Dreaming of a Black Christmas

Merry Christmas Media fans!

Since I haven't been at college this week I thought I'd do something a bit different with my blog and talk about two Christmas based Horror films that I have seen recently. These films deal with the themes of obsession, murder, stalking, childhood trauma, revenge, and perversity. Y, know, tis' the season for such things.

1974's Black Christmas is often acknowledged as an important film in the Horror Genre for being one of the earliest examples of the Slasher sub-genre and an influence on John Carpenter's Halloween which would define the genre. It was independently produced and directed by Canadian Bob Clark, who astonishingly enough went on to direct another, very different Christmas film, 1983's A Christmas Story. Early in his career he made low budget horror films such as Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, but went on to direct massively successful films such as the frat comedy Porky's and the aforementioned A Christmas Story. His later career saw him making low budget and poorly received children's films such as The Karate Dog and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. This makes him probably the only director in history to have had films on both the IMDB Top 250 and Bottom 100. He was tragically killed in car crash in 2007.

Black Christmas follows a group of college girls who are stalked and murdered during the Christmas season by a killer hiding in their sorority house. He makes obscene phone calls and and he creeps about the place in POV shots. The influence on Halloween is obvious in these shots, and the way that Clark shoots the sorority house from a distance with Gothic lighting is similar to Carpenter's shooting of house in his film. The influence of the Bates residence in Hitchcock's Psycho on both films should not be forgotten. The film surprisingly features a number of well known actors in the cast, not big A listers, but distinguished enough to be known to film fans. Keir Dullea, best know for playing David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, appears here as our leading man. It's a little surreal to see someone who worked with Kubrick on such a legendary film appear in a sleazy Grindhouse flick like this. Olivia Hussey is our leading lady and final girl, best known for Romeo and Juliet, but her performance here is unmemorable and I have to say I much preferred Margot Kidder, best known for Lois Lane in the 70's Superman movies. Her character is just so enjoyable, swearing and drinking and not taking any crap from the killer when he's on the phone. Sadly she's killed off half way through and we are left with the much less fun Hussey, who maybe wasn't that comfortable appearing in a film like this. Special mention must go to the always enjoyable John Saxon, known for his role in Enter The Dragon and appearing in countless B and Horror movies.

For horror fans Black Christmas should be an essential movie, not just because it's an important one, but also because it's enjoyable in it's own right. Clark directs the film with style and suspense that lifts it above standard grindhouse fare and makes it obvious why it was so influential to Carpenter and others. There's also a remake, made in 2006, but I haven't seen it.

Something that dawned on me whilst I was watching Black Christmas was that the Christmas setting itself was largely inconsequential. There's one scene near the beginning where one of the characters is working as a Santa Claus, but overall the film could have taken place at any time of year with the same story (though the original script was apparently based on a series of murders that occurred over Christmas in Quebec). One film that really takes the Christmas season and runs with its horror film potentials however, is 1980's Christmas Evil, also known as You Better Watch Out and Terror In Toyland. The film was directed by Lewis Jackson, who has never made another film since, and stars Brandon Maggart, who the same year appeared in Brian DePalma's Dressed To Kill and since has worked mainly in Television. However the most well known face in the cast to a modern audience will be Jeffrey DeMunn who recently had a recurring role in The Walking Dead.

Brandon plays a man named Harry Stadling. This guy takes Christmas spirit deadly seriously. In the opening scene, we see how as a young boy he witnessed Santa, or what we presume was his dad dressed up as Santa, sexually groping his mother. This obviously had a damning effect on his psyche and as we flash forward to the present day we see how he has taken it upon himself to become the next true Santa, he sleeps in the costume, and his flat is covered in Christmas toys and decorations. He spies on the children in his neighborhood to see it they've been bad or good and writes their names in his "Bad Boys & Girls" book. Like I said, this is a man who takes Christmas spirit seriously. As the film goes on, his mental state deteriorates. We see how he works a lowly job at a local toy factory and clashes with his superiors, who are more concerned with profit than giving children a good Christmas. Harry sets off on a "roaring rampage of revenge" against those he feels have poisoned the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas Evil is less of a slasher film and more a psychological character study, a sort of Christmas Taxi Driver. Viewers can symphasise with Harry because what he wants is ultimately pure and admirable. The guy wants to be Santa Claus and give kids who deserve it a good Christmas, and most of the adult characters around him are so horrible we can actually see his point of view despite him plainly being as mad as a hatter. I actually found myself cheering when he started to take down the suits. The film ultimatley doesn't feature much that much gore or violence, like I said, it's more psychological than slasher, and it has an ending that leaves you thinking, "what the hell just happened?". I highly reccomcend all cult film and horror fans check Christmas Evil out, even more so than Black Christmas, simply because it's so off the wall and entertaining in its concept. The film is well directed by Jackson, who really gives us a sense of Harry's isolation, and it's a shame he hasn't gone on to direct any other films. Brandon Maggart also does a good job at selling the lead (though some of the other performances leave a lot to be desired). Christmas Evil might be the ultimate cult Christmas film, and deserves to be a yearly tradition for people who enjoy this sort of thing. You go in expecting a sleazy Christmas slasher film, but get a whole lot more than you bargained for.

That's all for this year. Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. See you all in 2015. Get ready for those self lacing shoes, hoverboards, and flying cars!

Fan Man - Handed In and Not So Good

On Tuesday we had a screen of the films that Level 4 have made in both the factual and fictional groups. The films that the Factual groups made all looked amazing, they had been shot in a highly professional manner and they could have easily sold their footage. There was loads of room for improvement in these films but the overall consensus was they had produced some extremely good looking films, for the most part well edited, with only slight flaws that brought them down. When it come time to show Fan Man to the whole year after having seen these great professional looking films, the experience was an embarrassing one to say the least.

The version of Fan Man that we showed didn't resemble a finished film but a work print, and it was only when seeing it there in front of me that I realized this in horror. I instantly regretted not spending more time to perfect the edit. As a film and a narrative it does make sense but it looks far from professional. Though the version of the voice over we have is much more dynamic and gives the film its lighthearted, comic feel, there is a big chunk in the middle of the film where it drops out, leaving mostly dead air. I should been more imaginative with the sound, but at least putting in different music tracks to underscore the action helped a bit. The film needed a more dynamic sound scape, louder effects to go along with the music, and more voice over. Ours was also the only film not to include any credits sequences, which I simply never thought to put on.

I think I should have taken a more active role in the group and made a stand for the film. Though I was supposed to be the main editor on the film someone else took over and I don't believe that they had the same enthusiasm for the project that I had. They took out some of the more creative choices I had made in rough versions, and I even had to put one of these back in after it was pointed out the film looked a lot better with it in. The versions of the film that come out of this I felt was edited rather dryly and brought down the film. When I finally got the chance to get on a mac and edit myself I felt I was being pulled in different by the group, some who supported the decisions I had made, and the other editor who wanted to keep his version. The frustrated me so much at one point I had to leave the edit suite. What frustrates me the most is I believe that the film could have been better if I had complete control over the editing, but in the end I didn't speak up like I should have so it's my fault.

In the end, though the finished product did not come as well as we would have hoped, Fan Man still proved to be an invaluable experience. It taught me about the inner-workings of teamwork when working on film projects, how you all to pull your weight and it becomes immediately obvious when someone isn't. Communication is vital and without this progress and creativity can slam to a halt. It is no good enough to think something is done, you have to watch it over and over again and get it perfect. I am excited to begin my factual module in January and am looking forward to incorporating the lessons I have learned in my fiction experience in my future projects. Fan Man was a much needed lesson and kick up the arse.

The BBFC - Nasty Videos or Nasty Censors?

I have always been interested in the history of film censorship in this country, and for any film fan
with even a passing interest in more extreme movies, it's hard not to get sucked into it at some point. In the age of such immediately accessible content and movies on demand, it's crazy to think that well known films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist were essentially banned in this country until 15 years ago. It's equally crazy to think now you can walk into HMV and buy many of the so called 'Video Nasties' that sent a shock wave through the country in the early 80's These films and the moral panic that they spawned were documented in Jake West's brilliant 2010 documentary 'Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Video - Tape'. West also produced a follow up this year for the 30th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act - 'Draconian Days', which details it's effect on film censorship through to the modern day. One of the things that these films point out is that the moral crusaders who caused a such a fuss about these films in the first place either don't know or don't care that many of them are now readily available in an uncut form - they have moved on to video games and the internet as the new scapegoats for the ills in society.

In many ways. a moral panic a quintessential British thing, a reflection of our countries class system. It's always the upper class, well educated censors who are looking after the working class, whose lack of sophistication leaves them more vulnerable to be influenced by the content of films. This attitude is no better demonstrated than in this quote from James Ferman, ex cheif censor of the BBFC, who said after a screening of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre -  “It’s all right for you middle-class cinéastes to see this film, but what would happen if a factory worker in Manchester happened to see it?”. It's not just violent videos that have been subject to this classist discrimination, in the 1950s there was a similar moral panic other the effects of Horror Comics, and the same kind of panic is seen constantly in the press nowadays over video games. In the Victorian era, Penny Dreadful literature, the precursor to pulp fiction and the aforementioned horror comics, lead to fear of increased crime due to their influence on the lower classes, who read them on cheap, pulpy paper. However, it was seen as fine for the upper classes to read them in bound form. This same kind of classism was seen in the Video Recordings Era - Terminator 2 was released on VHS in a cut form, but the Laserdisc edition was completely uncut. The assumption obviously being that if you can afford the Laserdisc version of the film, then you are a 'middle-class cinéaste' with no danger of being influenced by any of the films violent content. This same kind of thing is even seen today, with The Hunger Games being released cut on DVD with a 12 certificate, and but uncut on Blu Ray with a 15.

On the other hand, it is difficult to defend some of the films that the BBFC are worried about. As a horror fan, I fail to see the attraction of 'mondo' movies such as Faces of Death which have a little purpose other than to show horrific images of real life death. I personally would never have any death film crap anywhere near my collection. The recent trend of increasingly nasty and boundary pushing horror films are also extremely hard to defend. I have no wish to ever see films like 'The Human Centipede 2' and 'A Serbian Film' and I find that the fact I have witnessed people my age talk about these films as something of a cheap laugh both disturbing and sad. Though for the most part I am against censorship, to me these kind of films represent the fact that we have reached an aphex, both as a society and in films, in which we have become completely numb to violence and it is impossible to shock. These films seem to some extent to be deliberately testing the BBFC, whose relaxation of censorship in recent years has seen the DVD and Blu Ray releases of many previously banned or unreleased films. They are certainly a much more friendly and open organistation nowadays, allowing the public to view their decisions on their website and even releasing a regular podcast. Hardcore horror fans can now easily import films from abroad, or download them from the internet, which increasingly makes the BBFC look outdated. But with the strength of the right wing tabloid press and moral panic tradition in this country, it is unlikely the BBFC will ever go away, and the question is only how it will grow and adapt further in the digital age.

Fan Man - Test Shoot and Assembly Cut

Fan Man has turned out to be a fantastic (pun not intended) project thus far. The footage that we shot for our Test version came back looking brilliant. There are only a few things that we need to change for our finished film.

The mistake that we made during both our test and final shoot was not shooting enough coverage. We only shoot the beginning of the film up to a certain point rather than letting it all play out. Doing this would have allowed us much more footage to play with in the edit. Thankfully though, the assembly cut that I managed to put together was well received and there is no need for us to re shoot anything.

A problem that arose during the shoot that we managed to greatly overcome was the fact that none of our actors turned up. Normally it is would be a disaster to cast 3 of the 4 of in our own film, but in this case it turned out great, (largely thanks to not having any dialogue to worry about!). Having studied acting in the past and enjoying playing different characters, I don't have a problem with being on camera at tall, though I won't claim to be a Brando or DeNiro. I just use my face to convey the emotions and try not to look at the camera.

What we really need to think about at this stage is the soundtrack for our film. We were given the suggestion of using voice over, which I think could work quite well if done right. Another idea that I have considered as an alternative is the use of comic book panels to convey what would otherwise be said in voice over, and I am going to investigate how this could be done in Final Cut Pro. We also need to think about music and sound effects.

Nesting Sequences in Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro can be a complicated program to get to grips with when you first start out. There are many different features and functions that I need to get to grips with before I can truly start editing like a pro, however I am improving all the time. I have made a target that I am going to get into the edit suite whenever I can to finish off editing the coverage that we shot in our Practice Enrichment session. We wrote some simple dialogue and shot a simple scene consisting of a conversation between two people on what they would do if they won the lottery. We shot it from different angles, including a master shot, over shoulders and close ups. We then transferred this footage over to the edit suite and have been given the task of putting together an edit.

When putting my video and sound captured from Tascam when working on my edit, the first thing I tried to do was use a time consuming process, of
individually linking up every clip and the appropriate sound together each time I found the one that I wanted to add to the timeline. I have now discovered a much quicker and easier way to do it then this. This is to create a new sequence for every angle and sync the appropriate sound and video up within that sequence (Master Shot, Overshoulder1, etc.). This way once you have synced everything up it is easier to simply scan through your sequences, find the clip that you want to use, and pull it into the master sequence.

In conclusion,  Final Cut Pro is a program which allows many different methods of working. You have to figure out what works best for you though the experience of editing. I am confident that through my editing practice I will be able to find what works best for me.

Exit Tinnitus, Enter Fan Man

The Tinnitus project proved to be a disastrous failure. There was a total lack of organisation and initiative within the group. The director was hesitant to move forward and make definitive decisions with his film, which left us with a lack of storyboards or shot lists. This left me to take the initiative and write the story myself, which made me feel uncomfortable as I was taking someone’s film off them. This all resulted in us not being able to produce a finished draft version of the film, save for a couple of bad test shots. I felt so embarrassed on the day when every other group was producing great stuff. This experience has taught me a valuable lesson about the media industry. In the end, a film needs to come from the director, and if the crew beneath him/her are forced to pick up his film through their lack of initiative, then it truly won't result in a good situation for anyone involved. Organisation and planning ahead is key, and the cast and crew need to know what is going to happen ahead of time. If this is not done then the whole film will fall apart.

The end result of all this is that Tinnitus has been shelved. We have instead been assigned to work an exciting film whose pitch did not initially get picked. The film is called 'Fan Man' and it tells a much more concise and defined story about a nerdy man in a cafe who stands up to a bunch of ruffians who come in and harass a girl that he fancies. We are shooting a draft version tonight and I am going to play the protagonist. I have come into college wearing a white shirt with pens tucked into the breast pocket and thick glasses. I think that this will add greatly to the Mise en scene and allow the audience to clearly identify the kind of character this is supposed to be. We have a much better script and storyboard this time so I am feeling much more confident this time. We have the use of a cafe location and cast members this time. I am much more confident with this project and believe that the draft version of the film that we shoot will come back looking great.

Samm Haillay - The Gun on The Mantlepiece

Sam Haillay is one the most important and exciting up and coming producers in the North East. Through his independent production company ' Third', which he founded with Duane Hopkins in 2001, he has been responsible for supporting a vast array of new talent. He was responsible for producing Hopkins award winning short films and his feature debut 'Better Things', which received high praise when it at the Cannes Film Festival's International Critics Week, in 2008.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to hear Haillay speak yesterday, and found his advice and stories highly engaging and inspiring. The advice he gave was invaluable for a budding young film maker such as myself. Samm talked at length about every phrase a film goes through, from the idea generation and pitch through to filming and post - production. He gave some novel ideas on ways which one might raise money to make a film, recalling one time when he and his colleagues worked overtime packing in a Supermarket during the busy Christmas season, and managed to raise over £1000 in the process. He gave a fantastic tip for the casting process which stuck with me, which is to ask any non-actors who you want to cast in your film to simply look into the lens to see what they do. They struck me as a great tip, as everyone has a different reaction to being in front of the camera, some are too theatrical in front of it, some shy away from it, and some have a natural or even dominating presence when in front of it. Therefore simply asking them to look into the lens can allow to know early on if they are the right person for the job, by simply how they react to being in front of the lens.

One of the things which Haillay talked about which stuck with me the most was the concept of 'The Gun On The Mantlepiece'. This refers to a narrative technique in which a seemingly unimportant item is glimpsed or discussed briefly at the beginning of the story, only to turn out to be important in the last act. My mind immediately went to Edgar Wright's 'Shaun of The Dead'. In the film a rifle is appropriately seem above the bar in The Winchester pub, and the characters argue at several points in the narrative over whether or not it is a real gun. In the film's final act, it does in fact turn out to be a real gun when Shaun accidentally fires it, and it is then used by the characters as a way to fight back against the zombies that are closing in on the pub. This technique is also known as 'Chekhov's gun' after the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, who summed it up as "If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." If it isn't essential, then you shouldn't include it in the story.

 I also had the opportunity to watch a fantastic short film that Haillay produced, Jade, directed by Daniel Elliot, for which he received the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The film takes a rather generic soap opera - esque plot, that is, a teenage girl gets pregnant by her boss and tells her boyfriend that it is his, and films it a such a subdued and cold way that really makes it feel fresh. It's a very bleak watch and really makes you feel uncomfortable as you watch it. There is very little dialogue throughout and no music whatsoever, with much of the story being told through characters faces and actions.The final shot of the film, which can be seen above, really stuck with me. It ends with Jade looking directly at the camera, at us the audience, as if to ask "what would you have done?". The director then breaks the 180 rule by showing Jade's POV of the rain outside the car windscreen, and then cuts abruptly to black, leaving us feeling melancholy as the credits roll silently. I really thought this was a great piece of film making and urge anyone reading this to check it out.

Aesthetica Short Film Festival - ASFF York 2014

As part my degree, I want to take advantage of every opportunity outside of Lectures that comes my way, in order to gain experience and knowledge. Film Festivals are something which I have always been interested in but never had the chance to attend before. You can imagine my excitement then, when we were given the opportunity to visit the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) taking place in York from the 6th to the 9th of this month.

The festival showcases some 300 short films from all around the world, spanning genres as diverse as Drama, Comedy, Music Video, Fashion and Experimental. The Festival also features a number of masterclasses featuring talks with Industry Professionals in various fields. It was amazing and inspiring for me to be able to hear these pros talk about their experiences.

The first masterclass that I attended features 3 camera operators who have worked on films such as SkyFall, Gravity, and the Star Wars series. One of them had just finished working on the new Star Wars film and we were given a fierce warning not to ask him any questions about it! These guys talked about how the way they worked, explaining it requires a combination of physicality and creativity. You get to discuss with the director, make the decisions about the correct composition and camera movements for a shot, but situations such as chase sequence where you have to run along with the actors require you to keep in shape as well. We also got a description of the StediCam and how it can be used. They said it weighs about the same as a rucksack you would carry around with you, so it is quite comfortable to film moving shots with it. We were shown an incredibly complicated tracking shot from Joe Wright's 'Anna Karenina' and they talked us through the incredibly grueling process by which it was filmed, using a moblie phone clip that had been captured the filming. This was incredibly useful for me to gain further insight into tracking shots, such as the famous one in Martin Scorsese's  'Goodfellas'. What I took away was to keep stuff happening in the shot all the time, don't shot die, otherwise the audience will wonder why you haven't cut yet.

The next masterclass I attended was on Editing, and featured Lisa Gunning, who recently edited Seven Psychopaths for Martin MacDonagh. She is incredible passionate about what she does and that really came through, which made this a highly enjoyable masterclass. She talked about getting into the business through adverts, moving onto shorts, and then feature films. She talked about the relationship between editor and director, and that she has always had heated disagreements with every director she worked with. Ultimately however, this is because they are both highly passionate about what they do and want to make a good film in the end.

This was an incredibly enjoyable and helpful weekend and I'm so glad that I went. I hope that I will more opportunities to attend events such as this one.

Two Months of Media Production

Hello Media world!

Welcome to my blog. I'm going to be using this as a way to document my progress during my Media Production Foundation Degree at Newcastle College. Hopefully this will prove to be a good outlet for reflection during my time on the course, and maintaining regular updates will keep me focused and always on the look out for the ways to improve. I am confident that documenting my thoughts in this way will be very helpful for me. I hope as well that you will find it interesting and entertaining.

Anyway, today's update will act simply as a bringing you up to date with what is happening currently on the course. As I write this we are starting the second term of the year, and we are beginning production on our first film. The film will take the form of a 5 minute fiction piece, for which we have all had to come up with our own story ideas. Only a handful of ideas have gotten green lighted, and we have gotten broke off into small groups to work on the films. The prospect of actually working on a film in this way is both incredibly exciting and incredibly terrifying. There is so much potential for things to go wrong at this early stage, but then every mistake made will be a lesson learned in the end. The best way to learn how to make films is to just go out there and make a film. This will be an incredibly important and helpful learning experience for me.

The film which I have chosen to work on has the title of 'Tinnitus', and it concerns a man who contracts Tinnitus and his resulting descent into madness. I think that this is fantastic idea for a short film but we have a lot of work to do. We have been set a task for next Tuesday to produce a draft version of the film, that is very rough version of the film but which can be sloppy but has the general idea of the shots, actors and locations in place.

My team and I have agreed that the best course of action to take right now is for us all to go away and produce a storyboard of how we each see the action playing out. Then we are going to meet up on Friday (I am going to the Ashetica Short Film Festival in York on Friday so I am going to send my storyboards over) and review. We will take the best bits from each story board and use those to produce our film.

I am extremely nervous but also keen to get started. I am going to get working on my storyboards and hopefully we will have a good draft of our film to show by next Tuesday.