One of my goals for the mid-year break was to finally attack the growing list of movies and TV shows on my watchlist. Going through the 400+ list I realised that there was one movie in particular that I never got around to watching. Maybe it was because it wasn’t a Hollywood blockbuster with all the bells and whistles and I didn’t know whether I would like the particular comedic style of the film. Asking my brother, he said he couldn’t really remember it but thought it was more of a “guy film” and might be a bit crude for my liking. Disregarding his comments, I thought “what the hell” and put it on.

And boy was I glad I decided to watch it. ’50/50′ is the most surprising, touching and warm-hearted 90 minutes of film I’ve ever enjoyed. Certainly not a typical “guys movie” as I was misled to believe, the film which is based on a true story, centers around 27 year old Adam who is told he has very aggressive spinal cancer. Screenwriter Will Reiser penned his own experience with the encouragement of his good friend Seth Rogen (who also stars in the film).

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance is truly the standout of the film; his ability to portray Adam’s emotional roller coaster ride and the daily struggles he faces is remarkable. The film approaches the delicate issue in a comedic way as Adam’s best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) believes his cancer could work as a pick-up line. The comedy continues with Adam’s sessions with the young psychologist Katherine (Anna Kendrick) who admits Adam is her third ever patient. Anjelica Houston perfectly portrays Adam’s mother who is struggling to care for her dementia-ridden husband, and now her son.

The film finds the perfect balance between comedy and tear-jerking moments through a clear lens that can only come with Reiser’s own experience. This perspective means that it connects with the 20-something audience who can relate to Adam’s lifestyle, forcing them to consider just how different their life would be if they were in the same position. The message that ‘life is too short to not do what you want’ is portrayed as the experience forces Adam to reevaluate his own happiness; where the diagnosis actually provides an opportunity to change his life for the better.

Between laughing out loud at Adam and Kyle’s antics, to having tears stream down my face, this film exceeded beyond my expectations – their odds are definitely in their favour.

If anything good was going to come out of the now infamous elevator video of Solange Knowles’ fight with Jay Z, it was that suddenly the world noticed Bey’s younger sister. She might have had some recognition in the States, but her music was definitely not on the radar in Australia.

After freaking out like the rest of the world over the elevator incident, I immediately searched Solange on YouTube and was surprised to discover her refreshing style of music. A little bit of funk, hipster cool, the girl definitely has style as well as singing chops. In my opinion, she’s stepped out from her older sister’s shadow and owned her own spot in the music industry, creating interesting and catchy melodies and riffs that you can’t get out of your head.

Then there’s the cool as cucumber music videos which not only match her style, but are unique in their own right. ‘Lovers in the Parking Lot’ is by far my favourite, both musically and visually.

When we were first given the task of filming videos on our phones to specific constraints per week for Integrated Media 1, the challenge seemed a bit daunting and frustrating as I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should film. As the weeks progressed, however, I began to let go of the pressure I was putting on myself to produce beautiful and interesting videos to the weekly constraints, and rather just ‘noticed’ the little things around me that I had always put in the background and put them in the limelight of my videos.

After completing my sketch film, I felt relieved that I had finally made a Korsakow film despite all of the hardships I faced when it came to using the program. As I couldn’t seem to get it to work at home on both Mac and PC computers, I spent my time after the tutorial finishing it in the library. My thumbnails wouldn’t line up with my main frame in the neat way I wanted them to, and I spent some time mucking around with changing the size of the thumbnails and the aspect ratio before it looked the way I wanted it to. Another problem I faced was that I couldn’t centre the text the way I wanted to, as how it looked on my interface editor was different to how it appeared when it was exported and played. This was the only problem I couldn’t seem to fix and settled on keeping it the way it was.

Although I was relieved to have the task well and truly behind me, I began realising just how much I missed filming and documenting my daily life, and the little beauties that I discovered. While I could of course continue making Vine videos, I found that having a constraint actually helped focus my attention on the things around me, for example; circular things, something fast, etc. I really missed showing only a part of a whole and filming something in a beautifully ambiguous way and so am now trying to focus my attention more each day and finding something I want to film. The main problem is doubting and questioning why I am filming this particular object. It definitely is a problem I continue to face and that Adrian has mentioned before; the narrative filmmaker being concerned with filming something perfect and with a purpose, rather than just documenting something that catches your eye, or even something just ordinary.

With our major group K-film, we have stuck to the constraint of ‘celebrations’ in order to help focus our attention on the clips we film. However, I still find myself doubting what I’m choosing to film and asking myself many questions of such as, ‘does this depict a celebration in the conventional way?’, ‘can I film something unconventional that still refers to a celebration?’, ‘will the audience understand our concept?’, ‘how will the audience feel when watching it?’ These questions I feel are unavoidable, but if I want to contribute to the project in the way I want I need to let go of my doubt and film as much as possible, and filter through the clips later on.

My Favourite Late (Late) Show Over By Christmas.

I don’t watch much late night comedy shows, so I was surprised to find about a year ago, my love for ‘The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson’. With the recent shake-ups in late night TV, including David Letterman’s retirement and Jimmy Fallon’s continuing success, fans of late night TV have been in quite a spin. Even though it seemed late night TV show hosts were dropping like dead flies, I was certain that Craig Ferguson was safe. However, a couple of weeks ago, he announced he will be stepping down from the show in December. With him he will take his unique comedy style and the incredibly funny and candid late night show that he has built.

The set of ‘Late Late’ has become a second home for fans who have looked at Craig, Geoffrey Peterson the talking skeleton robot, and Secretariat the dancing horse, as friends. Going to bed with them has allowed fans to have a good hearted laugh after a long and stressful day at work and relax before doing it all again tomorrow.

The much loved segments of ‘Tweet Mail’ (where Craig throws most of the emails off his desk before even reading them), ripping up the note cards with questions for the celebrity guests right at the beginning of the interview, offering celebrity guests an awkward pause/meditation/therapy session to sign off the interview, receiving phone calls from celebrities (impersonations), and of course the sign off of the show ‘What Did We Learn From the Show Tonight Craig?’ where Geoff and Craig sum up the show.

I, along with many other fans, will shed a tear in December when Craig does his final show, ending an era of unique late night TV. I guess I’ll have to buy the box set and watch re-runs to ease me to sleep.

Cinemas blaming piracy for increase in ticket prices.

The price of a ticket to the movies is set to increase to an average $20 per person. With the price for an adult already at an average $18,  concession prices around $16 and kids at $14 the price of going to see the latest flick in the cinemas is already expensive. Booking tickets online adds another surcharge, as does films in Xtremescreen (Hoyts), 3D, and other ‘luxury’ cinema experiences. Then if you want to add some popcorn and a drink it’ll set you back another twenty odd dollars.

Going to the cinemas is becoming a luxury, and with the proposed ticket increases, they may even become obsolete in the near future. There are many issues that cinemas (and the film industry) need to address rather than worry about increasing their profits. Cinemas are blaming the price increase on piracy as Australia is one of the worst countries in the world for ‘stealing’ films and TV programs. This just seems like a bad excuse as cinemas already take on average 60% of ticket sales with distribution companies taking about 30% and only 10% actually reaching the pockets of the hardworking people behind the film. If caring about the filmmakers, screenwriters, editors, and production crew is the priority for cinemas, you would think they would change the percentage of their takings to pay the creatives more. Thus, I don’t accept that piracy can be a claim made by cinemas in a bid to increase their profits.

Investing your time and money on a film is one of the many reasons why people don’t go to the movies as often anymore, as they try and weigh up which film they want to see the most. Often, by the time they’ve seen a few TV spots and trailers through the media, they decide that the film is worth watching only to realise that they are too late. Films are more and more being given short screening periods, with the available session times after a couple of weeks not fitting the average worker’s schedule. From my experience, choosing a movie to spend your time and money on can be quite difficult, especially when you have competing reviews and opinions from friends. A lot of the time, people would just rather prefer to watch something in their own time and in the comfort of their own home, and not have to deal with people who don’t turn their phones off or talk loudly in the cinema. Usually, by the time I get a chance to go to the movies, the film I want to see is no longer in Xtremescreen, and at my local cinema that means that it’s in a dodgy theatre that is half the experience it should be.

As somebody who wants to work in film and TV production in the future, it is disappointing that piracy is so prevalent in today’s society. Criminalisation and fining of people who download illegally hasn’t proved to be successful as a deterrent. Downloading content illegally has become so common that people have surprised reactions to others who don’t participate in the behaviour. The mentality is that ‘everybody is doing it so why can’t I?’ While there isn’t a clear and simple solution to the issue, one suggestion would be to implement a similar system as Netflix or iTunes which could either be a subscription service, where you pay monthly and are allowed to download as much content as you like so long as you don’t reproduce it. Or it could be more like iTunes where you can buy an episode or pre-order a whole series for a discounted price, so that each new episode of your favourite series is downloaded automatically and you have paid for it. Films could also be purchased in this way. There are some devices being introduced currently, similarly to Foxtel, however, they aren’t at a standard where it appeals to the masses. They are devices that must be purchased and installed, unlike a program like iTunes which can be accessed by anyone who creates an account, and content can be easily connected and viewed on TV’s, computers, and mobile devices.

The major issue of course is, so long as it is available for people to download content illegally for free, they will continue to do so. The solution then is to create a large program that allows people to download content at a cheap price, whilst also shutting down illegal free download sites.

Rather than blaming piracy on the dwindling numbers of people going to the movies, cinemas should focus more on incentives to go and watch a film. Better deals at the candy bar, upgrading the theatres that currently exist, making Xtremescreen the standard for all theatres, and promoting more cheap nights would create more incentive for people to go to the movies. Hoyts has created the Hoyts Rewards program which is a points accumulation system where customers can eventually redeem points for a movie ticket or candy bar item. While it does create interest and an incentive, you have to buy the rewards card for $10. If you register your card within the first month, you receive a ‘free’ movie ticket – except you really just paid $10 for it. You need to accumulate thousands of points before you are able to redeem any – it kind of reminds me of going to the arcades when I was little and no matter how many tickets I thought I had, the only thing I could get with them was a bouncy ball and not the cool toy I wanted. Hoyts Rewards members do get promotions like the $10 movie of the week and special premiere screenings. While the $10 movie of the week sounds great, the majority of the time the film has been out for a while and you are likely to watch it in one of the dodgy theatres.

Better quality of theatres, lengthier screening times and more frequent screening times, cheaper ticket and candy bar prices, and ACTUAL savings for being a member would create more incentive to go to the movies rather than the proposed ticket increase which is just a ploy to increase profits by cinemas.

Why must people insist on spoiling pivotal moments of your favourite TV show?

After following the rollercoaster ride of ups and downs that your favourite characters have endured over multiple seasons, the last thing you want is someone spoiling it for you. With millions of fans being so dedicated to watching Game of Thrones as soon as it comes out, you would think that fans of the show would be respectful to one another and not spoil THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT let alone on social media.

I mean, you have to give people at least three days to watch the latest episode after it is released, and not spoil it the following day. And you certainly don’t write #gameofthronesspoilers after you have already spoiled it – who even uses hashtags on Facebook, like seriously?

You shouldn’t be spoiling it at all. What even makes you think you have the right? I’ve dedicated just as much time on the show as you have, and Arya has been my favourite character since the first season (not a spoiler) unlike YOU who after last week’s episode posted “New favourite character Arya Stark!” Bitch please. Just don’t. Maybe it’s my fault, I should’ve seen the warning signs and unfriended you before it got to this, but I thought I’d at least give you the benefit of the doubt. My bad.

It’s bad enough that fans of the book series smugly remind you that they know what is going to happen, and tempt you with asking them for spoilers, but to blatantly spoil Game of Thrones out of all shows on social media? Well, let’s just say you disgraceful spoilers are lucky that the days of beheading are long gone.

Or are they…?

Valar Morghulis bitches.

Always. Full Stop.

Being a keen reader, that has always been my philosophy. The thrill of seeing your favourite characters transformed onto the big screen after dedicating so many hours going through the roller coaster ride of their adventures can’t be denied. A successful movie adaptation of the book sends fans into a wild frenzy, and rightly so. But they will always agree that no matter how good the movie is, the book will always be better.

Not only can a book go into much further detail than a 90 minute movie, but it allows the reader to create their own version of the world that the author is describing. Nothing can be worse than watching a film adaptation of a book where the world isn’t as you imagined. It ruins your experience of the book and the journey it took you on.

On the other hand, seeing the world of Hogwarts envisioned on the screen is probably one of the best experiences for fans of the ‘Harry Potter’ books that we can imagine. Now the world of ‘Harry Potter’ has extended into elaborate theme parks, bringing the fans even closer to the world that they could only once read about on paper. The success of ‘Harry Potter’s’ transition from book, to screen, to theme parks, is a true credit of the author of the book series J.K. Rowling’s heavy involvement in ensuring her vision is fulfilled.

I have usually followed the tradition of reading the book before watching the film adaptation, more for the sake of enjoying the book rather than the film, as if I watch the film first, I’ll be less likely to be interested in reading the book as it has been ‘spoiled’ for me.

But now my tradition has been broken. Just the other day I watched ‘Divergent’ at the cinemas with a friend, and now I want to read the entire book series. I enjoyed the film more than if I had read the book before hand, as I would’ve known what to expect. The film is similar to ‘The Hunger Games’, which I read the books before watching the films. While I absolutely love ‘The Hunger Games’ books, the films were very exciting and satisfying but I did know what to expect, and did notice when the filmmakers left important parts out.

‘Divergent’ the film, took me on a rollercoaster ride that I didn’t want to end. The film was so perfect for me that I can’t wait to get my hands on the book series and see just what I’ve been missing out on as a reader. And then of course, go and watch the films.

After reading the book.

Because the book will always be better than the film…

Most of the time.

Chicago Fire is a recent American TV program (2012, NBC) that focuses on the lives of firemen and paramedics working within Firehouse 51. While each episode includes action-packed rescues that they have to deal with, the majority of the show’s focus is on the relationships and personal dilemmas of the crew.

The show gives an amazing insight into the types of challenges emergency service men and women deal with on a daily basis, their comradeship amongst each other, and the second family they form with each and every member of the firehouse. The theme of family extends to the way in which the show includes the audience in feeling a part of the character’s lives; they ride the characters’ emotional highs and lows with them.

There are many storyline layers that the writers expertly navigate between through each and every episode. The audience is never left wondering “what happened with so-and-so” as the writers ensure that all plot points are paid off eventually.

The crew can be called out to different types of emergencies (usually 3 per episode) which may not relate to each other at all, but will provide context and raise the stakes for the character’s ongoing problems. For example; separate incidents within an episode may emphasise Kelly’s neck injury problems which can threaten his career, put pressure on Dawson’s problems with the paramedic union, or even demonstrate the love triangles that exist within the crew.

Occasionally, an episode will revolve around a particular call, or similar calls out to the same location or occurring to the same victims, but these are in the rarity and still focus more on developing the dynamics of the crew and demonstrating their character development.

Each episode will usually (but subtly) provide more emphasis on one storyline than another. This may be one that affects all of the crew, or may be a major turning point in a particular character’s arc. This particular storyline usually provides the framework for the structure of the episode, with other more minor storylines cut between throughout.

This negotiation around the genre conventions usually employed in procedural TV dramas means that audiences are more willing to continue watching as they become attached to the characters and want to see how their storylines progress. It also means that audiences get a sense of refreshment from the change in focus compared to the majority of other procedural dramas that focus on the “story/case of the week”. The clever writing makes Chicago Fire stand out from the pack.

Chicago Fire has proven to be so popular with audiences that a spin-off ‘Chicago PD’ has begun in 2014, focusing on certain police characters that appear in Chicago Fire.

A show I initially wanted to watch based on the aesthetic qualities in the trailer (*ahem* – hot firemen), I surprisingly began watching it after my uncle and aunty who hardly ever watch TV recommended it to me. Now, it’s safe to say that I’m hooked. This is mainly due to the fact that it defies the procedural conventions, has made me feel a part of the Firehouse 51 family, and compelled me to continue watching to see what happens to my favourite characters. A show that I’ve now gotten my mum hooked on, it’s become a favourite amongst my family and friends and definitely one I will recommend to others.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS SPOILED HERE

“Is it just me or is this movie very similar to Titanic?”

This is the question I asked my friends last weekend as we devoured junk food at the drive-ins. Maybe it was the lack of the full Dolby sound experience of a normal cinema, but ‘Pompeii’ quite simply was underwhelming. Yes, admittedly, our decision to watch this film was highly influenced by our desire to admire Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington – but who actually calls him that anyway) amazing six-pack prior to the return of ‘Game of Thrones’ early next month. In that case, I’d like to congratulate the director Paul W. S. Anderson on finally convincing Jon Snow (yes, you have to say it in that accent) to lose the animal coats and fur, and train up to play a buff gladiatior. In terms of the narrative however, I’m afraid he can’t be cogratulated.

The film begins in Britannia, 79 AD where Milo (Snow/Harington) is a gladiator – and a successful one at that. He is, like the other gladiators, a slave, and is transported to Pompeii where there are political issues with the Roman General Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) who wants to change Pompeii to suit the Romans’ needs. He also wants the young Cassia (Emily Browning) who is quite creeped out by his advances and only has eyes for the bad boy – Milo (don’t we all). There’s some backstory about revenge Milo wishes to seek on his family’s death, and another gladiator Atticus – who’s deep-throated announcements; “It is the mountain” are more comical than prophetic – who wants to secure his freedom from slavery. Behind all of that is the constant, impending doom that Mt Vesuvius signifies.

The geography of the film is quite confusing and can be easily misunderstood – “Wait, where are they?” “Why are they going there?” – were the questions raised between us friends. The motives behind the movements are skipped over quickly and some of the action is a little too convenient in serving the story progression. The character’s motivations aren’t put to the forefront enough either; for example, Milo’s wish to seek revenge is overshadowed by his desire to woo Cassia – a storyline that assumes that because both characters are shown in close-up, looking at one another, that they are instantly in love. There is no real understanding of what draws Milo to Cassia, other than her beauty.

It wasn’t even half way through the film that I recognised the similarities between ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Titanic’, which made me wonder how much of the film’s disaster structure influenced Anderson’s film. The love-story between a poor, arrogant, adventurous and good-looking guy, and a rich, rebellious, and royal girl who is trying to carve out her own life; is almost identical to both films. The fact that they both must try to survive a doomed scenario while everything crumbles around them also occurs in both. Things become even more clearer when the pompous and misogynistic General decides he is going to have Cassia no matter what, even if it means *gasp* killing her one true love, Milo.

Perhaps it just follows the conventions of a disaster film, but the likeness to the famous ‘Titanic’ meant that the film became super predictable for my friends and I. “Oh yep, now she’s going to die”, “I could see that coming from the start”, were all thrown around at important plot points where the twist was more like a typical Hollywood 45 degree turn. Rather than being afraid for the characters, we were hanging out for Atticus’ booming “It is the mountain” announcements to provide some entertainment. The most interesting scene in the film for me is when Milo and Atticus are ambushed in the ring by, basically, an army. The direction of the action and suspense generated was undoubtedly the best part of the film – cue applause. The graphics, and video-game style directing of the action scenes, and of Mt Vesuvius itself must be appreciated, however the narrative was let down in favour of the technical aspect of the film.

If you’ve seen ‘Pompeii’ and still don’t agree with my comparison to ‘Titanic’ then perhaps you should look at the final scene of the film. Trying to escape the wrath of Mt Vesuvius, Milo and Cassia ride horseback, but the poor horse can’t (of course) carry them both to safety. In a complete ‘of course that was going to happen’ moment, Milo tells Cassia to save herself and leave him behind. In a classic ‘there’s not enough room on the door, Rose – except there is’ moment, surprisingly Cassia decides to stay with Milo as they both die together. The emotion portrayed by Di Caprio and Winslet far surpasses that by Harington and Browning, whose chemistry just isn’t there.

Maybe that was the problem all along, there was no real emotion portrayed from the actors to make the plot believable, because trust me I didn’t shed a tear during ‘Pompeii’ but bawled buckets (and still will) during ‘Titanic’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uSyICrtow

The music video for 30 Seconds to Mars’ song ‘Up in the Air’ is visually exciting and intense, matching the beats and rhythm of the song. It is highly cinematic with bursts of vibrant colour, interesting framing and editing choices.

The music video, directed by Jared Leto under his pseudonym ‘Bartholomew Cubbins’ is yet another masterpiece to his film roll. The video highlights ‘circus’ or ‘freak-show’ type characters set against an industrial background. A woman in doll-like makeup is set against a coloured dot print background resembling the band’s album cover. A different woman with bright pink hair is surrounded by orange butterflies while a young female gymnast performs aerial tricks with pink powdered paint. Dita von Tesse even makes an appearance on a pink mechanical bull. Pink and blue stand out as being the most commonly used colours in this video.

The titles ‘Love’, ‘Lust’, ‘Faith’, and ‘Dreams’ appear separately, each with different symbols representing each. Leto uses a lot of symmetry in his video, and most notably in this one. Most objects or people are framed in the center, in one frame he is standing between twins, and in another two groups of people charging towards each other is shown in a long shot – highlighting the symmetry.

The motions made by the characters or even simple objects always hit the beat of the music, emphasizing the music as being an integral part to the video experience. If he doesn’t use the motion made by characters to emphasize the musical changes, he does so by editing between different shots of the same image (ie; zooming out) or between images.

Towards the middle of the video, Leto incorporates isolating a movement and repeating it to highlight the repeated words ‘today’. During the drum solo, the movement of the images and editing between them sows down considerably, giving the audience the feeling of anticipation of what will happen next. After this section, a tape with Morse code spells out M-A-R-S (no text is shown so only those who researched would know) and the video rewinds quickly. After this ‘take no more’ is accompanied by vision of two groups of people running towards each other, throwing powdered paint at one another. The ‘paint war’ is visually effective as various colours are used and the vision is shown in slow-motion to highlight the contrast against competing colours.

My favourite editing sequence comes at 5:40 when the female gymnast shot in profile flips,which turns into a man on a Pogo stick flipping in the same direction, back to the gymnast completing her flip. Then slow motion of Jared dancing which turns into him jumping onto the drum set Shannon is playing, then back to the paint fight. The comparison of motion is effective and interesting.

The band also sent their song ‘Up in the Air’, literally up into the air. The single was received at a space station by an astronaut, probably the coolest thing the band has done (although everything they do is uber-cool).