Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Is She Really Attracted To You Or Does She Just Want A Role In Your Next Movie?
The answer is that she wants a role in your next movie. No exceptions.
Monday, 4 January 2010
The Chaplin Exhibition at the London Film Museum.
London just got a lot more exciting. Look, even this guy is smiling;
An exhibition is opening at The London Film Museum - all about the life of Charles Chaplin; from his poverty-stricken childhood, to his wild Hollywood successes and his final years in exile. It opens tomorrow.
The exhibition is on until December. I'll be going this week - see you there! Click on the image below to be taken to the museum's page about the exhibition.
I'll probably be reviewing the exhibition later this week.
An exhibition is opening at The London Film Museum - all about the life of Charles Chaplin; from his poverty-stricken childhood, to his wild Hollywood successes and his final years in exile. It opens tomorrow.
The exhibition is on until December. I'll be going this week - see you there! Click on the image below to be taken to the museum's page about the exhibition.
I'll probably be reviewing the exhibition later this week.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Follow The Process And Win An Oscar, SIMPLE!
I really love it when I get taken away by a moment in a film. It's quite rare, but sometimes you'll watch something that really catches something human, and truthful - and it usually turns out to be something you really need, something you can relate to. If you're lucky, it'll make you feel a bit better about the world, about people, about the human condition.
What's great about this film is its simplicity. It's about two people connecting, it's about music. It was filmed on two cameras, in only 17 days - for around £100,000. It's a perfect example of what can be achieved by independent writers and directors, if only we try.
'Once' was a film shot in Ireland for £100,000 - a tiny independent film that was not meant to take the world by surprise. But it did. It won the Best Original Song Academy Award 2008; and goes down as one of the more inspiring and unexpected surprises in the history of the Oscars.
But to look a little closer - here is what the script called for.
Exciting eh? Not really. In fact, you can imagine this script doing the round in Hollywood and everyone saying "Two people sitting and playing a song? boring!" or "You can't film 'like a form of courtship' - how can you direct that?"
Anyways. That's the scene as written. You might think it's good, you might think it's bad. Either way - it's very simple, it's a blueprint, an opportunity.
And then magic happened.
The film up until this scene had been very simple. A guy (Glen Hansard) is busking, a foreign girl (Markéta Irglová) is watching him. They talk. The Next day, she brings her vacuum cleaner to him (as well as busking, he repairs vacuum cleaners) -- he stops singing for lunch, they walk for a while, go to a cafe; talk about music and she takes him to a piano shop.
She sits at the piano, plays around for a bit.. and the the guy gets out his guitar to play one of his own songs. He quickly talks her through it - and then they try playing it together; in the piano place.
What transpires is not anything that could have been written. The perfect blend of the musical performance, the lyrics, the chemistry between the actors, the natural flow of the scene, the camerawork (which is handheld, and would probably be criticised if you handed it in at a film school).
The mixed emotions of the song; its sadness, its loneliness, its hopefulness, it's romance - it's in the song, it's in the performance, it's in their eyes. And this is where John Carney really proves himself as a Writer/Director - he has let the scene unravel and take on a direction that was not in the script. Often, that's the hardest thing for a Director - letting the scene develop as a natural, living process. But in this case, and throughout the movie - Carney was an expert at that, at allowing for an improvisational style and for the scenes and its characters to be more natural and honest.
Below is a video of the song - it's not the actual scene (although much of it is), but it's a montage that gives you a good feel for it. The magic is still there to see.
What's great about this film is its simplicity. It's about two people connecting, it's about music. It was filmed on two cameras, in only 17 days - for around £100,000. It's a perfect example of what can be achieved by independent writers and directors, if only we try.
The film didn't try and cater to a demographic, it wasn't shot in some fashionable 'indie-style' (whatever that is). It was what it was, a lovely little handheld, low-budget modern day musical shot in Ireland. It was truthful, honest, moving---- and cheap to make.
But it did well - REALLY well. For one reason... because people connected to it. It captured something real, something people needed. Especially that song, 'Falling Slowly' - it went on to win the academy award in 2008. When you watch the acceptance speech, make sure you watch it to the end, when Markéta Irglová comes back out and offers up some inspirational words..
Video: Falling Slowly Winning Best Original Song Oscar Benzer: best
I post this as a way of reminding us all, as we enter a new year - that whatever your creative ideas, even if you have an idea like 'Musical set in Ireland, lots of singing around pianos, shaky camera-work' then GO FOR IT. If you follow your vision, believe in it, and do it, who knows.. you might just end up with an academy award, and if you don't - at least you'll have been among the very few who had the tenacity to try.
"A little movie called Once gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year."
-Steven Spielberg
Everything I've ever had to say in a nutshell. Looking back at 2009.
I generally try to write positive stuff about how wonderful everything is, but it's often to mask the true pain of your creative baby slipping away. But then when someone like Michael Jackson dies and leaves an endless supply of his art behind, you get reminded of why you do what you do. And the magical thing is that, even on a bad day, if you keep your eyes open, you'll find talent everywhere. And that's when you realize you really are a writer, and you start to really define why.
And then you start to get really inspired. You see Chaplin's 'Modern Times' and you see Darabont's 'Shawshank Redemption' - and you start to wonder what impact you can have on the world. But to do that, you realize you really need to work out who you are, and the best way to do that is to explore your childhood. And if that's not enough, then you can look into the heartbreaking yet life-defining thing that being a teenager is.
Then there's the film industry itself, crazy thing that it is. Sometimes you just need to completely detach yourself from it, especially when you're surrounded by actors with inflated egos. but then you have to feel sorry for the actors, because nobody knows where their footage is.
But you can't be without those actors for too long because before you know it they'll start producing their own work especially when they find out how to make a film on a zero budget
I think we should take a few brief moments to look at hot women.
Sometimes when the filmmaking gets a bit stressful you can focus on more important things, like how you can sneak things into the cinema (albeit food, not guns or Christmas decorations. I tried to ask someone in the industry about this, but instead Jake Pushinsky just wanted an interview about film editing.
For a brief while I stopped filmmaking and then became the world's biggest expert on dream interpretation. And then, using my new therapy like skills I then taught the world about tea addiction.
Despite these distractions - eventually it came time to focus on my true love - Natalie Portman. Sorry, I mean screenwriting. But first I had to deal with that annoying lack of confidence and it made me realize than rather than writing what other people want you should just BE YOURSELF -- and if all else fails, then you can use my alternative, and dare I say original ways of overcoming writers block.
And then the year ended.
And then you start to get really inspired. You see Chaplin's 'Modern Times' and you see Darabont's 'Shawshank Redemption' - and you start to wonder what impact you can have on the world. But to do that, you realize you really need to work out who you are, and the best way to do that is to explore your childhood. And if that's not enough, then you can look into the heartbreaking yet life-defining thing that being a teenager is.
Then there's the film industry itself, crazy thing that it is. Sometimes you just need to completely detach yourself from it, especially when you're surrounded by actors with inflated egos. but then you have to feel sorry for the actors, because nobody knows where their footage is.
But you can't be without those actors for too long because before you know it they'll start producing their own work especially when they find out how to make a film on a zero budget
I think we should take a few brief moments to look at hot women.
Sometimes when the filmmaking gets a bit stressful you can focus on more important things, like how you can sneak things into the cinema (albeit food, not guns or Christmas decorations. I tried to ask someone in the industry about this, but instead Jake Pushinsky just wanted an interview about film editing.
For a brief while I stopped filmmaking and then became the world's biggest expert on dream interpretation. And then, using my new therapy like skills I then taught the world about tea addiction.
Despite these distractions - eventually it came time to focus on my true love - Natalie Portman. Sorry, I mean screenwriting. But first I had to deal with that annoying lack of confidence and it made me realize than rather than writing what other people want you should just BE YOURSELF -- and if all else fails, then you can use my alternative, and dare I say original ways of overcoming writers block.
And then the year ended.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Brittany Murphy - and her performance in 'Spun'
Brittany Murphy really stood out for me in 'Spun' - a film I saw on a whim one night with two of my friends. I remember us getting to the cinema, having no idea what to see, and settling on Spun, knowing nothing about it. I also remember that we were alone in the cinema - and guess where we sat? You guessed it, in the front row. In fact, we sat on the floor - leaning back on the front row seats, and staring up at the screen. Murphy's performance really got me.
Murphy is great in it because she gets to be funny, attractive, unattractive, insane, silly, weird. She gets to be many things. The film was full of over-acting, but within the context of the film, it worked. Murphy was the best of the bunch (along with Mickey Rourke, one of my favourite roles of his).
I also found Brittany extremely sexy, despite her being completely fucked out of her head on drugs and looking completely rough for most of the movie. She pulled it off. Or maybe I just like them battered, rough, and high as a kite. 
And it's a shame, because she never captured me in the same way again, acting-wise or sexy-wise.. and I don't really know where she's been the last few years. Whenever I did see her she looked pretty thin, unhealthily so - and I've not seen her on the screen in quite a while.
RIP Brittany Murphy.
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