"The Lovely Bones" IMO Excellent

I have just seen "The Lovely Bones" and IMO it was excellent and effective. I have not read the book therefore I experienced this as a self-contained movie and it made sense to me that way. The surreal afterlife scenes worked for me as an imaginative dreamscape with the storytelling purpose of reflecting events on Earth that relate to the main character. I walked in with lowered expectations because of the critics and I was surprised, completely engaged, and impressed by an outstanding movie. My track record continues of loving movies that get a hard time from the critics.

Nice opportunity - shame about the mash

Last century on New Zealand television there was usually a comedy show that week by week would give us topical parody and satire of our national life and current events. Since 2000 this has been sadly reduced with with the flickering light kept alive only by the occasional series from the Gibson Group. 10 weeks in 2007 was the last appearance of "Facelift". Example at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfv58CrSuEo

Gibson Group have announced a new show: "The Mash Pit"
www.mashpitcomedy.com
Nice that there is an open opportunity for the public to submit creative work to a TV show. I could be right into this - but it ain't gonna happen and the reason is the mash-up gimmick. I find it very difficult to get live acting performances that are uninhibited and outrageous enough to work effectively as comedy. My actors are getting very nervous about well-publicised internet identity safety issues and it is difficult enough to get them to agree to screening on Youtube. They will not like the possibility of having their most outrageous moments taken out of context for mashing and I am not going to risk my friendships and film-making networking by trying to push them into it.

I also have a problem with music library and other content licensing that will not extend to mash-ups.

Nice idea to encourage wider participation in making TV comedy but I wish Gibson would try playing it as a straightforward submission without gimmickry like the mashing. On looking at the website I get the impression that the mashups are few in number and ineffective so they are failing to deliver an attractive advantage to outweigh the participation barrier they create.

I also criticise the way that this format seems to give a time lag between production and public screening. This is a yet another barrier to parody of current events.

Hey Gibson Group, I am a fan of your past comedy work, but I think you are stumbling with this "Mash Pit". A final thought - if mashing is such a good idea, why aren't you supplying examples of your recent productions as fodder for the mashers?

The Vintner's Duck

New parody on Youtube. A few weeks ago I heard a radio interview with Niki Caro about her latest movie "The Vintner's Luck" and it seemed to have parody potential. This led to us filming "The Vintner's Duck" on 26/27 Dec. It is now posted on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhzJyhrwlLs

Adaptations of books to film are often difficult to the point of controversy but this seems to have been an extreme case. See our Youtube notes for our parody-world take on this. Some sources for the issues around the real-world project:

"Author Cried over Vintner's Luck Film"

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3076674/Author-cried-over-Vintners-Luck-film

"Second Sight - Wrestling with the Angel"

http://secondstogo.blogspot.com/2009/11/wrestling-with-angel-niki-caro-and.html