Movie reviews

SCRIPT FIESTA 

The opening gala was quick and to the point.

PRAWDZIWE ZYCIE ANIOLOW (THE TRUE LIFE OF ANGELS)

Walked out. It drags awfully. Other than some statistical data in the conversation with the doctor, there's nothing meaningful, rather wasting time while being with or away from a seriously ill family member.

KIM KRIZAN Q&A

The screenwriter told us about her work on "Before Sunrise" with Richard Linklater. Before that she had acted in "Slacker" - his first movie - and "Dazed and Confused". Then he suggested they write a movie together. "About what?" "I don't know" First they both talked, were brainstorming for 6 days, realized they had collected enough conversations so arranged them in order, pinned to a board, one or the other would type while the other walked around the house. It took 16 days in total. She hadn't gone to film school, he hadn't gone to college. So they came up with something organic. A lot of the story was based on their real life conversations, they had their girlfriend/boyfriend at the time but had been friends for 4 years before. They didn't know if they'd get funding so the conversations came first, locations later. They thought it would be the US but it was funded in Vienna hence the location, "it's late night, they would have found romance anywhere". It's dialogue-heavy - unusual for America. The "Before Sunrise" script 90 was pages or so. In the past, Hollywood scripts wouldn't have a word changed but the method acting changed that - now actors' input. Now a screenwriter is outnumbered. The first movie was hers and Rick's, in the second the actors' involvement grew after the success of the first. The third is Ethan and Julie's for a large part. People liked the first so Rick asked her to write a sequel. She wasn't involved in the third - the actors had the power not to be in it so eventually, as hers and their idea for the story diverged, she withdrew from it. 

She finds cultural differences fascinating. She's from LA but lived in Austin, Texas for a while. History, the number of languages, personal distance fascinated her in Europe. Julie Delpy is  European so she contributed. When people in the US heard that she'd come to Poland, they'd react: "How glamorous!" She finds Polish people very alive, though not smiling a lot. In her eyes Poland is modern. She had travelled Europe before. 

In her view, when your eyes light up, this is the topic you should write about. The inner critic is to prevent us from doing stupid things in life but when it comes to creativity, it hinders and the most personal and vulnerable is often the best. 

SCENARIUSZ Z NUT 

The panel on scriptwriting music videos was staffed by: Brodka, Anna Maliszewska whose movie "Tata" I had walked out from and a hip-hop clip director. How to write for music? You can ask the artist what the piece is about to them. No rules or barrier in the form. You put together pictures, colours, rhythms. The producer should give the date and the budget, it's often 2 weeks only - less than a commercial. You must have production knowledge to know what is feasible. Rap sells so gets bigger budgets. If there's a sponsor, there's a bigger budget but also product placement so you work with the artist and the client. Avoid fashionable stuff - that'll expire the soonest. You must have references to everything: light, costumes, the treatment must have a few dozens moving images. Now AI's in, e.g. "I want sour cherries in the shape of a bottle" so the AI creates it for the storyboard. E.g. a treatment will have 70 pages. All are writers/directors. You need to write out everything, the timeline to the music, e.g. a 1-second or a 15-second scene. Intro, the chorus is the culmination point, a plan what enters where - editors love it. Here fast, here slow, here blue, this instrument is water. Draw it in pencil, e.g. a face, eyes and flashes. A storyboard is a must so that the producer knows how many locations. You need a lot of material shot. You need to depict what you want to do hence references - show someone's earlier work. For commercials best do this 1 to 1 because we imagine different things so in the pre-producton visual references are a must. YT imposes rules, e.g. a smoking ban for clips. Watch time = 30 s to count as watched on YT.

NOC TELEDYSKOW

Walked out. I saw less than 8 music videos out of 37. Better than at Cinemaforum but all songs sound the same and zombies abound. Brodka's 2 were the worst, the hip-hop one looked   cheap too. The metal one was about the best of the bad. All looked cheap - mostly cinematography but also locations. 

WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY

Watchable. Better than the trailer implied, though the prosthetic costumes look amateurish and Winnie looks like another Piglet. But the atmospheric cinematography - both the woods and underwater pictures - and well-paced music - mostly by Inas - create a blood-rushing gory horror. The set-up is ridiculous and logical at the same time: the animals befriended by Chris in childhood go feral and pledge vengeance on humans for having been abandoned. The house in the woods trope and blood-thirsty monsters, five scream queens - one of which is shown topless for no reason before being minced, even a positive character presented as a villain are well-known and much overused. The plot's trite and several scenes protracted. With blood rushing through my veins I kept watching but with little focus - it was all too familiar. Why make a slasher with no new idea whatsoever?! The scariest bit is the final note: Winnie-the-Pooh will return. 

Reviewed from the distributor's screener, cinematic reception might differ.