Thursday 15 December 2011

UK Premiere of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Hello fellow bloggers! This is my first post from back home; I am home for the Christmas holidays. Like the post I wrote a while back, about my experience of the premiere of Johnny English Reborn, here is a post documenting my experience of arguably the best premiere I have been to so far! I now realise more than ever that this is what I want to do...becoming a film director is arguably one of the best jobs on the entire planet! Notice how I'm restricting it to the surface of the Earth, as in my opinion, an astronaut is the best possible job...it's quite simply out of this world! Ha ha ha. Well anyway, back to the best premiere I have been to so far.

The UK Premiere of "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" or "Mission: Impossible 4" as it is also known, took place at the BFI Imax Cinema in London on 13th December 2011. Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg, along with other actors and celebrities, are currently touring Europe, taking the film and premiering it in several European countries; the UK is just one of many. The day started out not so normal, with a 5:30am start. I was planning on meeting a friend from university at Waterloo, to go together to the premiere. Ready with my video camera, still camera, autograph book and phone (in the hope that Mr. Cruise would talk to my mum, which he has been known to do!), I set out for a half an hour walk to the station. It was still dark, being practically the middle of the night, so I can only describe it as a very eerie, deserted walk to the station, with only a couple of low flying pigeons to dodge. I arrived at the station at around 7:00am, with the aim of catching the 7:10am train to London Waterloo. However, national rail decided that this was the day when they would mess up any travel plans the UK public had, specifically on the day when the earlier you were, the more likely chance you'd have of being next to the red carpet. Thus, the 7:10am train was appropriately cancelled. And to rub it in even more, the train after that was cancelled. So after about 1hr 15mins of annoying announcements, along with not being able to get on the third train due to a high density of humans, I finally got the 8:25am train to Waterloo, which arrived at 8:50am. I met up with my friend and walked across the road to the BFI IMAX Cinema. To my surprise, we were still early enough to be one of the first one's there! We secured our spot right against the barriers which, at this time in the morning, ceased to exist; we were then ready for the 9 hour wait for the premiere to start and the stars to arrive! As I said in my post about the previous Johnny English premiere, call me a geek. But in the end, it was very much worthwhile, as I got the opportunity to meet one of the most famous Hollywood superstars on the planet!

So we spent a good portion of the day watching the event being set up. We watched the red carpet being rolled out, the barriers put up, the posters put up and the appropriately placed BMW cars with the registration "M:I GP" being driven into the area. Pretty cool stuff! One thing which occurred to me while watching everything being set up was that I bet the stars don't fully appreciate the time and effort involved with the setting up of a premiere; the whole cinema has to be transformed into a dazzling spectacle of lights, stages, and carpets. They practically have to create a miniature tinsel town right in the heart of London! Excuse the pun, with it being Christmas time and all. Overall, it was very interesting to see everything being set up. With persistence and a little bit of luck, I will hopefully have my own premiere in London or Los Angeles in the future. I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up , and let me into Hollywood.

So I'll skip forward to around 5:30pm; the stars were due to arrive at 6pm. As we were right in the front and quite a lively bunch, the press started to gather and to my enjoyment, we were interviewed by several presenters and camera crews! First was an American woman for Sky News Movies who asked us what we think of Tom Cruise! I simply replied, "Awesome! An amazing actor!" Second was a live interview, but I don't know who it was for. And finally, a film channel wanted a reaction shot from the crowd, so we did 3 takes of putting our arms in the air and screaming like there was no tomorrow. We were all very excited that a true Hollywood legend was about to grace us with his presence.

Then came the time when the man himself arrived, followed a little while later by Simon Pegg. Cool music was playing, the guy with the microphone announced he had arrived; things were starting to liven up. I saw Tom round the corner of the cinema; the IMAX is a round cinema, so he had to make his way around a circle. Tom adhered to his normal protocol (excuse the pun), of taking his time with his fans, making sure he met everyone! At this point I phoned my mum and kept her on the phone until he came to us, in the hope that he would speak to her! However, at the time he did come to us, I had to do something no man has ever done before. Multitask. It may have been too much for me to try to do, but I tried to get his autograph, have a picture taken with him, film him and get him to talk to my mum! I was successful with 3 out of the 4 things. I wasn't able to get him to speak to my mum on the phone. That gives me another opportunity to go to the next premiere which he's in so that I can try once more! Overall however, it was fantastic to meet and talk to him and I would like to say that Tom Cruise is truly a gentleman and should set an example of how celebrities should interact and engage with their fans. I managed to get a photograph with him, which I will keep as the best souvenir of the evening, along with his autograph.

About 15mins later, along came Mr. Simon Pegg. Also a very nice guy, I talked to him for a few minutes and also managed to get a photo with him along with his autograph. The two of them together are a very funny duo, as Simon had a thing going on with Tom, where he was trying to teach Tom how speak with an English accent. It's hilarious! I'm sure there are a few videos on YouTube that show them together.

So after they both passed and moved onto to the rest of the crowd, a few other celebrities came past, out of which, I only recognised one. The hamster himself, Richard Hammond was there. However, I now know from personal experience that he's a bit of a [insert rude swear word here] type of guy, practically ignoring us as he passed. But as soon as the cameras were on him, of course he was signing things for the crowd on the opposite side of us! In my opinion, Tom Cruise should teach him a lesson...on how to be human.

So that was it for the evening! A fantastic time with Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg at the premiere of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. But that's not all, folks! Just as we were leaving, one of the officials can over to us with spare tickets to the premiere itself! Apparently the film was moving from this cinema over to the BFI Southbank Centre. She told us if we ran fast enough, we would get in to see the film. However, we should have checked the ticket itself before running like headless monkeys to the BFI Southbank Centre, as the ticket stated we needed to arrive at 6pm and be seated by 7pm. We were given the tickets at 7:20pm. It was potentially a fantastic opportunity, but overall was false hope. So there we go. At least I have a ticket to the premiere to keep as a souvenir!

Well that's pretty much it for my experience of the premiere, but there was one last thing. After leaving the BFI Southbank Centre, having been turned away by security who told us the film had already started, my friend and I wondered onto a film set, right in the centre of London! They were in the middle of shooting on location for a brand new feature film, the title of which I've forgot but will surely remember when it comes out, as I'll remember the name when I see it! So I got talking to the director and a few of the camera crew, along with the grip guy. That was pretty fantastic, albeit short! I'll definitely go see the film when it's out in summer 2012, along with of course Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, when it's out on Boxing Day!

So that really is it for now folks! If I don't blog until after Christmas (I should write a few posts before Christmas, as I am hoping to go to a few film studios for my dissertation), then have a very Merry Christmas! I'll leave you with a few photos of the premiere, along with this: If you want to succeed in life...there is one simple thing to do...be there!

Tuesday 6 December 2011

My First Production for Fraser Films!

Hello fellow bloggers! Here is an update to say that I have filmed and produced my first video for my new YouTube channel and soon to be professional film production company, Fraser Films! I have filmed, for my university's Christian Union, their production of "The Nativity" and have uploaded it as the premiere video for my channel! The video is called "The Nativity by the Pond" and was filmed on 2nd December 2011. So far, it has gained over 250 views and will hopefully gain many more! I would like to take this opportunity to say that it was great to work with my CU to produce this short film. I would also like to state that although not intended to be part of my showreel or a fully planned out short film, this production was purely intended to be a memento of the evening, to give others the opportunity to see the Nativity, who weren't able to attend. I will hopefully be making many more productions for the CU during the short but precious time I have left, here at university. I will finish university in May 2012...to pursue and to chase my dream.

I would also like to say here that I have also successfully produced another short film, between now and the last post below. I have made a short film documenting my experience of the last space shuttle launch, "STS-135 Atlantis: The Grand Finale". Like the above production, this is also intended to purely be a memento for me and my family of the day when we witnessed history in the making. However, I could also consider it something which could be seen as a short film. That's for the audience to decide! I am debating whether to upload it to FraserFilms135, as I have used three songs to which I do not own the copyright. If I am to upload it, I would have to clearly state that I do not own the copyright to the songs used in this short film. However, ignorance of the law is no excuse and I fully understand that. I also understand that on a day-to-day basis, people all over the world upload music videos of songs they do not own. So to sum up, you might see this video on YouTube...you might not. I hope to get permission from the copyright owners to upload it, so that I can show more people my shuttle launch production, other than just family and friends!

So I'll leave you with this...anything is possible...when you believe. Subtly quoting SeaWorld Orlando? Or something far greater? (again another SeaWorld quote!) I'll leave you to figure out the rest. God speed. Whoops, just given away the answer!