Thoughts About Super 8

Super 8 Film & Camera

Walking With The Walking Dead

I've never been much of a fan of the Zombie genre. I've always felt that films or TV series about them tend to focus more on zombie effects rather then character development. So I was a little apprehensive when I heard about The Walking Dead.

Because of current work schedules and such I rarely get to watch a TV show when it's on TV. I usually wait for the DVD or Blu-ray box set to come out and I will check it out then. I've done this for shows like 24, Bones and South Park. So I followed the same routine when I came to The Walking Dead. So I sat down yesterday and started to watch The Walking Dead, and just over four hours later I had finished season one.

The Walking Dead tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse; it follows a small group of survivors, travelling across the desolate United States in search of a new home away from the shuffling hordes of the undead (or "walkers"). The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy in a small Georgia town before the zombie outbreak. As their situation grows more hazardous, the group's desperation to survive pushes them to the brink of insanity. At every turn they are faced with the unbearable horrors that come from having the dead walk again, the changing dynamic of their group, as well as facing hostility from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace who are focused on their own survival, now that the structures of society have collapsed.

The comic book it is based on is black and white and I love how the series uses saturated colours to give that black and white feel. The acting is well above par for a TV series and while the show feels sometimes like it is dragging, I felt it was apt for the situation. It's a camp site of people just sitting around, both scared and hungry; and as time seems to drag for them it will drag for us too.

I did really enjoy this series and I am really looking forward to season two.

Genius Maverick Outsider Superstar Legend

I have always had a problem when sports are depicted in film. They are always stylized and never really create the actual sport. Some have come close, like Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday" which uses fast editing to create the franticness of american football just as the ball is snapped. 

The last time I remember motor racing (of any kind) been depicted on screen is the 2001 film Driven, directed by Renny Harlin and staring Sylvester Stallone. Which was a terrible film with I felt was more an insult to racing. Of course most people who care to remember the film only remember the scene where Stallone races through the streets of Chicago in his racer car. 

So when I heard about this time last year that they were planning a film about Ayrton Senna, I was somewhat apprehensive. I knew that it would be a documentary and would use archive footage. But even knowing that still made me worried about the film. 

Where Kapadia's 'Senna' documentary works is in its ability to appeal to wide array of audience members. For the fans of the Formula 1 racing there is a copious amount of footage documenting select races and the events taking place around his career. Rather than use cutaway segments to show various celebrities and sports men and women discuss their memories and recollections of Senna, Kapadia instead utilises a voice-over to accompany the archive images on-screen. By allowing the voice-over of the various people associated with Senna (most notable this consists of McLaren's team principal Ron Dennis, his mother, father and sister, F1 team Doctor Sid Watkins, and Brazilian commentator Reginaldo Leme) to supplement the footage, it both preserves he power of the on-screen image and provides the audience with additional information regarding the situation or event that is being presented.

To the regular viewer, you feel emotionally attached to a man who affected the lives of millions positively in his home country of Brazil. A perfect mix of a movie, in which you can watch as either an auto-racing fan, or someone who has never heard of Senna; It delivers on a highly emotional level, surrounding you in the warmth that he brought to many.

Don't Talk Or Text

You should never talk or text or use your phone while at the cinema. Why? Because you're at the fucking cinema, not your front room or a home in your apartment.

Recently the Alamo Draft House Cinema issued the following PSA at their screenings:

The video became such a web sensation that Alamo Draft House founder Tim League had to record a response:

"Too Much Info" aka Do We Need Film News Websites?

I've been thinking most of the day about that to write about. So I thought I would share my thoughts on the film going experience.

One my favourite things about the art of cinema is it's ability to surprise you, you know, just give you something from left field. A lot of the times it's a cameo, especially in these days of remakes, of someone or something from the original. Like that weird owl thing from Clash Of The Titans, or how the original Starkey and Hutch turn up at the end of the film. Which when done right is all well and good, sometime I  simply smirk at it, like Clash Of The Titans, or I just groan like Starkey and Hutch. I didn't mind the cameo, I just hated how they were used. 

But these days due to the internet, we know everything about a film before we see the opening frame, and I really think this is a bad thing. I think having all this excess knowledge on a film project create an expectation that cannot be met and ends with people saying "it was okay, but I thought it would be better" or something along those lines.

I know I've said before that trailers give away too much, but I think that film websites and blogs do too. I know that if I don't want to read then don't and there are some people out there who want to and they do read it, so it is down to personal choice. Been honest a lot of the film geeks I know and no worse then old woman who won't watch that nights soap opera on TV until after they know exactly what is going to happen.  

So it got me thinking, do we have too much information before we go into the cinema? 

I have been asked by a few people why don't cover film news in this blog? I know that it would give me a bigger post count and would probably give me more views and comments and a larger permenant audience; but there's something in me that just fight against it. I think it's more of a easy way out for film blogs to just report the news and reviews. Film journalism is rarely ever real journalism, we have never had or ever will have a Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward moment. I do not wish to put an film website down, but that's just the way I see it. All you report on is what the studios give you or what someone has sneaked out of a set, be it an on-set photo or some story about an actor having a hissy fit.

But how many film news websites do we need? Here's just a short list of sites I can think off the top of my head:

• Internet Movie Database 
• CineMedia  
• Guardian Unlimited Film
• Reel.com 
• Cinescape 
• Dark Horizons
• Atom Films
• Film.com 
• Movie Directory 
• ScreenTalk
• InetFilm.com 
• Hollywood.com 
• Premiere 
• Greatest Films
• MovieLine 
• iFilm.com  
• Rotten Tomatoes  
• DVD Review  
• DVD Verdict 
• Another Guide to the Best Movies  
• Nothing But Movies  
• Jabootu 
• AICN  
• Film Tracks  

I prefer to read features or my opinion driven film related writings. Something that adds an extra layer that makes it truly original and important not only to the writer but to the reader too. Most film websites have podcasts now, but even they are become so much a cliché that they are becoming pointless. Ninety five percent of all film related podcasts I have listened too have on average 3 segments, one for a group review or main review, a segment for film news, and a third segment that is either a discussion on the previous weekends box office or some smaller films that the cast have seen over the past seven days. Some podcasts out there do this quite well, like the Slashfilmcast, but anyone who listened to 1UPYours can easily see the influence and I think that David Chen has transferred the format quite well over. I do think that we need more feature length podcasts, something that opens the listeners mind and stimulates some form of discussion out of them. 

So from pretty much now on I am going to ignore, stories on web sites that are about casting news or a picture of some character that was meant to be a surprise. When Zack Snyder starts to film Superman, most web sites will be posting set photos from non set personal and the usual about of nerdgasms will happen and they will create up roar over nothing, like then that first picture of the new wonder woman TV series came out. Empty vessels make the most noise I guess. 

Mark Kermode And His Big Mouth Organ

I am a huge fan of BBC film critic Mark Kermode. His weekly film review show on BBC Radio 5 Live has just reached its tenth anniversary and to celebrate they held a special concert of film music at Salford Quays new MediaCityUK studios.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The End Result:

And here's a clip of Mark's band playing in Covent Garden