Free Man in Glasgow

Its been a busy few years for the film industry in Glasgow!

As mentioned in my first post, Brad Pitt was in the city last August filming for World War Z, with other Hollywood stars to swiftly follow, including Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson and James McAvoy, which I'll talk about in my blogs to come.  I didn't realise just how many big "stars" had been filming on set in Glasgow in the past, at present time now and to be, in the near future.


Whilst researching for my blogs I learned that Morgan Freeman, whom I consider to be one of the many greats in the acting world, set afoot Glasgow back in 2005 for the film named Unleashed, but it was later re-released as Danny The Dog. Directed by Louis Leterrier, he describes it as an all American-British-French martial arts action thriller film!




Other cast members include Bob Hoskins, famous for many films like Roger Rabbit and Jet Li, a martial arts great! I haven't seen the film but I plan on now, it seems like a good action film plus I do like Morgan Freeman and a bit of action! Also it would be quite fun being able to point out some of the scenes Freeman and Li are in and be able to say " I've been there!", seen as most of the movie was filmed in Glasgow!

So most of Unleashed is set and filmed on site in and around Glasgow and was released in America, France and then the United Kingdom on 19th August 2005.

Basically the movie is about Danny (Li), a man with the mind of a child who is brought by Bart (Hoskins), a loan shark who wants to be part of the dark underworld of the Glasgow gang culture. He realises he can gain extra recognition, respect and some cash by training Danny and entering him into illegal fights in the gang world in return. Bart bullies Danny into running away as he doesn't want to fight anymore and this is when he meets Sam (Freeman) and his step daughter, Victoria. who is played by Kerry Condon. Sam and Victoria help Danny escape and defeat his once before owner, Bart. The film ends with Danny in Sam and Victoria's company where she is getting ready to go on stage at the Carnegie Hall to perform a song Danny's mother used to play.

Here is the trailer for the film that was released in 2005.

The film placed third in the U.S Box office in 2005 gaining $50,871,113 from this!

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog!

Weegie Film Festival!

For all of you who don't know what the word, "Weegie" means, it's the slang term for someone from Glasgow and it derives from the word Glaswegian funnily enough!

So the Glasgow Film Festival began in 2005, offering opportunities for budding film makers, film production companies, actors, producers and the likes to broadcast and share their work and gain recognition for their efforts. Anyone can involve themselves in the events that usually take place each year in the ending weeks of February. This year, they were extremely privileged to have Brian Cox, the Scottish actor, as one of their hosts! Here is the official trailer for the 2012 GFF (Glasgow Film Festival).

Most of these "contenders" are new and upcoming, some never heard before, which the Glasgow Film Festival provides the perfect platform for taking the first step into the much anticipated film industry. Not all of them are from Glasgow either. Many travel from all of the world, making the festival a more prestigious affair. This offers opportunities to everyone, allowing us Scots to experience different cultural views on film and how they adapt it differently. Here is a video of one of the films this year! Premiering earlier this year at GFF is Night is Day.

From the 6th to 26th February this year, GFF put on a show of unique programmes consisting of feature films, shorts, special events and live and interactive happenings. Across the city GFF exhibits in cinema spaces, galleries, unusual venues and are dedicated to putting on a truly great festival for film lovers from Glasgow and festival attendees from around the world.


Being in competition with Scotland's capital and the Edinburgh film festival sees organisers of Glasgow's film festival seek out new and exciting ventures and opportunities to be the best. So each year they have to out shine each other. Workshops, trials, film previews and theatres are set up for spectators to come along and enjoy and get a feel of the film industry. Hopefully in a bid to gain more admissions and sell more tickets.


School trips were also organised for the festival with earlier this year, educating primary and secondary pupils about Glasgow's film world for those who may consider making a career of it in the future! Reduced ticket rates and travel packages were issued to those schools interested.


The festival's 8th return to Glasgow saw the biggest turnout yet, organisers and critiques say this success was due to the increased interest in attracting younger audiences. Also, the variety of both films and venues saw the box office numbers rise to its highest yet; 35,000 admissions were accounted for over the eleven day festival. That's pretty impressive!


Within the festival there are other festivals, offering more choice to attendees of all age groups and interests. There is the Glasgow Short Film Festival, The Short Film Festival, Fright Fest, and the Youth Film Festival.

The Youth Film Festival proved to be a big hit in the early months of 2012, it ran on separate dates to the full event from the 5th to the 15th February. Here is a clip of some of Glasgow's younger aspiring film fans with their own film for the Youth Festival!

 

Over 9,000 admissions were made into the the youth film festival in 2012!

You can follow the link to the official Glasgow Film Festival link here, where you can keep updated and see all the winners and entries of this years and find out when the dates for next year are released!

 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, sadly I never managed to go to the festival this year but I plan on going next year, from my research I found it interesting and I would like to find out more and the best way to do that would be to go along!

Glasgow's the Pitts!

Well from the looks of things it certainly isn't!

Over recent years, in particular 2011, Scotland has seen many influential people entering the city of Glasgow and using its venues to create blockbuster movies! Scotland proves to be the perfect host, with its beautiful, historic buildings, landscapes and lochs, that many argue cannot be found elsewhere in the world!

Beautiful shot of Kelvingrove Park and Kelvingrove Art Museum, one of Glasgow's many famous Landmarks

The most recent and most recognised film to be shot in Glasgow was World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, which began shooting in the city centre in August 2011.

Now who would complain about Mr Pitts presence in Glasgow? I know for a fact, myself being one of the many crazed fans, that I certainly wouldn't mind catching a glimpse of the "Hollywood Hunk" roaming around the streets of Glasgow. You don't get to see that every day!

Well sadly, even at my best efforts, I didn't manage to see him! I did however see the set, which transformed Glasgow's George Square overnight into Philadelphia.

Glasgow's George Square or Philadelphia?

It was estimated, over the seventeen days of filming, that World War Z and Mr Pitt generated around £3.3 million to Glasgow's economy last summer, according to Glasgow City council. Great for local business and aspiring actors, many of the extras in World War Z are from Glasgow based agencies which casting calls were held a month before shooting.

There was around 1200 cast and crew filming on location, staying in local hotels and dining out, all good for the city's economy, costly though for Paramount. Filming could have cost them much more, did they decide to film in Philadelphia however, they still carried the burden of changing a famously identifiable city, Glasgow, into another, Philadelphia.

So why did Paramount Pictures decide to shoot the majority of scenes in Glasgow?

According to the location manager for World War Z, Glasgow was chosen for filming for its wide roads, grid lay out and most importantly its architecture, with many of Glasgow's buildings similar to that of the buildings in Philadelphia.

Other sources say that the decision to film in Glasgow was over tax costs too, suggesting that it would be too expensive to film on set in Philadelphia and that it is too big a city to shut down major streets and roads for shooting, which could affect local business.

Changes to shop fronts, American street lights and traffic lights fitted, street names changed, cars, buses and armed vehicles too were brought in to complete the transition. All a costly matter.

World War Z is based on Max Brooks' 2006 novel World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War, which is set in the aftermath of a war between humans and zombies.

There is no official trailer yet for the film as it is set to be released later this year, but I'll be sure to upload one when it appears!

For now, here is a YouTube clip of an amateur filmmakers video of some scenes he captured on set in Glasgow. Not the best, but everything else seems to be mash ups of past zombie filmes all combined together! At least this is actual footage of filming in Glasgow!

There is more links from this video if your'e interested in seeing some more scenes and people's own adaptations of what the film will be like!

Due for release in December 2012.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog! Next time I'll be blogging about the Glasgow Film Festival and more about other movies filmed in the Glasgow area!

Thanks for reading!

Hey all!
As part of my last trimester of my first year at uni we've all been asked to create blogs to be marked on over a 5 week period! I'll be blogging about Glasgow's film scene! So I hope you enjoy, feel free to comment and leave any suggestions as I'm fairly alien to this and would appreciate any support!
Ha thanks!
Chiara :)