DIRECTORS MASTERCLASSES WITH NFTS & BFI & BUG

This summer, whilst continuing intensive writing and development on my feature projects (lord when will it end/begin?…) I’ve been working with the NFTS and the BFI, both together and separately on a series of director-based masterclasses. Some have had me screening and discussing my own work, with students and schools, whilst for others I’ve been on the other side of the bench and in the interviewers seat…

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I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with directors such as my good friend Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim, The Worlds End), Peter Strickland (Beberian Sound Studio, Katalin Varga), Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna, Anna Karenina) and Eran Creevy (Welcome To The Punch, Shifty) – I also discussed ‘Frankenweenie’ with Tim Burtons frequent producer Allison Abbate and Grabbers with director Jon Wright, writer Kevin Lehane and VFX guru Paddy Eason. You can read excepts and anecdotes from some of these interviews HERE and although it’s not my preferred position to be ‘the interviewer’ I really enjoyed having the unique opportunity to ask questions and garner candid truths in the responses from this lot. Edgar Wright took us through his incredible career leading up to the recent release of The Worlds End (he heroically came directly from the final day of shooting picks ups to do the master-class) Eran Creevy entertained the packed audience with tales of drawing the performance from actor James Mcavoy using unexpected methods, Peter Strickland spoke of his experimental sound design and the trials and tribulations & nightmares of shooting no-budget in Romania and Joe Wright discussed how fear motivated what he did, as well as giving generous insights into his famed one-shots… It was heartening and inspiring to hear other directors discuss their hopes and fears and tell stories about how they got to do what they love, and how they plan to continue doing it. I’m looking forward to sitting down with Joe Cornish (Attack The Block, TinTin, Antman) in September.

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In April I was also was a lead tutor in the first ever BFI/NFTS Talent Campus, which saw me and a group of intrepid directors, writers and producers including Michelle Eastwood, Ian Knox, Lee Thomas, Brian Ward, Brian Gilbert and Robbie Mckillop ‘mentoring’ 54 students in groups of 9, for an intensive and at times nerve-wracking 2 week crash course in short film-making at the National Film School in Beaconsfield. It was a crazy and rewarding experience and at times I felt like I was on a Jamie-Oliver-Does-Film-Schools number or a ‘Challenge Anneka’ style game show.. Up against the odds as well as the clock we were, but the impressive results (6 completed short films) were screened at the BFI South Bank NFT1 at the end of the 2 week period and they seemed to go down a storm with the packed audience. All in all it was an incredibly rewarding experience.

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While I’m sticking all this workshop business down in this blog, I’ve also enjoyed running assorted masterclasses in film, music video & animation around the UK’s schools and colleges over the years, including workshops at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Chiddingly Arts Festival and The Big Chill Music Festival.. I also took part in last years Film 4 ‘Horror Day’ (along side Ben Wheatley, James Moran, Paul Hyett and Neil Marshall) where we discussed The Horror…

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…finally, a couple of years back, I was honoured to host the BUG ‘Evil-ution of Music Video Halloween Special’, where my fancy-dress-attired special guests included Edgar Wright, accompanied by none other than John Landis, who aside from being the coolest man alive (dressed in a bear mask), told an incredible and hilarious yarn about Michael Jackson and Christopher Lee in relation to his seminal video for THRILLER…

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Its always a rewarding experience getting the chance to chat candidly with these guys, as well as through these sessions and workshops, to keep in touch with the students and hear their progressive take on film, technology, music videos and their own ideas.

Thanks to Pete and Jenny from the Student Media side of things, Venetia, Nik and Jon from the NFTS and Nicky and Stu from the BFI as well as David Knight, Louise, Miland and Phil from BUG for all the cool stuff you do…

CORIN

06.08.13

FULL STEAM AHOY.

Beauties and Monsters!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to my all new site. I’ve tried to make this a fun place to hang out and so do have a play and let me know what you think, and any balls-ups should you come across them..

There’s select work, films and music videos, behind the scenes vids and pics, plus all the links to my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram gubbins should you wish to sign up and follow me into battle…

Must thank Ben & Phil for putting this all together for me.

And there’s going to be all kinds of updates occurring on a more regular basis, right here on this blog, as I’m approaching my debut feature and may well use this as an online diary-come-sketchbook, so please watch this space for postings of the filmic kind, as it occurs…

Till then, fare well and adieu.. and please spread the good word.

“Boys, oh boys… I think he’s come back for his noon feeding.”

CORIN

30.07.13

HOOPER

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RAY HARRYHAUSEN RIP

It’s not yet been a week since I heard the sad news that Ray Harryhausen had passed away.

I wrote a brief summary on Facebook about two very special encounters I was lucky enough to have had with Ray and I wanted to make this more ‘official’ here on my own blog, since Ray Harryhausen was one of the key inspirations and influences in my life. Here’s what I wrote.

Oh no, I just heard about Ray Harryhausen..

I was lucky enough to have met Ray twice, once when I was 17 he allowed me to come and interview him at his house in London for an A-Level Art project I did on him; he was incredibly warm and generous and also serious about all his amazing creations.

He gave me a fantastic interview and even treated me with humble respect by criticizing my own foam rubber tyrannosaurus that I had brought along to show him..

“He’s too fat..”

“What?” I asked, a bit gutted –

“T-Rex wouldn’t have been able to get enough to eat back then – your dinosaur is too fat”.

I went home to rethink my T-Rex, amazed that he’d given me the time of day and blown away that I had met Ray, and I have been ever since.

He and his films inspired me to want to bring monsters to life and really I think of his work every day – he was the reason I chose to make ‘Butterfly’ my stop-motion film and why I attempted to do everything in camera, with models and armatures and pointers and shoot it all on 16mm film.

Then, I was lucky enough to meet him again a few years back at the Edinburgh Film Festival where I sat next to him for special dinner and he was just as warm and interesting and interested. Following a discussion over dinner he gave me another piece of advice that I’ve lived by ever since. In fact it was a question followed by a firm word of advice..

Toward the end of dinner, he put his hand on my shoulder and asked…

“Are you resilient?”

I nodded, yes, I think so. And then he looked at me and said firmly…

“You’ve got to be resilient”

and I’ve thought about that a lot over the years since. It’s good advice.

Below are a few pics from that special dinner, I’m going to unearth the ones of Ray looking at my fat tyrannosaur and add them in when I do.

Thanks Ray for being such a great inspiration to so many, and for allowing my imagination to run wild and believe in fantastical monsters then, and now. A truly great, skilled and kind man.

Ray Harryhausen R.I.P.

WATCHTOWER

My new video for Devlin featuring Ed Sheeran and their cover of the Dylan/Hendrix classic All Along The Watchtower featuring performances from Neil Maskell, Jaime Winstone, Tilly Vosburgh and George Russo.

And the ‘making of’…

FROGZ LEGZ TEASER

Here’s the teaser I made for my feature film FROGZ LEGZ.

And here’s what the blogs had to say…

TEASER OF THE MONTH AT BLOODY DISGUSTING!

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TWITCH FILM

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M MOVIES

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COLLECT LONDON

FLICK DAILY

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BRUTAL AS HELL

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HORRORNEWS.NET

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