Thursday 27 January 2011

Blue Valentine Review



Blue Valentine looks at Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy’s (Michelle Williams) marriage. Poignant flashbacks contrast the joy of their initial union with the misery of their present relationship. So where did it all go wrong? As I left the cinema, that question was still waiting to be answered.

The spontaneity and purity of their early relationship seems to be filtered through nostalgic longing as we see snapshots of their most intimate and important moments. Director, Derek Cianfrance’s choice to shoot all the sequences from the past on film soaks it in sepia – a vivid visual contrast to the present as the past continues to fade from miserable reality. The concluding memory depicts their simple, wedding day. As William’s stands pregnant yet angelic opposite Gosling, tears streaming down her cheeks, intercut with the tragic tears of their final row in the present as they stand on opposite sides of the kitchen.

Essentially the film offers an outsiders perspective, little context is given to their arguments nor is there much explanation for William’s utter exhaustion with Gosling’s character and total rejection of his physical affections. This is perhaps down to their intense method of Acting, Williams and Gosling lived together in the house seen on screen for 4 weeks, in a tangling of art and life; they lived the real lives of their characters. They certainly portray a toxic relationship that had obviously eroded over time. However as a viewer I couldn’t help feeling just a little left out, as if the catastrophe of their relationship was a secret I was not given access to.

The Soundtrack by Grizzly Bear is fantastic as is the brave acting performances given by Gosling and Williams. In real time the film actually only follows two days of their lives, so the ending is left deliberately ambiguous. Perhaps the charm of not being party to all the damaging factors of their relationship is that it allows for an element of hope even though the last shot follows Dean walks out of the house away from Cindy.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Wedding Video

I may be slightly biased as this is my brother's wedding. But if you are going to make a wedding video I think this is pretty much  how it should be done. This was made by my cousin Dave Bullivant. Simple but effective editing to music, it really captures the day. Click on the link (the text not the picture) below to have a look and see what you think.




Sunday 23 January 2011

Evolving English!

While staying in London over Christmas I visited The Evolving English exhibition at the British Library. My dissertation is about how people perceive different english accents on screen so the exhibition seemed like it would provide some nice easy research.


Statue of Isaac Newton - Outside Library


The exhibition was packed and I was happy it was the kind of place where it was okay to be on your own. In a listening booth I listened to extracts of famous speeches and slang from all over the country and then moved on to look at the language of propaganda during the war. This is what I found:


Incase you can't read the bottom section it reads:
If your young man neglects his duty to his
King and Country, the time may come when he 
will NEGLECT YOU!

Persuasive stuff! and quite fascinating. I'm just relieved I will never have to apply the ideas in this poster to any man I know.

So the exhibition turned out to be interesting but not so useful for my dissertation. Never Mind.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Something Special

It's been a while. All the good intentions of my blogging summer or rather September slipped away when I returned to Manchester, lost my nerve a bit and busied myself with other things. But I'm back and ready to begin again. 

So to start with I will show you one of the things I was doing when I forgot all about blogging. My friend Rose and I have made a short film every year we have been at Uni, with varying results. This is for a competition called 'something special', it was really fun to make because we were not stressed about the outcome. 

Before you watch, a wise man once said:

If you are cold, tea will warm you.
If you are heated it will cool you.
If you are depressed it will cheer you.
If you are excited it will calm you.

Gladstone


Friday 1 October 2010

Why make rejection look so friendly?


If you glanced at this friendly looking graphic would you think it was good news? I did.


As it's my last year at Uni I'm looking out for jobs in TV I can apply for now for when I graduate. I took time over my application form only to receive this reply the week after.


I understand that I will get many rejections while I look for a job but why send a rejection email in the form of a jokey play on words displayed a funky ITV logo. Not cool.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Lots of lovely free stuff

A big part of my weekend relaxing is getting the weekend papers and going somewhere nice to read it. I was delighted to see that this weekend The Guardian included a free suppliment called 'How to make Films' a welcome addition to my usual weekend reading.




Joy of Joy this was followed by a free DVD on in The Observer on Sunday with the first short films of Ken Russell, Ridley Scott, Stephen Frears, Shane Meadows and Gurinder Chadha. 


The Ken Russell short called Amelia and the Angel is probably the loveliest short film I've ever seen. Made in 1957 this black and white film follows Amelia (pictured below on the front cover) as she tries to find a new pair of angel wings after her brother ruins her first pair. I'm a sucker for a sweet story and this little film captures the endeavours of a very sweet little girl.





P.S Tonight I'm off to watch Eat Pray Love. The Book dominated my summer so I'm apprehensive for the film to live up to the Book's reputation. Review to Follow.

Monday 13 September 2010

Let's start at the very beginning,

A very good place to start.


So here begins the topic of inspiration for this blog. Endeavouring to complete various tasks to make me:


1. More employable
2. More creative
3. Generally better.


My first endeavour is to learn how to edit. As an aspiring film maker it is an extremely useful skill to have. 


So far I've edited projects for Uni on Avid and messed around with IMovie on my beautiful Macbook. I plan to buy Final Cut and edit my dissertation film this year, which HAS TO be good. 


By endeavouring to do this publicly I am making myself accountable to YOU! I need your help any suggestions or tips you have are gratefully received. 


To give you an idea of the work I need to do, here is a short video of my lovely niece filmed on my pocket Canon Camera and edited on IMovie: