my last blog post

i'm aware i haven't used this blog since october and even then my posts were fairly irregular so i've decided to formally shut it down. who knows, maybe i'll start blogging again some day, but i don't want it to just sit here abandoned. there's something weird about abandoned blogs; they're like empty houses but with all the stuff belonging to the previous owner left behind. bloggers project an illusion of activity. even writing about something impersonal like film reviews still suggests some activity; that the person writing went out and did a thing, even if that thing most involved sitting down. the blogger lives, as long as they continue to blog. when they stop suddenly it's like the person writing has ceased to exist. i don't want that to happen here so this is me signing off. i still exist, but i'll mostly be existing on twitter and youtube now.

before i go i thought i'd write one last post. it's part blogging history, part blogging highlights and it will be long, but probably shorter than if you were to read my whole blog from day one. probably.

my first post is dated 20th september 2014, but it's not the best place to start. i wrote more of an introduction in my review of chill (because i didn't want to write about the film) so there's more about me there if you're interested. i don't know why you would be, i'm not that interesting. i'd been offline for a long time at that point due to a hacking/cyberbullying incident that i talked about later. i'd intended to stay offline, but i just couldn't shake the idea that i could be a success on youtube. that sounds so fucking idiotic when i read it back, but it was true. i felt like it was my calling; like i couldn't possibly do anything else. if i'd known then what i know now... anyway, that's youtube, let's stay focused on the blog.

when i started i didn't really know what i was doing. i reviewed films, music, video games, books, live shows and even reality tv (if anyone wants to start a petition for most haunted to bring back dr. john callow i'll share the fuck out of that thing). i wasn't ready to start making my own content on youtube at that point but i decided to do what i thought was the next best thing - i interviewed some youtubers. there was morgan gleave, amber goluckie, bianca allaine and george reece. just over a year later george appeared on my youtube channel and i interviewed him in person -

towards the end of 2014 i was starting to receive emails from publicists and distributors asking if i'd review stuff for them. i turned down these requests at first; i wanted to choose what i wanted to write about and i liked that it didn't have to be whatever was being released that week. then i started to receive emails about really interesting titles from labels like eureka and arrow who were releasing films that i either already loved or wanted to see anyway. so i started reviewing new releases, or in most cases re-releases of cult classics, and suddenly i was a legit film critic.

my personal favourite of these has to be my review of the human centipede 3 (final sequence). i loved that film and i felt like my take on it was a little different to what everyone else was writing about it. that review became one of my most popular posts, the director tom six retweeted it and the star of the film, dieter laser, even called me a genius.

@pazvsstuff most intelligent critic I read about THC3 yet

— Dieter Laser (@Dieter_Laser) 6 July 2015

@pazvsstuff I mean it you are genius no matter if you would have liked it or not - just highly able to read and assess

— Dieter Laser (@Dieter_Laser) 6 July 2015

along with the films i was being sent to review i continued to write about titles that interested me or that i thought i had a different take on. see no evil 2 was one of these and another review that was praised by the filmmakers -

@pazvsstuff You rock! Thank you for taking the time to check it out & share your thoughts.

— The Soska Sisters (@twisted_twins) 6 January 2015

i also reviewed the microbudget found-footage film hungerford, which i only mention here because a year later i attended the v.i.p. screening of director drew casson's latest film, darkest dawn -

more on that later.

another blogging highlight is the piece i wrote about the ghostbusters reboot, or more specifically the reaction to the ghostbusters reboot. i got into some juicy arguments on twitter because of that one, something i used to enjoy. i don't enjoy arguing with people on twitter so much anymore. i've realised you have no idea who you're really talking to, and that's not always a good thing. sometimes the internet doesn't seem like much of a fun place at all, which is part of the reason i'm shutting down my blog. i talk a bit about that here, and this is when i'd only just started to have problems -

on a happier note, my personal blogging highlight of last year was the found footage horror blogathon where i wrote about a bunch of found footage movies. i also did a couple of interviews as part of the series, one with michael steinberg who runs foundfootagecritic.com and another with warren dudley, who directed the cutting room.

here are a few more of my film reviews that i think are worth checking out, either because they're interesting films or because i have a different take on them -

everly
batman: arkham origins
digging up the marrow
chuck norris vs. communism
nekromantik 2
superbob
batman v superman: dawn of justice
society

my blog activity really started to slow down in july of this year, mostly because an exciting opportunity had come up. teneighty is a magazine that focuses on uk youtube culture and earlier this year i joined their news team. this felt like it was a huge step at the time - suddenly i had an editor and deadlines and it required a level of professionalism i wasn't really used to but that i found really motivating. you can check out everything i wrote for teneighty here, but the real highlights for me were the interviews with carlos montero from youth killed it and with james moran, creator of mina murray's journal. i'm particularly fond of the interview with james because i think re-telling dracula on youtube is such a great idea and i love that the characters exist and interact with their audience on twitter.

then there was the darkest dawn screening i referred to earlier. this was huge for me, it felt like the culmination of all the work i'd put into my writing, starting with that first blog post in september 2014. it felt like i was being taken seriously, and it felt like maybe this was something i could do full time. as a career. i also got to meet some super famous youtubers like bethan leadley and cherry wallis -

and i finally met writer, actor and youtuber paul neafcy who had featured in one of my videos earlier in the year -

it was great to see the film too and to write about it. i think that night was the happiest i've been for a long time. my only regret is that i didn't film it but maybe that's for the best. maybe the memory is better than the reality anyway.

i wrote a couple more pieces for teneighty then i quit. it feels weird saying that after writing about how much i was enjoying it and i really was enjoying it. suddenly it felt like i had prospects and ideas for things i wanted to do. i quit anyway. i won't go into my reasons in great detail here. all you really need to know is in this video -

i may return to writing and blogging at some point, but if i do it will be under a different name and in a different place. the concept of identity and of being myself online used to seem like a big deal to me but i'm not sure it matters anymore. reinvention is the only way i can see myself getting through this, if i can get through it at all.

for now i'd just like to thank everyone who's been reading this blog over the years, especially those who have commented or retweeted and shared the links on twitter. if you want to stay in touch i'd recommend my youtube channel, pazvsstuff. i post videos roughly every two weeks and if you leave a comment i will always reply eventually.

thanks for reading.

paz

interview with warren dudley - director of the cutting room

warren dudley wrote and directed a rather creepy and effective found footage horror film called the cutting room, which i reviewed last week.

it turns out we follow each other on twitter so i asked warren if he would be up for answering a few questions about the film for my blog and he kindly agreed. here's the interview -

what made you decide to make a found footage horror film, and were you a fan of the format before you started?

I love the format yes. I think when it's done well (particularly with horror) that you can really take the audience to the centre of the story. The tunnels sequence at the end would not have been half as scary shot traditionally I don't think.

i feel like there's a misconception about found footage films that they're somehow easier to shoot. did you find anything about the process easier than shooting a more traditional feature, and equally was any of it more difficult than you thought it would be?

It's easier technically. If you set out to make a film look like it's been shot by students you take away a lot of the normal pressures regarding cinematography etc... however it can get boring and hard to watch pretty quickly if done badly. We tried to find a happy medium though and kept the camera fairly steady throughout.

how did you find the location for the end sequence, and was it as terrifying to film there as it looked?

The underground tunnels are at Newhaven Fort in Sussex.... my wife is the Events Manager there! It's always less scary when you are surrounded by a film crew however one night I was left on my own down there mopping up fake blood in the dark... not for the faint hearted!

The Fort is open to the public so you can visit the set if you like.

how did you find your cast, and what did you do to help them appear so natural on camera?

Casting Call Pro. We had 1,100 applicants for the three main roles. We saw about 20 people and Lucy, Lydia and Parry stood out... particularly during the improv stuff we asked them to do. We didn't rehearse much so their performances on set were lovely and natural.

You can see their first auditions on our 'Making Of' film on the DVD.

did you have a full script for the cutting room, or was some of it improvised?

It was about 90% scripted I think and a bit of ad libbing thrown in. I'm never precious with scripts. I'd rather actors felt natural with dialogue as long as the point gets across by the end of the scene.

what are some of your favourite horror films?

I'm a fan of the classic 70's horrors like The Omen, Rosemary's Baby etc. They evoke an unease that modern horror doesn't seem to do.

Oh and a mention for An American Werewolf in London. A classic of my youth. The tunnels stuff in TCR was my little homage to the London Underground scene in the movie!

did you have any issues or take any special precautions to record the sound? it seemed really clear throughout, which is impressive considering how much the camera is moving around.

Just a great sound recordist. It's one of the areas with low budget film that seems to always get forgotten, yet it's something an audience won't accept. So hats off to Kirstie Howell.

where did the idea for the story of the cutting room come from, and was any of it based on real stories?

Not based on any true stories no. Obviously the idea of three students making a film for college and getting caught up in a terrible situation is not a new one (Blair Witch!) So I just tried to give it a dreary British feel. We also didn't use a supernatural element which most FF films seem to fall back on. Our bad guy very real.

the killer has a pretty awesome mask. was that something you had designed for the film?

£8.99 paintball mask from eBay + stage blood and mud...!

what are you working on next?

My next feature is a Psychological Thriller called 'Cage' - due for worldwide release in the summer. It stars Lucy from The Cutting Room. Here's the trailer -

thanks to warren for agreeing to the interview and for providing an insight into the making of the film.

you can follow warren on twitter for more cutting room and cage news @warrendudley

also, check out the cutting room website for information on where to find the film.

the cutting room

the cutting room is a british found footage film about three teenage media students tasked with making a documentary by their college tutor, himself a failed filmmaker. in addition, the tutor asks them to document the filmmaking process, hence the perfect set-up for a found footage film. the students decide to tackle cyberbullying as their subject matter but their investigation soon leads them into dangerous territory.

from the opening minutes the cutting room looks as though it's going to be a rather grim torture porn movie set in a creepy location. there is a sub-genre of horror that i'll call location-inspired horror, where the filmmakers have found a cool location and decided to set an entire film there. thankfully, that's not the case here. writer/director warren dudley instead spends time developing the characters and the story first, pulling back on the horror until the last possible moment and this really pays off.

the three main characters, charlie (lucy-jane quinlan), jess (lydia orange) and raz (parry glasspool) are all really likable and the cast do a great job making them feel real. there's a perfect naivety in the script and the performances that makes it totally believable that these characters would plunge themselves into a highly dangerous situation without fully considering the consequences. there's a great scene where the three are discussing possible topics for their documentary and it really reminded me of working on similar college projects myself without any thought of the practicalities.

the investigation into cyberbullying and one case in particular is actually the most enjoyable portion of the film and there's a nice balance between showing that these kids have no idea what they're doing and also having them make some genuine progress. at the same time there's a sense of constant creeping terror as they move closer to the truth, or at perhaps the truth moves closer to them. all this builds to a third act finale where full use is made of the aforementioned creepy location.

the cutting room perhaps isn't as innovative or ambitious as some of the films i've reviewed recently, but it is a well-produced and effective horror film bolstered by a talented cast and an interesting location so it's definitely worth seeing.

the found footage blogathon will run throughout february in which time i plan to review as many films as possible and maybe throw in a few extras as well. if you'd like to be involved and post your own content, send me a link via twitter with the tag #foundfootageblogathon. i'll retweet your link and will include it in a summary post at the end of the month. you can find a full list of the films i'll be reviewing here.