If producing is a primary school teacher herding a bunch of excited five year olds to actually do some work, editors are the primary school teach after hours, cleaning up and making sure the work improves. Editing may not seem like an important role from the outside but everything you see on screen, every emotion you are feeling and how the film flows is down to the editors working their magic. As a director, I have to concede that there are parts of my short film that work astonishingly well because my editor had made it happen. They hone in the crazy amount of footage in order to make the story click.
by Cookie N Screen
If producing is a primary school teacher herding a bunch of excited five year olds to actually do some work, editors are the primary school teach after hours, cleaning up and making sure the work improves. Editing may not seem like an important role from the outside but everything you see on screen, every emotion you are feeling and how the film flows is down to the editors working their magic. As a director, I have to concede that there are parts of my short film that work astonishingly well because my editor had made it happen. They hone in the crazy amount of footage in order to make the story click. by Liam McMillen Welcome to my column, Colour Me (Dis)Interested (Ha! Isn't it clever?), where I celebrate black-and-white films that are made in the colour era. As we're celebrating all things Oscar this week here at I'm With Geek, I thought I'd look at the 2012 Best Picture winner, The Artist, which also garnered four other Oscar gongs. “We didn't need dialogs, we had faces” said the narcissistic Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, referring to the Silent Era, when she used to be big … before the 'pictures got small'. by Cookie N Screen It’s a nice day for a white wedding, isn’t it? After all, if you are at an age like me, all of your friends are growing up and getting hitched. There isn’t a day that goes by when you aren’t weeping into your sweats as another Save The Date card rolls through your letterbox and earlier you were getting excited that you hadn’t entirely finished the bacon, crying real tears of joy. Erm, I digress. It seems everyone and their wives are getting married including Josh Gad and Kaley Cuoco who play the betrothed couple in this week’s The Wedding Ringer. So to celebrate the release, let’s have a look at some of the greatest movies that revolve around weddings and I’ll get back to crying happily about bacon. by Cookie N Screen The Alien franchise has attracted many directors to carry on the Ridley Scott legacy. James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean Pierre-Jeunet have all offered their vision to Ripley’s space romp as she fights off the Xenomorphs; each to varying success (good, OK and “what the fuck?”) However you stand on which one is better, it’s clear that Scott had created a blockbuster series that has transcended generations and frightening people ever since the first chest bursting seen. And then he did Prometheus. Feeling as though he wiped away all his hard work (certainly, lately, it feels as though he’s having a mid-life film crisis) Prometheus was a terrible product singed into our minds with it’s over complicated premise and squandering of great actors. As the sequel is coming, how we don’t know, it seems only fair that another director should step into the helm and bring us his own take on the Alien franchise. Enter, Neill Blomkamp who has been teasing us for weeks with his conceptual vision of an Alien film. Begging for more it’s great to see that Fox has eagerly lapped up all his ideas and now the wheels are in motion to tackle this resurgence for the new Alien film. Blomkamp is more famed for his genius District 9 and the powerful, albeit over-long, Elysium film as well as the upcoming Chappie which looks to be equally grand. His concept art has excelled and reviving our love for Alien (like it ever went but, hey, Resurrection did a lot of damage). Blomkamp has delivered spectacular visuals with his sci-fi escapades whilst also enhancing them with gritty human spirit. The new direction feels right for us and a step in a better direction. Look, nothing can be as bad as Prometheus. by Leah Stone This year it is the 87th Academy Awards, and with only a few days to go, it’s time to look at the very best of Oscar hosts. This year belongs to Neil Patrick-Harris, but who does he have to compete with to reach the top spot of award-hosting fame? We have dancers, singers, comedians and so much amazing talent. But judging by NPH’s performance hosting the Tony’s, he should absolutely rock it. But here are some of the best hosts to date. by Gloria Daniels-Moss It’s a very impressive thing making a feature film. It’s also impressive to write one too. First time director Harry Macqueen, not only wrote latest indie flick Hinterland but he also leads the way as main character Harvey. A very impressive trio indeed which lead to Hinterland being shortlisted for Best UK Feature at the 2014 Raindance Film Festival, and with good reason. After getting past the incredibly indie and alternative tone of this one, what lies beneath is a subtle tale of friendship, love and most importantly self-discovery. by Laura W There are so many elements that go into creating a visually stunning, and generally brilliant, film. It’s just not the sets, special effects or beautiful cinematography. The costumes also play a giant part of keeping one’s eyes focused on the screen. Sometimes, the costumes that are featured in a film are so outstanding, they've got their own category in many of the major award shows. Sadly though, this particular category is so overlooked more often than not, especially when it is running up against such categories as Best Visuals, Best Special Effects and the biggie, Best Picture. With the BAFTAs just gone by and the Oscars rapidly approaching, why not take a look at the Best Costume Design awards? by Georgia Thompson Known for her stunning exotic looks and her complete ownership of the role of Countess Dracula, Ingrid Pitt was more than just a beautiful actress. She was a great and unusual mind, with unrivalled talent and morbid elegance. Born in Poland in the 1930’s, to a German father and Jewish mother, Ingrid spent three years of her childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Her family were picked up in 1942, and her and her mother were separated from her father and sister. In interviews she recalled seeing her best friend raped and beaten by Nazi soldiers. When the war was over, her and her mother searched refugee camps across Europe for their lost family members. by Aly Lalji First there was 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, then there was 2008’s Cloverfield, then all hell broke loose with the Paranormal Activity franchise, followed by 2012’s Chronicle, which is the most respected film of the handheld camcorder genre. Didn’t the executive producer’s stop to think that repeating this tired routine with new film Project Almanac would send the genre into catastrophe? We’re simply bored rigid with these films, so why do it? Quite rightly, after watching Project Almanac, a true film geek will want to travel back to 1999 and stop Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez from ever delivering The Blair Witch Project. It would simply have immobilised the genre of the ‘found footage/shaky camera ordeal’ that these film-makers have parodied. Some filmmaker’s have managed to get away with stealing the cookie from the jar, but first time director Dean Israelite has been caught bewildered and now must pay the consequences. |
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