Comment: Apparently it Does Matter if You’re Black or White

(Edited version of my competition entry. Click image to view layout on ISSUU.)

Racism is something we’re all aware; we hear about it constantly in society, in football and in our everyday lives, but what about in film?

It’s likely that you would have heard stories about directors, writers and producers typecasting characters and it’s not uncommon to see particular actors play the same racial stereotype all of the time. What is a rarity, however, is an audience’s reaction when they don’t agree with the race of a character cast in a certain role.

General Manager Leaves The Poly

Two-year serving General Manager Ciaran Clarke has left his position at Falmouth’s arts and science venue, The Poly.

Ciaran withdrew from The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society at the beginning of March due to a change in personal circumstances, but also from a desire to get back into making and creating theatre again.

“It’s a place I care about a great deal, and one I’d like to continue to play a part in seeing it blossom as a cultural hub for Cornwall and the South West,” he said.

Luis Prieto Talks Remaking Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Pusher’

(Published in Fan The Fire. Click image to view layout on ISSUU)

Set to have its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, Charlie Derry interviews Luis Prieto, director of the upcoming crime thriller, Pusher, about remaking a Nicolas Winding Refn cult classic, as well as working with British actor Richard Coyle and world-class model Agyness Deyn.

Set to be released later this year, Pusher is the first in a trilogy of films that explores the criminal underworld of Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally written and directed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for last year’s highly acclaimed crime thriller, Drive, and released in 1996 with the same name, Pusher is known for being the film that launched Refn’s career.

Interview: CEO Gregory Galant Discusses The Shorty Awards

(Click image to view layout on ISSUU.)

With this year’s ceremony coming to an end, Charlie Derry talks to Gregory Galant, the co-creator of The Shorty Awards, about how getting recognised for using social media can advance your career, and why it is important to keep your social media profiles up to date in today’s society.

Set up in 2008 by New York technology start-up company Sawhorse Media, The Shorty Awards honour the best producers of short content on the web, recognising people and industries using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, FourSquare, and the rest of the social internet.

Face Equality In Film: Changing The Way We Perceive People With Facial Disfigurements

(Click image to view layout on ISSUU)

It’s a cold and rainy night. A man with a badly burnt face sits alone in his parked car. Outside a woman is returning home; the man sits and watches her. As she reaches her house the man goes to approach her. He knocks on the door. What happens next?

This is what we are made to question in the latest video campaign from Changing Faces, the UK’s leading disfigurement charity. Charlie Derry talks to one of the charity’s members, Alison Rich, about how they aim to change our perceptions of people with facial disfigurements, with a focus on how they are portrayed in the media.

Film Review: The Lucky One

(Published on Lost In The Multiplex and in Issue 10 of my publication In Retrospect)

Rating:

Directed by Scott Hicks with screenplay by Will Fetters, The Lucky One is an adaptation of the 2008 novel of the same name written by Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook.

Starring Zac Efron in the lead role as an ex-Marine, the film follows Sergeant Logan Thibault who, whilst fighting in Iraq, finds a photograph a woman, Beth Clayton (Taylor Schilling), whom he credits for keeping him alive. Wanting to thank the woman he believes to have kept him alive during his time in the war, Logan travels to Louisiana where he finds single-mother Beth and ends up taking a job at her family-run kennels with her grandmother (Blythe Danner). As Logan gets to know Beth, however, the secret of why he turned up at her door in the first place becomes deeper and deeper buried. Whilst Beth’s ex-husband Keith (Jay R. Ferguson) becomes determined to find out for himself, a romance begins to blossom between Logan and Beth, but has the secret been kept for too long?

Global Film Project Calls For Contributions

(Written for The National Student. Click image to view layout on ISSUU)

Ever wanted to be a part of an international film? Well The Upload Project are giving you the opportunity to do just that, with the chance to contribute a short video of yourself to their global filmmaking project.

Based in Bristol, The Upload Project is an online film collaboration organised by three final year Drama students at The University of Bristol.

Launched in February earlier this year, their project looks to bring together people from all around the world by using the internet.