So... after five long, hard, broke summer months i'm finally back to uni. The second year. The year where your grades get counted towards your final result. Scary stuff. But it's good to be back for sure. Good to see your coursemates, find out what they've been up to, good to find out about your modules, and what is expected, just nice to be back. So, as usual, we have four modules this semester which all finish after we get back from the Christmas break, so even now it seems like we're running out of time. We have two theory based snore-fest modules; "Cultural History Methods & Perspectives" and "Ethics In The Media" which appear to have very tenuous links to Film & Broadcast Production, but what the hell... they say we have to do them, so i'm damn well going to give them a good go. But they are both very boring to talk about so we'll just skim right by those, to talk about the other more practical modules.
"Radio Production" is fairly self-explanatory, for our assessment we have to create a five-minute radio news feature based around a topical subject. My groups project is based around recapping the year 2008 in terms of cinema, and how it has performed, can it be classed as a vintage year? The piece has to include 5 separate recorded interviews with notable sources, and the better the source, the better the grade. So I took it upon myself to aim fairly high, and email BBC Radio 1's resident film critic James King, to see if he would participate in an interview for us. And he said yes! Which is a great boost to the project overall, and I hope we can gain a few more decent interviews for the project. As with a lot of modules, this particular one involves group work, which the mere mention of is enough to give anyone who has ever had to do group work in a university environment, an instant headache and nightmare simultaneously. There are advantages in some cases because you get to chose your group if you're lucky, and therefore can expect particular standards of work from everyone, plus you may get to work with someone you've always wanted to work with. On the flipside, if you don't know enough people in your particular class group, you can pick a nucleus of reliable friends, but you always get lumbered with someone, who for their own reasons don't have a group to work with (they were late, a newcomer to the course, they don't know anyone, they're just weird and everyone has avoided them, or worse...all of the above). And guess what, its happened to us again, after last years crazy Brazillian girl incident (text messages about nosebleeds, incomprehensible stories about penguins, regular no-shows and general crazy weirdness) I didn't think things could get much worse, but they have, but I won't be naming and shaming here, let's just say I don't expect much from our late newcomer. The problem with group work, is you all have to work together and pull in the same direction to get anything cohesive and worthy done, so when one member doesn't think on the same wavelength, or doesn't pull their weight, you have to put in extra effort, all with the annoying and frustrating knowledge that they will get the same result as you, which won't realistically reflect their input. Grrrrr annoying.
"Fiction Production" is the other practical module, and again does pretty much exactly what is says on the tin. We have to produce a five minute short film on an original idea/script, which is very exciting, as we've never worked with actors before in a real sense, on a proper project. It's also exciting, because despite being a group work module again, this time, our group is a team of film-makers in which we all get on, we all want to work with each other, and we're all genuinely excited about the project itself. Its a short comedy piece about two rival housemates who are competing with each other to get out of the house on time for work, and who will go to increasingly ridiculous lengths to out do the other (If anyone wants to read the script, let me know & i'll email it). So we are developing this as we speak, rewriting the script, scouting for locations, researching music and looking for actors. All very exciting stuff. I'll keep a tabs on this project as it moves along. It's called Pistols At Dawn, and we hope to have it finished by the end of the year.
Raindance Film Festival
As Rotten Tomatoes was a sponsor of Raindance (A UK film festival for independent films), I was very gratefully given a festival pass, giving me access to all the screenings for nothing. Unluckily I wasn't able to use it to it's full potential, but I was able to get to a couple of events. On the Saturday night I went to an evening event with Corey Feldman doing a Q&A session with clips from a few of his films. This was really good, and Corey Feldman comes across as a genuinely nice guy, possibly a little disco-damaged from his hedonistic heyday, but still a nice guy (even if he does dye his hair). He was a chatty guest offering up funny anecdotes about Gremlins, The Goonies, Lost Boys, Stand By Me etc, so I was pleased that I managed to go. A little disappointed that I didn't pluck up the courage for a photograph, or to get my DVD signed, but still a good night. Later on that evening I got to see the film that Corey was in for the festival, called The Birthday. Which to be kind, is a strange little, spanish made, but english language curio of a film. Its not had a major release, and only been seen at a spanish film festival before, and probably for a good reason. It has some nice ideas, and the last ten minutes are pretty spectacular, but its incoherent, incomprehensible and down right weird (but not in a good way) for the rest of the time. That said, I met the director Eugenio Mira, who was a lovely guy, so I won't slate the film, let's just say the guy has potential for the future.
For the closing gala night there was a screening of a new British movie called Hush. Having little prior knowledge before the film started was quite a nice experience, and the movie itself, although riddled with plot-holes, and lacking in the plausability stakes, is an effective little British thriller. Not giving too much away, the story centres on the main character, who driving along a motorway late at night with his girlfriend, spots a captive woman tied up in the back of a lorry, as it cuts them up on a turn off. A cat and mouse pursuit then ensues, and the film is beautifully shot, with decent acting turns from most involved. Its worth checking out when it hits the big screen, and marks the director Mark Tonderai as a name for the future.
Wispa Bars
Just as a small side note, in case you hadn't noticed, the classic Cadburys chocolate bar Wispa is back. Why they ever stopped making these is beyond me, and I have been totally addicted, probably having one every day for the last two weeks. A friend of mine insists that the Aero is a superior chocolate bar because of it's bigger bubbles. I put it to you that this is wrong. They ROCK.
Bring back Wispa gold next please Mr. Cadburys.
'Til Next Time....
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