Blogbook
Going behind the scenes on the acclaimed and controversial Season 4 of Black Mirror, which is one of Netflix’s most popular series. But what is it about? Via Rappler:
Black Mirror is one of the greatest shows on television – or rather, on the internet – right now. But anyone who’s seen it will know just how soul-crushing the show can be. Since the first season dropped almost 7 years ago, we’ve encountered a person “blocked” in real space, visited a society obsessed with social media ratings, and seen a woman’s memory wiped clean before undergoing daily torture in a so-called justice park. And don’t forget that one episode where the prime minister of the United Kingdom is forced into having sex with a pig.
One of the show’s harshest conceits is depriving the audience of the emotional release that would make a program this bleak otherwise bearable – or fun, even. (Notable exceptions include San Junipero, the Emmy Award-winning episode from Season 3.)
Season 4 changes that, for the most part. While Black Mirror’s creator and co-showrunner Charlie Brooker is still spinning cautionary tales of humanity bowing to technology, these new episodes give us a bit more catharsis. Hell, there’s even a post-apocalyptic action-thriller episode (Metalhead) that would make James Cameron and Linda Hamilton happy. Metalhead is the perfect thematic anchor for this season because it shows (in stark grayscale) humanity fighting back. The fight may not always be won, but that struggle validates our humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wD5OsJM-Pc
ICYMI: The Thor: Ragnarok Gag Reel shows that working on set with New Zealander director Taika Waititi was a blast for everyone. The reel will be part of the upcoming DVD, which includes the following extras, including another short with Thor’s ex roommate, Darryl:
• Director’s Introduction
• Deleted/Extended Scenes – Deleted Scenes: The Sorcerer Supreme, Skurge Finds Heimdall & Hulk Chases Thor Through Sakaar and Extended Scenes: Thor Meets the Grandmaster, Stupid Avenger vs. Tiny Avenger & Grandmaster and Topaz
• Gag Reel – Watch a collection of goofs, gaffes and pratfalls starring the cast
• Exclusive Short/Team Darryl – Fresh off being unseated as the ruler of Sakaar, the Grandmaster makes his way to Earth to start a new life. It’s been over a year since Thor left Australia and Darryl has been struggling to pay his rent. Now Darryl needs a new roommate to help make the monthly payments. Unfortunately for Darryl, the Grandmaster was the only one who answered Darryl’s “Roommate Needed” ad and with no viable options, the Grandmaster moves in.
• Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years – The Evolution of Heroes – Marvel’s universe is vast and transcends both time and space. We’ll examine the Cinematic Universe as a whole and revisit each of our heroes’ current location and their place in the current MCU timeline, as it all leads up to the one culminating event: “Avengers: Infinity War.”
• Getting in Touch with Your Inner Thor – Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has brought his unique sensibility and sense of humor to the film in a great many ways but it is the evolution of Thor’s own sense of humor, which stands out the most in the new film. This piece explores the impact Chris Hemsworth has made on the development of his widely-loved character and celebrates the mighty cast and crew who reveal the fun and hard work that went into assembling Thor’s eccentric counterparts.
• Unstoppable Women: Hela & Valkyrie – This piece explores the strong female characters in Thor: Ragnarok, their importance in the MCU, their incredible casting and their epic comic origins.
• Finding Korg – A tongue-in-cheek interview with Taika on casting Korg. He describes the difficult search for just the right evolution of the character design, and the nuances of this instantly classic character in the MCU. This conversation will also delve into all the extraordinary visual effects that brought Korg, Sakaar and the worlds of Thor: Ragnarok to life.
• Sakaar: On the Edge of the Known and Unknown – Sakaar is the collection point for all lost and unloved things. This documentary will answer all known and unknown questions while also exploring the hard work and creativity that went into creating the look and feel of Sakaar. From design inspired by Jack Kirby’s classic artwork to the dedication of the visual development team to the awe-inspiring physical and digital production, you will see this distant world come alive.
• Journey into Mystery – A deep dive story piece with the writers, director and producer Kevin Feige about the inspirations for Thor: Ragnarok within the comics. Most notably, the contest of champions limited series where the Grandmaster pitted our favorite heroes against one another as he does in the film. This piece also further explores Thor’s comic book origins and classic arcs through interviews with some of the most important comic creators, such as Walt Simonson and Jack Kirby.
• 8bit Scenes – Final Bridge Battle + Sakaar Spaceship Battle. Dive into these climactic sequences presented in retro video-game format.
• Directors Commentary
Sundance 2018 is coming! Looking forward to any films in particular? Here are some of the short films from 2018, online right now:
Eye Bags, by Waikwan Ho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAXTXWmSiVc
Glucose, by Jeron Braxton:
Following the sexual misconduct scandals, Sundance has updated its code of conduct:
The 2018 festival, which runs from Jan. 18 to 28 in Park City, Utah, now also has a partnership with the Utah Attorney General’s office to provide a hotline for festival attendees to report any harassment they have experienced or witnessed. The new code of conduct is displayed on Sundance’s website as well as in the menu for the festival’s app. The new code of conduct reads:
Sundance Film Festival is an environment where bold, creative, and distinctive voices are celebrated.
Sundance Institute is committed to allowing attendees to experience the Sundance Film Festival free of harassment, discrimination, sexism, and threatening or disrespectful behavior. We reserve the right to role, without notice or refund, credentials or access to Festival events and venues for those who engage in such conduct.
We have partnered with the Utah Attorney General’s office to provide a 24-hour live hotline, which will open on January 12th, for those who are involved in or witness something that violates this Code of Conduct at 801-834-1944.
Proud Mary is out this week in the US, but you probably didn’t know that, even though it’s starring Taraji Henson, in a John Wick-esque film. Why do some films generate considerably less buzz than others? Vox examines it:
Did you know that a rock ’em sock ’em, shoot-’em-up action flick starring Taraji P. Henson was coming out this weekend?
If you didn’t, you’re not alone. Proud Mary hit theaters on January 12, but it wasn’t screened for critics by its studio, Screen Gems (a division of Sony Pictures that specializes in genre and horror films). That means no critics were able to review it before it was released, a factor that also affects the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score (which appears on the Fandango ticket-purchasing page and can factor into ticket sales). And some people seemed surprised by the studio’s apparent attempts to bury the film, which included going so far as to cancel some Thursday screenings […]
So is the film itself bad, as the studio’s seeming lack of faith in it might imply? Well, it’s no masterpiece, to be sure. Some of its elements, like Henson’s performance, are good; others indicate that resources and talent were wasted on a “just okay” action movie that, with more care attention, could have been great.
But wherever it falls on the quality spectrum, the bigger, more concerning story here is that Proud Mary’s journey into the movie marketplace is a good example of how Hollywood still fundamentally doesn’t understand what to do with many movies starring black actors.
Ireland’s HSE Quit’s “I Will Survive” anti-smoking campaign has been so popular and successful than it’s been imported over to the USA. Via Adweek:
“Like real-life quitters, some people in the ad are in the moment of giving up, others are in a moment of truth around the effect smoking has had on their life. But all are defiant in the face of cigarettes and the harm they do,” the HSE said in a release. “The advert uses the words and music of Gloria Gaynor’s much loved song ‘I Will Survive,’ which mirrors the feelings and stages many quitters go through on their journey to being free of cigarettes and is a celebration of being free from an unhealthy relationship.”
Fidelma Browne, head of programmes and campaigns at the HSE, tells AdFreak it’s an honor to see the campaign cross the Atlantic.
“We’re excited and incredibly proud that the campaign has traveled in this way and hope that it can help do some good,” she says. “We are really proud of all our campaigns, but the QUIT campaign is one of our strongest, and has given us such a sense of achievement, seeing smoking prevalence drop year after year.”
Indeed, the percentage of Irish people who smoke is down from 29 percent to 22 percent since 2007. Some 27 percent of the population are ex-smokers, which means over 1 million people (aged 15 years or older) living in Ireland have successfully quit smoking—and that, as the ad notes, there are now more quitters than smokers in Ireland.
We’re back! It’s been a nice, long holiday break, and we’re getting right back into things. 2017 has been a strange year, hasn’t it? Here’s hoping 2018 will be a great one. Did you guys get up to much over the break? We caught up on some of our to-watch list, including Get Out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuvnrgXWHoM
Strangely, the film didn’t get that many awards at the Golden Globes, but Jordan Peele’s directorial debut is a delight, and the most profitable film of 2017, with a 630% ROI:
TheWrap based its estimate on combined production budget and marketing costs. According to Box Office Mojo, Get Out was made with a budget of only $4.5 million, and has grossed a massive $252,434,250 worldwide.
Get Out is the debut film from Jordan Peele, half of the duo behind the former Comedy Central smash skit show “Key and Peele.” The film’s success is also impressive given that it had no A-list stars; it’s male lead was Daniel Kaluuya, a British actor largely unknown in America. The film also featured “Girls” actress Allison Williams and Bradley Whitford, best known for his role in “The West Wing.”
But the film seems to have landed in the right place at the right time. In an interview with the New York Times, Peele said the idea behind the film was “to combat the lie that America had become post-racial.” The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane described the result as “an all-out attack on a rainbow.”
The film was produced by Blumhouse, the group behind other low-budget horror films like The Purge and Paranormal Activity. As it turns out, The Wrap calculates that Blumhouse also produced the second-most-profitable movie of the year, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, which had a 610% ROI.
Catch it if you haven’t, and we’re looking forward to more from Jordan Peele.
Happy Holidays from the team at Starship! Season’s greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and all that jazz. It’s been an interesting year. We’ll be back in January, and will leave you with an excerpt from this interesting Guardian article with regards to UK Christmas period advertising, some of which is relevant to Aus:
The 1% year-on-year boost in TV ad spending expected in the fourth quarter will mark the first growth since the second quarter of last year, when the Brexit vote triggered a weakening in the economy that has resulted in advertisers tightening their belts for the best part of the last 18 months.
“The market has struggled this year but, as a medium, the ability of television to drive sales in the crucial fourth quarter remains undiminished,” says Phil Hall, chief commercial strategy officer at media buyer MediaCom UK, whose clients include Tesco.
“Marketers don’t have the luxury of holding back spend at Christmas: it is too important to retail businesses to be cutting spend in the same way they have done for the rest of the year.”
[…]
Christmas TV advertising has traditionally been dominated by retail brands such as M&S and John Lewis, but in recent years digital rivals such as Amazon and eBay have turned to television too. Thinkbox, the industry body that promotes TV advertising, says retail brands are being supplanted by online businesses as the biggest spenders.
The online business category – which Thinkbox defines as spending by online-only brands as well as the marketing of online services by traditional businesses – includes companies such as Amazon, Confused.com, Facebook, Google, Just Eat, Netflix and Purplebricks.com. It is expected that online businesses, which combined will spend almost £700m on commercials this year, will remain the biggest spending category of TV advertiser and one of the few that will show year-on-year growth.
See you guys next year!
BBC has adapted Roald Dahl’s classic Revolting Rhymes into a series of gorgeous animated shorts, which have been nominated for an Oscar. They also previously won top honours at Europe’s first animation awards:
The awards, called the Emiles, aspire to honor the diverse range of commercial and independent filmmaking currently being produced across Europe. Awards were handed out in 16 different categories, as well as a lifetime achievement award that was presented to Richard Williams (The Thief and the Cobbler, Who Framed Roger Rabbit).
On the feature side, the winners were led by the Swiss/French feature My Life as a Zucchini, which won the top prize for best feature film, in addition to honors for its script and soundtrack. Its three awards were the most for any project this evening.
Michael Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle picked up two honors for character animation and storyboard, while Rémi Chayé’s Long Way North was recognized for its background and character design.
In the broadcast categories, the two-part tv special Revolting Rhymes, currently shortlisted for Oscar nomination consideration, earned the main prize for best tv/broadcast production, in addition to an award for best character animation. Though it is officially listed as a U.K. production, the special was animated at studios in Berlin, Germany and Cape Town, South Africa.
Disney/Pixar’s Lou, a short that showed before this year’s Cars 3, is unsurprisingly in the running for an Oscar Animated Short. Via Indiewire:
After the photo-real wonders of its Oscar-winning “Piper,” Pixar tackled a more abstract animation challenge in its latest short about schoolyard bullying. In “Lou,” which plays in front of “Cars 3,” a pile of lost and found items in a box coalesce into an anthropomorphic character who harasses a bully when he steals from other kids.
Baseballs become Lou’s eyes, a book becomes his mouth, a baseball mitt and slinky become his hand and arm, and a hoodie becomes his body. However, Lou manages to hold together since the objects constantly shift around. The result is a wacky chase around the schoolyard and a surprisingly emotional comeuppance.
“We’re cramming so much stuff into the film that people don’t get a break until [a revelation] toward the end,” said director Dave Mullins, an animator at Pixar since “Monsters, Inc.” in 2001. He has since worked his way to supervising animator after contributing to “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Up,” and “Inside Out,” among others.
Mullins moved around a lot as a kid and always felt invisible on the schoolyard. This served as the starting point for “Lou,” the lost and found pile that hides in plain sight before coming to life. Mullins found a willing mentor in director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc., “Up,” and “Inside Out’), who executive-produced the short along with John Lasseter. One senses the allure of “Lou” for Docter, who specializes in loose, odd-shaped characters. And Mullins was definitely influenced by the anthropomorphic creativity of both Docter and Hayao Miyazaki.
Cyberpunk classic Altered Carbon has been adapted for tv by Netflix, and the trailers are out! Set over 300 years in a future where death has become trivial. Via the Verge:
Netflix debuted a new trailer for its upcoming cyberpunk show, Altered Carbon, introducing the main story for the show: after he’s murdered, Earth’s richest man hires an ex-soldier to track down his killer.
The streaming service released an announcement trailer last week that introduced the show’s main McGuffin: humans have developed a technology that allows for someone to transfer their consciousness from one body to another. The rich and powerful can now afford to become effectively immortal, jumping from body to body, while murder victims can be brought back to life to testify against their killers.
In the trailer, Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) says that at the age of 365, he was killed. The police think think that he killed himself, but he doesn’t buy their reasoning, and hires an ex-special forces soldier named Takeshi Kovacs (Suicide Squad’s Joel Kinnaman) to track down the killer. We see a bit the Blade Runner-esque world in which the series is set, as well as Kovacs in action, taking on a couple of assailants in a brutal fight.