Hi All, Don’t miss this, Atom Egoyan is in the house and I certainly can’t wait to go and see him! please see the details below.
Atom Egoyan to deliver BAFTA’s annual David Lean Lecture
At 7:45pm on Friday 23 October, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will welcome multi award-winning writer/director Atom Egoyan to BAFTA HQ for the Academy’s annual film industry address.
Over the course of three decades at the forefront of the international film industry, Atom Egoyan has become one of cinema’s most celebrated writer/directors. With feature films including Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, Calendar, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter,Felicia’s Journey, Ararat, Where the Truth Lies and 2008’s Adoration, Egoyan has garnered countless prizes and nominations, led by Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival and two Oscar® nominations for The Sweet Hereafter.
Egoyan’s Chloe gets its UK premiere at The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival this month and will be released in the UK by Optimum Releasing in 2010.
BAFTA’s Film Committee Chairman, Finola Dwyer, says: “It is a tremendous honour to have Atom Egoyan join us for the David Lean Lecture, one of the most important evenings in the BAFTA calendar which gives insight and access to some of the best minds and talents in the film industry. A true renaissance man, he directs independent films, theatre and opera, has held a teaching post as Dean’s Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto, and also writes on cinema and plays music. Atom is a wonderful ambassador for the Lecture; he has a unique and distinctive voice and is one of the most remarkable figures of contemporary independent filmmaking.”
Now in its 9th year, the Academy’s annual David Lean Lecture is generously funded by The David Lean Foundation. This film lecture series is designed to educate, inform and inspire practitioners by providing insight into the experiences of some of the world’s best and most compelling filmmakers and to provide a forum for further discussion of their outstanding creative achievements.
The lecture series also serves to carry on the legacy of the great director David Lean, one of the founders of the British Film Academy (as it was then known) in 1947 and a continuing inspiration to many through his exceptional body of work.
Go and get them while you can, this is a great offer to see some really cool out door films in our very own National Trust homes. Details are below.
STATELY SCREENINGS UNDER SKY
The National Trust Stately Screenings brought to you by SKY in association with BAFTA and Screen East
If you love film, places steeped in history, enjoy al fresco dining with friends and family, and the idea of watching the stars, under the stars…then look out for a fantastic season of outdoor cinema with the National Trust. The Trust has teamed up with partners big in the movie world – Sky, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Screen East – to bring an exciting programme of outdoor cinema to two prestigious National Trust properties this summer; presenting the very best in contemporary and classic film in the grounds of grand houses oozing with atmosphere.
The programme kicks off at the impressive Wimpole Hall, near Royston Cambridgeshire on Friday 21 August with the ‘period hoot’ Easy Virtue, followed by Oscar and BAFTA award winning Atonement on Saturday 22 August. At Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, guests can see The Duchess starring Keira Knightley on Friday 28 August, or get into Abba – mania with Mamma Mia! on Saturday 29 August. Each event begins at 8pm with screenings starting at approximately 8.45pm, subject to light conditions, extra treats like ‘behind the scenes’ introductions to the films and local archive footage, plus delicious food and drink on offer. Tickets are priced at Adults £12, children £8 and Family £42, and include a complementary refreshment each on arrival.
Some of the films have a connection to the Trust properties: for example scenes for Easy Virtuewere in fact shot at Wimpole Hall, and Ickworth House was the family home of the real-life character ‘Bess’ who features in The Duchess.
Picnics are welcome at each event, and the beautiful gardens that the Trust is famous for will be open beyond normal opening hours for people to wander around before the films begin. The films will be projected from a giant cinema screen, taking pride of place in the grounds of these great houses and providing a sumptuous backdrop for you to enjoy the best of recent cinema.
These new, exciting film events have been brought to you in partnership with Sky with additional support from BAFTA, Screen East and the Cambridge Film Trust.
For more information and to book tickets for Wimpole Hall, please call 01223 206000. For more information and to book tickets for Ickworth House, please contact The Theatre Royal Box Office on 01284 769505.
NATIONAL TRUST
The National Trust is Europe’s biggest conservation organisation and looks after special places acrossEngland, Wales and Northern Ireland for ever, for everyone. People and places are at the heart of everything it does. Over 3.5 million members, over 50,000 volunteers, 500,000 school children, and millions of visitors, donors and supporters help the Trust look after 300 historic houses and gardens, 700 miles of coastline and 250,000 hectares of open countryside. www.nationaltrust.org,uk
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image, by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. With an expert industry membership of nearly 6500 individuals, globally, we focus attention on the highest achievements of films, video games and television programmes shown in the UK each year in order to motivate and inspire those who make them, and to educate and develop the taste of those who watch them. www.bafta.org
SCREEN EAST
Screen East is the regional screen agency for the East of England dedicated to developing a vibrant and flourishing film, TV and digital media industry. The agency aims to drive the content sector to the heart of the digital economy; build the region’s ‘on-screen’ identity through indigenous production and inward investment of filmed entertainment; delight audiences with the choice and quality of on-screen content and empower young people to shape their vision through media expression. Screen East allocates Lottery funding on behalf of the UK Film Council through the Regional Investment Fund for England(RIFE). www.screeneast.co.uk
It struck me how lucky I am as I gently stroll through the private members bar on the 2nd floor of the Bafta HQ in Piccadilly. Like the lens of a video camera I pan around the room, shiftily glancing at anyone who will catch or exchange a glimpse of my intuitive stare. I have a great sense of familiarity in here; it reminds me of an old public school library with everybody I have ever seen on telly in it. The room smells of dusty wood and the hollow clap of leather heels can be heard as people walk on the floor. Anyone who walks in the room checks everybody out to see if they recognise someone . It’s like an old school club, except this is for the elite film club of the world: THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION. Both young and old mingle together with the mutual understanding of how much they need each other, for inspiration, education, debate, exploration, excitement, development and a general feeling that anything can be achieved in this room! Well, this is exactly why I am here. Tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen I’m having an evening with video editor Pietro Scalia. For those who don’t know him, (why should you, he’s not a public face) He may need a little introduction. Pietro has edited some of the biggest movies in Hollywood. G.I Jane, The Quick and the Dead, Good will Hunting, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and one of my all time greats American Gangster. I, for one, will be truly mesmerized tonight to study the method of his approach to video editing and will be listening to his every word on what he has to say.
It’s 8pm on Friday 24th of July 2009 and we are in the Princess Anne theatre, this is a very well attended evening, I’m not exactly sure who anybody is but you get the feeling that we have some of the most well thought of UK film community in the house.. Everybody is extremely excited and switched on to what Pietro has to say. Most attendees are networking and smiling at one other, as if this was a great networking opportunity for actors, directors, and screenwriters alike. It springs to my attention that the noise levels are quite high and there are two cameras either side of the theatre. We are silenced by the Chair of the film committee who presents tonight’s host Mark Salisbury.
Pietro is currently editing Robin Hood and it’s for this reason he’s in London. He takes us through some of his film clips and then we have a Q&A session.
It’s difficult to describe how much passion Pietro shows for his films as he takes us on a journey of his film clips and discusses them in a way that only a major Hollywood film editor can, with absolute brilliant dedication and commitment to his craft. Firstly he takes us through “JFK” then Good Will Hunting and Gladiator.
He discusses the different editing styles, why he has edited them in the way, what goes into a scene and the structure of how he has built them up with the material he has to work from. He walks us through how to use quick edits to build up a scene so the viewer understands the sequence of events and slow cutting to focus on the characters and meaning of a scene. Lastly, in Gladiators he reveals his secrets and tells us how he uses different parts of the rushes and special grading effects to create a new scene to fit into the existing feature film.
For example, JFK is a documentary in which he had to mix yards of different footage from archive film. He then shows us how he created dramatic impact using both sound and pictures to imprint the seriousness of this movie thus leaving a lasting effect on the viewer. It’s a very difficult film to produce as it’s such a controversial piece of history. Getting this right has no wrongs. It’s all open to interpretation.
In Good Will Hunting he shows us a diagram of “the park” scene where Robin Williams is talking to Matt Damon, addressing the fact that Matt doesn’t listen to others and he’s just a kid and does not really relate to people. We learn that the camera uses inner circular shots which rotate round to reveal that Matt Damon is listening to Robin. Robin’s speech leaves an emotional effect on Matt. This is when Pietro’s editing skills truly come into their own because he understands that this scene is about “listening” and Pietro realises that not cutting into the scene and using the camera work to express the scene has a better relationship with both the actors and the viewers. This enables the audience to understand the importance of what the scene is about.
Pietro briefly discusses his Gladiator film and how he used CGI effects to re-create a scene. It was extremely unfortunate that Oliver Reed had died during the making of this film. In order to provide meaning to a scene which was not filmed, they used doubles, other parts of the film and CGI to compensate. To this end my hat had to be taken off and I felt once again my knowledge of final cut pro and approach to editing was still very much in its infancy. What I had learned in this session was that Pietro was a master manipulator and thinks swiftly around situations in order to achieve meaning to a scene which will make sense to the viewer.
Pietro has an impeccable pulse on what the public wants and his deep comprehension of relationships between characters, script, directors and most importantly, the audience, is like a rising sun in a desert. Pietro’s core message is how to advance film language and make it entertaining, he realizes that film is constantly evolving and as a commercial editor it’s his job to marry the two together.
Pietro delivered a warm, very well planned insight to his approach and in total appreciation the crowd applauded for about 10 mins.
We ran out of time during this session as clearly Pietro had a lot to say and in a packed theatre where time is meaningless and pictures are passion, all we want is to sit quietly and listen to what the master at work has to say, hanging on his every word. It was a very intense session and a complete education into the world of his understanding of the inner workings of Hollywood movies, and how huge teams of people get big film business done!
As Disney would say, “That’s all folks” until next time, were off to the Bafta members bar to rub shoulders with the international film elite and mull over the geniuses’ approach to editing, in awe!
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