Blu-Ray Review – Ill Manors

Ill Manors is full of ting dat’ll make you sick blud. The characters are ripped from the streets of London, as are many of the non-professional actors. Debut director Ben Drew (a.k.a. British rapper Plan B) attempts to dig beneath the blazing front page pictures of looters to reveal the reasons behind the madness. Drew doesn’t like the media calling these kids ‘chavs’ and he makes it his mission to offer some context and explanation for the actions of what so many have called “out-of-control” youth.

The film takes a multi-stranded narrative approach (similar to Pulp Fiction but with far less humour and far more grit) with a range of characters mixing in circles that lead to frequent confrontations. A missing phone, a missing gun and a missing baby propel the characters like pin balls bouncing back and forth around the East End streets. Riz Ahmed (Four Lions, Shifty) stars as Aaron, one of the rare truly sympathetic characters who is a bit too smart, and a bit too empathetic to be mixing with the kind of low-lives his social circle keeps him bonded with...

Read the rest of my Ill Manors Blu-Ray review at Filmoria.

When Singers Become Actors

The late Whitney Houston returns to the big screen today in Sparkle - the film that would become her last acting role. The musical drama sees Houston play the part of Emma, mother to three young ladies seeking fame as a girl group, while she warns them of the perils of the life they so desperately crave.

Singers turning to acting is not a new phenomenon – singers from Barbra Streisand to Eminem have been turning their talents to the big screen for decades and though not all have done it well, some have shone in their attempts.

Head over to Filmoria to find out who the team have chosen as their standout performances by singers who have truly become actors.

Featuring Will Smith, Plan B, Frank Sinatra and more.

Test Screenings

Touchy subject in the film industry this. Test screenings are happening more and more these days with producers insisting that filmmakers get feedback from audiences before releasing their films commercially.

Some filmmakers refuse. Terry Gilliam for example. Put some of his old films in front of an average audience and they may not have ever seen the light of day. Spielberg doesn't do them. His films always make money. The distributors of Paranormal Activity used footage of test screenings in the trailer for the film. They also changed the ending due to audience feedback.

What's the point? Audience research. Producers want to ensure the film appeals to the widest possible audience. So they screen the film early, get the audience to fill in a questionnaire and then they make changes. Maybe the film needs to be shortened to a more manageable length. Maybe some scenes are not working, some sub-plots are unnecessary or some effects look shabby.

But is this fair on filmmakers who shed blood, sweat and tears for the film? Has their soveriegnty been taken away unfairly? Does the film belong to a director or the investors? It's understandable that producers, financers, investors want to see a film make money and I'm sure most directors want everyone to get paid. But isn't the money being put into the filmmaker as much as the film? Isn't their some trust in the filmmaker's creativity and vision?

Are audiences really experts on film anyway? I'm sure many would argue that audiences are the perfect people to be giving the filmmakers feedback. After all we are the ones that are going to pay to watch the film. We watch films. We know what we like and what we don't like.

But looking at the questionnaire after attending a test screening on Tuesday (04/10/11), I started to wonder about the range of responses Revolver Entertainment would be getting from us. As a media teacher I like to think I know a fair bit about film, narrative, scriptwriting, production etc. I tried to make my responses reflect this. But I'm not sure that I'm even the target audience for this film so are my responses valid? And I found it very hard to fill out the form thoughtfully and carefully. I wonder if others had more or less trouble.

Anyway I signed a non-disclosure form without reading it so I'm assuming I'm not allowed to say anything about the film. I don't know if I can even mention that the film is being test screened. However the film in question will be released in February and I was told that that they are trying to cut the length of it down by around 40 minutes. I can't imagine what this is like for the filmmakers. I could only identify a couple of scenes that I felt were unnecessary. So I can't say much because the film will change.

All I will say is the music is unsurprisingly outstanding and the opening credits blew me away. So I hope they stay as they were. It's a grim, gritty film and an extremely promising directorial debut. The narrative structure and many of the stylistic techniques of the film were excellent in this early cut. The writer/director just added another talent to his already glowing career.

In completely unrelated news:

Ben Drew a.k.a. Rap/Soul artist Plan B says:

"there’ll also be my first full-length film, which I’m titling ‘Ill Manors’”, he adds: “Which is a hip hop, music-based feature film which has six short stories that all kinda mix together to make one BIG story - and each mini-story will be represented by a different hip hop track. It’ll all be narrated by me, and it’ll actually be the reverse of ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ - in that with ‘Ill Manors’ the film will come out first and the soundtrack will come afterwards. And again the soundtrack will be a film for the blind, in that you’ll be able to listen to it and it’ll tell you the story of the film…" (http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/522/plan_b_from_a_to_b)