Frankenstein + Something Weenie = Frankenweenie.

Today I went on an adventure. Into the crazyfied mind of Tim Burton, which I always love doing, because his work is amazing. Alice and Wonderland, Charlie and the Choco Factory, Nightmare Before Xmas, Edward Scissorhands etc etc.

Nothing that he does fails to interest me. He's crazy but he has his own style which I really like. 

But enough of that, the reason I'm writing about him is because I went to a Frankenweenie Exhibition at the BFI on London's Southbank to see how the film was made, story line of the film and I also got to see the actual puppets they used in the film. From what I learned, it took about two years to complete, since it's a stop motion animation it's bound to take donkey years to finish. I saw each of the characters puppets, demonstrations in how they moved and stuff like that. What amazed me was the scale of everything. They were quite big, but still quite small, Some of the props looked soooooo authentic it was unbelievable and the time it must have took to get little minute details must have been on another level.

We also had a talk with one of the animators, Mark Waring, who worked on Corpse Bride and Fantastic Mr Fox, who told us how he got to where he is, going through the process of animating the film etc etc. It would have been so beneficial for anyone who wanted to go into animation/ stop motion in the future. It just interesting to listen to. But anyway, I'll put some pictures below of some stuff I saw.

(Lol, me and my friend attempting a Weird Girl impression).

Got me some freebies as well. 

I got a Sparky mask, and a keepsake photograph of me and two other friends peering through a classroom window. Ooo, and we also grabbed a few free 3D glasses. Bargain hunting IS the way forward.

All, in all, it was a really good experience and I'm really glad I went. I'm kinda gutted that I didn't go to a lot of the other stuff during film week, as this was the last day the BFI had anything on. But next year I'm on it.

I might write a review on this as well, I wanna watch it in the half term now :D.

Edgar: "The dog is alivvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".

Half Nelson

Since I am a proud member of my Film Club in my oh so amazing media techno college, every friday we watch films, think about them and widen our outside knowledge of the world ultimately.

Last week we watch a film called Half Nelson, which starred Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie and Shareeka Epps. I must say, I really enjoyed it. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but it was a good watch and Ryan Gosling played the part of a drug addict teacher very well.

Gosling plays the part of a young teacher who struggles himself with his own life. He's constantly dealing with a drug addiction problem, but he still manages to find some sort of energy to inspire them in anyway he can; often rejecting the actual school curriculum for his own approach to how they should be taught.

As Dan deals with his own problems, he is caught smoking crack in the girls toilets by Drey, played by Shareeka Epps, a shy girl he teaches and someone who he coaches on the girls basketball team. Drey's own life problems become evident later on in the story; he parents don't seem to be in a relationship, her mum works late hours and her brother is in prison. As a result of this a man named Frank, played by Anthony Mackie, seems to be the only one that shows that 'family- orientated' relationship with her.

The film ultimately deals with exploring the different kinds of loneliness that people seem to go through in their life. Whether as extreme as being a drug addict teacher, or being a somewhat neglected child left to your own devices, both issues are brought together with a solution attempted to be made. Drey tries to help Dan overcome his drug addiction, whereas Dan tries to help Drey from hanging around the wrong crowd that could eventually get her into serious trouble.

These two characters both play their part extremely well; they both have an unspoken bond which has a great impact in the film. the camera angles that are used also are very clever. In some ways you could say that how it's filmed is fairly unconventional, but the wide range of extreme close ups focusing on the emotions and 'jitteriness' of the camera, make it much more realistic.

Half nelson is a very honest film; it doesn't hold back on the problems that some people can go through. I would strongly recommend you to watch this, as it is something refreshing and different to watch allowing you to be more open about things. 

A nice quote I found that someone wrote about this film was that:
"These two people are better able to save each other, than to save themselves". I thought that summed up the film in a nice way.

Rating:
* * * * *

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself....

See what i did there with the Jay Z lyrics? Eh? Eh? (Wink wink nudge nudge).

I thought I should actually write a little about myself before I actually start fully posting anything. But I hate writing/ speaking about myself in any shape or form so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

Currently I am in my last year of 6th form college, and hopefully plan to go to my desired uni being Bournemouth. I wanna do Multimedia Journalism there, and their course looks amazing; I really do hope I get in. Fingers crossed.

But yeah, I wanna go into the whole journalism end of things, especially film journalism because I LOVE writing about films and characters, actors and actresses etc. I just enjoy airing my opinion, even if people don't see it, it's nice to just get it down somewhere.

So, this blog is just going to be me jib jabbing on about films that I have watched/ are watching, films that i watch in my film club in college, maybe stuff I hear in the film world about films I might comment on it and stuff, so yes please feel free to have a read, it would be much appreciated so yeah enjoy!!!

Happy reading!!! :D