Short Films

We decided to go and see a bunch of short films and because i have never seen many before, i was really excited to what they would be like. 

We missed the first showing by 5 minutes, so had to wait outside until the next one came on. When we got in the cinema was packed - and this was a bit of a shock seen as we just came out of an empty cinema for Superhero me. But we managed to squeeze down at the front, and got ready for the first film - Birthday. It was really good. It was so beautiful all the shots, and it was all down in very old colours. There was no dialogue but just music that went a long with their actions and some laughing kids. It was about a man who was getting a table ready for the kids birthdays - but everything was really old and dirty, and the food looked like something i would never eat even if it was free. This lasted for 10 mins - shots of the kids eating, laughing, playing with presents and the man looking on at them. The shots were very close up, so you couldn't see what was in the background. But at the end of the film it zoomed out for the table to be placed on top of a rubbish heap and for there to be no kids at the table but the man standing there. This was a really good ending, and one of the best shorts i have seen. I just loved the dull colours and how it made the atmosphere - and it was shot really nice, all up close without giving too much away.

The second film was completely different which was really weird to watch after watching something so arty. I cant remember the name of it though - but it was in a foreign language with subtitles. It was all shot in one shot from a balcony so you were looking down at the action. It was also a re-construction of something that actually happened, which i think made it more funnier when watching it. It was about these 2 boys that were trying to rob a bank - but went horribly wrong. First of all they went to the wrong place, shot a few shots and ran out realizing so ran over to the actual bank and went in. It was really effective as it was from 2 people standing on the streets view of it, so they were pretty much commentating on what was happening but we couldn't actually see inside apart from screams. Then there was a funny scene where an old man was trying to steal the robbers scooter or something? But made a complete mess of it and had to run behind a pole when the robbers did come out. And when they finally tried to get away the scooter was so slow the police caught up to them in 5 seconds and caught them. It was so funny and i was laughing all the way through. But it was shot so good too as i don't think it would of been as funny if it was shot in a film way with edits - but it was done so effectively shot in one shot. 

There was 2 films after this which wasn't that exciting, and not going to blog about them because i really dont understand what they were about really - and kind of zoned out. But the first two films were so good, and will definitely take some inspiration from :)

Superhero Me

Well we changed are minds a few times at what film we were going to see at this time - but we settled with Superhero Me. Nearly all the group went and saw this, but when we got to the screen it was dead, and only a few people were sat here and there.

It started not really knowing what to expect apart from a documentary type of film. But i must say it was actually quite good - and extremely funny. It was just a fun way to spend an hour or so without hurting your brain so much trying to figure out the plot.

So really what happened was a guy wanted to become a superhero - so went out on a quest to do it. He filmed it on anything he could get his hands on - even a camera phone at one point. But the quality didn't matter on this type of film - as it was just a bit of fun.

We watched him on his journey from trying to diet, to getting the right costume and to even meeting real life superheros. But one part we never really got as the screen ratio must of been off and the subtitles at the bottom for when he met a italian superhereo we couldn't see. Which was a bit annoying but i got over it when they started speaking in english again.

All i can say really is that it was a fun documentary to watch - not too hard hitting, and i really enjoyed it.

Ollie Kelpers Expanding Purple World

Well Edinburgh was amazing.. and thankfully made it back in one piece! :)

The first film that we decided to go see was Ollie Kelpers Expanding Purple World. I must say it was very weird - that was one way to describe it.

It started off not that exciting - the whole girl and boy live together scenario. But then after half an hour of small talk on screen, it got really interesting. His wife died and this completely different character came out of this person. He changed dramatically and started to go crazy gradually. I never really got how people went mentally ill, but this film really showed how people can change just because of one thing in their life disappearing.

Apart from it being very heavy - it was quite funny at parts, for example he started shouting at his kettle because it wouldn't be quiet, and shouting at his friend because he stole his cheese that had the microchip in it that was going to freeze his brain. There was some parts me and Julia couldn't stop laughing - but we didn't know if we should of been laughing because it was a serious matter.

They only part of the film that i hated was when they started speaking about physics. I mean it was about it - and thats where the whole micro chip came in, but at some points it was really heavy. And his face would pop up and behind him would be the galaxy and he would start speaking about physics. I thought this part was really bad - and kinda put you away from the film for 2 minuets because i didn't want to listen to it, so when the film came on again, i wasn't as drawn into it as i was before the physics.

But all in all, it was a completely different film to something i would ever go to see in the cinema. And i am really glad i went to see it as it opened me up to a completely different way of filming i am used to seeing in the cinema.

Another Production Update!

Everything is going splendid so far! really couldn't be happier. Only down side is Silverburn STILL hasn't got back to us whether or not we can use their shopping centre even with Murray phoning them constantly! But we do have a back up plan of Buchanan Gallaries and Clydebank, so its not a total disaster if they say no, but it would be lovely to film there.

Today, we went to the prop store to try figure out some of our props. Fortunetly they have about 20 fake hotdogs so that will be really handy for our film. We are now just trying to figure out how we are going to do this hot dog stand as we cant rent one as it is far too expensive. Adam gave us a great idea about going to the cinema to see if they had an old one or broken one we could use. So fingers crossed when we go there tomorrow are worries will be gone. If not - its going to have to be a hand made one, but hopefully will be able to get some TPA involved and try get them to make one. Also, got the costumes bought from ebay at a very good price - and should arrive soon with any luck. 

We tried to make a budgeting schedule today - and everything is looking fine, at the moment we have about 100/200 left, so that should be plenty incase of any emergencies. We also tried to figure out what scenes we are doing on each day and divided the pages upto 8ths, which does really help when deciding what days to film each scenes on.

Meg is going to be doing the shot list tomorrow, so that will be great when it all gets done and we can now start focusing on what its going to look like - and hopefully we should hear back from silverburn tomorrow!!

The Root Of Love

Okay so production so far is going very well :)

We have almost sorted out our location (fingers crossed), managed to track down a carrot and hotdog suit for VERY cheap :D and held auditions and almost found our 2 main leads.

I am really enjoying producing the film with Murray and Lucy, and we are all taking the same amount of work load which is good - and everything is going smoothly so far!

On Monday we had our first production meeting - sorting what location and just going through the script figuring out what needs to be done. We had a wild goose chase with Adam and Ray - but managed to track them down after running up and down the academy stairs about a thousand times! (trackers defo needed for next year guys!) We also managed to find some lovely costumes on ebay for half we thought the price was going to be so that was a success!

On Tuesday we decided to go and look at our location we wanted - SilverBurn Shopping Centre. It is gorgeous - and just what Meg had pictured in her head for her location which was a very positive thing. We talked to the smoothie bar and got the go a head so all we need now in confirmation from central management, but fingers crossed we will get that. Now all we need to do is track down a hotdog stand from somewhere as there is not a hotdog stand in Silverburn.

On Wednesday we held auditions all day from 9am. Unfortunetly NO one turned up for their auditions between 9 and 10 which was a complete let down because only one said they couldnt make it and they were all RSAMD students. Our next auditions were between 12 and 1, and they were much more successful. We then went down to the Glasgow Acting Academy and auditioned more people down there between 2 and 5. These auditions went really good with a great turn out and saw some potential people here. It was really good to do the auditions and we defo got better at doing them as the day went on. On Monday we are calling people back for more auditions and pairing them up. So hopefully we will get two people on Monday.

This week has been really good - and i have fair enjoyed my self. I am sure next week will be more stressful, but I cant wait until we start shooting the film and to see the outcome of all our work!!

Production Class

Last week was Abigail's production class. I was looking really forward to this class as we had not done production before - and me wanting to be a producer, I was eager to know what it was all about.

First we looked at what a producer does in a whole and i had a fair idea of what the producer roughly does. But was interesting to know what other things they take care of too, and how many different types of people there is in a production team.
We then started looking at pre-production steps. I think this is going to really help the class when we are going into production into our films as she went through every point very clearly, and now I definitely have a clear understanding on how to produce a film hopefully.
After pre-production there is not that much left to do as a producer apart from fill in other paper work etc, and same with post production.

I loved breaking down the script - and never realised this was part of a job as the producer. Think of must of been the highlighters that got me excited!! Ha Me, Meg and Chris split into a group - and were the first people finished, so thought we hadn't done it properly, but we went back over it and only missed a few things out so we were quite glad. Then we had to do a shooting schedule which was also good fun, it was quite hard at times as you didn't know what shoot to choose between but we got there in the end and I think we managed to come up with a good shooting schedule.

There is quite a lot of maths involved in the budgeting side of things - but call me a geek - i quite enjoyed maths in school, I wouldn't say I was great at it, but I fair enjoyed it. So I don't think I would mind doing the budget and think it would be quite an achievement once you finally did it all.

I really enjoyed Abigail's classes and I felt they went by so quickly and wish we could get more of them. I missed her last class which I was pretty gutted about - but I am glad her notes are on moodle as i am very interested to read them.

Easy Rider

Well being opened up to a the whole new world of the 70s the last few weeks i have really enjoyed watching some of these great movies - espesially Bonnie & Clyde which I had never thought to of watched before.

I started watching Easy Rider which an already dissapointing head on that it was not going to be a good film with already two people telling me it wasn't great. But I tried my hardest to keep a honest view of the film. But as soon as Born To Be Wild came on - I knew it wasn't going to be a film that I would rave about in this blog.

Easy Rider is about men wanting freedom. Once they sell drugs to get the money, they take off on the biggest adverture of their lifes. It wasn't a gripping story line for me but one thing Easy Rider did show me is what the 60s were like and I have learnt a lot from just watching this one film. It shows a good potrayal of the use of drugs in the 60s. It shows it in great depth and it goes in to great detail of the hippie movement and how much of a big deal it was in that decade.

Easy Rider was very slow at times - and felt myself getting distracted easily while watching this film - and this is not a good sign to any film!

Overall - I guess it was an okay film, and I do see why it was a hit but I would much prefer to see any of the other films we had watched in class than this one as it never grabbed my attention at all.

Stagecoach

I haven't seen many westerns in my life, as normally if they are on the TV i would just switch over and find something different to watch that interested me. But actually sitting down and making the effort to watch Stagecoach I never thought it was as bad as i was thinking it would be as I just have the idea of westerns in my head being bad. I always think of westerns being very repetitive and does get dull after a while, with it just being about cowboys and indians - good vs evil etc etc etc
It was set very well and the scenes in the film were very beutiful with really nice scenery.
I really enjoyed the music in Stagecoach and it really fitted in with the genre and gave tension through out the film with it keeping in with emotions the actors were going through. It was used really well at the end scene of the film - where the tension of the scene was made by the music and the stillness of the surrounding area.
After watching all the silent films - especially Charlie Chaplin, i have definitely had more of an open mind to different genres i wouldn't normally watch, which is why when i was watching this i tried not to think of it as a western. I did really enjoy it and can see the quality and good acting in the film which made it such a success it was and still is today.
Overall, i enjoyed the film - and was kept fully excited all the way through with all the tension that was built up and i am glad to say, stagecoach is a good film.

Peter Pan

Well a few of us girls went and saw Peter Pan at the Kings Theater last week.
One word to describe it - amazing.
I didn't really know what to expect as the only version of Peter Pan i have seen (apart from hook) was the disney version - and after seeing the poster for it I knew straight away it was not going to be like this.
The set was very basic with the set being the forth road bridge - but unfinished which was really nice and set the time of the story very well, then when we were in Neverland it turned round into trees etc.
The technical side of Peter Pan was shown to the audience which I thought was going to ruin the magic of "Peter Pan" but it made it really different and really enjoyed it because of this. The wires that made them fly were really thick and obvious but this did not take anything away from their performance cause you never concentrated on this. They also made tinkerbell into a fire ball - which i still have no idea how they did as it magically floated around the stage and into the actors hands. I thought this was very imaginative as they could of easily just had an actor play the part or even a little light.
Another part that was a "talking point" after the show was when Peter Pan lept in to the water when thrown off the ship. This was done with blue lighting and smoke. He lept from the boat (on his wire) and jumped into 4 peoples arms and they acted as waves while Peter tried to get out of the water with sound effects etc. This was extremely imaginative and i really enjoyed this part of the show.
I just loved the show so much and would of defo of paid to see this - (we did get free tickets!!)

Has TV effected the Election?

Well in short, Yes.
I feel that definitely with this years live debates, it has definitely put a different view on the candidates up for election. I never really watched the debate - only caught 10 minuets of it in the middle. But even without watching it I knew it had a massive affect on the election as their was results after the debates with an in depth look at what they all meant and who stood out from the rest which then they decided - who "won" that debate.
This would of made people think about who they were voting for, as if your candidate never "supposedly" won the debate, you would think to yourself are you actually voting for the right person.
Also the polls that were shown on television on the news has a great effect on people too as this tells you who is winning so far and really i think we shouldn't know who is "winning" - as we all have our own opinions and if someone never knew about the election and saw for example, the lib dems were winning at the moment, they would just go and vote for them just because they think they are a good party because everyone says so. So this does have a huge affect on the votes too.
I also feel that the different channels have favorite parties, so are very biased when it comes to showing news about the election etc
Overall, the election is very much powered by television these days and i feel without television the election votes would be much different.

Home Project

I loved doing this - i hated the group being split into two!!
We started coming up with ideas - and really went with one of our first ideas. We then figured out our scenes and really went from there. We decided to use Micheals family so to our excitement it was a day trip up to Loch Lomond for us!
We filmed the ballet scene first. This was the first time we had worked together doing something like this - and unfortunately we had only and hour and a half to set up, film and get out as there was a concert on at night. So it was hard with a time scale on it, but luckily we managed to do it just on time and got some really good shots. The group was very collaborative and everyone got their input.
The next shot we did was the party scene, this had to link up with the first scene so it was quite hard to do but everyone had fun filming this scene and managed to get the shots we wanted. Unfortunately with the fire alarm going off in the middle of the shoot, we had to dismantle everything so just had to go onto the next scene and start filming that.
The next day we got up at 6AM!! and got the train to Loch Lomond. We finally got there and got up to the house to start filming. I am so glad we decided to go to this location as it was beautiful. We had a cup of tea and then started to decide on what shot to do. We managed to get this done in good time then a few of us started to re arrange the camera etc for the next shoot while the rest of us got to make a den! I felt like a child and we all got so excited pegging the sheets together to make a den - and really didn't want to take it down afterwards as it looked so pretty and the best den i have ever made!! After the house scenes were done - we went down to the bottom of the road and started shooting the outside scene. Unfortunately it was raining a bit - but at least the dog behaved very well!! After we did this scene a few people went in sams car to shoot a 2 second scene and the rest of us went into the warmth of the house to be greeted with homemade pancakes - yum yum! :) We did leave 1 for sam, lucy and meg though ;)
We then left Balmaha to go back to glasgow - and i must say we were all sleeping on the way back.
I enjoyed myself a lot filming by ourselves on something that was a bit more creative than "Into The New" and learnt a lot so our next film will be even better!

RiverCity Set

Well DFTV1 had an exciting day trip to the River City set in Dumbarton.
Murray and Julia came and picked us up from halls then the 2 cars drove off out of Glasgow, after partying in Murrays car to the "tunes" and going to the wrong entrance of Rivercity we finally made it on set. As soon as we got on site, the fire alarms went off and we had to "unfortunately" go and stand outside with all the stars of Rivercity to Julias excitment. We then got taken round the backlot first. I couldn't believe how real everything looked, and how the flats etc did not have any rooms inside them - just wood!! We then stopped and watched a scene getting recorded outside one of the flats which was really good to see. After we got taken round the back lot we went into the canteen to have some lunch until we were allowed to go into the studios. We then went round the studios. It was so big - and very easy to get lost! We went round the students flat first - which was very big i must say!! It was amazing the amount of detail that has gone in to make it look like a flat that someone lives in.  We then went on to look at the pub and some other characters flats. It was very weird to be walking out of one set then two seconds later be in another set - it was like we were in Ikea! We then had to get out of the studio as the cast were starting to come back in and film. So we went and sat in the canteen and had a chat to one of the Script editors who used to work with Kim doing story lining with her. She was really nice and chatty - and told us all about her job and what she liked best about the show etc. After the day was over at Rivercity we all decided to go on a wee trip to Loch Lomond. So we all hopped back in the car and drove up to Balloch where we stopped to get a chip shop. We then had a wee walk along to the waterside and eventually found ourselves acting like 5 years swinging on the swings and making ourselves feel so sick from the roundabout. After all the fun was over, we jumped back in the car and headed to Glasgow.
I really enjoyed going to visit the set - and learnt a lot just speaking to different people who did different jobs. And I could easily see if you worked on a set like this you would learn so much as I learnt a lot in just one day of being there.

Camera & Lighting Assessment

I was so scared before going into the assessment on Tuesday. Not because I did not know what to do, but just of the time limit i had to do it in.
Me and Ada were doing it at the same time time - so at least I wasn't alone. We both went in at the start and got told what we had to do and where all the equitment were.
The clock had started and we only had an hour to set up the camera and light a manicin that was standing in the middle of the room.
I quickly rushed over to the camera equitment and took it over where i started taking it out. I felt i was really comfortable doing this part and managed to get the tripod and camera up in no time at all. I then plugged in the monitor and starting cofiguring it. I sometimes get stuck on this as to which bits i have to line up with each other, but overall i thought i did okay and only needed some of Rays help. But after Ray had shown me how to do this I realised I had been matching the wrong collumns up, and was easily fixable for next time. I then went on to doing this viewfinder. I have always found this hard for some reason and can never get the contrast or brightness right. When Ray came over to check, he explained what was wrong and changed it to show me so I knew how to do it in future. I then did backfocus which I have also been struggling on but with Rays tutorial made everything much clearer. The last thing to do on the camera was the timecode and to do bars, and i easily did this as i freshened up my memory the day before in a tutorial with Ray.
After all the camera stuff was done I moved on to the lighting, I rigged up the lights and started working on how I was going to light the manican. I used the key light on the right hand side of the camera. I then placed the fill light on the opposite side with 2 diffs over the top to make the light less bright. And finally placed the backlight opposite the key light shining over the manicans head with 2 diffs also, so that the key light was the most bright.
When Ray came over to check he told me my brightness was far too bright and was deleting all my detail on the manican, but when turning this down it solved all the problems and my manican was successfully lit. I then shot the lighted scene twice.
By this stage there was only 10 mins to derig - so quickly had to put everything away. I managed to do this only 2 mins after the time which i was quite pleased about as i was worrying so much i was going to be way over this.
Overall i thought my performance was quite good, and have learned a lot by doing the camera and lighting by myself.

Reflective Blog - Television

I really enjoyed this module a lot. I am really interested in television so I enjoyed learning about all aspects.
I never realised how much television is used as a social tool and actually how much television i watch!
We started to look at different tv formats.
We watched I love Lucy to show the format sit com. I had never watched this before, and i really enjoyed it. I couldn't believe this was made in 1951, as this could of been any program now a days.
We then went on and spoke about Cop Shows - and we watched the Shield.. I loved this and couldn't believe I hadn't watched it before. I was so engaged by this first episode and just wanted to go and watch the rest of the series.
We started looking at Corrie - and even though i am not a fan - i went in with an open mind and it was really interesting on how these types of programmes all having strong independent women in it which i never reaslised before.
After Christmas we spoke about Authorship - but even though it was quite heavy - I enjoyed learning about the different types of Authorships and how it all works.
For the end assessment we split into groups. Our group was to argue that televsion is just a box of lights and wires. I felt it was so hard to agrue for this, so we decided we would take the approach on how television is bad for society. I felt this was quite easy to do, and hopefully done well in the debate.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class - and learnt a lot that I didn't think was important in television.

3 Point Lighting Class

I was really looking forward to start our lighting class and was hoping it wasn't going to be too difficult! I was quite scared to actually work with the massive lights - and thought that might be a struggle, but was okay in the end. We had to do an essay for Ray about 3 point lighting - so i had already a good idea how to do the three point lighting without having done any pratical work with it.

We had a group discussion first about it - and while 5 people in the class went up and did the three point lighting for the whole class - we all looked on at the monitor while Ray helped them all the way through guiding on how to do it. We did this again with the other half of the class to see how when other people light it looks completely different but is all okay. This made me feel better as there wasn't a certain way it had to look, but had to look good to your eye and use the basic technique of three point lighting.

We got shown how to use the different sheets for the lights - diff and ND. This changes the look of the camera completely different and is needed to control the light the way you want it.

After all this, we split in to two groups and had to - in turn - light the three point lighting and record it on the camera. We all got a shot at using each light and moving it about and also using the camera. I felt i learnt a lot by watching everyone doing their own 3 point lighting and how they over come the difficulties of shadows. When it came to my turn i was pretty confident on moving the lighting about so just concentrated on how it looked. I used different diffs on the cameras to get different shadows and intensity of lights. Dilara was my model - she was wearing a red top which contrasted lovely with the blue background. It was quite hard to see the monitor as the light was shining from the other teams lights, so was also lighting up are set as well. There was one shadow that i couldn't get rid of, but i ended up leaving it as i knew i was not going to get rid of it. I tried my hardest and then recorded my few seconds of my lighting.

We watched all the classes lighting back and made pros and cons about each. I liked watching everyones back as I saw all the different lighting that you could do - with more contrast in others and more brightness in others.

Overall, I learned a lot from the day of lighting, and hopefully fingers crossed i will be okay with my assessment in two weeks.

First Sound Class

Well, i was so nervous for this first class with Cammy as i have not done anything to do with sound in my entire life and was just thinking to myself - oh god, this is going to be the most scariest thing i have done! But Cammy came in, and was so nice and introduced the kit to us very slowly - and it wasnt scary at all!

We started off with the basics - how to turn on the mixer, and how to plug the battery in to get it working. He passed the mixer round, and we all got to have a real good look at it, and how to plug the battery in so we know for the future. He then went over all the different channels and inputs were, this was quite scary at first because there was lots of different inputs, but again Cammy went through this slowly and made sure we understood by thourghly going through each different one, one by one, and handing the mixer round the room letting us having shots of plugging in different types of cables to the mixer.

We then learnt a little about the different microphones there is - and what one we will be using most. Cammy showed us how to connect the microphone up to the mixer, and what the cables were he had to use to do this. Again, we all got a shot of plugging the cables into the microphone. We the split into 2 different groups and started to learn how to pick up sound from the micophone into your headphones we had just plugged in. Cammy was brilliant and never rushed through anything and let us all get a turn of putting on the headphones and getting a feel for what it is like. He then gave us a demonstration on how to then plug the mixer into the camera. I felt here i got a bit more confused, but knew we were picking it up again the next day so tried not to worry.

The next day we were straight into it and got all the equitment set up straight away - camera and mixer. We split up into two groups again and started having a mess about with the equitment. As a group we had to set it all up - returning the sound from the camera to the mixer - but after i had done this, i understood how to do it, and realised it wasn't the difficult. We then messed about with the different sounds we could get on the mixer. One by one we got a turn by holding the mixer and boom and using the headphones to hear. I didn't really know what i was doing when i was pressing all the buttons on the mixer - but i definetly knew it was changing the noise and volume of the boom. I felt this was really good to do as you could try it for yourself and could have a wee play about.

We then got the camera set up so we had one person (flick) sitting on a chair while the camera was pointing at us. We all got to see how far the boom could go above her head without going in shot - and is closer than i thought you could get. Also we got told how to hold it without hurting yourself which was also very useful too. We all listened through headphones to hear the different ways flick spoke like when you held the boom different ways above her head. This was really interesting to listen to the different ways it changed by just moving it a tiny bit.

Overall, the 2 days with Cammy was excellent, and much less frightening then i thought! i learnt a lot by only having 2 classes with him, and definetly think i would be able to do sound if i had to do it for a shoot which i didn't have a clue how to do before hand.

Precious

I went to see Precious last week.. as Meg had seen the trailer for it and said it looked really good. I knew i had a tutorial in the middle of it, but thought i might as well sit in the cinema rather than waiting in the cafe bar.
We were a bit late and had already started before we came in (we actually never knew if we were in the right cinema as it was pitch black and no noice) but we found are seats and started to watch the movie.

I really loved this film, it was so different to anything else that i had seen in the cinema before. It was about a girl who gets raped by her dad and has children by him. Her mum is also really abusive to her and does not treat her like her daughter. Her mum does not want her to do good in school, but precious goes behind her back and enroles in a "each one, teach one".
It was a very serious film and this is the only film i have seen where i was like "omg..", it just felt all so real, and you felt so connected to the characters. Its a very dark film - with a lot of violence towards the children.

I had to miss half an hour of it near the end as I had a meeting with Adam, which i really never wanted to go to as i was so engrossed with the film and wanted to know what happened. But i came back just for the last 5 mins, but i will proberly never get to see that half an hour again (i know what i am like!)

It was a very shocking peice of film - and it was very straight to the point, and never hid anything and showed things to the extreme. I couldn't even think how i would feel in that situation and you dont realise that things are that bad for people these days - but they are.

I thought the teenager was casted extremely well - and was really couragious to put someone of that size on the screen, but i think thats what made the film so unique, it wasnt about a skinny blonde girl, but about an overweight black girl which i thought made the film what it is.

Also you dont realise that this is a women driven film - the only time you see men is when she is getting called names on the street, and when you seen horrific images of her dad having sex with her.

Overall, i really did like this film as it was shocking and different - and actually couldn't believe your eyes you were watching this abuse in some parts. I really do hope i can watch the 30 mins i missed again, as it is truely a film you have to go and see in 2010!!

Screenwriting

YAH... Richards back! *do Adas welcome back dance... as some of us grateful people (including Adam) got to witness!*

So i was looking forward to this since.. well since he left, as i do really like Richards class.
On the first day, we got started by doing the statue game - where we had to make stories out of posistions our class mates were in. We realised since Richards departure, we have no idea what a theme was and definetly had to do some work on that. And also Richards suttle way of saying no it isnt, is "is it??", which we got a lot of during the day!!
After the break we then played a more advanced game of consequences. We had to each write on a piece of paper the character description, then hand it to the next person, then you had to do the characters internal flaw and hand it round.. this kept going on and on, until you had a complete story with a basic 3 act structure in it. Well, i have to say, our stories never went to plan, even though we were all serious and concentrated while doing it, once the stories started getting read we couldnt stop laughing. We had such stories with a clohstraphobic submarine worker, and a man who stole someone elses petrol to get to the hospital in time... just to name a few!! So after that disaster of an activity, we decided to focus more on theme - and by the end of the day we had cracked it!
So Richard gave us a task for the night - and we all had to make up 2 premises for an idea for a short film, with a theme in mind and the characters goal.
We all came in the next morning raring to go again, and went round the class saying our ideas and what ones we liked. We then picked a handfull of them and discussed them. In the end we decided on two, and then discussed them further.
We started to speak about the first idea - a party having to get tidyed up - we realised the idea was too basic, and we were untidying the mess, rather than making more mess - so the excitment was decreasing through the film. So we went on to our second idea and discussed that - a lilo, a blow up doll and a man - we discussed the basic idea, but came up with 2 story lines. So we have to go away now and make an outline for one of our ideas. I am really excited to do this, and after Richards lessons this week, i am much more prepared to start writing this second script.
For our homework of the night, we had to go home and write three things we hate about ourselves, and would like to change.
We came in the morning looking tired from the past 2 days of intensive writing. I never felt scared at all to share my hates with the group as I know i can trust everyone, and i am glad i have opened up. After our hour of sharing we got to eat cookies and chocolate before we got on to the rest of our lesson. We watched a few short clips and discussed the theme and what happened in the film - just breaking down the clip to its basic goals etc. I really enjoyed doing this as it has made me look into structure a lot more when i am watching a film - and even found my self pointing out in the cinema what the inciting incedent was etc etc.
We then learnt about how much you can know about a character even before you describe them to the audience - and we did this by looking at photos of people and describing what kind of job they did, what was in their fridge etc. I found this really interesting, as i didnt think how much you knew about a character before you even knew anything about them. This has made me describe my characters more now in my scripts i will write - so that the reader can get a feel of what the person is really like.
To round off the three days, we had an individual tutorial about our scripts and just went through it saying what the flaws were.
Even before going into the tutorial i knew exactly what was wrong with my script after having the three days with Richard - which means i did learn something, and i pleased to say the classes will defo change the way i write my next script, and hopefully it will be even better next time.

First Ever Shoot

Okay, so maybe I wasn't filming, but i definetly learnt alot from the experience and can't wait to do another one as soon as possible!!

We came in to the academy all ready to go at 12 o'clock. After lugging all the equiptment along the corridors, we started to set up the cameras. It felt really strange to actually be part of a film crew - and to be responsible enough and trusted to use the cameras on our own! Even though i did miss Ray not being there - incase something drastic happened - it was really good, as we had to do everything on our own, and if there was a problem, we had to fix it.
Me, Meg and Chris were assigned roles as the "editors", so we never really had much to do on the actual shoot its self but was great to go along. We watched closely as the camera assists set up the cameras - so we knew what to do the next time we will be camera assists. After watching them i realised i definetly needed to get the cameras out - as i reckon without my notes, i would forget how to do something, but i think after time i will be as good as everyone else as it needs practice.
So after everything was set up, we got to go for our break. (made a nice dinner for everyone back at halls!)
We then went back to the event at 6, so we could get final checks done and to get the tapes ready for the performance.
Once the crowds came in, we never had an important role, but sat next to a camera so we could see what the cam assist and cam opp was doing.
I reckon it was good that we went, as we got a sence of the style of music and what the personalities of the guys in the band were like. So we could have a better idea how to edit when we come to it.
We have just had a tutorial with Gav about how to capture (which was much easier than i thought it was going to be) so hopefully we can get all the footage on to the computer and get editing as soon as possible.
I think the whole shoot overall was very benifitual for all of us, as most of us had never done something like this before - so was great to get out there and do it.
The shoot was a success, and we really did learn a lot from the performance - and as Meg said in her blog, we learnt some of the words too, so we will have great fun editing when it comes to that!
Will keep you updated on how the editing goes :)

January Screenings

Well since we have been back we have watched Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu and Sunrise.

Battleship Potemkin was the first Russian film I have ever watched, so was quite interested to see if it was much different to american films. But i thought they were quite similar and proberly would of never of said it was a russian film. I thought the story in the film as a whole quite boring - and felt i was switching off because of it. I felt that out of all the silent films we have watched this one needed narrative as it was quite hard to follow as there was a lot of characters and not a basic story. I noticed straight away though the scene Andy was speaking about at the start - with the baby rolling down the stairs in its pram. I never realised this had come from this film - and is used quite a lot in films and tv shows today. I even saw it being used in Alvin and the Chipmunks with the grandmother in the wheelchair falling down the stairs - which is a completely different genre.
The editing in the film was just amazing for the time period of the film - and had not actually noticed we had not been seeing that kind of editing in the Charlie Chaplin films etc. So when i did see it being edited like we edit now a days, you could see all the work that has gone in to creating the film.
Overall, the film really never ticked the boxes for me, but did enjoy seeing the editing of the film and also appreciate why it is such a good film because of that.

The next film we watched i did prefer much more. Nosferatu was a german film - and this was much more noticable then Battleship Potemkins nationality. I felt this was much more interesting to watch, and perfered the narrative in this. With this film I didn't feel the narrative was missing - and also felt it was more visually impressive. The use of shading in this film was amazing, and really showed the type of genre it was as it was quite dark and gloomy. This also gave a scary affect to the film with all the shadows being used to create the unknowing that was there but you couldn't see.

The last film we watched was Sunrise. I really did love this film, and this was my faviourite out of the three. The story defiently kept me gripped all the way through and could see the points where the 3 act structure came in to place. I felt you got to know the characters very well as there was only 2 main characters with only another few on the side. The drive of the story was excellent, and there was no trouble figuring out what was happening without dialogue. I also felt there was hardly any dialogue at all, but this did not matter as you knew exactly what was happening all the way through the film. The acting i felt was quite dramatic - but you have to be in a silent film - so i feel if there was dialouge it would take away from the film and there would definetly be some cheesy lines in there!! But because there wasn't it made the film so lovely and i can see how it won an award.
I also really felt connected to the characters and what they felt all the way through it. It is a very emotional driven film with the passion at the start with the girl from the city, then the sence of anger and hate to want to kill someone. Then the fear of the wife but turning back to love when she realises she does still love her husband. It is a very very strong piece of cinema and you wanted to watch it all the way through to find out what happens in the end.
Overall, i really liked this film - and worked very well silently but don't think it would have worked being a talking film.

Glee Glee GLEE

This has to be my new faviorite program! So i thought i would designate part of my blog just to see how fantastic it actually is :)
For a start, all the songs they do are just amazing - they are all great feel good songs!!
I am also trying to be very good and not illegally download it so i am waiting each week to watch it which is nice for a change instead of cramming all the episodes in to one night.
I think the story in Glee is pretty basic - a bunch of kids trying to be the best in a singing competition. There is also not that many complex sub storys either but Glee is very different  to anything else on the TV which makes it a hit.
People tune in each week to really see what the next big song there going to sing. The music in Glee is so popular that "Don't Stop Believing" was released in the charts beating Journeys original version which was also re-relesaed. I find this amazing how TV shows can have the power these days to release songs that are so popular they make it high in the charts. X Factor has the exact same effect - Alexandra Burke was christmas number one, with the original making number two.
But anyways, i have only watched 2 or 3 episodes so far, but am sure there will be another blog at the end of the season to say what I thought of the whole program :)

Its Complicated

I really enjoyed this film. Even though it was two hours long, I didn't feel it really dragged on at all - even for a romantic comedy. I loved how the story was about 2 older characters for a change instead of the usual "Jennifer Anniston" age (even though i do really like her!!) This also inspired me to make my program idea for Adam about older characters, as it gives you a different story, so i am very glad i went and saw the film when i did.
I thought it was quite a fresh new idea and felt the storyline kept you gripped all the way through.
The story was about a women who has been divorsed for 10 years and starts having an affair with him again - even though he has a new wife. And then when that goes pear shaped she starts seeing another man even though her ex husband is still trying to get her back.
I loved the fact that you were pretty much choosing who you wanted her to end up with half way through the film and just hoping it was going to end up the way you wanted it to. And you never found out until the last moment as well, which i thought was a nice ending.
There was many laugh out moments through the film which added more humour than i thought there was going to be in it. I especially thought the bedroom scene was the funniest part of the film as you could feel the whole audience cringing and hoping it wasn't going to happen.
So all in all, i really loved this film, i thought it was a bit of fun to watch, and really loved older people being in the romantic comedy genre and gave it a new look.

What I Watched Over The Holidays

Well, after 3 weeks of not being on the computer.. i have to say some blogging is in order!
I did watch a lot over the festive season as it was faaaar to cold to go outside, and frankly there is nothing to do in Thurso. I never really watched anything intresting to be honest, and nothing springs out of my head to rave about in this blog.
I watched a lot of the darts, cause that is really what you have to watch at christmas! But you cant really speak about the darts in my blog :)
One thing i did watch and have actually never seen it in my entire life (suprisingly) is Alan Partrige. I have never laughed so much at a tv programme in sooo long!! I watched the christmas special and it was so funny! I watched it with a few people and they were in absolute stitches, so this also made it more funny and just good light hearted fun.
Now its the new year, that means new series! 90210 has got its second series out - which i have to say is much more glam than the first series, and i think i much prefer this and love the new look. Glee - the new all singing all dancing comedy, which yes guys kelsey LOVES! If it has singing and has dancing you have me hooked already. And its just not that, i think the comedy in it is really good and i safely will say i will be watching this to the end of the series. I think i have watched the first episode 3 times now (and currently watching it now!) Skins will be starting soon which i cant wait for, 4th series is it now? And i am still a fan, cant wait to see what things they get up to in this series. And last of all, Desperate Housewives in 2 weeks too. I never even realised it was out so soon, so this came as a great delight to me. So that will be my viewing for the next few weeks and all social events will be out the window.
Yes, this really wasn't a blog about what i watched over the holidays, cause really i honestly can not remember a single thing i watched, and obviously not good enough to blog about, but a lot of trips are due for the cinema as i have not been in over a month!! So there will be more blogs posted sooon :)