So far, it’s been a pretty calm week. Started out yesterday with everyone in our class going to school, ready for our test in social studies class, which was the only lesson we were scheduled to have yesterday. Turns out our teacher was sick, so instead we all went home - which is when I saw a note in a local newspaper about a small film competition they’re running. The task is to create a 15-second commercial on how to be environmentally aware, how to not waste what we’ve got. The deadline is in a month, so I decided to film a little something today - it’s not really advanced in any way, so I should be able to show you the film later this week, or early next week

That’s pretty much all for now - check back tomorrow for not one, but two new galleries!

Until then, take care!

Also, check out my review on “Mirrors” below!

Here’s my take on the new horror film “Mirrors” from Alexander Aja (director of, among others, the “The Hills Have Eyes” remake), which was recently released in cinemas around the world.

I wasn’t sure if I had any hopes at all when I went to see the film with a couple of friends. I had only seen the trailer one or two times - from what I saw it looked kind of cool and scary, meaning it should be perfect as a no-brain-required scream-filled movie-ride.

Firstly the story. We are early on introduced to the overall concept of the mirrors through a pretty cool sequence, in which a person is being chased by someone (or something!). It all ends quite gruesomely, and sets up the mood for the rest of the film pretty well. After this relatively quick introduction we meet ex-cop Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland, star of “24″), who, after an accident, decides to quit his job as a police officer. He needs to get a job, so he signs on for the role as a security guard, taking the nightshift at an old, burnt-out deparment store complex. The fire that destroyed many lives is said to have made the old shopping mall haunted, but Ben Carson quickly dismisses the rumours and decides to take the job anyway - but when strange things start appear in the mirrors, Ben struggles to keep both himself and those around him safe. I thought the overall concept of the story was pretty interesting. The first scene of the film is quite brilliant, as is the (extremely) hypnotic title sequence that follows. The story and the scenery is pretty cool throughout the film, and while there aren’t many real big shocks, or jumps - there is a pretty cool scary mood over the entire film, almost similar to, but not as good as “Silent Hill”. I overall enjoyed the film quite a lot, up until the very last 10 minutes. That’s when the film just gets silly in terms of mixing in monsters, and the ending is quite anti-climactic. As my friend Johannes put it, “it seems as they realised they had a much bigger budget than they thought, which is why they had to destroy an entire set (again) for the ending sequence”. It’s a cool sequence, but after the suspense that’s been built up throughout the film, it just feels as kind of a throwaway. Also the film has some pretty bad writing from time to time - just wait for the understatement of the year dropped by a police officer: “It’s not looking very good.”.

All eyes are on Kiefer Sutherland in this film, as it’s pretty much his first real starring role in a film. It has to be difficult to try and change your character after playing Jack Bauer in “24″ for six straight seasons. And from the looks of it, Kiefer really has potential to do something besides play a (somewhat dirty) cop. Even though Jack Bauer shines through a couple of times in the film, especially when pulling out his gun and shooting at mirrors, Kiefer really manages to hold the film together himself, as he’s in pretty much every single scene.

There are some pretty cool visual effects in the film, at least compared to some other horror films released in the last couple of years. Everything looks as realistic as it could, and as mentioned before - the scenery, especially in the old deparment store, is really cool. The sound design is impressive too - the sound really helps enhance and create the mood for the film, and it puts you right in the center of what’s going on in the film. The cinematography doesn’t attract too much attention, it pretty much does what it’s supposed to do. It does have a tendency of using diagonally framed scenes (as scene in the image above), something I’ve always been a fan of both in filmmaking and photography. The first scene of the film is really the coolest one in terms of the way it’s shot. It’s very, very symmetric, which creates a really good claustrophobic feeling. Come to think of it, I think I enjoyed the first scene of the film the most by far.

Overall, “Mirrors” isn’t really a bad film - but it isn’t particularly good either. It’s worth seeing for the cool but silly story and the sweet scenery introduced to the audience, but it all really comes crashing down in the last 10 minutes. There is a real logical ending shot right before this sequence, that would have worked wonderfully and probably added another star to the final rating. But as it is right now, it’s an average horror film that does have a few scares, and worth seeing if you’re a horror fan - but if you’re not a fan of supernatural horror, then you won’t be missing much.

So I saw the new action-comedy “Tropic Thunder” last Tuesday, and here’s my review of Ben Stiller’s rendering of a bunch of really strange (but recognizeable) actors going to a real warzone to shoot a movie. It stars Ben Stiller (who also directs and produces), Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. - as well as a few other familiar faces. More on that later though! Let’s just dive straight into the review - which is kept relatively spoiler-free.

I remember seeing the first trailer pop up for this film way back in March, around the same time “Iron Man” (which also stars Downey Jr.). I’ve probably seen the red-band trailer for the film a hundered times, so I was pretty hyped to see this film - perhaps even more so than I was when seeing “The Dark Knight”.

Well, the story is pretty simple, but quite genius. The main story is about an up-rising director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) who has set out to do the most spectacular war movie ever. When we join the production, the entire team is in Vietnam, shooting scenes for the film. The film stars three vastly different actors, the Sylvester Stallone-inspired action movie hero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), the Australian five time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus, who underwent an entire skin pigmentation change just to be able to play the platoon’s african-american sergeant (Robert Downey Jr.) and the heroin-addicted comedy actor Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). Because of the actors’ differences, the film is pretty much ruined from the get-go, and when getting threatened by the supervising studio that film needs to either get itself together or be shut down, the war veteran whose book the film is based on, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), suggests to the director that the film will be much better if shot guerilla-style in real warzone locations. With no real other choice, our director Damien Cockburn agrees and just so, him, Four Leaf, the main actors and the pyrotechnics expert on the film fly to a jungle a few miles away where the actors are asked to shoot the scenes neccessary, as the director has “rigged this entire valley of death with hidden cameras”. By circumstances I can’t say in this review, the actors are left to their fate and just relying on their script, have to find a way to get out of the forest, while avoiding guerilla soldiers who believe they are real American soldiers. I really liked the story of the film, as it’s pretty much laugh-out-loud funny pretty much constantly. There’s no slow periods in the film, and it’s all good fun. I’d really like to se Ben Stiller do an all-out action film though, as the action sequences in this film are really, really cool.

This really is Robert Downey Jr.’s year, as he’s equally, if not more, good in this role as he was in “Iron Man”. He plays the role of Kirk Lazarus - the extreme method actor who by no means will drop his character “before the DVD commentary”. In some aspects I think the writers have looked towards another famous Australian method-actor, whose not afraid to beat down press photographers (which also Lazarus does in the film)…going to leave it unsaid, but I’m pretty sure you know who I’m talking about. While both Stiller, Downey Jr. and Black are great in their roles, the best character and performance is by far given by Tom Cruise, who plays the really temperamental studio executive in charge of producing the film. It’s been a really long time since we saw him in anything funny, albeit anything at all, so it’s really cool to finally see him back in a big film (also, he is my favorite actor so I might not be entirely objective). Make sure you don’t just walk away when the credits start rolling, as if you’ll do, you’ll miss what I think is by far the funniest scene.

One thing which I thought was really cool was the production values of the film. For a comedy, I’m pretty sure this must’ve been one of the more expensive ones. The opening scene from the “film” are really cool, and show special effects of caliber we usually only see in real war films. The sound design and music are equally great, with each action scene being accompanied by classic themes from old films. Can’t wait to see this again, either in cinemas, or on Blu-Ray (hopefully before christmas!).

So, while this really isn’t up there with “The Dark Knight”, which still is this year’s best film, it’s a really fun ride and pretty much a must-see for anyone who likes to laugh!

The last weekend’s shoot of “Campsite” went very well, and everything is still on schedule - which is great! Fredrik Steffen of Steffen Photography shot a bunch of behind-the-scenes pictures, and I’ve uploaded some of them to the website, check them out right now either by clicking the images below or by browsing to the film’s page.

Also, I’m going to the cinema to finally see “Tropic Thunder” later today, should be a lot of fun! Review will pop up here probably tomorrow (including the new review system/layout), so keep your eyes peeled!

Take care everyone!

Just uploaded another gallery, featuring a whooping 46 images I shot yesterday along with my photography class in school. Go to the gallery section to check them out right now!

Filming continues this weekend on Campsite - feels as if we’ll get loads of things done, which is cool. As long as the weather is somewhat good it’s probably going to work out just fine. As we’re shooting during daytime it will also leave a lot of free time in the evenings to watch films and generally hanging out. Just got “Doomsday” on Blu-ray, a film I enjoyed quite a lot - mostly for its campyness; although it does have a few cool action sequences in it.

According to plans, I went on my first driving lesson today. Two words can describe the experience: scary and fun. Since I hadn’t driven a car with a manual gearbox before I thought the first lesson would mostly consist of getting to know the car, perhaps driving just a bit. I drove in the middle of Malmö at full speed during daylight, trying my best to operate the gearbox without running into anyone. Will go back tomorrow to book more lessons, so I will be keeping the roads of Malmö unsafe for at least a while more.

Oh, and bought a bag for the family’s shared digital camera today - gone is the old method of using the camera wrapped in a towel stuffed in a plastic bag. Welcome organized life.

Talk to you more tomorrow, as it’s getting pretty late right now. Until then, take care everyone!

Welcome to the first in this new article series featuring people involved in the making of “Campsite”. Will have a new person interviewed every week for the next couple of weeks about their experience on helping with the film either in front of, or behind the camera. I apologize for the slight delay, had a thing I needed to do over weekend for school so that’s why I haven’t really had the time to put this together. But without further ado, here goes!

Mahdi Hamzeh plays one of the main characters, “Thomas”, in Redhawk Productions latest film, “Campsite”.

So Mahdi, when did you first hear about the film?
This film? Hmm, I guess it must have been sometime at the beginning of summer break, when you told me you’d started to write it. I didn’t recieve the script until a few weeks after that though.

You’ve acted before, most noteably in Zombie Exterminator last year. What was that experience like?
It was pretty fun, but the scenes I were in took quite a while to shoot - I didn’t really expect that to be honest. I don’t mind at all anymore, as it’s a lot more fun this time round - everything seems more organized and less stressful, a whole lot more professional. Plus I really prefer this story to the somewhat by-the-book action script that ruled the last film. The characters are much more likeable - plus the fact that they really fit with the actors portraying them - sometimes it just seemed a bit silly with teenagers running around playing policemen. It’s a far more serious story this time around in a whole different genre, which is both a lot more fun, but also challenging.

What’s your thoughts about seeing yourself acting in the final film?
To be honest, I really don’t like it that much. I mean, I’m not participating as an actor to see myself on the big screen. I joined because I wanted to work with friends and do something fun with the people I like. Now if someone sees the final film and enjoys it and my acting too, that’s great obviously.

I’ve shown the footage we’ve shot so far to a bunch of people, and they all think your acting is really good. It’s not a career you want to take on after school?
No, not really. I mean, I don’t want to be famous or anything - I’m a person who has a pretty big issue with loads of attention from loads of people - it’s not really something I want to achive. But the thing is, when I’m playing a character, I’m not myself. It really helps that my character is quite different from who I am in real life, it makes it easier to fully embrace the role. Acting’s a lot of fun, but it’s not anything I think I could, or would want to, make a living out of. And then again, I wouldn’t participate in something like this for any bloke off the street. Nils is a good friend, and it’s a lot of fun to work with him. If I got a job as an actor, I would never be sure who I got to work with - it could be someone I just can’t stand, and that would obviously be quite a horrible experience.

What’s it like to act with Amanda? I mean, she hasn’t been in any films before.
It’s a lot of fun, and she’s great in her role - she really fits the character, even though it’s so unsimilar to who she is in real life. Amanda’s a great friend, I kinda think of her like a sister. Once again, it’s important to work with friends. You just know how the other person ticks, and it’s a lot easier to play a character like mine if you know what the other person is thinking throughout the scenes and rehearsals.

We’ve shot 6 of the (in total) 24 scenes, and are going to film even more this upcoming weekend. How do prepare before going on set?
Obviously, I’ve read through the script several times - so I pretty much know right away what we’re going to film. Preparing for the upcoming weekend I’ve really read the scenes in question a whole lot, really thinking about the mood my character is in. The most difficult thing is really finding the right tone and mood for your actor in a particular scene, working mostly with the emotional stuff. After I’ve got a pretty good sense of it, studying the lines for a particular scene is just a whole lot easier. Plus it helps to know that I still have the ability to talk to you (Nils) if I feel I want to change my lines slightly to something I think sounds better when I say it. Again, I feel the overall experience as an actor really depends on who you choose to work with.

Check back tomorrow for a new photo gallery featuring some photos I took earlier today, and next week for another “Campsite” spotlight!