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.

A OUT OF THE BLUE PHONE CALL

A very close dear friend of mine phoned up today (who I’ve not spoken to in over five years now) and I was really quite shakey / shaken for a while / really hyped up after the phone conversation...it really did shake me to the core, and I’m still right now, right this minute, very restless and cant stop thinking...was very nervous on the phone which means I go very quiet...

NOTE: It reminds me instantly of radio, if somebody stops talking the silences are very, very long...allthough I did notice it in a Charlie Kaufman podcast interview and it didn;t bother me there, but I think that was down to the fact that there was background sound of the cafe they were in...but also because you knew they were actually sitting at a table talking to each other face to face.

...I think there was a lot of confusion on the telephone, although it's impossible to say for sure...I tend to fall apart on the phone, but wish I wouldn't in retrospect, because it is one of the most wonderful inventions ever made to man. I wish I could make it work for me though, and I think if done more often I would get better at it perhaps...everything gets back round to confidence.

NOTE: I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way...I loved the phone conversation and how it really hit me like a ton of bricks...because it opens up my problems...I become aware of them again (I know the problems...but, I forget about them...and they have a way of getting worse without me knowing about it...but better after things like this) when people make me think and remind me of my problems I have nothing but respect for them...and feel very lucky to be part of knowing such great people.

The conversation reminded me of my past, of how independent I was in my flat...and made me aware of my current situation (living at home with parents) and how your independence isn’t too good in this situation, but you get use to it, you get completely use to it, because people being the amazing things that they are, adapt.

Also, I don’t go outside into the world very often...I use to, but you get use to not doing it...it's interesting, but you get a shock when somebody who’s enjoyed life and who's made a huge impression on you all your life appears again, because you suddenly realise in a shock moment that you’ve been wasting yours.

There's much more to life than just making animations / documentaries...

...I know this because I've expierienced little bits and pieces of the good stuff that is out there...the pivotal moments in your life where you discover who you are...these are with you forever and are so powerful a memory that they can be triggered off in conversations you wouldn't usually go into because you have kinda somehow got into a very reclusive lifestyle.

It makes matters all the more frustrating that you’ve experienced small amounts of amazing things...by that I mean two weeks of intence joy...because you now know how special that stuff is...you have some context?...and you now also have somthing to relate to when seeing / hearing other things...these experiences however are very precious to me and would not trade them for anything in the world. At least I experienced something...or, at least I tried...but it's the not trying again for so long that can get to me. It’s the fact that you've experienced these great things that it's possible for you to be so tortured in the present.

The grass is always greener though, isn’t it?

There seems to be hardly any time in a entire persons life...it shoots by at a incredible speed...and I believe that there are too many things to do and not enough time.

But I’m one of these people who loses myself in something, I'm susceptible to getting addicted to things and losing track of time completely for years...and then usually I get shaken up like this from time to time inside the decade by friends who have a way of being honest and incredibly direct into your core.

Some people are so incredibly amazing and really poke around in your core, in a matter of minutes they have raised a number of very powerful poignant points that leave you having to go on a huge verbal diarrhoea session with whoever's in your closest proximity. In this case, my mother got the gibbering...or was I talking intelligibly?...and I actually felt drunk too, with no alcohol.

The thing is I use to have a house, yes quite a big flat with no mortgage on it at all, I lived there on my own for two years, got into a real mess, and then went back home. You see home for all its faults has one major advantage, and that is your around people, it's something that I think is vitally important in life, that your around people... to simply balance things out a bit. Our house is quite large and my parents are both very complicated people and I dont really want to go into too much here too fast, it's hard to explain without writing some sort of book on it...and maybe hard for other people to understand who've not got parents like mine.

PURE SCIENCE FICTION, AS IN, THE LARGE SPACE SHIPS GOING TO OTHER PLANETS AND RAY GUNS SORT OF VARITY

Was is it about this form of science fiction that has me so totally hooked?...well I reckon its that, it’s optimism at its very, very finest...or, it’s that if you weren’t happy on planet earth you could go somewhere else, although in Gene Roddenberry's vision, planet earth seems to be ok to live on too...the idea that they have sorted things out and space travel exists to somebody like me is unavoidably overwhelmingly appealing to watch on your TV screen.

I’m making a really big space ship at the moment in Cinema 4D and I couldn’t help but think what Star Trek means to me, and the optimism of Gene Roddenberry is something I keep going back to in my head.

SECOND EPISODE OF SURVIVORS REMAKE

Well...I’m finding all of this quite hard to review because I know the original inside out. This second episode of the remake is a odd thing because its merged together two stories from the original...I cant help but feel this episode was a bit speedy. It needed to take it's time a bit more I think...but as I say, I’m very fond of the original and seeing what you allready know being done in a really speedy fashion is very frustrating, and also theres a less seriousness to it I feel...but, perhaps the seriousness of the situation will come later...or perhaps its meant to be mordern people reacting differently to it here in 2008...we do get Anya though who in the pilot seemed to know the seriousness of the situation and had that hysteria outburst in the walk in cupboard...I keep reading this is based on Terry Nations Book of Survivors which is different to the original.

...the editing on this episode was way too quick for me. I’m a huge fan of long takes, and that interfered with my enjoyment on it too...that’s something that I shouldn’t let bother me but it does.

All this aside, I still think it's good entertainment (and putting out a lot of extremely interesting topics which Survivors always does...that’s one of the things I love about it)

Very nicely shot too, the compositions are really good, some wonderful wide shots in here, surprisingly good.

Am still really keen to see more, and that’s always a good sign... one of the things about it is that its really short, and its sad that its first series is only stretching out to six parts. Hopefully series two will be longer, or hopefully they haven’t gone too far into it by the time we get to the end of series one.

SUPPLEMENTAL: There does seem to be a blue tint on quite a few of these shots in this new series.

NICE POST APOCALYPTIC POSTERS OF TEN FAMOUS CITIES

THIS was a really cool find, I've still not seen the film and didn't know they had a publicity poster campaign like this.

It's ten famous cities all apocalypsed up, really nice work.

IT SEEMS THAT THEY'RE FILMING A SECOND SERIES OF SURVIVORS ALREADY

That was fantastic to hear, and I get to see the second episode tonight of series one...I’ll probably write about that too.

SUPPLEMENTAL: I wonder if I'm writing about this too much. It is one of my favourite-ist things though.

AND HERE’S HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE NEW REMAKE OF SURVIVORS, OR IS THAT A REBOOT?

Can watch it [here]

And, incredibly...absolutely incredibly, it DIDN’T SUCK...ok, well bits of it did. But this was a surprisingly good effort. I’m so shocked and so happy that it was actually pretty good!

It’s definitely a bit of both...both remake and reboot...which was surprising...it definitely had some problems about it at times, but I seemed to forgive some of those...I think unfortunetly it got speeded up a bit at the end though, which I didn’t really forgive...suddenly they all met up really fast and was a bit miffed about that...but some interesting situations to be seen here. I find Survivors or just post-apocalyptic stories in general to be a fascinating situation to throw people into. And the fact that its a TV series, well I dont know of any other TV series that have taken on that story.

The positive here was that, the dead bodies and peoples reactions to that...the acting was really pretty good on that stuff, but, bare in mind I thought it this would be horrendously bad...so maybe there’s just a sort of “oh” thing going on over here about it all. But the thing was, this was pretty entertaining TV.

PROS:

-Its entertaining television and I feel has a piece of the spirit of the original.

-a good cast.

-It's very nicely shot, the colours are there, unlike many a modern film or TV series which has been made blue tinted...or yellow tinted.

-Some of it was pretty dark stuff.

CONS:

-Music is a bit over the top at times, its too much. I don’t want to dare tell another person how to be creative though, when the music was working it was really nice...but it got a tad too much at times for me.

-One of the action scenes was very badly edited.

-Not enough dark stuff, would have liked it to be a bit bolder and a bit more realistic.

-There should have been the occasional abandoned vehicle on the roads on the arial photography stuff.

-It looks like its been contrasted up in post production, which is somthing I'm not too keen on.

SOMTHING I NOTICED...

...quite funny...this and this

THREE AND A HALF HOURS TO GO…

...until we get the Survivors reboot - hour and half - first instalment. I have to say I'm uspet with how this has been handled by the BBC though...there seems to be only one trailer, ONE trailer...and it's not a very good trailer...and unfortunately people being the sheep they are, may judge it on this one trailer, they should have had at least three completely different trailers on rotation and online so that the thick people could excited about it too...they've not made a good job on this... oh well...

I TUNED IN TO EINSTEIN AND EDDINGTON

Can be viewed here...(though only in britain?) flippen heck!...they actually made something decent, I'm always very, very worried about brittish productions prior to watching them, but they pulled off a great one here. Andy Serkis and David Tenant are really very likeable actors and both did a wonderful job. I liked it a lot.

Now here comes the stuff I’m not happy about, about it. And I honestly have a problem typing this stuff out too, I don’t like to be negative, but try to be constructive, I hope.

suffers from a few problems, too much score, would have liked less music...or would have liked more music that was relevant to the times of that period...it’s a tricky thing though...there is one bit however where we got to see some sort of quartet or quintet (not entirely sure) which was nice (this is really what I’m talking about)...suffers from too much hand held wobbliness.

Don’t let this put you off though, please, please, it’s a really good story and I love the performances...and when it's shot well, it's really shot well.

DUG OUT ANOTHER ONE, I'M OFFICIALLY ADDICTED

Continuing my digging out of episodes I found a whole stash more orriginal trek, I’ll definitely be watching it all I think, so I continued to view them, it was very late at night now so I only managed to fit one more in.

Balance of Terror

Written by Paul Schneider and directed by Vincent McEveety. Really liked some of the stuff in here too, the view screen conversation with the federation outpost I loved, I don’t know but that’s always been one of my favourite things about Star Trek...when they get the distress call and then we see the damage at the other end.

This episode is slightly like The Wrath of Khan at times too, but Mark Lenard is very much the opposite of Ricardo Montalbán, hes a fairly calm commander (or at least I think he was, maybe need to watch this again) and Khan was of course somebody who got angry very quickly.

It is like a submarine film and I'm just reading now about a film called The Enemy Below which they seem to reckon is very simalar to this.

NOT LONG NOW...

...till we see how the hour and half first part of this thing has been made...another screen grab by me...I’m just really, really very excited about this whole thing...it was inevitable for me I think...uncontrollable, and while it lasts great...the anticipation and excitement before seeing it is probably going to be the best part...but I live in hope, I mean, it may be great?

THE MINIATURE I MADE

Looking at those shots of the Alien Lego miniatures got me thinking about my own miniature creations, which I’ve only ever done twice (and very sadly had to disassemble each one...they were never very big either but were a lot of fun to make)...the first time, well both times were just soil with rocks placed down, but the second time I started to use water. I sprayed water on it and boy was that a hell of a lot of fun. It’s a really relaxing thing to do and very rewarding to see your miniature start to look cool, I really don’t know why I don’t do more of it, I spose its because there’s not much room in the house and because I really would like to do a huge one.

I don’t have any photos of the first one but here’s the second one I did.