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