Extra ordinary day

February 11th, 2011 | Posted by admin in Film/tv | Random stuff - (0 Comments)

Back in October I got the chance to be an extra in a feature film being shot nearby. I gave it a go having never done that before. The movie is due to be released in June 2011 I think and is about the (true story) of a chap who served in Iraq (the first one) and then returned to Britain and became a prison warder. The film is to be called ‘Screwed’. Unfortunately.
Anyway I was in a few background shots playing an Iraqi civilian, chiefly running and cowering.
Weirdly, it was almost exactly as I’d imagined it: lots of waiting around, in the cold, with occasional calls to run here, or cower there. Anyway, an interesting experience.

Photo from film set

I'm in the middle. I don't recall being that tubby. I'm sure it's just the cut of the jubba.

Three more recommended short films

February 9th, 2011 | Posted by admin in Film/tv | Short film - (9 Comments)

‘I don’t have a great deal of time to comment on these movies at the moment. Some might think that a blessing. More than anything I want to get them down here so that I don’t forget about them myself, and can find them readily.

The first I enjoyed, primarily because I had no idea really what was going on until the end. Typically that might frustrate me but I think this film makes a point, and makes it well.

No Way Through:

This is one of the first I found when I started Googling for ‘best short film’ and similar phrases. Again, it takes a while to work out what exactly you are watching. If you’ve not seen this before I’d be interested to know when the penny drops for you. Once you do though fear not; there’s a further twist right at the end that will make you squirm (cringe?)

The Parlor:

If I’m brutal the next isn’t one of my favourites. I’ll comment beneath so you can watch it un-influenced by me.

Lucky:

See? With that one you never find out really why what happened has happened and personally I didn’t care much to anyway. A great exercise technically to film I suppose but it comes over as (merely?) a showcase of someone’s technical mastery; the story doesn’t really deliver. IMHO of course.

‘Inception’ of what, bad film making?

February 9th, 2011 | Posted by admin in Film/tv | Rants - (0 Comments)

IMHO, Inception is a pretty poor movie. In film the trick is to show, not tell. Or so I’ve been told. Inception has characters continually telling you what’s happening, what the rules of engagement are, etc etc. Yawn. Below, an example from Hitchcock (Rear Window) on using film properly. There’s not a word of dialogue and you know all about the main character: what he does, what happened to him, whom he’s romantically involved with, and what she does too. Please comment if I’ve missed anything. Take a look. You can stop the clip after about 40 seconds I think.

Now that’s the way to do it.

More recommended shorts:

February 1st, 2011 | Posted by admin in Film/tv | Short film - (2 Comments)

Here are another couple of shorts I feel I can give the thumbs up to. Perhaps surprisingly the first is an ad: Aviva with Paul Whitehouse ‘raising awareness’ for the need for life assurance. I know, at best thin ice, at worst emotional blackmail but forget about that for a minute; that’s all you’ll need. A masterpiece as short film?.

The second, quite a bit longer but story … is not relevant here. It should be enjoyed in context. An nihilistic, punk context perhaps? Anyway, hold onto your seats if you’ve not seen Rendevous before.


I want to make a short, humorous animation

February 1st, 2011 | Posted by admin in Film/tv - (0 Comments)

This was produced in Anime Studio:

This is something I thought about before, but now I’m really curious once again. I played around for a while with some software called Anime Studio Pro and thought I could get into that. Having spent a few weeks now on a short film course, it strikes me that this would be a good exercise in that I’ll have to script, direct (well, sort of), ‘film’, and edit in order to produce something half decent. I’ve got a few ideas and will blog when/if I make any progress. The problem is once you get absorbed just trying to output something simple in some new software you can get lost for hours. Days even.