Film Editor of Heat to give Film Guest Lecture

Charles Gant, the Film Editor for Heat magazine, and writer/director Neil Hunter are coming to University College Falmouth to round up this year’s FilmAtFalmouth Guest Lecture Series on Friday 6 May. 

In addition to his role as Film Editor of Heat magazine, the UK celebrity entertainment weekly Charles’ freelance activities include writing a monthly column on box-office for Sight & Sound and a weekly box-office commentary for Guardian.co.uk. This has has led to him presenting items on the subject for BBC1's Film 2011. He is a regular film reviewer for Claudia Winkleman's Radio 2 arts show, and for Hollywood trade paper Variety. He is also a consultant on film for the Saturday Times Magazine, and is a contributing editor of Wired UK.  

The lecture given by Charles Gant will focus on all aspects of the film industry, from journalism to production and from distribution to exhibition.  

Neil Hunter has co-written and directed three feature films with Tom Hunsinger: Boyfriends, The Lawless Heart and Sparkle. Based on improvisation, they have won numerous awards and wide distribution. They are currently developing a fourth, Three Way Split. With Rupert Jones he has written a short film, The Sickie (starring Toby Jones) and contemporary comedy, Cossacks; and with Natalie Sirett, a mystery drama set in the 1970s, The Sycamores. He has new work in development with both. He has taught screenwriting at the London Film School and the Arvon Foundation, and has mentored for Moonstone and Equinoxe Germany.

Following Charles’ lecture Neil will give a director’s introduction to a screening of Sparkle, his 2007 comedy. Attendeees will also have the opportunity to take part in a questions and answer (Q&A) session with Neil and Charles after the screening.

Kingsley Marshall, Award Leader for BA (Hons) Film says; “Charles and Neil close an outstanding range of guest speakers in this years series. Danny Miller and Matt Bochenski, the publisher and editor of Little White Lies, have been followed compositor Matt Walsh, screenwriters such as Tammy Riley Smith and Neil Fox, feature film director Joannes Roberts, HorsesOnScreen’s Josie Kenyon and sound designer Russ Jones. These fascinating speakers have opened up internship opportunities for the course, extending upon our continuing work with Warp Films, and offer many years of experience for our current students, and members of the public who have attended the events. We’re already working on a wishlist for the next academic year.”

Friday 6 May, 5.30pm to 8.30pm in the Media Centre Cinema on the Tremough Campus, University College Falmouth, Penryn.

All welcome but advance booking of tickets is required through eventbrite http://charlesgant.eventbrite.com/
For further information about BA(Hons) Film at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/film, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214368.

UCF is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the right to award degrees in its own name.  The University College has two campuses – at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns and jointly manages with the University of Exeter).  

UCF’s merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008 created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth’s expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington’s expertise in Dance, Music, Theatre, Artand Writing.  The Dartington-based courses have now relocated to an impressive, high-specification £19M Performance Centre at the Tremough Campus, which launched this October.  The ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence Programme invested £12,266,667 in this development which will prepare performance students for success within the creative industries.  The South West Regional Development Agency’s Single Pot Fund contributed a further £3M, with the remainder being invested by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Strategic Development Fund.

The Performance Centre is the latest phase in UCF’s ambition to create a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unrivalled in the South West.

UCF is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council. 

William & Kate: The Movie on Blinkbox

You can watch Hollywood’s version of the royal love story on at blinkbox from Saturday 23^rd April before it hits British TV screens and get the inside scoop behind the gilded curtain into the world's greatest true-life fairytale ahead of the big day next Friday.

Euronews presents "I Talk"

I Talk is a new dynamic interview programme presented by Alex Taylor, the well-known and respected European journalist, in a  virtual studio.  Alex hosts a face-to-face interview, in an informative and informal style, and in a 3D environment, offering a new dimension to the top stories on euronews.

The viewers will enjoy the multimedia format of the programme, interacting via videos posted on euronews.net and reports collected by correspondents. Opinion polls, statistics and unexpected items will enrich the debate.

Alex Taylor will put viewers' questions to politicians, intellectuals, artists, sports personalities, CEO's and business leaders who help shape world opinion.

I Talk is a bi-monthly 8' programme broadcast throughout the week, edited in the 10 linguistic services of the channel.

This week: an interview with the ISS* crew, in duplex from space, celebrating Yuri Gagarin's 50th anniversary of the first man in space

*International Space Station

On air from Friday 15th April at 20:45 CET Paris - 19:45 London - 22:45 Moscow - 14:45 New York.

Next issue: Thursday 21st April, 5th, 19th May, 2nd June... and every second week thereafter.

Available in catch-up on euronews.net

Royal Wedding App from ITN Productions

As the world waits in anticipation for the Royal Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton, ITN Productions has launched its Royal Wedding video app exclusively on GetJar, the world’s largest open app store. Visitors to GetJar can download the app a week in advance of its release into the Android Market Place. 

Royal family enthusiasts can now follow William and Kate’s wedding preparations every step of the way by downloading the Royal Wedding app for Android and iPhone - completely free on GetJar for the next seven days, available at: http://www.getjar.com/mobile/71394/itn-royal-wedding-for-apple-ipad/?f=1

The app, developed to support ITN’s Royal Wedding Channel on YouTube, delivers up to date news and entertaining video content on all things royal in the run up to the big day on April 29^th. With hours of video content packed into the app and more being added each day, the app provides a quick and entertaining way to keep up to date with the nation’s favourite couple.

Miguel Tatay, Head of Mobile at ITN Productions, said: “We wanted to reach the largest possible audience and make the app open and available to everyone. As the world’s largest open app store, GetJar was the obvious choice to launch and distribute The Royal Wedding app.”

Patrick Mork, CMO of GetJar commented: “We’re thrilled to be able to offer The Royal Wedding app exclusively on GetJar. The Royal wedding is the talk of the town and downloading this app will allow everyone to feel part of it. We expect this is going to be extremely popular and are delighted to be able to make this app free to consumers on GetJar”.

Watch Me Move - The Animation Show

15 June –11 September 2011, Media View, 10am – 1pm, Tuesday 14 June, Barbican Art Gallery, London

WATCH ME MOVE is the most extensive exhibition ever mounted to present the full range of animated imagery produced in the last 150 years. It brings together industry pioneers, independent film-makers and contemporary artists including Étienne-Jules Marey, Harry Smith, Jan Švankmajer, William Kentridge and Nathalie Djurberg alongside the creative output of commercial studios such as Walt Disney, Aardman, Studio Ghibli and Pixar. Presenting animation as a highly influential force in the development of global visual culture, WATCH ME MOVE explores the relationship between animation and film and offers a timely insight into the genre as a cultural phenomenon. Cutting across generations and cultures, the show features over 170 works, from iconic clips to lesser-known masterpieces. Taking the viewer behind the dream-world of the finished film, it includes puppets, stage sets, storyboard drawings, wire-frame visualisations, cel and background images. The exhibition opens at Barbican Art Gallery, London, on 15 June 2011.   

Transforming the gallery into an immersive and cinematic environment, the exhibition is divided into seven interconnected themes:Apparitions, Characters, Superhumans, Fables, Fragments, Structures, and Visions. The first section Apparitions focuses on the emergence of the animated image, from early scientific experiments with photography to computer generated imagery. A pioneer of time-lapse photography, Percy Smith, captures the unseen wonders of the natural world. In The Birth of a Flower,1921, snowdrops and roses blossom in seconds. Speeding up time with his split-second frames photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s now iconic images of animals and humans in motion are also on show. Breathing life into static objects, John Lasseter’s first film for Pixar Animation Studios, Luxo Jr, 1986, follows the antics of a small desk lamp, as its elder lamp affectionately looks on. Contemporary artist Christian Boltanski’s Shadow Cinema, 2011, features cut out silhouettes flickering gently on two large lightboxes, reminiscent of the modest graphic origins of animation.

In the 1930s there was a distinct shift from the early experimental animation to a series of cartoons and feature films designed to attract the masses. Characters presents a host of some of the biggest stars of our animated screens – on cinema and TV – many borne of that time and still popular now. They include Mickey Mouse, Koko the Clown, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Simpsons, Nick Park’sCreature Comforts and the celebrated cast of Toy Story. Whether drawn in pencil, cut with scissors, modelled from clay or generated by the click of a mouse, Characters demonstrates animation’s ability to construct strong, funny, emotive and complex personalities. This section also includes less well-known characters, showing the power of animation to convey social and political issues. For example Tim Webb’s award- winning film, A is for Autism, 1992, which combines word, drawing, music and animation by people with autism.

Individuals with extraordinary powers are a staple of post-war animation. Marvel and DC comics elaborated an initial line-up, while a parallel, more diverse roll-call was created by the Japanese manga and anime industries. Superhumans tend to be ordinary humans, who have been possessed or traumatized beyond the realm of normal experience. In Betty Boop, Ha! Ha! Ha!, 1934, our protagonist accidentally inhales laughing gas causing her whole world to become hysterically alive; in Ralph Bakshi’s ambitious feature Hey Good Lookin’, 1982, the character Crazy hallucinates himself into an orgy of violence and sex during a rooftop shooting spree; whilst the Hulk is an ordinary young men whose body is chemically altered, giving him remarkable strengths coupled with a profound sense of alienation. Other highlights include, Astro Boy,1963-66, set in a futuristic city in 2030, featuring the amazing adventures of a child robot with superpowers. Originally created as a manga character in 1952, by the legendary Osamu Tezuka, it captured the imagination of a nation in need of hopes and dreams.

People have always told and retold stories, whether real or imagined. The technical and artistic qualities of animation, in all its forms, have made it the ideal medium to interpret myths, fables, fairy tales and other forms of collective story-telling. Fables includes one of the oldest surviving animated feature films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926, by Lotte Reiniger. Captivating, intricate and beautiful, it features a silhouette technique invented by Reiniger that involved manipulating cardboard cut-outs and thin sheets of lead placed under a camera, then animated frame by frame. In 1937 Walt Disney made history with the release of Snow White, his first full-length animated feature in glorious Technicolor. Studio Ghibli (founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata) is renowned for its hugely imaginative productions. Although occasionally re-working myths, they have largely focused on inventing their own. For example Princess Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, is the story of a spirited eco-warrior seeking to live a sustainable life whilst guarding against toxic miasma, deadly spores and the invasion of the evil Princess Kushana.

Fragments demonstrates the potential of animation to construct individual stories. The charming simplicity of Belgian artist Francis Alÿs’The Last Clown,1995-2000, uses illustrated line and colour wash to create the humorous tale of a lone, thoughtful man walking up a hill who encounters a dog, stumbles, gets his foot caught in the animal’s tail, and falls. Frank Mouris’s Academy award-winning Frank Film, 1973, cleverly combines thousands of images cut from glossy magazines to create an animated stream of consciousness. The ingeniousness of this film is the dual soundtrack of Mouris’ voice: one an uninterrupted recitation of words, mostly beginning with ‘f’; the other a personal synopsis of his life. Also on show is Tim Burton’s Vincent, 1982, a six minute stop-motion film about a young boy, Vincent Malloy, who longs to be like the actor Vincent Price (narrator of the film) and is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.

Since the earliest days of film, artists have experimented with its most basic properties – form, sound, movement and duration – often for the sheer pleasure of witnessing the results. Structures includes the film Tango, 1980, by Zbigniew Rybczýnski. A collage of overlapping time and space, it shows individuals entering a claustrophobic room, repeatedly, until it fills with a crowd of people, each seemingly oblivious to their neighbours. A Colour Box, 1935, is a riot of light and motion whereby Len Lye painted geometric patterns directly onto celluloid, to a soundtrack of Cuban music. Conveying the excitement of possibilities the moving image presents, Lye later adapted the film for the GPO Film Unit to advertise the postal system. Norman McLaren’s remarkable film Neighbours, 1952, uses stop-motion filming with live characters and props, weaving a dizzying visual tapestry in which two neighbours live peacefully in adjacent cardboard house. When a flower grows between their houses, they fight each other to the death over the ownership of the single small bloom.

Visions looks at how animation has taken us into a whole new virtual sphere. Thanks to the breath-taking realism of CGI technologies, and the emotional persuasiveness of new media techniques, this world is now almost inseparable from our own, as the real and the imaginary continue to collude. Disney’s pioneering film Tron,1982, was inspired by the emerging gaming industries, which developed out of the first commercially viable video game, Computer Space, in 1971. Nearly thirty years on, Avatar, 2009, used technologies that were effectively developed games engines, now so sophisticated that virtual characters (derived from motion-capture renderings of real actors) could be made to move as if through real space. RMB City is the online world of Second Life conceived by Beijing artist Cao Fei (aka China Tracy) as a place for participants – currently around 20 million users – to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams.  

May 2011 at BFI Southbank London

Featuring Russian season Kino

and Bernardo Bertolucci 

 

This May BFI Southbank will unveil its most ambitious review of Russian cinema ever with KINO: Russian Film Pioneers, an epic project and a fresh approach that includes three two-month seasons (Kino, Kosmos and Sukorov) and a BFI national release of Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin, 1926). The Bernardo Bertolucci season concludes with a last chance to watch his brilliant second film Before the Revolution Prima della rivoluzione (1964). Chad based writer-driector Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s A Screaming Man (2010) won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year and will screen as an Extended Run this month, along with a season of his films. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and to pay tribute to his literary and musical genius a selection of his adapted works will screen, including films bySatyajit Ray. The Nation’s Health, as depicted on television, will be explored from Emergency Ward 10 (ATV, 1959) and General Hospital (ATV, 1974), to Only When I Laugh (YTV, 1979) and No Angels (C4-World Productions, 2004). 

 

A wealth of previews will be offered throughout May, including Joe Wright’s hotly anticipated Hanna (2011), starring Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan, Mammuth (2010), with Gérard Depardieu and a special screening ofCopacabana (2010), to mark the presentation of a BFI Fellowship to Isabelle Huppert. Documentaries include the Cannes and London Film Festival hit Le Quattro Volte (2010), Asif Kapadia’s telling of the Brazilian motor-racing champion Senna (2011), and Steven Riley’s Windies cricket documentary Fire in Babylon, plus a Q&As with each of these films’ directors. And a newly restored Apocalypse Now (1979) receives an Extended Run, starting at the end of the month.

 

Seasons

KINO, Russian Film Pioneers, will launch on 5 May with the world premiere of Eisenstein’s The Old and The New (aka The General Line, 1929) featuring a new score commissioned by the BFI and composed by Max De Wardener, Ed Finnis and The Elysian Quartet, who will play live to this screening. A second and exclusive event follows on 20 May when Storm Over Asia (aka The Heir to Genghis Khan, 1928), by Vsevelod Pudovkin, will screen accompanied by a live performance from Yat-Kha – Tuvan musicians who mix traditional Russian music and throat-singing with contemporary rock. KINO starts with silent films from the grandfathers of modern cinema – visionaries such as Sergei Eisentstein, Dziga Vertov and Vsevelod Pudovkin – who have inspired filmmakers ever since the silent era with their boundary-breaking camera techniques and editing styles, alongside narratives dealing with equality and justice that challenged censorship laws. Alongside them will be less familiar, but as vital filmmakers such as Kozintsev and Trauberg, best known for their ‘Maxim’ Trilogy. June will follow with the advent of ‘talkies’ up to post-War Soviet cinema, and will include titles released on DVD, education initiatives and special events, before KOSMOS, the two month Russian Sci-Fi season, begins in July.

XPAND 3D TECHNOLOGY UTILIZED FOR WORLD PREMIERE OF PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

In what promises to be the 3D event of the season, Disney and XPAND 3D today announced a collaboration to show the World Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at Disneyland on the evening of May 7^th.  The film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Rob Marshall and starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane at the head of a star-studded cast, will debut at a charity screening for the Boys & Girls Club of America in eye-popping active 3D by way of XPAND 3D’s new INFINITY Large Screen System.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides captures all the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the franchise as Johnny Depp returns to his role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed adventure.  When Jack crosses paths with a woman of his past (Penelope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love — or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth.  When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past.

Through a special arrangement, XPAND 3D will provide all guests with a pair of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN branded XPAND X103 Universal 3D glasses.  XPAND 3D active glasses can be used at home with 3D televisions, with 3D-enabled projectors, with 3D-capable laptops and in all XPAND 3D cinemas across the US and throughout the world.  The X103 active 3D glasses utilize a fast-switching, liquid crystal cell, know as “pi-cell”--the fastest 3D glasses in the world.

Commenting on the announcement, XPAND 3D Chief Executive Officer Maria Costeira noted: “The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise continues to be one of the world’s most captivating, enduring and commercially successful franchises in the entertainment business.  We are very pleased to be involved in the premiere not least because of the great cause it is supporting but also because a film of this caliber requires the launch platform that XPAND active 3D technology uniquely provides.  We congratulate Disney and the cast and crew on what is another great chapter in the Pirates of the Caribbean story.

Echoing this sentiment, Lylle Breier, SVP Worldwide Special Events, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, said, “Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D is a new dimension in storytelling.  We are pleased to collaborate with XPAND 3D to provide the World Premiere audience with a remarkably captivating movie experience using this highly advanced, deeply immersive technology.”

Using a patented controller, XPAND Infinity can support almost any screen size, shape and surface. Whether the screen is 300 feet or 30 feet wide, flat, curved, dome-shaped or even Cinerama format, XPAND Infinity will transform the theater into the finest 3D environment. An unlimited number of Infinity systems can be linked together to operate as a large-scale system.

For more information on XPAND 3D please visit www.xpand.me.

About XPAND 3D:

The global leader in the 3D market, XPAND Universal 3D glasses are the only 3D glasses that work with all the 3DTV brands and models, 3D computers, 3D gaming consoles and cinema. Its 3D glasses are affordable for cinema owners and home users while providing 3D quality that was originally available only at a professional cost. XPAND has the extraordinary combination of experienced and visionary leadership, state-of-the-art technology, and economies of scale that will provide a backbone for the cinema and consumer electronics industries as they further transition into the 3D future.  X6D Limited is a global company whose products and services are marketed under the XPAND 3D brand name. XPAND 3D was created by industry veterans in theatrical exhibition, entertainment, film production and distribution, and specialty film and digital technologies and is funded by a European investment fund. XPAND 3D technology is used by over 3,500 3D cinemas in more than 50 countries and is the 3D solution of choice for post-production houses, educational and professional 3D applications. XPAND 3D designs, manufactures and OEMs a range of consumer electronics 3D solutions that are driving the 3D revolution.

About the Movie:

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Rob Marshall, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” captures the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the hit franchise—this time in Disney Digital 3D™. Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed adventure. Crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penélope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past. The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.

Walt Disney Pictures’ and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” opens in theaters May 20, 2011, in Disney Digital 3D™, with screen story and screenplay by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, based on characters created by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert, and suggested by the novel by Tim Powers.  

Cineworld announces international expansion

UK’s leading cinema chain acquires major Spanish cinema operator

Cineworld Group plc today announces its first continental acquisition, of Cinesur Circuito Sánchez-Ramade, S.L. (‘Cinesur’), a Spanish cinema operator.

Cinesur is the fifth largest operator in Spain and the largest in the Andalucia region. The acquisition will make Cineworld the largest multiplex operator in Andalucia with eleven multiplexes and a total of 136 screens.

Spain, with its population of 47 million, is the fifth largest cinema market in Europe with annual revenues of circa €800m in 2009 and average cinema attendance per person of circa 2.38 times per year compared to 2.81 times per year in the UK (source: Dodona Research).

Commenting on the acquisition, Steve Wiener, Chief Executive Officer of Cineworld, said:

"We are delighted to be making our first continental acquisition, taking us into a market which we believe has good growth prospects. Cinesur is an attractive platform for growing market share in a country that is serviced by many smaller cinema operators.

“We look forward to developing Cinesur to bring it in line with our market-leading UK operations, where a wide range of programming, excellent customer service and creative marketing saw us take the position of no. 1 at the box office in the UK for 2010”.

The Trotter Family are Back!

Rock and Chips:

The Frog and The Pussycat 

 Released on DVD on May 2 

 

Catch up with the Trotters as they return for a third hilarious helping of Rock & Chips in this hour-long comedy drama from the pen of John Sullivan.

Rock & Chips: The Frog and the Pussycat stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as light-fingered Freddie Robdal, Kellie Bright as ever-hopeful Joan Trotter and James Buckley as the young Del Boy. Phil Daniels returns as Grandad, Shaun Dingwall is back as work-shy Reg Trotter and Robert Daws is Joan Trotter’s sleazy manager Raynor. Paula Wilcox picks up her knitting needles again as Reg’s mother Violet and Mel Smith is back to restore law and order to the streets of Peckham as Freddie’s nemesis DI Thomas. 

This special is an essential addition for all fans of Britain’s favourite sitcom, Only Fools and Horses.  

Rock & Chips: The Frog and The Pussycat is available for RRP £17.99.

Also available Rock & Chips: The Story So Far - Episodes 1-3 Triple Pack for RRP £24.99 

Synopsis


It’s 1961 and Joan is still keeping the Trotter fortunes afloat, holding down two jobs – one at the Ritz cinema and the other as Freddie Robdal’s charlady. But she’s been working for Freddie for six months and still doesn’t know how to turn on his hoover – their time is spent in far more romantic pursuits.  Back at the Ritz, Joan is plagued by the less welcome attentions of her boss, Raynor. Every day she dreams of a new life with Freddie, but she knows she needs to see Del settled first. 

Del is doing his best, continuing to get himself hitched to half of Peckham. He’s particularly keen on the voluptuous Barbara - whose father has a thriving funeral business and a well-appointed home in Peckham posh-spot King’s Avenue. Things are going extremely well until Del gets trapped in the kitchen with Barbara’s inebriated mum...

Meanwhile, DI Thomas is still desperate to get an arrest for the Margate jewellery heist and Freddie’s fondness for Joan proves to be his undoing.

Rock and Chips: The Frog and the Pussycat Cast and Crew

• Nicholas Lyndhurst – Freddie ‘The Frog’ Robdal
• Kellie Bright – Joan Trotter
• James Buckley – Del Trotter
• Shaun Dingwell – Reg Trotter
• Phil Daniels – Grandad
• Written by John Sullivan 

Rock and Chips: The Frog and the Pussycat DVD Technical Information
Release Date:   2^nd May 2011
Distributor:  Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Frui Launches Street Photography Weekend Break to Berlin

Photography holiday specialists, Frui Creative Holidays and Courses, has today launched an action packed 3-night Street Photography break to Berlin, Germany.
 
Budding street photography enthusiasts can now hone their skills in Europe’s creative nerve centre. Fun, Inspiring and informative, guests will return home with stunning shots of life on the street in and around Berlin’s most buzzing districts and sites, including the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the Eastside Gallery.
  
Frui’s street photography tutor, Louis Amore (www.louisamore.com), says, “Street Photography is becoming so popular and during this break guests will learn some fundamental techniques and approaches used by pros, meaning they too can capture those magical moments that are easily missed. What’s so exciting about street photography is the unpredictability. You don’t know what is going to happen and what you’ll photograph, that’s what makes this trip so exciting!”
 
But it’s not all about taking pictures, Frui Co-Director, Henry Carroll, is keen to remind us, “On all our holidays excellent food and accommodation is just as important as the tuition and Berlin offers so much! As well as having a professional street photographer with them at all times, guests will also be treated to Bavarian feasts, ballroom dancing lessons and they’ll even have the chance to play some late night ping pong!”
 
Frui stands apart from other photography holiday suppliers due to their more youthful, contemporary approach to teaching photography. Frui also charges no single supplement, meaning all guests enjoy their own en suite accommodation at no extra cost.

Dates and Prices:
 
2 - 5 June 2011
 
3-night Street Photography holiday to Berlin, Germany costs £499 and includes everything apart from meals, drinks and flights.
 
Website links:
 
About Photography Holiday
http://www.frui.co.uk/creative_holidays/photography_holidays/berlin 
 

DOUBLE IDENTITY

On DVD 16^th May 2011  

Val Kilmer (Heat, Top Gun) becomes entangled in a deadly web of lies and murder when he is wrongly identified as a secret agent in DOUBLE IDENTITY. Set in Chechnya, this taut action-packed spy-thriller also stars Izabella Miko (Clash of the Titans) and Julian Wadham (The English Patient) and will be available to own on DVD from 16^th May 2011. 

Dr. Nicholas Pinter (Kilmer) is an American physician working for Doctors Beyond Borders when he is mistakenly identified as a secret agent by the Russian mafia. After a violent pursuit by two mobsters, he escapes a close brush with death when he is rescued by the beautiful and mysterious Katrine (Miko) from the British Secret Service. But Nicholas soon realises that the deadly game has only just begun… 
 

DOUBLE INDENTITY Cast & Crew:

• Val Kilmer (Heat, Batman Forever, Top Gun, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
• Izabella Miko (Clash of the Titans, Coyote Ugly,)
• Julian Wadham (The English Patient, Exorcist: The Beginning,)
• Directed by Dennis Dimster

DOUBLE IDENTITY Technical Information:  

• Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic 2.35:1    
• Run time: 100 Minutes Approx. 
• Languages: English 
• Subtitles: English for the Hearing Impaired 
• Cert:   15 tbc 
• RRP:  £9.99
• Copyright: © 2011 Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK. All Rights Reserved.

EcoVision Festival 2011

Call for entries to participate at the EcoVision Festival 2011 edition are open.

The Festival will take place in Brazil next summer.

You can download the regulations and entry form from our website www.ecovisionfestival.com,

in “2011 Edition” section in the menu on the right.

Please, read carefully the regulations before you enter your film.

Swat The Mozzy and Win Cool Prizes

new game from non profit Malaria No More UK 

Swat the Mozzy, a simple point and click game developed by UK charity Malaria No More UK, just got a little bit cleverer. The player who manages to swat the most mozzies between now and 25^thApril, World Malaria Day, will get the chance to win a host of fab prizes and help raise awareness about malaria at the same time.  

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that affects half of the world’s population and claims 781,000 lives every year, most of those are children in Africa.  

Share Swat the Mozzy with your friends! Prizes up for grabs for the swiftest swatter include a range of signed memorabilia by British tennis star Andy Murray and Queen of the Jungle Stacey Solomon’s hat from when she was swatting away bugs on I’m A celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! last year. 

Get swatting! malarianomore.org.uk/swat-the-mozzy 

Did you know?

• Malaria kills 781,000 people each year, affecting almost half the world’s population, over 90% of those are in Africa.
• Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that claims the life of a child every 45 seconds.
• On average there are nine deaths from malaria in the UK every year
• Every year on average 1,900 Brits return to the UK with malaria
• Insecticidal bed nets can reduce malaria deaths in children by one fifth (20%) and episodes of malaria by half (50%). 

The prizes in detail

• Signed tennis balls from Andy Murray (X4)
• Signed Andy Murray autobiography (X1)
• Signed photographs of Andy Murray (X1)
• Malaria No More UK T-Shirt signed by Andy Murray (X1)
• Signed jungle hat from Stacey Solomon (X1)

itfc gets William & Kate

 Inside The Royal Wedding DVD ready for retail 

5 April 2011 – itfc, a subsidiary of the Deluxe Entertainment Services Group and supplier of post-production, subtitling and digital media services, has completed work on William & Kate – Inside The Royal Wedding DVD. The Simply Home Entertainment DVD takes an inside look at the upcoming royal wedding that’s got everyone talking.

Completing the preparation work in advance of receiving the masters meant that the team at itfc could complete the authoring within 24 hours, ensuring the project could be uploaded to the replication facility in Austria in time for Monday morning.

“As we’ve worked with itfc in the past, we knew they’d be able to complete the project in time and to the standard we were looking for,” said Jo Ware, Production & Rights Manager at Simply Home Entertainment. “As always they surpassed expectations and were flexible throughout the process.”

“Having comprehensive supporting facilities on site, which include video and audio restoration, means that we’re able to provide a complete service to all our clients without the time and logistical implications of sending material for additional and often unexpected work.” said Ian Beushaw, head of Digital Media at itfc.”

Trackman

On DVD 16th May 2011  

Horror lurks underground in this new, twisted Russian horror film. The makers of 30 Days of Night and The Grudge present TRACKMAN, available to own on DVD from the 16^th May (RRP £9.99).

A perfect bank heist turns deadly when the criminals and their hostages flee to an abandoned underground subway station to escape the authorities. Searching for a way out, they don’t realise that they are being hunted by the Trackman; a madman that prowls the darkness, looking for potential victims. 

Exisiting in the dark, dank tunnels of an abandoned subway system and preying on those who venture from the safety of the streets above, the Trackman is a lone serial killer who specialises in collecting eyeballs… 

TRACKMAN DVD technical details:

• Number of discs:  1
• RRP:    £9.99
• Certificate:   18 (UK) TBC (Ireland)
• Audio:    Russian Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
• English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
• Running time:  87 Minutes Approx.
• Aspect Ratio:   Anamorphic 2.35:1
• Feature is viewable with Russian audio with optional English subtitles or dubbed with English audio.

Launch of Sony Xperia™ PLAY

·         The world’s first PlayStation® Certified smartphone now launching to first markets

·         More than 60 games available within the first week, including top franchises Assassins Creed, Need for Speed and The Sims

·         Original PlayStation® titles available for download exclusively on Xperia™ PLAY

·         Partnerships with over 20 publishers as well as middleware companies Unity and Havok to ensure a steady flow of new innovative games

London, April 1, 2011 – Sony Ericsson Xperia™ PLAY, the world’s first PlayStation® certified smartphone, is now on sale in shops in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan  with further availability in an additional 6 markets over the next 2 weeks. The Xperia™ PLAY launches with more than 60 games from the industry’s biggest content providers including Sony Computer Entertainment, Gameloft, Electronic Arts and Glu Mobile. The range of games available to download at launch is a combination of original PlayStation® titles, well known 3D titles that take the full advantage of the graphical capabilities and controls of Xperia™ PLAY as well as popular casual games all optimized for the unique game pad.

Sony Ericsson has formed partnerships with over 20 developers from big publishers to independents, from middleware providers Havok and Unity to engaging Android developers, to ensure a steady flow of new titles for Xperia™ PLAY. Some of the highlights include:

·         Assassins Creed Altair’s Chronicles HD  - One of the most popular gaming franchises, with action, puzzles and stealth gameplay set in the Middle East of the Crusades

·         Need for Speed - Grab the wheel of the fastest, hottest, and most powerful cars in the world. One of the most successful video game franchises of all times.

·         Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – The latest instalment in this key franchise. Special Forces operative and renegade Sam Fisher returns to fight a corrupt secret agency.

·         Dungeon Defenders Second Wave – Stunning graphics, intense gameplay and exclusive on Xperia PLAY.

·         Gun Bros – Choose your weapon and join the ‘Freakishly Rugged’ action heroes Percy and Francis Gun as they take on a terrifying menagerie of alien beings.

·         Galaxy on Fire 2 – Escape into space with hours of deep gameplay and mind blowing graphics in this space exploration game.

·         Guns ‘n’ Glory – You lead a gang of bandits in this popular and award-winning casual tower defence game with a hilarious western theme.

·         Worms – Send your worm platoons into battle in this award-winning turn-based strategy game.

·         Zenonia 2 - The lost memories – Classic and popular RPG. Numerous quests following an epic storyline.

·         Backstab - An epic 3^rd person pirate adventure that incorporates intense sword fights and other dynamic combat modes. Launching on April 14^th exclusively on Xperia™ PLAY. 

·         N.O.V.A.2 - Awesome graphics and intense multiplayer gameplay. This First-Person Shooter makes its Android debut exclusively on Xperia™ PLAY.

In addition Sony Ericsson is happy to confirm that Asphalt 6 – the latest instalment of one of the leading and top-selling racing games will be available for free exclusively on Xperia™ PLAY.

The games are downloadable via the “Xperia™ PLAY launcher”, an application that is activated by sliding open the gamepad.  The “Xperia™ PLAY launcher” recommends games and enables consumers to search for top titles optimised for Xperia™ PLAY on Android market.

There is also a range of PlayStation® original games available at launch (in select markets initially). These are comprised of a pre-install of the PS One classic Crash Bandicoot®* and a further 5 PlayStation® original games available to download via the PlayStation® Pocket application in Xperia™ PLAY.