Reformat the Planet
Reformat the Planet
| 10 March 2008 (USA)
Reformat the Planet Trailers

'Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet' is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as ChipTunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results. Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, 'Reformat the Planet' maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the ChipTune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

Reviews
Nonureva Really Surprised!
SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
thesien Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet is a cool, fun documentary about the chip music scene, a number of active chip tunes artists, the Tank venue in NYC and the Blip Festival 2006.If you're looking for more information about chiptunes this would be a great place to start. Nullsleep, Glomag, noteNdo and Bit Shifter are interviewed and account well for themselves. They are, unsurprisingly, a pretty geeky. But they are really charming and obviously pretty talented. The documentary has nice touches too in the use of Nintendo style graphics interspersed into the footage. It's simple and effective.A number of the people in the film talk about how chiptunes are a form of re-use of technology for another purpose and how people are doing this kind of thing with all types of media and devices and that the internet has encouraged this kind of approach. Chris Burke is one of the people interviewed and it is interesting to note that he is involved with machinima and the 'This Spartan Life' series.This documentary is well worth your time if you have any interest in this kind of thing.