Week Beginning 23/11

So Monday was an early start: 0815 with a kit return.

At 11 we had Andy's class on star theory, where I discovered that in the last few years there has been a shift from star-centred films to brand-centred films. I suppose this is simply taking the idea of what defines a star and seperating it from an individual actor. "Grab your coat - we're off to the pictures. The new ____ movie is out". If that is what defines a star, then what better fits into that sentence than a brand: Twligiht, Harry Potter, James Bond. And even if the word "new" is dropped, a recognisable brand is more likely to sell. (The Simpsons, Sex and the City, Watchmen) But this only be the case, I suspect, if the brand has something to do with entertainment. I can't see why a movie based on Cleudo or Monopoly, let alone Viewmaster, would sell any better than any standard detective or entrepeneur genre piece. After all, if "Coca-Cola: the Movie" was to come out, I wouldn't know whether to expect a rom com or a political thriller. All I would know was that there would be a lot of shots of hot people drinking bottles of coke. Having said that, "Irn-Bru: the Movie" would likely pull in the Scottish audience, largely on the back of their adverts which have such a cult following that an anthology of Irn Bru adverts sold out the GFT three nights running a year or two back. So again this is a previous link with the entertainment industry.

Tuesday was remarkably forgettable. I'm sure something must have happened!

Wednesday was a day off which I spent finishing Dust and editing my pitch for Enter the Pitch competition.

Thursday was a full day of editing where I learnt such useful things as how to change the colour scheme on Avid. I have decided to go for a sickly green colour to remind me of my antipathy for this over complicated and counter-intuitive program which continues to crash frequently when I use it. (In fact in the two days I have used it, it has crashed at least as often as Final Cut has done for me in all the time I have been using it since joining the Academy!) The afternoon was more constructive in that I managed to start capturing a clip after several abortive attempts. I had to cancel the operation before it was completed, in order to hand the deck round to the next man.

Friday was a tutorial with Adam regarding TV proposals. Interestingly he chose the one I was least excited about to enthuse over. So now the other two must remain in limbo while I do up a full outline for "Crooks of the Stone Age". I don't even like the title much! After this we watched The Island Tapes. I really enjoyed seeing that old footage, especially the two or three tantalising shots we had of Portree in 1938. I was surprised to see the War Memorial was already up in the square. I guess it was for the 1st World War, and I always thought it was a joint memorial. Maybe it was modified after '45. It was quite strange watching the musicians and the film together. My natural instinct was to watch the musicians and I had to keep looking away at the films.

Saturday was a shoot out in Mugdock Park - the fifth filmmaking adventure i have been out there for and the place gets more inhospitable every time. There was a dense fog over all the landscape, which provided us with some good shots, but combined with near zero temperatures, conditions were harsh. Metal equipment just sucks heat from your hands. I quickly lost feeling in my fingers and toes and did not regain circulation until lunch, during which time I succeeded in severely scaring some children by performing some mad dervish-Highland fling hybrid dance in the grounds of Mugdock castle in an attempt to spur on my sluggish blood to travel to my extremities. Highlight of the day was when I slipped on a wet piece of wood, and collapsed on the floor while still carrying all the equipment. It would have been funnier if I wasn't so cold!