Music and that

I honestly can't wait till this guy's famous. So I can be all "I blogged about him first!" and "I knew him from when we were five years old".
Though filming him (and his singing buddy) in the early hours of the morning after some serious drinking was perhaps not the best idea.
Definitely excited for when he records properly, but until then, I have this.

American Remakes!?!

So, it's not a new concept for shows to be remade in a different country - to account for cultural differences and societies - but recently, there seems to have been an influx in American remakes of incredibly British comedy. I think the success of The Office has given people ideas.

I can't possibly go through all of the remakes at the moment, as it would take too long and I would surely go insane, but here's a few that really bug me:

First, my favourite show of all time, Spaced has had an American Pilot comissioned, which fans have taken to calling "McSpaced".

Here's a clip of the glorious original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szJ07k-cHqU (embedding is unavailable)

And some of the remake:

Seriously, there's no competition. Even though, I haven't been able to watch the full American pilot, and maybe I'm completely biased. The acting in the original seems so much better, probably due to the fact that most of the cast new each other, meaning that they could work from each other so much better. Also, it seems like the technical aspects of the original are far superior. Edgar Wright, who directed the original, filmed the entire two series' as he would a movie, which added to the dramatic-style filming. Mostly, I miss the contrazooms. Spaced needs contrazooms. Fact.

Another completely unnecassary remake is The IT Crowd. Especially as they haven't even changed the script in the slightest, they even have one of the same actors (who is an actual legend, it's true. He just doesn't fit in with the American accent).

Original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAuyN1Sys9k

Despicable remake:

This needs no further comment.

Lastly, I'll mention the remake of Skins. For starters, the original of this was made in retaliation of American teenage dramas, so the fact it's being remade in America, really leaves me perplexed. Also, views on drinking are quite different in America, and the legal drinking age being three years older, would surely cause some issues with the plot.

Original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH0O5AuYC30

American:

So, there it is. They've officially run out of new ideas for programmes, and have been forced to recreate the already brilliant shows. This does not bode well for my future :

Greenwing

Greenwing is absolutely one of my favourite programmes in the world, ever. Even though I can't watch the above scene without curling up into a ball of pain and humour and amazement and shock. I think it's one of the best scenes to define the series, as those are the emotions that you end up feeling throughout the majority of the show. But as well as being one of the funniest programmes I've watched, it can also be very deep and almost profound.

I'll stop with the videos now. I could literally put the whole series in a post. I just can't find any part of it that I don't entirely 100% love. They can put such meaningful conversations in such unpredictable places, and although many people consider it a "surreal" series, I find it one of the most true to life series' that I've ever seen.

The creators of the show have reffered to it as a "soap/sketch/sitcom", and there really is no other way to define it. There are dramatic turns of events and you get surprisingly involved with the characters and the storyline, however, there's also elements of sitcom as it has some lesser characters with more light-hearted storylines. The sketch aspect is very important to the show and many of the scenes feature improvisation from the actors. I would add another clip, but I'd never be able to narrow it down to just one that I want, so I'll be sensible.

http://www.youtube.com/greenwingclips

Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin is just like a great big bundle of awesomeness. He does comedy songs which never fail to crease me up (Prejudice is one the of greatest works I've ever heard) but this is one of his more serious songs, which was written for an Australian film (which I sadly may never see, due to the fact it's not being released anywhere apart from Australia).

I love the song because, in my opinion, it's so much deeper than most rubbish and cheese that gets people teary eyed. I hate the concept of "depth", it's just too subjective and predictable. For example; teenage whining about how "rain makes it look like the windows are crying". I mean, really, just pass me a bucket.

Being "deep" means being original and creative! At least to me it does. I always get quite offended when people call me "deep" (here, air quotes denote derogatory tone). It's like; "well gee, thanks for telling me I sound like everyone else". I don't know. Maybe this makes me shallow. Well: I'd rather be shallow than a cliche any day, that's for sure.

Schmidt Sting Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index
This. Is. Incredibl(y odd)

Was ist das?

This is done so beautifully. I've watched it countless times and it doesn't get old. Taken from the German film, The White Ribbon, 2009.

Lovefield

This film is so clever!
I completely assumed the worst. I feel like a terrible human being.

The crow looks so happy with his beak all wide. Gold stars all round!

On a lighter note

so incredible

What's the Problem?

I've watched quite a few of Jr Canest's videos on youtube, and thought they were all great, and this one really interested me. However, it took me several months to actual get around to watching the full video. I did yesterday; it was brilliant.

So what is the problem? Maybe there's a lot of them, but maybe, it's just one problem with many, many symptoms. Personally, I agree that the main problem's people. Without people then the world would get on fine. Probably. Or maybe the animals would go crazy and destroy each other along with the planet. But then, perhaps, maybe that's destiny? How do we know that this isn't the way the world was intended to go? To just get a bit lame and peter out. It looks like eventually Earth's going to end up either some glorious Utopia or fall into some pitiful dystopia.

The problem? Some say people need to talk to each other. I think people do plenty enough talking. What needs to happen, is for people to start listening. But we have better things to do, like work, or mowing the lawn, or defrosting the cat, and besides, why should we have to do something. Someone else will do it, right? Someone's got to, but it's not my problem.

I learnt about this woman in psychology a while ago. She was murdered in the street and there was loads of people in the apartment block next to her, all watching. Nobody phoned the police. They all thought, "well someone else will see. Someone else will phone." No-one did.

The problem is that poor woman, and the people in the apartments. We can't worry at the attacker, the antagonist; not right now. We just need to fix what we can.

And if we don't? Well stop stressing about it! If you're not going to do something, there's no point fretting. You'll just yourself get in a state!

http://www.youtube.com/jr0canest
http://jrcanest.com/WHATSTHEPROBLEM/

I bloody love wind farms

I just watched Amelie

Finally.

It's the kind of film that makes you paranoid about doing good deeds. Like, if you do something good, are you doing it to do good, or just to appear a good person?

Is it wrong for people to do good deeds, just because it makes themselves happy? If seeing that something you have done gives another person happiness makes you happy, does that make it a selfish deed?

I may have to reserve judgement on this film...

(Yann Tiersen is a beautiful soul)

To Claire; From Sonny

So, I watched this short film, which I thought was quite lovely, the music especially and the colours and stuff, but the problem I had with it, was that I realised the "twist" by about 1:30, which meant the rest of the film was spent waiting for the inevitable. Which was fine. Maybe it was intentional, I don't know, I just feel that the time lapses towards the end seemed to drag on, and made you forget what the film was actually about.
It was quite lovely on the whole though, and it seemed very similar to the short film I wrote in college. Perhaps even too similar, which is saddening to me. Then again, they do say that there's only like, what? Seven actual stories in the world. Everything else is just variation on the theme.

Oh, and by the way: Who are these "They" people anyway? Why do they get to decide everything?

Narrated Films

Some examples of films featuring narration:


Sunshine, 2007, dir. Danny Boyle
-narrated at the beginning and end by the protagonist


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 2005, dir. Garth Jennings
-narrated by the "book"


Kick-Ass, 2010, dir. Matthew Vaughn
-narrated by the protagonist


9, 2009, dir. Shane Acker
-narration from unseen scientist

Other films/programmes with narration include Scrubs, Mean Girls and American Psycho. Many film noir also have narration, to add suspense.

The following is a short film about a character from a sitcom called Black Books. It is all narrated, but the voice-over is of the letter that is being written at the time:

The use of music, hand held camera and quick editing makes this short both simple and amusing. It is also not nessacery to have watched the series as it tells a story in it's own write.

I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK

From http://en.wikipedia.org/: "The film takes place mostly in a mental institution filled with an eclectic menagerie of patients. Young-goon, a young woman working in a factory constructing radios and who believes herself to be a cyborg, is institutionalised after cutting her wrist and connecting it with a power cord to a wall outlet in an attempt to "recharge" herself, an act that is interpreted as a suicide attempt. Her apathetic mother ... reveals that Young-goon's mentally-ill grandmother had previously been institutionalised for delusions of being a mouse, a trauma that sparks Young-goon's own lapses from reality. As a result, she fantasizes frequently of finding her grandmother and seeking revenge on the "men in white" who took her away."

The film takes place in a mental hospital, as the protagonist believes she is a robot. It is relevant to my script as mental illness is a prominent topic. It also encompasses romance and relationships into the story, and the relationship between the protagonist and his friend in my story is big part of the plot.

Haruhi Suzumiya

Anime influence:
from http://en.wikipedia.org/ "Haruhi ... has a mind for adventure, which often leads her subordinates to be swept into her plans. ... Haruhi was eyed as an oddball ever since Middle School: she had set all the desks from her classroom out into the hallway, painted stars on the roofs, and even painted a huge hieroglyph out in the school field. Haruhi can not stand boredom, so she comes up with various activities for the SOS Brigade, making them participate whether they like it or not. When in 6th grade, Haruhi felt she was no longer special after going to a baseball game and realizing she was one in a sea of people. Since then she set out to make her life interesting and unique."


(excuse the English dub, I could not find a trailer in Japanese with subtitles)

I feel that Haruhi Suzumiya is related to my script, as the main character has many similar feelings to that of one of my characters. The sense that there could be more to life is very prominent, and the idea of looking for this things such as aliens is something that my character has done in the past.

Of course, I do not own Haruhi Suzumiya and did not make the trailer.

The Comic

The comic is something that I've been writing with my friend since we were about 13 years old, it started as a series of short, humorous stories with unrelated characters and plots:
"Oven cleaner had a baby called Rhiannon who ate cheese and milk pies."
It then began to develop into a story with an intricate plot. Initially it was meant to be a children's book, but as my friend is an artist, it was turned into an internet comic. Common themes from the story feature adventure, morals, family and friendship.

Comic:
http://magicalblingblingpen.smackjeeves.com
Artist webpages:
http://soursuperapricots.blogspot.com
http://spacepirate-lu.deviantart.com
Original page:
http://randomland.12eyes.co.uk
Comic website (w.i.p.)
http://www.bignosebush.co.uk