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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 13:50:55 GMT
I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big! Yep mine have to come inside in the winter. Only one agave and a miniature one at that. Quite a few succulent varieties but aeonium and echevaria are my favourite. Started my collection last year and I am getting on for fifty plants now. Currently sat in the garden waiting for the postman to bring the latest selections. Which are coming from surreal succulents just around the corner from the Minack I'm jealous! I'm ok with cacti - I've had one, an Easter cactus, since my childhood & that has survived a lot (including the cat using the then tiny pot as a litter tray on a narrow window ledge!) but manage to kill most of the succulents I get within a year.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 11:55:10 GMT
I wanted the gardeners world piece to focus a little more on their aeonium collection. But i guess that is just tailoring the piece for me really. I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big!
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 18:24:45 GMT
I'm hoping it will prompt some sort of strengthening of homegrown UK independent cinema and production: we lost that rich landscape in recent years, and it would be great to get it back.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 11:11:31 GMT
I'm hearing of others due to be premiered at the Venice film festival next month shifting to next Spring or date unknown, September's Emmys postponed. My brother works on the promotional photography side of films and TV in the UK so he is obviously reporting the impact on that whole sector here too (promo images, posters, fashion mag shoots with the stars etc).
What are the impacts on theatre? Many UK actors are involved in (committed to?) halted or postponed US-led productions so presumably that will cause problems with involvement any upcoming UK film, TV and theatre work?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 28, 2023 22:54:37 GMT
Seeing a few films already finished having their openings pushed back from their scheduled Autumn / Winter 2023 release dates into 2024. Might give indies / UK films more of a chance to shine though.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 28, 2023 19:24:32 GMT
Minack (?) theatre garden on gardener's world right now
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Post by crowblack on Jul 27, 2023 10:44:32 GMT
Is there any likelihood of writers, actors forming their own production studios like early Hollywood's United Artists or UPA (the latter founded by animators in the 1940s after a strike)?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 26, 2023 15:34:46 GMT
Bit dusty in the basement here .. Tonight there's a novel piece on BB4 at 11.05, hopefully on the iplayer as well. Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, starring one David Bowie (from 1982) - it's only an hour long. There's also a 10-minute piece beforehand with Zoe Wanamaker talking about it. The Telegraph has a piece, probably behind a paywall (I posted a link before about how to circumnavigate). Wonderfully talented in so many respects, though acting wasn't one of them: www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/david-bowie-bbc-brecht-baal/Good to see some Alan Clarke getting an outing: I thought there were some nods to the 1970s David Rudkin / Alan Clarke film Penda's Fen in the first episode of The Sixth Commandment last week too. Looking at the Radio Times, Baal was originally shown at 9.30 on BBC 1 in the early 80s, not tucked away late at night as such films are now.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 20, 2023 19:58:35 GMT
Also seeing on Twitter a lot of anger about Universal studios apparently cutting back the leaves on trees by the studio that were providing shade for strikers (and nesting habitat for birds, which may mean this is unlawful).
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Post by crowblack on Jul 20, 2023 13:50:27 GMT
Popular tweets on this today: "Extreme tinfoil hat theory is that studios have been juicing their streaming numbers and they don’t want to pay residuals on a ton of fake views" "They’re in a bind. Admit to shareholders numbers are inflated. Lose value. Pay less residuals. Keep inflating numbers. Shareholders happy, have to start paying creatives more."
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Post by crowblack on Jul 19, 2023 11:14:08 GMT
Really surprised that it has had hardly any advertising and I could have easily missed it. True - I was aware of it because I follow the screenwriter Sarah Phelps on Twitter, but other than that I haven't noticed much in the way of publicity, though I've seen trailers for other BBC shows multiple times.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 19, 2023 8:47:03 GMT
I heard 'Johnny Cash sings Barbie Girl' on the radio yesterday. I was also wondering, how far off are we from a situation where we could simply scan in, say, some old 2000AD stories from the comics and AI would use them as a storyboard and create a movie? Or a novel - choose your actors, choose a directorial style: whatever wills and agreements hold regarding legal licences in the US won't mean much in a globalised world (for example, there's a Russian ad at the mo using a living Hollywood star's AI likeness).
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 22:55:11 GMT
Indies like David Lowery's are being given the go ahead to carry on production.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 17:35:20 GMT
The Sixth Commandment is superb so far: we watched episode one yesterday, though all four episodes are already on iplayer. It's based on a real murder case but very sensitively done.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 9:03:46 GMT
gee some people are just vying for conflict all the time arent they. winging because they dont like the title. winging because they dont like the format. without even having seen it. This play is trying to stand up for a marginalised community. Go see it. Give it a chance. Open your mind. Learn something. Be challenged. Or stay comfortably ignorant. Your choice. I'm not whingeing about the title. As a sometime writer myself I am curious about its impact. It's an unusual, very atypical, spiky title - very noticeable but also potentially offputting to some. In my experience, the more youth-oriented or punky plays at the RX are staged in the studio space which it easily packs out. I'd like to see it but my health isn't good at the moment and a combi of that plus the shocking state of public transport (had several experiences pre lockdown of trains home from mancs being cancelled) means I haven't managed to make it to any of the shows I've booked since lockdown ended, when I used to see several plays a month.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 8:54:55 GMT
The AI issue kind of overlaps deep fakes. If you've ever used the Reface app, you know how easily and quickly your likeness can replace a film star on that platform. Like everyone else, I was bored out of my mind during lockdown, and played with Reface, shocked at how easily it transposed my face onto Elizabeth Taylor's and Julie Andrews' faces. The technology already exists. Corporate Hollywood is risk averse and looking to maximize profits. Using AI to create non-human background players is going to save money when it comes to paying performers. I'm sure they'll find a way to create templates for the bodies and costuming (pity the poor, overworked EFX people) to create more efficiencies at the expense of union/guild members. It won't happen, but Hollywood needs a clear out and reset: creatively much of it is a stagnant pond, hugely focussed on old IP. The remake culture will be screwed when we can simply do it ourselves through AI, which is probably not that far off. How many years before we can simply enter a storyline, setting, actors whose faces we like, even friends and family, into a film generator and up it pops? Just looking at all those 'Lord of the Rings if it was Wes Anderson' things a few weeks ago, or the current ad for the women's football refacing female players with male (it's a feminist ad - though one feels the same could be done with movies in those regions where women's faces are forbidden to be seen). To quote a line from the old cartoon LOTR, that's doom's footstep for a sector of the industry, the part that has relied so heavily on 'toybox' movies rather than the sort of serious fare for mature audiences that Hollywood was built on in the 20thc.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 16, 2023 20:16:00 GMT
Loads of empty seats so doesn't seem to be selling well Title maybe putting off an older crowd?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 14, 2023 15:28:59 GMT
And when the writers union is demanding 10-20 writers and a certain make-up in the writers room at one time, Hollywood is going to look at that and scoff at it. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Many of the most popular and well received shows were the result of one of two people's vision. And given the decreasing quality in film scripts over the past few years I have less sympathy for a lot of these writers. Inevitably the writing jobs will shrink and Hollywood is going to rely on a few writers who can deliver quality scripts. Agree on this to some extent - Hollywood now is a shadow of its former self creatively, mostly turning out films which could just as well have been written by AI: feed a bunch of old Star Wars toys or Marvel comics plus 'Save the Cat' into a script generator and away you go, or remake your cartoons as live action or vice versa. Barbie and Oppenheimer will likely be the tentpole films of the year and the first of them is yet another toybox movie.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 14, 2023 14:57:17 GMT
The film slate for the rest of 2023 will be unaffected They can't have the cast doing red carpet premieres, the round of publicity interviews, fan conventions and the like though. Would the studios want to launch them without that? And there's the whole employment knock-on from that of photoshoots, magazine interviews, fashion spreads...
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Post by crowblack on Jul 14, 2023 13:45:28 GMT
It might give some overlooked TV shows a chance to shine too - and I wonder if Netflix are now regretting their stupid decision to axe the UK-made Lockwood and Co after one, well received, series?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 14, 2023 13:34:47 GMT
They're halting filming on Ridley Scott's Gladiator 2 too, which has been filming on massive sets in Malta with a European/UK & US cast. They had already reportedly delayed the start date of filming to accommodate Mescal's Streetcar West End run. Given the heat round the Med right now, a pause might be a relief!
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Post by crowblack on Jul 6, 2023 14:47:58 GMT
Haven't heard anything, but did see another trailer from their Twitter account this week.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 4, 2023 20:51:42 GMT
The super BBC film 'Eric and Ernie' is repeated tonight on BBC4 (hopefully on ipleyer too)
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Post by crowblack on Jul 3, 2023 19:58:43 GMT
I interpreted it as clinical depression or a similar mental illness coming from within himself - he's very withdrawn and comes across as depressive, shown balancing precariously on a balcony rail, walks into the sea, and at one point says he's surprised he made it to 30. That the daughter has the treasured rug at the end suggests he's died and she has kept it as a memento
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Post by crowblack on Jul 3, 2023 8:41:18 GMT
Prompted by this thread, I've just watched Aftersun through Mubi. Great performances but agree that dialogue was hard to hear: this isn't an accent issue, but when dialogue is rare and supposed to be important, it helps if you can understand what's being said! It was atmospheric but tbh I found it slow until the latter half, when more of a sense of dread came in. We had many difficult holidays, and I know what it's like to be a kid stuck somewhere strange with a distressed parent and no money, but the scenario in the film didn't ring true for me: how many 11 year old girls are upbeat, chirpy and content sitting around a poolside at a budget hotel in the middle of nowhere for a week with their sad dad, away from friends, liveliness, music, telly, mags, news? And if the father is poor, too skint even for the budget hotel's perks, he will not have £850 for a rug. That's a lot of money now - even more in the 1990s. This feels like a plot element here is the rug in the woman's flat in the present day, an heirloom presumably because he committed suicide by a filmmaker who I presume doesn't know what it's like to really live, struggling, on a low income. It's good to see a promising new filmmaker emerge and glad a low budget film is getting a lot of fuss, and I'm interested to see what she does next, but hope it doesn't have Barry 'snail's pace = arty' Jenkins as producer again.
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