mint julep »to the sea«

Just look at this double camera visual wonder. Such a great idea. It looks like a simple double rig and then constant edit between the two. Others are saying twixtor with tilt shift. Bottom line, beautifully simple but makes for something painfully intriguing. Bringing so much movement to a nice wee music video.

The Shore wins an Oscar.....and then what?

http://theshorefilm.com/

Now if you know anything about my blog you will be aware of my distate for films about the "troubles". I have a wide brush and I paint with my eyes closed at times. I thought Elephant was superb and was a truly gripping representation of the mindless violence that ripped the country apart. I do however find most other "trouble" films to be boring and the same old, dragging us back, nearly glamourising the troubles.
I was delighted to read a few months ago about The Shore being nominated for an Oscar in the live action short film section.
Was even more delighted to see that this morning it won. Not because I think that the Oscars mean anything, look at the directors who missed out in the past. It is because I think that The Shore is possibly the start of things to come. As Terry George put it "This is about reconciliation in Northern Ireland, it is really close to my heart."
It is also great to see that this is something that is being supported with awards and is maybe a chance for Northern Ireland to start to move on artistically. There has been terrible, shocking and disgusting things done in this country and nobody will forget or let that disappear. But do we really need to see it recreated and brought up again? We are a small but creative country taking things onto the world stage. Lets make these things represent Northern Ireland's beauty in the landscape and people.
Finally a massive congrats to all involved and to Terry George on getting an Oscar third time around. Check out an interesting interview with Terry below.

Grabbers (2012) - A follow up #filmmaking #ireland #film

You may remember a post I made in early December regarding the Irish Film Board funded Grabbers and Shadow Dancer. I was glad to see Irish film being represented at Sundance, its a great festival and an amazing platform for any countries cinema talent to be shown off. My issue with the two of these films was  the films. Now now I know I hadn't seen the films but a film about a monster allergic to alcohol invading a rural irish village and a "troubles" film is not how I want Irish film represented. I think we are a bit better than that.
I got some stick and rightly so, people put a lot of effort into making these films and they should be proud of what they have achieved. It has now thought come to the stage to take a look at the reviews that have come out of Sundance.

"Hilarity should ensue, but the humor drummed up by Wright and scenarist Kevin Lehane is pretty tepid, middlebrow stuff; despite the idea's potential, this doesn't come within spurting distance of "Evil Aliens," "Shaun of the Dead," et al" Link

 Dennis Harvey reviewed for Variety and gave the film a pretty rough ride. He puts one small plus point to the film being,

"Trevor Forrest's widescreen lensing of County Donegal scenery"Link 

Next review and I shall give you one quote from Fearnet.com, I shan't link. 

"So it's an Irish monster movie about a monster that can't eat drunk people. Come on, that's pretty cute." 

They seemed to love it. Not really much to get from the review as they analyse "the talkier bits". Next review. This final review gives the film a pretty good dressing down. It is the only review with a rating and it comes in at a 1.5/5.  Nicholas Bell reviews for Ioncinema.com 

"Intentionally goofy, and drearily written, your reception of the film will all depend on how high you set your stakes. ThinkTremors (1990) was a classic? Maybe you’ll enjoy this tired flick." Link

I was rather surprised to see such a harsh review. Did not expect the writing to be so badly received. It is a low budget horror after all.
It seems that overall Grabbers has had a pretty bad reception and with its constant referral as 

"but even if you have to see it sober, it’s a fun, small British film, complete with the requisite British humor and characters actors" Link

This goes ahead and opens a brand new can of worms as to what is an Irish or British film but a film made in Ireland, funded by the Irish Film Board with Irish actors, Written by an Irish man, Directed by a Northern Irish man but yet, not made in America? British film then.
Come on people Ireland can make films! Let us get out there and show it.