New Showreel
March 25th, 2010
Gwyn Moxham’s new 2010 Editing Showreel is now online for your viewing pleasure. Please head over to the editing page to watch now…
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2009 Round-Up
January 3rd, 2010
Being as I haven’t blogged in a while I thought I’d take the opportunity to round up what I’ve been doing over the past year and to keep everybody up to date. My new year’s resolution is to keep the headjar site and my twitter feed more regularly up to date, but I’m expecting that things will change as soon as the next big project starts and I find myself knee deep in work and bound by non-disclosure agreements.
2009 started slowly but turned out to be an extremely good year. Having made the decision to abandon assistant editing in late 2008 and focus on finding more jobs as the main editor, the traditional lean media winter was always going to be doubly tricky, but in January I started work on the excellent short film ‘If I Should Fall Behind’, directed by the supremely talented Morgan Bushe of Dublin’s Fastnet Films.
The atmospheric 15 minute film, named after the classic song by Bruce Springsteen, was funded by Filmbase and RTÉ, with prints provided by the Irish Film Board. It follows haunted father John Neeson (Paul Roe), his wife Sharon (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) and son Lawrence (Shane Murray-Corcoran), around the Dolphin’s Barn area of Dublin as they struggle to come to terms with a recent tragedy and their familial responsibilities.
The film, which was edited around myself and Morgan’s busy work schedules, was finally completed in the summer, and in October 2009 was selected for the Times/BFI 53rd London Film Festival. To see my work on a 35mm print at such a prestigious festival so close to home was a real thrill and was a great opportunity to show friends, family and colleagues some of the work I do. Going forward in 2010 we hope to see ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ in many more film festivals around the world and I’ll try and keep you updated as to where and when it’s showing right here.
On the topic of film festivals, as many of you will know I was honoured to be able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year, and to write about it on this blog. At the festival I made many great friends and contacts and look forward to working with them in the future.
Following work on the Irish film, I have edited a number of commercial projects in 2009, including the ‘Super Contemporary’ strand for Beefeater Gin and the Design Museum, and an Anti-Smoking viral for Parkville Pictures.
In August through till October I worked on ‘George Michael: Live In London’, taking over from esteemed live music editor Brian McCue on this amazing live concert film. To work with such established talent was a real thrill, and it was also my first job using the very excellent LightWorks editing system, something I only came to try last year, having always wanted to work with the system. The film was shown in theatres in the US in December and is available now on Blu-Ray and DVD in the UK. Grab a copy now!
Of course as always, there are a number of unreleased projects I’ve worked on over the past year which I can’t yet talk about, but there will be more information soon. 2010 is already shaping up to be a very exciting year, having already started editing yesterday, when I cut a promo for ‘I Love Your Hair’ by DJ Marble, which we’ll be doing the online edit and grade on shortly, after which I hope the video will be up online somewhere for you all to see.
I’m about to start work on a much overdue new showreel to replace the last one, as I’ve done an awful lot in the past two years that I really need to show to new clients! There are also a number of exciting projects tentatively lined up that I’m very excited about. Watch this space for more news…
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2010 in which I look forward to working with you, socialising with you or even just chatting about obscure features of Final Cut Pro on Twitter. Have a very happy new year!
Tags: 2009, annual, Cannes, DJ Marble, Fastnet Films, George Michael, If I Should Fall Behind, lightworks, London Film Festival, round-up, Super Contemporary
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Super Contemporary
July 28th, 2009
Just a quick little update to inform everyone of a series of 18 videos I edited for ‘Super Contemporary’ – the exhibition from the Design Museum and Beefeater 24 that “delves into and examines the creative magnetism of London”.
The exhibition features specially comissioned works from designers as diverse as Sir Paul Smith, Neville Brody, Wayne Hemingway and Zaha Hadid, and the exhibition’s website contains 18 videos that were directed by Samuel George and edited by myself over the summer following the exhibition’s launch.
Please do take a chance to watch the videos while you can by following the link below:
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Home and (not so) dry
May 27th, 2009
So I’ve arrived back in London and preparation begins for a job I’m starting tomorrow… The rain is on and off and the good weather of Cannes seems a million miles away after the ordeal of yesterday’s journey.
After a frankly horrible TGV ride in which I was verbally abused and threatened by a very angry English hating man (despite that I’m half welsh), I ended up having to stay in a hotel in Paris, as the Eurostar had finished. So I’ve an insurance claim to put in too.
This evening will be spent following up all the wonderful contacts I made in Cannes. Which is what it was really all about – fun as all those premieres and parties were!
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, London, Work
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Cannes. S*** I’m still only in Cannes
May 26th, 2009
Right about now I should be crossing Paris, on my way home to sleep and start preparing for an upcoming job.
Those who follow me on twitter know that I’m still in Cannes due to a rail strike. Not really sure where I’ll end up tonight but I have to try and board the 5pm train. Along with everyone else. I suspect with my bags that won’t be possible, but for the same reason a flight from Nice is also a bad idea.
No matter. I love adventure. Just not so much at the end of a trip after waking at 5am to pack the tent.
Oh and it’s raining here again…
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes
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Last day in France
May 25th, 2009
So… It’s all over. Today I spent my birthday chilling out on the lovely island of Saint Margeurite just off the coast of Cannes.
The quiet reflection the place afforded was seriously welcome – going straight back to the London smoke after the insanity that is ‘Festival De Cannes’ would be madness for a simple country boy like myself.
Joking apart, I’ve had a truly fabulous time and when I arrive home tomorrow I’ll be replying to all those of you who’ve emailed in the last few days and hassling everyone else I met with some emails of my own. I would reply sooner but making my iPhone battery last is a mission and a half (it’s plugged in while I write this).
So the last day of the competition on Saturday, I saw the film ‘Map of the sounds of Tokyo’. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed as it was meant to focus on the friendship between a sound engineer and a hitwoman. From the title I’d hoped that the engineer’s obsessive recording of every sound would somehow connect to the hitwoman’s story but it never did and the film quickly descended into an account of the sexual relationship between the hitwoman and her target. Then the sound engineer was all but forgotten…
Last night the awards were announced. As I mentioned before I was fairly nonplussed by Haneke’s ‘Das Weisse Band’ so wasn’t overjoyed when it won the Palme d’Or. Of course the film has it’s merits so I’ll have to respect the jury on that one! More pleasing was the Jury prize. I didn’t see ‘Thirst’ which shared it with Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’ but for the latter it was certainly well deserved.
The awards for best actress and actor going to Charlotte Gainsbourg for ‘Antichrist’ and the German guy in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ also couldn’t have been more spot on.
I’m disappointed that Elia Suleiman didn’t get a nod but perhaps he’s too quirky. Suffice to say – at the premiere the reaction was a lot better than that of ‘Das Weisse Band’ although it’s hard to tell with Cannes audiences as they seem to walk out of anything. Probably for a party they’ve just been texted about. Did I mention a lot of folk don’t bother switching off their phones?!
Last night’s screening of ‘Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky’ – the closing film of the festival was particularly bad for that. This said, whilst I really enjoyed it, it seemed to focus much more about Stravinsky than Chanel, which may have been too much for those unfamiliar with his work (let’s be honest here – who’s the bigger household name?). It was also quite slow and long – which at an 11pm screening makes it hard to stay awake. I’m looking forward to watching it again when I’m feeling fresher.
So. I’m going to change and head out for dinner and drinks now – it won’t be a late one though. I have a TGV to catch early in the morning and a tent to pack before that!
See you all soon.
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Coco Chanel, Haneke, Igor Stravinsky, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Palme d'Or
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Flash Mobs, Imaginariums and not much time remaining
May 23rd, 2009
I’m sitting here at the Camping Parc Bellvue watching a group of young campers dancing behind their van in the middle of the street. Wearing noise cancelling headphones as I listen to Arve Henriksson makes this a most perculiar sight… But lovely nonetheless.
Since my last blog I’ve been to see three premieres. The last of which was so good I went again today.
First up was Michael Haneke’s ‘Das Weisse Band’. An ambitious film chronicling the perculiar events that took place in a small German village just before WW1 the film is visually stunning in it’s monochromatic bleakness and formality, but for me, having not drunk any Espresso
prior to the screening, was a very difficult film on which to concentrate.
It seemed quite clear to both the audience and the films protagonist, a young schoolteacher, that the children in the village are behind a significant number of atrocities that occur, but this notion is stamped out by the authoritative vicar before they can be investigated. The lack of any solution or payoff, to what is initally set up as a mystery, is after 2h40 really rather frustrating.
Last night I attended two premieres, the first of which, Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus’, I arrived late for, thanks to the appalling local bus service in Cannes. Suffice to say, I and my companions were herded into an overflow room to watch the film, an enjoyable visual feast that harks back in many ways to Gilliam’s earlier ‘Baron Munchausen’ in style, something of a delight for me – as a child I enjoyed that film hugely. ‘Parnassus’ has attracted a lot of attention from the media for being Heath Ledger’s final film, but he will be much more clearly remembered as having bowed out as the joker. This is largely due to his role being shared here by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, into whom Heath’s character transforms as he enters the ‘Imaginarium’ – a world created inside Dr Parnassus’ mind by a persons imagination when they enter through a magic mirror.
Christopher Plummer is marvellous as Parnassus, with excellent support from the ever watchable Verne Troyer, but the real surprises for me were supermodel Lily Cole as Parnassus’ daughter and singer / Jim Jarmusch film actor Tom Waits on top form as the devil. Cole is a real treat to watch and at no point did I cringe at her performance, which is a lot more than can be said for many of her contemporaries attempts at gracing the big screen.
The world created by Gilliam is incredibly beautiful, and while hugely CG rich, it doesn’t ever grate as from the off it’s evident that these scenes are entirely imaginary.
Following a mad rush I then made it to the premiere of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s new film ‘The Time That Remains’. A requiem to his parents, the film starts by following Suleiman’s father’s plight during the Israeli ‘liberation’ of Nazereth in 1948, and ends in the present day as Elia returns from exile to visit to his elderly mother as she lives out her last days.
Fans of Suleiman’s work will be familiar with his autobiographical casting of himself, here taken to new heights as he focuses on his own family history an the Palestinian fight becomes more of a
backdrop than the central message of his earlier works ‘Chronicle of a disappearance’ and ‘Divine Intervention’.
Like those films this film uses static locked off shots to great effect, allowing perfectly choreographed action to unfold in every sequence. Due to the gentle humour and warmth evident in this film the technique is here almost reminiscent of the work of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson but unlike those films Suleiman focuses on creating a tableaux for every shot rather than restricting himself to one shot per scene. This provides a very interesting experience as the editing could doubtless throw one off the thread when hard cutting between two wide shots that are the direct opposite of each other. It doesn’t though, and it would be easy to think that Suleiman has truly mastered his craft and perfected his style in this film.
Interestingly, the film was associate produced by Danny Glover, who was present at the premiere and I found it truly heartwarming to see a childhood hero investing in real global talent.
For me this has been the most inspiring film so far, but I’m not placing any bets on it winning the Palme d’Or tomorrow!
Right. I’m off to don my tux for the penultimate time…
Gwyn.
Tags: Danny Glover, Das Weisse Band, Elia Suleiman, Lily Cole, Michael Haneke, Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus, The Time That Remains, Tom Waits
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Winding down…
May 21st, 2009
Tomorrow the Market and pavilions will start shutting down, or at least so I’m told, and everyone is gradually disappearing from Cannes…
After endless parties and hustling and bustling and throwing business cards into the pool it’s high time for some R&R. There’s still lots of films to get to but some sunny beach time is definitely in order before I head back to rainy old London…
Tonight I’m going to see Haneke’s new film and I’ll try and give you my impressions tomorrow.
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, Film Festival
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Inglourious Darkness
May 20th, 2009
So the last few days have been spent watching some pretty extreme cinema.
Most notable was Lars Von Trier’s ‘Antichrist’ which I won’t review here because you’ve heard me going on about it on Twitter and probably seen the reviews elsewhere. I’ll give you my opinion though – it’s a great film but it’s so dark and so utterly, utterly twisted that I don’t want to watch it again. Cynics out here have used the words ‘torture porn’ but I think that’s missing the point. The violence isn’t really torture – it’s not calculated enough – it’s a more schizophrenic, random evil that causes it, and due to the sense of brooding and sheer nastiness of it all, it certainly isn’t titillating so you can throw away the porn label too. It’s a very depressing, dark and moody film that leaves one with little hope for humanity, and seems particularly misogynistic. Others see it as an allegory for the death of misogyny. The main thing is – everyone’s talking about it. And I heard it just picked up a distro in the states. Will they cut it I wonder?
Yesterday I didn’t see any films, choosing instead to focus on business. I’ve met some truly wonderful folk out here in Cannes and I can’t wait to get back and follow up our conversations about projects.
After a long day’s networking I went to the Straight 8 party in the Kodak tent. They screened 8 films shot on 1 cartridge of Super-8 film and there was some interesting work there, though as an editor it’s often frustrating watching films that have been ‘edited in camera’. Editing was invented for a reason! That said it’s a noble idea and there was one film in particular, starring two jugglers, that was absolutely inspired. After Straight-8 it was on to a few more parties, one of which was so utterly debauched, bizarre and loud that I and my companions had to leave and go to the far more sophisticated Absolut vodka sponsored party. I really had intended an early night though and tonight should make good on that promise to myself. It’s not too much fun going to bed in a tent at 5am only for the sun to start streaming through the canvas a few hours later.
I’ve just today come out of a screening of Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’. A thoroughly enjoyable romp that the audience seemed very warm to despite being 2h44. The time raced by, keeping good pace. There were a few points I’d pick up on the editing – some of it seemed a little forced and obvious (most notably a totally unnecessary and heavy-handed flashback reminding you who one character is – why????) but I doubt most will notice this. It is a totally imagined history of the end of WW2 and though it certainly doesn’t make light of the atrocities of the Nazi’s in occupied France, handling them with his usual ‘gangster chic’ style might not have been Mr Tarantino’s most sensitive move ever… When you consider that real people were killed by characters like these.
I suppose there are those who would argue that Jools and Vince from ‘Pulp Fiction’ are stylised versions of real gangsters who’ve killed people too, but I doubt their real world counterparts were responsible for killing thousands of Jews. Just a thought…
As I write I’m just charging up my phone in the UK pavilion so I can make a few calls, then I think I’ll be off to bed stupidly early tonight so I can book up to see the premiere Elia Sulieman’s ‘The Time That Remains’ early tomorrow. Here’s keeping fingers crossed for that, though somehow I think a party thinly veiled as ‘networking’ may get in the way. Apparently the Icelandic Film people are doing something tonight… And I did write my thesis on Icelandic cinema at university so it would be rude not to!
Gwyn.
Tags: Antichrist, Cannes, Inglourious Basterds, Lars Von Trier, Quentin Tarantino, Straight 8
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Another beautiful day… Another awesome movie
May 17th, 2009
Right now I’m writing from the Irish Pavilion at Cannes. I felt a little guilty about heading here for the free wifi and coffee but as my friend Conor Barry of Yon Cassius, and producer of ‘Mr Crocodile in the Cupboard’ pointed out, after editing two very demanding short films in Ireland I’ve most definitely made a contribution.
The sun is shining and I’ve just left an early screening of ‘Agora’, Alejandro Amenábar’s Epic film of religious questioning. It had every ingredient of a future Bank Holiday TV movie and is sure to be repeated as often as ‘Ben Hur’ or ‘El Cid’ in 30 years. In every respect it’s an absolute delight. Yes it’s long, but it’s a classic epic, though I expect there to be a considerable backlash from certain religious groups when it goes on release.
Set against the fall of the Roman Empire in Egypt, and a powerful allegory for our oft disturbing times, Agora tells an imagined personal history of the Roman philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) as she attempts (1200 years early) to subvert Ptolemy and prove that the Earth rotates around the sun. Desiring her affections, yet unable to tempt her away from her theorising, are her slave Davus, a Christian torn between his unrequited love and the prospect of freedom Christianity brings, and Orestes, a brother in her philosophy class and later prefect of the falling province.
Her rational atheism and questioning nature result in her being branded a witch by the rising power of the increasingly bloodthirsty church, and both men go to considerable trouble to attempt to protect her. The film is unrelentingly violent, but never gratiutious. I doubt the raving anti-semitism and anti-paganism exhibited by the so-called early Christians here will be well recieved by all, but it’s certainly a poignant reminder of the blood shed by man through the ages by competiting religious doctrines.
The scale and breadth of this movie is unbelievable. Phenomenal cinematography, costume design and locations, a thankful lack of the glaringly obvious CG that has plagued recent attempts at such Epic films (e.g. Gladiator’s Amphitheatre crowds) and beautifully unnoticable and well paced editing (despite the film’s 2h20min length) combined with excellent performances from the films trio of Weisz, Max Minghella and Oscar Isaac produce a film that is a delight to watch from start to finish.
It’ll be interesting to see the reaction after tonight’s evening performance. I would be there myself but it’s getting increasingly difficult to get evening tickets and after queuing for 45 mins for Ang Lee’s ‘Taking Woodstock’ last night only to not get in, I’m not taking chances without having a shiny silver invitation!
More updates soon…
Gwyn.
Tags: Agora, Alejandro Amenábar, Cannes, Film Festival, Irish Pavilion, Rachel Weisz
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