The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

I'd heard that The Life and Death of Peter Sellers was not for the fainthearted, but the cheerful opening titles lulled me into a forgetful sense of security.

It is full on. His life is a train wreck in slow motion. It is a tragedy. It is hard to like Sellers, which is a gutsy move for a film (you're supposed to like the protagonist).

I love most of Sellers' work. The Goon Show played a huge part in developing my off-beat sense of humour (made even more off-beat by the fact I was listening 30 years out of context).

But the life behind the laughs was a nightmare. Sellers was a boy who never grew up, who became entrapped in an industry that encourages emotional immaturity.

It's a very well-told movie, if you know Sellers and his work.

It makes me wonder: will the future enable the kind of big, but dysfunctional superstars like Sellers?

Or will the disruption that's happening in media and entertainment mean that vulnerable but gifted people like Sellers (and Michael Jackson, and many others) won't be able to insulate themselves from reality?

That's a long question. I bet the answer is even longer.

The changing face of celebrity

Check out this excellent interview Chris Brogan did with Brea Grant, star of Heroes (which I've got to admit, I haven't watched yet, despite a slight resemblance to Sylar).

It covers the issues facing celebrities using social media who genuinely want to maintain a connection with their fans. It's an issue that's relevant for anyone who wants to build a personal brand - and in fact small businesses too.

Meanwhile, Megan Maguire writes about why Gen Ys don't get the business applications of social media. It makes eminent sense that, while Gen Ys understand the technology, they often don't understand the business environment.

When we spoke to students who were part of the yMedia challenge, we expected them to be confident with their online presence, and honestly, we wondered where we could add value. We were surprised to hear 18-year-olds expressing the same fears and questions as large corporates - largely around how to manage their reputation (for potential employers, or for customers) and how to manage information overload.

There's a lot of work ahead! These are exciting times to be involved with social media.

Technorati Tags: social media, personal branding, heroes, celebrity, film, movies, tv

Movie Review: Taken

Even though I was pretty sick on Friday, I needed to get out of the house, so I saw Taken with Marie.

It came with her sister's recommendation - and this is a sister whose favourite film is Legally Blonde. Not an action flick fan.

But there was action aplenty. It was kind of strange - like Kramer vs Kramer meets James Bond. That's strange in a really good way - it's good to see an action film with 3-dimensional characters and believable backstories - and in a bad way, too - once the action was over it reverted to a "family issues" film, and that kind of felt unsatisfactory.



I also found myself overthinking the whole thing - a bad habit of mine - and wondering what message the film was sending.

In many ways it was a typical hero story - that our protagonist is the only guy who knows how to save his daughter, that the whole system is against him, he can trust no one and must rely on his wits and his fists (used in equal amounts, and very proficiently) to get through.

It was extremely exciting, and yes, the hero wasn't completely invincible (only 99%). But it made me reflect on why I enjoyed Signs so much. Hero movies where the main guy is always in control are sheer escapism. Life can be much more like Signs - overwhelming and confusing, and a reason to turn to one another for help.

So my verdict on Taken - a terrific ride, but reflective of an individualistic mindset that is gradually fading away as we all seek to rediscover what it means to live in a society.

Sapphire and Steel

Like many of my generation, YouTube has given me the ability to analyse some of the key media experiences of my childhood - experiences like Sapphire and Steel.

That program used to give me the willies! Whether it was the music, the weird storylines, the sense of muted discomfort - it was just such a well-done show.

Sometimes when you look up a show from your childhood, you find that your imagination was doing all the work, and it was actually poorly done (a lot of Doctor Who's special effects come to mind here!).

But with Sapphire and Steel (as well as The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) it was just as good as the memory. And even better, consumed as a grownup.

I wonder if JJ Abrams ever watched Sapphire and Steel? They put into practice the idea of a Mystery Box like no-one else I've seen. We viewers didn't have a clue who Sapphire and Steel actually were, or why they were doing what they did, but we sure wanted to find out what happened next!

After staying up way too late last night watching Sapphire and Steel on YouTube, I'm going to take some of that mystery and incorporate that into today's writing projects. Will it help me? You'll just have to find out ...

The Dark Knight and Word of Mouth

"You've changed everything."


Batman changed the face of Gotham City's crime, and we've changed the face of trusted recommendations.

To be honest, The Dark Knight's trailer didn't grab me. At all. But when friends offline and online started raving over it, unanimously, without one negative review, I paid attention.

I'm glad! We finally saw it on Friday night on the big IMAX screen. So, so good on so many levels. An immensely satisfying filmgoing experience.

Then last night I was weeding out the RSS feeds in my Google Reader. My criteria for what stayed:

• relevant
• consistent
• consistently relevant :)
  
• helpful
• made me feel connected
• informative

So now I'm trying to apply the same ideas to my own blog. Please let me know how I'm doing? I've opened comments to anyone; you don't need to login to comment. Thanks!

Signs

I finally caught Signs (2002) last night. What a refreshing take on the War of the Worlds scenario!

I remember hearing some criticism of it because it didn't fit comfortably in the box of horror or sci-fi, but I felt that was it's strength!

I particularly liked the movie's take on faith - something I've often thought about in horror/sci-fi/thriller situations when people are pressed beyond their limits.



This central bit of dialogue is brilliantly written, and brilliantly acted by Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix:

People break down into two groups when the experience something lucky.

Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way.

For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people.

But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles?

Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

Phoenix's character then puts himself into group 1, a believer. Then - to our great surprise - Gibson's character puts himself into group 2:

There is no one looking out for us. We are all alone.

Not to give away any spoilers, but Signs is less about an alien invasion than it is about Gibson's character working his way through what he believes.

It made me think about life in general, and how my faith in God has often been borne out of an awareness of the otherwise overwhelming complexity of life.

Not that I've never disbelieved there is a God. In fact, sometimes, that thought can be kind of comforting. This world is all there is, and it's up to me what I make of it. But that thought only lasts for a brief while, and is only comforting when things are generally hunky dorey! :)

Major kudos to M Knight Shyamalan for tackling this most contemporary of issues in a genre (or genres!) that often ignores faith.

Having said all that, it was also a very human and funny movie, with great one-liners like "Everybody in this family needs to just calm down and eat some fruit or something."


In other movie news, Marie and I saw Tropic Thunder on Friday. Three-word review: best. laugh. ever!

Young people these days

Just finished watching The Outlook for Someday, an awesome example of Generation C in action, with some old media help.

The competition gave young filmmakers a chance to get their view across on sustainability, and - this is the genius part - present their film personally to a famous person of their choice.

Watching this, I quickly realised I am getting old. Not because the young filmmakers looked young, but because their messaging seemed so unsubtle.

Most of the videos were full of words. Numbers, facts and direct challenges that absolutely failed to move me. They did, however, make me feel vaguely uneasy, which is what a lot of green messaging unwittingly does.

The best ones told a story. As Steve Denning proved to me (by telling a story) numbers, statistics, directives, boxes and arrows don't create change, but stories do. Why? Because when we hear a story, we can't help but put ourselves into that story and ask "what would I do?" Admittedly my favourite films didn't get into that level of detail, but they did get into the emotional territory that helps move us towards feeling inspired enough to take action.

I've got to take a step back and give kudos to one of the films that took more of a journalistic approach. Instead of just stating bare facts, Ally Palmer talked to a whole bunch of key players, including "the bad guys", Genesis Energy. I thought that was a step in the right direction - getting all the viewpoints on the table so we can make an informed decision.

Coming back to my main point, if stories change things, why aren't our young people telling stories? The obvious answer is, it takes time and life experience to get stories that feel real. But there's something else. This generation is faced with problems more potentially disempowering than any generation before. This is bigger than the depression, bigger than world war II, and slightly bigger than the threat of nuclear holocaust. Global warming has the potential to suck your spirit dry of hope and resources. Or it can energise you. So, nitpicking about storytelling style aside, it was awesome to see and feel the energy, drive and passion of these young filmmakers, expressing themselves authentically.

Big ups to Ilai, who did most of the documentary camera work and worked some really, really long hours on the project!

Review: The Last Emperor

I've been reading a lot about China's history, so I felt like I needed some visual stimulus as well. I'm glad I did!

The Last Emperor was fantastic, luxuriously directed, with a compelling main character and supporting characters.

It's the story of Pu Yi, China's last emperor (well, the last ruler with the name emperor - Mao held much the same exalted position). He was crowned at the age of 3 as the Qing dynasty was slowly falling apart, and this film charts his life through being a Western-style playboy, a puppet emperor for the Japanese, an imprisoned war criminal, and eventually a simple gardener.

It's a big job to make such an unusual character accessible. Who can relate to someone who had absolute power at age 3? Yet he didn't really have power, as this film ultimately shows. And that's the part that really hurts. Two powerful scenes drive this home, where this strong-headed young man comes up against the limits of his absolute power. I won't give them away, you'll have to see it.

Through some skilled storytelling and acting, Pu Yi is incredibly easy to relate to as he moves through his uniquely confusing world.

It's not a film for the faint hearted. In a story full of people, there are only two who show Pu Yi genuine concern for his welfare: his Scottish tutor (played melifluously by Peter O'Toole) and, unexpectedly, the prison governor.

There's a story behind the story, as well. This film was made in 1987, with help from the Chinese government, who didn't interfere with the script at all. It was a time when East and West were growing inceasingly closer under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.

In some ways, the prison governor - portrayed by Ruocheng Ying, then vice minister of culture - reflects a story of modern China's growing up. While a prison guard yells at Pu Yi, Ruocheng's character takes a calm, avuncular approach. Later he is shown being marched along in a dunce cap, shamed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. It's interesting that the government of 1987 allowed this portrayal - and perhaps admission of a mistake - of their actions just twenty years earlier.

Sadly, that openness was set back by the Tiananmen Square massacre two years later. Perhaps that openness is back, as we see in the amazing response to the recent earthquake.

Geopolitical musings aside, The Last Emperor is good. Go see it.

What is the cinema industry's death wish?

5.24.06 Cinema
Originally uploaded by M J M

So we went to the movies on our tenth anniversary last week. We saw an average-to-not-so-good movie. But what bothered me was the disaster that is the cinema experience these days.

We don't get out much, and when we do, we sort of expect it to be ... I dunno ... good? What happened to the movies, that's what I want to know?

Maybe it's just my imagination, or nostalgia, or whatever, but I seem to remember the whole experience used to be magical.

Now, it seems there's a conspiracy to take away the magic.

Consider this:

1. Why is a popular, intelligent-looking film like Michael Clayton only playing at 1:50pm on a Friday? And why is there so precious little else on that seems appealing?

2. Why is it so easy to get lost at Village SkyCity Metro? (I mean, one thing they have got right is the architecture - it's a kinda cool place to get lost in, but it would also be cool to not get lost!)

3. Why is it impossible for the girl behind the counter to divide a large popcorn into two boxes? Not just difficult, absolutely impossible.

4. Why is my icecream in a plastic bag? That just sucks.

I guess my gripes come under three broad categories:

1. Clueless staff who are just there to pass the time and earn a wage.
2. Systems built for efficiency, not customer experience.
3. Crappy movies.

Okay, so a cinema chain can't do much about the crappy movies, but they could invest in staff training, and they could design systems that make me feel like I didn't make a mistake shelling out nearly 50 bucks to come to the movies with my wife.

The kind of service we get doesn't match what the price has become. Cinemas, wake up! Stop nickel-and-diming yourself to death. Your demise has been predicted many times, but you can actually make a difference, by focusing on the experience of your customers.

It's not rocket science. But it is. Very. Important!

Film review: Vantage Point

Is it really that hard to combine action, character and story? I guess it is.

From the trailer, Vantage Point seemed to have a lot going for it - the same, controversial event, seen through the eyes of multiple characters, in the style of Rashomon.

But at the end, despite a truly adrenaline-filled action ride, Marie and I left the cinema saying Vantage Point was OK, if even that.

Why? Maybe there were too many characters, and none of them had any discernible depth. I got excited when I saw Forrest Whitaker was in the cast, but he was sadly wasted as a two-dimensional, all-American tourist. The same with William Hurt's American President - he got maybe two really good lines in the whole piece, but apart from that showed very little complexity.

Vantage Point will satisfy you if you want 24, but shorter. If you want complexity that reflects the increasing complexity in our world, you'll find this movie wanting.

Guitars, not guns

I just heard from an old friend, Will Watson. He's part way through an amazing documentary called "War Without Guns" - the story of how music and entertainment is brokering peace in the out-of-control world of Bougainville.



He needs a little help to get the film finished. Check the contact details at the end of the video!

Inspirational films

Over the last few months I've seen some little-known, but inspirational, films.

I'll start with the last first. Joyeux Noel is based on the true story of the 1914 truce, when German, French and British troops fraternised on the front on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It captured the amazingness (is that a word?) - and sometime knife-edge ambiguity - of sworn enemies approaching each other with peace in mind.

Especially poignant was the scene where a French soldier in German disguise is shot. I won't give any more away, you'll have to see it.

It's also amazing that this was the director's second feature film, his first period piece and the first to involve so many cast.

Last year we also saw Mother Teresa and Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace.

Not exactly popcorn-munching entertainment, but powerful stories that packed a punch. For me the test of a historical movie, especially a biopic, is whether it makes me want to find out more about the real person. These films did it in both cases.

Maybe that's where Hollywood purists would disagree, but I see a lot of potential for movies to educate - after all, they serve as proxy for much that goes under the name of literature and education.

I don't look like Jesus any more

(but hopefully I act like Him!)

In a rash moment (actually, it was dry skin) I went all the way when shaving. Not sure how long this clean-cut will last.

Anyway, speaking of Jesus, I watched Walk the Line again last night.

That is such a good film. Brilliantly put together, raw, powerful, harrowing, touching. A true tribute to a genuinely honest man. When the same guy impresses Billy Graham and Quentin Tarantino, I'm impressed!

My favourite scene - the very last scene in the movie. It's not very eventful, but it stands starkly in contrast to the rest of the movie. For once John is not escaping his troubled family, but going back in an opposite spirit. Instead of returning his father's emotional poverty, he's able to love the loveless.

Anyway. I'm raving. Must be time for lunch. It's a bit cold out though, especially around the face!

Evan Almighty review - a God who's safe to like

Like most of New Zealand, I took some time away from the computer today and spent some quality time with Marie - including a trip to the movies. We saw Evan Almighty.

I'd heard some pretty iffy reviews, but a comedy seemed the best on offer. (Doesn't say much about what's on at the theatre! The Kingdom wasn't on until late tonight... )

We laughed - and also, surprisingly, felt closer to God. Although the film was generic enough to be spiritually acceptable to people of many faiths (although less generic than Bruce Almighty), it also seemed pretty compatible with the mainstream, fairly orthodox (I guess) Christian faith Marie and I call our own.

Some of my favourite moments:

• God (Morgan Freeman) appearing to Evan's wife Joan as a waiter, with the name tag "Al Mighty" - smart. What he said to her was just inspiring.
• A smarmy journalist asking Evan (Steve Carrell) cynically why God would call him. Evan's answer: "He's called all of us." Yes!
• Evan's little shrug of the shoulders as he holds up his staff and the animals board the ark. He says, without words, "Hey, I have no idea how this is happening. I'm just doing what I do - and this stuff happens!"

I was pleasantly surprised by Steve Carrell's acting. As another reviewer commented, he has a gift for doing "frustrated", but he also has a gift for doing very sincere people caught up in circumstances beyond themselves. That's a sentiment we need to see because, a) a lot of us feel the same way, and b) it gives us hope.

Morgan Freeman was great, as he was in Bruce Almighty. He combines seeming omnipotence with homespun friendliness - which I imagine is not an easy task.

On a theological and philosophical level, I'm reminded of the writings of Adrian Plass, particularly his "controversial" statement that "God is nice and he likes us" ... which is somehow better than we could imagine.

It also reminds me of a conversation heard on The God Journey podcast a few weeks ago. The guys were talking about two Gods: the mean God and the nice God. We desire the nice God, but secretly fear the truth is he's the mean God.

From memory, the conversation went something like this:

So this guy, he tells me he's sticking with the mean God, because he's covering his bases. See, if God is actually nice, but I'm following the mean God, the nice God won't mind. But if God is actually mean, and I'm following the nice God - I'm in big trouble!

So I said to him, would the mean God go to the cross for you? Instinctively, without thinking, he said no. What does that tell you about the mean God?

Finally, this reminded me of the best things I enjoyed about A Generous Orthodoxy, as well as the mystic poetry combined with deep Biblical teaching combined with folk and celtic music that is the catalogue of Michael Card.

Always good to be reminded of something I already knew. Marie and I went and talked to God for quite a bit after seeing this comedy. Who'd have thought.

Fox wants you

Fancy a quick entry into Hollywood? Fox is asking for your story ideas on MySpace.

Sounds like a good idea - unfortunately one I don't have time or mental space to participate in at the moment. A bit of advice: check out what they do with submissions that don't win. Do you as the creator retain copyright? This is a great opportunity, but it would help you to be very clued up about the legal ownership aspects.

Hat tip: Heather Shepherd from Skip's Hollywood Hangout.

The break-up

The Break-Up
Uploaded by Damon_Crepin-Burr

The art of documentary filmmaking

I've been really enjoying reading Alan Rosenthal's Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos, despite the really really long title and the fact that it's over 10 years old (the edition I read anyway).

Starting to read the book, I remembered I'd downloaded podcasts from this year's Sundance Film Festival. Some really interesting insights on the evolving nature of documentary.

It's fascinating see what's changed and what's stayed the same. Since Rosenthal's book was published in 1996, we've seen cable TV and the internet open up huge new markets for film producers. Yet that is only still unfolding as filmmakers - often more traditional in their thinking than they would care to admit - slowly grasp the opportunities of micro-films on YouTube.

What hasn't changed is the need to tell a good story. And Rosenthal has some really sound advice on that, which I'll summarise here:

1. Have a clear idea of what you want the film to accomplish - this will help you identify your audience and secure funding.
2. Know the language of documentaries - actually, of filmmaking in general - and use what works for what you want to do.
   
3. Write, rewrite and rewrite.
   
4. Think visually.
   
5. Avoid abstractions, statistics and lists. Instead go for personal stories that follow someone's journey or conflict.
6. Where possible, let the story's characters tell their own story.

It's all stuff I'd heard before, but it was good to hear it specifically applied to docos.

It was also great to read Rosenthal's examples, as well as hear the up-to-date examples in the Sundance podcast.

All in all a good read - part of my self-selected curriculum bringing together the communication skills and languages of a whole bunch of disciplines.

How to get attention for a spec script in Hollywood (or anywhere)

Before a movie is made, you have to create a movie in the heads of the studio people: script readers, producers, directors.

Until now, you could only do that through phone calls, meetings and the screenplay.

But now...

Review: Making Black Harvest

"He is in great pain from the wound," said Tepra, "but glad you are both here. The arrow came out cleanly, or he would be much worse. Just a little to one side and he would have died."

"Can we film?" I asked.

What? Sitting here at my desk fourteen years later, I'm shaken yet again by the cold-blooded prioritising behind that question, and I can offer no defence. That's how it was, that's what we had become.

That's the segment of Making Black Harvest I saw on ABC during my last trip to Australia in 2005. It's compelling, and brings up questions that affect everyone who puts together stories.

Bob Connolly and his wife Robin Anderson made two films in Papua New Guinea in the mid-80s and early 90s. They followed the fortunes of Joe Leahy, son of a white Australian who never acknowledged him as his own, and an indigenous woman from a tribe who had met white people for the first time in 1935.

Leahy ran a profitable coffee plantation together with the local villagers - a precarious arrangement that was very lucrative when it worked, and an absolute disaster when it didn't. Black Harvest is the story of when it didn't work. Making Black Harvest is the story of the making of that story.

It took me a while to get into Making Black Harvest. There is a complicated web of characters, with undulating loyalties, perceptions and politics. But once the action started - more than half way through the book - I realised how well I'd come to know these real-life characters.

Every good story has conflict, and this story is loaded with it. Not only the obvious bits like tribal warfare, but also the tense battle faced by Connolly and Anderson as they had to choose between intervening and observing. The Prime Directive is for filmmakers.

Being a true story, Making Black Harvest is not about tidy, happy endings. In fact, the conflict begun during filming in 1990 continued until the end of 1997. Not only that, Connolly implicates himself as unwittingly causing the war - a conclusion that maybe doesn't reflect reality, but it reflects Connolly's mixed feelings about the time they spent filming.

Read Making Black Harvest. It will take you on a journey full of the harrowing tension and drama, as well as the touching humanity and beauty of Papua New Guinea.

Meet Generation C - the nice people

Who are the people who will shape the future of marketing (and everything else)? Generation C.

If you'd like to understand Generation C - or you are Generation C ... or both (!) take a trip to Looksy.org.

We're co-creating the world's biggest consumer-generated film. Do you want to be in it?



We'll also be podcasting and blogging, connecting with the conversation about Generation C around the world. Stories like FinanceVisor - Markets > News >this report saying Generation C will be nicer than people like me!