Possible Spoiler Alerts peoples
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Two films, two completely different styles and tones, but one uniquely over-riding factor. They were both, entirely shot in Studio, (apart from a couple of elements). This may not mean much to people, but to me, and to what I do, it means everything. The way filming must be controlled, means that important decisions must be made during pre-production as to where and how a film will be shot. A film must have some semblance of balance. If your scenes call for desert, you have to find a desert. But why would you do your close ups in the desert when you could do them in the comfort of a studio? If your film is shot in a hotel, how do you shut an actual working Hotel for the time you need to film a movie? You can't. You build it inside a Studio. The relationship to the Hotel being in a busy street is filmed separately, on the busy street, and you walk through the front door of the Hotel and voila! You're in a studio. You might have a 'Seinfeld' shot, where you might have a 'stock shot; outside, and then cut to inside for the cheapest, but still very effective effect. To reference an individual scene you might remember, think of the movie, Inception. In the opening scene, Cobb is washed up on a beach, and along the coast is Saito's mansion. The beach is real, but Saito's mansion doesn't actually exist in real life. So, you find a cool beach, and you build Saito's Mansion inside a studio. The scene where Cobb climbs up the outside of the Mansion at night with the waves crashing below re-enforces the your suspension of disbelief that the mansion is actually on the beach. There are many instances where the filmmakers use actual locations and dispense with the studio entirely. Most use a combination, but some films use a studio entirely. Here are two examples of films exclusively using studios, both for very different reasons, and the effect they have on this humble reviewer.
Hail Caesar! (2016)
The Coen Brothers hold a special place in many a cinematic heart for their body of work. Whether it's a Lebowski, Fargo, Oh Brother or a No Country, their tongue in cheek humour pervades their crafty films, correctly utilising Hollywood stars holding a mirror to themselves and being able to laugh at their own seriousness and situation. Hail Caesar! is another in the line of a seriously toned settings opening it's self up to self-parody through vicariously written characters who are allowed to explore their on screen creations with the verve and panache any other self servicing intellectual expressionists this self servicing reviewer may conjure at will. Unfortunately, Hail Caesar is the total sum of it's Trailers. Witty, but curiously empty. Scenes go for way too long, and without the reverie and lucid framing of a Wes Anderson. The whole thing is so close to being amazing it falls kind of flat. You might love it. I felt they could have shaved thirty minutes off the whole thing by shortening the scenes and adding another thirty minutes of stuff. You don't really invest in the characters because you don't see them in different settings enough. Clooney is unusually lame in his 'Epic Picture', the star here is Josh Brolin as the Catholic Studio Fixer being chased by Lockheed to defect and trying to give up smoking. Johanson is fleetingly superb as a Brooklyn dame in 'Aquatic Pictures', Channing Tatum as the star of the 'Sailor Musicals' and Alden Ehrenreich as the Star of 'Musical Westerns'. Johah Hill appears for about 5 seconds. It all has the ingredients to be a brilliant film, but never quite gets itself out of second gear. Ralph Fiennes is fantastic as the British Director, and there is a sensational cameo from
as another Director. 3 out 5, I enjoyed it, but could have been amazing.
Gods of Egypt (2016)
It doesn't look like the most interesting of films from the outset. Almost entirely CGI, it's a film you could have only made in the last 15 years. Egypt, the Narrator tells us, was once ruled by actual Gods, standing 10 feet tall and presiding over Humanity with reverence and loyalty. Except they're mostly white guys with varying European Accents accept for Chadwick Boseman who's American and Bryan Brown and Geoffrey Rush who are most definitely Australian. Once you've got your mind around this, you settle in for a couple of minutes of Coutney Eatons cleavage, which is pretty spectacular, and then watch a 10 foot Gerard Butler having a Godly scrap against a 10 foot Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and you start to think, hang on, this could actually be alright. White Washing? Whatev's. Butler just can't pick a decent film can he. It doesn't really get much better, or any worse to be honest. It's exactly what you put your extra dollars in for 3D. Baddies, Goodies, Heroes and Villians, hot women, fights, flying around CGI landscapes, laser beams, giant scarabs, models riding giant snakes and physics defying buildings. The ending drags on a bit. The effects are pretty good all told. The sound is good. The cinematography is good. The Hero 'Bek' is pretty weak. You'll forget him straight away after. This was actually filmed in Sydney, and yes, I worked on it for a time. 2.5 out of 5 from me.
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