Archive for January, 2008

In plain view (video)

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Don’t mention the wooden eye and top hat; don’t mention the mohican; and don’t mention the left foot - Daniel Day-Lewis, whose roles are a litany of must sees, will be doing the Q&A thing at the Exeter Picturehouse on Monday, February 11 at 6.45pm.

The star’s image will be pinged, via satellite, from glamorous Clapham as part of the Picturehouse’s special preview of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (for which Daniel picked up the best actor Golden Globe).

The movie comes out on general release on February 15, and here’s the trailer.

Posted by Cptn

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Animated words (video)

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

If you just lurve animated films, then celebrate Valentine’s Day (almost) at this year’s Animated Exeter shindig.

It all kicks off on February 15, with animated antics at The Picturehouse, the Exeter Phoenix, the Spacex Gallery, Exeter College, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter Library and Exeter University.

Stay tuned to D+CFilm over the next few weeks for a whole buncha Animated Exeter goodness. In the meantime, here’s the trailer for this year’s event. Tickets are on sale now, people!

Posted by Thin White Duke

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A Yard decision

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

You’ll be pleased to hear that Plymouth City Council’s planning committee has voted unanimously in favour of the Royal William Yard film studio and production offices.

The committee said it hoped the proposed studio would bring employment to the city, but planning approval was dependant on the site’s flood defences being approved. 

As we told you on Monday, One Plymouth is all set to be the first channel of its kind in the country, featuring local news, sport, lifestyle and business.

It was originally due to start broadcasting last year but was put on hold when the production company behind the scheme, Automatic Media, folded owing thousands of pounds to creditors.

Despite these setbacks, Automatic Media’s Dave Orton recently assured the Plymouth Herald that ‘things are moving forward’.

Stay tuned to D+CFilm over the coming weeks for more about One Plymouth TV.

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Film theory

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

While flicking through the latest issue of Sight & Sound magazine, we were surprised to stumble across the following comment by Crash director Paul Haggis in a story about how the Iraq War is being represented on-screen.

He said: “To make a film like Transformers at a time of war is a political act.”

Haggis didn’t go into any more detail, but his thoughts reminded us of our ‘Transformers/War On Terror’ theory from a few months back (hey, we knew that GCSE in Media Studies would come in useful someday).

Here’s what we had to say back in July (doesn’t time fly, etc):

“Transformers (which, let us not forget, first appeared during the Reaganite years) is all about ‘the enemy within’. Robots (ie, terrorists or commies) in disguise. You have to be extremely vigilant to spot them as they move among us. Heck, they’re even turning ‘our’ technology against us. The good guys have to beat the enemy at their own game by donning disguises themselves or acquiring more weaponry. And though they claim they won’t hurt ‘humans’, it’s acceptable for them to injure innocent people as collateral damage. The good guys rationalise this by winning the hearts and minds of decent American folk, while demonising the so-called baddies and emphasising the greater good. They spin tales about how the baddies cannot be trusted and how they have consistently messed things up on their home ‘planet’. Frankly, if they’re not reined in, the war will spread to other ‘planets’…”

Well, you get the gist. We’re gonna send a link to this story to the Sight & Sound film boffins to see what they have to add, but in the meantime, why don’t you post your own theories and comments below.

Posted by Thin White Duke

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The Yard sell

Monday, January 28th, 2008

One Plymouth TV’s long-mooted (heck, we were talking about it back in August) studio and production offices could finally be built at the Royal William Yard if planners give the scheme the thumbs up.

The application for a film studio in a 6,000sq ft slaughterhouse at the Royal William Yard, will be considered by Plymouth City Council’s planning committee tomorrow (that’s Tuesday, folks).

Regular readers will remember One Plymouth was all set to be the first channel of its kind in the country, featuring local news, sport, lifestyle and business.

It was originally due to start broadcasting last year (from the Tamar Science Park) but was put on hold when the production company behind the scheme, Automatic Media, folded owing thousands of pounds to creditors.

Suffice to say, events so far don’t exactly fill us with confidence about the channel’s future but, given the local filmmaking talent involved, we can only hope there’s some real progress soon.

Automatic Media’s Dave Orton has been frustratingly vague about the channel’s launch date and scheduling, though he did recently assure the Plymouth Herald that ‘things are moving forward’.

Well that’s certainly put our minds at rest.

Stay tuned to D+CFilm over the coming weeks for more about One Plymouth TV.

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Arthouse roundup: January 25-31

Friday, January 25th, 2008

Follow the main cinema links for dates, times and matinee screenings.
Follow the title links for movie details, friendship and maybe more.

PLYMOUTH ARTS CENTRE

The Kite Runner (12A) Click here to watch trailer

Anna M (15) Click here to watch trailer

TAVISTOCK WHARF

Lions For Lambs (15) Click here to watch trailer   

DARTINGTON ARTS/THE BARN

Les Chansons d’Amour (15) Click here to watch trailer

Youth Without Youth (15) Click here to watch trailer

Planet Terror (18) Click here to watch trailer

Silent Light (15) Click here to watch trailer

All About Eve (U) Click here to watch trailer

EXETER PICTUREHOUSE 

No Country For Old Men (15) Click here to watch trailer

Sweeney Todd (18) Click here to watch trailer

THE POLY, FALMOUTH 

The Nines (15) Click here to watch trailer

The Kite Runner (12A) Click here to watch trailer

I’m Not There (15) Click here to watch trailer

If you want your local arthouse or cinema club featured in the Arthouse Roundup, send some details to info@dandcfilm.co.uk       

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Sunrise in the evening (video)

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Harpist to the stars, as well as committed filmmaker in her own right, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry will be accompanying FW Murnau’s 1927 silent classic Sunrise at the Blue Walnut Cafe in Torquay on Saturday.

Regular readers will already know that the Blue Walnut Cafe is the smallest, and possibly hippest, cinema in England, with only 24 seats.

Elizabeth-Jane told D+CFilm: “The framing, lighting, and sheer cinematic scope of Sunrise is breathtaking. The invisible tracking shots are astounding and the sets with their false perspective, and midgets/children as extras remain the largest ever built in the entire history of cinema!”

And if you don’t believe her, ask the pollsters. In a Sight & Sound survey of 100 critics, Sunrise was voted into the all-time top 10. The movie also recently came top of the D+CFilm list of ‘best films featuring a drunk pig’.

You can judge for yourself in Torquay on Saturday. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7.30pm start. Call 01803 605995 to book. Here’s a taster, without the live Elizabeth-Jane soundtrack, of course.

Posted by Cptn

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Poo schtick

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Hailed by The London Paper as ‘the best comedy of 2007′ and by Empire magazine as ‘a real charmer of a movie’, Kenny is a funny, touching and beautifully observed mocumentary straight outta the Christopher Guest school of filmmaking.

A runaway box office smash in its native Australia, Kenny tells the tale of an affable waste management plumber who displays a disarmingly infectious enthusiasm for life - no matter what it throws at him.

It’s released on DVD in the UK this week. Click here to see Kenny talking about toilet odours. Devil’s curry, indeed.

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Goodie mag

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Exeter-based national magazine DVD Monthly is celebrating its 100th edition with a list of the top 100 DVDs.

Wrongheaded readers voted Lord Of The Rings - Extended Editions Box Set as the toppermost of the poppermost (nice extras, shame about the movies), with the Star Wars Trilogy Episodes IV-VI and the Alien Quadrilogy Box Set second and third (that’s a bit more like it).

But then, what do we know? We haven’t been able to watch a director’s commentary since Mrs D+C moved in. Puh!

Issue 100 of DVD Monthly is in the shops now and is well worth a read (yknow, if there’s nothing on D+CFilm).

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Lights, camera… Disability Action

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

A new project in Exeter is giving adults with learning disabilities the chance to make a movie.

The scheme is being run by Exeter-based charity Community, Equality, Disability Action and community arts company Means of Production. There will be four half-day workshops and five days’ filming on location, finishing with an event in March.

Participants don’t need any prior filmmaking knowledge and the project is free, thanks to funding from the Exeter Positive Steps Fund.

Today is the last day you can register, on 01392 360645. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis - so you’d better get a bloody move on.

Oh, and there’s also an opportunity for two volunteers to work on the project, suitable for disabled and non-disabled artists, students and graduates, art teachers and community arts workers who want to increase their skill and experience in working with disabled people.

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Extras! Read all about it! (video)

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

The prolific and successful South Devon filmmaker Ashley Wing is scouting around for enthusiastic drama students to fill in as extras on another of his productions.

He’s returned to the Second World War (click below to watch part one of his rather excellent Between The Lines, from last year) for the theme of this one and is on the look out for people to fill male roles between the age of 18-22 and be of medium build.

“There will be rehearsals on the day of the shoot and lots of running is involved,” Ashley told D+CFilm.

“We are also looking for mature males aged between 65-85 with acting experience as well as a female actress aged between 45-55.

“We are looking for make-up artists to prep and freshen up the actors before shooting scenes.”

If any of you want to get involved, email Ashley on wing6704@yahoo.com with your work experience. Showreels very welcome.

“We do not focus purely on what experience you have already - although enthusiasm and professionalism is a must,” said Ashley.

Auditions are to be held at Exeter Pheonix Media Centre on February 9 in the Computer Suite. Futher details will be confirmed to those interested applicants.

Posted by Cptn 

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In the cut

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

As previously reported by D+CFilm, ITV is keen to make big cuts in its regional television service. Their plan would mean an end to Westcountry’s local news service for Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset.

Instead, there’ll be one regional service stretching from the Scillies to Gloucester and Swindon, with, one would imagine, huge emphasis on news from Bristol. The sort of sympathetic television coverage our towns, cities, and villages have enjoyed through the years of Westward, TSW, and now Westcountry, would completely disappear.

A local TV news service lets people know what’s going on around them, keeping an eye on local government, health services, transport and utility companies. It’s an invaluable aid to the arts and tourism industries which are so vital in this popular area with its rich cultural traditions.

It’s also important to environment and wildlife campaigners who can get their message across with powerful images as well as words. Many people in this region don’t have access to daily newspapers for economic or geographic reasons, and our local television news is, unlike newspapers, free to anyone with a television.

BBC Spotlight is already threatened by budget cuts. If its ITV competition goes it’s likely to suffer even more and the region would see a further loss of public service broadcasting for this very individual and beautiful area.

Let’s have a closer look at what impact these changes could have.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Westcountry’s closure would seriously affect the economy of the region. A University of Plymouth report  in 2001 said the two ITV companies in the West and South West “contributed £30.5 million to South West GDP in 2001 and supported 558 full-time equivalent staff”. This has already declined as a result of recent cuts in features and current affairs programmes, and the South West’s share would go entirely if Westcountry were to close.

The same report, by Prof. Peter Gripaios, also noted that ITV “has been important in many cases for the early survival and growth of independent companies in the region.  In this way, ITV companies have acted as a ‘growth pole’ for the cultural and media industry in the South West”.

JOBS

Staff at ITV Westcountry say they are obviously concerned for their own future, but they also say they care deeply about the region they live in and the service they provide.

John Andrews, the programme’s defence correspondent, said: “We all want to serve the region by keeping its issues in the public eye, and by celebrating its splendours.

“I’ve been a fan of local television news since my teenage years. I discovered more about the area where I lived through the medium of television than I did from books or newspapers.

“Television can take us to places we would never otherwise go, and that’s as true of places in our own locality as it is of exotic far away destinations. It inspired me to care about the people and places around me and I hope my reports continue to do that for new generations.”

SUPPORT

If you want to help save local news the journalists’ and broadcast technicians’ unions, the NUJ and BECTU, are urging you to lobby your MP, register your objections with the television regulator Ofcom, and complain to ITV.

Write to your MP at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA, and to Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, ITV plc, 200 Gray’s Inn Rd, London, WC1X 8HF. You can contact Ofcom at Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9HA.

Posted by Tim Lezard, defence correspondent, ITV Westcountry

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AVPR competition

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

AVP rare poster
Aliens Vs Predator - Requiem is in UK cinemas this week, and to celebrate its release, D+CFilm has an ultra-rare Japanese AVPR film poster to give away (pictured above).

Of course, it goes without saying the one sheet isn’t ’rare’ in Japan. In fact, it’s probably all over the place. Maybe they’re giving away English language AVRP posters in Japan as we speak. Who knows.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes - to be in with a chance of getting yer sticky fanboy mitts on this beezer prize, just answer the following question.

Who directed Aliens vs Predator - Requiem?
A. The Strause brothers
B. The Chemical Brothers
C. The cute baby tigers from the film Two Brothers

Email the answer, along with your name, address and telephone number, to info@dandcfilm.co.uk before January 25. Please mark your entries ‘AVPR Poster Competition’.

Usual competition rules apply and the editor’s decision is final. Click below to watch the gory and sweary AVPR trailer. What’s Japanese for ‘Run for your life!!!’?

Posted by Thin White Duke

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C4 yourself

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

Channel 4’s commissioning editor for factual entertainment, Dominique Walker, will be at a special PM-P event tomorrow (that’s Monday, folks) to yap about schedules, target audiences, commissioning requirements and so on.

After the main presentation, producers with broadcast track records will have the opportunity for some short one-to-one meetings with the commissioner (on a first come, first served basis).

It’s all happening at Plymouth’s Copthorne Hotel from 12.30pm - meedja folks get extremely long lunches, doncha know.

If you’d like to go along, you’d better hurry and call 01752 346530 or email info@pm-p.com

Posted by Thin White Duke

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Greg Strause interview

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

Aliens Vs Predator - Requiem is in UK cinemas this week, and to celebrate its release, D+CFilm has an interview with director Greg Strause. Tune in tomorrow for a fantastic competition, giving you the chance to get your hands on an ultra-rare piece of AVPR memorabilia.

How did you land the AVPR gig?

Greg Strause: I’ve been working with my brother Colin (co-director) since I was about ten-years-old. For the last six years we’ve been doing music videos and commercials. This is our first movie together. Alien and Predator are two of our favourite movies. We have a lot of passion for those two properties and we had a strong vision for the film, which is a really important factor going in to pitch a movie, fixing on the story points and having good visuals.

What was your vision? How do you keep a franchise like this fresh and interesting?

Our take on this movie was to get back to the gritty, horror roots of Alien. I think Predator is a classic mission movie, we really liked that aspect of it, and you’ve got to have both those elements in an AVP film. We can’t really stress the grit and hardcore horror enough, that’s really what we’re bringing to this.

It sounds like you’re going for a very different tone to the first Alien Vs Predator film…

Yes, people won’t be expecting what they’re going to see. Daniel Pearl, our cinematographer, is bringing an incredible look and style to the film which will also set it apart. And we have a few more surprises up our sleeve.

Will this be the most graphically violent Alien-Predator movie to date?

We’re hoping for that.

What are the challenges of setting an Alien-Predator movie in the real world, as opposed to a Mayan pyramid or a spaceship?

Making any film is challenging, but what’s it interesting about bringing it to Earth is that we’re making a film that the average person can relate to. I think that’s really important. The people who are affected in this film are ordinary, everyday people, and all of us will be able to empathise with them.

Recently a number of films that, without insulting them in any way, could be termed ‘B-movies’ have been very successful. Is that the type of tone you’re aiming for?

No, no. What we’re going for is more… I’ve heard Ridley (Scott) say in interviews that [with Alien] he took an A-movie approach to what could have been a B-movie monster film. He talked about [Alien] as Texas Chain Saw Massacre In Space.

Does co-directing a movie with your brother take a particular mind-set?

Well, this is the only way we’ve ever worked so we’re pretty used to it. But it definitely takes a certain approach. Talking to each other before we do anything is very important so we’re speaking with a single voice.

Was it a conscious decision not to cast well-known actors, or was it purely a budgetary concern?

The way we looked at it is we wanted to go with very good actors. If you look at our cast, a lot of them have strong theatre backgrounds; the entire cast is made up of very strong actors. And opposite them are two of the greatest monsters in cinema history, so we’re pretty happy about the entire cast.

The Alien and the Predator are iconic movie monsters. What liberties can you take with them for the purposes of this movie?

Well, it’s important that you always show something new and fresh, things that will keep an audience on its toes. Colin and I are very respectful of what, in the geek world, is known as ‘the canon’, there are a set of rules with these creatures we have to adhere to, and that’s very important. That’s about as much as I can go into that without giving anything away.

Do the creators of the original Alien and Predator – H.R. Geiger and Stan Winston respectively – retain any proprietary control of the designs?

No. Amalgamated Dynamics, which is Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis’s company, is doing all the creature work on the show. Tom Woodruff has been performing as the Alien, the guy in the suit, for decades; all the way back to Aliens, I think. He helped sculpt the Alien suit for [James] Cameron’s Aliens. These guys have been very involved with these creatures for a very long time and they’re experts in their field.

How much of this movie is going to be man-in-a-suit and how much is going to be CGI?

Well, Colin and I come from a visual effects background.  We own a company that does CGI (Hydraulx), but again to bring it back too its horror roots, nothing beats doing stuff on camera. We’re making a lot of effort to do the creature effects, all the effects in fact, in camera wherever it’s possible and practical.

How do you account for the enduring appeal of the Alien and the Predator? Why are they such iconic movie monsters?

The key to any iconic monster is keeping them mysterious. We don’t really know where either the Alien or the Predator came from or where they’ve headed; we know virtually nothing about them, and I think that’s a really important part of the storytelling. The more we know about them, the less interesting they become. That’s a guiding principal for us: Less is more. Each [Alien and Predator] movie has introduced new aspects, especially the Alien films, which opens the door for us to introduce new things, but, again, without spelling anything out and retaining the mystery. What you don’t see scares you more than what you do.

Of all the Alien and Predator movies, which is your favourite and why?

That’s a tough one. I like aspects of them all, but I think my brother and my favourite is Ridley Scott’s original Alien. I could go into that for hours. There are so many classic elements to Alien, the pacing, the environment, the group dynamic – and, of course, this completely vulnerable woman running around in her underwear at the end!

Posted by Thin White Duke

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