I finally watched Troll Hunter this weekend. Like many films that would have otherwise flown under my radar, I heard about this one from Alex J. Cavanaugh. It was a fun, entertaining movie.
Like a lot of low budget films coming out these days, this is a "found footage" mockumentary, or in other words, a fictional film made to appear real. Most of it is very well done. Unlike The Blair Witch Project, or Cloverfield, the hand held camera aspect never gets so herky-jerky that it makes you dizzy. The special effects are also mostly very good. There was one scene near the beginning that got a little cheesy and could have been done better, but after that most of the shots were amazing. The scene on the bridge in particular was incredibly well done, if you've seen the movie.
Anyway, this dark fantasy is definitely worth a rental (it's currently on Netflix streaming, so if you have that, it's free) if you enjoy that kind of thing, but might be a little scary for young children. It's rated PG-13 for some sequences of creature terror.
From IMDB:
A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.
In case you missed yesterday's post, this week I'm blogging about the people who take part in telling great stories, but work behind the scenes, and are not often well known by the public.
Today I'm writing about Roger Antony Deakins, ASC, BSC. Roger is a Cinematographer, which is sometimes also referred to as a Director of Photography. I'm no film major, so it's possible the two terms are not exactly interchangeable, but they're basically the same thing as far as I know.
Anyway. Roger is mostly known (or unknown) for his collaboration with the Coen brothers, and has been the cinematographer on almost every one of their feature films. But he doesn't only work with them. Deakins was born in England, and studied film at both the Bath School of Art and Design and the National Film and Television School.
He got started as a camera operator not long after school, and his early career consisted mostly of documentaries about Africa. Who doesn't love a good documentary? After that he moved into films about music, working on "rockumentaries" and music features like Van Morrison in Ireland and Sid and Nancy.
Deakins' first American feature was Mountains of the Moon, in 1990, but he worked with the Coen brothers soon after, on the 1991 film, Barton Fink. Deakins received his first major award from the American Society of Cinematographers for his outstanding achievement in cinematography for the internationally praised major motion picture, The Shawshank Redemption. In 2008, Deakins became the first cinematographer in history to receive dual ASC nominations for his works, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men.
He received the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award.
Roger has been nominated for no less than 9 Academy Awards, but for some reason unknown to god or man, has never won.
Here is a list of some of his most famous films:
Barton Fink
The Hudsucker Proxy
The Shawshank Redemption
Fargo
Kundun
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Man Who Wasn't There
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
A Beautiful Mind
Intolerable Cruelty
The Ladykillers
Jarhead
No Country for Old Men
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
A Serious Man
True Grit
Here are some clips of his work.
Here is a video of him discussing a scene in The Shawshank Redemption with NPR's Melissa Block. The audio is great, but somehow they ruined the video:
Here's another video from the same interview, where the video isn't ruined:
And here's a great featurette about True Grit:
Another unsung hero of behind the scene storytellers. I have to take a break from this series tomorrow, but please still come back!
The only version I know of is in Russian, with English subtitles. It works perfectly, and over-dubbing is useless and annoying anyway.
It's a story about the "Light Others" of the NightWatch versus the "Dark Others" of the DayWatch which are essentially just good and evil vampires who vie for control of the human world.
This is not your average vampire film. There is no romance. There is no eroticism. In fact, nearly everything is dark, gruesome and incredibly visceral, but the film is very well done, and incredibly entertaining if you are a fan of horror and unique special effects.
The cinematography and production design are impeccable, and are probably the very best aspects of the film. It takes place in "present day" Moscow, and the feel of the setting is very genuine.
Here is the trailer:
I can definitely recommend this film for any fan of all things dark and twisted, but it's not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for children.
