New Year, new job, new blog and yes, I may have showered for the new year also.

Now you know what's been missing from your life! Another one of my blog posts. Feel free to sigh, chill out and grab a beer for this casual read...

Well, a new job for me. Bye bye Asda, hello Cineworld. Over 6 years at the Hamilton Asda and I managed to finally peel myself away and join the ranks of the Cineworld 'Elite', like many more of my fellow DFTV'ers. So far I'm really enjoying it, most seem to have my level of commitment (or lower) and the job itself is much lighter than Asda since I'll be working on the box and bar and won't have to move massive cages everyday. So far, the good days are when I'm within the +/- £2.50 limit and the bad days are the ones when I'm out with it. Far less banter on Box than I hoped though!

Monday was a short return (R1 was bloody freezing) with Andy on Italian neorealism and so obviously, we spoke a lot about Avatar. Good fun and getting away earlier allowed some of us to go see Sherlock Holmes which was preceded by Graeme going all Godzilla on one of the leaflet stands.

Tuesday with Adam was good, in the way that he gave us a hint that we'll be making documentaries this term. His class itself was interesting, since we learned that docs have as much structure as drama and by the sound of it, shooting ratios are much, much higher also. I'm intrigued to know what and when we are making these documentaries and while I've never thought of it before, I'm excited to see where it all goes.

Wednesday was a full day with Zam to which I lost an hour of because of the dentist. Explaining where I was with what must have sounded like a mouth full of marbles, was very uncomfortable, as was the preceeding hour or two until the numb mouth wore off. Good class all in though our action scene may be a bit too overblown to say the least. An(other) assignment was given to us by Zam which may lead to a few interesting things in the future.

Thursday was timetabled as a full day with Ray. We watched one great, and one not so great episode of The Street and frankly, afterwards, the DTU felt like some sort of insane asylum. Far too much social realism for my liking in one day. The production quality was excellent and it was all very well shot and engaging but the subject matter was far too tough for two whole hours. Our discussion with Ray afterward (and then on Moodle) was good and it's great to have everyone throwing their opinions in. Yet another assignment was given out with us each having to study an aspect of Cinematographers as storytellers. Even though these are essays, I don't mind these (this and Andy's) too much since we are choosing our own subjects and if we hate it, it is essentially our own faults.

Friday was a screening of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and since I have no idea when I'll get round to doing a film/tv blog, I'll just say that I was pleasantly surprised by it. The characters seemed so believable and relatable and while the film was clearly set in the time period it was made, it was still very watchable. The story also wasn't as depressing as some films in the genre seem to be though at the end of the film, I did feel concerned for the central character the same way a psychiatrist may feel when a patient tells them they're fine when they leave the room.

This previous Monday was a class on the French New Wave and every time it's brought up, I remember how much I loved The 400 Blows. It's a film that has settled in my head and I may be ready for another viewing some point in the future...after the mountain of other things I still have to do!

Tuesday was another look into documentaries and as hard as we tried, our visions ended up being slated as pretty poor. I think it was maybe the time limit and the fact that in our heads, we couldn't imagine showing alcoholism without being at least a little cliche. It's nice to be put down from time to time however, it keeps your mind grounded when everyone seems too polite to be honest. I'm looking forward to doing docs as something different but I think we might have set the standards expected of us a little too high. Still, I'm looking forward to our briefs (though I'd prefer boxers) this Tuesday (even though I won't be in :()

Wednesday was a day that me and Michael had set aside to go do Cinematography research at the Mitchell. Sadly, no-one in the Mitchell seems to know what cinematography is and they only have a handful of cinematography books. Michael commented that it's no wonder there's no Scottish film industry...true Mikey...true! It turns out American Cinematographer is actually stored at Glasgow Uni. A few of us went there on Thursday after our cancellation of tech classes (and a GREAT class Cinematography discussion between us and Ray). I wanted to stay longer because every article is so fascinating but the Cineworld bell was ringing.

Friday had a screening of This Is England, which, in short, I adored. Afterwards, Abigail assaulted us with yet ANOTHER assignment which at this point in time, I have just about completed. So far, I'm managing what little free time I have very well.

"Gwyneth Paltrow is quite pretty, in a British, horsey sort of way."
Julia Roberts

Fulims an telly whit ah saw ova Chrimbo

Like the title, just not spelt the same.

It looks like a pretty pathetic list but considering this included an end of Lost re-watch, changing jobs (which involved a 2:30am rise and a 7:00pm return home) some Xbox and some actual academy work getting done, I don't think I did too badly!

FILM

The Box - Pretty bad, and proof Donnie Darko definitely was a fluke for Richard Kelly. I was watching it forgiving all of it's shortcomings until the abysmal, pointless ending. I'm all for fitting downbeat endings but this was dire. Much worse than Southland Tales.

Where The Wild Things Are - A beautiful looking film which left me feeling a bit empty and could have done with a little more setup. There seems to be little substance or message and when Max leaves the island at the end of the film, something didn't sit quite right with me. It felt very much like it was directed by a music video director...

Avatar - Amazing! I was quite clearly wrong, though the marketing doesn't do the film any favours. It is a little bit baggy here and there and some of the dialogue is weak but besides those minor issues and the fact that 3D with lots of action doesn't quite work, the film was really good. Shame the maguffin was entitled "unobtainium" though.

Valkyrie - Alright, I could forgive the Brit accents but the film may have worked better if they continued using an all British cast, instead of Cruise. A nice almost-assassination moment near the end though.

Dead Space: Downfall - A videogame tie-in done in the Manga style which gave a nice look at the backstory to one of my favourite games of 2008. Not one I'll probably watch again but worth the £3.

TV

Dexter - Season 1 - An amazing first season and not a weak episode or moment throughout. Michael C. Hall is addictive as the titular character and I'm still not sure how we, the audience, manage to love him. Is it maybe because he's a good guy with the best intentions and that he just has one major, bloodthirsty vice? Maybe, but it's rare that I feel such a relatablity to a television character. I'm not saying I'm a killer (or am I?) but I think we all have secrets that we would prefer to stay that way, whether they be of our own doing or inherint in our character. A great season which will hopefully be followed by other essential seasons.

Entourage - Season 3 - From the premiere of James Cameron's Aquaman to Vince finally getting the lead role in his passion project Medellin, this season of the show was perhaps the best (and certainly the longest) so far. We saw Ari Gold with his back to the wall and down on his luck and his return to form. We saw Lloyd become an agent and be the first to get Johnny Drama a part on not just any pilot, but a pilot that would then get picked up for a series. Eric had to raise his game as Vince's manager and Turtle, well, Turtle found love.

The show may be formulaic, simple and aimed at wannabe actors who believe that they're break in the industry will be as successful as Vince's but when you break it down, this is the ultimate bro-mance (if you can bear that term). No matter what happens, who guest stars, what roles/houses/ladies/agents enter and exit their lives, the show is always about the central relationship between the five leads. As shown in the Vegas episode (where Seth Green plays himself how the public perceive him apparently), when the going gets tough, these brothers stand up for each other.

Only a few shows are worth "entire-disk" viewing and with these often short, snappy and well-paced episodes it's a hard fight against the just-one-more feeling. I really can't praise the show enough and I look forward to collecting the further adventures of the Entourage. This College Humour spoof is almost the exact format of the show but I challenge anyone to watch a season of this show and not love it (embedding disabled by the user so it means you'll have an extra click):

College Humor Entourage Spoof

My Name Is Earl - Season 2 - A great follow-up to the mighty premiere season though it's quite clear where the cracks lie in the shows format. Each episode seems to rely on flashbacks to set-up why Earl is ticking a certain item off his list. While I don't see it as a weakness, the show relies very heavily on it's recurring characters, infact, this may be the only live action show that comes close The Simpsons level of secondary characters. What was nice during the 2nd year was an actual arc over the course of the season for Joy and her court case which left it all on a really good cliffhanger.

Every sitcom has it's foil and it's funnyman and Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee complement each other brilliantly, with Ethan Suplee as Randy being the stand-out performance. His simplicity could easily be overplayed but it's the subtlety in his background actions that make him so entertaining to watch. In one episode, a story is told from various viewpoints and each character's viewpoint is bookended with a "My Name Is..." credit which made me realise I'd love to watch My Name Is Randy, it's just a shame the show was cancelled. I can't wait to get started on the third season.

The Day Of The Triffids - The BBC took a bash at the classic John Wyndham novel (again) and I was neither impressed nor disappointed. At times it felt close to the novel and at others it seemed to be doing to it what Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead did to it's original: update for the masses. I think the problem with The Day Of The Triffids, is that it doesn't work visually, plants just aren't scary enough. They are in text but not as soon as you see a plant skulking down a London street, any fear is lost. What I did love though, was a reminder of how much 28 Days Later had borrowed from the novel and how much, in return, this has borrowed from 28 Days Later. The deserted London scenes actually looked much better than 28 Days Later, as did the effects themselves, the triffids weren't scary but at least they looked like they existed in the world.

The major downfall was the problem I had going in: Dougray Scott. I have no idea why, but I really can't bare his face or even his mouth being open. In short, his existence bothers me! Whether it's his "Yes I am GAGGING for IT!" OTT Scotsman in Mission Impossible 2, his dodgy accent/performance in the Dark Water remake and now his ability to make bad dialogue cringeworthy in this. The rest of the cast were pretty cringeworthy also and it was almost worth it just to see Brian Cox for 20 minutes.

Still, the action scenes were pretty decent and at least they didn't go all Flashforward and just begin living with the problem. My final opinion: it passed some time.

DOCUMENTARY

The Beatles Anthology - I finally finished the epic 10+hour documentary and while I still question the honesty of some of it, since the (at the time) remaining members are the main contributors, each episode gives more reasons why the band are important and remarkably, still relevant. Very few artists can and have affected the world in such a short span.

BOOKS

In the last of my 4-pronged attack, I should mention that beyond reading the usual mags/trash, I've began reading The Battle of Brazil by Jack Mathews, a journalist who was a sort of invigilator between Terry Gilliam and Universal Studios or more specifically, Sid Sheinberg during the release phase of Gilliam's Brazil. Brazil is a film that I've came to adore even more with each viewing and the frequently used allegory that Gilliam is much like the film's protagonist Sam Lowery and the studio is the Ministry of Information shown in the film is one that seems to constantly ring true. The book is an excellent insight into the manipulation of director's in their vision (can you ever imagine THAT ending being something different) by major studios and the fact that Sheinberg was the one who had a hand in giving Spielberg his start, I wonder how much of HIS remarkable work has/had been through the over-bearing producer wringer. Though, is it simply because Gilliam's work look's very out-of-place in the mainstream that he has, over the years, become a man with a certain interfering curse? Who knows?

The book also comes with the director's cut of the screenplay and many black & white film stills. I hope the rest of the book is as good as it's opening chapters.

"When I look at an audience all I see are beautiful people."
Stevie Wonder, blind from infancy.