Just a quick one...

Hey, just a quick blog to announce the fact that me and my good friend Dan have decided that after Halloween we are both going to give up alcohol until Christmas!

Okay so that's not really a big deal but I'm kinda going on a bit of a health bender and I think this will definitely affect how much work I get done and how I generally feel throughout the week. I'm not a massive drinker by any standards but I am still a Uni student so I'm no stranger to a few cheeky cocktail pitchers in Spoons.
I suppose it's easy for me to think of having maybe a drink or two normal because I've grown up with such a culture that celebrates this. Though I don't exactly drink every single night I feel like recently I have been either going out late and getting drunk for the sake of going dancing or at least going to Spoons and ending up having a fair few quite often recently. (I'm saying nothing of the company I like to keep here!) So I figured this might be something interesting to try, who knows, maybe it'll cut down my drinking in general after the proposed period of time.

If you're interested, my friend Dan has his own blog here and we shook hands on this TWICE. So if we break the rules there will be dyer consequences. Maybe. If we feel like it.

The Dark Knight Rises. Laboriously.

I've been sitting on this for quite a while now, as you are most likely aware I am a massive fan of the Batman franchise. I really enjoyed Christopher Nolans first instalment of his trilogy 'Batman Begins'(2005) and agreed to be civil towards 'The Dark Knight'(2008) despite it's glaring incongruity with really important characters. Putting all that behind us, I went into my local cinema to see The Dark Knight Rises (2012) with quite high expectations, though I had a fairly good idea about what would happen after reading some of the comics and knowing the general plotline behing Bane.

I went to see this with boyfriend and my parents who had no idea what was going to happen. Tell a lie, my Dad nailed the Talia al Ghul bit, though who didn't? Please, the child even looked like her.

I'll give a general plot outline first, just incase your forgot it or haven't even seen it.

It's 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse (again) and spends a lot of time being rubbish. Enter Selina Kyle/Catwoman. She steals Wayne's mothers pearls from under his nose, tempting him to come back into the world. We also find at this point that Wayne has basically no knees. Okay, that was a lie but it's basically what's happening, his cartilage has worn away and he has to use automotive braces to do anything strenuous. Enter Bane and his long winded story. Bane terrorises Gotham, beats up Batman and sends him away, then terrorises Gorham some more and blows up a load of shit and Batman teams up with Catwoman (ridiculously sexy outfit, by the way) to save the day. Aaaand that's it really, with out giving too much away.

Where to start? First of all, it's a classic Christopher Nolan mind fuck kinda plot containing some familiar faces from Inception, see Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the great Michael Caine. As always it's very beautifully filmed, the dialogue is good with both humorous and serious moments that are not to overbearing, apart from the parts where Michael Caine cries, that's never cool. The plot is kinda alright, the last half which is 'timed' goes a little weird because 20 odd hours go in 15 minutes and then 15 minutes took nearly 40 minutes which I guess is acceptable because of filming constraints but still. The whole Bane vs Batman and Bruce Wayne part was really good but the Wayne 'rehab' section was really dragged out to with in and inch of it's life. Yeah, we get it, he wants to save Gotham but 'boohoo my back is broken, I'm not good enough for Gotham, I'm still hung up on a dead woman and refuse to move on and I'm letting the city suffer for it, whine whine whine' I really cannot abide this mopey uselessness. I was just waiting for Gordon-Levitts character to slap him and tell him to get a grip.

Which moves me to the characters. John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) was brilliantly written, though the little 'my name is actually robin' bit really annoyed me. Bane (Tom Hardy) was really well thought out, to say you can't see the majority of his face he portrays emotion and thoughtfulness really well. Alfred (Caine) is of course amazing, especially when he blind sides you by leaving Wayne. Bruce Wayne is both mopey and arrogant at once, as usual, not much else to say really. Miranda/Talia is perfect in her deception and execution of her plot line. I was very happy to see Gary Oldman reprise his role as Comissioner Gordon, a character I hold very dear in the Batman world, his character treads the line between loved and hated and he does it so well that you are generally confused as to whether to root for him or not.

This leaves the ending, I'm trying not reveal too much in this blog about the general plot or the twists so I'm not going to reveal what happens at the end. I'll just say that I shed at least 3 tears (that's a lot for me) and really enjoyed and appreciated the ending. It ended kinda perfectly looking back, I felt quite different when I first left the cinema, I felt almost robbed because I had seen all the twists coming and not felt like I had enjoyed it. Looking back however I think that Nolan nailed it. Yeah I have a few quibbles about some minor stuff but overall it was a really great film, I much preferred it to The Dark Knight and thought it topped Batman Begins easily. Definitely a must see for Batman fans and general film fanatics, it can stand alone quite easily too.

Spiderman. Mark II. Better, faster, funnier, but just as predictable.

Spiderman, commercially known now as 'The Amazing Spiderman' has finally been rehashed after only 9 years. It seems to be the season for remakes and re-imaginings. In 2003 Sam Raimi directed a trilogy of films, loosely, based on the comic hero Spiderman. Now, in no way am I slating the original films, I just think they were kinda boring. Sure the first film was aright, it was cheesy but it was good family fun, the acting was good and the plot was solid but it lacked the gutsy, edgyness of a really god hero movie. The second film was so generic I genuinely cannot remember it. The third instalment however was unbelievably strange to watch, note Tobey Maguires strange pelvic thrust dance. Needless to say they are films I do not seek out to watch.

So when I set out to my nearest Cineworld with a friend I wasn't expecting much, but ended up being pleasantly surprised by the film. The plot is quite different from the original in quite a few ways; first of all, and most notable to me, there is no Mary-Jane, we now have Gwen Stacey played by the lovely Emma Stone, MJ being too weak a woman for this more modern take. Secondly it's way more sciencey. It plays very nicely on the current 'geek is sexy' trend, a trend I have no quarrels with. Thirdly, Spiderman is still created by the bite of a spider, but not a 'radioactive' spider instead it's a genetically altered one, this fits in better with our current affairs in society. See, Super heroes and the way they acquire their powers are always linked to the state of the world affairs at the time of creation. Spiderman is radioactivity, the X-men were mutants, Superman was an 'Alien', Hulk was gamma radiation and the Fantastic Four acquired their powers during an accident in space, give it a think over when you have time, it's quite easy to see how current events match with who is created when.

The main villain is no longer the Green Goblin but rather a disabled science professor who can mess with your genes. No really, telling the truth. Oh, he can also turn into a moderately evil giant green lizard man, didn't I mention that before? Ah, I suppose that makes him sound a lot more scary. What this professor is trying to do basically is cure his disability, he lost his right arm from just above the elbow and is trying to use genetic information from lizards that can jettison and regrow their tails almost at will. This inevitably leads to failure and causes him to turn into a strange lizard/human thing that goes terrorising the city and it's occupants. Spiderman has to step in because obviously the police force can't find or stop a giant lizard man. The Captain of the Police force is Gwen Staceys father, which makes it a little awkward when Peter Parker/Spiderman, played by Andrew Garfield, falls in love with her.

I really enjoyed this film, the acting was great, the relationship between Peter and Gwen is sweet and believable without being overly soppy and lovey, the science aspect of the plot made the film seem so much more realistic than the magical radioactive spider bite that grants Parker super strength and a God complex. The ending itself was pretty awesome, it was very predictable, down to a T, but it was still a good laugh and a good day out and I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes a good superhero/family/action film. Good for kids, teens and adults alike.

Cupcakes.

Let me start by saying, I freaking LOVE cupcakes. I make them quite often and they're always loved. I wanted to share my recipe and some pictures for anyone else who is as obsessed as I am. I'll also most likely post every time I find a new favourite butter cream recipe or a better way to keep the cakes moist etc.

My 'go to' recipe is;

115g caster sugar

115g butter (room temperature or warmer will make it easier for you)

115g self-raising flour (the last 15g can be made up in cocoa powder if you want)

2 eggs

Any flavouring you like. I often use cinnamon but almond oil, vanilla essence, coffee and such will do. Just remember not to make the mixture too runny, if you add any more than around 10-15ml of liquid add a little more flour. If you add coffee always add a teaspoon of coffee to a small amount of boiling water and add it like that. Coffee granules are not something that add to a cupcake. And if your going to add more cocoa powder, remember that it's very drying, add a drop of milk to compensate.

For simple butter cream use 175g of icing sugar and 85g or butter. Be careful while mixing because icing sugar is prone to flying everywhere over your countertop if you're not careful.

For flavour I recommend using the little bottles from Silver Spoon brand. I often use the lemon and peppermint ones. Though you could also use fruit juices, spices or pretty much anything that takes your fancy. Just make sure to have some extra icing sugar on hand to make sure you can get the right consistency.

I'm going to add a few pictures and descriptions below, I'll start with the oldest picture I have of my cakes then get more recent. Obviously I don't take pictures every time I make them, I'm no hipster.

I made these for my best friend the other year, we were having a gathering of people and what better way to entertain people than with food? The left half are cinnamon cakes with lemon icing and the right are chocolate cakes with peppermint icing with a little green food colouring. The sprinkles are from Sainsburys. (Also you can find her blog at http://kristina-foodporn.blogspot.co.uk/ she's awesome.)

These ones were made with a cream cheese recipe which I have unfortunately misplaced. They did end up a bit too sticky and claggy but the cream cheese icing was lovely. I don't actually own a piping bag so I used a sealable sandwich bad and simply cut a cross in one corner. The pink sprinkles are relatively cheap from Sainsburys.

Chocolate cakes with lemon icing I believe. I'm not particularly fond of the taste of lemon so I think my mum ate most of these.

A gift for my Dad on Fathers Day 2012, chocolate cakes with lightly cinnamon flavoured icing. I used two shades of blue food colouring for the icing and piped it using a sandwich bag again. Classy.

These last two images are of some cakes me and Boyfriend made today. They're chocolate cinnamon cakes with a coffee flavoured butter cream. I used a straw to make a slight hole in the middle and piped some icing into that before adding the swirl decoration to the top. I've never made coffee flavoured icing before and it turned out really tasty but a little too thin. I ran out ot icing sugar so I couldn't thicken it any. They were still tasty anyway.

They're all the images I have so far. When I have a few more saved up I'll do another post. I may also post any other things I make as well. I made a cheesecake for the first time the other day but didn't take a picture (sorry) it ended up a bit wrong but Boyfriend and his parents ate it all anyway. Guess that's good, right?

Avengers Assemble. Sometimes. Occasionally. Rarely.

Avengers Assemble. As it's called here in the UK, is the Hollywood incarnation of Marvels Avengers directed by one of my favourite, Joss Whedon. If you're not familiar with the Avengers I'll quickly spell it out for you; The Avengers Initiative is headed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and funded mostly by S.H.I.E.L.D, or, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. If you ignore all the infantry and staff that come, and die, in their hundreds, the main members of the Avengers are; Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/ Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner aka Boyfriends man crush), Bruce Banner/ The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/ Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/ Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). In this 2012 adaptation, the villain is Thor's adopted brother and God of Chaos; Loki (Tom Hiddleston). There are also the usual associated characters we've seen in the lead up character films like Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).

Loki makes a deal with a race named the 'Chitauri' to deliver to them an object of infinite power, the 'Tesseract'. Upon delivery of this relic, Loki would then command an army of Chitauri to conquer any world he wanted. Obviously the Avengers have something to say about that. They spend the first two thirds of the movie bickering and squabbling like petty children which, although amusing, gets old and I found myself wanting to slap them and tell them to grow up. Hawkeye is corrupted by Loki's magic staff (no, really) through out the first half so we don't see much of him. He has often been dubbed 'the useless avenger' but actually, he and the Widow are the only two that use their mortal strength. No trickery or 'god' genes, they aren't rich foolish philanthropists and for this they are my favourites.

When the Avengers finally gain some initiative, though it may be close to the end, and actually decide to save the Earth, actually scratch that, when they decide to save America they come together really well. They are a formidable force that work well together in combat and have great screen presence.

The relationships between the characters are very well written, there's a slight romanticism between Widow and Hawkeye, Captain America and Stark butt heads like grumpy children trying to get one up on each other, Banner avoids everyone except Stark and even then he tries to keep mostly to himself. Thor and Loki have a strange two-way you're my brother but I'll gladly kill you thing going on, but they have the only believable and endearing relationship in the film. And no one likes Nick Fury. Or the Hulk. Poor lads.

The film has beautiful effects and settings and the costumes, especially Loki's, are really fantastic. The writing is really good, as I expect of Whedon, very PG of course (rated at PG-13), and the film flows well, it's never too slow. The humour is mostly dry, with some big hitting jokes for the crowd and the kids, look out for the moment with Loki and the Hulk in Stark's penthouse, you'll know it when it happens, it's probably the funniest moment in the film and one I would gladly rewind and watch several times if I wasn't partial to a bit of Tom Hiddleston.

All in all it's a really good film, a 7/10 for me, it has humour, a tinsy bit of mushyness, plenty of action and women in tight leather, and enough science and thoughtfulness to actually make the film mostly believable. Mostly. There's a hint of a sequel too, which I really look forward to as I think this franchise in it's current form has the ability to go through at least 2 maybe 3 films before it starts to get old.

Breakfast at Spoons.

Wetherspoons is a very popular chain of pubs in the UK, recently I spent quite a lot of time in one of these in Derby, named The Standing Order. Which is a fitting name as you usually can't find a place to sit. Ever.

But anyway, the other night I may have, in the company of Boyfriend and two flatmates, gotten a little bit drunk on stupidly named, and coloured, cocktail pitchers and a substantial amount of JD and coke.

So the following morning I woke everyone up and took them to 'Spoons' as we have so affectionately nick-named it. It took a while to get everyone there as I seemed to be the only one with any energy left, we sat staring at the breakfast menu like genuine idiots for a good 15 minutes before we had any inkling about what we wanted to eat. Or try to eat.

I, unlike my then brain-dead companions, went for a classy eggs benedict. While my three zombie followers went for a plain english breakfast. Which I don't think any of them finished.

This being the first time I'd had eggs benedict I was quite impressed, I would have been more so if my eggs were a little softer but you can't have everything in life. Certainly not soft eggs at least. When we decided to leave we got outside and found possibly the foulest weather I have ever known to happen in Derby, which we often refer to as 'Derbados' due to it's unreasonably tropic climate. Not only was it chucking it down, but the wind was enough to nearly blow us off our puddle soaked feet. We ducked into a nearby Primark to wait for a little break in the weather. Which never really happened. We all ultimately returned to the flat wet, windblown, slightly nauseous and rather unhappy. Morale is; never do breakfast at Spoons after a night out.

Films I'm looking forward to.

Today I'd just like to list a few films I'm really excited to see over the next few months, I'm really into films and love seeing them. After seeing them I'll most likely review them on here but for now I just wanted to list a few so you can see what film I like and such.

Marvel Avengers Assemble (Always been a fan of The Avengers, Iron Man and Thor are my favourites)

Safe (This looks really interesting, would be good to see Jason Statham in a serious role)

Dark Shadows (This is kind of a silly one but I enjoy a good laugh, Johnny Depp looks hilarious in it)

Men In Black 3 (Because my childhood wouldn't be complete if it weren't for MIB)

Prometheus (Noomi Rapace directed by James Cameron? Please. I don't even need to explain)

Snow White and The Huntsmen (It'll be nice to see a better, less fluffy and facnyful take on Snow White)

The Dark Knight Rises (Because I'm a massive Batman nerd, as explained before.)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Because I could actually see Lincoln being a vampire hunter. And John Cusack is on of my favourite actors)

The Bourne Legacy (Me and my Dad are massive fans of this series, I think it'll be really good to see someone else in the postion of Bourne than Matt Damon)

Total Recall (Not going to lie, I loved the original with Arnie, I think Colin Farell might not be the best to take the role but we'll see)

Dredd (Even though the original with Stalone wasn't that great the plot and ideas were good. Also I'd love to see some of it redone with the SFX we have to hand these days)

Resident Evil: Retribution (I'm a big fan of these movies, even though the last one was kinda naff I still wanna see them all)

Skyfall (New James Bond film, how could I not?!)

Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (I've been waiting for this for so long!)

That's it for the rest of this year, not sure where the money for this is coming from but I can always hope!

Tv shows.

Today I was watching some TV and I wondered how many American shows I watch compared to British. I thought it was an interesting point to make so I'd write it here. I'll also note the genre so we can see how I don't really stray from Detective series. (I'm not very good at naming many genres and some I couldn't figure out but I gave it a go)

AMERICAN: BRITISH

Castle (Detective/Comedy) Being Human (Sci-Fi/Comedy)

X-Files (Detective/Sci-fi) Doctor Who (Sci-Fi/Comedy)

The Mentalist (Detective/Comedy) Shadowlines (Crime)

True Blood (Sci-Fi) Torchwood (Sci-Fi)

Haven (Detective/Sci-Fi)

Falling Skies (Sci-Fi/Survival)

Dexter (Suspence/Crime)

The Big C (Sitcom-ish)

Lost Girl (Sci-Fi)

New Girl (Sitcom)

Mad Men (Period Drama)

I obviously prefer American shows, which I hadn't realised unitl I listed them. I realise most of the shows are quite similar which is interesting. I also left out sitcoms that have been going for longer than I can remember, things like Friends and Frasier and Scrubs. Wemight not make all that many shows but when we do I really enjoy them and think that we make really gritty hard hitting stuff where as all the American shows have a certain, fluffyness about them. Apart from Dexter. Dexter is amazingly dark and somehow has you rooting for what would usually be considered as 'the bad guy'. 

Another blog about films.

The other week I decided to watch a film called Suckerpunch. It was directed by Zach Snyder, being familiar with some of his previous work like Watchmen (2009), 300 (2006) and the 2004 remake of Dawn of The Dead, I expected the film to be quite good. And it wasn't. At all.

Suckerpunch makes you believe that the film is about a young girl named BabyDoll. It's not, it's actually about another named SweetPea, but I'll get to that later. We follow the life of BabyDoll as her mother dies and leaves her and her sister everything, the begrudging stepdad is enraged and gets drunk and goes after the girls. In an attempt to defend her sister BabyDoll picks up a gun and fires it. She completely misses her stepdad and instead accidentally shoots her sister. She is then taken, without questioning or investigation to a mental asylum where in her stepdad pays to have her lobotomised. BabyDoll spends the entire film daydreaming essentially. Instead of seeing the mental asylum she believes she works in a brothel, then whenever she is asked to dance or do anything remotely mind damaging in the brothel she imagines another world where she fights 12ft tall zombie samurai or Nazi zombies. 

This film basically drove me mad. It's like Snyder tried to make something like Inception, but on LSD. And crack. And pretty much everything else. 

Yes, the film is very pretty and the cinematography in amazing, which is common for Snyder. The characters are semi-beliveable if you think of them in the brothel level. And yes, okay, it is kinda fun to watch scantily clad ladies fight dragons and whatnot but I just cannot bring myself to enjoy this film when it has 10 more plot twists than isnecessary. It seems that with every film Snyder makes my actual liking of him and what he makes just goes downhill. Which is a shame after starting on such a high as Watchmen.

Reviews

The other day we had to read out a review we had written about an exhibition we had seen recently, having never written a review before I was really nervous. I tried my best to be neutral in the main section of my review and then add my opinion near the end as I thought this would look and read a bit more professionally. I thought I may have been a little vague in my description of the exhibition but then I heard a few others and realised it wasn't too bad. I tried to keep in mind the marking parameters whilst writing it but it was a hard task. I find it much easier to write about films but this does not mean I will shy away from a similar task in the future. 

I was really nervous when it came to reading it out because I often trip over my words and get ahead of myself but I didn't do to badly, I tripped up a couple of times but not too bad. I think it kinda comforted me that the rest of the class was nervous too.

Music

Today I want to talk about music and the recent songs I've been listening to. I really love finding new music and listening to all sorts of genres, I often pick up songs from TV adverts, films, TV shows etc.

Number 1 most listened to song in the past week has been Serpents by Sharon Van Etten, she has such a fantastic ethereal voice that she layers over in recording and the guitars are very reminicent of early 90's indie type music. Suprisingly this song was only released last year, though it sounds a lot older. I heard this song in the finale of TV show named Lost Girl. I'll post the song below from youtube.

The next is an album I've loved for a very long time, technically it's my Dads but I put it on my iTunes because I love hearing it. It's Hejira by Joni Mitchell. I'm absolutely in love with her voice and her slow, happy-but-sad voice and the way she plays guitar. I hear that as a child she had polio which lead to her hand being crippled so she has to play the guitar in a slightly different way to other musicians, but I think this is good because it lends itself to her having a different sound.

This is a song called Amelia, it's one of my favourite from this album.

The other album I've been playing a lot recently is Real Gone by Tom Waits. I've loved his music since I heard the track 'Dead and Lovely' in an indie comedy film called Wristcutters (worth a watch by the way). I bought this album just before Christmas and I intend to buy more. My Dad tells me that his friend has half of Wait's music on vinyl. That would be worth a listen, I enjoy playing vinyls and I like to hear the slight scratch of the needle on the disk. 

I'll post both 'Dead and Lovely' and 'Sins of my Father' which are my favourite songs from this album.

I really hope you give these a listen and enjoy them, I know I have quite an old taste in music compared to some my age but I just try to like what I like and not like it because it's what I should like at my age.

New cameras.

Recently I bought a few new cameras and wanted to share them on here. I bought a Pentax K1000 because it reminds me of college where we had to use these all the time. I know most people are inclined to say it's a terrible camera but I love it, I've never had any problems with them, they always work and my images come out lovely. I've actuallu had more trouble with the Nikon F2's we're encouraged to borrow from uni than my Pentax. So here's the Pentax;

I also bought a Polaroid Colour Swinger 2 Land Camera. I know the film is discontinued and it really expensive to buy any that's left but I really wanted to experience how photography has moved on. Also I think it's amazing that we have a camera that takes and develops the image right in front of you in under a minute. I'm really looking forward to using this for general purposes over summer and maybe even for a project next year!

5x4's again

Today I did another Still Life shoot, this time I focused on taking images of flowers. I wanted a really classic elegant look so I went for some Roses and Chrysanthemums. The latter worked better as te roses were all one colour and didn't really show too well in black and white film. Though I did take some colour shots but I'm waitingon them to be developed by out technicians.

Here are the two black and white images I took; they're a tad dark but I think that's okay as most of my image was white coloured.

Meiles/Smashing Pumpkins

Recently while in class we were shown a few clips of French filmmaker Georges Meiles. He used many tricks in these works that people often considered magic, but we understand them now to be photo manipulation tricks such as double exposing, dodging and burning and such stuff. 

The one thing that struck me was the similarity between his short film 'Trip to the Moon' and the music video for 'Tonight, Tonight' by rock group the Smashing Pumpkins.

I'll put both videos below, they're very very similar.

Office Space and Badlands

I would like to talk about a few films that I really like at the moment. My favourite films change all the time but there are a few I'll always love. I recently re-watched a film I've loved for a long time called Office Space, written by Mike Judge  who also was the creator of Beavis and Butthead. Office Space (1999) is an off beat comedy showing the life of Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston), an employee at Initech Offices. Peter is bored with his job and bullied by his bosses. In a freak turn of events, a hypnotherapist he was forced to see has a heart attack in the middle of a session with Peter in which he tries to make Peter relax and be calm. This leaves him in a constantly happy-go-lucky state which makes him start coming to his job late and sometimes not going in at all. Peter is then commended by two company consultants on his honesty and approach to working, Peter spends the film doing exactly what he wants, like fishing or playing tetris at his desk instead of working. Throughout the rest of this film, Peter and his two friends begin to hatch and carryout a plan to steal money from Initech but rounding off all fractions of a cent that are eft and putting them into a bank account. The plan goes arwy and they end up in big trouble, Peter faces his own misdeeds and deciedes to write a letter to his boss explaining himself and includes all the money taken. Though the morning after this he drives to work to find the building on fire. We as the viewer are lead to believe it was the character 'Milton', a quiet worker who often mumbles 'I'll burn the building down' when his boss takes his favourite stapler. The reson I love this film is that the characters are so believeble and easy to relate to. it can be described almost as quite a bland film by some because the humour is very subtle and the reason for this is that it's so true to life. 

The other film I rewatched recently was Terrence Malicks 1973 film Badlands, starring Martin Sheen as Kit and Sissy Spacek as Hollie.The characters of Kit and Holly are based on Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate, who in 1958 went on a murdering spree that shocked America. Hollie meets Kit and quickly becomes enthralled by him, entering into a relationship in which she takes the backseat. After her father finds out, Kit murders him then burns down Hollies house and starts a road trip with her, one in which they stay in houses after murdering then people that live there. Of course Hollie never hurts anyone, she simply watches as Kit does it all. Kit is eventually caught and sent to deth row. We never really see what happens to him or Hollie. 

This film is so beautiful becuase it is filmed, in classic Terrence Malick style, in what's know as 'The Golden Hour' which are the two hours of the day in which the sun is rising and setting. This soft yellowy light bathes everything and paints it gold and casts interestingly angled shadows, instead of the usual small shadows we are accustomed to seeing in normal filming hours. 

I just wanted to talk about these films because I find that the way they are filmed and put together is really interesting from both a film lovers view and the viewpoint of someone studying an art based subject.

Trailer for Office Space:

Trailer for Badlands:

Narrative

For my Narrative module I decided to take pictures of my workspace. I was inspired by some of the simple but beautiful work of John Blakemore.

Below I'm going to post my initial ideas in pictures, the first 2 are from a set where I was going to take pictures of things that meant a lot to me, for instance, my grandmothers ring. I decided not to use this idea as it seemed too scattered and not strong enough to me.

These next two images were part of a task set by Heike, we had to tell a story in just 2 images. The first is my bed here in Derby, which I keep neat as it helps me collect my thoughts and keep my head/work tidy, and my bed at home, which I sleep better in and leave messy because it's more relaxing. The second is of Derby train station and then Sheffield train station. It's meant to show the journey from here to home without giving specific details, making the audience think more about it.

In the next few images I'll demonstrate the kind of pictures I want to take more of and what I want to do for my final body of work. For my final piece of work I want to do a day by day show of my desk. So, I'd have a row for each day, some days there will be quite a few images when I'm doing work, but at the weekends it might be just 2 or 3 images when I'm having the day off or just concentrating on one task for a long time.

Digital Landscape

Today I continued on with my landscape project but this time I took a digital camera with me. I'm not gunna write much as it's basically the same ideas behind it as I already explained a few posts ago. I'm just gunna put some small versions of some images I took below so you can see the kinda work I'm doing.

 

Bone picking with del Toro

I've been reading a lot of books lately. My Dad brought me up to read books as often as possible and to enjoy reading for fun, not just for school. I've always loved reading but during the first term of uni I didn't read much as I hadn't much spare time. Now I'm managing my time better I have some time to read a few books I got at Christmas and a few I bought before then. I want to talk a little about 2 books that were lent to me by a close friend, these books are part of a trilogy beginning with The Strain (2010) then The Fall (2011) and then The Night Eternal. They're written by well known film director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. 

It's a book about vampires (I swear not everything I read/watch is about vampires, it just so happens to all be happening at once). The premise is that a plane lands at JFK with all it's passengers bar 4 are dead and completely drained of all fluids. The surviving 4 go on to unknowingly spread the virus to everyone in Manhattan. The story center's around Dr Ephraim Goodweather of the CDC and his fight to contain the virus and dispose of the infected and find the original spreader of the virus, The Master. It's a very different telling of the classic man-in-a-cape type of story, one which is more gritty and scary and, more importantly, more believable. 

However, the one thing I have have come to realise about this book is that it is very, very similar to a film that was also directed by Guillermo del Toro in 2002 called Blade 2. The film is the second in a trilogy that follows a vampire hunter named Blade, in this film, the vampires have long tongues with stingers on the ends that infect the bitten instead of simply killing them which completely identical to the creatures in The Strain. This kinda disappoints me because Guillermo del Toro is responsible for such fantastically unique and beautiful films such as Pans Labyrinth (2006) The Orphanage (2007) and the Devils Backbone (2001) and the thought of him simply copying his own idea and making more money from it just really annoys me because I've seen that he can do better. Never the less, this series is shaping up to be a really good read and I still really enjoy it. I would have just liked to have seen a bit more diversity and deviance from that sort of plot line.

Fooooood.

I love it. So much. Might be the reason I gained like 5 pounds over Christmas but we'll ignore that. 

I really like to try new foods, my parents never really branched out with food when I was younger and they're kind of afraid to try in case it makes them ill or they don't like or it's made of something weird. I recently really got into eating sushi, there's a sushi bar in the Mall in Sheffield called Yo! Sushi and it's wonderful. It a very Japenese style bar with the little conveyer belts that the food goes around and you just pick up the dishes you want and pay after you've finished depending on what coloured dish you picked up. During my first time there i tried a few things I've never had before, I tried Octopus, Eel and a Lychee, all of them were so lovely and different. I also had the normal stuff you get like salmon and tuna and avocado and whatnot but trying those few new things was really fun. 

I've also recently started doing theme nights with 2 of my flatmates in which we pick a country and then make a dish that is usually served there. So far I've tried Lebanese and Khazakstani food which were really fantastic. I'm sure none of us are making this food with as much expertise as a native but it's the thought that counts!

I've still got so much I want to try, like different meats and stuff. I'm really looking forward to this and also looking forward to trying to get my parents to try some new stuff too.

Just a quick blog about a film

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Earlier I watched the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise, named Underworld: Awakening (2012)

I'll just explain the general plot before I launch into my 'Why this film sucked' rant.

There have been 3 films so far Underworld (2003) which was the first film to be made, it follows a vampire named Selene (Kate Beckinsale) who fights for the life of a human (Michael) with Lycans (werewolves). I know this sounds cliche and it kind of is but this is not your standard run of the mill vampire vs wolf film. It's very stylised and I really fell in love with it when I first saw it. The second film which followed on was Underworld: Evolution (2006) this again followed Selene and her now partner Michael, who is now a hybrid of Vampire and Lycan. This film was more sexualised and more edgy than the first but was still a great film with really good plot and character development. The third film that was released was a prequel to the first Underworld and it was named Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) this set up a more detailed story for a few characters in both the first and second films, even though I was a little disappointed in the special effects and half the gore looked like strawberry jam and the animated creatures were very animated, making them really easy to spot and making it a little hard to consider them a part of the actual film world. It was however still very good and worth the watch.

But then came Awakening.

I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a sequel that I was so looking forward to. There was hardly any plot, the film felt way too short and scrambled and I genuinely can't remember all that much of it. But I can't really understand why that happened. It was written by Len Wiseman, who directed the first and second films, it starred Kate Beckinsale, again she was in the first and second films and is usually a really great and captivating actress, Kris Holden-Reid who I've been watching in a recent series and is really good in that but he seemed very flat and boring in Awkening. 

The film itself was pretty and the props well made and the locations perfect for the scenes, but that's not all that makes a film. Mabye I'm being a little harsh because I was looking forward to it a lot but I feel very let down by it.

I'd highly recommend the first 2 films, Underworld and Underworld: Evolution and even the prequel that was then released named Underworld: Rise of the Lycans but definitely not Awakening. It was not a fitting addition to the series, it neither built up much nor moved the story along. 

Games; Gears 3, ME3 & Arkham City

Today I want to talk about video games. I LOVE video games. My Dad bought me a playstation 1 when I was about 6 and I've loved them ever since. We started out playing the Tomb Raider (Lara Croft) franchise, which I've followed all the way to the most recent game which was released in 2008 and I'm greatly anticipating the release of a reboot of the series in the late stages of 2012. One thing I love to see, in the Tomb Raider games especially, is the progression of the graphics from solid angles and being able to see where the textures of floor panels started and ended to now having much smoother more realistic graphics. One way my Mum had this to say about the graphics; 'In 1996, Lara Croft had THE pointiest chest anyone had ever seen, (very reminiscent of Madonnas famous 'cone bra') and now she looks like she has two melons.' My Mother the poet, everyone.

So anyway, I wanted to talk about 3 games today. Games I have bought recently (actually my Dad bought them, like I have money for video games!) and have been really excited about for a while now. 

Mass Effect 3 (2012)

The last game in a trilogy sat far off in the future that follows an Alliance marine named Shepard. Now, one thing that I find really brilliant about this game is the character building. You can chose whether to be male of female, whether you have a soldier background or an neutral background etc. I like this because it isn't too intensive like I've heard World of Warcraft and such games are but it gives you enough chance to tweak the character so you can get a feeling for them and make them unique to you. The game has a mostly linear story line but you get certain choices at points, whether you want to recruit a certain team member or leave them behind etc, that can affect the type of ending you get. Which I feel is great because it's not just your standard run of the mill, everyone-has-the-same-ending type game. It means that you can play it through several times and see something different each time. Now, this is the one game out of the three that I have not allowed myself to play through yet as I got it at Christmas but didn't want to get too caught up in it as I don't take video games to my flat in Derby because they're way too much of a distraction and they first playthrough time is usually around 20 hours for me. I have very high hopes for this game as the previous 2 have been fantastic, the game play is great, the combat works well, the environments are so well made and really beautiful and the cut-scenes are film worthy and mostly it's pretty much believable. It is a little far reaching as it contains characters from different planets which all seem to bear a certain resemblance to humans but the story sets it up in a fairly believable way. One little niggle I had with this franchise is the box artwork, the 2 previous games have only showed the male option in the trailers and on the posters and all artwork for the games. This seems a little sexist to me as the option to have a female character is available from the very first game, however, in the last installment there was a special female trailer that appeared on TV and the Internet and the box art is reversible, so there is the male version on one side and the female on the other. This makes me a lot happier than just having the male version. I understand the main audience figures show that it's mostly males that play video games in general but it's nice to see some diversity.

Gears of War 3 (2011)

Now moving away from the more artsy to the more visceral. Gears 3 is also set in the future (I'm seeing a theme here) on a planet called 'Sera'. There begins an attack on humanity from a species known as 'Locust'. The story center's around a marine named Marcus Fenix and the Delta Squad that he commands. Now, although the game is in great quality and the cut scenes are good and whatnot, the marines still look around 7 ft tall and at least 4 ft wide. Their armor looks like they have stereo speakers for chest plates and bits of cars on them for the rest of it. Which makes them slightly unbelievable in my eyes but this can be overlooked once you get into the game play. It's basic cover combat, unless you get a shotgun, then who cares. The players are allowed to have 1 pistol, some grenades and 2 other weapons (shotguns and rifle variants).

The main gun, which is one of my main attractions to this game, is called a 'Lancer', it's a basic rifle but with a chainsaw attachment so occasionally you can actually chainsaw your opponent in half whilst listening to such witty lines as 'Nothing but bits' and having the camera be covered in blood. Being a fan of gratuitous fake gore I find this hilarious. The easy game play allows for a really good fun co-op game and it's great when you have a few people round and take turns. The story isn't too serious and anything that is is broken up with witty one liners and there's one character named Baird that I'm sure was just put in for comic relief and has continually gotten more snarky and witty since the first game. 

The way this game is made makes it probably one of the most fun games I have ever played, everything is oversized and overdone and it's fantastic. It doesn't really require any brain power and it's always enjoyable no matter if it's the first playthrough or the 10th. The characters, no matter how gruff they are, are still really likeable, the story is enjoyable and it gets extra points for having playable female characters that aren't girly and still kick some serious ass. Even if their voice overs won't shut up.

Batman: Arkham City (2011)

Let me just start this by saying I am a massive Batman fan. Have been for a verrry long time. Since I used to watch the cartoons when I was little, to watching the terrible but oh so brilliant Tim Burton films from 1989-1997 and even the recent reboot with Christian Bale. My favourite characters will always be the Joker and Harley Quinn, the old romantic in me (which I try to suppress at all times) absolutely loves their totally messed up but loving relationship. My friends often refer to me as Harley, which I can't decide is a good and funny nickname or whether they think I'm a homicidal maniac but we'll skip right past that. My favourite Joker on screen would have to be Jack Nicholson, not only is he already a fantastic actor but he fits the role so well. He easily slips from the late night gangster role into the maniacal world of the Joker and adds more to the character than the PG comics ever did. My other favourite would be Mark Hamill, he voices the Joker both in the cartoons and the videogames, his high and gravelly voice fits perfectly with the image that games creator company Rocksteady made in conjunction with DC Games. My least favourite, suprisingly as it was one of the most successful visions of the Joker, was Christopher Nolan's Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), played by Heath Ledger. I disliked it because it wasn't the true Joker. The proper story goes that Jack Napier was accidently dropped into a vat of chemicals by Batman, this de-pigmented his skin, caused his hair to turn green and petrified the soft tissue around his mouth into that signature grin he's known for. Therefore, no matter how good Ledgers performance was, I don't consider it a true representation of the Joker. 

Anyway, enough about my slightly disturbing obsession with Joker/Harley.

Arkham City follows Arkham Asylum (2009), in which the inmates of Arkham Asylum have been rehoused after a breakout to a walled off area of Gotham City. The main foes in this installment are as follows, the mainstream expected villains; The Joker, The Penguin and The Riddler and the more unexpected ones were; Mr Freeze, Clayface, Raz al Ghul, Harvey Dent/Two Face and Doctor Hugo Strange. We also see a few side villains who have very short story arcs separate from the main story such as Victor Zsasz, The Abramovichi Twins, Thomas Elliot and Black Mask. Some of these hint at a sequal as do the end credits, but we'll get to that in a bit.

You can also spend a little of the game playing as the ever over-sexualised Catwoman, she carries a whip. And wears tight leather. Go figure why most Batman fans are male.

The imagery in this game is absolutely sublime, even though the entire city seems to have a grey cast over it and it's always raining it's still lovely. The streets are grimy and covered in litter, the rooftops are all different so they don't look like the same template has been used to create the skyline, the henchmen that you fight through out the city are always really well thought out AI patterns. I have so many good things to say about this game. The main story carries on nicely from the first game, it doesn't seem like it's stalling to make a longer game at any point and it's pretty well thought out with some great twists. Unfortunately for me the story ends with The Joker dying which kinda killed it for me but it was good anyway. A few rumours say we may have a sequel not just for the reasons I mentioned earlier but also if you look closely through the game you'll notice that infact Quinn is pregnant and through the end credits you can hear her quietly crying and singing in a way you would only sing to a child. This was probably my favourite game of the year and one which I intend to play again many times over. If it were up to me, the Batman franchise would never end.

I know this has been quite a long blog but it's just because I am really passionate about videogames, I'm kind of a nerd that way. I just love that there's a whole world which you can get sucked away into and interact with.

Advanced Process

For my Advanced Process module I recently did 2 film shoots. One black and white and one colour. The black and white one was a bit of a failure as it appeared that the film had become unraveled in the back of the Mamiya I was using so none of the images really came out. The colour one however seemed to work just fine. I wanted to focus on macro images because I feel like I've seen a lot of wide angle rolling hills images in landscape. I took the film in the woods near my house in my hometown of Sheffield. The woods are really dense but with some pathways and there is a really wide variety of plants and trees to photograph. I'm beginning to get ideas about what I want my final body of work to look like, I'm thinking 6 a3 images, set out in two columns of three. The bottom two could be flowers that grow on the ground, then above that would be flowers on trees then above that either tree leaves or 2 images looking directly up at the canopy. I still need to do a digital shoot as well before I choose whiich one I want to continue my work with.

I'll take a few images of the negatives and put them below until I have printed contact sheets.

Ok, you can't really see the colour ones but at least you can see I did it.

5x4 Location Shoot

So recently I did an outdoor shoot using a 4x5 Wista camera for the 'Location' section of our Studio module. It was amazingly sunny, which was fantastic as we didn't have to fiddle with too much lighting equipment, so we went to a patch of grass nearby the uni. I went with Jen as she needed to do a shoot as well.

Jen went first and had me stand against a fence and look 'moody' as it were. Her insiration for her images are the Cindy Sherman film stills so I had to look like I was waiting for something or someone. As I was wearing sunglasses she made me do the classic 'chewing on the side of the glasses' thing that's done a lot in films. I really liked the way they came out, they look very staged (as they should do) and Jen was really happy with them. 

Then it was my turn. As I am taking pictures of flowers for my indoor studio work I decided to link this to my location shoots. I had jen sit cross legged on the floor and hold a bunch of flowers and tilt her head as if she was waiting for someone. I wanted a more candid and whimsical image so I had that and one of her looking directly at the camera and smiling with a flower behind her ear so it would look like the viewer of the image had just put it there. I really love the way they came out. They both have such different effects, the closer one where she is smiling has such a nice, happy vibe and really draws you in but he the other has a slightly negative vibe, like she's been stood up and she's waiting for someone that will never turn up. By accident I realised that they would look really interesting printed on top of each other but I'm not sure that's within the parameters of the module guidelines.

I've posted the images below.

We'll be doing another shoot soon so I'll post about that one too.

Blow Up (1966)

Recently we watched Blow Up (1966), a film about a London based photographer who spends his time trying to get just the right shot, smoking pot, shouting at useless models and generally being a little odd. Whilst trying to capture the picture of a couple in the park he accidentally photographs evidence of a murder. 

I know this is supposed to be a real mine field of metaphors and allegorical meanings, I get that, but this film really didn't do anything for me. Yes it was a reasonable (if lazy) portrayal of the life of a photographer, but the strange scenes of everyone standing still at the concert and the photographer joining in the mime's tennis game just threw me me too much. The scenes I liked and enjoyed were the ones where the photographer and Vanessa Redgraves character are in the cramped confines of the studio. The tension between the characters, both sexual and nervous, is palpable and their interctions are pure cat and mouse. This alone was the most interesting part of the film for me. Other than that I felt as if the climax had been robbed from me and the rest of this film seemed just a little drab. 

Good music though.

Nottingham Trip; Part 3

We went to see Anish Kapoors work in the Nottingham art gallery next. This gallery was a re-purposed castle, the view from the balcony has been used in films like This is England and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. The view was spectacular, I could see for miles and I felt small.

Anish Kapoors work was really amazing to say the least. When I walked into the room I was confronted by these amazing shapes on the walls and the floor. I'm not sure what they were made out of but they were covered in the brightest, most vibrant pigments of yellow, blue, red and black. On the left wall was a half circle covered in red pigment that looked almost violent against this plain white wall. Then we moved through the room to find several circular based installations that were made out of a strange wax like substance. Along with this we had a spinning tank of dark red water which, although was merely a fairground trick, still held me captive for a long time. The last 3 installations were also illusions, a large white bulge in the back wall that was only visible up close. A large blue ball and a very large concave semi circle. The large half sphere was coated in a dark red dye, what made it so interesting was that it reflected the light off the inside of it, so it looked bottomless. When you tried to reach your arm inside it looked like you could reach inside forever. 

One thing that Kapoors work reminded me of was an eastern festival that compromises of the natives picking up handfuls of pure powdered pigment and throwing it around in a celebration of colour. The pigments we saw at the exhibition were so amazing that I wanted to take some home wiht me. The reds and yellows also reminded me of spices like termeric and paprika, which are synonymous with Eastern Culture.