Film @ MindSay

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I was standing at the bus stop by Eston Baths this morning waiting for the college bus - a 22 came by and Adam got off it. I thought it was a bit strange, considering he'd probably paid a full fare to Middlesbrough but decided to get off early. Either way - he sat with me on the bus into college. Shakira was on the radio and Adam was singing along with it - fairly amusing. :)

I was hoping Sarah wouldn't be in college today - but she fucking was. Gah.
I took 25 video stills as the precautionary measure, incase the video goes tits-up. Sarah came to hassle me - she twisted my arm and made me show her some of the raw clips. She asked to see the ones I liked - but I told her I didn't like any of them - so she re-worded it to 'the best ones'. Sigh.
She set me the task of doing a bit of the editing - and it's only thanks to Rammstein that I managed it. I had Pussy, Reise Reise and Spieluhr playing on Lisa to motivate me a little.

And Sarah's a cheeky cow - when I asked her to guess how many seconds I'd done - she said five. In effect, I've done 30 - but they're like a work-in-progress, I'll probably end up deleting it anyway...

I played Pokémon Diamond in my breaks - I got the 6th gym badge and released the three legendaries from the lakes. I've saved it at Snowpoint City - I fucking hate sinking in the snow.
3 Inches Of Blood fit oddly well with Pokémon battles... :/

I was so restless in my session with Dianne.
I had the cushion from the chair on my lap and I was playing with the zip.
I've lapsed into that mood where I sit there and do fuck all - and I kept yawning. We'd previously discussed this - but we made the link that when I'm embarrassed during a discussion, I'll yawn a lot. But we weren't really discussing anything that would make me feel that way.
I naturally told her about the recent events - mainly about the problem with the film sequence editing - but unlike most times, I didn't have anything major on my mind. I just feel generally shitty and pointless and I want to hurt myself all the time.

In English, I officially wasted 90 minutes of my life.
Angela gave us an old exam paper and told us to write an answer. My hand seized up, my mind flashed and paralysed itself and I just gave up before I'd even written the title.
I spent most of the time drawing little cartoon dudes on my folder. I think I might have created a new cartoon doodle dude to accompany my old creation, Angry Man.
I'll post a picture of him when I can be arsed scanning it - he starts off being a smiley face - then I give him an open mouth, slanted in a grimace, drooling on his chin. I give him floppy blonde hair with a fringe, side layers and long locks at the back - big round ears and a V-necked shirt. I need to think of a name for him.

I also need to fucking write something before the English exam - if I can't write a sentence when it comes to coursework/exam - I'm throwing away 80+ UCAS points.

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It's a good thing I didn't really have anything major that was bothering me this week. Well, there was the one thing that arose in Film Studies this morning.
Tuesdays are now assigned to be coursework lessons - so we were in the ICT suite on the 3rd floor, "doing coursework" - only I was attempting to do mine, but I had something stopping me.
I had all the clips I needed on my memory stick - they were all uploaded to the video editor fairly quickly - the same one I use at home - Windows Movie Maker, bog-standard, but it gets the job done. I had my script, I knew how I wanted it to look - I should have been all set to bung the clips together, save the project then edit all the sound at home with WavePad and dub it together.

But I think I'm scared of assembling it. I know there's some clips that haven't worked quite as well. I knew that there would be some jumpiness between certain clips - hence the reason I filmed some "filler clips" - just close-ups of objects and surroundings to break the flow and ease the jump from clip to clip - I did make some form of effort to sort it out. But I just know it's not going to turn out as I'd hoped. Fair enough, the trailer didn't, The Wheelchair didn't. When I wrote Regenbogen Strifen - that didn't.

And the problem is, I'm not even sure WHY I'm so scared of assembling it. :/

I would have told Dianne about this in our session - but it was cancelled.
I worked it out after sitting on the stairs by the room for 15 minutes - then giving up.
She'd actually sent me a text - but I only realised this when I got home and read it.

I told Sarah too - but she said I should just bite the bullet and assemble it.
I did tell her about my Plan B - if it went TOTALLY tits-up and wouldn't get anywhere near a decent grade - I'd take film stills and do the digital storyboard option. But that isn't the point - I shouldn't HAVE TO - I wanted to do the fucking FILM OPTION!

Last night I saw a film that utterly and brutally got to me: The Messenger (2009/I). It was so well done.

Basically, it is about a Sergeant and a Captain assigned to personally deliver the news of fallen soldiers to their families. In the film, they said that during Vietnam, families were notified of their sons' death through a telegram.  In this day and age, why not an email or a telephone call?  Every "delivery" was a stunning revelation of human behavior. 

Steve Buscemi plays the father of one of the soldiers who has died. His reaction is unexpected and intolerable. This may be a spoiler, but, I'll say it anyway: he does not go away. He comes back later in the film and wow.

In the preview, it seems like this may be a romance between Ben Foster and Samantha Morton. It should have been developed that way possibly, or not promoted as a romance, and maybe more of a bromance between Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster.  One of my friends thought that this was completely deceitful.  However, if Hollywood is able to overlook that this film is semi-related to the Iraqi War, then maybe, just maybe it could be a contender for Best Picture.  Maybe some of the actors will be nominated.  It IS a longshot.  However, the quality completely exceeds any misconceptions I had about the movie.

On a personal duty, my brother did two tours in Iraq, and volunteered for a third.  Everytime my mother called during those two years (approximately), I would be jumpy. And she called a lot! I can just imagine getting the news and being as destroyed and incredulous as some of the people in the movie. At least two of the women in the movie screamed their guts out upon finding that their sons or husbands had been killed.

It's highly recommended.  However, if you don't like emotional dramas, this is not for you.  I can say that I haven't loved any other of the Iraqi war movies.  I liked Lions for Lambs, but it did not do well at the box office, and Tom Cruise gets on my nerves. The Kingdom wasn't that great, with the exception of a few performances. Grace is Gone was a tad boring, kind of alright, but definitely not to die for.  

However, this film isn't about the Iraqi War, per se. It's just about humans.  The movie has the perfect imbalance of humor and drama.  From the beginning, it's a tearjerker.   When it finally lets up, and I mean finally, there is a scene or two of intense humor.   I have to say the ending might be a letdown, however, I have already explained that Ben Foster and Samantha Morton's relationship is not the focus.

See it or don't.  If the Academy ends up nominating it, take their word and not mine.