Monthly Archives: July 2008

I’m not having much luck, artistically, at the moment. Not personally, but in my viewing choice. Following last week’s Mama Mia debacle, I was in London tonight to catch an Edinburgh Preview of The White Space’s Yellow Wallpaper show.

Back in the olden days, the days of rubbish lungs and MK Theatre, Suze picked up The Yellow Wallpaper, a 19th Century Gothic horror about a women suffering from traumatic post-natal depression in the days before women were “allowed” to have depression of any kind, let alone post-natal. Locked away for her own safety in a nursery she slowly starts to see shapes in the wall and a woman emerges, taking her place in the outside world during the day and then torturing her mind at night.

All the basis, one would have thought, for a fantastic piece of Theatre.

Sadly, not the case. The whole show was prety disastrous from start to finish – the acting was soul-less and devoid of all emotion, the staging and lighting were, frankly, beyond amateurish and the less said about the sound the better.

Suze and I went along, with K and Suze’s friend G, thinking we might catch a gem, but well aware that this sort of thing can turn into a stinker. Which it did.

Still, as Suze put it on the way home, it makes you even more determined to do your own stuff, safe in the (cocky?) knowledge that you can do better.

Sorry all.  Having been chastised for not updating the blog, I have just posted a couple of film reviews for you, but will endevour to fill the gaps on the past couple of weeks as soon as I get a decent chance.  I’ve been a trifle busy.  In a good way.

Sorry if I scared anyone!

I may just have spent my day today watching the best film of the year, swiftly followed by the very, very worst film of the year.

The Dark Knight is so unbelievably brilliant and above my sky-scraper-high expectations that after watching it yesterday morning, I headed straight back in for the first showing today and it only managed to get even better over night.

Mama Mia on the other hand is so incomparably bad as to warrant a new classification below second-rate, third-rate and any other -rate you can think of.  To call it sub-par is an insult to average films around the world.

It’s not just the tacky scenery which looks like it may have been lifted straight from the stage show, complete with appallingly bad “summer” lighting, interrupted by the occasional use of a Greek island to try to sell the artifice.  It’s not even the fact that the majority of the cast can’t actually carry a tune, or that the story is so ham-fisted and spends most of its time bending double to try to line itself up with a vague reference to ABBA lyrics which can kick off a song.  Beyond all of that it’s just plain bad.  Bad shooting, bad lighting, bad singing, bad choreography, bad film.

It’s hugely disappointing to see actors of the calibre who have signed to this film being forced through the most tortuous of musical hammery.  It may work wonderfully on stage, but if the recent film musical boom has taught us anything about the way to make them work in the cinema, it’s that theatricality doesn’t work.  You can make it slightly surreal and artificial (see Chicago) if that’s the way you want to go, but you can marry realism in one part of the scene to over-the-top hammery while singing.  Emoting every lyric with a pained expressions on your face and your hand clenched into a fist as if you’re grabbing an imaginary floating cow’s udder just doesn’t do it for the filmic adaptations.  And it’s 100% the director’s fault for letting those moments creep in.  If you don’t have the strength to tell Meryl Streep she looks like a muppet you shouldn’t have cast her in your movie.

The Dark Knight (aka Batman 2, or 6 depending on your view) on the other hand is a classic example of masterpiece filmmaking.  It’s also the first time in as long as I can remember (with the *possible* exception of Iron Man) that a film has actually repaid my rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth excitement and optimism.  Ever since the War of the World’s debacle of 2005 I have struggled – and mostly failed – to keep my excitement for the summer event movies in check.

I’ve been fairly successful from time to time, but at the end of the day I’m a movie geek and even if I don’t know the source material of the comic adaptations inside out, I still can’t help but join the gathering momentum of the summer storm of blockbusters.

Christopher Nolan has been one of my favourite directors since I first saw Memento and looked up his debut, Following, a super-low budget thriller which plays with timelines in much the same way as Memento, the film that got him noticed in Hollywood.

Too often as a film fan you spot an up-and-coming director you want to keep your eye on and they head off either to disappear into the ether and never re-emerge or end up churning out studio tosh that they take for the paycheque.

Nolan, though, is an exception.  After proving his metal with Hollywood’s finest in Insomnia he took on the resurrection of one of the cinema’s most succesful but most derided franchises and turned it around in a way no one expected.  Not only was Batman Begins a great Batman film, it was a great comic book film, but not only that, it was just straight up a great film.  Not many adaptations achieve that.

The Dark Knight, Nolan’s first sequel, is a triumph in every sense.  It is bigger, bolder, darker, scarier, mmore emotional and more horrific than the first.  And it’s better.  Much better.  I didn’t think it would be possible for Nolan to top the enjoyment I felt absorbing Begins three years ago, but he has.  From start to finish, despite coming in at 2-and-a-half hours, the film is not only gripping but rawly emotional and darkly funny in places.

Heath Ledger has been gaining plaudits right, left and centre for his out-of-the-box, out-of-this-world
performance as the Joker and rightly so.  This is what people call a “career defining” performance, sadly not for the reasons it should be.  But for an actor of Ledger’s stature to disappear so completely into a role of this kind is uncanny.

The same could be said for many of the supporting cast, who are seemingly queuing up to work with one of Hollywood’s hottest directors of the moment.  Most of the original cast return, along with a handful of new faces played by familiar faces, all of them on the top of their game throughout.

I cannot stress enough how good this movie is or that you should go and catch it at your earliest opportunity.  It is, quite simply, awesome.

And  in the words of the world’s deadliest Panda, “There is no charge for awesomeness.”

Tonight I popped down to Euston station in London to meet with the director of the film I’m producing on Sunday.

I was pleasantly surprised that he was much more prepared than I expected him to be. There were a lot of questions about the shoot I hadn’t asked him and was expecting pretty negative answers to, but he answered all of them and showed himself to be very ready for the mini-battle ahead over the weekend. He even offered me a place to sleep for the two nights of the shoot, which was great.

I have to say I’m very excited to be involved in a film project again. It’s been a long time since I last was and although I’m not in my ideal position of directing, I’m loving producing at the moment. It’s all very logistical and analytical, which is really good fun and suits my skillset really well. It’s also a lot more creative than people think, since if I come up with a problem that I think we need to get around, it’s my job to think up alternatives and present them to the director for discussions, rather than simply highlight the issue and get him to do the donkey work.

I’m a little sad I didn’t get involved in this project earlier, but I clearly missed his first call for a producer. It’s no the end of the world, though, and coming on board now means I’ve got the fun part of the shoot to deal with and be there for then I get to over-see post-production, where I hope to learn a lot more about certain aspects of it, before heading off to trail the film round the international festivals, if we can admission. Should be great.

I figured I’ve taken enough time off fitness and exercise since my admission with CMV, so I’m back on the treadmill and all the other torture devices at the gym in a bid to make sure that all the weight I’m currently putting on goes on in the right ways, not just around my stomach and face as seems to be the case at the moment.

I surprised myself at how little of my aerobic capacity I had actually lost, I did a lot better on the bike and rower than I thought I was going to and then fitted in a really good upper-body resistance workout, which I’ll be aiming to do twice a week and also a twice-weekly lower-body work out on the day after the uppers. That’ll be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday so I have 2 days rest between weights sessions for specific areas and then the weekend off.

I actually really enjoyed the session today and I hope that I’ll quickly pick up the gym-addiction that I had started to develop before my incarceration.

I also did a second Untouched photo-shoot with a friend from the Theatre today, which went really well – he’s very photogenic and we came away with some good shots and some fun ones, too. I’m really liking the look of the natural light and the challenge of getting the shot I need right there and then. I’m also getting more and more used to the intricate settings of my camera – learning how to use things I’ve always had on automatic before, but which now enable me to better control the image, which is vital when I can’t play with it after the fact.

Also chatted to J, the model, about setting up some Theatre/Film projects in the not-too-distant future: he’s like me, looking to occupy himself and to experiment with things in a small environment, but he’s on the acting side and I’m on the behind-the-camera side, which is quite a useful combination. I also think he may be as driven as I am, which will definitely help us spur ourselves along.

This afternoon I met with two of the old MK Youth Theatre who have set up their own project called In Vitro for their own production company, Thrust Theatre Company, which I’m incredibly impressed with. They’re very on-the-ball when it comes to the money side of things, having worked out a completely balanced budget and ways to raise the money quickly and easily. Budgeting is one of the hardest things to learn and get right when you don’t know a lot about production in theatre, so I’m really pleased that they’ve paid it so much attention and not just gone in blind with the hope they can put on a play somewhere.

The play itself, written by one of them and to be directed by the other, is also very good. It’s very “issue based”, but that’s no bad thing for a young people’s theatre group aiming at a certain market, and they have things to say on the issues which need to be listened to by some of the adult population in this country.

They’ve asked me to be involved, which I’d very much like to be – I’ll be going along to most of the rehearsals and being a sounding-board for their ideas and helping them through the process in any way they need, sort of like a mentor, I guess, which is a little scary as I’m sure I’m not old enough to be a mentor to anyone.

Still, it’s another project, another little bit of variety in my life and it’s something else to be interested in and excited about. Can’t wait.

Mini-landmark day today, as I signed on to produce a short film for a director names Kieron Clark.

I subscribe to a filmmakers’ daily newsletter called Shooting People that contains all sorts of information and advice, as well as carrying job adverts.  Yesterday I saw an ad from Kieron looking for someone to come on board his short film, Polar Bear, to oversee the post-production process following next weekend’s shoot.

Although in the long term I see myself much more following the route of writing and directing, taking an opportunity to be part of a short film in any capacity is worth doing.  As a producer, I’m confident in my abilities with all the knowledge that I have of the role, plus all the experience I have organisationally through my work in the Theatre, which I think sets me up quite nicely for the producer’s role within the film industry.

It’s only a two-day shoot, which will happen next Saturday and Sunday evenings, then during post-production I’ll be liaising and organising the various elements and then once it’s complete, I’ll be responsible for gathering interest and submitting it to film festivals, which will hopefully garner us some awards or at the very least a little appreciation.

I’m excited about getting involved in a film project after trying to set up a few of my own, which are progressing but moving very slowly.  Hopefully with Polar Bear in the can I’ll be able to kick-start a short for me to direct and then move on to bigger and better things as the year flicks past at a tremendous rate of knots, such as it is.

Today saw the first photo shoot of the Untouched Photography project, using former Youth Theatre veterans Elaine, Bruce and Katie as my first experimental models.

I’m actually really pleased with the way things turned out. It was a lot harder than I’d first thought, as leaving the images free of manipulation means you have no kind of post-shoot fall-back if you didn’t get the shot quite right. There’s no adjustment of lighting, no option to lighten a slightly dark image up a little, and no chance to crop the image, even slightly, to take out something which may have crept into the edge of the frame.

What all of that means is that it’s really important to make sure that you’ve got the shot you want before you move on, to check the images you’ve taken. I nearly scuppered myself a couple of times with slightly off-kilter images, but caught them in time to shoot an extra couple of more precise frames.

It’s a great creative exercise, though, knowing that you have to get what you need there and then and have no safety net for the picture afterwards. And today was the first time I’ve worked in this kind of way – an organised shoot with models – as opposed to just happy-snapping family and friends on days out.

What pleased me most about it, though, was how much I enjoyed it. This is clearly going to be a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the process now and seeing what I can get from people. Anyone interested in modeling who hasn’t contacted me, feel free to drop me a line.

On a more every-day note, it was great to see the YT guys again, as it’s been over a year since I last saw them and I was looking considerably worse then than I am now.  It’s always great to see people’s reactions when they see me for the first time since the op.

When I was ill I got used to the frustration of people telling you that you look really well when you’re feeling like rubbish.  I never quite knew whether they really meant it (albeit in a relative sense) or if they were just being nice about seeing my huffing and puffing with oxygen specs up my nose, but either way it always bothered me.  Now when people tell me I look great, I get to tell them I feel great too – it’s a whole new world  that I’m still not getting tired of.

Let’s have more of it.

Because I can’t resist a decent plug for a friend:

“Are you a bit of a Musicals fan?

Want to help raise money for Charity simply by being entertained?

On Wednesday 23rd July 2008 a group of talented young performers will be bringing you an all-singing evening of Cabaret Favourites, featuring your favourites from the West End, Broadway, and Beyond! The performance is at Bourne Hall, Ewell (3 minute walk from Ewell West station) and starts at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £8 for adults, £6 concessions.

Tickets are already on sale so to get yours please contact Emily at emily@livelifethengivelife.co.uk asap. Please also get in touch if you or your company may be able to sponsor, advertise or support this event in any way.

All proceeds from the event will go to Live Life Then Give Life <http://www.livelifethengivelife.co.uk> – a charity which raises awareness about organ donation and transplantation and supports those awaiting transplant.

Many thanks in advance for your support.

Emily and the Cabaret Favourites Team.”

The last one was a knock-out, by all accounts, so if you’re near by or can make the trip, get some tickets and check it out.

Check this out.

Just 12 months ago the situation was looking pretty grim. Today, skipping off to Oxford for my annual review (the yearly MOT that all CF centres perform on their charges) had a whole lot less of a downer on it.

Last year, they didn’t even make me do the exercise tolerance test, which is a kind of modified bleep test involving shuttle walks of 10m at ever-increasing speeds to see how far you can get until either your lungs or your legs give up.

This year, I practically flew up and down the corridor, or so it felt. In the end, it was the tightness in my calves which really did for me, my lungs seemed happy enough at the exertion. Talk to my old physio (never to treat me again!) yesterday, when I caught up with her over a cuppa, she pointed out that my muscles are still very short of protein and so struggling to get back up to the speed I have managed previously, which is why my performance may still not quite have been as good as I was expecting.

It’s so unbelievably cool to see the team at the hospital when I’m not gasping for breath and feeling so crappy the last thing I want to do is hear the gossip. Now pretty much all I do with them is gossip, it’s great. I’ve developed such a friendship with everyone there over the years we’ve been together and I really do miss them all.

I know it sounds a bit odd – and I certainly don’t miss how ill I was, or how bad I felt – but over the years you develop a very close relationship with your care team; they understand you, they know you almost better than you know yourself and they very often know exactly what you’re thinking. For the last year of my care more than before, I was heading to the hospital often as much as twice or three times a week, so the bond with the team only got stronger as they worked their magic to keep me alive long enough to get my life-saving transplant.

I can never fully express the gratitude I have for everyone at the Churchill in Oxford. My life in the past has at times resembled a living hell, however much of a brave face I tried to put on it, but they have always been there for me. I’ve been able to talk to them when I’ve been too scared to raise things with anyone else, I’ve been able to laugh and joke and try to keep my spirits up. But more than anything, I’ve been safe in the knowledge that they were there – always ready and waiting with whatever I needed, whenever I needed them.

I don’t for one second miss my old CF lungs, but I do miss the interaction with the friends I made there. I just have to make more effort to stay in touch now I don’t need them every day of the week.