Week 2 - Term 2

This week started off on Monday morning with a brand new class that we'd never had before. Kim Millar, a successful storyliner for Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and River City came in to give us our first class on storylining in television. This was quite an interesting class and we learned a lot about how competitive the television industry really is. We also learned about the various different roles and jobs that exist in the writing side of television from the storyliners and script editors to the actual dialogue screenwriters. In the afternoon we had a History of Cinema class with Andy. For the first half we had the opportunity to watch very old films that had been discovered in England that had been filmed right at the start of the twentieth century. These Mitchell and Kenyon films included short silent clips of no more than a couple of minutes where they would film people going about their daily life in the workplace, school, in the street etc. After watching about five of these films, we then watched a final special one that had been filmed in Jamaica Street, Glasgow. This was actually quite fascinating to see, although fairly short it still showed a great deal of information about how people went about their lives back in that time. Every vehicle was horse-drawn and people walked everywhere. There seemed a much stronger sense of community and everyone helping each other as well. We then saw a remake of the video made by Charlotte and Gavin (I think) at the same spot in the year 2009. It was quite strange to contrast them and see how differently it all looked. It was a little bit depressing actually: everyone in cars, nobody dreaming of talking to each other of even looking at each other unless absolutely necessary. In the second half of the lesson we watched a DVD about the origins of editing which dragged on for a bit even though there were some interesting points to it. On Monday night I also went to the Britain's Got Talent auditions at the SECC to the envy of Meg and Kelsey.

Tuesday we had our technical class with Ray and we were continuing with lighting. Today we focused on white balance and colour temperature and how each specific light we use has a different colour temperature that affects the picture. There's a lot of new buttons and terminology to grasp with these lessons but it always becomes clearer when I actually try it myself of a camera. For example, I learning how the do a white balance correctly on the camera by actually doing it myself as opposed to just listening to Ray and scribbling notes. Later in the day I also had my tutorial with Gav to discuss our formative assessments from before Christmas. This went well and we watched the short motorbike advert that I had edited and he also discussed the results for the written test as well.

On Wednesday we had Andy's television class in the morning. We focused on reality TV in this lesson. From its origins with shows following the emergency services to modern day reality television like Big Brother and the X Factor. The main point of the class was to understand about Authorship in relation to reality TV. In the end we decided that there are a various groups of people who influence what happens on reality TV. Of course the whole idea of it is that everything is realistic and unscripted however there is still a degree of authorship in it. For example, the Simon Cowell type characters in each show who, although it is not always overtly shown, does have a decision on which people stay in the show or leave the show or whatever else. The viewing public also have a certain say in reality programmes like I'm a celebrity and the like where they phone in to decide who should stay in the jungle.

I had the day off on Thursday due to Adam's tutorials in the morning and no other classes all day. So after a nice wee lie in I sat in my room and wrote a good bit of my two minute comedy script. After a while of this I decided to go a walk for some fresh air so walked down across the river to the Gorbals kind of area then back round via Bridge Street until I suddenly realised that I was on Jamaica Street where the old Mitchell and Kenyon film was taken. On Thursday night some of us also went to the RSAMD production of the opera War and Peace at the Theatre Royal.

During the week, Andy had already slyly hinted that the Friday's film would once again be silent however it was not Russian. Today it was Nosferatu, effectively the first ever vampire movie. This turned out to be really cool, it was interesting to see where it all started and how vampire films had evolved to what we have now, and also the fact that they are still popular to this day.

First week back

So the first week back on the course after New Year started with a nice 2 o'clock start just to ease us back in gently. We are beginning to look into the origins of cinema in greater depth now, still looking at the history of cinema right from the very start with the invention of the camera and the first ever films like the arrival of the train. It's interesting to hear about these early days of cinema when the inventors like the Lumiere brothers and Edison scarcely realised the gold mine they had uncovered, thinking film would just be another passing fad. The stories of the early films like the train and the kiss are also quite funny as everyone watching the train film ran out of the way, terrified they were going to be hit by it and the kiss which caused national hysteria.

Tuesday's class with Ray was quite intense as is always expected, even though we still had the later start time of 2 o'clock. Today we were starting lighting for the first time and so, after we finally discovered which room we were in, we all took a trip to the kit room to take up all the lighting equipment. As is often the case in Ray's class, it was a furious note taking session for a lot of the time whilst he demonstrated the many different varieties of lights that the academy uses. On top of which we had to learn all the new industry slang combined with the official jargon - I never knew there could be so many words about lighting. After a break we had the opportunity to have a look at the different effects that the different types had. I was chosen to be the model for part of this and so, after the camera and monitor had been set up, had to sit in a chair and have the various lights tested on me to show everyone else the effects. This was quite a good laugh as well but we soon ran out of time and had to put all the kit safely away back in the kit room before 5 o'clock. That night at Cineworld, there was an advance showing of A Prophet, a new French film. Myself and Samuel Ferguson had managed to secure tickets to this prestigious event so went up to the cinema at about half six and were greeted by a joyous Michael Maxwell taking tickets. The film itself I thought was absolutely brilliant and it's easy to see why it's already won awards and been describes as the best film of the year. I'll probably go and see it again when it actually comes out so you can maybe expect a blog on it, if not at least I'll have the ticket to prove I was at it, how sad I know.

On Wednesday we got a text in the morning to inform us of a programme meeting at one o'clock with just us first years. This was really brief but it was still quite good all the same: we were informed that although the first term is not a particularly practical term, this one should be more hands on and that a new script competition was starting where any of us could submit a 2 page script on a specific subject and have the chance of it being commissioned by the tutors. After this we had about 50 minutes to kill before our TV class with Andy at 2. When this came we were in the new and exciting AGOS Board Room which is leaps and bounds ahead of our classic AGOS 9. It felt like we were in some sort of business conference with the long table and comfy chairs. We were warned by Andy at the start that this would be a really dry and potentially difficult to grasp lesson however it turned out to be not as bad at all. We were discussing authorship with regards to television and how this came about in the sixties due to a number of different factors. After the break we then watched an episode of the critically acclaimed television drama The Street. Last summer I watched this programme and up until recently I thought it was brand new when I was watching it but it turns out that was the third series. Anyway I already knew I liked it and how brilliantly written the episodes are. This episode I hadn't seen however as it was from the first series (I think) but it was absolutely brilliant and after it literally the whole class were astonished at how good it actually was. What makes the programme is undoubtedly the good writing and what I think makes the show so successful is that the idea for every episode is incredibly simple. Everything is very low concept and realistic yet the situations that arise are always so compelling that you can't help but want to watch right to the very end. Even the basic premise for the programme that every door has a story behind it is incredibly simple yet genius.

We got a text late on Wednesday night to tell us that Adam was sick and wouldn't be able to take our class on Thursday. So we decided to make the most of the day and a few of us went to the Xscape thing at Braehead and played ten pin bowling then went to Frankie and Benny's. After that we returned to halls and I sat and did some more work on my script for Richard. Later on we decided to go the the cinema just cause we're film students and we've got an excuse to. Some of the girls went to see Nine but having already seen this on Sunday night, me and Sam went to see Daybreakers, a vampire movie which was actually pretty good I thought. Sam and Harry then successfully stole a cardboard cutout of Nowhere Boy John Lennon from the Cineworld skip and we returned to halls at high speed just managing to evade Strathclyde's finest. After everyone went their separate ways I went back to my room and did more of my script. I managed to get a ground-breaking new idea for the ending so went crazy and did absolutely loads of it then went out to the Counting House for a couple of Guinness to celebrate.

On Friday, we knew that we would be watching a silent Russian film. Black and white. Silent. Russian. 1925. Not really the most exciting combination to be honest so I wasn't overly looking forward to the screening but for some reason was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was just the kind of mood I was in but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The main reason we were watching it was to gain an appreciation of the early techniques of film editing - where the film makers would literally cut a piece of film to edit it. This was actually very noticeable in Battleship Potemkin and it was clear that the Russians did spend much more time editing the clips. It was obvious that there were more shots from different angles and such like which shows they used editing in a more artistic way than purely for story-telling purposes. Fair enough the overall story was probably not that brilliant or riveting and as Amélie pointed out to me about half way through, the film was made for propaganda purposes. I much preferred this to Dr. Caligari, however, maybe it was just much easier to follow or I quite liked the subject matter, who knows but I actually didn't hate this movie. And as I said after it, I probably enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Nine.

Over the Christmas holidays

Although the Christmas holidays often brings to mind "good television", I still found that the majority of the things I watched over the holiday period were DVDs that I got from Santa. After Christmas day, I didn't think I'd got a particularly large amount of DVDs to watch but when I think about it, I did.

True to his word, Santa managed to get me The Godfather box set so I'll no longer have to keep borrowing it from the RSAMD library. So a while after Christmas I decided to watch the first film with my dad who was looking forward to seeing it again after so long. I enjoyed watching it again and it's definitely one of those films that you can enjoy again and again because you notice things that weren't apparent the first time you watched. We watched the second one a few days later, the second time I've seen this as well and I might do a blog about it in the days to come so look forward to that people. I still prefer the first film though, and I've yet to see part three.

Another DVD I got was the second series of Ricky Gervais's Extras. I watched this with my mum and dad within less than a week after Christmas and quite enjoyed it. I think Extras is really funny a lot of the time and Ricky Gervais has done well writing it and all. I also quite like Ricky Gervais but I don't love him. I get the feeling he sometimes thinks he is funnier than he is as was shown with films like The Invention of Lying. Not taking away from Extras though, it is really hilarious at bits. Ricky Gervais is a funny guy and a good comedian but he's not a comedy genious.

Che: A Revolutionary Life part one and part two was another DVD I got although I've not had the chance to watch it yet.

I also got Michael McIntyre's new DVD showing his live standup in Wembley. I decided to watch this on Hogmanay with my mum, dad and cousin and after a couple of beers in my belly, I found myself crying with laughter on a few occasions. After that, the traditional New Year's eve night of TV ensued with an episode of Still Game, sadly not a new one, then Only An Excuse, where Jonathan Watson rips into the year's most interesting/amusing footballing incidents amongst other things. After that you bring in the bells with Jackie Bird, watch Phil and Aly play some Scottish music then who really wants to remember after that.

When I said I didn't think I got a lot of DVDs you can see that from that small list that I didn't get a great amount until you consider the big massive box set of Laurel and Hardy: The Collection that my girlfriend got for me. It contains 21 DVDs so I'll probably be quite a while working my way through them and so far I've watched two and a half. The first disc has one of their features A Chump at Oxford on it which I found myself near enough crying with laughter again to one day, I seem to be doing a lot of that these days ae readers? They also give you the option to watch in black and white or the nice colour restored way but I prefer to watch the classic way.

I also started a book over the holidays but I've not finished it yet however I will blog about it when I do. So that's me described a bit of my viewing from over the Christmas holidays, mainly the stuff I got from Santa. I'll probably remember some great film that I caught on TV that I want to talk about just as I click "Publish Post" but for now, Happy New Year everyone!

Paradise Now

On Monday in between our tutorials and the Mahara induction in the afternoon, Sam and I were browsing through the DVDs in the library. Sam picked up the film Paradise Now and suggested I should take it out so I did. Later on I got a text from Sam saying I had left the DVD in his bag then a few hours later got another text saying he enjoyed the film. So on Tuesday night I decided I would sit down and watch it before I ran out of time.

I found that I really enjoyed it for the most part. The story centres around two Palestinian friends, Said and Khaled, who are recruited to go on a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv. It is made clear throughout that they are committed to the cause of freeing Palestine from Israeli occupation and they believe they have been chosen by God for this mission. A lot of very important and poignant themes were addressed in the film I think and it was a very interesting, engaging and often sad story.

One of the most important messages conveyed in the film I felt was the age old moral that two wrongs don't make a right. Or as Ghandi said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." The film does reasonably well I think in portraying what motivates seemingly ordinary young men to want to commit such radical actions. At the start of the story I think the writers have been very deliberate to include scenes like Said (the main character) playing with his young brother or engaging in what we would view as a very similar lifestyle to our own. The major difference of course is their home is situated in the middle of a war zone and many of the luxuries that we take for granted are not there - other than that, it is very easy to relate to the family. This in turn helps to make the characters much more engaging. We don't specifically view anyone as "goodies" or "baddies" which helps the audience to understand that those involved are people from backgrounds not dissimilar to our own. There are no real references to why the men feel so strongly for their cause in the film and the ordinary viewer has no reason to have any feelings of antipathy towards the Israeli occupation. The men discuss it often, however, and the scene near the start where they are recording the propaganda video shows clearly why they are prepared to commit these actions and the cause they are prepared to sacrifice their own lives to advance.

There is also a love interest with Said and a woman, Suha, he met while working as a mechanic. This turns out to be one of the most pivotal factors in the film, I think, that ultimately influences the decisions of both men. One of the mantras that is repeated a couple of times by Said's friend, Khaled, is that living in inferiority and occupation is far worse than death. This further helps us to understand the motivations of the men. One of the most powerful scenes in the film for me is when Khaled is remonstrating with Suha in the car and, although we don't realise it at the time, this forms a major turning point in the film. Suha, who is aware of what Said and Khaled are planning to do, is desperately trying to dissuade Khaled but of course, like many like-minded young men he is resolute in his belief that this suicide mission will somehow help their cause of freedom. Suha responds passionately to this in what is one of my favourite lines in the film, which I managed to find on the IMDb site:

"And what about us? The ones who remain? Will we win that way? Don't you see that what you're doing is destroying us? And that you give Israel an excuse to carry on?"

Although she is clearly in support of freedom for the Palestinian people, she completely renounces suicide bombing as a means of achieving that. I think this is one of the most important messages in the whole film that by committing these actions, they are only giving Israel an excuse to continue their occupation and are in actual fact pushing their cause for freedom further out of reach.

All in all I found the film an enjoyable watch. It has great drama and the plot and characters are very engaging. The story is often very gripping and there are a number of plot twists. At times it could be very sad and there were many poignant moments throughout as well. The final shot of the scene literally had me on the edge of my seat but I won't spoil it because I would recommend the film to anyone.

Friday 11 December

First of all today, we had to attend a short meeting in the Athaneum Theatre about the new project that we will be doing with TPA when we come back after the new year. This basically involved having a quick read of the project briefing paper type thing that John Wilkie handed out so we could see what we would be involved in. We also learned who from the TPA course we will be pairing up with on Monday to share their expertise about Mahara. After a quick wave to our respective partners, we were free to go.

At 12:30, though, instead of having our standard two film Friday screenings, we had the opportunity to watch 8 short films that had been made by the 4th years and 2nd years over their time on the course. This turned out to be a great experience, it was really enjoyable to watch all the different films and compare how good they were in terms of writing and composition as well as the technical aspects. It was strange to think that a few of the films that had been made by the current 2nd years were actually made in the February of this year, which meant they had only just started their term 2 of first year. That also means that the premises for short films that we will be submitting to Richard in the next few days could potentially be short film material to be used later in the year, how exciting! I genuinely enjoyed the experience of watching these films collectively. It gave us an opportunity to see that type of thing that we will be working to, and it also made me just want to go out and start getting ideas together to make projects. My favourite film would have to be the 4th year production, Slag, which was about a young girl who finds herself unwillingly transported into a life of tabloid fame. It was very well conceived overall and the amount of hearty laughs that it got from all of us in the lecture theatre indicated how truly funny and well made it was.

After all this furoure that the short films created within the three year groups we all departed for a break, some people lucky enough to be going to the academy panto. For us first years, however, it was time for us to come back to the Fyfe Lecture Theatre at half 2 to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a silent German film from 1920. It was an interesting watch. Not necessarily an enjoyable watch and probably not something that I would watch for sheer entertainment. However, it was quite interesting to see that, although I don't know a great deal about the context in which it was released, it was surely one of the first and most influential films to contain such dark and horror type themes. As we discussed afterwards, the film was very gothic in style which helped to portray its dark plot and characters. It wasn't always the easiest of plots to follow at times, I felt, but when we talked about it afterwards and how the narrator was actually insane things became clearer. This also helped to explain the crazy set design.

As for my favourite Christmas film, I would have to go for Home Alone 2. It's one of the few films I know where I think the sequel is better than the original. Maybe it's just because I saw the second one first but I've just always like it better and found it much more exciting. It's a great Christmas movie without being outwardly about Christmas itself. Although you always find it on at this type of year and I'm not complaining because it's one of those films you can watch pretty much every year at the same time and it will evoke the same great feelings from you every time.

Coronation Street

Coronation Street. Where to start?

I was quite surprised in class the other day to find out that quite a few people had never even seen an episode of the soap. Expectedly most people are not avid viewers of Coronation Street but it's one of those shows that it's pretty difficult not to have seen. I've seen a fair few episodes in my day, mainly due to the fact that my mum used to watch it quite regularly. I haven't seen it for quite a while now though, probably due to the advent of programmes like CSI and NCIS which have knocked Corrie from my living room TV screen.

So I sat down tonight and watched the first episode of Monday night's double bill. All in all when you actually look at the 22 minute episode, nothing in particular happened. A small confrontation with Peter Barlow and Ken, a little meeting between Kevin and Molly who are having an affair and a bit of planning for the Christmas panto in the Rovers Return. Not much happened at all when you examine it like that but nevertheless it gradually progressed the storyline piece by piece.

I think, however, that people enjoy shows like this for a number of different reasons. Firstly, it's entertaining in the fact that it is a comfort to people. People enjoy watching other people's lives and Coronation Street allows the audience to temporarily forget the stresses of their own lives and immerse themselves in other people's. It's also great to watch because it shows in quite a realistic way that there are other people out there just like ourselves who have the same problems etc. in life. Further to that, it can also remind us how good our lives are or how normal we are compared to all these people who have, on average, about three illicit affairs every few months. It's great for gossip. There's always something happening to hook the viewer to watch the next episode and keep watching on a regular basis to see how the story pans out. Another reason I think many watch it is due to tradition. It's a generation thing quite often I think. People watch it if their mums watch it and it gets passed down through the ages. Clearly though, people enjoyed watching the trials and tribulations of life for the characters on the street in December 1960 and they still enjoy watching in December 2009.

In the episode I watched, I know we discussed it in class the other day, but I was quite surprised that the main storyline was still Kevin's affair with Molly. The last time I watched the show I now remember was during the summer when this affair was just kicking off. And it's still the main hook for the viewers apparently! Throughout the episode as I said not a great deal happened but all the scenes I noticed contained very realistic situations and confrontations which could easily arise in real life and that many can relate to. For example, the small plot of some new guy who must have just come out of prison who is going to join the army. Obviously, the majority of the audience won't have sons who are ex-prisoners but many people are affected by young men joining the army and the appeal for this is shown when the mother(?) who works in Roy's café says she will be very worried and unhappy when he goes to Afghanistan. I also noticed in the episode they gave a couple of lines to Sophie Webster and some other young guy, possibly just to appeal to the younger audience. There is also a noticeable part for the male audience when Dev is in the bar talking to Steve about his new mistress who is beautiful and loves golf and what could be a better relationship. One thing I did notice was that at the end of the first episode on a Monday night there is usually a strong hook or cliffhanger type situation that entices the audience to come back at half past eight and watch the second part. This wasn't very strong in the episode I watched and only consisted of a domestic between Deidre and Ken about the opening of the new bar and Ken's interference in it - nothing that really made me want to rush and watch the next episode.

Anyway, overall I actually don't mind Coronation Street at all. Is the acting perfect? Not at all. Are all the plots and characters 100% believable? No they're not. But Coronation Street will have a place for years to come I think because it is human nature to like watching such programmes. I'm not a regular viewer but if I'm being completely honest if I was sitting watching telly myself and there was nothing else I wanted to watch, I would unashamedly settle for an episode on the famous street - as the picture says: REAL MEN WATCH CORONATION STREET!

Week 10

Okay I suppose I had better do a reflective blog. I've still not done one and I know a big part of the whole blogging assessment thingy is reflection on what has been learned. So tonight after Kelsey put the fear in me by reminding me we have a blog tutorial with Andy coming up, I have decided to do a reflective blog on this week.

Monday morning started off with Richard's screenwriting class. We had all been anxiously/eagerly/nervously/excitedly waiting for this class since last week Richard announced that the homework was that we had to come up with 2 of our deepest secrets and write them on postcards to be read out anonymously in class. We also had to come up with three beliefs we hold about the world. So, at 9:30 we all arrived good and sharp to get this scary process underway. I found it a very strange process listening to everyone's different secrets. It was quite strange and even nerve racking at points when the post-secrets were being read.

Once it was over, it was quite a relief. It felt really strange and open - it was a really enlightening experience but not a comfortable one at all. After this, we went round the room to allow everyone a chance to express one of their beliefs one at a time and if anyone disagreed with a point they were to say so right away. This obviously led to a lot of strong and interesting debate from a lot of the diverse beliefs in the group. I found this to be really interesting a quite an engaging and worthwhile experience. It allowed everyone to kind of lay some of their strong beliefs down on the table for all to see and the debates that followed some of the more controversial ones were also very interesting.

Tuesday morning started bright and early for me - but nobody else, sadly. When I got Gav's e mail about the formative assessment that was taking place it said the assessment would be from 9:30 till 16:30 however me being an eejit I didn't realise we could basically pick and choose when we wanted to come in because it was an open assessment. So at half nine I walked in to an empty, pitch black DTU and it was then that I realised...

Undeterred by this I thought I may as well start the assessment and try to get it done as quickly as I could. Michael Maxwell then came in for ages trying to edit some short film but his computer kept crashing. After ages of trying to complete the assessment, I eventually got it done and Sam, Murray and I went to see Nativity the new Christmas film.

On Wednesday we had no classes so I took the chance to have a nice long lie. It was a good day though, as I went ice skating with the girlfriend at George Square then a few of us had a DFTV cajun chicken dinner at the halls. After that, we all went back up to George Square to watch the Christmas movie Elf on the big screen outside in the freezing cold.

On Thursday we had two classes with Andy: the history of cinema class in the morning and TV in the afternoon. The cinema one turned out to be more of a history lesson than anything else which I quite enjoyed for some reason, hearing about old Glasgow and the like. The TV class was also pretty cool as we learned about gameshows and then had the opportunity to come up with our own ideas, our one being Jeremy Kyle meets Get Your Own Back.

We only had one screening this Friday: a Buster Keaton movie called Sherlock, Jr. This turned out to be quite entertaining and funny I found, even though it was only 45 minutes long. It was also interesting to compare this with the films of Charlie Chaplin from the previous two weeks' screenings. Technically speaking, I think Keaton's films were definitely more skilled and a lot of the effects in this movie I genuinely found myself asking how he managed to do it, especially as Keaton performed the majorirty of his own stunts. I still really like the Chaplin films as well, though, and feel that he is probably a more engaging actor who seems to have a better grip of the emotions of the audience. But I'm not going to decide who I like better between the two, I think it's perfectly acceptable to like them both and appreciate each in their own way.