THOUGHTS…

It looks like we’re at the end of 2008.

Studio Tacitus and I are still a bit of a secret entity...though, not secret on the internet. But as for a more real world sort of a launch...maybe there can be one in 2009...but, there has to be a right timing on a more, braver, stepping out there with my work type of scenario. I have to be happy...or happy-ish with what goes out there. Of course some directors / painters / writers / composers / podcasters are probably never really happy with what they have...this is why a release is called a release as Mr Og told me. you are releasing / letting go of your film...it's like a baby in a basket going down a river.

I'm sadly one of these people who is rarely happy with the final thing, it's almost like I want to put up a sign at the start of the film saying..."yeah well, this is honestly nothing like what I really want, but I tortured myself making it...I feel it has a vibe of sorts, but I want it made on 70mm with miniatures"

MORE REMAKES COMING?

Is this really true?...are they really going to remake Forbidden Planet, When Worlds Colide and This Island Earth?

My dad and I have always loved Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth...or you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to be introduced to these old films by him, because he has a love for Sci-Fi. He's often mentioned how Forbidden Planet could or should be remade as the gap is quite big now.

MORE DETAIL TO THE SAME THREE SHOTS...

Ah yes, two versions each with their own merits...I cant help but feel that the accordion style thing I’ve added has screwed up the composition a bit on the first shot here, but I really want more detail going on in these shots...

A LITTLE CLIP FROM MY NEW FILM

Another little bit done, but third shot isn't completed. First and second shot are completed-ish.

THE TWO HOLLYWOOD SALOON PODCAST GUYS GO THEIR SEPARATE WAYS?

Only just found this out, but it appears on 10th December 2008 Andy Siems decided to call it a day...or, begin to wrap up a gradual shutdown of it.

It's sad, because they were/are really great to listen to together because they're both different people, and that’s what makes a great conversation interesting to listen to. The enthusiasm was wonderful and love hearing people who are passionate about the thing they’re talking about.

I always like to say never say never...it could come back, of course it could...Indiana Jones IV was made with a ninteen year gap, Rambo IV was made with a twenty year gap...Terrence Malick took a twenty year gap in-between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line.

Also, there’s more shows on the way from The Hollywood Saloon, so it's by no means over completely.

I wish the two of them the very best of luck with the future.


FAVOURITE EPISODES:

Hollywood Saloon
Episode 36 - EARLY WORKS [click here]

Hollywood Saloon
Episode 32 - STYLE: Film Grammar at the Movies [click here]

Hollywood Saloon
Episode 25 - LITTLE FAT GIRL [click here]

Hollywood Saloon
Episode 16 - PAPER CINEMA [click here]

Hollywood Saloon
Episode 17 - LEGACY: What Will Endure? [click here]



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RUSTBOY, WHERE ART THOU?

Now it crops up every now and again this one. The question that was asked to me the other day was...“anything on Rustboy?" which is the question everybody wants answered and the information out there is scarce.

I found a exciting scrap of info on wikipedia saying that it might come out in 2014 / 2015 If you click here and scroll down that about 89%...it seems to be mentioned there but has the word tentative written next to it, and also USA, don’t know if that’s him or not, but it has to be I think?

Another tiny, tiny ickle little bit of scrap of information also here that Damian Collier a producer, entrepreneur and business consultant for film, TV, music and stage is working on it...

"Damian has also been developing another major brand - Rustboy, www.rustboy.com, which he has signed a deal to produce as a feature film, in conjunction with one of the major Studios in Los Angeles."

There's actually no wikipedia page for Rustboy itself in existence just yet, but hopefully that will happen at some point in the future.

I can remember very clearly as a younger man at art college being quite taken and inspired by what he did, and I’m certain that all those years ago it went towards me wanting to make animations. I had to decide at college what It was I wanted to do and I love the challenge of filmmaking and still do.

You can stop by the site for it though here

OLIVER POSTGATE HAS PASSED AWAY

Oliver Postgate 12 April 1925 - 8 December 2008

It’s odd timing on this one again for me, because I had not all that long ago...well, my dad had rented Bagpuss, and then I made the connection that it was indeed made by Smallfilms...I only really knew of Clangers and had also seen Ivor the Engine a very long time ago, but, didn’t know it was all by the same people until i recognised the voiceover of Postgate on Bagpuss.

The staggering part here is...that the company was only two men...Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, however, the two men often collaborated with Vernon Elliott who was a british bassoonist, conductor and composer.

“We would go to the BBC once a year, show them the films we'd made, and they would say: Yes, lovely, now what are you going to do next? We would tell them, and they would say: That sounds fine, we'll mark it in for eighteen months from now, and we would be given praise and encouragement and some money in advance, and we'd just go away and do it.”

It’s a tremulously inspirational story for me, and possibly the most inspirational story I know of. And I think about it every time I see a Smallfilms short.

Below is the first episode of Ivor The Engine.

THE RED DWARF SERIES ONE INTRO SEQUENCE PART 2 OF 2

This piece of information nicked from wikipedia...

"For the opening credits and exterior shots a Red Dwarf model ship had to be built from scratch. Peter Wragg was the Visual Effects Designer of Red Dwarf; Wragg also had a large part in set building and was the chief model maker. Wragg had previously filled a similar role in British television series; such as Thunderbirds Are GO, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Doctor Who. The opening effects shot features a dissolve from Lister painting the ship to a full model shot of the city-sized vessel traveling through space. Originally it was supposed to be one long take but it proved too difficult to mesh together with a small budget and lowly special effects of the day. The model of Red Dwarf itself measured about eight foot long from scoop to engine"

THE RED DWARF SERIES ONE INTRO SEQUENCE PART 1 OF 2

I’ve been watching the first series of Red Dwarf again in the small hours of the morning, its been a while since I did that...

NOTE: I didn’t realise that I was in urgent need of some good solid comedy to cheer me up until I sat in front of this. Not that I was particularly down though, its important to add here that I wasn't down...or was I?...but funny things are funny things...and clever comedy that’s well written is always welcome.

...but I’m amazed at how incredibly good the intro sequence is. Had forgotten really...

It’s simply wonderful...for many reasons, the fact that we pull back from a close up of paint on a panel...beautiful, beautiful miniature work...who designed this i dont know exactly...but theres some names here, Alexander Gunn special effects senior technician - Peter Wragg, visual effects designer and Angus Bickerton motion control.

Add to this, that truly great theme tune composed by Howard Goodall.

OLD FLOOD CLIP I SHOT

Found this and wanted to post it, it's a odd bit of footage, basically the road ahead is flooded quite badly...was quite a thing to see.

MY CONVERSATIONS WITH ANDY SIEMS PART 1 OF 2

This is a hard one to talk about but I want get this out of my system...what happened there with Andy Siems was I spoke to him a couple of times in a chat room...and I think it was me that said... “can I add you to messenger?”...and then well, I added him to messenger.

What then transpired was a very bad case of me being star struck, but also ontop of that, which was possibly even worse...the self fulfilling prophecy thing happened...it's not good, no it's not good.

NOTE: Andy Siems and John Jansen do The Hollywood Saloon Podcast.

These guys I just really love listening to and over the years you get so that you know what they love and what they don’t love...sort of. But, I do know one thing for certain, and that’s that Andy Siems really loves science fiction...but what I’m talking about here is a real love for a lot of different types of science fiction...and a particular love for what I call pure science fiction stuff, that’s the very optimistic stuff, like the Gene Roddenberry universe. That basically means space ships, alien worlds and ray guns. Now I don’t come across many people who like that stuff, in fact I only know two or three. But it’s very clear in those three cases that they are very similar to me in the views that they have about present day mankind, we share a dream of all probably wanting to live in Gene Roddenberry universe.

I know that he loves my films a lot, and so entirely possible that, maybe he was star struck around me?...I only say this because on the brief encounters I’ve had with him he’s often said how much he loves my films...

NOTE: When somebody says they love my stuff I never know how to really respond to it. You see, I see nothing but faults in my work...I want the work to be so much better than it is...but to come clean here, I see great potential in my ideas, if I can ever get them properly realised...to me, they still aren’t really realised. Maybe the concepts are, but I’m a long way off from that 70mm camera and large miniatures...and that frustrates the hell out of me.

NOTE: At the same time I’m proud of most of what I’ve done because it exists as something, and that’s better than not having anything at all to show. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy with some of the shots I’ve done, and love the actual making the films.

That somebody was star struck around me is a very difficult concept for me to grasp, that people would be star struck around me...me????..*laughs* and I definitely think he would find it hard to grasp that somebody was star struck around him too...but the simple fact of the matter is, I was.

Butis there a misunderstanding though?...Am I one of these people who assumes the worse?

A TRIP OUT ACROSS SOUTH WEST SCOTLAND AT NIGHT PART 1

I have to say to check out this mans podcast here

Kens podcast is a really important one, and it does identify and bring to light / remind us...of the whole thing of, lots of stuff in our lives that we sit around and whinge about, that they are indeed mundane. I’m guilty of doing this a lot.

I also didn’t know that Ken is really into the film Alive. I can remember seeing that film a long, long time ago and being utterly blown away by the plane crash scene of how realistic it was...and how we got to see the seats being ripped out and disappearing out into the mountains...and this gets me onto a related story in the next paragraph.

This gets me onto yesterday where I sat in the back of a car being taken to a concert. On the hour and a half / two hour car journey we went past Lockerbie...and like the last time I went to this same concert (a year ago)...as we’re going up the hill you get a really good night-time view of Lockerbie...

NOTE: It’s one of these views where buildings are really quite visibly close to you, a very steep bit of road that goes really high, elevating you up so you see a lot of stuff.

...and you cant help, or at least for me at any rate...I always think of Pan Am Flight 103 and this one horrendous thing (well the whole thing is horendous) that happened where apparently some seats went through somebody's sitting room...but we have very little information on it. My dad says that the people were in their sitting room when it happened, and wikipedia says that Eleven people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane's fuselage fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270. It always leaves me in total silence.

AND THE OTHER THING I REALLY LOVE ABOUT SCIENCE FICTION IS...

...that there's somthing inherently pretty about spaceships / space stations with lots of little lights on them...it's a bit like how people react to Christmas decoration lights I think.