In the first installment of what will be a weekly feature where I pick a trailer for a forthcoming or recently released film at the UK box office, I’ve picked the wonderfully geeky ‘Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel‘ featuring Anna Faris of Scary Movie fame.
It hit our theatres this weekend, and I’m hoping to catch it myself in the next week or two.
Goes without saying a review will be up soon after I do.
Good night, and good luck.
I got wind of this a couple of weeks ago, but only actually had a look at it today. Budding British film makers have until June 22nd to submit their short films of up to 2mins 20secs in length, to be entered into the Virgin Media Shorts competition.
Having had a look at some of the entries so far, I feel confident that I’d be able to contribute something decent; but with Park of the Dead (my ambitious final project for my diploma) needing the vast majority of my time from the start of May onwards, I’m not sure I can take on another project right now.
However, the prospect of getting a short film on their website and the exposure it would receive, especially if it progressed through to the latter stages of the competition, is too exciting for me to just disregard the competition right now. I’ll have a think about it and decide by the end of the week. What do you reckon, should I go for it anyway?
Thought I’d link the winning video from the 2008 competition ‘The Black Hole’. Enjoy!
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Virgin Media Shorts 2008 competition winner ‘The Black Hole’
Good night, and good luck
Yesterday, I was flicking through the top stories on Digg.com and came across an article by one of the editors over at Kontraband entitled ‘Awesome Opening Movie Scenes which contains over twenty scenes (some are worthy of being called a scene, some should be described as the opening ten minutes) from Hollywood movies that the author feels have made a significant impact over the years.
Looking at his list, several of his choices I have to agree with, a couple of the films I haven’t seen, and a quite a few I disagree with. So, I thought I’d try to put together a list of five films that I have seen, in order of impact if possible, that have opening scenes that left their mark on me for all of time. It is such a difficult task as, like most people, I’ve seen more films than I can remember and I’m sure I could come up with a totally different list tomorrow, and the next day etc. Anyway, on with the list.
1) The Matrix - After the rather cool ‘green code’ intro, Trinity dispenses with the police officers in Bullet Time ™, before escaping the agents with *that* jump and then vanishing in the phone booth. Sci-fi at its best.
2) Saving Private Ryan – The landings on Omaha Beach during the morning of D-Day during WW2. This scene is quite possibly the most realistic combat sequence I’ve ever seen, and brings home the brutality of war.
3) 28 Days Later – The beginning of this film is nothing short of haunting, and is a cinematic masterpiece. Completely alone in the middle of London, one man wanders aimlessly through the streets, looking for answers.
4) Transformers – An MH-53 Pave Low helicoptor violates U.S airspace at a Qatar airbase, transforms into a big frakkin’ robot, tries to hack their network and lays waste to everything in its path; enough said?
5) Full Metal Jacket – Gunnery Sergeant Hartman welcoming his new marine recruits to their training by dishing out a verbal onslaught of abuse has a certain replay value, and is a vintage Kubrick scene.
Films that I toyed with putting into the top five also include Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Planet Terror and Pulp Fiction.
If I could criticise this list, I’d say that I’m surprised that I haven’t considered any particularly great classics. Films like Apocalypse Now do have superb opening sequences, but for me the above have the biggest impact. Sure, the opening scene of The Dark Knight was superb and contained some beautiful shots, but that scene in itself didn’t blow me away.
I’d love to hear your top five opening film scenes, so please feel free to leave a comment on this blog with your choices and justifications for picking them; or why not be critical of my selections?
Good night, and good luck.
Caprica Promo Poster
Earlier this year, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ finally left our screens after four (technically five, for those pedantic amongst you) wonderfully dark and gritty seasons in space.
We witnessed the beginning of the second war between the Colonials (humans) and the Cylons (intelligent machines who rebelled against their masters), the destruction of the twelve colonies of Kobol and the subsequent exodus of the remnants of the human race in a rag-tag fleet of ships as they attempted to find a new home called Earth, whilst being hunted by the Cylons they created.
However, with ‘Caprica’, the prequel series to ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and brain child of Ronald.D.Moore and David Eick, the executive producers behind the re-imagined ‘Galactica’, we’re faced with a different type of television show, albeit still in the ‘Battlestar’ universe.
Jane Espensen, a writer and producer who worked with Moore & Eick on ‘Galactica’ is also along for the ride, as are several other members of the production team including Bear McCreary, the wonderfully talented composer of the Battlestar score. Unfortunately, those of you hoping for cameo appearances from ‘Battlestar’ actors will be disappointed as ‘Caprica’ takes place many years prior.
Before I dive into the actual review, it is certainly worth saying that if you haven’t seen or heard of ‘Battlestar Galactica’, you won’t enjoy ‘Caprica’ any less. You don’t need any to know any of the story (either the history or the events that unfold in the future), you don’t need to know about any of the characters; you just have to pay attention from the beginning of the story and it is all pretty self explanatory.
Coming this summer, a five part Torchwood story broadcast over five consecutive evenings. The Torchwood team are up against it, and the alien threat threatening the planet isn’t the only thing trouble Jack and the team have to contend with.
The BBC now have a trailer up, enjoy!
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