Film - The Old vs The New

We write films about someone doing something amazing, different and to be inspired by and we talk about them for years.

We remember the best actors and directors for their contribution to TV and film with the new characters they’ve brought to life.

Yet… Even after all the examples as far as the eye can see, we still see regurgitations of the same invention every single year without fail. There are exceptions but for crying out loud, does it not make you want to scream (and not in a good way) when you see a trailer for ANOTHER ‘X – Men’ sequel, ANOTHER ‘Disney’ remake?

Now, I’m well aware of the arguments here, so first I’ll address some of the good stuff we’ve seen and some insight as to perhaps ‘why’ they worked so well.

 

A GOOD REBOOT – ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

Oooooh no, a lot of us were saying. The originals were superb, regarded by experts and those who aren’t, as one of the most successful stories ever. If you haven’t seen it by now then shame on you. It offered a reluctant hero his chance to defy the impossible, learn to fight and become a hero through (literally) epic glowing sword fights with a well-polished villain with one of the most original character arc’s in history. Alongside we also had a selfish smuggler mercenary turned loyal soldier and two adorable robots attempting to keep up and offer whatever they can to be useful. THEN we had the god-awful PREQUELS that were a complete VFX craze, heavy-political story and the most annoying sub-character that was added for a bit of comedy just to make the political content more bearable, whilst a cheesy love story between the good guy and a queen was designed to explain why he turned into such an asshole, emotionally manipulated by a bigger asshole corrupting a galactic government to his own aims. Herein, I feel addresses an interesting thought. Although it was an attempt to learn more about the way things worked in the ‘Star Wars’ world, I’m not sure enough people cared. 

There were ‘some’ interesting fights along the way – Think we all loved villain; ‘Darth Maul’ but he was in and out all too quickly then he’s dead. Speaking of the fights – My GOD, the amount of CGI fucking killed me. WHY use these when you’ve got millions and millions to craft a practical scene more believably? Even the bit at the end of the last prequel when Darth Vader awakens – again – riddled with CGI? WHYYYY – It’s a bloke in a suit. Just fucking film it. You think we don’t know the difference? We did – It sucked and that stupid scream he does… You’re telling me everyone was cool with this? Not one person said; “hang on, he sounds retarded dude, lets try something else?” – Jaysus!

So – Force Awakens comes along, done by Disney, new actors, we’re all suckers for the Star Wars brand. That’s what it is now – a brand, lets face it. Hollywood are shameless, just stick the brand on it and they will come. Although the plot was all so fucking similar to the very first film we all saw decades ago – WASN’T IT INCREDIBLE? I loved it. I still shouted out when we saw what happened to Han Solo. I didn’t exactly get how ‘The Order’ was any different from ‘The Empire’ nor how it was so quickly re-organised and my biggest criticism was how the fuck did Rey become such a swords master so quick, especially Finn. However, it was so enjoyable I was able to forgive ALL of this because it stayed focussed on exciting characters, did away with the political melodrama, brought back all the things we loved and sure it may be the same kind of thing but there was enough to bring new things into it, such as what storm troopers are made of and planted enough seeds to enjoy the legacy of the sequels that would follow. You could argue that ‘Jason Bourne’ has been nothing but the same but I have to say it is the ONLY original franchise post-2000 that I have enjoyed all the way though.

A GOOD ADAPTATION – ‘Deadpool’

I was going to talk about video game adaptations such as ‘Lara Croft’ (2001) to do my female writing friends a service or ‘Prince Of Persia’ (2010) for its reboot value from my last comment as they’re both successful examples and build towards the upcoming ‘Assassin’s Creed’ release but thought Deadpool (2016) was probably a more relatable example. Fine, its Marvel and a pre-existing character and the dickheads in the archive room running out of shit to turn into a film but THIS one however – Displays that audiences love the one’s with balls to go further. Deadpool is the merc with a mouth and rather than sugar coating the violence, sex and cursing, they ‘FUCKING went for it’ and we loved them for it. So much so, box office sales, from an initial budget of $58 million it went on to become the 3^rd highest grossing R-Rated film of all time at $349 million.

Back in the 80’s we had Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986) & Robocop (1987) where manufacturers were making model toys for the kids. Deadpool was a loved character from the comics that hadn’t been touched and amidst all the marvel characters that kept coming out, ‘Spiderman’ just got his latest reboot (fucking awful by the way and don’t even get me started in its sequel), a leak of a scene reached the internet and sure as shit, we all saw someone had made a great effort at giving us something new. Wit, sex, violence and a simple enough revenge story about a guy who just wants his face back, fighting scumbags along the way, whilst sarcastically saluting its Marvel infrastructure along the way – PLUS it wasn’t one of those wash-out cash grabbers. This was made with a lot of (albeit twisted) love and respect to the fans. Not only did they also close the story to everyone’s satisfaction but the fans all leaving saying ‘mate, I’d SO go see a sequel of that shit – was fucking brilliant.’ My own personal favourite line; “That sounds about as much fun as a sand paper dildo!” – Bloody hilarious. That’s what the creators surely want to hear us say too right?

I mentioned ‘Terminator’ earlier – who after the 3^rd film was happy enough to say the same, or after the 4^th or even worse, the 5^th film? – What started as a great concept was tarnished by its own legacy because it brought down its R-Rating to attracts greater audience appeal and from the 3^rd film onwards, they’ve been bloody awful. We live in hope that ‘Deadpool’ dares do the same, eh?

What’s more about these two examples, Hollywood - They made a shit load more money than anyone could have predicted and both hold record highest grossing profits, so…

A BAD REMAKE – Total Recall

I actually have a 'GOOD' example of this coming up but what I found interesting was the scale of a bad one compared to it so I just found it more interesting to tackle this first. I 'know' I mentioned 'Robocop' but I'm not gonna go there again! So I've chosen 'Total Recall' (2012)! Who the hell asked for you and what the fuck went wrong? Total Recall (1990) was a simple, silly but fun Schwarzenegger version of pre-dated Jason Bourne on Mars, with his trope puns, daft fights and production design. 

That’s it. Now someone in a much more fortunate position than we, has lots of money to make a new film, maybe something completely new like ‘Looper’ (2012) - yep, not only did it come out the same year but this director’s now even going to direct the next Star Wars film. Or do we approach a few literary agents or festivals, competitions like ‘The Black List’, ‘Shore Scripts’ etc and lets pick something pretty damn fresh and exciting but nope, they went and did something ‘nobody’ asked for, making for shite reviews and a barely average profit. To be honest, I almost wish it had made a loss just to teach a few people a lesson. 

Firstly, why did you have to call it Total Recall when you could have easily changed a couple of things and had something else? 

Secondly, (now, the example of a good remake) why oh why didn’t I just watch the remake of Judge Dredd (1995) that came out that same year; Dredd (2012), which was not only miles better than its bullshit earlier counterpart but also far better than your film, hands down & interestingly, less bullshit cgi and a better service to fans just as Force Awakens was, like I said previously. What's still no surprise to me is that for less money, they did a far better job and 'real' creatives had to think about money more clearly and really focus on what they wanted to achieve. You can argue but watch both 'then' tell me which one you enjoyed more, either as a fan OR as someone completely neutral.

Films I Wish Weren’t So Successful

Uurgh, there are many things I know that I’ll be disagreed with on. As much as we enjoy telling each other to sod off, I think we can get back to some middle ground on this one. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy sequels for things like ‘Deadpool’ where its earnt its place for taking the risks, serving the fans and a offered something original but this does NOT mean I wish to see it spiral out of control, no matter how much money it makes. Lets have a look at some of these examples from the highest grossing films of all time:

 

Titanic (1997):

Cos’ I’m a maaaaan… Grrr… Based on a real event tragedy and its important to understand the gravitas of our history. Whilst I have nothing but the deepest of respect for James Cameron, in terms of the scale of his films - God I thought this was boring.

Spiderman 3 (2007)

What could have been an awesome face off between my favourite comic hero and its best villain ‘Venom’ was completely fucked by throwing in two really stupid bad guys on top and taking up so much screen time that there was NOTHING left for the best of them. Totally ruined Spiderman for me so it was no surprise that the (unnecessary) reboots with Andrew Garfield that followed were completely shite!

 

Avatar (2009):

Yep, its ‘Pocahontas (1995)’ and whilst enjoyable is it anything more than just visuals? I enjoyed the spectacle, who didn’t but one of those things I’d see once then never see again. I couldn’t even remember the names of any characters. Suppose I can respect it for doing something different.

Transformers 4 (2011):

I was almost on the set of the 5^th one recently for a bit of extra money but I had a friend visit instead. Granted I thought the 1^st film was good fun and you can fault Michael Bay all you like but he delivers exactly what young boys want, girls, cars, giant robots and shit (whilst he was busy fucking up our reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), this is nothing but a cash grab of a pre-sold franchise and bores the hell out of me.

Iron Man 3 (2013):

Are you fucking kidding me? This hunk of shite? I actually enjoyed the 1^st one despite the stupid amount of egocentrism and interrupting of dialogue half the time but lasers coming out of peoples eyes for no reason, a ridiculously stupid final fight and the lack of the actual ‘Iron Man’ throughout, not to mention the big 'spit in your face' moment of the revealing of the bad guy. What the ‘actual’ fuck?

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014)

Aaaw Gaaawd, just stop. You’re successful, you’ve made money, now fuck off and make something else. Okay, I watched all ‘Lord Of The Rings’ to understand the rage. I respected them all even though they weren’t my kind of thing and no, neither is ‘Game Of Thrones’ but at least in TV you’re allowed a bit of exploration into the world of this arena. In cinema it just seems like a cop out cash grab and an excuse to not invest in new talents and stories.

Batman v Superman (2016)

YEP – You guessed it. Of course I was gunna! 

They insist on hammering out so many of these things yet something “everyone” agrees was so shit ‘still’ makes more money than you can count – Urrgh! How can a title promise so much and deliver so little? I told everyone it was going to be shit. Tonnes of talking, tiny (although great) fight scenes and the most annoying little pussy as a bad guy, you can imagine just punching him in the face there and then. Oh by the way, Wonder Woman is strolling around in there for no reason too…?! The hell happened here?

So there you are…

Hope you enjoyed the rant. Guess what I’m saying is that in my opinion there are fewer great examples of the good then there are of the bad in bringing something back to the spotlight. But those that have done so, are so worth remembering. Next blog, lets look at some of the crazy shit that’s going on in television lately.

The Importance Of Supporting & Promoting Others

What do you do? - A fellow creative - Someone you know gets a decent job in an area of your own interests, whether it be in writing, producing, directing, camera, sound, editing, vfx, animation or music, do you...

a) Pat them on the back congratulate them and maybe even share their post a bit & vote for their film on a website or something if required (whether you've been involved or not)?

b) Bitch about them in jealousy and decide to compete with them unnecessarily?

The answer is ("obviously") b - but you'd be surprised how many stories there are with regards to a. I don't understand this... It's petty and non-sensical. Our creative success depends 'heavily' on our our networks and our 'book of contacts' we can walk into a job with. I / they can extend you a recommendation to an employer / other creative or choose to ignore you. Think about it... I'll come back to this later with some of the support I've offered myself, I suggest you try. In the meantime, I mentioned 'employers' - Yes let's talk about those guys, shall we?

Through my travels, whilst I’ve had the privilege of working with some great people I won’t deny I’ve worked with some right assholes too. Not too many blogs ago, I asked my readers to do a simple job hunt into my field as either one or more of the following: a scriptwriter, producer, director, cinematographer or editor to see what they found. Unfortunately, the results are always the same – that’s my point. In my last blog you’ll see the term ‘videographer’ and the +10 job roles as a filmmaker they expect to cover and under pay for it. Fairly recently I even got close to getting a job with a great company called ‘Osprey.’ A good showreel bought me an interview, where I expressed my keenness for wanting out of the freelancing circuit. Believe me, the term is NOWHERE near as glamorous as people think. Almost ‘every’ day looking for the next employment lead, re-tarting up the CV, showreel, cover letters, signing up to recruitment sites giving out all your personal information and work experience over several pages worth, answering all their bullshit questions then waiting for your rejections with some of the best generic ‘copy & paste’ excuses you’ve ever heard.

Examples:

1^st Place:

“We’ve had a number of great responses and we will not be taking your application any further but will take your CV for future reference and wish you all the best for the future.”

2^nd Place:

“Upon review of your application, we’ve decided to proceed with other applicants who ‘more closely suit’ our criteria…” (see above example for rest of response)

3^rd Place:

*there’s no exact quote for this but in laments terms: “Just because you’ve not physically done this ‘exact’ thing before, you’re unable” (again… see above for rest of response)

OBVIOUSLY - There are going to be times where I, you, we, they are going to be less qualified than others but it doesn't help us to go through pages and pages signing up to new sites just to make a 1-off application nor when the employer doesn't know what they're employing for.

What you have here is people usually asking for prior agency experience of some description, which involves being in an environment where everyone earns money, has a controlled schedule and duties and does a controlled bunch of projects in an assisted amount of time. Indie filmmakers are expected to believe that their work putting together budgets out of nothing, assigning freelance crew and cast as volunteers or minimum wage to construct a project in the space of usually 3 – 5 days – is far easier therefore doesn’t count in an employer’s consideration. I don’t claim to be a mind reader but surely its easy for someone to figure out crafting a narrative, the shots, in which to tell it, the equipment and planning that ‘alone’ takes and running it all to schedule, coming through post-production and then even going on to make festival selections or even winning them… That’s not harder than filming a quick advert? Bollocks!

One of my latest final stage interviews had started out as incredibly insightful. A practical exercise about delivering a product video in the style of a visual story. VERY quickly ruined when I was told they were giving me less than a week with no budget, equipment, cast or crew to pull it off. And I didn’t tell you the best part – coming in and being given only 2 hours to edit it. At this point I realised just how under-educated they were in filmmaking but I had no choice if I wanted this job. Don’t moan – just get on with it. I cashed in a couple of favours, got a model a 1^st AC with his own car and borrowed the best camera I could get at short notice; a Canon 700D – this was it. No tripod, shoulder rig, lights – nothing. I’m already grateful enough as it was – people giving up their time to help me for nothing. I shot 1 of 3 ideas I came up with, based on what they asked. I couldn’t finish the edit in time but it wasn’t too far off. This is what I was able to do:

Think you’ll believe me when I say I have ‘a lot’ of filmmaker friends! The one’s who saw it: “A skateboard tracking shot… Whoa!” / “Not bad for less than a week mate, have to say” / “and they didn’t cover anything, right?” / “What they moaning about?” - Of course there was PLENTY of shit that could be better - there always is but think the pro's far outweighed the con's under the circumstances but despite everything...

The response was:

“I must let you know that you have not been successful with your application for the role of Visual Content Editor.

We felt that your work did not demonstrate the storytelling or the creativity we are looking for as part of this role.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you every success for the future.”

The brief was a 3 – 4 minute ‘visual story’ of the Duro pack titled ‘Born To Run.’ Their previous company videos (as you can see for yourself) are mostly all Drone (non-product focussed) almost looking to sell landscape and scenery as if I was booking a holiday… (p.s: the role was actually advertised as a ‘Visual Content Producer.’) but… THAT WAS IT… I mean it.

Quote(s):

“As we mentioned, we have put together a two part creative task for the 2nd stage of our interview process, which we hope you will enjoy":

1.     Filming - We have sent you one of our new Running packs called the ‘Duro'. During the week before your 2nd interview we would like you to shoot a short video story (and a few stills) to promote the pack to consumers, we would like this to be an emotive piece that really excites and engages the consumer. I have attached some more info about the Duro pack, including strapline which is, “Born to Run.” as well as a user profile for you.

2.     Editing – We would like you to spend half day with on on the day of your second interview to finishing editing your short video story of the Duro pack. We will have an iMac with Adobe Premiere Pro, Creative Cloud and After Effects available for you to use. Please feel free to bring any of your own equipment with you.”

Granted, its always nice to get out and do some filming but for a backpack, having to spend money on car hires for interviews, cashing in favours I’d have rather used for something else… I liked the company, the promise of travel and a £30k salary may not set the world on fire but it would have made me more than happy and to have meetings with people long before we got to shooting to make sure they DID get exactly what they wanted (as per any bloody client who commissions me). Anyway, this latest circus has now resulted me in having to leave Dorset “very” regrettably. 
I absolutely love Bournemouth but I just can’t survive here any longer. I’ve obviously been looking elsewhere but its only family charity that’s saving people like me from signing on at the job centre, whilst I look forward to shaking hands with some rich, robe wearing stranger on stage next month on a £200k+ salary; (this is the greedy git behind it! - There were loads of these reports (image on right) posted around the campus, even the staff don't take them down!) I mean to collect a piece of paper that says I should be proud to be in this position. Yes its not solely down to my education, its obviously a lot of bad luck too but if you ‘just look’ at what I’ve achieved in the past year alone in and around my time as a student on an under delivered MA course… This shouldn’t be happening, should it really? Then again failing to provide any TV (what was billed on the ‘title’ of the course) experience, studio, multi-cam, drone, animation, 360, VR or green screen or more importantly no syllabus working with even other students in advertising, PR or marketing at all is unforgivable.

After the screams and cries of frustration it comes back at some point to what I’m best with – People. More importantly; pro-active ones. In the past year alone I have continued to support more indie’s on their way in to this messy film business. Sickened by the overall experience I was provided with at uni I held onto my experience at Met Film School, which is how I delivered in an interview to get a part-time job teaching video editing at Screen South's BFI Film Academy in Kent. The approach is WORLDS better. I teach with other active practitioners and unlike higher education, these 16-19
year olds come in and do an intensive 9-5 stretch working in teams,
doing a bit of everything, just as in my Met Film days and get hands
on help to be FAR more effective filmmakers without wrangling thousands and thousands of pounds worth of debt. I'm loving it - on the staff, we just wish ALL film production was taught this way.

Furthermore, I’m taking more frequent requests from ‘Nepris’ to do more volunteer classes for kids wanting to learn more about the mechanics of film as far as the U.S. I was on a location recce with a Polish DP cinematographer and an aspiring director from Lebanon the other day where we were left wondering ‘why the hell are we still wasting time with essays in this kind of work?’ It was a great day to share some moaning about similar stories to the one I shared earlier whilst we just got on with what we did best. At least having my bullshit piece of paper, certain institutions will allow us to teach and improve on the crap of our own education so that the next generation get it better. Undoubtedly, I’ll end up sharing more of their work and supporting these people in future too.

This is what I wanted to build to on this blog. You cannot just concentrate on your own shit. Whilst promoting yourself is great, the last thing you want to become is just to be bigging yourself up… C’mon, you know you know these people too. I must have backed 3 crowdfunding projects in the past 2 – 3 months alone… Not by a little; around £75 - £100 at least so that you’re counted. Its not money I can afford to throw away but I’m always willing to invest in other hard working filmmakers with manners and a track record of good relations and content behind them – more so if it’s a noble cause.

Last year I was backing KT Parker. A really strong writer on the South Coast who it turns out has been working as a writer far less than me but her ‘A Face To Paint’ script reach finalist at one of the best script competitions in the world ‘Big Break’ after it was already in the ¼ finals with me at BIFF Screenwriters Residency Program. Not only had we already met – you’ll find writers get on extremely easy J but I would rather see someone I know win than someone I don’t + her crowdfunding perks were that she would offer her Hollywood notes to writers once she was wrapped with the event, provided she raised enough money from us to get herself over to Paramount Studios for the most important networking event of her life. Ever looked at what masterclasses and networking things like this cost? 
Yeah – Would rather invest my money in KT Parker. Some examples of my other contributions this year are:

Stefano Petroni (a young cinematographer I know who wants to work with me) and his team for their Memoria Nueva project.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Memoria-Nueva-The-Food-Travel-Documentary-985760764873708/?pnref=story.unseen-section

IndieGogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/memoria-nueva-a-homage-to-indigenous-farming#/

Why: It’s a noble cause, an important cause, they’re eager to make a difference and will most likely work together next year on our first project.

Gabi Arnal (a young graphic design and animation fanatic), they reached out for my individual contribution towards their Toymaker project:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetoymakermovie/?fref=ts

IndieGogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-toymaker-toys-animation#/

Why: They’ve gone to extreme lengths to erect their own studio, work hard and their continued gratitude I may ask for a favour from their offices to do me a quick favour or even who knows… Stay with one of them to have a collaborative project abroad with people who appreciate it.

And most recently I even backed a project with someone who even auditioned for the lead in my proudest production to date; Survivor. Her name is Luisa Gurreiro; an actress who wishes to put a great spin on theatre as we know it, called The Crystal Egg.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OldLampEnt/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

Phundee: https://www.phundee.com/reward/campaign/the-crystal-egg-old-lamp-entertainment

Why: Because it plays to an area of my interest in the context of ‘interaction’ – an area I have a lot of interest in and delivers another kick in the teeth to traditional storytelling, which given the chance would be an awesome thing to go see and would be very interested in working on myself.

How do you know these investments pay off – You don’t! Do you think they’ll forget about you – I doubt it! I’ve met SO many filmmakers that have NEVER watched anyone else’s short film work let alone bother going to networking events. I’ve also known A LOT who want me to chase down contacts for them without even returning a favour – so much as in the moments of throwing in a 3-click process vote for a film festival one of my films may be in, when I’ve staffed a crew or cast member which saved their film. What do you think I’m going to do – Recommend you to someone else? There are the brilliant one’s who always reply ‘I’m busy’ even when it’s within a week of the shoot and can’t spend barely a minute sending a quick message… I'll bet you most've these guys haven't promoted or supported anybody but themselves either. Would you like to see how busy I get? Name one time when someone hasn’t had a response back from me within 24 - 48 hours. It’s all part of creating the reputation.

Conclusively, I didn’t get what I wanted out of this year (I know there’s still time but…) the amount of projects I’ve pulled off and people I’ve helped - I'd like to think I still made it a success for others.