Movie Review : The Avengers

 Culture  2 Responses »
May 152012
 

Poster for The AvengersWhen I first heard about Marvel’s crazy idea for a multi-film franchise I thought it was one of the silliest ideas I had ever heard. But somehow, without really trying to, I have managed to see all of the prequel films that build up to this film’s main event, so I guess full credit (and box office returns) must go to the producers – the whole thing has been managed rather well.

For those keeping score at home, here is what I thought of the prequels:

Iron Man – excellent.
Iron Man 2 – disappointing.
The Incredible Hulk – not terrible but forgettable, I preferred the Ang Lee version.
Thor – extremely loud and silly, but watchable.
Captain America – even more silly, but took the premise and ran with it to entertaining ends.

Astonishingly, none of these films were aggressively stupid in the way that even the best superhero franchises tend to become after a while. So I had high hopes for The Avengers.

Hopes that turned out to be completely justified! The Avengers tells the story of all these guys finally meeting and eventually (spoiler alert) teaming up. As an adaption it is a great success, I am not sure the plot follows any particular existing story but it adheres much more strongly to conventional comic book structure than the typical film plot. All the explanation of who these characters are and where the came from has been neatly dealt with in previous films so The Avengers can get straight down to business.

The script is clever and Iron Man’s quips are as witty as ever. The story is simple, but appropriate for the material. Personally, I could have stood to see more Hulk (the new guy playing him nails it, but there isn’t enough time to flesh out the changes he is going through), and less Captain America however these are minor quibbles. Almost every detail is perfect.

Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

Film Review : Attack the Block

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Apr 092012
 

The poster for Attack the BlockSomewhere in South London, a gang of inner-city youph are out mugging passers-by when a meteor crashes into a nearby car. When they go to nick whatever is in the busted open vehicle they discover the meteor was inhabited by a strange dog-like creature. So they kill it.

Unfortunately for them, the creature had friends on the way…

Attack the Block is an entertaining take on the alien invasion genre, with the young protagonists fighting off large beasts with flick knives and baseball bats on a large council estate. Unlike most films, the gang is not glamorised and is shown to be pretty pathetic as they flee the creatures on BMXs and scooters, falling back on the few resources available to them. Each character is well rendered, and a lot of the humor comes from interplay between the cast in an impenetrable argot.

The creatures themselves are fantastically conceived – big and scary in a way that transcends the low budget. The way they slink through the smokey corridors (are the lights flickering? why yes they are) is fascinating and Attack the Block doesn’t make the mistake of letting the audience get a clear look.

Some of the best parts of the film are when the gang members’ tough-guy affectations slip and you see hints of their normal existence when they are not out on the streets. But Attack the Block never lapses into social commentary, keeping the focus on the matter at hand – avoiding the tougher gangs, the police, and aliens in more or less in that order.

Suspenseful, fast paced, and funny. Highly recommended.

Film Review : John Carter

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Mar 272012
 

Still frame from John CaterAfter fighting in the American civil war (on the wrong side), cavalryman turned prospector John Carter is mysteriously transported to Mars, arriving in a time of great calamity. War is raging here as well, can Carter’s presence change things for the better?

According to some reports the film is a costly flop and I can see why. Up until a couple of weeks ago there was a giant billboard for this movie right next to the train station I walk to each morning, a billboard that made John Carter look like one of the stupidest films ever made. The trailer also looks terrible, and I am not sure why they went with the most generic title possible. I went into the theatre with low expectations.

I am glad to say that the advertising campaign is misleading, John Carter is actually pretty cool. Based on a very old book by Edgar Rice Burroughs (who appears as part of the framing story), its hero is forced into all sorts of action-packed scenes as he bounds around Mars aided by his Earth-gravity adapted muscles. The pacing is excellent, the plot covers a lot of ground but everything is well explained and the film knows when to stop, unlike a certain other human-hanging-out-with-large-aliens-and-horning-in-on-the-princess film I could mention. The characters are only drawn with the broadest strokes, but the ink is colourful and such a pulpy canvas cannot be expected to take a finer brushwork.

A decent addition to the list of watchable popcorn films. Recommended.

New Zealand International Film Festival 2011

 Culture  6 Responses »
Jun 272011
 

The Film Festival is back in town, and this year I have promised myself to get organised and see the films that stand out. Here is my provisional list (links go to youtube trailers):

The Tree of Life
It has the whiff of Oscar-bait about it, but the trailer looks good.

Taxi Driver
“Are you looking at me? I don’t see anyone else here.” This film gets referenced in all sorts of places, and it annoys me that I have never seen it.

Nosferatu
I have seen this before, but not with an orchestra providing the music. Everybody’s favourite count munches his way across Europe, staying one step ahead of international copyright law.

Space Battleship Yamato
I have never seen the Manga this live action film is based on, but I am a sucker for bombastic alien invasion tales. For a nation that suffered greatly as a result of World War II, Japan’s films sure do reference it a lot.

The Trip
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are two of my favourite comedians, and this film looks like a flimsy excuse for them to expose on their warped world views for over an hour. Sounds fine to me.

Animation Now 2011
Every year I say that I want to see the collection of animation shorts. This year I will.

Hot Coffee
This year’s official Be-Outraged-At-Corporate-America film.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
I am a sucker for 3D films, caves, and pictures of animals.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?
A documentary about an architect.

Hobo with a Shotgun
How can you go passed a title like that? Does Rutger Hauer need the money this badly?

Troll Hunter
Vampires have been killed by Twilight, the werewolves’ moon is waning, zombies are well played out; this generation is crying out for a new monster. Between this film and The Hobbit, I am getting in on the ground floor with trolls.

Are there any I have overlooked?

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State Highway Death : Turn Right for Murder

 Culture, my projects  1 Response »
Jun 092011
 

Here is our entry for the 2011 48 Hour Film Competition:



Watch on Youtube

The reviews were not kind, but everyone had fun making it. The elements this year were a character called Bobby Young, the dialog “What have you got”, a piece of bent wire, and the film had to end on a freeze frame. Our genre was “Road Movie”, to be honest I think we ended up with more of a revenge film (one of the other genres) but I think we got in enough travel to make it count.

My contribution was mainly as the camera operation, although I helped write the original script and directed the odd scene. It is my fault that Bobby is out of focus in the last scene – hi-def video is unforgiving.

So You Want To Make a 48 Hour Film Festival Film (Part III: Timeline)

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May 312011
 

Note: this is part three, see the first part for the introduction and disclaimer.

If all goes well, your effort should unfold something like this:

Before the competition: triple check the equipment. Do an end-to-end test by shooting some test footage, editing it into a short clip, and outputting it into the final format. Double check that the resulting file meets the requirements of the competition and take note of how long everything took. Remember to estimate how long your film will take to render and subtract that from the 48 hours you think you have to finish. Do this a couple of days beforehand so you have time to organise any replacement equipment should you need to.

Make sure that you have replacement batteries and recording media. Trust me on this.

On the Friday night: Send along a couple of people to the 48Hour kickoff event. The rest of the team should assemble somewhere quiet and comfortable. After the kickoff, your team’s representatives should phone ahead to let the team know the genre and required elements. The team should spend the evening kicking around ideas until everyone is happy with the rough shape of the film. The script should be written that night, ready for the start of shooting the following morning.

Saturday: Aim to start early, especially if travel is required. The script should have been emailed to the team during the night, so everyone should have seen a copy and know roughly what they need to bring in terms of costumes. With any luck, you can start shooting as soon as it is light. Aim to shoot the outdoor scenes first, you never know how much fine weather you are going to get. Make sure everyone is fed, people will be working hard.

With any luck, most of the shooting will be done by Saturday afternoon. If you are organised, it may be possible for your editor to start assembling finished scenes while the rest of the crew completes shooting but I have never been in a team that has managed this yet.

The editor can now get to work making a rough cut of the film. This should tell the complete story and give an idea of how the pacing works, but does not need music, titles, or much polish. It is here that the editor might discover that he or she does not have a shot required to tell the story, or that the sound is bad in one shot, etc.

Sunday: Assemble the crew you need for any reshoots and get them out of the way. You might have some ideas for different shots after seeing the rough cut, now is the time to try them out. Your musicians should be finishing up about this time. The final edit might take a couple of hours, depending on the complexity of your film. Adding in music tracks, and the title and credit sequences always take longer than you think. You really want to be finishing up about mid-afternoon. Remember that rendering your film can take hours if you have a slow computer. Don’t be like the people I see every year standing at the finishing line holding laptops still waiting for the render to finish as the clock strikes 7pm.

Now you get to bask in the knowledge that you have completed a film. Enjoy the heats, they are a lot of fun to watch.

So You Want To Make a 48 Hour Film Festival Film (Part II : Cast and Crew)

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May 312011
 

Note: this is part two, see the first part for the introduction and disclaimer.

Unless you are one of the mad people who can fling together a film solo, you are going to need teamwork to get the job done. Being on a team involves knowing when to share your ideas, and just as importantly, knowing when to shut-up and keep out of the way. You are going to be with these people for most of the weekend, so make sure you at least tolerate each other – things are going to be stressful enough as it is.

Apart from the actors, you are going to need some crew.

A director's chairMost importantly, the director decides how the action plays out in a scene including where the actors are positioned, what is in the background, what exactly the camera is looking at, etc. The director should not be afraid to boss people around if needed, and he or she has final say if discussion about an aspect of the filming gets “spirited”.

The camera operator is in charge of the camera equipment, including the lenses and making sure that batteries are charged and there is a fresh supply of media to record to. This person should know how to use the camera enough to make sure everything is in focus and the white balance is set correctly. The camera operator usually has a better idea of what is actually being recorded through the lens, so can often help with setting up lighting if this is required. Also, if you are recording sound directly onto the camera, the camera operation can check levels and microphone placement.

If you have a small crew, the director and the camera operator can be the same person, but it is often good to separate the roles since setting up the equipment can take up valuable directing time. While the camera operator is shooting, somebody shot be writing down a rough description of the shots being taken. This will help the editor later on.

The scriptwriter takes the ideas from the team and writes a shooting script. This will have all the dialogue and rough stage directions. In my experience, it is hard for people to write a script as a group; far better to let one or two people go off and whip something up once the general idea for the movie has been decided on. The script is not set in stone, but should give the actors the dialogue they need and the director an idea of what shots are needed to tell the story. Remember that the script needs to include all the required items specified in the rules.

The editor assembles the shots into a film and has the biggest influence on the final product. This person should be familiar with the software being used. Like scriptwriting, editing is difficult to do in a big group – one or two people maximum. If the editor can’t tell the story with the material the director shot, it may be necessary for the dreaded reshoot.

Depended on your film and who you have available, your crew might also include musicians, dedicated people for lighting and sound, drivers to ferry everyone around and possibly make-up artists if your cast is ugly.

So You Want To Make a 48 Hour Film Festival Film (Part I : Intro and Equipment)

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May 302011
 

Introduction

I have been involved in a few 48 Hour Film Festival projects over the years, this post is me trying to get down in writing the things that made our films successful. And by successful I don’t mean that we won prizes or accolades; I mean that we had a great time making them, learnt a few things, arrived at the finish line on time, and got to see our work projected on the big screen to a polite smattering of applause. In my view that is what the 48 Film Festival is all about.

None of the following advice applies to the superstar professional teams that enter the competition every year. Those people already know what they are doing. This is strictly for the first-timers.

Equipment and Software

Canon 550D CameraCamera, you need one (well, duh). If you don’t have access to a professional video camera, your options are a digital SLR camera in video mode, or a home camcorder. The camcorder will probably be easier to use, but the DSLR camera will have vastly better lenses. This year we used a Canon 550D, a low-end DSLR, and were pleased with how it looked.

Tripod, doesn’t have to be flash – we used a plastic one that my Mum got free in some special offer years ago. If you are feeling ambitious then try to arrange a dolly – we did without but it can add visual interest to otherwise static scenes if the camera moves smoothly.

Sound is an area where a lot of films fall down; our films have never had good sound because we skimp on microphones and it costs us in the heats. Ideally you want an external microphone with a long enough cord to put in on a boom or somewhere close to the actors. The other option is to rerecord dialogue later and lay it on top of the video during editing, but that is a big job for an amateur team. You can use the camera’s inbuilt microphone but the results will not be great.

Lighting is a problem for small teams, especially when filming indoors with small camcorders. If you don’t have access to proper stage lights, reading lamps that are not too directional can do at a pinch. If the weather is good, try to shoot outdoors as much a possible. You have to be careful shooting in direct sunlight, to avoid the actors faces being half in shadow you need a source of fill light. A white piece of cardboard or polystyrene foam can be used to bounce sunlight back the other way to eradicate annoying dark patches.

A car (or two), you will need to transport people and equipment around. Food and drink enough for the entire cast and crew. Nobody works well when they are hungry and thirsty. Sunscreen is important when filming outside. Petty cash on hand to buy props and supplies in a hurry. A few changes of clothes for your actors if your story takes place over multiple days. Maybe some make-up for the actors.

A computer and editing software. If in doubt, get an Apple Mac. All Macs come with iMovie (editing) and Garage Band (music, multi-track recording), two pieces of easy to use software that together make up 95% of what you need to make a short film. Better software exists but not for free.

Two other pieces of software we found useful were Audacity (sound editor), and InkScape (graphics editor for titles, etc). Both these programs are available for Mac and Windows, and are free. Make sure you have at least a passing familiarity with the software before the big weekend. Every minute will count once you get to the editing stage.

Whew! I didn’t set out to write so much. This is going to have to be a two part affair.

Book Review : I am Jackie Chan

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Apr 052011
 

I Am Jackie Chan CoverJackie Chan was one of the biggest film stars in the 80′s and 90′s, famous for his face-paced and deliberately silly action films filled with incredible stunts. This autobiography was released in 1998 and covers his life up until his Hollywood breakthrough (Rush Hour).

His story starts in the poorer parts of Hong Kong, where his parents ended up after fleeing the Chinese civil war. His father managed to get a job at an embassy, eventually leading to a job in Australia. Always a rambunctious child, Jackie was left behind at a Chinese Drama Academy where, under the very struct tutelage of an aged master, he spent the next decade learning the skills of Chinese opera (including acrobatics and martial arts.) There was a lot of overlap between stage performance and the Hong Kong film industry, so the move to film was natural. The book chronicles his rise (with many setbacks) through the world of stuntmen as a callow youth, eventually maturing enough to star in and produce his own brand of infectious comedies that eventually earned him fame and fortune. Roll Credits.

Jackie Chan with Stephen Seagal
The book is fill with amusing photographs like this one. Who would win in fight?

It sounds suspiciously like one of his movies (pretty much all of his early films, at least.) Chan tells his story with broad brush strokes and much wit, and the result is certainly an entertaining read, but I never really got the feeling that it revealed much about the man. As a young man he admits to drinking and gambling to excess, and then all of a sudden he doesn’t. He finds first love, which her parents forbid. She dies years later, unmarried, and Jackie admits to secretly helping her out without her knowledge in a quick paragraph. His wife and child are briefly mentioned in a single chapter and then disappear. Part of this may be that Chan is a workaholic that is always on set, but people expecting a warts-and-all tome of introspection will be disappointed.

Nevertheless, I am Jackie Chan is an enjoyable and informative look into the Hong Kong film industry and the disappearing world of Chinese opera schools. And just like his films, the book ends with a blow-by-blow account of his worst stunt injuries – how is he still alive?

Highly recommended.

Film Review : Tron Legacy

 Culture  1 Response »
Dec 302010
 

Hollywood often takes flak for needlessly rushing out sequels and remakes of perfectly good films, which is why I applaud the recent trend of producing bewilderingly belated remakes (Clash of the Titans) and sequels (this) to frankly terrible films.

Tron certainly didn’t need a sequel. But what it lacked in plot and characterisation (and pacing, and coherence) it made up for with a strong visual and audio aesthetic. Nothing looked and sounded like Tron, it struck out in its own direction and its subsequent lack of commercial success ensured that nobody bothered to follow it. It stood proud and alone, an all-but forgotten time capsule of early CGI and 80′s computer slang.

Tron Flying Ship Thing

Tron Legacy is not a great film, but is does have some of the same styling has the original, perhaps wisely watered down for more popular appeal. It certainly looks fantastic, with sleek lines and imaginative action sequences. The characters are weak and the plot is simplistic, with an ending that is not so much telegraphed from the first act as teleconferenced with a detailed powerpoint presentation. But plot is not why people go to a Hollywood blockbuster, and Tron Legacy’s 2 hours feel like the drumsticks in KFC Quarter Packs – tasty and they pass quickly.

The credits say that the producers commissioned Daft Punk to write the soundtrack for Tron Legacy, but honestly it could have been other way around – Daft Punk’s whole career was basically an audition tape for this job. The traditional Daft Punk sound is augmented with an orchestra and it sounds great. Or maybe GREAT!, it sure is LOUD but a film this visual needs a strong soundtrack to go with it.

One of the things I am most enjoying about the recent crop of 3D movies is that directors are finally being forced to hold shots steady for more than 3 seconds. Action movies were becoming almost impossible to watch due to the incredibly fast cutting that seemed to be mandatory for any fight scene, it was bad enough in 2D but positively nauseating in three dimensions as audiences’ eyes struggled to keep up. Despite the excellent special effects, Tron Legacy looks very old fashioned in terms of shot length and placement, with all the action happening safely mid-field, something that my middle-aged eyes find refreshing.

According the the IMDB, the same director is readying a remake of another terrible film with a strong visual flare, The Black Hole, for deployment in 2012. I am almost looking forward to it… (hopefully they manage to recreate the insane original ending.)

Tron Legacy : Recommended if you can see it in 3D

Film Review : The Holy Mountain

 Culture  3 Responses »
May 312010
 

A Christ-like fool of few words wanders around Mexico having surreal adventures before ascending into a tower to find a wise alchemist who becomes his guide on a journey to the titular mountain. Is it a Christian allegory? Is it a celebration of hippy mystical excess? Was it made in 1973? Is it social satire? Did the production crew take a lot of LSD? Was John Lennon’s money well spent? Is this movie worth watching?

The answers to all these questions are unknown, except for the ones about 1973 and LSD. The answer to both those questions is: “Hell Yeah!”

The Holy Mountain starts promisingly – a main character awakes in a pool of his own urine and gets into a fight with a deformed dwarf whom he soon befriends. Heading into town they make money from tourists by staging historical mock battles with reptiles and toads. The fool gets into various situations before which may or may not be intended to mirror the life of Christ or the cards in a tarot deck or both or neither. In any case, this part of the film has some eye-popping imagery and is nearly silent so you can make up your own story.

Things start getting a bit ropy when the fool meets the alchemist. The film basically slams to a halt as the fool is taught various rituals whose symbolism is only outweighed by their tedium. Things get worse when 7 other people are introduced – the rituals get even longer and less interesting. Finally they all set off for The Holy Mountain, meeting various temptations along the way.

This is a film I really wanted to like. I don’t mind the bizarre imagery, nudity, occasional graphic violence and ham-fisted social commentary. The first few scenes set things up nicely, but The Holy Mountain becomes so tedious once the story starts that it doesn’t even hold up as a slice of history.

Not recommended. Maybe it’s better if you have access to drugs, but you would probably be better off just taking the drugs.

Film Review : A Boy and His Dog

 Culture  4 Responses »
Apr 122010
 

World War IV blasted the surface of the Earth to a barren wasteland across which roving bands of scabby bandits compete for sparse food supplies. Vic (Don Johnson!) is a young man who has teamed up with a telepathic dog to survive – Vic finds food for them both while the dog make itself useful sniffing out women (in short supply) for Vic to rape.

Yes, rape. What is it about 70s Science Fiction and rape? I have noticed this trend – up until the late 60s scifi was all space ships and aliens with heroic main characters. Not that they all portrayed woman as equals and complex characters in their own rights, but the protagonists at least had good intentions.

Then sometime just before 1970 somebody decided that scifi had to be all dark and twisted and a lot of stories started to appear where the main character basically rapes people. Sometimes this can work as social commentary but often it just comes across as exploitative and nasty. Was this a reaction to feminism? I don’t know, but it sure is irritating. Thankfully, not too many of these stories got made into films.

A Boy and His Dog almost gets away with the rape device since Vic is not very successful and is eventually taken advantage of by his supposed victim. A second point in the film’s favour is the humorous script and a light touch. Nothing is treated particularly seriously as the gormless Vic gets into one bizarre predicament after another in his quest for sex. Indeed, the general plot of the film and particularly the closing scene point to the whole exercise being conceived as the world’s most elaborate shaggy dog story, with the joke being on the audience. The second male lead actually being a shaggy dog may also point to this interpretation being correct.

What could have been a horrific and repellent story is redeemed by a well realised film that is a ropey in some places but pitched so perfectly that its flaws can be overlooked.

Recommended, but only if you like this sort of thing. Otherwise avoid.

Film Review : Fantastic Mr. Fox

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Apr 112010
 

Mr. Fox was a world class chicken thief but gave it all up years ago for a quiet middle-class existence when his child was born. He still yearns for some old-time larceny and naturally jumps at the chance for one last big score. Things do not go entirely to plan and Mr. Fox’s grand schemes may have grave consequences for his family and friends. Is Mr. Fox as fantastic as he believes himself to be?

Fantastic Mr. Fox is on the surface a fairly straight-forward children’s tale of talking animals vs mean humans. But director Wes Anderson infuses the story with his own brand of obsessive observation and the result is a mixed if enjoyable bag. The stop-motion animation is a throwback to the stiffly animated kiddy shows of the past such as the old Wind in the Willows show – it makes Wallace and Gromit look positively realistic. I found this to be charming, but heaven knows what anyone born after 1990 would think of it.

Some of the scenes may be a little talky for young children and a lot of the humour is wry rather than slapstick gags. Also, identifying with the main character is fairly hard, the film does not shy away from showing Mr Fox’s flaws. This makes for an interesting plot, but I doubt we will see Mr Fox’s face showing up on kids lunch boxes.

It is actually quite hard to see who Fantastic Mr. Fox is aimed at – it doesn’t have the universal appeal of Wallace and Gromit, nor can I imagine teenagers really liking it. If I was paranoid I would suspect it was aimed directly at me.

Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

The Aliens Rap

 Culture  9 Responses »
Feb 032010
 

Following up on the epic 10 minute rap summary of Robocop, the same team has released Aliens:


open at youtube.com

Watching this reminds me what a great film Aliens turned out to be and how Avatar (by the same director) pales in comparison. It’s not that Avatar was terrible but nobody is going to be making 10 minute rap songs about it in 25 years.

quick update: Hey, they’ve done Terminator 2 as well!

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