First Shot Jitters

Sorry for any delay, apparently there's a festive season on that takes up people's time.

Anyway, we had our first day of shooting for CAROLS last Sunday and it's safe to say I'm pumped for the remainder of the shoot over January and February.

Little personal admission, the first 30 seconds of on set activity and I'm pretty sure I had no idea what to do. We were going to start running the actors through their movements and as usual when you're director, you're asked 5 million questions one after the other and are expected to know all the answers there and then. I found myself muttering and mumbling and needlessly looking at my script for the first slew of QandA but thankfully my DOP had to go and sort something camera related out and I took a moment to myself where I was like 'What is wrong with you? this is what you want to do for the rest of your life, you're on a location with 15 people looking to you, this is a job you love. So snap out of it!' I took a breath and from then on I worked in my usual form.

I suppose it was a case of first shot jitters and we were attempting a tracking shot too, probably not the smartest thing for the first shoot day as the crew all need to get used to each other too but we got there and I am very happy with the print take (take 12 if you were wondering... yeah I do still have a lot to learn).

#005 Pitch Perfect

Sometimes you're just in need of a film that makes you laugh and forget about the phenomenally craptastic week you've just had and PITCH PERFECT is... well... perfect for just that situation.

The story follows Beca (Anna Kendrick), a young girl with family issues who doesn't want to be at college, but owing to pressures of her father she joins one of several a capella groups on campus filled with all sorts of quirky characters and they compete in the a capella competition.

This sounds all very simple and paint by numbers, and to an extent, it is. But it's fun. Really fun, especially Rebel Wilson, whose one liners sent me in stitches and most of the people in the theatre with me.

In fact, this whole film is filled with some brilliant one-liners all over the place including some great turns from Elizabeth Banks, Brittany Snow and Anna Camp.  As  for uncanny casting, Skylar Astin (from the underrated Hamlet 2) plays the love interest for Beca and he has a ludicrously strong resemblance to Dane Cook.  The casting for this whole film was pretty spot on, especially the supporting roles.

Pitch perfect is directed by Jason Moore who directed the Broadway production of Avenue Q, so this guy knows comedy and doesn't let down on the directing side. He gives us some great sequences including a wonderful 'auditions' montage and some wonderful twists on some typical movie scenes, proving he has some solid cinematic chops.

It pays to mention the music here which is, like the rest of the film, fun. Of course it's filled with the top 10 hits of the last decade, but who cares? The singing was pretty good, barring some occasional auto-tuning and some inexplicable bass harmonies in a supposed all-female group, but I'm nit picking now.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and came out smiling, and sometimes, that's all you really need.
8.5/10

#004 SKYFALL

A fair amount has been said on the subject of this film already, especially when referring to it's context within the canon of Bond, so I will mainly look at this from the point of view of looking at it as a Movie.

Directed by Sam Mendes of AMERICAN BEAUTY fame (my favorite film of all time), SKYFALL is an exceedingly superb action film. Opening of a wonderful and constantly escalating action sequence that flows from setpiece to setpiece in what feels like utter ease and landing us smack bang in the middle of the world James Bond inhabits. Cut to a brilliant title sequence with a great Adele number underneath.

The visuals on this film are amazing, and with Roger Deakins behind the camera, what did you expect?  Interestingly enough, the Arri Alexa was used on this picture and while images aren't always as flawless as those from ANONYMOUS, also shot on the Alexa (though not the studio model) the camera is fast proving itself to be the greatest digital camera to date.

The story, even for non-Bond fans, is exciting and enthralling from the get go covering a plot by a mastermind hacker to take down MI6 and it's leader. All actors here handle their characters perfectly.  Judy Dench is especially given a great plot in which she shines and damn near steals the film from Craig... nearly.

This film is exactly what you want in an action picture, explosions, chases, jokes and a damn good story. I can't really say much more other than it's worth the hype and deserves the some $871 million dollars at the box office as of this writing.

Brilliant, fun and a damn great action film - 10/10

#003 The Master

I delayed reviewing this one for a few days since I watched it in the hopes I would have somehow gotten my head around it... I haven't.

I've been a MASSIVE fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's work since I saw magnolia and it absolutely floored me as a film. When I heard about this one and that it centred around a cult and Amy Adams (my favourite actress of ALL time) was going to be in it, I couldn't wait.

However, I cannot help but feel that the film I wanted, wasn't what this film was and what it was, wasn't something I was particularly after...

The story... or what one can gleam from the films very deliberate slow pacing, is about a young-ish war veteran who find himself caught up in a cult being led by a gentleman known to his followers as "Master" played quite masterfully by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The protagonist is played by Joaquin Phoenix and he has some wonderful moments... that is when you get to see them at least.

The thing is that the movie spends an awful amount of time pondering itself and Freddie (that's Phoenix) spends a lot of time pondering.... stuff... I would assume.  There are some truly brilliant scenes, one in particular between Hoffman and Phoenix early on, and a particularly wonderful scene chewing moment from Hoffman again when the Master is confronted by a skeptic.

These scenes are from the movie I wanted to see, I am perpetually fascinated by cult psychology and the like, having had some personal involvement early on in my childhood with one.  But these scene are too few and far between for me to get a firm grasp on them when they do come along if at all.

The cinematography is brilliant, and Anderson uses plenty of long takes and developing shots that are too often forgotten in the world of directors these days. Interestingly enough, a lot of the movie is shot in ludicrously shallow focus, but it is never uncomfortable which is nice for a change and this odd way of shooting is helped along by a wonderful, if unnerving, score by Johnny Greenwood.

I still don't think I'll ever really get this film, but not in a good way as I do with Fellini's 8 and a half it shall probably remain an enigma to me and I'm not really fussed: the way for another cult-based movie is still clear for, hopefully me, to one day probe.

6/10 - Unnerving, well performed, yet not quite there...

#002 The Sessions

The Sessions. A wonderful film that's generating a lot of awards buzz at the moment.

It follows the story of Mark O'Brien who, stricken with polio as a boy, has no control over almost all of the muscles in his body, requiring him to live most of his life in an iron lung and at the age of 38, decides that he doesn't want to die a virgin and opts to employ a sex surrogate.

Mark is played by John Hawkes who gave a brilliant performance in the well-accoladed Winter's Bone. And here he give a very nuanced performance, made especially difficult by being restricted in only moving his head but it never becomes an act of self pity and that what I loved about this film. It never made his situation a pitiful thing, only a different one.

Helen Hunt plays the sex therapist Cheryl and give a very.... very revealing performance, but again this movie exceeds expectations in that the sex scenes in this film are not shot romantically at all, they are merely another scene and this is where I give props to director Ben Lewin who shoots most of the film with the camera stuck on a tripod which fully places the audience in perspective of Mark's situation.
There is also a Priest character, played by William H. Macy who provides a lot of the film's unexpected comedic moments that elevate it beyond typical dramas.

This is a very good movie, but by no means my favourite of the year, the ending kind of fizzles but overall I had a very good experience... or session.... (I know that was awful but I had to do it... when I bought my ticket I said "Can i have one to the 2:30 session of The Sessions and then laughed at my own joke.... yeah... I'm that guy)

Solid film with a wonderful (and potential Oscar-worthy) Performance from John Hawkes
8/10

*Sidenote: So evidently this won't be a movie-a-day thing as making your own movie eats your time like Mr. Lecter eats census takers. But I shall try my best to review as often as possible.

No review today either...

Dance rehearsals (my film is a musical) have buggered me out... and I have another whole day of it tomorrow so I need sleep... with that said, goodnight. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Corporate Work

So yet another delay, TRAINSPOTTING is, after all a 2 hour movie and I have rehearsals at 8am tomorrow, I will try to have it up tomorrow night and possibly another film if I can keep my eyes open long enough to watch two. In which case it will be the 2002 film SPUN.

So here's another little nugget with regards to Corporate video work, that is: non-narrative videography. I include weddings, fitness videos, training videos... basically anything that fits in that category, I call Corporate video.

I myself have had a few Corporate gigs and from my experience, the best advice I can give is this:

DO WHAT THE EMPLOYER WANTS.

Yes, that's right, forsake all your "artistic integrity" and, whatever they want, you give it to them. You think it would be more pleasing to the eye to dolly in but they want it handheld? Do it hand held.

Yes 9 times out of 10 your ideas are better but that's not the point of Corporate videos... you have your own work for that kind of experimentation and creative license

At the end of the day, they are the ones paying you. There are hundreds of people out there who want that money and will do what they are asked to do so it's just better to use that handheld shot, that star wipe or that cheesy Muzak, if they are happy, they keep paying you and you can take that money and make your films with it. Simple.

... that seemed like an angry post (not my intention at all) but I guess I've had too many conversations with other people where this seems to be the farthest thing from common sense.... in fact that's a wonderful oxymoron isn't it?.... Common Sense...

#001 Blurred

So first on my movie pile is the 2002 Australian film BLURRED.
It was suggested to me by a friend who recommended it when I was explaining a teen party-esque idea I had and to be honest, I wanted to like this movie more than I actually did.
For anyone that has heard me talk about movies, it will become very quickly apparent that I have a love of multi-plot films, that is films with multiple protagonists (the official term is "Hyperlink Cinema" but that's far too wanktastic for me to ever use that in public). Even the ones that aren't supposed to carry a lot of artistic merit such as VALENTINE'S DAY, I find myself, more often than not, enjoying them in some small way.

But with Blurred, it's just that much more difficult.

Blurred follows a dozen or so characters all on their way to schoolies week on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland... yeah that's pretty much it.

I must give props to some of the actors here who manage, in some small way, to handle the incredibly on-the-nose dialogue that feels like first, maybe second, draft material rather than something that's been properly re-written. I mean, for example, the first 30 minutes are coated in every piece of Australian slang. Ever. Other actors in this ensemble piece don't fare so well such as the guy on the train who dumps his girlfriend and goes on a high with a random goth character for the entirety of the film.

That's another thing, most of these characters are unfathomably stereotypical to the point where it feels forced and yet those stereotypes aren't taken anywhere new or given a new spin or development throughout the film that would make them interesting. The characters all just kind of sit there and shit happens. There is, to my great dismay, a totally unnecessary love story that seems to come out of nowhere as two of the characters suddenly "Realise we like each other" in order to create conflict, these kinds of developments scream that the writer is taking a hand and only adds to the parts that feel forced.

Don't get me wrong, there were some good moments to this film: there's one particular sequence at a petrol station where several of the stories collide (my favourite kinds of moments in multi-plot films) that was quite enjoyable to watch and the ending wrapped it up nice enough that it didn't feel like my time was completely wasted but at the end of the day, while it wasn't a terrible movie, it wasn't a very good one either.

4.5/10 for me on this one.

P.S. The one amusing thing is how serendipitously creepy Matthew Newton's role is when considering all the things he did later on in life.... but perhaps that's not a particularly good thing...


Next on the pile is TRAINSPOTTING.

Learning From the Pros

Well I am forced to delay the movie review one more day owing to some production-based dilemmas that needed to be solved and my television being occupied, to my utter disgust, with sex and the city.

But I thought I might give away a trade secret... where I'm learning a lot of the filmmaking stuff I use. I learn it from the people I admire. While part of that is ALWAYS inclusive of watching their films, I am actually referring to a distinct advantage in our digital world of websites like youtube where the artists and craftspeople you admire are only a click away.

I can't tell you how many interviews I've since ripped from youtube and kept on hard drives, well over a few hundred gigabytes. From Spielberg to Tarantino, there's plenty of material with some really interesting and useful knowledge imparted to those who go searching.

This is especially evident with every Oscar season when all the "great" directors (except Terrence Malick) will come out to talk a bit about their work and craft.  I stumbled upon this goldmine of information the net has to offer during the 2009/2010 Oscar campaign when nominees included AVATAR, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and THE HURT LOCKER, and I was merely searching for Tarantino-related videos to satisfy my hunger for every word that man speaks and I came across the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) Directors on directing panel... Basically they put all the talked about directors of the season at a table with each other and have them talk and discuss films for over an hour.
This particular panel had Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Pete Doctor and Todd Philips... it's awe inspiring to say the least.




My only caveat for this video treasure trove is to avoid interviews (aside from some brilliant Hitchcock clips floating about by the AFI) that are shorter than 5 Minutes, usually most of that is a moronic interviewer asking stupid questions ("if you could have any superpower...", when it's a superhero film for a painful example) that add nothing to the conversation, and in my personal experience, the best ones are the interviews and panels that last long enough for the filmmakers to say something truly valuable. So my suggestion is to first search videos longer than 20 min as youtube allows in their advanced search to weed out the less insightful clips.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a short review and the beginning of my "Movie-a-day" feature. I can say, however, that the first on the pile is an Australian film called BLURRED.

Well Look... I'm Back... Again

After nearly 2 Years, in which many a thing has happened, I have decided to return to blogging in the hope that I may eventually get an actual reader or two.

Superlong story short: I am in pre-production on my first Feature film as Director, which is where most of my time has, rather enjoyably, gone.

I was prompted by a friend of mine who decided to go through a massive pile of his unwatched films to do the same and so, I shall be attempting a "Movie-a-Day" kind of thing that shall include all kinds of films whether Home Entertainment, Cinema or otherwise.

I will endeavour  also, to include more blog posts about all things filmmaking that I am picking up along the way of making my film but production-specific updates will be left to the websites set up for that particular production.

More information on my film can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carols-An-Arcane-Century-Production/204352042910592

And the youtube that shall soon be filled with Behind the scenes videos is: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcaneCentury

And fingers crossed I can finally keep this sort of thing going.