How to get away with murder

Going to have a go at writing my reactions whilst watching it. Here we go:

• Flipping a coin to decide whether or not to bury a body, oh no. Commence dramatic shots of the coin flipping and aghast faces looking up at it as it spins, clearly you would have time to do this haha. Oh making us wait for the result by taking us 3 months earlier, I approve, will be needing some background information. 
• Oooh looking up at the college in awe must be a newbie, he looks excited, point proven.
• Lovely shots following the professor into the classroom, focal shots or items that gives clues to her character, we hear her before we see her, she must be impressionable.
• Oh my she is styled like Martha Jones from Doctor who, 
• These students have obviously done there homework, I too like Wes would be sitting there dumbfounded, and I have a feeling the teacher is going to pick on him next.
• Oh what do you know, I called it.
• She's stalking up the lecture stairs towards him, hide!
• Ohh she bites
• Lol, do law students take a field trip to the witnesses house in the case study regularly?
• The murder weapon oh, nice colour contrasts between past and presents to symbolise the significance of the trophy.
• Brain block I know the feeling (9:40)
• Claw marks on the wall ew creepy
• Now we go back to the past, the body is being rolled up in a carpet bless
• I want to know who is in the carpet!
• Lol ram raiding the body into the wall, poor guy or girl!
• Police man shows, I get the feeling they wont get caught anyway. (12:00)
• I hope the police aren't this thick in real life
• All eyes on you Mr Gibbins (14.34)
• The lecturer telling them to bury the evidence, but in this case this will be in the minds of those in the future when they literally have to bury the evidence.
• Nice thinking Miss Pratt
• WHY WOULD YOU WALK INTO YOUR PROFESSORS HOUSE LIKE THAT...... HOW AWKWARD.
• Singing along to Christmas songs whilst a body is in the back seat, casual .
• Nice to see a casual gay character, blending in, nothing out there.
• These students are at the right place at the right time haha
• Professor is cheating tut tut
• This smiley face plastic bag is getting attention, maybe someone will find it late on.
• Emotional manipulation, she knows what she's doing.
• Or was it hmm.
• That looks like a bite mark on the headboard, paired with the claw marks, don't turn this in to a vampire werewolf thing.
• Oh he's the one who was doing 'things' with her. (35.22)
• Wes is like wtf is she doing?
• I really like Annalise, such a strong character. 
• AH THEY SHOWED THE FACE, OOH I WONDER WHY HIM?!

How to train your dragon 2

The awaited sequel (to me anyway) of How to train your dragon arrived and it did not disappoint. I know this animation is more inclined to target children, but its too cute not to appeal to older teens such as myself. The return of Toothless and Hiccup was really nice to see, along with the return of all the old characters that had a chance to develop their story lines.

What I liked?

Um Toothless- How could you not like a dragon, who has retractable teeth, who acts like a mega cat and puppy combined, a dragon with an adorable grin, I mean props to the animators/ artists who came up with him in the first place, genius idea to snag kids (and older teenagers, and adults and oaps) to seeing the sequel.

Astrid- Confident character who has been given some nice comedic lines to make her a very likeable character.

Ruffnut- Very funny. Voiced by Kristen Wiig a great match.

Stoick and Valka - So adorable! Their chemistry was so nice and when they sang and danced with each other after 20 years apart, its like they never left each other. And the look on Hiccup's face, seeing his mum and dad reunite was cute.

Stoick- The protective dad who plays and active role in saving his son, shows how brave he is and promotes a positive outlook into what a perfect family relationship is.

Valka's secret dragon community- BECAUSE WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO GO THERE?

The idea of working- Working towards a cause, being proud of a cause and saving a cause, when you find what your'e meant to 'be' and what may be your purpose, or something you feel strongly about, this film portrays Hiccup's determinism as a positive message to adults and kids alike, I certainly appreciate his vocation, I WISH I COULD RIDE AROUND AND SAVE DRAGONS!

Strength in community- Nice to see community bonding, fighting together for a common cause, having fun, looks like somewhere I would want to stay plus... DRAGONS....

The 'banter' between the dragons- Each dragon was treated like a character, different characteristics, different looks, different behaviours etc, funny interactions.

Disability- Something that comes with the first film too. Hiccup has adapted, he has used his lack of leg and turned it into something positive, he and his dragons have lost something, but they do something about it, they don't dwell they look ahead, and its nice to teach kids that a tragedy like this isn't the end, they can move on and be brave like Toothless and Hiccup.

What I didn't like-

Bit cheesy- YES I KNOW ITS A CHILDREN'S FILM SORRY

Astrid- Is used to show the hero the light at the end of the tunnel, to encourage and help him along, and someone to kiss at the end, they could have built her up as something more.

Valka- Considering this place wasn't far away, it's a bit strange that they would not have bumped into each other before, it's been 20 years...

Typical plot- Set-up, conflict, resolution, which is ok, but I suppose I'm just waiting myself for a film to come along and change it up.

With an 8.5 rating on IMDb, and a 9/10 from me, I would say if you liked the first one, your going to like the next one.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

                                           
Here goes Marvel again with another smashing yes SMASHING film. They have killed it these past two years and hopefully the upcoming films will hit the same mark.

Things I liked/loved:

Chris Pratt- Carried the awesome script and delivered the lines he was given in a confident and cheeky way. Zoe Saldana, played Gamora very well I enjoyed her portrayal a lot and the vulnerability she displayed within her character.

The music- The opening sequence, not to serious, I liked how the songs were incorporated in the storyline and how it added to the mood. Provided a nice close to the film too.

Acceptance- The film explored in different ways acceptance, especially with Rocket, I liked how it was addressed.

Humour- Nice humour throughout, nice romantic humour, nice friendship 'banter', Rocket was funny, 'get me his leg'.

Stan Lee's appearance- Always nice to see

The inclusion of two women conversing without talking about a man/relationship.

Groot- He was so cute, he's one of those characters that appears a lot alongside a hero, he may be unable to communicate the same as others, but he was still an important aid to the plot, and maybe the actual hero at the end. And baby Groot dancing at the end was adorable.

Things that I didn't like:

Cheese: Not literally, but the typical we love each, hands in the middle, all in this together, yes its Marvel, heroes blah blah I understand...

Unrealistic: The destruction of buildings/cities, typical for Marvel, e.g. The Avengers, shown very unrealistically.

Nebula: I loved seeing Karen Gillan in another sci-fi project, but I didn't warm to her character as much as I would have liked, I know she was a bad guy, but usually there's always an element where you can connect and I didn't.

Come to think of it the plot was not strong it was masked by the characters. Energy that is so powerful it can kill you or make you the strongest person, but weak.

Quill's background! I know we know about his mother, but there was nothing else, no family reaction to the abduction, no trying to find his family after, I think there needed to be something, I don't know what.


Overall- When I was watching it I loved it, I sat back laughed and watched.
On second thoughts there was some things covered up by the performances and likeable characters.
4/5 otherwise it would have been a 5/5.

The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars

Film Review

I LOVED IT!

Look, even though I watch John Green's vlogs on his Youtube channel vlogbrothers which he produces with his brother Hank, doesn't mean I'm going to be bias about this movie. When I first read the book my ending thought was, wow this is sad, obviously, but I also though damn John Green writes women well. I could feel what Hazel was feeling, even though I didn't have a terminal illness, I still felt the weight that was on her and Gus' shoulders and I felt for them. I think the film presented what was written perfectly.

What I liked:

The soundtracks fit the film perfectly.

The actors, when I first saw who was cast I thought, hmm yes I could get used to putting these names to these faces. Ansel fits Gus and Shailene fits Hazel.

Using ACTUAL QUOTES!! I exclaimed to my friends that the first dialogue in the film matched the ones written in the book and I adore when that happens, its so satisfying to be able to recognize something presented through another medium.

The acting. Can I please explain how good these actors were. Its like they inhaled the book and spurted out these mirror images. The heartbreak, the pain, the smiles, the flirtation, the everything, eugh it was just so good.

The humour, good humour was needed to balance out the pain in this film and I think they achieved this well.

The acceptance- The acceptance of disability, the acceptance of personal problems, feelings and emotions, I particularly liked the seen where Isaac was encouraged to smash up Gus' trophies to deal with his emotions, Gus did not care, he said go ahead even passed them to him himself. It just encouraged them to let it out and deal with them.

It made me cry- Twice. And just read the book so I wont have to tell you why.

FEMALE LEAD!!!! WITH A DISABILITY, FEMALE LEAD WITH A DISABILTY, A FILM ABOUT DISABILITY AND ILLNESS, WITH A FEMALE LEAD.

The romance- It was just so good, like the cutest thing ever, not this rom com crap you get repeated every month of the year, it was real, it was young and it felt natural. CHEMISTRY!!!

Things I did not like.

To be honest there is very little.

-John Green's cameo was not shown, maybe that was cut for people in the UK, I don't really know, but I saw it on Tumblr so I can get over it.

-The parents were a little cheesy, but that's sort of ok I suppose.

-The mothers reaction to the car getting pelted with eggs, she could of at least shouted at them.

-Van Houten's assistant to me, I pictured her differently and a bit older, not a big deal though.

-I can't think of more sorry.

 Such a beautiful film, nice typography on screen, lovely camera shots, perfect presentation of Amsterdam, brilliant screenplay, great actors.

9.5/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582846/ - Film details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuVjGbncgQE - Film Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers - Vlogbrothers channel

Maleficent Review

I finally managed to catch a showing of Maleficent recently, I just wanted to see if this film would live up to the standard of previous Disney films. Firstly, I liked the narrative of Aurora, but I felt like we needed to hear more. I thought they styled Angelina perfectly, she has the perfect physique for this role and the make-up and costume was stunning.

Things I liked:

The writing (at times). I loved how they managed to intertwine comedy and darkness. Jolie's character was not completely stoic as her literary reference could have been. They managed to show Maleficent's heart and how she cared for Aurora even though she did not want to. 

The appearance of Jolie's daughter:

I loved the scene with Jolie and her daughter Vivienne. It was so cute and funny and it made me smile, I could just imagine how all of that was filmed, and how cool it must be for your mother to play a Disney villain. 

The scene in the window:

When Maleficent said "It's so ugly you could almost feel sorry for it", you could tell she was trying to excuse the fact she actually admired the child, and the cuts between her face and the baby smiling was heart-warming. And when she fails at scaring the baby she states, "I hate you... beasty" is just another funny moment .

Diaval

I liked how Diaval the crow looked out for Aurora and reminded Maleficent at times of her humanity.

The exploration of rape in a Disney film

When watching the scene I understood what it symbolised, issues of consent and someone taking something without permission. After it happened we saw Maleficent screech after discovering her wings were taken from her, it was good to see this in a children's film, even if the target audience didn't fully understand the denotation it was offering, the adult audience would, allowing for an effective lesson to be delivered.

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/angelina-jolie-maleficent-rape

Aurora- woken by Maleficent

I LOVED how this film deterred from typical stereotypes of 'Price Charming's kiss'. Aurora did not have a biological mother figure, and the fact that this bond between her 'fairy god mother' as she called her and the same person who cursed her, surpassed everything to ultimately save her was refreshing.

Things I did not like

The King and Queen:

The Queen's character was very weak, especially in the scene where there daughter was being cursed. You would think a mother would cause more of a disruption/ a fuss if her child was being threatened, not much reaction was given. The next thing was the Queen's death, it was not explored at all, 'oh the Queen is dying', wow come on give her more credit than that.

The king annoyed me, you did not get a sense of corruption in the monarchy, enough to turn this little boy who was in love with Maleficent into someone who just decided he wanted to be king. As far as I know he was a farm boy, did the previous King not have an heir? I just think the plot was a bit too rushed. I didn't like the King's overall characterisation, it's like he cared more about killing Maleficent than caring for the daughter that he was trying to protect in the first place.

Fight scenes

The fight scenes were average, the same thing seems to happen in most of them in the fairy tale genre, was not really a spectacle.

Aurora... are you just going to stand there?

When Maleficent was captured by her father, Aurora was just standing around, ok I know it might be over whelming for a 16 year old, but this woman just saved your life, I would have wanted to see a little more fight in her character and not this fairy wary kid.

Typical ending

Joy a fairy tale ending, boy and girl happy ever after, I know its a children's film and yes its from a fairy tale but it would have been cool to see some girl power, with Aurora and Maleficent ruling the moors at the end. But hey, its Disney.

Overall it was a sweet film, bit wish washy but I would give it a 6/10

Sharing a skill

 

A video we made and edited together.

 

The process of writing, shooting and editing.

After recently finishing a film class, I decided to share some skills I learnt/ already knew with my sister. She wasn't willing at first, but as soon as it got going, she started to eventually love it.

 

First we wrote part of a screenplay. I showed her how to create one. Starting with the scene header, this explains where the camera is situated, and what is in the scene, and in this case it was a garden. Then I asked her to include an action 'walks out', then we included a character (dialogue) and finally a shot. It was a steady progression, I told her to visualize the scene , how would you see it come to life on camera?

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went outside and wrote up a list of camera angles. I then set up the tripod and one by one I showed her how they were set up and some she even knew herself. I liked pointing out the ones she did not know because I was truly sharing a valuable skill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next once all the footage was taken, we went inside and started putting the clips together. I let her create the title, showed her how to use transitions and showed her how to include royalty free music and explained the importance of it. Overall, sharing a skill (or many in one) was a great experience and we were both reminded of what it takes to produce, write and create a moving image.

 

 

 

 

 

Arts Heroine

 

                                                            

                                                          Inspiration in the literary world.

                                                              Dame Jacqueline Wilson

I had the pleasure of watching a talk with this wonderful women last year at the Oxford Playhouse. I found out on Twitter that she was giving a talk and promoting one of her new books and after growing up reading her stories, I just had to technically meet her. It's a bit surreal seeing a celebrity in the flesh, and I hate the fact that certain people are put on another standing than others, but that's the industry. The first book of hers I probably started with was obviously and unsurprisingly the Tracy Beaker series. I loved the way she wrote, she understood her characters and their child like mind set and she intertwines real life struggle and hardships very well. She gives children the knowledge that growing up can be very hard, that there are family struggles, poverty, issue with mental illness, bullying and so on, but growing up can be a lot of fun too.

 

 I remember reading this book, about two best friends. One accidently gets hit by a car and dies. I think this book is very inspirational to young children who go through the loss of a friend, it tells them that its normal to experience grief, it explores how children grab on to the trauma and guilt of losing someone, and that letting that go is ok, it doesn't mean you have to say goodbye and forget.

Midnight is another influential book that I loved reading. And even though it was published in 2003 it still touches on relevant issues today. This book explores obsession, and in this case of the  'fantasy author/illustrator Casper Dream', in Wilson's book that one of the main characters has. It explores how sometimes you can forget about the people who are really there for you, the people who acknowledge you, and how you can put energy into obsessing over someone who will never be there. This book also  explores issue about adoption and helps children to communicate with their parents if they were going through a similar issue.

 

  The Illustrated Mum, is the last I will talk about. When reading this book, it felt so strong at the time, you could really feel for the character's, their frustrations, their hardships. This book explores metal illness and addiction. I like how its called 'The Illustrated Mum' because its a metaphor for how what's going on outside may not reflect what is truly going on inside.  This was a very good book in helping to explain issues such as addiction, dyslexia, foster care and bipolar disorder.

 

 

WHY DOES SHE INSPIRE ME?!?

 

This remarkable women has sold over 30million copies of her books. She is a well known, loved and established author with a whole host of awards. She has a garage full of stacks even taller than her of versions of her books in different languages, she's a mother and most importantly she is human. She inspires me because like me she was just a girl, and then she had ideas and then her creativity and drive propelled her forward. When asked, "What advice would you give to a future writer" at her talk she answered, "Just write. Simple, 200 words a day... I sit down for 10 minutes a day and jot down things on the mind.. plots, characters."

 

So there, one of my inspirations is this lady because I could only dream of getting an ounce of success and recognition she has. She has incredible love for her characters, she talked and talked about her characters on stage and she knows them inside out and upside down, and I would love to achieve that one day.

Transcendence 2014 Review

                                                                                                         

                                                                     Poster- Boring, pixelated technique makes it look tacky along with the text across the actors face. I think they could of been a little more innovative rather than slapping some words across the main characters face. The tag line, just makes you think "And what?" What about it, its left you waiting for something else to let you know what the film is trying to say.

 

Johnny Depp interview-

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHM7DZo3s5o

Transcendence Trailer-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9q8yuaJ_88 

 

I found Johnny not as enjoyable to watch in this film compared to his others. You can see a trend that he likes to play a lot of characters who consider themselves outcasts, but in this film his character is seen to be quite popular in his field and only disliked by a small extremist group. I think what i missed especially was the depth and vulnerability he has portrayed previously in his past characters, this character was mostly very clinical and straightforward (as you would be if you were a computer granted), and it just made me feel unconnected to his character. I can’t blame it all on Johnny though, the script only allowed sparse moments of emotion towards his love interest Evelyn played by Rebecca Hall. I would have like to see some torment woven through the script, if conscious thought was meant to feature in this character maybe we should of seen some more struggle, was it right to commit fraud, was it right to create super humans. What bothered me was how easily Evelyn went along with everything. Yes, Will I will take these millions of pounds and build thousands of solar panels in this deserted town, which by the way still looked the same when she promised a resident a makeover. Yes Will, I will not bat an eyelid with all these reformed humans.

 

I think they could of made a bigger deal about the extremist group. In terms of from my point of view I would have liked to of seen some dialogue between Kate Mara’s character Bree and Dr Will Caster. They were fighting for a cause and in the end it was just weak. Another thing I was thinking when watching this film was why aren’t the media making such a big deal out of this, the media is one for sensationalism and what better story to have than a man who can suddenly lift tonnes of metal in the air. Or how no one made a big deal about PINN, the computer getting stolen, or how someone was just allowed to take what they want from a seemingly secure environment. I like how they have tried to explore the power of technology and its ever increasing advances, but I found myself whispering swear words in the cinema at some of the ridiculous notions, although I wont give away what, some of the concepts just made me sit back and say, "What?!".

 

The one thing I appreciated the most in this film was the cinematography. The locations were stunning and the metaphorical symbolism of the conscious mind was great. The fragility of Earth was also captured very well and the typography on screen was clever connecting the ‘human’ Dr Will in its encased computer.

 

Overall, I can see what they’ve tried to do, explore the powers of technology, touch on whether its right or wrong to advance in such a strong way, to question life and death, is it right to keep someone alive after they have died, in my mind no, that's just taking things too far. I thought the plot was following a Romeo and Juliet style romance, girl is trying to be taken away from boy, boy wants to be with her, conflict followed by a subdued ‘dramatic’, death scene at the end. And maybe more conflict needed to be added to the plot, since they stated themselves in the summary for this film, ‘For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can...but if they should,’ which did not happen as much as it should.

2/5 stars

                                                                               (Why the long face?)

 

Film Oxford- In The Frame- Production group questions.

 

 

Billy's No Mate Of Mine- Final product

http://vimeo.com/95845090

Question One:

What are the stages in making a film?

Pre-Production- Script writing, storyboarding, location scouting/recci, props list, equipment list, schedule, production contract.

Production- Filming, sound recording.

Post production- Editing, cutting, mixing.

The first stages of making a film is generally everything that goes into pre-production. This film class has given me the opportunity in my gap year, to get involved in media, something I have been looking to do since I finished school. In general I have not made a film to completion, I have made a film trailer, and have been involved in the pre-production of another short film but I haven't had the opportunity to experience the full process from start to finish.

 

 

                                          Above: Final storyboard  of shots put together.

 

Whilst taking part in these film classes, I have had to work in a group with 4 other people, mostly younger than me. I tried to draw upon my experiences at a-level when I studied media, and all the academia that I had previously learnt. One of the key skills and tasks I enjoyed most at a-level was pre-production. I would make folders packed full of ideas and research for the brief that I was given, and having the freedom to explore and invent ideas myself felt very worthwhile. However, working in a group has once again helped me to understand that everybody has an idea, from the smallest viewpoint, to a plot changing twist, ideas can be scraped, changed, twisted, stretched and rebooted in order for a story to really take shape. Everybody has to be keen and invested in the project, you can’t make a film with no passion and inspiration, even if it’s the tiniest amount of interest and input you can still help out in a different area. 

 

Brainstorming. Is literally a storm, a flourish of ideas that go around and around in your head until you get the right one, and once you get the right one, you’ll know it. Once I come up with an idea, I make a little side note on my mobile, or on a document on my laptop, just a few key words that will jog my memory if I ever need it again. It’s a lovely feeling when you finally get an idea for making a film, and for my first idea I came up with the start and ending to my concept. After a trip to the cinema, our group sat down to discuss early day’s story concepts and I mentioned I had written part of a screenplay. Our leader, Nicola, gave me a reminding insight that you should view a story in three stages, act 1, 2 and three. This reminded me of Todorov’s theory of story structuring, the narrative should following in stages including, equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium, so I went back home after the class and wrote the middle section, disequilibrium and completed my screenplay in half an hour. Over the rest of the class I continuously gave my contributions to the group, who then analysed and adapted my idea. My friend Yasmine, came up with an idea by herself, even though it was awkward trying to decide I cringe saying it, whose was better, we decided that in fact no, this can be adapted to intertwine both our ideas. I felt relived, I find it uncomfortable having other people judge my work, but it lifted myself confident a bit to know that both our ideas had been chosen to work. So after various rewritings of the screenplay, and backwards and forwards on Facebook presenting final ideas, we showed our idea to the group.

 

 

 

 

Adapting. This process can be frustrating, when you think you have your final idea, you then realise you haven’t. This happened many times, but that is part of the process, you have to respectfully accommodate people, I really didn’t want to feel I/we were taking over the film, other members wanted something more light and comical compared to our slightly ‘dark’ take on mental illness. It was something me and Yasmine wanted to explore, and we will continue to pursue on day, the representation of mental illness in the media. I realise that I too wanted to create something lighter for this club and that this would make the filming process easier and funnier. The next step was storyboarding, and again changes were made, camera shots and angles were noted, props were noted and locations were noted. Having a clear visualisation beforehand should make things easier moving into production.

 

 

Next, filming. Setting up camera equipment was a challenge, I had never been familiarised as well as I could have been with tripods, camera’s and sound. But this was a process and I was learning. We alternated roles, so I was the director first. This was very difficult for me. I am naturally a quiet and reserved person, I lack confidence, which is a thing I’m working on. Working with the younger people in the group I supposed has lightened me up as I didn’t feel as judged, I could try to tell them what to do without them getting annoyed as well as work on my patience issues. I haven’t quite figured out if I prefer working behind the scenes of a film crew or actually being a part of the film crew. I do thank the class however for giving me the opportunity to at least test out my feelings of being around the environment of making a film.