Swing of Writing

Slowly trying to get back into the swing of writing again. In particular I want to write some more articles for Bournemouth's Nerve Media Online. Rebecca has asked me to do one on 'Why you should watch Game of Thrones' which I have started this afternoon. My biggest issue with writing these articles tends to stem from an inflated word count on my part. I sometimes push it into four figures when writing some things (my Top 10 games of 2015 was made a Top 5 on Nerve) but I am trying harder to reign myself and be more and more concise. 'Writing is Re-writing' That's the golden rule I keep telling myself as I delete chunks only to improve the wording.

Captain Phillips

Well, Paul Greengrass can actually make a watchable film. While his treatment of the Bourne films can be call outright criminal (Supremacy may actually be my least favourite film of all time) he actually delivered big time with Captain Phillips. Based on the true story of a mans capture by Somalian pirates, the films first 5 minutes start off quiet slow but then doesn't take its hand off the throttle. A very bumpy ride ensues for Tom Hanks who does a great job in the eponymous role and you ride shotgun with him throughout the film. If anything, it does get a little exhausting during the third act and in retrospect I couldn't really tell you how they filled up two hours with his story. Thankfully the handheld nature of the camera is dramatically turned down here so it doesn't look like someone with ADHD directed and it actually served to better involve me in the world of the film. Certainly look into this one if you are into hostage negotiation films like Dog Day Afternoon.

Dissapointment Came Early

Bit worrying today as two things failed to live up to expectations for me. Firstly The Warriors was a film that has been on my radar for a little while now. It recently turned up on Netflix and it has a cult status, figuring I'm typically up for any cult movie I dived in and was treated with a film that was a chore to finish. The premise sounded great at the time, a street gang are wrongly accused of killing a high-up guy who attempted to unify the gangs and are chased back home by the cops and rival street thugs. But the dialogue was simply awful as character kept changing their minds and generally saying things no human would ever say. Stiff delivery from the actors didn't help and the ending was just anticlimactic. The most annoying thing is that you can see the potential in it at every turn. At points it hints at being a commentary on an unstoppable youth culture but just barely hits the mark. In fact, a lot of the overtones come off as accidental, a by product of a script that wasn't very confident in itself.

Next up was The Witcher 2, a game I was also very excited to play after completing the original a while back. After grappling with it over the past few weeks I realise now that I kinda forced myself through the last hours out of my love for the first game, playing it felt like work rather than pleasure. I think its because I lost my sense of purpose once far to many characters and provenances were thrown into the mix. The more that were added, the most lost I felt and the more I felt that my in-game decisions couldn't be made efficiently; moral choices became misguided guesses. Hopefully that doesn't bleed into the third game which has gotten rave reviews so far.

Leave it to Alex Payne to make my evening feel well used however as Nebraska was a a quiet triumph. If you took Tokyo Story and The Straight Story and put them together, you'd have something a bit like this. A old man goes cross country with his son to respond to a letter from a magazine claiming that he has won a million dollars. Along the way there are some really genuine moments of comedy and heart-break in this low-fi flick that all have that great Payne feel to it. Louis and I sat down to watch this together and as the credits rolled we just quietly nodded our heads; it gets the Durrant boy's seal of approval.

Up to Date with Thrones

I can now consider myself among the ranks of those who have finished watching the latest season of Game of Thrones. At last I can involve myself in conversation with online communities and even with my own family and friends about the series. Previously I had to throw my hands over my ears and hum quietly to myself like a 4 year old whenever a potential spoiler was coming my way. No more!

Though I must say, I feel like I have lost a small sense of purpose now that I have to wait another 11 months until more episodes come out. Gotta find something new to watch now, haven't seen a film since I started watch Thrones so maybes I should plough through my watchlist.

Su-BEER

What better way to celebrate finishing an edit than going to play a Smash Brothers event. Su-BEER finally came around and I went in with high hopes, despite Louis telling me the singles tournament alone would take an estimated 200 minutes I pushed on through. Louis and I fought side by side for the doubles tournament and just barely came out on top while I firmly made myself the champion of the singles games. The host even made some trophies for us which was beyond cool, it will sit proudly on my wardrobe now.

Edit Train needs Steam

Late start into uni today as James had a few errands to run including giving blood which I guess is as good a reason as any to be a little late picking me up. Churned out the interview stuff along with some extra music we recorded on the day, but one theme was very clear from the moment we walked into the edit suite: we had very little remaining motivation. This was the extra video we were making so while we put a lot of TLC into the first video, this one we subconsciously felt was taking up our time. We estimate there is only a small number of hours left-over of work to be done and then that'll be it. Can't wait to finish it all off now.

Titles Make Edits Awesome

Working hard on the edit again today. We trimmed about 8 hours of footage into two minutes of a really nifty little promo. We sat back and re-watched our final product and felt that something was missing. While it clearly showed all the aspects of the event, it possibly wasn't very clear to an outside audience. So we revisited it, but this time with titles! It was glorious, spending 30 minutes to find the right font (then change our mind completely) and put it to work. With a handful of them we even wiped them across the screen, revealing the words as the camera pans across a drummer and by golly, it looks good. Final touches going on tomorrow, after that we may have produced an amateur promo at record speed.