Rage

Today, I'd like to talk about rage. Not the emotion, a film that I watched last night, I mentioned it on here back in september. I don't generally talk about films on here, and I should because they teach me like they wouldn't teach others; a lot of people just see films as entertainment, as they are, but as my amazing friend Eleanor is able to do with books, I can read beyond the entertainment. I can read the structure and messages within colours and angles of shot, sure, you learn that in media. What you don't do, is step back and look at the narrative, and the style as a whole and say "what did we learn here?". I do.

Rage isn't like other films, it makes you think. It does not have explosions and car chases, it merely has one character in the foreground and one colour in the background. That's all there is visually. The grand effect of this is that we are forced to focus on the characters (there are fourteen of them in total), they all have their own story within the story, their own opinion, their own angle. Because of this, we can learn a lesson from each of them, and then take a larger lesson from that. You can try and concentrate on the background, but the only intention of the background is to further project the character.


The entire film is shot through what looks like a mobile phone camera, you never hear the voice of the boy who holds it, you're just given general hints of his image and actions by the characters. It's set backstage at a fashion show, which is very significant because the film is very much about breaking image. The film shows what lies behind the image, it shows the different angles and positions of life and different mentalities that they provide. A few of those viewpoints are broken throughout the film, a character may come back and explain that events have changed their viewpoint.

Up to this point I imagine that you're thinking "such an indie film can't have much talent to it". Wrong. You'll find names such as Jude Law, Eddie Izzard, Steve Buscemi and Dame Judi Dench. So that's one question answered, the other will most definitely be "What did you learn?". I'm actually not going to tell you, because the lessons I learned from the film were personal to me, and when I watch the film again I will learn more lessons. I know that this film is individual, and will teach individual people differently, that's almost a lesson in itself.

Of course, in order to watch this film again I'll need a copy of it, but I don't just want any copy of it. There are 250 (and only 250) special edition DVD box sets sold for £30 on the official website, I do not care for the special edition of the film, I want the signed shooting script that comes with it. I don't even care about the fact it's signed. The set has lots of other stuff too, looks pretty cool, but I want that, more than the rest.

The "To do" list.

As always, I'm bloody disorganised, so it's about time I made a "To do" list. This list doesn't include the obvious things, like "get a job," or "get a girlfriend" I'm being slightly more realistic than that.

I REALLY need to help Eleanor and Aaron (and Harjit) raise money for their awesome trip to America, and I intend to do so in the best way I can: wreckless gambling, I mean poker. The plan is to hold a "win your money back" tournament, which is self explainatory enough. What? It could work!

Second thing, I need to organize a homework priorities list and allocate days for each. I'm thinking it'll look something like this:

1.Maths - Monday
2.Media - Tuesday
3.Biology - Wednesday
4.English - Thursday

I also need to allocate time for watching DVDs, haven't quite thought that one through yet. Maybe Monday and Thursday at 9pm.

I very much need to go back and complete all the games I've left behind, like Bioshock, Mercenaries 2 and Tomb raider anniversary. God knows when.

So if I get all of this awesome stuff done, I have three days all to myself: good plan? I think so.

So here's the list:

• Pitch the charity poker game to the Harley.
• Create a homework timetable.
• Allocate time to watch my DVDs on rental.
• Complete all the games I've bought and stopped playing.
• Live.

Oh, and if you read this blog and want to get notifications by email when I put up a new post, leave a comment on here, talk to me about it over msn or inbox me on facebook (: I'll set it up exactly seven days from now.

7 Days and Counting (Rage)

Things have settled this week, and it has been unbelievably boring.

I tried to drop English, the people up top told me to stick with it and if I get an E, that's still 20 UCAS points, ok then...I hope the teachers see it that way.

Ummm, I think I should probably talk about films a bit more on here, seeing as they're a big percentage of what I think about. I was looking at a film called "rage" today, it looks quite interesting. Basically, the entire film is a series of one on one interviews set behind the scenes of a fashion week in New York (even though the majority of the cast is British), filmed as if being recorded through a mobile phone. The premiere was yesterday and the film's released on monday. The most interesting thing was that it was supposedly the first "interactive" film, because afterwards, a live broadcast was shown were viewers text/emailed/called in from the cinema to ask the cast and director questions. Check out the trailer:



Anyway, on to my main point. Anyone who knows me well enough will also know that my birthday is in seven days, and arranging a celebration is proving to be harder than expected. Truth be told, I wasn't really looking to celebrate in the first place, but everyone else wanted to, and who am I to deny them of that? As long as I actually get to relax, I really don't mind what happens...

Animals and Organisation

Two at the same time today, because they're short.

Animals

Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals, especially of the cat kind :p My favourite animals are leopards and tigers. One zoo I went to had this keeper who was carrying round a skunk. Seemed a bit weird, but when I found out why I was really excited.

It was her pet.

Obviously the skunk had had it's stink glands removed, so it wasn't a smelly thing. It's just that they look so cool! Kinda blew my strange want for a gecko or two out of the water =D I'd get a baby one and a kitten or two at the same time, so they can all grow and get along together. It'd be amazing.

Awww!

Organisation

I think that's how it's spelt, I'm not sure, I just go with "s" because the American's are the one's that use "z". Anyway, it would surprise you to know that I like to be organised. If you've been in my bedroom it would all make sense, because there are two places that can prove it.

A) My DVD collection: easy to prove, it's in alphabetical order. Yes it's sad, but it's because some day I intend it to be huuuuge!

Like the one behind Danny here:

B) My desk: A lot of the time it can be quite messy, but more often than not with other people's stuff, I clear it pretty regularly and prefer it to be fairly clean, as people will know.

So yeah, that's pretty much all of my list, I'll post the cooking bit when I next cook (I can't give you a date). I hope you feel enlightened.

Karolina's Birthday Blog!

Yes, it was indeed Karolina's birthday today, and as she's in Poland, I'm gonna announce it right here, happy birthday Karolina!

On the subject of amazing friends, I saw my second person this holiday (the first being Eleanor) yesterday, Emma. We decided to go bowling and then walk back to mine. For the record, I lost (twice) but then we played pool and I won, just to show that I can win at some games :p On the way back we knocked for David and we all went back to mine to watch Severance (a british horror comedy). Then after David left, I cleaned my desk and went through my CD collection. Fun fun fun.

After all that I went with Emma to wait for a bus because we gave up on looking for a timetable and just decided to wait it out (I figured it wouldn't be long on a Friday evening) and just sat and chatted for about 10 mins. I needed it really, to keep my mind off of other things, because my mind was beginning to obsess. So thank you Emma :)

In other news, things are going amazingly well in my life (surprisingly), I feel great! I feel better about myself, my trust with relationship related things have been restored and I genuinely feel that things are good :) I'm going to Eleanor's tomorrow to get a rabbit! (a rabbit!!!) I can't wait.

And now for the weather. In the Watford area there will be heights of 23 degrees celsius and lows of 15 degrees, with the chance of showers some time in the afternoon. This is Adam Batchelor signing off, thank you.