Blow Up


on Friday @ 1:44 PM




Pitch season is over for the year and that is great news. I didn't mind pitching my films (one drama, one documentary) as much as I thought I would but I wouldn't do it on my birthday, if I could choose whatever I wanted to do on my birthday.

My documentary got accepted and is now officially in pre-production. I think I would have made it off my own back if it didn't get picked anyway but I'm happy it did.

It's about football fans and is (probably) not what you think. At all.

I have been given the opportunity to shoot on 16mm. Real film. Real cinema material. I sortof figured it would be a few years before I got near real proper film.

It's funny, because - despite buying a pretty decent digital SLR camera - I am back-tracking and trying out film all over again, trying to discover the 'look' that I want from photographing projects for me. I shot a couple of commercial shoots at the weekend and have a few more in the pipeline and digital is perfect for this. But what I really love (documentary-style portraits, glam style, I don't really know how to explain - I need to show you some pitctures) lends itself to film. Film is organic and film seems better, I don't know why.

I am fond of using old equipment and I will never turn down anything because it is cheap. If it works, it works and has a use. Last month I shot a little interview with Sleepbox on a pair of ancient VHS cameras. They seemed to fit her style and I got them for free too and needed an excuse to try them. I plan to make lots of personal movies on them in the future.



At the moment I am carrying a Wotsits camera (that is actually Muz's - we used it as a prop in our Kids film last summer and he never got it back) with old Kodak film that is 6 years out of date, just to see the results. Plus I think the fact that it has a voicebox and counts down and says "Ready...Smile" makes it a winner.

So.. I have access to a 16mm film camera, there's a guy eager to give away some short ends to film on, there's a place that does student discount on developing and digital transfer. That doesn't stop it from being pretty darn scary. A lot could go wrong. A lot rides on the fact that my shoot has to happen in one day and there are no second chances.

I don't want to give away too much (if anything) just yet, but it will be cinematic and I'm confident about it. At the very least it is a step up from anything I've done before. It feels exciting and a touch scary doing this but I am eager to see what the end result is.

Shooting in Glasgow, if anyone wants to help out in any of it, leave a comment, send an email, fire a text or something.

I got Flickr Pro, it feels good. This is where photos will be from now on. I will change my site and layout soon to reflect this.

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I never joke about my work, 007


on @ 3:28 PM




So Becky loves 007 movies and wasn't pleased that I only bought her 3 of them for Christmas instead of getting double-o-heaven but I bought her a bunch of other stuff anyway and she still hasn't watched all the stuff I got her (and I had to re-watch SEX AND THE CITY more often than I would have liked in Janurary).

I don't have the same affection for these films. I haven't even seen all of them; from memory I would say I had seen less than half but this simply can't be true and I have probably seen every single one apart from maybe one or two that have a guy in them that isn't a) Connery b) Moore c) Brosnan or d) that guy from the film with big yellow Hummers. If I was being honest, these are the bond films that I liked and would watch again:

1) Goldfinger

2) Goldeneye

When I started that list I was thinking it would be bigger. Truth be told, I love Goldeneye and I'm 90% sure that this is because of the N64 game which is still one of the top 5 games ever.

The rest of them kindof merge into one and I think I'll watch the one where blah blah blah happens but then it's not the right one and I wait the whole movie to see this thing happen and it doesn't (like that skydiving bit at the start of one of them where James and Jaws battle over one parachute and it's awesome - I'm starting to think I dreamed this segment).

Anyway, when I was about 12, I tried to write my own Bond movie and I had this ring-binder with those segments sheets. Here was the headings I put on the different segments:

- Story

- Gadgets

- Girls

- Other.

I fully believe that I intended to send this to the 007 company in view of them producing it (and me being allowed to direct this as my first feature)*. For some crazy reason I still think about making my own Bond movie, despite the fact that I don't actually like them. I thought I would write it up here because I think the title that I have is probably THE BEST TITLE for a Bond movie that there will ever be (feel free to try in the comments). I even have a brief outline of the plot - and if you're reading this, 007-producer-people, let's talk money. Are you ready for the title? Well here it is:

007: PLATINUM BOND

If you don't get the fact that this title has roughly 3 different meanings then you should leave my site right now and go back to Bebo. What makes it even better is the fact that Platinum, as we all know, is better than gold and all the best (relatively) Bond films have a precious metal in their title.

* I did something similar (this wasn't even the first movie I tried to write/rip off) when I wrote my first feature - or started to at least - which was basically just Star Wars with some details changed (badly).

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True Love of Mine


on Wednesday @ 1:48 PM




I went to see Dave and Andy's flat for the first time on Saturday. They've been there for ages but, for one reason or another, I hadn't made it round yet. I had texted them and asked if they wanted to hang out and record a cover of TRANI and they were both into it. We spent a little while working out the chords and music on ukeleles, guitars, banjos and mandolins but we soon decided to leave it for another time.

Instead we spent a few hours recording a cover of UMBRELLA, about ten minutes recording GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY and a couple of minutes doing DUSTY. I think the fact that we met at 3 in the afternoon and were all drinking wine meant that song recording became exponentially faster.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=BE9CE50279A64549

There's GFTNC, get it while you can (there's a download limit and I didn't put it up).

This is the only one we recorded with proper recording equipment and the sound quality is much better (compare it to our version of Rheanna's greatest, available on http://www.myspace.com/whiskygalore - although we did do about 6 tracks of live recording.. you can probably hear me talk at the same time as myself a few times, same goes for the other guys).

GIRL is probably the best one we did on the day (Muz joined us with the moothie and Andy recorded it), although UMBRELLA was really fun to do. Even so, there are a couple of changes I would make, having heard it again - it was recorded the one time (the only time we actually got it right[ish]) and LIVE as well;

1. I transcribed the lyrics from memory, a couple may be off but that's no big deal. I did, however, miss out a whole verse (the 4th).

2. It sounds like I have more effects on my voice to mask the fact that Dave's sounds better, but this might be wrong.

3. When we sing together near the end, I wasn't sure when Dave was gonna sing higher or lower or what version of lyrics we were going to be singing so this could be done a little better.

4. Should have harmonised at the end to pack a deadly blow.

5. Should have sounded more Scottish.

6. The harmonica is good but Ozone could have gone all out if he knew it a little better, I think.

In saying that, I really like it and Andy has done a good job finalising it. Looking forward to doing more in the future (any song ideas?) and Andy and Dave were talking about taking it to the streets and busking (maybe during the summer/festival).

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We're here to climb this tree.


on Saturday @ 12:50 PM


I goto Blockbuster quite a lot but I never rent. They do these four for a tenner deals where you can pick up ex-rental DVDs for supercheap. I do this a lot for DVDs that I might normally not buy or sometimes it's things I can't find. Plus you get a pretty decent 6 month warranty.

I went yesterday and picked up a solid 6 films. Here they are

4 for a Tenner:

GHOST (I used to watch this as a kid, not seen it in years, thought Becky might love this film - cos she is, in fact, female)

EYES WIDE SHUT (I've watched a few times, I don't actually like it that much but, y'know, it's big Stan's last)

BASIC INSTINCT (I've not seen it yet. I wanted to understand when people made jokes like "she's going to go all BASIC INSTINCT now)

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES ("It's Bill Murray, man")

2 for fifteen

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (I thought it was okay, I mostly bought it because there wasn't much in the deal and I wanted to see...)

TRANSFORMERS (A lot of people said I should see this, some people said they hated it)



So we watched Transformers first - we had a night off at the same time, big deal - and got an Indian takeout. I wanted to be able to rap with the cool kids about it but man that's not happening.

I thought it was boring and, despite knowing that it would be unbelievable, it was too unbelievable. It was like an action-comedy. If I watched the original series I'd probably complain more about it. Okay, I laughed at a few stupid things, but that's all, I swear.

One thing that got me, though; I felt like I was watching the same film as the previous night.. Try watching CLOVERFIELD then TRANSFORMERS. It's the same film*.

*sort of.

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Something else - also terrible!


on Friday @ 1:04 PM


For the first time in months, I actually went to the cinema, with Rebecca. There have been things I've missed and things I want to see now but because she wasn't finishing class until after 8 then we were quite restricted and argued the merits of going to see CLOVERFIELD or SWEENEY TODD in the kitchen at work.

Pros : Cloverfield

Meant to be quite good
Muz liked it (and said watch very carefully on the last scene, which left me intrugued)
Andy didn't like it
We didn't know what was going to happen, really

Pros : Sweeney Todd

Depp
Looks lovely
Was compared to ROCKY HORROR

Cons : Cloverfield

Doesn't really have it in it to be Great
Motion sickness!

Cons : Sweeney Todd

Burton (I try)
Becky claimed it wasn't a stage musical before (apparently this is a major con)



This was all disregarded anyway as Becky says stoically, "I want to see Cloverfield." Like we hadn't been discussing the choice for half an hour.

I was happy either way anyway, I just looked forward to getting back pictures on the big screen. The fact that she has passed her driving test and has a car (and seems to want to drive constantly) gives me hope for me and the movies.

So we went and I enjoyed it. I thought it was exciting and it worked (for what it was, at least). It was never going to be a classic but I enjoyed the experience.

Becky, however, came out saying "Ugh, I feel...weird. I enjoyed it but....", constantly trailing off and shuddering.

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How's Duckface?


on Tuesday @ 6:29 PM




I watched two films today (so far - it's not even 6pm yet), FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and ED WOOD. I'm pretty sure a writer worth his weight would not bring this fact up unless he has some conclusion to draw from the pair. One thing you'll have to get used to, and this is probably quite obvious, is that any conclusions I draw will probably be about myself and have no real reflection of the film. I'm just laying blog groundwork here.

One similarity I can draw from both films is that the protagonist is often late for events where he walks down an aisle, both symbolising their advancement in the plot. Every time I'm in a church I feel a lot more mature and if I went to a series of weddings (or movies, for that matter), I'm sure I could drag my experiences in and use the these as signposts for a larger story(or something).

I don't love either film, if I'm being honest. I've seen both before and, for some reason, I bought them both because I thought they would resonate this time (and because they were cheap). Both had a slightly bigger impact, but not enough to gain my adoration.

My good friend Dave turned 21 last week and he recorded a skiffle reworking of Leona Lewis' modern-classic BLEEDING LOVE, with Andy Hay. He has most generously put this on his MySpace and you should go download it and tell him how good it is (I would also recommend the other songs, both classics).

http://www.myspace.com/whiskygalore

His party did have the best buffet of recent times (see below) and two things made this fact all the better: a) all the food was signposted so you could grab what you wanted quick and b) there was LOADS left at the end, when it was home time.

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Quack


on Monday @ 4:45 PM


I decided not to write in January for a few reasons but I am going to start up again, albeit in a slightly different (and hopefully improved) manner.

Mainly, I plan to discuss films (ones I haven't made and ones that I have). I might start using BLOCK CAPITALS when I am naming a film to make it clear, like David Cairns does, although it seems like he is shouting the title at you*. David's blog is, I hate to admit, better than mine and more popular to boot. He talks about films like I aimed to with this blog.

So hopefully that will change now and I will not only discuss films (and probably myself) but low-culture too. The fact that I did a group presentation entitled SPACED AND POSTMODERNISM this morning has little to do with this, low-end films interest me just as much as Important films.

I watched MIGHTY DUCKS 2 last night but despite my ease of finding it (and parts I and III) on Play, it is actually deceptively titled THE MIGHTY DUCKS. Whereas the first in the trilogy is THE MIGHTY DUCKS ARE THE CHAMPIONS. By the concluding chapter they had had enough and thought they would go for broke and call it D3.

I am pretty sure people have started watching any one of these and realised it was not the part they had anticipated. The only way to realise that part 2 is, actually, part 2, is to notice the word 'back' (as in The Mighty Ducks are back) on the blurb**.

I decided to go for broke (literally) and buy a D-SLR because my love for (and collection of) cameras was begging for one. I've been doing some tests with it but am working on a couple of sets, one being Chefs (see below).

*Which is weird because often in his lectures he fails to mention film titles and just discusses them and we all whisper to find out what we're watching is called.

**Unless, of course, you are prive to the intricacies of plot details of the three films.





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