Technology Today

So who's heard about this iWatch?

On the Apple site they say:

"Our goal has always been to make powerful technology more accessible. More relevant. And ultimately more personal. Apple Watch represents a new chapter in the relationship people have with technology. It’s the most personal product we've ever made, because it’s the first one designed to be worn."

I do think they are amazing. However they also got me thinking about our dependency on the technology we use. With each passing year we are getting more and more reliant on the technology produced by the bigger companies such as Apple, Samsung, and all the others. We have begun to think that we can't live without our technology. Which is probably true. If there were a major disaster I wouldn't know how to light a fire for cooking or warmth, at least not without matches and fire-starters. I wouldn't know how to hunt animals or to forage for berries and roots. I would have no idea how to build a shelter, or tie successful knots. Without my phone how would I get in touch with my friends and loved ones?

The Life of a Film Student

Getting back on set recently for our Music Videos and the Second Year's end of year films has been making me think a lot about how we operate as students compared to how we would be operating after we graduate, out in the real world.


Obviously, our crews are smaller, our films shorter, and our gear less extensive than the professional shoots and yet we keep being told that we should be operating in the same way. Don't get me wrong I think it is important to learn the industry way of doing things so that when we get to that stage we know how to act around the industry professionals, but I think it is incredibly difficult to operate that way because we are different and our film set is different.

For one most people don't run their calls on set as they should. We have been taught but it never seems to run that way once we are on set. This is bad. For example if the 1st AD isn't told that the director is going to shoot, they won't call for quiet on set. I think this call is as much to tell people to be quiet as to warn people out of earshot of the director such as art department who are usually hiding away somewhere that they are shooting. When they don't know they could walk into shot, wasting time, wasting footage. I think this is one thing where we need to stick to industry standards. They still apply to our shoots and we need to remember that they are there for a reason.

I've been wondering why this is all so difficult for us, not just the things we haven't learnt but also the things we have. We are disorganised, forgetful, lazy, tired, confused. I came to the conclusion that part of our problem is obviously that we are young and careless and we don't take all our work as seriously as we should, but the other part is that we actually have too much on,

And I'm not complaining that our work load is too much. I'm trying to say that if I were in the 'real-world' where the professionals work, and I were directing a film that I had written, I would have a producer, a DOP, a 1st AD, an Art Director etcetera, and in the 'real-world' these people would be working for me, concentrating on my project. Yes they may have other day jobs and the like but they wouldn't have their own projects to sort out too.

If I had worked on all the films that I was offered a place on then all at the same time I would be:

1st AD on 2 different short films
Art Dept on  2 more different short films
Producer on 1 more short film
Acting and Art Department on another

And that's not even counting my own for which I am Director, Art Director, Producer, and Editer.

It gives us far too much to think about especially considering how much time and effort goes into just 1 short film. That right there is 5 short films, and some other students will have been on more! In my opinion it creates a poorer quality throughout all of the films. I'm not trying to say they are all terrible but ask any film student and they would most likely say "I wish I'd spent a little more time on it." or "If I weren't so tired" or "It's not as good as I'd hoped it would be."

I get that this is all a learning experience but if we are constantly letting ourselves and each other down, is it really teaching us much, or is it rather just slowly suffocating our spirits?

Working Helps Me Work

 Being in the hospitality industry while I study film making is, I think, a real blessing. I am a waitress and therefore every single night I go to work and meet such a series of new people. Most of these people blur by into nothingness but every few days I meet people who really make an impression on me. The group of girls that remind me of Sex in the City, the couple who come in awkwardly and have nothing to talk about, obviously on a first date, but the most memorable for me was the old couple who came in every few days. The Blanks. The Blanks always drank Pinot Gris. They sat silently while they ate their soups and the Man always finished his 20 minutes before his wife did. She would fall asleep at the table and he would bang his fist on it to wake her up. They always had the roast whether it was pork, chicken, lamb, or beef. After a while they started branching out, ordering desserts to finish. The man got the Entrée Special from the blackboard. Then all of a sudden,they stopped coming in. It made me realise that these people that came in almost every day for lunch or dinner, I could list off every detail about them at the restaurant but I had no idea who they were. I began to invent a life outside the restaurant for The Blanks. I realised it was much like writing characters for a script. Since then I've begun to pay attention to the customers, the quirks, the way they relate to each other. I'm not stuck in some office with the same people to study for characters every day. I'm special and I get a whole new set every single day. Scriptwriting here I come.

What We Watch/How We Act

I am re-watching episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead and flipping through facebook finding reports of Ebola victims rising from the dead. It's making me wonder.

I've always thought that some of  the things we have seen on the Big Screen are sure to be in our future lives.

Take Tron. The way the roads light up the way for drivers and pedestrians. It's very futuristic looking and yet it seems that we are already beginning to achieve this in the present day. Many people have seen the articles about solar roadways. Roadways that create energy, that light up to stop people from hitting obstacles. Roadways that are easily fixable and better for our environment.

So obviously this link between film and reality has some good sides to it. If it creates a better future for ourselves and our world. But what about all the negatives that go along with it?

There are reports that when the Twin Towers collapsed in 2001 that people stood and watched, awestruck, saying the it was "Like a Movie." Because of this comlex many died, crushed by the rubble, suffocated by the ash.

Now here I am, reading up on the Ebola Virus, seeing videos of the dead coming back to life and yet I am saying to myself, "No way it can't be real" and "That sort of thing only happens in movies." And then I put myself in the position of the characters on my TV Screen and think, maybe that's what they were scripted to think and by the time they had proof it was real, it was too late.

I just hope that I myself, and the people of the world don't continue with this complex of thinking that something wouldn't really happen because it 'belongs' in a movie. I hope that we learn from our films, not let them blind us.