Nigh Journal

Archive for May, 2010

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Review of PULSE.

With last night’s Casualty cancelled in favour of Eurovision, I got my hour of hospital drama via PULSE, streaming now on iPlayer before it airs on BBC Three on Thursday 3rd June at 9pm.

Launching straight in with a gruesome and somewhat suspect surgery, PULSE establishes that it’s not vampires or other beasties we’re scared of here - it’s people. But be warned, PULSE doesn’t shy away from its full body horror either. We’re quickly introduced to the core cast of trainee doctors as Hannah (Claire Foy - Little Dorrit, Going Postal) returns to the training hospital described as the suicide capital of the NHS. Having suffered a breakdown following the death of her doctor mother, Hannah’s claims to have discovered unorthodox treatments for one of her patients has everyone watching to see if she’s snapped again.

This first hour of PULSE raced by, laying down swift characterisation whilst setting up ominous plot threads for the future. This is a pilot that deserves to take off. Despite moments of wry and gallows humour, Paul Cornell’s script nicely avoids the tongue-in-cheek hokiness of recent British genre fayre, making the drama and the tension all the more gripping.

As Hannah, Claire Foy draws us into not only her personal trauma but also the pressurised world of being a trainee Doctor, seemingly horrific even without your bosses playing Frankenstein. But the supporting cast all get time to shine too, either shattering our pre-conceptions of who they really are or giving us a glimpse of what their journey might be in a full series. Of particular interest was Ben Miles (Coupling) who seems to have started channelling Jonathan Pryce as the hospital’s enigmatic counsellor.

Without wanting to give anything away, PULSE builds up to a game-changing epilogue and proves that horror can work on television. It also looks great so I was pleasantly surprised to learn from the end credits that it was shot by the brilliant Fabian Wagner (who was DOP on my first short film). My only possible qualms were a few disorientating edits and that perhaps we could have learned a little more about what Hannah’s normally like when she isn’t questioning her own sanity. But, as a pilot, this worked entirely. I was hooked and want to see more.

So support PULSE by watching it on iPlayer and leaving your comments, joining the facebook group or watching its TV airing next Thursday. Either way, don’t miss out on exactly the kind of intriguing, challenging and captivating drama BBC Three should be offering more often.

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Increase the PULSE rate…ings.

Watch the entire Pilot Online here now.

With BBC 3 offering a fresh round of drama pilots, it was probably a given I’d instantly be drawn to the horror one. But medical horror PULSE has a lot more going for it than my simple need to be a bit creeped out. Primarily, it’s written by the indomitable Paul Cornell, whose Doctor Who two-parter ‘Human Nature/The Family of Blood‘ raised the bar terrifically for what New-Who could do and who put a mammoth on the M25 in the first ten minutes of his Primeval episode - by far my favourite of the whole show. Says Cornell of PULSE:

We are the nation, after all, that’s really proud of its NHS, but at the same time looks at those stern official buildings and shivers a little.  

PULSE is also produced by World Productions who, as well as This Life and No Angels, were behind grown-up vampire miniseries Ultraviolet - a show that now seems waaaaay ahead of its time considering the current vampiric glut and which resisted the temptation to slide down the tongue-in-cheek genre route.

 

But to convince the BBC Three to take PULSE to a full series, it needs to get watched - and this is where we can actually decide what’s on telly for once. Being Human survived the last round of commissioning due to internet buzz - but as well as joining PULSE’s facebook group, you can now watch the entire pilot online before its TV broadcast next week (Thursday 3rd June, 9pm BBC Three). As Paul Cornell tweeted himself, watching it and leaving a nice comment could make all the difference to whether it’s commissioned.

So vote with your feet. Get PULSE in your eyes!

(I’ll be doing that today - review coming tomorrow)

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Does your script star ‘The’ Woman?

You only need to look at any ‘Best Actress’ category to see the rarity of decent female leading roles in films these days - but what had never occurred to me was a lack of female roles AT ALL. Scriptwriter/scriptreader extraordinaire Lucy Hay recently pointed me towards these statistics which show (amongst other big issues) from 1990-2006, 73% of ALL characters were male.

You can actually see this in a lot of big film’s core casts. You get your identifiable hero, the more interesting mentor/best friend, an idiosynchratic baddie…and look, there’s a woman in it too! Posters for big movies even seem happy to sell it this way:

And, with Hollywood looking back in time for remake inspiration, it’s also increasingly going backwards when it comes to equality of roles. Having Uhura on the bridge in the 60s was a big deal - now it just looks behind the times instead of ahead of them if she’s the only woman there (and you know I hate being mean about Star Trek!) So it’s up to those writing original story worlds to keep moving things forwards.

But this isn’t just about the core cast. Writing decent female lead roles aside (that’s a whole other blog post!), it’s also about fleshing out your supporting cast without resorting to lazy gender shorthand. If we’re imagining characters such as Mayors, Doctors, Chefs, Coppers walking the beat, I imagine most of us (the men, anyway) will have conjured up a bunch of fellahs which is just re-enforcing the stereotypes.

There needs to be more female characters where the point of them isn’t that they ARE female.

If we can balance out our supporting casts with a more equal gender mix, it means that the leading lady doesn’t have to encompass the entire spectrum of ‘being female’. Which surely means we can then write better characters all round, right?

Friday, May 21st, 2010

What’s next for ‘Found Footage’ Movies?

Attending a double-bill of Spanish horrors [REC] and [REC]2 last night, three hours of ’shaky-cam’ can’t help but make me think about the pros and cons of the ‘found footage’ genre. Following two fire-men on a routine call, a two-person news crew quickly find themselves quarantined in an apartment building with the bewildered and increasingly bitey tennants. And it works. Mostly.

But is there anywhere left for this genre to go? By denying themselves numerous film-making techniques by making the cameraperson a character, are film-makers actually forced to be more creative in telling their stories? For horror, I find that the lack of classically-centered shots or cooky angles sign-posting a scary bit actually made films like [REC] or Blair Witch far scarier. I didn’t know when or where some beastie might spring out and clever sound design means I’m always worried the monster is actually behind the camera/’me’.

And while none of the films so far have convinced me 100% that the characters would keep filming, I’ve been very impressed by smart techniques such as the events of Cloverfield’s monster invasion being taped over a previous perfect day of its two leads, effectively providing us with flashbacks and character context. 

But while Cloverfield, [REC] and its ilk provide exhilarating, rollercoaster/ghost train-style experiences, possibly the biggest criticism against this style of movie is in their characterisation. Personally, I thought Blair Witch’s Heather was a really interesting lead. Not overly-likeable and certainly not rich in backstory, but was that important? These movies allow opportunity to really see characterisation through action. In Heather’s case, her almost-dismissive attitude when interviewing the locals in Blair Witch’s opening salvo not only told us what we needed but also snuck in the set-up for the film’s climax as well as Heather’s final monologue to camera.

Similarly, a lot of flak is also aimed at Cloverfield’s mostly-white, middle-class, ‘priviliged’ core characters. I don’t think the makers did this accidentally. A group of people who don’t think the warnings to evacuate the city apply to them and a party who instantly produce their mobile phone cameras rather than taking in the horror around them is as central to the film as the monster. In my opinion, whilst subtle, the 9-11 imagery wasn’t restricted to the destruction of buildings.

But where do we go from here? To some extent the recent trailer for JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg’s SUPER 8 makes me feel that their film will prove whether this sub-genre will either continue to be innovative or just repetitive. 

What interests me is that a number of these films offer an ‘expanded experience’ online, with the film itself just being one aspect of a bigger story world. But that shouldn’t excuse films from being stand-alone entertainment. With fears of surveillance, increased technology and self-publishing online, if anything, these films are very much ‘of their time’. Great thrill-rides while you’re in the cinema but then you’re done with them. But isn’t that a lot of ‘normal’ films these days too?

But why only horror in this style so far? I honestly think there’s an innovative rom-com to be had in this genre. Has the ‘handheld’ movie run its course? Was it a blip to begin with? Or is this just the beginning? 

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

Support Mr Bojagi (starring Brian Blessed).

For all my talk of writing, some friends of mine developed a script and then went and bloomin’ made it too. With Brian Blessed, no less!

MR BOJAGI is a ten-minute short film directed by Marco Van Belle, written by Kat Wood, gorgeously shot by Alex Veitch and featuring a soundtrack by that Heather Fenoughty lady (who seems to get mentioned round here from time to time) and is an offbeat but upbeat, heartwarming tale of choosing the perfect gift for a loved one…even if it takes a madman with a mind-reading machine to do so. 

On Friday, MR BOJAGI launched online having already heavily toured the festival circuit, picking up the British Lion award at the British Independent Film Awards and Best Short at the London Independent Film Awards along the way. As I type,  MR BOJAGI is already well over 14,ooo views on Daily Motion where the film is being heavily promoted and also features behind-the-scenes peaks with cast and crew.

MR BOJAGI is also a glimpse of a planned feature-film which I’m lucky enough to have read the hugely imaginative first draft of. So, if you haven’t already clicked on any of the links above, please click HERE to support an independent short by some lovely people. And also because it’s good.

There’s a facebook group and the film’s home page for further updates. But, as it’s Sunday afternoon, just sit back and watch a nice film.

Blessed be.

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Too Big, Too Soon - Act 1 vs. Act 3

Contains spoilers for 2012, Open Water and Iron Man (the first one).

I’m seeing it more and reading it more. Film scripts that start with a bang but finish with a whimper. This has always been a problem for Roland Emmerich but watching 2012 recently seemed to take it even further: Act One sees John Cusack whisk his family to safety as California literally falls apart beneath them – Act Three climaxes with…someone fishing a spanner out of some cogs. Oooh.

Working on a low-budget, high-concept(ish) feature of my own, I find myself constantly re-structuring to ensure it doesn’t peak too early or drag in the middle. I fully appreciate how easy it is to fall in love with a neat-sounding scenario that you can easily pitch. But do you find yourself getting vague when asked what happens next, once all your pieces in place? Where do you go from there? (and no you can’t just say ‘…and hi-jinks ensue’!)

A similarly guilty film in my opinion is Open Water. A nightmarish set-up that draws the audience in, asking how can these characters possibly survive? They don’t. And while there are great moments of character drama, the film clearly sells itself as something else. So all the makers managed to do was carry the drama and tension onwards – not upwards.

Even something well-regarded like Iron Man nearly scuppers itself with a plot that can only really end in a scuffle between two metal-suited foes. But that’s not how the film ends – the final seconds save the day/film for me when Tony Stark’s ego announces to the world ‘Yeah…I’m Iron Man’. But this provided dramatic closure for what we wanted to see about Tony Stark after winning us over with his change of heart early on in the film – and it has nothing to do with special effects or even the explosions on the poster.

And while there’s always the chance that your film will be mis-marketed, it’s important to make sure that you’re not mis-marketing your own ending with your beginning and middle. Start strong. End stronger. Yeah… I’m Iron Man.

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

BBC’s LUTHER: Good Cop Cliché/Bad Cop Cliché.

 

It’s the way you tell ‘em. Quirky. Offbeat. Psychological. Procedural. I’m a fan of cop drama so, to an extent, that makes me a fan of cop drama clichés too. And, between maverick behaviour and troubled marriages, BBC One’s Luther certainly had most of the list ticked… But that didn’t stop me enjoying it immensely.

 

Is that okay? As I say, it’s how a character deals with familiar tropes that either does or doesn’t separate a TV detective from the pack. Idris Elba might have something to prove some following The Wire – but I just didn’t want him to turn up as Stringer Bell with a badge. But John Luther came across as his own man, like some of my favourite crime shows, this isn’t so much a Police Procedural but more a drama about a guy who happens to be a cop. Even if we’d seen familiar scenes before, we were made to care for how Luther would deal with them and a lot of this was to do with strong subtext. He may have made some dubious choices – but they were convincing (not to mention dramatic). To that extent, is using a well-worn path more like shorthand for the audience that allows you to then come up with something creative in the mix?

 

 

I don’t know if the rest of the series will follow the same pattern but I really enjoyed knowing who the villain was before the series had even begun. And I don’t mean ‘killer’, I mean villain. Rose Wilson’s Alice was a particular treat, setting up the same sort of narcissistic, vainglorious puzzle that you’d expect from a Batman villain rather than your usual primetime BBC baddie. For me, it set a hugely enjoyable, heightened reality that echoes creator/writer Neil Cross’ work on SPOOKS but, more importantly, suited this show. Low-key in some senses, over the top in others.

 

The only real bum note of the episode for me was a redundant scene of exposition between Luther’s boss and Luther’s boss’ boss (who never showed up again anyway) discussing that Luther was a loose cannon. Yeah, thanks. 

 

So what did you think? Sometimes, I think clichés, especially in a first episode, can be like those inflatable thingies you get in the gutters in bowling alleys, steering us through, so I always think the proof of a good series is in the second episode. From here on in, it can do its own thing. Question is, will you be watching?

 

PS - Oooh, theme music by Massive Attack

 

EDIT: Everytime Luther is on, my blog gets a spike in views for people trying to find out what the Massive Attack theme music is. It’s called ‘Paradise Circus’ from Massive Attack’s recent album Heligoland. Track embedded below, click through to more links about the album. Hope that’s helpful and what a track it is!