Saturday 15 May 2010

Sunday 4 October 2009

69 Hour Film Challenge


This weekend was the 69 Hour Film Challenge for the Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival in Canada. At 2am Friday morning a list of 10 things was announced. You then get 69 hours to write, shoot, edit and submit a movie no longer than 5 minutes that included at least 3 of the 10 things off the list. They wanted something funny that was racy, raunchy or naughty.
Pip, Noise and myself made this...



On Monday night at 8pm, Toronto time, it will screen at the festival. This will be the only other place to see it.

Small wmv
Hi-res QT mov

Monday 2 March 2009

Phone Shorts

As you know, we will, hopefully, soon be making regular 30 second shorts for mobiles. 10 a month. That's a lot of ideas to come up with.

If you have any ideas then post them in the comments here.

The more the better.

Each film should be no longer than 30 seconds, although it can be a little shorter.

The idea is they are greetings card videos, sort of. There's some freedom to do most things as long as you can put a simple caption at the end.

No swearing.

I've specifically been asked to come up with at least 5 Happy Birthday ones. I've got one and one other idea so more of those would be cool, but you don't have to if you come up with and other ideas.

Some of the other categories I was first given were : get well soon, you're dumped, driving test, christmas, easter, valentines, halloween... you get the idea. There was also "you make me sick" rather randomly.

They can be funny, scary, serious, abstract as long as a numpty can get it.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

We're about to get paid!

Last year we made a load of 30 second shorts for a project called Fonafilm; the idea being they were video greetings cards you could send with your mobile. We were going to get a cut from each download. This sadly fell through.

Now it's back, but better.

It's no longer called Fonafilm (and I can't remember what the new title was). The guy who came to us has struck a deal with US mobile network Sprint to do the same thing over there. The deal is to supply 20 shorts a month.

We have been asked to supply 10 of those films.

We will be given £800 a month to make these films.

We will get a % cut on downloads of each film we make.

This is good!

Watchmen clips

Here's some clips from Watchmen, for anyone interested. First thing I've actually seen with acting and not just money shots.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40160

In another article I read Snyder says the cinema release is 165mins. Director's cut DVD will be 190mins. And there'll also be a 205min version with Tales of the Black Frieghter.

Monday 16 February 2009

Transformers teaser

Here's the teaser for Transformers 2. Lots of money shots. Looks cool.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809943432/video/12063123

Recent movie reviews

OK, here's a quick sum up of stuff I've recently seen and is either still about and you may want to check out or is on DVD.

The Wrestler.
Wonderful understated drama that avoids most of the cliches and avoids any cloying sentiment. The climax is particularly cheese-lite. Rourke is phenomenal and should be walking away with every acting award under the sun.

Che part 1.
I really liked Che, but I'm not quite sure why. It has a great story, but it's told with no momentum. It has a great central character, but we gain no real understanding of him.

Slumdog Millionaire.
Almost as good as everyone says. Due to the nature of the concept it is at times very contrived, but it just doesn't matter. You forgive it all. Superb editing.

Valkyrie.
An odd mix of a movie. It could (should?) have been a challenging, serious drama about the German resistance; a story we've not really seen on screen before. Instead it's played as an edge of the seat thriller. This works great up to and including the bomb going off, but after that, when larger political ideas come in, it seems to undermine the film. Had the end timescale been trimmed from reality into a last act "escape" it would've satisified as a thriller much more. Still, as a movie for idiots it was decent enough.

Revolutionary Road.
Really bloody good, really bloody serious drama from Sam Mendes. Di Caprio and Winslet are exceptional. And the final 20 minutes is really difficult and harrowing. Probably my least favourite Mendes movie though.

Benjamin Button.
I was really looking forward to this. Fincher's one of the very best director's working now. And I really, really liked BB, yet felt disappointed by it. The first hour, which old looking child Button, is fantastic. Lots of interesting ideas. And the love story is handled really well, never becoming twee and always having an air of melancholy to it. But the final era of BB's life, old man in childs body, is all too brief. I wanted to see more of a child losing his mind. Instead there was a, admittedly well handled, framing story with Cate Blanchett dying while Hurricane Katrina approaches. It just felt unnecessary and 20 minutes of old BB would've been more satisfying. But an extremely good film with a lot of ideas none-the-less.

The Fall.
Gilliam in HD. Looks devine. Probably would've been better as a PG as the more brutal and violent elements don't quite sit with the fantasticalness of the rest.

Changeling.
The kind of movie that in most director's hands would be horribly manipulative and sentimental; a true chick flick. But in the hands of Eastwood it's a surpringly good, serious drama. Jolie's excellent too.