The Big Picture

Features | Wednesday, 16 May 2012 Written by Chris Rogers

Beyond the Frame: Architecture and Film

In our new feature, Chris Rogers explores the relationship between the built and filmed environments.

#1  Defining the Frame
Before visual effects, there was reality. The earliest films were shot on location, in and around the buildings that filmmakers were familiar with. Houses, factories, stations; all were used to tell stories. And by using everyday settings that an audience could immediately relate to, their understanding of those stories was fast-tracked, despite the shock of a new medium.

Read more: Beyond the Frame: Architecture and Film

Features | Sunday, 13 May 2012 Written by Cleaver Patterson

Screengem: The television set in Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)

Malignant horror can most effectively be found through forums which are accessible to all, no matter who or where you are. So how better to transfer its influence than by means of such an innocent, yet so intrinsic, part of modern-day life - the humble television set.

Read more: Screengem: The television set in Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)

Features | Friday, 27 April 2012 Written by John Berra

Brilliant Failure: First Snow (Mark Fergus, 2006)

Mark Fergus' debut feature First Snow initially appears to have much in common with Christopher Nolan's breakthrough success Memento (2000): both are neo-noirs with Guy Pearce in the lead role, while the central protagonist in each film becomes increasingly unstable due to never having quite enough knowledge to make sense of his predicament. First Snow, however, is more concerned with metaphysics than impaired memory, although Fergus still relies on a crime-related sub-plot.

Read more: Brilliant Failure: First Snow (Mark Fergus, 2006)

Features | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 Written by Gabriel Solomons

On Location: MacArthur Park as featured in 'Drive' (Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)

The brief scene at Los Angeles's MacArthur park comes exactly half way through Nicolas Winding Refn's slick and stylish thriller as Driver, drawn out of his solitary existence by new love interest Irene and her young son Benicio, takes on a risky grab-n-go getaway gig to protect them from harm.

Read more: On Location: MacArthur Park as featured in 'Drive' (Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)