Week Beginning 16th Nov

Monday was a class on Cinema Movements, looking at genre theory and star theory. My appreciation of star theory is possibly hampered by my relative ignorance of contemporary actors. I could pass Shia Le Buoef (or however you spell that) in the street and not recognise him - I have only ever heard his name in class. Having grown up watching a diet largely consisting of TV and films from the 60's to 80's I have always felt slightly out of step with everyone else. Thinking back, apart from the occasional school trip and a solitary trip to see Beauty and the Beast, my first two times in the cinema were Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, both in 2001, by which time I was 17. I am not saying this as some sort of sob story, but to try and explain my relative ignorance of films from the 90's with which my peers have grown up. In particular, my utter lack of interest in celebity culture means I never pay much attention to who is who in th movie world, unless a character or performance strikes me as particularly noteworthy. Hence my great confusion telling the difference between Heath Ledger, Jude Law and Colin Farrel in Doctor Parnassus!

Tuesday was an examination of Derelict - a rather dreary and generic program about unhappy people in unhappy situations, about which the viewing public are as helpless as they are about AIDS in Africa. This was followed by My Fake Baby, a far more engaging, and (for me) far more horrifying program than the first. There was something incredibly sad about the psychological state these women had got themselves into, where they were looking for some sort of satisfaction in a doll.

Wednesday was a program meeting where we expressed our unease at the apparent lack of pace within the course, and were querying what our end of year projects would be. I think the class are united in preference of filming our own films as opposed to bland and generic "scenes". A possible compromise would be writing (or at least choosing) our own scenes, but I'm glad to have received Adam's assurance on Friday that we would be making between 1 and 4 end of year films. In the meantime, I am more determined than ever to continue making films in an extra-curricular fashion. I can only measure my progress for this term by considering Golden Rule, the Enter the Pitch film, and the completion of Dust. Apart from that, I've learned some more, and discarded heaps of scripts, but haven't progressed.

Wednesday afternoon was another class on Documentary, where we watched a program about sleazy Bible salesmen. It was interesting, but my attention would have been retained if it had been half the length. I could certainly appreciate the non-intrusive nature of the documentators. The genuine nature of the footage they captured was amazing. But not the most entertaining piece of film.

Thursday morning was a class in Sound, followed by a class in Editing. I very much enjoyed Sound, but because I'd had no time for the toilet, let alone lunch (due to an over enthusiastic Gaelic teacher!), I was less collected for Editing. My thoughts weren't helped by my computer crashing half way through. I thought Avid was supposed to be uncrashable! I am slowly picking up the hang of Avid, but it is so much less user friendly than Final Cut (probably on purpose) that I doubt I shall ever like this program!

Friday was a short class with Adam, looking at proposals and the wording thereof. This was followed by filming the Brodski Quartet doing their thing in the Concert Hall. It was good to get back behind a camera again - it has been a very long time since I was operating previously and I was quite rusty till Paul oiled me up!