Podcast: Cinebois2Cinemen

So this week I wanted to share with you a podcast that I have been listening to called Cinebois2Cinemen. It's a new project from three of my friends that I studied with at University, Daniel Smith, Alfie Martin and Ben Kersey. Now I'm not just promoting this because they're my friends but also because the content they are creating is really good! I'm big fan of podcasts in general and the quality of their production and the depth of their discussion is just as good as the best. I'm hooked already, it's like being back in Falmouth, having serious discussions about film and the industry but also having a good laugh as well. If I haven't hooked you then they have also written a little something themselves to entice you in:

'Cinebois2Cinemen' is a weekly film podcast that aims to provide in-depth discussion and analysis on the weeks releases with a veneer of casual silliness and self deprecatory humour that permeates 99% of all our conversations away from the microphone. Our aspirations for the podcast are simple; As we approach our one month anniversary it seems fitting to expand our listening base away from friends and family who listen just to be polite. In the future we've planned (perhaps rather over zealously) a few changes to the formula, such as dragging guests on from all walks of life and even livecasts should you wish to put the horribly high voices to the constantly greasy faces. All jokes aside, we genuinely love talking about films, and would love people who share that love to have a listen, get in touch and provide feedback (good and bad). This week, we chat about Moonlight, and follow that on with a discussion about masculine portrayals in film. We've got a few others in the back catalogue where we discuss other films and what we felt were subjects relevant should you be feeling fruity. Thanks to Alex for sharing the podcast. Love, Cinebois2Cinemen

I urge you guys to check this out, what I've heard so far is great and it can only get better. If you love film then this is definitely one for you. You can check out the latest podcast on Moonlight below:

I'm going to have to wait on that one because I have yet to have seen Moonlight as my local cinema will not be screening the Oscar nominated and highly critically praised film (not bitter...). If you're like me or want to start the podcast from it's very beginning then you can check out the first episode on La La Land here:



Check out their Facebook page here.

Thanks for reading!

Update On My Work

So after (nearly) three years of studying, today I handed in my final pieces of work, concluding my time at Falmouth University. It's a pretty big day, but I thought I would update you guys on what I'm hoping is going to happen next!

So after studying all this time, I have realised that screenwriting is the route for me. One of my final projects was a feature length screenplay, and that is what I will now be looking to sell. Obviously, that is just one screenplay, so I'm going to need to write some more! I have my house in Falmouth for the next couple months, so I will be doing a lot of writing work during my break, before looking for a part time job, so I can begin to have some income and pay off the annoyingly high student debt, as well as use the money to submit to festivals, competitions and what not.

So yeah, lots of screenwriting is about to begin, or has begun, because I have already developed another idea which I am about to write a first draft for!

The screenplay I have already written, and gone through a number of drafts with, is titled The Pursuit. And if any producers/agents/directors/managers out there are reading, then let me tell you, it is a Young Adult Sci-Fi film, which I would pitch as a cross between The Hunger Games and Moon.

The logline goes like this:

Born onto a mission to explore the stars, Lily only dreams of going home to Earth. What was once an impossible dream becomes suddenly more achievable when the ship regains a lost connection with Earth, and Lily becomes friends with a lonely technician named Bry on the other end. 

Sound like some something you might want to read/pursue further? Get in contact!! (alex-moppy@hotmail.com) 

Other shameless plugs on this post include; an article I wrote recently on Jay and Mark Duplass's TV show Togetherness  for Steam TV. You can read that one here.

Don't worry though, I'm not giving up the blog just yet! In fact I'm celebrating my hand in with a screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, because that's just what film students do. Keep an eye out for a review of that in the next few days!

Thanks for reading!

World War Z

I can't say I was too excited to see World War Z, even though I had read the book sharing the same name and

a part of the feature was filmed where I study in Falmouth. I am also a massive sucker for zombie films and Brad Pitt, so why did this not appeal to me? Maybe it was because of the troubled production, lack of resemblance to the novel or just because the trailers sucked, I did not care for this film. However I offered to take my brother to go and see it and my reaction to it even surprised myself!

I am just going to start this review by saying World War Z is awesome! Now, after it's marketing campaign I did not enter the cinema expecting a film that resembled anything from the book so I was not disappointed when all it had in common was the title and few interesting details about other countries during the zombie epidemic. The film follows Brad Pitt, an ex United Nations employee named Gerry Lane who is called back into work to help find a cure to a dangerous zombie virus that has swept its way across the world taking out most of the population.

This film is not like most zombie films. Most zombie films are small and contained due to a budget and production constraints. This one is massive and doesn't really fall into the 'zombie' genre, it's more of a disaster flick that could easily have been directed by Roland Emmerich, however this film is directed by Marc Forster. Again unlike most zombie films this one doesn't have as much gore and guts, instead it has much more spectacle and huge set pieces that make for a more watered down zombie film, this way it got a PG-13 rating America, though it was still rated 15 over here in the UK. It was

good to see a zombie film that was much bigger in scale than anything you have ever seen before! The lack of gore may leave some fans of the genre disappointed but I had no quarrel with it.

World War Z gives you one hell of a ride. The outbreak starts within the first 5 minutes and the film doesn't slow down from there on in. You are constantly on the edge of your seat and the whole experience is very thrilling and enjoyable. That's what surprised me about the film, I had so much fun watching it! The hordes of CGI zombies may not be the best thing you've ever seen but it sure does look cool! And one thing this film does that many other zombie films and TV shows fail to do (I'm pointing at you The Walking Dead) is make the zombies scary. None of these zombies were just cannon fodder, they were terrifying! If you got near one you are pretty much dead because they were just savage animals full of rage and would stop at nothing to get bite of you.

Brad Pitt holds this film together, he is brilliant as Gerry Lane and the best thing about the film. However it is the other characters that you don't really care about because none them have enough screen time to really shine or make you feel for them, this is something that lets the film down because a show like The Walking Dead you care for most of the characters and get upset or annoyed if they die.

But this film wasn't about emotional depth, it was about spectacle, it was about showing as many zombies as you could on screen, taking down planes and helicopters and even whole countries! The rewritten ending by Damon Lindelof may feel small in scale compared to the rest of the film but it still kicks ass! World War Z is the surprise hit of the summer and although it may lack in emotional depth it makes up for it with huge spectacular fun and that's what summer blockbusters are all about really, so therefore I am giving it a rating of 4/5.

Thanks for reading!

The Golden Age of Television

So I thought today I would show you guys the recent essay I wrote for my Film course on the new age of quality television. In the essay I look at both the television and film industry and the influences they have on each other. Television has changed alot over the years and we are now getting higher quality programmes that can rival that of a big budget film. This is a bit different to the stuff I usually write and as I am not used to writing academic essays I'm not sure how good this one is! But I thought you guys might still take an interest in the subject, so please enjoy and let me know what you think!

The Golden Age of Television

Throughout the years television has always been seen as a lesser medium than film and in most cases of the past it can be argued that this is true (WILLIAMS, 1974). However within the last 10 years, TV has seemed to have taken off in terms of popularity and quality. With the development of private companies such as HBO and AMC, gradually TV has high quality products such as Game of Thrones (2010) and Breaking Bad (2008) that are as good as, and in some cases, outclass the quality of films that are considered to be within the same genre. TV is even having an effect on the film industry with studios such as Marvel, taking a long format approach to their films leading up to a ‘finale’ like finish with Avengers Assemble (2012). This essay will examine the work of theorists Raymond Williams and John Ellis, who both criticise TV in their theories, and look at why their theories are now out of date and how the film and TV industry are now influencing each other.

Theorist Raymond Williams discusses the experience of watching US broadcast TV. He notes how he could not get into the ‘flow’ of a show as he was constantly bombarded by commercials for other programs later that day, not just at the frequent commercial breaks but also when the show was playing. This distracted him from his viewing and he was unable to make full sense of the show he was watching (WILLIAMS, 1974). He sums it up by saying ‘It would be like trying to describe having read two plays, three newspapers, three or four magazines, on the same day that one has been to a variety show and a lecture and a football match.’ (WILLIAMS, 1974).

John Ellis has a different view on William’s statement he argues ‘The ‘spot’ advertisement is in many ways the quintessence of TV. It is a segment of about thirty seconds that, compromising a large number of images and sounds which are tightly organised amongst themselves…They are sparklingly diverse, the shiny surface wrapping of a domestically oriented consumerist society. They are also the supremely televisual product: hence another part of their exhilaration, that of seeing a medium used for itself, and not weighed down by cultural presumptions that are not its own.’(ELLIS, 1982) Ellis argues that commercials are a fundamental part of TV and they are what separate it from other mediums. However I believe that both Ellis’s and William’s arguments are out of date as they are referring to broadcast television, of which the model has changed since the quotes were written. Now, you also get Cable and Subscription channels which have taken influence from film. Channels such as HBO will show the whole programme uninterrupted, this is a very significant change to the television model that Williams and Ellis wrote about, and this change may also account for the increased investment by the audience and TV producers in high quality drama. Since then the whole model of TV has changed with channels charging customers for their products, broadcast TV is still here but most people pay for cable TV which features channels such as ABC or AMC who have more money to play with and use it to make higher quality television then Network channels that are free. Also, with the introduction of privately funded channels such as HBO, the introduction of ‘Video on Demand’ services, such as Netflix, and a generation of ‘binge watchers’ buying box sets we now see less commercials than ever, so what we are watching now, can it be classed as TV?

 

HBO, the private company behind The Sopranos (1999) and Game of Thrones, set out to update and rework the quality and nature of TV; ‘Advertising itself with the audacious marketing claim, “It’s Not TV. It’s HBO,” the channel brands itself as something worth paying for. In fact HBO has made much capital from cultural snobbery around television as it sets out to appeal to the college-educated audience who supposedly do not watch TV’ (MCCABE & AKASS, 2008) The new model offered by HBO depended on a marketing campaign that highlighted the difference between broadcast TV and its products.  Due to the company being a private one, they get their money by people paying for their services allowing the audience to watch a show uninterrupted, without commercial breaks and on screen advertisements. This is something that Williams wanted from TV, however he felt that he did not get into the flow of TV due to the distractions on screen and during breaks, concluding his argument that TV is one big money making commercial in itself.

HBO really set a new standard of quality for their TV shows and fundamentally changed in the formal qualities of TV drama, so much so that it has even had implications on the film industry. HBO changed the TV industry with many channels trying to bring just as high quality TV shows to their audiences. HBO also release one off ‘Television Films’ and have even released films into cinemas under their name. HBO programmes tend to have many film aesthetics in them and the company have even used film directors such as Martin Scorsese to bring a new audience to their channel, allowing them to direct and produce their shows, with Scorsese directing the pilot of Boardwalk Empire (2010) and then going on to produce the rest of the series. This is a trend that has caught on in the industry with David Fincher directing the first few episodes of House of Cards (2012), Neil Marshall directing an episode of Game of Thrones and Rian Johnson who has directed a couple of award winning episodes of Breaking Bad. HBO even hired indie filmmaker Lena Dunham to write and direct her own TV series Girls (2011), produced by comedy filmmaker Judd Apatow. HBO’s desire to be more than TV isn’t just aesthetical but behind the scenes as well, this is something that not all channels have been able to accomplish just yet.

Network TV has also been influenced by film and channels such as CW have tried to up the

quality of their shows by taking elements of successful films and applying to their structure. However, network TV is not entirely able to get its shows to the same standard as HBO because it is subject to more regulation and is limited in terms of what it can show at what times. One of TV’s most recent series Arrow (2012), shows the influence that film has on the medium. Arrow is an adaption of DC comic book Green Arrow. The TV shows style and tone is similar of that of the hugely successful Christopher Nolan Batman films, as Stephen Kelly discusses in his article for The Guardian; ‘Arrow tries its best to distinguish itself, that's not the only debt owed to the Caped Crusader. Arrow's tone of gritty realism is an obvious product of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight films – a trilogy that finally showed comic-book adaptations can be conduits for serious, intelligent storytelling.’ (KELLY, 2012). The fact that the formula for the recent Batman films worked can then be applied to other TV show which is exactly what Arrow has done. Unfortunately the show does not pull it off quite the same, however the finale felt like it fully embraced the superhero genre with the episode feeling like it had been ripped out of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. The show has had the highest ratings for the channel ever. CW also airs The Vampire Diaries (2009) which takes elements from popular teen film franchise Twilight (2008). Due to its limitations network TV will never show the same quality of programs that HBO has, as proven recently with TV show Hannibal (2013), a network show which has been banned in some states of America due to its graphic and controversial violence. A show like Hannibal would not be questioned on HBO as it is a subscription channel that has a reputation for adult programming, but as anyone can see the show on Network TV then that creates a debate as to what type of content should visible to the public as a whole rather than to just ones who pay for it.

With TV being more popular and of a higher quality than it used to be, it seems that the film industry is taking note, with a lot of films taking influence from popular TV shows or some studios even opting for a long format way of showing their films that are similar to a way a whole ‘season’ of a TV show might map out. Most notably Marvel’s Phase 1 Cinematic Universe, beginning with Iron Man (2008),  Marvel started to build an interconnected universe around their film properties. In doing so they had five movies leading up to one big ‘finale’ Avengers Assemble where the characters from the previous films team up to stop and army of aliens

from taking over the planet. This format worked in favour for the studio and Avengers Assemble ended up taking over 1 billion dollars at the box office and became the 3^rd highest grossing film of all time (boxofficemojo.com). This format of producing films in a ‘series’ before a big ‘finale’ is being used once again as Marvel have just started the second phase in their universe with Iron Man 3 (2013) and have 3 more films planned that will lead into the finale being a second Avengers film. In their phase 2 plans they have also just announced a new TV show called Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D (2013) that will also tie into the second Avengers film. Is this jump to TV an indication of what Marvel thinks of the present day TV industry and is the company making the first step into what could be a new era where film and TV is brought together and merged into one? It makes more sense as to why Marvel would hire Joss Whedon to overlook the project as his background has been mainly in TV. This could definitely be the future of both industries with films like Zombieland (2009) and Bad Teacher (2011) both trying to convert their story ideas to the small screen and on the other side we see shows like Arrested Development (2003) and Veronica Mars (2004) making the transition to the big screen. Even big film actors have started taking the lead roles in various television series such as Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.

In our day and age audiences seem to watch TV in large chunks; this is something that can be referred to as ‘binge watching’. With more and more people investing in box sets of TV series, we can now watch a whole series of a program without being interrupted by commercial breaks or having to wait for the next episode to be released. And with the quality of some TV being very high at the moment you can essentially end up watching a 13 hour film in one day. These new attitudes towards television series and our viewing habits have really made companies and producers think about their new generation of audience. This has changed how some show providers will release their material, such as Netflix who released House of Cards (2012?) as a whole series ready to watch online instead of releasing each episode weekly. Is this the new age of TV? Maria Sciullo seems to think so as she writes, ‘Netflix, a company formerly associated with red-and-white DVD mailers, is on its way toward producing quality shows that will be part of the brave new world of "TV Everywhere."’ (SCIULLO, 2013)

This change in attitude towards TV has brought new light on to the once disregarded industry. What does this mean for film, a once thriving industry that could now start to slow, has cinema become so full of safe franchises and blockbusters that people in the industry have had to step towards television just to take a risk and make something more experimental? It seems as if film director Steven Soderbergh has done just that, after making films for many years he has decided to retire from the industry following his last film for HBO; Behind the Candelabra (2013). In a recent interview he had these words to say about the film industry; ‘I think that the audience for the kinds of movies I grew up liking has migrated to television. The format really allows for the narrow and deep approach that I like, and a lot of people … Well, the point is, three and a half million people watching a show on cable is a success. That many people seeing a movie is not a success. I just don’t think movies matter as much anymore, culturally.’(Soderbergh, 2013). Is this one of the reasons that TV is getting more investment in this day and age than it ever used too? Companies like Amazon are now allowing anybody to send in ‘Pilot Episodes’ for TV series that can end up becoming part of their streaming on demand service. Game of Thrones was recently reported to having an estimated 70-80 million dollars spent on their second season (The Empire Podcast, 2012) this is something that 10 years ago would have been unheard of.

TV has changed a lot within the last ten years, making the arguments from Ellis and Williams out of date, we don’t just have Network TV anymore, we have cable, subscription and online streaming channels that don’t always have a commercial every five minutes affecting the flow of program, but that doesn’t mean we are not watching TV anymore. We are coming towards a future where audiences have more faith in the TV model. With the film industry taking less risks and not investing in smaller movies, people are moving across from the industry over to TV where they know that smaller but more interesting programs are going to be made. That being said the film industry is not failing; instead it is adapting, using the television model or taking influence from it in order to establish successful film franchises or just to branch out on to the small screen. The film industry finally has some respect for TV and sees the potential and future in the industry. It seems after being seen as the lesser medium, television has reinvented itself with the help from channels such as HBO, and we can now see programmes that will match or be better than the quality and style of some of the best films, making the future of TV a bright one.

Filmography

Arrested Development. [TV Program] FOX, 2003 – Netflix

Arrow. [TV Program] CW, 2013 – Sky 1

Avengers Assemble. 2012. [Film] Directed by Joss Whedon. USA, Disney.

Beyond the Candelabra. 2013. [Film] Directed by Steven Soderbergh. USA, HBO.

Boardwalk Empire. [TV Program] HBO, 2010 – Sky Atlantic

Breaking Bad. [TV Program] AMC, 2008 – Netflix

Game of Thrones. [TV Program] HBO, 2010 – Sky Atlantic

Girls. [TV Program] HBO, 2012 – Sky Atlantic

Hannibal. [TV Program] NBC, 2013 – Sky Living

House of Cards. [TV Program] Netflix, 2013 - Netflix

Iron Man. 2008. [Film] Directed by Jon Favreau. USA, Paramount Pictures.

Iron Man 3. 2013. [Film] Directed by Shane Black. USA, Disney.

The Vampire Diaries. [TV Program] CW, 2009 – ITV 2

Twilight. 2008. [Film] Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. USA, Summit Entertainment.

Veronica Mars. [TV Program] CW, 2004 – 2007. CW

Bibliography

Box Office Mojo, 2013. Marvel’s The Avengers. [Online] Available at <http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avengers11.htm> [Accessed 27 May 2013]

ELLIS, John. 1982. ‘Broadcast TV as Cultural Form’ in Visible Fictions, Cinema: Television: Video. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul. P118

Empire, 2012. Empire Podcast – Neil Marshall Game of Thrones Special (June 2012).The Empire Podcast. [podcast] June 2012. Available at <https://soundcloud.com/empiremagazine/empire-podcast-neil-marshall> [Accessed 26 May 2013]

KELLY, Stephen. 2012. ‘Does Arrow Hit the Target?’ The Guardian. [Online] 23^rd October. Available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/oct/23/arrow-hit-the-target> [Accessed 22 May 2013]

MCCABE Janet, AKASS Kim. 2008. ‘It’s Not TV, It’s HBO’s Original Programming’ in It’s Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era. Marc LEVERETTE, Brian L. OTT, Cara Louise BUCKLEY (eds.) New York, Routledge. p85

SCIULLO, Maria. 2013. ‘Netflix Model of Online Series Could Create New TV World’ in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. [Online] 26^th May. Available at <http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/netflix-model-of-online-series-could-create-new-tv-world-689194/> [Accessed 27 May 2013]

Soderbegh, S. 2013. Interview with New York Magazine Interviewed by…Mary Kaye Schilling [magazine] February 4 2013

WILLIAMS, Raymond. 1974. ‘Programming Distribution and The Flow’ in Television: Technology and Cultural Form. Third Edition 2004, New York, Routledge. P 92-96

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I hope you enjoyed the essay, let me know what you thought in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

Teacher - Production Post #1

Myself on the left with Aaron OToole on the right.

So I wanted to write this post about some of the film work I have been up to as I am very excited about my current projects. You may or may not know that I am currently studying a Film course at Falmouth University where each semester we are given a new film project to work on. This time round we were pitched ideas from other students in our course and then we had to develop these ideas and make a 5 minute short film out of them. I had the privilege of taking on the directing role in my film group and what we have produced so far makes me very happy!

Chloe Maliphant

My group, which consists of three other people, went with an idea that looked at a teacher's point of view when permanently excluding a child from education. We have since developed that idea and have a done a lot of work on it. Faith Stoddard wrote an amazing script whilst producer and DOP Laura Whittington got everything in place for us to film some amazing footage that wrapped up nicely last week, the footage is now left to our editor and sound designer Aaron OToole who no doubt will have made something brilliant out of what we have, in time for when we meet up again after the Easter break.

Jono Blythe

The two actors taking the lead roles in our film are Chloe Maliphant and Jono Blythe. The two truly have some amazing talent which I believe will come across very well when the film will be released and entered into festivals later this year.

I am very excited for this short and I hope that you might be too but if my word isn't enough then please take a look at this amazing poster helped realised by Rita Kazakevica and designed by Faith Nelson:

If you are still on board and think this is something you are interested in then please support us by liking our Facebook page and following the short film's Twitter account.

Most of the crew are on Twitter apart from our editor, feel free to follow them also. Myself/Director @SuperAlexMan, Producer and DOP @UkuleleLaura, Producer and Screenwriter @FaithhS.

Please blog about us and share our short film with your friends. We have been getting a lot of positive support and the whole crew would love for this film to be shown to as many people as possible once completed.

If you want to know more detail or would just like to get in contact then either contact my email; alex-moppy@hotmail.com or the film's email: teachershortfilm@hotmail.com.

Thank you very much for reading! Over the Easter I have another exciting project I am working on which if you follow my Twitter I will hopefully be able to spill the beans on soon and I also have another round of Quick Reviews planned.

Stick With Me

Hello readers! I am sorry it has been a long time since I have posted something on my blog but I have been spending the last week moving and settling into Falmouth University. Due to this new transition in my life, things may sometimes get a bit slow on the blog, but don't worry, I'm not giving up yet! Doing a film course at university, hopefully means that I will learn new things about the subject which I can share with you guys, maybe even new films which I have been shown which I can advise you all to watch or avoid!

Now this post isn't really film related but I do have some goodies in store for you, including reviews of Moonrise Kingdom and Looper if I can get to watch them this week! Also next month is the 1st Birthday of my blog, so hopefully some more great stuff will be getting posted then as well!

I apologise again for the site being slow on posts, but I leave you know with some very funny videos I have come across which I thought you guys might enjoy. Thanks for sticking with me!