I'm going to go ahead and assume that my (probably non-existent) audience have heard of The Artist. Black & white. Silent. Made of pure wonderfulness.
I saw it yesterday. I want to see it again. I was slightly dubious as to whether the story would come across properly, given that there's no audio dialogue. Very pleasantly surprised that it worked perfectly with no overacting to get a point across. I suppose this is helped enormously by the soundtrack - beautiful work and I had to stop myself dancing in my seat at the cinema.
I'll not bother reviewing it properly - I wouldn't know where to start with film, but I've got to squee just a little bit about the dog. The dog needs to win awards.
That is all. Hurray for crappy short posts.
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Randomness: Random bits
Firstly, a piece of brilliance:
NERVOUS96 from Bill Domonkos on Vimeo.
This is a new short from Bill Domonkos who mixes old archive footage with animations (2D and 3D). The reason I'm posting it is because Jill Tracy had a hand in composing the score. It's a beautiful piece of music and it's available HERE.
A piece of not so much brilliance:
I love Cobra Starship. They're fun and silly and cheesy as hell. But this... like McFly's Party Girl, I'm hoping it grows on me, but really, I can't see it happening. I'm all up for change, but this isn't the Cobra I love. After the rather mediocre effort that was Hot Mess, I was hoping for something more like While The City Sleeps or Viva La Cobra. Evidently, that hasn't happened. So I'm now drowning my ears in old Cobra to make me feel better. Ugh.
NERVOUS96 from Bill Domonkos on Vimeo.
This is a new short from Bill Domonkos who mixes old archive footage with animations (2D and 3D). The reason I'm posting it is because Jill Tracy had a hand in composing the score. It's a beautiful piece of music and it's available HERE.
A piece of not so much brilliance:
I love Cobra Starship. They're fun and silly and cheesy as hell. But this... like McFly's Party Girl, I'm hoping it grows on me, but really, I can't see it happening. I'm all up for change, but this isn't the Cobra I love. After the rather mediocre effort that was Hot Mess, I was hoping for something more like While The City Sleeps or Viva La Cobra. Evidently, that hasn't happened. So I'm now drowning my ears in old Cobra to make me feel better. Ugh.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Current love: Nowhere Left To Run
Being the fangirl I am at heart, I signed up for McFly's new Super City. It's essentially an uber-interactive fan site, but by signing up as one of the first 20,000, you get a whole bunch more awesomeness. So, OK, it's not quite as exclusive as it was supposed to be - there were huge technical problems on the first day so they raised the number from 10,000. I'm still pretty sure (going by web addresses and such) that I was within the first 2000. Yes, I'm sad.
Anyway, the first of these awesomenesses is first view of the band's short film Nowhere Left To Run. They put it up onto the site on Friday (Saturday, my time) and I've watched it so many times this weekend, it's ridiculous.
So what, you may ask, is so wonderful about this film? Well, for a start, it's not half as cheesy or badly acted as I thought it might be. In fact, the acting's pretty damn decent and the plot...well, it's vampires, you can't help but be a little cheesy with vampires. But they don't sparkle. They actually burn in sunlight (well, one of them does, a role that was apparently supposed to be for Fearne Cotton). And they're very big on the drinking blood. Good, proper vampires. I found a wonderful comment on Twitter about it:
"Vampires shouldn't sparkle, Vampires should play drums. #NowhereLeftToRun"
Courtesy of @RadioBolly.
If you know McFly, that kinda gives away who the villain of the piece is, but they make it pretty obvious from the beginning that something is wrong with Harry, the drummer. And he makes an oh so gorgeous vampire. I really, honestly tried not to, but my inner fangirl squee'd so much over semi-nekkid and nekkid Harry, it was ridiculous. Bassist Dougie comes across as sweetly oblivious for the most part, poking fun at Tom (guitars/vocals) when he's attacked by the cleaning girl he has a crush on who just happened to get bit by Harry. Tom does the suspicion thing well - he seems to twig pretty early on that something's wrong with Harry, although like the rest of the band, he doesn't put two and two together till the manager actually tells them. The manager is just suitably slimy without making you want to throttle him and Danny (also guitars/vocals) is brilliant, purely for the immortal line:
"Dougie! Don't go into the woods!"
Why this is so funny, neither me nor any of the other fans who have seized onto it, seem to have worked out yet. Seriously, I have no idea why it's so funny, it just is.
Then there's the soundtrack. The band have used the film as a platform to show off some tracks from their upcoming album and they work pretty well, actually. The End Of The World works particularly well for the scene in which they vanquish Harry by, get this, staking him with a guitar neck. Oh, I loved that idea. Anyways, the band tracks are mixed in with some great orchestral pieces (that I recognise from somewhere, but can't remember what they are) which are great for the more suspenseful parts of the film. The one track that seems seriously out of place is The Sunny Side Of The Street which plays over the end credits. It's such an upbeat, sunny song and it contrasts starkly with the ending of the film. Which is a cliffhanger, by the way - you don't get to find out what happens to Dougie.
As with any film, especially one like this, there are flaws. Firstly: what the hell is with the wolf? In the opening sequence (which is actually the closing sequence), you see a wolf running through the woods with the vampires and Dougie. Why is there a wolf? I presume it was supposed to be symbolic in some way, but it seems so out of place... I don't know. It just doesn't seem to work.
Secondly, there's the above mentioned weirdness with the choice of track for the closing credits. But I think I can forgive that purely because it's such an awesome song and so much more like old McFly than new McFly.
Thirdly, blue/green screen. They've used fake backgrounds, by the looks of things. Now, I know this was fairly low budget, but you shouldn't be able to tell they're fake backgrounds. It's only in a few shots, fortunately.
Finally, there's one or two little continuity errors. For the performance of Shine A Light we first see the band in the studio in one set of clothes. Then we switch to a CGI-type set with a different set of clothes and then back to the studio version at the end of the track. Woot for artistic licence, but was there any need for it? Which reminds me - like HELL does any studio actually look like that. Seriously? Ah well, let's call it artistic licence. Maybe it's just an uber-fancy one.
Well, I think we'll end there. I actually have a whole load of notes about the film, but I figure no one wants to read all my little comments about plot, suspense building, revelations and whatnot. Maybe I'll post a picture of them instead. Admire my notes:
Might contain spoilers. But then, the film should've been taken off McFly.com by now, so you should be safe.
Right, that'll do then. If you're a Pioneer and you've stumbled across my blog because of this, let me know what you thought of Nowhere Left To Run - I'd love to know what other people thought about the film in general and the new album tracks that were used.
Anyway, the first of these awesomenesses is first view of the band's short film Nowhere Left To Run. They put it up onto the site on Friday (Saturday, my time) and I've watched it so many times this weekend, it's ridiculous.
So what, you may ask, is so wonderful about this film? Well, for a start, it's not half as cheesy or badly acted as I thought it might be. In fact, the acting's pretty damn decent and the plot...well, it's vampires, you can't help but be a little cheesy with vampires. But they don't sparkle. They actually burn in sunlight (well, one of them does, a role that was apparently supposed to be for Fearne Cotton). And they're very big on the drinking blood. Good, proper vampires. I found a wonderful comment on Twitter about it:
"Vampires shouldn't sparkle, Vampires should play drums. #NowhereLeftToRun"
Courtesy of @RadioBolly.
If you know McFly, that kinda gives away who the villain of the piece is, but they make it pretty obvious from the beginning that something is wrong with Harry, the drummer. And he makes an oh so gorgeous vampire. I really, honestly tried not to, but my inner fangirl squee'd so much over semi-nekkid and nekkid Harry, it was ridiculous. Bassist Dougie comes across as sweetly oblivious for the most part, poking fun at Tom (guitars/vocals) when he's attacked by the cleaning girl he has a crush on who just happened to get bit by Harry. Tom does the suspicion thing well - he seems to twig pretty early on that something's wrong with Harry, although like the rest of the band, he doesn't put two and two together till the manager actually tells them. The manager is just suitably slimy without making you want to throttle him and Danny (also guitars/vocals) is brilliant, purely for the immortal line:
"Dougie! Don't go into the woods!"
Why this is so funny, neither me nor any of the other fans who have seized onto it, seem to have worked out yet. Seriously, I have no idea why it's so funny, it just is.
Then there's the soundtrack. The band have used the film as a platform to show off some tracks from their upcoming album and they work pretty well, actually. The End Of The World works particularly well for the scene in which they vanquish Harry by, get this, staking him with a guitar neck. Oh, I loved that idea. Anyways, the band tracks are mixed in with some great orchestral pieces (that I recognise from somewhere, but can't remember what they are) which are great for the more suspenseful parts of the film. The one track that seems seriously out of place is The Sunny Side Of The Street which plays over the end credits. It's such an upbeat, sunny song and it contrasts starkly with the ending of the film. Which is a cliffhanger, by the way - you don't get to find out what happens to Dougie.
As with any film, especially one like this, there are flaws. Firstly: what the hell is with the wolf? In the opening sequence (which is actually the closing sequence), you see a wolf running through the woods with the vampires and Dougie. Why is there a wolf? I presume it was supposed to be symbolic in some way, but it seems so out of place... I don't know. It just doesn't seem to work.
Secondly, there's the above mentioned weirdness with the choice of track for the closing credits. But I think I can forgive that purely because it's such an awesome song and so much more like old McFly than new McFly.
Thirdly, blue/green screen. They've used fake backgrounds, by the looks of things. Now, I know this was fairly low budget, but you shouldn't be able to tell they're fake backgrounds. It's only in a few shots, fortunately.
Finally, there's one or two little continuity errors. For the performance of Shine A Light we first see the band in the studio in one set of clothes. Then we switch to a CGI-type set with a different set of clothes and then back to the studio version at the end of the track. Woot for artistic licence, but was there any need for it? Which reminds me - like HELL does any studio actually look like that. Seriously? Ah well, let's call it artistic licence. Maybe it's just an uber-fancy one.
Well, I think we'll end there. I actually have a whole load of notes about the film, but I figure no one wants to read all my little comments about plot, suspense building, revelations and whatnot. Maybe I'll post a picture of them instead. Admire my notes:
Might contain spoilers. But then, the film should've been taken off McFly.com by now, so you should be safe.
Right, that'll do then. If you're a Pioneer and you've stumbled across my blog because of this, let me know what you thought of Nowhere Left To Run - I'd love to know what other people thought about the film in general and the new album tracks that were used.
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