carlos Santiago: Shot at 15 fps with a MiniDV camera connected to an ad-hoc Mac-based workflow, LEGOs from all over the house, and stuff from Home Depot. Post work was limited to the sabers (individual frame edits that got old real fast), and a subtle brightening touch-up of the actual death shot.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Made by Noel Estep and Megan Jonas of Phoenix, AZ, USA using a combination of stop motion animation, 3d modeling, vector illustrations, and post work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Escape From City 17 short film series is based on the Half Life computer game saga by Valve Corporation.

Originally envisioned as a project to test out numerous post production techniques, as well as a spec commercial, it ballooned into a multi-part series. Filmed guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500.

If the $500 figure is close to true, Escape From City 17 represents a big leap forward in guerilla filmmaking, and means that we’re going to see an explosion longer-form indie content.

Note: the embed above is NSFW and includes graphic violence.

Additional Notes:

• Valve flew the team out to Seattle last year, and the brothers have been in communication with them since.
• David and Ian Purchase are commercial directors represented by Sons and Daughters in Toronto. They are working on an unannounced feature film. Not HL related.
• They have been huge fans of HL since the days of “ivan the space biker’

ZDNet’s Tech Bits is declaring Blu-Ray dead:

Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product.

With only a 4% share of US movie disc sales and HD download capability arriving, the Blu-ray disc Association (BDA) is still smoking dope. Even $150 Blu-ray players won’t save it.

16 months ago I called the HD war for Blu-ray. My bad. Who dreamed they could both lose?

Who dreamed they could both lose?

Well…..since ZD asked…..

In June of last year, we said: 

Internet TV is already good enough to make users realize that high definition video discs are a tangent to the real future of video delivery – Internet TV. ”

At the beginning of 2008, we called the Blu-Ray Death Watch. Earlier this month, we said that Steve Jobs had delivered the Blu-Ray Coup de Grâce.

Why?

Blu-Ray is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. It’s likely to become a widely accepted standard, like HD Floppies, that ultimately doesn’t matter very much.

The leading edge has already moved on beyond DVDs to Internet video. Apple’s MacBook Air has eliminated the DVD, iTunes is delivering HD, and Apple TV lets you watch HD Internet video. 

If you’ve got a 50″ HDTV, Blu-Ray is going to look a lot better than HD Internet TV. By the time these giant TVs are mainstream, though, HD video downloads will be, too.

Netflix today announced it has released its 2nd-generation media player, based on Microsoft Silverlight, which brings the company’s Internet video service to subscribers with Intel-based Mac computers for the first time. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.

Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is timeline navigation, which improves fast-forwarding and rewinding.

For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.

Home Movie Day, a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide, is Saturday October 18, 2008. 

Home Movie Day events provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn. It’s a chance to discover why to care about these films and to learn how best to care for them.

Information on events around the world is available at the HMD site. 

via BoingBoing

In July, we reported on the open-source movie community A Swarm of Angels – a group that hopes to update “the current filmmaking models of Hollywood and independent film to create cult cinema for the digital age.”

They’ve announced what they are calling the world’s “first open source film trailer,” for The Unfold, a sci-fi thriller being made open-source style:

The trailer is at the forefront of new creative processes empowered through the Internet of crowdsourcing, and peer production. Finished with title design by the internationally recognised graphic talents of Matt Pyke of Universal Everything collaborating with Maxim Zhestkov, it is a stunning glimpse into a world being created by a global membership fueling a pioneering people-powered film studio.

Rancel has evoked a powerful unfolding world created in 3D from 2D images created by Japanese photographer Palla. Through community feedback and discussion at the forums of aswarmofangels.com the initial ideas developed into a spiralling, shearing cityscape synchronised with an otherworldly soundtrack developed by Abadia. The online collaboration encompassed a team of participants from Spain, Belgium, the North and South of England, Japan, as well as Russia (not including members who participated in votes and posts via the forums).

The trailer and all accompanying source files are released under a Creative Commons CC-NC-SA-3.0 license, allowing full non-commercial remixing and sharing (embed codes for Youtube, blip.tv & hi-def Vimeo). Join the Swarm to help make the film and get further details for the open source package (register here, full member details here).

While the trailer doesn’t tell us much about the movie, I’m intrigued by the open-source approach to movie making. If you don’t like the trailer or the final movie, you can make your own version and share it.

The open source approach has worked for Linux, Apache & WordPress, but will it work for making movies? We’ll find out, with A Swarm Of Angels’ The Unfold.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is going the route of Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and others and releasing his latest work, Slacker Uprising on the Internet as a free download. According to Moore, it’s the first major feature-length film by a noted director to debut for free via the internet.

Slacker Uprising traces Michael Moore’s 62-city tour of the swing states during the 2004 Presidential election.

Moore, who has made three of the five top-grossing documentaries of all time (including “Fahrenheit 9/11″), said he is doing this giveaway for personal reasons.

“I realized that in a few months it will be the 20th anniversary of my first film, Roger & Me,” he said. “I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have so many people come to my movies over these two decades, I decided why not bypass the studios and the exhibitors and make one that the fans can have for free, as a show of my profound appreciation of their support.”

The free download is being organized and distributed by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films. The download itself is as a free download. Note: the download is only available free to those that click a box saying they are residents of U.S. or Canada, and an email address is required.

About Slacker Uprising

Moore’s goal four years ago was to convince millions of non-voting slackers — mostly between the ages of 18-29 — to give voting a try. Starting out in Elk Rapids, Michigan, in front of an audience of 400, the tour caught on like wildfire with up to 16,000 slackers each night coming to see Moore and his traveling band of speakers, comedians, and musicians.

To encourage the slackers to show up, they were offered a clean change of underwear, Ramen noodles, and a promise that no event would start before noon and no politician would be allowed to speak. These enticements filled basketball arenas and football stadiums every night on the “Slacker Uprising Tour.”

Part concert tour, part stand-up comedy performance and part rock concert, SLACKER UPRISING is an uplifting and patriotic look at the birth of a new political generation in America — a generation of young people who would signal the era of “Obamania” that would take place just four years later.

Along with Moore’s appearance, “Slacker Uprising” features live performances or appearances by Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), Roseanne Barr, Joan Baez, Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine), R.E.M., Steve Earle, and Viggo Mortensen.

via cNet