Even though it’s only been released in the US for a couple of days now, it feels like I finally got to see the new Bond film. Coincidentally, I saw it on the heels of The Living Daylights last night, a selection from the Bond 50th Blu-Ray series which was my birthday present from my sweet girlfriend, Maddie.
OK, so the 23rd Bond film, and Daniel Craig’s third go round in the part. Upon hearing of the production of this film I was wildly excited, first because one of my favorite DPs, Roger Deakins, was going to be shooting the film, but even more so, that it was being helmed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes. Granted, an acclaimed artistic director doesn’t always make a great Bond film (Michael Apted and Marc Forster…ahem), but I have consistently been amazed with Mendes’s work over the years (outside of Away We Go, which was terrible.)
This paragraph of my reviews is usually reserved for a synopsis of the film; however, for this film, I feel I would be cheating you, my reader, by divulging much of the story. This film carries nearly all of the staples of a classic Bond film, yet if I gave you too much of an overview, it would spoil the brilliance of its execution. So, I opt out of this usual section of my review format (you’ll thank me later).
What I can say, is that this is one of the best Bond films in many years. I will have to let it all sink in a bit more, but it might actually be one of the best Bond films of the entire canon. Daniel Craig seems quite comfortable in the role now, even more so than his previous two installments. The script is sharp, the action sequences are breathtaking, the direction apt, cinematography exquisite, the villain is evil, really there is nothing I can say bad about this film. It fits the Bond formula to a tee, but also manages to add something new and invigorating to the mix. Its achievement in doing this, make it a very fitting film for the 50th anniversary of this iconic franchise, and I think, proof that Bond will continue for many generations to come.
Where to begin? Well, let’s start with this: When P.T. Anderson is “on,” he’s on fire; when he’s “off,” he has missed the mark by a mile. As much as I wanted this film to fall under the former half of my opinion on his career, it sadly, fell under the latter.
The Master is loosely (can I really even say that?) based on L. Ron Hubbard and his cult-like religion of scientology. Rather than saying the word “scientology”, we get “the cause”; rather than “auditing”, we get “processing”, and so on. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a repertoire actor in P.T.’s films by this point, plays the part of Lancaster Dodd (i.e. L. Ron Hubbard), a self-professed philosopher, doctor, writer, raconteur, etc. He has a group of followers who abide closely to his ideals and processes, which include breaking yourself from your past lives through the method of “processing”, and other pseudo-psychological means. Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), is an ex-seaman, having served in the Navy during World War II, who not only harbors a good deal of agression, but also has an unhealthy drinking problem and some mental instability. By chance, Quell stows away on a yacht that Dodd is borrowing for his daughter’s (Ambyr Childers) wedding, and the two strike an odd friendship, ultimately leading to Quell becoming one of Dodd’s most devout followers. The remainder of the film follows each of these bizarre personalities as they weave in and out of each other’s lives.
There are elements of this film that work, but for the most part, this is a large, disjointed mess. Yes, the cinematography is beautiful, and, yes, Joaquin Phoenix gives a wonderful performance (despite the fact that I hated his character with a passion). But, all in all, this film is all over the place. It’s just one big, pretentious, boring mess, and it hurts when I see someone as talented as P.T. Anderson put out such a horrid film as this. This guy gave us Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood for Christ’s sake! However, he’s also given us Punch-Drunk Love, which for me, was a big turd. One point of note that is a great high point for this film, however, that must get due mention, is Amy Adam’s knockout performance as Dodd’s fourth wife, Peggy. She definitely deserves a nod from the Academy for this one, and I’ll honestly be very surprised if she doesn’t.
Bottom line: don’t go see this film. Save yourself the time, the money and, most of all, the disappointment of seeing a respected director create such a terrible mess of a film.
I finally got around to seeing this film recently and, if you haven’t seen this one yet, stop what you are doing right now, go to the local redbox, and rent this tonight. Seriously, it’s the best film of last year, and I don’t mind saying that in the first sentence of my review, which says a lot.
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, this now Academy Award-winning film, stars well-known Irania actress Leila Hatami and Peyman Moadi as couple Simin and Nader. Together, they have a adolescent daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). They reside in Nader’s father’s apartment, who is essentially an invalid due to the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. When Nader refuses to leave their native country and his father, Simin demands a separation, to which he readily agrees. With Simin leaving the household, Nader hires a sitter for his father, Razieh (Sareh Bayat). However, after having to clean up an accident his father has on her first day, she tells Nader she can no longer do the job; the drive is too far, and she has religious concerns over touching his father to clean him up if he soils himself. She, however, recommends her husband, Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), who is out of work and deeply indebted to creditors. The following day, when Hdjat can’t make it to the house due to a court appearance, Razieh, who is pregnant, returns with her young daughter to do the work. However, she leaves his father unattended during the day for personal reasons. When Nader comes home to find his father tied to a bed and nearly at a point of death, he blows up at Razieh when she returns. The scuffle includes a slight physical interaction on his part; she, subsequently, miscarries her child. It’s left to the court and the families to decide whether Nader is responsible.
This film, made on a minuscule budget compared to even independent American films, is a powerhouse dramatic effort. The acting, directing, editing, cinematography, and most of all, wonderfully dramatic story, come together to create an engaging, passionate and engrossing film that will go down in history as a classic. It’s once in a blue moon that you get to view a film that is as truly cinematic as this, and its always a special occasion that will be savored in an your mind long after it’s running time is over.
It’s films like this that renew my hope in cinema whenever the general Hollywood “fodder” has be down about the industry. I can only hope that I can be a part of a film as special as this one day.
For those of you who don’t know, I serve as the Video/Web Specialist for a privately owned commerce company in Winston-Salem, N.C., Inmar, Inc. One of the recent projects that I worked on was a commercial spot to try to explain exactly who we are and what we do. Here’s how trying to answer that question usually goes (hang in there): We are a B2B commerce company that operates three individual, though collaborative, networks; those being Supply Chain, Healthcare and Promotions. In the Supply Chain leg of our business, we handle recalls, remarketing, reverse logistics, returns, hazardous waste management, business intelligence and supply chain consulting. For Healthcare, we operate much the same, but with emphasis on healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses. For Promotions, we reconcile and offer a multitude of services for both paper and digital coupons. Gets a bit verbose, eh?
To remedy this situation a bit, I was tasked with creating a :90 to 2 minute spot that helped condense this down and make it more manageable for the everyday person who was unfamiliar with our business. The average person, however, doesn’t always understand the intricacies of a B2B business, so what would be the best approach? Well, I thought about it for a bit, and what is the one thing we all are? Consumers. With the idea of basing the project from the point of view of the consumer and how we touch the transactions that consumers use everyday, we entered into a series of meetings with our writing team and VP of Communications. One of our writers, Steve Eller, was nominated for the actual writing of the script. Once his first draft was in, several revisions were made by various people in the company, and within about a week we had a solid script in place.
The script was to a final draft in very early August. However, a goal was set to allow our CEO to take this video with him for the GMA Executive Conference – that conference began on August 25th. The script broke down to approximately 9-11 roles, 4 locations and a voiceover underneath. I was pretty confidant in being able to find the actors, but the 4 locations, which included a residential home, grocery store, pharmacy and returns counter, would prove more difficult. Furthermore, I was directing, shooting, producing and editing the project; but, not the first time I’ve been on a tight deadline, so I was happy to take the challenge.
The first order of business was casting our lead actress, who ended up being someone I’ve worked with as both a DP and a director in the past, Lisa Sain Odom. Getting an actress, who appears in every scene of the spot, that I was comfortable with, and who, likewise, was comfortable with me, was paramount. From there, I hired out another actor I’ve worked with on several occasions, Tommy Trull. For their children, we used one of our graphic designers, Kristen Hansen’s, kids. Knowing the residential home would be the easiest location to fill, I set out asking around the office who was open to a small crew and cast taking over their home for a day. Our head writer, Shannon Hanington, graciously obliged. For help that day, I hired out longtime colleague Dan A. R. Kelly, who is literally a film production extraordinare, to be my second set of hands and eyes on set. Our writing team, Greg, Shannon and Steve, were also on hand to help out. The first and last scenes were shot at this location, and the first day proved a smooth and easy day for both cast and crew.
The second day on the books ended up being the returns counter segment. At first, I was very concerned about finding this location; well, let’s be honest, I was concerned about all the other locations outside of the residential home. But, luckily, Inmar has an in-house digital display that our clients can go through that helps show how our software and technology systems work. Steve and I went over to see if this looked close enough to what a returns counter would at a store, and thank goodness, it looked great. Being on site at our headquarters, it was easy to book this location, and the two actresses for this part were none other than our gracious host for the residential scenes, Shannon Hanington, and our Communications Intern, Karla Barnes. Outside of having to send Greg out for some tough green to match the overhead fluorescents, we had another easy setup/easy shoot day.
Now, we get to the hard locations: a grocery store and a pharmacy. After multiple false starts on both of these locations (who would have thought a grocery store and pharmacy would be so hard to get permission to shoot in? We even had a budget for the locations!), I finally found two that would work. The first, was a member of the IGA, Cedar Lodge in Thomasville, N.C., who I can’t speak highly enough of. They were so gracious and open in letting us shoot at their store, I really can’t thank them enough. Being that we needed to shoot once the store closed, our shoot day (night) for that ended up being from 8pm-midnight. Knowing I didn’t have enough in the budget to replace overheads with color balanced tubes, or cover with 1/4 magenta, I had to use the fluorescent fixtures overhead as part of the scene. I supplemented the ambience with a Jokerbug 800, gelled with full plus green, bounced into beadboard, and accented backlight with two in-house ARRI 650w fresnels, gelled with a 1/2 blue as well. For this day, as well as the pharmacy shoot, another longtime trusted film colleague was on set to be my extra set of hands and eyes, Shane D. Smith.
My supervisor found us a pharmacy in her hometown the day before we were going to loose our lead actress due to availability – what luck! The pharmacy we used was Mt. Pilot Drug in Pilot Mountain, another perfect location, and likewise, very gracious owners who didn’t mind our taking over the place for a few hours after closing. Again, we shot in the late evening, and a very similar lighting setup was used for these scenes as was done in the grocery store with the Jokerbug 800 and the ARRI 650s. Since the shoot took place over 5 separate days, over a two week period, I had already begun assembling the cut. Furthermore, I got the voiceover done by professional VO artist Mark Cardnella (http://cardnella.com/), very early on so I could layer footage as it came in. So, post on the last few scenes wasn’t too rough.
I ended up finishing the project about 3 days ahead of schedule. Of course, there were some revisions needed as with any project of this size and scope; the final revisions were submitted Thursday late evening before our CEO was to leave the following day. But, the video made it with him to the conference and, from what I heard, went over very well. That’s all that really matters in the end, and makes all the stresses of a tight deadline all the more rewarding.
For those interested, here’s a link to the finished cut:
TECH SPECS:
Camera: Sony NEX-FS700 with 18-200 stock E-mount lens
Capture Resolution: 1920×1080 24p
Post: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 with process shot and outro graphic composed in Adobe After Effects CS6. Grading completed in Adobe Speedgrade CS6.
I go onto Netflix and add weird things to my queue fairly regularly. Usually, by the time these films actually arrive at my doorstep, I have forgotten when or why I put them on there to begin with. Such was the case with this movie, but luckily, it turned out to be one of those oddball picks I mysteriously chose that actually turned out pretty interesting. Within the first few minutes of the film, I saw the title card for director Robert Altman fade up, which allayed a multitude of my concerns. For the next two hours, I was strangely intrigued.
The movie stars Shelly Duvall (good subject for a Whatever Became of… book – I’m looking at you Mr. Lamparski!) as Mildred “Millie” Lammoreaux, and Sissy Spacek as Mildred “Pinkie” Rose. Pinkie comes from Texas to work at a convalescence home in California where Millie, also originally from Texas, has been working for some time. The strange, almost child-like waif, Pinkie, is immediately drawn to the outspoken and vivacious Millie, who seems more a legend in her on mind than reality would prove true. As the film progresses, the two move in together as roommates; their landlords are a married couple, Willie (Janice Rule) and Edgar Hart (Robert Fortier). Willie is a quiet, gypsy-esque mural painter, and Edgar is a former stunt double for country/western film stars. The couple also own a bar/shooting ranger/dirtbike track that the two heroines regularly frequent. The strange relationship between the three women becomes more intertwined as a series of bizarre events take place towards the latter half of the film. That about sums it up, and no I didn’t really leave anything out.
This is a very stream of conscious film; in fact, it was conceived through a series of dreams that Robert Altman had over the course of several weeks. Supposedly, the film was also shot largely without a script, and with Altman making many last minute scene and story changes on the fly. Yet, somehow, this antithesis of what a mainstream movie should be and look like, holds your attention the entire two hour running time. It’s almost more of a visual essay, a plotless saga, than a normal movie; however, all the same, it’s not quite that either, as there is a story there beneath the layers. Coupled with wonderful performances all around, and hauntingly atmospheric cinematography, this movie is actually really worth any self-professed cinephile’s time. It’s very unique, and something that you almost certainly wouldn’t have a chance to see on the screen today with the “safe bets” modern Hollywood likes to take.
Bottom line: If you aren’t afraid to take a chance on a film that will challenge commonly held story and viewing moors, then I highly recommend this interesting and thought provoking movie by maverick filmmaker Robert Altman.
So, I was turned on to this movie by a post Roger Ebert made on his Facebook wall recommending it, and giving it a very admirable 3 1/2 star (out of four) review. Being that it was nearing the end of its run on Netflix (it goes off Instant Watch tomorrow!), and considering that mine and Ebert’s taste in cinema actually coincide quite a bit, I planned on watching the movie last night. However, before we pressed play, Maddie and I noticed that it was not rated very well on Netflix, and considered a second option for the evening. Exhausting our choices, we came full circle back to this film and decided that, if we didn’t like it, we could always turn it off. Now, I give you all this back story, as it will all come around eerily full circle by the end of this post.
The movie itself is an independent comedy that stars John Malkovich as washed up mentalist, Buck Howard (a character based on real life Amazing Kreskin). Troy Grable (Colin Hanks), a recent law school drop out (that hits close to home!), is at a crossroads in life and decides he wants to become a writer. Being that writing doesn’t produce much in terms of actual cash asset, he takes a job as the road manager for the “Great Buck Howard.” Howard, once a television personality who was in high demand and appeared on Johnny Carson over 60 times in the 1970s, is now reduced primarily to touring the country with his act, a mixture of song, comedy and mostly mental illusions, in small town theaters across the United States. As Howard plans his return to glory, Grable scrambles to keep up with the demands of the still diva-esque celebrity. Along the way, he strikes a romance with PR rep Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt) who is trying to help boost media attention for Howard’s new illusion that will bring him back to the limelight.
The direction and writing by Sean McGinly are solid, but what shines the most is the subject matter and the performances by Malkovich and Colin Hanks. Their chemistry and Malkovich’s perfect display of the Amazing Kreskin’s mannerisms really helps keep this movie interesting and unique.
Having never heard of the Amazing Kreskin before, we of course watched several videos on Youtube of the real man following the movie. Needless to say, he is an interesting character and his act does have a distinct element of wonder to it. For the the fun of it, we decided to look up and see Kreskin’s tour schedule. Oddly enough, the only two dates he is playing in North Carolin are this Friday and Saturday. With the coincidence so high, that we almost didn’t watch this movie, finally watched it and liked it, happened to look on his tour schedule, and just so happen to see the real Amazing Kreskin is in NC two dates out of the year, and those being this week, we booked tickets. We’ll be seeing him on Saturday evening in Shelby, N.C.; however, I got to admit, he’s kind of already impressed me if coincidence has any connection.
Most of you that know me personally, know that Woody Allen ranks as one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. The first Allen film I ever saw was Purple Rose of Cairo soon after it came out on cable in the late 1980s, and from then on I was a fan. I think the neurotic behavior that is evident in my own personality is infinitely relatable to his humor and films. As I got older, I began watching more of his backlog and loyally viewing his new films each year at the theatre; yes, both the good ones and the bad ones. I would estimate that I’ve seen 90% of his repertoire, including some of the early films that he just acted in and movies like Scenes from a Mall that he didn’t write or direct, but appeared in. Over a long vacation to the northwest in 2000, I read the Eric Lax biography, and I have skimmed through several others from time to time since. So, when this expansive documentary on his life and career came out last year by director Robert Weide, it immediately fell on my radar.
The film covers literally every facet of Allen’s life and has interviews with actors, friends, family, collaborators, parents, almost any willing participant they could find to comment on Allen’s work and life. Furthermore, there are many segments of interviews that were shot with Allen himself, including his taking the crew on a tour of the neighborhood he grew up in in Brooklyn. At well over 3 hours, we see Allen’s life from a boy in Brooklyn to comedy writer to acclaimed filmmaker evolve. Outside of the amazing interviews, there is a plethora of behind-the-scenes footage from his films, rare photos and other interesting audio and video segments that help tell his story. Nearly all of his films are featured, and though this film doesn’t tarnish Allen in any way, they didn’t omit a section regarding the scandal between he and Mia Farrow in the 1990s.
If you are a Woody Allen fan, this is a must see. If not, it may not be your cup of tea. Whether you love him or hate him though, it’s undeniable that his posterity and longevity as a filmmaker are quite an achievement, and along the way, he has given us more than a fair share of brilliant films in the canon of American Cinema. Furthermore, few auteurs from any era can claim an ability to make us laugh, as well as engage in deep dramatic content. Just think, Allen gave us Banannas as well as Match Point and Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Since I’ve gotten my first light weekend in nearly two months, I figured I would post a bit more extensive an entry than the norm. One of my favorite plot motivators is the concept of time travel. I think almost anyone can garner some form of fascination with the idea of either moving forward on your personal timeline, or backwards; whether it is to see what happens to yourself, to change a regret from the past, or witness an historic event of some sort, time travel is just plain cool. Over the years, there have been literally hundreds of movies, television series and television episodes that have dealt with the idea or process of time travel, and alternatively, there have been dozens of different ways, machines and methods in which to perpetuate this quantum phenomena. So, because of such, I’ve decided to post an entry of my personal top 5 favorite methods of time travel in the movies and television:
5. THE NECRONOMICON (Army of Darkness – 1992)
What’s not to love about an ancient book that is steeped in Lovecraftian pseudo-horror culture? An essential part of the entire Evil Dead series, this ancient book unleashes loads of troubles for the primary character, Ash, over three films. In the third, however, it not only gives him a ridiculously fun to watch run-for-his-money, but also transports him back to medieval England where he gets to fight skeleton soldiers, demon knights and other creepy/silly abomonations.
Out of the entirety of this list, I have to say that this is probably the one most of us would be happy to not come across. Though, as kids, many dream of finding some old book or relic in our grandparent’s attic that might have some kind of mystical power, this is most definitely not the book we would want to come across. Traveling to medieval England sounds pretty cool, but fighting skeleton armies and demon knights does not….well, unless I get the chainsaw arm, then maybe…as long as I can still play guitar.
4. A TIME TURNER (from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – 2004)
For a movie, and novel before that, that revolves around a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry, it was only fitting to have a device that could manipulate time at some point in the series. The Time Turner, a relic that resembled an hourglass on a necklace, could travel back in time a short distance corresponding to the number of times it was turned. Though only for going back in time a mere few hours, this device played a major role in the ending plot of the third Harry Potter movie/novel. Given to Hermione Granger by Professor McGonagall, Harry and Hermione use the device to rescue a magical beast, Buckbeak, before his untimely demise which had already happened by the time the device is used. This device also signifies a realization of Harry’s that awakens a power from deep within, a scene which is one of my all-time favorites in the entire Harry Potter series (of which, of course, I am a megafan and not afraid to admit it).
Though the device can only go back a few hours in time, on a lot of occasions, that would be all you need! Imagine how many things you could change if you could just buy an hour or two back to slightly change your actions, decisions or direction. How easy all those careless mistakes would be to change in the blink of an eye! (or turn of a weird looking necklace…)
3. THE TIME MACHINE (from The Time Machine – 1960)
Did you really expect me not to include this one on the list? Based on the H.G. Wells classic, this is the standard for which all other time machines were founded. Over the years, there have been many adaptations of Wells’s classic science-fiction novel; however, it is generally accepted that this one by director George Pal stands a head above the rest. Rod Taylor plays the eponymous Time Traveller and the device itself is everything you would imagine a time machine to be, a strange looking car-like chair with a whirly gong-thing on the back. Well, anyway, it looks like a vehicle and it has those strange additions which have come commonplace in time travel narratives attached. A classic example, and the basis of nearly all those to come; however, not the coolest one!
2. DOC BROWN’S DELOREAN (from Back to the Future – 1985)
A DeLorean could very well be called one of the ugliest cars in existence, but there was just something so damned cool about them! I don’t know whether it was the stainless steel exterior, the space age like black leather interior with funny looking knobs all over the place, or the iconic gullwing doors, but anytime I’ve ever crossed one, I couldn’t help but stop and stare.
When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale were considering what the time traveling device in their new script should be way back in 1984, they decided to find something that would appear futuristic to people of 1955, where the back-in-time narrative takes place. They decided on the DeLorean DMC-12, and I couldn’t agree more, people in 1955 would have surely thought it from another planet. Powered by a central processing device known as the flux capacitor, this baby ate plutonium for fuel and whizzed through time at precisely 88 miles per hour. If I could figure out the conversion kit on an old DMC-12 to install a flux capacitor and time controls, you better believe there would be one in my garage. As Doc Brown said in the first installment, “If you are going to travel through time, you might as well do it in style!”
1. TARDIS (from Doctor Who – 1963-1989, 2005-present)
Ah, the TARDIS, the constant companion to the Doctor. Standing for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, the TARDIS is a Galifreyan (the Doctor’s home planet) time traveling device that could cloak itself to be literally anything for cover; unfortunately, it got stuck as a 1960s London police box.
Over time, the Doctor learned to love it’s constant shielding, and the TARDIS has remained stuck on that exterior setting ever since. I don’t think anything could be more quirky, fun or insanely silly to travel through time and space in, but when you get right down to it, it is very, very cool. Bigger on the inside than the outside, the TARDIS has seemingly endless rooms and compartments that contain seemingly endless items and relics within. It’s built like a tank, has a killer coat of blue on the outside and can translate any language in the galaxy for you just by being close by! If any of you have known what it is like to love a car or boat, it could only pale in comparison to the Doctor’s love of the TARDIS. And, after enough episodes, you start to love it to, which makes it the list topper of my all-time coolest time machines in the movies and television!
*I didn’t forget Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but they paid homage to the TARDIS, so the TARDIS wins out.
From our hottest day on Friday. This was the morning though, when it was still reasonably cool.
So, for the last few weeks, I have been super busy with a number of productions, which is always an excellent thing! With intent not to bore, I’ll give as much run down on the last few projects I’ve been involved in, without comprising any confidential details about the projects or who was involved in each production specifically.
First up, Down Fenix Media, LLC officially wrapped production on a three-video series for a very large client, who will remain unnamed since I haven’t cleared anything with them, this past Sunday. We had spent the Saturday before filming at the large Farmer’s Market outside of Greensboro, and then spent two additional days shooting various material at the Arboretum near downtown Greensboro, and one day of interiors at our lead actresses’s apartment. All days went really smoothly, and it’s a good feeling to have everything in the can on this project. It’s currently being edited by our resident editor extraordinaire Bryan R. “Higgibaby” (not an official nickname, he will likely punch you if you call him this…he punches me often for it) Higgins. In other DFM, LLC news, look out for our new (and much improved) Web site coming very soon!
Following those two shoot days over the weekend with DFM, I was back in the office at Inmar Monday morning, and busy with an array of exciting projects we have/had going on. On Tuesday, I traveled with one of our in-house Communications Writers, our Associate Marketing Manager for Digital Promotions and our Assistant Events Planner, who happened to be pulling double duty that day by also serving as an actress, and headed down to Trailblazers Studios in Raleigh. There, we were shooting a teaser for our Digital Promotions network, but again I will leave very open ended, because I don’t want to leak too much information….just believe me, exciting stuff! I was really impressed with Trailblazers, a beautiful and very well-built studio – a rarity for this area! Also, that day, I was wearing a bit of a different hat than I am used to on set – playing a co-producer/technical advisor role for my company. It was fun coming at a project from that angle, as I find it exhilarating to try out different roles once in awhile, but my technician side got the best of me a few times and I jumped in to Dolly Grip on a few of the moving shots, since I saw the need arose.
Wednesday, I was swamped in pre-production for another series of three videos, but also part of the same Digital Promotions Network campaign. We shot this series of three videos with the help of a local LLC, and great bunch of guys, at a perfect location for the stories, the Riverpark at Cooleemee Falls in Davie County, on Thursday and Friday. Thursday and Friday’s shot lists were completely day exteriors, all 95+ degree weather, so it definitely comprised of some HOT shooting conditions, but everything went smoothly and we popped off the final shots right before we had to leave the location at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. In addition to serving as a liaison between Inmar and the contracted LLC for the shoot days, I also got the opportunity to gaff on set, and it was nice meeting and working with the crew and cast on both of those days.
Candid Photo from Thursday’s Digital Promotions Shoot.
Following the grueling heat of Friday’s shoot, I began a five day July 4th staycation, which is finally winding down today. I’m happy to report that my novel is nearing its final few chapters of the first draft, and look out for some new reviews here on the blog in the coming days. Thanks for reading and please enjoy a few of the quick production stills I popped off on my iPhone during our shoot days on Thursday and Friday!
OK, so I’ll be honest from the get go. The only reason I watched this was because it had two of my favorite actors in it: Peter O’ Toole and David Tennant (10th Doctor!). Furthermore, it was written and produced by Russell T. Davies, who was the head writer and show starter for the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who. Davies and Tennant’s working relationship actually began on this picture.
I’m sure most people are at least generally aware of who Giacomo Casanova was, if for nothing more than the fact that his name is a common term for lotharios the world over. Well, this movie is a loose adaptation of his life, pulling many overall generalized points from the history books, but embellishing them extensively for entertainment purposes. The narrative switches back and forth between old Casanova (Peter O’ Toole), who now serves as a librarian for an Italian nobleman, and young Casanova (David Tennant) as he makes his way in the world. A lonely chambermaid makes fast friends with the older Casanova, who has just finished writing his life’s tale. During her innocent stays in his chambers, he recounts the many adventures and loves found and lost during his lifetime, with a primary focus on one elusive woman: Henriette (Rose Byrne). Through the back and forth of the narrative, the life of Casanova is presented in only a way Russell T. Davies could come up with (i.e. extravagantly and at many times flamboyantly).
The “series” encompasses two one and a half hour segments, so it’s not really a movie, but not quite a mini-series. I really enjoyed the first segment and thought there were some very entertaining scenes, but the second installation was a bit of a let down and I found myself growing bored by the end. The fun of this film only seems to last so long, though the performances by O’ Toole and Tennant are a treat to watch. However, I may err on the side of caution here because I am biased, so I would even hesitate to give too much credit in that regard.
In short, a fun and exciting television “mini-series” that starts strong, but fizzles out some towards the end. If you are a Tennant or O’ Toole fan, I think you would have a greater chance of enjoying this sometimes disjointed flick, but even those who are not may find some interest here.
notesonafilm 