Hard News: Effectively Friday
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new levels of antipuncutation. apologies.
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Craig, the usual MO would be to use a stand in for the lighting setup but who knows. In this case it maybe the DOP wanted a moving light in the scene but Mr Beal thought himself more important than the scene itself. As Pliny the Younger said "Stop moving that hill, I'm trying to write"
And now some allegations that Harbut had some pronounced man-diva 'tude of his own going on:
"Hurlbut was a condescending (bleep) to everyone," a source told us. His favorite line was "Why don't you go stab yourself in the head, you idiot."
Nice... I think I could have gone for a lot longer that four minutes if any prick said anything like that to me. I just hope nobody died from testosterone poisoning on that shoot...
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No, and neither is Peter Jackson -- and I've some reliable (and agenda-free) first-hand reports that when he loses his temper, it truly is a sight to behold.
Mr Bale was shooting at my school sometime in 1990-1991. One night the was an 'incident' resulting in a standoff with the 7th formers. Not sure about many of the details, or who provoked who, but anger management has long been an issue for the guy. I kind of feel sorry for him. Not many child stars make it this far.
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Nice... I think I could have gone for a lot longer that four minutes if any prick said anything like that to me. I just hope nobody died from testosterone poisoning on that shoot...
Scarily, that outburst has nothing on the notorious Lily Tomlin vs David O Russel I Heart Huckabees bitchfight (warning: probably best not to play this at full volume):
Two things stick out from those clips- watching them, you'd think David O Russel was psyching himself up for some Peckinpah-esque deliberation on the importance of the "code" rather than the somewhat prissy and self-involved picture that it actually became.
Secondly, watch Dustin Hoffman closely in that second clip- you can so tell the method man is wondering to himself "what the hell is my motivation for working with these people?"
Back onto the subject of zombies (and why the hell not?), Craig, what's your take on the last two Romero pics ( Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead)? They seem like extended footnotes to the original triology, rather than pictures that actually build on the mythology. Credit where it's due though, Land of the Dead was a hugely entertaining watch- and nothing says "inmates taking over the asylum" than casting Dennis Hopper as the CEO. And what kept the film moving is that the base premise was irresistible: as soon as the Zombies invade the island, the quarantined “refuge” becomes a prison.
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Maybe it's just me but I don't get what the non-government organisation APRA has to do with state-enforced culture.
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Not really seeing your point here -- Peter Jackson got paid US$20 million upfront (against 20% of the net rental income) for King Kong which is chump change compared to what's he earned, one way or the other, for the Rings trilogy.
Umm, it was in the next paragraph:
Obviously I come from a different world, but someone wants to pay that much money for a few month's work, they could have their DP prancing around in a tutu for all I care.
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I'm not splitting hairs, I've just heard 'kick his arse' used in that way so many times in workplaces I don't leap to the assumption that someone is going to get thumped.
Oh what tosh. If you listen to the clip again, you can hear movement as he says that. Either Bale has moved in a threatening way, or the other guy has reacted. It certainly wasn't a "I'm going to kick your arse, haha!" line.
You wouldn't hear that 220 second rant in any normal workplace. Any decent employer would be looking up employment law to find if they could skip warnings and just go straight to the firing stage.
The reason he can get away with it is he's a big time movie star, and that's the world he lives in. Which is why it got released publicly, so people could see what a fuckwit he is, and what he gets away with.
All of which is fine, and people will go see his movies or not, but please don't pretend that it's normal behaviour in the workplace. It was unusual even for Hollywood, and it's something he's been known for before.
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Maybe it's just me but I don't get what the non-government organisation APRA has to do with state-enforced culture.
Yeah Sacha, I was wondering the same thing. I don't see them as quite a
"real force for the idea of a national culture."
as Russell. The silver scrolls is just an awards show. They're just revenue distributors
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You wouldn't hear that 220 second rant in any normal workplace. Any decent employer would be looking up employment law to find if they could skip warnings and just go straight to the firing stage.
And then re-shoot the entire movie.
Your ears must be good that they can see things. Have to get me some of them ;)
From the link that Craig posted:
**Bale had indeed warned the DP on multiple occasions about messing with lights while the cameras were rolling**, and Bale was in the midst of a painful scene with Bryce, what was described to me as being the emotional center of the film and his character for the film.
Now, the reason I know all of this is because the person that was there, felt that it should be made perfectly clear that Christian Bale was the utmost gentleman and cool guy on set. And the DP really was doing something that professional DPs with experience just don't do. Not during a performance.
You don't need me to give you a link, it's all over the internet, I just felt that you should know what really went down - and that this particular outburst did indeed modify the DP's behavior - and for future DPs. Fuck with the lights before and after your actors are acting. Not during.
I would equate the type of situation Bale may have been in (and every scene is different for actors so they aren't going to be charged up for a whole movie) to all sorts of situations in sport when the participants are charged up.
But I look forward to the NZRU terminating an All Blacks contract this year for throwing a punch or Graham Henry to be on his bike because he told them at halftime they were playing a bunch of f*&ing w&*kers.
Any rugby club I know would be shut down if the language, abuse and violence in the heat of the moment was treated along those rigid lines.
Go the Blackcaps.
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"playing LIKE a bunch of f*&ing w&*kers" that should read.
Although when we are up against Aussie, SA, and England either/or will be appropriate.
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Mark, to me there is a big difference between the idea of a national culture and actual state-annointed propaganda.
I can see how something like APRA's silver scrolls might fit into the former but not the latter, so some of the comparisons upthread seem a bit of a stretch.
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we recorded another Media7 last night, with a panel on Fiji and the media (David Robie, Barbara Dreaver, Robert Khan
I found the points of view of the panel on Fiji very informative. I have had a sense that the position taken by both NZ & Aust govts since the last coup wouldnt help the situation.
Anyway good to see more informed ideas on the television.
Rather that "news journalists" stories consisting of a pollie doing a bit of grandstanding about bringing democracy ...reminds me of missionaries. -
And then re-shoot the entire movie.
Your ears must be good that they can see things. Have to get me some of them ;)
Maybe if Hollywood started treating actors like people, rather than fragile glass, they'd start to behave more like it.
No doubt it'd be very expensive once they get to Christian Bale type salaries, but if they started doing it with them before they made a million a movie, they might learn.
Actors aren't the only ones with power in movie-making. Lots of actors would give up a body part to do a certain movie or work with a certain director or producer.
And its terminator IV. We're not talking oscar winning emotional acting here. They needed Bale because Arnie got elected, it's not exactly a franchise built on quality acting.
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Mark, to me there is a big difference between the idea of a national culture and actual state-annointed propaganda.
I can see how something like APRA's silver scrolls might fit into the former but not the latter, so some of the comparisons upthread seem a bit of a stretch.
To me Sacha, there's a big difference between, national culture and a force for the idea of national culture.
I'm not refering to APRA. Further up I was dwelling on Russells statement. He was speaking of APRA as a force for the idea of national culture. I discussed that with no relation to APRA. I discussed that phrase purely on it's own merits with an eye to the NZonAIR organization than arguably played a big role in spreading the state-annointed propaganda along just those lines;
ie. that a force for the idea of national culture is required.
So no, there were no such comparisons made by me, nothing to do with APRA. Not really interested in APRA. As I just said Sacha, revenue distributors.
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Again, I don't see how merely saying that something is a force for an idea is the same as saying that it is "required" or even the only such force.
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Scarily, that outburst has nothing on the notorious Lily Tomlin vs David O Russel I Heart Huckabeesbitchfight (warning: probably best not to play this at full volume)
And what lesson do we take from that, children? Don't even try to mix it up with someone who was telling Robert Altman to go fuck himself when dinosaurs walked the earth. And she liked Altman.
Back onto the subject of zombies (and why the hell not?), Craig, what's your take on the last two Romero pics ( Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead? They seem like extended footnotes to the original triology, rather than pictures that actually build on the mythology.
I agree with you that Land was entertaining enough, but my God... Romero's "social commentary" has never been subtle but when Dennis Hopper is boring we've got issues. Still, geek points for casting Dario Argento's daughter as the female lead; and if you hit the pause button fast enough, you'll see Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. As zombies, of course.
It's so-obvious-its-brilliant when 'Big Daddy' realises the zombies can just walk across the river -- dead things can't drown. But then Romero has to blow it at the end -- the Dubya surrogate is killed by the Hispanic 'Uncle Tom'/class traitor; the dirty fucking Republican crackers get theirs; and thankfully when the working classes come out of hiding, the zombies are so full they ignore them. The undead male lead has a moment with the merely wooden male lead. Everyone rides, or shambles off into the distance. Oh, fuck off George!
Diary is just shit. Working with major studio financing -- and the strings that are inevitably attached -- wasn't an entirely happy experience for Romero, so he went back to his indie roots: Low budget, cast of unknowns, a fast and dirty shoot on handheld cameras. What a shame the social satire is trite, the performances (and dialogue) uniformly terrible. It doesn't have to be like that -- __Dead Set__ was made on the memory of the smell of an oily rag, but it's got a wonderful script, solid performances across the board and doesn't look like it was made by drunk frat-boys with camera-phones.
He's currently working on something called Island of the Dead which looks really interesting on paper. (The plot involves inhabitants of an isolated island off the North American coast who find their relatives rising from the dead to eat their kin. The leaders of the island feud over whether or not to kill their reanimated relatives or preserve them in hopes of finding a cure.) But Romero's maxed out his credibility with Diary, so it better pop.
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Again, I don't see how merely saying that something is a force for an idea is the same as saying that it is "required" or even the only such force.
only you saying that Sacha.
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I'm more along the lines of perceiving national culture as not one but a collection of ideas. observaeable yet undefined. that no force will exist without causing equal and opposite forces to manifest, and that any such attempt to define, force, tailor or manipulate the status of 'natural' organism such as national culture, is at best a very slow game.
I'd say the silver scrolls are a great celebration of music. and leave it at that.
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Mark, you seem to be arguing with yourself, so I'm more than happy to move on.
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But Sacha if you move on I am left arguing with myself; D
like i said from the get go, Russell's quote, echoed the voices from the ministry.
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woot, 6 wickets!
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Essentially, making the episode in question available beyond the national borders as a minor consideration, before opening it up for discussion wouldn't be unwelcomed by the offshore readers.
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I'm strongly of the opinion that George Romero is tremendously talented, but not so good at bringing his ideas to fruition (I haven't seen Diary yet, and I'm only a fan of his dead series, don't follow the other stuff that he's done).
The 2004 remake of Dawn was far superior to his 1978 version, including in acting (which isn't saying very much).
I'd much rather he continue to spend his time putting ideas to rough scripts, which other people can wrangle into decent movies.
There are few things more enjoyable than a well done zombie splatter movie.
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The 2004 remake of Dawn was far superior to his 1978 version, including in acting (which isn't saying very much).
As good a remake as it was, I can't really agree with that- partly because it seemed to broadbrush a lot of the gallows humour and the subtext of the original. It was better in the sense that it was more professionally made (and in terms of the performances, I suppose, but those films are never really about the acting), but as a result, something went missing in the process, it became just a very slickly done action-horror pic.
You might have something in the notion that his ideas are more fully realised than his actual filmmaking- I think there's an element of truth to that, yet the first two Dead films, in particular, get by on their energy, chutzpah, and neatly-deployed thematics.
28 Days Later , on the other hand, really took the conceit to another level, not least because, along with Children of Men, it had the bright idea of imagining London as the "last city", which meant visually it packed a huge punch. And Cillian Murphy's performance, in particular, had a ring of truth to it. Obviously, I prefer the version which has the original bleakly satisfying ending, but even the supposed "happy" conclusion is hardly complete salvation- not least because they're still stuck somewhere far away from most of civilisation.
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Russell, thanks for you kind words. I love to be able to live up to them one day :-)
I guess I do feel we have had APRA and others in the room (for example, at Select Committee and an MED workshop) but never had any inkling that they recognised the many may issues with the simplistic POV they so manfully push. Unfortunately this seems to be the only one that has been reflected in legislation.
I appreciated Ant showing up on PA for a few hours but would have appreciated it even more if he had answered a couple of the straight forward questions that were asked of him. APRA might do a lot for local musicians, but they are not the only people doing that. Lots and lots of us are involved in the arts or supporting the arts one way or another. There is no exclusivity in that role.
Finally, whilst I am very concerned about NZ businesses being disadvantaged by this legislation the bit that really upsets me most is the vilification of our children for doing exactly what we all did when we were teenagers with no money. Copying songs we liked, paying when we could. The only difference I see between now and then is that it is easier to measure and track this behaviour today.
These days those children are called pirates and thieves. Compared with arms dealers and drug runners. Well, if they are going to be called that should we be surprised when they start living up to these labels, for real?
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I want to pay artists, not fat old white men sitting around pools in Vegas.
so nothing for the people that record them (studios, mates with computers), nothing for the graphic artists that design the gatefold package for them, the printer that prints the artwork, posters pamplets and presskits, nothing for the mate that manages them, nothing for the company of factory workers that manufactures their vinyl cd, 78 cylinder or the web shop that provides the service to download them, nothing for Ben Howe (Arch Hill) Roger Shepherd (flying nun) Simon Grigg (propellor), Bryan Staff and Mike Chunn (ripper) Trevor Reekie (pagan, antenna), John Doe (Hit Singles) Bryan Waffer (I'm a Hitt), Simon Vare (Yellow Eye), Murray Cammick (Wildside), James Moss (Jayrem), Michael Alexander (Bunk),Jody Lloyd (She'll be Right), Simon Kay (Raw Power) Loop, Capital, etc etc the labels that pull it all together and provide the bridge between strummed chord and ringing recording if neded, Nothing for dad, banker, brother, neighbour friend or fat cat who fronted the cash for them to take the thing from broke (ie no cash) idea to actuality.
if you haven't factored that lot into the equation then your view and experience of the process is very limited, understandably so as the popular view in media likes to gloss over all that. Reality often gets in the way of a good tall tail, but still it doesn't take much to think past the hype.
Robbery's constant dissagreement with, almost, everybody else.
which isn't saying much in a forum that chases out the other side of the discussion with glee and consists of very fixed view (conservative?) individuals. It's like being the lone black guy at a klan meeting.
As an example the treatment shown to Mark Kneebone.
Mark is a very experienced, passionate and highly intelligent man with extensive knowledge in many many aspects of media, culture and art. He had a lot he could offer a "discussion" on copyright, 92a, culture and commerce.I spoke to Mark after he made an appearance on these boards to illuminate a different view of the picture. He shook his head sadly, and said he regretted even trying to discuss the issues with people here, and he's very very open to discussing the theories behind the evolution of media and culture. He's a very articulate, polite and calm man, and if PA likes to think of itself as a gathering place of open minded intelligent thinkers as opposed to the much derided Kiwiblog, we might have a little way to go till we achieve that nirvana.
That's a generalisation of course. there are many lateral literate minds present here too, but still ......
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