Added note: Bearded Theory rocked!

Bearded Theory festival was brilliant. Great crowd, great organisation and most of all great fun. The bands were great: unfortunately Dan Donnelly pulled out but The Runners were a fantastic replacement one of the highlights) and one to watch: a spiky, indie band with great songs and the stage presence f a band much bigger. Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs got everyone singing along, the Beetroot Kings were fabulous and should go far (first single release next month), Dreadzone Sound System rocked the dance tent and the open mic stage in the tea tent was inspired, and great fun.

The only complaint could be the weather, aftre two blazing hot weekends it was a little damp and cold. The buzz on the multitude of festivals forums (including the official one) is very good. Well done everyone involved and see you again next year.

Here's a few of my photos. link
And videos of my cousin Al and buddy Keef (who had never played together before) playing on the Open Mic Stage. link 1, link 2

Trailers recut

There's seems to be a trend at the moment of no/lw budget remakes of movies. The films Be Kind, Rewind and Son of Rambow deal with people remaking movies whilst the internet is full of videos of people's own take on the classics.

One of my favourite trends is the film trailer recut: taking a classic movie and making a new promo for it, usually changing the genre, and when done well usually very funny. The first one I saw was the re-edit of Mary Poppins as Scary Mary, a horror film. I since discovered the Association of Independent of Creative Editors runs a "Trailer Park" competition and some of these are entries (25-year-old Robert Ryang won the competition with the superb re-edit of Kubrick's terrifying The Shining, as a rom-com!


The Shining Recut- AICE Trailer Park Competition Winner


Scary Mary - Mary Poppins Horror


Top Gun - should that be Brokeback Jetplane?


Fame - For All Must Eat


The Terminator - 2006 AICE Trailer Park Competition Winner


Brilliant. I'm sure I'll list more of these, or maybe even try one myself. Shows how a create use of music and voiceover can really make an impression (and how trailers work in the first place).

Classic Film Opening #3: Blade Runner

"My mother? Let me tell you about my mother."

From a film which has a hundred brilliant moments the opening is pure class. Setting the scene perfectly with Vangelis' perfect, haunting electronic music, to visuals that have never been surpassed in this era of CGI. The last of the great "in-camera special effects" movies, Blade Runner is the last great film of the old techniques in visual effects.

The opening credits slowly feed us into the film, via rolling text explaining the Blade Runner, a law enforcer who searches and destroys "replicants", genetically created humans. That music setting the pace and menace. On a beat an extreme close-up of an eye, reflecting a burst of flame. We don't know to whom this eye belongs but the film uses eyes as a motif throughout. In hindsight, is it Tyrell's (Joe Turkell), Deckard's (Harrison Ford), the interviewer in the up coming scene, even Batty (Rutger Hauer).

We cut to a cityscape, like nothing around today (or in 1982 when the film was released). We are told that the year is 2019 and this is supposed to be Los Angeles, it's unrecognisable. The scene is a mass of sprawling super-highrise buildings, stretching out into the smog. The souce of eye's the reflected flame was from the multitude of oil refinery type structures, beltching their pollution into the acrid atmosphere.

The scene has been dubbed the "Hades shot", a masterful track across a forced-perspective model and glass-seperation paintings, shot up to fifty times on the same piece of film. Motion control camera (invented only 5 years before) repeating the camera moves as the shutter is opened to capture seperate real world effects. If just one went wrong the filmmakers would have to start again. Millions of tiny fibre-optic lights creating the look of millions of windows, as the orange light of the dawn struggles to penetrate the smog. Flying vehicles flash past the camera, floating like neon illuminated insects.

The camera tracks slowly towards the biggest structure amongst the cityscape. A huge pryamidal building, hundreds of storeys high. We zoom towards one of the thousands of windows, where we can see a spinning ceiling fan and we start the opening scene proper...

Now, you must remember that the smokey room, ceiling fan and heavy lighting streaming through windows was a new look in cinema. Ridley Scott brought an incredible eye from his time as a commercials director. Copied a million times since this aesthetic was no cliche though it almost came to define the following decade. The room is an interigation room and on the desk still a strange machine, we later learn it's a Voight-Kamph machine). It seems to be alive, breathing like a futuristic iron lung.

A working class janitor type, Leon (the late Brion James) enters and is asked to sit by the man in a smart suit (Morgan Paull). He explains that this is a test and Leon is going to be asked questions designed to provoke an emotional response. A viewfinder raises from the machine and a monitor focuses on Leon's nervous eye.

After a number of strange questions, Leon is confused but answers the questions nervously and as best he can. We are not spoon fed everything, questions are posed, who is this man, what is this building? What is this test from this strange machine? A few clues to the state of this future Earth become apparent, such as the fact animal life is very rare if not completely extinct. The future is not a nice place.

Then Leon is asked about his mother and the violent end of the scene blasts us into this amazing movie with a bang.

I haven't given away too much about the film (in fact, if you haven't seen it, it's quite ambiguous!) but it's definately in the list for films you should see before you die. Blade Runner (1982) was directed by Ridley Scott and based on the novella by Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. If you've never seen this film go see it now. In my opinion it is one of the best science fiction films ever made. It IS an aquired taste, with it's slow pace and noir storyline. It was a relative flop at the time of release and went through a number of edits because of negative test screenings and studio interference. The visuals are stunning though and it's theme of "what makes us human?", thought provoking.

Treat yourself to the Final Cut Ultimate Collector's Edition on DVD, an amazing account of the making or this stunning film and the film itself in it's many incarnations. Don't bother with the "briefcase" version unless you're a completist, because it's what's on the five discs that count. Also worth a look is Future Noir, a brilliant book by Paul M Sammon, that covers much of the same ground. "If only you'd seen what I've seen with your eyes."

Review: Once

Good old Orange Wednesdays. Two-for-one tickets when you book via an Orange mobile phone. There was nothing that really grabbed us this week. Being Halloween it was all blood and gore. I persuaded Sally that John Carney's Once was worth a try because of the reviews it's had. I'm glad she agreed because we both loved it. My film of the year.


Now, trying to sell this film on it's premise is not doing it justice: Irish musical about a vacuum cleaner repairman busker , or as he sings "a broken-hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy" (Glen Hansard) meets Big Issue selling Czech immigrant pianist (Marketa Irglova) and they start writing songs. Now, describing it as a musical seems wrong too. Rather than a musical (which just conjures up images of schmaltz and dancing in the streets) it's more a film with lots of music that helps move the story on, reflects the characters moods and situations and tells without force-feeding. It's really like nothing else I've ever seen. It's so naturalist and moving. It's like you're a voyeur in real situations, sharing, not intruding.

The acting seems improvised and very realistic. It's not sharply scripted but has all the faults and repetitions, pauses and silences that real conversations have. The handheld camerawork is the same, this isn't a beautiful looking film. That's not a fault: It doesn't glamourise and it's not a Hollywood "Oyerland" on display, but Ireland as a real place.

The music itself is beautiful, much of it sung and played on-set and written and performed by the leads. I guess it would help if you like the singer/songwriter acoustic style of music but I'm sure it would be just as affecting a film if you didn't. The girl (the characters aren't named) hears the guy busking in the street and loves his original compositions. She asks who they are written for and their relationship is kick started through a love of music and how it can express their feelings. When they start playing and writing together their thoughts and feelings are reflected in the lyrics and mood of the melancholy melodies. It's strange that the movie seems so downbeat but is extremely uplifting. It also ends in a completely un-Hollywood but completely satisfying way.


Once has been a huge success in Hollywood, without any fanfare of the usual big budget extravaganza . It's gained some very famous fans, Speilberg, Bob Dylan, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Aniston, James Spader, the list is endless, and it won the audience prize at the Sundance Film Festival. With word-of-mouth like that it's doing someting right.

If you only go to the cinema once this autumn/winter, make sure it's to see Once.

Once trailer

Halloween special: My Scariest Movie Moments

'Tis All Hallow's Eve so it's only right I reveal the moments in film that have scared me the most. Now I'm not a big horror film watcher and I've never seen any of the current crop of gross-outs like Saw or Hostel. So I've chosen only movies I've seen and that I rate as good films:

1. Jan Svaankmeyer's Alice - deeply disturbing version of the Lewis Carroll tale from this Czechoslovakian animator (those last two words conjure up scary films anyway!). see video - Scariest Moment: all of it


2. Ringu - made more scary by the way the Japanese construct their movies, the original version of Ring has a true air of dread and creepiness that it almost seems real - SM: the crawling-out-of-the-television bit


3. Jaws - superior film making, still brilliant today. It doesn't even matter about the rubber shark, Bruce. SM: the whole in the boat


4. The Shining - growing dread and descent into madness and Shelley Duvall's fright is matched by our own, brilliant - SM: "Red Rum" or "Here's Johnnie"


5. The Excorist - dated but works on your head rather than your eyes. Scary for it's setting within the real world - SM: thinking about what you've jut seen in the cinema car park


6. the Omen - parts one and two. I was far too young when I first aw these. The best film about the existence of the devil (along with Rosemary's Baby). All the theory and discovery and the fact the audience know the truth really adds to the suspense - SM: the music and under the ice.


7. Se7en - mainly scary for getting into John Doe's mind and the ending. The gothic way it's shot heightens the tension. - SM: sloth


8. Alien - the haunted house... in space. Suspense, body horror, the bogeyman, picking off the characters, jumps, it's got it all - SM: Dallas in the air-ducts


9. 28 Days Later - the whole idea is brilliant, if stolen from I Am Legend. Zombies with justification of their existence. The whole blood in eye thing makes me squirm. SM: the monkey in the lab


10. Rosemary's Baby - innocence corrupted by the next door neighbours. The subtle hints and the build to that revelation is a slow build spookiness. - SM: Rosemary realising what's happened

Honorable mention to the TV programmes I really shouldn't have watched as a kid but scared me rotten (and look terrible today): Hammer House of Horror, Tales of the Unexpected, Day of the Triffids, Threads. Also Twin Peaks, Marathon Man, Carrie, Blair Witch Project, Manhunter, Pinocchio.

Radiohead bypass the record companies

Radiohead announced the release of their new album, In Rainbows this week. And surprisingly it will only be available as a download (or you can order a special box set, pictured above), which you must register for and decide how much you want to pay for it yourself! Register here, available to download 10 October 2007

It's the latest in a long list of artists that have benefited from new media, whether by passing the traditional delays that going through record companies can create, or using it as a promotional tool to get your new band noticed.


Obviously Radiohead have benefited from years of promotion and industry backing during their time with Parlophone but here is a list of artists who have used the internet to their advantage:

• Radiohead's new album available via the internet only.
  
• The Arctic Monkeys built up such a fan base via releasing tracks via their MySpace page. They got such a following, with the demo tracks passing between peer-to-peer sites, that their first single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor went straight to number one in the charts when it was released and their album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the fastest selling debut album in British chat history.
  
• Prince annoyed music retailers by offering his latest album, Planet Earth, free to anyone who bought tickets to his 21 night residency at the Millennium Dome... I mean the O2 Arena and also gave it away free with the Mail on Sunday. Some retailers even stocked the newspapers so as not to lose out.
  
• Indie rockers Ash have decided their latest album will be their last so they can concentrate on releasing single download tracks. They believe it will be more spontaneous, more creative and prevent the time wasted getting the music to their fans by the traditional route.
  
• Folk singer Sandi Thom's rise to fame was accelerated by live web casts from her MySpace page. It wasn't the DIY approach it was made to look though as she had major backing from her record company to get the streaming capabilities right but it still used new media in a way that had been ignored by the majors previously.
  
• Despite reasonable sales for their debut album Lottery Winners on Acid, The Crimea's record company dropped them so they financed and promoted their next release themselves. The free download album was downloaded over 60,000 and their gigs had and marked upturn in attendance.
  
• Virtual on-line community Second Life has hosted a few major concerts, including U2 and Duran Duran but it was Suzanne Vega who first saw the potential of having virtual, invite- only concerts when her avatar played "live" on her virtual island (see video below).

• Manchester indie band The Charlatans have announced their next album will be release on download only, after releasing a free single Cross My Path. Declining sales are the excuse and live performances and merchandising are seen by their record label, Creation, to be the main revenue areas in the future. Which is great from the booming live music scene.

Suzanne Vega "live" in Second Life

Classic Film Openings #2: Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999) is a masterpiece and the opening scene is a mini-masterpiece of it's own.

Magnolia is a mosaic of disparate American lives woven together by chance. The opening scene and voice over narration tell of extraordinary events, notably stories considered to be urban legends, but explains that they are so common and ordinary that we don't notice them happening every day. The opening has no connection to the story other than it's concept and is all the better for it.

The style sets us up for a film that will engross us and not let us know what to expect. The opening is shot like a documentary on the subject of "Chance" and gets the brain in gear for the intelligent movie that follows.

Video experiment (see previous post)

This week...

... I have done the following things:

• Cycled in the Norfolk countryside
• Made sandcastles on a beach
• Cooked omelettes and a stir fry
• Started this blog
• Worked out how to create the following video effect; a vector "paint on" technique turning into real video(see post above)

The video features Tasmin, daughter of our friends Tracey and Cameron

I want one of these...

...but never couldn't justify getting one.

1. Aston Martin DB5 - The coolest car ever. Hand-made. James Bond drove it. More stylish than anything on the road now (except maybe the Aston Martin DB7).

1. Laser Graffiti Projector thingie - Eat your heart out Banksie. Ultimately useless! (see video below).


2. Airsteam caravan - making caravaning look cool. Was parked near Joe Strummer's Airstream one Glastonbury and I fell in love. Image that behind the DB5 (or my VW Camper).



3. Skycar M400 - It's a car - that flies! VTOL. Avoid traffic jams. Park anywhere. Trouble is you can't go very high without a pilots licence and it would be rubbish when everyone has one.



4. R2D2 DVD projector - Amongst other things it projects movies (not as holograms unfortunately), plays MP3s and CDs and vacuums the floor (last bit not true unfortunately).

Below: video of laser projector

Dinner party guests

Here is a list of imaginary dinner party guests (human movie characters) that you WOULDN'T want at your dinner table. As suggested by my Dad*

1. Mr. Creosote (The Meaning of Life)
   see video below
   
2. Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
3. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
4. Ace Ventura (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)
5. Dan Dark (The Singing Detective)
6. Karen Carpenter (The Karen Carpenter Story)
7. Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands)
8. John 'Bluto' Blutarsky (National Lampoon's Animal House)
9. Mr Bean (Mr Bean)
10. Kevin (Sin City)

* He actually had the idea of ideal dinner party guests but I thought I'd do something slightly different.

Classic film openings #1 - Trainspotting

Choose Ewan. Choose Euan. Choose Boyle. Choose a family. Choose a fucking great source novel, choose adrenalin, fast editing, manic chase scene and an Iggy Pop soundtrack. Choose a great script, little known actors, and a writer who penned Shallow Grave. Choose a starter scene with a voice over in a thick Scottish accent. Choose jump cuts, captions and non-linear time frames. Choose ending on a freeze frame of a grinning loon off his head on smack. Choose a surreal real life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose Hollywood. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got Trainspotting?




This is #1 in a list of brilliant opening scenes, this time opening a brilliant movie.