Time to dust off my PS2
After publishing my previous article on Call of Duty: World at War (2008), this encouraged me to resurrect an earlier title of the series that paved the way for this later epic.
This was Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, published in 2005.
Developed by Treyarch and High Voltage Software, BRO helped make Treyarch, then a lesser-known studio, into the CoD heavyweight it is today. …
Celebrating short films and their creators
( Ye be warned…Spoilers lie ahead )
If
like me, you’ve spent a large part of The Lockdown trilogy on furlough, then you’ll have spent a colossal number of hours absorbing the full scope of what streaming services such as Netflix have to offer.
By now, you may be suffering from fatigue or symptoms of thrombosis and fancy watching something different. Short films are an excellent place to start.
Well, go for a walk first, then start.
Shorts are a traditional rite of passage for aspiring filmmakers, providing them with opportunities for collaboration and to hone their craft in order…
A shameful retelling of the tragedy of Elisa Lam
‘This is not war, this is murder!’ — Yes Chernov, but it’s still awesome though
From the video game franchise that trained entire generations of teenagers to feign normality in their everyday lives in order to vent their underlying sociopathic fantasies vicariously through an unknowing run-of-the-mill squaddie, Call of Duty: World at War (WaW) marks the fifth instalment of the Call of Duty (CoD) series and is among the most successful first-person shooters ever produced.
After previously releasing three games set against the backdrop of the Second World War, the fear was that between them Treyarch and Infinity Ward had exhausted the potential of this historic conflict to add anything new or exciting to players’…
Evaluating one of Rockstar Games’ most complex villains
Dutch Van der Linde, the infamous outlaw and leader of the notorious Van der Linde Gang, features within Red Dead Redemption (RDR) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) as one of the video game series’ most compelling antagonists.
Dutch’s extravagant and charismatic persona largely explains his success in unifying such a mixed band of rogues and misfits to terrorize the Old West across several decades, all while skilfully evading capture by the authorities.
Dutch, at first, comes across as a compassionate and altruistic leader who takes in society’s most downtrodden. Certain core gang members were even discovered as adolescents, Dutch…
From legendary assassin to deranged old heretic
A picture is worth a thousand words
(Ye be warned…Spoilers Lie Ahead)
Whether the infinite planes of outer space endorsed by an epic orchestral score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), or a fleeing rebel ship with an Imperial Star Destroyer in hot pursuit in Star Wars (1977), the opening visuals of a film are vital in introducing an audience to the characters, plot, and setting of a story.
However, every new writer who takes the plunge into producing their early screenplays, myself included, finds themselves committing the same folly time and again.
This is writing a screenplay in the form of a novel, overloaded with scene description, dialogue, and parentheticals, turning one page into ten pages of highly detailed prose, overlooking the critical role of visuals in telling a story.
The most important point to consider is that we are writing SCREENplays, not screenPLAYS, an important distinction seeing how we typically only have 10 pages to convince investors or development executives that our…
A Scene Analysis
The anatomy of a scene in ‘Rear Window’
(Ye be warned…Spoilers lie ahead)
Alfred Hitchcock’s murder mystery thriller Rear Window (1954) continues to stand the test of time, on account of its ability to maintain its tension and intrigue throughout despite its confined and static studio setting.
The scene I mean to focus on belongs at the point in the narrative when the main protagonists, Jeff (James Stewart) and Lisa (Grace Kelly), make the alarming discovery that Thorwald (Raymond Burr), Jeff’s neighbour living in the building opposite who they suspect of murdering his wife, is securing shut a trunk supposedly containing the dismembered remains of his wife [1].
…
The Tale of the Soho Samaritan
It was the autumn of last year when I was still working at a production company based in London.
These were exciting times for a townie like me, especially seeing as how I had spent most of my days beforehand increasingly resembling Robert Downey Junior’s character from Zodiac since graduating university.
One day I was out strutting along Shaftesbury Avenue in the process of running a routine errand, all suited and booted and with a confident spring in my step, akin to a young Charlie Sheen in Wall Street if you will.
For, after all, there are few places better suited for an aspiring creative than the bustling streets of London’s West End.
On this particular day, I was…
Cinderella stands at the forefront of the Second-Wave Feminist Renaissance
(Ye be warned…Spoilers lie ahead)
Once upon a time, there was a young woman who was a horse-riding housemaid, a master huntress, and a beautiful princess all at the same time. Yes, you read that correctly.
The tale of Cinderella is universally familiar and highly regarded by all, boasting a rich heritage within international folklore as well as spawning countless adaptations across film and television.
However, one particularly bold and unconventional interpretation sought to reimagine the classic fairy-tale. This was Tri orisky pro Popelku, translated in the West under the title Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973).
The brainchild of a joint collaborative venture between DEFA Studios and Barrandov Film Studios of former East Germany and Czechoslovakia respectively, Three Wishes remains a timelessly captivating festive treat with an enormous cult…
Mirek Gosney
Writing about Film, History, Culture & Society | British-Czech | UK Based | Writer | Filmmaker | Film Teacher | BA Film and History, University of Southampton.
