Local Film Night @ Slogan

Two blogs in one night! Oh how I am good to you (not that theres anybody out there...out there...out....the...)

Friday night was the second Project Slogan film night arranged by my old buddy The Mood of Collapse. I missed the last one due to the Shingles story arc, but was feeling fit for this one and glad I did cause it was a really good night. As the night went on more and more people crammed their way into Slogan as iammartin kindly demonstrates:
Work-wise the night was a mixed bag but leaned more towards the impressive, providing a really good impression of the sort of thing being put together out there in Aberdeen's mean streets. 

First up was a trailer for a documentary about Wattie, a 44 year old rigger from Stonehaven who is attempting the Iditarod, the world's toughest dog sled race, which takes in Alaska. The film, obviously a trail put out to spark interest from possible funders, gets the idea of the story across quite nicelly, and I look forward to seeing the main feature.

Id have to say that the worst thing about Donside Productions is their name, but that aside their film "Life in Ruins" was an odd yet hilarious take on the Mockumentary format. It follows an English filmmaker looking for a "true scot" but encounters a strange kilted man who lives in a ruined castle, drinking rain water from puddles and making sleeping in darkened hollows in the stone while at the same time avoiding a bizzarre ghoulish figure which seems to also live in the castle. Weird stuff, but very very funny.

Beige is a film by three of my Fourth Year PEM students, Ricky Gibb, Doog Allan and Rich Watson. I worked really closely with them during the production and it was great to see it being shown to a big crowd on the big screen (As opposed to the PEM crowd on the wall in my garden) Beige is the tale of two outcast misfits who find each other through a mutual fascination with Choco Fudds, Poo-Foo the dog and Barry Scott, fictional spokesman for Cillit Bang.  Beige is one of the projects that students have made in my time at Grays that I am most proud off, it is a gentle, odd little story which is as funny as it is touching and entirelly beferft of cynicism. It does teeter on the edge of nievete at points and the performances are far from polished, but that can be forgiven given the care and skill involved in making the story a reality.

The night also featured a couple of super8 films by a friend of Jon's called Sam, pretty amazing edits and use of the format, and an amazing stop frame time-lapse of "Er Magesty's aging as described by the 2p coin, and a susprisingly slick and professional "Blue on Blue." I was taken away with the high production values of the film, directed by Mark Ewen, lots of good costumes, nicely lit, fancy production cars and realistic locations, however this didn't help to understand what the film was actually about. It centered around what appeared to be a strange blackmailing plot involving some soldiers and a nervous woman, although I couldnt quite work out what connection these people had to each other. There were flashes of guns before a fella looking not unlike Minty from Eastenders staves one of the soldiers heads in with a car boot, splattering blood over the even more nervous woman.

Also managed to slip in Rock Action by Martin and myself, and unashamedly pumped up the volume for it. 

So anyway, just for an extra treat, heres beige. Ricky probably wont be happy because the aspect ratio is a bit weird, but here we go:

Beige from Ricky Gibb on Vimeo.

No More Heroes Any More

As you might be able to see above, I got photos developed from a day out in the snow last week when the school got closed. Was trying out Kieran's OM10 because I had left my EOS at work. Wasn't really sure what was happening to be honest and most the photos came out overexposed and out of focus, there was a couple of nice ones, what I have posted on my flickr. Heres another couple of my favourites:

I got a second EOS body this week as well so I can have two different films on the go at once, and went out getting a few shots yesterday, albiet still using my old body cause you cant seem to get decent colour on the High Street these days. I'm quite enjoying getting back into taking photos. I used to take them all the time when I was at art school, and I've kinda stopped since buying a digital compact and then losing it. We also got a nice little donation to the school this week:

Its a Canon AF 514XLs Super 8 Camera, which comes with a bizarre boom mic attachment and a Eumic projector. They all seem to be in working order, the projector runs but theres no light. I ordered a new bulb for it so hopefully thats the problem.

This has all led me to get back to the stuff I've been supposed to be getting off the ground for this year, but instead of actually doing anything about it I've just started looking for other super 8 cameras and old Canon SLRs on eBay to form a bit of an antique collection. In actuallity I've been thinking about a 3 camera set up to covera project I've been working on. Essentially I have an idea which is kind of a starting point, and I dont know where its going to lead me, so I've decided just to shoot it to death and get as much raw footage and sounds as possible so that I'll hopefully have plenty to choose from.

Just a case of arranging it now....

I had started a blog last week, that was going to end up a bit of a rant, but I couldnt think of anything to say in it that wasnt an angry rant, but realised the gist of it is this:

he has too much to do apparently, like this:

Thats right kids, Ringo cant answer his fan mail because he is too busy making money by selling out to the man. Much like this pair of twats, who obviously cant sell records anymore:

Some questions to be answered "Would this still have happened if I'd still been Richard Starkey?"

Well, probably. Paul McCartney? George Harrison? hardly any more glamourous than Richard Starkey, however you had to rely on Ringo Starr to cover up the fact that you were a substandard drummer. Names aside, it wouldnt have happened without your fans, those hordes of screaming teenagers outside the car, so answer their fucking letters, ya prick!

As for Mssrs Lydon and Pop, who finally admit what we all had suspected for the last three decades, that the heart of Punk is in fact butter and insurance. I'm off to get out my guitar, insure it then smear it in country life. 

I think the Stranglers summed this up best:

Guitar Zero

So I played Guitar Hero for the first time last night on Katies wii. I've resisted this long but it was offered and like a fool I chose to have a go, and, well, found it pretty dull to be honest. (Not like those two guys from above that came up in a youtube search for guitar hero)

First of all, what I found difficult to understand was exactly how unlike playing the guitar "Guitar" Hero is. I've been playing about with the guitar for about seven years now. I'm not fantastic or anywhere near it but I know my way about the instrument and my skills are passable (Although they've been dwindling over the last few years), now with guitar hero, I went to it thinking like that, it looks like a guitar so surely it should work like one. Unfortunately what I had strapped around my shoulders was not a guitar, but a guitar shaped remote control. What it should be called is "remote control hero" although I don't think that would have sold so well.

Now with Guitar Hero, you have to press these coloured buttons where the first four frets should be. and twiddle this big switch on the body of the remote-guitar in time with a bunch of dots appearing on a six-stringed thing on the telly, which in some weird tenuous way related to the music to the track you are playing along to. The second time I tried it I chose the Who's Seeker, which I can play pretty well on the wooden guitar, but I absolutely totally ballsed it up on Guitar Hero, the remote thing was twanging all over she shop, people were laughing at me and I felt completely and utterly demeaned. 

That was until I remembered I had a skill that could be used without a TV, two Wii remotes and bluetooth technology. 

It can be really good fun playing along to someone else's song on the guitar, and its integral to learning how to play, but there is just something missing in Guitar Hero. Exactly what sense of achievement do you get for being able to press buttons in the right order, at the right time? I found the game filled me with exactly the same buzz that flicking through the channels to find that there is nothing on but the same episode of Friends where everyone does something really annoying.

As with most pointless wastes of time with no real outcome, Remote Control Hero has become a worldwide phenomena with Guitar Hero nights overtaking Karaoke in nightclubs and bars, and the worlds greatest film director and the man who single handedly killed the last part of the X Men trilogy, Brett Ratner wants to make a big budget Hollywood film based on it. I'm not even going to go into the many obvious reasons why this is the most rediculous thing in the world. 

After having a quick scan of the wikipedia article about the game and its cultural significance, there are reports of " 2.5 million out of 12 million children in the United Kingdom have taken up real instruments after playing music video games" and helping children develop their rythm and possibilities of schools using it for music education. While these effects of the game are generally positive, I'm just left wondering what these statistics mean anything. These 2.5 million kids could have ended up taking up Guitar anyway, it seems to suggest that Guitar Hero is a gateway to real instruments in the same way cannabis resin is a gateway to crack cocaine.

But then again its quicker, cheaper, and easier than actually learning to play an instrument and letting other peoples songs inspire and teach you to use the instrument for its full creative potential to create new music. Why would anyone want to invest time and effort when they can mash plastic buttons in the shallow illusion of playing along with a bunch of tunes chosen for increasing difficult guitar wankery rather than actual musical value.

There you go, a really long winded and pretty pointless way of saying that I didn't like Guitar Hero.

Things that are amusing me at the moment:

1. Being Human: surprisingly good.

2. iPhone: For the third week running, slipped down to number two

3. Cake: Shaping up nicely for the next few months

4. Snow. Its still here!

5. Twitter. Its just ace.

CAKE is coming and the people are coming

Out soon. Details to follow.

Snow Business

Britain went mad again this week.

A big snow came down on the UK this week and a couple of inches of snow in London meant that the country was crippled, busses weren't running, shops were closed, trains stopped, babies cried, buildings burned, there were rivers of blood, a plague of locusts and the 21st Century decided to pack it in because things weren't really working out.

Ok, that's too far I suppose, but its pretty close to the truth. Obviously the government, still shitting themselves about the financial crisis decided to invent another crisis and make a scapegoat out of the horrible, evil, disasterous, crippling, fun, happy, beautiful snow! Things were pretty normal in Aberdeen at the start of the week but we've got it now, on the plus side I got home early from work today. And managed to go out snapping some snow shots. I borrowed Kieran's OM10 cause I left my SLR at work, not sure what they're going to turn out like, Ill pop them into Jessops tomorrow and see what happens. The downside is Martin gets to see them before I do.



On the plus side, I really, really love snow. I love the look it gives everything, the sound it makes, just the complete whiteout.

Well Jeremy Clarkson's gone and done it again. He made some comment about Gordon Brown in Australia and had to appologise. As Youtube explains:

With television standards still unsure where they stand in terms of "taste and decency" everyones gone for Clarkson again. In the post-Ross/Brandgate age we live in it seems we have to tread on eggshells in case, no matter how intententional, someone, somewhere gets offended. People are not really supposed to have opinions, let alone say them out loud. Clarkson is a arrogant blowhard, but thats who he is, thats why so many people watch Top Gear, thats whats entertaining. Can you imagine television where everything was taken out leaving only the lowest common denominator? Television that offends absolutelly no one and questions no one and nothing for fear of offence? Television soley filled with multiple Vernon Kayes? Thats the future.

Possibly.

Even his words werent actually offensive, he called our couragous, enterprising, dynamic Prime Minister a "one eyed Scottish Idiot." Now the Nationalists are onto the race issue, the society for the blind are offended, Downing Street aren't happy and I'm pretty sure the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Idiots have been on the dog as well. See, Gordon Brown is Scottish, he is blind in one eye, the only people who have any case to get offended are the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Idiots, for putting idiots in a bad light.

Again, comedy and entertainment gets it in the neck for expressing its opinion, diverting from the actual point and thats that we are being led into a smoldering pit of financial recession by the fucking tool who started the ball rolling who doesnt appear to be doing a single fucking thing about it, other than encouraging people to keep going with the insane borrowing and lending that caused the mess in the first place.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get slammed for offending tools now.

stick this in your arse and lick it:

Bad Day?

Slept in.
Had to pee in the garden cause Kieran was in the shower.
Couldn't find my keys.
They turned out to be in the first place I looked.
Some shit broke my wing mirror.
Had a run in with a student about equipment.
Accidentaly made a cold cup of tea cause the kettle wasn't boiled.

Then I tried my best to be positive and it worked. Well done me!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]