Gutted I couldnt attend The BFI London Film Festival this year. The line up is amazing.
Hopefully the news and clips coming over the next week or so will help soothe the pain, starting with this one.
Clare Stewart, Festival Director, BFI London Film Festival, discusses some of the big changes to the festival this year.
The Soundtrack International Film and Music Festival, an event described by Oscar winning Director and national treasure Danny Boyle as “crucial”, returns for its fourth incarnation over November 14 – 18 with a cutting edge line-up of screenings and performances in Cardiff and Newport that explore and celebrate the special relationship between music and the moving image.
Danny Boyle featured in the very first Soundtrack back in 2008, and coincidentally another famous name associated with this summer’s Olympics, David Arnold, the Grammy nominated Bond theme scorer and Musical Director of both closing ceremonies of the London Games, will appear in Cardiff this autumn.
Other highlights of the Soundtrack programme include Parisian director Vincent Moon, an artist credited with reinventing the music video by The New York Times, Christopher Nolan’s long time collaborator David Julyan, composer of Memento and the recent horror The Cabin in the Woods, a screening of Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor as part of the British Board of Film Classification Centenary celebrations, and The Miner’s Hymns, an extraordinary homage to the mining industry in the North-East with a live performance by the Tylorstown Colliery Band. There are also live performances by psychedelic legends Gong, and hot new singer-songwriter Lucy Rose.
Full programme details can be found at www.soundtrackfilmfestival.com. And we’ll see you down there!
Recently, I spoke to the director of Apartment 143, the film by director Carles Torrens.
Below is the result.
Where did you get the idea for Apartment 143?
Apartment 143, originally entitled Emergo, was written by Rodrigo Cortes long before I became involved with the project. Though I wasn’t particularly acquainted with the world of parapsychology, what drew me to the script was the opportunity to depict an unusual field of work with a questionable reputation from a truly rigorous, scientific angle. Whether or not you believe in the study of the supernatural, I wanted to make a film about scientists at work, gathering data, ruling out options, and forming hypothesis with the same verisimilitude as if they were geologists or chemical engineers.
How long was the process from initial concept to filming Apartment 143?
Originally, the film was going to be helmed by Rodrigo Cortes, our writer and producer, but when the success of his second film Buried propelled him onto bigger endeavours, he came to me with the offer of directing it. By the time that happened, all the financing was more or less in place, so I was able to jump right in and start pre-production straight away. I came on board in May of 2010, and we were shooting by August.
As you’ve watched the script play out did you make any changes?
Though the screenplay looks improvised, it’s highly scripted, and, with the exception of the usual minor adjustments that actors sometimes make on set, everything was spoken as written. Having said that, there are two scenes that are completely improvised, and which I intentionally set up that way; one happens when Alan tries to wake his daughter up, and the other one is the breakfast scene.
How did you go about casting the film?
Though I initially wanted great actors whom the audience had NEVER seen before, I soon realized it was somewhat of an impossibility, so I had to settle for an in-between. Hence, I started looking at American television, where a wide assortment of highly trained craftsmen are cutting their teeth on impressive guest appearances or supporting roles. Also, I looked at people who were just about to make their break, as well as veterans who have managed to disappear behind their characters in countless films, like Michael O’Keefe.
Courtney Bright and Nicole Daniels, my casting directors, were extremely helpful in the process.
What would you like viewers to take from Apartment 143?
Aside from the typical “I want audiences to be scared shitless”, I want to provide a more intellectual type of entertainment, where audiences can feel like they’re right in the field with a group of scientists who are about to discover something that was previously considered a scientific impossibility. In a way, I’d like to think of my film as a distant cousin of Primer or Pi.
How hard it is to have a film made today?
It all depends on the scope you’re going for, but everything you need to make a movie on a basic level is readily available to the general public.
Horror lovers have plenty of reasons to gear up early for Halloween 2012. Some of this year’s horror movies that you’re sure to recognize are poised to give audiences what they crave with plenty of scares, gore and ghosts.
Using these films as inspiration, Halloween enthusiasts are creating some frighteningly fabulous costumes this year. Whether you’re buying your costume or making it this year, you might want to consider the themes from these popular Halloween 2012 blockbusters.
Scheduled for an Oct. 26 release, “Silent Hill: Revelation 3D” will be the second in the planned trilogy.
In Todd Gilchrist’s interview with Michael J. Bassett, the director of the upcoming film based on the video game franchise, Bassett is shooting for a “better” movie.
“You’ve got to make a sequel that’s better than the original,” Basset told Gilchrist. Taking advantage of the 3D element, he aims to make the sequel more intense and more scary.
According to a Film Equals report, that is exactly what’s going to happen. After a viewing at Comic-Con, the scenes were not only “in line with the story from the game [Silent Hill 3], but they were nothing short of terrifying,” the report said, including a mention of a horrifying spider-like creature that has various human body parts.
In terms of costumes, we found the perfect blood-laced nurse Halloween costume at Buy Costumes – though the “faceless” part may be a bit difficult.
The fourth installment of the Paranormal Activity film franchise will be released nationwide on October 19, according to Daniel Miller of the Hollywood Reporter.
As a horror film series, Paranormal has done amazingly well. In a time with few supernatural-based horror movies, “Paranormal Activity 3” earned the top horror launch ever honor – $54 million in the United States. Miller reported that the first two have grossed $202.2 million worldwide.
Here’s the clincher – while all of the films in this series are made on “shoestring budgets,” the third installment cost only $5 million to make. Yet, it easily outdid the first two in the popular supernatural horror series.
Over the years, it has not waned as previous Saw installments were released at the same time. This year, “Paranormal Activity 4” is expected to hold up well against all other Halloween movie releases this year.
Die-hard Paranormal Activity fans looking for costume ideas can start to prepare for the supernatural horror release. Feel free to have fun with the “archetypal image of a white-sheeted costume ghost,” as fans did for “Paranormal Activity 3.” In this film series where anticipation is everything, the more shocking your costume the better.
Rumors have been swirling around the Halloween-weekend release of the horror-film classic, “Halloween.” It is, in fact, a re-release of John Carpenter’s iconic 1978 original horror flick that have had people on the edge of their seats for decades. This may not exactly be a sequel, but the restored experience on the big screen is sure to leave you feeling as terrified as the first time you saw Mike Myers slash an unsuspecting babysitter.
“Halloween” is one of the most popular horror movies of all time and it’s re-release is arguably the most anticipated this season. The feared effigy of serial killer Mike Myers has been duplicated as Halloween costumes since the original release of the movie and a steady tradition as sequels were released. This year, we recommend going old-school Mike Myers with the traditional wild hair, grotesque mask and blood-stained knife.
As Taken 2 arrives in cinemas on 5th October we wanted to take a look back at some of Liam Neeson’s best performances to date. He has had a varied career from thrillers to dramas and has captured the attention of the nation with his thoughtful performances!
Taken 2, the prequel to Taken, tells the story of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) as a CIA agent who previously stopped at nothing to save his daughter from Albanian kidnappers and is now taken hostage with his wife during a family holiday to Istanbul. His daughter is enlisted to help him escape.
In 2011’s Unknown, Neeson stars as a man who wakes up to find that his identity has been stolen and no one (not even his wife) believes him. With the help of a young woman, Diane Kruger, he sets out on a dramatic journey to prove who he is.
Neeson also stared in the 2010 film Clash of the Titans, as the dramatic retelling of Perseus, mortal son of Zeus (Neeson), battling the minions of the underworld to stop them conquering the Earth and heavens. With an all-star cast including Ralph Fiennes and Sam Worthington, it was a box office hit.
Michael Collins is a 1996 Warner hit, with Neeson as the film’s namesake, it tells the story of the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920’s but he becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.
Liam Neeson played Schindler himself in the epic 1993 Schindler’s List, a poignant and dramatic story of World War II businessman Oskar Schindler who turned his factor into a refuge for Jews after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. Based on a true story Schindler really did manage to save over 1100 people from being gassed at Auschwitz.
Neeson also starred in the 2005 film Batman Begins as villain Ra’s al Ghul/ Henry Ducard, the man who trains Bruce Wayne in ninjutsu- a form of martial arts.
Taken 2 is in cinemas now
Clash of the Titans, Michael Collins, Unknown, Schindler’s List and Batman Begins are all available to buy now on DVD and Blu-ray.