We may usually expect this kind of creative editing to happen through digital mediums but the artist’s commitment to traditional techniques and collage add a layer thrilling energy and value to the work. Here is a selection of her works featuring animals from various years and projects.
Man-tis! is a short science-fiction comedy. Drawing influence from such classic creature features as The Fly (1958) and mixing it with the comedy of Edgar Wright’s Spaced (1999 – 2001) series, Man-tis! tells the story of a young man who wakes up to find his head transformed into that of a giant praying mantis – on the day of a major job interview, no less.
The film follows a nervous wreck, Tim Blaisdell, is about to have the interview of his life with the top architectural firm in London. The morning of, however, Tim finds his head and hands transformed into those of a giant praying mantis. Tim’s roommate, Alex, a witty, sarcastic, lovable scamp, doesn’t quite see the problem, but does see how panicked Tim is. Reluctantly, Tim agrees to let Alex take him to his interview. A praying mantis head isn’t ideal, but maybe Tim’s interview will have a better outcome than he’s expecting.
When talking to Our Culture Mag, the director of the film Christopher Stewardson said a few things about the influences that made the idea come together “Kurt Neumann’s 1958 version of The Fly and Joe Dante’s Matinee are really the primary influences of Man-tis! I love how affectionate Matinee is toward 1950s science fiction and horror pictures – it really relishes with how fantastic those films were. With Man-tis! I really want to emulate that sense of affection for the plethora of monster movies from the 50s that I loved as a child – and still do!”
To no surprise, Disney’s and Pixar’s ‘Coco’ has managed to keep its top spot at the weekend Box Office as it grossed an estimated $18.3 million. In the second place, came the unmoved from the previous week ‘Justice League with a modest $9.59 million. Additionally, unmoved in the third place came ‘Wonder’ which managed to gross an estimated $8.45 million.
While the top three managed to sustain their spots, the big mover this week was ‘The Disaster Artist’ by A24. James Franco’s film managed to go from twelfth to the fourth spot as it grew by +431.3 percent in gross since the last weekend with 821 new cinemas screening the film. The film has also managed to do well critically, as it has been currently awarded 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4/5 on The Guardian.
‘The Crown’ has become quite the show amongst period drama fans. The Sony produced show for Netflix has gained a respected following and now looks to come back strong with Season 2. Luckily, for the fans, the Peter Morgan created series has been given its final trailer before the release of the Season 2 and is now available to watch on the Netflix official YouTube channel.
The series follows two of the most famous addresses in the world, the Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. It discovers and shares the greatest intrigues, romantic lives and machinations behind the major events that shaped the second half of the 20th century.
‘The Crown’ is available to be streamed now, exclusively on Netflix.
Watch the trailer here below.
The first single to enter our selection is by the already introduced Carter Ace. In his latest single, Carter showcases a terrific sense of groove and a flurry of smooth vocals, which once again prove the potential Carter holds. Genuinely fantastic work, by a consistently expanding artist.
Secondly, we have a much slower song ‘The Movements and Ripples Between Me And You’ by the melancholy embracing Yehan Jehan, who showcases his talent to take us on a lugubrious appearing journey between two people. Splendid work.
Fun, exciting and refreshing would be a few ways to describe ‘The People Making This Record Hate You’ single by Voyagers featuring Bretty Wylde. This single by the bold Voyagers truly delivers with its raw psychedelic-like synths and warehouse announcer-like vocals. A single to mix up your playlists for sure.
To spice up the commercial arena, VIRTU brings us his Future Bass single ‘Let You Go’ which drives on prominent river running-like vocals and genuinely dynamic and vibrant production that takes you up and up.
Another fun and commercial song to enter our Sound Selection is ‘Motorcycle’ by the lively Edmond who drops us with a beautiful flow of vocals and upbeat drive in his latest exciting single. This one is for the playlists, for sure. Simply, terrific work by a promising artist who debuts well with his creation.
A song that further develops our theme of fun and excitement is ‘Telescope’ by the well-rounded Tim Legend and Transviolet. The single take on the commercial structure but digs deep with its wave-like synths and well-produced beats. If you are looking for something mainstream but fun, this will be perfect for your playlist.
The final song to enter our Sound Selection is ‘Hate Me’ by the truly talented KDA featuring by Patrick Cash. The single takes you on the journey of hate with a poem that grows as the song progress. With the enormous energy and punch this song brings, it is without a doubt one of the most honest and truthful songs released in the recent times. A must listen.
While winter is coming along, Le Youth takes us back to the summery vibe with his latest splendid single ‘I Could Always’. The single features vocals by the wonderful Pop artist MNDR, who brings us in with her smooth and prominent vocals.
“Once again, Le Youth showcases his terrific talent to create music that is dynamic and vibrant.”
To mention, Le Youth was also featured on Sound Selection 007, and it looks like he is keeping active, as not that long ago he released his single ‘Clap Your Hands’ featuring Ava Max. The single went on to gain over 2.2 million streams on Spotify alone.
‘I Could Always’ is now available to buy and stream here. Le Youth released the single under Artist Partner Group.
With her third directorial film now in pre-production, Hayley Emin joins us for an interview to talk about her upcoming short film ‘There & Back Again’.
Hi, how are you and how did you get into filmmaking?
Hello – and I’m well thank you! Sort of stuck in an eternally tired state, but I’m good. How are you?
I am great thank you!
I’ve always loved telling stories, and was convinced at a young age that I was going to be an author when I grew up. Film built on that desire, I used to binge-watch behind the scenes features on all the DVDs we owned. Then at around 13, having no social life, I attempted to write and make my own films. They were awful of course. Now I’m writing and directing my final year film at the University of Hertfordshire.
What inspired ‘There & Back Again”?
Well, I got dumped in a tent once and decided to make a film about it. I kid – inspiration is an interesting thing, because often ideas come from a series of unconnected, moments in your life. There’s definitely some influence in there from 500 Days of Summer, which is one of my favourite films. It’s funny, painfully truthful, heart-breaking and not afraid to be a bit silly. Probably Richard Curtis as well, Love Actually is another favourite.
I know I wanted to make a film about the aftermath of a relationship, about that awful period of time that you spend torturing yourself about everything you could have done differently, and what the consequences would be if you really could go back and change them. That’s the benefit of Sci-fi, it allows you to explore those “what ifs?” in an interesting and exciting way.
Edgar Wright has inspired the visual look and sound of the film, because what he does so impeccably is highlight the comedy already present in the script with cinematography, editing and sound design, aspects which tend to get lost or forgotten in comedic films. He’s a great writer, too.
What are the challenges of writing a script?
Making people care about it as much as you do. You already know these characters, from their deepest, darkest fears, to what type of underwear they prefer. They’re a bit of you. But the audience needs to feel them and care, not about them necessarily, but about what they care about, too. And then you need to build an engaging story around them, too.
Oh, and not letting yourself be consumed with despair if someone doesn’t like something in the script or if something goes wrong. Being a writer involves an odd combination of over-confidence and deep insecurity. One minute, you’ll think it’s the best thing you’ve ever written, and the next, you’re considering using it for toilet paper.
Describe your, “There & Back Again” in three words.
Quirky, Playful, and Honest.
When will ‘There & Back Again’ be released and what should we expect?
We’re hoping to enter it into festivals, so online release will likely be in May 2019. However, by donating a minimum of £10 to our Kickstarter campaign, you can get a digital download, and watch the film a year early in May 2018!
Expect humour, heart-break, time-travel, and possibly the ugliest tent you’ve ever seen.
Thank you for the great interview, Hayley!
If you would like to become part of ‘There & Back Again’, you can become a backer on their Kickstarter here. You can also follow their Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ fails to surface from the desperate depths of the DCEU’s previous films. The film begins with a recruiting of soon-to-be fellow members The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) by Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). While a thoughtful and good set up is a necessity in any film, this is drawn out for far too long and provides far too little detail into each character’s background and profile, and strangely, this isn’t even the worst act in the film. The set up leaves you caring about none of the ensemble cast, and it’s clear for all to see that they had no idea how to successfully, or at least start the screenplay. With a select few exceptions, you should never head down to the local cinema looking for a good screenplay, direction and film itself if it’s a superhero caper, particularly the DCEU.
A saving grace for the film is some of the cinematography, which has been an above average feature in Snyder’s previous films. Sure, there are some shots which break fundamental filmmaking rules without any purpose in doing so, but it is overall the best aspect of the film. This is, besides the over-doing of irritating and poor use of CGI throughout the entire film.
One of the only points of interest in this fundamentally embarrassing encounter is Gal Gadot’s performance as Wonder Woman. Whilst her performance in her solo film received rave reviews, she understandably has far less time to save this sinking ship. Ben Affleck’s self-hatred for his partaking in this film is clear to see in his interviews, and it frequently comes across on screen throughout the film. Other than the recruitment, Bruce Wayne’s character was deployed to about the same use as a torch on the sun. Henry Cavill’s character portrayal of Superman seems to change from scene to scene, from his completely out-of-mind memory of who he actually is, then continuous, laughable and depressive staring into the distance, to free-roaming “here for a laugh” fun guy. The cheesy and chaotic character arc has to take a huge part of the blame here, but there’s also a glaringly obvious reason that Cavill will never be leading serious drama’s or an Oscar nominee: he’s a very sub-par actor who is tied down to typecast roles such as Superman for the simple fact that he looks like what we all imagine Superman as in our heads.
Of the three newcomers to the franchise, The Flash spends far too much screen time reminding us of just how much of a dorky loser of a teenager he is, with his cringe-inducing dialogue having next to no purpose after his first couple of scenes. It’s seriously drilled into your heads more than it needs to be, and wastes exploration of other characters and for better storytelling all-round. With that being said, Miller’s portrayal is one of the higher quality portrayals from the ensemble and there may yet be hope on the horizon yet for The Flash. There’s little to discuss about Cyborg, other than leaving you wishing that you knew more about his character and the suffering he has endured, and it definitely feels like a wasted opportunity, despite Fisher’s best efforts. To nobody’s surprise, at all, Aquaman is by far the least-important character in Justice League, and bar stopping a wave of water caused by the worse than woeful villain Steppenwolf in the second act, has literally no purpose whatsoever to the story. At all. The earth’s blood collectively boils at the mere thought of Momoa’s Aquaman film to be released next year.
It turns out, that all along, the world didn’t need saving from Steppenwolf, but it was the viewers that needed saving from the god-awful Justice League.
With a tremendously terrible screenplay, cringe-inducing dialogue, delusional direction, a boring villain and thoughtless final act to boot, Justice League marks a new low for the DCEU and should be avoided at all costs.
The exciting collective keep their momentum going before the release of their upcoming album ‘Marble Skies’, with their latest single ‘In Your Beat’. With most of their music taking a psychedelic-like vibe, Django Django tunes in with a rather upbeat and joyous single ‘In Your Beat’.
‘In Your Beat’ is taken from Django Django’s forthcoming album ‘Marble Skies’ which will be released on the 26th of January, 2018.
Here is the official music video for ‘In Your Beat’. Directed by the acclaimed visual artist SKG with art direction from Brodie Kaman.
With his latest big project ‘Call of Duty: WWII’ released he joins us for an interview to talk about his career, plans and culture.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, I am doing well. Life has been full of excitement lately!
So, how did you get into acting and what was your first role that you loved?
From an early age, I had a great appreciation for films thanks to movie nights with Dad and my two brothers, or cutting up doing voices with my Mom. It wasn’t until much later however that I considered acting as a career.
Growing up, I never truly knew what I wanted to be, and stepped into freshman year of college with that same uncertainty. Flashing forward, I solidified a degree from Clemson University with a BS in Business Management, but it’s the path during those four plus years where I gravitated toward acting. While making my way through school, I began working with an agency out of Charlotte, NC to both discover more work and help pay my tuition.
Evolution Talent aligned me with local bookings, regional print jobs, and commercial spots for TV. Every time I found myself on set, my heart for it grew. My eyes were wide open, and I paid attention to everything with an immense desire to learn. I eventually booked work on my first ever TV series, One Tree Hill. I worked for a week as a featured extra, and that was the week that took away all doubt.
From that moment on, I found time whenever I could outside of my class and work load at Clemson to study acting and build my resume. As a developmental agent, Evolution connected dots and helped me shape a timeline toward LA.
I arrived in LA, February of 2010, which means I’m nearing 8 years along my path out here. I’m proud of my progress and the growth I’ve found, and look forward to the sets I step onto next!
As for personal love of character, I’d have to say I connected more than ever while portraying my character PFC Ronald Daniels in COD: World War II. It was honestly a wholehearted endeavor from start to finish. He is someone I am, and will continue to be proud of in a story of brotherhood, heroes, and sacrifice.
You worked on the ‘Call of Duty: WWII’ game. What was it like working on such a big franchise?
It was truly incredible. In life, I pride myself on doing all things fully. This translates in my work ethic and passion of acting when I dive into a character or a project as a whole. Call of Duty is a global franchise, and it’s reached the level it’s at because there are the most amazing teams of people behind it. Call of Duty: WWII specifically was created as such a labor of love, with commitment, historical truth, heart, and conviction in honoring the men and women that fought and laid down their own lives during a time of unimaginable conflict.
There’s a lot of pressure when portraying a character of such strength and self-discovery, but I felt such honor in doing so. Before opening myself up to whom Private Daniels truly was to me, I had to find my footing with the mechanics of motion capture. It’s one of the most imaginative processes I have ever endured, but certainly one of the most challenging. Once I had my bearings, the world of this story opened up to me in such a way that I was free to live through the eyes of Daniels and make choices in my acting.
I am so very thankful for the cast, crew, and creators I worked alongside of. When we wrapped this project, I know we all had a sense of feeling like we had truly accomplished something great. In a game that is appreciated worldwide, we delivered a story to the world that offers remembrance toward a generation of true heroes. I’m proud of that.
Do you have any big plans for 2018?
I’ve been fortunate to work in a wide array of genres, but I’m still just scratching the surface in terms of my acting. Since day one, there have been goals set and targets year to year. This is made up of characters, creatures, roles I’d love to play, or alignment of projects that benefit a greater picture or cause.
Both a soldier and a boxer were on that list, and both challenged me in different ways. My hope is to continue finding characters or stories that do just that. Private Daniels was a character that allowed me to bring out some of the better parts of myself. My choices here were very different from that of Charlie in Flesh and Bone. I played a boxing champ, and every bit of my preparation and performance was physically demanding. I embrace both differently, but in the end appreciate the challenge of both.
I, like all actors, have a desire for the big screen, but with the growth and popularity of TV shows, there is so much potential to work on new and exciting content. In the coming year, I’d love to find longevity in a role, be it a series regular, or reprising a previous role. I’d love to become a character that viewers or players can connect to episode after episode, story after story. The more time you have with your character, the more you’re able to bring your choices into your work.
Who is your favourite actor and why?
Any actor from This Is Us, haha. Talk about feeling something…that show encompasses heartfelt moments and grounded truth week after week towards culture, choice, and change. It’s so real.
It’s hard to narrow down that question to just one. There are so many notable actors I connect with, or draw inspiration from. Robert Redford is so iconic, and has remained so relevant through the years in an extremely notable body of work
A friend once said to me, “What’s more important to you? Would you rather be relevant or remembered?” The answer is both. We can all do things to create relevancy in a moment in time, but to have a career recognized and remembered takes so much more.
Others to note who have affected me over the years or even infected me because yes, acting is infectious, would be Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hardy, Miles Teller, Sterling K. Brown, Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone, and Ryan Reynolds. I applaud each of you.
Do you have a favourite film or franchise you would love to work on?
This question too has countless answers for different reasons. Star Wars, which is great for countless reasons. The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy because of the kid in me always wanting to discover who he is as a hero. Kingsmen or Bond, which both circle cool, classic, calculated action, and the toys are an added benefit. Rocky, now Creed…my brothers and I grew up with such a heart for it, and loved watching the Rocky films with our Dad.
I love Rocky too! How would you describe yourself in three words?
Determined, Loyal, and Optimistic
Our final question, we must ask. What is your definition of culture?
To me, culture is characterized by a multitude of values, practices, beliefs, and/or social norms. We as individuals can be cultivated by customary beliefs or social settings where we either grow from those around us, or allow them to challenge who we are and potentially lessen us. It is up to us as the individual to be our best self regardless of our cultural upbringing. In the end, we are all human, and we must learn to live equally regardless of culture, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other means of identification.
Thank you for such a great interview, Brett! A pleasure to have you on Our Culture Mag!
To find out more about Brett and his work you can follow his Instagram and Twitter, or check out his IMDB page here.
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