Books of 2015: Found Footage, Film Studies for Dummies, Shock Value

I made a determined effort to read more film-related books this year. That started off very well with the first few books, but then petered out by the end of the year. This must also be the first year ever where every book I've read was non-fiction. Here's the books I read in 2015:

Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Just brilliant. Not many people are so devoted to studying these often very frustrating films. As I'm in the final year of my thesis on this subject, I read this at almost the perfect time. I managed to reference it a great deal in my thesis and I found it fascinating from cover to cover. I WISH I had read it before completing my book on The Blair Witch Project as Heller-Nicholas' analysis of that film would have given me a lot more to write about. The analysis of Paranormal Activity is also excellent and the detailing of how Highway Safety Films have influenced found footage was also something that I had not considered in my own thesis.

If you like found footage, or are just interested in its appeal, this is an absolute must read. Buy it here.

Film Studies for Dummies by Dr James Cateridge

I'd never read one of these 'for Dummies' books before and I thought that after 14 years of studying and teaching film studies, it would probably cover little that I didn't already know. Wow was I wrong. This book has been absolutely essential reading for me. It has clarified some of the most complex ideas in film studies, it has given me new ways to teach certain topics, it has broadened my knowledge of areas where I had little.

In short, it is a brilliant overview of the subject. I would recommend it for any student who is about to embark on Film Studies A level or a degree course. I think I learned more from this one book, than in much of my studies. Somehow it is perfectly pitched for both beginners and people who have been studying film for some time. Buy it here.

Shock Value by Jason Zinoman

Another must read for horror fans. Covers all the big classics from the 70s and the guys behind getting them made. It was especially timely to read this, as soon after I finished it, Wes Craven sadly passed away. Even though films like Texas Chainsaw, Halloween and The Exorcist have been written about to death already, Zinoman still manages to make this feel like a pretty fresh look at some of the greatest films ever to be unleashed from the genre. It would have been a good book to have around while writing my dissertation on the representation of the family in 70s horror. Buy it here.

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

I saw this in a shop for something like £3 and as it was my favourite film of 2014, had to pick it up. A quick read and well worth it, even if you have seen the film. There are many harrowing parts and a quite a few memorable moments that were not included in the film. Overall, a story that deserves to be told and retold and retold.

Revolution by Russell Brand

Just a massive brain-fart really. I like Russell Brand and I like his outlook, but this came across as hopelessly naive in places. Still, there's lots of good stuff here and I hope Brand continues his crusade to try and change the world. I'm still listening.

The Hell of it All by Charlie Brooker

A collection of Brooker's columns for The Guardian. I laughed out loud a lot. After a whole book of reading Brooker's miserable ramblings, it can get a bit much. But he's still a brilliant writer and a lot of fun to read.

I'm also half way through Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey which is frankly, just bonkers.

What did you read this year? Any recommendations?

Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment

The final part of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series 2 aired last night, titled The Waldo Moment. I'll get this dash of negativity straight out of the way first of all by saying nothing could touch last week's episode White Bear which was possibly the best bit of TV I've seen since This is England 88. But The Waldo Moment was still smart satire; occasionally chilling, always clever but never quite hitting the highs of the previous two episodes of this series.

The Waldo Moment is all about a computer generated character voiced by a down on his luck comedian who finds that taunting and teasing politicians is the best way to grab attention. The character Waldo quickly becomes popular and the team behind him decide to put him in the running for the election. His knob gags, foul mouth and crude humour win the attention of the public and his putting down of the politicians makes him a refreshing alternative to their manipulative fakery.

I noticed in the credits of the episode that this one was based on an original idea by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker from when they were working on Nathan Barley. I never saw that show but love a lot of Chris Morris' old stuff like The Day Today and Brass Eye. Nathan Barley was on TV in 2005 and what immediately struck me about Waldo was that he was based on Sacha Baron Cohen's character Ali G from the 11 o Clock Show and his own later TV series.

The tackling of politicians with ignorance and silly humour, the idea that the character would not work if he was given his own show and guests knew what to expect of him, the comedian hiding behind a character and satire to attack politicians but without suggesting alternatives all struck me as an attack on Ali G. I personally loved Ali G and found his early interviews for the 11 o Clock show some of the funniest television I'd ever seen. It did all go down hill when he was given his own show and the guests were in on the joke from the start. Sacha Baron Cohen could also always be accused of hiding behind his characters and causing apathy by humiliating everyone from feminists, to Tories to foxhunters to hippies. No target is safe from his satire and its easy for hime to take the piss mercilessly out of any of them.

The Waldo Moment seems to suggest that the public are stupid and easily led enough to allow someone like Waldo or Ali G with no policies, no party allegiance and no clue to run our country. It shows how an icon can be manipulated by darker forces back stage who want to gain power and it shows how if people cannot trust politicians then they might just turn to the more entertaining and seemingly truthful option, even if he is just a silly big blue bear who keeps getting his computer generated cock out. All this might of course have absolutely nothing to do with Ali G and I might be completely wrong.

The ending was a bit too abrupt for my liking and went a bit far in its depiction of a disturbing dystopian future. Its warning seemed a bit too far fetched (I hope) and revealed Brooker's complete lack of faith in humanity.

I must add all the scenes on the high street were filmed in my home town of High Wycombe and I actually remember running past as they were filming one day. I wish I hadn't been in such a rush and had stopped to check it out now! The Waldo wagon had drew a little crowd and people certainly had been drawn to the big blue bear so perhaps Brooker's vision isn't so far fecthed!

The Waldo Moment may have been the worst episode in the series but it's still better than most TV and plenty thought provoking. If you haven't seen the second episode of this series, titled White Bear, go find it now! You can still watch it on 4oD right here for the nxt 20 days or so. The first season is also all brilliant and I recommend you watch it before Hollywood starts its production of remaking them! I hope they give Black Mirror a third series.

Did you see it? What did you think?

Black Mirror: White Bear

Last night, the second episode of Charlie Brooker's second series of Black Mirror hit screens hard with a nightmarish vision of what we might become in the future... and let's face it, aren't actually that far away from being already. If you didn't watch last week's episode or the entire previous series then you must sort that situation out immediately. Black Mirror is some of the best TV you will ever see, filled with dark ideas, clever twists on our dependency on technology and both terror and very black humour.

This week is the first time I have chosen to write about Black Mirror because last night's episode has provoked me and left me with a bit of a sleepless night. The title White Bear I thought might be a silly/funny play on the words 'the white to bear arms', as in this f**king crazy notion that Americans must carry guns because it's their right or something. Actually White Bear was much more about our right to bear camera phones and film every tragedy, every victim and every sensational thing that happens anywhere near us.

All Black Mirror episodes work on creepy, weird 'what if?' scenarios involving some aspect of very modern technology and where it is taking us. White Bear had a young lady waking up, not knowing who she was and finding that everyone she encountered refuses to talk to her, instead just filming and taking photos of her on their camera phones. It's a creepy enough set up, like something out of a mild nightmare and then it turns quickly much darker when a range of masked figures start hunting her with an assortment of weaponry.

All the while, even as she runs, screams and is even tortured after capture, the general public keep filming, smiling and enjoying the spectacle. It is every bit as frightening as it sounds. No matter how much she cries for help, the audience keep watching, filming, relishing the terror and the desperation.

It is a terrifying and bleak look at what we have become and that is before the last act twist which takes things infinitely darker. I was constantly reminded of all the footage I have watched on YouTube of 9/11, tsunamis and even the hours of documentary footage I have seen in the past where you want to scream at the camera operator to put their camera down and help the people we see in dire straits on the screen.

All that footage of people filming the burning towers, the people jumping and being swept away by terrifying waves makes you wonder about the people filming. Did they feel so hopeless that they couldn't even conceive of doing something to help? Did they want to make money out of their sensational footage? Does watching this kind of terror through the lens of a camera make it easier to watch? Do you create a distance between yourself and the victims? Do we enjoy the spectacle of others' misfortunes? Do we have an overwhelming desire to document these things so that people in the future will be able to see how it went down? Do we have no sympathy for those we film?

The final act switches everything around, suggesting that the girl we have watched being chased endlessly is not as innocent as we first thought. But then the implications of our desire to watch, to film and to witness torture take on new meanings. It becomes even more harrowing and hard to watch. Like A Clockwork Orange, ideas about punishment and persecution become warped and difficult and our sympathies are twisted and disturbing.

Black Mirror: White Bear is an absolute must see. The second series of Black Mirror concludes next Monday at 10pm on UK TV so make sure you are sitting at your screen, ready for the onslaught.

2011 List #5: TV

I don't watch much TV.  Sometimes it gets in my line of sight and grabs me but generally I'd rather be watching a film.  Occasionally if I've heard great things about a TV show, I'll rent the boxset.  But this year I have had the pleasure of some of the best TV I have ever seen.

 
This is England 88 soared above everything else.  It was absolutely perfect, except for one (likely improvised) fight scene that went on slightly too long.  The performances and the writing were captivating.  I have banged on about it enough this year in these two posts here and here.  But it came out of nowhere (I had not heard that there would be a TIE88 until I saw the TV advert about a week before it aired) and slapped me round the face.  It was grim but not nearly as depressing and shocking as TIE86.  There was a slightly hopeful ending that leaves me desperate for the next installment, TIE90, that Shane Meadows has promised.  The show was Meadows at his best; warm, real, complex, sad and funny.  All this and more.  Go watch it.

I kept hearing so much about John Lithgow in Dexter Season 4 that I decided it was time to give this show a go.  So far I've made a start by watching the first two series.  Dexter is played by Six Feet Under's (a show I have been forced to sit through but actually admired a great deal) Michael C. Hall and is an interesting if slightly silly character.  The first season was pretty good but the second season took it up a notch with a brilliant character coming to an unexpected end at the climax of the series.  I hope the show can maintain it's appeal for me through the third season despite the loss of a great character.  I'm definitely going to stick with this one just to see what all this fuss is about Lithgow in season 4. 

This year I watched season 7 of Entourage.  It's still painfully sexist but wierdly Sasha Grey, the actual ex-porn star, playing a version of herself came out as quite an interesting and vaguely complex character.  The guys still make me laugh but deep down I still hate them for not being grateful enough of their blessed lives.  Jeremy Piven is consistently brilliant as agent Ari Gold, a character you love to hate or hate to love.  I'm still not sure.  Looking forward to the final season and movie in the near future.

The Walking Dead should have been the ultimate TV show.  Finally a TV series following the lives of characters stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.  But the first season underwhelmed me.  I like that it had a great deal of focus on the characters and not so much horror but I felt that the characters are not brilliantly written and some of the acting didn't seem spot on for me.  I still find it hard to accept Andrew Lincoln's American accent and if you asked me to name any of the characters I couldn't.  However I look forward to Michael Rooker (minus one hand) coming back into the series at a later date.  And from the first couple of episodes of season 2, it looks like this series is going to get better and better.

I finished Lost this year.  As much fun as it was, the ending was bloody terrible.  I really enjoyed it's absolute ridiculousness and it's a shame they tried to provide answers in the end.  Lost had it's ups and downs but consistently made me jump up and down going WTF???  But by the end I wanted it to get lost.

Two more series I started but decided not to invest any more time in to were Rescue Me and Mad Men.  The former was quite good and I watched the entire first season.  I like Denis Leary and was keen to see how the writers would tackle the aftermath of 9/11 and it's impact on New York firefighters.  But the show seemed to just want to show that these guys are politically incorrect assholes just like most other people.  The characters are sexist and homophobic and despite their clearly heroic job, I didn't feel the need to spend any more time with them after the first season.  Mad Men seemed intriguing but just didn't grab me.  It looks amazing, the acting is fantastic and the creation of the near-past is faultless.  However I don't think it's for me. 

Finally Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker is a fantastic three episodes of wierd, technology-obsessed dystopian tales.  Beginning with an episode where the Prime Minister is forced to have sexual relations with a pig, the show just got wierder, cleverer and more prescient as it continued.  The episodes all featured a new cast, new characters but similar themes; the dangers of our reliance and obsession with technology.  It is an absolute must-see.  Sharp, serious satire from a cynical, sarcastic genius.  Find a black mirror and watch it.

Next year I will be continuing with Dexter and The Walking Dead and should probably try and get round to starting The Wire.  I'm also desperate to start Breaking Bad which I have heard very good things about.  Anybody want to recommend me any more TV to dip my toes in in 2012?  Anyone see any of this lot?

Charlie Brooker: The New Jigsaw!

This week I endured what is allegedly the final installment of the 'Saw' franchise ('Saw 3D: The Final Chapter'). I say allegedly because it still made over $45 million off a $17 million budget and producers just can't help themselves with figures like that.

But it's called 'the final chapter' you might ask? Well so was 'Friday the 13th Part 4' and that was followed a year later by 'Friday the 13th: a New Beginning'. Horror monsters never die. Even if the film's called 'Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare', the inevitable sequel will still be rolled out a few years later called something along the lines of 'Wes Craven's New Nightmare'!

So even though the 'Saw' franchises uber-psycho Jigsaw has been dead since about the third film (excuse my vagueness, the film's have tended to confuse and numb my brain more and more with each installment), that hasn't stopped the sick and twisted scriptwriters churning out more fresh meat for the grinder year on year.

Jigsaw's legacy has been continued since his death by a (considerably less interesting) psychotic detective character but I write here today to argue for the legacy to be passed on! If the Saw franchise is to survive and beat a horrible box office death, it needs to move forward with a new psycho killer. Competition with the inevitable Paranormal Activity sequels is going to be fierce and I think there's only one man to tackle the job.

Coincidentally, the week I watch Saw 3D is the same week I begin reading 'Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn'. His attacking of television and particularly 'reality' TV with a venomous wit and sense of outrage, reminded me of Saw 3D's new victim and his manipulation of the media and his eventual downfall.

This anger and sense of superiority to the makers of crappy TV shows makes Mr Brooker the perfect man to take up Jigsaw's role as the judge and torturer of a new breed of victims. I'm only 30 pages into the book but already I've discovered enough Brooker/Jigsaw type traps to fuel the next Saw film. Brooker talks of replacing a TV host with 'a naked amputee who sits on a barbed-wire toilet seat repeatedly threatening to murder members of the audience... while toying with a bloodied switchblade'. Now there's an opening to the new film right there!

What about a victim who has to 'bash his own brains out with a pewter kettle', or jump head first onto helicoptor blades so 'the top of his head was lopped off and his brain got sliced into a tumbling flock of slippery grey mind-steaks'. How about 'a protracted final sequence in which each participant is glued to a deckchair and kicked down a stairwell. Forty-seven million times.' (This is actually vaguely similar to what happens to Linkin Park's Chester Bennington in Saw 3D).

Brooker's writing is full of such ideas for vicious audience-pleasuring torture. He even suggests the people who deserve punishment; 'whoever told him that this was a good idea deserves to be sealed inside a packing crate full of jackals and razor wire and rolled down a hill'. He's even up to date with modern horror trends suggesting 'a man with a camcorder glued to his forehead feeding himself into a threshing machine'.

So if Twisted Pictures decide to continue the Saw franchise (or hey why not just start remaking them... it's been 7 years since the original!), then I beg them... contact Mr Charlie Brooker. He'd make a great Jigsaw or just get him to write the script! He did zombies and Big Brother with 'Dead Set'... now he can do murderous serial killers and make a start with bloody Kirstie and Phil.