Misfits

On 12 November last year, a small group of us sat down in Meg's room in halls to watch Misfits, the new E4 programme that was showing that night. At the time I hadn't heard of it at all and even though I'm a television student, I still didn't have any great compulsion to sit and watch it. I didn't know anything about the new show, what it was about or anything so the only real reason I went to watch it with everyone else was for something to do and not to miss out on anything.

As with most things we watch in a group people are coming and going in and out so you're not always 100% concentrating on the screen. But I still quite enjoyed the first episode. For anyone who doesn't know, the basic premise of Misfits is five young people who are doing community service are caught in a freak storm which leaves them all with different superpowers. The storm also has a powerful effect on their probation worker who turns into a killing menace and ends up killing one of the community service workers and trying to kill them all. As a result they end up killing him in self defence and burying his body under a nearby fly-over. This is all in a single 45 minute episode.

So after that, due to not having freeview in halls and not being overly worried about seeing another episode I never saw the show again. Until last Sunday when I decided to download the full first series onto my iTunes for £10.99. I don't know why I suddenly decided on this purchase. I think in the debate last week, Misfits had been mentioned as an example of contemporary television that has potentially shocking content but is no longer shocking to audiences these days. So when I was reminded of the show then, I was browsing on iTunes at the weekend and saw it and decided I had to buy something with the vouchers I had got from Santa.

Over the next few days, I watched an episode a night and found myself really enjoying them. The first episode is more of a general story in terms of characters but after that each episode focuses on one particular character slightly more than the others. Although the premise is quite simple, I find the storylines really clever and gripping. We've been told we should be watching new material as this is obviously the best exemplar of what is popular now. And I've enjoyed this new programme, especially when it can loosely be described as homework. I've just finished the series there and am happy to hear that it has been commissioned for a second series.

All that practical jazz

In the past few weeks, I've done by far the most practical work I've done since our course started. On the third week back of term, we didn't have many classes, however on the Monday I was involved in a small two-camera shoot in the conference room. This featured a guest speaker who was giving a masterclass to TPA students. Our four man crew consisted of myself and Murray as camera operators, Amelie as camera assist and Sam as the boom operator. We also had 4th year Steven Ferguson to help us with sound.

So at 2 o'clock we set up all the kit in the room in preparation. Then at 4 o'clock the talk started. It was a good experience to be actually filming something real for once. Up till then we had had our fair share of technical classes with Ray, but never actually had a shot of operating the camera in a real situation.

Another big practical activity came on Thursday when the whole class was involved in filming the Bum Clocks gig. We were all assigned roles for this collaborative event with Kelsey, Meg and I the editors. So although I didn't have a particularly hands on role in the gig itself, it was still good to be there on the night helping prepare the kit with everyone else.

Last weekend, I also took out some of the kit to practice over the weekend. After three journeys up from Sam's car to the sixth floor of halls I was starting to regret taking as much stuff, and made a mental note not to specialise in roadieism. On the Saturday, Meg came up to get some practice with the kit. The only problem was, we didn't have any idea what to film. Obviously we could have just practiced setting up all the gear but it's always better when you've got some sort of project to work on. So after sitting about for a wee while wondering what we should film, Meg came up with an idea for a small story that we would be able to film without leaving halls. Obviously when you've only got two people and the fairly small rooms in Liberty House, it's quite awkward maneuvering big Kino lights and cameras and tripods and monitors around but we seemed to manage quite well. We also managed to get Flick down as well to help with the project which helped a lot. The basic story involves a man who is in his flat preparing for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner with his girlfriend. He places chocolates, a rose and a card on his bed then goes through to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Not long after, his girlfriend goes into his room and we see her eyes lighting up as she sees the chocolates. The man then returns to the room to find the box of chocolates empty and his girlfriend with chocolate smeared all over her mouth. So we filmed from about two o'clock to six o'clock without stopping and managed to get the whole story complete.

On Sunday, we managed to get the help of Sam and his car so decided to go on location. With the whole city of Glasgow and beyond as our oyster we weren't sure where we wanted to go. But we put faith in the fact that Sam always seems to know some cool place to go in the city. So we ended up at the old shipyards on the south side of the river. We came across an old derelict building with no roof and decided to film some sort of horror movie. We filmed for a few hours there until the rain came on and we had to leave. And when you film for hours and end up filming probably less than a minute of actual footage, it really makes you realise how much hard work it actually is and how much work must go into making a feature length movie.

Television - The Small Screen (Summative Statement)

Since the start of my time at the RSAMD, my view on television has changed quite significantly. For the most part, my change of feelings towards TV has probably been subconscious and I don't feel as if my view has changed on it. And to be honest, my overall thoughts about television have not changed too much, but the way I look at TV will never be like it used to.

From the start of this module we've learned about people's attitudes to television, why people watch it etc. Obviously there are many reasons why people watch television. However I think the reasons are best summed up in the BBC's mission statement phrase "to inform, educate and entertain." Many people use the TV as a source of knowledge, for example, the news and other current affairs programmes. There are also many educational programmes on TV like documentaries and even things such as cooking programmes which can still be classed as educational. Obviously there are also thousands of programmes out there that are designed for pure entertainment and it can be argued that most people these days are only interested in this latter aspect.

Throughout the module we've also looked at the different varieties of shows from their infancy right up to present day. The origins of the sitcom with I Love Lucy through shows like Porridge and up to contemporary sitcoms like The Inbetweeners. Also other programme genres like cop shows, game shows and reality television.

Overall I think I've changed my view on television, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I don't know. I certainly view things in a much more critical light now and understand the reasoning behind a lot of different shows that I would never before have questioned. And although I was forced to argue the opposite view during the debate, I definitely feel that television is more than lights and wires in a box.

The Writing Week

For the first three days of this week we were quite excited to know that Richard Smith, our screenwriting teacher was back from living it up in LA to teach us for three intensive days. This was quite exciting as we had all recently submitted scripts to him and were looking forward to getting back into the writing classes as well as hearing feedback on our scripts.

Monday morning started in the traditional AGOS 9 where Richard eagerly awaited our arrival. The first exercise we had to do was simply to warm up our writing muscles so we did the statue game where a couple of people of the class stand up at the front and are arranged in a certain way. The rest of us then have to create a story around these muses. After this we revised all that we had covered before Christmas to refresh our memories on things like three-act structure, theme and character. After lunch we then had the opportunity to do an entirely new exercise which Richard promised we would enjoy. He had prepared sheets of paper for each of us with sixteen stages of a story on it but each of the stages was blank. We had to all sit in a circle and each fill in one stage of the story and pass the sheet to our left then fill in the next part of the story and so on. At the time this exercise was undertaken very seriously and strategically and after all the sheets were eventually filled in, Richard decided we should hear a couple to see where some of the stories went. Sitting on the end of the row, I had to read out the first story which, when reading it out just made us all realise how funny all the stories had become. And so, after we all agreed that we should hear what happened in every story, we went round the class and everyone read out the story they had in front of them. Almost every time the stories became more absurd and extremely funny ranging from a woman who breaks her leg and ends up in hospital to a claustrophobic submarine driver. It was at this point that Richard probably questioned that we were some of Scotland's best potential writers and wished he had stayed in his beach house in Santa Monica. After a crash course in visual storytelling and then symbolism that was us done for the day.

Tuesday's writing class began with us sharing two brand new premises we had come up with the previous night. After the usual process of going round the group twice, we managed to devise a shortlist of premises that could potentially be made into good short films. The ideas were then put under the microscope and it turned out that they might not be as simple to write scripts on as was first thought. After this we learned more about the essentials of writing, specifically focusing on character and dialogue. For character we had to do some simple but interesting exercises where we saw a photo of a person and we had to answer questions about them such as what the contents of their fridge was and what type of underwear they wear. This turned out to be quite stereotypical for a lot of it although there were some interesting results. As for dialogue we watched a couple of excerpts from films then discussed all the technicalities of dialogue. Visual storytelling was a main factor that we concentrated on which was really interesting because people automatically assume that a "script" should have dialogue and lines for actors etc. but in fact visual storytelling is very important and often much more effective. It was here that I really wanted Richard to just say "Okay you can go and re-draft your scripts," because with all this new knowledge it made me slightly less excited to have the script feedback tutorial. And yes, I now understand why Andy had showed us all these silent films.

A slightly strange task was set for our homework for Wednesday. We had to come up with three things that we don't like or would change about ourselves. Any other uni course and you would probably be questioning this but anything goes in screenwriting and this turned out to be quite mild compared to the day with the post-secrets and beliefs. So after going round the group three times and sitting in a nice wee circle listening to each other's flaws, we treated ourselves with some chocolate and cookies. After this we watched a short excerpt from some weird but classic horror/thriller film which led us nicely into learning about conflict and tension in a story. After this we arranged our tutorial times for later in the day so that Richard could give us feedback on our scripts. In between this I went to see Up in the air - the quickly released sequel to Pixar's latest phenomenon - with some of the others at Cineworld. My tutorial with Richard was quite good. It was fairly short and he didn't give a great deal of in depth feedback but we both agreed on the points that were good and the points that could have been improved on. Later on, I saw the film Brothers at Cineworld with Murray and Sam which, despite what Sam says I thought it was quite good.

On Thursday, we continued with the intensive week of writing with a visit by the BBC producer and writer John York. I found this class to be quite good and even though it was very fast paced because he was cramming a lot of information in, it was interesting and informative. A lot of the things we already knew from our work with Richard about three-act structure and the like but he told us a lot of other things like the five-act structure. In the afternoon we then had two history of cinema classes crammed into one and Andy had our attention from the off by telling us that if we remember anything from our three years in the academy we should remember this if we ever make films. We're up to the Russian Revolution kind of era in this class and we learned about the Kuleshov effect which I found quite interesting. This consisted of the Russian film maker, Lev Kuleshov, filming an actor looking at different objects such as a bowl of soup, a dead child and the Soviet flag. Each time the actor would have the exact same passive expression. However, when the audience saw the different clips they thought that the actor was very skilled. This experiment then revealed that the audience will actually feed in their own emotions to a film which I think was the main message that Andy wanted us to learn. The audience will provide their own context for a film, they don't need to be told everything and in fact often like it when they have to make an effort to add their own details even if it is subconsciously.

Friday started off with another screening of Charlie Chaplin in one of his final movies City Lights. Talking pictures had already started and Chaplin, refusing to bring the little tramp into talking movies, stopped his movie career not long afterwards. I think out of the three Chaplin films we have watched so far, this was definitely my favourite. The story was really lovely and engaging and of course there were some greatly funny moments in it as well. And the score of course was really good, especially compared with the likes of Battleship Potemkin. Fair play to Chaplin, he was a bit of a legend.

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!