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2008 in Movies

It was a really strange year, albeit a very morbid one too. And let’s be honest, it wasn’t a particularly great one either. There was the credit crunch, rising food, oil and gas prices, flash floods, and the property boom. IS NOTHING SAFE?! To take our minds off it all a lot of us caved in and spent our hard-earned cash on the most questionable form of entertainment – Mamma Mia! The Movie, which was the movie-goer’s answer to prozac, really.

It's time to gush with gleeful praise at the world of movies, the big cinematic outings of an acquired taste and age group that hit British screens in the past 12 months. I saw only 10 of them.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE
This is more or less exploitative of the shallowness of fame, more of a rom-com later on, appealing to both sides of the Atlantic in terms of humour. Hilarity is never far away as the Peggster is likeable as the loathsome tabloid journalist who is notorious for his contemptuous interacting with celebrities. Megan Fox meanwhile plays a caricature of herself, although does she really sound like that? Overall, it’s a right good laugh, with dynamic performances and a great ending. I was especially happy to see a few familiar faces in the opening few minutes. (Those names are Katherine Parkinson, Thandie Newton, Fenella Woolgar, Chris O’Dowd, James Corden, Miriam Margoyles.)

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
Rather like Harry Potter and the The Goonies meet Jumanji. Because come on, does Thimbletack not remind you of Dobby? Similarities aside, how Freddie Highmore manages to pull off two distinct personalites in a single frame will blow your mind. There’s no doubt he will go a long way. Now I’m probably a bit old for the book series, but I flicked through them one time and loved the artwork. The theatrical adaptation was delightfully gruesome for its demographic. All that slashing, biting, spitting, scalding, stabbing –it’s anything a kid could want, one who enjoys wandering into the woods and finding something to poke with a stick. And for you film score fans: listen closely and you’ll hear the James Horner leitmotif.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN
The follow-up to The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe is a little more bloodthirsty, with bigger, longer battles when there are only a few pages in the book. The spirited young cast yet again flex their acting muscles. I just wish they’d look more genuinely awe-struck by the fact that they once fought an evil Witch, team up with background extras from the Lord of the Rings and seek advice from a wise lion who speaks in a sexy Irish brogue. Kids, you’re not at school – you’re on a trip! There’s one scene that’ll give youngsters many sleepless nights from the menacing sight of a werewolf and a fugly hag. The sequence with the trees pummeling the Telmarines bares resemblance to the Ent's attack on Isengard from another aforementioned epic. Helm’s Deep much? Bottomline, the Narnia series are essentially Christmas movies, and that’s why this film was kind of snowed under at the box office.

DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO!
A wubbulous fantabulous adaptation of the book by warrior poet Ted Geisel. Whilst accomplished to the Seuss material (no pun intended), this is an orgy of squash and stretch, particles and deformers, highly stylised shapes and pastel colours. Both Whosville and the jungle of Nool look marvellous, the vocal talents are equally impressive, and the sound design for the musical climax is wicked cool. The aptly named House of Cool created the ninja sequence, which is brief, but rather lovely.

CLOVERFIELD
JJ Abrams took a simple idea: giant kaiju attacking NYC - nothing new, but from an onlooker's p.o.v. gives the genre a fresh, personal perspective, one that is unmistakably post-9/11 and 7/7. Packed with unbelievable moments that stick with you, it delivers faux realism at its very best, topped off with Michael Giacchino's overture. The past and present are ingeniusly paced. Even if the characters don't captivate you, you're urging them to rescue Rob's girlfriend "and get the hell outta Manhattan!" I felt particularly sorry for Hud, even if his camera skills did suck. Thankfully they didn’t give me motion sickness. As for the main attraction, I only half-expected the creature to be hungrier, angrier, meaner, uglier, and less beefy. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, we all love Clover.

A film initially released in North America last xmas…
JUNO
Maybe it was little too ‘hipster’ for some, but I really felt for the strong female protagonist as the pressures of adulthood weighed on her. Oscar winner Diablo Cody has created a world where even the adults throw comeback lines at their minors. This adorable little gem from Jason Reitman has great performances and a down-to-earth, uplifting coming-of-age story that left a big stupid grin on my face. Ellen Page and Michael Cera, again, two young leads who will go very far.

A Golden Globe-winner also released last xmas…
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
I loved every ruby-dripping minute of this. Depp and Burton once again keep it all in the family as their rendition on the urban legend has a lush score and songs, dream cast, melodramatic gore, unexpected!Anthony Head and an electrifying revenge story. What more could you ask for? So why didn’t it deserve a sing-along? While I'm okay with slit throats, I would imagine this is no worse than the BBC dramatised version. You see, Musicals and Splatter Horror are like mice and spiders: mixing the two together isn’t going to be everyone’s ketchup and mayo. While it’s alright for some. Just watch The X-Factor.

I had to tie the next two…
From Dreamworks it’s…
KUNG FU PANDA
I got a real kick out of its near-the-knuckle action sequences and toongasmic intro/end credits, both of which scream Samurai Jack. It's rather like a comedic version of T’ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger on the PlayStation – only with a Panda who probably has trouble wiping his down-belows – with gravity-defying martial arts and highly stylized CGI in which the animals move like animals, actors sound the part, and Tai Lung makes Sylar look like a pussycat. It would have been a pop culture reference too many, instead it’s just a hilarious pastiche on Zhang Yimou’s filmography. I wouldn’t rule out on sequels. Bring 'em on!

And from Pixar…
WALL*E
Heartmelting, thoughtful and suprisingly dark, it’s required viewing for kids, adults, animators, and anyone who will have great grandchildren. It'll make you think how precious our planet is, and make you sneer at every advertising reference. It’s amazing that you can still get away with body language and Oscar-worthy sound design to tell a good story. My favourite scene has to be when WALL*E and EVE – the most endearing pairing since Hiro/Ando - are flying around the Axiom ship. M-O also deserves an honourable mention, ‘coz he’s gangsta.

So how does it compare to the other likely contender for Best Animated Feature? Well, both these films charmed audiences with loveable characters and the awesomeness and heart of their genres, but I will say that WALL*E is more akin to staring up at a clear night sky where the suns of a million galaxies burn from many lightyears and beyond. Whereas KFP has the Wuxi Finger Hold…who can say no to that?

And now for the #1 cinematic experience of 2008…
Rarely does a film hold me on the edge of my seat as it lashes out at my mind, body and soul, until I’m left shell-shocked with awe and disbelief. I screamed not once, but twice. In my earnest opinion, it is The Dog’s Bollocks.

THE DARK KNIGHT
I mean, Holy Shit-Sauce, Batman! Editing and setpieces so heart-pounding, multi-layered plot twists so involving it makes every other film in any genre look amateurish. It’s a really well-crafted comic book crime thriller, and proof that sequels are undoubtedly better than the original. Undeniably grim, its purview covers the morality of human nature, a semi-realistic view of being the hero, and how the terrorists have fun ruining everybody else's. Anyone who’s seen this will bring it up in any conversation and the first thing they rave about is…

-The truck flipping over, or the Tumbler regenerating into the Batpod
-Harvey’s injuries, that weren't meant to be gross-out but were
-The Mayor of Gotham wearing guyliner
-Michael Caine racing past my house on Christmas morning in his underwear.

The latter really did happen. In a dream. No, I am of course referring to Heath Ledger. His magnetic performance as the impervious Joker was so deliciously creepy. With his chalky white face, panda eyes and the stench of evil rolling off his purple and green attire, this clown is an unpredictable death machine. One of his darkly comic highlights was his man-to-man with Harvey, which has to be the most bizarre combination of images and dialogue ever put on celluloid. Think about it: he’s a District Attorney, he’s a terrorist; he’s a burn victim, he’s a raving sociopath; he’s a changed man, he’s a man in drag…
Bottomline, this was the best birthday present I ever treated to my father to, and we would kill to see this in IMAX. Alas, we just never got round to it…never mind, don’t think I’m missing out on much…
"Oh you have no idea…!"

So that was 2008, but whatsay '09? Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Bolt, Watchmen, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Monsters vs. Aliens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek, Coraline, Terminator: Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Public Enemies, Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, Up, Where the Wild Things Are, A Christmas Carol, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Lovely Bones, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Wolf Man, Avatar...

The Mighty Boosh @ Trent FM Arena 8/11/08

Goldfrapp @ DMH 26/11/08

Autumnal Woodland Critters

Summer Doodlespam

Summer Picspam

The legends were true...

Because Mum was off work for a fortnight we went to the Tutankhamun: Golden Age of Pharaohs exhibition last Thursday. The treasures, which influenced the Art Deco movement, were magnificent, still shining gold and bluey-blue even after a few millennia. The sarcophagus of Tjuya, the embalming containers, the ankhs, the crook and flail, chests, the collossal head statue of Akhenaten, the mannequin, the statue of Sekhmet, neckbraces, medicine bottles, the pricey gift shop...so worth the ticket price, though no funeral mask. I'd rant about false advertising, but you could view the actual tomb of Tut in the Valley of the Kings via webcam. Mum was particularly giddy by the x-rays and CT scans.

Fighting the Interwebs

The trend of Web 2.0 allows us with access to, should we ever feel the need to, share our creativity, reviews, experiences, musings/ramblings/news of interest, and even nervous breakdowns with the world. The possibility is that in a couple of years we’ll put search engines in our pockets.
But it has its pitfalls. If you’re below the age of consent, chances are you’re going to fall victim to the wired wonders of MySpace (kills the connection speed), Facebook (overexposure) and webchats (chavspeak). Partly why I tend to avoid them. There are other social networks with less bugs and gridlock that we can choose to be comfortable with, but even a fair few have a reputation for flamers and comment trolls among inevitable backlashes.

"You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it."

~ Finding Neverland (2004)

Now I'm off to bed.

22/1/84: The Dawn of Macintosh

"Hey, we were watching that!"
That famous 1984 commercial aired during half-time at the Superbowl, the first of ‘major-event’ spots. The Orwellian/Blade Runner scenery was visualised by Ridley Scott, in which Big Brother is about to have it handed to him when an anonymous young female athlete hurls a sledgehammer at the big screen. Beats talking like robots.

For the first couple of days during Easter break we went to stay at Nana and Bampa's in Port Talbot, even though Emily had the flu. It was chilly down the Mumbles, but Mum got the shoes she wanted. In Cardiff, while Mum and Mick stayed in the warmth of the Millennium Centre in the company of the children's choir, I frolicked off for a bit like I usually do. We would have spent longer there if the weather was warmer and we took the train rather than the car.

I saw Horton Hears a Who! last Saturday. It's a wubbulous fantabulous adaptation of the book by the warrior poet Ted Geisel. Whilst accomplished to the Seuss material (no pun intended), Blue Sky's love for animation is evident in their films. This one has the most vigorous use of squash and stretch, deformers, particles (furs! feathers! holy freaking field of clovers Oh My!), expressions, and highly stylised shapes and colours in a CG toon. Both the jungle of Nool and Whosville are marvellous; the vocal talents were equally impressive, and the sound design for the musical climax was just wicked cool. The random 2D and anime kung fu spoof sequences, created by the aptly named House of Cool, were brief, but rather lovely. One of the animators has a blog.

Also looking forward to Ice Age 3 (dinos!), as well as Kung Fu Panda (which I hear will the best thing to come out of Dreamworks since Shrek 2) and WALL*E (again it's Pixar, so no-brainer), the kids at the screening were doing spot-on voice impressions.

Because of the Local Disk's increasingly low memory, I recently had to order a 500GB external harddrive.

Feb/March doodles

Cultural Exchange

My sister went to the discussion about Women in the Music Industry, where she asked Jacqui Norton if there was anyone she didn't enjoy working with. The reply was no. We were intending to see Sue Townsend but that panel was full. On the one hand I learned a lot from Paul Wells, a professor at Loughborough Uni who has published books in the animation field and screenwriting and recently scripted on soaps and even Lost. Even without Curse of the Were-Rabbit producer Claire Jennings, who was not in attendance due to Stateside commitments, the lecture was an articulate insight into the creative process of writing cartoons. He showed clips from Bob Godfrey's DIY Cartoon Kit - which looked quite Pythonesque - and the Oscar-winning short Harvey Crumpet.

As for this year's Awards, I was both happy and a little baffled by some of the winners, at least for Daniel Day-Lewis representing the Brits; No Country for Old Men, well you know the Academy loves Westerns; #Falling Slowly beating the three Schwartz/Menken tunes was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think Kristin Chenoweth's performance was as bad as others thought, but they should REALLY have done something with Amy's set. And, VFX-wise, Transformers lost to The Golden Compass? Alright I guess. Glad that Ratatouille, Peter & the Wolf, the Art Direction for Sweeney Todd, and Dario Marianelli's Atonement score each got a gong!

Construction sites, council estates, traffic jams - these are things I know, not a tremor as sudden as that! I was in my room getting changed when what sounded then felt like a row rumble of a freight or an early trash lorry hitting speed bumps, only to be FREAKING OUT as it dragged on and the shelves were shaking. It was amazing. 5.2? Come on, the house could have split! Mum was woken up by it , whereas Emily was watching The Mighty Boosh on Dave.

The sebaceous cyst below Molly's left ear is festering, weeping, sore, mottled and stinks of carrion. Our neighbour Brian needs to take her to the vet to have it removed, SRSLY. I worry about her. Her meows have been waking me up these past few mornings.

Finally, check this guy out. He's got a wonderful style.

PS 6.0 doodles

Squirrels, swans, a Python and Kitty Wiz

Photos from Cardiff

Abducted

'Entanglement'

Acrylic/fineliner on canvas board, 24"x18", approx. 12 hours

Quite frankly this is the best traditional painting I've ever done in the whole course. It has minor flaws, that flowing art nouveaurish look I'm digging at the moment, dominantly green/blue scheme, bubbles, decent shading/tinting, and glowing red eyes. I'd be dawmned if it fails to earn a high grade.
My first intention was to produce a piece of artwork based NOT on what was going on in the everyday world, but rather inside. The idea of a pallid figure drowned by her own hair entangled in a smack of jellyfish had been lingering at the back of my mind prior to the start of this assignment. When certain concepts emerged I figured it was best to change initial plans to focus on the more personal investigation at heart.
Here it represents feelings of distress or trapped within a dozy dream-like state. I believe that the human psyche, particularly when deep in thought, is like being underwater. Jellyfish have the freakiest of all body systems, as well as stings that figuratively scar the mind of a victim. And those barbs can cause excruciating headaches. Literally they are injecting their toxins into the brain and sucking the life out! It was Dead Man's Chest that put me off cephalopods.

Sketchbook designs (for the exam)

Photoshoot #1

I have a habit for showing off...

...so does Molly (she's the girl next door. We're the best of friends)
My pairs of Chuck Taylors - fresh highs and dirty lows

Someone out there likes me!

Although I'm a runner up - Best of the Rest, not bad eh? - I am so overwhelmed with gratitude it's unbelievable.

This will be another reason for my parents to be proud of me, when or if I tell them. Even if the guys didn't pick it - I don't know if they even liked it or not! - coz the winner's much better than mine, it didn't just prove I can draw squat. My entry for this competition demonstrated my ability to record ideas and present a personal response*. Soon after the abysmal attempt to make it to the Brum signing due to the adverse weather conditions, I felt the kick to do some art. Because Mumble HappyFeet tol' me to! And after the effort to come up with an original and clever composition, and after the nerve-wracking patience, it finally paid off.

It will be such an honour to sync this winning soundtrack to my player. Furthermore I'm gonna do 'em proud and keep on drawin'. It feels like being picked to play for the top team. So just for the record, big hugs and thanks to the guys and Universal!

*This is what the art exam currently requires.

I've got red on me

The first time I watched this was when it was one of our case studies for the British horror genre unit in Media Studies with Mr Lissaman - a reintroduction to Simon Pegg that was to be the start of a beautiful relationship. My heart swells with admiration as it does from a single episode of Spaced. I highly reccommend you also see Hot Fuzz, because Edgar Wright's style and the funny as hell script are just as awesome too. I was no hardcore gore whore, but Pegg, Wright and Nick Frost have helped me overcome my hurdle, so now I see a living corpse as a figure of fun.

Shaun of the Dead is airing on ITV2 tonight and tomorrow, if I watch it with the whole family it would be a [Sunday] night like no other!

March 24th 2004 - my first gig

Remember Busted? Remember their Ticket for Everyone Tour? Remember when the success of McFly was a twinkle in our eye?

It's exactly three years since I was getting ready to mess my pants in front of them at the NEC in Birmingham. What a night: my banner was spotted and commented on by Matt Willis (who is now famous for his catchprase "vwicked!") receiving "Cheers for that, luv" and a wink. *squeals like a 5 year-old* Ah, good times. Then about 10 months later Charlie Simpson had to screw it all up. Well, he's happy wherever he is.

Tester

First post. Yay.

On the neverending quest for improvement, I've been looking for ways to present my work, freely expanding and adjusting to styles/techniques which have helped me discover my artistic integrity. I had shied away during a long period, feeling I was put to shame. My interests have shifted slightly, and due to deadlines I am more eager to continue drawing at a reasonable pace and as a hobby.

This blog promises you a whole gambit of creativity: [everyday, out 'n' about, gig] photos, random scribblings, full colour/b&w pieces, comic strips, [film, book, tv] and reviews.

I greatly appreciate your support and thank you for taking the time to view my work.

Bring me that horizon...bring the noise!