Saturday 23 October 2010

Documentary: British B-Movies: Truly, Madly, Cheaply, 2008, BBC



Today, as a group and to keep the morale up, we watched a documentary related to the British B-movie period.
Called British B-Movies: Truly, Madly, Cheaply is a documentary produced by BBC and presented by Matthew Sweet, in which he explores the cheesiest era of second-class British films.
The documentary explains why b-movies were created, in which genres they appeared and the main difference, between British and its brother American B-Movie. It was interesting to know that b-movies had a wide-range of genres, from comedy to sci-fi, from horror to exploitation. these films in such different genres contributted create one of the most iconic era in British Cinema.
Already knowing that B-movie stands for a low-budget film, it was surprising to know the different techniques that Directors of that time used to create this cheap and cheesy films, from bad camera position, to fixed camera positions where people would hover around the set, and from repetition of the same sets in different films to the use of the same footage over and over again.
We already know that, b-movies are often characterized by its bad-acting, and that is what this documentary explores some of the worst over dramatic actings in these films that would entertain audiences around Britain.
As mentioned before, the documentary distinguished a British B-Movie and a American B-movie, Apart from the different accent many other things made these 2 types of cinemas distinct. For instance, where in an American B-movie we would have a monster or alien would explicitely invade a city, kidnap the most gorgeous woman and be a threat for all human kind, brtish B-movies are more modest, by often associate alien invasion with the act of possessing a human body, ( seen in films such as Quartermass Experiment and Trollenberg Terror) which would create a more sneaky approach by the alien yet conveying horrific moments. Also the American bombshell woman/victim, is substituted in the British films, by someone more sophisticated and mature, often a spouse or a housewife. The modesty and use of this type of character, by no means stopped conveying any less glamour, however it create other type of charm.





As a documentary, I was incredible satisfied to show it to my group, because not only now we can associate our animation with the british type of b-movie, as we show possessing of a human body by an alien force and reveal the monster slowly and by the end of the trailer, and but we can also move forward with a clearer idea of this type of cinema.

*EDIT*

Oops.. I think the text was repeated, not really know what happened, but I was finding strange that i wrote lot for a review :)

2 comments:

  1. Hey Studio B3D - with your trailer you have the real challenge of conveying a cultural identity - and watching this doc was such a great idea. I know your group has had its issues of late, but let me be clear about one thing; your animatic is a basis for a bloody wonderful pastiche; loads of potential, huge amounts of charm; from this point forward, attention to detail should be paramount; put egos aside and ensure that the production design etc. is absolutely precise and accurate; make this happen and put the aggro behind you. You're onto a very good thing!

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  2. Nice review Ruben, but did you notice that the text is repeated twice!

    Nice review Ruben, but did you notice that the text is repeated twice!

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