CCS2 – Part One - Group One: The Last Picture Show

Set in the period between WW2 and the Korean Conflict in a town where 'a person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offerin' him a handkerchief', this film plods through the “coming-of-age” for two best friends: Sonny and Duane.

Sure, the theme of coming-of-age is a veritable one and not every film can be all action, but I want to tell Peter Bagdanovich that making a film with:

• a boring town
• boring people
• boring lives

will equal a boring film. This recipe is one for drooling chins and agonising pauses only.

The content is not awful, just sad: sleeping around for kicks, sordid pathetic affairs, trashy naked pool parties and copious amounts of indecent groping, but the way it's filmed is painful. I sat waiting for each scene to pass over with every reaction and action was slapped onto the screen with no reason but to extend the running time.

The only scene that didn't fail to send to into another fit of 'when will this end' was when Louis talks about her affair with Sam. It is strangely touching to see this woman, past her prime, talk of the one time she has ever experienced love with such resignation.

Although there was no plot to speak of, and some scenes should have not stayed in the film (where was there a need for child abuse?!), what I took away from the film was that you always go back to who will always wait.

"the midnight express .... it doesn't stop around here"

What a fantastic day!

We had our first class with Abigail who is going to be sharing her knowledge about producing in films with us over the next couple weeks. I found her class intensive because we were squeezing it in before 3pm (for Oliver Stone) but nevertheless really informative and fun.

I learned A LOT about production in less than three hours and I liked how Abigail showed us a lot of examples on the computer of forms used and how she went through each aspect of the process. Another thing I learned was the 1^st AD really works as a producer, not as a director’s assistant!

I had had no idea just how much organization that a producer undertakes! So much paperwork! But the satisfaction by carrying a film from A, its birth, to Z, way beyond the ‘wrap’, must be amazing. I love being organized because when I can and actually do it, it feels great. But I don’t think my talent is this, to be honest! What I’d love to have the detail of Abigail’s class on the subject of being DoP or a director because those are the area I’m particularly interested in. I kind of feel I don’t know exactly what the job description is for those jobs and Abigail totally gave us that inside out with production. So, whilst I look forward to the next class, I want to see this with directing and being a DoP.

I was immensely inspired by Oliver Stone. I’d prepared myself to be disappointed by him because most of my experiences with celebrated figures, especially directors, have been somewhat of a let down because of their arrogance. But he came across as lovely man who had a lot to say and as Adam said: “I hope he never shuts up.”

I’ve only watched one of his films, that being The Midnight Express but it’s a brilliant film and one that I was brought up to be excited about (I had to wait a long time before I was allowed to see it and my mum lived in Turkey for 3 years and there is much more to be said, but this is not the place!) So I was excited to see the guy behind the name. He has obviously worked incredibly hard and has had a very rich and full life, which came through what he talked about being a soldier in Vietnam and his views on America and life in general.

He came up to us all afterwards and we all acted a bit star struck and I fear I came across as quite simple when he had to ask me how old I was THREE times before I could squeak “19”! Pathetic! But hey, I’ll never wash my chin again and I got a great gansta handshake from him! (You had to be there.) He was so nice, a bit like a cuddly granddad, and asked us all what Glasgow was like and various other things! He also played ‘got your nose’ with Ada, haha, this afternoon was definitely one of my most amusing ones at the Academy!

What did his being here mean for me though? Well I was able to step back slightly and look at how a few things. Firstly, that I’m really lucky for a whole bunch of reasons. One of them is being able to study and find my talents and ways to stretch myself in the right directions at the Academy. Secondly, I’ve had so many opportunities and experiences in my life that will inevitable seep into my work as an artist, and I will always try and find new ways to make my films and programmes link to my life and the things I’ve learned from it– because that is how you can reach out and speak to so many different individuals at the same time. Today gave me one of those nudges you need when you catch yourself becoming a little tired, or lazy, or confused why and what you’re doing and so I’m really happy because I feel that another realisation has clicked; I know I’m in the right place to get where I need and want to be as a film maker.

I do need to push myself out of my comfort zone more often and I also need to explore what I like and bring it into my work. I hope to take kit out over the next few weekends we have left before the summer so I can investigate what I can create without the pressure of a project or satisfying someone else.

Though, I am looking forward to making our final film of the year and I really hope that two of our scripts are chosen, as opposed to one blow up doll script and one independent script. The reason behind this is because, although the scripts got stronger for the blow up doll idea, I still feel that our own ideas are much easier and have much more room for exploration and getting deeper with themes than with a lilo! We all have tutorials with Richard tomorrow evening so we will be able to develop our scripts further and then see if they will be produced. I would love to produce/direct one of the films but I’d really really like to be DOP as I want to explore this particular role much more.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens. On that note, I’ll be back on soon to tell you what progress has been made by next week!

candid....

I was on the crew for filming Candid Cabaret on both Sunday and Monday night. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the process of filming the postgraduates on the MT course. I know quite a few of them personally so it was great to watch them perform professionally and see what their job is.

The definition of ‘cabaret’ is quite simple:

1. a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant

2. Chiefly US a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment

But I didn’t really know what to expect when I went to Oran Mor and so I was pleasantly surprised. Each and every one of the performances was original and unique to the performer. I hadn’t realised that so much of the acts would be stand up comedy. I usually avoid and resist this type of entertainment because I always say that I won’t be able to hear the jokes properly etc (and I sometimes don’t, which annoys the crap out of me when everyone around me is wetting themselves), I was able to enjoy the humour greatly.

On Sunday I was using the PDX10 for the stage (voted in to use because I am the smallest...yay) which I enjoyed very much as I got the opportunity to use a different piece of equipment. There is much less prep involved for using this camera and it’s a nifty wee thing but the downsides were that it didn’t react well to the low lighting. The lighting caused a lot of chiaroscuro which meant I had to use a lot of different angles in attempt to get a nice image. Perhaps in post it’ll look different ...Only after did I think of using gain but there you go. My back was really aching by the end though, because the strain of carrying that thing is really a lot as you’re only using one hand and over two hours!

I got to try lots of different angles and get up quite close without being intrusive to either the audience or the performers (I hope.) I tried to get an equal balance of footage from both sides of the stage and I managed to get some good shots of the backing singers at the far back of the stage too. I also concentrated on their hands and extreme close ups of their faces that I thought might be useful in post.

Since the crews essentially worked on communication and passing things on I thought Flick and I did well on this aspect. It was so simple but so important that we kept a list of the equipment and made sure everything was secure down to the smallest cables. We were given a lot of responsibility which I liked and everything seemed to go quite smoothly. Both groups I worked with all came together to put on a comprehensive effort. This time I took on the 570 at the back for the ‘MID’ shot. I enjoyed this as well (my back didn’t hurt so much, but this time my feet really suffered!) and everything ran very smoothly. After each act we changed tapes and every two acts we changed batteries and this all worked out well. Though I had a wee scare when one battery looked like it was going to die on me but I just crossed my legs and check it constantly and it didn’t! Phew! Over exposure looked like it might be a problem at one point and so I played about with it for a bit but then decided that it would be annoying for the editor if I kept doing it every 2 minutes so I left it and hopefully it’ll be okay. We helped each other out when setting up and de-rigging and we pulled it off.

Some performances were just hilarious and I got a good insight in how performers can hold an audience is a small environment like Oran Mor and what made them laugh and what didn’t. Also it was interesting to see the performers use thei r everyday lives and personal matters in their work which is something I can relate to hugely, especially when writing.

I’d love to have gone to see the rest of Candid Cabaret but as this week is just so busy for me I haven’t been able to! But I’m so glad I got to enjoy the work of MT and learn more about using DFTV equipment at the same time! Would gladly do it all over again!

For next time:

• Wear proper shoes, ones that actually support my feet

• Buy a black fleece and wear more layers

• Use gain

• Take water and a sandwich and therefore save a copious amount of money

Stagecoach

I don’t watch Westerns often nor do I like them all that much. But Stagecoach was worth sitting down for! The editing was very swift especially during the chase scenes and I found myself really rooting for both sides at the same time! I found certain parts really moving such as when Mrs. Mallory prays in the coach and does not even look at Hatfeild when he points the gun at her, to spare her an undignified death from the Indians.

The ending is full of tension which I have never seen in films before. The silence is overbearing and I felt as if in the room myself and if I was I could have heard a pin drop. Even then there is some humour – who walks in to their pub to find himself looking down 5 barrels! The time is taken to build up the tension over ‘real’ time instead of just cutting to the shoot out, which is what would happen today. I appreciated this and it made me feel that there was more depth to the ending than to be expected from a Western. Ringo is aliiiiiive! - The way they don't actually show the shoot out is much more exciting and you find yourself feeling what Dallas is -is he dead?

I enjoyed Stagecoach but I did wish It was in colour because I felt restricted in terms of being able to immerse myself into the story. 4 stars.

Who do you want to be your next Prime Minister?

It surprised me when I found out that this is the first time these Prime Ministerial Debates have ever been televised. Though the only reason I watched it was because it was on the channel when I switched it on.. and I kept it on which I really am glad I did.

I actually enjoyed and learned some snippets of new information which helped me decide who I voted for today. But between all the repeating and the snitching I had to concentrate on keeping track of what the question was really asking, and when the boys were actually doing a half baked attempt to actually answer the question, I had to wade through the high brow language too. There was little depth to most of their answers – Clegg mad e a dance and song about focussing on the people asking the questions and not detailing his plans. Tory denied making the cuts Labour said they would and vice versa. A lot of different people would be watching this and so I often felt too clever AND too stupid to understand what they were saying most of the time.

The debate is useful; it allowed me to judge how they defended their country and see if they had any sense of trustworthiness about them. However I have got most of my information, not from the horse’s mouth, but from the newspapers and by looking up their manifestos online.

"Second to the right and straight on till morning!"

It hurt me to be walking out of the King's Theatre regretting the last two hours or so on Wednesday. This was the first time I'd seen Peter Pan on the theatrical stage and I was really excited to be seeing a story I hold close to my heart. There were some brilliant moments in the play where you could catch a glimpse of what John Tiffany and David Grieg were seeing but it was marred by a huge mess of a cumbersome set (though I was impressed when they transformed into sails) and a huge lack of imagination for such a magical story.

You might as well have driven a knife in my gut when the push along dog came onto the stage. I am sure that a real dog is against health and safety protocol but anything, anything would have been better than that thing. I was expecting at least a guy in a dog suit. The maids were ridiculous and I felt sorry for every kid in there. In fact I felt sorry for everybody.

Stage movements were awkward, the revolving chunks took up so much space the actors had no freedom and the ugly harnesses did not help in the slightest. And excuse me, Mr Tiffany, what were you thinking when you took out that beautiful scene when Pan leads Wendy, John and Michael out of their window across the sky? It was like walking into the Sistine Chapel only to find the Creation of Adam rubbed out of the ceiling!

The feeling I always got from Peter Pan was that it's timeless. The Forth Road Bridge whacked a certain date and era on it and yes, yes I know that every version has the characters donned in some sort of Victorian costume but mainly they are in their nightclothes and the point is meant to be their time spent in Neverland. The time in this story is meant to be fluid as water and so why the huge emphasis on something that is essentially unimportant? Do we really care about where Mr Darling works? Not really.

The fourth wall was broken when Tink made her entrance and I loved it. She came in from the top right balcony and onto the stage. That was a millisecond of a whole audience being enveloped in magic but they should have had more of this. Peter flying across the theatre would have been amazing or am I being to ambitious and dreamy? But I really loved their interpretation of Tinkerbell. The flame was ingenious - a person would have been too big and awkward to capture the essence of the fairy. A flame meant her size was small, but her spirit is just as big as your imagination. It meant she could fly all over the stage on an invisible wire, enticing the audience into the true magic of Peter Pan.

The violence was a little shocking. I'm not saying I was expecting an a neat and polite conversation between Hook and Pan but I was disappointed at the lack of elegant parrying with respectable swords and was left instead with taste of fist fighting and animal aggressiveness. I would have just stood on Queen Street at 3am to observe the drunk lads getting hot under the collar if I really wanted to see all that...

However, there is a brilliant scene when Pan is pushed off the plank into the swell of the ocean. It was FABULOUS. Everything just went perfectly together. People ran onto the stage to push him down further into the growl of the sea, created by strong blue lights cast onto the bottom half the stage, Guthrie struggles against the men/sea, the music pounded and Peter shot into a yellow beam which showed in a split second he was resurfacing. Beautiful!

Though call me traditional, but where was the epic kiss with Wendy and Peter? I missed that. There were gaps like these all over the place and as a result the play felt rather bleak and empty, with the lack of romance and it was top heavy with creepy violence, with no gentle love to balance it out.

There was a certain potent energy in Kevin Guthrie (Pan) and it was interesting to see his sinister anger mix with his childish cheekiness but this was lost with stuttered dialogue between characters and an unconvincing relationship with every character, especially Wendy and Captain Hook. (Why on earth did they make Hook able to 'fly'? That is just completely made up.) The most chilling moment though, was at the very last moment, you suddenly see a flash of the past and the future all at once when Wendy's nine year old daughter wakes to ask Pan 'why are you crying?' as did her mother all those years ago. Guthrie lets out another howl and you are haunted by the thought that it will happen all over again..

I'll just stay with my battered book and let my imagination tell me the story when I look at the painting of the fairies dancing around Peter on the wall at home....