JD’s 10 Personal Favourite Christmas Films

Film

by JD Stanley on December 24, 2016 0 Comments

JD’s 10 Personal Favourite Christmas Films

Christmas films? I know, I know. For no other reason than it’s that time of year and we love watching films of any kind, I was thinking about my own favourite Christmas films.

A lot of my personal faves aren’t what regular people would consider your traditional Christmas films in the realm of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, etc. But then again, my tastes are eclectic on a good day and major holidays tend to show up the weird in me, so the list runs from horror to action to family genres all mixed up together.

So, in no particular order and heavily from my favourites since I’m writing the list (ha!), here are my 10 favourite Christmas films OR more correctly, films-I-like-to-watch-at-holiday-time-because-while-they’re-not-really-about-Christmas-they-happen-to-take-place-at-that-time-of-year-and-the-setting-makes-me-want-to-watch-them.

(1) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010, Finland) In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

(2) Die Hard (1988) John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others that were taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

(3) Black Christmas (1974) During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

(4) A Christmas Story (1983) In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie attempts to convince his parents, his teacher, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.

(5) The Santa Clause (1994) When a man inadvertently kills Santa on Christmas Eve, he finds himself magically recruited to take his place.

(6) Lethal Weapon (1987) A veteran policeman, Murtaugh, is partnered with a younger, suicidal officer, Riggs. They both have one thing in common: hating working in pairs. Now they must learn to work with one another to stop a gang of drug smugglers.

(7) Edward Scissorhands (1990) A gentle man, with scissors for hands, is brought into a new community after living in isolation.

(8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home cause confusion.

(9) Gremlins (1984) A boy inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

This last film made it onto the list as a last second addition with Sam Willison’s explanation of “only in that it’s bonkers”. Not quite sure what that means, but she loves it and it’s a messed-up story, so the judges have allowed it.

(10) Santa Claus (1959)
With the aid of Merlin, Santa Claus must defeat the evil machinations of the devil Pitch to ruin Xmas.

Happy holidays everyone!

Fundraising – Shop Bony Fiddle, help indie film

by JD Stanley on August 7, 2016 0 Comments

Shop ’til you drop… your camera

In having a look at the fundraising for indie film we started a few weeks ago, we decided it wasn’t easy enough for anyone to shop. Personally, I love to shop online and I hate when it requires a lot of digging for links and clicking around – super annoying. We figured the least we could do is present what we have to offer as we roll out the campaigns in a no-nonsense way.

So we created a ~~Bony Fiddle Represent store~~. Seemed like the easiest way to go at that. (*BF Represent store closed Dec 2023)

Bony Fiddle T-shirt - fundraising, support horror indie film

As each subsequent campaign is created over the coming weeks, we’ll add them to the store. Once we get through all the genres, they’ll be some further film-related offerings (still working on those) which we’ll also add to the store for you, so they’ll be easy to find later.

Shop the ~~Bony Fiddle Represent Store~~ today and help us fund some awesome indie film productions. They’re waiting on our help.

Shirts are created and shipped at the conclusion of each fundraising round (7 days each) and remember, we can’t print until the orders are in. Hit the link today and reserve your order for a great tee.

You can feel great knowing that your contribution will help the indie film community. Shop for you or a friend. These high quality shirts last through the wash, feature the Bony Fiddle logo, and make good gifts for anyone who supports the arts.

Fundraising – Campaign 2 in support of Sci-Fi Indie Film

by JD Stanley on August 3, 2016

The collective of sci-fi fans unite!

This week we’ve launched round 2 in our series of Represent fundraising campaigns in support of indie films by genre. The focus this time is on sci-fi! ~~You can find the Represent fundraising campaign here: Support Sci-Fi Indie Film~~ (*BF Represent store closed Dec 2023)

Bony Fiddle T-shirt - fundraising, support sci-fi indie film, green

This is why we’re fundraising…

Over time, we just keep stumbling across the most amazing, well-written, fabulous, insightful, quirky, cheeky, ghoulish, bloody, disgusting independent film productions from teams of extremely talented individuals from all over the world. And we love it as much as we hate it, because we just can’t help enough of them. So many of these guys should already be making big-budget films or have been signed-on to produce a Netflix or major network t.v. series, but their work isn’t getting seen. The underlying problem? They’re being held back by lack of funding. We believe these artists deserve the opportunity to take their shot and we’re going to help them do it.

About this fundraising campaign

For our second Represent fundraising campaign, the focus is in support of another genre Blair and I cut our teeth on – sci-fi. As a kid, I stewed myself in reading Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke, watched Star Trek from the time it launched on television in 1966 and saw Star Wars debut at the drive-in in 1977 and it blew my mind. As I pursued writing, the entire first half of my career was focussed on sci-fi and I dreamed of being the next Asimov. Blair has been an X-Files and Aliens fanatic I’m pretty sure since birth (we’re not even sure he’s quite human to be honest), has written sci-fi short stories and screenplays for years and can’t hold back the aliens that continually creep into his prop-making.

Won’t you help us support these independent film productions waiting to be made? Profits from the sale of all tees go directly into our fundraising pool to support more solid and deserving independent productions.

Shirts will be created and shipped at the conclusion of each fundraising round and we can’t print until the orders are in, so there’s no time to lose! Hit the link today and get your order in for a great tee and know that your contribution will help the indie film community.

All the shirts in the series feature the Bony Fiddle logo and the target genre. As we go along, once the initial campaigns run for a couple of weeks, we’ll work to add more colours and some different styles for a bit of variety. After the initial fundraising for each genre, we also hope to run them in perpetuity in the background. If you love them, you’ll be able to come back to create more orders whenever you like and know all your contributions will continue to help out some great crews who need our support to get their productions off the ground.

Fundraising – in support of Horror Indie Film

by JD Stanley on July 16, 2016

Fundraising – in support of Horror Indie Film

Listen up horror fans!

Today we’re launching the first of a series of Represent fundraising campaigns in support of indie film by genre. Say what? Yup, you heard us.

~~You can find the Represent fundraising campaign here: Support Horror Indie Film~~ (*BF Represent store closed Dec 2023)

Here’s the fundraising deal…

We keep stumbling across the most amazing, well-written, fabulous, quirky, cheeky, ghoulish, bloody, disgusting independent film productions from teams of extremely talented individuals from all over the world and we just can’t help enough of them. We’re talking crews who should have already hit the big time, but they’re being held back by lack of funding. It’s just not fair. These artists deserve the opportunity to take their shot and we aim to help them do it.

For our first Represent fundraising campaign, we’re starting off in support of horror film – a genre near and dear to our cold, undead hearts. We love it and we know you do, too. Won’t you help us support these films waiting to be made? Profits from the sale of all tees will go into our fundraising pool to support more solid and deserving independent productions.
Shirts will be created and shipped at the conclusion of the fundraising campaign and we can’t print until the orders are in, so there’s no time to lose! Hit the link today and get your order in for a great tee and know that your contribution will help the indie film community.

Support Horror Indie Film Today!

All the shirts in the series will feature the Bony Fiddle logo and the target genre. As we go along, once the initial campaigns run for a couple of weeks, we’ll work to add more colours and some different styles for a bit of variety. After the initial fundraising for each genre, we also hope to run them in perpetuity in the background. If you love them, you’ll be able to come back and create more orders whenever you like knowing all your contributions will continue to help out some great crews who need our support to get their productions off the ground.