Hello again sorry for the length it has taken for me to write another review i know you all have been waiting patiently. well since my last film review post there have been several great films that have been released with the likes of Inception, The Social Network, Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Iron Man 2. All of these i may get around to reviewing but i would like to talk about one of the greatest films i have ever seen, this film is called 'The Fall' which was made in 2006 and directed by Tarsem Singh.
The film is based in 1920's Los Angeles, about a young girl 'Alexandria' who is in hospital after breaking her arm and she meets a young stuntman 'Roy Walker' who can't move anything below his waste after an accident. Roy wants to end his life as he feels he will permanently paralysed from the waste down, so when he meets Alexandria he starts to tell her a story in exchange for her getting him pills to end his life though he tells her its to help with his pain. The story he tells her is about several heroes who have been stranded on a small island by the same man and they all swear they will get there revenge, so they travel there way to seek revenge, the story he tells her he uses people from the hospital to portray the characters in the story he tells Alexandria.
This film doesn't boast an impressive or well known cast which is probably the reason why i hadn't heard of the film until word of mouth as i can't even remember it being advertised. The acting was brilliant though this was a film that actually bought out emotion in me, it actually bought a tear to my eye while watching this which is hard to tell you why without spoiling the film. Though it also has action and slight humour in this emotionally powerful film.
The most impressive thing i notice about this film though is the colour used, it was incredible both in the settings and the costumes used. We had the colour of the colours overpowering the scenery unless it was some significance in that scene. Though the locations where also incredible especially shots in the desert with a very wide angled, long shots of the characters and the desert hills. The film was very well written so it had an incredible storyline and shot amazingly well, this film i say is a perfect example of a film makers film, everything done to perfection with use of shots, techniques and colour.
My rating for this film i give a 10/10, yes a very big rating/praise but all very much deserved as i can't think of anything wrong with this film at all. And also the fact it actually bought out a real emotion and tear to my eye which hasn't happened in many, many years. A must see for all film lovers out that.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Thursday, 8 July 2010
My Bad!!
As you will of noticed if someone does actually follow this blog you will have noticed i haven't written anything since january and the reason is, well ..... i have no reason but i will soon be starting this up all again so for now here is just a little info about what's happened and/or happening over the past several months.
Well i passed my second year of university so am now a 3rd year which is nice and in the past few months i directed my own written script from the first semester though it didn't turn out well at all in my opinion but i see it as a good learning curve as it was my first directed short student film. I am hoping i am able to upload it up on here soon but it never seems to allow me to upload on my blog, probs why i haven't been on for so long.
Apart from that i have done pretty much typical student life to be honest and continue to work for Boots though since summer i've been working full weeks for past month or so which not really enjoying but needing the money. Everything else in life is the same really suffered a big loss this year as well which has had a big impact on me.
Well my reviews etc should be up and running again soon for the probably imaginary people that follow it, Byes
Well i passed my second year of university so am now a 3rd year which is nice and in the past few months i directed my own written script from the first semester though it didn't turn out well at all in my opinion but i see it as a good learning curve as it was my first directed short student film. I am hoping i am able to upload it up on here soon but it never seems to allow me to upload on my blog, probs why i haven't been on for so long.
Apart from that i have done pretty much typical student life to be honest and continue to work for Boots though since summer i've been working full weeks for past month or so which not really enjoying but needing the money. Everything else in life is the same really suffered a big loss this year as well which has had a big impact on me.
Well my reviews etc should be up and running again soon for the probably imaginary people that follow it, Byes
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Back at University!!
Just an update about my life at the moment, well as from the title it says i have just returned for the second semester of university and am anxious to find if the script i wrote will be made so i would also be directing it, fingers crossed. Though projects outside of university are popping up as well with several of my own ideas and collaborations with fellow student film makers on two short films, so a busy year it looks, the only free time i will have looks to be when half the group goes New York while im stuck in this wet miserable country but leaves me more time to finish of work and not have a stressful deadline fortnight like usual. Apart from that there really isn't much else to say as i lead a pretty boring life at the moment always in but everything is ok with me and wishing for a stress free few months (if only).
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Guilty Pleasure Television
Now my guilty pleasure television program is very much a guilty pleasure, when i went home for the holidays in the summer and again over christmas, my sister watched Disney Channel constantly and i found one show (above all the other garbage kids are shown nowadays) was a show called Wizards of Waverly Place. This show is about a family of wizards growing up and learning about magic as they have to compete against there other siblings in the wizards competition for only one to be a fully fledged wizard and the other two loose there powers, though keeping it hidden from the real world and there every day lives'. Now the shows lead is Alex Russo (played by the disney star Selena Gomez) and her on-screen siblings of Justin Russo (played by David Henrie) and Max Russo (played by Jake T. Austin) with parents Jerry and Theresa Russo (played by David DeLuise and Maria Canals-Barrera respectively).
Now i know what your probably thinking a young man of 20 like myself and im basically watching a kids television program which is well .... true. It is a nice break from typical kids TV in my opinion and makes me actually interested in the characters unlike where i complain about how poor other kids shows are today compared to my time. This show has even shown an up and coming star and it isn't a cast member above, it was a fairly new actress who guessed starred as a vampire called Juliet Van Heusen (played by Bridgit Mendler) who is one to look out for in the future which she has now her own sitcom released in spring of 2010 called Good Luck Charlie which is said to compete with shows aimed at young adults as well as keeping the younger generation audience, a good actress already and am looking forward to following her career.
But back to Wizards of Waverly Place, this show has a lot of humour and yes its humour for the unintelligent audience in all fairness with cheap jokes but it works because the show doesn't take itself to seriously, except for moments of high emotional scenes like ones you will see with Justin Russo and Juliet Van Heusen (David Henrie and Bridgit Mendler's character's). Overall i wouldn't say its a must watch because it isn't and something that many people i know would not understand my liking for it but it takes me out of my own life and enjoy the comedy it has to offer.
Now i know what your probably thinking a young man of 20 like myself and im basically watching a kids television program which is well .... true. It is a nice break from typical kids TV in my opinion and makes me actually interested in the characters unlike where i complain about how poor other kids shows are today compared to my time. This show has even shown an up and coming star and it isn't a cast member above, it was a fairly new actress who guessed starred as a vampire called Juliet Van Heusen (played by Bridgit Mendler) who is one to look out for in the future which she has now her own sitcom released in spring of 2010 called Good Luck Charlie which is said to compete with shows aimed at young adults as well as keeping the younger generation audience, a good actress already and am looking forward to following her career.
But back to Wizards of Waverly Place, this show has a lot of humour and yes its humour for the unintelligent audience in all fairness with cheap jokes but it works because the show doesn't take itself to seriously, except for moments of high emotional scenes like ones you will see with Justin Russo and Juliet Van Heusen (David Henrie and Bridgit Mendler's character's). Overall i wouldn't say its a must watch because it isn't and something that many people i know would not understand my liking for it but it takes me out of my own life and enjoy the comedy it has to offer.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
End of Semester 1
Well the christmas holiday has approached and that signals the end of the first semester in my second year on the film and video production course. This year has been more difficult than last year even though it is very similar to the previous year just more advanced. Do i believe i have done well this year? simple answer NO.
I shall start by talking about the bad things, starting of with my documentary i created which shall be uploaded sometime in the foreseeable future, well the idea was to do a documentary on the subject 'Made in Britain'. My original idea was student drinking but we have all seen that so its nothing interesting. My first shot documentary on this was then unemployment in a youth but that really messed me up as the quality was terrible and it wasn't engaging so tow week till deadline had arrived and i wasn't submitting this pile of well crap. So i had a new ideas which is students together in a close environment and being together 24/7. I got footage shot in two days and edited in one day so how it turned out i was pleased by how long it taken me which wasn't long at all. But the overall quality wasn't the best so i tried to make it humorous which actually worked but all i could see were the flaws of this work. So it was submitted and i hope my production folder will save my grade (one can hope).
Other lesson projects didn't go to well either this year, two presentations one of which was an epic failure and one went well for me anyway as i am nervous in front of people. So hoping for an okay grade on the one that went well but an essay on New Zealand film could help or hinder my final grade. The failure presentation (though i haven't gotten a grade for it) is hopefully gonna be saved by my script which i shall talk about soon. Another piece of work is a journal which i feel i have done well on so i am hoping for a good grade there and on the miniature projects set on that, so pretty much i predict a mix bag this year.
Now good news my script which is what i hope saves me in the scriptwriting class because my idea is very good and have had several people agree with me as well as the lecturer. So this i have very high hopes for and i am hoping it will be selected to be produced next semester where i will hopefully be the director on my own script.
Overall not the best of semester's for me but next year i will hope to turn it all around, this year has shown me what i want to do as the beginning of university i wanted to be a director but in my first year my ideas had been swayed slightly. But this year i have seen what i want to do which is directing and scriptwriting.
I shall start by talking about the bad things, starting of with my documentary i created which shall be uploaded sometime in the foreseeable future, well the idea was to do a documentary on the subject 'Made in Britain'. My original idea was student drinking but we have all seen that so its nothing interesting. My first shot documentary on this was then unemployment in a youth but that really messed me up as the quality was terrible and it wasn't engaging so tow week till deadline had arrived and i wasn't submitting this pile of well crap. So i had a new ideas which is students together in a close environment and being together 24/7. I got footage shot in two days and edited in one day so how it turned out i was pleased by how long it taken me which wasn't long at all. But the overall quality wasn't the best so i tried to make it humorous which actually worked but all i could see were the flaws of this work. So it was submitted and i hope my production folder will save my grade (one can hope).
Other lesson projects didn't go to well either this year, two presentations one of which was an epic failure and one went well for me anyway as i am nervous in front of people. So hoping for an okay grade on the one that went well but an essay on New Zealand film could help or hinder my final grade. The failure presentation (though i haven't gotten a grade for it) is hopefully gonna be saved by my script which i shall talk about soon. Another piece of work is a journal which i feel i have done well on so i am hoping for a good grade there and on the miniature projects set on that, so pretty much i predict a mix bag this year.
Now good news my script which is what i hope saves me in the scriptwriting class because my idea is very good and have had several people agree with me as well as the lecturer. So this i have very high hopes for and i am hoping it will be selected to be produced next semester where i will hopefully be the director on my own script.
Overall not the best of semester's for me but next year i will hope to turn it all around, this year has shown me what i want to do as the beginning of university i wanted to be a director but in my first year my ideas had been swayed slightly. But this year i have seen what i want to do which is directing and scriptwriting.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Golden Oldie: Creature from the Black Lagoon
In my blogs i feel there are must see films from the past, now they can be films a year or so, old or classics from back in the day. (yes many of these will be films that are older than me, so not back in my day, so there is no need to point that out) but anyway the first film chosen will be Creature from the Black Lagoon made in 1954 directed by Jack Arnold. This film i have seen just recently and i fell in love with it, the synopsis for this film is:
A scientist discovers the hand of a ancient creature that could hold the key of evolution for a creature to live on both land and in water. He takes this back to several of his colleagues and they all agree and expedition is in hand to find the rest of the body. When they arrive already there has been attacks and this leads them to the black lagoon in the amazon river where the creature lives.
This film was amazingly shot especially thinking about the time this was made with shots of the creature and the lead actress (who the creature falls for) swimming together and shots of the creature where they refrained from showing his features at the beginning and the look of it in black and white makes it beautifully done though the location played a big part of the look of this film. The acting was well acted but the biggest complement must go to the designers of the creature costume because it was amazing in that era and yes saying it was amazing back then is probably ordinary if that of today but it all must be taken into account, though this costume would even be brilliant for todays films though they would probably only use CGI nowadays.
So following on from that i have learned reportedly from IMDB that there is a remake of this classic, epic film and the director rumoured is Breck Eisner who has directed films like Sahara in 2006 and Thought-crimes in 2003 so i am actually scared of what my happen to the remake of this film, because i don't like either of these films and he hasn't really done any others. Will it destroy/ruin the classic film of Creature from the Black Lagoon? who knows but me personally remakes hardly ever beat the original and it can ruin them for me so it may be a film i will avoid because i love this film to much.
A rating for this film that is over fifty years old i will give a 10/10 i need no reason for this because it was a beautifully shot film, a must watch especially for film-makers in my opinion.
A scientist discovers the hand of a ancient creature that could hold the key of evolution for a creature to live on both land and in water. He takes this back to several of his colleagues and they all agree and expedition is in hand to find the rest of the body. When they arrive already there has been attacks and this leads them to the black lagoon in the amazon river where the creature lives.
This film was amazingly shot especially thinking about the time this was made with shots of the creature and the lead actress (who the creature falls for) swimming together and shots of the creature where they refrained from showing his features at the beginning and the look of it in black and white makes it beautifully done though the location played a big part of the look of this film. The acting was well acted but the biggest complement must go to the designers of the creature costume because it was amazing in that era and yes saying it was amazing back then is probably ordinary if that of today but it all must be taken into account, though this costume would even be brilliant for todays films though they would probably only use CGI nowadays.
So following on from that i have learned reportedly from IMDB that there is a remake of this classic, epic film and the director rumoured is Breck Eisner who has directed films like Sahara in 2006 and Thought-crimes in 2003 so i am actually scared of what my happen to the remake of this film, because i don't like either of these films and he hasn't really done any others. Will it destroy/ruin the classic film of Creature from the Black Lagoon? who knows but me personally remakes hardly ever beat the original and it can ruin them for me so it may be a film i will avoid because i love this film to much.
A rating for this film that is over fifty years old i will give a 10/10 i need no reason for this because it was a beautifully shot film, a must watch especially for film-makers in my opinion.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Film Review: Sugar Drop
Well today i went to see a short film written and produced by one of my lecturer's and i have to say how amazed i was at the quality of this film on practically zero budget. The film is called Sugar Drop and it is about a man called Ben Hopewell (played by Richard buxton) and he suffers from type one diabetes, well he gets stuck in an lift and his blood sugar levels begin to drop and it takes him into a stage where madness makes the boundaries between real life and fantasy spiral out of control. The film takes place in one day and we see the film jump from early events in the day back to him in the lift, then into a fantasy world which works fantastically well.
The directors of this film both i hear to be former students are Sean Ford and Daniel Romero both made this film beautifully shot, some of the cutaway shots were amazing as well as scenes shown in the lift, though i don't want to give it away as it is a must see though. I just can't believe how good this really was especially on a shoestring budget which they used the Derby University campus for most of this film.
I do have to give a big praise though for the writing from my lecturer Tom Craig, the way he has actually shown real effects of diabetes where hollywood tends to fall far away from the actual issues and problems diabetes can cause. Tom Craig a man that has this condition himself has shown basically what an untapped resource of film making can happen from diabetes of stories/films that can be made and he deserves all the acclaim and praise that should be received. Seeing a film like this does highlight the effects of diabetes suffers which i know slightly about myself as my grandfather has it.
This type of film is something i feel i should be able to make by the end of my degree, its something that makes me strive to become a film maker particularly a director/scriptwriter. This 18 minute short film is one i have to say is what has given me a new lease of motivation to create films. All in all a must watch my rating for this film i have to say for a short film on no budget with two young directors a 10/10 as i rate this that highly.
The directors of this film both i hear to be former students are Sean Ford and Daniel Romero both made this film beautifully shot, some of the cutaway shots were amazing as well as scenes shown in the lift, though i don't want to give it away as it is a must see though. I just can't believe how good this really was especially on a shoestring budget which they used the Derby University campus for most of this film.
I do have to give a big praise though for the writing from my lecturer Tom Craig, the way he has actually shown real effects of diabetes where hollywood tends to fall far away from the actual issues and problems diabetes can cause. Tom Craig a man that has this condition himself has shown basically what an untapped resource of film making can happen from diabetes of stories/films that can be made and he deserves all the acclaim and praise that should be received. Seeing a film like this does highlight the effects of diabetes suffers which i know slightly about myself as my grandfather has it.
This type of film is something i feel i should be able to make by the end of my degree, its something that makes me strive to become a film maker particularly a director/scriptwriter. This 18 minute short film is one i have to say is what has given me a new lease of motivation to create films. All in all a must watch my rating for this film i have to say for a short film on no budget with two young directors a 10/10 as i rate this that highly.
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