So, it looks like my blog has almost become a running joke, regarding length and unfortunately for you, dear reader, that joke is unlikely to stop at any point soon. If ever there was a blog that needed a scene selection, it was this one. To make the reading a little easier i will be interspersing some of this blog with photos as well as video links. If you require music for this blog, may i suggest Explosions In The Sky. Also there will be a few lolcats throughout, for those unfamiliar with lolcats here is an example, followed by a link explaining them:
- A decent day in Richard's class, watched a nice little short film called Panic and talked about the general flow of films, in graph form.
- Adam's class went well, except for the fact that "John Williams" destroyed Rab C Nesbitt, curse you "John Williams" and your small production company! Takin' Over The Asylum was pretty good, might be an interesting show to watch right through.
- Ray's class was good, finally seeing monitor's in action, as well as finding out all the proper calibration settings, kinda explains why some of the things I've shot before weren't too great colour-wise e.t.c.
An example of the original colour on the left, followed by the correctedcolour in one of my short films, Storms Over Sky.
- Gavin's class was also good, at last getting to use Final Cut and it doesn't seem a million miles away from AVID which i know a little more thanks to my work experience. It can't be exciting that Gavin has to watch all our no doubt similar "Ducati" videos. That's if he watches them, i know i wouldn't...
- We watched Erin Brockovich in Andy's class on Wednesday and it was better than I remember when I last watched it MANY years ago on the old Sky Moviemax, thing that annoys me though, how terribly predictable it is yet somehow it is still entertaining, even outside of Julia Robert's cleavage. We were shown on Thursday by Andy that infact Julia Roberts is a toned down version of the real Erin Brockovich, though whether she had spouted so many Pretty Woman style lines remains to be seen.
- On Thursday, Erin Brockovich and movie advertising were discussed. Very interesting stuff. The most interesting I thought was looking at older, often longer trailers, the Cleopatra trailer looked especially awful (a box office disaster, Andy informed us), including lots of bad grammar in the quotes as well as such silly lines as "The spectacle of spectacles", what Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton have to do with popular eye-wear is a mystery. We also watched Good Night and Good Luck, which i found quite tiring, if I'm being honest I would probably put it off if I had seen it on TV or DVD (I hope I'm not hated for that comment), while I understand the historical value of the story, it would maybe work better as a documentary or perhaps actually benefit from no star power. Well shot but not really entertainment.
- Today's class was pretty good, discussing "Wossgate" and television timetables and as always Andy's name drop stories were great, I'm not sure if he knows how exciting they are to wide-eyed young wannabe filmmakers. To the right you'll see an artist's representation of what Andy may see when telling name drop stories, hopefully no-one in the class is considered to be that ugly though.
So outside of the academy, I have watched other stuff, here's a quick (if you take anything i write to be quick) rundown:
FILM
From Russia With Love - Continuing my re-watching of all the Bond movies (for the record, i
haven't seen them since ITV played them all back to back MANY moons ago) and this be the second of the 22. Compared to Dr. No, it's better and worse, better in some respects since there are no horrible tarantula sequences in From Russia With Love and worse in the way that it doesn't sit too well in the Bond series we know.
For a start, there is no real bad guy, though the Blofeld character is introduced (who is apparently played by "?", who does not have an IMDB page.) though never battled with. We do however, get Robert Shaw as a henchman, who does a pretty good job at looking scary.
On a side note, my dad watched the last hour or so with me and it was quite odd what he picked up on, well, for me at least. For those that don't know the film, most of the final half hour is set on a train, my dad, an avid "Steam Enthusiast" (You can't call them "Trainspotter's" anymore, quite un-PC) noticed that there were at least 3 different trains used for the cutaways, the thing was, they weren't even similar, some were European and some were British. How did some editor or whatever not spot it? They got away with murder back in the day.
Anyway, not as good as Dr.No of the 2 I've re-watched so far, but still pretty good, the North By Northwest kinda sequence at the end was pretty entertaining also.
haven't seen them since ITV played them all back to back MANY moons ago) and this be the second of the 22. Compared to Dr. No, it's better and worse, better in some respects since there are no horrible tarantula sequences in From Russia With Love and worse in the way that it doesn't sit too well in the Bond series we know.For a start, there is no real bad guy, though the Blofeld character is introduced (who is apparently played by "?", who does not have an IMDB page.) though never battled with. We do however, get Robert Shaw as a henchman, who does a pretty good job at looking scary.
On a side note, my dad watched the last hour or so with me and it was quite odd what he picked up on, well, for me at least. For those that don't know the film, most of the final half hour is set on a train, my dad, an avid "Steam Enthusiast" (You can't call them "Trainspotter's" anymore, quite un-PC) noticed that there were at least 3 different trains used for the cutaways, the thing was, they weren't even similar, some were European and some were British. How did some editor or whatever not spot it? They got away with murder back in the day.
Anyway, not as good as Dr.No of the 2 I've re-watched so far, but still pretty good, the North By Northwest kinda sequence at the end was pretty entertaining also.
From Russia With Love - 7/10
Saw V - So before the programme meeting on Wednesday, I decided i would use the "directed study" time to direct my study to the fifth installment in the Saw franchise which started, believe it or not five years ago, surely there is some sort of world record there. Anyway, here's a little bit of background info on my opinion of the Saw series/franchise, I can't really tell you what I thought of Saw V without telling you what I thought of the first four.
When Saw arrived in cinemas in October 2004, I knew very little about it, what was this gruesome horror flick? Also, few may remember the minimalist advertising, with the poster only saying "Dare you see" followed by a big red block saying Saw. While some of the people I went to see it with found it generic and a rip-off of not only the style of Fincher's Seven but also of old school horror-schlock "classics". Frankly, i find old gore movie's to be of very poor quality and rarely offer entertainment value, so really, I shouldn't have enjoyed it but I did, what with THAT ending.
Saw II took the "bigger is better" idea, it didn't quite work, the twist was poor and the cast were quite dull, though not the worst in the series. This was followed by Saw III which was much better, greater story, decent cast and thankfully didn't have that big a twist, more a cliffhanger. Saw IV, released last year, was the weakest yet, and I haven't seen it since last year, usually i would have it on DVD ready for the next installment but so far, no-one has offered me the DVD and money to take it off their hands. The film was just really poor and the new Jigsaw was an obvious set up from the previous film, so the twist was VERY obvious.
Finally, to Saw V. Better than Saw IV, if only for the fact that questions are answered, sometimes too many questions. Not a great film in general though as it sits in the middle of my head, I can only pick out flaws. Maybe as it "marinades" it will get worse. There's not much point saying much more about it, I'm not going to be able to change your opinion of them, you either like (not love) or hate the series.
Saw V -4/10
Slither - Last night, in preperation for Halloween, we decided to watch Slither, a horror/comedy. While still entertaining, my 3rd or 4th time watching it highlighted a lot of holes. The best part of the film is still anytime Nathan Fillion is on screen, why he isn't a bigger actor by now is beyond me, he plays a good Joe Everyman.
The film's main weakness for me is some of the humour just goes right over my head, like Family Guy, I just don't get it, perhaps i'm just too slow. Slither IS an amazing example of great special effects on a budget, sadly the film couldn't make it's $29.5 million (including marketing) back at the box office, despite reasonable reviews. Entertaining for Firefly fan's looking for Fillion playing someone other than Captain Reynolds.
Slither - 5/10
TV
Lost - Episode 8 "Meet Kevin Johnson", a pretty good episode filling in back story on a major character's return, the most shocking point being Mr Friendly, the main other who kidnapped Walt, is gay. Yes, it is kinda tacked-on, but what does it matter? It was a nice little reveal that added wait when he told Kate that she wasn't his "type".Dead Set - I'm not going to pass comment on Dead Set until it is actually finished, since it's been universally agreed by a few that it REALLY shouldn't have been broken up into as many slots. In a short comment though, I've been generally disappointed.
Since there is a fairly big movie being released today I thought I would comment, that film, if you didn't know is QoS, which stands for Quantum Of Solace, but a Bond film called Question Of Sport might have been funnier. Anyway, the film has almost the worst Bond song of all time (that honour goes to the Madonna one), while I don't want to throw anymore of my opinion on here than there already is but for those who haven't heard it here's a link to the video, when Jack White sings, it sounds like he was recorded in a loo.
Alicia Keys & Jack White - Another Way To Die
Enjoy that? Well if you didn't here's a few examples of how Bond songs should be done, use them to cleanse your ears:
Cheese Option
The Kinda-Classic Option
The Best Option
I'm going to see the film myself on Sunday though i'm going in with lowered expectations since the story is apparently quite poor and i've only read bad reviews, out of choice though, since I know i'll love it more than they will. Yeah, I know, it sounds pointless.
Oh, a big secret was revealed to me today, I shan't reveal who or what the secret is or about, but for that person, here's that related link for you:
The Kinda-Classic Option
The Best Option
I'm going to see the film myself on Sunday though i'm going in with lowered expectations since the story is apparently quite poor and i've only read bad reviews, out of choice though, since I know i'll love it more than they will. Yeah, I know, it sounds pointless.
Oh, a big secret was revealed to me today, I shan't reveal who or what the secret is or about, but for that person, here's that related link for you:
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