Broke XBOX make blogger angry.

Well, I forgot to talk about this week at the academy during the previous blog so here goes:

• On Tuesday morning, we had Ray's camera setup ("It's not an assessment") assessment. Mine and Ross' went pretty well, besides the fact I couldn't find the battery for the monitor. In the afternoon we had Gavin's class where we learned more about editing, focusing this time on capturing or as it's known in the industry, digitising. Some people don't really like this class, personally and honestly I love it, it's great getting hands on with technology at times.
• On Wednesday we watched Chaplin (some of us at least) and then watched Donnie Darko in the afternoon, for more on those look at my previous blog.
• On Thursday, we had a great edition of Andy's class, this time looking critically at our favourite films. I thought this meant that we had essentially to write a review like we were watching the film for the first time, some decided they were going to talk more about the technicalities. My heart went out to poor Graeme, who overwhelmed us with his knowledge of his film The Abyss, instead of trying to sell us the film. My choice of film The Shawshank Redemption won as our classes favourite film, though I found afterwards, very few of us had seen even half of the films that were offered up and since Richard had asked us to watch The Shawshank Redemption it may not have been entirely fair, though as discussed it is perfectly valid, then again Benoit's Himalaya may have won if we had all seen it, or anyone had heard of it...
• Thursday afternoon consisted of watching King Of Comedy, more about it below. Sadly, no-one would come along with me to see Hunger so I'm going to see it at another point within the next week, no doubt alone, apparently 2 films in one day is too many for some. I may go around a lunchtime to see it, increase my appetite during the film, then scoff my face with a good old KFC afterwards apparently Michael Fassbender is as skinny as Christian Bale in both The Machinist and Rescue Dawn.
  
• Today consisted of sitting at a booth and convincing people to come do our course, I think I did convince someone, or at least I hope I did, I was talking to him for about an hour and a half. Gavin and I also helped out on a tour, I doubt we were as helpful to the group as the TPA girl but we were able to shine some light onto the DFTV related goodies that at least one person in the group was interested in.

My XBOX 360, which broke down over a week ago has finally been sent off for repair, if you want to see me angry (beware, you could perhaps not like me when I'm moderately angry), ask me what happened, I would write it down here but a page full of text screaming may not make for an interesting read. Basically I turned on my console last week to see what you see in the image above, not a good thing apparently a connection problem inside. Let's hope it arrives not to long after Guitar Hero: World Tour, for those who don't know what I'm talking about:

Guitar Hero: World Tour at IGN

FILM

King Of Comedy - While I'm not a huge Martin Scorsese or Robert DeNiro fan (I didn't see my first Scorsese Picture until Taxi Driver about a year and a half ago), I was surprised that I hadn't heard of this film before. It breaks the mould of the gangster movies that both director and star are known best for and while I didn't find it laugh out loud hilarious, there were some very funny parts towards the end, especially noticing how close the character is to modern day reality TV 'celebrities'. I don't know how anyone else felt, but I really sympathised with the Robert DeNiro character, yes he was a madman but I felt he was just mentally unstable, since a perfectly sane man wouldn't go to the length's he does in the film. I did enjoy the film at points, but like Ricky Gervais comedy, most of the humour comes from the embarrassingly ludicrous situations, sometimes it worked for me, sometimes it didn't and towards the middle I wanted to see DeNiro's character catch a break, just so I didn't feel so bad for him anymore. I may find the film far more funnier if I ever saw it again, since I would know what to expect, though like Citizen Kane, it's not a film I'll be seeking out on DVD anytime soon. So in a few word's, entertaining? yes, funny? sometimes, though the humour has a very dark tone, "black comedy" as they say. Classic? not really, though I may have one over on some Martin Scorsese fans I know haven't seen this film. The film provides great curiosity viewing for those who want to see Scorsese and DeNiro do something different besides breaking balls and cursing. It's also a great example of how some people many years ago had their finger on the pulse and could foresee that everyone would get their fifteen (or in this film's case ten) minutes of fame.

"Look Ma, no sweat patches."
King Of Comedy - 3/10

Since it was talked about quickly before Donnie Darko, I'm off to watch Southland Tales, a film I bought for £3 (followed by my Asda 10% discount) on dvd a few months back and haven't yet had time to watch it, last time I saw it was at the cinema around a year ago or whenever it came out, let's hope it makes a little more sense this time round, Justin Timberlake's musical number awaits...


More Soon!