The Adjustment Bureau poster with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

A couple of weekends ago I went to see The Adjustment Bureau. I was expecting a really good science fiction romance, which I have a weak spot for, but must say I was disappointed. I liked the idea, the acting by Matt Damon and Emiliy Blunt was pretty solid and it was entertaining most of the time. Still, something disturbed me with it.

On my way home I came to the conclusion that it for one felt very flat (especially the Elise character), but also that I didn’t get what I came for; the science fiction movie. The use of genre descriptions for get an audience ain’t unheard of, e.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind wasn’t labelled as a SF movie when it came as the production company was afraid it would scare away the target audience.

But leaving out this kind of a fact is one thing, as no one that pays for a movie ticket will really get tricked. Lying about this kind of a fact is a whole other thing, as some member of the audience will not at all get what they came for.

The movie itself is based on a short story called Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the novel that Blade Runner is based on. This base is however very loose, in the way that it has only borrowed parts of the name and the idea that our fates are being controlled by a secret group.

Damon plays David Norris, a politician who is important for the the bureau and the world. The bureau, lead by ‘the chairman’, wants him to win an election but messes up, which leads to him becoming aware of their existence. During this time he has also fallen in love with Elise, which is not acceptable in the bureau’s plan.

The movie is very much about their forbidden love and how they relate to their destiny. It is also very much about people talking and the adjustment bureau agents running through doors. Ordinary doors, but as long as they wear special hats it makes it possible to go out through a door somewhere else

Those door portals, the agents’ maps that make it possible to see what will happen in the future and also the agents ability to move things they cannot reach are all things common to science fiction movies. Teleportation, precognition devices and telekinesis have been seen many times.

But if something is called science fiction, shouldn’t there be some kind scientific aspect to these tropes? In The Adjustment Bureau there is none. The talk about destiny in this movie and what we learn about the identities of the agents points more in the direction of God than to alien visitors (which I suppose is how people would argue that this is SF). For me it becomes obvious that the reason for this misuse of the SF label is purely economic.

Is Damon and Blunt really fleeing from the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

The reason why they can get away with it is because Philip K. Dick is known as a science fiction writer and that the book is regarded as a book of the genre. What I don’t understand is why some critics reinforce this statement.

Actually, I think I do understand why. Science fiction is a hard genre to define, as I have written about before. There is an immense number of definitions, but I believe the ones that is about rational reason, science and the scientific process is the ones that are the hardest to argue against.

This confusing world of definitions opens up for the possibility to use it like in The Adjustment Bureau. I think this is very bad for the movie going public’s odds of finding the movie they really want to see and for the serious discussion about what the genre really is.

This issue of defining things us not isolated to movie genres, but you see it everyday in political discussions and everywhere else there is possible to have more than one perspective on a subject.

One of those degenerated discussions, that concern both science and this movie, is creationism. Creationists mean the world and its inhabitants are created by some kind of supernatural being, like God. I won’t start arguing about why I think this is a bad theory, there are other forums for that, but the misuse of the scientific method and the evolutionary arguments is common in this view of religious fundamentalism.

This makes it more than a question of who’s right and wrong. Basically, it’s about believing in either the scientific method and the evolutionary theory or in that someone is behind it all, like God. The creationist world view and arguments leads to a confusion about what can be proven and not.

The evolutionary theory is based on what conclusions can be drawn from reality. The creationist (especially the young Earth creationism) view is basically based on a faith in religious texts and a forced disbelief in what science can really prove. To conquer ground an explanation that have a facade of science is created.

Nothing supernatural is explained in The Adjustment Bureau, just implied. If you, without thinking about it, interpret it as science fiction, you will go with that feeling. If you interpret it as God, you will go with that feeling. This is a great way for the producers to please everyone. But this is not science fiction if you analyse it.

In the same way it will only be science if it can be explained and reproduced with the scientific method. Otherwise it is not. But by intruding on the field of definition the religious communion or producers can advance towards another target group and earn new followers and/or more cash. But no one cares about those who just don’t want it.

The Adjustment Bureau and Creationism

You got actors to show up when you held auditions. Now it’s time to decide on which actors to choose for the movie.

What to look for

There’s a lot that have to work to make an actor or actress suitable for your production. It might be great to cast a shy person, depending on the role, or an excellent performance may have been performed by an unpleasant person. What you’re after depends on the role, the movie and yourself. If you have filmed the audition, here are some things to think about while watching it:

» Chemistry. Does the chemistry between you and the actor or actress work out well? Often this means that you can communicate well and that the person seems nice, but there might very well be a reason for you to prefer someone nasty. However, think about if this person will cause issues with other members of the crew.

» Looks. Simply, does the person’s looks and movement suit the role? If not, perhaps it’s still possible to make the person look right with e.g. make up or training.

» Performance. Is the person good at acting? Perhaps it was a solid performance, but not what you asked for. A performance that came natural may really make your preparations with the actor or actress a lot easier, but could also mean that if you change some trait for the character, he or she cannot make the change, being an one trick pony.

» Voice. Does it sound right? This is easy to forget with everything else going on, but the voice and accent must fit the character and sound believable.

» Commitment. Does the person really want to do this? As you probably don’t have any money to offer, it’s important that the person is willing to offer their time and even more important have time to offer at all. This will make your life a lot easier and perhaps even your expenses smaller depending on the project. For example, having actors that don’t complain on the set as they really want the movie to become good, is a blessing.

It is a good idea to get a second opinion from someone else about the performances, while watching. But the most important thing is to think through what you value the most and what you could make without. You’re really lucky if you get someone that is both a good actor or actress in all ways possible and is nice to be with.

Callbacks

In many professional productions there will be callbacks, where the you pick the most promising people from the casting and make them show you more. The callback can contain more of what they did during the first round of the audition, but what I find even more useful is to mix and match actors to see what works. For me the callback is a luxury, and I have never yet felt I needed one. Or perhaps I have felt I have needed one, but there’s probably other things I’ve felt was more crucial for the production at the time. Anyhow, it has worked out well, so I do believe that you can do without this part, but in the end it depends on the what you need.

Seal the deal

If you skipped the callbacks or are done with them it’s time to make your pick.

1. Think through your choice once more so that you’re really sure about it.
2. Contact your first picks.
3. Verify that they will have the time and won’t change their appearance to something you can’t accept for the role.
4. If you get a no, you haven’t turned down the next one in line yet, go back to number 2, with your new first picks…
5. Contact the ones you have to turn down by phone or email, preferably with some nice and constructive feedback. The may very well be just what you need, next time, and have given you their time.
6. Seal the deal with some kind of simple contract, often called a release form. This makes sure that you have all the legal rights to show your movie when it’s finished and makes the agreement clear.

The casting process is over! But the work has just begun…

(This is part 3 of 3 in my post series about Casting. Don’t forget to also take a look at part 1 and part 2.)

How to Cast a Movie – Actors

The Stargate poster with Kurt Russel and James Spader.

A couple of nights ago I got an urge to watch the original Stargate movie, from 1994. The movie is directed by Roland Emmerich and have actors like Kurt Russel, James Spader and actually the late Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors in important roles.

The characters are part of a military expedition, lead by Colonel O’Neil, which travels through a gate to a distant planet, where they encounter problems in going home and meet the indigenous population that is being oppressed by an alien despot calling himself Ra. I like the movie’s use of mythology, but what hit me the most was the resemblance the movie has with the Arab revolutions of 2011, in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

When the characters meet the indigenous population in the movie the population is portrayed as belonging to the Egyptian culture. They are a scared group of dark skinned people and are among other things not allowed by Ra to write anything.

The expedition tries to avoid getting into any conflicts and focus on finding a way to get back to Earth or at least destroy the passage between the planets. However Ra descends with his spaceship over the Pyramid where the gate is and thereby blocks the way home. The characters are obliged to fight, but get killed or caught by Ra’s henchmen. When they are about to get executed, to demonstrate Ra’s power, in front of the people a revolution begins.

When I first thought about how this relates to the ongoing revolutions I first just thought about an Arabic population revolting against their oppressor, but there’s even more relevancy to the film. The ones that lead the revolution are the young people who by their youthful curiosity and the older generations are doubtful about the wisdom in keeping on attacking the oppressor as the retaliation against them is hard with the death of loved ones.

A clear tendency in the Arab revolution is how it is the young people who raise their voices as it is their future. The present revolutions have in many cases been relatively peaceful as dictators like Hosni Mubarak has stepped down before any catastrophic incidents, but in the ongoing civil war in Libya the conflict have lead to many deaths and the war is being fought by people who have almost no training with the weapons they use.

One important factor in winning a war against ones own government is to have the support of the world. Both Tunisia and Egypt had the eyes of the world on them and although no (official) military intervention was made by other countries the people got help with keeping lines of communications open when the regimes tried to block access to them.

While their dictators stepped down, Gaddafi did not hesitate in killing his own people and it is still going on while I’m writing this. However, this blood bath cannot in it self be blamed on the World Community in the same way as the Iraqi turmoil began with an invading force with an oil fetish, but there is still a great question of responsibility towards humanity to avoid blood baths.

Ra and Gaddafi get the same kind of response from their people.

The question that comes to me is whether the World Community really want all the people in the Arab countries to have democracy or if the important thing is whether the west have access to the oil and other resources or not. When Palestine held elections and the ‘wrong’ people won, the fact that it had been a democratic election was not that important and I doubt that the stance has changed since then. All of those three countries have had a relatively positive attitude towards USA and the West and I don’t find it impossible that the World Community, with USA in the lead, could accept the change in Tunisia and Egypt. This could be because they are not that strategically important or probably won’t change their attitudes towards the west that much with a new government.

In Libya there is oil and as the West receives almost all of it, there could be an insecurity in how this would change with a new government. There could also be an unrest from the West that this chain of revolutions can get ‘out of hand’ and that by letting Gaddafi killing his own people it will let off steam in this revolutionary engine, discouraging new revolutions in the Arab world. Whether this is true or not, history may show, but the involvement (or non-involvement) by the World Community does in any case affect the outcome.

As the expedition in Stargate only involves themselves in the Ra conflict when their interests are at stake this implies that it is a common way of working in our civilisation. In the movie Col. O’Neil’s intention is almost through the whole movie to blow up the stargate, and thereby defend the interest of his Earth. The rest of the expedition react to this as it means they won’t be able to go home at all, but there is no real discussion about what the nuke he will use will do to the people living in the region.

I do believe it is a good idea to not involve one self in the revolutions of others to much, as revolutions has to be fought by the oppressed, but in the case of Libya for example a no-fly zone would be a good way to even the odds a little without taking over the war. This may very well happen in the coming days, but I wonder if it is already too late. And I wonder how much the World Community will grieve the failure of a full Libyan liberation. Perhaps as much as Colonel O’Neil would grieve the death of the indigenous people on the non Earth side of the stargate.

Stargate and the Arab Revolutions

I wrote ‘The threat from above. The impact on Swedish science fiction film from the Swedish art cinema institution’ or ‘Hotet från ovan. Konstfilmsinstitutionens inverkan på den svenska science fiction-filmen’ as my Bachelor degree thesis at Lund University, during 2010/11. It is written in Swedish, but if there is a demand and I got time for it, I will gladly translate it into English.

Abstract

The production of Swedish science fiction is unknown to most people. The thesis studies which Swedish movies that can be classified as science fiction and how the Swedish art cinema institution has affected the production. The movies are analyzed and graded by how strong the science fiction influences are

. The result eventuates in 29 Swedish science fiction movies, that strong influences are uncommon, and in that these often have received a negative reception from the press. At the same time there is a distinct diversity in creators, content and in which genres are represented, with an exception for the action genre. The thesis lays the ground for further research, proves that there has been an influence from the Swedish art cinema institution, but does not draw any wide conclusions about its impact.

Download ‘Hotet från ovan. Konstfilmsinstitutionens inverkan på den svenska science fiction-filmen’ from my server

Visit the main mirroring page at the Lund University site

The Threat From Above

As a film maker, what line is one to take to low budget feature film projects that does not end up being a great indie movie? The question was once again raised, after watching Sektor 236 Tors Vrede last night.

The movie is about some kind of supernatural phenomenon that exists in a few different places around the world, including Sweden. The Swedish military together with American specialists set out to find the source as well as a platoon that have gone missing in the wilderness. A group of people around their 20′s are at the same time hiking in that very same forest, without any knowledge that they are being observed by something hostile. Soon they become aware of that they are in great danger and they have to escape with all means possible.

The movie can be summarised with the word ‘uneven’, as some parts work but most don’t. This goes for all the components of the movie. The acting is for example pretty stiff, with the exception for a few characters. I question the number of characters in this movie, as only a few of them seem to have a back story relevant to the movie. They could have been fused to into half the number I believe or their dialogue should have had a greater function.

Most of the actors seem to be amateurs, but a couple of them are known actors, like Tintin Anderzon and Fredrik Dolk, and I have to congratulate to this. The technical elements sometime works very well with really nice composition and atmospheric sound, but for the most part people get framed in strange ways, the grading differs between shots and the sound is mixed and mastered in a way that you can sometimes not even hear what they are saying (I had to manually compensate for the differences in sound!).

Another interesting thing is that the music is made by Jan Johansen, a Swedish singer, but his rock music mostly feels misplaced. The most impressing thing with the movie is the use of real helicopters and military gear. If you ignore that the gear is not what the Swedish army uses, it works really well. There is however a problem with adding that kind of production value when other parts lack it. In this case it adds to the unevenness and excessive use of those sequences then lowers the production value a little. And why do some of the characters have rave outfits?

Sektor 236 – Tors Vrede is written by Björne Hellquist, who has also directed it together with Robert Putkis. From what I’ve gathered it is their first feature movie and I think it is important to remember this. The basic story ain’t that bad, but the script feels like it should have gone through a couple of more rewrites. Most of what’s in the movie have been seen before and the original stuff, mainly in the last act, ain’t explained enough to become that interesting, in my opinion.

Much of the errors and the whole unevenness thing, are things that I can see traces of in most low budget productions, including my own. It is kind of a natural result of low budget and not working with a pro crew. Sektor 236 – Tors Vrede is worth watching if you want to analyse flaws you want to avoid in your own movies or are really into b-movies. If you want a good science fiction horror, I however can’t recommend it.

• Swedish title: Sektor 236 – Tors Vrede
• Made in: Sweden
• Language: Swedish
• Runtime: 96 min
• Swedish release date: 9 November 2010
• Awards: -

Trailer:

Sektor 236 – Tors Vrede review

About the movie
Movie vs. book
Failure in style
Johnny’s relationship with Carmen

Starship Troopers is directed by Paul Verhoeven, who also have directed successful movies like Robocop (1987) and Total Recall (1990), and is written by Edward Neumeier which also have written the scrip to Robocop. The title of the movie and the universe it takes place in comes from Robert A. Heinlein’s book which was published 1959, but the two works does not share much of the themes and content. Verhoeven himself says that his intention with the movie was to exaggerate the books fascistic themes so that they would become obviously absurd. In a chapter of Roz Kaveney’s book, she writes that Verhoeven have misunderstood Heinlein and that he also fails to demonstrate his anti-fascistic message. More about that later, but first I will give you a summary of the movie.

About the movie

Starship Troopers takes place in a fascistic future where a humanity is united in a great federation and lies in war with the Arachnids, gigantic insectoid aliens. The movie is about Johnny Rico and his friends in this war. Johnny is captain of the team in the school’s “indoor rugby” team, but not very good in anything else. His girlfriend, Carmen Ibanez, and his best friend, Carl Jenkins, who has supernatural powers, are better in school and after finishing high-school they decide to join the armed forces of the Federation. They split paths with Carmen joining the Fleet, Carl the intelligence service, Johnny the mobile infantry. Military duty is the main way to become a citizen within the Federation. There are however people who have chosen to continue to be civilians, for example Johnny’s father, who rejects his son when he joins the army.

In the mobile infantry, soldiers are trained to disembark on planets and fight by foot. Johnny meets many new friends and also Dizzy Flores, a girl from his team that are in love with him, joins his platoon. A love triangle begins between Johnny, Dizzy and Carmen and Carmen breaks Johnny’s heart when she dumps him, although nothing happens between him hand Dizzy. Johnny gets promoted to Corporal, but chooses to end his career and return to his parents that have forgiven him, after an incident that kills a member of his squad. This takes a new turn when the Arachnids throws an asteroid towards Earth that destroys his home town and kills everything that is important to him. He is reinstated and the Federation launch an invasion against their enemy. While waiting for the invasion of the planet Klendathu, Johnny stumbles upon Carmen and her co-pilot Zander Barcalow. An old conflict between Johnny and Zander flares and they fight each other after Johnny not accepting Carmen’s lame excuse for dumping him and also with the two combatants defending the infantry respectively the fleet.

Shortly thereafter the invasion begins but the federation realises that the Arachnids are stronger than the intelligence has gathered. Carmen’s battle ship gets hit by anti-aircraft fire and Johnny’s platoon takes a beat. Both of them manage to survive, even though Carmen get informed that Johnny was killed in action. The survivors of Johnnys platoon joins a new one. This one is lead by Jean Razak, Johnny’s and the other’s former teacher in moral philosophy in school and they set out on a mission where Johnny also gets promoted. He also begins a relation with Dizzy. After a massive attack from the Arachnids at a fort, both Dizzy and Razak dies. Johnny takes command and lead the troops in the last big battle. During this fight Carmen’s ship explodes and she escapes to the planet, together with Zander in a lifepod that lands in the middle of enemy territory. Johnny discovers that she is in distress and initiate a search for her in the tunnels of the planet. Carmen and Zander gets captured by the Arachnids and a brain bug sucks Zander’s brain out. Carmen is saved by Johnny and the infantry captures the brain bug. Carl, reads the mind of the creature and feels that it is afraid and now humanity can foresee the Arachnids tactics. Johnny, Carl and Carmen is once more together and the war goes on.

Starship Troopers analysis

Endhiran takes place in a contemporary India, where a scientist have just finalized an intelligent humanoid robot. The robot, Chitthi, is superhuman in everything, except for what makes us truly human – he has no emotions. His main function is to protect the borders of India, but he fails the security test because of him interpreting orders literally and being unreliable.

This forces the scientist to make him more able to feel, with the side effect of the robot falling in love with the scientist girl friend and beginning to disobey orders. The scientist throws him at the garbage heap as he fails the second test too. However, his mentor who also wants to sell robots to the military, reactivates Chitthi, but with an additional war chip installed, and things begins to go really wrong.

Endhiran has been called the first Indian sci-fi movie, but that is not completely correct. As always this comes down to the definition of what sci-fi is. I can agree with this being the most hardcore Bollywood sci-fi made, but for example the subject of aliens, a common sci-fi element, has been portrayed before in Koi…Mil Gaya (2003) and in the ‘sequel’  Krrish (2006) the use of a machine that can show the future is used. Actually as ‘early’ as 1987, the use of futuristic science was used in an Indian movie, when the plot in Mr. India circled around a device that could make people invisible.

This IS however the most expensive movie in Indian film history with a budget of about $80 millions and as I have understood it is the biggest/most anticipated movie in India, this year. It contains some major Indian superstars in the lead roles, Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai. For a western movie audience none of those may be very famous, but western superstars are noone compared those the major Indian stars.

Rajnikanth is a popular action star and extra popular with the lower class Indians because of his dark skin (in short, the darker skin you have, the harder it is to gain social status or high positions in India) and Rai became Miss India, as well as Miss world 1994 and after that has had a very prosperous acting career. The movie is directed by one of the great Indian directors, S. Shankar, and is not the first time he makes ‘the most expensive Indian movie to date’.

The story is not very original for someone who’s into American science fiction movies, but it is till something new as it is Indian. It’s mainly asking the question of was it means to be human, with the positive sides closely connected to the negative ones. It also discusses the classic problems about what science and technology can do to society, which makes it very much of a sci-fi movie. I haven’t seen that many Bollywood movies, but to me it does have a lot in common with the more typical Indian movies I have seen.

You have the nationalistic parts, where foreigners are the threat and the Indian main character is working in the services of the country, you have the ambivalent feminist views where modern woman gains more traditional values (and clothes) in the end, and of course the typical dance scenes and love story. As often with Bollywood movies, I felt it was a little bit to long and did not quite reach the quality of western movies. This is however a western perspective and probably has to do with what I’m used to.

The only thing I found truly disturbing in this movie was when Chitthi saves a naked girl from death, which leads to news photographers taking pictures of her being naked and leading to her taking her life as she now seems to have lost all honour. Except for that, the movie itself is, in spite of its length, entertaining throughout and even if the special effects look a little unrealistic every now and then, they are used in ways I haven’t seen before, and that is not often that happens in new movies nowadays. If you get a chance to watch it, do so, but you don’t miss that much if you’re not able to.

• Made in: India
• Language: Hindi/English

Trailer:

Endhiran review

I’ve seen a lot of fresh sci-fi from Germany (or in German) lately. Pandorum (2009) and Transfer (2010) are both really good and tonight I saw another one, Cargo.

Just as with Pandorum, Cargo takes place on a interstellar ship with the crew in hypersleep. We follow a medic that goes on those missions to save money to afford to go to Reah, the one  habitable Earthlike planet left, where her sister lives.

Except for the lucky ones on this planet, humanity lives on space stations, and the ship carries cargo for the construction of a new one. While the medic has her shift she notices that someone else is awake one the ship. The whole crew is woken and one after one people die and odd things happen. Someone is lying and the medic tries to find out the truth.

From a production stand point two things stand out. First of all this is the first Swizz science fiction movie ever according to most people. Second of all it is a low budget movie made with less than 100,000 USD but with great visuals comparable to high concept movies.

The look of the movie is nice and I did get a feeling of how large things are. It is directed by Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter, for me unknown, and the same thing goes for the actors. It’s always hard to rate the quality of actors acting in a foreign language, but I feel all of them do allright even though it feels stiff every now and then.

It’s hard to talk about the theme of the movie without spoiling it, but I would say it is mainly about how people are being used by others for their interest. The story as well as the plot points are really good, but there are also a lot of plot holes (ironically this first Swizz sci-fi movie comes from a land partly known for cheese with holes in it…).

There is also a love story that I don’t think anyone gets, but on my way home from the movie I figured out a couple of ways this could have been solved by. I think the reason for this may have been that the directors held too many other positions at the same time.

From my experience, those kinds of flaws are exactly what occur when you have to focus on too many things in pre-production. Sadly this ruins an otherwise promising movie, but it is still worth watching.

• Made in: Switzerland
• Language: German

Trailer:

Cargo review

Listen to me at Radio AF

The movie is based on a short story called Thousand Euros, One Life by Eli Barcelo, but director Damir Lukacevic was encouraged to develop it into a feature film with a budget of € 1,200,000 instead of the € 100,000 that was planned from the very beginning. Compared to most American sci-fi this is no money at all, but the movie has a great production value. One reason for this may be that it is shot with the digital RED One 4K HD camera (instead of 35 mm or 16 mm film) which makes it cheaper, but also affects the look in the way the image becomes cleaner. The only negative thing about the technical aspects of the production, I noticed, was that the editing sometimes felt a little strange. Either because of the editing department failing in experimenting or, more likely, that they didn’t shoot coverage for everything and ended up with lack of material in the editing room, forcing them to use jump cuts and such.

The movie has an almost too obvious theme about seeing things in black or white, both in the colour of the main characters’ skin, but also in the way they argument. Transfer gives a new perspective of the relation between the rich and the poor in the world. In this movie we see how Europeans exploit Africans to the degree that “we” take over their bodies. This makes it sci-fi, but is a good metaphor for how we make others give up their life for our well being, without really knowing or considering the costs. The African couple do sign their contracts by free will, but the question is how free the choice really is. Lukacevic does a good work in showing the structural racism in the European society, which is put into another perspective when the same racist tendencies are shown by Apolain, one of the Africans. At the same time other characters argue that things are not that simple, and that they have to think beyond the colour of the skin and see that we are all humans with the same basics needs for love and freedom. I liked these themes in the story very much, but they could have been explored further and deeper. Also, the plot is not as good as it could have been. However, I liked what I saw, and this being the second good German sci-fi movie I have seen this year, Pandorum (2009) being the other one, I’m really looking forward to see what comes next.

• Made in: Germany
• Language: German/French

Transfer review