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!