Creative Beginnings and Induction week were pretty good, yes, some of the Creative Beginnings was VERY dull, though I doubt anyone could make personal development plans excitable. Though if there's one image that i'll remember from Creative Beginnings it'll be this:
Classes started properly last week and it feels good to actually have a bit of a workload, yes some may be directed reading e.t.c. but at least we're expected to be thinking and reading after home-time is called. Yes, the social life has taken a bit of a dent, but hey, when you know deep down inside you that there's nothing else in the world you would rather be doing, who cares if you miss a few drinks every now and again...there's always Christmas.
The class that has particularly intrigued me has been Richard's Screenwriting class, a class which i thought I would hate from the off. Thankfully, improv writing and 'soul searching' has made me for once look forward to Monday mornings. Anyone who's seen the Storms Over Sky DVD that's been doing the rounds in class knows that I probably need to learn good basic screenwriting possibly more than anyone else.
The rest of the classes are great also, though I knew i would enjoy those, screenings especially since each film, besides The Truman Show, I hadn't already seen. Also I find the fact that we do both TV and Film as seperate classes of great use, especially coming from a college where they almost wanted you to forget about film together and only focus on TV (they went so far as to say that i could not have a voiceover for flashback in my final drama since TV didn't do that, as you can guess, some lecturers at NGC didn't watch much modern television). Sadly, while watching Broadcast News today, I noticed LOTS of what seemed like U-Matic editing machines (they plague "Anchorman" also), which I was originally forced to use. Oh how times have changed.
So Film/TV I've watched over the past week:
TV
Supernatural - Never going to be a critically acclaimed show but entertaining nonetheless. Did you enjoy The X-Files? No not the Alien conspiracy episodes but the monster-of-the-week ones? Then you could well enjoy Supernatural. To give you a basic setup, two brothers are searching for their father across the U.S. except their father is a Supernatural hunter and so are both the brothers ever since their mother was killed (shown in the Youtube link below). For anyone who watches Supernatural, I'm 12 episodes in, and so far no missing sisters...
Lost - Yes, you hate it, I'm not here to try and change your mind but after receiving the 4th Season DVD Boxset this week, I'm hooked again. For me the show has rarely put a foot wrong, yes bits of Season 2 were slow and Season 3 took about 9 episodes to get it's act together but I guess it's down to opinion. So what if they were kinda making it up as they went along, every other show barely thinks a Season ahead, a weakness that other "big" shows seem to have hit also. So why bring up Lost when everyone hates it you say? Well, the new flash-forward mechanic has changed the entire dynamic of the show, so now we get to see who gets off the island. For anyone who will speak to me about Lost, I've only just finished Episode three, DON'T SPOIL!
UPDATE - While i've been adding to this over the past day or so, i've watched more of Lost and came across the episode "The Constant", which may well be, one of the greatest television episodes ever, yes it slightly ripped off Eternal Sunshine but wow, jaw well and truly dropped. It's the 5th episode btw. Sadly, people not interested in Lost won't be willing to take the time to enjoy it.
Lost - Yes, you hate it, I'm not here to try and change your mind but after receiving the 4th Season DVD Boxset this week, I'm hooked again. For me the show has rarely put a foot wrong, yes bits of Season 2 were slow and Season 3 took about 9 episodes to get it's act together but I guess it's down to opinion. So what if they were kinda making it up as they went along, every other show barely thinks a Season ahead, a weakness that other "big" shows seem to have hit also. So why bring up Lost when everyone hates it you say? Well, the new flash-forward mechanic has changed the entire dynamic of the show, so now we get to see who gets off the island. For anyone who will speak to me about Lost, I've only just finished Episode three, DON'T SPOIL!
UPDATE - While i've been adding to this over the past day or so, i've watched more of Lost and came across the episode "The Constant", which may well be, one of the greatest television episodes ever, yes it slightly ripped off Eternal Sunshine but wow, jaw well and truly dropped. It's the 5th episode btw. Sadly, people not interested in Lost won't be willing to take the time to enjoy it.
FILM
Stone Of Destiny - A pretty entertaining little film, enjoyed it much more than I thought, though as Gavin informed me, Charlie Cox is an Englishman playing a quite patriotic Scotsman and as I learned from Total Film, Kate Mara is a resident New Yorker, playing a Scot's lass. The casting is all a bit Highlander really. Thankfully, i doubt it will raise the Braveheart factor in Scotland, I've known people who can get quite violent after that film. Sometimes, I wonder if I should feel patriotic, not for any political reason but since I was born in Birmingham and then moved to Coatbridge when I was 4 and a half. I would say I was Scottish but would anyone agree, as a matter of interest, my parent's are 50/50, English father, Scottish mother. Yes, but back to Stone Of Destiny, yes the facts are bent slightly (Kate Mara's character actually looses her toes in the heist) but it's quite a basic heist movie that again highlights to the youth of today how badly Scotland was and sometimes still is treated by the English. I could go down a whole other road here but one of the lecturer's from NGC who then moved to The Met, once told us lots of stories about the England/Scotland divide when he was working at, if i remember correctly, the BBC.
Citizen Kane - In some circles, the film is over-hyped and over-long (kinda like this blog will no doubt be) and before Wednesday that was my opinion also, the only problem being that i hadn't seen it. Well as I plonked down to watch it, I felt i was really going to hate it and wanted to for possibly the first half hour, but instead I found myself becoming engaged in the story, even though i knew exactly how it ended (The Simpsons DVD Commentaries told me exactly what sections they referenced in Citizen Kane). So here's my opinion, good film, not the greatest film ever made since the film has dated quite a bit but still a great piece of entertainment. While the film may always be on critics top 10 list (usually around the number 1 spot) I really can't see much point in seeing the film again and again, there may be bits and pieces that could be picked up on, but if i watched it again, i would probably be looking at it as a kind of epic training video, picking it apart technically which only ever takes you right out of a film. So in the end, a film I was shocked that i enjoyed but while it may be pioneering and important cinema, i doubt i'll ever watch it again.
Broadcast News - Another entertaining little movie, which in it's day, as we were told by Andy, was a satire which is now lost in todays culture. I didn't enjoy the love story, felt it was a bit drawn out but William Hurt as he so often is, is great and while I wasn't familiar with Albert Brooks before but I'll be sure to look out for anything else he has done since he is far and away the highlight of the film.
On a side note, Fable 2 (an XBOX 360 game for those not in the know) arrived a day before release and is pretty great, will no doubt occupy most of the weekend.
Stone Of Destiny - 6/10
Citizen Kane - In some circles, the film is over-hyped and over-long (kinda like this blog will no doubt be) and before Wednesday that was my opinion also, the only problem being that i hadn't seen it. Well as I plonked down to watch it, I felt i was really going to hate it and wanted to for possibly the first half hour, but instead I found myself becoming engaged in the story, even though i knew exactly how it ended (The Simpsons DVD Commentaries told me exactly what sections they referenced in Citizen Kane). So here's my opinion, good film, not the greatest film ever made since the film has dated quite a bit but still a great piece of entertainment. While the film may always be on critics top 10 list (usually around the number 1 spot) I really can't see much point in seeing the film again and again, there may be bits and pieces that could be picked up on, but if i watched it again, i would probably be looking at it as a kind of epic training video, picking it apart technically which only ever takes you right out of a film. So in the end, a film I was shocked that i enjoyed but while it may be pioneering and important cinema, i doubt i'll ever watch it again.
Citizen Kane - 7/10
Broadcast News - Another entertaining little movie, which in it's day, as we were told by Andy, was a satire which is now lost in todays culture. I didn't enjoy the love story, felt it was a bit drawn out but William Hurt as he so often is, is great and while I wasn't familiar with Albert Brooks before but I'll be sure to look out for anything else he has done since he is far and away the highlight of the film.
Broadcast News - 6/10
On a side note, Fable 2 (an XBOX 360 game for those not in the know) arrived a day before release and is pretty great, will no doubt occupy most of the weekend.
NEXT WEEK
There's quite a few films i'll be watching this week, such as Thelma & Louise and The Shawshank Redemption for Richard's class (any excuse to watch Shawshank again), as well as Good Night and Good Luck in Andy's class as well as no doubt at least one trip to the cinema with Academy folk (or myself). Quantum of Solace comes out next friday...sounds like a high possibilty. Hopefully all of my blogs won't be this long. It's quite sad what happens when people get space to vent.
No comments:
Post a Comment