Film Review - The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski Review

 We Decided to go along to a film club going on in our college theatre.  At film club all you basically do is turn up, watch a film and enjoy it. Then You may be asked to write a review about the particular film you watched. We watch 'The Big Lebowski' this week. I was enjoying it until half way through when i could no longer follow it because of the amount of people talking around me. It was very frustrating to have so many people talking around me instead of watching the film. 

Before the screening:

1.     Choosing a film. 

 I I would personally choose a film that has a well planted story and that is entertaining to the current audience.  
2.     Why i Choose this Film.

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      The film, 'The Big Lebowski' was chosen because of the directors, Ethan and Joel Coen AKA 'The Coen Brothers'. Their unique directing style works very well even on very simple story-lines. The main character 'The Dude (Jeffery Lebowski)', is also ranked 7th best character in Film history.  

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During the screening:

3.     The Genre.

      The Big Lebowski is a Cult Comedy film. It has a 'Film Noire' feel but in many ways it is kind of like a 'film noire parody'.  The film has some darker, more intense scenes but also has a at times slightly odd blend of comedy, some of which is a little dark. 
      
4.     The Age Rating

      The Film is rated 18, this is because of moderate violence (played out for comedy), Sex and nudity (some strong references), Lots of swearing, drugs, alcohol and some intense moments.  

5.     How does the film tell its story?

    The Story is told through the eyes of Jeffery Lebowski, AKA The Dude. The Dude is a lazy, pot-head, whose life changes when he gets mistaken for a millionaire who has the same name. He then accepts a once in a lifetime job, guaranteed to pay well. This becomes the start of a string of rather,'odd' events.  

6.    The Main Characters. 

   The names of the main characters are listed below:

•    'The Dude' Jefferey Lebowski
•     Walter Sobchak
•     Maude Lebowski 
•     Theodore Donald 'Donny' Kerabatsos
•     Jeffery Lebowski - The Big Lebowski
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       Overall i feel that the unique directing style of the Coen Brothers alongside the acting qualities of Jeff Bridges, gives this film a special charm which you dont really get with really any other film. It is funny yet dark at the same time, it is witty, but also rather serious, in a way. It has rather morbid humor. Take the scene, Walter, is about to scatter Donny's Ashes into the sea. After giving a small speech about donny, he then goes to scatter them into the sea, the wind then blows and The Dude and Walter get covered in Donny's ashes. I like the dark and morbid humor which you will often find in a Coen Brothers film. I liked this film, or at least the part i was able to hear it. I would love to be able to watch it again without any interruptions as it seemed pretty solid, well made with a very interesting and unique story. 

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Arts Leadership Review.

For this Group Project, we had to work in groups and create anything we wanted as long as it was some form of media, so that could be posters, shorts film, animation website etc.

For this Arts Leadership project, me, Jack Simpsons and Declan Bailey decided to work together. We decided to create an Animation together because we felt there would be plenty to do and we all have experience from creating animations in the past so it all worked out rather well.

At first we struggled to come up with an idea for the animation so we decided that we would Promote the Arts award project itself. We could have made it as long as we wanted but realistically, we weren't going to get more than 20-30 seconds out of it at best. The Animating would be created in iStopMotion and edited in Adobe Premier. Because we were just advertising the Arts Award Project, we wanted to keep it short and simple. I then came up with the idea of have a man crossing the road when suddenly, he gets hit by a vehicle. His splattered body on the floor would spell out the words 'Arts Award'. Then that would be the end. Jack and Declan both liked this idea so we began planning. While Declan started making the Clay Models, me and Jack began making the 'sets'. I helped make one of the models as well. After everything was set up, i began animating while Jack and Declan helped take pictures of some of the Frames.
Then of course after i finished animating, i then passed on all the footage to Jack who began Editing in Adobe Premier.   

I'll be honest, i can't really think of a single moment where something went wrong during this project. The only problem really was the fact that none of us were particularly 'savy' with using the Adobe Premier editing software. As i said, everything seemed to go right for us and ran very smooth and we sailed straight through the whole process. The longest part was really just writing everything down in the planning stages and even doing this review feels more time consuming.   

Overall i feel we all worked very well and efficiently. We worked well as a team and got everything completed in a much quicker time then i think any of us really expected.

Working with Jack was good, we both got on well and he worked well when he built the sets. I think we both worked well together and had good communication as we were both aware of what each other were doing and when and why we were doing those particular jobs at that time.
And it was the same story with Declan. I helped make some of the Clay models with him and we both worked well together because we also had good communication, so we knew which models to make ourselves so we won't both making the same ones as each other. I would happily work with both of them again if the opportunity come about in the future.  

Everything seemed to go right in this project and in the end, i am satisfied with the final product.       

Review of the arts award project

Here you can watch my completed Animation before I decide to review the project.

For this project i had to create anything i wanted from any form of media as long as it showed off some 'skills' and it proves that you can do that form of media. I decided to pick animation because i have a great interest in the subject and would like to learn more. I enjoy animation and expected to do quite well. Although things look good now it's finished, during the production period there were plenty of problems that needed to be dealt with. I put most of them down to poor planning on my side, however there were a couple of problems which were out of my control.    

Some of the problems as previously mentioned were my fault due to poor planning, but the issues that Weren't my fault were the most frustrating. There was a problem with many of the computers that i needed to use to create my animation and complete my project. This set me back a couple of weeks as the problems were rather prolonged and didn't disappear quickly. Then not too long after, some of my Clay models were damaged by someone, that set me back another week because i needed to make some quick repairs and fix everything that had been damaged and broken. Then on top of that i needed to recreate part of my set because the way i had it planned wasn't going to work out too well. 
The other problems that i encountered were caused by poor planning and my miss-judgement. I told myself that i would have the animation completed within a certain time, after the pre-production work of course; i would then have more then enough time to complete other work. However, i did not plan for any problems, I completely miss-judged how long it would take me to finish my pre-production work, and i maybe spent a little too long animating the actual animation. 

Some of the things which went well was the actual animating. I really enjoy creating the characters and seeing them come alive on screen after i begin animating them. I feel i have improved on my model making and think i have greatly improved on my animating. I like to think i get the correlation between how much you need to move an object per frame and the amount of FPS (Frames Per Second) correct, or at least smooth looking which is what you want.  

Overall i am happy with the outcome. I will take this as a learning experience as to how much i need to plan ahead to make sure everything gets completed efficiently and on time as well as looking good. Despite all of the problems, i feel the finished product looks rather nice and am happy with how it  has turned out. Again, i just need to plan for the 'unexpected'.           

Job Opportunities at the BBC.

At the BBC and other similar companies, You can get different types of jobs with different qualifications. With some jobs, you don't need to have any qualifications at all. For example, You can start out as a runner. 

Being a runner, you don't need any qualifications or experience. Being a runner is like getting experience, but you're being paid for it. I say this because when you are a runner you can be told to do any spare job or help out with any other jobs that need an extra pair of hands. From being a runner, you can work your way up into the kind of job you are wanting. But you must be willing, confident and be well presented. You may have to work long hours and probably won't earn too much. (Around £400 for a 48 hour week). 

To become part of a camera crew, you will need to go to university or have good experience. Being apart of a camera crew is not necessarily just using cameras. You will be looking after lighting and other pieces of equipment needed for filming. It is probably preferred if you have good experience and a good portfolio built up to show that your skills would be well used at the BBC. 

You could start doing some work experience with the BBC and if you work well, their may be a chance that you could be offered a job or some kind of placement such as a trainee. You can enter a trainee scheme on multiple parts of Co-operation; from the Technology and business sides of things, to the Production and journalism jobs. And of course, if you do well again, you could be offered a full time placement. If not, then the experience could help you get a job elsewhere.  Many of the BBC's trainee scheme do offer some amount of pay but of course it gives you the experience of working for a big co-operation and will look good for future reference.  

Working hours will be similar to that of a normal fulltime worker. But your responsibilities will be different depending on what kind of scheme you are completing.    

http://craigsmediasectors.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/finding-job-in-media.html


What i have learnt from this research is the kind of things i need to do for certain jobs. If i am wanting a job at the BBC or another TV company I could apply for an internship and get some work experience. If this all works out well, i could then potentially get an offer to stay on and work for the BBC or another TV company. However, you are more likely to go further if you, after college went to University as this would look better for you and would certainly help your chances about getting a job in a specific part of the media sector. 

Updated Padlet here Proof of comunication.

http://padlet.com/craigwatson3/2ljhlrf9txxp
Proof of communication with others.

This is a screen shot of my padlet. My comments and posts are on the left side while other peoples comments and feedback are on the right hand side. My responses to other people's comments are on the left hand side as well as a mini review of the project. 

Below is another screenshot from Declan's Padlet of which i also commented on.

Feedback on My Arts Award Project. Padlet Post.

This is my link to my 'Padlet'. View this for proof of my Communication with others.  

Animation Project

Today we finished off creating the sets and began to animate. We decided to make the vehicle out of Modelling clay in the end, because we thought it would be easier to animate with, and of course it looked in the same kind of style as the Clay Blob.                    

We have completely finished the animation process in just a couple of hours. All there is left to do is to edit the animation. Meaning we are going to add some sound effects, and add a title.

Here is the video below. 

And below are some more photos of the 'Set'.