Where Have You Been?

Well, I haven’t been a man of my word. After starting this blog again after summer, I said that I would go back to normal and post on this every week. As I’m sure you’re aware, I haven’t been doing that at all. In fact, I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered. For some reason, this isn’t as fun as it used to be. I’m not entirely sure why, but I promised myself I wasn’t going to quit this until it’s at least been a year since I started. So let’s see how that turns out.

As I’m feeling a bit nostalgic, I’m going to go back to something I spoke about it my very first blog post. I was complaining that it’s next to impossible to get work experience in the TV and Film industry without any prior experience. Well, I proved myself wrong. As the old cliche says, it’s who you know, not what you know (thanks Megan). I finally landed myself a weeks experience at a post production company in soho. It’s in a couple of weeks so I’ll post about it after I’ve done it. But I’ll try and leave out all the information about making tea and coffee for everyone.

Just as a quick point though, if anyone reading this is or knows someone that works in film or television production then it would be greatly appreciated if you could help me get some more experience or even just an email address. I promise that when I make my first Hollywood film, you’ll be put in the credits, or I’ll just dedicate the film to you!

Enough begging though, time to move onto one thing that pissed me off this week. As a result of landing this work experience, I have to reschedule my trip to Newcastle. Fine, this shouldn’t be too hard, just change my trains, right? Wrong. I had to go through this long process of explaining why I wanted to change my tickets, then I had to book new trains in order to get refunded on my old booking. It all got a bit too much. Not only that, I lost £20 for changing two tickets. Thieving bastards. It’s cost them no money to change my tickets and I’m sure someone else is about to pay £60 to have my seat anyway.

I’m trying to look on the bright side of this though, which I can’t seem to find. But it’s money. It’s not that important. It grows on trees.

Movie news. Since I last posted I’ve only seen two new films. Legend and Everest. Going to start with Legend here. What a film. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be the same without Tom Hardy. His gritty, unique acting made the role and the film. He truly managed to capture the roughness and the fear that was a result of the Kray twins. Oh, and Emily Browning wasn’t too bad to look at either. It wasn’t a chore to watch her on screen.

But let’s move on to Everest. Incredibly disappointing. I understand it’s based on a true story but the way in which the film progressed was very slow, despite their being fast thunderstorms and shit loads of falling snow. Even so, I feel that it could have been made a lot better. I also feel that it was a rookie mistake not to see it in 3D. Personally I’m not a fan of 3D films because you’re focused more on whah the effects are like instead of losing yourself in to the film.

In movie news, the official trailer has been released for London Has Fallen and even though I haven’t seen Olympus Has Fallen, this looks like it is going to be amazing. From the trailer we can see famous London landmarks including Big Ben, The London Eye, Houses of Parliament and inside train stations. Whats even more incredible are the effects used to destroy this amazing city. It looks incredibly realistic and visually stunning. I highly recommend for you lot to keep your eyes open for this film and definitely check out the trailer.

This next film doesn’t need any explanation about it. The Hateful Eight. This is clearly a classic Tarantino and I encourage you even more to check out the trailer.

I’m going to leave it at that for this week. Next time I write, I’m planning on just talking about movies and not boring you all with my life stories at the beginning.

Till next time,

“Revenge is never a straight line. It’s a forest, And like a forest it’s easy to lose your way… To get lost… To forget where you came in”

There Is A God (Sorry Mum)

I possibly heard the best news today. After expressing my anger last week about how I was moving house, someone clearly heard my disappointment and did something about it. I am staying a London boy. That’s right, no move. Well, for now. Something happened with the house we were meant to move to, but I’m not going to bore you all with the details. Anyway, my mum said that she will look again next spring but I don’t know if that means this upcoming one or in 2017. But I’m happy, I get to stay in my favourite city for the time being.

In other not so exciting news, uni started this week. The thought of this being the most important year is incredibly scary but I’m sure most of you that have graduated have no sympathy as you’ve already done it and will be sick of me complaining about it. So I’m just going to leave it at that.

Movie news, lets dive straight in to that. It was confirmed yesterday that the director of Straight Out Of Compton, Gary Gray, will direct the new Fast and Furious film. Now I’ve mentioned previously that I wasn’t too happy that they’re making another film but I’m going to try and stay open minded about it.

A film that caught my attention last week that I failed to mention is a new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. Great line up right? The film is called the The Revenant and it looks fast paced, thrilling and just an unreal film. Could this be the film that wins Leo the Oscar? I sure hope so. The fact he has never been awarded an Oscar still baffles me, especially with his portrayal in the Wolf Of Wall Street, Django, The Departed and Blood Diamond. Oh, and for those romantics out there, his role in the Titanic too.

The final international trailer also came out recently for Spectre. Amazing. The film looks incredible. With Christoph Waltz in it too, this is sure to be a great blockbuster. However, I am still not convinced that Daniel Craig is James Bond. I am still yet to see any of his movies as the double O agent. Growing up I watched many of the Bond films as a result of my dads love towards them. So growing up, Sean Connery and Rodger Moore were James Bond to me. The films were about the gadgets Bond had, the cars he drove, the cheeky-ness he had towards his superiors and co workers and the suave way in which he spoke. Then Piers Brosnon was introduced to the scene and the dapper agent was born. The same values were still there but the action in the movie intensified (and I’m not talking about the scenes in a bedroom). Budgets grew (no pun intended) and the action sequences had more explosions and showed off what a secret agent was capable of (again, no sexual innuendos intended). Then, in 2006 Daniel Craig was James Bond. Now, I know you’re not meant to judge a book by its cover, but to me Daniel Craig is not James Bond, and from the very short part of Casino Royal that I watched, the old values that used to be associated with James Bond were no longer there.

I wont carry this on any further in fear that I’ve either pissed people off or they’ve just stopped reading. So what a great place to end this week. Sometimes the best blogs are short (again, no innuendo)

Have a good one ladies and gents.

“I’ll do anything for a woman with a knife” 

The Final Post

It’s finally time. As you read this (assuming you’re reading this as soon as I posted it) I am currently sitting in a pub at Terminal 3 at Heathrow. I’m waiting to embark on my 7 hour journey back to the United States and complete my third year at Crane Lake Camp. It’s hard to express how excited I am and how weird it feels that I am going back to camp for my third consecutive summer. It literally feels like a month ago that I got hired to work for my first summer.

I must apologise to all my loyal fans (if I actually have any), as I didn’t publish a post last week. I had a writers block again and couldn’t think of what to write. In fact, I’m not sure what the hell I’m going to write in this post but I’ll hopefully fill it with words that, when put together, make you laugh or smile.

I want to continue talking about movies in this blog as I feel like I should. So the first film on this weeks agenda is a film called The Walk. It’s starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, who was in The Dark Knight Rises and Don Jon (must admit, that film was not great), and it’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, who you might know as he directed Forrest Gump and Who Framed Rodger Rabbit (still one of my favourite films). The film is based on the true story of Philippe Petit as he walked from one of the twin tower buildings to the other. On a tight rope. 2,350 foot in the air. Not your every day circus act.The film is pretty self explanatory as it will show the build up to the stunt taking place and at some point you’ll be made to think the character will die. However, as they’ve based it on real life, I doubt they’ll kill off the main character, especially as he is still alive. BUT, from the trailer it does seem like Joseph Gordon Levitt can play the frenchman quite decently and I’m pretty sure that will be a film I go and see.

Next up is the highly anticipated Ted 2. After seeing Ted in 2012, I’m quite sure everyone that liked it was praying that there would be a Ted 2. Finally, after waiting for a while, our dream has come true. Normally, I’m not a fan of comedy sequels, as it never really works out better. There are exceptions such as 22 Jump Street and Rush Hour 3, but other comedy sequels just aren’t as good (Shrek 2, 3 and 4) are prime examples, and don’t say they’re for kids because we all loved the first Shrek and would watch it right this second if we had the opportunity). But back to Ted 2, it sees the partnership of the bear (Seth MacFarlane) and Mark Wahlberg team up with a very surprising appearance from Morgan Freeman. Was not expecting that. In case you’re all thinking that Ted 2 is old news and that you already know all of this information, I’m just talking about it because the new red band trailer was released for it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_S8dEeW5og&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du_S8dEeW5og&has_verified=1. You’re welcome. But I am greatly looking forward to seeing this film and I hope it does not disappoint. (just like shrek 2, 3 and 4) And yes, lads, I am sorry but Mila Kunis is not in this film. Very upsetting.

One last film to talk about has to be Dope. This film looks incredible, funny and action filled. You’ve got drugs, guns, stolen cars, girls and what seems to be a funny story line about nerdy-ish kids selling drugs. Unfortunately ASAP Rocky and Tyga are in the film but I’m willing to look past that. You’ve also got Pharell as an executive produce and Forrest Whitaker as well. I’m praying that this film delivers properly and really makes a hit at the box office. Just take a look at the trailer and you’ll understand why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlDrjAqVuf8 .

Unfortunately I am calling it a day for this week. Over the next three months I am going to try my best to keep updating this blog as often as I can. The most exciting thing is that from today I have started filming for a video that I’m making about my summer at camp. There will also be a video of my travelling after camp but that won’t be published till I get home. Hopefully I will have my video of camp finished a few days after camp has finished.

So keep an eye out people. I will post more exciting content (hopefully) over the next three months, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the last 3 and a half months reading this.

“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man”

Second Year Is Over

What a year. I have now finished my second year of university and couldn’t be happier. After 8 months of still doing the bare minimum of work I need to do, I have finished. This year has been so much better than my first year. I moved into my first house, repped with the most unbelievable group of people for freshers, campaigned for the student elections, had an interview for repping again next year, got some valuable work experience, filmed for Notts TV and finally got a topic for my dissertation, which will be about music and authorship in films. It is ridiculous how quick this year has gone and now that summer is here I’ve got over 4 months until I need to be back in Nottingham.

In other exciting news, I am flying to America in exactly 3 weeks! In fact, this time in 3 weeks I will be on the plane on my way to JFK. I am finding it very hard to think about anything else especially as I have now decided that after camp I will be traveling to Chicago, Dallas, LA and Vegas!

In movie news, a trailer that I saw today was a new film featuring Al Pacino. Pacino is one of my favourite actors who has appeared in the Godfather trilogy, Scarface, Oceans 13 and many other fantastic films. This new film is called Manglehorn and it seems like it could be another brilliant performance from Pacino. The film is directed by David Gordon Green, who some of you may know as he directed Pineapple Express. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wVi2i9BPQE The film seems to be about Pacino’s character who lost his loved one and is trying to start his life over again. It might be a bit of a romantic film, but we are all allowed a guilty pleasure

.

Another film that has caught my attention is American Heist. This film stars Hayden Christensen, who some people don’t like after his questionable performance in the star wars movies, and you could almost guess what its about just from the title. It’s about robbing a bank. Obviously there will be other little stories within the film but that’s the main idea of it. Along side Christensen is Jordanna Brewster, from the fast and furious movies, who I’m sure will still look as good as she does in the fast films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARy1veFIps

One final movie I want to talk about is the Minion movie. Everyone’s favourite animated characters have their own movie and I’m not going to lie, it looks incredible. I’ll admit, the film probably is for a younger audience, but it looks to good to miss. A group of yellow animated characters running around the world speaking a language that we don’t know yet still understand. The 3rd official trailer was released and the fact they go to England to take the thrown and become King just makes it even better. As well as that, Sandra Bullock is in it and I’m certainly not complaining about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvKmSNxFHyQ

Unfortunately that is all for this week. a few films and a couple of thoughts will have to do. Have a blinding weekend and to anyone with exams over the next week, good luck!

“For sure, you have to be lost to find a place that can’t be found, else-ways everyone would know where it was”

Repping, Movies and Twitter

Number 10. That’s not got anything to do with the fact that David Cameron is still at Number 10, that’s the number of posts I have now managed to publish. Must admit, I didn’t think I would make it this far and unfortunately I don’t know how many more I will be doing. As I expected, the views of this blog are going down and it gives me the impression that either I’m incredibly boring or I’ve been trying too hard. Either way, I’m going to see what happens!

So, I need to bring something up that caused a couple of concerned conversations with friends and family. Last week I subtly dropped ‘the c bomb’ in my title. Now I know that this was a risky move as I’m hoping any future employers will see my blog but I felt that it was a risk worth taking. It could hopefully show that I’m not afraid of what people think but that could also be seen as a bad thing. So if you were offended by that, I am sorry.

In more up beat and exciting news, this week was the annual Nottingham Trent Student Union (NTSU) awards. If I haven’t previously mentioned, this academic year I was part of a fresher rep team at a private accommodation called Glasshouse. To say that moving in all the new freshers was stressful would be an understatement. Anyway, the rep group I was a part of were nominated for rep group of the year. And believe it or not, we won! Our head and deputy head rep collected the award and unfortunately I have a feeling that the award was actually left at the ceremony as no one took responsibility to take it home. But we still won, and thats all that matters. So I’m giving a huge shout out to Glasshouse reps!

In movie news, there’s two trailers that have been released for upcoming films that have really grabbed my attention. The first is Legend. It’s a film based on the true story of the Kray twins who were known as the gangsters of East London during the 50s and 60s. Tom Hardy is playing both characters as they were identical twins and it looks like it will be a fantastic film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzkTbO78L5k 

The gritty film will be released in September and I have a feeling this could be Tom Hardy’s best performance. Don’t get me wrong though, as I know that his acting in The Dark Knight Rises was superb as he portrayed the character Bane. However, their is a criticism as to why the film is called legend, as it puts the gangsters into a bright light of acceptance. So that;s slightly controversial.

The second film that has grabbed my attention is a new film with Simon Pegg. This film is the complete opposite of Legend as it is a feel good comedy which will definitely make the viewers chuckle. Along with Simon Pegg, the cast includes Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, John Cleese, Rob Riggle and the late great Robin Williams. This is Robin Williams last film he managed to complete before he passed away last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CYVGN98ZLA 

Finally, a point that I want to mention is about the General Election that happened in the UK yesterday. I need to give a small background story to this though. When you turn 18 in the UK, you are eligible to vote and as a result of that, our local MP, Bob Blackman, sends us birthday cards to try and woo us over to his party. That’s the small story. So last night, I sent a tweet to my sister:

This tweet was then favourited by both Bob Blackman and his wife, Nicola.

My sister then replied to the tweet with her feelings about Bob Blackman

This tweet was also favourited by both Bob Blackman and his wife as well as 3 other people.

My sister was then convinced that she had gone viral. I think it’s safe to say we all know she hasn’t but we can let her think that. To cut the long story short though, Bob Blackman was elected for our local constituency and if he ever does stumble across this page then hopefully he will receive my congratulations. I also hope that as I voted for him, he might have a celebratory party that both myself and Abi get invited to. I’ll await the invitation, Bob.

That’s all for this week, folks. I know I didn’t really talk about much but some information is better than none.

Have a good one

“There is more to life than to watch other people live it”

Another Post About Mothers?

What does a clock do when it’s hungry? 

It goes back four seconds. 

Apologies for my immaturity but that pun was too good for me not to start my blog with. 

Happy Friday everyone! The sun is out, most of us have finished work for the week, the beer will be shortly flowing and it’s now the weekend. We made it. The 16th week of the year is finally over. 

Now as promised, this week I set up my gopro and made it my mission to get a selfie with my cat. It didn’t quite plan out the way I wanted it to, but it’s still kind of cute (if I say so myself)

 

Yes I know I’m on the floor but it’s the best I could do. Although, I did however manage to teach my cat to take his own selfies 

 

 Bet your pet can’t do that? 

So last week I mentioned that I was going to do some filming for Notts TV. Well I did it! It was an incredible experience and hopefully the finished program will be aired around August or Septemebr. 

The day was tiring as it was over 11 hours and I was constantly standing filming the judges. The judges were pretty cool people working within the TV and film industry and kept mentioning a bloke called Shane. For those of you that haven’t caught on, there is a famous director from the Midlands called Shane Meadows. So that’s pretty cool that they know him. 

That incredible start to my weekend was then ruined on Sunday. At approximately 10:39 my mum had arrived in Nottingham to take me back home to London. On the way home, however, we got off the M1 very early, drove through many side roads and arrived in a small town called Dunchurch. In other words, we went to see those bloody alpacas. I was not very impressed and when I asked my mum which alpacas were hers, she had no idea as they were in a field with several others. Clearly she’s not that loving towards them. How can you not know your own alpacas? I mean come on, everyone knows their alpacas, right? 

Anyway, another funny story about my mum is that she thinks she looks like Taylor Swift. Yeah you read that right. Apparently her hairdresser told her she’s given her the same haircut as Taylor Swift and my mum told my sister she looks like her. I can inform you all that this is not true and she does not look like Taylor Swift. 

Sadly this week has not been the most entertaining week as I have been working all week so haven’t been out as much so I can’t find shit to write about. Hopefully next week will be different when I’m back at Uni.

Have a brilliant weekend and don’t let the fact that there is no hot water in your house come in the way (yeah, I had to have a cold shower this morning. Was not impressed) 

“Money will come and go. We all know that. The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room. Right here, right now.”