Thursday 12 January 2012

Disney films in 3D... Yes or no?

With the release of the trailer for Finding Nemo in 3D, a hot topic of discussion has come about on whether Disney should be putting their films into 3D or not. What the debate seems to be suggesting is that the films weren’t made for 3D. Disney has had no problem creating success, so putting the films into 3D apparently means they are cashing in on the hype by releasing films that have come and gone already. To an extent this could be true. Disney are choosing particular formats to release their films on that will gross the most money - Whether this is a re-release onto DVD, Blu-Ray, and yes, 3D. This does mean they are making money from new crazes hitting the movie fan’s world. 
But there is another side to the argument. What Disney set out to do is showcase their films to every generation. This is why we are given silver, gold, diamond, platinum editions of their films on DVD and Blu-Ray. With the new release of the same film, which becomes more digitally advanced and clearer to watch than the original, Disney are providing their classic tales to a modern audience, fulfilling their goal of allowing all children from different generations to enjoy their films.
Releasing the films in 3D is no different. This year, we should see Beauty and the Beast, Monsters, Inc., The Little Mermaid and of course Finding Nemo in 3D. We’ve already had Lion King 3D, and the more recent Pixar releases such as Cars 2 and Toy Story 3 in 3D. This relatively new craze in cinema means Disney are fitting with the trend, and allowing themselves to stay on top of the game in terms of children’s cinema. 3D will always attract children - It’s exciting, it’s theatrical and it makes them laugh. Anyone who has sat in an audience for a 3D film will know this. Disney are playing on this and bringing children these classic tales with a modern twist because its what they want to see. This new generation are growing up with 3D films. When they get a little older, they will probably learn that 3D cinema is only really good for children’s films, but that doesn’t matter to them now. All they want to do is sit in a cinema with their glasses on, watch fish swim around them and laugh at the jokes Disney create.
For adults, it seems to be a different case. We are the generation that grew up with the original 2D films. But, I bet you bought the DVD when it was released, and then the Blu-Ray. I know I did. Disney place a lot of emphasis on their work with market research. They find out what’s popular, what’s attracting audiences in, and what works. With us, it was the incredible animations. We were drawn to the cinema to see Sleeping Beauty’s art or Toy Story’s digital animation. With children today, it’s 3D that’s drawing them in. Just because these films have already been in the cinema doesn’t mean Disney can’t provide for a different generation. They’ve taken their films and transformed them into something that children now are going to watch.
This evolving aspect of Disney makes them the company they are now. I personally won’t see the film in 3D because I saw it in the cinema when it first come out, and I don’t particularly like 3D films. But I love the fact that children are being able to witness these tales that I grew up with. Disney films are a part of so many people’s childhoods. You have your favourite film, your favourite character, your worst character. If turning these films into 3D makes them a part of someone’s fond childhood memories and allows them to be involved with these characters, then so be it.

How to use Twitter effectively.


Twitter isn't simply a place where you self indulge in the mundane things you do in a day. It also isn't a place where you just read what you're favourite celebrity does. It's one of the most effective social media websites there is today, and can really help you. Here's a few tips on Twitter, and why you shouldn't be scared of it because it doesn't have a wall or a place to tag friends.


What to do:


Your Twitter Name.

This can simply be your name (Mine's @KellyAlyse) or your blog's name (@TheFilmObsession, for example) - These are probably the most effective as when you start talking to people, they are immediately aware of you and will gain a sense of your personality. This is instead of names like "GlitterFairy64" because you're not really giving the person reading anything to reference, other than the fact that you're a glittery fairy.

Your 'About Me' section.

When people search for someone to follow on Twitter, the key words you put in your section will make you appear on their suggested list. For example, in my profile I have the words Film, PR, Student, Cupcake and Blog. If someone were to search "Film PR", I'd pop up on the list of suggested followers. Make it snappy, short and effective, and you'll soon have followers. If you want an example, mine is:


I study film full-time, sell cupcakes part-time and work in PR part-time. I write a blog, attend film related events... And I love lamp.


Who to follow.


Now, with the hundreds of celebrities on Twitter, it can be very easy to start following all of them, read what they say, and then forget to log on after a while - I did that when I first got it. But then I started this blog, and it all kicked off from there. Simply search what you're interested in - This can be from medicine, to bands, to films. You'll soon get a list of people who are doing similar things to you. Also, if you're wanting to be in a particularly competitive industry, like Film journalism for example, follow different outlets you're interested in. More often than not they will post jobs or work experience places available - It can be very helpful.


What to say.


Make what you say interesting, funny or informative. From there, you'll get followers and people will retweet you. If you follow someone who says something funny, retweet them or respond to them. You'll start a conversation, they might bring other people into the conversation, you'll build more followers, and then you go from there. You can also post things you do like new blog posts, new songs you've uploaded, or photos of something funny you've seen. Believe me, this is what will get people talking the most. 


Trending and Hashtags. 


Down the side of your profile, you'll see a list of 10 things that are currently 'trending' - This means those words are what people are tweeting the most at that point in time. For example "Blue Ivy" was trending when Beyonce gave birth as that is the name of their child, so people were typing "Blue Ivy" in their tweets. A hashtag is a similar thing, but you put a # symbol at the beginning of a group of words. For example #FilmsRepresentingMyVagina - This is a common game. Someone (me) will Tweet 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari #FilmsRepresentingMyVagina'. When you put a hashtag at the beginning of the set of words, they will highlight, create their own page, and anyone that tweets with that same hashtag will also appear in that highlighted page. 


How often to Tweet.


This can be the making or breaking of how successful you are with Twitter. If you don't say enough, people will lose interest and unfollow you. If you say too much, you'll bombard people's news feeds and they'll unfollow. Keep your tweets interesting, keep in contact with people and respond to someone if they tweet you. That's as simple as it is. There's always going to be people interested in what you're saying, just make sure you've got all the above and you'll build a good network.


Things to avoid: 


- Too much self promotion - People are aware of what you do already.


- Follow Me Back teams - If people want to follow you, they will.


- Being creepy and wanting to know too much - Just, don't. You'll get blocked and banned.


- Spamming or clicking on spam - You'll just regret it.


- Getting annoyed if people don't respond to you - Come on, not everyone is reading every tweet you do.


- Linking Twitter with your Facebook if you tweet a lot - Facebook isn't made for uploading something every 5 minutes, people there don't want to read your tweets.


- Saying or posting really inappropriate things - A little inappropriateness is fine, as long as its funny.


- Giving too much personal information away - Remember, these people are strangers essentially.


- Don't be this girl:




That's it - Now go enjoy Twitter.


Tuesday 10 January 2012

100 years of Universal and you still can't hit the beat.


Does it annoy you too? When you're watching a film and the famous Universal Studios music comes on and you air drum everything else right, expect for that final beat at the end. It bugs the hell out of me. I've done it once I think, and thought I was going to pass out from joy.

ANYWAY.

This year, 2012, Universal are celebrating their 100th anniversary.
If you don't know why that's so important, watch this video and be reminded of how great they are at choosing films to make:



To celebrate, they will be releasing special editions of their most famous films on Blu-Ray including To Kill A Mocking Bird, Jaws and Schindler's List.

If you're going to watch Dr. Seuss' The Lorax in February, look out for their updated animated logo that will be used in all aspects of the company from now on, and see if you can hit the final beat. 

Monday 9 January 2012

8 Men I'm Looking Forward To Perving Over in 2012.

1. Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in 
The Amazing Spider-Man.


2. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
in The Avengers.


3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake
in The Dark Knight Rises.


4. Ryan Gosling as Luke 
in The Place Beyond the Pines.



5. Taylor Lautner as Jacob
 in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.


6. Tom Hardy as Bane
in The Dark Knight Rises.


7. Will Smith as Agent J
in Men in Black 3.


8. Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins
in Dark Shadows.


I guess I'm looking forward to watching these films, too...

10 videos that will make you happy.

Oh no!


Heeeeeeeey!


Give him what he wants.


The maple kind? Yeah.


Now put your hands up!


I ruuuuv yoooooooooou.


Mwuahahahahahaha!


Right... there.


If he come in here, he'll kick my ass!


It's a Syd!

Sunday 8 January 2012

2011, you were good to me.

So, in 2011 I...

- had my 21st Birthday

- celebrated mine and Jonny's 1 year anniversary

- saw Kate Nash

- saw Guillemots 4 times, and met Fyfe Dangerfield twice

- saw Wicked

- saw Russell Howard

- was in the audience for the Beyonce TV special

- saw a very good friend perform in Wind in the Willows outside

- got Syd

- moved in with the 'The Film Girls'


- left HMV

- started working at Angel Food Bakery


- started my last year of University

- did a talk to 3 groups of A Level students at my old school about Film Journalism

- did work experience at Bullet PR

- volunteered at Empire Big Screen

- was a guest on a radio show in Brighton

- filmed and interviewed at the Empire Jameson Awards and Paul world premiere

- attended the Arthur, Never Let Me Go DVD release and 50/50 press screening

- got invited by BBC to celebrate Mark Kermode's 10 year anniversary in Manchester

- tweeted from the BAFTAs

This was an incredible year with memories I'll treasure for a very long time. Looking back through all these things is quite overwhelming for me. It just goes to show how much you can get done in a year, I guess. 

I hope your year was just as eventful as mine, and lets hope 2012 brings some more amazing moments.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of my 2011. You made my year.

Thursday 5 January 2012

13 Films of 2011 Represented Through Onomatopoeic Words.

I've been asked by a few people what my top 10 films of 2011 were, but to be honest I haven't really thought about it. I didn't see or review nearly as many films I wanted to for various reasons.

So instead, what I'm going to do rank the films I reviewed on this blog from awful to brilliant with onomatopoeic words to reflect my general mood towards them.

This should suffice. If not, then, wait until 2013 and I'll do a top 10 of 2012.

So, here we go...

13 - The Reef (Errugh)

12 - The Rebound (Ffffffeeeew)

11 - The Roommate (Tut)

10 - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hmm)

9 - Bad Teacher (Meh)

8 - Arthur (Huh?)

7 - Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (Ummm)

6 - Buried (Mmmmm)

5 - Made in Chelsea (Woohoooo!)

4 - X-Men: First Class (Oooo)

3 - Submarine (Ahh)

2 - Paul (Hahahahahaha)

1 - Senna (Phwwoar)

I would like to just remind you that these were the only films I reviewed on this blog last year. It's not a reflection of my favourite films of the year at all. Films I saw which deserve an honourable mention are 50/50, Breaking Dawn and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, particularly 50/50. Although, I don't think many films I could have watched and reviewed would have beaten Senna. It moved me so much I can remember exactly how I felt as I left the cinema.

So there. Sorry it's not exactly what you wanted, but it is a little bit. Look out for a "Best Things I did in 2011" blog soon...

For now, here's a video of turtles high fiving each other:

Monday 2 January 2012

2012 is already turning out to be cra...

... ZY.

So, it's only the 2nd of January and I already have lots of things to look forward to.

1 - Returning to university.

Although 3rd year is horribly stressful, who I'm living with, what I'm studying and where I am is incredible this year. I live with 3 other wonderful ladies who also study film. They're all mental... But in a good way, it's not like I'm living in an asylum. The topics we've chosen seem to be really interesting ('Sexualities in Cinema' and 'Cinema and Realism', if you're interested), as oppose to the standard ones you're given in first and second year. Our house is lovely and CLEAN, and Brighton especially is just getting better and better the more I discover it. I have great friends from Angel Food and HMV, and an alright boyfriend so going back to university is only a delight.                                                                    

2 - I have a new job.

As well as working in the lovely Angel Food Bakery with these crazy girls (including another gorgeous girl to my left in this photo who also studies film), I will also be working for Bullet PR - A creative PR company in Brighton. I did a few days work experience at the beginning of December and they've asked me to come back one day a week. I am so unbelievable happy about this.

3 - Graduating.

After starting in 2009, I'm finally finishing university. I say "finally" as if I've been waiting desperately for this to happen - That's only half true. I do absolutely love the lifestyle, the social life, the friends, the classes, the course, the uni. But I am completely ready to stop referencing and getting results back... Just after another 16,000 words to write.

4 - A holiday.

I haven't been able to sit on a sandy beach, swim in the warm sea, wear a bikini or get a tan since I was about 14 I think. I'm going to be 22 this year. How awful is that?! After university my boyfriend and I have decided we need to let our skin feel the loveliness of vitamin D. This means a holiday with a plane involved. That's not quite the same as a 5 hour journey in a car to the cold, cold Cornwall but I think I'll be okay.

5 - Going into the real world.

All I want is to leave university and go into Film PR. I'm not stupid. I know this is near impossible but I am going to do all I can to make this happen. It might take days, months or years, but this WILL happen. It's my calling, I can feel it. I've done work experience in almost everything else to do with film, and this is the only thing I really enjoy and do well. So, if I don't make it happen I'm pretty much screwed. Unless I open up a cupcake shop, which is my  back up plan.


I don't really make New Year's Resolutions - I give into temptation too much to say "I'm not going to eat chocolate." Plus, I do work in a shop that sells cake so you tell me how I could go on a diet with discounted cake in front of me?


Instead I think of things I'd like to do. The things on this list include things I'd like to do, like graduating and getting a job, so I'll stick with those. Maybe I'll add "Buy more DVDs" to the list as well.



So, there you go. 5 things that makes this year CRAZY already.

Wow.

Happy New Year! 

Make this year excellent.