Win a Poster Signed by Robert Pattinson

Laura Fuller had the chance to visit the set of How To Be director Oliver Irving's new project "Life is Just a Game". She interviewed the cast and observe the set while the movie was shot. You can read her report HERE at t5m. com .



The Life is Just a Game web series tells the story of Tommy Delniros, a delusional former NYPD officer. His inability to differentiate between his fantasy world of gritty, lawless 1970s New York and the present-day reality has already gotten him kicked off the force, but even more trouble comes his way when he begins a private investigation of Earl Grey, a young English aristocrat meddling with gangs across New York City.

Check out "Life is Just a Game", the episodes are streaming online. Also, to celebrate the new project Life Is Just A Game the makers from How To Be are giving one lucky winner a poster signed by Robert Pattinson and DVD (UK) signed by stars of the film Michael Pearce, Johnny White and composer Joe Hastings - enter HERE!

If you didn't watch How To Be yet (GASP!) you can order the DVD from Amazon. Sometimes we all need a little RobArt :)

Seventeen Magazine Interviews "How to Be" Director Oliver Irving

Oliver talks about the plot and making of the film, and of course a bit about Rob.

Enjoy!

“Timely Look”: Interview with Oliver Irving, director of How to Be

Less than 2 weeks until we unfortunate souls that couldn't see the movie in theaters get to see How To Be on DVD.Can't wait! :))

Very refreshing interview (not all questions are about his RobArtness) from popmatters.com with How To Be director Oliver Orving:

When Oliver Irving began writing How To Be in 2004, he couldn’t know that when the film finally premiered at Slamdance four years later, his timing would be so fortuitous. Irving’s first feature film follows Art, a 20something aspiring musician in the midst of a “quarter-life crisis.” Now, following the release of Twilight, the casting of Robert Pattinson as Art looks brilliant. Irving made the rounds on the festival circuit with sold-out screenings and a cache of audience awards (including an Honorable Mention at Slamdance, Best Feature at New Orleans, and Best Actor for Pattinson at the Strasbourg International Film Festival).

The film is also timely in its subject matter. In a season of too many arrested development male-bonding comedies, How to Be offers a version suffused with a wry charm. Picked up by IFC Films in February, the movie screened at the IFC Center in New York in April and premiered on IFC Festival Direct on 29 April.

The festival schedule for How to Be grew leading up to the IFC release, with more and more sold out shows.
I’ve been really touched by the strong positive response to this film. It has been amazing, the support we have had. That is why we took the bold step of booking our own cinemas, so we could tour around, screening the film and try to see as many people as possible.

You’ve watched the film with multiple festival audiences. Has the reception changed from last winter to this?
When it first screened, it did have a really good response. What has changed is the numbers of people in the audience. Some people have seen it several times as well, so members of the audience are really starting to be familiar with the characters and even coining catchphrases in some instances, which is great. I love hearing the laughter during the film, I really do; it makes it all worth it.

How to Be sold out its first screening at the DC Independent Film Festival in March. Before the session began, the director of one of the accompanying short films made the joke that he was shocked so many people wanted to see his film. What do you think about droves of Robert Pattinson fangirls turning up at an independent film festival?
Every so often, someone will love the movie and not have even really heard of Rob and that is reaffirming. But then, often people will say, “I came because of Rob, but I loved this film in its own right.” I can tell from what they say that their response is really genuine, so I am just glad that Rob’s star factor has brought in potential audiences. We have found that actually one of the groups of people who responded favorably to the film turned out to be the same as those who might be fans of Rob—so it was the right audience to start with. I’m glad the film won the Grand Jury Honorable mention at Slamdance long before Rob’s stardom flared up. That eases my neuroticism somewhat.

The DCIFF program describes the movie as “a timely look at the increasingly growing phenomena of grown-up children living at home, frustrated creativity, and self-help.” Is that their take on it or yours?
It comes from our synopsis. But it is interesting to hear different people’s opinions as to what the film is really about. I love that everyone seems to take away a different particular element.

Continue reading HERE.

How To Be Driector Oliver Irving talks about Rob and the Movie

One of our readers, Rachel went to the Nashville screening of How To Be. She wrote us a lengthy review of the movie and the fans :) First I give you a video of How To Be director Oliver Irving talking about How To Be then Rachel's email to us, unedited :)



Rachel says:
The Nashville Film Festival Screening of “How To Be”

First, I just want to say how amazing this film is. If you don’t have an appreciation for dry, cheeky British humor, you won’t get it. At all. I guess if you’ve seen “I Heart Huckabees” it kind of has that feel, but it’s much cleverer than that movie. Rob was fantastic in it, of course. He makes a pretty believable Edward, but he makes an even more believable Art. Trust me when I say that. Sometimes I doubt he was even acting.

The Nashville Film Festival was very organized so it was easy to get in the doors and get into position in the queue. There were several “fan girls” there and that kind of sucked. I mean, I’m a huge fan, but I really try to not act like I have no self-control. These guys are human after all. They walk, talk, eat, piss and sleep the same as we do…and even make funny body noises, too. While it’s easy to get carried away, it ends up taking away from the experience for those fans that aren’t crazy “fan girls” or can at least keep their excitement contained at a manageable level. Plus, this movie is receiving a lot of fan fare, so there were several moviegoers at the festival who had never seen Twilight and had probably missed most of the Robert Pattinson buzz. I know all the hysteria probably took away from their experience, too. Now, getting off of my bitchy little soapbox…

Like I said, the movie was great. All of the actors make perfectly believable characters and their comedic timing is so perfect that you really do get wrapped up in the characters. By the time the movie is finished, you find yourself really rooting for Art and his mates, and really disliking his cold mother and distant father. You feel heartfelt emotions for them – all good signs of a great movie. I probably laughed at parts not meant to be funny, but I have a twisted sense of humor sometimes.

Sam Bradley was at the screening, as he’s in town for his shows in Nashville later in the week. How some people acted towards him placed me high on top of my soapbox. The giggly women in front of us accosted him immediately and asked him “So did you talk to Rob today?” Are you serious? And then they THANKED HIM FOR COMING…and HOPED HE ENJOYED THE SHOW. I know we have that whole Southern hospitality thing going on, but seriously? Are we movie ushers all of a sudden, too? Sam was a good sport, though. He took everything in stride, signing autographs and taking pictures with everyone who asked. I didn’t ask. I figured I’d get my shot at his show when he’s actually being “Sam Bradley: Musician God” instead of sitting quietly trying to watch a movie. But again, I do feel bad for the guy. He’s a talented guy outside of the whole “Rob Frenzy” and I hope most people actually treat him like a separate entity instead of a direct pathway to meeting Rob. That’s just nuts. If you’re going to Sam’s show, please say you love his music, too, and that you’re not just going because the shirt that he’s wearing may have touched Rob at some point in time. Please.

The cast and director did a brief Q and A session after it was over and it was great. They all seem like nice, funny guys. They cleverly avoided the elephant in the room question “What was it like to work with Robert Pattinson?” and again took it all in stride. They explained how the film was made on an extremely low budget, how some of the actors worked for nothing, and how they forged genuine friendships with one another on set. By the time it gets to a crucial scene near the end of the movie, where Art and Nikki get PISSED, the friendship is already there. Oliver said he let them drink all day so by the time they filmed that scene, everyone was drunk. Rob really got slapped and when he laughs uproariously and almost falls on the floor, that was really him just being “Rob” and extremely drunk. He said he did choose Rob because he seemed to understand the character and possess some “Art traits” himself, and he also liked the fact that he isn’t very drama trained, so Rob was open to Oliver’s direction in the film.

I did hear several people mention “Robsessed” in the crowd, too. So I guess Robsessed is like, the Bible of the Robert Pattinson universe. I saw several people capturing video recordings of the movie (which is annoying to other moviegoers and…oh yes…illegal) and heard some people mention they were going to submit it to Robsessed. Oh, well.(Gozde: Thanks for the love but we won't be posting any illegally obtained videos. The DVD will be out in 15 days, I think we can all wait)

The guys all hung around and signed autographs and took pictures after the viewing and were very nice and very humble. I was really impressed with them and have a lot of funny memories and laughs.

I hope this doesn’t come off sounding too snooty – I hope you know my intention. But if you do that whole “What Would Rob do?” thing in your head…and you saw someone acting that way over yourself or your friends, you’d probably crap your pants and split. I know I would.

Oliver Irving and Joe Hastings Talk about Rob's Musical Side on HTB

Wow, that was a long title for a blog post huh? Live Journal community Pattinson_Music has an exclusive interview with How To Be writer/director Oliver Irving and Composer Joe Hastings. Here are the parts about to Rob and you can read the rest on Pattinson_Music.

Oh and if you missed the best news of April because you were in the "woods" for the Easter holiday: How To Be is available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk!

3. How many people auditioned for the role of Art? What was it about Robert Pattinson that got him the role?

Oliver Irving: We did auditions for this for well over a year in bursts. I feel like I must have seen every young male actor in London! I was looking for someone who would work well with the others actors I had in place to play Art’s friends. These were non-actors whose approach had been tailored while we made home movies over the years, so the actor for Art needed not to seem like he had been to drama school. Rob has said that at the time he was thinking of giving up acting and pursuing music as he was unhappy with roles he was getting offered – But pretty much straight away I knew he was right for the part. He had a sort of playful energy perhaps even naivety which he brought to the part and he really seemed to understand the characters.

5. Can you explain the process of creating the songs for the film? Were they written before filming and recorded afterwards?

Oliver Irving: The songs that art plays in the film where written by Me and Joe as we were writing the script – so there right from the start. We thought it would be fun to write these kind of clumsy songs that lay out Art’s mind state, but that contain a great little hook or melody that could be expanded to make up the score of the film…

Joe Hastings: Yes, we had songs in place for Art by late 2005 and the songs and incidental music developed as the screenplay progressed. We wrote Art’s songs together and I went away and tried to develop incidental music from Art’s ‘primitive’ tracks. The idea was to give the film a progressive aspect; for the music to shift with Art’s various moods through the film. We wanted the music to have a thematic progression and follow a melodic sensibility, and hopefully add to the overall cohesion. It was a challenge to develop distinctive arrangements that at the same time were an extension of his music.

Oliver Irving: we were adamant that they be recorded live on set as well and not re-recorded afterwards – that just sounds so phony. All the music in the film was done this way.

Joe Hastings: It was important that Rob was heard playing the tracks to add to the believability of his character, we wanted the songs to feel like ‘his’ and Rob really pulled this off.

7. What did Rob bring to the role of Art, musically speaking? Did he have any input on the composition of the songs and what guitars did Rob play during the film?

Oliver Irving: There is a great ‘jam session’ sequence where Ronny is playing his electronic stuff and Art is strumming away soulfully on the guitar while Nikki is singing away about random things. It was very funny to shoot and painful to watch!

Joe Hastings: Rob brought a kind of ownership to the music. Before the part was cast I was unsure as to whether someone could make the tracks seem real. I think Rob genuinely enjoyed playing the songs.

Rob played a battered old nylon string acoustic which Oliver ‘acquired’ from a school, we found a piece of rope in the studios we used as a set and decided that it would make the perfect guitar strap for Art. For the final sequence we deliberately chose a flashy if slightly tacky Guitar made by ‘Ovation’. It was one of those bowl backed fiber glass types that I hate, they’re the nouveau riche’s guitar of choice.

9. Lastly, since our community is for the appreciation of Rob’s music, we would love to see him continue doing music. What do you think of Rob’s musician side? Would you like to see more from him, musically?

Oliver Irving: Yes definitely – it is clearly something he really loves.

Joe Hastings: Rob is a lot better than the songs he performs in the film suggest, it’s very hard to play down your abilities in the way that Rob did so excellently in character as Art.