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”

I’d Rather Be A Polly Than A C**t

Another week off? You probably think I am slacking. Well, you’d be partly right. I’ll be the first to admit that I should have posted last week but I’ve been quite busy. As well as that, I was also lacking inspiration. Last week was the first week that I didn’t know what to write. It’s worrying that the industry I want to go in to is a creative one and I literally had a blank page and couldn’t fill it.

But I’m back, baby. And back with a vengeance. I’ve got a couple of things I need to get off my chest. So here goes:

Trent VS Uni Of

For those of you that are not aware, there are two main universities in Nottingham. Nottingham Trent, the university I go to, and University of Nottingham. For years there has been a bitter rivalry and it will never disappear. Uni of students think we are dumb and there’s no point of us being at university and Trent students feel that they don’t need daddy’s money to put them through university. Whether or not you are a Trent student or Uni of, those are the main things people think.

Now I have never thought like that. I have friends both at Trent and Uni of and love them all. However, for the first time in my university life, I have a strong dislike for a Uni of student and personally think they are a twat. Let me tell you why.

Last week I got the train back to Nottingham from London and treated myself to first class (that was actually cheaper than a normal seat). I get on the train, go to find MY designated seat and there is someone sitting in it! I’m not the kind of person to kick up a fuss so I just sat opposite them with a pissed off face. THEN they decide to take out some work and I see that they are a Uni of student! Fuming. Absolutely fuming. I’ve been mugged off by a Uni of student who could probably tell I go to Trent.

So that really pissed me off, and I thought the best way of letting my anger out was to take a picture of her and put it on this blog.

In other Trent and Uni of news, varsity started this week. That’s when both universities battle it out in various sports to see who is the better university. I went to my first ever varsity game which was the basketball that took place at the Capital FM Arena and had court side tickets. Wasn’t a bad way to watch my first varsity game. Unfortunately, Uni of truly f**cked us and won 85-59 (I think). Was not a great performance but was still a great game. What’s even worse is that we are losing the series. Last time I checked it was 7-3 to Uni of, but it isn’t over just yet!

Anyway, I have to move on to some sad news.

It is with great sadness that I must inform all of you that one of my mums alpacas, Shadowfax (yes that’s his actual name) passed away last weekend. It goes without saying that my mum was very upset during this dark time but that slowly went away after telling me she now wants another one called Vlad as she wants two alpacas. As if it’s not bad enough that Shadowfax died, she’s now replacing him! Hopefully Shadowfax is resting peacefully in alpaca heaven and won’t hold a grudge against my mum for already looking at his replacement.

Anyway, moving on from that, I have also realised that I have not met my initial purpose of this blog by talking about films. So I’m just going to briefly talk about something that has happened in the past couple of weeks:

So on April the 4th I went to the cinema with my sister to see the new Fast & Furious film. Absolutely incredible! The film was a perfect way to honour Paul Walkers life, who passed away during production. His brother, Cody, stepped in for him to finish off the film and it truly was a fantastic film. I’ll admit I had to hold back a few tears as the ending is very emotional. I won’t ruin anything in case any of you are still waiting to see it. But what I will say is that the way the film ended was a perfect send off for Paul, and a fantastic way to end the franchise of films. However, it was announced last week that they are going to make a Fast 8. Now don’t get me wrong, I love all the films (maybe not Tokyo Drift), but I think they are trying to make more of the franchise that just isn’t going to work. You should always leave the audience wanting more than deliver something that is not up to the same standard. Paul played such a vital role in the films and it won’t be the same without him. I’m hoping that I get proved wrong and actually the film, set to be released in April 2017, is just as good as Fast 7, which I can’t see how that’s possible.

That’s all for this week! Hopefully you beautiful people are still reading this and enjoying it.

Till next time,

“We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”

We All Mess Up At Some Point

It’s been a while readers, so let’s not hold any grudges that my last post was absolutley shit. It’s unlikely that you would jump to my defence about that, so don’t. I know when I’ve cocked up and that was definitely a cock up. 

So this week is a fresh week. I’ve accepted my problem and now I’m working on getting you lovely lot to keep reading this. I was even generous enough to give you a rest last week! (And I just didn’t have time to write it)

So, the last two weeks.

 Very exciting news is that I was asked to do some filming for Notts TV which is a local TV channel in Nottingham. The guy that emailed me, Tim (for anyone who watched dream team he was Clyde Connely), asked me to be on the camera crew for an upcoming show called Sketch Up. It’s basically like britains got talent and X factor but just for actors. So filming that will start tomorrow. 

Another filming story is that I finished editing another interview for my work experience. You can imagine how much I enjoyed that because I just love filming and editing interviews (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wxF5kpLYLrg

My favourite thing that has happened recently is that I now have a GoPro. For any of the geeks that want to know which one I have, it’s the Hero3+ silver edition. Also with it, I have a selfie stick, suction cups, various mounts and a head strap. I look like a twat in that. I haven’t taken any selfies with my cat yet but that will be my mission for next weeks blog. 

  This is an old selfie with him ❤️

A couple of last things to mention before you all lose interest:

Over the last 2 weeks, a few people have told me that I should start vlogging or using vine. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t have a clue what to do to make it original. I don’t really want to be that guy that’s going round stroking people’s beards or be the next dapper laughs and getting a lot of negative review from the press. But who knows. Maybe I will start something soon and hopefully people will like it more than the blog. 

It also wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t mention the alpacas. As far as I know, the two of them are fine. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mum asks for my GoPro soon so she can take more selfies with them. 

Finally, you might remember I spoke about my nan having gin filled raisins. So she’s been eating 9 a day and has claimed that her shoulder is a lot more comfortable because of it. She has more movement in it and lot less pain. So maybe alcohol is always the answer. 

  

Have a good weekend!

“Ride or Die”