Django Unchained

Everyone has been going on (quite rightfully in most cases) about several films that are most anticipated this year, namely The Avengers (yay!), Prometheus (boo!) The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and The Hobbit. But there is another movie out later this year that most definitely sits in that category.

I stone cold LOVED Inglourious Bastards and Django Unchained seems to be taking the same kind of bent to a different genre. I'm really glad Tarantino's cast Christoph Waltz as Dr King Schultz. Bring it on, Mr T.

I'll be bracing myself for The Amazing Spider-Man tomorrow. Please don't be crap...

Gratitude

Wow. I posted about the new website on Facebook earlier today and not only has it had over 100 hits (yes, I know, first day glories soon to drop off) but this blog has today had the most hits ever.

A massive thank you to folks who have been spreading the word about the new site.

Now to get on with some glamourous work. That garden won't dig itself...

Total Recall. Again.

I'll be seeing Total Recall in cinemas this summer. But it won't be the remake.

Rebirth?

After a bit of a down period, I've got my backside in gear and created a professional website now to put myself out there in the real world. Time to stop hiding the light under the old bushel (what the hell is a bushel anyway?) and push myself in a more professional manner.

So, my details can now be found at robinsonwritesfilm where you can also find some samples of my screenwriting, previous experience and some films I've made or contributed to. I can see the website expanding over time with more things and a better headshot. It also links to this blog and consequently I'm considering changing the name of the blog to keep it in line with the new website but the old content will remain. If I do, there'll be plenty of warning about changing where to go to if you want to continue to observe my haverings.

This is a good thing.

Ralph McQuarrie

Another little bit of my childhood passed into eternity tonight.

Ralph McQuarrie started out as an industrial graphic designer. His work for NASA around the moon landings caught the attention of filmmakers but it was one in particular who really let McQuarrie's imagination loose on all of our eyes; yep, that fella again, George Lucas.

In an effort to try and raise funding for his embryonic project, The Star Wars (as it was known at that time), Lucas employed the awesome talents of McQuarrie to try and convey his proposed film in visual terms. McQuarrie was tasked with creating quality paintings that encapsulated specific scenes from what was (I believe) merely an outline and a series of ideas that Lucas had at the time. While his work for NASA showed his talent for designing believable space craft, his work on Star Wars also showed  a flair for character design, be it human, alien or droid. Many of these images persevered and survive in culturally iconic form in the finished film as we still know it today. Such was McQuarrie's talent. And he helped keep Star Wars alive visually, being a major contributor to Coruscant in the Shadows of the Empire project, something that carried over into the prequels.

Or to put it another way, he pretty much designed Darth Vader. No mean feat.

McQuarrie went on to design further aspects of Star Wars and did the same for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and contributed to the Indiana Jones films and other movies and his work is even felt in its influence of designers such as Doug Chiang and Ian Gracie in the newer Star Wars films.

In a time when we lose guys like Ralph and Bob Anderson (the sword master from the original trilogy - when we saw Vader duel, it was mostly Bob) I feel that little bit older. Ralph was 82 but this still feels like a bit of a gut punch to this geek.

Thank you, Mr McQuarrie. Word has it you were a kind, self effacing gentleman. Thanks for all the wonderful sights you filled my life with.

Of Tinned Tomatoes and Oscars.

  In the summer of 1984, the BBC was broadcasting the summer Olympics from Los Angeles, mostly late at night due to the time difference. It seemed a pretty big deal at the time and ITV, in an effort to counter this in the ratings, began broadcasting a mini series from the US that appeared to have done well; V, a tale of alien invasion and a tribute to resistance fighters and those who stand up against fascist oppression, but done with laser guns and spaceships. Disregarding any thought of the recent limp remake, I loved it. As an 11 year old who was allowed to stay up late to watch this sci-fi show, I appreciated it and lapped it up. The alien invaders were known as the Visitors who, while they appeared benevolent and looked human thanks to rubber skin, were actually reptiles bent on world domination, water theft and human rotisserie. And as I recall, there was a particular scene where one of the aliens Visitors, Willie (played by a sympathetic Robert England)  is brought before some youngsters by human resistance fighters in an effort to show them who they really are and has the fake skin ripped from the back of his hand, revealing scaly reptile skin underneath. It was a great moment and one we would talk about at school for a while.

  The next morning a friend was coming over to hang out, it being the summer holidays. This friend also loved movie make up, especially the old Universal monsters and the work of guys like Jack Pierce and Dick Smith, and would try out experiments on himself with putty, yak hair and greasepaint. This particular morning the doorbells rings and I go to get it, expecting my friend and rightfully so. There he was. And with a simple "Hello", he raised his arm and proceeded to tear the skin from the back of his forearm, revealing green, scaly reptile flesh underneath; perhaps I should reiterate that we were both 11 at the time. And I think my immediate reaction was pretty much, "Wow". This was just part of an ongoing passion my friend had with special effects make up and it got better as we progressed through school, making films where fake severed limbs, ripped eyes and washing up liquid bottles full of tinned tomatoes were sprayed at walls and faces were a relatively regular occurrence.

Some people leave that kind of thing behind when they leave school and enter the world of grown ups. And some people don't. Nor should they ever.

And so, sitting next to a good friend when they find out that something they worked on in a rather major way has just won an Academy Award is a pretty good feeling.

Taken a few days to write this, but I figured, what the hell. Congratulations to Mark Coulier, Stephen Murphy (said friend) Barrie Gower and everyone else who contributed to the make up for The Iron Lady.

Space Pep Talk - Prometheus Viral

I love viral marketing like this. And this has to be one of my two most anticipated films this year (along with ol' pointy ears).



I hear it's not a clip from Prometheus itself but it whets an already ravenous appetite to see the movie.

"Boring" History and a Certain Point of View.

Good to be back in the swing of things. I've had more good feedback from readers on my current project which I am now revising once again. As such, I'm having to go back to research. Just a few things, but that part of the process carries on.

Writing something based on actual events, the research doesn't really end. And the funny thing is I enjoy it. I hated history at school, even if our teacher was brilliant, intimidating and hilarious (in his way) and now that I am able to look at history on my own terms and in a particular context, I find I really enjoy it. I never would have thought that the Restoration period and the Glorious Revolution in British history (from a Scottish Perspective) would hold my attention the way it does. Finding a good story amongst all of it is the key, I think. Take all of the stuff I might have found boring and look at it through the eyes of someone of the time, as young and impatient as that character may be (and boy, does he have a harsh lesson coming).

Placing a point of view within historical events as expressed by a main character makes it exciting.

On the Up

Well, what a couple of miserable few posts I've made recently. January is a terrible month and the old enemy (depression) coupled with some unpleasant events can lead to some dark moods. I've not been looking for sympathy, just to vent a little, which everyone needs to do. So, no apologies. Oh, and the not drinking ting fell to the wayside. Not a problem, but it was a good couple of weeks off and I felt better for it. Moderation as they say. I can never drink more than one day a week really anyway.

Well then, lots to do. I'm still not earning any money from my writing at the moment but sitting on one's arse and complaining only makes it worse. As Adrian Mead says, you get what you put in. This time of year puts me in mind of a friend I lost a few years ago at far too young an age and reminds me how much time we all have. I'm not getting any younger. Essentially, we have nothing to lose in aiming high in life. Keeping disciplined and structuring work is important. I've three writing projects on the go at the moment, all in very different stages. One last revision of a feature involving rewriting scenes the villains appear in, finishing the outline for a horror and the new job collaborating on a sitcom idea, something I've never done before. And so I am trying to structure my day more, making sure that everything that needs me attention gets it and in the proportion it needs.

The days are getting lighter.

New Year Schmear.

I ended my last post claiming the next one would be positive. Best laid plans...

Nine days into the year and I haven't blogged. Have I nothing to say? Not sure. Only that I feel that life is dominated by worry right now. Not life threatening, or anything. Just worry and my old friend anxiety. Not earning enough money. At all. One of those times when things seem bleak and I wonder what the point of it all is. Years spent learning about filmmaking and screenwriting and I seem to be nowhere. I feel old and like I'm staggering around in the dark on my own. Really old. Have I wasted the past two decades?

Still trying to write but it's difficult just now. House in partial upheaval at the moment as a good friend of mine of re-doing our woodwork from the just-not-right-at-all dark brown to white. Makes the main hall seem like a different room. A relatively simple task like getting rid of dark outlines makes a hell of a difference.

Quit booze. Made a fool of myself on New Year's Day. A week into sobriety and have been tested a few times already and didn't fall off the wagon. Resolute. Good. I don't want a drink again for a long time. Even a few pints will make me tired the following day and getting pished knocks me over for two days. This isn't age. Always been that way.

Looking at some of the yo-yo nature of my posts, I sometimes wonder if I'm bi-polar. Unlikely. But the niggling little thought about mild Aspergers still pecks away. Not something to be joked about.

Who knows what the rest of the year will bring? Something better, I hope.

It's good to vent.