So far I have really enjoyed the black and white oldies we've been watching and seeing how silent films are just as effective as modern films in empathizing with their audience. Battleship Potemkin failed in this way. If I'm terribly honest, I can't remember anything of it. The only snippet I remember is the rotting meat because I had to close my eyes (there it was effective in provoking a strong emotion) but I've really tried to.....but I CANNOT remember anything other than that. I feel embarrassed because it sounds like I wasn't paying attention or something but I was not drawn to the story (if I had been I'd know what happened....in fact what did happen guys?) or impressed by acting or any other factor which would cure this complete black out!

Looking back on the week, however, it was good! An easy week to start the term off with but nevertheless letting us know we've got a lot of work to do! Been working on my script (with a bit of distress mind eg. “Oh my gosh, I can't think, I can't think! Wow, wait, that would be awesome.....for a feature. Oh man, oh man.” But I've got it under control and I'm enjoying it. I find the images come to me very fast when I feel comfortable with the idea of a character and now I'm just trying to hone them to fitting with the words I'm finding scribbled over a million post-its and memo sheets and flip pads and over Richard's (helpful) booklet!

Really looking forward to tomorrow – we'll be meeting Kim – who is the on the scriptwriting team for Coronation Street. Who knows what this class will generate?

"it may be you making the sacrifice, but it's me who is feeling the pain."

The Street was one of the best televised drama I have watched! I just wanted to say a few words about it. Firstly I thought the script was on the exceptional side of achieving a realistic screenplay, some lines were excellent without shoving any themes or ideas down your throat. For example when Cath (Lorraine Ashbourne) comments on how she doesn't want to meet the taxi driver's family because they'll see her as

“the evil witch who gave birth to that monster”

you instantly feel terrible because we know that Jan (Gina McKee) knows it's her own son and you can't agree with the statement as you usually would. However that quickly turns on its head too when you revert back to agreeing with such a statement when Jan decides to betray her own nephew in order to protect her son. Andy put it very well – 'that moment is the equivalent of Lady Macbeth's moment.'

Andy also said: “It is about the writing, performance. Anyone can shoot pretty pictures.”

I disagree! Yes, on one hand the writing and the performances have to be good and work well together but not anyone can shoot a pretty picture. There is a gift in knowing what to show and what not to show. I can't find the DOP on IMDB but I'm sure if he/she had decided to do a standard pan, instead on the side on profile shot, in the car with the two sisters not half the emotion would have been put across.

Within that short space of time the feelings The Street made me feel were what I'd usually expect to take from a feature length film and a very good one at that! The themes which were covered: motherhood, family, responsibility and social justice as well as the exploration of the term 'unconditional love' all mounted to a fantastic and gripping episode as performances were given by exceptional standards.

How far can we really go to protect our own, from our own?

ER, sleep, read, ER, ER, sleep, look outside at the snow, ER, read, read, shopping, Friends, go outside in the snow, come back in very quickly, ER, sleep, TV, TV, TV, book, TV, TV.

I think I’m watching so much television in efforts to compensate for the term time when I know I maybe watch TV three times on an actual television. Which I do actually prefer to any other form. iPlayer has it’s uses (I can watch it in my room, for free) but I like sitting on my sofa and revelling at the power of my remote control.

As well as the TV I’ve been reading quite a bit more these days! I’ve re-read one of my favourites (I do this a lot) and it’s one I would love to adapt into a film. Written by A. L. Kennedy So I Am Glad is a slightly disturbing book and more than bizarre. But the reason why I loved it when I first read it is that Kennedy challenges you to keep reading and she pushes you. The main protagonist, Jennifer, protests against any moving account and openly invites you in to see her past but at your own peril and through this a certain indelible prose is achieved, which is like no other that I have ever read. A modern fable, I am always moved by the second life of Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, the famous 18th century duelist and writer and how him and Jen discover the pain of love, together. Hilarious and poignant all at once, I have underlined and highlighted so many of Kennedy’s sentences:

‘You wouldn’t happen to know your real name now?’
‘No. Sorry.’
‘Just a thought.’

(For a while Savinien has amnesia and when they first meet neither of them know how he got there.)






I have a feeling I’m not explaining this very well but I love this book because of the voice it has. A lot of books annoy me – for example The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve – because although they sell well and have some great sentences and plots they don’t go further than that. Unlike So I Am Glad they don’t challenge me to imagine something or a person that shouldn’t be real. They don’t manipulate the English language, they just use it. Relationships are not simple, so why simplify them in a book? Or a film? With Kennedy I know I’m not ever going to get a simplified, watered down version of life, in fact I’ll get the opposite.

I’d like to see The Pilot’s Wife as a film because I think the plot could be very rewarding in a good script. The husband is a pilot and when he dies in a plane crash his wife discovers he had a double life in the UK with another wife and two other children. Politcs, drama, lies, complicated pasts, love and forbidden love are all included so I think if handled well it would have great potentional to make the move from the page to the screen.

As for something that has already been adapted there is Atonement. It’s hard to read. I picked it up something like two years ago and I had to put it down because McEwan seemed not to know, or care about being succinct in any way. At least three pages in total are devoted to the description of a singular vase! However, I am trying again and it’s a bit easier this time and I look forward to seeing how the book was taken apart to be made into a visual medium with a modern audience.

At the start you might have noticed I mentioned ER more than once! I got the complete Collector’s Set for Christmas so my eyes are no longer round and tonight is going to be end of Season 1! I am admittedly obsessed with it but I am taking care to apply some thought to the structure of the programme and I have established each character’s fatal flaw (my favourite is Dr Greene – he is married to his work) and I’m going to be blogging about ER quite a bit so I thought I’d warn you!