nik newark

Mostly been consuming...

Imagine a 90 minute improvised film, all shot in a single 90 minute take. Now imagine that the action is covered by four cameramen, all following the characters around. Now, give the four characters separate (though intertwined) stories, and split the screen into four quarters, so you can choose which characters to watch. Every so often, the same piece of action is caught in many cameras, so you are constantly reminded that all of the characters are in the same part of Hollywood, and all of the action is taking place in parallel. People will walk into each other's camera shots (sometimes actually switching cameras!), and there are a number of events shared across all views (e.g. regular earthquake tremors).

This is the idea behind “Timecode” by Mike Figgis, which I had the good fortune to see at the weekend. Mike Figgis had apparently written the “script” just as you would a music score, with barlines every minute, and coloured streams representing different characters, hopping between one stave and another. The basic storyline was mapped out by Figgis, but the characters and dialog were all developed and improvised by the actors, over a series of 15 takes.

This is a really novel approach to movie-making (and incredibly, it works, sort of). So far as I'm aware, this is the first film made using this technique - I'd love to see other people develop the idea further, as a genuine alternative to cutting between scenes (rather than just view it as a novelty for a single film).

Incidentally, if you buy the DVD, you can view both the theatrical release (take 15) and an alternative version (take 1), to get an idea of how the film developed.

Currently listening to “Suspended Night” by the Tomasz Stanko Quartet. As a friend said recently “you can't really go wrong with Tomasz Stanko”. Or can you? As a purveyor of pop music, should I skew my diet towards the top 40? (I've recently been challenged to name the last chart CD I bought - my failure to be able to answer can be seen as a Bad Thing). The trouble is, 80% of chart music is stuff that you are familiar with the first time you hear it - a lot doesn't stack up to repeated listens (OK - the same is true of lots of other music too, but the difference is you need to actually go and buy it to even hear it once, whereas you can Sugababes just by turning on the radio or walking into your nearest clothes shop). The contemporary music that I end up buying is normally stuff like Four Tet, which doesn't end up gracing the charts (mores the pity).

And for those that want to know, the last few chart CDs I've bought have been Patience by George Michael (poor), Absent Friends by Divine Comedy (excellent, but does it count?), Permission to Land by The Darkness (good, Talkie Walkie by Air (OK), and So Much For The City by The Thrills (limp). And I guess I would have bought Outkast, had Tosha not bought it first…