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| An Interview with Nigel Buckland - Part 1 By Yodasnoog |
| You may or may not have heard of Nigel Buckland before. To the unenlightend, he was co host (along with Stef Gardiner) of the best movie review show of all time in my humble opinion, 'Vids'. The show had a loyal fan following, and still does to this day despite Channel 4's unholy shit canning of the show after it's 6th series. When i mentioned on this site that an interview with Nige was forhtcoming, we got alot more visitors that month due to people stumbling upon us through there google searches of Nige, Stef and 'Vids'. After setting up a 'Vids' site some years ago, which you can still find here, i received an e-mail from Nige congratulating me on a job well done. Well, i was fucking chuffed to bits as you can imagaine and i've kept in contact with the "Mr Girl of Overwordyopinionisationolism" ever since. We tried to get an interview done for the Vids site a while back, but that never came about. So recently i put forward the idea of doing an interview for Spuffs, where instead of discussing 'Vids' we would discuss movies (and a bit of Vids stuff) And here it is...Enjoy. |
| Nige, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for our poxy little site. What are you up to at the moment? Hi Spufferoids…. Hope you’re all THRIVING like ant-people…well..Whit ‘av I bin up to???…Hmmm…my maxim is “Feast & Famine”. That’s the freelancers lot in life…One Minute you might be doing three jobs at once. The next? fuck all for yonks…you have to be able to live with the enforced downtime…I’m quite philosophical about it…As I’ve never been a nine-to-five type anyway…I’m quite happy ‘browsing’ magazines in Menzies & John Smiths for 2 hours…speaking of which, I was recently reading in the press that Brits don’t know how to take time off. Their work, or ‘JOB TITLE’ seemingly defines them. Fuck that…I’m a Left-Handed-Dyslexic-Aquarian—21st-Century-New-Age-Renaissance-Bloke! That’s LONG-TERM-UNEMPLOYED to you…Yeah, I sign-on between jobs. I know loads of media type who don’t, it’s not that they’re rich (well, actually, now you mention it.) it’s just the stigma attached to being a doley. It’s strange, how the ‘stigma’ of signing-on is directly ‘dis’-proportionate to the ‘status’ of being a student. Both groups have little/no money to live on yet one is perceived as a failed underclass whilst the other are the ‘cream’, the future of our country.etc. (Old Vidz line comin’ up)… ”Well would you prefer to be LECTURED AT and told what to think by some piss stained old-tosser in an ivory tower OR sign-on-the dotted line once a fortnight and be master of your OWN destiny and KING of all you survey?”… See, it just involves a little gentle ‘re-appraisal’ Sounded like a blinkin’ Vidz intro didn’t it. Well, now that I’ve coughed that spleen off my chest… I’ve just finished two shows for BBC Education (Me? BBC Education? Surely some mistake! Me/Education? That’s an Oxymoron) “The Art and Craft of the Short Story”… I interviewed Ian Rankin and a bunch of other writers about their short stories…(a much maligned form) Often short stories make the best films…as short stories can’t go in for page after page of internal monologue or flowery descriptions of scenery-they have to cut hard to the action and narrative quick time-And, Short Stories often use the THREE ACT set-up much like most movies. I don’t have a transmission date yet it’ll be late night BBC2 later this year. I’ll let you know. Fronted a bunch of adverts for the Wickerman Festival In Dumfries & Galloway July 22-24. http://www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk/ Airing on MTV2.I’ll get the times and post you details. On-stage compere at the festival too. That’ll be surreal.. “Hello Pagans who shall we burn!” |
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| What was the last film you saw? And was it good or shite? Just Watched ‘The Old Boy’ a Japanese film that mixes thriller, martial arts & revenge, very good twist at the end. Silly and serious I won’t give it away here. It was ‘Runner Up’ at Cannes. Very Takeshi Kitano…My list of ‘Shite-ish’ films is astonishing. I’ve nearly always got a few on the go. Dreamcatcher, The Core, Independence Day, LOTR’s, Dune, I think of Big-Budge action/sci-fi/horror/shlock as a form of visual/auditory ‘comfort food’ you don’t necessarily need to be ‘challenged’ by movies. It’s a ‘critics’ conceit to think that films have to provide a learning curve. Sometimes you want the shear mindlessness to wash over you like an umbricating balm of mind-sick. Filmakers are always trying to ‘kid’ the public that there’s MORE to their movie than a bunch of whiney thesps getting in touch with the inner child or whatever..Hence Blair Witch Project blurring the lines between fantasy & reality..so-called ‘reality’ films telling a true story..they’re all devices to allow us the childlike sensation of ‘going with’ a film, suspending disbelief and being transported by 90 minutes of magic…AS IF…It gets harder and harder as we’re all ‘film-lit-sophisti-sluts’ aren’t we? |
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| Can you remember what the first film you ever saw was? Christ knows…I remember as a kid on Saturday night BBC One showing ‘The Colossus Of New-York’ and shitting myself (It’s a 1950’s Frankenstein rip-off, a scientist puts his dead son’s brain into a monster’s body) I’d love to see it again, I must track it down via Amazon, IMD or someshite. Can’t imagine BBC showing that these days. Chitty Fuckin’ Bang Bang figures as an early memory, The Child Catcher probably freaked me out. I always loved horror & sci-fi and grew up on Tex Avery & Hanna Barbera cartoons (not a bad thing) Mostly spent my time off in imagined worlds reading DC comics and wearing my underpants outside my trousers running up and down the street. Some things never change. |
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| What is your favourite DVD is your collection? It’s a movable feast ain’t it? This week it might be CHOPPER or BULLY or THE LAST WALTZ (is it a ‘film’ or music doc?) RESERVIOUR DOGS, ALIEN2, PULP FICTION, MEANSTREETS, TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS (Marco Ferreri), THE ADDICTION (Abel Ferrara) GOODFELLAS, DAWN OF THE DEAD, 2001 A SPACE ODDESSEY:, MAN ON THE MOON, SPINAL TAP, SIR HENRY AT RAWLINSON END (Vivian Stanshall) BLADE2, BIG, THE LONG-GOOD-FRIDAY, MY NAME IS JOE, JULIEN DONKEY BOY, TRAINSPOTTING, WICKERMAN, Most classic Hammer Horror, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS,QUATERMASS & THE PIT,VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED,AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON,THE THING, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, RING, FRIGHT NIGHT, ZOOLANDER! At the moment i’m really into live music DVD’s I’ve got a very unfashionable penchant for screaming guitars hence I’m on-line buying G3-Steve Vai, Joe Satriani,& Ygwgwi Malmsteen-clearly you have to have an idiotic surname to make it as a shredding guitarist! John Zorn (Bloody sax New-York sax player) Robert Fripp I also consume tons of comedy either newly available via DVD or ripped from Limewire or bought in the shops..Bill Hicks, Sam Kinnison, Will Durst, Eddie Izzard, From your work on Vids you seem like a very open minded person, willing to watch anything. Has there ever been a film that has had you tempted to stop the Tape/DVD because you were so shocked? I downloaded and watched the Nick Berg beheading video which left me feeling tainted in fact tainted it too soft a word for it. I actually felt implicated after watching it. Being a kid who grew up in the 70’s with the regular furore and prurient fuss created around so-called ‘Snuff Movies’ I set myself the task of seeing/experiencing as much as I could via TV/Movies/etc. My theory being, ‘experience everything TWICE’ but I’ve mellowed and now feel that you don’t necessarily need to see it all to know the overall effect it has. Mind you I can take vats of blood, guts and eyes popping out of heads ALL DAY LONG (I Smear it on my fucking toast man) In the context of films but show me a some breast augmentation/collagen implant footage and I’m cowering under the couch like a big old cockgibbet… Have you seen liposuction? They’re soo fuckin’ rough forcing TUBES into people and sucking that shit out.. Well I mentioned the Nick Berg video…as regards the movies…No I don’t think there is anything that can shock me..Not ‘cos I’m ‘unshockable’ it’s just that the mechanics of the movies, the techniques and technical stuff is NOW always a factor in the/My/our movie viewing experience, it colours and informs our perceptions as we watch. We’re ALL critics now and are, obviously aware of writers; director’s editors FX, ALL trying to ‘orchestrate’ our emotions (this ain’t necessarily a bad thing, but more often than not…Yes it is bad.) |
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| Part 2 Coming Soon Hopefully. |