Time to get shit done (in a few weeks)

So I once again have that urge to do something and I plan to actually do something. The the present moment I am not sure what this thing is. I'm thinking of beginning to do a podcast. There are ideas for podcasts with my friends that I would like to get started. Then maybe do one alone. I also want to start a webcomic, which I know I have been talking about for a while. I'm also going to start doing more creative stuff. Who knows what. To be honest this blog is shit, but it's a start and a start is something.

#3 50/50 (2011)

So i have already started slacking with this, but my excuse is I have just started a new job and don't seem to have any free time.

so anyway I watched 50/50 Staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Written by and based on Will Reiser's fight with cancer I really don't want to go into it too much with out giving away anything.

I'll just say that it was funny and heart felt. You cared for these people and you wanted things to be well. There are few predictable parts that you can almost see coming from a mile away, but I really didn't mind that and in fact I enjoyed these parts.

overall it was a very solid film and I highly recommend it to most people. Don't be put off if you don't like Seth Rogen comedy films because this one is better then any of them and is just a good film.

****  four outta five

#2 A History of Violence (2005)

So last night I watched film number 2 "A History of Violence" Directed by David Cronenberg and staring Viggo Mortensen the film wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. Not that that is a bad thing.

In a nut shell the film is about a case of what we believe is mistaken identity and intimidation. Viggo stars as Tom Stall an average guy with a wife and two kids. He becomes a local hero when he defends the dinner he works at. Only for Ed Harris to believe him to be somebody else and come looking for him. The film builds the suspense up well and even at times when i felt the plot had come to an end they chose to have something else happen and once again build up the suspense.

this is a short review as i'm busy and i need to get on with watching todays film

overall I enjoyed A history of Violence. I did feel like it could have ended slightly earlier then it did, or at least drag parts of the story out. But the acting was all top notch and I recommend anybody who likes Cronenberg or slow place "thrillers?" to give it a try

***    that's three stars

#1 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

So as my post from earlier on today noted, I began a journey through my unwatched DVD's and Blurays. I began with the 2007 film  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Written and Directed by Andrew Dominik, who most recently made Killing Them Softly and Staring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck as the two title leads. The film is about, as you'd guess, The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. The first thing i'll say about this film is it looked amazing. With cinematography by the legend Roger Deakins the film just looks fantastic, with a very small colour pallet and some of the darkest blacks I've seen in a film. It made the movie look natural and almost as if it was lit by natural light. There is a train robbery scene towards the beginning of the movie that made me sit up in my seat and mutter aloud how great it looked. I don't want to talk too much about how the film looked as I feel i'll end up spoiling it for people who haven't seen it.

 So I am going to jump onto the cast..and what a cast! With actors such Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt and Mary-Louise Parker just to name a few. With a few small cameos by other actors and a musician. The whole cast seemed to be firing on all cylinders and all just felt like they belonged in the old west in 1881. Both leads are fantastic to watch and at times awkward due to the tension that slowly builds throughout the film. The secondary characters are just as good as the leads with Sam Rockwell once again showing how good he is at playing the every man who's just slightly dumber then most and even Schneider, whom I couldn't really stand in Parks and Recreation showing that he can really act.

I don't want to talk too much about this film as I really don't want to ruin it for people yet to see it and if like me you've owned it for years then don't wait around much longer. Give it a watch and enjoy a long but enjoyable look back into one of the old wests most famous outlaws in the final few days of his life.

I feel like I should start a rating system if I am going to be watching lots of films. So here we go. I give The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 4 out of 5 Stars. A beautiful yet slow paced film that may end up boring some but highly entertaining others, like myself.

****     that's the star rating by the way

Let the challenge commence

So as some of you may know, I consider myself a fan of film.I'm a member of a cinema, I have a subscription to a film magazine (I used to be subscribed to two) and I like to write and create my own films. So today while sitting in my room I was looking around and my eyes fell upon my pile of unwatched films. I live quite close to a DVD and Record store which constantly sells DVD's for £1 and over my three years living here my collection has grown considerably. I have slowly watched a few films from the pile but I seem to add more to it then I take out.

Here is the collection

As you can see there are quite a few movies. So I've decided to set myself a challenge to try to watch one every day and then write a review of the film. Now I am starting a new job next week so I might end up watching one every other day and some of the reviews may be very short while others may be very long and if you do read this I shall try to make a note of when I will be talking about spoilers.

Anyway the challenge begins today, I'm not sure what to watch but it's not like I don't have enough to choose from.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do

Disconnection

So I've got three weeks left of uni and so much to do. I know I'm not the only person either so I shouldn't be moaning... But I am! At the time of writing this in on a train back from home, where I popped to for a whopping three hours today. I just don't feel quite settled. Planning my day by the hour, oh I don't think I'm doing anything tomorrow at 3-4 I can colour grade.

This isn't a healthy way to be. I don't even know why I'm writing this down it might be because I don't feel like I can express myself correctly to anybody. That could be because I like to keep myself quite closed. Guess that's a problem I've caused for myself.

I feel drained. And I know that it's only going to get worse in the next three weeks. After that I'll be done. Time to get a job and be successful and earn lots of money... Easy right? Please say yes.

Anyway I feel like I have gone on for too long and just been depressing. So I'll go and try to cheer up. Thanks for listening

Wake up you sleepyhead!

So I've found it harder and harder to get up in the mornings. I mean I am one of those people that does enjoy a good sleep, but I also know that if I sleep in half of the day then I'm being lazy and that I'm basically wasting my life. Take today for instance, I didn't have a late night or anything yet I struggled to get up any time before 12ish. Is this becuase I know that if I get up I have to do work as I have a deadline tomorrow? Or is it because I don't have much to get up for. My weekend has consisted of doing nothing, Ok I went to see the musical Once on saturday and that was great. But afterwards I came back to an empty flat, yesterday (sunday) I got up and spent the entire day in the lounge trying to do work, nobody around in the flat again and the same goes for today. Do I need something to force me to get up? I want to be able to wake up and get on with what needs to be done.

I guess I'm just lacking motivation. What happens if I do x,y and z? Probably nothing..which is why I should make something happen. Tomorrow I plan to set my alarm for 8:30 and I want to up and out of bed by 9:30 at the latest. I am going to finish my essay and then I am going to get on with something else that is productive...Oh and I am going to leave the flat, I think I need to get some fresh air

Breaking your Mind

So I've got an essay to write. I don't like writing essays, I find having to sit down and try to find the inside, in depth story behind something and then try to relate it to something else boring. I much prefer trying to come up with new ideas and stories myself that might have fuck all meaning behind them, I just like them. I find sometimes that people look into things far too much, I mean what if somebody just made something a particular way because they thought it was cool? Has academia gotten out of hand? Don't these people have better things to do then sit around and think about how the way the camera moves or certain lines of dialog can mean so much more then they do?

Now I may be writing this as I just annoyed at not understanding half of the text that I am supposed to use to help with my essay. This may be true. It may also be true that I am wasting time writing this when I should be writing my essay, but I've found I have hit a wall and that if I just write what I am thinking and talking a bunch of nonsense then maybe I might be able to clear the fog from my brain and get back into the essay zone.

For anybody out there reading this I'd like to apologise for wasting your time and making what is one of my worst blogs to date. So much so that I am not even going to post this one on facebook to try to get people to read it.

I'll do better later

Living For The City

I enjoy living in London. It's nice to have almost everything you need so close. You need some food, 5 minutes away. Tins of paint, 5 minutes away. Drugs, 5 minutes away. I kid with that last one. It's much closer then that.

So London seems to have it all. Not that I don't like my home town. It's ok, I mean I'm used to it and what's there but once you go back you see what little it really has to offer. The problem with London is just that. It's London! Because of that if you want to live somewhere nice you pay through your teeth for it. Don't want the worry of getting stabbed? Better pay an extra £100 a month. Also everybody else has the same idea that you do. "I'll move to London, get a great job and be sorted" so now you've got extra competition for that crappy weekend shop job.

I shouldn't even be writing this, I've got so much work to get on with do I can finish my degree and get that part time job before any of you other suckers!

Ghost of Corporate Future

Today I had a long hard think about my future. It so happens that it one of my university lessons we talked about how to get into the industry of being a script writer and this may or may not have made me begin this thought process. 

I began to realise that I do not have that much to show of my work. I Need to focus. Write my ideas down and just bloody elaborate and finish them! I always seem to have many different ideas floating around, most are probably shit, but I have no idea unless I try to do something with them. Even if I just write a treatment. I mean I'm not going to get anywhere by just saying to people "Oh yeah, well I've got this idea, blah blah blah" Who want's to listen to that?

I find that the more I think about my future the dimer it becomes. Do I really think I have something that thousands of other people don't? I know that's not the right frame of mind to be in, I really should be thinking "I am better then most, I do offer something new, fresh, zappy, buzzwords etc" But instead I sit around and do fuck all. I watch films and think "Oooh I'd like to write something like that." Will I? Doubt it. I've got a new idea of a girl aged about 15ish who grows up in 50's New York and her journey into "womanhood" Oh and she likes to do magic. Will I write it? Doubt it. Why not? Is it because I don't know what it is like to a 15 year old girl? Maybe....Is it because I wasn't born in the 50's? Possibly...Is it because that's as far as I've gotten with the story and that at the moment that is just a character and not any actual plot? Could be..

I find that I need something to aim towards. I want to be able to say I've done something with my life that other people may have taken notice of, instead of just slip through the cracks into the oblivion that is obscurity. I'm not saying I want super stardom, even knowing that people out there in the world (who aren't my mum or someone) is reading this. Words I've decided to put into a particular order to form what some people would loosely call a blog post. 

So hopefully watch this space. I know I keep saying I will write more blogs but honestly I do want to. They may not all be good but it's a way to get something out there. I may at times post excerpts of scripts I'm working on for feedback or just to show what I am up to. So hopefully I may see you in the new future. And speaking of futures, let's hope it's a good one.

Sitting on the toilet listening to fleetwood mac

So I didn't finish my blogs about filming but it went well and is now in the edit. So I will update you when more has been done. But now onto today topic

So Fleetwood Mac. One of my favourite bands (both versions) I recently managed to get tickets to their only London show this year and it did set me back a pretty penny. The penny wasn't even that pretty but I still struggled to part with it. How much is too much?

A friend recently had a chat with me about this and I found myself defending bands that charge crazy amounts for their gigs. By saying well they have bigger venues so that's a cost and they have to pay the crew etc. But when it comes to it that's all bullshit. So why do we keep paying?

I know why I did for fleetwood mac and that is because I just don't think I will get to see them again. So I took my chance to go. But what about the people that tour all the time?

If anybody has a valid reason please send your letters to 123 this is a blog just hit comment street.

Four on the Floor

so i haven't quite written a blog after every day of filming but that may because I have had too much to do, I've waiting to write a collected blog, or I have been lazy.
Well now we have done  days of filming Perfect game and it has begun to take shape. The past two days have begun with 7am starts at a bowling alley in Lewisham. After filming in the office in Brixton last Thursday and Friday it was nice to get stuck into some big sections of the script. Unfortunately this also means more work. With what seemed to be a slow start we set up on Monday and began to film the four guys together for the first time. I can honestly say I was very nervous about this as this was the first time all four of my actors had gotten together. Luckily they went together very well and were able to bounce the conversation off of each other and improv lines where need be.

I will say one thing about all of this. I do not like directing. Yeah OK so I wrote the piece and I have a vision of how it should look in my head but I hate directing. It's having your lines being read out. I can't stand to see it. You have to show people how you think it should look and you can't help but come to the realization that it might all be a bit shit. Anyway I digress

So Monday. We need to get as much done in the 3 hours that we have in the alley. We managed to get through a few scenes but before you know it it's 10 am and you need to start packing away. This was a real kick in the teeth. From this we knew we really needed to work faster the next day. After the alley we split into two units and went our seperate ways to film at the same time. My second unit lead by my Assistant Director Karl hopped onto the DLR to get some shots for the opening with two of the actors (On the sly may I add as we may or may not have had permission.....we did not) While I headed over to the Avery Hill campus of Greenwich to film a small scene of two guys meeting after one finishes work. When you watch this scene you may even catch a very good cameo by a certain blog writer. A few different takes from different angles and we were done for the day.

Which leads us to today.

Back at the bowling alley, 7 am. This time there are more actors. There is the lead girl and only real other female role that the character becomes an important role (in later epsiodes) once again the four main guys were there and we got straight into doing what needed to be done. While setting up we decided to shoot the scene we were lighting using two cameras from different angles (Multicam) This turned out to be a godsend. We were able to fly through scenes by capturing it from two different possitions at the same time. Unlike Monday we knew that we could have extra time if we went past 10 am which we did. By 3 hours. Thanks to a very helpful manager (who also knows how to get some great curve on a bowled ball) we were able to get all the extras that turned up to have fun bowling while we filmed all the "arty" shots of different bowling things for montages and other such cut aways. Some of which I am  really looking forward to seeing cut together. We finally finished at 1, it's always fun being underground for 6 hours. Where we then sent everybody home except for a small unit and one actor, whom we took with us to film another small scene before breaking for the day.

I'm now writing this back at home and I honestly can not wait for sleep  I also want to take the time to just thank any of the extras that came today to help out. Thanks for waiting around for so long before getting to bowl, You'll get your bacon. And if anybody else who was involved today reads this thanks to you too. I couldn't have done anything with out you.

We now have another day at the alley tomorrow before a scene back at my flat. Followed by a small scene Thursday morning and then three days off before a long shoot in a pub on Monday and back to the bowling alley Tuesday for (hopefully) just pick up shots. So that's this time next week I will hopefully be writing a blog entitled "That's a Wrap" I will probably write another blog Thursday keeping you up to date. But until then Keep watching the skies.

Day one

So day one done. Just two short scenes in an office. We go back tomorrow to the same office space in Brixton to film another scene staring two other actors (the magic of cinema, one space, make it look like two different ones) Both today and tomorrow are only short days 9-1 but the time goes by a lot quicker then you expect. Being such a short day there isn't a fantastic amount to talk about, Sorry about that.

Stop or I'll shoot!!

Right so coming up this Thursday I begin filming the pilot of a television series I have written called Perfect Game. I decided that I am going to do a blog every night after filming and just write down what's happened, how it is going etc. I am only filming for 15 days but I hope it's entertaining enough for you all to read. So get ready. See you this Thursday!