Epic bath time part 2

Hope you like our new video, it's just a quick one and we thought it would be a bit funny so we hope you like it. My new power unit arrived today, I ran upstairs to install it, immediately after unpacking it I discovered that it required a 230V ac adapter. EVERY other adapter in the house with the same style plug is 250V, my PSU is just one of those things that is a right arse for the sake of it, so now I will have to go out and buy something else just so I can have decent graphics, so far it hasn't been worth the effort.

Film Friday's choice was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as per Empire recommendation. The film was confusing to say the least, we are never truly formally introduced to any of the characters and that makes it a little hard to care when each new plot event occurs if you could keep up with the story. The camera work and acting is very nice though and the all star cast is great, it's just a shame that the plot wasn't conveyed in the most user friendly manner.

Epic Bath Time

FTM forums are up!

I can now have mildly witty banter with the crowd and fans of fredthemonkey.com as their forums are back up, I have been posting under the name of Edmund (from E&D) and having fun the the currently small community of users. Nintendo have also decided to be a bit boss today and release Zelda the Four Swords for free, it is a little bit slow by my lonesome but it is still good old fashioned Zelda fun! Me and Mark have also been working on the gravy video, hopefully it will be up tomorrow along with the making of video which is amazing, wait until it gets 5 minutes in and you may chuckle softly to yourself.

Twitter!

Sorry, I got our Twitter account wrong in the post I made a few days ago, we now have a feed going so you don't have to hunt it down! Speaking of which, you may have already read that Daniel has been a subject of our own torture device but not intentionally so. We have all been wanting to do a Bisto advert for sometime now and we had a odd concept that basically meant that we would sit Dan in a bath of gravy. First off all the  granules didn't dissolve as planned to we had to boil some separately then pour it in. Dan initially complained about it being a little too hot in the tub but I told him 'Imagine you are a big ice cube that will cool down the water' to help his mentality, it later turned out that gravy retains it's heat very well indeed! Although Dan's hair never touched the water it was soaked with the amount of sweating he was doing, I had the task of fanning him in between takes with the clapper board and feeding him ice cold water. I probably didn't help that we bought some very cheap gravy that was full of fat, 99% of which had risen to the surface and clung to Dan's skin like a mollusk on a bit of driftwood. We got him showered down promptly and gave him a lolly, we even think we cured his cold! Result.

Rubber duck

A lot of nerves were shared around our film studies class today as we believed that we hadn't done enough coursework to satisfy our teacher, luckily we got away with what we had and me and Mark begun planning our short adverty film we are doing tomorrow. Without giving to much away I can say it will involve Daniel and a lot of gravy. I went out for a late Birthday meal with my girlfriend, after deciding I was really craving a curry we went down to a local Indian place and had a very nice meal, nothing really insightful to say about that apart from the fact I had a nice time.

Bored!

Just nothing interesting happened today, played a bit of minecraft and did my homework... life is slow at the moment.

I was really in the mood for a decent old fashioned horror film that was more about atmosphere and the feeling impending doom than gore and shocks, The Wickerman fit this bill nicely. It had the great set up of a foreigner looking for a missing person in an unusual area, things seem relatively normal at first but as the minutes pass there will be more than one time you will raise an eyebrow in disbelief or perverted interest. The mise en scene was very impressive and the last scene of the film is very harrowing, really enjoyed it!

New featured videos

Mark has put up some of our new videos today, Jamie's 'How the View' promo tells you why you should download his new single for absolutely free on the 29th and honestly, why wouldn't you? We have also put up our Bournemouth endeavours that shows you what type of shenanigans we got up to while we were down there. Give them both a quick watch and you shan't regret it.

Downloaded an application called comicrack today, it is basically a graphic novel reader, I downloaded the complete Sandman to read when I felt like it, turns out the file is nearly 3GB big but is awesome. It also came with the spin off series of comics which are equally interesting, especially the childrens book version of the characters and plot, tis very different to the themes of the original but it knows it is being a little tounge and cheek.

Watched A History of Violence today as it peaked my interest yesterday because I really liked the sound of the concept. It went by really quickly and the first hour was very good indeed, the final 20 minutes were decent but the story became a little too focused on the main plot point and another one just died out without any real acknowledgement. I can see why some people would really love this film, but for me it was just pretty good, if you want something short and somewhat interesting you should check it out.

James Creed Promo for 'How's the View?'

Saucemouth

We have a Twitter account

Daniel signed us up on Twitter under the name of moviemocha, at least I think so... I will verify this when he comes back from holiday tomorrow. Other than that I went back to my volunteer job for the first time in 2 months as I have been busy all other Saturdays, nothing has changed, the layout, the lunches and the customers have all stayed the same and its good to be back. For a film today I watched the French short Le Ballon Rouge which was generally regarded in the youtube comments as the second coming of Jesus, honestly it wasn't that good, the first 30 minutes were quite dull and repetitive, a young boy walks through the streets of France with a red balloon... that's it really. It was only in the last 5 minutes that I started feeling surprisingly emotional, I have no idea why either, I guess it was just visually interesting? I don't know, you can check it out for yourself on youtube if you like but it is not essential viewing unless you like old French films.

New graphics card...

My new super mega awesome graphics card arrived today, the thing looks insane, me and Dan quickly rushed to install the thing but we realized that had the wrong power adapter box... thing. Basically I am going to have to buy an new one of them so I can get my beast to work fortunately I have nothing better to spend my extras wages on so I'll just hope onto amazon later this week and see what I can do.

Weddings used to be fun...

Mark and Dan were over for the night again as we had to catch an early train to be a part of our extras job, we got up at 4:30 and arrived on time at 7 but left us very tired in the process. We spent about 9 hours sitting on the same pew waiting for instructions, I think about 3 shots were filmed again but one of them lasted around 2 minuets every time a take was done and we had to repeat this one the most times with our reactions. Although a little boring at times, it was still a lot of fun, the team were very friendly and they had an enjoyable time making the film; plus we got paid so that may bias my opinion a little.

Cowboys and samurais

Had a fun 1 lesson today, essentially we just watched Bowling for Columbine and discussed it, I like the film and its fun to talk about it so it was a good lesson. Walking home from school we got into an issue with a few year 9's, their arsenal increased from a few mushy apples to a 9-iron golf club that came within a few inches of my face but did hit my friend in the stomach, after that we left a trail of nose blood after he was punched in the face, all in all it was a very interesting walk home; and all we wanted were some crisps from Tesco.

Watched another film from Asia today, Yijimbo was basically A Fistfull of Dollars before it was released, personally I preferred the latter. It had it's moments though, it should have certainly been rated higher than a PG due to excessive swearing and strong violence, also the translation and subtitles were hilariously awful, 'Do not make him dead!' was by far my favorite line of the film and for all the wrong reasons.

Rooftop bouncing

I finished Ghost World early this morning and really enjoyed it, I should probably check out some of the other graphic novels in the library. I will probably be spending most of tomorrow working on my film coursework draft so that will be fun, at least I am humbled by the fact that I am further than Mark.

After searching for our copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon I finally found it under 'C,' I was really in the mood for a good martial arts film but I felt that it only partly delivered. Some of the fight scenes were very impressive and the settings looked nice, but ultimately I really didn't care about any of the characters or their motives, I felt like I hardly knew them. Whenever there wasn't on-screen fighting I found myself rather bored as the plot wasn't very deep but when the martial arts got going it was impressive... then went back downhill. Personally I think Hero is a much better film so I would highly recommend that rather than what I just watched.

Havin' fun isn't hard...

After feeling like utter crap at school today due to a lovely combination of head-aches and tiredness I did something a little bit out of the ordinary and headed into town to see my girlfriend. Taking my bike was apparently the wrong decision as my wheels were very deflated, it was perilous going in straight lines, let alone manoeuvre around dog walkers and other cyclists. After meeting up we decided to go to the library because it was warmer there, what started with me looking for the Sandman volume 1 (Nocturnes and Preludes) ended up with me filling out an application for a library card and taking out Ghost World; I can't remember the last time I was even in that library!

I finished off my Ealing comedy collection today, it turned out we had a seperate copy of the Ladykillers that didn't have the pesistant German subtitles. It started off a little slowly and Alec Guiness was practically unrecognizable save for his voice but the film really picked up at the very end as once again money and betrayal go hand in hand. Not my favorite Ealing comedy admittedly, but it had it's moments, it was good to see a very young Peter Sellers but now I am very curious to see the Coen Brother adaptation of the film, although I have been told by most to steer clear of that one.

A little time for myself

After 2 very hectic days it has been nice to chill at home again, went to Chris' party in the evening where we sat around and chatted until the night drew in. I was also offered some 'insanity' sauce which was basically edible napalm for your curries, I found out I was not as manly as I thought and made a quick dash for a glass of milk. Refreshing.

Gamefest 2011

Sorry for the lack of a blog post yesterday as I got back rather late after my extras job. Basically we got up rather early and arrived at our rendezvous point at the correct time, an hour later the minibus came to pick us up, any minor annoyance caused by that unnecessary wait was quickly dashed by seeing Robert Webb sneezing in front of us, we are such fanboys. After that we spent a lot of time waiting around, a total of 3 shots were filmed in the time we were there, the last one was a dance scene so if you do go to see The Wedding Video when it comes out in a years time, look carefully for 3 very energetic dancers in the background.

Today I wish Louis a happy Birthday, in celebration we headed off to Gamefest, my first video game convention! Nintendo were easily the most impressive booth we had time to visit, a 20 minute que for Skyward Sword (WOO!) was glorious. We stood behind 2 people who attempted to defeat the boss but failed miserably, when it came to my turn I picked up the reigns of Link and dominated the Demon Lord with ease, impressing many of the people around me; I even got a picture of me with Link outside the booth. Louis was absolutely desperate to see Skyrim since he has been checking their website on a daily basis for any new info, when we found out there was a booth here all for it he jumped at the opportunity. We stood at what we thought was the back of the que until 2 guys pointed out it started much further down, we gingerly stood next to the '2 hours queing time approx' sign. 90 Minutes later we were stood by the front doors and next to a looping trailer reel, showing Prey 2's teaser, Rage's gameplay, Prey 2' debut, Rage's extended TV trailer and Skyrim's gameplay, we saw each one 3 times... Only Skyrim's was any good. When we were finally let into the booth were we sat down on some pillows and told we will be watching a new trailer for their new upcoming game: Prey 2! Hooray, we saw the trailer for the 4th time and then told we would watch an 20 minute gameplay video narrated by Todd Howard (The designer). "Brilliant" I thought, "This will be perfect for Louis, what a great Birthday present!" I turned to him with a big grin on my face, he returned the look with one of melancholy, "I saw this video last night online" he said quietly.

Our souls felt about as empty as the goody bag were given, we stumbled out of the booth and I couldn't help but feel sorry for Louis who was very quiet at this point. I politely offered to fall back on good old Nintendo and suggested a go on the new Mario Kart, he cheered up quickly after that. The 3DS games were pretty good on the whole, the fore mentioned Mario Kart was very good, played just Kart Wii but now it was handheld! Super Mario 3D Land was interesting, wanted to play a little more than what was in the demo but was fairly fun. Kid Icarus: Uprising was pretty sweet but seemed quite challenging upon first playing, maybe a bit of a learning curve for that one. I quickly played MGS3D and the new Resi Evil but found myself dropped in at the deep end with confusing controls and a little bit of a choppy framerate; hopefully it will be ironed out for the final release. Grabbed some food which was rather expensive, one sign boasted '2 soft drinks for only £3,' for an outrageous price like that I'm surprised they bothered to promote that deal.

Louis is writing his angry letter to Bethesda and I am thinking about sleep, goodnight everyone!

Antonio... wtf?!

Everything I did today was somewhat eclipsed by the film The Skin I Live in, really well made, very well acted, lots of memorable moments with a very gradual twist that will make you really think about your unmentionables. apart from that though there is very little to mention, Dan and Mark are sleeping over since we have to get up ready to get on our train for our brief parts in the film The Wedding Video, more on that tomorrow; I'm off to bed!

Field of nightmares

I had a rubbish time at explorers today, essentially we cleared and overgrown field, most of it was large bushes/trees, mainly consisting of hawthorn, sloe berry bushes and brambles; a combination of all of natures most prickly plants and I forgot my gardening gloves. I was forced to feebly attack roots with a large rake instead although this meant I was rather unhelpful which my peers consistently reminded me of, but at least we cleared a fair bit but it would feel so much more satisfying knowing that we won't have to came back in a years time because the owner didn't do the best job caring for the field.

I sat down today to watch the original Ladykillers, got my lunch all made and warmed, prepared myself a coffee and a coke, ready to watch the film. The DVD had other plans and instead refused to turn off the German subtitles, I put up with them for a good 2 minutes and just decided to watch The Lavender Hill Mob instead, which was really good. I generally like heist movies, but this one was slightly different as it was mainly what the criminals did after the robbery where the films main focus was, it was also one of Alec Guinness' first films where he had a starring role, you may know him better as Obi-Wan Kenobi. There was an absolutely shining sequence where the characters are chasing some young girls from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the docks, showing some great satire of travel security and an hilarious case of mistranslation. I really like this film for some reason, I can't quite explain it so I would just say watch it, its only 78 minutes long and really entertaining.

Bit part

It's official, me, Dan and Mark are all going to be extras in a wedding video of some sort, Mark hasn't told me many of the details but it sounds like semi decent work an we get paid! We only work for 2 days but it will certainly be a good experience, our first day is on Friday. I also think my cold has hit it's peak today as my nose was dripping like a tap at one point, plus I forgot to bring in a tissue so more cack-handed (quite literally) nose wiping ensued.

I did watch a film today that completely boosted my moods, Harold Lloyd's Safety Last is a 1923 silent comedy immortalized with the image of Lloyd hanging on for dear life on a clock hand. Although we didn't have a DVD copy of the film, with a little searching I found a totally legit Chinese website where I could watch a streamed version of the film, after watching some adverts for some Asian tasty cookies I sat back and really enjoyed what I saw. During some scenes I was laughing out loud, in others, particularly the climax I was cringing at every moment of teased danger keeping me thoroughly engaged and entertained throughout. I would defiantly recommend this one if you are feeling ill, it really lifts your spirits and makes you feel like you have watched an important part of cinema history.

Gone and gotten myself a cold

I think I have inherited Louis' infection, I have a blocked nose and a tingle in my throat. I tried using some of that nasal spray stuff, but all that did was pump foul stinking chemicals into my nose so that it may drip down into the back of my throat, effectively making it more sore. Louis assures me it isn't the worst cold ever but it is certainly a blow. I basically went through the entire school day wishing I had a tissue, instead I was forced to elegantly wipe my nose with the back of my hand; tomorrow I will make sure that I bring in something to blow my nose.

I finally got around to playing Daniles Christmas present to me, F.E.A.R. A game I had been putting off due to its scary nature, and surely enough after my character is asked to go find a way to open a gate and you find a dead body after seeing some creepy things going on I quit, fast. I just felt an awful tension with every door I walked through, each dimly lit room is a hazard to my own health and heart I figured that techniqualy I was doing myself a favor by not scaring myself to death.

Following up from yesterday's Ealing film I decided to check out their most critically acclaimed film: Kind Hearts and Coronets. It was delightfully dark humoured and incredibly upper class, it was also very cool to see an actor in 8 different roles (including a woman). It had a very good ending as well although it did feel just a tad too long, despite it being only a brisk 100 minutes.

Birthday boxing day?

I tried this excuse for getting away with not having to clean out the chickens, turns out it doesn't work. Spent most of today trying to organize Mark's birthday present to me, the bb shotgun I wanted is out of stock everywhere, except for the States but shipping is horrendously expensive so for now we play the waiting game until they come back in stock.

Yesterday I also got a best of the Ealing Comedies so we sat down to watch Passport to Pimlico, a film that almost made me proud to be British. Although not as funny as I hoped, it certainly had some very good imagery towards the end due to its own take on rationing and the Berlin Blockade. The sound quality and dialect initially made it very hard to understand but after the hump it was easy to get into the swing of things. I would recommend this one to anyone with an interest in after war Britain or just looking for a short British film that will make them chuckle.

18 Today!

Finally, I have hit the famous number, I can now legally watch '18' certificate films, order a beer at any pub, I am also legally allowed to vote, which my Tory MP swiftly reminded me of via a very out of place birthday card and a facebook friend invite. I got a brand new 2 terabyte external hard-drive since my PC had run out of space as of last year or so, it took 4 hours to transfer 177 GB  of games onto that bad boy. I also got the 2nd Noah and the Whale album: First Days of Spring which was so good I listened to it twice. This afternoon I went down to the local beer festival with Dad to once again try some proper ales, the highlight was the tried and tested Dr Hexington's, the low point was undeniably the banoffee bitter I tried, yes you read that right; it was utter crap.

Later in the evening I had a social gathering of friends for a pleasant BBQ, Daniel sadly couldn't make it due to him coming down with a nasty sickness but it was good fun nonetheless. Mark was consistently speaking about me being a rubbish 18 year old, and I must agree, I don't feel any different, I am just me really, and I'm cool with that. Here's to another year of good fortune and good things for myself, have a good day to everyone else and have a wonderful rest of the weekend.

Pre-Birthday Blues

Very nearly my Birthday, traditionally this means me slinking around the house looking for means of passing the time until tomorrow; I just don't feel like doing anything. Similar to Christmas, it also means I will have great difficulty sleeping due to my childish excitement for presents and parties. Film Friday softened the blow however, successfully passing a couple of hours, at a cost though as Nick broke my BB gun magazine, it now lays in shatters around my bedroom floor. Actually, that sounds dangerous, ought to pick that up. School was ok, I now only have one lesson on Fridays which is amazing.

Right, bed now as tomorrows party will go on until 11 and I need the kip. I feel quite sleepy now so I shouldn't have too much trouble sleeping.

Another bleak Thursday

At last I had a day at school where I actually had a lesson, swinging back into history was much easier than I thought it would be but the film studies lesson basically highlighted how hard the coursework is, which I found rather intimidating.  At home I have been finding myself to be very bored, I'm just sitting around the house again expecting Louis to amuse me somehow, unfortunatly he also feels the same sense of bordom and we just feed eachother's humdrum.

I accordance to my film coursework I watched A Simple Plan today, A group of friends find a bunch of money but have difficulty spliting the cash and hiding the money, a premise similiar to SHallow Grave but hear it was more focused on the development of the criminal mind. The were some very tense moments throughout, the final scene in particular was a highlight and Billy Bob Thornton's performance was absolutly amazing. I would highly recommend this one to anyone who loves crime films.

Vinyl

We dusted off the old record player today and set it up in Louis' room since he is the musical lad. The sound quality is way better than I expected and it acctually feels better listening to older songs on it, feels retro and warm. Comming into school today was a bit of a waste of time as is turns out my only lesson for the day was cancelled due to my teacher having an ear infection, that meant another easy day for me so yay for that. We also have a radio meeting tomorrow where we will reveal what our intended timetable is, very exciting stuff in theory I just hope that we will be able to record our broadcasts so we can make them podcasts on our site.

I'm not sure why, but I was just in the mood for a decent space movie, I settled on Danny Boyle's Sunshine which really surprised me because it was pretty damn good, the visuals were stunning and the performances were very good. Some people may be put off by the final half our of the film but I honestly didn't mind it too much, my heart was genually racing during some scenes but I wouldn't go so far to call the film a horror as some others have. Good concept, moments of beauty, and good performances, it's what I have come to expect from a Danny Boyle film; and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Back at school

I was dreading having to go back into school today, despite getting the morning off I felt no motivation whatsoever to go in and work. After getting a ride in with Mark we went into our tutor rooms and were told that we would not have any lessons, instead we would have plenty of tutor time, most of which comprised of looking at old photos of peers and figuring out our new time tables. We also did something called speed mating, basically as the new year 13's we were tasked with comforting and giving first hand experience to the new 6th formers, no one took it too seriously however so we just had a small understanding of what everyones subjects were.

I watched 2 very good films today, the first being Life is Beutiful which I crammed in just before school, it was highly enjoyable and very moving at times. It is a movie of two halves however and I felt that the first hour was the stronger one, but it was paired together well and the story of the Father was quite lovely. This evening I saw All About Eve, every character performed flawlessly, the story was a cynical look towards fame and stardom and the ending is perfect. The slimey colloumist Addison was my favorite character and his part towards the conclusion was delightful and forceful. The film still stands up and I will probably recommend it to Mark.

Back from Bournemouth

After many days without a blog, the Cafe Studios team have returned from our group holiday in Bournemouth, unfortunately there was barely any Internet this time so I was unable to do the blog then. We had many late nights, two trips to the beach, spent evenings watching films and Tatsonoko vs Capcom. Mark made a great lasagna and followed it up with an amazing sticky toffee pudding that was so good we had to make seconds, but we were missing an egg so we had to ask the neighbours who were only too happy to help. I also introduced the gang to chairman Mao, they have a love/hate relationship with the game but I thought it was a lot of fun. I would tell you more but after getting 4 hours sleep last night I am shattered and knackered at the same time, even after taking an energy shot for the lol's yesterday I have failed to get my hit, it'll probably kick in around Christmas. Goodnight and good luck going back to school.