Of Jumping

Howdy! So, I watched Jumper last night. Gotta say, it's pretty good. I thought the movie was fun throughout and wore it's obvious comic book-esqueness (it's a word! ...) on its sleeve, which I appreciated. The only problems I had with the flick (beware, here be spoilers!) were the 'justification' as to why the Paladins tracked down Jumpers. Okay, so they've been doing it since the Middle Ages, back when people were all God fearing and would've thought these people were demons of some sort, okay. I can buy that. But the idea that in this modern age that is still the main reasoning as to why they hunt them down? Fuck off. That's just lazy, I mean, I can buy into Samuel L because he's one, just one, but this idea that the entire of ALL the Paladins do it for this reason is just bogus to me. And they didn't offer any alternative reasoning which stuck in my craw. Also, the run time is pretty short which works for it, I guess. But I still feel there should have been an extra scene in there, maybe to...I don't know...provide better reasoning. Maybe? Yeah? No. Your loss. 

Overall though, I felt it was a good start to what I've read as being the first of three Jumper movies. It's weird though, growing up on a hefty diet of comic books, etc the idea of teleporting, although still awesome, just reminds me of the X-Men. It just seems like a mutant gene over this whole god-like thing they were running with, and because teleporters aren't that rare in the X-Men world I didn't think the whole Jumping thing was that unique. They've not gone with the 'prejudiced' thing like in the X-Men and instead opted for, apparently, religious zealots. Hm, fun times. 

On movie news regarding me...I have rewritten the script now into what will probably be it's new basic skeletal structure. It was tough, like I thought it would be, and it took me longer than I thought it would. I've written in some new scenes and am going to reread the whole thing later, but I'm hoping the whole thing is better now. And, yes, by the way, I have been bumped up to an actual 'script doctor' (remember there's a difference, kids!) on this project after the writer, Kulraj, opted out of rewriting it. Whatever. I may put the script up here in a before and after kinda thing for those interested to see what it's like and what changes I've made.

I guess I better go back to work...I guess. 

Steve.

Of The Gig

Wow, last night was pretty awesome! The gig finally came and went and, although tensions were high in the run up to the gig, everything went pretty well! I fucked up a few times, but hey, we all did to varying degrees. Mine was probably the worst due to the fact that my pic flew out of my hands whilst performing 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' just before the second verse, so I had to start using my fingers whilst trying to sing, the words of which I promptly forgot. Brad thankfully handed me back my pic and I was able to come back into the song at the chorus, I covered the fuck up pretty well though, I feel. Or not.

Overall, it was an awesome night. I want to thank everyone of my friends who came, I really appreciated you guys and gals being there, seriously. It was nice to look out at the small crowd and see my friends out there looking back, slightly frustrated at my bands inability to perform or play in time. I kid. Kinda. 

It was a great feeling to come off the stage and, literally, be surrounded by friends congratulating you on a good set. I'm kinda disappointed that so many people dropped out of coming in the days running up to the gig, and that no one Chazz or Joe invited came. Made me wonder that, if my friends hadn't come along, what kind've night it would've been. 

The set started slightly off as the timing was all over the place, noticeably so. Frustratingly so. It's a shame because during practices the first song was pretty much our strongest, so I don't really get why it failed so badly on the night. We picked up after that however, with fun banter between songs. Even if Joe was rushing me and, essentially, telling me to shut up and play the next song. I'm glad I didn't though, because if I had we would've been done in about 10 minutes thanks to the way he wanted to literally play song after song after song. I just wanted to have a good time talking to the crowd, interacting and, importantly, having fun. Which I feel we had, I think we had a pretty good first gig together. It could've gone a lot worse, frankly. At the same time, however, it could've gone a lot better. I know it sounds like I'm fluctuating from 'it was great' to 'it could've been better' but frankly I think that's exactly the case; I had fun and all, and I think it was an awesome experience, but a lot of it may have had to do with the fact that it was a new experience for me so no matter how good, or bad, it was it would've been rad regardless.

Gotta say a thank you to Brad. If it weren't for him helping us out through out the night, I honestly feel that it would've gone a lot worse than it could've done, he was a great liaison between us and the sound guy as well as the other bands; The Blackhearts and Work. The Blackhearts were pretty good, though not as fun between songs. They seemed like nice guys, and were cool enough to let us use their cymbals and snare which Joe hadn't brought, we received an e-mail saying that there would be a full kit available for rental at £8 per band, but according to Brad, the sound guy, and everyone a full drum kit only describes the bass drum and tom tom's, etc. Not cymbals and snare. Which everyone knows. Apparently. Except us. But we know now, so hooray! 

Also, gotta say thanks a lot to the guys from Work who let us use their amps, without them I have no idea what we would've done. They seemed to enjoy our set and there was a blonde girl who was dancing around during our set, which I pointed out. Unfortunately, she then stopped dancing. I regret that, at least there was some movement when she was dancing! *sigh*

The set list, for those interested was as follows:

Pathetic (blink 182)

Bras Are Awesome...I Wish You'd Show Me Yours

Irish Hearts Are Breaking

Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne) 

When Your Heart Stops Beating (Plus 44)

Nintendo Song

Seventy Times Seven (Brand New)

It was a cool night, and a fun experience. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, I think getting truly hopped up on Red Bull and Relentless helped, and, despite fluctuating timing, the set was fun to play and sounded alright. We managed to fill about 30 minutes, give or take (take, frankly) a few minutes, out of a potential 45. Considering we were only supposed to originally fill 30 though, I don't think that's much of a problem. Hopefully there'll be more gigs coming our way now in the future, though I've got other things to do Uni wise as do the other guys. We've also got to work on some new material, it really stuck in my craw that ours was such a cover heavy set. So hopefully, the next time we play we'll have at least 6 originals or something. I've got a few ideas in my head, but it'll take a while before we can fully flesh them out. Hopefully though these songs will come together and be as awesome as the stuff we already have. 

Thanks again to everyone who came, all my friends, who earned major brownie points with me for just being there, and to everyone who sat through our set. Photos should be on their way soon enough when Chazz uploads them. 

There's some other stuff going on right now, film wise, but I feel I've talked at length right now about the gig and don't want to go into film junk. I know I was going to talk about Girls and Lars and The Real Girl, but I'm not going to do that here. I'll save that for a later date. 

I'm out.

Steve.

Of BAFTAs and Giggage

So I'm watching Lily Allen and friends right now, it's really not that good. I read a report earlier in the week that stated half of her audience walked out due to boredom. I then read a rebuttal by Lily Allen stating that the recording went on longer than expected and so audience members had to leave in order to catch trains....bullshit. 

There's no two ways about it, it's a pretty lame show right now. Maybe it'll get better, probably not though. It's funny how fervently she was defending her show, which is only natural, but I think they're going to have to do something drastic to make it a little bit more entertaining.

Talking about entertainment, what the hell was going on the with the 2008 BAFTA awards? Seriously, opening with a 300 reference with about 30ish overweight (not even muscular) greased up men? What the hell, the flick came out in 2006! Something a bit more current, please. Then there were the microphone issues for the first 20 minutes, nice. The amount of promotion they did for this event, the fact they consider themselves the British equivalent to the Oscars and already, within the first 3 minutes, they've made a lame reference to a movie that's already two years old as well as echoey microphones! Good going, team! 

Jeez, the British writers aren't even on strike and they produce this crap? Perhaps sabotage? Perhaps. Or not. Actually, no. It was just lame. The 'jokes' they had the presenters spout before reading off the list were terrible. Why is that such an ingrained institution with awards ceremonies? Why, oh why, can't the jokes be..you know, good?

Whatever, moving onto film stuff. I did get the role of script editor (not doctor) as well as Art Director. After having to explain the differences (that do exist) between a script editor and script doctor, to the course leader no less, I settled into the role. 

Today was the first creative meeting, we discussed the script and did an initial break down and so, after two-three hours, we had successfully managed to get through 5 pages. Go us and our awesome methodical techniques! 

Every thing was discussed in relative depth. It'll be interesting having to write to somebody else's expectations, in this case our director Joe. He wants to take it in an interesting comedic direction, toning it down, making it more subtle, etc, which, considering the style of comedy the script is right now, will be interesting. To say the least, the tone right now is pretty much not what he wants. In its description it was described as 'Bridget Jones' meets 'The Office' (Uk not USA), but it never felt that way to me. There's a character in it called Stephen who just begs to be played by someone like Ben Stiller (via Dodgeball) or Will Ferrell (via anything with Will Ferrell). That being said, toning it down into a more subtle sense of humor (The Office, UK, and Extras were two names thrown around a lot) should be fun, I like both senses of humor and think I've got a good grasp on them both, better than most, especially considering my up bringing and my eventual deportation (it wasn't really) over here. 

Also, they've apparently been onto a casting agency that rep one, David Mitchell (of the British Apple Ads fame. Oh, and some show about Peeping),  to play the protagonist, Jeffrey. My money says he'll be too busy, but you never know. 

Gotta say, I've doctored a script in the past and had fun doing it, but this is pretty different and should be interesting. It'll be tough because the way I saw the script being made isn't the way Joe wants it and, considering he's the boss man, I've gotta write it to satisfy what he wants (easy, people.) That's not to say I won't be having any sense of creative input, hopefully there'll be something of me in there. I'm not too sure there'll be loads, but whatever.

Music wise, having to be back down for these meetings and my Final Cut Pro session has obviously meant we haven't practice these past few days. The guys had other stuff to do anyway and, frankly, I'm glad for the break. It'll give my fingers a damn chance to heal up and hopefully when we get back together to practice on Thursday/Friday for the gig on Sat we'll be a bit more relaxed and so won't be prone to stupid mistakes like timing issues or forgetting lyrics (my bad!) Hopefully.

I'm out, but next time I manage to get on I'll probably talk a bit about Girls and Y: The Last Man as well as Lars and The Real Girl. If I remember, and can be bothered that is. 

Steve.

Oh and Amy Winehouse winning all those Grammys? Fucking bullshit. Don't give people with those kind of problems this kind of recognition, it's fucking retarded. She's not that good and she looks like a damn witch. 

Of Gig Information

Here's the information for my upcoming gig as promised earlier. 

Date:

16th February 2008

Place:

Lark in the Park

60 Copenhagen Street

Islington

London

N1 0JW

Location: 

Here's a link. And here's a map.

Doors:

7:30pm

Price:

£6.00

£5.00 (w/flyer)

Bands (in order):

Work (8:00 - 8:30)

newsagents (8:40 - 9:10)

The Laughing Pines (9:20 - 9:50)

Flashguns (10:00 - 10:30)

The Blackhearts (10:40 - 11:10)

And just because I love you all so much, here's a link where you can download a flyer, it allows you to get in past the burly doormen (surely?) for, get this, a WHOLE POUND LESS! Fuck

 yeah, you guys just mean that much to me, y'see. 

There are a total of  four flyers on the page, so print it off and get three of your friends to come along! I'd really appreciate it if you did. Yupp, me, personally. 

Hope to see you there!

Steve. 

UPDATE (10/02/08): Check this the fuck out....

I can't believe it! It makes it all seem so much more official. That and, seemingly, we're headlining. Which can't be right, it really can't be. I hope it isn't. We've only got three original songs for fuck sake. THREE! This has gotta be a mistake. It's gone from maybe not being booked at all to suddenly headlining? Something very strange is going on...

Of Practicing and Practicing and even more Practicing...

Hi! I know I said I'd update this a little more often than I have done, but considering no one is reading this blog yet I don't really care. Because you don't really care. I mean, if you cared then I would care, naturally. But you don't, so I don't.

But I digress.

The past few days I've been back home in order to practice with my band, the Newsagents (Hit the jump to hear our song 'Irish Hearts Are Breaking'), for our upcoming gig at the Lark In The Park in Islington. 

It's been a tiring three days, my fingers are raw and numb and a strange shade of red with a blister on one of them. It's a sexy sight, and I know there are people out there that would pay to see this shit! (send me and e-mail, we can work something out) Apart from that things have been going at an...okay pace, frankly. The first day I left with a definite feeling that we can do this, no problem. We clicked back into place and were having a lot of fun. 

The second say not so much, there were a lot of timing issues (in the sense that the speed of the songs kept fluctuating, for whatever reason...) that left us all feeling frustrated. As a bassist, and singer, I can tell you having the speed constantly changing isn't your friend. In fact it's pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum, it's really annoying. And...and...frustrating! Did I already use that? Oh well. Let's just say I'm reiterating to hammer it home. 

Let me just say, I'm not the best musician in the world. Anyone will happily tell you that, especially me. I'm a root note cruncher and fucking proud of it. Nothing is more fun to me than hammering the roots and running around having a good time while doing it. That being said, I do have a pretty good sense of time and rhythm (I nailed the bass track in 'Irish Hearts...' in three takes. THREE, people! The vox took a little longer but eh.) and so yeah, it's hard to keep things going in time when everything else isn't. Y'know. But whatever, that's why we're practicing. 

And now, here we are, on the third day! 

This was a pretty rad day actually, it felt like same old same old at the start. It didn't help my fingers were hurting like a motherfucker, and red raw to boot! That being said, Joe had a HUGE blister on his thumb by the end of the first day. So I guess I can't really complain, especially considering how hilarious me and Chazz found his blister...and the pain he was going through. Brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. Yes, I am a member of a sadist website. I'm not really, but I have looked into it. Joking, by the way, before anyone freaks out...

We started learning a new cover to bulk up our set list to try and make it to a half hour, which is our alloted time. As mentioned in a previous post we've got a 7 song set, and I think that with talking we'll actually cover a half hour no problem. I was stoked to start on this new song, which I'm not going to mention here as I want it to be a surprise when we play it. It's an awesome and fun song though, definitely dance worthy. 

So, that's about it really. I heard about the role of script editor the other day, don't know if I'll get it or not. Funnily enough the role information that was provided through our 'esteemed' course leader about script editing (doctoring) doesn't exactly correspond with what a script doctor actually does. But, hey, whatever. We'll see whether I get that or not by the end of the weekend and I've got a meeting Monday with the rest of my group. Fun times, huh. 

Anyway, the more observant among you may have noticed a title change to 'The Slacker Chronicles'. I thought this was more apt, considering that not everything I do is film based. Despite the amount of time I may spend talking about, watching, or wanting to film movies and junk. I just felt, considering that the majority of this post was about my band, that I should give the blog a more all encompassing name. Besides, it's not like anyones read any of these. Especially considering I haven't given the site out yet...

Steve.

Of D-Day

So D-Day came and went. The big day, the 1st February 2008, in which our Dissertations had to be handed in. Overlooking the fact that I handed mine in two days earlier, I was actually quite relieved (even more so) that it was all over for the fact that maybe, just maybe, people would be able to do stuff again. Y'know...socially. Didn't really help that my friend, Matt, took one flick through my Dissertation and pointed out that I hadn't 1.5 spaced my conclusion, thanks dude. But at that point, truth be told, I was at a 'fuck it' stage. I wasn't going to reprint and then rebind it because of that. 

Last night we celebrated by going down to the SU (The Undercroft) for, possibly, the last time. It was a pretty good time until everyone, well the majority, decided to move on up to London to a club. I really thought this was pretty stupid, yeah London is cool and everything but you don't need to be in London to have a good time. We were all having a good time at the time, alcohol is alcohol, right? In a club we wouldn't have been able to talk or hear each other...there just seemed like no reason to leave. So I didn't. Thankfully, a few other peeps didn't go too so we all hung out together. 

Salome, in particular, wanted to go pretty badly not soon after as she wanted to get food. Hanging out for a while we went on to get some Chinese food (at like 11:00ish) only to, surprise, surprise, find it closed. There's a deep sense of irony when there's a brightly lit Kebab shop across the street calling like a siren. Ironic because, simply, you want some gnarly Chinese food and have to settle on greasy Kebab...and not only that but it truly was like a sirens song. It was alright though cause I didn't get a Kebab, I got a 1/2 pounder cheeseburger instead which was actually pretty good. Kebab shop burgers tend to be pretty good I've found in my experience, maybe I'm just having a good run. It's bound to run out sometime.

ANYWAY, film stuff. This project of mine seems to snagged itself a producer from my conversation with Salome last night. Salome sent me feedback for my script over Christmas with some glowing comments, which I loved, and has told me that if she had the choice she would've produced mine over the scripts chosen. Which, frankly, is pretty awesome. So when I mentioned filming it in the free time we'll have during the summer period she was all for it, assuming she'll be around. I'd love to have her on the team though, I've seen her as producer and she gets the job done, seemingly with ease. She knows what she's doing, and she wants to work on my lame-o script! 

This thing seems to be coming together pretty well. If I manage to get the role I want for the final year project (sounds important, it's not.) of script editor then I'll have plenty of time to edit up my script. I'm going under the hopeful assumption that they won't want to change the script at all which means that I won't really have to be on set, and if I do I'm bringing my goddamn Nintendo DS. 

BAND stuff! Sounds like the gig we're apart of is actually a Battle of the Bands kinda deal, not 100% on that but it'd be awesome if true. I know quite a few people and friends of mine who are going to try and come and, if they do, it'll be a great night. Hopefully! In case you're coming, here's the set list of originals and covers we've got so you can learn the words, etc.

1. Pathetic (blink 182)

2. Bras Are Awesome...I Wish You'd Show Me Yours

3. Irish Hearts Are Breaking

4. Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne)

5. Nintendo Song

6. Seventy Times Seven (Brand New)

7. (undecided cover, possibly Motion City Soundtrack)

That's not the confirmed order of the songs, but I'm pretty sure it won't be changing too much from that. So, go learn the words and sing the fuck along, guys!

That's it.

I'm out!

Steve.

Of Introductions

Hi! To anybody who has come across this blog, hello. My name is Stephen (21, likes short walks on the beach that culminate in sex and no attachments.  I kid, I kid. It's all about the long walks) and I have this here blog in order to make fun of people I don't like, possibly by drawing cocaine and other shit all over their faces in Microsoft Paint. 

No, not really. I'll leave that to the professionals.

This blog is however going to allow me a place to randomly write or type, which ever you prefer, about a whole range of things that cross my mind.

I'm currently at University, in my third and final year, at the University of Westminster, ironically located not in Westminster but Harrow. I study the Film and TV Production course and, though I'm at the end of the course, there has been plenty to bitch about. Though I doubt I'll do so now, maybe if you're lucky. Y'know, say your prayers and take your vitamins, etc, etc. This is why the title of this blog is the apt "Tales of A Wannabe Film Maker". 

Right now I'm in the early stages of thinking about putting together a project to film, a project that I wrote and that wasn't chosen to be made by my Uni (at least by the tutors, everyone I've talked to seemed to 'love it'. Though they could just be being nice to me.) A lot of people, whose opinions I trust, have told me it's great, so I may just make it whilst I have the opportunity to use the Uni's equipment. You heard it here first, check back and I'll be sure to keep you up to date on everything. 

Other than that I'm prepping for my first ever gig with my band, the newsagents. I'm pretty excited for it, I've never performed in front of a crowd like this before with my music and we're not even at the bottom of the bill! It's at the Lark in the Park pub in Islington on the 16th Feb. I mean, we go from not having practiced for 5+ months to not having practiced for 5+ months with a gig in less that (at the time) a few weeks. Now even sooner! 6 songs consisting of 3 originals and 3 covers, should be fun. Considering our style of 'melodic', believe me I use the term loosely, punk rock we're going to stand out like an STD infected dick, every other band on the bill is as indie as can be. It's going to be interesting, for better or worse.

So, that kinda wraps this up for now. I'll post again when I can and, importantly, when I have something to talk about. Don't be surprised if you find totally random posts where I talk about a movie or a gig or whatever. Then again, that's part of the fun of blogs, right?

Oh, btw. I'm in the process of reading Robert Kirkman's phenomenal 'The Walking Dead' series, if you're in the slightest bit interested in zombies, comics or just a damn good story, then pick it up. 

See? Beautifully random.

The first blog is always kind've hard, somewhat of a stepping stone, as you try to introduce yourself and endear yourself to whoever is taking the time out of their day to read. So, thanks. I hope that you come back and check out any updates I post in the future. Feel free to leave comments, feedback, etc...unless it's negative. In which case it will be promptly deleted and forever ignored. NAH, I'm joking. Kinda. Maybe. Sort of. Not really. Or at all. 

Steve.