Tag: film
A good man playing bad: Alan Rickman (1946 – 2016)
Alan Rickman, who has died aged 69, was an actors’ actor. The rich voice, sardonic gaze and languid manner of Harry Potter’s Severus Snape made him seem the epitome of the English stage-trained ‘luvvie’. But his backstory was more complex. Rickman started on the stage aged 26 after running a graphic design company. He was a…
A New Director’s Guide: 3 Easy Steps To Directing Actors
In My Humble Opinion, there is no relationship more important when making a film than the relationship you have with your actors. Many directors are somewhat uncomfortable with actors. To me, this is a shame. Because most actors are like puppies… all we want is to be loved and accepted and be told we are…
Cinema and the Art of Looking
This last New Year’s Eve I stood on a cliff above a beach in North Cornwall, England. The wind was up and wild, and it was cold, but I hardly noticed. I was transfixed by a pair of lesser black-backed gulls that were darting along the shoulders of a huge rolling wave, surf spraying above…
David Bowie: Remembering The Man Who Fell to Earth
With the passing of the artistic behemoth that was David Bowie, I thought I’d take a moment to remember some of his finest work as an actor. Bowie did not perform in a huge number of films, but when he did he usually made it count. His slight frame, compelling face, effeminate nature, and tremendous…
12 Memorable Cinematic Moments From 2015
Once, after banging our heads against a wall for the better part of three hours, a fellow writer snapped closed her laptop and said “This isn’t working. Let’s think of it this way. Movies are all about moments. What are the five moments we want everyone to remember after seeing our movie?” So we spent…