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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Teaser trailer - Tackle Happy, The Bank, Grass
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - Directors Jehane Noujaim & Chris Hegedus
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Animated menus
  • Filmographies

Startup.com

Madman Entertainment/AV Channel . R4 . COLOR . 103 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Every so often a seemingly golden goose comes along that has most everybody that’s after a fast buck salivating at its prospects, and clambering to get their slice. The most recent in the business world was, of course, the “dot.com” boom; however for every success such as Amazon or eBay, there is also a vast trail of wrecked dreams, blurred visions and squandered megabucks. Startup-com, subtitled The Rise and Fall of the American Dream, offers an intriguing real-life insight into the dream of two guys who went to high school together, Kaleil (the business guy) and Tom (the tech-head), and their intention to create a website offering the ability to deal with all manner of local government services/red tape covering everything from fishing licences to those evil bastard parking fines online.

The beauty here is that it all starts off on the ground floor. Co-director Jehane Noujaim went to Harvard with Kaleil, and as friends and former roomies the one’s desire to create such a documentary, and the other’s desire for self promotion, ended up as fortuitous for both concerned. When through an acquaintance the renowned documentary-making team of D.A. Pennebaker and wife Chris Hegedus (The War Room, Depeche Mode 101) came on board all was set. And so the very beginnings of the business are all here to be seen, as they work out a name – finally deciding upon govworks.com – and we get to tag along for an eighteen month ride that sees their baby grow from a modest eight employees to a virtual conglomerate with 233 workers - and then down to 50 and...

From selling their idea to investors to raising capital, 18-hour days (and associated lack of sleep, frayed nerves and tanties), pinballing between the east and west coasts of the US, bonding exercises, dealing with competition, going live, shaving and not shaving, corporate espionage, personal issues, titanic market crashes and even meetings with President Clinton, Kaleil and Tom’s “mission” is covered often in incredible detail. So many highs and lows are here, and as is the way with the best documentaries, at times it seems very much as if those who are the focus of the cameras had become so accustomed to their presence that they sometimes forgot to “play nice” while they were rolling – leaving us as viewers with a much less sugar-coated insight into goings on.

Brimming with laptops galore, and more buzzwords than a year’s subscription to Wired magazine - one scene was notable in that this reviewer could smell a “facilitates” coming on, and sure enough five seconds later... - Startup.com won’t be everybody’s cup of documentary tea, however anybody who has even a passing interest in the IT industry – or who has been totally shafted after working within it (not naming any names...) – should definitely check it out.

  Video
Contract

Made in the traditional “fly on the wall” documentary style, for reasons of portability and to avoid getting too in the way, Startup.com was shot almost entirely on a mini-DVD camera. As such anybody expecting that much revered “reference quality” vision should probably stop reading now. This isn't to say that what we get looks bad, as it most certainly doesn’t, however limitations of the format are often evident – especially in low light situations. Other sources are also called upon, including stock footage and newscasts from television, so at various times you’ll experience muddy vision, small examples of aliasing and even the occasional video glitch. Otherwise, colour is generally quite pleasingly rendered throughout this full frame presentation, black levels are serviceable and most scenes show a decent level of detail and sharpness.

  Audio
Contract

Dolby Digital stereo is what’s on offer here, and considering the style of presentation it is perfectly sufficient. As with the video, naturally often the sound required recording on–the-fly, so occurrences of hum and occasional muffled portions are to be expected. Generally though it’s all quite clear, the only rather alarming issue is a tendency for synch to wander ever so slightly on a couple of occasions (for example just before the 55-minute mark) – it’s only marginal, but that’s all that is necessary to make it rather off-putting.

Needless to say there’s not a lot in the way of music throughout, what is on offer comes from a selection of not particularly well-known musos, plus there’s a track from French duo Air.

  Extras
Contract

Another of Madman’s quite wonderful animated menus accompanies proceedings, and there are a smattering of extras on offer. Easily the most vital of these is the audio commentary by directors Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. A little time is spent shedding some light on the processes used to create their vision and other technical stuff, however the majority of it concentrates on fleshing out the story behind the on-screen goings on, with particular focus on the people involved, and offering a much fuller idea of what really went on aboard the whole govworks.com rocket ride.

Rounding things out are very thorough profiles of the two directors and producers D.A. and Frazer Pennebaker, accompanied by filmographies of the four. Also on offer are three trailers for other Madman releases (Tackle Happy, The Bank and Grass to be precise), plus a rather wobbly, 1.78:1 (matted) 1 minute and 23 seconds trailer for Startup.com.

  Overall  
Contract

While Startup.com on DVD is no great masterpiece from a technical point of view, content-wise as well as being an exemplary example of documentary film making it is an excellent firsthand illustration of that almost blind ambition bordering on greed that many of us wish ourselves capable of, that also ends up serving as a sobering reminder of how more often than not it can go horribly wrong...


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1391
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      And I quote...
    "An exemplary example of documentary film making that facilitates a greater understanding of business wheeling and dealing. Oh, and there probably should be “heuristic” and “holistic” thrown in there somewhere for good measure, too..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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