you should be aware –because we've told you often enough, in person and through emails– that you cannot pass the first year of your course, unless you have completed all the units.
the deadline for having all work handed in was monday last week, as you were all informed on at least two occasions by email. the absolute latest, down-to-the-wire final deadline ever ever is tomorrow [8th september], before 10am. we are having a meeting with the exam board at MMU later that day, where we pass them the list of names of who has or hasn't completed all units.
anyone who has not completed all units by 10am on 8th sept will FAIL the first year and not be allowed onto the 2nd year!
there is no way round this. it is not anything your tutors have any control over. at least three people we know of still have work outstanding. i will not embarrass anyone, by naming any names here, but if you are one of those three people. you MUST get your work in to us at the fielden park campus by tomorrow before 10am, or you will not be able to enrol for the 2nd year.
I saw this film last week, it's the kind of film i'd loved to have seen growing up along with other fantasy films like Labyrinth, Krull and The Thief of Baghdad. It's about two guys (one caucasian, the other middle-east asian) who grow up together under the same carer; who tells them stories of an old myth about the Djinn Fairy and how she promised to marry the person who freed her from her glass prison.
The boys become rivals from the get go, each claiming to to seek out the Djinn Fairy and free her. What follows is that journey....
This film is another from director Michel Ocelot, whom also made my previously reviewed film 'Kirikou and the Sorceress'. The style is very much the same, however, this film has been created in 3D and the use of bold colours with almost no shadows at all gives it a vectorised look.
I'd say that it probably wasn't a great film worthy of a dozen awards because it looks pretty good and the story is about average, but this is the kind of film that I would want to show my children. What I really love about Ocelot's work is the message that it carries, both this film and the Kirikou film contain an important (and simple to understand) moral message which the storyline ultimately drives towards, and I hope that he continues to make more films like this in the future.
They are French movies dubbed into English so unfortunately there are other works of his which are available only in the native tongue (without subs) and I hope that the various film councils and committees out there will be able to bring those works to us. If any of you have access to the Sky Arts channels (they're free channels so should hopefully be on freeview, etc.) then keep an eye out as both 'Azur and Asmar' and 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' are often listed on rotation.
On sunday I went to the 'Noise Lab' in Manchester as a magazine group called 'One Five Eight' were holding a workshop on how to produce photograms, initially I thought I was going to be the only one who turned up as I was sat alone for a while composing my first experimental piece, but when I came out of the dark room after producing my first piece a few more people had arrived.
It was quite fun, there was a good mixture of people my age and also children getting involved and when I was talking with one of the team in the dark room she wasn't sure if there would be enough supplies to last the whole day....in other words it was quite a success. Essentially we were all sat around a long table with all sorts of items in bowls at its center, marbles, toys, light bulbs, stationary, buttons, and more random things which we could just grab and compose our pieces with and then one-by-one we took our boards (steadily...trying not to wobble the items on top) into the dark room to develop the photogram.
I have done a little work in a dark room before, when I went to college first time around about 10 years ago we had the chance to take a short course from a given list and Photography was one of them. During my time at high school and also this college I had been refused the opportunity to study anything art related because the curriculum forbid both music and art to be studied together and I was forced to choose one....so I jumped at the chance to do some photography. It was a lot of fun taking photos and then developing our negatives into actual prints in a dark room. Sunday's workshop reminded me of this.....
As we each put together our pieces we had to wait until the person currently in the dark room had finished before we could then do our own again, I had put together another wreckless piece whilst waiting for my turn again but because the wait was so long I decided to wipe the board clean and create something properly. At that moment when I was looking for things to use I spotted a toy lion and an image from a video game sprung to mind, so I decided to make a piece relative to that. I quite like how it turned out.
Me and my girlfriend went to see Step Up 3D (Yeah yeah,I know...tisk tisk) but to my suprise the end credits are pretty insane!The graphics flowing from the dancers is awesome!The colours that are used are quite bold which was brave but the film is quite colourful anyway.
I'm still trying to find out who did the end credits...it's a lost cause so if anyone knows,please let me know!All I know is the film is directed by Jon Chu.
I've always found breakdancing interesting because of the way they move and the positions they get themselves into are abit surreal.It's like they have no spines.I tried to find an example of the end credits sequence but seeing as the film has only been out about 2 weeks I don't think we're going to find one on the internet yet.
I applied it to my Blog.In the middle of editting it all.Don't be suprised that it looks plain right now.Still working on the colours and layout etc etc on Dreamweaver.
I've always believed that the imagery, music and stories that you're subjected to in your early years are an major part of what goes into making up personality, and being a film fan since an early age i've always considered those things to be the original source that ignited my imagination and creativity.
I often like to think back and remember some of the things that I found exciting, inspiring or magical at the time and revisit them to see how I feel about them now. I might do a few posts relating to this on different themes, but my main reason for this post was that I have recently been reminiscing about the old Hanna/ Barbera and Warner Bros. cartoons that I used to watch as a kid and I wanted to narrow down some of my favourites. Unfortunately they don't seem to show a great deal of the old classics thesedays which I think is a shame because the kids watching cartoons now will be missing out on some of the earliest and greatest animations.....then again, this may just be me being an old geezer.
Anyhoos, in the pursuit of trying to think which was my favourite cartoon I remembered numerous shorts of Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, the Donald Duck WWII propaganda cartoons and others. I also recall a favourite which featured a futuristic house with buttons everywhere to activate things....i'm sure Elmer Fudd or Sylvester was in it....
....But....
There are two cartoons in particular which have always remained with me, and I managed to find both on YouTube. I'm not surprised watching them again why I loved them so much, it makes perfect sense.
The first is a Popeye short called 'Big Bad Sinbad' from 1957, and as the title suggests it is themed around Sinbad the Sailor. I realise seeing it now why I liked it so much, i've always loved the old arabian Sinbad movies (,'Thief of Baghdad', etc.) and the cartoon captures the mood (in particular the music) perfectly.
The second is quite possibly my favourite cartoon of all time, it is a Tom & Jerry short from 1945 called 'Mouse in Manhattan' and in fact doesn't feature Tom hardly at all. Watching it again now I feel just as inspired and enchanted as I did all those years ago, and I realise that one of the reasons I love this cartoon so much is because i've always liked the look of New York in the 50s....the styles and sounds relating to films such as 'On the Town', 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. Once scene in particular, the broken candlestick and the dancing with dolls, is one that will always stay with me.
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