The start of the year was a continuation of 2023s strikes and the fallout from the affects of the on-going debate of Ai in our industry. Despite this, a number of films made their way to the big screen including Wicked part 1; a film I worked on and by most accounts was a resounding success critically and at the box office. within the 12 months I do seem to have seen less films this year than the previous few.
5. The Bikeriders - my bias to another time period is pretty evident in this years list. A bygone age of a time that at least appears to be of a simpler time (or is it?); the draw of taking a bike out on the wide American landscape is appealing to my British sensibilities that were at one time very enamoured with the US of A. But as this story shows, an idea can be born from an individual and escalate into something entirely different.
4. Poor Things - similarly to many other people, I found this film to be so quirky with its imaginative visuals. Admittedly, I think there's a point in the first 15mins that if you can 'go with it' then the rest of the film is a madcap Frankensteinian adventure.
3. The Substance - Demi Moore is great in this body horror attack on beauty, youth and stardom. It's dreamlike and nightmarish in equal measure. The glamour of industry is barely visible instead showing the lecherous grim reality of agents and their agenda's to find the next best thing. This films crawls and oozes into a finally that is frankly insane and extreme in physical effects. And I loved it the whole way!
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - speaking with a few people, I wasn't aware of this film being quite so divisive as it was (certainly nowhere near as much as Joker 2...). Whether it was expectation coming off the back of Fury Road or the fact it simply had no Max in it for the audience to put themselves within a recognisable landscape, the film supposedly didn't do what was hoped for it. And yet I hope and pray that George Miller gets to put the final part of his planned triptych of modern Max films on the big screen sooner than later. This film is indeed following, in my opinion, the greatest action film of the 21st century (so far). But with a strong character in Furiosa and an intensely wild world with equally colourful side characters, I was all over this film and ready to take a step into the harsh wasteland of tribes, Warboys and Bullet Town once again. Dont let anyone tell you this film is MEDIOCRE. It certainly isn't...
1. The Holdovers - cast your mind way way back to the start of the year and a movie I was anticipating for a Christmas 2023 release arrived on UK shores for a January date instead, hence it making my 2024 list. A film beautifully set in a snowy 1970s with equally beautiful 1970s film grain. There was a trailer which felt it had come from a different era and excited me from the get-go.
A cast led by the great Paul Giamatti tells such an engaging story with humour and heartfelt turns along the way. It's one of those films that just let's you hangout with the characters and move through their life with them as apposed being pulled along on a roller coaster. I loved every minute of it!
Shout out and honourable mentions to Society of the Snow, American Fiction, The Iron Claw, Juror #2.
No more bottom 5. Why point out things you didn't like. It takes an army of people to make these films at any scale and the intention is never to make a 'bad' film.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
Monday, 26 December 2022
Top 5 0f 2022
Well there goes another year of inactivity on here (but who's keeping count or reading this anyway)
Not sure I've watched a whole lot this year or at least not as much as I'd have liked to. Here's my five favourites that I saw, released in the UK in 2022.
5. Del Toro's Pinocchio - the attention to the details and the craft in which this film is lovingly made makes it an easy top 5 position. A lovely take on the tale with some surprising melancholia
4. Violent Night - nice to have something festive in the list this time of year, I thought I'd throw it in for fun. Unashamably a love letter to Die Hard and Home Alone yet being its own thing in its own right.
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once - sometimes amongst the art films and the popcorn movies you need something that fuses/blends the 2 cinematic ends of the scale to excite and surprise you with something new or different. Nutty, multiverse, OTT extravaganza. Everyone plays their part brilliantly. False ends, alternate realities and talking rocks (amongst many other things...) leads to the most creative film of the year
2. Top Gun: Maverick - a few years ago 2 films were, perhaps unjustly, held up with the responsibility of 'saving cinema' due to the terrible impact of Covid. Neither No Time to Die or Tenet could pull off the lofty expectations put upon them by the culture at large but this year we saw the potential of having a film succeed in reinvigorating the box office AND be a worthy and exciting watch. Top Gun pulled the mammoth task off. A true cinema experience to be seen big and loud and multiple times! Brilliant stuff
1. The Banshees of Inisherin - hitting all the emotional range possible, this film is extremely funny, poignnant, sad across the course of its tale. Amazing performance from everyone (and a donkey). The drama plays out in and around beautiful Irish scenery and leaves you with a mixed bag of feelings. Beautiful film making...
Some honourable mentions to Trainwreck Woodstock '99 (an indepth and in some ways morbidly interesting look at how an event can go oh so wrong), Brian and Charles (brilliantly english in the best and most sombre ways), All of Us are Dead (love me some zombie action coming out of Korea) and The Batman, of which has been my favourite job to have worked on so far.
As usual I happened across some stuff I was not keen on; three of which are below 1. The Reef: Stalked 2. Disneys Pinocchio 3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Not sure I've watched a whole lot this year or at least not as much as I'd have liked to. Here's my five favourites that I saw, released in the UK in 2022.
5. Del Toro's Pinocchio - the attention to the details and the craft in which this film is lovingly made makes it an easy top 5 position. A lovely take on the tale with some surprising melancholia
4. Violent Night - nice to have something festive in the list this time of year, I thought I'd throw it in for fun. Unashamably a love letter to Die Hard and Home Alone yet being its own thing in its own right.
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once - sometimes amongst the art films and the popcorn movies you need something that fuses/blends the 2 cinematic ends of the scale to excite and surprise you with something new or different. Nutty, multiverse, OTT extravaganza. Everyone plays their part brilliantly. False ends, alternate realities and talking rocks (amongst many other things...) leads to the most creative film of the year
2. Top Gun: Maverick - a few years ago 2 films were, perhaps unjustly, held up with the responsibility of 'saving cinema' due to the terrible impact of Covid. Neither No Time to Die or Tenet could pull off the lofty expectations put upon them by the culture at large but this year we saw the potential of having a film succeed in reinvigorating the box office AND be a worthy and exciting watch. Top Gun pulled the mammoth task off. A true cinema experience to be seen big and loud and multiple times! Brilliant stuff
1. The Banshees of Inisherin - hitting all the emotional range possible, this film is extremely funny, poignnant, sad across the course of its tale. Amazing performance from everyone (and a donkey). The drama plays out in and around beautiful Irish scenery and leaves you with a mixed bag of feelings. Beautiful film making...
Some honourable mentions to Trainwreck Woodstock '99 (an indepth and in some ways morbidly interesting look at how an event can go oh so wrong), Brian and Charles (brilliantly english in the best and most sombre ways), All of Us are Dead (love me some zombie action coming out of Korea) and The Batman, of which has been my favourite job to have worked on so far.
As usual I happened across some stuff I was not keen on; three of which are below 1. The Reef: Stalked 2. Disneys Pinocchio 3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Friday, 31 December 2021
Top 5 of 2021
Along with this list (and the only post of the year. What a pointless blog this is...), I'm including a list of every film I saw in full this year. Off the back of Edgar Wright's yearly list, I was inspired/curious as to how many movies I could or do watch in a year. For now here is my usual Top 5 that came out in the UK this year...
5. Riders of Justice
- Mads Mikkelsen plays an incredibly wound up soldier who, going through a family tragedy, exacts some revenge through the help of statistic experts. Odd right? Wait til you see the rest of the film. The blackest of comedic moments and at times horribly depressing made for a watch where you were never quite sure which direction the film would head. It's good to be kept guessing...
4. Dune
- can only really go off the one watch in the cinema but I enjoyed it enough as a big screen experience.
3. Free Guy
- accept for three minor plot issues I had, Free Guy represents the fun that can be had at the cinema. Anyone with a youtube account will probably be aware of the build up to this film thanks to Ryan Reynolds consistant and amusing teasings of the film. Marketed as if it was almost never going to arrive and RR being peak RR, you knew exactly what you were getting in terms of humour and action. I just really enjoyed it as a whole.
2. King Richard
- I went in to see this with little to no knowledge of its background and was genuinely entertained by the whole thing. An account of the tennis-pro William's sisters early beginnings and upbringing by their dad its by far the best performance from Will Smith in a long time. That's not to say Will hasn't been great recently but I can't remember when I last saw him not as Mr Smith but as the character he was playing. I think he may be deserving of at least a best actor nomination this year.
1. Another Round
- Mads Mikkelsen makes a second appearance. A brilliant ensemble shows the potential highs and many more realistic lows to pushing the limit of alcohol consumption. A deeply personal project for the director Thomas Vinterberg and yet again Mads proves himself to be one of the best acting talents of the past 15 years.
An honourable mention goes out to The Beatles: Get Back documentary, Bo Burnham's Inside, Moxie, Nobody and Raya and the Last Dragon. As always the bottom 3 for me are worryngly poor. I give you the title and nothing else.
1. Father Christmas is Back
2. Twist
3. Thunderforce
AND so to this list I compiled. This is the list of films watched in the order I happened to see them. Bold for new releases, standard text for rewatches. The only repeat was seeing No Time to Die twice in the cinema. Enjoy
Monsters Inc (2001)
Hellraiser (1987)
Dark Waters (2020)
Easy Rider (1969)
Mortal Engines (2018)
#Alive (2020)
Cats (2019)
Taking Lives (2004)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Ghost (1990)
- 10
Inside Man (2006)
The Wife (2017)
Mank (2020)
Mindhorn (2016)
The Sixth Sense (2000)
What's Your Number (2011)
Monty Python's Holy Grail (1974)
A Dogs Journey (2018)
Semi Pro (2008)
The Nutty Professor (1996)
- 20
Widows (2018)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
6 Underground (2019)
A Hard Days Night (1964)
Lucky (2017)
Jojo Rabbit (2020)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The Drowning (2016)
Dredd (2012)
Bumblebee (2018)
- 30
The Gentlemen (2020)
Evil Dead (2013)
THX 1138 (1971)
The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Twist (2021)
Sputnik (2020)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Forces of Nature (2000)
Instant Family (2018)
Just Mercy (2020)
- 40
News of the World (2021)
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Notebook (2004)
Sliding Doors (1998)
Table 19 (2017)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Dawn of the dead (1978)
Tag (2018)
Pearl Harbour (2001)
Pele (2021)
- 50
Witness (1985)
Arrival (2016)
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
I Care Alot (2021)
Black or White (2019)
Grosse Point Blank (1997)
Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985)
Moxie (2021)
Eighth Grade (2019)
Cyrus (2010)
- 60
Carry On Screaming (1966)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Best of Enemys (2019)
Soul (2020)
S.W.A.T (2003)
Bird on a Wire (1990)
Back to the Future (1985)
Willy's Wonderland (2020)
Thunder Force (2021)
- 70
Ghost Ship (2002)
Stowaway (2021)
Baby Mama (2002)
The Duelists (1977)
Nobody (2021)
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
I Origins (2014)
Sound of Metal (2021)
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
The Art of Self-Defence (2019)
- 80
Enough Said (2013)
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Unhinged (2020)
Red Tails (2012)
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2019)
The Devil's Own (1997)
Nomadland (2021)
Promising Young Woman (2021)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
The Unholy (2021)
- 90
Things Heard and Seen (2021)
The Doors (1991)
There Will Be Blood (2008)
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Cruella (2021)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Father (2021)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark (2019)
A Quiet Place Part 2 (2021)
- 100
The United Way (2020)
Breakdown (1997)
Mad Max Fury Road (2015)
The Truman Show (1998)
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Army of the Dead (2021)
Ma (2019)
Palm Springs (2021)
Supernova (2021)
Another Round (2021)
- 110
The Comeback Trail (2021)
F9 (2021)
Luca (2021)
Yesterday (2019)
Space Cowboys (2000)
The Hunted (2004)
Black Widow (2021)
Midway (2019)
Raw Deal (1986)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- 120
Old (2021)
The Fighter (2013)
The Mitchell's vs The Machines (2021)
Run (2021)
High Crimes (2002)
11:14 (2003)
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Callan (1974)
The Client (1994)
Unbreakable (2000)
- 130
Love and Monsters (2021)
The Dark Knight (2009)
Archive (2020)
Free Guy (2021)
'71 (2014)
Bad Trip (2021)
ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas (2019)
Seaspiracy (2021)
Candyman (2021)
Wonder woman 1984 (2020)
- 140
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Reminiscence (2021)
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Richard Jewell (2019)
Copshop (2021)
Malcolm X (1992)
Malignant (2021)
Kate (2021)
Summer of Soul (2021)
Deep Rising (1997)
- 150
Split (2016)
Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
A Clockwork Orange - 4k restoration (1971)
The Firm (1993)
Pale Rider (1985)
Minari (2021)
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
Man on Fire (2004)
Romy and Michelle's Highschool Reunion (1997)
Respect (2021)
- 160
The Fellowship of the Ring - 4k restoration (2001)
The Two Towers - 4k restoration (2002)
Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984)
Hidden Figures (2016)
I Feel Pretty (2018)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Breaking In (2018)
Casino Royale (2006)
The Voyeurs (2021)
No Time To Die (2021)
- 170
No Sudden Move (2021)
Dune Pt1 (2021)
The Guilty (2021)
The Last Duel (2021)
The Loved Ones (2008)
Something Borrowed (2011)
Halloween Kills (2021)
Halloween (1978)
V for Vendetta (2006)
After.Life (2009)
- 180
The Founder (2017)
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Ransom (1996)
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
No Time To Die (2021) x2
Coherence (2014)
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)
- 190
Red Notice (2021)
Halloween V: Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Ewoks: The Battle For Endor (1985)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
Rocky IV: Balboa vs Drago (2021)
Thor (2011)
Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)
King Richard (2021)
House of Gucci (2021)
- 200
She's The Man (2006)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
The Matrix re-release (1999)
Riders of Justice (2021)
Lovehard (2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings (2021)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
West Side Story (2021)
The Christmas Chronicles Part 2 (2020)
Last Christmas (2019)
- 210
Godzilla vs Kong (2021)
Mechanic Resurrection (2016)
Splash (1984)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Spiderman 3 (2007)
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)
South Pacific (1958)
Highlander (1987)
The Rookie (1990)
- 220
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
Encanto (2021)
Scrooge (1970)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
The Haunting (1999)
Father Christmas is Back (2021)
Klaus (2019)
Some series I managed to get through this year...
Cobra Kai S3 (2020)
The Terror S1 (2020)
Black Summer S2 (2021)
Them S1 (2021)
Mighty Ducks: Game Changers S1 (2021)
Rick and Morty S5 (2021)
Vigil S1 (2021)
Final Space S3 (2021)
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
5. Riders of Justice
- Mads Mikkelsen plays an incredibly wound up soldier who, going through a family tragedy, exacts some revenge through the help of statistic experts. Odd right? Wait til you see the rest of the film. The blackest of comedic moments and at times horribly depressing made for a watch where you were never quite sure which direction the film would head. It's good to be kept guessing...
4. Dune
- can only really go off the one watch in the cinema but I enjoyed it enough as a big screen experience.
3. Free Guy
- accept for three minor plot issues I had, Free Guy represents the fun that can be had at the cinema. Anyone with a youtube account will probably be aware of the build up to this film thanks to Ryan Reynolds consistant and amusing teasings of the film. Marketed as if it was almost never going to arrive and RR being peak RR, you knew exactly what you were getting in terms of humour and action. I just really enjoyed it as a whole.
2. King Richard
- I went in to see this with little to no knowledge of its background and was genuinely entertained by the whole thing. An account of the tennis-pro William's sisters early beginnings and upbringing by their dad its by far the best performance from Will Smith in a long time. That's not to say Will hasn't been great recently but I can't remember when I last saw him not as Mr Smith but as the character he was playing. I think he may be deserving of at least a best actor nomination this year.
1. Another Round
- Mads Mikkelsen makes a second appearance. A brilliant ensemble shows the potential highs and many more realistic lows to pushing the limit of alcohol consumption. A deeply personal project for the director Thomas Vinterberg and yet again Mads proves himself to be one of the best acting talents of the past 15 years.
An honourable mention goes out to The Beatles: Get Back documentary, Bo Burnham's Inside, Moxie, Nobody and Raya and the Last Dragon. As always the bottom 3 for me are worryngly poor. I give you the title and nothing else.
1. Father Christmas is Back
2. Twist
3. Thunderforce
AND so to this list I compiled. This is the list of films watched in the order I happened to see them. Bold for new releases, standard text for rewatches. The only repeat was seeing No Time to Die twice in the cinema. Enjoy
Monsters Inc (2001)
Hellraiser (1987)
Dark Waters (2020)
Easy Rider (1969)
Mortal Engines (2018)
#Alive (2020)
Cats (2019)
Taking Lives (2004)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Ghost (1990)
- 10
Inside Man (2006)
The Wife (2017)
Mank (2020)
Mindhorn (2016)
The Sixth Sense (2000)
What's Your Number (2011)
Monty Python's Holy Grail (1974)
A Dogs Journey (2018)
Semi Pro (2008)
The Nutty Professor (1996)
- 20
Widows (2018)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
6 Underground (2019)
A Hard Days Night (1964)
Lucky (2017)
Jojo Rabbit (2020)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The Drowning (2016)
Dredd (2012)
Bumblebee (2018)
- 30
The Gentlemen (2020)
Evil Dead (2013)
THX 1138 (1971)
The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Twist (2021)
Sputnik (2020)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Forces of Nature (2000)
Instant Family (2018)
Just Mercy (2020)
- 40
News of the World (2021)
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Notebook (2004)
Sliding Doors (1998)
Table 19 (2017)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Dawn of the dead (1978)
Tag (2018)
Pearl Harbour (2001)
Pele (2021)
- 50
Witness (1985)
Arrival (2016)
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
I Care Alot (2021)
Black or White (2019)
Grosse Point Blank (1997)
Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985)
Moxie (2021)
Eighth Grade (2019)
Cyrus (2010)
- 60
Carry On Screaming (1966)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Best of Enemys (2019)
Soul (2020)
S.W.A.T (2003)
Bird on a Wire (1990)
Back to the Future (1985)
Willy's Wonderland (2020)
Thunder Force (2021)
- 70
Ghost Ship (2002)
Stowaway (2021)
Baby Mama (2002)
The Duelists (1977)
Nobody (2021)
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
I Origins (2014)
Sound of Metal (2021)
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
The Art of Self-Defence (2019)
- 80
Enough Said (2013)
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Unhinged (2020)
Red Tails (2012)
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2019)
The Devil's Own (1997)
Nomadland (2021)
Promising Young Woman (2021)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
The Unholy (2021)
- 90
Things Heard and Seen (2021)
The Doors (1991)
There Will Be Blood (2008)
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Cruella (2021)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Father (2021)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark (2019)
A Quiet Place Part 2 (2021)
- 100
The United Way (2020)
Breakdown (1997)
Mad Max Fury Road (2015)
The Truman Show (1998)
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Army of the Dead (2021)
Ma (2019)
Palm Springs (2021)
Supernova (2021)
Another Round (2021)
- 110
The Comeback Trail (2021)
F9 (2021)
Luca (2021)
Yesterday (2019)
Space Cowboys (2000)
The Hunted (2004)
Black Widow (2021)
Midway (2019)
Raw Deal (1986)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- 120
Old (2021)
The Fighter (2013)
The Mitchell's vs The Machines (2021)
Run (2021)
High Crimes (2002)
11:14 (2003)
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Callan (1974)
The Client (1994)
Unbreakable (2000)
- 130
Love and Monsters (2021)
The Dark Knight (2009)
Archive (2020)
Free Guy (2021)
'71 (2014)
Bad Trip (2021)
ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas (2019)
Seaspiracy (2021)
Candyman (2021)
Wonder woman 1984 (2020)
- 140
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Reminiscence (2021)
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Richard Jewell (2019)
Copshop (2021)
Malcolm X (1992)
Malignant (2021)
Kate (2021)
Summer of Soul (2021)
Deep Rising (1997)
- 150
Split (2016)
Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
A Clockwork Orange - 4k restoration (1971)
The Firm (1993)
Pale Rider (1985)
Minari (2021)
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
Man on Fire (2004)
Romy and Michelle's Highschool Reunion (1997)
Respect (2021)
- 160
The Fellowship of the Ring - 4k restoration (2001)
The Two Towers - 4k restoration (2002)
Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984)
Hidden Figures (2016)
I Feel Pretty (2018)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Breaking In (2018)
Casino Royale (2006)
The Voyeurs (2021)
No Time To Die (2021)
- 170
No Sudden Move (2021)
Dune Pt1 (2021)
The Guilty (2021)
The Last Duel (2021)
The Loved Ones (2008)
Something Borrowed (2011)
Halloween Kills (2021)
Halloween (1978)
V for Vendetta (2006)
After.Life (2009)
- 180
The Founder (2017)
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Ransom (1996)
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
No Time To Die (2021) x2
Coherence (2014)
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)
- 190
Red Notice (2021)
Halloween V: Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Ewoks: The Battle For Endor (1985)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
Rocky IV: Balboa vs Drago (2021)
Thor (2011)
Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)
King Richard (2021)
House of Gucci (2021)
- 200
She's The Man (2006)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
The Matrix re-release (1999)
Riders of Justice (2021)
Lovehard (2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings (2021)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
West Side Story (2021)
The Christmas Chronicles Part 2 (2020)
Last Christmas (2019)
- 210
Godzilla vs Kong (2021)
Mechanic Resurrection (2016)
Splash (1984)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Spiderman 3 (2007)
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)
South Pacific (1958)
Highlander (1987)
The Rookie (1990)
- 220
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
Encanto (2021)
Scrooge (1970)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
The Haunting (1999)
Father Christmas is Back (2021)
Klaus (2019)
Some series I managed to get through this year...
Cobra Kai S3 (2020)
The Terror S1 (2020)
Black Summer S2 (2021)
Them S1 (2021)
Mighty Ducks: Game Changers S1 (2021)
Rick and Morty S5 (2021)
Vigil S1 (2021)
Final Space S3 (2021)
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
Saturday, 26 December 2020
Top 5 of 2020
I initially thought the look back on this is going to be limited. 2020 was crap and we all know it. But rifling through my watched films released this year, on IMDb, I have somehow caught 29 movies despite the limited availablity for the silver screen. So as usual, what follows is the best I personally saw in 2020 and then a short list of the drivel I also encountered...
5. The Gentlemen
- a genuinely fun time is had following the usual reprobates and charismatic characters from a new Guy Ritchie film. Just gets in there with a 1st Jan release date. Let's just forget he made Aladdin...
4. Calm with Horses
- a small but tough Irish family drama with a truely believable performance from actor Cosmo Jarvis about an ex-boxer who makes the mistake of not doing his master's bidding.
3. The Invisible Man
- somewhat of a surprisingly good remake but that feels unfair. Remake seems the wrong word as it's simply a modern telling of a classic story. The camera's lingering performance elevates the whole thing which reminds me of Carpenter's original Halloween...
2. Tenet
- this years "saviour of cinema" didn't quite live up to such a title but realistically what film would. The pandemic isn't going anywhere any time soon. A lot has been said of the film already. For now I think it's Marmite for many people. I feel that second viewing makes all the difference and in time, may be looked at with more favoured eyes. I do however agree with some views of whether a film should perform on first viewing for an audience unlikely to go for repeat screenings. It lacks the balanced entertainment and smart story telling that instant classic, Inception, has going for it but maybe this film is a fine wine in the long run.
1. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
- a documentary film but a film nonetheless. And possibly the most important film of the year for the world to watch. If the message doesn't sink in after watching it then I can't the lesson being learnt in quick enough time. Sad, informative, entertaining, inspired.
An honourable mention goes out to Saint Maud, for a quietly unsettling envoyable time at the cinema and The Last Dance, for being absolutely brilliant across the board. As always the bottom 3 are the pants of what I saw this year. I throw little more than the title and no extra attention to them.
1. Dolittle 2. Bloodshot 3. Mulan
5. The Gentlemen
- a genuinely fun time is had following the usual reprobates and charismatic characters from a new Guy Ritchie film. Just gets in there with a 1st Jan release date. Let's just forget he made Aladdin...
4. Calm with Horses
- a small but tough Irish family drama with a truely believable performance from actor Cosmo Jarvis about an ex-boxer who makes the mistake of not doing his master's bidding.
3. The Invisible Man
- somewhat of a surprisingly good remake but that feels unfair. Remake seems the wrong word as it's simply a modern telling of a classic story. The camera's lingering performance elevates the whole thing which reminds me of Carpenter's original Halloween...
2. Tenet
- this years "saviour of cinema" didn't quite live up to such a title but realistically what film would. The pandemic isn't going anywhere any time soon. A lot has been said of the film already. For now I think it's Marmite for many people. I feel that second viewing makes all the difference and in time, may be looked at with more favoured eyes. I do however agree with some views of whether a film should perform on first viewing for an audience unlikely to go for repeat screenings. It lacks the balanced entertainment and smart story telling that instant classic, Inception, has going for it but maybe this film is a fine wine in the long run.
1. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
- a documentary film but a film nonetheless. And possibly the most important film of the year for the world to watch. If the message doesn't sink in after watching it then I can't the lesson being learnt in quick enough time. Sad, informative, entertaining, inspired.
An honourable mention goes out to Saint Maud, for a quietly unsettling envoyable time at the cinema and The Last Dance, for being absolutely brilliant across the board. As always the bottom 3 are the pants of what I saw this year. I throw little more than the title and no extra attention to them.
1. Dolittle 2. Bloodshot 3. Mulan
Thursday, 26 December 2019
Top 5 of 2019
Well this is depressing. The one and only post of the year is my end of year round up...
To be fair, Ive been busy in the best of ways work wise this year having worked on Fast & Furious 9 followed by Batman so Ive had zero time to make any personal work.
As we end this decade Im definately coming out of it in a far different place than what I came in to it, for good, and sadly, for bad also (but that's not for here).
OK, so whats my Top 5 of the year? (As always based purely on what Ive seen released in 2019 in the UK...
5. Toy Story 4
- could they do it again. One more time. Apparently so. Some fun highlights like Duke Kaboom, the ventriloquist dummys and the high five soldier made this a fun film but it brought the emotion with a real sense of goodbye between Woody and Buzz that anyone who grew up with these characters could feel as well. But I will say Buzz is sorely under-used in this film...
4. Us
- I enjoyed Getout but perhaps not as much as the rest of the world apparently. Us on the other hand was a step up for me and it took Peele's horror sense to larger, national scale. Great stuff indeed!
3. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
- is it long, yeah; self-indulgent, perhaps. Is it his best thing since Basterds, I think so. Also Brad Pitt has created the coolest QT character since Sam Jackson showed up in Pulp Fiction!
2. Le Mans '66
- this film was dramatic, exhilarating and above all else, damn fun. Seeing it on the big screen helps and I just really enjoyed a film that takes you comfotably through the story with solid performances and confident directing from Mangold.
1. Avengers Endgame
- was there going to be anything else? for story telling, juggling the size of it, emotional beats and sheer entertainment which is what these films sometimes forget to be. Also, so so satisfying. Something never to be under-appreciated. Marvel did it. Congrats. I can leave the MCU behnd now and be perfectly happy if I never saw another one. Amazing
Notable shoutout to The Irishman and Chernobyl which I'd love to have included in the list.
Bottom 5 as always based on what Ive seen and not particularly bad films. Just lowest rated by me...
1. Gemini Man
2. In The Tal Grass
3. Men in Black International
4. Godzilla King of Monsters
5. Dumbo
To be fair, Ive been busy in the best of ways work wise this year having worked on Fast & Furious 9 followed by Batman so Ive had zero time to make any personal work.
As we end this decade Im definately coming out of it in a far different place than what I came in to it, for good, and sadly, for bad also (but that's not for here).
OK, so whats my Top 5 of the year? (As always based purely on what Ive seen released in 2019 in the UK...
5. Toy Story 4
- could they do it again. One more time. Apparently so. Some fun highlights like Duke Kaboom, the ventriloquist dummys and the high five soldier made this a fun film but it brought the emotion with a real sense of goodbye between Woody and Buzz that anyone who grew up with these characters could feel as well. But I will say Buzz is sorely under-used in this film...
4. Us
- I enjoyed Getout but perhaps not as much as the rest of the world apparently. Us on the other hand was a step up for me and it took Peele's horror sense to larger, national scale. Great stuff indeed!
3. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
- is it long, yeah; self-indulgent, perhaps. Is it his best thing since Basterds, I think so. Also Brad Pitt has created the coolest QT character since Sam Jackson showed up in Pulp Fiction!
2. Le Mans '66
- this film was dramatic, exhilarating and above all else, damn fun. Seeing it on the big screen helps and I just really enjoyed a film that takes you comfotably through the story with solid performances and confident directing from Mangold.
1. Avengers Endgame
- was there going to be anything else? for story telling, juggling the size of it, emotional beats and sheer entertainment which is what these films sometimes forget to be. Also, so so satisfying. Something never to be under-appreciated. Marvel did it. Congrats. I can leave the MCU behnd now and be perfectly happy if I never saw another one. Amazing
Notable shoutout to The Irishman and Chernobyl which I'd love to have included in the list.
Bottom 5 as always based on what Ive seen and not particularly bad films. Just lowest rated by me...
1. Gemini Man
2. In The Tal Grass
3. Men in Black International
4. Godzilla King of Monsters
5. Dumbo
Sunday, 30 December 2018
Top 5 of 2018
Time once again for my personal Top 5 of the year based purely on UK releases that I have managed to catch within the year; so before you ask 'why no SpiderMan?' it is because I haven't seen it yet!
5. Mission Impossible Fallout
One of, if not the only film series to be getting better as they go on. It's easy to have gotten caught up in the media surrounding just how practical this film was to be and how much of the work in camera was done by the Cruise himself but it all paid off massively with great story callbacks and continuations from previous entries which made me very happy. Ive been vocal to people about my theory on how you can rate the quality of an MI film based on the length of Tom Cruise's hair in each particular film so I was pretty confident going into this one. Equally, director Chris McQuarrie's Epic Empire Podcast Part 1 and Part 2/3 are just as good as the film!
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
Saw this twice at the cinema. It is horribly inaccurate with its timeline of events but by using the Live Aid performance as a bookend, it is structured in a way to play more to your feelings. An average enjoyer of the Queen catalogue its a great time to enjoy what is effectively a "Greatest Hits" of their work. It's a null point at this time to go on about how good Rami Malek's interpretation of Freddie is. It's all just so enjoyable! Seeing it big and loud was its biggest strength. Being too young to witness an original Queen lineup, I realised half way through the film I had never heard the band in a loud bombastic way like that of a gig. Hearing the tracks on a stereo system definately takes away from their impact. The film in a cinema corrects this...
3. Incredibles 2
The family dynamic is finally back and fittingly carrying on almost seamlessly from the first film. Just as many fun moments as the first and lovely spectacle we've come to expect from Pixar. Minor weakness would be the 'badguy' of the film feels a tad weak in comparrison to Syndrome but Im nitpicking... Jack Jack jokes and parenting is a super power are the greatest take-aways from this film.
2. They Shall Not Grow Old
A film of great importance, it feels somewhat wrong to describe this as "entertainment" in the same way as Saving Private Ryan's opening 20mins. The work gone into making hundred year old war footage come alive is something to truely marvel at. It's approach to pull you in through the black and white world as we enter the war with a gradual zoom and colour increase is magical without ever being a "look at this!" moment. THe voice work is brilliant and at times intense and heartbreaking. Stunning work and quite rightly compulsary viewing in our schools now. Thank you Peter Jackson.
1. Avengers Infinity War
A bit obvious but it couldn't be anything else right? 10 years of building. There have been a few dips and troughs along the way but nothing to cry about. Amazing visuals aside the story was strong and bolstered by an imense cast all doing their part. A fully realised Thanos is the icing on the cake. Possibly like the original Yoda in Empire, if audiences didn't believe in this character than the film may have collapsed on itself. With strong foundations in the Marvel world, they've built a towering series of films for the 21st century... Come on Endgame. You've got us all ready and waiting...
Honourable mentions go to the following for all being great bits of film throughout the year; The Last Movie Star, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and Haunting of Hill House for beign a great little mini series on Netflix.
As for my bottom 5 once again the list is by no means the worst things I ve ever seen as Ive likewly avoided the truely aweful titles. These are just lower rated in my opinion
5. Venom
4. After The Screaming Stops
3. When The Devil and Father Amorth
2. The Cloverfield Paradox
1. The Open House
5. Mission Impossible Fallout
One of, if not the only film series to be getting better as they go on. It's easy to have gotten caught up in the media surrounding just how practical this film was to be and how much of the work in camera was done by the Cruise himself but it all paid off massively with great story callbacks and continuations from previous entries which made me very happy. Ive been vocal to people about my theory on how you can rate the quality of an MI film based on the length of Tom Cruise's hair in each particular film so I was pretty confident going into this one. Equally, director Chris McQuarrie's Epic Empire Podcast Part 1 and Part 2/3 are just as good as the film!
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
Saw this twice at the cinema. It is horribly inaccurate with its timeline of events but by using the Live Aid performance as a bookend, it is structured in a way to play more to your feelings. An average enjoyer of the Queen catalogue its a great time to enjoy what is effectively a "Greatest Hits" of their work. It's a null point at this time to go on about how good Rami Malek's interpretation of Freddie is. It's all just so enjoyable! Seeing it big and loud was its biggest strength. Being too young to witness an original Queen lineup, I realised half way through the film I had never heard the band in a loud bombastic way like that of a gig. Hearing the tracks on a stereo system definately takes away from their impact. The film in a cinema corrects this...
3. Incredibles 2
The family dynamic is finally back and fittingly carrying on almost seamlessly from the first film. Just as many fun moments as the first and lovely spectacle we've come to expect from Pixar. Minor weakness would be the 'badguy' of the film feels a tad weak in comparrison to Syndrome but Im nitpicking... Jack Jack jokes and parenting is a super power are the greatest take-aways from this film.
2. They Shall Not Grow Old
A film of great importance, it feels somewhat wrong to describe this as "entertainment" in the same way as Saving Private Ryan's opening 20mins. The work gone into making hundred year old war footage come alive is something to truely marvel at. It's approach to pull you in through the black and white world as we enter the war with a gradual zoom and colour increase is magical without ever being a "look at this!" moment. THe voice work is brilliant and at times intense and heartbreaking. Stunning work and quite rightly compulsary viewing in our schools now. Thank you Peter Jackson.
1. Avengers Infinity War
A bit obvious but it couldn't be anything else right? 10 years of building. There have been a few dips and troughs along the way but nothing to cry about. Amazing visuals aside the story was strong and bolstered by an imense cast all doing their part. A fully realised Thanos is the icing on the cake. Possibly like the original Yoda in Empire, if audiences didn't believe in this character than the film may have collapsed on itself. With strong foundations in the Marvel world, they've built a towering series of films for the 21st century... Come on Endgame. You've got us all ready and waiting...
Honourable mentions go to the following for all being great bits of film throughout the year; The Last Movie Star, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and Haunting of Hill House for beign a great little mini series on Netflix.
As for my bottom 5 once again the list is by no means the worst things I ve ever seen as Ive likewly avoided the truely aweful titles. These are just lower rated in my opinion
5. Venom
4. After The Screaming Stops
3. When The Devil and Father Amorth
2. The Cloverfield Paradox
1. The Open House
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
Practice/learning. Interior lighting
So between projects (and partially becase of a current project) I felt I wanted to practice more with lighting within 3D space. As digital modelling isn't quite the same as switching on a normal light bulb, I wanted to play with settings to see if I could further grasp how to recreate a 'look' for my concept art.
My fundamental inspiration came from using a recognisable film frame and rereating a set rather than simply making something up and hoping it looked right. Also the first 20minutes of a great panel discussion with John Knoll at Star Wars Celebration 2016 gave a similar, more polished example of what I was thinking of.
So as you can see below, this is my current desktop wallpaper. A Star Destroyer hangar bay from Jedi I believe...
The first thing was to match the perspective and camera view which can be done pretty effectively using MatchPhoto in SketchUp. I began by blocking out the space that was visible. No point in building outside of the camera view. Let's be cost/time effective ;)
The red highlighted area is a note that I never intended on building outside of the hangar. It would be painted or photbashed in as a background element.
The foreground gantry really sits quite far back in terms of the shot but realistically you can recognise the forground element is actually shot footage on a matte.
Detail was never the intention with this practice build. I blocked in the notable forms and of course light sources. The Imperial Shuttle (below, red), I grabbed from the SU warehouse so kudos to the person who built it. Highlighted below in yellow is a very large spot light source (I should mention I was using Podium as my rendering software). The green scribbles are omni light sources. Used to light the general area they are placed without a specific direction.
A reverse view shows the model build and lack of any detail behind the 'camera lens' (red).
A cross-section of the build shows how the entire set was encased to remove any 'outside' light that may affect the interior space.
RENDERING
So the first render was literally to see what would happen before I turned on any lights. The main source of light came from 'outside' the set before I had taken the time to box everything in as described above.
It's pretty dark at this point, so lets turn on the lights.
The huge bars of light that go around the opening I set with 'intensity' turned on but for the vertical light panels on the side and blue glow from the elevator I turned on to something like '10' to see what would happen. As you can see it's a total blow out of light. Too much from that outside spot light (something daft like '64'). All way too much but a starting point. Now to pull it back.
This was better. the vertical lights I dropped down to '6' I think and the outside spot light went down too '44' and was moved back a tad. It was at this point I realised the outside space was affecting the set as well and so I blocked it in with a black box to resemble space. Playing with lights and numbers proved helpful when I purposefully started with too much as it gave me something to work back to rather than say starting at lighting strength '1' and going up from there. It would have taken too long.
Now I'm not a 3D modeller (hence my use of SketchUp). I'm not sure I could call myself a 3D generalist either. For what I do and my process. This (half a days work so far) is enough to work with in concepting up. There is a general feel of the correct light levels beginning to come through and once brought in to Photoshop I would be able to make minor level adjustments much quicker than inside the model. Again, the idea of this test was to practice lighting a space (in this case a very large one).
With a very quick drop in of the background and a little adjustment you can see the beginnings of a set being concepted with a strong light source that is effective and realistic enough to work with...
My fundamental inspiration came from using a recognisable film frame and rereating a set rather than simply making something up and hoping it looked right. Also the first 20minutes of a great panel discussion with John Knoll at Star Wars Celebration 2016 gave a similar, more polished example of what I was thinking of.
So as you can see below, this is my current desktop wallpaper. A Star Destroyer hangar bay from Jedi I believe...
The first thing was to match the perspective and camera view which can be done pretty effectively using MatchPhoto in SketchUp. I began by blocking out the space that was visible. No point in building outside of the camera view. Let's be cost/time effective ;)
The foreground gantry really sits quite far back in terms of the shot but realistically you can recognise the forground element is actually shot footage on a matte.
Detail was never the intention with this practice build. I blocked in the notable forms and of course light sources. The Imperial Shuttle (below, red), I grabbed from the SU warehouse so kudos to the person who built it. Highlighted below in yellow is a very large spot light source (I should mention I was using Podium as my rendering software). The green scribbles are omni light sources. Used to light the general area they are placed without a specific direction.
A reverse view shows the model build and lack of any detail behind the 'camera lens' (red).
A cross-section of the build shows how the entire set was encased to remove any 'outside' light that may affect the interior space.
RENDERING
So the first render was literally to see what would happen before I turned on any lights. The main source of light came from 'outside' the set before I had taken the time to box everything in as described above.
This was better. the vertical lights I dropped down to '6' I think and the outside spot light went down too '44' and was moved back a tad. It was at this point I realised the outside space was affecting the set as well and so I blocked it in with a black box to resemble space. Playing with lights and numbers proved helpful when I purposefully started with too much as it gave me something to work back to rather than say starting at lighting strength '1' and going up from there. It would have taken too long.
Now I'm not a 3D modeller (hence my use of SketchUp). I'm not sure I could call myself a 3D generalist either. For what I do and my process. This (half a days work so far) is enough to work with in concepting up. There is a general feel of the correct light levels beginning to come through and once brought in to Photoshop I would be able to make minor level adjustments much quicker than inside the model. Again, the idea of this test was to practice lighting a space (in this case a very large one).
With a very quick drop in of the background and a little adjustment you can see the beginnings of a set being concepted with a strong light source that is effective and realistic enough to work with...
Thursday, 28 December 2017
Top 5 of 2017
That time of year again! So, there were many titles I'd have like to have seen (happens every year, of course) and am guessing may have even made the list (Get Out perhaps? Girl with All the Gifts? Raw?). But alas, my top and bottom 5 are based on this year’s viewing habits.
5. Hacksaw Ridge
When people in power make mistakes, it's rare we let them forget about it in this modern age, let alone forgive them for it. I feel it's safe to say after the better part of a decade Mel Gibson made a deserved comeback with this film. Like him or not, the film itself is a very strong entertaining (if you can call war just that) tale based on the humbling truth of a soldier who didn't give up on his beliefs. Like a lot of war titles, it displays the best (and worst) in people. If you don't feel like doing 'the right thing' after its viewing, you have missed the point...
4. Baby Driver
We were promised speed, colour, action and lightning fast dialogue and for a first time experience it didn't fail to deliver. Subsequent viewings have yet to occur so I'm interested to see what life the film manages to take on past this year (if viewed more times, I may have placed this at no3). But for now, a vibrant original film with loving references to 70's car action has been a welcome distraction to the familiar OTT car-nage of the FATF series amongst other tentpole action films with too much bang for its buck. Enough talk has been made on its kinship with its soundtrack.
3. Logan
So, we got the Wolverine western we'd been asking for (apparently). A pretty fitting and respectable end to a character/actor many my age have grown up with. The noir edition is a nice touch for those interested. In time I feel my generation may look on this first 'wave' of superhero films the way older generations debate the best Bond era; typically championing the ones we grow up with. There may be better or 'more-like-the-comic' versions of Logan in the coming years but Jackman's portrayal will no doubt set a benchmark for the conflicted elements of a worn-out anti-hero that we, and certainly I, hold as one of my favourite of all fictional greats.
2. IT
The hype machine on this was selling the best thing in a long time in horror circles. Up front I cannot claim to be anything of a King fan or that of previous telling’s of the IT story so I entered this with no preconceived notions or expectation. I was all-round entertained, suitably chilled (never quite scared) and importantly left eager with the promise of a concluding part to this film. A tale more about youth, growing up and its fears and friendship then simply some bulbous headed clown killings. Great casting makes this film work.
1. War for the Planet of the Apes
This film was THE experience for me this year. The hope to enter that dark room and be taken on a journey for 2 hours that leaves you with something is always what I want from a cinema experience. This film managed that beautifully. Already a great admirer of 'Dawn' (less of 'Rise') the conclusion to this Cesar-arc was handled greatly by Matt Reeves who really has proven himself again and again with big budget film. A war film that brings to mind many a great title from Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape to more harrowing moments that I can't help comparing to Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. Good company to be amongst no doubt...
I expect Dawn and War will be played often in my home over the coming years.
Honourable mentions go to Blade Runner 2049 and Life, two sci-fi's just shy of my top list. Also check out the documentaries called One of Us, which can be found on Netflix about the Hasidic Jewish community; and Five Came Back (also Netflix) about the pioneering directors of Hollywood who served during WWII.
The ultimate mention goes to Stranger Things season 2. If I wasn't so strict about my list being films, I'd have this as the no1 thing I watched this year. I feel I could write forever about the strengths of this show but for now all I say is this; in a time where spectacle is measured as being "epic!" and "awesome!", few things are ever "wholly satisfying", and Stranger Things is satisfying as f**k!
My bottom 5 in no real order or importance because nothing here is overly harmful. In fact, this year’s post really doesn't warrant a bottom list as I didn't see anything that was painful enough to call rubbish
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge
4. The Babysitter
3. Death Note (Netflix)
2. Beauty and the Beast
1. Ghost in the Shell
5. Hacksaw Ridge
When people in power make mistakes, it's rare we let them forget about it in this modern age, let alone forgive them for it. I feel it's safe to say after the better part of a decade Mel Gibson made a deserved comeback with this film. Like him or not, the film itself is a very strong entertaining (if you can call war just that) tale based on the humbling truth of a soldier who didn't give up on his beliefs. Like a lot of war titles, it displays the best (and worst) in people. If you don't feel like doing 'the right thing' after its viewing, you have missed the point...
4. Baby Driver
We were promised speed, colour, action and lightning fast dialogue and for a first time experience it didn't fail to deliver. Subsequent viewings have yet to occur so I'm interested to see what life the film manages to take on past this year (if viewed more times, I may have placed this at no3). But for now, a vibrant original film with loving references to 70's car action has been a welcome distraction to the familiar OTT car-nage of the FATF series amongst other tentpole action films with too much bang for its buck. Enough talk has been made on its kinship with its soundtrack.
3. Logan
So, we got the Wolverine western we'd been asking for (apparently). A pretty fitting and respectable end to a character/actor many my age have grown up with. The noir edition is a nice touch for those interested. In time I feel my generation may look on this first 'wave' of superhero films the way older generations debate the best Bond era; typically championing the ones we grow up with. There may be better or 'more-like-the-comic' versions of Logan in the coming years but Jackman's portrayal will no doubt set a benchmark for the conflicted elements of a worn-out anti-hero that we, and certainly I, hold as one of my favourite of all fictional greats.
2. IT
The hype machine on this was selling the best thing in a long time in horror circles. Up front I cannot claim to be anything of a King fan or that of previous telling’s of the IT story so I entered this with no preconceived notions or expectation. I was all-round entertained, suitably chilled (never quite scared) and importantly left eager with the promise of a concluding part to this film. A tale more about youth, growing up and its fears and friendship then simply some bulbous headed clown killings. Great casting makes this film work.
1. War for the Planet of the Apes
This film was THE experience for me this year. The hope to enter that dark room and be taken on a journey for 2 hours that leaves you with something is always what I want from a cinema experience. This film managed that beautifully. Already a great admirer of 'Dawn' (less of 'Rise') the conclusion to this Cesar-arc was handled greatly by Matt Reeves who really has proven himself again and again with big budget film. A war film that brings to mind many a great title from Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape to more harrowing moments that I can't help comparing to Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. Good company to be amongst no doubt...
I expect Dawn and War will be played often in my home over the coming years.
Honourable mentions go to Blade Runner 2049 and Life, two sci-fi's just shy of my top list. Also check out the documentaries called One of Us, which can be found on Netflix about the Hasidic Jewish community; and Five Came Back (also Netflix) about the pioneering directors of Hollywood who served during WWII.
The ultimate mention goes to Stranger Things season 2. If I wasn't so strict about my list being films, I'd have this as the no1 thing I watched this year. I feel I could write forever about the strengths of this show but for now all I say is this; in a time where spectacle is measured as being "epic!" and "awesome!", few things are ever "wholly satisfying", and Stranger Things is satisfying as f**k!
My bottom 5 in no real order or importance because nothing here is overly harmful. In fact, this year’s post really doesn't warrant a bottom list as I didn't see anything that was painful enough to call rubbish
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge
4. The Babysitter
3. Death Note (Netflix)
2. Beauty and the Beast
1. Ghost in the Shell
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Hopes and Dreams
Ok, so let’s see how this goes. As part of setting up this blog, I initially wanted a place to not only showcase whatever doodle or painting I was working on but also a place to talk about my thoughts on how art and design has played a role in Film/TV production. This part of my plan has obviously fallen by the way side but I’m going to attempt a written piece now. Let’s just see if I can at least keep to one article per year for now!
The following text might well go all over the place as my tangentially, fractured thought process often does so please have patience… also it offers no answers, just pointless questions open to discussion.
Firstly let me turn your attention to an article over on Buzzfeed that I came across today. It is one of many pieces you’ll find on the web that looks at Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork. Now anyone with a working knowledge of Star Wars will know this name but for those who don’t he was an illustrator for NASA and concept designer for a number of entertainment IPs.
For those in the know, let me get the often repeated, obvious comments out the way;
- Without McQuarrie’s input, Star Wars would not be what it is visually
- Without McQuarrie’s paintings, there’s a good chance Star Wars would never have been made
- McQuarrie has now influenced 2 generations of artists/designers working in film.
With those 3 very simplified comments I don’t want to give off the sense I’m trivialising what this man did for popular culture. I’m not. I’m very much in the "McQuarrie-is-a-design-Legend" camp. It’s the above article that had me scrolling and staring at such beautifully rendered production paintings and thinking what do I need to do to improve myself as a designer.
But it’s a plain fact that his major output of work was in the analogue era of acrylics, oils and gouache that got me thinking of concept art as a whole for this writing malarkey…
I’m really not a scholar on the subject but what I think helped build his reputation as a prolific artist was the bold, clearly presented compositions in his pictures. Everything is depicted cleanly and more importantly tells a story (all key factors in producing quality concept art). There is no ‘photobashing’ or collaging of images to get to a bigger picture. Everything is precise and thought out ahead of painting. It may well be considered an illustration to help sell a moment in a film but I can’t call it fine art. It is designed from the get go. There never seems to be more than 3 things going on in his pictures and therefore your brain can comfortably take in the image.
If you Google ‘concept art’ and look at the images (go on I dare you!), it’s truly scary how much imagery you will be bombarded with.
The imagery is probably 90-99% digitally composed, very moody lighting and HIGHLY detailed. I can’t knock any of it. The vast majority of it is better than anything I can currently produce and they are all produced by someone in the world who in that moment were influenced/inspired to simply create.
What I’m not sure on is what the value of this content truly is…
Let me work backwards once more. Come with me to 1999 and a 12 year old Me picks up ‘The Art of Episode 1’. Commercially to you and I, digital painting may as well have not existed yet (for about another 3-5 years) so what I saw in this book was 1) a job prospect of epic proportions and 2) a ton of artwork not too far from what had been produced over 20 years previous. Gorgeous pen and marker designs and gouache paintings form Doug Chiang and his team not unlike Ralph’s and Joe Johnson’s images of the late 70s. I fell in love right there and it set me on a course I still travel on to this day.
By Episode 3 (2005) digital painting and Photoshop had truly come along and over-night seemed to change the landscape of concept art. Also it’s probably important to note that the internet had started to grow out of its infancy and the world was using it, sometimes productively, to communicate with each other.
Side note; who remembers their first website coming from Geocities… eek!
Along this journey, I’ve had to change my ideas of what concept art would be to me and perhaps that’s what got me righting this elongated mind-fart. I like to remind myself that I came from that time JUST before technology went mad for us. Looking at that art book of Doug’s drawings I truly believed that’s all I would ever have to do. Like McQuarrie’s art I wanted to present clear beautiful designs that would end up on the screen but life’s never that straight forward.
With Photoshop taking over, the possibilities became infinite and because of the ease of photo manipulation, ‘photobashing’ initially became a trend (like lens flares, haha) and eventually a worthy required skill. Production of images sped up, generating multiple concepts sped up and therefore demand for more sped up. You can complete greater quantity at a higher quality so much quicker now.
I really am not here to knock it. It’s a process in a huge pipeline that must be done. If you can reach the lead creatives imagination with a few photos of a moody skyline and some mountain photos in the background then great because it leads to less changes/time/money being spent further down the line. Also to reiterate, concept art is not fine art. It is not a precious item. It’s there to solve a problem, be changed if necessary and then put to the side when complete. All this is achievable on a schedule that would have been impossible in the 70s. How many paintings these days take more than 1 or 2 days when the classic images of the past would take a full week to paint?
So I guess what I’m trying to get around to is; should I feel nostalgic for a time and process that ultimately can’t be replicated because of where technology and industry is right now?
A notable story of recent years would be Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. To integrate some of the original ‘Alien’ feel to the new film, Scott hired the original creature designer, H.R.Giger to do some drawings. This occurred parallel to hiring the usual squad of high profile, 8-10 concept designers. It’s to no surprise that the design team created everything needed for the film from suits to vehicles to locations etc. What is a little saddening is that Giger was eventually let go after producing a few simple design ideas because the timescale of production did not allow for his full involvement. When I say “let go” I’m genuinely not suggesting it was some terrible firing. I believe, if memory serves, this is all commented on by Ridley in the Making of documentary "The Furious Gods" on the DVD/Bluray. Giger (who uses the traditional airbrush system) simply wasn’t fast enough for pre-production. It’s just a prime example of the need to get things done in this day and age at a far greater pace than 30 years ago.
So to come back to me again and the title of this 1500 word debacle, what do I want to happen?
I’m not sure…
I continue to chase that elusive rabbit down the hole that is concept art. I want to work in design and film now as much as I did at 12. But somewhere along the line, if a ‘passion project’ should come to me in a vague dream or a well thought out idea, I would want to allow myself to consider how I come to design things.
For the sake of production would/should I get as much done quickly through the current process of digital design or should/could I go ‘old-school’, be ‘traditional’ and produce what would be considered real images? Would said images stand the test of time if done with paint and MDF board or would they get lost in the vacuum of digital space if painted on a computer? I guess that one is not for me to answer.
But my lasting thought is of all the artwork I’ve sucked in through my eyeballs the ones that have held their place in my memory banks are that of a pre-digital age. Are there artists of today that I look up to and find their work inspiring and amazing; you bet! But I can’t help feel the older stuff that we all love isn’t just held highly because it was an important influence in our young impressionable minds, it’s because they are a benchmark of quality that remain to this day.
Written while listening to RotJ soundtrack… :D
The following text might well go all over the place as my tangentially, fractured thought process often does so please have patience… also it offers no answers, just pointless questions open to discussion.
Firstly let me turn your attention to an article over on Buzzfeed that I came across today. It is one of many pieces you’ll find on the web that looks at Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork. Now anyone with a working knowledge of Star Wars will know this name but for those who don’t he was an illustrator for NASA and concept designer for a number of entertainment IPs.
For those in the know, let me get the often repeated, obvious comments out the way;
- Without McQuarrie’s input, Star Wars would not be what it is visually
- Without McQuarrie’s paintings, there’s a good chance Star Wars would never have been made
- McQuarrie has now influenced 2 generations of artists/designers working in film.
With those 3 very simplified comments I don’t want to give off the sense I’m trivialising what this man did for popular culture. I’m not. I’m very much in the "McQuarrie-is-a-design-Legend" camp. It’s the above article that had me scrolling and staring at such beautifully rendered production paintings and thinking what do I need to do to improve myself as a designer.
But it’s a plain fact that his major output of work was in the analogue era of acrylics, oils and gouache that got me thinking of concept art as a whole for this writing malarkey…
I’m really not a scholar on the subject but what I think helped build his reputation as a prolific artist was the bold, clearly presented compositions in his pictures. Everything is depicted cleanly and more importantly tells a story (all key factors in producing quality concept art). There is no ‘photobashing’ or collaging of images to get to a bigger picture. Everything is precise and thought out ahead of painting. It may well be considered an illustration to help sell a moment in a film but I can’t call it fine art. It is designed from the get go. There never seems to be more than 3 things going on in his pictures and therefore your brain can comfortably take in the image.
If you Google ‘concept art’ and look at the images (go on I dare you!), it’s truly scary how much imagery you will be bombarded with.
The imagery is probably 90-99% digitally composed, very moody lighting and HIGHLY detailed. I can’t knock any of it. The vast majority of it is better than anything I can currently produce and they are all produced by someone in the world who in that moment were influenced/inspired to simply create.
What I’m not sure on is what the value of this content truly is…
Let me work backwards once more. Come with me to 1999 and a 12 year old Me picks up ‘The Art of Episode 1’. Commercially to you and I, digital painting may as well have not existed yet (for about another 3-5 years) so what I saw in this book was 1) a job prospect of epic proportions and 2) a ton of artwork not too far from what had been produced over 20 years previous. Gorgeous pen and marker designs and gouache paintings form Doug Chiang and his team not unlike Ralph’s and Joe Johnson’s images of the late 70s. I fell in love right there and it set me on a course I still travel on to this day.
By Episode 3 (2005) digital painting and Photoshop had truly come along and over-night seemed to change the landscape of concept art. Also it’s probably important to note that the internet had started to grow out of its infancy and the world was using it, sometimes productively, to communicate with each other.
Side note; who remembers their first website coming from Geocities… eek!
Along this journey, I’ve had to change my ideas of what concept art would be to me and perhaps that’s what got me righting this elongated mind-fart. I like to remind myself that I came from that time JUST before technology went mad for us. Looking at that art book of Doug’s drawings I truly believed that’s all I would ever have to do. Like McQuarrie’s art I wanted to present clear beautiful designs that would end up on the screen but life’s never that straight forward.
With Photoshop taking over, the possibilities became infinite and because of the ease of photo manipulation, ‘photobashing’ initially became a trend (like lens flares, haha) and eventually a worthy required skill. Production of images sped up, generating multiple concepts sped up and therefore demand for more sped up. You can complete greater quantity at a higher quality so much quicker now.
I really am not here to knock it. It’s a process in a huge pipeline that must be done. If you can reach the lead creatives imagination with a few photos of a moody skyline and some mountain photos in the background then great because it leads to less changes/time/money being spent further down the line. Also to reiterate, concept art is not fine art. It is not a precious item. It’s there to solve a problem, be changed if necessary and then put to the side when complete. All this is achievable on a schedule that would have been impossible in the 70s. How many paintings these days take more than 1 or 2 days when the classic images of the past would take a full week to paint?
So I guess what I’m trying to get around to is; should I feel nostalgic for a time and process that ultimately can’t be replicated because of where technology and industry is right now?
A notable story of recent years would be Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. To integrate some of the original ‘Alien’ feel to the new film, Scott hired the original creature designer, H.R.Giger to do some drawings. This occurred parallel to hiring the usual squad of high profile, 8-10 concept designers. It’s to no surprise that the design team created everything needed for the film from suits to vehicles to locations etc. What is a little saddening is that Giger was eventually let go after producing a few simple design ideas because the timescale of production did not allow for his full involvement. When I say “let go” I’m genuinely not suggesting it was some terrible firing. I believe, if memory serves, this is all commented on by Ridley in the Making of documentary "The Furious Gods" on the DVD/Bluray. Giger (who uses the traditional airbrush system) simply wasn’t fast enough for pre-production. It’s just a prime example of the need to get things done in this day and age at a far greater pace than 30 years ago.
So to come back to me again and the title of this 1500 word debacle, what do I want to happen?
I’m not sure…
I continue to chase that elusive rabbit down the hole that is concept art. I want to work in design and film now as much as I did at 12. But somewhere along the line, if a ‘passion project’ should come to me in a vague dream or a well thought out idea, I would want to allow myself to consider how I come to design things.
For the sake of production would/should I get as much done quickly through the current process of digital design or should/could I go ‘old-school’, be ‘traditional’ and produce what would be considered real images? Would said images stand the test of time if done with paint and MDF board or would they get lost in the vacuum of digital space if painted on a computer? I guess that one is not for me to answer.
But my lasting thought is of all the artwork I’ve sucked in through my eyeballs the ones that have held their place in my memory banks are that of a pre-digital age. Are there artists of today that I look up to and find their work inspiring and amazing; you bet! But I can’t help feel the older stuff that we all love isn’t just held highly because it was an important influence in our young impressionable minds, it’s because they are a benchmark of quality that remain to this day.
Written while listening to RotJ soundtrack… :D
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