New Fanboy Cinema

Ever watched Lord of the Rings and thought, I could have done with more, and left the cinema unsatisfied? If so, then you're bum must have a high pain threshold, and you vowed to continue the series by yourself. A group of people did just that last year, and the sequel (to their own fanboy movie), 'Born of Hope' is released tonight (http://www.bornofhope.com). The production values are remarkable considering the budget, and its a real testament to what can be achieved with a dedicated group of people working at the weekend for nothing. 

With the cheapness of camera equipment today, fanboy films are sprouting up faster on youtube than even the cinnamon teaspoon challenge. The films typically take place in the 'universe' that the film has created. 'The Rage', a fanboy mini-series on youtube was made for a thousand pounds, shot on DV, and exists in the universe of '28 Days Later'. Despite its meagre budget, it still manages to have a helicopter flying in troops at the beginning. 

The makers of these films must have an agenda other than homage, and this is surely to fulfill their dream of making these genre films on a big, hollywood, stage. The most notable example of this happening is from another trend: fanboy films of video games. Two brothers made a film called 'Escape from City 17', based on the 'Half-Life 2' game. The makers, UbiSoft, flew the brothers to their studios prior to its release. One of the creators has said "(he) would have trusted the brothers to make a 'Half-Life' movie way before I would have trusted somebody down in LA to do it." Praise indeed. 

Despite their success, I can't help but feel fanboys energy and money could be better spent making an original film. I would cite the examples of Christopher Nolan, who spent £17,000 on his feature 'Following', which catapulted him into the Hollywood machine. His latest film was 'The Dark Night'. Darren Aronofsky spent even less on 'Pi', and has just knocked back directing a 'Robocop' remake. Sam Raimi made the 'Evil Dead' for very little, and he directed the Spiderman trilogy. Fanboys forget that their favourite genre pictures were, at the time, wholly original. Aronofsky and Nolan are given hundred million budgets because their capable of summoning something out of nothing. 

The closest i've got to a fanboy film was in primary 6, when I wrote a story heavily influenced  by my favourite films 'Aliens' and 'The Terminator'. It was relatively successful. The teacher read it out in class to rave reviews from classmates, apart from one prick who shouted out 'that's aliens!' That's something I remember when I see yet another fanboy homage to films and video games that have gave them so much joy. 

Encounters - Last Day

I have just moved seat to be near a table where Andrea Arnold and Eran Creevy are having a debate with a few other filmmakers, and the curator of the festival. Proper stalker stuff. 


The two directors were part of an excellent discussion under the title of Shorts 2 Features. Everyone had an energy and vitality about them, which was a real antidote to a lot of the doom and gloom stuff surrounding Encounters. I feel refreshed and enthusiastic: I want to start writing now for a new film. 


This is my first time at a festival and I have to say that with all these directors around, all these films, and all these voices, hopes and dreams, its daunting. Not every one of these filmmakers can do what they want, (invariably make a feature), and typically for me, I'm sensitive to the sense of loss of talent and aspirations that must happen to the majority of these people. I hope  it won't happen to me! But it would be arrogant of me to think that it won't, and that my films will be worthwhile. Then again, it won't and they are.  

Encounters - Networking

Friday is the peak of my networking at the festival. At the UK Film Council brunch this morning I met some really nice people with formidable titles. The highlight of which was showing my allotment film to someone from 4docs to a positive review, she reckons that it would be ideal for the program, which is very positive indeed. I also spoke to the Irish distributor Derry, (who I mentioned in an earlier entry) and he showed an interest in the blog. The Allotments and Oot Ma Tree was also shown to some people from Digicult and the Glasgow Film Festival, so i'm reaching the right people. I am, however, aware of over exposure with the Digicult staff so I'm taking a wee break from all the networking (despite it being Scottish Screen happy hour), and returning for a swish party on a boat. I don't want them to suffer from Dougie fatigue! My aim is to have a film here for next year, as I think i've gone as far as I can here with what I can offer the people I'm talking to. An entourage would also go a long way I think. 

How To Get It Out There

My list has gained some credibility, an Irish distributor (Derry O'Brien) has validated some of my claims, he says social realism is not what he wants from short film. In his own words - "razor blade stuff". Its not marketable, and not what people want to see in a worldwide recession. He also gave out a very useful Do's and Dont's of short film marketing. Some useful websites I wasn't aware of were also revealed so all in all, a very worthwhile and useful hour and a half. 


Next, another shot at Best of British, and i'm hoping for a more uplifting experience this time around. After that, its networking time at a 4docs happy hour. 

Encounters - Best of British 2

Sometimes you can learn more from watching the poorer short films out there. From this depressing selection there were two films with fresh ideas and a bit of vitality about them, and they were both animations. The live action ones were, at their worst, incomprehensible. They've inspired me to make a list of things not to do in my next film. 


- no more characters washing their face at the sink, then having a good look at themselves after a traumatic event. I've seen this happen in four films so far, its worked in some, but thats a repetitive trend I'm keen to avoid. I blame the Sopranos, Tony did that all the time, and it was cool. 


- Just don't bother with an opening premise that keeps you in suspense if you don't make it clear at the end or leave it open-ended. Alexander Mackendrick wrote a lot about suspense, and he would take offense at this. 


- Dreary films with no humour or heart have put me off any of my darker ideas. I want my films most of all to be striking and fresh. Out of all the dark shorts i've seen so far, very little leave me feeling exhilarated or positive about making films, or life for that matter. 


Next up - a lecture on 'how to get it out there'.

My Hostel Nights Sleep

With my macbook, wallet, mobile and passport held tight, I experienced a hostel night's sleep full of cliche. An obligatory snorer who can project his snorts and whoos expertly. Builders at 7 in the morning. People were coming in late on, but I can't complain as they were as quiet as they possible could have been. In the end, I slept alright. 


First off today is a Best of British screening in half an hour. 

Encounters - International Panorama 7

First screening of the day - an international panorama of short films from New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, America and the Ukraine. The most depressing and pointless of which is, predictably, from the former soviet block. It involves doctors nonchalantly telling a patient that she has aids, as well as her baby. I almost laughed. Until someone suffocates the baby with a pillow. Utterly grim and pointless. Still haven't seen an Ardennes brother film, and this actually, for the first time, made me want to watch one, to see how this kind of drama can be done well and made worthwhile. 

The selection of films were all in contention for an audience award. There was an excellent american animation called Pigeon: Impossible, about a troublesome pigeon that hassles a secret agent and his briefcase. World War 3 nearly erupts. The director, Lucas Martell must surely be on his way to Pixar studios as we speak. Despite how funny the film was, my vote went to a short I really loved, a New Zealand film called Mokopuna. It reminded me of a Raymond Carver short story played on children's worries. A girl is curious about an unpopular boy who's Maori, which she is on her dad's side. One of the women I was with who saw the film thought it could have been pushed further to make more of an impact, and the more I consider it, I think she's right. I would hate to see the films subtlety disrupted, but I think if the story was restructured there could be a more complex layering of emotions on both the characters. In saying that, I thought it was a lovely film, that i'd have loved to have made myself. 

A good encounter so far, but will my next encounter with short films be as stimulating? Its 4Mations Emerging Talent 2 next, at half 8. 

Encounters Short Film Festival - Bristol

Live from Bristol!


I've just arrived and found the hostel, and I'm about to make my way to the Watershed media centre to pick up my delegate goodie bag and see what's on. Can't wait to get out and about, i'll report back with some reviews on the latest short films Bristol has to offer. 

We Own The Night

This is a relentlessly bleak and stylish film from James Gray, a director who's suffered from too much hype, poor box office and lukewarm reviews. After Two Lovers his actor collaborator Joaquin Phoenix has supposedly retired from acting to pursue a rap career because of his disappointment in how the Gray films have been received by both the public and the press. 


The film is very well made, with a Scorcese inspired opening act of slow pans of nightclubs, popular music, slow motion and macho culture, reminiscent of Goodfellas.  This then delves into The Departed territory with scenes involving lots of tough talking cops, (even Mark Wahlberg, a cop in The Departed features) and that staple from the great director, a catholic church. Joaquin Phoenix and Wahlberg make for impressive leads, and Gray's direction comes into his own in a spectacular car chase. The film builds nicely, with lots of tension, but its building, ultimately, to nothing. With the weight the film carries for the duration, I expected more from the finish, a reason other than revenge and a brother's love for the man's plight. Whatever else is said about We Own The Night, it'll be the car chase that'll be remembered.

Priceless

Priceless is a modernised version of the type of romantic comedy Hollywood would produce in its 'golden age'. As the competing lovers, Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh replace the likes of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn with great aplomb in a film that is a welcome throwback to a more cerebral version of the romantic comedy, and a welcome change to the overly simplistic likes of this year's The Proposal. Putting genre aside, the film is a great achievement in being able to  thicken plot and character simultaneously, creating higher risks with characters that you can't help but care for. Character's carefully played by the stunning Tautou and the vulnerable Elmaleh.


I found the directors commitment to a linear story, shot in a conventional but well crafted way a refreshing experience. Its also unashamedly glossy, with an attachment to materialism just like the main characters. Where's the Hollywood remake?  


However, look at this other point of view from the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw: 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jun/13/drama1

Chopper

Eric Bana is brilliant in this as Mark 'Chopper' Read, a larger than life criminal who had someone cut off his ear lobes, amongst other things. Like 'Bronson' earlier this year, (about a British criminal who changed his name to Charles Bronson), the film is an in-depth character study of a real life man who can't fit in with a normal or criminal society. Chopper and Bronson are at their best in prison. Its remarkable just how similar the two men are, and just how much Bronson owes Chopper to its own success. Without Bana I think this film would be a less impactful film, although i'll definitely look out for director Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. 

Dominik likes to change the colour pallet  of the film depending on the setting. The prison scenes are in a washed out, overwhelmingly monochromatic blue. Released into the world, the film takes on a lurid, sickly red that unsettles the viewer. Even then it still changes, the nightclub scenes are a deep red, household scenes, like at his dad's house, take on an orange hue. 

The film is kept to a tidy 90 minute running time and is relentlessly entertaining.

The Squid and the Whale

This is the closest i've seen to my dad on screen, and it is excruciating. The whole thing is. I spent some of it in other rooms, willing myself to see it through. It is because of its unflinching honesty that its an ordeal to watch, and at the same time utterly compelling. It feels very true to life. The children are victims of their parents deeply flawed personalities. They sexualise any conversation they can, with devastating results to the children's behaviour. There are subtle behavioral observations here, but at the same time there are some heavy handed interactions, such as the father having no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and with the film tilted on the mother's side on an autobiographical film, I can't help but feel he could have been a little more rounded, as he slowly becomes an hilarious pantomime villian. Aside from that, as a depiction of a family imploding, this film is near perfect. 

I liked the way the director used handheld shots to get in and around scenes in a documentary style fashion. The choice moment I believe is the scene where the father, in his typically entitled, proud manner, almost demands to be with his wife again, to which she only laughs at his increasing rage. As the camera darts around, the children are stationary witnesses of the deconstruction of their parents.

The film's short, 77 minutes, which gives me hope that I can make a feature at that length some day. Christopher Nolan did it with Following, which is near enough the same duration, so by this logic I can get away with an hour 20. 

Forget it Jake its "Chinatown"

Jake Gittes' (Jack Nicholson) swagger, guile, intelligence and integrity equals nothing against his victor's vast wealth and devious schemes. I can see why its now a template for its genre, from which all other conspiracy thrillers draw from, and pay homage to. Subsequently, any viewer will experience a sense of deja vu over certain scenes, sequences, music, costume, dialogue. Even so, its undeniably an inventive film which somehow retains its freshness. I'd like to see if Hollywood could produce something as seminal in this decade: a film that is entirely original and that can dominate cinema for decades. I've previously seen Curtis Hanson's 'LA Confidential', which is an excellent film, and Brian De Palma's 'Black Dahlia', an implausibly bad film from a talented group of people. The former, as good as it is, just doesn't match the artistry of 'Chinatown', or even the tightness of Robert Towne's story. 

What i've taken away from it, in a cinematic storytelling way, is the changes from still shots to handheld ones. At each point it was done it made me want to lean in; it created a sense of alarm, and as such it was used effectively to change the tone of the scene it was used in to further the story. From an interview with Roman Polanski, I found that he always shot Jake from the back to help tell the story in a first person narrative, the way that Raymond Chandler wrote his crime stories. 

I want all my films to look like this: whatever camera this was shot on, i'm using it if I ever direct a feature. For everything to fall into place as perfectly as it does in 'Chinatown' makes it a real rarity, and it deserves its masterpiece title. 

An Education

I seen this through See Film First, where if you're quick enough, you can have seats to a film that isn't yet released, for free. They do this with films that are highly regarded and are expected to do well mainly through word of mouth, compensating for a small advertising budget. Carey Mulligan, who plays the main character Jenny, made the cover of Little White Lies, and was film of the month at Sight & Sound. With the films champions relatively small publications like these, See Film First is an inventive idea to give films like this a chance of being successful, which An Education most definitely will be. (It also has to be said that articles in various broadsheets have already been dedicated to the picture). 


The film running time breezes by due to its easy mise-en-scene and straightforward storytelling. Its the kind of effect that seems so effortless precisely because of the amount of effort Nick Hornby (screenwriter) and Lone Scherfig (director) must have made in structuring the story and realising the characters. Scherfig's direction has no self-consciousness. It is elegant in her shot selection of each scene, stepping aside to let the actor's strengths come to bear light on their character. 


Its minimal, its not showy, and it tells the story brilliantly. I think the scene that showcases Scherfig's subtlety best is one at the Walthamstow racetrack, where David's (Peter Saarsgard) best friend Danny (Dominic Cooper), is dancing with his girlfriend Jenny in a provocative, and vigorous, way. The shots between the two dancers gradually become closer; the close - ups of David's face blur the background (he's focused on one thing); the cuts between the two build tension - and when the character's meet, Scherfig votes simplicity in a long shot encompassing all the actors, as David panics and takes Jenny home.