The film industry is notoriously competitive, but graduates will have developed a highly transferable range of skills

 

Film studies graduates will have learned about everything from Hollywood blockbusters to arthouse movies. Photograph: Craig Aurness/Corbis

Yasmin Paige as the firebug heroine Jordana in Submarine.
Vanessa Thorpe
The Observer, Sun 3 Apr 2011 00.13 BST
A cut-glass accent and the ability to look good in a bonnet used to be a must for young British actresses looking to secure their careers. Nowadays, however, such skills are more of a hindrance. As the recent array of debut performances from tough-talking teenagers shows, directors and producers are increasingly looking for starlets who are more at home in a hoodie than a horse-drawn carriage.

Pinewood to invest in small-budget films
UK film studios firm aims to find the next King’s Speech as profits rise 31%

The King’s Speech was made with a budget of £9m. Photograph: Weinstein/Everett /Rex Features
Josh Halliday
guardian.co.uk, Tue 8 Mar 2011 14.32 GMT
Pinewood Shepperton, the film studios home to Hollywood hits such as James Bond and Harry Potter, is to invest in smaller British films in the hope of finding the “next King’s Speech”.
Announcing a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £5.8m, Pinewood chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said he was “delighted” that the famous studios was “returning to its heritage in British film”.

http://gu.com/p/2nth6/tf /via @media-guardian

Interesting article on the rise of independent films, linked well to January 11 FM2 Exam

Confirmation of the negative view of this film as reviewed by me much earlier.

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Writers’ strike ruined Transformers 2, says Michael Bay
Forthright US director attributes ‘crap’ movie to the creative constraints imposed by three-week writing window

Write mess … director Michael Bay blames the downing of tools by Hollywood writers for the shortcomings of Transformers 2. Photograph: Allstar/Paramount/Sportsphoto
Ben Child
guardian.co.uk, Mon 7 Mar 2011 12.38 GMT
Michael Bay has finally admitted what many already suspected: his film Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was “crap”.
The US film-maker, who is known for his candid approach to interviews, has told Empire magazine that the writers’ strike ruined the movie, which was poorly received by critics.
“The real fault with [Transformers 2] is that it ran into a mystical world,” said Bay. “When I look back at it, that was crap. The writers’ strike was coming hard and fast. It was just terrible to do a movie where you’ve got to have a story in three weeks.”

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Read the full article through the link below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/07/writers-strike-transformers-2-michael-bay

Although, to quote a popular song, I wasn’t born in the eighties, I did grow up in the eighties, which meant I experienced and can lovingly remember some brilliant films that came out at that time.  It also means that I treasure those films and the memories that I have of them and of the times that surround them.  Trying to get some people to appreciate films that they did not grow up with or have loving memories of films is a difficult task.  To have experienced some films when you were at an age to believe in their messages or in their special effects and well meaning characters can mean that your appreciation of them can be greatly different to someone who experiences them at a totally different time in their lives.

In my opinion The Karate Kid is not one of these films, in my opinion the film still stands up, it can still be appreciated.  The performances, the characters and the action, which you regularly see edited for TV are all quality, so good that it spawned two follow on films with Ralph Macchio and a third, The Next Karate Kid, with Hilary Swank in the title role.  Pat Morita as The Karate Kid’s teacher is ingrained into the social consciousness of that generation along with his legendary crane technique.

Obviously my opinion is not held by all as the powers that be (Columbia Pictures) have seen fit to re-make the film, originally calling it The Kung Fu Kid, which according to one enthusiast on IMDB would have been far more appropriate due to the fighting style and Jackie Chan, who takes Mortia’s role as the teacher, was originally trained in Kung Fu and states in the film that he will teach Jaden Smith, Will Smith’s son who is in the title role, the real Kung Fu.

As a fan of the original I was against the film being remade due to what I have stated above, but not wanting to judge a film too harshly before I have seen it as some remakes can be an enjoyable film, not as a replacement as such but as a stand alone, I watched the trailer.  I didn’t find the little nods to the original too offensive such as the, “I just want to go home”, and even when Jackie Chan uses a fly swatter instead of his chopsticks to catch the fly mocking an iconic scene in the film.  But something was niggling away at me while I was watching it and I started thinking that it was the fact that I was getting old and too far removed from the film but at during one scene I realised it wasn’t my age that was the problem it was the cast’s.

Jaden and Jackie Chan are both very young.

It really became apparent to me at the time that the teacher sees his students to be, getting beaten up and dives in to help him.  In the original, the main character of Daniel Laruson was played by Ralph Macchio who was around 20 at the time and therefore he was taking a proper beating from men in skeleton outfits that had recently jumped off their motorbikes.  He was then helped out by Pat Morita who was a relatively unknown actor who shocked Laruso and the audience with his Karate skills.  Cut to 2010 and we see Jayden Smith who is around 13  getting pushed around by other year 7s and in steps Jackie Chan a well known expert who has been ass kicking his way through mainstream Hollywood movies for around 10 years and beats up the little kids.

I do appreciate that my film tastes may change and I could lose some appreciation that I once had for classics in time, I have come to accept that but when I get older and the characters get younger what chance do I have?

Watch the trailer below and see what you think…

Thank you for visiting my site and if you are a returner thanks for returning.  In order to keep you returning to this site I will endeavour to speak out all the more.

This year my aim is to make a post at least once a week, whether it be a comment on Film and Media issues or a review of a film or media text. 

I welcome all comments on anything that I have said so far or my upcoming posts, it will help to dilute the amount of Spam that I receive on a regular basis.

To begin my posts I have updated the short review of Transformers 2 with a slightly longer one and included a comment about Charlie Brooker’s review of the year.

Thanks again

Rob Makey

I wanted put a post on the site about Feeds really as I am so pleased with my own set.  When I have heard of or have seen something really good I like to promote it to friends and general listeners.  I felt this way when I heard ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugar Hill Gang  and when I had seen the TV series 24 (the third series especially, but not once it got to the fifth series), I thought it was amazing and wanted everyone else to be watching it as well.

Feeds or RSS Feeds, meaning Really Simple Syndication, for anyone that doesn’t already know are often attached to a website and allow you to ‘subscribe’ to it, you will notice them where you see the icon as pictured above: there is also one in the top right of your window right now that will allow you to subscribe to this very site! You can build up a large range of Feeds that will allow you to stay up to date on a range of issues or with a range of writers.

Your feeds go directly to your ‘Reader’ which lets you know how many notes you have to read from your chosen site.  There are different readers for you to choose from that will keep your feeds and when you subscribe you choose and direct your feeds to it, otherwise you can input or search for new feeds within your reader.  I use Google Reader but you can gather Feeds through most web browsers or through such sites as My Yahoo or Bloglines.  I have Feeds coming to me from a range of topics such as: Charlie Brookers  (a Guardian newspaper columnist), Total Film, Hull City, Other media bloggers and I even have specific media related jobs.  It is a little bit like creating your own website with your own specified topics.  Newspapers are especially good for these as they have a large range of individual topics that you can subscribe to.

Enjoy and have a go yourself, let me know if you have trouble.

Believe it or not, a man can discuss and write about issues of feminism. While some may be woefully ignorant or just banefully uninterested, take notice, guys, you shouldn’t be. And not all of us are — completely, anyway. So, with that in mind, there’s one particular issue of feminism, of the representation of females, that I want to discuss at the moment: What makes a great female role model?(Of course, as localized to the medium of film.) What are the elements of a female character that should be most sought after by writers hoping to create strong, relatable, fleshed-out characters? What makes the characters who imbue those elements great role models? And what are some of the best female role models in film? (Brandon Lee Tenney)

The article discusses a range of contemporary female characters and what they add in terms of female representation.

Follow Link to read more: firstshowing.net

Product placement will now be allowed on UK telvision; a move which is said could be worth 100 million a year.

Untill recently programmes have been forced to cover up brands used within programmes and keep them out of the scripts in order to comply with UK guidelines on advertising.  These rules have led certain programmes such as Coronation Street to invent their own brands, like the ‘Newton and Ridley’ ale.

Only programmes on the BBC and Children’s television has been spared in this unleashing of covert advertising.

Some might say that these rules being relaxed could lead to a more realistic portrayal of life on the box.  However, with advertisers no doubt queing up to have their foods and drinks consumed by characters, electrical products used and names mentioned, where will the line be.  A spokesman from Big Brother is quoted on the BBC website saying that the fear of losing viewers will set the guidelines in taste and decency in the use of advertising but with so many channels and many programmes jostling for position standards could suffer.  Also are we in danger of having the advertisng executives asking for such things as certain characters using or wearing brands or mentioning their favourites…watch this space

Follow the link to read more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8252901.stm