The EIFF

Before going to the festival I was informed that it was not at all how I'd pictured it; basically the film equivalent to a large music festival in a park with lots of tents and people buzzing about going in to 'the feature tent' or the 'international short tent', etc. It was strange to realize it was just in your average Cineworld, and that there weren't lots of celebs buzzing about on red carpets.

The first film we went to see was Ollie Kelpers Expanding Purple World - from the overly-long synopsis we managed to come to the expectation that it was some kind of time travel, wacky story. This, my friends, was not the case. It was described similarly to Donnie Darko, one of my favorites, yet it was different in the sense that it was not as serious or 'dark' as Donnie Darko. The basic plot was that Ollie, science geek, loses his wife as she dies of a blood clot which sends him in to insane schizophrenia, convinced he killed his wife in the freezer and as a result, the government have planted a chip to freeze his brain. It was sad at parts, sweet at others, and had some absolutely hilarious scenes where he was screaming and abusing his kettle. It was a strange film - the inside of his mind as he spiraled out of control. There were some cheesy bits where it was a large galaxy with his face in the middle of it which I wasn't too keen on, and I found it hard to imagine it being shown in Cineworld as a regular feature. It was fairly slow to start and almost clever in the sense that you weren't actually sure if what was happening to him was real or if he was actually insane. Overall, it was lighthearted then sad, just a little crazy, and most importantly it had me laughing out loud the whole way.

Next, we went to see 'Superhero Me' which was a documentary, not exactly the most exciting music to my ears. However - I really enjoyed it. It was like a real-life Kick Ass, featuring Steve Sale and his quest as he fulfills his destiny as a real life super hero. It was hysterical, providing real life super heros who honestly believed they were saving the world. I couldn't believe some of these people exist, such as MASTER LEGEND, superhero straight out of LA who patrolled the crack houses and dedicates his life to being a real life superhero. Although it was done on a very low budget and some of it recorded on mobile phones, it was very effective and looked as though it was done on purpose. The only annoying thing was that the subtitles didn't fit on the screen so we had no idea what was being said by some Mexican superhero spider. Shame! In general, I really enjoyed the documentary and it shone a different light on them for me as it was funny and lighthearted, and didn't put me to sleep.

I was keen on seeing some short films as for me these are educational - an insight in to what other students are producing all over the world. They were strange, I'll give you that. The first one, Birthday, was absolutely beautiful and the props were gorgeous, along with the music making your mind jump to sinister conclusions. However I felt that it didn't seem to follow any of the rules we are taught by Richard - no in sighting incident, no character development, no general theme. I still loved it though because it was just so pretty and I enjoyed coming up with new creepy theories of my own. The next three were just generally weird - one was about a bank robbery in France which I thought looked more like a re-enactment from a documentary with only a few funny moments. The next, I don't think I've ever been so irritated by a short film or character than I was with this one. I felt the short had absolutely no point to it, it was long and dragged out and the main character had absolutely no interesting or likeable qualities. It looked more like a 16 minute insight in to a boring middle aged americans day-to-day life and I thought it had no good qualities for me. Perhaps the film maker wanted to convey the feeling of frustration and uncomfortableness, which they succeeded in doing.

The weekend at the film festival was interesting, It was good to see what kind of films are being made all over the world and an insight in to what kind of films we can expect to see soon. I was gutted I didn't go on another day to try and catch The Runaways, which I have been waiting on for months. When looking at what was on before we went, I noticed a film called 'Cigarette Girl', which was said to be like a low-budget sin city with an interesting premise of smokers being banned and seen as rebels, set in 2050. Unfortunately, it wasn't on when we went. However, at the Hair of the dog event, the director stopped me and Amelie to ask us if we got the chance to see it and if we liked it. When we explained it wasn't on, he kindly gave us his email address along with his producers in order to access the full feature online! It was good to be approached just for our opinions - something I'm sure we'll all have to do when we go to make our films or even have a rough premise idea as Richard has always said we should be asking random people what they think. In general, it was a fun way to end our own short films and made me feel inspired and excited for the future as hopefully one day we'll be watching something we have made.

The killers

My Cineworld card has been growing cobwebs lately, however I managed to squeeze in Killers, the latest rom-com. I'll keep it short and sweet, but basically if the main role was played by anyone other than Ashton Kutcher, it would have been a complete FLOP. It was enjoyable yet completely unbelievable throughout, until the ending which was so ridiculous even Ashtons abs couldn't save it. I think that if we handed the script over to Richard he would have smacked us over the face with how hideous and anti-climactic the ending actually was. Its amazing to see how many great scripts probably don't get made because of movies like these, and how much a film sells purely based on one mans six pack. I wasn't impressed with Katherine Heigl's performace, it was very weak and just, I repeat, completely unrealistic. It had a few laughs and I liked the distant similarity to The Truman Show, where all the killers were actually people planted in to their lives as best friends and neighbours etc, however they never played on this interesting concept. Overall, thumbs down for me.

As the end of first year draws nearer, our first (important) film is coming in production. I have had the opportunity to work as a producer for one of the films, 'Two Seconds', and day one of two is complete. After two weeks of everything running smoothly, we began to see some cracks in the production which we came and saw and conquered.

• Days before the shoot, the agency supplying us with 7 extras decided to smoothly 'dingy' us by not replying to emails or picking up the phone. For a so-called casting agency, I thought this was disrespectful, just plain rude and extremely unprofessional. However, we contacted another agency 'All Talent UK' who promptly got on to it and we had our extras within hours.
  
• Sound. Sound, sound, sound. As we are all completely clueless with this, we had the trouble of having to find a sound person days before the shoot. In the end we had to ask Michael, our editor, to do sound for us today and Gav to do sound for us tomorrow. H-O-W-E-V-E-R. Today, halfway through the shoot, we suddenly realize the sound has not been switched on or some strange thing that basically meant we were screwed. We took a break, ate some food or a million cookies, and popped some caps. I had the lovely job of making sure we didn't run a second over schedule which was hard, as even though we want to get the best shots and performance possible, time was of the essence and its hard not to feel like your sucking all the creative energy out of the film, however the show must go on! In the end, we managed to complete the scenes and re-shoot, all in the nick of time, along with taking down sets and what not. It was a good experience and I'm sure we'll never make that mistake again.
• The battery charger broke. Which meant, of course, the monitor died. We could live with this, however the cameras death swiftly followed, luckily we were aware of it and managed to complete the shot list. We just had to miss out the voice over which wasn't major as it was only going to be a rough guide anyway and will get touched up in sound later.
• Carrying the kit up and down 7 flights of stairs was horrific, why oh why did the lift decide to break on the worst possible day? Bonus - I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight.
  
• We handled obstacles well and have managed to stay calm in rubbish situations, can't hold us down!

These are of course the obstacles we faced, missing out all the good points. We have a lovely actress who played the part well and was great off-set too, and the costume was great! I think the make-up girl Rachel had a ball putting on all the chavy make-up. The footage looked great and I can't wait to see a complete copy, its a lot of fun and amazing how different it feels when its your own project your working on. Its obviously more personal and your efforts are far more invested in it. Having Ally from 4th year was a massive help, I think he made us feel safer as he had more knowledge and experience and we really appreciated his help.
Producing is fun - but stressful. Its a lot of work and its amazing to see how much a producer actually has to do for a film. I find the budgets and shot lists hard to follow because of having dyscalculia, but hopefully it will get better from now on with a little help. In general, day one had been good fun and I don't think there's anything too awful that could happen tomorrow. I'll report back soon with the verdict!

l.o.v.e

As series three of gossip girl came to an end, my love for it has most definitely not. This series has been very dramatic and having to watch trailer trash Taylor Momsen with her rats tails down to her knees proved to be quite a task indeed. But what a series! Everything about Gossip Girl is fabulous, the people, (I prefer to think of it as real life instead of referring to them as actors or characters) the clothes, the music, the setting, everything!! Its a brilliant sense of escapism as I'm pretty sure every girl wants the inside scoop of Manhattans upper-east side! The series finale was heartbreaking, Chuck and Blair are so tragic, I felt awful for them both. But fear not, minions on perez hilton assure us all that Chuck does indeed live after being shot in a seedy alley in Prague, and sets out to win his beloved Blair back, which i really hope he does because I'll just die if he doesn't. Talk about dramatics! However, I would like to see some fresh storylines as I'm beginning to see the same stories crop up, Dan and Serena were so over and should stay that way, along with Georgina coming back to haunt them! Anyway, I promised this would be short and sweet but I just wanted to reassure anyone in doubt that I am in fact still completely obsessed with Gossip Girl and one day I will conquer it! xoxo

Easy Rider

Over the past few weeks, I've become a bit of a fan of the 70s, especially after watching Bonnie and Clyde and seeing the amount of real influence the time period had on cinema. However, I'm not sure how well Easy Rider has aged. Honestly, I was a little let down by it and I thought for the most of it, it seemed as though it were a continuous music video for 'Born To Be Wild'. I can appreciate the way in which it explores various elements of its time period such as drugs, the hippie movement, free love and the communal lifestyle. The way it explored the communal lifestyle creeped me it out, I thought it was just so strange and uncomfortable for some reason. As far as the story goes, I thought it lacked, for me, any real drive. I think however that this was on purpose and the real character goal was to achieve what it means to be 'free' and liberated, but I felt it wasn't as exciting as other films of its time such as Bonnie and Clyde. It was rather slow and I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again! The ending felt like an anti-climax as they had achieved freedom physically and financially, yet not spiritually as Wyatt says 'We blew it.' Minutes later they die which felt a little pointless, perhaps this was the point, to enhance the way they were killed so effortlessly simply because they were different.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a gorgeous film about the complexities of human relationships and after watching it for the first time, I love it already. The film is based around two best friends, Vicky and Cristina as they spend their summer in Barcelona. Vicky is very traditional in her views of love and life, and plans to marry her very 'safe' fiance and live happily ever after. Cristina, on the other hand, is very fluid and spontaneous in her views of love, becoming a very likeable and interesting character. Here, they meet a very complex and mysterious spanish painter, Juan Antonio. He tells them he is attracted to both of them, invites them to spend the weekend with him and after hearing of his troublesome times with his ex wife, Cristina agrees. Penelope Cruz gives an absolutely fantastic performance of Juan Antonios ex wife, Maria Elena, who is psychotic, full of passion and complexities, a very different role for Cruz. Cristina, Juan and Maria all engage in a relationship together which is an interesting topic to tackle, handled very passionately and exciting. Vicky, having fallen in love with Juan after a weekend of love, gets married to her 'safe' husband against her deepest wishes. The film tackles the complexities of human emotions and the way they can be so fragile and delicate, and being situated in Barcelona only adds to the romantic feel of the movie. The witty voiceover worked very well, the style of the movie was gorgeous. The way in which people seemed so humane in the film was fresh, after Cristina learns of Vickys love for Juan Antonio, she doesn't do your typical 'you bitch' scene, but stresses that if she had known she would have stepped aside which I thought was very understanding. The way in which Vicky was torn between this passionate, romantic spanish artist and her safe but kind husband was such a 'worst nightmare' crossroad situation. The four main characters were fantastic, they were cast brilliantly. The contrast between Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz worked beautifully and their performances were delivered with elegance. Javier Bardem played a great sexy, exciting, 'tortured artist' that worked well with his accent and tall-dark-&-handsome looks. In general, I think the movie was fantastic and I really enjoyed the way in which the girls returned from the chapter of their life in the same place as they started but feeling completely different life in general, making conscious decisions about what they want in life, and more importantly, who.

Producing

Over the past week, we have had our introduction to production with Abigail. This was exciting for me as I have taken a keen interest in producing and I'd like to learn more about it. The classes with Abigail were not as intense as they could have been, I was soaking up everything that is involved in production and really enjoying it.

• I had a vague idea of what exactly the producer does, but I did not expect the amount they actually are in charge of. Actors, budgets, script breakdowns (which was actually really fun, but hey, don't quote me on this if we have to breakdown a feature), dealing with locations, catering, legal issues, absolutely everything you can think of involved in organizing a shoot. This pleases my inner control freak.
  
• The amount of forms that need to be filled out is insane. Poor trees! After only one class on budgeting, I have already nabbed a few budget sheets and have attempted to budget my own life, its a really helpful method. The thing is, I'm good at budgeting and looking after other peoples money, but with my own, well thats another story really.
• After our script breakdown, we were told to make a shooting schedule. I found this really hard because I couldn't seem to keep up and understand all the sheets of paper, I understand how it is done and what is involved but my brain physically could not process it there and then. So I found that quite challenging but I'm sure I'll get it soon.
• Maths. Numbers = A complete problem for me. I just can't seem to understand them, so when told a script is split up in to 1/8's was not exciting. I managed to understand it, but I don't UNDERSTAND why it is 1/8's? Luckily, Abigail said she doesn't really 'get' it either and its just an old conventional way, which is fair enough.

In general, I've really enjoyed the production classes with Abigail and look forward to gaining some more production experience in the future!

Oliver Stone

How many people can say that Oliver Stone came to their uni and they even managed to worm a cheeky photo out of him? That's right, us! Hearing the news that we were getting a visit from Oliver Stone was incredible, we were all so excited. Natural Born Killers is a one of my favorite films like, EVER which is a real achievement. Having never met anyone 'famous' apart from the occasional bump in to Paolo Nutini on a Saturday night, I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. Being such an amazing, award-winning director such as he, you never know what they are going to be like. Lets be honest, it would be pretty hard not to be arrogant. But I found Oliver Stone very down to earth and interesting, he has an interesting way of thinking. I enjoyed some of his opinions on the world that we live in, and in his case, America. I thought it was a real pleasure to have met him, and that picture is going to get printed and framed. Its one of these 'once in a lifetime' opportunities, especially when you are an 18 year old studying film, to have the company of such an inspirational director. Oliver Stone made me want to really live life to the fullest, cheesy I know, but I think thats where the best stories and films come from. I feel myself straying from the normal chick flicks and wanting to make something that says something, something I can be proud of. I loved the way he wasn't talking down his work, and in fact he was bragging about how much he loved Alexander. He was frank about it, hes damn good and he knows it. His attitude toward us was lovely, I thought it was great he came up and spoke to us because he really didn't need to. In general, it was a great experience and I'm sure my auntie will be telling her friends aunties gran for many years to come!

Cathy Come Home

When we sat down to watch Cathy Come Home, for no reason other than a woman's name in the title I'm sure, I expected it to be much the same as I Love Lucy; However, it could not have been further from this. Cathy Come Home was a powerful, very emotional and realistic portrayal of what happened, and still happens, to thousands of people all over the world. The style in which it was done made you almost certain it had to be a documentary, along with the actors realistically moving performances. I feel the dialogue and story structure carried you easily through their tough journey and you really experienced all the hardships with them, the fact that it was purely based on real-life conversations making it all the more dramatic. One of the most upsetting scenes for me was when Cathy takes one of her sons to live with an older woman 'just for a little while', but you know she is never going to come back for him. I cannot imagine what it must have taken for women to leave their children like that, unable to look after themselves let alone a baby. The idea that this was indeed some peoples reality is completely unrecognizable to me, we all have it so lucky and we rarely appreciate it. The fact that Cathy and Reg started off completely happy, well off and heading for a good life together was the heartbreaking reality of it - it really was no ones fault. They weren't in to drugs, gambling, what you might expect if you seen them wandering the streets in their rags. In general, I think Cathy Come Home was although very sad, very inspirational to our generation nowadays who have adopted a very ignorant view of this type of world around us. It is this type of good, honest drama that I would be proud to provoke the public with in the future and it really did 'make me think.'

Bonnie & Clyde

It is safe to say that after watching Bonnie and Clyde in class on Friday, it has become a new favorite of mine. Everything about the movie is brilliant, its glamorous and its uber cool. Everyone knows the story of Bonnie and Clyde (even if only from Beyonce and Jay-z..) however I had never been inclined to watch the movie, so it was a great surprise to watch it. I guess I didn't expect Bonnie and Clyde to be so hot!
Fay Dunaway played an excellent Bonnie Parker and she was oh-so-fashionable, what an icon. Clyde Barrow was lovely, I can see why 'your so vain' was apparently written about him considering he is such a hollywood hunk! They played a gorgeous couple and they are very believable as the historical couple. However, I am a little disgusted to read that there is a 2010 re-make of Bonnie and Clyde featuring Hilary Duff as Bonnie, no less. What an insult to Bonnie! Personally, I don't think little Lizzie Mcguire would do the role justice, however only time will tell.
The editing in the film was brilliant, right before the death sequence at the end where it cuts between their facial expressions is so powerful, you know exactly how they are feeling at that moment. The scene at the end was described as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history", for the time period it must have been shocking to the public. However, the film is considered as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, and broke many of the rules and taboos of film making at the time. The portrayal of sex and violence in the film encouraged film makers to be more forward and upfront in their own films when approaching these subjects.
The character of Blanche Barrow could not have been more annoying, with the real life Blance Barrow slating the performance insisting "That film made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"...Well, at least she knows it! Gene Wilders debut as Eugene Grizzard was hysterical, who knew Willy Wonka made his debut in such a cool movie!
In general, Bonnie and Clyde was a fantastic controversial film portraying the great super-couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, challenging the stereotypes and portrayal of films of its time.

Election

First of all, I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing and I mean nothing about politics. I could barely have told you which party Gordon Brown represents, still think Tony Blair lives in 'the white house' and I certainly don't have any clue about who I would want to come in to power. However, even someone as ignorant to politics such as I, can't have avoided the election coverage over the past few weeks. I think with the three main parties getting involved in debates was a little unfair on the other parties who are competing for the vote also, as there has been little knowledge on them whatsoever I feel. Of course we all know the effects and influence TV can have on thousands of people in our society, and evidence shows the polls increasing towards particular parties after the first debate live on TV. I must admit, I actually enjoyed Gordon Browns screw-up when he called someone a 'bigoted' woman, because he was simply being honest. It would be interesting to see whether this will have effected the publics views and therefore their vote, however I personally feel more inclined to vote for him because of it. It was also brought to my attention the awful Tori lady who decided that she could 'cure' homosexuals, which to be honest makes me sick. I think someone needs to get with the times and take her head out of the sand and realize that its not a crime to be homosexual - its a crime to have an attitude like hers. I was completely put off the tori party because of this one woman, and this just shows how easily people can be persuaded, especially people like me who have little information about politics. In general, I feel the coverage for the three main parties has been strong however the smaller parties have had little or no coverage that I have seen. I'll be quite happy when all this election business will be over! Peace.

Stagecoach

As a general overview, when I hear the word 'western' I instantly think of cowboys vs Indians, and how biased it is when the American cowboys always seem to be the 'good guys.' Indiana Jones aside - I don't remember ever watching a western in my life, I'm ashamed to say. Having heard all about Stagecoach, I was pleased to see that it's very different from my preconceived ideas of what a western should be. For instance, John Wayne's character was not your typical goodie, and could actually be described as the opposite having escaped from jail. The mix of the characters in Stagecoach is effective, they would not be the typical group of people expected in a cowboy and indian film, along with the scandalous Dallas and Dr. Boone the drunk for some comic relief. The romance that blossoms between Dallas and Ringo is adds a nice element too it and we discover that Dallas is not as bad as she seems and is in fact a lady. The scene in which Hatfield is going to kill Mrs. Mallory with his last bullet to save her from a more violent death is so sad! What a better time for him to be wounded and help to arrive - a minute later and she would have died for no reason. The ending is satisfying where Ringo is accepting he will be taken back to jail however he is able to 'escape' to start his life with Dallas. In general, I enjoyed Stagecoach a lot more than I anticipated. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be like, in fact, it turned out better.

'I used to be snow white, but I drifted..'

The portrayal of women in the film industry can always be a touchy subject. (Especially in a class full of many girls....) When we were asked to talk about the stereotypical qualities in many female characters, the list was endless. Bunny boiler, constantly having PMS, needy, moany, you name it. Where on earth has this supposed view of women came from? An actress is pretty - she plays the slut. Shes ugly - she plays the geeky tomboy. You see it in all types of movies, and even when you really think a woman is a strong character, such as Ada suggested Angelina Jolie in Wanted - we realize that she is not a 'strong' character, she is simply a glorified, lifelike fantasy of many men around the world.
We had an interesting discussion on the female role models of Hollywood such as Cameron Diaz and Megan Fox. Personally I agree with Flick's point that yes, Cameron Diaz is a very savy business woman. She understands that she may not be the most convincing actress for a more 'serious' role and spares us the whole 'I want to be taken as a serious actress' spiel. She knows what shes good at, sticks to that, and makes a hell of a lot of money doing it. Why do some 'serious' role where you could be slated by the public, when you can do Charlies Angels and have an awesome time in the process? I know what I'd go for!
I think its a little unfair to judge celebrities at all on the way they appear on magazine shoots or on the red carpet, they are not being themselves, they are being the Hollywood version of themselves. Take for instance Megan Fox, when you see her in photographs going to the corner shop or whatever, she is always dressed down in jeans and a T shirt, not (surprise surprise) constantly naked. However, when you see her at public events controlled by the bosses, she's done up to high dough. The Hollywood system is a machine, it takes you, strips you naked (literally) and changes you in to something that people want to see. No one wants to see your fave celeb crush in a bean-stained 3 day old t shirt and jeans with no button. We want to see the glorified version of them, so we can lust over something we will very probably never have (apart from Katie Holmes, lucky b!)
In general I think its awfully unfair to judge these women on the types of roles they take or the clothes they are made to wear because if you were in their shoes, wouldn't you just do it to look a million bucks and get paid a million bucks while your at it?!

Dear John (Weep)

Next, I donned my 3D glasses to go see The Clash Of The Titans. With actors like Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson placed along side greek mythology I was thinking it would be worth a watch. It wasn't. Firstly, even putting it in 3D couldn't excuse the serious-but-cheesy storyline and not to mention the extremely weird casting of Effie and Tony from skins. The moment their faces popped up, donned in serious greek armour and dreds, the film failed for me. It wasn't uncomfortable to watch, I just didn't enjoy the serious tone of the film, compared to Percy Jackson which I thought suited the themes so much more. I have always been really interested in Greek mythology, however I wasn't impressed with the way it was portrayed in the film. The graphics were great, but lets face it, there's only so much graphics alone can achieve.
Moving on, with nothing much left to see, we went for the uber-chick flick Dear John. Having been there got the t shirt of crying over The Notebook many a time, I wasn't too bothered about going to see it, its a pretty mainstream tearjerker. Boy meets girl for around 2 weeks, boy and girl get split up due to some uncontrollable circumstance, boy and girl write to each other, boy and girl split up, years later boy and girl are still in love. Personally I think Nicholas Sparks got it easy by changing a few names and dates from The Notebook, giving the characters the Hollywood treatment et voila, we have a best seller and a movie deal. I'm not saying it wasn't good - I enjoyed it - but it was fairly predictable from the word go. The only thing that could be noted about the casting of Amanda Seyfried is that years and years were meant to have passed and she still looked about 18 rather than approaching 30. But otherwise, her girl-next-door meets Channing Tatum's bad-boy-turned-good persona meshed well together to form a teary updated version of The Notebook for many heartbroken teenage girls and boys (even if they won't admit it.)

Iron Man

After a week back in class, I am oh-so-back in movie mode and celebrated it with a marathon in Cineworld. First, I headed to see the movie of the moment, in the form of Iron Man 2. I'm sure even hillbillies in far away lands have felt the buzz Iron Man has been causing over the past few weeks, and if not, Flick should be having some serious words.. Its no secret that Robert Downey Jr and his whereabouts are one of my top priorities, so I was excited to see him in all his glory portraying Tony Stark in the second installation of Iron Man.

The film, I thought, was excellent. I am not usually a fan of comic books, but for Iron Man I make huge exceptions. Tony Stark as a character is fun, interesting and charismatic, with Rob (Yeah, we're on nickname terms..) portraying this fantastically. He oozes cool and delivers his performance that would make an oscar weep sweet sweet gold. Mickey Rourke also gave a great performance and was such a good bad-ass, he looked so good! Not to forget the awesomely cool gadgets and action scenes, I was loving it. Don't you just want to be Tony Stark?! In general I thought Iron Man 2 was brilliant, the story flowed and the casting was perfect, and last but certainly not least, big love for Robert Downey Jr! Peace.

Being Victor

At the start of the holidays, pre-volcano, Murray and I started working on a new online-based TV show called Being Victor. Being Victor is a cross between the concept of Gossip Girl (an online unknown blogger posting gossip about fellow students, much to my delight!) and explicit teen drama such as Skins. Its super exciting and we were really chuffed to have an inside scoop on what was going on, being involved in a 'Making Of' documentary. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of what we planned to do due to being stuck in America, not as amazing as it sounds. But even in the few days I did make it, a lot was to be learned!

• First of all, not all producers are scary. Kat was absolutely lovely and really cool! She was really up for all of our suggestions and helped to make them even better. She was easy and comfortable to be around whilst maintaining a 'don't mess' attitude, amazing. I salute you, Kat!
• The costs you don't consider on a production is crazy. We had an hour or two to kill and offered our runner services and were asked to go and print off some scripts. Who would have thought it'd be 165 quid just to photocopy paper?! So Murray used his resourceful skills and we headed round to his mums work to begin the printing, for £100. Little did we know we would still be there sorting and stapling 4 hours later! You can really see how the costs mount up, its really outstanding how much things such as printing and printer ink can add up over the course of a production.
• The cast were all really great and it was exciting to see what a real life behind the scenes is like. It wasn't all perfect and there were the normal hiccups you would expect but it was real and I learned a lot just by being there in the midst of all the chaos!

In general, I learned a lot from this fantastic experience and opportunity, hopefully I will still help out in editing and can't wait to see how the final show will look! xoxo

At long last, It finally arrived! I'd been expecting The Blind Side to come out over here for a while, after my friend went to see it in New York what seems to be lightyears ago. Not being a regular movie buff, she kept raving and raving about it so I knew it had to be at least half decent, and then came the Oscars. Sandra Bullock is one of my fave actresses, I think shes brilliant and deserved an Oscar long before now. However, seeing her performance in The Blind Side, I think it was worth the wait. Its such a lovely film that really reminds you how nice people can really be. To be honest, if it didn't have all this hype about it being a true story and someone told me after watching it, I'd be like Yeah...Right. Because pigs do fly. It seems to have such your typical Hollywood ending, providing a nice reminder that they do exist. Sandra Bullock played such a strong inspiring character and I think she carried it off fantastically, with the odd comic relief thrown in. In general, a great film and a well deserved Oscar.

Supernatural

My latest obsession comes in the form of Supernatural. Three weeks off? Plenty time to squeeze in five series.....I began watching Supernatural with a kind of 'whatever' attitude. I thought it was going to be along the lines of Buffy and Charmed, and trust me, I think my 13 year old self watched enough of that to get remotely excited or scared by anything new. However, I'm loving Supernatural right now...It deals with the type of thing that really scares me, old urban legends such as Bloody Mary, among other 'supernatural' things such as evil spirits and weird stuff like that. Its good that you can dip in and dip out of the series, whilst also following the underlying story throughout. I love guilty pleasures!

Books

Just a quick update on my crazy reading habits of the moment. Last week I went on a crazy reading marathon and successfully read The Boy In The Striped PJ's in one whole evening. Not a hard thing to do, admittedly I did feel a little cringey reading it in public what with the huge text, but overall a great read. I had been eager to read it before I watch the film as I've always had a kind of morbid curiosity for WW2. The more horrifying the better, I'm so sick. I think I just can't seem to get my head around the fact that these are actual facts, true story, no jokes. This book was a lovely little gem of the innocence children are blessed with especially in hard times and I just hope the film lives up to it!
I'm ashamed to say I've put down 'Haunted' by Chuck Pala...... because its simply going to have to wait for a time where I feel like reading the weirdest most freaky things, and that time is not now. I know I will come back to it, but I go through 'moods' when reading, and I'm just not up for hearing about young boys having to chew off their intestine.....
Also, being the multi-tasker that I am, I'm currently reading a nice little chick flick called The Brightest Star In The Sky by Marian Keyes. Slightly similar set up to The Street, a mysterious presence (which my mum spoiled by telling me its an unborn baby) follows the lives of each person living in each flat inside an apartment block. Its a sweet story so far and I'm really enjoying it.
HOWEVER. I'm missing my James Patterson murdery stories. Today I unwillingly headed to Waterstones, the realization that Borders is truly gone sinking in with every step. I find it hard looking for a book when I don't really know what I want. I'm terrible for judging books by covers, but really that's all you have to go on, isn't it? Anyway, I went for an author who was recommended to me called Harlan Coben, the book called The Woods....And I really can't seem to prize myself away from it, theres simply not enough time in one night to get it all read, especially with River City taking up a whole hour.....

Casablanca

Heres lookin' at you, kid! What a great film. Again, I've found myself to enjoy yet another classic. I've always seemed to shy away from films that are considered to be great, such as the Godfather and Casablanca....Now I have no idea why! I absolutely loved Casablanca. It was such a lovely film and not what I expected at all.

The story was wonderfully romantic and even had a nice bitter sweet ending. It had perfect structure and just seemed to flow effortlessly. I never realized quite so many lines came from Casablanca, and who knew it was going to be such a big hit during production. I can't believe what a big influence it seems to have been, discovering later that night that The Usual Suspects with Kevin Spacey's title came from the line in Casablanca 'Round up the usual suspects....'

In general, I think Casablanca was a perfect mistake and a beautiful movie that deserves its place in our everyday chit chat along with film history!

Roll out the red carpet

Thats right, today we visited Dunbartons answer to Hollywood - The set of River City. It was a great experience for us to be able to visit a set, especially in action, of a BBC drama such as River City. Being one of the shows regulars now, I was especially surprised to see how small the sets were. (And some of the actors!!) The cameras really fooled me. I would never have guessed all the 'flats' were inside a huge warehouse, they look nice and real enough to live in!

Its crazy to think how much money and effort goes in to a TV show, I can only imagine what the MGM studios were like if they were almost the size of a small town! It still baffles me to think its like a whole imaginary world built for characters, along the same lines as The Truman Show, freaky! I also got to speak to a few of the cast that I know which was really nice, I felt quite priveledged to be there!

Again, 'Never work with animals or children...' was reinforced upon us today as we saw the character Ruth playing out a scene in which 'her baby' kept screaming and kicking, and then throwing toys around. What a pilavah! It must be really hard to work with kids in serious roles and I guess you got to hand it to the ones who really are fantastic little actors.

Another highlight of my trip was the fact I noticed a serioussss spoiler in the Tall Ship, I think alarm bells chimed a little when I noticed it out loud infront of Kim and the producer! Hehehe.... Don't worry, the only person thats remotely interested is my granny. She won't tell.

I'm sad to see that Kim is no longer teaching us, she was really fab and I thoroughly enjoyed her classes, they taught me a lot about what it means to storyline and script edit, everything about writing for TV in general. She introduced us to some important people and really took a keen interest in involving us within the industry. I really hope to see her back next year to give us some more pearls of wisdom!!

Home

Our first shoot over and done with, and guess what? We all made it out alive. Hurrah!
Things I learned -

• (Firstly, never follow Murray in the car, you will have near death experiences various times throughout the day.)
• Don't forget the main part of the costume.
• If you forget the main part of the costume, its not the end of the world. I managed to fly home to Cambuslang and back in under 50 minutes, meanwhile the rest of the crew filmed scenes where we didn't even need it. PHEW.
• Bring lots and lots of layers, it will be freezing and this will cause bad, bad moods.
  
• Don't drive through KelvinGrove park even with permission from the police, the public will still abuse you....
• Keep referring back to the original idea without dressing it up too much.
  
• Make do with less-than-ideal situations.
• Never come between a hound of dogs and our pizza.
  
• If you drive on the grass, you will fall into a coffin. No joke.
  
• Don't pick seedy lanes to film in, there will, very probably, be dead bodies lying in them.
  
• Always check we have the correct amount of batteries (!!)
  
• Have faith in ourselves.
  
• The wind is absolutely terrible when trying to hang various things from a tree.
  
• AND finally, its only a film. Have fun.
  

The adoring daughter I am, I headed out to the cinema with mon mere today and I successfully managed to convince her to shy away from the rom-coms and come see Shutter Island, and boy is she glad! Shutter Island is to me a fantastic film. Deeply disturbing and uncomfortable to watch, it is wonderfully written with clever twists and has mastered the suspense element perfectly. (This is probably down to the fact it is based on the novel by Dennis LeHane.) DiCaprio gave a great performance alongside Mark Ruffalo in this fantastic thriller, I'm not wanting to say much more because of spoliers but boy did it get me good....

Can anyone believe its almost the end of term, AGAIN?

• We had our first camera assessment as I've mentioned, which went very well as I now feel much more comfortable around the cameras, especially as we are about to start loads of different filming projects,
• Our time with Kim has been great, I've learned so much about what its like to be a writer for TV and just how much work goes in to story-lining only one week! Its really exciting at the same time, to have so much say in what goes in to the show and it must feel great to be able to see your work pan out in episodes. I was surprised to see the way they chose the A stories and B stories etc, putting all the ideas on coloured paper and up on the wall, the stories make much more sense along side each other this way and its all very pretty and colourful.
  
• We've had a few classes with Adam again and it really gets the ideas going when he talks about making content purely for the web. Its exciting to think one of us could crack this in some way or another! I hate to think that cinemas could die out soon however, because I love the cinema! I had no idea it was just a big advert until I thought about it, but I don't think there will ever be any other way for hundreds of strangers to experience a film at the same time, together, especially with timeshifting. Our generation seem so greedy and selfish, we know what we want and we want it now!
• I'm really looking forward to our up and coming shoots, the Into The New shoot should be interesting, It'll be so much fun shooting a live performance in somewhere like The Arches! I was also excited to hear we're going to be filming the musical theatre's Black Cats And Blue Angels because I go every year and it'll be such a different outlook if I'm actually involved with it rather than just wishing I was!
  

Today we had the pleasure of spending time with 'the biggest star in Hollywood', so to speak. I had never seen King Kong original before, and had vague recollections of Peter Jackson's remake. I was impressed by the original, and actually found it quite humorous and probably more grose than the re-make, however, baring in mind this was the 'un-cut' version.....

Considering the film was made back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, literally, I can see what the big hype was about. It really would be considered the Avatar of our time, if not even more outrageous considering the people back then had never witnessed endless gruesome 'Saw' movies.

One thing that can be said for Peter Jackson's remake is that the casting of Naomi Watts as Annie, as she does have a striking resemblance to Fay Wray. I think its safe to say we all enjoyed the way that Kong felt the need to re-check that he had successfully killed the many beasts that attacked him, by pulling on their broken jaw/face (ouch), it was hilarious!

Overall, the human crushing and female sniffing production has proved itself to be a classic film in history and I'm sure it will remain so for a long time. Fay Wray gave a good performance as the blonde bomshell in distress, even if it was a different co-star she had in mind, as Cooper promised her to work beside the 'tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood'......

Home

Since we started thinking about our 'Home' project, my love for Tim Walker and his crazy imagination has grew. His photographs spark off thousands of ideas for films, and in particular, short visual films. His work has always inspired me and gives way to thousands of crazy, quirky ideas - its no surprize he collaborates a lot with Tim Burton. So next time your stumped on ideas for short films, take a look at his photography and you may be inspired.

I'm not going to give off to much information about our Home ideas so far, but its all very exciting and lovely! I'm really looking forward to be filming our first short, its great to be getting out there and getting the creativity juices flowing!

Lovely bones

I remember reading The Lovely Bones on holiday when I was around 14, and I was petrified. I loved it, but I thought it was very powerful and upsetting, especially because I was around the same age as Susie when she was murdered. However, I do think some stories are just made for books, and books only. What made The Lovely Bones so powerful for me, was the way in which you had the freedom to imagine your own heaven and circumstances, and not be forced to look at someone else's take on what they think.
The Lovely Bones film, for me, was a let down. Well I was not so much let down, I just wish it was never made in to a film. I think anyone's attempt would have taken away from the power the book has. I thought they missed out a few crucial parts that for me, made the story make sense. For instance in the book, they find her elbow. Although its disgusting, it makes the name of the book actually make sense, no? I think they should have included that, however I get the feeling that perhaps they were trying their absolute hardest to get the lowest rating possible, because I imagine any 12 year old would find that scary, its slightly misleading. It should have been a 15, and perhaps if so, they could have included the elbow part.
Peter Jackson's take on what 'heaven' looked like was so corny and cheesy, I wanted to be sick. In the book, her heaven is in the form of her High School, not some cheesy corn fields and 70s get up. Of course its all a matter of opinion, but I think for me, when it comes to 'heaven' then it should be left to peoples imagination.
Overall, the movie was pleasant, they really managed to capture the creepyness of the murderer through the casting choice, he was so scary! But in my opinion, I think some things are best kept the way they are and not changed to fit the big screen and whole Hollywood scene, and The Lovely Bones is definitely a prime example of this.

When we were first given this assessment to do, I thought I might as well pack my bags and move to a far away country and kiss this course good bye. I feel quite comfortable with the cameras in class, and our experience with The Bum-Clocks helped reiterate this. I work well with the others in the group and feel comfortable knowing we’re all on the same boat, relatively speaking. However, when it comes to doing absolutely everything myself, I completely freak out! Judging by our last formative assessment, I thought this one was going to be awful.

BUT - it went surprisingly well for me, aka i didn’t break down in tears or break everything. I went in almost certain I would fail, which is such an awful way to go about things, but it didn’t mean I didn’t try my best. I was surprised at how I managed to get the camera and half of the lights up in around 10 minutes, even if I did put the camera on the wrong way to begin with. I had spent a lot of time looking over the basic notes on how to calibrate the monitor and viewfinder that I don’t feel I done enough work on the lights.

When I choose my lights, I’ll be honest, I was so nervous I just took whatever I thought I had seen before and would manage to lift with my pathetic arms; not the best way to go about it.
First, I calibrated the monitor and viewfinder, with a few glitches that needed to be sorted but I was assured I didn’t fail purely on that, (hurrah!) and then sorted the timecode. I was a little confused by the timecode leading up to the assessment, however a tutorial with Ray the day before sorted out my issues. For some reason I thought it was going to be really complex, hard stuff, but it turned out to be relatively easy! I hope I didn’t make any stupid mistake, an easy thing for me to do under pressure.

However, after I got that all sorted out, I moved on to the lights. I done the white balance which was easy enough, then moved on to back focus. I really don’t like back focus under pressure, I just couldn’t get it right for what felt like soo long! I eventually managed to get it and swiftly moved on to my lights.
I of course managed to do a few ridiculously stupid mistakes I.e. think that the extension cable was plugged in when it actually WASN’T and ran around thinking the lights had broke for a few short moments, but that was no biggie. The lights didn’t shatter and break, so I was quite relieved at that. I set up the lights in a classic 3 point lighting structure, and wanted to go for quite heavy shadows, so didn’t use any gels or NDs on the Backlight. I did use an ND on my fill light to soften it up a bit, and had the backlight quite close to the mannequin. Because I was in a bit of a rush, I’m sure I could have done it better and more thought out if i didn’t panic as much, but I managed to use my time wisely and thats a positive. I then recorded two (very short) clips of my set up, and quickly ran around trying to tidy everything away in time.

Overall, I think we were around 3 minutes over (?) which isn’t great but it isn’t too bad, after all, the lights were super hot and the cables were super long! In general, I feel I could have put more thought in to the lights I was using, however under the circumstances I am quite pleased for a first attempt and have managed to come out of my first summative assessment still alive and well, thank you for your concern!

Oh Tim Burton, how I love your brain. I would really love to disect it and glue it on to mine so i could be so amazingly awesome, if you wouldn't mind.
But until then, I shall just have to make do with your 'Museum Of Modern Art' book which kindly arrived from Amazon to take away the god-awful feeling I was going to be murdered after The Lovely Bones, but we'll come to that later.
It's really no secret how much of an unhealthy obsession I've built up for Tim Burton - I think he is truly fantastic. I think its ALSO fantastic how he has stuck up for his style and work, and rather than drawing and creating love hearts and bubbles, he opts for guts and gore.
Hes a real inspiration and I think i'd just be heartbroken without him as a muse. Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride and Edward Scissorhands are only a few of my absolute favorite films and theres no question as to why. Burton's incredible imagination shines through in all his films and stories, and they are beautiful to watch. Everything about his style excites me, there is never a dull moment. EVER.
Now, I must await for the LONG, LONG awaited Alice In Wonderland, which I think could be his best film yet. Again - Burtons take on Alice In Wonderland is going to be nothing short of pretty damn awesome. I LOVE YOU TIM BURTON!!

Back in August, when I was oh-so-young and naive, I didn't have much to say about TV and its hold over the world. I would probably (and to an extent still do) have seen it as just another way to pass some time; little did I know just how influential it actually is on our society and myself as an individual.
TV offers such a huge opportunity to communicate to people all over the world, from thousands of channels all at the touch of a single button. What could be more effective than that?! It can introduce you to new hobbies and interests, educate you on things you would never dream of reading or acting out, inform you of on-going politics and news..and the best bit in my opinion - take you to another world entirely and you don't even have to move a muscle.
It was interesting to look at the ways in which we watch TV, with many companies introducing 'Ipod moments', such as the almighty Sky+. As a society, and especially our generation, we have become increasingly demanding when it comes to TV shows; we know what we want, and we want it now! (However, it is nice to think that some programs in particular manage to hold that appointment viewing factor and still encourage families and friends to sit down and experience it together, such as Doctor Who and even our much loved X Factor...)
The way I feel about TV has changed and I have been opened up many different genres, such as classic comedy show I Love Lucy, which has influenced so many great shows such as Friends, we were introduced to quality dramas such as The Street, which sets the standards for real good-quality writing, and even managed to sit through an episode of The Simpson's without wanting to tear my hair out, success!
When looking at allllll the different genres of TV shows, you have got to wonder why on earth people watch some of the trash that is out there! Take for instance, Game shows and Reality shows such as Big Brother. It baffles me that the population can sit and watch people being gunged in to oblivion or watch people sleeping (?!) on Big Brother, rather than tuning in to good quality shows such as The Wire or possibly maybe even Gossip Girl ...(come on, I had to slip that in.) But, I guess that the creator of Big Brother thinks watching people sleep is the best thing since sliced bread, as long as they are paying the bills eh?!
In general, I feel I now look at TV in a different light, that it is more than just something to pass the time and there are some great programs out there in need of my undying attention! I have also discovered the lovely moments of appointment viewing with my wee mum and it is nice to think that hopefully some day I can sit down with a little mini-me watching something I have created, fingers crossed...

MY new obsession

Calm down guys, I'm not advertising porn on my blog, its just my latest obsession is all. So far I've been in love with this show for around 2 hours, just enough time for me to see the first 4 episodes of the new season thanks to you Andy!

If this were a facebook status update, it'd definitely say: O.M.G love secret diary of a call girl!

I'm just sad that its taken me this long to find it. I for some reason had it in my head that I didn't like Billy Piper but she is really great as Belle/Hannah, you really buy in to her character. One of the things I love about it so much is how glamorous it all seems. Her apartment is amazing and her clothes are to die for! Obviously, I would imagine being an actual call girl is much less glamorous but hey, isn't that the beauty of TV!

However, even within the first 4 episodes I felt we were starting to see the less glamorous, emotional implications of being a call girl which was really quite sad, because suddenly you realize that these girls aren't so foreign from you, i.e when Bambi starts to fall in love with the absolutely amazingly cool and gorgeous Byron (I love him), you feel sad for her and can relate to her, even though I for one am no call girl!

I think another reason I love it so much is that it is very similar to Sex And The City (I think) in the lighthearted way in which sex is approached, and I think Belle is kind of like all characters rolled up in one, especially with Carries writing skills.

I guess the program can be heavily criticized for glamourising prostitution, but come on, doesn't TV glamourise everything?! Watching it doesn't make me automatically think that all the poor girls all over the world who are forced in to prostitution ain't got it too bad, sitting around in thousand pound knickers and sipping champers. Of course, for some people it is their living hell, but just because there is a lot of drugs and trafficking surrounded by the word call girl or escort, doesn't mean all woman are forced in to it! I personally don't think that Secret Diary Of A Call Girl is giving off the message that this lifestyle is great. All people old enough to watch it, are old enough to know its a fictional program, no?

Overall, I'm very excited for tomorrow nights episode and I'm even more excited for our talk on Friday afternoon! Until then.....XOXO

Geeking out

Right. Haunted is a little....strange. Its quite disturbing, which I like OBVIOUSLY, but sometimes one just needs a little time away from things such as boys having to chew their own intestine out, rich people dressing up as tramps and having sex in public only to be murdered for fun, and woman becoming foot hit-men. Thats right, they massage peoples feet and kill them by pressing some point in the foot, it explains it all in the book.

So, I figure when my mum suggested one of her wee chick flicky books, why not?! And actually, this story ties in pretty well with my script I done for Richard (it may rest in peace, be it so bad).

I'm only a few chapters in to this book, and I am already enjoying it. So far, its about a man called Ivan who is basically an imaginary friend who comes to (mainly) children who need him and he becomes their best friends until they are ready to move on or something. BUT.. six year old Luke lives with his Aunt because his mums a psycho, and Elizabeth (the auntie) is starting to sense Ivan. So I'm going to take a wild leap of faith her and say that I'm pretty sure Elizabeth becomes friends with Ivan too.

All very romantic, I shall keep you posted.

Things that I am looking forward to:

• I'm going to say it. Sex And The City 2 is coming out soon, and I am oh so excited! Carrie, we're waiting on you lady. Me and Meg have it all planned, Cosmos before Carrie! Yes - we're so stereotypical and we love it.
• Angel Heart. I've not yet seen it, but I went in for the kill and ordered it from Amazon. Adam says it relates slightly to my TV idea I'm working on with him which will be interesting, and, my dad won't stop raving on about it even though hes told me the whole plot already. But still, I'm really looking forward to watching it as I've heard lots of good things.
• Just a quick little moan, Gossip Girl - what on earth are you playing at? It's been off my screen for several months now for some 'break', without even the slightest of notice. I didn't have time to prepare and quite frankly I'm lost without it! However, an AWFUL spoiler notified me that Chuck and Blair don't stay together....I just died a little inside.

Anyway, I JUST realized its Tuesday night, what am I playing at MISSING RIVER CITY? I'm serious here, I'm really quite obsessed now. It must be Gossip Girl withdrawal symptoms!

bla bla bla

Oh, hello!

Today was open day, and how fun it was being in at 8am, and not only that, we got to wear lovely purple reflective bibs. A new look, I'm thinking!

After our 'shift' finished at 12, we headed off to see the long awaited Percy Jackson movie. Overall, I enjoyed it. I think it was a little cheesy in places and I get the feeling some of it was a bit rushed, but it wasn't unpleasant to watch. I guess I'm a little disappointed because I had high expectations of it especially because of the director. However, I think there are some things that only Harry Potter can get away with, because people have already established character relationships etc with him, and I think this could have been where Percy Jackson went wrong.

I must admit, I did enjoy looking at Hollywood's newcomer, Logan Lerman! However, him being 5 months younger than me, we would never work out. So ill say it - he was a bit rubbish at acting in parts. When he was acting like a quote unquote normal teenager, he was fairly convincing. Considering this was only for the first ten minutes of the film, kind of scores that out!! But I'm not sure if I've just gone all over judge mental on the film.

I think the story line is really good. However - this could be because it was based on a book. I couldn't tell you if it compares even to that. I felt it took me back to primary school when I went through this weird obsession with Greek mythology, weird I know. I must admit, I find all of the old stories and myths fascinating, so it was nice to see some of them in action.

Also, I'm already quite excited for Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea Monster coming out in 2012, y'all! Come on, you just know there's going to be about three sequels minimum!

Overall, I think Percy Jackson is going to be another guilty pleasure of mine. Hidden far, far away from daylight, only to be taken out on days of illness or sadness or boredom, an easy watch at best.

SO FAR

Last weeks scriptwriting workshop was great. I really needed that. Like a lot! As soon as we got in to everything, I realized how much I'd actually forgotten or cast aside in my bid to write-the-perfect-script-without-following-the-rules. IT DIDN'T WORK.

Monday was the hardest day as I found myself going all drama queen on my mom later that night like, 'IM NEVER GOING TO BE A WRITER....' However, in reality all i needed was a little reminder of what went on before R jetted off and left us.

• THREE ACT STRUCTURE, THREE ACT STRUCTURE, THREE ACT STRUCTURE. Thank god the message has (hopefully) finally went in before I make the mistake of letting my script write itself again. This is bad.
• FIVE ACT STRUCTURE, FIVE ACT STRUCTURE, FIVE ACT STRUCTURE. Last week's tutorial with John Yorke was short, and sweet. I found it really interesting and exciting to be getting some good advice from someone in the business. I find the idea of a five act structure very useful, because I always seem to get lost in the middle. The beginning, I can deal. The end? No prob. But for some reason THE MIDDLE? Oh, lost in space. But now, thanks to my new bank of knowledge courtesy of John Yorke, breaking a story up in to 5 acts seems a little less daunting.
• THEME. Oh dear. The dreaded word! I'm glad we went over this, but to be honest I think I could go over this every day of my puff and still suck at identifying the themes to a T. Im just like 'oh...its about emm...love!! yeah, thats it..' But really its not. So me and my notes from Richard and Save The Cat will be hiding out on trains and in corners revising all the themes there could possibly be EVER until they come out of my ears. But I'm happy I understand what the theme is exactly whereas before I kind of disregarded it.
• IF YOU HAVE YOUR CHARACTER SAVE A CAT - THE AUDIENCE WILL LIKE THEM. I'll need to try this out on all my serial killers.

MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED:

Elephant

Last week i watched Elephant, the movie based on the Columbine school shootings. How awful! My overall opinion of the film is a mixed review really.

• I liked the way they had the school kids talking about everyday things rather than making it really obvious they are in a film, because I think this made them seem more real, made the event seem more real.
• I also liked the way the camera looked like it was taken with a handheld, heightening the feeling that you were actually one of the students in the film.
• However - I felt the movie was very slow, 3/4s of the way through and i was still waiting for it to start. I know this is probably the nature of the story, but I think i was just waiting for the shootings to begin impatiently, as morbid as it sounds! I actually googled the story and it was so upsetting, I hated seeing the girls all talking about going shopping later on, completely unaware that hours later they are going to be massacred. I think that Gus Van Sant done a good job at conveying how ignorant the students were to there approaching deaths, however I think this could just be because of the nature of the story, being true and all definitely heightens the sense of remorse.

City Lights

I think its official - I'm robsessed with Charlie Chaplin. So long Twilight, until I'm hungover/sad/or generally ill again....Its been fun.

I really love Charlie Chaplin - City Lights was such a lovely film, I am so happy to have seen it. Firstly, Chaplin really appeals to my sense of humor. Not the slapstick comedy as such, just his general facial expressions. It sounds really strange of me to say, but I didn't think people could be as funny as that, you know...'back then.' He really was such an amazing actor!

Another thing that contributed in my opinion is that I'm so glad he didn't use proper sound in City Lights - It would only have ruined it. However the little sound he did use tied in very well. He really did know what he was doing!

When he is about to go in the boxing ring, well, I was actually embarrassed at how much I laughed at it! You would never even have guessed that it was made so many years ago, I followed it perfectly well and it was very well made.

The ending was great - it was the sweetest because you didn't have to see what happened next, you just got a glimpse of a lovely moment between the Little Tramp and the Blind girl.

Overall, I'm really impressed by Charlie Chaplin and his work, and I'm even impressed at myself for enjoying it. The thought of Charlie Chaplin this time last year would have probably gained a shrug and an eye-brow raise. Now I'm like, MORE MORE MORE!

Hearing a lot about Sunrise being such a great film, I was excited to see it for myself. Overall I'm happy to say that I thought it was such a great movie, and definitely deserves its place in the hall of fame.

• The thing that shocked me the most was that the whole town was inside a studio. Honestly, this baffles me. It's crazy to think how much money goes in to films, even back in the 1930s! Building an entire village seems like such a waste of money to me, but you can really see how Sunrise was portrayed as a result. I loved the fact it was timeless, you don't get any sense of where it is set. Its just the bare story that could happen absolutely anywhere; Exactly what F.W. Murnau intended.
• I loved the female actress who played 'The Wife', Janet Gaynor, she was adorable! You really got the sense of how young and very breakable she was, and really sweet. It broke my heart when she thought he was taking her out on a nice boating trip and really planned to drown her in to eternity. MEN!
• The fact that it was silent with hardly any words up in between made the movie, for me, even more enjoyable. I think words and cheesy lines flying around for the sake of it would completely ruin the essence of the film. Even an accent or a name could through you off guard. It makes you wonder how many great movies could be made if they were silent nowadays, rather than ruining some great films with naff lines and fake accents.
• With the ending I was a little torn between what I wanted to happen, I couldn't tell if they were going to go for the hollywood ending or not. In a way I think the ending is lovely, but sadly the pessimist within me is screaming 'THATS SO UNREALISTIC..' that they would get back together and all is forgiven. However - I think this adds to the meaning of the story that 'love conquers all' which makes the movie all the more sweeter.

In general, I really enjoyed this movie and think it definitely lives up to its name.

bookworm

As strange as it may sound - I do actually have other hobbies that don't include watching films. I LOVE reading, even though I feel like I 'never have the time.' EVEN THOUGH I find hours on end to sit on facebook and watch endless amounts of crap/wonderfulness on TV and the other important things that consist within my life.

THEREFORE, I am going to make a conscious decision to read, read, read until my eyes fall out. Literally.

I finished a book last week called 'Swimsuit' by James Patterson. (Aka some poor writer who has to pretend to be James Patterson, but still.) I am such a huge fan of his books and I don't even know why - I manage to get past a lot of the cheesy lines and really get in to the story, even if they do completely encourage my paranoia that someone, somewhere wants to murder me. Its inevitable.

I've read almost all of the James Patterson books and Swimsuit was your typical serial killer thriller.

• Models start going missing in Hawaii, later found brutally mutilated.
• A cop-turned-writer takes it as his mission to find out what's going on, so he can get the big break he's been looking for.
• Turns out the killer is being payed by and elite group of millionaires from all over the world to kill and torture people and turning them in to short films and documentaries. Sick.
• The killer decides he wants his 'story' to be told and seeks out the writer 'making him an offer he can't refuse.'
• Everyone generally dies - THE END

It was pretty predictable but I enjoy the fact that its easy to read, I could carry it about anywhere and didn't have to re-read the chapters incase I missed something crucial.

When I'm reading something or watching it on TV, I've realized I'm turning in to one of those annoying people. The ones who say 'they should have done THIS...that would have made a much better twist....' but I guess this is a good thing because it gets the creative juices flowing.

I'm a huge fan of Chuck Palahniuk even though I've never read any of his books. I love his quotes and I think he's got a great style, so I was thrilled to bits when someone bought me 'Haunted' the other day because he'd seen me eyeing it up. *Bless*

I can't wait to read Haunted - I think its got a great story line. Its really a collection of short stories that come from a group of writers who answered an ad for a 'writers getaway' for three months, obviously expecting a nice relaxing break and not expecting what actually happens.

• 'By turns nauseating, darkly funny and brutally graphic' - Observer
• 'Deeply satirical, brutal and provocative, Haunted is harshly compulsive, eye-bleeding stuff.' - ID

Sounds right down my alleyway. Weird and slightly concerning I know, but I can't wait to start it - which is only a few minutes away. Au Revoir!

lovehearts and spandex

Can anyone believe in a matter of months, thats right months, we will have successfully (hopefully) completed our first term and be in the position to smirk slyly as we see all the new first years approach the 'big camera's'?

I can't. I still think the cameras are huge.

But, so far I have actually learned a lot more than i think.

• It's okay to ask questions that you think sound really stupid, because everyone else is probably struggling with the same thing. Even if it is to ask where the ON button is.
• Not everyone is fabulous at absolutely everything apart from me, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. And best of all, we're all learning the exact same things at the exact same time. Yay.
• When you get past all the complex buttons in editing, I find I'm not so bad after all. Its actually quite fun. Thats right, I ENJOY EXAMS. (However, please don't take this too serious and go all SQA on our ass.)
• Possibly a good thing, possibly a bad, I have come to learn the realities of Film and TV. Its not all glitz and glamour sadly, and you really gotta work to be where you want to be. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect it to be easy and carefree, It's just a shock to learn how much work goes in to what could appear to be a small, low concept movie.
• I have found amazing people who make me feel better about going to the cinema every single day. In fact, they go with me. 'Its all research...'
• I really enjoy the technical side of things, and am proud to say that when the right questions are asked, i understand it. Thats right Mr Bergin of high school Physics, I understand lighting and can even say 'degrees kelvin' and most of the time know what I'm talking about.
• I love learning new things and experiencing new TV shows and film styles I wouldn't have considered before. I just soak it all up like a barbie in the sun. I enjoy watching silent russian films about vampires that have absolutely no 'sexyness' or obvious violence, woah, who knew.
• Writing a scrip isn't half as bad as the thought of writing a script. When I get past my neat-freak-ness, the writing just flows. I can tidy it up after.

In general, I have learned so much in only one term. Only another few years to go and ill be sweeping the shoes of gossip girl. HA. Don't worry, ill keep dreaming.

But i mean it, Term one hasn't been nearly as daunting as I thought it would be, like back in freshers when Ray said 'Don't worry you'll all be able to use the cameras by christmas...' and i sat there quietly dying a little inside. We can use the cameras! Even if I do still treat it like a new-born waiting to spew on me at anytime, I feel comfortable for the up-coming 'Inner Space' shoot and I'm sure we'll gain a lot of experience from being out there and filming live things.

Au Revoir!

Silent Russian Films...

There's nothing I love more than wakening up on a Friday morning and heading in for some sweet Russian cinema. The Battleship Potemkin was a weird one. I don't know why - but I'd heard lots about it, managing to not actually know anything about it.

After Dr Caligari, I like to keep an open mind when it comes to silent foreign films. However, when it came to The Battleship Potemkin, I wasn't as attracted.

Considering it was made in the 1920s, I can understand why the editing is considered great for the time period. Straight away I recognized the 'Odessa Steps' sequence, mainly from the cereal advert that never fails to amuse me. I had no clue it was such an influential film, and think that even though the story lacks in bits, it is a hugely successful film in terms of propaganda.

However, It just wasn't engaging enough. I thought it jumped around a bit much, and became very slow paced at some parts. I didn't enjoy the first part where the men were all complaining about the rotten meat, as i thought it was slightly disgusting as well as a bit random. However, the fact that it was made for propaganda purposes, makes slightly more sense.

Overall, I appreciate that there are some great aspects to The Battleship Potemkin, but I wont be rushing to amazon anytime soon. xoxo

first blog in YEARS

Writing my first blog of 2010, I feel it would only be right to do one of my favorite movies of 2009, (soo last year.) Honestly - I went to see Avatar with mixed expectations. I knew it was going to be impressive no doubt about that, but I wasn't sure if it would be my cup of tea or if I would enjoy the mix between the 'real world' and the world within James Cameron's imagination.
However - I can safely say I love everything about Avatar (3D to be precise.) The imagination that went into the film is incredible and I was pleased to see that they set it in the 22nd century, because it could actually be a possibility if the world doesn't blow up before then as beggars keep insisting.
Sam Worthington gave a fantastic performance as the protagonist Jake Sully, and my my he was such a stud as a blue guy. The thing about Avatar, everything was insanely beautiful and peaceful. It made you want to live on Pandora so much and be tall and blue and pretty, planet earth seemed so dull and ruined compared.
I was surprised at how amazingly convincing the performances given by the actors playing the Na'vi people were considering how alien the ways of this made up race were.
In general, I think Avatar was one of the best movies ever made and think James Cameron deserves a ton of credit for all the effort and creativity that went into this fantastic gem of a film. Well, first day back tomorrow so I'd better be off to get some sweet shut eye before I see everyone all bright eye'd and bushy tailed tomorrow at 2, over and out.