Sabrina & the Engineer...

http://www.severnproject.com/home.html

Having helped shoot the Sturgeon Moon project in 2007, I returned to help shoot the new Severn Project performance - Sabrina and the Engineer, taking place in September and October 2008.

Don't try and ask me what the story of S&E is about, because when you're covering it, that's one of the last things you're focussing on - instead you're concerned about the sequence of events, and timing, as well as camera placement and who goes where and when.

On all the Arts Council projects I've covered thus far, there seems to be a bit of a running theme - they're always filming challenges, providing real coverage conundrums to solve, and of course - lots of chaos.

Fortunately the day wasn't as lengthy as some have been before (so no 'up at the literal arse crack of dawn and down plenty after midnight' this time ... which was nice). That said, it wasn't a cake walk either - we got a walkthrough of the events, which I initially struggled to grasp - but then again, it's a bit tricky when you're new to the project (as in, you're not one of the creators), you're new to the location and you're trying to learn choreography and in turn translate it into your own practical choreography...aye, tis complicated.

Throw in a near-last minute change of filming possibilities, a bit of confusion over the timing of certain events, and then another as-you're-in-it change of filming possibilities and you've got a hectic time alright ... oh and my filming position mid-show was interupted by an unexpected cart used in the performance which I wasn't expecting...but it's all part of the fun and chaos of filming such an event.

I don't enjoy the build up, the time spent waiting for it all to get underway, but once it gets going - it's done in a flash. During the performance you're almost fighting your way through, like a safe and artistic-based version of war photography. Things happen around you, you've gotta think fast and act quick and adapt immediately ... all the while being mindful of your white balance settings, your focus, your exposure, your zooming, your framing and your input volume ... among other technical issues.

So aye - chaotic, but during the performance, when it's "go time", that is what I enjoy ... like I said before, the waiting and building tension beforehand isn't something to enjoy but to endure - the actual performance being the prize, and then hopefully after the dust settles you can sit back and enjoy some quality footage as you debrief ... then the weary journey home.

So what stuff was on show? Well, a steam engine leading one procession, another procession with the show's Sabrina on-board a decorated cart meeting the first at the main performance area, live music, fancy lighting, a boat on the river adorned with lights, a bunch of fireworks and then a load of waterjets either side of a woman rigged with hoses up her back and along her arms firing more jets of water (which was actually quite spectacular, very well performed and a joy to film in itself).

All in all it's probably not the sort of thing I'd usually go and see of my own volition ... but is if I was living in a city that did such things, with a group of friends (but I'm not as I certainly can't afford that just yet) ... but that said, while I didn't quite "get" it all, I certainly enjoyed the spectacle of it all and thought everyone did a great job. The audience were certainly all behind it, so that too, in itself, was a pleasure to witness.

The only downside - my back decided to play up throughout the day, and I woke up the morning after with my back a little better, but still a bit 'hung over' and stiff.

Pineapple Express...

Yep ... Apatow strikes again, and it's actually rather spiffing too. Drillbit Taylor was neutered and merely fairly decent, Forgetting Sarah Marshall was oftentimes hilarious but just missing a little something extra golden. Perhaps the Apatow flavour is beginning to pale a bit now, the dude is certainly shelling out 'produced by' credits like the British government shell out departmental reviews. Oh yeah, then there was that Zohan movie ... I have absolutely no interest in seeing that at all. Likewise Rogen has been flapping back and forth from movie to movie with gleeful abandon, and continues to leave me baffled that he's pretty much my age (perhaps a smidge older - even though he looks thoroughly thirty plus). Then again, he is a funny fucker - so Pineapple Express (obviously sans censor neutering like Drillbit Taylor - despite one UK-specific trim) is a continuation of form for Rogen (he hasn't dropped form, so there's no need for the "return to" precursor). Again it was myself and the lads off on a trip to the cinema - which, as we all live in a (semi) rural area is a good old distance away ... hence movie choices have to be informed and considered. If you're splashing out six-sodding-fifty for a ticket and a fiver in fuel (if you're senoir designated), then you want to be seeing something of quality. Fortunately, the lads and I have rarely been let down (en masse at least) and once again Pineapple Express failed to piss us off - so huzzahs all round! Who wouldn't love a stoner-action-comedy? Boring people methinks, either that or people over thirty (generally). You've got weed jokes, you've got creative swearing, you've got stoned randomness, you've got fiesty comedy-battles, classic moments to chuckle about on the drive home (death by Daewoo, for example) and James Franco NOT playing Harry Osbourne. Don't get me wrong, I really dig the Spider-Man flicks and have them all on double-disc-DVD, but I just feel Franco's having a lot more fun when he's uncut and let loose. Needless to say, as a big fan of the likes of Superbad, there'll be a pre-order for a double disc extended uncut super-duper-lots-of-other-exciting-words DVD from me post haste! All-in-all, wickedly hilarious fun. Ya-boo-sucks to the hatin' minority...go direct your ire in the general direction of 'Disaster Movie' and its ilk of putrid ass expulsions.

Frieze Film 2008 - "Memories of Falling Ash"...

So I'm perusing around the internet, as you do, last night and came across this thing about Frize Film doing a thing about short, experimental films related to The Road, a book by Cormac McCarthy.

http://www.friezefoundation.org/film

I find this out on September 13th, and the deadline to get your films uploaded to YouTube is September 15th. I ponder over night what I could do for it, and revisit the site today - the 14th - and decide to have a go. So I went away, looked through a bunch of my previously shot, but as-yet unused footage, and put together a short experimental piece, in high contrast black & white.

I used music previously provided to me by Brian Wright (I've used his music previously on a few of my shorts) and just dived right in and put it together quite quickly as I was quite enjoying the immediacy of it all - especially getting to use footage I'd shot ages ago for projects that either went nowhere, or shots that were simply never used on other projects, or simply footage that was shot to just have - just in case they were needed, such as now.

So, with the project being about a post-apocalyptic road journey, I decided to follow the 'ashen landscape' route (which is one element of the visuals mentioned in the book - so I've read about anyway, I haven't read the book - but now certainly plan to do so, as it sounds right up my street).

I took footage of driving along a road, which was fortunately mostly empty (so I cut out any passing vehicles) on a rainy, dull day and combined it with footage I'd shot a good couple of years ago now of when we last had snow - which, in high contrast black and white, looks like falling ash upon an ashen landscape.

The notion of the film, is that we're seeing the perspective of a passenger who is journeying through a barren landscape, but keeps having flashes of memories (that appear almost like photographs) of the ashen landscape - these memories denoted by quick fades between the road and the memories, to signify the person blinking in and out of reality.

So indeed - that's what it's about, and I'm currently uploading it to YouTube - so check it out there within the new few hours (it's September 14th at 6pm as I'm writing this).

I've certainly rarely put something together so quickly, and rarely had as much fun and sense of freedom as I have done with this little experimental short.

*Additional*

Just thought I'd mention the tractor with trailer at one point, in case anybody thinks "er, post-apocalypse with a tractor, you wot?" - well, for one, it's not an apocalypse where everyone has died, and for two it's a reference to an idea in the videogame STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, in which they have "death trucks" that bring dead men out from the centre of the zone - so the tractor and trailer in my little experimental short, that's supposed to be a sort of death truck if you will - that's the idea behind that shot, so just in case you were wondering, there you go.

RocknRolla...

Ritchie's returned to what made him a hit in the first place, 'Lahndahn' thugs up to no good. RocknRolla (the first in a proposed double/triple act) returns to the humour and colourful characters of Lock Stock, and Snatch - but importantly, with the sense of maturity illustrated by his last major outing Revolver, which while stylish and occasionally quite good, was generally shoved up its own arse with pseudo-intellectual, chess-related delusions of cleverness and grandeur.

RocknRolla on the other hand, is a step above Lock Stock (in terms of scale, but LS remains in place as Ritchie's best film), and a good few steps below Revolver (in terms of shoved-up-arsedness). Sure, at times it does drag its feet, but when it gets to the point it's classic (or technically, recent) Ritchie through and through.

The pounding intro displays Guy's reasserted confidence, his sights re-aimed on the correct target to make a twisty, always entertaining piece of movie making that's ideal for the lads to get together to have a sit down to (as I did with some of my mates).

Suffice to say, I'll be there when sequel The Real RocknRolla, rocks up with its cheeky bravado and ballsy swagger.

Contempt @ The Milano Film Festival 2008...

The Milano Film Festival 2008

I'd spoken about this earlier, but at the time their website hadn't updated, but now it has - so click the above link and check out the page for Contempt of Conscience, which is showing as part of the "State (t)error" segment, described as such:

"This out-of-competition season, now at its fourth edition, has increased in the number of works screened and in the audience's interest.

The documentaries tell little know stories or stories whose best-known versions are doctored. Stories about the violation of human rights and democratic principles, that highlight the iniquities and crimes committed under the banner of great concepts like "the export of democracy", "freedom of worship", "war on terror" and "peace missions".

The topics and countries featured in the documentaries try to offer an image of the world as accurate and varied as possible. But of an upside-down world. A world in which many areas haven't been mapped out yet.

In 2007 it was Chechnya, Belarus, Iraq, Italy, Palestine, Bosnia, and the USA."

And there I am in the credits:

Fotografia - Cinematography: Nick Thomson

200th post spectacular!! ... Step Brothers...

I'd quite enjoyed Talladega Nights, but wasn't roaring with laughter (but then again I watched it alone, and such comedies are best viewed with others I've found, for the most visceral reaction) ... so I figured that Step Brothers would be solidly entertaining at least.

And what was it like? Absolutely fucking hilarious to the point of hysterics. Seriously, my mates and I were gasping for breath, much like the audience was.

Clearly McKay, Ferrel and Reily were having an absolute blast making this film (they all wrote it as well), and it shows in abundance. Two stand out, gasp-for-breath moments came in the form of ... in the least spoilery way possible ... nutsack meets drums, and "onion & tomato ketchup". The latter had me and one mate chuckling throughout the entire next scene, one or other of us spurring the other on with our continued, unabated laughter.

Absolute, sheer fun. No doubt the DVD - like those of other Apatow-involved projects - will be a cornucopia of extra features heavy with ad-libbing and on-set guffawing. An absolute laugh, it really and truly was.

...

So aye, here we be, 200 posts in after however long it's been ... a bit over a year I think if I'm not mistaken. Ah well, off to see another episode of The X-Files!

Two effed up flicks...

Teeth:

It's just one of those fucked up movies, and obviously you freak out with eek-eyed shock everytime a male member gets lopped off - but then again, all such members get severed as a result of some form of sexual violence, disrespect or just plain old perviness.

Otherwise, I wasn't particularly fussed by the rest of the movie at all, and ended up skimming a magazine at the same time between the shock parts of the movie. Basically that's it, I found it to be generally "meh/alright" with moments of intense "WTF" mixed in.

Funny Games:

Finally got around to checking this one out, and yet again another fucked up film. Mind you, there's barely any violence on screen. Apparently the director is harping on at we the viewer because we should be ashamed of ourselves for watching movies like SAW and Rambo.

Ugh - roll eyes time - fair play you could say, but I think all movies have a purpose (whether it's worth while or not is a per-movie assessment though).

For example, Rambo is a great film and the greatest slice of old school, hardcore action blokery since the 1980s. Yes, it's exceptionally violent and gory - but importantly, you're shocked when said violence is descended upon the innocent, and then you're cheering when it's dished back out against the vile, scum-sucking military junta who conduct themselves in an excessively sickening manner. Plus, it does highlight the Burmese plight while at the same time providing action entertainment - what's wrong with that?

As for SAW, it was the set-up that hooked me in first of all, and then the twisting of the story. The gore in the first one is present, but far from excessive (so I'd say anyway), and it was the plight the character's faced that captured my attention - and indeed the twist had me slack-jawed and WTF-ing for a good while after the end credits. SAW II, which was based on a non-SAW script, wasn't cracked up to much. A naff story and often cringe-inducing gore gags didn't leave a good impression, but then SAW III - with it's back-tracking plot and better story - redelivered the goods. Mind you, the gore gags were far more gruesome than the first film ... and it becomes less about entertainment, than shock cinema survival.

Then came SAW IV ... which was a total load of garbage, no doubt SAW V and indeed VI will continue in the same vein as IV.

But anyway - Funny Games, which is what I'm supposed to be on about. Superb performances throughout by all involved, and as a result the simple story often keeps you gripped (even if at times the pacing felt a bit sluggish at certain points). That said, some of the quieter moments - like trying to raise the alarm seemingly after the worst is over - feels real and honest, and indeed the off-screen violence does up the power of the action, but then again so does using a target that is rarely used in film (you'll see what I mean about half way through).

So a generally impressive film, but I do object to the eye-roll-inducing, somewhat holier-than-thou preaching regarding on-screen violence ... I mean, chill out - you're making a fictional movie, sheesh.

Also - I'd much rather have mankind work out their inner turmoil, violence, hatred and all other nasty goings on in a safe medium - such as videogames, or film - rather than do what the vast minority do and take it out on real people, on the real streets and in the real homes of our real, actual world.