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.