So been awhile since I watched the 'Bank robber people' film in Andy's class. I thought I'd blog about it as I so forgot to.
Here's a review on what I can remember!
I found this film rather odd, I'm not entirely sure why though, maybe the long cuts with the lack of any compelling soundtrack? There was just something not quite right about what I was watching. Maybe the sometimes odd narrative? Hmmm.
Anyways the film again started of 'oddly' hey blond woman, I have a gun. Lets travel across the country robbing banks and such? Never met you before but O.K! This again happens when they stumble across an innocent car repair man along a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. This just all fitted together rather strangely, from here on out it became just a case of botched bank robberies to being chased and shot at from time to time.
I knew how it was going to end thanks to The Simpsons parody of the film, I was just waiting for it to happen every-time they drove past a tree or bush. Maybe this constant anticipation spoiled the film for me? But for me there was just no compelling plot to it all. I think it was supposed to be set during the depression from the odd cut-away to a camp of families living at a beach. But this was just be guessing, the film did nothing to make me feel like they weren't in the wrong for robbing these people from start to finish, it didn't really give me any compelling reason to keep watching at-all.
I found the acting and long scenes of not much happening rather dull to absolutely honest, I found myself in a half-daze from time to time. It just kept repeating the last scene I had just finished watching but changing the bank and hide-out location and oh the posy chasing them away.
Overall not much of a review I know, but altogether not a great watch in my view, maybe I'm just far to used to fast cuts and a generally fast pacing forward moving plot line to follow, from all these modern Hollywood Blockbuster films. I know most modern films are well...rubbish but I can't help being brain washed by the style general theme's of them.
Over and out!
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Today 27th May 2009 Production, My Arch Nemesis!
Today I walked into Abigail's class an Editor and left as a Script Supervisor/Editor. For some of yourselves that were present to witness the look of terror on my face as Abigail tried her best to explain to me what it involves, must have been a sight. She tried her best to explain the details involved from timing the script to adding it all up, to then subtract it again against the estimated time then to do something else with total shot footage tally number. To be fair she did try, but as soon as someone even starts mentioning numbers to me I just shut down, I can deal with time codes as an editor because all I need to do is punch the numbers in, Done, Easy, Sorted.
But for every time I half clicked onto what she was explaining, she would pull out another sheet of paper with another set of rules attached to it, somewhere involving numbers! I did feel like I was going to pass out, my head was swirling round and round trying to grasp at what she was saying. But my brain just kept rebooting and I would be like, sorry what? what's going on?
But for every time I half clicked onto what she was explaining, she would pull out another sheet of paper with another set of rules attached to it, somewhere involving numbers! I did feel like I was going to pass out, my head was swirling round and round trying to grasp at what she was saying. But my brain just kept rebooting and I would be like, sorry what? what's going on?
Friday, 22 May 2009
Showlight
After coming back from Showlight here are my thoughts on the experience of the event. Well anytime I walk into that BBC building my first thoughts are always just 'waw' what a cool building. The atmosphere feels very relaxed and easy going, although I'm sure some people who work their will have a different view on this.
After being introduced to the BBC staff we would be working with and after Gareth's look of horror when he seen four students sat in his work area. He was a really cool guy but it soon became obvious that although his job is essential there is a reason the BBC have only one vision guy attached to that studio, because it takes only one guy to do. So for him to try and spread any work over four students was just never going to happen. Alot of it was waiting around for something to go wrong, even then if something did go wrong only he could sort it so wasn't a terribly exciting experience being absolutely honest. Although was good seeing how a studio control room operated. But being on vision for two days was a little bit too much.
After being in a darkened room for two days watching the event on a wall mounted television I was sent to the electrician to see how his job worked, but after an even more look of horror from him he disappeared on me so was back to the control room for me.
My next attachment was Sound, but having everything already been set up on day one, it consisted of standing at the side of the audience holding a microphone for the Q&A. But was alot better being on the studio floor than the control room at-least.
Overall was a good experience seeing how a studio worked, or as much as I did get to see in the time I was their. I would question the timetable set up. Some of us including myself didn't get a role on camera at all, which to be fair was the main role aside from VT operator. I do feel some of the other jobs such as Electrician and such where put their to make up the numbers of the class and didn't serve any real learning purpose.
Asides from this it has shown me the people behind the the camera and how their jobs work and what they do, which was such a learning curve, and something I won't be forgetting in awhile.
The dinner we attended was the scariest thing I have done in awhile, I knew in the back of my mind I was going to be sat in a posh restaurant sat beside important people then being presented with a meal I would have to force down. I am the biggest fussiest eater alive. Even with some tips from Paul who is just like me when it comes to food did help but as soon as we were made to swap tables, I was on my own. As soon as i entered the restaurant and just saw the level of 'posh-ness' was one of those 'Oh Sh*t' moments, how was I going to hide the fact I wasn't eating the food!
I sat their thinking, it won't be that bad...It can't be!? ... can it? Me hating fish with a passion, even just the smell of it makes me feel sick. And what do we get for starters? Prawns with smoked Salmon! I don't know but the look of horror on my face must have been a sight. But luckily Murdo bailed me out and I sneakily passed him my plate when he had finished his.
Then the sound that send shivers down my back, swap tables time! Yay fun times :l
Luckily seconds wasn't as bad...or well bad for me I mean to say. I did manage to eat enough to remain under the radar. Being sat on my own in a table filled with old men, was well plain scary. I sat in silence for a long time that felt like forever. Then Luke the saviour sat beside me after having his seat stolen. Well what a mistake that was, the man he sat beside then persisted on talking to him about stage lighting for the next half hour, which coming from a man who had obviously had a few glasses of wine was hilarious to see Luke trying to look interested.
But we soon bailed out after a short while and rdndevouded with the rest of the class who had similar horror stories. But as much as I have just seemingly slated it. It was an enjoyable night overall.
Overall a very good experience at Showlight and a good learning curve, and as much as it pained me getting up at 6:30 every morning I would do it all over again in a second. But maybe being attached to Editing this time :)
Charlottes script was the lucky script to be commissioned with a £1000 budget and double the crew, a good decision in my view to combine the crews and budget. Just seems to make more sense having one really good film than to average films. Me being one of the keen editor of the class put my name down beside being one of the editors of the script. But obviously having one or two roles attached for the filming shooting dates itself, which as surfaced as 'Continuity Photographer' With Phil the other editor being the Continuity Supervisor. So we will only have ourselves to blame if we have to cut around continuity problems in post. But me and Phil being awesome, this won't happen ... obviously
Nothing really else to report, other than Abigails production class today which consisted of watching 'Floating is Easy' a film we did a script break down on. I shall leave my thoughts on this movie for another time, as I may just feel the need to jump of a near by bridge. Asides from this we also went through the elements of production from a seemingly never ending checklist of roles and production elements. This was all very good but was a task to keep myself focused after role twenty.
Very much looking forward to filming date itself, and look forward to see a how the production crew find a 'Juggling Minor'
After being introduced to the BBC staff we would be working with and after Gareth's look of horror when he seen four students sat in his work area. He was a really cool guy but it soon became obvious that although his job is essential there is a reason the BBC have only one vision guy attached to that studio, because it takes only one guy to do. So for him to try and spread any work over four students was just never going to happen. Alot of it was waiting around for something to go wrong, even then if something did go wrong only he could sort it so wasn't a terribly exciting experience being absolutely honest. Although was good seeing how a studio control room operated. But being on vision for two days was a little bit too much.
After being in a darkened room for two days watching the event on a wall mounted television I was sent to the electrician to see how his job worked, but after an even more look of horror from him he disappeared on me so was back to the control room for me.
My next attachment was Sound, but having everything already been set up on day one, it consisted of standing at the side of the audience holding a microphone for the Q&A. But was alot better being on the studio floor than the control room at-least.
Overall was a good experience seeing how a studio worked, or as much as I did get to see in the time I was their. I would question the timetable set up. Some of us including myself didn't get a role on camera at all, which to be fair was the main role aside from VT operator. I do feel some of the other jobs such as Electrician and such where put their to make up the numbers of the class and didn't serve any real learning purpose.
Asides from this it has shown me the people behind the the camera and how their jobs work and what they do, which was such a learning curve, and something I won't be forgetting in awhile.
The dinner we attended was the scariest thing I have done in awhile, I knew in the back of my mind I was going to be sat in a posh restaurant sat beside important people then being presented with a meal I would have to force down. I am the biggest fussiest eater alive. Even with some tips from Paul who is just like me when it comes to food did help but as soon as we were made to swap tables, I was on my own. As soon as i entered the restaurant and just saw the level of 'posh-ness' was one of those 'Oh Sh*t' moments, how was I going to hide the fact I wasn't eating the food!
I sat their thinking, it won't be that bad...It can't be!? ... can it? Me hating fish with a passion, even just the smell of it makes me feel sick. And what do we get for starters? Prawns with smoked Salmon! I don't know but the look of horror on my face must have been a sight. But luckily Murdo bailed me out and I sneakily passed him my plate when he had finished his.
Then the sound that send shivers down my back, swap tables time! Yay fun times :l
Luckily seconds wasn't as bad...or well bad for me I mean to say. I did manage to eat enough to remain under the radar. Being sat on my own in a table filled with old men, was well plain scary. I sat in silence for a long time that felt like forever. Then Luke the saviour sat beside me after having his seat stolen. Well what a mistake that was, the man he sat beside then persisted on talking to him about stage lighting for the next half hour, which coming from a man who had obviously had a few glasses of wine was hilarious to see Luke trying to look interested.
But we soon bailed out after a short while and rdndevouded with the rest of the class who had similar horror stories. But as much as I have just seemingly slated it. It was an enjoyable night overall.
Overall a very good experience at Showlight and a good learning curve, and as much as it pained me getting up at 6:30 every morning I would do it all over again in a second. But maybe being attached to Editing this time :)
Charlottes script was the lucky script to be commissioned with a £1000 budget and double the crew, a good decision in my view to combine the crews and budget. Just seems to make more sense having one really good film than to average films. Me being one of the keen editor of the class put my name down beside being one of the editors of the script. But obviously having one or two roles attached for the filming shooting dates itself, which as surfaced as 'Continuity Photographer' With Phil the other editor being the Continuity Supervisor. So we will only have ourselves to blame if we have to cut around continuity problems in post. But me and Phil being awesome, this won't happen ... obviously
Nothing really else to report, other than Abigails production class today which consisted of watching 'Floating is Easy' a film we did a script break down on. I shall leave my thoughts on this movie for another time, as I may just feel the need to jump of a near by bridge. Asides from this we also went through the elements of production from a seemingly never ending checklist of roles and production elements. This was all very good but was a task to keep myself focused after role twenty.
Very much looking forward to filming date itself, and look forward to see a how the production crew find a 'Juggling Minor'
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Star Trek
**I will try not give key points away but don't read if you haven't seen it yet!**
Well 'Gutted' would be an understatement to be truthful, with over an hour to go in the film, I found myself looking at my watch. There was no substance to this movie what so ever. Characters are poorly built up with minimum if any back story to any of them, only to be broken at the knee's by a genuine lack of any real emotion through out the movie. As soon as some appears its thrown off screen as quickly as it came. If you don't make me care about the characters, why should I care what is happening in the film?
The plot starts off relatively good with a great opening 10 minutes, but as soon as you get into the thick of the plot, I found myself thinking what is it with this guy *J.J Abrams* and these confusing plot lines? I found myself getting annoyed because I wasn't quite catching onto what was happening, they never went to any real length to explain what was going on. I'm sorry if I'm not a maths professor but seriously come on Abrams, a nice little plot line with enough emotional tugs and character depth isn't toooo much to ask for ... is it?
Maybe this is what Hollywood is doing now, maybe if we confuse the audience enough and throw in enough special effects they will believe they seen a good movie. Well no that just doesn't wash...not one bit.
Altogether brilliant special effects, brilliant cast/acting, but just nothing to back it up at the end of the day. Nothing to keep me interested. Just scene after scene of pointless going on's with bad guys jumping in and out every now and again. They didn't even do a good job with them, I didn't hate the bad guys, I found myself thinking...well do what use want...I'm past the point of caring. I mean writing a bad guy is the easiest bit! 'Mustache, black hat' and your set!...sadly Abrams didn't get that memo!
Overall such a let down, there is a good story in their somewhere but was lost somewhere along the line, I tried so hard to like this film but Hollywood 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me' well the shame is all on you Hollywood, stop churning out glittery special effects and maybe write a plot once and awhile.
Well 'Gutted' would be an understatement to be truthful, with over an hour to go in the film, I found myself looking at my watch. There was no substance to this movie what so ever. Characters are poorly built up with minimum if any back story to any of them, only to be broken at the knee's by a genuine lack of any real emotion through out the movie. As soon as some appears its thrown off screen as quickly as it came. If you don't make me care about the characters, why should I care what is happening in the film?
The plot starts off relatively good with a great opening 10 minutes, but as soon as you get into the thick of the plot, I found myself thinking what is it with this guy *J.J Abrams* and these confusing plot lines? I found myself getting annoyed because I wasn't quite catching onto what was happening, they never went to any real length to explain what was going on. I'm sorry if I'm not a maths professor but seriously come on Abrams, a nice little plot line with enough emotional tugs and character depth isn't toooo much to ask for ... is it?
Maybe this is what Hollywood is doing now, maybe if we confuse the audience enough and throw in enough special effects they will believe they seen a good movie. Well no that just doesn't wash...not one bit.
Altogether brilliant special effects, brilliant cast/acting, but just nothing to back it up at the end of the day. Nothing to keep me interested. Just scene after scene of pointless going on's with bad guys jumping in and out every now and again. They didn't even do a good job with them, I didn't hate the bad guys, I found myself thinking...well do what use want...I'm past the point of caring. I mean writing a bad guy is the easiest bit! 'Mustache, black hat' and your set!...sadly Abrams didn't get that memo!
Overall such a let down, there is a good story in their somewhere but was lost somewhere along the line, I tried so hard to like this film but Hollywood 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me' well the shame is all on you Hollywood, stop churning out glittery special effects and maybe write a plot once and awhile.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Paradise Now
I think the film did a great job at taking you into the lives of these people and how they live day by day under such conditions, they fact that when you think sucide bombers you instantly think of people who have no good in them. But generally these are people who have been pushed to the very edge by poverty and opression. The film did a wonderful job at showing that some of these people are just your average person you could see sitting in a cafe having a coffee and such.
It has genreally changed my mind about the whole situation, and that although strapping a bomb to yourself isn't the way to go about things, it does show in a very well done way how these people can arrive at that mind set and how aslong as you box these people in and treat them as less equals more people will arrive at this mind set.
I'm not sure what an Israeli would think about this film, but to me it did just show that these are normal people and they are not born set on killing people but aslong as there are these walls they will see aswell as feel that they are being treated unfairly.
Overall although I'm not an expert on the matter I do feel it did fairly represent the people in it very well, When they jump the fence and see the Israeli's just standing waiting for a bus I think that was a very well crafted scene, as it showed aswell that Israeli's aren't any different to those on the other side of the wall.
It has genreally changed my mind about the whole situation, and that although strapping a bomb to yourself isn't the way to go about things, it does show in a very well done way how these people can arrive at that mind set and how aslong as you box these people in and treat them as less equals more people will arrive at this mind set.
I'm not sure what an Israeli would think about this film, but to me it did just show that these are normal people and they are not born set on killing people but aslong as there are these walls they will see aswell as feel that they are being treated unfairly.
Overall although I'm not an expert on the matter I do feel it did fairly represent the people in it very well, When they jump the fence and see the Israeli's just standing waiting for a bus I think that was a very well crafted scene, as it showed aswell that Israeli's aren't any different to those on the other side of the wall.
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