Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Sacha,
It’s named after a song by The Eastern, and the band appear from what I’ve read.
They appear very early on. But, I suspect, will remain minstrels, not active characters.
So I agree with Rob to an extent. Kids in a band would have made more interesting characters than a crooked lawyer.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Rob Stowell,
(FWIW I’ve met mean-spirited, misanthropic socialists – and generous, philanthropic lawyers :))
I'd actually have been much more interested in, say, a community lawyer making sacrifices to help people post-earthquakes (and maybe even finding a love interest, whatever). Stephen Lovatt's character and his predicament mean nothing to me at all. And that's pretty weird, because the last time I saw Stephen Lovatt at work (as Roy Cohn in Angels in America) he actually scared me.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Marian Hobbs,
So I looked forward to watching this last night, especially since I have some respect for Gaylene Preston’s previous work.
I have enormous respect for Gaylene's work and for her as a person. She's a good woman. So I wanted to be careful offering criticism, especially when that criticism flowed from my initial impression that these characters seemed a bit helicoptered in.
I read the initial reaction on social media and was puzzled, but the exchange on here has really helped me get much closer to the issues.
So thank you all…you have added much to my knowledge and hopefully, to my insight.
One of the things I'm most proud of about Public Address is the fact that we've been a place to talk about Christchurch since the quakes happened. Indeed, it was in pursuit of that that some of our most valued and engaged commenters came here in the first place.
PS: Don't be a stranger! We'd love to have you engaged here.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to andrew gunn,
Here’s the argument though: we all have our existing issues – some trivial, some overwhelming. But for an awful lot of people in Canterbury, the quakes (and their aftermath) WERE the issue.
I was circling around that point, but you've just made it. Drama relies on personal crises, but in this case there was already plenty of crisis to go around.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Sacha,
Auckland drama
Wellington drama. See above.
This Auckland thing is taking hold a bit on social media too. In the sense that a big chunk of the viewing audience is in Auckland, yeah, I suppose. But the funding agency and the creators are from Wellington.
Otoh, I don't think postcodes are the real issue. It's not unthinkable that someone who didn't live through the earthquakes could help tell the stories.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
You need to place it within the work of Gaylene (such as Home By Christmas) and other film-makers who deliberately re-work conventions of veracity, memory and authentication.
Good point.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Hebe,
The use of these images, unless express consent from the people has been obtained, is foul. It may be legal, but it’s inhumane.
There was some feeling of that nature when When a City Falls came out, but not much. Is the particular offence here that the pictures were used in a dramatic context?
Not quibbling with you at all: just asking, because to an outsider, the incorporation of the real-life footage seemed one of the most successful elements.
And do you think any dramatic treatment could have been right for you? Perhaps a smaller narrative that didn’t claim to tell everyone's story?
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This just in: the Herald has the video of 'Think You're So Free' from the forthcoming album FVEY, recorded at York Street. It's bloody crunchy.
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Hard News: Hope and Wire, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Perhaps a little more trust in the emotional and artistic intelligence of that "mainstream audience" would be a good thing?
Yeah, but it's not just that: I wonder if there's a demographic obligation that's even stronger here than usual -- you must show young people, old people, poor people, rich people, white people, brown people.
Fewer characters and more drama might have been better.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Chris Waugh,
So no, no smoking gun, but this certainly looks to me like a more likely tree to be barking up.
You may well be correct.