"The genius of the movie business is that the only thing the purchaser gets is a memory."

I am babysitting, and reading timeout. There was an interview with David Fincher about his new film "The Social Network", about Facebook. I just thought he said some interesting things, like

" The first scenes in a movie should teach the audience how to watch it."

And later in the interview, David Jenkins (interviewer) asks Fincher
This is your most talky film. As a director known for your distinctive visual sense, did you have as much fun sculpting words and performances?
Fincher replies-
"There are two things i'm responsible for. One is whether or not i'm presenting believable behaviour, which is totally subjective. The other thing is camera position: from where am I going to see this person? People think of directing as the Big Circus:yes, 90 per cent of directing is getting the money and getting the right equipment and the right people and departments to create the right feeling out of the right context. In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behaviour and we sculpt light. Audiences only get to see what we show them at that moment, I control everything they hear and see. I'm hoping that these elements will translate into feeling. It was Louis B Mayer who said, " The genius of the movie business is that the only thing a purchaser gets is a memory." That's what directing is. "


I think all these things are very true.  To tenuously link this thought to our current cabaret project, I think it's relevant to remember that we are presenting a visual image in our performance, and that people just take away a visual memory. How can we make that coherent and strong?

Lacombe Lucien

This poster is awsome.

Sushi Mondays

Last night we made sushi. It was AMAZING.

Story Swapping

Today in the studio we did some storyboarding workshops. We were put into groups and had to write a short story- each giving one component eg. setting, characters, then putting them together. We then had to draw a visual storyboard from the text. Our storyboards got passed on to another group, without the origional story, and the other group had to write a story that interpreted our storyboard. They then passed on the story to another group and then drew a new storyboard for it. This was our set of stories:

Once upon a time, in a sunny Nunhead graveyard five escaped prisoners were enjoying a birthday party. They were playing pass the parcel whilst listening to nursery rhymes. Mismatched, these men escaped together through a friendship built through long hours in the cells. But now, outside of the prison walls their friendships start to fray and friction begins to build.
Pass the parcel is the final straw.
The next day, police found the bodies of four men sprawled over the graveyard.

Prisonbreak! Party in the graveyard to celebrate. Someone eats the last of the sausage rolls. Tensions rise, theres a huge fight, everyone dies. Prison warden guy is not amused :(

9/10 Jerry Levitan 'I met the Walrus'.

I can't describe factually better than youtube:   "In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won the 2009 Emmy for 'New Approaches' (making it the first film to win an Emmy on behalf of the internet)."

I chose this as an interesting image as I love animations that match voice recordings, I find the subject matter really interesting, AND it crosses over my two main interests- illustration and music journalism.

Yellowstone Posters

http://www.rangerdoug.com/store/posters/posters-grand-teton.html

Awsome posters.

8/10 Sally Cruikshank

Thought this was pretty good.

7/10 Nous Vous Collective

I really admire the work of the boys at Nous Vous. This piece is by William Edmonds. I could have put up hundreds of things they have made that are excellent. They are all very proactive and good with words. I like this piece as it is simple and to the point, and it reminds me to try harder.

Alfie

Polly brought home a dalmation puppy yesterday. His name is Alfie and he is CUTE. Unfortunately, he was a present for her mum so Polly and Alfie left for the seaside today. Boooo.

Hope 2/5 Kitten.

I wish to have a kitten.

Fuel

This should be enough caffeine for today.

My Age

I am 20. When I looked up the number 20, I found out that it meant 'position' in the CB slang of truckers in the US in the 1970s and 80s. So I decided to draw a trucker using the slang. Alice in Wonderland means someone who is lost on the highway. I thought the slang was really interesting and funny, it's amazing that there are whole worlds of existence that we can't even imagine sometimes.

My Date of Birth

23rd December 1989. This is a picture of my mum getting into the car to go to the hospital to give birth to me. Her waters broke on the London Underground, whilst on the Central Line all the way to Epping. She was wearing a big long black cape, so just sat there with it covering all the wet mess instead of telling anyone because she didn't want to cause panic on the train.

My Place of Birth

These are my mother's legs.