Singing In The Rain

6 days until I am officially working on That Day We Sang at the Manchester International Festival (see what I did there!). I will run very long indeed if I get into how much I love being involved in festivals, from the one off performances which burn bright never to be experienced again, to the glamour of working in the same circle as britpop Gods, cinema legends collaborating with creatives, genre defying musicians and every kind of artist under the sun and so much more. And Snoop Dogg. 10 pounds of awesome in a 5 pound bag. Girlie and carefree and full of possibilities.

This week's films. Ah Kaboom. Not a film for everyone, and I had some issues with the last 15 minutes but I don't want to criticise it because despite it's flaws, it is completely original and delightfully camp, alongside being utterly crazy. Gregg Araki's is a wonderful filmmaker and it makes me respect him even more since it takes quite some skill to have both Kaboom and Mysterious Skin - dark and compelling in very different ways - in your bag of tricks.

This week I also watched Potiche - which if you want to see it you already know you want to see it, it was a predictable, light melange of fun, French frolics. I aIso mentioned last time I am looking forward to Bridesmaids which I want to see mainly cause I love a laugh and secondly because the women involved are magnificent and a tribute to what good writing and good filmmaking is about. Women in Hollywood as always puts it better than I do.

Events coming up:

Next week I am crossing between cities here are a few things I shall be hitting a missing due to my bi-city status:

In Manchester – Tonight (Friday 24^th June) at my favourite cultural hangout - yes I am obscenely biased having spent many years drinking and subsequently working there – shoots for the stars with the exhibition Constellations– if at all possible openings at Cornerhouse are not to be missed. Unless you’re in the wrong city at the wrong time, like me.

Not Part Of again brings a plethora of Fringe events to Manchester if MIF is not quite your thing – including Blackbird which I mentioned last time.

In Birmingham - Giantess 1st July in Digbeth – The band formely known as StangetimeS will miss one dedicated fan. Please take my place!

Recommendations from my twitter friends:

GeorgeFOBentley suggests we take a moment to contemplate Mark Ashmore’s The Lost Generation.

Whilst Cassie Miller has me captivated by the National Theatre of Scotland’s five minute theatre project. http://fiveminutetheatre.com/news/

Opportunities:
Fashion Designers: An opportunity courtesy of the Creative Industries Networking Group in Manchester – next meeting is on 4^th July in Rain Bar – my first meeting for a year and a highly anticipated event for that very reason! Also possibly because of the range of creatives and collaborators and the fantastic fellowship of the networkers.

Filmmakers: Courtesy of comma press – The 10th edition of Magma, mostra di cinema breve - International Short Film Festival will take place next winter in Acireale, Italy: Submission deadline: JULY 31, 2011. For any other information and to fill in the entry form, please visit the website - www.magmafestival.org/engl

Cash for your art: I always feel it's important that good work receives good rewards so this looks very promising: The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is open to individual artists working in visual art, theatre, performance art, film, music, dance or literature. For more details click here: http://www.ideastap.com/Opportunities/Brief/f5eebaff-7f13-40bb-bfa8-9ef10145a8b1#Overview

I probably won’t update during the festival, so until July, adieu my friends, I leave you with a song in my heart, which I'm dedicating to my cousin Rowena who would have been 31 this week.

Bursts of colour on a grey day

Today's blog is very colourful, inspired by Birmingham School Of Art's Degree show (Margaret Street on the doorstep of the delicious Birmingham Food Fair). My pictures don't do justice to some of the work, so here's a couple of snaps of some of the bigger pieces which stood out. The show is on until Friday at the school on Maragret Street (stop by the international food festival on your way out, I did!). I want to mention a few in particular: Sophie Court produced my favourite pieces in the show - the lady in glasses bottom right is one. I also liked Wendy Derrick's pixellated paintings, being greeted by Donation for the Blessing of England by Edgar Askelovic, Natalie O'Keefe's silence series photographs , Lauren Quirke's composite images and Kyriaki Vrasida's tendrilled objects. Some more pics are on my flikr but I recommend heading down in person before the show closes on Sunday 19^th.

Film fun:
The last night was the opening night of the Edinburgh Intl Film Festival. I say this with a tinge of sadness as the last time I missed an EIFF Tony Blair was still Prime Minister but everyone was hoping for the best after he went, The Simpson's Movie was still hotly anticipated and I was convinced that this was the year the BBC realised that the next film 200...presenter should be me! Aaah what an idealistic time 2007 was!

So if you're in Edinburgh, sampling the myriad delights of the festival's films, special strands and late night arguments in the bar about the whether you can look at a pair of scissors again after antichrist over a drink in the Filmhouse, Cameo or any other bar that’ll take you, I doff my hat to you in vicarious solidarity.

Having missed quite a lot of cinema lately I am playing cath up this week with the primary coloured Gnomeo & Juliet. Having missed Samson and Delilah on Film4 I am planning on rewatching it As I wished I could straight after seeing it at the cinema the first time. And finally, I will be going once again to The beautiful Electric Cinema to see Kaboom. spurred on by the dual recommendations of Cornerhouse’s podcast (nice Heathers shoutout Rachel), and David Austen’s wide eyed anticipation.

I am also counting the minutes until I get to see Bridesmaids featuring some of my favourite comic actress Kristen (everything she does) Wiig, Maya (Away We Go- EIFF 2009) Rudolph and Mellissa (no chef will ever be more awesome than Sookie St James in the Gilmore Girls) McCarthy.

Very theatrical dahling:
July in Manchester is a very busy time not only because I shall be working on That Day We Sang at Manchester International Festival (god closes a festival window and opens a freaking ginormous door) but because some of my longtime collaborators colleagues have shows on as part of the Manchester Fringe organisation, Not Part Of. Details of Lucia Cox's show Blackbird and The Myth of Escape, a play starring Andy Palmer are linked.

Organised Chaos Productions latest show Peacefully At Home will be at the Buxton festival after successful dates in Manchester. It’s written by a former winner of the prestigious Bruntwood playwrighting competition Nicola Schofield.

Stuff my other friends have been doing: They’re on the site for a reason - They’re really talented!

Leeanne Stoddart’s book will be coming out in the autumn – keep your eyes peeled for details about her book launch

Donkey Stone Films – revamped their website.

Elliot Binns may still be looking for a writing partner for this intriguing project.

Finally, here is a link to Phil Meachem’s youtube stream featuring trailers for his previous and forthcoming projects.

Thanks for reading folks, I'll hopefully be back soon, in the meantime, please follow me on twitter @shegeekmcr – I’m way more succinct and my pic is currently that great literary character The Bogwoppit.

Street Design Competition

Hi all,

Recieved this email below and thought it might be of interest to some of you

Calling all street artists, writers and vandals! Channel 4’s Street Summer is here! Enter your work with Don’t Panic to win big - http://www.dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/

Channel 4 and Don’t Panic are running a design competition on Don’t Panic Online for all budding designers, graffers and street artists to come up with an original, creative design. The winners of the competition will have their design used as an advertisement for Channel 4’s Street Summer schedule of programming, as well as having their design printed on postcards and the Don’t Panic Poster to be distributed around the UK.

The focus of the competition is to find new talent to help promote Street Summer across the UK in the only way which makes sense; using the competition winners’ designs as massive outdoor advertisements.

The winning entries need to represent one of the five elements of street culture which the Street Summer season is featuring: street dance, urban sports, spoken word, hip hop and street art.

Entrants will represent their region and the winning piece for each region will appear in a major city from their part of the UK.

The 7 competition regions are:

London - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/london

South East - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/southeast

South West - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/southwest

Midlands and East - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/midlands_and_east

Wales - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/wales

North - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/north

Scotland - http://dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/scotland

Prizes for the winner include:

- £300 payment for the use of their artwork.

- The winning design displayed on a premium outdoor space for two weeks (04th August to 18th August).

- The opportunity to work with an established street artist from their region of the UK.

- The winning design featured on the Don’t Panic Poster and on postcards distributed across the UK in Don’t Panic Packs.

- Winners will be featured in a short film about their work.

The competition will run from 13th June to 17th July. Voting will run from 01st July to 17th July.

To enter go to http://www.dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/.

I wish I understood German...

...but I definitely think it fits in with my love of short film and the oscars.

My Very Own Film - Please Support...

Production is moving along with my film, David Vaughan : Black On The Canvas, which I am producing with the guys from Donkey Stone Films.

We have launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com/vaughanthefilm to help raise the profile of the film & and build up a fund for music rights, trips to meet contributors, funding application fees and so on.

Please click here if you want to see more about the project, receive updates, stills and to donate.

You can of course also support us by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks

Es

My cinematic adventure challenge

You know all about the Best Picture Nominees, and I in my mission watched them all. But the Oscars overlook so many films. The Kermodes addresses this from a critical standpoint, but what about those films which will be worth a watch but not critical darlings?

Here’s my pick of what you should watch instead of the overly publicised 10 Best Picture nominees:

127 Hours : Monsters – British director Gareth Edwards wrote, shot, directed and created the visual effects for this film about a journalist, tasked with accompanying his boss’s daughter to safety, sharing a precarious journey with his charge, where death could come at any second and normal life is both tantalisingly close and hopelessly distant.

Black Swan : Soulboy – Any film with Martin Compston is worth a ticket, this one has him dancing to a Northern Soul beat in 1970s Wigan.

The Fighter: Sons of Cuba – A moving documentary set in the legendary Havana Boxing Academy, a boarding school that hand picks 9-year-old boys, and turns them into the best boxers in the world.

Inception : Scott Pilgrim vs The World - Superb visual style cleverly meshing the lust of a dysfunctional teenager within a comic book/video game setting.

The Kids Are Alright : Abel – A young boy takes on paternal responsibilities when his father abandons the family. The kids may not be alright but they try to cope as best they can.

The King's Speech : Jackboots on Whitehall – An alternative British period piece in which Winston Churchill hides out in lawless Scotland, as an all-star cast voices an alternative animated history of WWII.

The Social Network: Catfish – The other Facebook Movie. Cynical and enlightening, this reminds you how little we really know our online “friends”, as a photographer whose ego is massaged gets embroiled with a mystery artist and her family.

Toy Story 3 : A Town Called Panic – A fun, frenetic Belgian animation, about a Cowboy and Indian’s surprise birthday plans for Horse, which backfire as they attempt to make a homemade gift, destroying their house in the process.

True Grit : The Last Rites of Ransom Pride – In 1910, a young woman tries to take the body of her murdered lover back home to Texas for burial ... with all guns blazing. Stylishly tipping its Stetson to the likes of Peckinpah, Leone and Tarantino, and featuring a genius cast.

Winter's Bone: Winter’s Bone – Watch it or watch it again. It was awesome and the least well known of the Best Picture Nominees. Great performances, I reckon Maddie Ross would concede that Ree has True Grit in hunting down her father to save her family whilst negotiating the underbelly of her rural community.

I hope these choices give you food for thought and much entertainment, once you’ve engaged this spirit of cinematic adventure – seek out the Foreign Language, Documentary & Short film nominees as they are probably all better than the majority of the big 10 and probably worked harder for their nominations (except Biutiful which I’m slightly reluctant to see).

Happy viewing!

Oscars 2011 predictions

• Best Picture. Toy Story 3 was the best of these IMHO, but I would be stunned if it won. Next for me was Winter's Bone. I still haven't seen True Grit (I'm watching it on sunday-very close to the wire!) but my 3 horses in this race are Inception (if Titantic can be LA Confidential this is possible), The Kings Speech and The Social Network. I'm going to go for The Kings Speech based on number of nominations although my heart thinks The Social Network may win.

• Actor in a Leading Role. Colin Firth for the win

• Actress in a Leading Role. Natalie Portman - the first of my "and the award for dedication to getting thin". A fantastic performance and a deserved win. Very glad Jennifer Lawrence was nominated.

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale - the second of my "commitment to my craft" oscars. Has he ever won one? If not, again a career of fantastic acting finally rewarded.

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Always a toughie, I think Melissa Leo will edge it as the academy has had their eye on her for a while. Although the same could be said of Amy Adams. I always find this category torture to predict. (Well not last year, but usually). Right I'm going for Jacki Weaver because she's the character I'd be most terrified of meeting.

• Directing: I want Aranofsky, I think David Fincher will get it.

• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network. There can and should be no other winner.

• Writing (Original Screenplay): Whilst Inception was truly orginal, The Kids Are Alright was very well written so that's my bet.

• Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3. As I said, actually my Best Film of the year.

• Art Direction: Alice In Wonderland - although The Kings Speech set was designed by a Brit from the West Midlands so if she wins I'll be happy.

• Cinematography. Roger Deakins has been nominated 9 times without a win. It needs to be done.

• Costume Design. I hate betting against Sandy Powell, who I suspect has won every time she was nominated in the past, but the costumes for Alice In Wonderland were superb and so that's where my money is.

• Documentary (Feature): No clue. I think Restrepo will get it, but both Exit Through The Gift Shop and Inside Job are very popular which would be a more similar choice to last year's The Cove.

• Film Editing: The Social Network was a pretty amazing job.

• Foreign Language Film: I always like these more than the Best Film nominees so it's a bit Sophie's choice for me. I haven't been able to see them all but I didn't really care about Biuitful and whilst I love Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and loved Days of Glory by the director of Outside The Law, I think Incendies might take it.

• Makeup. The Wolfman. No clue, based purely on Rick Baker's form.

• Music (Original Score). Between The Social Network and The Kings Speech in my opinion. The Kings Speech.

• Music (Original Song). Randy Newman for Toy Story 3. That man knows how to torture the heartstrings.

• Sound Editing. Inception - because it will win well in technical categories

• Sound Mixing. The Social Network - I totally stole this one from Roger Ebert - he should know.

• Visual Effects. Inception. Folding Paris alone is an achievement and there were several more which made me watch this film twice.

I've only watched Day and Night so based on an online trailer of the shorts nominees.

• Documentary (short subject): Killing in the name.

• Short Film (Animated): Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary). I wanted to hunt this down to watch it based on the trailer.

• Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe. This one looked like it had the potential to be a feature based on about 4 seconds of footage.

Job opportunities with Theatre Company, Manchester

Organised Chaos are looking for the following:

Film Maker
Marketing Officer
Events Officer

The closing date for applications is 5 March, 2011. Click here for more information.