Monday 26 September 2016

Empire Live - Day Two


After some late night bowling and all that excitement my friend (Foxo) and I needed a rest. For the second day of Empire Live the first thing we wanted was a late lunch.

Once satisfied we then went looking for churros and were mightly let down by Las Iguanas who lied to us. But enough of this and on with the show!


We visited a Q&A briefly with two cinematographers, but no sooners had we had consumed our free drinks at the Empire Hub we had to dash over to the superscreen for a mastermind quiz with Jason Isaacs. A last minute edition to the schedule, but we already had the 'surprise' slot tickets. Along with some very amusing stories, Isaacs is full of them, we got to learn a few things about the movie business along the way. Such as, if someone won't send you the script to a film, you know it won't be good, even if a billionaire is financing it and it apparently won't be seen by anyone, still think twice about it.


Next, we dashed over to the Hub one last time to catch a few minutes of the panel we both really wanted to see, Women on Screen. Proving a popular and hot topic, it was crowded in the bowling alley but due to not so great scheduling from Empire (c'mon guy!) we had to miss most of it.


We dashing over to the superscreen, in time for a our final event of the weekend, a screening of High-rise, which we both love and some footage from Free Fire, all from the mind of screenwriter Amy Jump and director, Ben Wheatly. The latter being there for a great Q&A, talking about the process, ideas and wish lists. It was great seeing High-Rise again, especially on such a gigantic screen. Except there were a few moments, skin peeled off a severed head, angry spit on a door, dog food from the can that were pretty disgusting on the huge screen. A few bits felt like they were missing too...but apart from that, just brillaint.


Shorter than Saturday but no less tired afterwards. Now for the long road to no sleep until next Saturday probably.