Movie Watch

Fantastic 4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Ok, this was the mind set I had before going in to watch this film. The first one had a lot to get in, build the characters, some sort of upset with their change to supper hero’s, trying to get the powers nailed down. And then all coming together to stop the evil person and it did have that in but just not in a good way.

So now I found myself forgetting how bad the 1^st one was and hoping they had seen what mistakes they had made and how they could make it up to us. Watching the trailers this film looked awesome, the silver surfer especially. But no matter how many people told me it was going to be a bad film I still stood strong and held out hope. How wrong was I!

It was like the same idea, each character had his or her own little problem which we got to see last time, there was allot his talk of them saving this and that but it never showed any of it. I didn’t think the acting was very good but I don’t think they had a lot to work with to make it good. My only good thing to say about the whole 1:45 was The Silver Surfer! He’s fantastic and probably the only reason I didn’t just go home half way through, his affects was flawless and I would have believed he was reel (if I was 8 years old). So all in all it was a bit of a let down, it could have been something much more and I don’t believe there is an argument for ‘they were trying to cover all ages’ as many films have don’t this in the past.

Action

Wednesday I worked on a conference for D & DA, we did an event a few months ago for the same people and they had Dick Powell doing a talk on design, it was very good as they always are but this one had a talk from Hillman Curtis who has built web site for Yahoo and Adobe, he has started to move in to video now. He is good friends with Mark Romanek who has many titles to his name like One Hour Photo and a long list of music videos, he interviewed Mark and made a small video about it, Mark goes on about how he makes his videos and what he does to get the final version, he also goes on to say how there are many time when shot a and shot b go together very well without any planning. Hillman also talked about his video work and how he like to only have 60 mins of tape to use so he makes an effort to get the footage he needs.
After this event it did inspire me to make more of a concuss effort to get the footage I need instead of working around what I have, now I have done any major projects where I have had to plan all the shots out and come up with a good idea of what I wanted but after Wednesday I have had some ideas and I intend to get them in motion. I have a friend in a band called Islands lost at sea who would let me shot one of their videos which is a starting block but I may start a little smaller first and then work from there.

London Olympic logo

This come's a little late after the event but i would like to bring your attention to the new London Olympics logo.

This cost £400,000. That is not a type O, i find it a little hard to believe that £400,000 gets you something that does not look very good, check out the alternate logos here (I like #6)

Manchester on fire, Hell fire!

As promised here is a small video of the even on Sunday just gone down at Stevenson Square, hope you like it or just getting to the end would be nice.

As you will see i got some general footage of the day for all to see, there were some interesting people out there but the bloke at the end had to be my favourite.

Movie Watch

Are we done yet

Ok lest start off at the bad end of the spectrum. Working in projection you have to watch films, good or bad and i can say quite happly this is shit, do not watch it, if you like to laught once in 2 hours go see it but if you have to watch paint dry, wash your hair, scrub floors or stand in a dark room with nothing to do this would be a more fun way to spent 2 hours than watching this film.

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A Room for romeo brass

This is another film from writer and director Shane Medows (This is England) and it one of the 2 film i watched back to back (2^nd to follow). Again this film is set in the late 80’s early 90’s around a very working class environment, it follows the friendship of 2 best friends and the introduction of a simple bloke who seems to be kind at hart. This is a good film, the leading cast is very good and has Andrew Shim how seams to follow Shane Medows in his films along with many more of the cast, Paddy Considne plays a awesome role as well. The supporting cast are floorless as well, they do make the film much more solid and help in the story. This is one of the best films i have seen this year and well well worth a watch

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Dead man’s shoes

Is again a Shane Medows film and follow Paddy Considne on a revengeful campaign to inflict the justice he believes is right, i don’t want to go to much in to the story of this film and i would even ask you don’t go digging round for info as i feel the story and twist of it were fantastic, this is one of my top 10 films, is gritty, funny, well written and just flows so well. I could not take my eyes of the tv. As for Paddy Considne he a very good actor from ‘A room for romeo brass’ and then this which shows what a change can do. I would ask you to go buy this film, now, stop reading grab some cash and just go get it, you will not regret it.

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I am the god of hell fire

Went down to the god of hell fire thing in Stevenson square yesterday to have a good look around and what a good day, there were some many lovely people there and even though the queue of a drink was always 9 people deep it was nothing to put someone off. I managed to stick around for a few bands and got to see most of Peter and the Wolf who i liked, i would have loved to stay all night but i had a few drinks with friends planned. I did get some video footage of the event and i am in the process of putting something to getter as you read. One thing i didn’t like was they sprayed over the robot in the square, if you know the area you will know what I'm talking about and I'm not happy about it.

As for the drinks it lasted till 6am and you know when its getting ridicules when the sun is coming up and you still have a beer in your hand, cracking night but the trip to the lakes went out the window today as it was 3 before i even got out of bed. When i finally got out i wanted to take some more footage of the area affected by the fire which was fine until i got the entrance of the building work where i was told to stop filming! After i got my camera on him and told him i have every right to film and what it was for and that i wanted his name and his boss name he soon backed off with his tale between his legs, I'm a nice person (i hope) but don’t like to be pushed about and i will stand up for all of my rights.

I managed to watch 2 of the best films i have seen this year along with one of the worst so look out for them soon.

Movie Watch

Hotel Rwanda

After watching shooting dogs I thought I would give this film a run as its based in the same conflict but got much more press. This is a bigger film with obviously more money and it has a slight American stamp on it compared to shooting dogs. It is a good film and is very gripping, it gets you caught up In the characters but also has a softer edge to it all. Out of the 2 films this one would be the one you would want to watch if you were looking for that slight glimmer of hope that good things do happen but if you can take it I think shooting dogs is the better of the 2 films. I thought it was a very strong cast and Don Cheadle was awesome and I couldn’t see anyone else in the role, Nick Nolte was good but he (for me) played the same character as Jack Cates from 48 hours and Another 48 hours.

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Movie Watch

Shooting dogs

This film is from the conflict in 1994 when President of Rwanda plane crashes which start the slaughter of the Tutsi population buy the Hutu. Its set in a school where 2500 Tutsi look for protection buy the UN forces from there death. This is not a film you will come out of and feel good, good in yourself or the UN and there smeared look on what is right and wrong. After watching this film and with the ongoing conflict in Darfur you do start to think about what the UN should do and not sit there discussing problem while hundreds of thousands of people die for no justified cause at all. Having said you will not feel good after this film this is no excuse not to watch it, this will give you some insight in to the world and the dark side of humanity, not to mention the more people know about the atrocities in this world the more we can change it.

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28 weeks later

After the awesome 28 days later when I heard about this film I could not wait until I found out that it wasn’t a Boil film but a big American one. If I take away the bloke in front of me who had seen it and told his girl friend every bit which was about to happen and the bloke who answered more calls on his phone than I do in a week the film was ok, I think any film with fast moving, crazed zombies would be ok, I think it had all the makings of being a very, truly good film but just kept missing the mark. Instead of getting a really good story, good plot, well written they put some average actors, loads of cg and put it out there. If you like your zombies and have a free afternoon and there is nothing on tv its worth a go but only under them conditions.

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Movie Watch

This is England

This film is set in the 80’s and being a from this time this film had some real felling for me. It looks at the shady topic of the BNP and how a young boy who has just lost his dad in the Faulklands get sucked in to this world without any real understanding of what this world is. Shane Meadows (director) doesn’t paint every skin head in the same light, it shows the spit in people when it comes to race and religion and brings some very difficult subjects for the time into light. It has a good cast with some familiar British faces and a story which feels very strong even if you don’t agree with it. The young boy (Thomas Turgoose) was strong and well suited for the role and I expect to see ore form him in the future. With a win for the best British independent film award to back it up it should be on for a little longer so get down to the picture house and see it.

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Movie Watch

Lives of others

(Leben der Anderen, Das)

The film is set a few years and just up to the fall of the Berlin wall on the east side. It follows a writer and a agent of the secret police and how the life of this free thinking person influences the life of someone who has been put in place to stop this. It has some real dark undertones especially when it comes to the secret police and the awesome power they had just to make people disappear for some small thing or view. This is a wonderful film with a very gripping story, there are many many for filing moments and many moments which will get you raped up in the story. For me the film started off good and just got better and better, may be why it won the best foreign film Oscar. It was a very strong cast and a wonderful story which keeps you in your seat and a numb free bum.

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keyboard of the future?

I have just found what could be the next big thing! I had herd rumours about this new keyboard but until i had a look i could not believe how good this thing could be.

It just like a standard keyboard with keys and everything but the one thing which makes the big difference is each key is made up of 48 x 48 pixel display, so you can have it looking like every other keyboard out there or you can have your very own layout. You could also set it up for any type of application from gaming to video editing.

photo's

fighting at the printworks

Found this on youtube (yes I'm taking credit) and it makes me never want to go down to the Printworks on a fri sat night.