2002 Talk to her

recently I watched the Spanish film talk to her or (babble a Ella) the whole film is completely in Spanish, not even English subtitles, so yes I found watching this film a bit odd because my understanding of the Spanish language is limited to a few very small words and phrases however I did understand most of what was going on in this film.

Talk to her

 

Talk to her was made in 2002 and somehow it’s meant to be a comedy drama but I cant honestly se how on earth that’s possible!
The film was written and directed by Pedro Almodovar.

The concept for this film is very simple (then again this is from what I could tell) it’s mainly the idea of caring for someone this is because the film is about two different couples that have been brought together through the same outcome of a accident.
Both of the women have been put into comas and this has left the men alone and looking after them and debating the question of is it okay to sleep the woman you love if their in a coma?

I did watch this film twice because well I found I had to just to get a full understanding of the film. To me I found that this film has an amazing use of dance and camera angles but the narrative of the film was rather sinister because I find rather, okay extremely creepy. I can understand how this film can be a large part of Spanish cinema but it wasn’t for me. The was one part of the film I couldn’t stand was the scene with the bull fighting, I hated watching it! The scene was so graphic you could see all the blood dripping out form the bulls wounds and even see the knives in the bulls back so yes when the second woman who was a bullfighter gets hurt by a bull (yes note the irony of that)  and put into a coma so that to me evens it out.
however the other couples back story is a bit more odd because the its more of stalker finds out the woman he is stalking is in a coma and some how gets a job caring for her while she is in the coma however before she wakes up he does get put in prison probably for sleep with her.

With this film I would say if you want to watch it, and then watch it but don’t watch it with your other half… unless they’re into that then together it is.

 

Honestly talk to her is certainly different I’m not sure if I liked it or not but I know it was weird to watch the film maybe that was because the DVD was handed to me by and my tutor saying “is it right to sleep with someone iiiiiifffffffffff there in a coma?”

 

Research Materials – Write what you know Assignment

 

This is my research blog for my college assignment called write what you know; I will be writing a narrative for a five minuet short which I have decided to write about what interest me which is working with unsigned bands.

Artist Manager – What is it? :

An artist manager, also known as a “band manager”, is in charge of the business side of being in a band. Often, band members are great at the creative side of things, but aren’t so great at promoting themselves, booking their own gigs, or negotiating deals. In a very general sense, the task of a manager is take care of the day to day running of the band’s career, so the band can focus on the creative side of things

What Jobs Should an Artist Manager Do? Signed Artists:

The jobs a manager does depends very much on the band and where they are in their careers. For an unsigned band, a manager should:

•Send out demos to labels, radio stations, local print media, and online publications
•Book gigs and invite labels and the media to the shows
•Network and talk to people about the band
•Help book studio time and practice sessions
•Explore funding opportunities for the band

For signed artists, managers should:

•Negotiate financial deals with the label for expenses like touring and recording
 •Oversee other people working for the band, like accountants, agents, and merchandisers.

What Jobs Should an Artist Manager Do? Unsigned Artists:

For an unsigned artist, the manager should be the mouthpiece of the band, and their greatest ally, making sure that everyone else involved in the band’s career is doing their job and working hard to promote the band’s success. For instance, the manager should be on the phone with the label, asking about advertising campaigns and then on the phone with agent asking about upcoming show opportunities.

http://musicians.about.com/od/otherindustrycareers/p/artistmanager.htm

My  personal insight to how unsigned music works

I’ve been passionate about music ever since I was young at 10 I started having piano lessons from a professional piano player, who has worked in the music business but has now retired. She taught me what things a band need to make it in the business along with how a band should work.

I’ve known about band management since I was about 14 years old when I used to know many band in the underground music scene of Chatham. I Learnt most of what I know form my friend Lee Atkin who used to be in the unsigned band Sapphire Burning.  I used to spend a lot of time with the band and from this I learnt how to book gigs at pubs and clubs, how to book studio time and what goes on during recording sessions and how to find and book a rehearsal space. I also learnt form sapphire burning how to set up for a show and how important it is for a band to be playing at a professional standard. During the time I spent with Sapphire Burning I also learnt how important the dynamic of the band is important this is because if band members cant get along then the band has no real chance of working out in the long run.  A lot of my friend are in unsigned bands so I know the steps they have to follow to try and make it in the industry which I’m now using to help out the current band  I’m working with. 

To be able to be a band manager you need to know certain things like
-what equipment does each band member use
-A full understanding of the band
-how the band are on and off stage
-how to solve crises quickly
being able to achieve all of the above means a manager can work in any situation with the band and still make them look like the good guys.

KISS MANAGER Bill Aucoin

Bill Aucoin first saw Kiss perform in August 1973 at the Hotel Diplomat in New York. He recognised the potential of the band, and asked them to give him 30 days to get them a record contract. By September he had attracted the interest of Neil Bogart, who was starting up a label backed by Warner Brothers

I’ve written about Aucion because I like how he works for and supports the band KISS and think that, that is how a manager should work with a band, singed or unsigned it should be a working partnership.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jul/25/bill-aucoin-obituary-manager-kiss-rock-band

Forrest Gump

I’m feeling horrid have a cold (yes! At this time of year) mixed with horrid hay fever so I put on one of my comfort films…Forrest Gump. I’ve been watching this film for years

the story of Forrest Gump is told by the main character about his life story. I think this film is beautiful because the main character Forrest has special needs but still gets to embrace life to the full, without even noticing the achievements he’s making.

Before this film was made in 1994, it was a book written by Winston Groom and then turned in to a screen play by Eric Roth, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Tom Hanks, Robin Right and Gary Sinise.

I think that tom Hanks plays forrest so well believe the performance he put on as forrest at times, I think he’s real and another thing I love about forrest Gump is the fact he’s in so many important times of history yet he just doesn’t notice, he’s such a happy go lucky character.
this film always hits home for me because I remember my own mum telling me imp no different to the other children when I was younger, its also important to the people like Forrest in the world I like to think it gives them hope and comfort.
Every time I watch this film I cry, it’s a happy story but still at some points you can’t help yourself you just have to cry with Forrest

the least thing i would like to say about this film is i watched it on video tape not dvd ohhh yeahhh, im oldschool!

SUCK Vampires Rock

Over the half term I bought suck, which yes did come out in 2009 but I’m poor and couldn’t afford to go to the cinema or buy it when it first came out that why I bought it over half term.
Now going by the title you’d think it was a dirty movie, when really it’s a rock-horror-comedy.

I first wanted to see this movie purely because the might Alice Cooper is in it (and yes for the Cooper fans he does say “welcome to my nightmare” it eared up an isle when that happened)

 

and I love that guy however this film does have A LOT of rock and roll legends in it like;
Iggy Pop, (I would like to say that yes he is wearing a top so its not that creepy when he’s on your TV)

Moby (play a character which is so drastically different to him it’s so funny)

 And Henry Rollins, yes of Black Flag and Henry Rollins band.

When I found these guys were in the film I tried everything to go see it at the cinema but like I said I’m poor. Oh another great name I have to talk about is Malcolm McDowell from A Clock Work Orange.

The full cast for this film is
 Rob Stefaniuk  …  Joey, singer/ guitarist

  Jessica Paré  …  Jennifer backing vocals/ bass

  Paul Anthony  …  Tyler backing vocals/ lead guitar

  Mike Lobel  …  Sam  drummer

  Chris Ratz  …  Hugo  roadie

  Alice Cooper  …  Bartender 

  Moby  …  Beef 

  Henry Rollins  …  Rockin’ Roger 

  Iggy Pop  …  Victor 

  Dimitri Coats  …  Queeny 

  Dave Foley  …  Jeff 

   Malcolm McDowell  …  Eddie Van Helsing 

This film was written by Rob Stefaniuk who also directed and started in the film, which I have to say I’m not a fan of directors acting in their own films however Stefaniuk did pull this off because he was written from his own life. He has been Joey with a failing band touring pathetic willing to try and do anything to make it.

When watching a vampire film I normally look for the gore element but the thing that really took my attention in Suck was the lighting love how Stefaniuk made the vampire controls the lighting with their moods I found that really powerful. In Suck stop motion is also used which I adored because it reminded me of those really old horror films like the evil dead where they use stop motion as the special effect, so it was nice to see that again in a modern horror film.

Another thing about suck I want to talk about is the soundtrack, all of the band songs were written by Stefaniuk however there are some covers and stuff from bands like David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop and yes there is even a Alice cooper song (along came a spider)

This film has everything I need in a vampire film, blood, jokes, great music and rock stars. I have no shame in saying this film glad I own this film on DVD.

1998 Darren Aronofsky’s Pi

In the last week I watched a movie called Pi, I would of blogged about it sooner however this was because I have to feeling to towards this film which are;
love and hate.

Pi is a Darren Aronofsky film from1998, the films about this bloke who is a mathematician trying to work out the number pattern in Pi (Pi is 3.14….and it goes on for near enough ever) however the film also works along side Jewish mysticism and the main character personal,  descended into madness.
The film starred
Sean Gullette  …  Maximillian Cohen 

  Mark Margolis  …  Sol Robeson 

  Ben Shenkman  …  Lenny Meyer 
and was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

now the reason of why I both love and hate this film is because I love how its made, I love the narrative and yes, I do understand the maths in this film but I hated it because it was so aggravating to watch it (I watched this film five times in one night and that does count the two time I watched it with the directors commentary and the cast commentary)  I think this was because I can seem to enjoy fully any Aronofsky made films granted yes he is a great writer but when you watch one of his films you can always tell its an Aronofsky film .

The whole of Pi is shot in black and white and has some breath taking shots and the best part of the film  (well for me anyway) has to be when Max Cohen drills, yes drills with the power tool, in to his own head. It looks so real (yes I did watch that one scene about 7 times on a loop)

people should be made to watch this film, I made my boyfriend sit and watch this film and it just blew him away,  it took him about an hour to explain his thought on the film.

Sex and the City: The movie-Get Carried Away

So…….. I watched sex and the city, the movie last night, not of my own choosing it was my sisters.
I’m not going to lie that wasn’t the first time I’ve watch that film, there is a DVD copy in my house but it’s my mothers so I can get away with it.
I would also like to say I did sit and watch the whole film. Yes I put myself through that.

Now from what I remember of my late nights staying up watching the TV series of sex and the city its about these four women of new York looking for love (or rather amusing sex stories) designer clothes and ACTUALLY eating food (even if they were all slim and relatively pretty) which pretty much sums up the show. The show starred
Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw ,Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones, Kristin Davis as Charlotte York,  Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes  and  Chris Noth as Mr. Big. The show was originally based on a book written by Candace Bushnell and it’s based on her life experiances along with some of her friends too, it then went on to became a TV show in 1998 because of Darren star. The film was written and directed by Michael Patrick king, who also produced it along with Sarah Jessica Parker and John Melfi.

 

The movie is like the show however this time the concentration is more on love.  Along side the wedding of Carrie and Mr. Big, Charlotte finally, having a baby, Miranda being cheated on and well Samantha being Samantha.
I can understand why 30 something single women love sex and the city so much and I can understand why they babble on about wanting it all just like Carrie and the girls, which meant that when this film come out, I couldn’t find a Ben and jerry’s cookie dough ice cream anywhere.
This film isn’t my kind of film, I did sit there and watch it but that’s all I did, my sister loved it.
I always think the way sex and the city is written is so cleaver because all four of the main character is connected. This film is a romantic comedy and really that type of film I can’t quite connect to, granted I’ll see the funny side but all the romantic mush, for lack of a better word bores me.

I watched sex and the city I thought how many people think of love like they do in this film? I said this to my sister and her response was “look at that weeding dress”
I asked her during what I found to be the best part of the film which was the sequence where Carrie is putting on designer wedding dresses. Apart from that I just couldn’t get into the film.

John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China

Well first thing I have to say about this film is I love the DVD case, the art work does do the film justice as it’s such a dead give away.
When I first looked at the artwork I was in two minds about the film because sometime you can have awesome artwork then a not so good film, but you can’t judge a book by its cover!

Big Trouble in Little China movie poster

Big Trouble in Little China is action/adventure mixed with comedy film written by David Z. Weinstein and Gary Goldman and was directed by John Carpenter
starring
Kurt Russell
and co-starring
Kim Cattrall and
Dennis Dun
also some iconic actors of this genre have main rolls (note James Hong)

The storyline of this film is the hero an American truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) and his old buddy Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) find themselves caught up in a old Chinese folk law fighting for love and a truck against an evil magician/powerful businessman David Lo Pan(James Hong) all in the underbelly of San Francisco’s Chinatown
This film works on the concept of Chinese black magic and American brut force or the stupidity of American brut force I should say.

I honestly fully enjoyed watching this film not just because I love Carpenters work but because this film is so well written from the Chinese folk law to the comedy element to this film. There are so many great one liners in this film I was giggling throughout watching this film as well as adoring anyone of the fight scenes created by Jim Lau (the martial arts consultant) and Kenny Endoso (the stunt coordinator) because it was both breath taking and slapstick at the same time. One small thing about the fight sequences which rather ticked me was the sound made by the fighters mainly the lords of death they weren’t war cries more like squeaks which I think was intentional as not make this film to serious.
Considering this film was made in 1986 the some of the special effects are still pretty cool to look at however that could be my own personal view. I found the effects did help me to date the film more but they were simple and not over the top, which to me makes the film able to watch time and time again.

Something which I would like to talk about in this film is the puppetry which is done by James Kagel and the creatures crew in this film (which I think there should be more of in films but you got to let technology have it’s go) There is two gorgeous scenes in Big Trouble in Little China where puppetry is used, during the film there’s actually a lot of puppets used but I wont spoil it. (see inster below-Thunder blowing up)

The cast of this film were fight for this film even though every time i heard James Hong (lo Pan) say a line I couldn’t help but picture the goose from kung fu panda, which I also had a small problem when I saw Kim Cattrall (who played Gracie Law) the sex and city theme tune would pop in to my head, which did start to annoy me by the end of the film but there was one character that I couldn’t help but love and that was, no is Egg Shen the mystical tour bus driver (Victor Wong) purely because I love how blunt he is.
  James hong/ Lo Pan/po’s dad in the film kung fu panda
Victor Wong/Egg Shen
I think this has been a sunday well spent.

legal and contractual part five

Conclusion

From recently looking at the cases of both Miriam O’Reilly and Ben Collins/The Stig I can see that the two both had to work against the BBC which is large broadcasting company which would be difficult to be up against in court however I do think that both rulings give were fairly given to O’Reilly and Collins .
O’Reilly’s case of age discrimination against the BBC which was won by her I think was the right verdict as that was the reason she lost her job on countryfile. The court did dismiss her case of sexism which I feel wasn’t part of the reason for the losing her job.
In the case for Collins I do think that Collins should be allowed to let people know that he is the Stig however I do feel that it could of been done in a better was as now Collins is no longer on top gear and I feel that this is unfair to him. I think that he does have the right to publish his autobiography although he probably should have taken in to consideration what the BBC would do about the story and what it contains.

legal and contractual part four B

Miriam O’Reilly
In 2009 countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly was dropped form the shows because it was moving to a primetime slot and wanted to appeal to the younger audience. With this O’Reilly felt that she was being discriminated against because of her age but also form other offensive remarks made by people working on the show.
O’Reilly won her cast against the BBC on the grounds of ageism however she also tried to claim the BBC were also being sexist because the programme was keeping on the same male presenter who is also older than O’Reilly.
I think that O’Reilly did do the right thing by taking the BBC to court over ageism because the media industry can be harder to work in for women over a certain age. I feel that O’Reilly shouldn’t been dropped from the show just because it was moving to a primetime slot and need to fit in with the viewers age. I think that because O’Reilly has won this case it will be good for older female presenters in the industry as it show that even thought they are older they can still work in the industry and shouldn’t be made to feel like they have to stay young to keep there job. With this it may start to send a message to women that being young isn’t the most important thing in life as now at this point in time people have started to become obsessed with looking young and youthful and not caring with what a person can do its just how they look.

References
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12161045
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23912965-bbc-guilty-of-sacking-miriam-oreilly-because-of-her-age.do

legal and contractual part four A

Critical Evaluation
The Stig
In September 2010 Ben Collins or the Stig and publishers HarperCollins were in court against the BBC about having the right to publish the autobiography he had writer which told people that he was the Top Gear character The Stig, which the BBC tried to have a injunction put in place which would block the booking being published because it was a breach of his contract.
The London high court refused to grant the BBC an injunction blocking for the publication by HarperCollins of an autobiography of former Formula Three driver Ben Collins.
I think that the HarperCollins-Collins case against the BBC was right to be fought by the BBC as the Stig is meant to be a unknown character so by having a book published which tells the public an fans of the BBC programme Top Gear does slightly ruin the show for viewer because the Stig’s unknown identity is a big part of the show. I feel that the BBC fought for an injunction because they were doing that for the viewer’s best interest, even if the character of the Stig does bring in a lot of money for the BBC with its merchandise. I can understand why Collins would want to let people know that he was the Stig because he had been that character for seven years and has been a large part of Top Gear. However now that Collins has won this case the book had been published and was realised at Christmas time last year.

References
http://www.mibz.com/21004-ben-collins-aka-the-stig-wins-the-bbc-trial-the-autobiography-will-be-published.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11151777