Day 23: Favourite Christmas Movies

Disclaimer: This is my own personal list, but feel free to agree, disagree or add more in the comments section below.

In alphabetical order:

Batman Returns (1992)
I’m sure I’ve called this the most criminally under-rated Batman film recently. I’ll stick by that!  Tim Burton mixes Gothic and Christmas together to brilliant effect. Gotham has never looked better than this offering amidst the snow. Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it!

Black Christmas (1974)
This cult film is for those who have overloaded on Christmas sentimentality. The perfect anti-Christmas film in many ways, directed by Bob Clark who would later go on to make another genuine Christmas classic “A Christmas Story” (although I’ve not seen it). This film was the inspiration behind John Carpenter’s Halloween. Rich on atmosphere and character without relying on shock jumps or gore (but *is* disturbing and gets under your skin – even 40 years on!). Avoid the horrible remake. Billy!!!

Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001)
Personally I wasn’t a huge fan of the other Christmas offering from “Richard Curtis” – Love Actually, but I know I’m probably in a minority. This is the one which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy (in that Vicar of Dibley kind of way) – right down to the naff woolly jumpers, and scenes of snow falling majestically. Just don’t mention the terrible follow-up!

Die Hard (1988)
“This *IS* a Christmas movie!” (said in the voice of Argyle the  limo driver). And you already know this film is the best in the series thanks to Alan Rickman. Honorary mention to Die Hard 2, which “tries harder”, brings the Christmas snow, but just isn’t in the same ball-park (despite still being reasonably solid).

Gremlins (1984)
Remember kids, pets aren’t just for Christmas. This has a largely uneven tone – but is essentially a Christmas monster movie for kids (just not really for young kids). Currently enjoying a revival in cinemas (Christmas Eve) for its 30th Anniversary. Who can forget that heartwarming story Phoebe Cates’ character recalls of her dad playing Santa and coming down the chimney. Aww – bless!

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Frank Capra’s classic is set around the heart-warming tale of a suicidal man played by James Stewart. Sounds a bit dark? Well strangely – probably the most uplifting film on this list! Sure it’s got its fair share of cheesy moments and over-sentimentality. It does however remind us money is not what makes us rich (and what better time to remember this than the over-commercialisation of Christmas). No man is a failure who has friends.

Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
So is Kris Kringle the real Santa? That would be giving the film away surely! This covers some darker themes also, but essentially at its heart is another feel good Christmas movie. Richard Attenborough’s remake makes for a more colourful and accessible Kringle, but Edmund Gwen is the real deal. I now want to go and shop at Macys.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
There are only so many interpretations of the classic Dickens novel I can include!  But this one has the Muppets in and Michael Caine as Scrooge (sorry 1951 version), so enough said!! This one also put Muppet movies back on the map after a bit of a break.

Nightmare before Christmas (1993)
Once again Tim Burton mixes macabre gothic with Christmas to great effect. Okay so this one is perhaps more Halloween based, but watching Jack’s awe at discovering Christmas Town singing “What’s this?” never fails to puts me in the Christmas spirit. Kidnap the Sandy Claws!

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Had to get Bond in there somewhere. This is one of the rare exceptions where a Bond film takes place during a named season (most are nondescript). The fact that the main part is set in Swiss alps helps tremendously (even if the ending isn’t full of the usual festive Bond cheer). Do you know how Christmas Trees are grown?

The Polar Express (2004)
This isn’t Robert Zemeckis’ only performance capture Christmas film, but this one (his first) is the best. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched parts of this one on TV over the past few weeks. It is pretty much one set-piece and cliché after another. Even so, it has everything you need to put you in a feel good mood for the festive spirit.

Scrooged (1988)
Once again another Christmas Carol remake, but much like the earlier inclusion – this one has Bill Murray at his cynical best. Enough said! Honorable mention (and perhaps double-bill) to Blackadder’s A Christmas Carol – which covers similar ground (just in reverse). Bah Humbug!

The Snowman (1982)
A bitter sweet work of art (long before the days of CGI which now make this sort of thing easier). Sometimes shown as part of a double-bill with Raymond Briggs’ other Christmas classic “Father Christmas” – voiced by Mel Smith. It transcends the language barrier even when “we’re walking in the air”. Who can forget that ending?

Trading Places (1983)
As we know – Christmas is a time for giving and remembering those less fortunate than yourself.  This is a deliciously twisted role-reversal comedy which I remember watching for the first time with my parents a few years ago (sorry Mum, I know now that in the 80’s Eddie Murphy swears a lot). How can you not enjoy watching Dan Ackroyd as the original Bad Santa?

Rebecca Hind: watercolours video

Last week I was fortunate to spend time chatting with local artist Rebecca Hind from the Ruskin School of Fine Art. She has a watercolour exhibition called ‘Leaves from a Book of Hours’ which is open to all by appointment (at The Kendrew Barn, St Giles Street, Oxford – running for three weekends).

To be honest I tend to think of watercolours looking pretty washed out, but her work is an explosion of colour influenced by the elements. She kindly allowed me to interview her and film the creation of a sketch-book piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcffzDkmWrQ

If you would like to view the exhibition, please visit the here for further information.

An Evening with Sir Roger Moore

Last night I had the tremendous pleasure of being in the audience for “An Evening with Sir Roger Moore” in Oxford. Before Sir Roger entered the stage few could fail to spot the wonderful Union Jack cushion on stage which prompted me to tweet:

“I want the Union Jack cushion Sir Roger Moore is presumably sitting on tonight. Might be collectors item after tomorrow”.

Interestingly the cushion and the Scottish vote was one of the first topics he started on. Directing the flow of interview questions at Sir Roger’s biographer and assistant Gareth Owen. The pairing made for some fun banter.

The first half covered Moore’s early career and seemingly haphazard foray into acting. A lot was made of the number of jobs he was sacked from, to humourous effect by Gareth. Moore counted many stories about the studios, his TV career on shows such as Ivanhoe, The Saint (I had no idea he tried to buy the rights) and The Persuaders!. He also spoke a bit about directing episodes of The Saint and Persuaders!, a side of Moore which isn’t widely covered. It included a number of anecdotes of trying to get Tony Curtis to play ball such as re-recording dialogue.

Then came the interval, when  you could grab some obligatory refreshments.

Sir Roger arrived on stage early in the second half to announce some terrible news: “Gareth Owen is still in the building”. This half covered the Bond films in more detail. Many of the already documented stories came out (talking about sex maniac Hervé Villechaize antics on The Man With The Golden Gun, working with Maud Adams, Madeleine Smith and the magnetic wrist watch scene, all the friendly torment he caused Desmond Llewelyn who struggled to learn his lines as gadget-master Q, the time when the explosives went off early during the Stromberg showdown in The Spy Who Loved Me leaving him three holes where most men only have one). The evening was peppered with Moore’s impressions of famous actors such as Richard Burton, Christopher Lee, Hervé Villechaize, Michael Caine, Tony Curtis which were all surprisingly good. He even sent himself up, complete with a halo “Saint” moment on the big screen, a masterclass in ‘eyebrow acting’ and talking about the various parodies of himself from the likes of Steve Coogan and Spitting Image (which he loves). Moore was at his finest when riffing with the audience/Gareth or going wildly off piste at a different tangent only to ask “sorry – what was the original question again?”

Despite all the good humour throughout there was also a hint of melancholy for all the greats no long with us (including the recent loss of Richard Kiel who played Jaws in the James Bond films – the two were good friends). There is a sense that Sir Roger is one of the old guard remaining from a by-gone era. The Q&A was also extremely poignant considering the vast distance many fans had travelled to see Sir Roger speak, including one or two old friends such as A View to a kill co-star Fiona Fullerton. The most affecting moment for me was when the daughter of Film make-up artist Eric Allwright asked a question and mentioned that her dad was also in attendance in audience – Sir Roger was clearly moved by this. His recalling of character actor Percy Herbert was also extremely heart-felt.

At the risk of continuing on this downbeat note, both the first half and second half both ended on a surprisingly serious tone: part one ending on the horrific car accident director Basil Dearden who coaxed the most impressive performance from Moore’s entire career in The Man Who Haunted Himself (one of the few times Moore was required to do real acting), and the second half ending on his introduction and involvement with the charity Unicef.

Despite this, however, it was really an evening of celebration, great humour and the time breezed by like just like an enjoyable matinée (in fact it over-ran by some 40 minutes). Sir Roger was in fine fettle which belied his age of almost 87 to prove to everyone in the audience that nobody does it better.

The Big Event

Our fundraiser is now only days away and I’m massively excited! After a short break it’s also fun to re-utilise a skill I once did as my day-job – event organising.

I can now confirm additional details for those of you coming to the event (or perhaps still sitting on the fence):

The event is invite only (if you haven’t received an invite but would like to come, please email me). We are asking for a minimum donation of £10 per person, but believe this is extremely good value for everything you will be getting. The event takes place in the following garden:

The schedule for the evening is:

6.30-7.30pm	Garden party arrival cocktails with live music by Paul ‘Mudslide’ Morris. There will non-alcoholic cocktails for those who are driving.
7.00-8.00pm	Food. Indian cuisine, with both meat and vegetarian options available.
8.00-8.30pm	Live music by “Peter and the Wulf”.
8.30-10.00pm	Film Screenings. All are short films, we’ve tried to showcase a wide-range of locally produced films alongside a few others we think are excellent examples. Not all are suitable for smaller children, but we promise not all are “grim” and there is plenty of fun mixed in.

The event will ends at 10.30pm. You will be free to mingle with others in the garden through-out the evening, the film-screenings will take place in the Coach House. We would recommend you arrive on time for the cocktails.

There will also be a raffle with prizes towards the end of the night (funny story about this – but you’ll need to turn up to hear it!). It would be great to meet some of you there and just in case you missed it, here is the original flyer.

Grim Shorts and Cocktails

Our team has been considering various options to help raise the budget for our short film Emmi. Running any online crowd-funding campaign so close to the production dates was always going to prove difficult, so we have decided on a different approach.

We are collaborating with another Film Oxford production to run a local fundraiser. The fundraiser showcases a number of our earlier productions in the grounds of a traditional English garden (with some food/drink). Anyone who would like to attend will need to donate a minimum of £10 prior to the event:

The fundraiser takes place on Saturday 13th September and it should prove an evening to remember (contingency in place should the weather decide to misbehave). If you would like to mingle and see a variety of local indie short films please get in touch: andy@fernyfilms.co.uk.

Ciara Phillips

This week there is an Arts Festival happening in Oxford, so here is a slightly related post.

One of the great perks about my new role is that I sometimes get the chance to roam and meet with interesting people. On the odd occasion these people also agree to let me film them. Ciara Phillips is one of the nominees for this year’s Turner Prize at Tate Britain (from September/October). She also happens to be this term’s Artist-in-residence at St John’s College, Oxford. Ciara very graciously allowed me to talk with her before an open studio weekend in Oxford. Here is the result:

Later on the rest of the family turned up and did some screen-print creating with Ciara. The resulting print was clearly World Cup inspired:

When we got home, my eldest daughter decided she would experiment with her own form of screen-printing. She made several creations – but this one was my favourite:

In the words of Salvador Dalí “A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others”.

Super Hero Themes

Recently hit an age milestone (or rather millstone) and one of the treats I wanted to allow myself was to spend a day writing a new track. Perhaps subconsciously after my Super Hero film rant, I really wanted to write a Super Hero tune. I even gave it a vague back-story to compose against.

A lone person stands precariously at the top of skyscraper over-looking the city, thoughts dashing through their head:

What just happened? Am I am freak? Or do I possess a gift? One way to find out. It’s a long way down. I must clear my mind. Should I step off – there is no coming back if I fail. Shut eyes – leap of faith. Wow-whee!!!!! I do have special powers – I’m doing this. This is fun! Oooops, getting a bit too cocky. I am still developing. What just happened? Am I am freak? Or do I possess a gift? Am I Super? I have powers. Do I keep this a secret or share? Powers can be used for Good and Bad. I am a good person, but I’ll need to take responsibility. I will make enemies along the way. I will have to make difficult choices. I could lose those I love. But this is a gift. I will learn to harness these powers. I am developing. I am Super!

So here is the track, which is part me, part Danny Elfman and part Hans Zimmer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!

[direct link]

New developments

Right now is a crazy time, which hopefully goes to explain why the blog has been a bit quiet for the past month or so. It’s all been work work work! Everything feels seismic, epic and very new right now. So what’s been happening (taking aside any of the usual day-to-day parental dramas)?

Firstly, after 13 years I am leaving my day job to take up a new position. This has not been a quick or easy decision/process to deal with but I feel it is definitely the right time to move on. I have achieved everything I wanted to in the role but will miss the team greatly. Of course I am also extremely excited about the new post which allows me to shift focus towards content/media creation. My current situation is still a bit of a head-screw being as I am working in both roles (phased), I won’t make the full switch until July (I’m sure any temporary discomfort will pass quickly).

Secondly, I’ve been battling with the local council who want to *double* the size of our village by building on protected Greenbelt land. This goes way beyond “Not in my back yard” NIMBYism – it would damage everything we love about living in the village irrevocably and we may as well become a suburb of the town next to us. Aside from the greenbelt issue, the area clearly floods (already), plus the village is already on it knees in terms of schooling, amenities and over-parking. The proposal is driven purely by “Government target hitting”.  I don’t plan to dwell on this further but let’s just say I am more the political animal than I thought I was (although showing the proposal as flawed is pretty exhausting).

So busy times – it doesn’t end there! Then there is film work. I will rattle off some of the recent developments here:

1. The Choice is on a new draft (as of this very evening). It is radically different from the first take. Tomorrow we meet to decide who will be taking on which roles – unsurprisingly it seems everyone wants to direct but no one wants to produce! Sound familiar?

2. Speaking of the Film Oxford Production group, I seem to have inherited being the chair for the production group. With everything else going on this seems reasonably pain-free.

3. I also have a couple of potential scoring assignments. One is for a production group film (which begins filming this weekend – woo!). The other is the directorial debut of Rhys Lewis, who I met at the Guerilla filmmaker’s Masterclass back in 2012. His film “Sick” is a hard-hitting revenge thriller in a similar vein to cult classic Old Boy (with more British sensibilities). I’m really looking forward to getting down and dirty with this.

4. Cancer Hair premiered in the West End last week and the end result is magical. I feel extremely proud and honoured to have played my part in helping Gail Hackston get it made. Well done to Gail and the team. We set out to make a “less depressing but more positive” cancer related film about survival/remission and I definitely feel we achieved this. The film is heart-warming, fingers crossed it plays well on the festival scene.

Meanwhile please forgive any sporadic updates over the forthcoming months, hopefully it will be business as normal shortly.

Unfinished Synthphony

I haven’t been composing a great deal recently because of high workload and the fact I needed to retire my trusty but now rather uncomfortable Goldring DR-100 headphones (held together by gaffer-tape). After some research I decided to go with Audio Technica ATH-M40fs headphones from Absolute Music because of their flat response. I wanted the ATH-M50 headphones, but couldn’t really justify the price. The Absolute Music customer service was fantastic and the headphones arrived very quickly. Enthusiasm was short-lived when I noticed they had the larger 6.35mm plug and not the 3.5mm mini-jack I was expecting (note to self: read the technical info next time). Therefore I had to wait for the appropriate adapter to arrive also.

This has now arrived – so it’s play-time! Early days, but I’m reasonably impressed with the headphones even if they still require additional burn in. I sat down and began to flutter away at my keyboard to form the makings of a new tune. I like where the new tune is heading, despite the fact it is unfinished. Afterwards I decided to revisited some stagnant “in progress” tunes and came across one with certain similarities.

The next day I tested both tunes on my harshest critics (the girls). The little one hated both tunes, the larger one loved them (at least they are consistent). What could be agreed upon was the newest composition was the better tune (my gut feeling also). Both are easy-listening ambient pieces. The new tune is slightly funkier, has a melody and sounds cleaner (perhaps because of the new headphones). The older track is less polished and mostly a series of chord progressions set to a beat (even if I do like it’s progressions around the 40 seconds mark). A lot of my compositional experimenting never gets to see the light of day. Therefore I might share more of these “undeveloped” tracks in the future, but for now I hope you enjoy this one (even if it is incompleted and likely to be retired like my old headphones):

Link: http://soundcloud.com/satorious/unfinished-synthphony-demo

Out with the old and in with the new!

When it rains…

…it pours! Oxfordshire has been particularly badly affected by flooding over the past few days (see some of the updates/results).

Two of the main routes into the city are underwater and things are only getting worse as the water table now rises. Buses are taking over 2 hours to get in/out and the train service I rely on has been disrupted also. Last night, I thankfully left early. There was one bit coming back where the train was barely moving through what was essentially a flowing river – several feet high. You could feel the force pushing the side of the carriage – not a nice feeling! Trains after this were suspended, I was lucky – many weren’t.

It rained again over night. I woke to the surprising news that the trains were still running a shuttle service between Oxford and Didcot every 30 minutes. Being a little weary of my train journey home, I monitored for a bit longer before deciding to “go for it”. Arriving at the station – I was greeted by some frustrated commuters and this on the display board:

Being as the last live train update hadn’t been for over an hour – I decided to take a short wander around the village whilst we waited for the next train. I didn’t go far before the inevitable happened:

Venturing on I was struck by what a lovely day it was and how majestic some parts of our village looked.

I returned to the station to find the situation hadn’t changed and the same frustrated commuters were still there grumbling (all trains were ultimately cancelled). Thankfully the walk cleared my head and left me in a better mood. Really should take time-out and do this more often – although next time I’ll take my boots!