Television interviews for set-piece programmes somehow always get everything just right; the framing of the subject on screen, the facial modelling that gives definition to the features without making the face into something more like a silhouette. In the best interview examples, the lighting camera operator’s skill appears to put an apparently 3-D image on to a 2-D television screen – and in HD…

  You would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks Ken Loach's films are simply OK, or all right, or not so bad. Loach divides opinion. ``The Wind That Shakes the Barley,'' which won the top prize -- the Palme D'Or -- at the Cannes Film Festival last month isn't going to change that fact. The film is, at least in part, a damning indictment of the British in Ireland…

Those who know the work of illustrator Dave Shrigley will understand how easy it is to fall into cliché when describing his work. Words such as ‘twisted’, ‘dark’ and ‘disturbing’ seem inadequate to express his truly warped view of the world and the people who inhabit it. Now, with the aid of Chris Shepherd who directed the wonderful short film Dad’…

  HDV Filmmaking by Chad Fahs An Authoritative Guide to the Brave New World of HDV 470 pages Thomson Course Technology $49.99 High definition video is the latest technology to enable filmmakers to capture the best possible image at lowest cost. Because it shares tape transport with DV format, it is often see as the next step up, but this is not DV, it is a very differen…

  by Robert Latham Brown Chalk Hill Books, L.A, March 2006, 416 pages, $29.95 Low budget film production is a chicken and egg scenario. For the production to be successful you need experience to avoid potentially costly mistakes. If you have that sort of experience already, you are unlikely to be making low budget films at all. If you want to go the low budget route, how do you get…

The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook is the ulitimate guide to low-budget movie-making in the UK and around the world. It's a rich and vibrant mixture of no-nonsense technical guidance, inspirational case studies, hot tips, contracts, forms documents and even free filmmaking software.The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook, now in its THIRD major edition was written by Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe…

Films based on a comic book will always attract two forms of criticism. Firstly there’ll be those who judge the inherent quality of the film. Then there’ll be those who’ll judge the film and its fidelity to the original source material. For a perfect of example of this then you need look no further than V For Vendetta. Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s original graphic novel h…

Here's some picks of filmmaker owned and distributed free (as in lunch) feature films you can download or watch online that really stood out over the last year. Most of them are 'pay what you want' and as ultra-indies they are produced, distributed and promoted by the filmmaker - so anything you donate goes to help them pay off their debts and make more. Nasty Old People Hanna Sköld, Sweden, 20…

Wow. When Mike Leigh goes comic, he really goes for it. Happy-Go-Lucky , the tale of Poppy, a North London primary school teacher with a very un-London persistently sunny nature and a whole host of whacky quips, gets driving lessons and talks too much. That's the film. The latest Mike Leigh film. No, really.             Here's th…

Did anyone miss me? Didn’t think so…. Anyway,  due to an extended absence due to illness, work and alien abduction (OK, not really on the last one) the column that gives you all you need to know on the most eclectic DVD’s around has been conspicuously absent. Indeed, given its number, Special Edition # 13 has felt somewhat jinxed. But thanks to a combination of willpower a…

It seems to me that I always talk about the weather in the introduction to these columns. I’ve vowed that I was going to stop that. Unfortunately, Danny Boyle’s latest film has kind of scuppered that. So I have to mention that, considering the general rain, it’s good that Special Edition # 21 has a new film that can bring some brightness into all our lives. Laurence Boyce also…

Francois Truffaut memorably said that there was “… a certain incompatibility between the words ‘cinema’ and ‘Britain’.” Stephen Frears had an equally memorable retort, stunning in its simplicity and epic in its sentiments: “Bollocks to Truffaut.” Yet aside from certainly glorious moments – the Free Cinema movement, the Swinging Sixties…

Laurence Boyce presents Netribution’s first regular round-up of the best DVD’s available for all those who want to know which shiny discs to watch and which to use as coasters. Just brace yourself, as the first time around, our Special Edition is massive (and, with a line like that, it’s a shame that we’re not reviewing a Carry On film …)   Wes Craven moves away from the horror movie to…

There were no accidents. Nothing blew up. So, unless I spontaneously combust in the middle of writing this column, then it seems we can go ahead with Special Edition # 25. Yay. And, yes, we’re on number 25. Laurence Boyce would have got some mugs specially produced but who needs merchandise when – as always – there are a multitude of delightful DVDs for your perusal. Thi…

  Reviewed by James MacGregor Publisher; Wildeye      ISBN 978-0-9541899-3-8 It has the elements of all good screen stories; the long slow build of anticipation, the tension, the frustrations and finally, the reveal. Yet the wildlife film is film art in a class all of its own, requiring painstaking research and endless patience, often in less than com…

It may have taken more than ten years for this one to come to the big screen, but it is a must-see for anyone with a liking for quirky humour, or film noir. It may be low budget, but there’s not a Lottery penny in sight. If low budget means you can end up with these production values on screen, then the UK Film Council needs to move over. They may have lost the plot, but the team behind Roo…

Come on the long days! Laurence Boyce has been stuck in front of a computer for the past few weeks, watching many, many films and currently needs a tanning machine to ensure his skin resembles the colour of porridge. Thankfully, the stuff that he’s been watching for Special Edition # 38 means that Laurence Boyce has at least got to enjoy some really good films and TV shows. But, for the love of h…

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan will screen tonight at the London Film Festival's Jameson Gala. Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder, this drama/horror is set in the physically and mentally demanding world of New York ballet. Never thought that a film about ballet would have you on the edge of your seat? Think again. It's less about ballet than about perfectionis…

There's a rather funny viral doing the rounds by UK blog the Shiznit about what if the 2015 Oscar nominations told the truth, following similar posts they've done in previous years. I didn't feel like sharing it however because their poster for Selma ('Challenging Race Biopic: if you don't like it then you basially hate black people') troubled me somewhat. I had to see it to be sure - and no long…

Laurence Boyce takes time out of his busy schedule (well, takes time out of watching DVDs) to bring you the latest round of the DVDs that should either rock your world or destroy your faith in humanity in Special Edition # 12. Note that there's one film he doesn't like at all. I wonder if you'll be able to tell which one it is... Is The Da Vinci Code (Sony Pictures Releasing)…

  Producer: Generic Pool Productions Wildlife films have long been family favourites on TV, but the smooth and easy presentation of the earth's fauna on the box belies the infinite patience and dedicated professionalism of the men and women who set out to capture it on film. This special interest video DVD gives us the inside story. And for those who feel they would enjoy the…

Break out the party hats and balloons as Special Edition # 10 means that the column that fearlessly tracks down the best DVDs available hits double figures. This time around Laurence Boyce discovers that the tide of classic French Cinema being released on DVD remains unabated, that Doctor Who did look slightly cheesy in the 80s, that people aren't waiting until Halloween to release horror mov…

  That is how Barbara - the chillingly unreliable narrator of Notes on a Scandal, played by the pitch-perfect Judi Dench, describes her first in-depth conversation with Sheba, the new girl - sorry, teacher - at school. Barbara quickly becomes her confidant, and records the minutiae of her and Sheba's life and conversations in a diary that will prove to be the undoing of both of their…

Any film adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author J. M. Coetzee's 1993 Booker Prize-winning novel would have a daunting reputation to live up to, and the husband-and-wife team behind this 2008 effort, director Steve Jacobs and screenwriter/ producer Anna Maria Monticelli do Coetzee's big themes justice. As ever, eatch out for spoilers, although the book has been out for over a decade…

Years in the making, The Master Course In High-End Blocking And Staging is the most comprehensive and ambitious Directing Course in the world. A groundbreaking learning tool, the course teaches high-end camera work through over 9 hours of 3D animated instruction on 6 Region-Free DVDs.    WHO'S IT FOR? For Directors, Cinematographers, Script Supervisors, 3D Animato…