2001 A Space Odyssey

When we finished watching "Interstellar" at the IMAX, we went to see ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ at the British Film Institute on the South Bank. I was quite tired and shocked from "Interstellar", and I also knew that "2001: A Space Odyssey" wasn't going to be as technologically good as "Interstellar". But this is a film which depicts cinematic beauty, and expression. This film is great at its own meaning behind it and how from this film we developed into making greater space films and gaining our experience of filming them. 

This is an interesting film, not because of the technology but because of the mean got the film and its hidden secrets. During the time 1968 when the film was made, no one had reached the moon, but yet we had created a film about space and the moon. 

Many people are mystified by the slow pace of the film. The film has been criticised for being ‘boring’. I did think that the film was slightly on the dull side, as I didn't really get the gist of the movie or what it was really about. But I can't say that the movie wasn't good, because it is great in its own terms and how from this we developed into making greater movies about space. This movie requires you to watch it in a different way to other movies. In '2001' there is mainly music playing and not a lot of speaking. It lets you think about what is happening and in a way the music tells more of a story than the speaking.

I think our generation has become more closed-minded to films, as it's a film that is mainly music and not people speaking to you, which is what makes it so unique, yet people can't appreciate the beauty in this film. Instead of being incredibly over-scripted, and action packed film, there are a lot of hidden meanings, such as what it means to be human, and where are we trying to go or find out?

Some people will say that 'Interstellar' is just a modern recreation of '2001: A Space Odyssey', and in some ways I do agree with it for example, when both astronauts are travelling through different dimensions of time, and both of these films are classified as science fiction. Space Odyssey is a film which has cinematic expressions  In saying this, I think that Interstellar is too, a visually beautiful film but, it has more of an action-packed story-line, not to mention the highly known actors that are featured, which would appeal more for audiences now.

Interstellar

We went to the IMAX to watch Interstellar. My expectations of the film were already high as some of my friends who have seen the movie say it was amazing. Christopher Nolan, who also made ‘Inception’, which is one of my favorite films, made this film. In my opinion, interstellar is very similar to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey' but, with a more advanced story-line and technology. 

Watching the film in digital format with surround sound at the Imax Cinema, was a unique experience; I found that I wasn’t in a cinema anymore and I just felt a part of the movie. The techniques Nolan used to contribute to create that visual environment in a believable way. Plus this film is just easy to watch and it makes you wonder what is going to happen next.

The movie deals with concepts we have really no information on. We have no idea what a 4th or 5th dimension is like, what travelling through a wormhole or black hole would feel like.  Interstellar has raised many questions such as, are their other dimensions that we can or cannot access?  and is humanity physically limited in what we can achieve in outer space?

Finally, the cast. I have seen Matthew McConaughey in many well known films, such as "The Wolf of Wall Street", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Lincoln Lawyer" and "True Detective"; and I think that he is a good actor that has starred in some amazing films. He is capable of making us feel many different emotions, I think that his acting was what the film needed as he is able to make us believe everything in the story, how he is a widowed man, father of a teenage boy and a young daughter, but also trying to save the world and keep his kids happy.

Working Title

Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies.

  

How They Started:

Founded 1983, Working Title has made 100+ films that have grossed nearly $6 billion worldwide. There films have won 10 Academy Awards (Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking; Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo; Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Joe Wright’s Atonement), 35 BAFTA Awards and numerous prestigious prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals.

Collaborations: 

  

Working Title have successful creative collaborations with filmmakers including the Coen Brothers, Richard Curtis, Stephen Daldry, Paul Greengrass, Edgar Wright, and Joe Wright and actors Rowan Atkinson, Cate Blanchett, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson, among others.

Films Produced:

There extensive and diverse productions have included Mike Newell’s Four Weddings and a Funeral; Richard Curtis’ Love Actually; Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot; Roger Michell’s Notting Hill; both Bean movies (directed by Mel Smith and Steve Bendelack, respectively); Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz; Paul and Chris Weitz’ About a Boy; Greg Mottola’s Paul; Adam Brooks’ Definitely, Maybe; Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter; both Bridget Jones movies (directed by Sharon Maguire and Beeban Kidron, respectively); Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice and Atonement; Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale; both Nanny McPhee movies (directed by Kirk Jones and Susanna White, respectively); both Johnny English movies (directed by Peter Howitt and Oliver Parker, respectively); Asif Kapadia’s Senna, the company’s first documentary feature, about legendary race car driver Ayrton Senna; Paul Greengrass’ United 93; and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.

Awards:

Success of the film Billy Elliot has continued on stage with Billy Elliot the Musical. Directed by Stephen Daldry with book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Elton John, the show has won 81 theatre awards internationally and has been seen around the world by over 9 million people. Billy Elliot continues its highly successful run in London’s West End while its touring production, which began in 2010, will travel to São Paulo, Brazil for a three week engagement in August, the first time Billy Elliot will have played in South America. The show ran for over three years on Broadway winning 10 Tony Awards in 2009 including Best Musical and Best Director and has also played in Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Toronto and Seoul, South Korea. Further international productions are planned.

Film Ideas - Rough Ideas

Rough Ideas: 


Idea 1:

A husband and a wife live together in London. The husband is a drug addict and the wife doesn’t know. They live a good happy life but then everything goes wrong…

The first shot will be a panning shot of the sky and the trees. Then the camera flows down and goes across the arm of the wife and her getting buried. The scene cuts into a black background when some dirt gets thrown onto the camera. When the screen blacks out the title comes in and then there is a shot of them in the kitchen cooking.



Idea 2:

Eye witness. My film idea is about someone of who witnesses a murder in a car park. The person committing the murder see’s the witness and then he starts chasing the witness. The rest of the film will be about the murderer hunting down the witness and trying to kill him. The twist in the story is that the murderer in the story is actually a corrupt police officer. The corrupt police office was killing a spy from a MI6 trying to terminate all the corrupt police officers in London.

Idea 3:

Girl or a boy  wakes up in a deserted place e.g forest, alley way. He/she doesn’t know where they are. Dirty confused looking, starts walking down the streer, and walking past people who don’t look at her
-ending scene is him/her walking up in the exact same place as they woke up at the beginning.