I haven't been around for a loooonnnnngggg time. Basically, I got bored sitting at the office PC for occasionally very extensive lengths of time writing posts that I felt didn't really say much. Who really wants to read the thoughts and ideas of a guy who basically isn't anything to do with the industry he talks so much about yet? To paraphrase the words of Ben Affleck in Dogma (and I apologise for the extreme in-appropriateness of the context I'm using them in, but I re-watched the movie with my sister yesterday for the first time in a few years. Still great.) "I kept talking, but I got the distinct impression no-one was listening."
Well, maybe a few people, but basically, once beyond started to collapse down like a slow motion Jenga tower, I didn't see the point in updating.
Well, things are changing. How fast, I can't say but:
1) beyond is starting again. Tentative, but progress is being made.
2) I like myself slightly more this year.
3) Most importantly, I got a new laptop and wi-fi yesterday, so I no longer have to freeze my ass off in the office typing away night.
So yes, changes afoot. I'll be back soon to clean out spam from old comments (I hate that so much), update the sidebar links - so many of which have changed or shutdown I think I may be the blogging equivalent of the Blade Runner neon sign curse - and finally, to write lots of new posts, including one that corrects an Entertainment Weekly poll decision that, in the words of Peter Griffin, really grinds my gears.
All soon, but I'm out for now. Cheers.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2007
I AM Still Here...
Full, long, in-depth update coming up on many things, but I've had no time at all recently, not even for sleeping and eating in the last three weeks (haven't managed three meals in one day for at least a fortnight) and this poor nugget of cyberspace has fallen to disrepair...but I shall be back soon. All the best for now.
Monday, September 03, 2007
You Cock-blocked McLovin!
Just caught a preview of Superbad. My advice to you when it gets released here is just go for it, and go fast.
Fantastic humour, verbal and visual, some guaranteed new catchphrases, and some deep real heart at work there. Michael Cera will be to comedy in the future what Shia Labeouf is becoming to tentpoles, Emma Stone is like a proto-Michelle Monaghan in voice and looks and the whole cast was charming. It also had a "fuck" count to rival a Scorsese picture.
(And as ever, looking up the actors on IMDB, I find almost everyone has some kind of offensive or jibing thread going on at the bottom of their pages...said it before, say it again, IMDB forum threads - Worst. Innovation. Ever.)
I also came into some money this week (got to love it when all the editing jobs actually pay off at once) and in honour of Seth Rogen (I'm also going to try for Knocked Up this week too), I'm about to search for and purchase the Undeclared boxset I've been promising myself for a year or so. That'll work.
Heavy editing the next couple of days - Women's League of Fitness instructional videos. That's not nearly as fun as it sounds. After that, back on to figuring out how to make my movie. I could be looking at weekend shoots to accommodate people now. It'll drag out, but summer has gone and I want to get this made. Anyway, we'll see in a few days. Now, to find Undeclared DVDs!
Fantastic humour, verbal and visual, some guaranteed new catchphrases, and some deep real heart at work there. Michael Cera will be to comedy in the future what Shia Labeouf is becoming to tentpoles, Emma Stone is like a proto-Michelle Monaghan in voice and looks and the whole cast was charming. It also had a "fuck" count to rival a Scorsese picture.
(And as ever, looking up the actors on IMDB, I find almost everyone has some kind of offensive or jibing thread going on at the bottom of their pages...said it before, say it again, IMDB forum threads - Worst. Innovation. Ever.)
I also came into some money this week (got to love it when all the editing jobs actually pay off at once) and in honour of Seth Rogen (I'm also going to try for Knocked Up this week too), I'm about to search for and purchase the Undeclared boxset I've been promising myself for a year or so. That'll work.
Heavy editing the next couple of days - Women's League of Fitness instructional videos. That's not nearly as fun as it sounds. After that, back on to figuring out how to make my movie. I could be looking at weekend shoots to accommodate people now. It'll drag out, but summer has gone and I want to get this made. Anyway, we'll see in a few days. Now, to find Undeclared DVDs!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Quick Thoughts
Two posts in one day...why I never...
My primary thought right at this moment in time is I need to be a lot more pro-active in terms of shooting my movie. True, I'm still in the process of casting a new lead, but I really do need to get shit organised, do it fast, and do it well. This is what I need to do, and somewhere inside me is the will to see it happen. If anyone can direct me to the exact point inside me where it is, answers on a postcard please. Or a comment or email, if you prefer.
Two things you need to be aware of:
1 - Sunshine is amazing. Had my second viewing today, on DVD. Whilst not quite as amazing as the first time in a cinema (and what I wouldn't give to see it IMAX somehow) it is still an absolutely remarkable movie, and given its (relatively for a sci-fi) low budget becomes in my view an achievement in British film for the ages. Especially when you think we also churn out Festival, five minutes of which the other night had me attempting crush down a beer can with my forehead, just so something pleasant would be happening in life.
Anyway, Sunshine is out there and you need to see it, you really do. And I need them to release a soundtrack album, because it's really damn beautiful and not being able to hear it anytime I want to is making me a little crazy right now.
2 - Discovered today the blog of James Moran, writer of Severance. I've not seen the film yet but it's on my to-do list along with reading the entire back entries of his blog, because from the glance I had, the guy is very switched on and fucking hilarious. We also, in aspects like our admiration of Timothy Dalton and hatred of the concept of toilet attendants, seem to be evenly matched, even if I am naturally intensely jealous of his having an agent (from one of the companies I got a pass from no less) but since he seems very cool, I begrudge him not. Anyway, his blog and all four years of his back posts are here and on the sidebar. I recommend a thorough read.
Have you noticed I've got the hang of hyper-linking, by the way?
My primary thought right at this moment in time is I need to be a lot more pro-active in terms of shooting my movie. True, I'm still in the process of casting a new lead, but I really do need to get shit organised, do it fast, and do it well. This is what I need to do, and somewhere inside me is the will to see it happen. If anyone can direct me to the exact point inside me where it is, answers on a postcard please. Or a comment or email, if you prefer.
Two things you need to be aware of:
1 - Sunshine is amazing. Had my second viewing today, on DVD. Whilst not quite as amazing as the first time in a cinema (and what I wouldn't give to see it IMAX somehow) it is still an absolutely remarkable movie, and given its (relatively for a sci-fi) low budget becomes in my view an achievement in British film for the ages. Especially when you think we also churn out Festival, five minutes of which the other night had me attempting crush down a beer can with my forehead, just so something pleasant would be happening in life.
Anyway, Sunshine is out there and you need to see it, you really do. And I need them to release a soundtrack album, because it's really damn beautiful and not being able to hear it anytime I want to is making me a little crazy right now.
2 - Discovered today the blog of James Moran, writer of Severance. I've not seen the film yet but it's on my to-do list along with reading the entire back entries of his blog, because from the glance I had, the guy is very switched on and fucking hilarious. We also, in aspects like our admiration of Timothy Dalton and hatred of the concept of toilet attendants, seem to be evenly matched, even if I am naturally intensely jealous of his having an agent (from one of the companies I got a pass from no less) but since he seems very cool, I begrudge him not. Anyway, his blog and all four years of his back posts are here and on the sidebar. I recommend a thorough read.
Have you noticed I've got the hang of hyper-linking, by the way?
Oh, For The Love Of...
Really?
Did these people not see Thank You For Smoking?
NICK:
If one more group or spokesperson tries to make me feel like an uninformed idiot or a criminal for choosing to smoke on my own, outside, never around other people who don't smoke and by-the-damn-way, my last pack of 10 took me five weeks to get through so shove that up your looking-at-me-like-I'm-a-drug-addict asses, (not you, dear readers, but the people who looked at me askew last week for daring to hold a cigarette - not light, mind you, but hold - in the centre of a very public but also incredibly open and airy square) I swear, there are gonna be some of those secondary bullets Bill Hicks mentioned flying real soon.
Did these people not see Thank You For Smoking?
NICK:
Gentleman. It's called education. It
doesn't come off the side of a cigarette
carton. It comes from our teachers, and
more importantly, our parents. It is the
job of every parent to warn their children
of all the dangers of the world including
cigarettes so that one day when they get
older, they can choose for themselves.
doesn't come off the side of a cigarette
carton. It comes from our teachers, and
more importantly, our parents. It is the
job of every parent to warn their children
of all the dangers of the world including
cigarettes so that one day when they get
older, they can choose for themselves.
If one more group or spokesperson tries to make me feel like an uninformed idiot or a criminal for choosing to smoke on my own, outside, never around other people who don't smoke and by-the-damn-way, my last pack of 10 took me five weeks to get through so shove that up your looking-at-me-like-I'm-a-drug-addict asses, (not you, dear readers, but the people who looked at me askew last week for daring to hold a cigarette - not light, mind you, but hold - in the centre of a very public but also incredibly open and airy square) I swear, there are gonna be some of those secondary bullets Bill Hicks mentioned flying real soon.
Friday, August 17, 2007
A Quick Word About Lindsay Lohan
Damn I hope this girl sorts her life out.
I've not seen everything she's done, far from it. Of course there's Mean Girls, which is a terrific lead performance on her part, backed by a good script and great cast. But I've not seen Herbie, nor Just My Luck, any failure in which I'd refrain from blaming on her - from what I've seen it would be the same kind of comedy-romance filler product no matter who was starring in it (ten years ago, I'd bet Sandra Bullock)
But what I have just seen is A Prairie Home Companion. Great movie, and I can take or leave Altman from film to film, but this was excellent. And Lindsay Lohan is captivating in it. She has this magnificently shy awkwardness to her. She listens to everything happening around her - doing some great acting without saying a word. But when she does say words - her voice...damn she can use it well. Vulnerable, low and sad, it breaks, falls and rises in a way that is so beautiful I could pretty much listen to it all day.
Behind all the gossip, wild nights out, drugs-drink-whatever I DO NOT CARE, she is tremendously talented and if she gets through this period of neverending shit she seems to be stuck in, I think she could do some really amazing work in movies. I really hope that gets to happen.
I've not seen everything she's done, far from it. Of course there's Mean Girls, which is a terrific lead performance on her part, backed by a good script and great cast. But I've not seen Herbie, nor Just My Luck, any failure in which I'd refrain from blaming on her - from what I've seen it would be the same kind of comedy-romance filler product no matter who was starring in it (ten years ago, I'd bet Sandra Bullock)
But what I have just seen is A Prairie Home Companion. Great movie, and I can take or leave Altman from film to film, but this was excellent. And Lindsay Lohan is captivating in it. She has this magnificently shy awkwardness to her. She listens to everything happening around her - doing some great acting without saying a word. But when she does say words - her voice...damn she can use it well. Vulnerable, low and sad, it breaks, falls and rises in a way that is so beautiful I could pretty much listen to it all day.
Behind all the gossip, wild nights out, drugs-drink-whatever I DO NOT CARE, she is tremendously talented and if she gets through this period of neverending shit she seems to be stuck in, I think she could do some really amazing work in movies. I really hope that gets to happen.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
1Sb: Ah.
Well, this post was intended to be a quick technical overview of how I'm going to shoot the movie, running down my equipment and rough guide to the weeks ahead as I was ready to start shooting.
What it is instead is an announcement of a teeny delay in principal photography, the reason being I am, as of this morning, out a lead actress.
Olivia and I met up last week to discuss the movie and it went great. I floundered on facts (locations, times, whatnot), but when I found out all her questions were really textual - interpretations of the ending, character issues - I improved considerably. Questions about shooting details = uh oh. Questions about the script - bring it on! Anyway, it was a great meeting, and we worked out that she had juuusssttt enough time to shoot the movie before she left to start her University career next month. In exactly one month from today, to be precise.
Over the weekend I started to arrange a shooting schedule based on her availability and the rest of my cast, locations, what-have-you. I finally started to get a sense of control over the filming to come, but it was clearly very very very tight. It left Olivia, at best, five full free days before she departed. Now, I've been to Uni. I know that leaving your home for several months, for the first time, takes a lot longer than five free days to prepare. Especially when the rest of your days are spent running around making a movie and remembering shitloads of dialogue. Also, the schedule was based on the best possible outcome of times and days (foolish, I know) The weather here is changeable at the moment. Last week was beautiful, this week, not so much. Just one bad weather day on an exterior shoot could have thrown everything else into chaos. But it was do-able. Just.
So this morning I get an email from Olivia, saying she's thought long and hard, she loves the project, the character, she wants to do it, but based on all of the above and the fact that she needs to be ready for the next three years of her life more than I need to film (which I did say to her at the meeting), she just can't commit to it.
I'm actually surprised at my reaction, because I thought "Okay" almost instantaneously. Seriously. After all I wrote and thought before about not being able to see the film without her, I think it took all of 20 seconds for me to just say "Okay. I can't do the film with her, but I'm still going to do the film. That's all there is to it." Not out loud, of course, this was interior monologue. I'll always think about the film that could have been, but I believe in this script, and a lot of other people do, and all I really need to do is re-imagine the scenes in my head with another actress. Not the easiest process, but it beats the alternative of sitting around saying "Well, I guess I don't make this now because I can't have it exactly the way I thought when I typed it." and never calling "Action." So I wrote back to Olivia and things are fine with us - that girl is so damn brilliant I know we'll make a movie together one day. It just won't be this one.
So, recasting. I have a couple of notions that I'll investigate this week. The one true upshot of all this is now I won't have a deadline to finish filming, so working around people's work/school schedules should be vastly easier. I still hadn't finished casting the movie fully anyway (Why do people you need go on holidays? Why? What is the holiday ethic? I just don't get it) so the extra time I now have should let me prep the shoot a bit better. Well, as better as it gets with me.
Still, as the 1st Unit (me) is delayed, the 2nd Unit (also me) rolls onwards. There's a big fireworks display tonight and tomorrow on the seafront, and I needs me some close-ups for the prologue of the film, so I'm going to go out and hopefully grab those. I say hopefully as the weather here is terrible today. Come to think of it, almost every year on the two days of the National Firework Competition, the weather is terrible. Three years ago it was torrential rain all day and night, writing off one of my dad's professional DVCAM cameras as he filmed the display for work (water got into one of the boards - we have pictures, it's not pretty), and pissing me off as I schlepped out across the water to Mountbatten, ostensibly to film the winner's ceremony for dad and the guy he was shooting with's video as I had done the last two years. Only this year I got completely fucked off with the weather and left. Which turned out okay because they'd moved the ceremony back to the other side of the water without telling anybody, so I couldn't have filmed it anyway.
So the weather's ranged between okay and awful today, but hopefully I'll be able to get what I need tonight or tomorrow. Unrelated news, my iPod died this week - the battery maintained it was fully charged when it was in fact completely depleted, and upon plugging it in dead, it would charge for 2.5 minutes and say "Done! I'm full". Which was undisputably incorrect. Twat. So that's away hopefully being repaired and I'm back to old reliable Minidisc for a few days.
It's an interesting time.
What it is instead is an announcement of a teeny delay in principal photography, the reason being I am, as of this morning, out a lead actress.
Olivia and I met up last week to discuss the movie and it went great. I floundered on facts (locations, times, whatnot), but when I found out all her questions were really textual - interpretations of the ending, character issues - I improved considerably. Questions about shooting details = uh oh. Questions about the script - bring it on! Anyway, it was a great meeting, and we worked out that she had juuusssttt enough time to shoot the movie before she left to start her University career next month. In exactly one month from today, to be precise.
Over the weekend I started to arrange a shooting schedule based on her availability and the rest of my cast, locations, what-have-you. I finally started to get a sense of control over the filming to come, but it was clearly very very very tight. It left Olivia, at best, five full free days before she departed. Now, I've been to Uni. I know that leaving your home for several months, for the first time, takes a lot longer than five free days to prepare. Especially when the rest of your days are spent running around making a movie and remembering shitloads of dialogue. Also, the schedule was based on the best possible outcome of times and days (foolish, I know) The weather here is changeable at the moment. Last week was beautiful, this week, not so much. Just one bad weather day on an exterior shoot could have thrown everything else into chaos. But it was do-able. Just.
So this morning I get an email from Olivia, saying she's thought long and hard, she loves the project, the character, she wants to do it, but based on all of the above and the fact that she needs to be ready for the next three years of her life more than I need to film (which I did say to her at the meeting), she just can't commit to it.
I'm actually surprised at my reaction, because I thought "Okay" almost instantaneously. Seriously. After all I wrote and thought before about not being able to see the film without her, I think it took all of 20 seconds for me to just say "Okay. I can't do the film with her, but I'm still going to do the film. That's all there is to it." Not out loud, of course, this was interior monologue. I'll always think about the film that could have been, but I believe in this script, and a lot of other people do, and all I really need to do is re-imagine the scenes in my head with another actress. Not the easiest process, but it beats the alternative of sitting around saying "Well, I guess I don't make this now because I can't have it exactly the way I thought when I typed it." and never calling "Action." So I wrote back to Olivia and things are fine with us - that girl is so damn brilliant I know we'll make a movie together one day. It just won't be this one.
So, recasting. I have a couple of notions that I'll investigate this week. The one true upshot of all this is now I won't have a deadline to finish filming, so working around people's work/school schedules should be vastly easier. I still hadn't finished casting the movie fully anyway (Why do people you need go on holidays? Why? What is the holiday ethic? I just don't get it) so the extra time I now have should let me prep the shoot a bit better. Well, as better as it gets with me.
Still, as the 1st Unit (me) is delayed, the 2nd Unit (also me) rolls onwards. There's a big fireworks display tonight and tomorrow on the seafront, and I needs me some close-ups for the prologue of the film, so I'm going to go out and hopefully grab those. I say hopefully as the weather here is terrible today. Come to think of it, almost every year on the two days of the National Firework Competition, the weather is terrible. Three years ago it was torrential rain all day and night, writing off one of my dad's professional DVCAM cameras as he filmed the display for work (water got into one of the boards - we have pictures, it's not pretty), and pissing me off as I schlepped out across the water to Mountbatten, ostensibly to film the winner's ceremony for dad and the guy he was shooting with's video as I had done the last two years. Only this year I got completely fucked off with the weather and left. Which turned out okay because they'd moved the ceremony back to the other side of the water without telling anybody, so I couldn't have filmed it anyway.
So the weather's ranged between okay and awful today, but hopefully I'll be able to get what I need tonight or tomorrow. Unrelated news, my iPod died this week - the battery maintained it was fully charged when it was in fact completely depleted, and upon plugging it in dead, it would charge for 2.5 minutes and say "Done! I'm full". Which was undisputably incorrect. Twat. So that's away hopefully being repaired and I'm back to old reliable Minidisc for a few days.
It's an interesting time.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Transformers
Go. Go now. I don't care if you think it's a stupid idea or you never liked the toys or you're afraid of cinemas for some reason, there is no excuse - GO NOW.
I have not felt that young and excited at the movies in ages. Some moments so nicely played and put together that they just made my jaw drop. And I'm not just talking about the CGI, even though it is truly remarkable, I'm talking about all together, pound for pound, the coolest thing I've seen in ages.
Nice character development (organic and non-organic protagonists alike), plenty of time to get to know people before shit starts blowing up, and honestly, genuinely funny in so many ways. The Autobots interaction with each other, and with Sam, is priceless. Perhaps not so much getting to know the bad guys, but Frenzy in particular is like a whole bunch of Gremlins rolled into one malevolent little fucker, managing to be simultaneously funny and threatening at once.
Great cast playing the material right - LaBeouf is worth whatever his ever-rising price must be to get him in a flick, and Megan Fox...Yes. Just yes. Duhamel perhaps not in it as much as I'd have expected, but being as serious as he should be throughout. The ever dependable Kevin Dunn, John Turturro still acting in a Coen Brothers film and Jon Voight with a shotgun - what more do you want?
Unlike what seems to be most of the film fans on the planet, I'm a huge Bay fan. Love the guy, love the movies, and I cannot think of another director who could have pulled off the balance this film has and needs correctly. Actually my friend and I tried, and failed, to answer that question after the movie. This had the right director and it shows through every single gleaming frame. The entire crew worked their ass off on this and you can tell it was done with love, care and affection, and as far as I'm concerned, I can't think of a summer movie (or action movie) that's going to top it this year.
Just. Go.
I have not felt that young and excited at the movies in ages. Some moments so nicely played and put together that they just made my jaw drop. And I'm not just talking about the CGI, even though it is truly remarkable, I'm talking about all together, pound for pound, the coolest thing I've seen in ages.
Nice character development (organic and non-organic protagonists alike), plenty of time to get to know people before shit starts blowing up, and honestly, genuinely funny in so many ways. The Autobots interaction with each other, and with Sam, is priceless. Perhaps not so much getting to know the bad guys, but Frenzy in particular is like a whole bunch of Gremlins rolled into one malevolent little fucker, managing to be simultaneously funny and threatening at once.
Great cast playing the material right - LaBeouf is worth whatever his ever-rising price must be to get him in a flick, and Megan Fox...Yes. Just yes. Duhamel perhaps not in it as much as I'd have expected, but being as serious as he should be throughout. The ever dependable Kevin Dunn, John Turturro still acting in a Coen Brothers film and Jon Voight with a shotgun - what more do you want?
Unlike what seems to be most of the film fans on the planet, I'm a huge Bay fan. Love the guy, love the movies, and I cannot think of another director who could have pulled off the balance this film has and needs correctly. Actually my friend and I tried, and failed, to answer that question after the movie. This had the right director and it shows through every single gleaming frame. The entire crew worked their ass off on this and you can tell it was done with love, care and affection, and as far as I'm concerned, I can't think of a summer movie (or action movie) that's going to top it this year.
Just. Go.
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