We've Come A Long Way Since King Kong

A few days ago I had a life changing experience and no I am not being dramatic. I watched James Cameron's, Avatar in 3D.

Years ago I remember reading in Peter Jackson's autobiography about the effect the experience of watching  King Kong had on him. He realised in that movie the amazing potential of cinema to create the unreal. He spent his following years until his success with bigger pictures like Lord of the Rings trying to replicate the stop motion animation pioneered by Willis O'Brien in that film. That movie helped him decide his path in life as a film maker.

I was born in an age of cinema lacking in the same novelty glamour that previous generations enjoyed. Cinema is now such a common part of our culture that even ground breaking special effects and hyper real non fiction is only able to capture our attention for as long as it takes for another film to distract us. Common story formats have been done to death, typical filmic styles have been utilised so many times there is little that ever makes one film stand out from another. Our interest as an audience has been waning and waiting for something fresh to come along and sweep us away in its fantasy.

When I saw Jason Sully for the first time, attached to a seat amongst other space traveller's all travelling within the long cylindrical tube of their vessel I truly felt I was watching a world through a plane of clear glass, that beyond the barrier of the cinema projection screen there truly was a world just waiting to be stepped into.

Avatar was my first ever novel cinema experience and it has inspired me to pick my own path, one that I hope will one day lead to my own 3D work.

I will say little about the film other then it was amazing. Pandora is a world deserving of a directors special extended DVD edition. This film was true genius at work.

Four and a half stars **** 1/2

Central TAFE's FTI Advanced Diploma Screening Night - A Quick Mention of a Few Goodies

Last night I had the pleasure to view the work of this years Advanced Diploma TAFE students. They held a second screening down at the FTI cinema. It was good student work all round. I will make quick mention of the two that I enjoyed the most.

The first and the opening short of the night was Boxed In, Directed by Bart Orlicki and Produced by Matt Mitchell and Pamela Wong.

Bart is a very meticulous creator and his films always hold a little of the smooth edges and clean results of his production style, and this one was no different. Boxed in was a duplicity type short about an accountant and an office college who conspire to steal a million dollars from there boss. The cinematography was good and fitting to the office atmosphere and monotonous life of the main character. The sets where believable without a whiff of a back drop. The Acting was focused and believable. All in all this was my favourite of the nights films. A great film that should do well on the festival circuit.

The second and the short to close the night was Bootleg, Written and Directed by Johnny Ma and Produced by Tase Jaycobs Stekov.

Johnny is a tenacious director with much experience in off slate productions and he really brings allot of that experience into this film which stands out allot from the others with its individual style. Bootleg is a very visually dynamic production, especially the opening! It is the story of man haunted by the unsolved death of his daughter and caught in a strange twilight zone of candy bar animations, a relentless amateur documentarist and his daughters murderer who seems to never be far from reach. This is a very individual film that whiffs a little of surrealism and is enjoyable to watch even if it does leave you with more questions than it answers. Again another to watch out for on the festival circuit.

It was a great night and much drinking was enjoyed afterwards.

Beowulf - Truth in the Poem

Last night at around one o-clock in the morning, suffering from a little insomnia I decided to sit myself down on the couch and settle my mind with a film I hadn't yet seen, but had been curious about for some time. That film was Beowulf by director Robert Zemeckis.

As soon as the movie began I found myself slightly recoiling. The computerised images of the characters like king Hrothgar and the dinner scene in the great mead hall of the Danes was something likened to a Playstation movie, and a step backwards from an old favourite of mine Final Fantasy which was made quite a many years before. But then maybe like all movies, they seemed better 'then' when you first watched them upon when revisiting them years later you start noticing all the outlines on the special effects jobs. The problem with Beowulf is you notice all the outlines first time around and that is always enough to make me cringe.

But then the crudity began. The king arrived on the scene two parts cut with his clothes falling off. There where rude gestures and many sexual implications and suddenly I realised I wasn't watching a children's movie. Then Grendel the great man-daemon abomination arrived and started pulling people apart quite graphically and I was suddenly pleased. Zemeckis had spared nothing in his rendition of the original story which was quite true to the Poem.

The story took hold of me and suddenly the terrible platforms and stagnant character expressions became bearable and somewhat different and enjoyable. I even began to notice that some elements of the animation where greater than others and I began to appreciate that aspect a little more. But I very quickly began to realise how fast Beowulf was nakedly punching his way through the original story and I began to suspect an impending deviation from the Poem.

Now I don't usually like deviations from original work, especially original work I have come to appreciate but I a was compelled to make an exception after what I saw in Beowulf. Zemeckis by rights did not deviate above minor details from the Poem, instead he treated the original text as it was, a boast of a deed past and not necessarily the truth. From the boast Zemeckis developed his own truth as to the story of Beowulf and that then became the heart of the film. As grim as this new story was I found myself enjoying it and what's more I could only applaud the way that Zemeckis skilfully pulled it off without tearing the original text to bits and pissing on it in the process.

This is a film worth the watch, even if you do have to cringe at the monsters once or twice. The Zemeckis Daemon mother is an improvement if anything on the the rather unflattering Poem's explanation of her. She is an enjoyable sight.

Three stars * * *

Picture from the Perth Film Network Function at the Flying Scotsman:

 

On the left is Shane Mcmullan an actor of the highest order who I met on a community television program about a year back and on the right is yours truly.

Find more images from the night here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=180118&id=106481359407&ref=mf

Cutting the Ice with the Perth Film Network

Thank you for visiting.


Last Tuesday on the 8th of December I visited the Flying Scotsman for a Film Network Function ran by the lovely people over at Wizard Corporation Productions. If you are a someone in the industry or aspiring to be, like myself and you haven't heard about these functions do yourself a favour and request an invitation. At the least you'll meet some beautiful actors who attend the night in copious numbers. Link below:

http://www.wizardcorpproductions.com.au/networking_function.html

It was a great night and I soon found myself reuniting with old friends and meeting some lovely new ones, some with business cards. This was the second major step in my evil plan to re-inject myself into the Perth film scene and repair the damage done by my sudden departure over nine months ago in a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to circumnavigate the continent using just my thumb. Read my travel diary for more information on that story, the first chapter is linked below, a warning though, you should have a minor interest in my travels if you are to attempt what lies on those pages. There's enough words there to drown the mere mortal:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/nicholas-phillips/23nd-april-09-the-incredible-journey-of-no-one-in-particular-chapter-one/89262061702

My first major step was to complete a short film script that I could cut my teeth on in production. I managed to complete the first draft of twenty pages on Monday and so on to step three. The second draft! And so this is what you've all been waiting for, all two and a half of you. The introduction of my first and upcoming production. It's alias name:

THE NIGHTLYISH

Stay with me and watch how this sight develops.

NsP