And then One Day Later with Marilyn.

My week with Marilyn.

It was strange. The acting was brilliant, Michelle Williams' opening and ending songs were amazing right from the way her hand caressed the microphone stand.
What was strange and trying to convince my mind that this women was Marilyn Monroe.
I mean, my mind knows what Marilyn Monroe looks like, and looking the the cinema screen, I knew it wasn't her, but I had to pretend.
And god, I could.
She just manages to convince the whole cinema to believe that she is Marilyn. It's almost impossible to believe that anyone could do it, but I hope she gets an award for it. She deserves it.
Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier too, the cast just got better.
As for the teller of the story, Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, he just portrayed a lovesick boy and he did it so cutely too, and I can't wait to see him in more productions, I just hope he does it well and maybe even better.

Acting: 7/10
Film: 6/10
Marilyn Monroe: 10/10

50/50 =100%

I was looking forward to this film for ages, and I wasn't disappointed, the only downside is a slight letdown of the ending. It just seemed a bit meh compared to the whole atmosphere of the climax.
And I admit. I cried. Just quietly to myself, and thankfully, I wasn't the only one.
I think it was just the way Joseph Gordon-Levitt acted just so goddamn lost as he was about to go into surgery. It just made me want to run into the screen and tell him it'll be alright.

I was also surprised the way the comedy fitted so well with the drama, it's not everyday that you see a comedy about cancer, and it's based on a true story too. Maybe not exactly to the "Exhibit Whore!" line but it's a wonderful story.


 A few predictable moments but with the touching moments, the breakdown and the comedy/"oh god, that poor b*****d." it just works.
I definitely recommend seeing it and maybe more than once too even just for the performances of the brilliant star cast.

Plot: 7/10
Acting: 9/10
Heart-wrenching moments: 10/10

Til next time~

In Time or Has it Run Out?

Cheesy title about In Time here, it's had a few bad reviews (a lot) and basically, I can understand why.
The main reason I went to see this movie is it has my favourite actor in it, Cillian Murphy, I have to admit, I do love him.
The concept is amazing, basically, the idea everyone's buying out for time? A literal meaning to Time is Money? Brilliant.
But most of the time, the plot was just so predictable, of course his mother doesn't get there in time, of course his girlfriend does.
I have to admit I did enjoy the movie, if only for Cillian Murphy, but there was something which just miffed me off to Jupiter and back.
(Highlight to read spoiler.) ((Timekeeper Raymond Leon, played by Cillian Murphy, dies.))
Of course he bloody does, he was gonna kill them!
I walked out not happy. Figures.
He didn't have to. He could have been somewhere else, but nope.
*Rant over*
Over all, though, for plot I'd give it a 4/10
Acting 6/10
Eye Candy 9/10

Til next time~

Week 4- Online Learning Material

It seemed like a basic recap of what we had been talking about in lecture but none the less condensed into a simple slide show state. So to be honest, I didn't really feel as if I learned anything, it was useful for notes but otherwise, I felt as if I'd read it before.
My response to the task, I don't really understand this, how did I go about it? My reaction when I found out about it? ("Oh, we have some more to do? Fair enough.")
What I liked about this task is that it was simple enough to do, the slide show layout and easy to use, the material was also set out in a easy to read manner.
However it was too easy, and after a while, I just wanted to get to the end of the task and type up my blog. All the writing without any interaction got a bit boring.
I think to make it better, it could use some actual interactivity, as in on the pages itself, answer questions, I think it would have been better than just asking us a question and having the answer on the same page in eye line.
I think the task has been useful cause it boosted my memory on the subject and made it stick in my mind a bit more about what new media and mass media was.

Presentation on Aeons

WE had to make a presentation on something we enjoyed, and I couldn't think of anything better to talk about.
Though I have to admit it was kinda hard not to go on a tangent be like "Why don't you know this already?!"
So now you can enjoy my geeky presentation on Aeons, from Final Fantasy X, including Pretty Pictures.

Aeons

View more presentations from Naomi_Fegan.

That's Advertainment

Advertainment

Advertainment is basically planning a movie around a product, whether it be cars, mobile phones or whatever possible.
In this case a few short movies were shot on a N8 mobile phone, they added a few special effects and voila, instant short movie. And in time, people learn to associate the movie with the product, if they like the movie, the chances of them buying the product goes up.
Advertainment, it like a advert, but instead of just telling you about the product, it's made mostly to entertain you, in hope that you'll buy the mobile phone or car, etc.

In the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the main character Cloud uses a flip phone (Panasonic FOMA P900iV). Later in Japan the phone was released using Cloud as a advertiser and the colour of the phone was “Cloud Black”, people who enjoyed the movie or enjoy the Final Fantasy franchise would probably buy more of this phone than of one which hadn't been advertised by the company.

I would say that Advertainment as a genre was new media, I would say it wasn't original because it similar to product placement, but just with it's own film. Though I would also say it was valuable in bringing in new people who normally would buy their product.

Instruction 53 "Catch Instants. Spontaneity, freshness"

A little photo, under the instruction of "Catch instants. Spontaneity, freshness", a flock of pigeons, flying overhead, rather fast. And with really bad weather, but still got the timing right and am glad it's not just a load of blobs in the sky where you can't see their wings. 

I think acting on an instruction is almost harder than just going out and snapping up everything you see, cause you start thinking about the instruction and looking for a scene to fit it, rather than just taking a photo. 

I took this as I was walking into town and I only had the one shot to do it, hence why I think it was spontaneous. And hence why I picked it out of the 273 photos taken on the 12th of October 2011.

In some ways, I think the Street Photography Now Project just made people obsessed with snapping up the perfect picture, despite the fact it was just a bit of fun, you would still look at other's works and think "Aw, it's better than mine."While still appreciating it for a good photo. I've seen the 'winners' of the SPNP, they are amazing shots to have taken randomly.

And I have to admit, I do like the idea of bringing together 'old' and 'new' media in the forms of photography and social participation, but in the end we are a competitive race and I think it was much harder working with instructions. 

I admire the people who stuck with the obsession for a whole year!

S'wonderful~

For Media Production, I have to have my own blog, and since it has to be related to media in some way, I'll have a film review until I have something else to upload or talk about.

In the past two weeks, my friends and I have watched a few films, My Fair Lady, Cabaret and Funny Face.
I had seen the first two, but not Funny Face so it was new to me.

Made in 1957, Funny Face stars Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. A small time girl gets taken out of her New York bookshop and taken to Paris to work as a model. She of course thinks she has no potential and thinks herself quite ugly. Photographer, knows different, proves her wrong and love blossoms for them. Lovely.

I love Audrey Hepburn as much as the next person, however I didn't like her singing much here, lots of other people didn't either it seems, cause in My Fair Lady she is actually overdubbed by Marni Nixon (Who also sang for Maria in West Side Story and Anna in the King and I).

Fred Astaire was, amazing, even with him being to old at the time of production. Dance sequences really steal the show, but especially his moves.
But the one thing that really annoyed me was the pronunciation of the words in the song "S'wonderful." At least make it "'T's Wonderful." Personally, I like 'T's.

I enjoyed it, and recommend it, though it's not in my top favorite films. 

 5/10.