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Is
it possible to write anything that’s considered
original anymore? And sometimes this is not the writer's
fault. We all read books, watch TV, go to the cinema and
whether you liked the novel, programme or film, it lodges
itself in your sub-conscious, like all that beef you ate
during your teenage years that will sit in your gut until
the day you die (cheery fact that). How many times have
you stopped yourself and thought “where have I heard/seen
that before.” And when you write, these unconscious
influences seep out into your work and you make them your
own. Would this defence for plagiarism stand up in court?
“It’s not my fault m’lord, I just watched
far too much television as a child.” Well, it works
in murder cases. The very blunt point I’m trying
to make is that we all have influences and people that
we aspire to. Here at Evil Hypnotist Productions we decided
to list some of them for you.
So, if you don’t like our work, don’t blame
us, blame the people who came before us:
Just click on the head of the poor soul and read their
crimes.
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| Paul
Williams |
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Paul
Terry |
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Currently
Watching:
Season 5 of The
Wire - you feel me?
Currently Playing:
Fallout 3 - does it ever end?
Currently Reading:
Jurassic Park again - in honour of
the great Crichton. |
Currently
Watching:
Season 5 of Lost,
again. The island rules.
Currently Playing:
Dead Space. Bloody terrifying.
Currently Reading:
Simon Dark. Good ol' Mr Niles rocking
noir
comics again. |
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GHOSTBUSTERS
(1984)
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Director:
Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd & Harold
Ramis
Starring: Bill Murray, Sigourney
Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. |
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Whenever
I mention to someone that I make films the inevitable
question comes up: “What are you crazy? Why don’t
you just become an accountant or something?” No,
sorry, not that one; the “so what’s your top
ten best films of all time?” Like the fact that
I make films is supposed to make this task any easier.
It’s basically impossible, because it shifts every
month as more films are made. Which is why when you see
the annual lists published by film mags and institutes,
the classic, safe films (Godfather, Psycho, Citizen
Kane) are mixed with recent blockbusters (The
Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Cross Roads).
This is all futile – how can you compare a film
like The Third Man to, say, Die Hard.
Both, in my mind, are great films. One is a beautifully
shot portrait of one mans struggle with friendship and
truth and the other is The Third Man. Die
Hard is a great action flick, popcorn fodder, and
defined every action film that followed. But these two
are polar opposites, so how can you judge them on the
same scale? When someone asks me the ‘top ten’
question I break out in a cold sweat, thinking that I
have to go for safe films, a Hitchcock, a Scorsese, a
Kubrick. I’m a filmmaker for Christ’s sake,
I can’t like Clueless! So, I wimp out and
go for the even safer option, the film that started it
all, the film that made me want to make films. That film
is Ghostbusters.
From start to finish it still has me hooked. From the
scared shitless librarian beginning, to the cooked marshmallow–covered
end, I love this film. I’ve watched it countless
times and constantly annoy friends by reciting the script,
word and tone perfect, at the drop of a hat, or the drop
of anything come to think of it. Proton packs, Slimer,
Ecto 1, Ray Parker Jnr, Stay Puft, Bill Murray, comedy,
horror, this film has everything. It stands the test of
time and the effects look as good as they did back in
1984. This film had a profound affect on me, made me love
films, made me feel sad when the end credits rolled because
I never wanted it to end. I wanted to watch the guys’
zap ‘n’ trap till the cows came home and went
out again. This is a personal number one film.
So next time someone asks you what your favourite film
is, don’t play safe and say Some Like It Hot.
Look them straight in the eye, take a deep breath and
say it proud: “Coyote Ugly”.
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STAR
WARS – The Holy Trilogy (1977–1983)
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Director:
George Lucas (Star Wars), Irvin Kershner
(Empire), Richard Maquand (Jedi)
Writers: George Lucas (Star
Wars), Lawrence Kasdan & Leigh Brackett
(Empire), Lawrence Kasdan & George
Lucas (Jedi)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Mark
Hamill, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones (voice),
David Prowse (body), Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker,
Peter Mayhew. |
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Ok,
I know this is a bit of a cop out. There are few in my
generation, who grew up in the late seventies and eighties,
that were not influenced by the Holy trilogy. Those who
weren’t should be rounded up and quarantined so
they don’t accidentally see the new Star Wars
films and think that’s want they’re all like.
NO! Listen to me now; before Star Wars became
a blue screen animation Saturday morning cartoon, they
were films. You hear me - FILMS! Sorry to get all emotional,
but I grew up with Stars Wars, had the bed sheets,
the toys (my friend even had the huge AT-AT - bastard).
Kids today are not getting a fair deal; we watched films,
they’re getting toy adverts.
Filmmaking
is all about passion, love of the story, the characters,
the process. George Lucas has managed to suck all the
life and passion out of Star Wars and replace
it with a stuffed Jar Jar doll while muttering to himself
it’s still Star Wars. NO, IT’S NOT!
George - watch Empire Strikes Back again, the
bit where Luke fights Vader and gets his hand sliced off,
just after which Vader decides this is the perfect opportunity
to announce that he is, in fact, Luke’s father.
"NOOOOOO!!!" Brilliant! In fact, the best thing
about Empire is that it has seven magic words
attached to it: not-written-and-directed-by-George-Lucas.
The
trilogy is a set of three great, influential films (we
can forgive Jedi for the Ewoks). I sincerely
doubt that in twenty years time films will be referencing
Attack of the Clones, or stealing a line from
Phantom Menace, which is a generations’
loss. Star Wars binds the universe of twenty-something,
child-adults together. But I’ll still go and watch
anything Star Wars related. DAMN YOU LUCAS! |
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BACK
TO THE FUTURE
– The Other Holy Trilogy (1985–1989)
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Director:
Robert Zemeckis.
Writers: Bob Gale & Robert
Zemeckis.
Starring: Michael J Fox, Christopher
Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover. |
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I
wanted a red body warmer. I wanted to be able to stay
on a skateboard without it shooting off in one direction
and me in the other. I wanted to play Johnny B Good like
there was no tomorrow. I wanted to travel through time
and make my mum fall in love with me. No, wait a minute
- forget that last Oedipus part. From a lost time when
blockbusters didn’t only have amazing special effects,
but a story too. Back To The Future made time
travel make sense, which, believe me, is no easy feat.
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SAM
RAIMI
(Director) |
Finest
hour: The Evil Dead 2. |
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Sam
is the man. Who else can invent the eye-o-cam –
following an eye as it pops out the skull of an undead
granny, flies across the room straight into the mouth
of a screaming victim. Some people think the crane shot
through the skylight in Citizen Kane is classic,
but did it have an eyeball attached to it which smashed
through the glass and into Orson Welles’ mouth?
I think not! If you’re new to the Raimi I suggest
you start with The Evil Dead 2 and witness
the amazing acting skills of Bruce Campbell. He slices
up his evil dead girlfriend with such zest.
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KEVIN
SMITH (writer/director/Silent
Bob) |
Finest
hour: Chasing Amy. |
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There’s
people who write dialogue and then there’s Kevin
Smith. Example:
BANKY: All right – bring on the
free hooch.
HOOPER: What do you mean, “free”?
I didn’t invite your tired ass. (looks around)
So, where’s your better half?
BANKY: Taking a piss. Guy’s got
a bladder like an infant.
HOOPER: That’s funny –
he says you’re hung like an infant.
BANKY: Must his mother tell him everything?
Chasing Amy (1996)
No other writer can turn rapid-fire dick and fart jokes
into a story. He also got some of his mates together,
maxed out five credit cards to make his first feature,
Clerks. Kevin Smith is inspiring to all first
time filmmakers, just get out there and dare.
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PETER
JACKSON (writer/director/Hobbit
lover) |
Finest
hour: The new Holy trilogy. |
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This
is the guy you want to be. He started out making alien
invasion films in his parent’s house, doing his
own special effects and now he's heading one of the most
ambitious film trilogies ever attempted. I recently meet
him, and I don’t mean I popped over to New Zealand
for a cuppa joe, I mean I had the fated fortune to be
in the right place at the right time. He was down to earth,
dressed in his uniform – shorts, T-shirt, bushy
beard, and didn’t have the air of the man who is
fast becoming one of the best directors in the world.
He was just like - a guy. I shook one of my mentors by
the hand, told him how much I admired his work and got
him to scribble his name on a hastily produced bit of
paper. In this day and age where we are obsessed with
pictures of Z-list celebrities doing their shopping in
Sainsbury’s, and here is one of the real magic makers,
the people who put it all together, without a chaperon
of brick-shit-house bodyguards or a car with black tinted
windows. In his mind he’s just a man who does a
job. The job just happens to be the coolest job on the
planet! Well, to me anyway.
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ALFRED
HITCHCOCK (director/cigar
chomper) |
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Finest
hour: The 39 Steps. |
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Ok,
so this is an obvious one, which filmmaker is not influenced
by the fat, cigar–chewing one? He is to film, what
The Beatles are to music. Without him where would film
be?
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STEVEN
SPIELBERG (director/cap
wearer) |
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Finest
Hour: Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Spielberg – the king of the summer blockbuster
and the thought–provoking war epic. A fellow film
obsessive turned filmmaker and a man to whom making
films seems to come so easy, like he could do it in
his sleep. He has a couple of times, but we won’t
name names (have you tried to sit through A.I?
WILL IT EVER END!?). But he can be forgiven for his
minor slip-ups when he produces such masterpieces as
Close Encounters and Indiana Jones
(all of ‘em - except the god-awful Skulls DAMN
YOU LUCAS!).
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DOUGLAS
ADAMS (writer/hitchhiker/towel
owner) |
Finest hour: The Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy (in all its incarnations).
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If
there is one man who is the biggest influence on my
writing, then it is this man. He has made me laugh more
and think more than any other writer. He has taught
me that it is easier to influence someone, or kick their
brain into working if first you make them laugh. All
his mad ideas and amazing stories had some basis’
in improbable scientific fact, except maybe the bit
about the mice. I would also like to state right now,
on this very website, that one day I would like to make
Dirk Gently into a film (well it worked for Samuel L.
Jackson with Lucas). Douglas Adams took the improbably
impossible and turned it into a plausible possibility,
he is sorely missed.
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Well,
I’d like to kick things off by saying two words:
Bill Murray. OK, so not exactly two words, more two
names, but my point is made, is it not? The point? Busting
makes me feel good. It’s slime-time. They go ‘up'.
Hang on... PW’s already done a glowing summary
of Ghostbusters. Well done sir. Needless to
say, the soundtrack to this film is beyond
stellar too, and its style, conception and overall groove
is a major favourite. The simple fact that Ray Parker
Jr.’s title track became so much bigger the just
'the theme tune for a film’ is a testament to
how good Ghostbusters’ soundtrack is
– people quote ‘who you gonna call?’
for all manner of reasons now, which is pretty amazing
when it started out its life as... just the theme tune
for a film.
Loads
of other pieces of film music have had the same kind
of impact on the world as RPJ’s: the two-note
terror of John Williams’ Jaws theme,
the shrieking strings-only score of Bernard Herrmann’s
Psycho score. But enough of the obvious composers
– here’s some other favourite flicks/composers
and other creative geniuses that have always been influential
to me...
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ALIENS
– There's A Whole Bunch Of 'Em (1986) |
Director:
James Cameron
Music by: James Horner |
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The
memory this movie fills me with a mixture of a warm fuzzy
glow and absolute terror. This score is an absolute classic
and it stretches your nerves to breaking point on every
listen. 'Bishop’s Countdown' is the highlight, colliding
together metallic smashings and petrified orchestrations
– a classic example of the music driving forward
the emotional tone of the movie. And yep, remember this
is Aliens we’re talking about here, the
superior movie to Ridley Scott’s original. Sorry
film students and my old film lecturer… I don't
agree.
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BATMAN
– Holy Bat Movie (1989)
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Director:
Tim Burton
Music by: Danny Elfman / Prince |
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Dan
the (Elf) man. When he’s firing on all cylinders
(which is pretty much all of the time – The
Simpsons theme tune, ‘March of the Dead’
in Army of Darkness to name but two) he really
does nail it, and the score he did here is the absolute
bomb. Rousing, gothic bravado? Check. Twisted and cascading
themes? Check. Touching love scoring? Check. Dark? Double
check. Elfman’s score hits all the right notes at
all the right times, and really does swirl around your
head with aural cobwebs and echoes, just like the musical
to a saga about The Batman should.
And then, there’s Prince. Not content with having
a perfect score, Burton brings one of the most innovative
and talented musicians involved to write nine fantastic
songs to accompany the score. ‘Partyman’ is
one of my favourite songs (to borrow a quote from that
genius film reviewer, Paul Ross) “…of all
time”. And in case you're wondering, yes, I do love
Batman Begins & The Dark Knight
and their scores. I'm just feeling retro for this section.
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THIS
IS SPINAL TAP (1984)
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Director:
Rob Reiner
Music by: Christopher Guest,
Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner |
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A
true original. I’m certain that this kind of creativity
will never happen again in film, and frankly, why should
it, when you got something as darn’ perfect as This
Is Spinal Tap? Not only is Rob Reiner’s debut
movie (bastard!) one of the funniest films ever, it’s
one of the smartest, and features the musical writing
talents of the blokes who are playing the characters of
Spinal Tap?!? Big headfuck? Yep, but one that adds an
appropriate layer of realism to this ‘documentary’
about the fading rockers. Getting Guest, McKean and Shearer
to be as brilliant (and as English – how good are
their accents!?) as they all were is one thing, but having
their actual musical talents create the soundtrack is
just too perfect. A one off, a filmic treasure, and something
that reminds me more than once in a while that it’s
perfectly acceptable for soundtracks to rock out.
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MULHOLLAND
DR. (2002)
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Director:
David Lynch
Music by: Angelo Badalamenti
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I
love David Lynch. He’s awesome. Not only does he
put together spectacular movies – he’s one
of the very few directors who really loves (and knows
how to use, and write innovative) music. He always works
closely with his staple composer Angelo Badalamenti (since
1986’s Blue Velvet), and the soundtracks
to his films always matches and affects the visuals. I
picked Mulholland Dr. as an example because,
not only does it have one of Badalamenti’s best
scores – hypnotic, graceful, rich reds and pure
blacks (okay – you try and describe sounds
with words!), it also has the incredible re-working of
Roy Orbison’s 'Crying'. It’s an accapella
version... sung in Spanish... in the ‘Silencio’
scene... and is absolutely stunning: saddening, intriguing,
uplifting and disturbing all at once. I really wanted
to go off on one about Eraserhead too, but I’d
be here all day if I did that. All I’ll say is,
if you really dig cool sound design in films, you have
to see Eraserhead. Alan Splet and Lynch’s
eerie industrial sounds are incredible. Quick –
next film before I start to retype out my dissertation
on David Lynch...
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CARNIVAL
OF SOULS
(1962) |
Director:
Herk Harvey
Music by: Gene Moore |
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Good
‘ol Herk – another killer directorial debut.
Although he’d been involved with many educational
and industrial documentaries over the years, this is
(bizarrely) his only feature film. But what a film,
and what a score. Moore’s use of the church organ
is so brilliant – it gets right inside your head
and then crawls all over your spine, almost causing
the same kind of madness that the lead character Mary
Henry experiences. You’ll never be able to hear
a church organ in the same way again – and if
a movie can make you change the way you reference something
in this way, it’s pretty powerful.
Okay,
since we’re trawling through the realms of music,
it’d be stupid not to flag up a few highly influential
musicians, too. There are literally hundreds of them that
set various sparks off, but here's trio of geniuses...
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DEVIN
TOWNSEND |
Bands/Projects:
Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend Band, to
name but a few…
Photo
by Omer Shaked
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Aren’t
Canadians great? Just have a think about all the musical
artists, filmmakers and generally creative types that
you like, and I guarantee that a lot of them will be Canadian.
Must be all that cool scenery or something. Dev has been
churning out unbelievably good music since the '90s. Not
only has Mr. T inspired me musically, but his whole "screw
the industry: do it yourself" has been a massive
inspiration for myself and the EHP entourage to ‘go
it alone’ down the independent trail. Not heard
of Devin? You fools! Let’s just say the man has
written, performed and produced some of the greatest records
in the history of music: if that sounds like an overstatement,
tough – I just call it as I see it, and that’s
how I see it, bub. He can write the most beautiful music
ever (songs like ‘Things Beyond Things’) and
the most devastingly heavy tunes, too (see SYL’s
‘Skeksis’ and er, anything SYL have done actually!).
Devin is the real deal. If you like music, what are you
doing still reading this!? Go to www.hevydevy.com
now and do your ears a favour.
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MIKE
PATTON |
Bands/Projects:
Faith No More, Fantomas, Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle,
to name but a few…
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This
man can do it all: jazz, blistering metal, blues, white
noise with a pop twist – none are a problem. And
his voice? Well, those in the know, know what mean. In
your ‘fantasy band’, he’d be the frontman.
His range is massive, and his array of ‘voices’
is incredible. If you haven’t heard his EP he did
with The Dillinger Escape Plan called Irony Is A Dead
Scene either, then you should – it’ll
blow you away. It’s not just his musical abilities
though, on his 'Adult Themes For Voice' album, Mike knows
how to create a trillion other sounds with his vocal chords
– beyond talkinga nd singing – that no-one's
attempted. A true master and another massive inspiration
to do things your own way.
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TORI
AMOS |
Albums:
Scarlet’s Walk, Little Earthquakes, From
The Choirgirl Hotel, to name but a few…
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When
you see a woman use her voice and body the way Tori does,
live, whilst leaning into the open top of her grand piano
and creating the coolest sounds by strumming and scraping
the strings inside, you’d understand why she’s
being given a nod here. Hopefully from that little preamble,
you’ve already sensed where I’m going with
this. This woman is a storyteller, a poet, and is as musically
prolific as they get. Give her just a piano and she can
take you through torturous and beautiful landscapes, all
in three minutes… all in the same three minute song.
Queen of the emotional performance, Tori does what you
never see any of these jumped-up karaoke 'talent show'
singers do: she feels, re-lives, believes, and puts across
the history and emotional resonance within every syllable
of every word that she sings, every time, bar none. Listen
and learn.
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Just
to close: as PW mentioned Douglas Adams, wanna know about
a book you can actually hear? No, not an audio CD version!
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is not
only one of favourite books (if not, the favourite),
his sister, Poe, created an album inspired by the events
in the book called Haunted, which is fantastic.
Both ooze atmosphere, and must be acquired. Just don't
read it on October 31st if you actually enjoying sleeping...
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...And
finally: EHP – A HISTORY LESSON |
Greeetings.
Your history lesson today begins with some startling evidence
– more shocking than Eli Roth's valentine's day
ideas. Yes, you are looking at the birth of EHP. Ten years
ago, in 1999, a shared interest in film and music led
friends Paul Williams and Paul Terry to form independent
filmmaking company Evil Hypnotist Productions Ltd (EHP).
Yes, this is them 10 years ago. They are not 10 years
old themselves in this piece of visual evidence, contrary
to what other people may claim...
With PW at the reigns as writer/director, and PT as producer/composer,
the pair graduated from a coastal college with the 30-minute
thriller 'Sold' (1999) under their belts, and went on
to produce the award-winning comedy horror short 'Mightier'
(2001). Several other shorts and their first feature film
'The Wake' (2006) later, EHP has expanded its extended
family of talented cast and crew contacts, and is now
developing (among other projects), their second feature,
the neo-noir thriller 'Who Is Thomas Finch?' |
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