Glitz and Glamour of a Premiere = Cleaning

So last week in Adams class we continued down the path of taking apart TV shows to try and figure out which formula seems to work with them, even if they seem at opposite ends of the spectrum its interesting to see that most have the same framework at the core of them.

As a class we went on from listing themes to actually seeing what were themes and which were devices with-in themes. This was a good exercise too which we were shown the difference between the two and how they work together in unison. One example would be the theme of the 70's, the devices with-in this theme would be visual style, contrast then-now, stereotype, nostalgic, music and cultural social style. For me at the moment it still is easy to get the two mixed up but I'm sure in time it will come, its not so much I have no idea between the two. I understand how they work in TV programmes but actually pointing out a Theme from a Device is still a tad tricky, nothing I'm sure won't come in time.

The Battle of Algiers

The battle of Algiers is a classic film depicting the urban guerilla warfare the Algerian people waged against the French during their occupation of Algerian colony. The film depicts the desperate measures opposing forces will go to, to knock the other one out of the fight. The movie examines this war in a documentary style film which shows that their were no greater good side to the forces.

This for me was a movie I have very mixed feelings on, from watching it, its obviously a fantastically directed piece that brought to light a lot of the atrocities that happened back in Algiers when the French were still desperately clinging on to the piece of land. Saying this though, I can't help but think maybe the director lost his scope somewhere along the line.

After getting unlimited backing from the Algiers government to do what ever he wished I can't help but feel he lost of his scope of what were the most important pieces he should include in the film to get the maximum impact across as to what happened their. With no movie studio to report back to I feel that maybe the film was allowed to stray a little bit in terms of what should have been covered and what shouldn't have been.

Not in terms of censorship but in terms of how long the movie should have ran for, I felt the movie could have had alot mor impact if it was just that little bit shorter. I felt myself losing interest in what was happening after awhile, I stopped caring to put it bluntly. My mind started wondering onto things like 'What am I going to do tonight?' and various other things. Which is a real shame as I did think that if they had been given more re-straights on the movie that maybe a leaner fitter one would have emerged.

My thoughts on this movie are one of admiration on how well they covered the event and how well it was pieced together. At no point does this movie loss any of its impact but there comes a point were too much is just that bit too much.

I felt the style of the movie was just fantastic, how they achieved to make this movie look like it was pieced together from actual footage and such was just sheer brilliance. I felt every actor and device in this movie just worked perfectly with one another to really make a classic film that does pack a punch.

The characters all felt real and could have been the real deal for as far as I knew, they researched this aspect really well in my view, each character felt gritty and real. One bad point I would like to make is that it did feel like it stray into the realm of the old Russian Revolution films in terms of no one main central character for the audience to really attach to. I don't know how they could have done it any differently though, as they were covering both sides of opposing forces.

Over-all for all its bad points I did enjoy the film and felt it did do what it set out to do, and just everything slid into place after that.


The Law Abiding Citizen Premiere

So I was one of the floor staff at Cineworld hand picked to be on for the Premiere of the Law Abiding Citizen, were Gerald Butler would be gracing us with his presence.

I turned up early in the afternoon to see all but four rather sad crazy looking women camped outside Cineworld with their Gerald Butler banners behind the barrier. All I could think was how silly its all going to look when Gerald turns up and thats all who's their. Oh how I was wrong, I'll get into that later though.

My shift started of with a briefing from the managers in the Cafe Bar as to what was going to happen and when, it was going to be a military operation as it turned out. It all felt rather exciting even if it was only Gerald Butler. How the image in my head of doing a special role during the day was shattered as soon as the supervisors got a hold of us. It was to be 4 hours of non-stop cleaning to get level three into shape. Everything from the skirting to the poster frames were to be spotless.

I found myself suddenly doing more work in four hours than I've done in my entire time at Cineworld! We all became rather sweaty and disgusting looking after this. Luckily we were not going to greet the 'famous' people like this, down to the stock room for new shirts that actually fit! and a meal before it all kicked off.

We headed across the road to the pub, burger and chips filled me right up and a pint of lemonade to quench my thirst! Luck was on our side, they accidentally served us an extra portion of burger and chips for free! For a table full of starving workers who've cleaned every door knob and piece of skirting on level three, well it didn't sit their too long.

We walked back across the street to see the barrier was now surging with people eagerly waiting for the man himself, the red carpet was out and the security guards were lining the street. I was rather taken back to say the least, although we weren't even allowed in the main entrance, we were forced to go in the back door! So much for working the premiere!

Well the night wasn't quite what I hoped it was going to be, I stood and greeted the premiere customers having no idea who any of them were at-all. The only person I recognised was my managers. Gerald eventually made his way up to level three with his entourage, he strolled right passed all of us not even giving us a smile or a hiya. Nope the most we got was his producer David Segal referring to us as the cleaner people. Yes fair enough thats what essentially we are, but the cheek of the man.

My next task was to seat screen four, the loony tunes screen set aside for the public. AKA the mad old women who had been camped outside all day. Each one terrified when I took their ticked to see where they were sitting that I was not going to give it back.

The rest was just standing around waiting for the film to come out and say 'Good Bye' to the 'Famous' people. Was better than a normal shift I suppose, as it had burger and chips involved!


Richards Class

Not really much to say on this front, we are just going over past points in the run up to writing our scripts to make sure we are okay with everything we have learned so far. This is good for me as I had forgotten a few key points on screen writing and such, just silly little things that would have tripped me up when it actually came to writing a script.

We are next week pitching our idea's to the class which I feel will be good, because it will force us to get our head around our idea and make sure we know it inside out.

Andy's Class

Eviction is a documentary that followed a number of homeless families with young children, it brought to light mis-givings about the homeless and the state that has failed them on every level. It changes your perception of the word homeless from drunken old men in the streets to one of a families fight to have a roof over their head and a place to call home.

Eviction was a really compelling documentary, one of the best I have seen in awhile to be frank. It really did tick all the boxes of drawing the audience into this just dire situation these people are in and actually making you care about it. This is nothing achieved easily and the fact they did it so well was just excellence on their part.

Just the injustice I felt all the way through was really getting to me, so much so that it the british sense I felt like writing a letter to someone to get it sorted out for these families. They did do a good job in the cut to make you connect with these people on an emotional level, how the crew could stand their and film it all is just beyond me. I would be going down to the bank to give them what little money I have, this wouldn't solve anything for them but it got to me that much.

It really is the modern day 'Kathy come home' after having watched that I remember thinking, god I'm glad thats all over with and we live in better times were things like that don't happen anymore. How wrong I was, yes its not on the same scale as it was. But the same hopeless government departments and the same hideous bureaucracy remains that eats away at the core of a failed system. It gave me the same feeling of anger at how this can happen that 'Kathy Come Home' did.

The fact we live in time were this documentary was just pushed to the side only further fuels that anger.