This weekend saw the first annual Empire Big Screen film festival take place at London’s O2 complex, featuring three days of film premières, classic screenings, panel sessions and more. A number of famous names were present discussing their work and meeting fans along with a large array of shops and displays.
As I could only attend for the Friday, I tried to pack as much into my time as possible. Unfortunately I was hindered on occasion by sessions not running to time, often with no information given out by staff. The worst incidence of this that I came across was waiting for a film studio showcase to begin, I left half an hour after the posted start time when nothing had happened and no indication had been given as to what was going on or when the screening would begin. Most sessions were only delayed by five or ten minutes, however for those of us trying to arrange a schedule of sessions, these times could make a difference between arriving on time or missing the beginning; possibly even missing out on attending another popular session if it had filled up.
Once the sessions did begin however, each one was fascinating and fun. I attended the celebration of the work of Ray Harryhausen, the famous stop motion animator and was treated not only to a wonderful discussion led by friends and co-workers of the great man, but also the opportunity to get up close and personal with many of his most famous puppets, including one of the skeletons from the seminal Jason & The Argonauts. Present were film historian and author Tony Dalton, actress Caroline Munro who portrayed Princess Margiana in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and British animators Barry JC Purves (King Kong, Mars Attacks!) and Mark Waring who is currently heading up the animation unit for Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. Between them they provided a great mix of stories and anecdotes regarding Harryhausen himself and his work, plus also a history of stop motion as an art and its place in the CG dominated animation marketplace. Purves had brought along a puppet from his new film Tchaikovsky and discussed the cost of creating a stop motion film, explaining that a lead character puppet could cost in the region of £35 – 40,000 ($57 – 66,000) and that a production could require up to twelve puppets of a single character. The panel ended with a discussion on the preservation of much loved puppets and the battle of wills often presented between preserving them as is, or restoring them to perfect condition plus the challenges faced either way as nature has already begun to deteriorate many older models.
I also attended a session entitled “What’s The Greatest Movie Poster?” which included among its speakers the amazingly talented poster designers Olly Moss and The Dude (of The Dude Designs) – two men who design film posters that could not be more different from one another. The discussion initially focused on the favourite posters of the speakers, most of which came from many decades ago, in fact if I recall correctly the most recent poster shown was not even from this millennium. After going through the posters, the conversation switched to the gradual changes that have occurred in poster design over the years through to the level of creative freedom experienced by modern designers who are often hugely limited by the studios and film contracts (e.g. each lead star’s head must be the exact same size). There was also some time given over to foreign film posters, as countries such as Italy and Poland are far more permissive in what is allowed to be shown on a public poster in areas like nudity and violence.
I spent the rest of my time flitting between other sessions, film screening and previews, managing to catch Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss discussing the filming of the show’s next season and the impact of the recent London riots on their schedule, and subsequently the schedule for The Hobbit thanks to the overlap in both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s filming commitments. I also spent time in Studio City examining props from classic Bond cars to an array of weaponry from Men in Black 3 and chatting to stall holders in Hollywood Boulevard including Twitter acquaintance Alex Chenery of Dark Bunny Tees, the cult t-shirt site much loved by Simon Pegg.
I noticed many families attending the event, including plenty of children of all ages. Big Screen had made a point of catering to the whole family and for an event in central London, it is a rarity in that I would have felt completely at ease bringing my son (aged 23 months) or any of his cousins (aged from 2 - 9yrs) along with me. The entire festival was taking place within the secure confines of the O2, with all attendees having passed through a security checkpoint on arrival that included x-ray bag scans and metal detectors. Staff were everywhere and all wearing easily identifiable badges. The event schedule included many sessions that would interest kids from a Star Wars Padawan Training School to the opportunity to meet the animals of Harry Potter. Screen four spent the weekend running all the Pixar films to date, I personally attended what should have been Monsters Inc, but a disc failure meant that we were instead treated to the wonderful* Toy Story 2* in 3D. The location was also very family friendly with dozens of well known family restaurants on site, the only flaw for families with young children would be the size of the venue which required a lot of walking to get from session to session.
Sadly I had to leave as the first day drew to a close but the weekend had so much more in store for those able to stay. Countless movie screening took place including the UK premieres of Fright Night (hosted by David Tennant), *Troll Hunter *and The Lion King 3D. Panels included an interview with David Arnold, a masterclass with Peter Lord of Aardman Animation and many more. This was the first year for Empire Big Screen and as with any event of this scale, there were some teething troubles. The overall impression I got from everyone who attended, either in person of afterward online was overwhelmingly positive with the only regular complaints being that of scheduling, something that should hopefully be easy enough to rectify in time for next year and cost, with diamond ticket holders especially mentioning that they felt they had overpaid. I certainly plan to attend once again if the event goes ahead in 2012 and fully recommend that others do too.
