Film, culture, history
Walter Murch, yes the Walter Murch, travelled all the way to Aberystwyth to take questions on his film, Apocalypse Now.
Okay, so Murch was only the sound stylist, right? An editor, not a director, star, screenwriter or even a producer. Producers take home the best picture award, directors get to be thought of the auteur, actors get famous, screenwriters can say they thought it all up, but without people working below the line there’s only so much you can do.
Love them or hate them, here’s a list of movies. It’s not a good list, or a bad list, just a list.
Some have won awards and become classics. Others have been largely forgotten.
Some we watched on the recommendation of friends. Others we had to see for class. Still others just happened to be playing at a one-screen cinema.
Some we like and can recommend. Others we find boring and annoying.
However, our taste might not be the same as yours.
(Some related films and listed as a group. Consider seeing these as double or triple features, or with a festival pass.) Continue reading “List of movies”
Ptara Ltd has a strict policy of respect for creative integrity and intellectual property. By using our services, content, and/or any of our websites, you agree to abide by this policy. Continue reading “Creative integrity and intellectual property policy”
Not everyone agrees with the academy results. Rather than predicting who would win the big awards, we’ve decided to wait for the elites to pick their winners and then list the films that we enjoyed the most. Continue reading “Our top picks for 2017”
Every year, around the world, heads of state give Christmas messages. The first time a British Monarch gave such a speech was in 1932, when George V said the following. (If you are patriotic, British, and love history, then this might bring tears to your eyes. Otherwise, it might help you sleep.)
So, what do we at Ptara have to say this Christmas?
Well, viewing the media of the past year, both left- and right-wing, both highbrow and tabloid, has taught me one thing. There’s more historical proof for the existence of Santa Claus than there is for most of the “events” that have moved history, and that includes the lies and rumors of our time. Continue reading “The Ptara Christmas message”
Usually, when people talk about “group think” they are condemning bad decisions. Yet when they talk about “consensus” they are implying that the group or crowd must be right.
When good leaders make bad decisions because advisers not only fail to speak up, but fail to even consider that better options may be available, that’s Group Think. When two people share the same view, and everyone else is afraid to speak, that’s Group Think. Group Think is when people not only fail to challenge the consensus, but fail to consider that the consensus may be wrong.
Look at almost any war, and you’ll find that the consensus behind at least one side’s leadership was wrong, and went largely unchallenged. However, war is politics by other means, and I do not wish to discuss politics.
Before getting into heated political mud fights I may wish to forget, I’ll talk about a “non-political” area, one where I’ve wasted time in debates that have turned ugly: film theory. Continue reading “Consensus or Group Think?”
Mountains out of molehills
First published on Social Media: Mar 1, 2016
I had many titles for this post. The ass-u-mers, The Bore Who Cried Adolf, A Pipe is just a Pipe, but most of them were, well, a bit hyperbolic.
Anyway, take a look at the image above for a few seconds, and register in your head what it is.
Done that? Good, now scroll down so you can’t see it.
Done that too? Good, now get out a piece of paper and a pencil and see if you can draw the image from memory. This isn’t a test of artistic skills, just see if you remember what the image was of.
Have you finished with that? How well did you remember the image? Continue reading “Mountains Out of Molehills”
If you ask us the price of producing a one minute film, sorry, you can’t multiply that by 100 to make a hundred minute film. As the project gets bigger, things get more complicated. It’s like comparing a shed and a skyscraper.
You have to take into account the one reel rule.
So, what is this one reel rule?
There are many great films about entrepreneurship, and the importance of a great team. Two of my favourite are the first Ghostbusters (1984) and the first Cool Runnings (1993). I haven’t seen the remake of Ghostbusters, I’m not a real fan of remakes.
Now, here’s a little game: Which of these are you? Continue reading “Which Ghostbuster are you?”
At Ptara, I directed two microbudget feature films. Make that nanobudget.
One had a crew of two (excluding the three actors, who also crewed, and a few kids who helped out on sound one day), and the other was basically me editing a large variety of footage to make it coherent. There were challenges in both, and everyone learned a lot. And, what these films lack in production values is made up for in performance and storyline.
By contrast, Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” had a budget that was about 1000 times either of my films. He worked with a much more expensive kit and a more experienced cast and crew. Yet, “The Room” was filled with continuity errors, bad acting, and an incoherent plot.