Yesterday we had the honour to participate in the Focal International Awards Gala at the Lancaster Hotel Videoplugger being nominated in the category best footage library 2013. Getty Images won the category, we would like to congratulate them on their win. The jury said about Videoplugger that “Their multi-lingual set up and vast contact list means they can make fast and effective connections with TV stations and libraries well off the archive track”. And that “a more helpful and efficient service would be very hard to find.”

Videoplugger invites buyers to come to their stand no 9 at this years networking place FootageMarketplace for buyers and researchers of library footage.

FootageMarketplace2013

Buyers   are   invited   to   enjoy   the   relaxed   atmosphere   of   the 195 Piccadilly (the home of BAFTA), in which to talk, make new contacts, build relationships, expand networks, and do business, face-to-face and one-to-one, with international footage libraries.

• Pre-register for complimentary entry
• Enjoy a fabulous five star free buffet lunch.
  
• Meet top international footage libraries with specialist collections
• Discuss licencing, view screenings and acquire new content.
• Network in the comfort of  195  Piccadilly (the home of BAFTA) at the heart of London’s West End
• View the latest footage collections.
• Talk with fellow researchers, editors, producers and visual content controllers.

Floor plan, list of stock footage libraries and their table number – click here register Here

http://www.videoplugger.com/about/news/

Preview @ Prince Charles 18th of April, 2013 – In cinemas 26th of April

Anthology movies are risky. The quality of the narrative and the effectiveness of the whole picture can suffer dangerous downs as well as enjoying intense ups, and ABCs of Death is not the exception to this rule.
26 shorts crammed into one single film, $5000 each, complete freedom of creativity given to the various directors, they go from 30 to 300 seconds and the 2-hour ride is one hell of a bloody roller-coaster. It is hard to pick the best ones, the most inspiring (and inspired), the most intense, the most gruesome, the most original, the worst or the silliest (well, F might as well be the one), all of the 26 shorts give something to shout for and each one of them will make you cringe and hold on to the chair very tightly.

Nacho Vigalondo opens the dances with A (for Apocalypse) and sets the mood for the rest to come, while the extremely oriental, weird and surreal Z (for Zetsumetsu) by Yoshihiro Nishimura closes the curtain. The highest bar for quality film-making is set by D (for Dogfight), directed with brutal precision and crude realism by Marcel Sarmiento, whereas the peak of gore and sickness is reached by L (for Libido), where Timo Tjahjanto portraits an onanistic and perverted death match dressed with a chainsaw topping, and by X (for XXL) where Xavier Gens’s talent and over-the-top twist help to sell the message of discomfort and inadequacy. Other notable letters are S (for Speed), directed by Jake West, an oneiric downward spiral into the darkness of addiction, P (for Pressure), where Simon Rumley displays his usual discreet and yet powerful touch to describe everyday struggle and drama, M (for Miscarriage), directed somewhat hastily by Ti West, but effective in its straightforward brutality, and U (for Unearthed), by Ben Wheatley, a POV rush whose immediacy and rawness will surely glue your eyes to the screen. Best artsy short is surely O (for Orgasm), by Bruno Forzani, a close-to-videoart concept yet visually astonishing and emphatically powerful.
Despite a few obvious shallow or not-so-original-nor-horror ideas, ABCs of Death succeeds in earning the tagline of Anthology to end all anthologies, allowing its directors to show off their best shots, or at least their best intentions.
Now repeat, A for Apocalypse, B for Bigfoot, C for Cycle, D for Dogfight, E for Exterminate….

We watched Italian Inspector Nardone over the weekend on TRUE MOVIES 2  satellite television channel showcasing a unique mix of true to life films, classic series, dramas and mini-series.

This is a crime series set in the postwar period in Milan the center character is Inspector Mario Nardone based on an a real person. Directed by Fabrizio Costa a co production by Rai and Dap Italy from 2011.

He is portrayed by aspiring would-be heart throb Sergio Assisi.
The premise is wellknown to Italian crime aficionados, Nardone is the dare devil cop, who ruffles the feathers by disregarding unwritten rules and corrupt police. He is transferred from his hometown of Avelino in the poor southern Campania to a northern more modern Milan, because he went against his superiors. Continuing in Milan in his previous manner he becomes a successful Police Inspector clearing up petty crimes, but when his investigation starts un-earthing illegal deals involving one of the most powerful people in Milan his boss gets nervous…

It features beautiful women, maffioso, lots of smoking, good espresso and Sergio Assisis handsome face with what looks like eyeliner.

There is all you need to get your Italian crime fix of the day if you have watched and loved Inspector Montalbano on BBC 4, you will already be used to the sub titles and will surely find this interesting.
One slight is that its scheduled a bit late at 11pm at night, hopefully it will get the audience this classy true period crime series deserves. For all TV schedulers out there lets have more Italian crime on prime time TV, as it deserves.

Whop Whop!

We have many reasons to be cheerful these days and one of them is the shortlisting of Videoplugger as footage Library of the Year by  Focal International Awards 2013 “the leading and most complete set of awards for the archive footage business in the world.”

The 10th FOCAL International Awards Ceremony will be held on the 2nd of May in the prestigious Lancaster Hotel.

Wish us good luck we are in competition against the awesome Getty Images and the New Zealanders; NHNZ Moving Images.

We are so excited, and the fact we have been shortlisted is a great achievement and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff, clients and suppliers that makes our services worthy the FOCAL international award.

by Kathryn Bigelow
with Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt

When the final credits started to roll I was still flummoxed by the very last shot, probably the most meaningful and intense of the whole film. I was confused because after almost three hours, one single wordless shot made the entire movie different. It made it deep, dark, pessimistic, empty. The exact opposite of what had happened until then.

Maya is a CIA agent who has been working on Osama Bil Laden for the past 12 years of her life. She is the one pulling the strings together for the final hunt and after disappointments and deaths, the day has finally come.

Kathryn Bigelow goes back to the war genre after The Hurt Locker, but this time the controversy the movie created was enough for the marketing campaign. Real tortures, real truth, real events, real actions etc. the thing is that Zero Dark Thirty is not a documentary. Yes, it is based on first-hand documents, but at the end of the day it is a movie, it is fiction. It is shot in India, and not Pakistan, there are goofs, there are special effects, there are actors. What we should focus on is how good or bad the movie is.
The first half is hard to follow, a bit chaotic, many characters, names, jumps in time, but most of all there is no knowledge of any main figure. Jessica Chastain is very well cast, and her sharp face is suitable for a role that requires hard features as well as a tough character. Zero Dark Thirty is no Act of Valor, it’s not an action movie, it’s more about strategy, waiting, scheming and finally striking. The sequence of the final showdown is very well crafted, a suspenseful and expert mix of hand-held camera work, precise violence, subtle special effects and effective editing. 25 minutes everyone was waiting for, but definitely not worth all the hype. Half-disappointing and half-boring, Zero Dark Thirty deserves credit for its talented director and female protagonist, who both made it very raw, gritty and harsh, but the much hype, criticisms, and controversy elevated it higher than where it should be.

by Quentin Tarantino with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio

And he’s back.
Tarantino is back with a vengeance, and even though this time vengeance is not the centerpiece of the movie, the eclectic director manages once again to revive a genre that needed a boost in popularity. After killing nazis, with Django Tarantino tells a story about slavery from his peculiar and spectacular point of view, maybe exaggerating, maybe twisting some concepts and some historical facts, but most of all not wallowing in his own past. Every movie is a new adventure and a new challenge, experimenting and exploring new genres and eras, but always keeping his coolness intact.
As usual Tarantino’s script whisks together different elements, in this case friendship, love, loyalty, hate, ignorance and violence, and different characters, that grow and change throughout the almost-3-hour-long movie. Django may be the sum of the many spaghetti western from the 60s, but Tarantino has no qualms about showing blood-squirting shootings or putting in his characters’ mouth the n word more times than in a Spike Lee movie. Tarantino is the best at what he does, and that is writing stories and transferring them to film. Who cares if he constantly “pays homage” to films of the past, if some ideas are taken from any of the classic spaghetti westerns, or if he still uses the quick zoom-in, or if he opts for a cheesy ending. He can do whatever he wants and he does whatever he wants, like playing James Brown and 2Pac, or taking shamelessly the music from Trinity. There are no rules.
Django is also visually stunning, the vast prairies and the beautiful landscapes make you feel as if it was actually shot in 1858, and the intense (but relatively few) gory sequences spice up a story that does not rely solely on blood, but preeminently on the way it is told and developed. Obviously there is a sense of foreboding that fills the movie right from the start, and except for a couple of unexpected and sudden twists, you know what’s going to happen. Thanks to its brilliant cast though, Django is one of Tarantino’s best features, with Christoph Waltz as the gently witty dentist turned bounty-hunter, Jamie Foxx as the sturdy and bold titular Django, Leo DiCaprio as the dandy evil slave-trader, and Kerry Washington as the tender and sweet slave Broomhilda, Tarantino relishes every scene and every one of the word he wrote for them. And they do as well.
It’s not Pulp Fiction, it’s not Kill Bill, it’s not like any of his previous movies, and yet it is undeniably and undoubtedly Tarantino.

Today Videoplugger hit the incredible mark of 100.000 videos published on its platform www.mmnc.net and the future has never looked brighter.
Constant work, commitment and a professional staff make Videoplugger one of the most reliable and efficient video-distribution agencies in the world.
Thanks to all our providers and clients for making this a time for celebration!

On Sunday all the expectations were for the solo project of Jaume Balagueró, Sleep Tight (Mientras Duermes). The translation of the original title does not prepare the audience to the extreme intensity and creepiness of the story, thanks to the talent of Spanish director Jaume Balagueró who managed to hook the audience to the screen with a beautifully crafted plot and visuals, where tension is always palpable and fear always there. César is a concierge in a building in Barcelona, but under his mild manners and humble gestures, he hides a creepy stalker and a Machiavellian identity that silently hit and affect his target, Clara, the beautiful girl who lives upstairs. It takes a while to understand what César’s plan is and it takes the whole movie to fully unfold his scheme, but when the final credits roll you cannot believe what you just saw. Luis Tosar delivers an excellent subtle performance, never overacting and at the same time never failing in adding suspense to the story. His depressed, indolent and wily character finds reasons to live in other people’s misfortunes, but the interesting fact is that we end up cheering for him, hoping he does not get caught and feeling sorry for his miserable life.
After the REC experience Jaume Balagueró created a movie that not only adds value to his already established status of talented director, but also makes him one of the most admired and renown names in the horror industry. Can’t wait for REC 4, and from what he said, it’s going to latch on to the second one, but with more gore and scares than ever.

Sinister took the prime time slot and after watching the trailer many people had mixed feelings about it, not knowing exactly what to expect. The usual house where someone died in some time before, the usual found footage, the usual supernatural twist and so on. But an unexpected great performance by Ethan Hawke and a plot that slowly builds up suspense without giving away too much too soon are the key elements to an otherwise ordinary script. Also the usual tricks – a score that makes you jump on your seat, creepy super8 footage, an otherworldly monster, blood-soaked scenes and a twisted ending – help Sinister to elevate itself from the shuffling crowd.

On the last day the final night slots were booked for The Possession and for the closing movie Tower Block.

The Possession is a modern copy of The Exorcist, but with a Jewish rabbi who performs an exorcism on a possessed girl. When the little Em finds a mysterious box at a yard sale, her behaviour starts to change until her divorced parents realize she is possessed. Nothing new on the screen, but Danish director Ole Bornedal changes a bit the rules of possession. Apart from the usual contour of characters around Em – a righteous mum, a father nobody can trust, an older sister who is disappointed by her dad’s actions, mum’s new boyfriend – what really strikes is the crescendo of the possession itself. Em becomes scarier and scarier until the very end when the exorcism takes place and surprises arise. You won’t take look inside your throat ever again.

The closing film of the festival was Tower Block, another British movie written by James Moran and directed by duo James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson.
Residents of the top floor of Tower Block 31 are the last ones remained in the impressive old building, and one day a sniper decides to kill them off one by one to finally free the ugly site. Booby traps and a rifle that kills with deadly precision do not leave many options to the heterogeneous group of residents who try to escape and stay alive. An interesting idea by James Moran and a conspicuous budget help Tower Block look good and some sequences are well done, like the unexpected start of the shooting. But the pace sometimes loses some beats and the central part tends to be a little static, especially when the group of survivors is stuck in the corridor at the top floor and they are just waiting to die while trying to figure out what to do. The funny character (Kurtis) helps keeping the irony and the attention alive, and it is just a matter of time until they find a way out and discover who the sniper is. And lacking many characters choices are limited, so guess who? Not as much adrenaline as expected, and not as much suspense as hyped, but Tower Block remains a good example of suspense British movie nonetheless.

Personal best movies of FILM4 FRIGHTFEST 2012:

Sleep Tight
Rec 3: Genesis
The Seasoning House

To the next edition…