One Rode To Asa Bay

Here's another film that has a lot in common aesthetically with my Client project idea, the music video to Bathory's song 'One Rode To Asa Bay'. The whole thing was shot in Norway, and apparently cost Quorthon, the band leader, $5,000 to film. Around 60 hours were filmed, but most of this was apparently erased by the director, leaving the band with around 18 minutes of footage....whoops!



There's a lot of fading transitions in here, some of which work really well (the bit near the start where the viking stands up, layered over the monks, looks great) and some of them are almost disorientating. While the story that's being told here (settlers bringing a new religion to a land) is quite different to mine, a lot of the shots of people walking through woodlands are quite similar to what I had in mind for this project.

Client Research

Here's a few adverts I found on YouTube, there don't seem to be an enormous ammount of adverts for small independent record stores, so some of them aren't entirely relevant, but still quite useful.


This one is fairly straightforward, just says where the shop is, how to contact them and what they stock, and consists pretty much just of shots of the store. Doesn't do anything flashy, but serves it's purpose.


Not for a CD shop this one, but for a local, independent business nonetheless. Again, quite basic, just shots of the store again, but this time we have the store owner talking us through it.


This is truly horrible. A song and dance number for K-Mart's media section. I'll make a note to make my ad absolutely nothing like this one.


This is an ad for a compilation album, and again, it's pretty terrible, but it's a simple idea based in and around a CD shop.

Most of the ads I found seemed either very straightforward and to the point, and the few ads I did find that tried to tell a little story or do anything else (like the previous two) just came off seeming really cheesy, so I'll have to find a fine line between the two I think.

Njorl's Saga

Here's a Monty Python sketch that bares a large of ammount of similarity to my viking idea for the client project -



Around 2 and a half minutes through is the bit that's like my idea, with Njorl riding a horse through the wilderness before ending up in North Malden. The transition between the two locations is class, there's a zoom into a close up of Njorl and then we cut straight to the sign, and voila, we're there!
I don't have the budget to get a horse however, so in the ad the viking would have to wander about on foot. To make this idea work, I think I'd need a really good location too, maybe Sherwood Forest?

Nightmare At 20,00 Feet

What a classic! It's really cool how it manages to make a pretty basic story so compelling, and allows it all to unfold in the same, again pretty basic, location. Good stuff.

Up

WARNING! SPOILERS!

If you haven't seen this film, go see it! This review is intended as a discussion point after seeing it.



Up has a fair few suprises up it's sleeve, not just the plot which, whilst not totally devoid of predictability, is more than entertaining enough to keep you enthralled throughout, but also because some of it's themes are pretty dark for a Disney film. The opening montage, in which we see Carl and his wife Ellie get married, try for a baby and have a miscarriage, grow old together and then Carl at Ellie's funeral, is moving in a much deeper way than say, the death of Bambi's mother. It feels more real, this is a film that may be more likely to make the parents cry rather than the kids. Beginning our story with a grieving old man who feels lost and alone is heavy stuff for Disney, and it definitely pays off. Call me a cynic, but often with these films I kinda feel they get a little too bogged down in phony sentimentality, it often seems quite tacky, or cheesy, but here the entire film has a genuine warmth to it, and you do actually care about the characters. The severity of the subjects lend the film a weight and emotional depth few Disney films manage to achieve. In the final moments of the film, as the house Carl met his wife and grew old in, and his childhood hero plummet to their doom, it's quite a powerful moment.
However, whilst Carl's character feels wonderfully realised and is suitably fleshed out by a solid back story, Russell's character isn't explored quite as deeply. we know what we need to know about him, and he becomes a likeable character (it would have been perilously easy for him to have come off as annoying, but the film manages to avoid this), but the bits where he talks to Carl and provides a bit of backstory don't quite fill in the whole picture. In a way this is good, as it leaves some things open to the viewer's imagination and tries to get our brains working, but at the same time it means Russel's happy ending isn't quite as satisfying as Carl's. But this is a minor point, Russel is not the main character and certainly works well.
The film looks awesome too, with a whole army of lovingly rendered dogs and some beautiful looking landscapes. All in all, a top film, I'd say, and one of the best Pixar films I've seen in years, both in terms of style and substance.

Eat Songs

My brother recently showed me this trailer for a documentary two of his friends were planning to make, but unfortunately ran out of funds and had to abandon the project. However, the trailer is still a great example of ways to grab people's attention and make them want to see the film -



Here's their website for some more information, and another longer (but maybe even more intense!) trailer - http://www.siamesecrocodiles.com/

My brother also showed me this pretty cool stop motion animation another mate of his did -
http://www.pebbleandhoof.com/louiemczap/
Good stuff!

'The Host'

I saw a really good film the other day called 'The Host', a 2006 Korean monster movie about a bizarre amphibious creature.

The film begins with a member of the American military pouring over 100 bottles of formaldehyde down the drain, which leads to Han River, which is how the creature in question comes to be created. Several years later, the creature runs rampage by the Wonhyo Bridge, capturing a slow witted man named Park Gang-Du's daughter, Hyun-seo. Park believes her to be dead, until he gets a call from her and finds how that somehow, she's survived, and is stuck in the sewers, right in the middle of the monster's lair. However, the Korean government are holding Park for tests, as they believe he's become infected with a virus as he was in direct contact with the monster.

Without giving anything away, 'The Host' has an awesome plot with enough twists, turns, and evil fish monster action to keep you gripped from start to finish. There's a healthy amount of satire and political commentary in there too, with both the US and Korean governments coming under fire. There are also some really funny moments, as pretty much everyone in the film has moments of absolute incompetence, which lends it a slight element of bumbling slapstick occasionally which works really well. Unfortunately, the monster is mainly all CGI, which sometimes looks a little unconvincing (especially when he hops back into water), but still looks better than a lot of CGI creatures and seems to have been designed with the same kind of care and attention a lot of the old puppet/animatronic/some-guy-in-a-suit monsters were created with, so this is a pretty easy thing to look past.
I'd urge you all to give 'The Host' a watch, even if for some strange reason you're not into monster films, as it's a pretty unconventional one!