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The Daily Movie Wallpaper
Friday, August 14, 2009

Freshly back in from having finally seen District 9 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. The lines wrapping around the building and crowds there to see it was pretty overwhelming and not to mention great seeing a first time filmmaker in Neill Blomkamp get this type of response. Not to mention earlier in the day all the shows for District 9 had already sold out. Seeing this reminded me of older days when a movie like Predator would come along and unless you wanted to wait in line several hours, forget about it. If you are going to try and see District 9 in Austin (South Lamar) this weekend you better buy your tickets way in advance.

I thought this movie was great science fiction. It’s really rough around the edges and its imperfections make it even more wonderfully unique. For a first time filmmaker under what seems like a 1/10th of a budget Hollywood makes similar budgets on this scale… Neill Blomkamp more than delivers. He also plays against convention of sci-fi vehicles of late in not trying over explain every aspect of the movie, if anything he leaves a hell of a lot of unanswered questions and rather intentionally so I would think. I noticed a couple of answers to key points already in the movie but many are blink and you will miss variety. The other interesting aspect of District 9 is that it doesn’t have the typical 3 act story, much more of a 2 act movie, which to me largely indicates this will ultimately be part of a trilogy (box office willing). And like others have said this movie is so good and done so well on its budget that whomever pulled the plug on Halo will go down in infamy.

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film. © 2009 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

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The Daily Movie Wallpaper
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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The gun we see Sharlto Copley carrying here in District 9 I luckily have no idea how it works so I can be surprised when I see the film this Friday. It does look like something straight up out of of Halo though and I like how everything I’ve seen from this film has looked distinct which is no easy feet for a film with this tight of a budget.

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film. © 2009 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

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The Daily Movie Wallpaper
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

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The buzz for District 9 (opens this Friday) keeps building. I’m doing my best to try and avoid every trailer for the film so I can see it as fresh as possible. These images to date look great and hopefully aren’t giving much away!

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film. © 2009 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

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The Daily Movie Wallpaper
Monday, August 10, 2009

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District 9 opens this Friday and it looks great. Can’t wait to check this one out. The directors take on HALO might not ever be realized but you know the people that shot that down will be forever re-thinking that decision (Neill Blomkamp’s proof of concept for it here)

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film. © 2009 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

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In my interview with REC co-director Jaume Balaguero for Twitch (watch here) we got onto the subject of keeping modern audiences engaged with cinema as a form of entertainment. To this end him and Paco were inspired to come up with the one handheld camera POV for their horror hit REC. It does seem odd that both their production and that of Cloverfield went into production and were shot around the same time. I’m not pointing fingers as I’ve never determined the true origins of this coincidence. There is a new groundswell in cinema making communities that in order to compete with the Youtube generation that they have to take the cinema experience one step further with even more entrenched and immersive experiences. Taking cinema down to one frame with one handheld camera seems to be a great way to raise the stakes and provide a very interactive experience within the sensibilities of modern audiences.

The one handheld camera movies are hardly new, but the form and style that both Cloverfield and REC realize are. In them they have formed the next generation of cinema. At the heart of this, both films want to plunge the audience right into the center of the action. So they employ one constant frame for the audience that is filtered with a “near reality but not reality” composition and editing style. We see long takes with a single handheld camera to establish that what we are experiencing might have really happened. The twists and turns an audience might in a typical film that is shot with multiple cameras and with masters and close ups, is completely thrown out the window. Now they have the audiences attention and much like a first person video game they are following the film along having no idea what will happen next.

In doing this new approach though, they create a new challenge – how to show reality with a handheld without alienating the audience and maintaining the tone and tension. You see when you do this approach conventional wisdom says that you should shake the camera ever so often so the audience is reminded that this could be real. So a new question pops up and that is how can one space out the shakiness. Neither film seems to be particularly sure about this answer. In REC you will notice they balance this out with more stationary moments that seemed damn near timed to when they can explode into horrific chaos again. In Cloverfield they do sort of employ this technique but mostly and to what I really think undercuts what could have been an amazing movie, they go for jump cuts. We get huge chunks of the timeline cut out so that we can jump ahead and avoid longer experiences of the shaky camera.

A scary experience drenches us in its atmosphere. It takes its time to methodically whirl us in its own pace without ever letting go. So with the one handheld camera POV films I think the next wave will instead of trying to employ more and more jump cuts to whisk around, will instead time out like REC when it’s appropriate to shake. The most important thing isn’t to wink back at the audience, but to keep them in the tone of your film with the appropriate level of tension. You don’t need constant shakes to do this and you can largely cheat and not do so. I know that sounds crazy, but I’m going out on a limb to predict the next wave of similar films will instead opt for stabilized handheld throughout with only minimal shaking. Jump cutting just does not work. There is no other way to do it. This new tide of cinema can really help take us down dark alleys and bright bridges we have never been before, but first they need to learn how to cheat and craft new conventions without caving in to the work before them. This new art will plunge us into longer takes and more immersive worlds where fiction and reality will blur and we will feel like were are in that holodeck room on Star Trek Next Generation.

Although too episodic and over relying on jump cuts I think in enough places that I find Cloverfield absolutely amazing edge of your seat entertainment. Where REC goes for intimate and practical, it goes for what if the world was ending romp and damn well nearly succeeds in pulling it off. You would be hard pressed to think that many moments in the film aren’t too far off from how they might really happen. Sure there is some initial melodrama, but when the going gets challenging and visionary, the film delivers in spades. It’s just too bad the film couldn’t properly glue the gaps inbetween them together to make something more cohesive. Hard to really complain though when they are right on the doorsteps along with the REC in trying to give us something new and most importantly a reason why going to the movie theater in the dark with a roomful of strangers can be so powerful.

Amazon.com Link:
Bu the Cloverfield [Blu-ray]

Captions:

Image 1
Rob (Michael Stahl-David, left) and Beth (Odette Yustman, right) are terrorized by a monstrous creature in “Cloverfield.” Paramount Pictures Presents A Bad Robot Production “Cloverfield” starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. The director is Matt Reeves. The film was written by Drew Goddard. The producers are J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. The executive producers are Guy Riedel and Sherryl Clark. This film has been rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.

Image 2
(Left to right) Rob (Michael Stahl-David), Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) and Lily (Jessica
Lucas) are on the run from a terrorizing monster in “Cloverfield.” Paramount Pictures Presents A Bad Robot Production “Cloverfield” starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. The director is Matt Reeves. The film was written by Drew Goddard. The producers are J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. The executive producers are Guy Riedel and Sherryl Clark. This film has been rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.

Image 3
(Left to right) Lily (Jessica Lucas) and Rob (Michael Stahl-David) have just rescued Beth (Odette Yustman) from a collapsed building in “Cloverfield.” Paramount Pictures Presents A Bad Robot Production “Cloverfield” starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. The director is Matt Reeves. The film was written by Drew Goddard. The producers are J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. The executive producers are Guy Riedel and Sherryl Clark. This film has been rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.

Image Source:
Official still that was used in the original US release of the film.
© 2008 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Related Links:
::: IMDb Profile