Apparently I only update this once a month, if that. Heh. You see, I had intended this journal to be about the things I am doing that relate to my life goal of being a filmmaker, but I haven't really been doing much on that lately. Just school and watching British comedy. So for now, I will rant about my school assignments, and mention a bit about British comedy.

First, quick, slightly film-related interlude:
There is one idea that me and my roommate came up with for a sort of film project. It's sort of a mockumentary about exaggerated and pretentious versions of ourselves. It sounds great, because you know how much I love self-deprecation. I'm all over sarcasm like a hot flannel. I don't know when that will come about though, because first I have to get past this BLOODY MEDIA STUDIES PAPER.

[WARNING: This post is flipping long, so hold onto your sombreros and ponchos, and take it like a man(fish).]


I do not know what I am going to write about for this paper. It is due on Tuesday night, which gives me 6 days to work on it....minus Halloween stuff...minus other classes...minus distractions...Really, I have no time. Luckily, I've decided to drop Art History, so I don't have to worry about studying for that midterm today. But I need a subject for my paper. I am supposed to to a critical analysis of a popular culture phenomenon, and talk about synecdoche, semiotics, and hegemony (well, it wasn't specified that I have to mention those things, but they are the jist of the class....also, my computer doesn't seem to realize that "synecdoche" is a word. Tape-ass computer.) The examples we were given in class make it seem like we can take a fairly small thing, like an ad or a TV show opening, and pick an even smaller part or symbol in it, analyze what it represents in the piece, and then use critical thinking to determine what it means on the grand scale of life, the universe, and everything. You know, talk about how it relates to bigger issues, like human rights and inequality, society's perspective on [blank], and so forth. I just don't know where to start from.

Some ideas I've been tossing around in my head include Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (DIY filmmaking and distribution, good vs bad, questioning notions of binary ethics, comedy with tragic ending), Twitter (why is it suddenly so popular? why do I love it so much? why do I want to know what people are doing at any given time? why is Stephen Fry so awesome?), YouTube (again DIY filmmaking, self-promotion, "internet fame", taking control of broadcasting, having access to shows from all over the world whenever you want *cough* Snuff Box *cough*), Russell Brand (CONTROVERSY!, he is always a scapegoat, he gets fired a lot but someone's always willing to hire him, the whole prank phone call debacle - though that will make it apparent that I didn't start it until now), webcomics (DIY, self-publishing, experiencing something alone but with other people at the same time *weird*).

None of these seem quite right to me. It has to be something I already know a lot about so I don't have to do a ton of research, and something that I can talk about as if I know what I'm talking about. In class examples, the prof has talked a lot about camera shots and angles and the codes of film, but he said that we could talk about another aspect of coding that we know best. Well, I probably know film codes best (to some extent), so I think I've narrowed it down to a film/video for my topic. Now, what I think it would be awesome to do would be to write about something I love and know a lot about, like, I don't know, say, The Mighty Boosh (lololol). But what on Earth could I write about that? What kind of social critique could I gain from that? Plus, I did my Art project (zine) on The Mighty Boosh, and I think I will go insane if I try to make all my major assignments about that (insane in the best way possible, though). I was also thinking about the possibility of doing a music video, and then yesterday, Sharmie and Leah showed me a bunch of music videos that Richard Ayoade (I LOVE HIM MUCHLY) directed. I noticed that, first they were awesome and brilliant and hilarious, but I also payed a lot of attention to the technical style (cause I'm a nerd like that). I really liked the sort of camera movements he used, and I loved how often times he would do really long, winding shots, and you can clearly see stage lights. In several of the videos too. So I've been trying to figure out a way to write about his music videos and the use of camera shots and seeing the lights as a way to comment on the fakeness of television and how everything is staged and blah blah blah. I don't want to force it, but I think it would be super epic if I could swing it. What I think I might do is watch the videos again and finish reading some of the assigned readings for the class (of which I need to reference 3), and then make an assessment from there.

Anyways, wish me luck.
 Oh yeah, so, did you notice all the Boosh references? I've counted 6 intentional ones (not counting when I say "The Mighty Boosh", so any others a purely accidental and are due to me being messed in the head. There were also a coule IT Crowd jokes in there for you as well. Aren't I just wonderful?

[Also, I think I just learned how to use the Live Journal Cut thing, so yay for me.]