Author: William Gallagher

Guest Blogger: Steve Fitzpatrick

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Just so you know, each year on the podcast UK DVD Review I do a poll whose format is a chart countdown but whose sole purpose is to get you ten great DVD recommendations. I ask for votes and it’s all tabulated away merrily in Excel, but I am fully blatant about how I’m more interested in passion for a DVD than I am for just weight of numbers. So each year I ask for a vote – and a reason why you’re voting for this or that particular title.

But for the 2007 poll, I got more tremendously considered reasons than ever before. I felt bad that I was going to reduce people’s fine work to a two-liner, so I said I’d stop hoarding these great emails. Over the next little while, I’m going to show you what people showed me: the best reasons for loving the best DVDs.

First up, Steve Fitzpatrick. I’d tell you what he voted for but his email was one that worked through his arguments nicely and I’m just going to shut up.

William

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From: Steve Fitzpatrick
To: wg@williamgallagher.com

Worthy.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, sadly in our household, not so much. If a film or programme is branded as worthy it means it is usually beautifully filmed and themes and ideas are fully explored in all their minutiae, characters developed extensively (preferably in flash-back or flash-forward) dialogue is crafted so carefully each word carries a thousand meanings. Usually when you get to the end you discover there has been no plot, and what you have watched has left you mystified and confused as to what has happened. The phrase pretentious billooks (got to be careful of the profanity check) never entered my head.

Steven Poliakoff is usually worthy – yes, I have just watched Capturing Mary – did it show?

That’s why with eager anticipation I sat down to watch Die Hard 4.0. and instantly put it to the top of my list of DVD’s this year. While it has no plot either it contains the necessary essentials to while away a winters evening. Chases, one liners, explosions, a bit of gun play, more one liners and even more explosions. What more do you need? It even has Bruce looking moody, bruised and torn. No character development, no plot, but at least at the end you know where you have been. I don’t think I’ll be giving away too much to tell you that the baddy gets it.

An unworthy, shallow, film then; and definitely my DVD of the year.

I haven’t had the chance to watch Oceans 13 yet but, fun caper it undoubtedly will be, it doesn’t have the Bruce factor.

Except.

In a chance conversation I remembered Pierrepoint, recently re released, about the career of Albert Pierrepoint Britain’s most “successful” hangman. This is a film I saw at the cinema, it had a limited release and needed extensive research to find where it was playing. It left a huge mark on me, I talked about it endlessly for weeks after and clamoured for its DVD release. It is rare for me to revisit a DVD more than a couple of times, but this was a film I would play to anyone given the merest excuse, and watched over and over. I can’t say “enjoyed” it, the subject matter doesn’t lend itself to enjoyment, but I was captivated by it. Each viewing giving a different nuance, a different feeling, about the subject matter and still left me tense and shocked by what I saw.

It is, however beautifully acted, and the characters well explored. Timothy Spall is exceptional in the lead role as the film follows Pierepoint’s career, from applying for the job of hangman to his resignation, after some 600 executions, in the late 1950’s.

It shows a man, dedicated to his work, and applying the job dignity and compassion to the prisoner sentenced to death, yet a man totally dedicated to being the best at his job.

It shows the effect the work had on him. Albert Pierrepoint kept his government job to himself, and no-one knew what he did, not even his wife until the newspapers revealed his identity as a “hero” following the executions of the Nazi hierarchy at Nuremburg to his vilification as the country increasingly turned against capital punishment.

The one thing this film doesn’t do is comment. It is neither pro nor anti capital punishment. It does not glorify or vilify. It presents just the facts (taken from Pierrepoint’s autobiography) and leaves the viewer to make up their own minds. It does however provoke debate, and I have seen people’s attitude to capital punishment both re-inforced or reversed after viewing.

The subject matter does not make for an enjoyable film. It is however compelling and thought provoking. In other words, worthy. And I mean that as the highest compliment.

I wholehearted commend this worthy film as my DVD of the year.

S

Over-examining one line

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It’s fashionable for actors to say they chose a role because of the script.  But they only say that in pre-release promo interviews; when it comes to getting an award, they will still thank the director for creating such a great role.
And I can understand that. To be callous, the director is more likely to get the actor work than the writer is. But also the actor and director will have worked together much more closely than writer and actor, writer and director, writer and stationery supplier. 
I’m considerably more troubled when an actor says the script is the thing and then you see it really isn’t. It can be that his or her specific role was good, that it was something that truly stretched them, and that it was something that looked great on the showreel. And it can all be bollocks: saying you made your choice because of the script makes you sound good. You’ve got options, it says. You’re a team player because you’re thinking of the whole project. You’re smart. You didn’t just say yes because you needed the money.
Saying that one thing means all these others, and that’d be fine but it can mean it without you actually having to have read the script at all. It’s definitely applied now almost regardless of whether the script is good or not, so while there are times I believe it’s true, I really think this is a case where specific praise from a star can actually devalue writing. When an ordinary, average script gets Harrison Ford praising it, what does that tell new writers to aim for? And when the script editor knows solely the ten key points from Robert McKee’s point of view – and believes there actually are rules to writing – then we are ultimately losing out.
Follow. My mother gets genuinely annoyed when she can’t instantly follow something in a drama. Why are they lying? What does he want? Who does she mean? When we first saw Martha Jones in Doctor Who, the Doctor appeared out of nowhere in a plot point neither we nor Martha fully got until the end. My mom would’ve been spitting for an hour. And I think it’s because the majority of her TV drama watching is soap. Nothing wrong with soap but when it’s your only diet and when the TV industry believes soap is the exclusive route for new writers, then there’s a lot wrong. And a symptom is this inability to lie. Soap characters lie constantly, just not to us: they can smile at their enemy but they must immediately gurn Airplane-like to us so we know.
I prefer it when we don’t know. Or at least, I can prefer it. If it’s done well, not-knowing something is as good as knowing it. Recently Battlestar Galactica showed us various scenes that we’d previously only ever heard about in reported speech; somehow, contrary to all expectations, the telling proved to have been more powerful than the showing.
And I like it when there’s an agreement between the writer and the viewer about what’s important. Doctor Who always has this and has it with exuberance – except for a tiny part toward the end of this year’s Christmas special:
DOCTOR: They’ve cut the brake line!
Astrid was driving a forklift truck (which, incidentally, if you don’t happen to know already, is really quite difficult to do; difficult enough that you need a special licence to prove you’re able to do it). She’s aiming to drive Max and his chamber off the edge of the platform. But they’re deadlocked and one of Max’s robot Hosts frizbees a metal halo at Astrid, pranging it off the truck.
And I keep thinking about Russell T Davies’s choices at this point. Logic suggests the Host should’ve hit Astrid but that would be too violent an end. And it would be the end: the plot would’ve stopped because she died and Max survived. So he must have the Hosts miss, for both reasons.
DOCTOR: They’ve cut the brake line!
With those words, the Doctor is back in the game, he’s effectively told us what’s going to happen, and he’s made sure Astrid knows the stakes. Our main character is deep in the action instead of solely being held off to one side. That’s got to be good, hasn’t it? There are British television series that tell their writers the show is really about the guest characters, not the regulars. (This accounts for why their regulars are so dull. Unfortunately the guests are no more memorable.) But here, the Doctor is key and even as Astrid sacrifices herself to save everything, it’s the Doctor we’re with. His reactions. So I can’t fault that line.
But I do. It tipped me out of the story. I’d accepted the existence of the truck, I’d accepted that Astrid could drive it, I didn’t accept that the Hosts had cut the brake line. I’ve not the remotest idea where such a thing is, but I couldn’t take either the coincidence of a lucky shot or the idea that it was a deliberate action. Coincidence is too much, I feel you only ever get away with coincidence at the start of a story or when it is the story. I have a piece that relies upon almost endless coincidence but I believe it works because almost none of it really is coincidence, you just think it is. And you even see coincidences that aren’t actually there, so I’m happy with that.  And I’m not happy with the idea of a deliberate choice to cut this bleedin’ brake line because that really isn’t a sensible alternative to killing Astrid. 
How bad would it have been to drop this line? Pretty bad, actually. Not only would the Doctor’s part in it be reduced but Astrid’s would’ve been changed: where she knew what she was doing and what it meant, she would instead have a nasty shock when the brakes failed. So the Doctor would be out of it and she’d be Frank Spencer: I can see why Russell T Davies went the way he did.
Only, I think there was a third way. I can’t solve the issue with the Doctor even though I’ve thought about this a lot. Nonetheless, if you took out that line of dialogue about the brakes, you could’ve still had Astrid driving up to the edge of the chasm. She’s pushing Max, he’s pushing her, they’re right on that ragged edge, I think you could have Astrid realising what the consequences of an extra shove would be and her deciding to do it anyway.
The trouble is that not only is the Doctor sidelined, he’s sidelined for a long time, for the whole end of this sequence. It’d only be seconds, but I think it would feel too long. And I just can’t solve that.
But given the choices, given how the dialogue took me out at a crucial moment, I think on balance I’d have cut the brake line.
William

Call sheet: Ashes to Ashes

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You know how things come along at once? I’d never seen a call sheet until last week and now I’ve had two. Last Monday I was filming behind the scenes at a Radio Times photo shoot for the new BBC1 period drama, Lark Rise to Candleford. Julia Sawalha, Dawn French and Olivia Hallinan were photographed in period costume – by a photographer in tails and with a truly Jules Verne-like wooden and brass camera.

Also a top-of-the-range modern digital tethered to a MacBook, but.

And it must’ve gone well because this Monday, I’ve just been booked on the RT shoot for Ashes to Ashes, the sequel to Life on Mars. Presumably I can’t tell you anything about the shoot but there is word that a car will be there.

Looking forward to this,
William

Your UK DVD Review poll of the year

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You voted, I counted, we talked: have a listen to this week’s UK DVD Review show, a half-hour special podcast counting down your top ten DVDs of 2007.

I promised on that edition that in exchange for my not taking ten of the thirty minutes to read out the prices, I’d do it here. So, ta-daa: here’s your countdown – and I’ve done it as a series of links to Amazon so you can just zoom through.

The whole point of the countdown was not to have a countdown; as fun as it was to see what made number 1, the whole list, the whole ten were ones you picked because you loved them so much, you couldn’t stop talking about them. And shortly I’ll be putting up some of your best emails about why you picked what you did; they’ll be guest blogs over the next few days.

Last, I’ve also appended my own top ten from the week before’s UK DVD Review.

Thanks for voting. The show will return on 6 January 2008. See you then.

William

Your Top Ten DVDs of 2007

1. Doctor Who: The Complete Third Season

2. Veronica Mars: Season 3 (US import)

3. The Bourne Ultimatum

4. Heroes

5. Stranger Than Fiction

6. The Prisoner

7. Pan’s Labyrinth

8. Pierrepoint

9. My So-Called Life (US import)

10. Mad About You (US import)

And now My Top Ten DVDs of 2007

I should explain that it’s a revised list, ever since listener Ian Smith told me about the DVD that really should come top for me.

0. Battlestar Galactica (HD season 1, US import)

1. Doctor Who: The Complete Third Season

2. Veronica Mars: Season 3 (US import)

3. The Bourne Ultimatum

4. Stranger Than Fiction

5. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

6. My So-Called Life (US import)

7. The Prestige

8. Casino Royale

9. Dar Williams: Live at the Bearsville Theatre (US import)– but buy Dar’s albums first

10. Alias Smith and Jones

When Leopards go “Boo!”

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I am supposed to be busy, but…

Couldn’t resist. I just recorded some dialogue here in my office, popped it over to the PowerBook in the living room and hit play on it from here.

True, I couldn’t hear the playback, but I heard the bump as my sister-in-law jumped through the roof.

Ah, technology.

William

When Leopards Go Bad

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I should’ve seen this coming, shouldn’t I?

I’ve got a Mac and a PowerBook; since the Leopard release of OS X I’ve been using a feature called Back to My Mac: I sit in the living room and, whenever I fancy, I can look at the screen of the Mac in my office. You’re thinking this is stupid and I can’t 100% disagree with you, but the PowerBook’s a writing machine that I’ve reluctantly stripped down to prevent me piddling about in Photoshop when I should be working. And the office Mac is the big bugger; if anything’s going to take some heavy lifting, I leave my Mac doing it.

And then check its screen from down here.

Only… I had to go do it in reverse, didn’t I? Very fine, very useful, but can you see where this is going? By accident and thickness, I used my PowerBook to show me the screen of my office Mac… which was showing me the screen of my PowerBook.

This is what happens.

I’m working on it, honest

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This week’s UK DVD Review has nearly 100 clips in it: rather than then take an hour reading the prices out, let me give you the list of clips I used here. Shortly I’ll be adding links out from this to Amazon, so as to more formally fulfill my contractual needs to plug the prices.

If you don’t listen to the show regularly, have a look at it now.

And if you do listen, please also vote: email me at wg@williamgallagher.com before December 1, telling me your one pick of the year – and why you like it so.

Here’s that list, just a reminder of some of the DVDs we’ve seen this year.

Deep breath,
William

1. Doctor Who Blink
2. Ace of Wands
3. Zoo Gang
4. Camberwick Green
5. Life on Mars
6. Arrested Development
7. The Rockford Files
8. Mad About You
9. The Rockford Files
10. Wild Hogs

11. Die Hard 4
12. WKRP in Cincinatti
13. Alias Smith and Jones
14. Airwolf
15. M*A*S*H
16. Green Wing
17. Alias Smith and Jones
18. Torchwood
19. Mr Bean’s Holiday
20. Desperate Housewives

21. Jekyll
22. Little Miss Sunshine
23. Hoodwinked
24. Flushed Away
25. Veronica Mars
26. Atonement
26. Sandbaggers
28. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
29. Children of Men
30. Northern Exposure

31. Father Ted Speed 3
32. In the Night Garden
33. Becoming Jane
34. Babylon 5 captain’s log
35. Cardiac Arrest
36. Follyfoot
37. Dirty Dancing
38. The Prisoner
39. Battlestar Galactica
40. For Your Consideration

41. Stranger Than Fiction
42. Notes on a Scandal
43. Ocean’s Thirteen
44. Doctor Who Arc of Infinity
45. Ugly Betty
46. The Holiday
47. Frasier
48. Night at the Museum
49. Nancy Drew open
50 Doctor Who Blink

51. Fracture
52. Last King
53. Columbo
54. Casino Royale
55. The Prestige
56. Friends and Crocodiles
57. Peep Show
58. My So-Called Life
59. Hot Fuzz
60. Music and Lyrics

61. Heroes
62 The Queen
63. World of Pub
64. This is England
65. Blades of Glory
66. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
67. Happy Feet
68. Rolling Stones
69. Shooter
70. Forbidden Planet

71. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
72. Zombie Diaries
73. 28 Weeks Later
74. Pursuit
75. Perfect Stranger
76. Arthur
77. Thank You for Smoking
78. The Libertine
79. Zodiac
80. Fantasic Four

81. Amazing Grace
82. Premonition
83. Inland Empire
84. Sunshine
85. Miss Potter
86. The Illusionist
87. Snakes on a Plane
88. World Trade Center
89. Perfume
90. Primeval

91. Serenity
92. Cheers
93. Because I Said So
94. Open Season
95. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
96. The Bourne Ultimatum

–

Graphite by example

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Presumably you’re on the side of the writers in the US strike: if not, hello, it’s funny you should stop by here just when I’m talking about you and the other five people backing the producers.

But if you are one of those, do please look away now and don’t spoil the surprise: I’ve just sent you a gift. Like socks at Christmas, it’s a nice gift that you’re going to get sick of.

Writers across the world are being asked to show support for the US strike by sending a box of pencils to the heads of the studios holding out. Being writers, these pencils are imbued with symbolism and you want to chip in, don’t you? It’ll cost a dollar: click here to do the deed.

Ta to Piers for blogging about it even as he should be giving me notes on a script.

William

All is well

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There are birds in the trees. I’m writing again. My Oscar is in the post. I don’t want to make too big a deal out of this, but on my way over here, I healed some people.

Yes, I have an iPhone.

William

Rackfay

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Some writing competitions require you to enter entirely under a pseudonym. So the other day Maxine Desk, who inexplicably lives at my address yet doesn’t contribute a penny to the food bill, got a letter from a theatre company saying how sorry they were she’d been rejected, how they knew this was a blow.

I couldn’t even remember entering the contest, I don’t know what I sent, I don’t know who these people are. If there’s a real Maxine Desk out there waiting for news on her script, let me know. No need to hurry.

This utter blankness over a contest I’ve entered is unusual, yes. But I’m minded of it because the reverse has happened today: a contest I’ve said before would be the best TV writing competition in the world, ever, if they had only thought to beef up the prize. Really, they were so close: a guaranteed TV commission, a guaranteed TV agent, some cash and the opportunity to work with Tony Jordan plus a good stab at getting your winning script filmed. Would it have hurt them to add a bacon sandwich and an iPhone?

I haven’t made the cut.

This time, though, even more than remembering who I emailed my entry to, I also know the names of the judging panel and they are all people I rate very highly: Stephen Fry, Julie Gardner, it goes on, you count them, I can’t face it. So instead of a faceless producer, there’s a panel of people whose writing I admire and who do not admire my writing. To be practical here, they might have loved and cherished every syllable, but I didn’t make the cut and a miss is as good as a mile.

There won’t be feedback on this one (Red Planet’s judges must’ve read at least 20,000 pages of script, they’d never be able to comment usefully on my 10) which usually means you have to shrug and move on. The scale and weight of this one means that’s harder to do, and it’s much easier to re-examine the material and try to guess where I got it wrong. So I’ll obviously be doing a bit of that.

But otherwise, you know what needs to be done next, don’t you? Every sane person in this world would tell you that that thing to do is to keep writing and, if you were even halfway clever you would already have other things out there. I have other things out there.

But still, I’m tired of being a rebel. I am stopping writing now, it’s all over. I’ve been eating my own bacon sandwich while I’ve talked to you and soon I’m going out to buy my own iPhone.

William

PS. Rackfay is pig latin, if you hadn’t guessed.