Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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Charley says: Men – always use a condom

12 February 2014 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Any feminist analysis of literature, particularly visual media such as TV, will usually end up invoking ‘the male gaze’ – that is, whether female characters are viewed through the prism of (heterosexual) male desires, concepts about women, etc, or whether there is a greater personal truth to them.

Of course, if you’re targeting an ad at heterosexual men that’s largely about their desires, the male gaze is something that’s going to crop up. Back in the 80s, when HIV/AIDS was a very worrying new disease, persuading men to use condoms for pretty much the first time in a generation was something that required a large-scale government health campaign – even if there was a chance they’d get AIDS and die if they didn’t.

So behold, the male gaze writ large. She’s hot (look!), she’s up for it (look!), but oh the horror if she asks you to stay the night!

Samuel L Jackson is not Laurence Fishburne

12 February 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Here’s what happens if you’re not properly prepared as a reporter. You get told that Samuel L Jackson featured in a Superbowl commercial (he did: for Captain America: Winter Soldier). But you don’t watch it and you don’t know what it was for.

You ask Samuel L Jackson about it. Samuel L Jackson has forgotten he’s in a Superbowl commercial. However, he remembers that Laurence Fishburne was in a Superbowl commercial. Both he and Laurence Fishburne often get stupid people mixing them up. In person.

Cue an extremely irritated Samuel L Jackson, although one who makes a lot of good points about racism in Hollywood and the entertainment industries.

Watch ‘that scene’ from Sunday’s True Detective

12 February 2014 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Talking of directorial innovation in American TV, HBO/Sky Atlantic’s True Detective has progressively been turning into a ‘must see’ show. Episode four, which aired on Sunday in the US, included a particular directorial flourish that you can watch below: a six-minute long tracking shot, done as a single take. It’s pretty impressive to watch and shouldn’t spoil the story too much if you haven’t been watching and intend to – or if you have been watching but haven’t seen episode four yet.

It reminds me of Point Break‘s famous chase scene, which although not a tracking shot, gave a similar almost first-person view of the narrative.

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