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Imagineer Systems win Academy Award for Mocha
My former colleagues at Imagineer Systems, Dr. Philip McLauchlan, Allan Jaenicke, John–Paul Smith and Ross Shain have just picked up an Academy Award for Mocha, their planar tracking and rotoscoping...
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Skyfall (iTunes UK HD) = Skyballs
I tried. I really tried.The pre-title sequence of Skyfall, I’ll admit, was pretty damn awesome. Then the titles came on and let’s face it, Framestore do not come anywhere near close to the work of the...
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A history of screwing over VFX artists to cumulate in Oscar protest this Sunday
When French illusionist Georges Méliès discovered film visual effects by accident in the late 19th century, he became one the world’s first VFX pioneers. His work fascinated people – thrilled them with...
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Kick-Ass 2 trailer: Not impressed..
.. especially with the green screen action sequences at the end – sure, those things would be difficult to pull off as practical stunts but at least the lighting and lack of artificiality would look...
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A very Ghibli weekend
Spent a very happy weekend at home catching up on Film4′s Studio Ghibli season. Whilst I have seen a good number of their films before, the beauty of Ghibli is that they are infinitely re-watchable....
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Weekend viewing: more Ghibli, A Fantastic Fear of Everything, Snow White and...
Continuing Film4′s excellent Ghibli season, I watched the remainder of my Tivo’d recordings. My Neighbour Totoro was the very first Ghibli film I saw. I remember watching this when I was around 17 or...
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Movie Memorabilia: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2005 was a good year for special movie reboot events. December saw me going to New York to attend Peter Jackson’s world premiere of his version of King Kong.I got to wear a tux (apart from my wedding...
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Weekend viewing: Disney fun and Oldboy
Now that Disney’s CineMagic has moved to Sky Movies Disney, it’s allowed me to revisit some of the old classics that are currently airing on the channel. I have NEVER, up until now, seen Pinnochio or...
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UK film tax credits are a waste of time .. unless you’re a UK independent...
With the announcement that Disney are to shoot Star Wars VII in the UK – with George Osborne taking full credit for his film tax incentives – it’s re-enforced my views that film and TV tax credits are...
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HMRC to demand an extra £500 from millions of folk, wants more tax from...
In the continuing farce that is UK film and TV tax subsidies, HMRC are conducting public consultations over a proposal of giving celebrities tax breaks in order to make the UK a more attractive place...
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Weekend viewing: Total Recall (2012) and To Rome With Love (2012) – Sky...
When I first heard about Len Wiseman’s remake of Paul Verehoeven’s excellent Total Recall, I dismissed it straight away. The trailers looked silly. Everything looked silly. Then I watched the film....
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Star Trek Into a noisy, uncomfortable and expensive cinema trip
I’m about to head off into town to watch Star Trek Into Darkness, although have got admit that I am not as spontaneous or as enthusiastic about going to the cinema to watch films these days. It’s not...
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Star Trek Into Darkness: The Wrath of Spock or The Search for Kirk
There be spoilers ahead!Wow.That was quite a ride. Unrelenting from the get go, Star Trek Into Darkness is quite an interesting little film. In some ways, the direction that this rebooted franchise is...
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EE Film’s free film isn’t free
Update: Nobody at EE seems to [redacted] understand anything. The Twitter team have gone silent, having already told me what that charge is for DESPITE ME TELLING THEM WHY I AM DISPUTING IT and...
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Syfy’s recent showing of Tomb Raider 2 was appalling!
Why show this film in pan & scan? This is 2013, not 1993.On re-watching this film in this manner, I was constantly cringing with embarrassment. The VFX didn’t look as polished, the action /...
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Game of Thrones season 3 arrives at blinkbox, HBO demands link removal to VLC
The third season of Game of Thrones has finally arrived at blinkbox. Available in both SD and HD versions, there is no longer any excuse not to watch it legitimately.However, GoT’s broadcaster HBO has...
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BBC’s That Puppet Game Show restores some balance to UK’s relationship with...
You’ll have already read that I came close to getting work experience with the Jim Henson Creature Shop while I was in secondary school during the early 90′s. At the time the Creature Shop was at the...
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Roboflop: New Robocop trailer suggests too much CG and not ballsy enough...
Oh dear.There’s a good conversation thread on Twitter at the moment about how terrible the Hollywood studio system is at telling stories. You do not need a quarter of a billion dollars to tell a...
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Side by Side: Oh, the memories! (*)
FINALLY managed to get around to watching the documentary, Side by Side, this weekend.A fascinating film – not without its flaws, but nonetheless presents cases on both sides of the coin when it comes...
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The Modern Cinema Experience
.. is becoming bloody awful.Went to see Captain Phillips this weekend at the Odeon (Guildford). Arrived in plenty of time and bought some toffee popcorn (whose calorie content far exceeds that of a...
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