Logomotion

I spent all of yesterday working on my logo and how to present it at the start of my films. The process was a success, I like it. It combines a few of my logos with some transitions blah blah blah.

I'm now in the process of putting it at the start of everything I've ever made. So my Youtube Channel is getting a reboot.

Peace

A Semester in summery

It's been a good learning curve doing Film Production so far. It's been great to get to grips with new equipment (contributing to much better production values than I've been used to) and play around with what I can do with my environment (Preston). I'm still full of ideas with what I can do, I have a few film ideas in the making.

I've made "Labours" & "Labours 2" this year revolving around making a hot drink (one of our workshop exercises) but they were a lot of fun.

My major film of the year was "The Retrospectivist". This involved a man called Daniel trying to reverse time to prevent the death of his girlfriend. This wasn't my intention for my major film though. My major film was going to be something quite different, something of a slight love story, but still contains elements of the same story; a film called "Take Me Down".

While I wasn't able to make "Take Me Down" I was happy with the end result. I actually think it was unique in a way. We had a screening of all of our films at the end of the semester, and there were so many films about death and losing girlfriends and failed relationships it was hard to keep count; it also ment that if you were going to make that kind of plot enjoyable, it had to be unique. I felt mine did achieve this somewhat. It didn't involve looking at pictures, it didn't involve crying, it didn't involve mourning, there something quite sinister in there. It's more about our man, Daniel, becomin encapsulated in vicious cycle of delusion. He has no time to be sad, as he's tricked himself into working at reversing time...without giving too much of the plot away.

If you want to see what the hell I'm talking about and any of my other videos, please visit my new Youtube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EmbersOfDreams

Take care.

Do you make the most of university?

Are you part of a club or society? Do you take part in any sort of extra-curricular activities? Have you taken part in the student elections? Or do you just go to workshops, work, then stay in your room?



I'm afraid I'm guilty as charged. Do I like sleep too much? Do I need to get out more? Or am I fine exactly as I am?

It only really hit me the other day when one of my friend's from home came down to an open day. Her Dad was asking me about all the different societies and clubs that were available in UCLan...and well I was pretty much stumped. I couldn't tell him where to go to find out about them, or what any of them were called. He also asked about the student elections...I'd completely forgot they were happening. I mean I'd seen flyers and posters around campus, but my blissfully ignorant nature got the best of me, and I know there's many other who're exactly the same...Why?

It's not like I'm in a university which doesn't offer me any fun or interesting stuff. It's definately a great student union with more than enough to offer. Is it down to pure laziness, or the pure lack of money to do things?

From what I do, and from what I know of my friends, I think students find it very easy to find comfort in doing...well not a lot. I find myself in my room far too much. And unless my friends are at lectures or have jobs they do the exact same thing, or they're hanging out with me. It's a very easy "trap" to fall into. The whole concept of social living is fantastic in many respects. The fact that all your friends and either next door or in walking distance limits the need to move a lot. With the addition of shops being seconds away, it's very tempting to stay in all day.

I'm changing my course in September, so technically I'll be a first year again. And ever since I started thinking about all the things I've missed out on, I'm looking forward for a chance to be able to do it all again. I wasn't the typical drunken party animal that most people seem to be during freshers week; being straight edge doesn't really aid that. But I'm very comfortable in the knowledge that I can party without the aid of any of these toxic delicacies, I never really took advantage of that when I was a fresher...hopefully I can make the most of it the next time around.

So are you like me? Stay in your room quite a lot, a Facebook addict?...very lazy? Or are you like the other side of the coin and make the most of what your university has to offer?

And are you happy with how you spend your precious time?

Nostalgia - Is it good for us?

Memories are very precious to me. I love looking back on old photographs, videos, audio clips and songs I've recorded with friends; all of which I'm in bountiful supply of. For me it takes me back to all those places, back home, to all those good times, too many to list. Largely around the age of 15, a lot of things happened that year, many many good things, including the best summer I've ever had, so there's a bit more sentiment within that year than many others. However, it's quite bittersweet. You see, as good as it makes me feel, it always makes me miss how much of a great time I used to have in the prime of my youth. I mean it's not like I'm plagued with depression or anything now no, no. It's just that I'm only 18, is it bad that I'm looking back on my youth as if it were 40 years ago? It's perplexing, it makes me feel old. It feels like I already have enough to tell to my grandchildren.

What's more perplexing is the fact that there's no real possibility to replicate any of these golden times in my life. Every moment is unique and we obsess over these minute, small moments which bare stupendous amounts of sentiment, and we crave to relive those moments time and time again. But there's no real physical or emotional way to recreate these moments down to every detail - cue the potential danger of nostalgia to show its face. Is it worth it? I suppose for the prevention of potential emotional harm it isn't worth. It's perfectly concievable to suggest that nostalgia is bad for you. What's the point in fantastising over something that can never truly be realised if it's going to damage you in the long term? What's the point in memories at all? They're just recollections of the past, it could blind you into pursuing the future.

For me, I suppose it's worth the fall, and my memory plays a big part in that. You see, its not the greatest of memories, and it doesn't do me a huge amount of favours especially at this age. I'd expect it to be this bad maybe when I'm in my 30's, so I can't begin to imagine how bad it will be when I get there. I forget peoples names all of the time, even when they're my closest friends and I've known them a large portion of my life. I think I get it from my mother's side of the family. Her memory's great, but her brother's and her mother's aren't in the greatest of shapes. I can recall many times where my Nana has had to go through five names before she gets to mine - humorous, but in certain situations it can be deadly...anyway. Whenever I have a nostalgic period, I tend to forget it quite quickly, allowing all the multimedia blessings I possess to stay ever 'fruitful', they get me every time. And for me, it isn't that often that the lack of replicating a time has a long lasting affect on me - it's only the really amazing times that stay imprinted in my train of thought, even then I'm aware of my boundaries.

At the moment I'd love to start up parkour again, not that I was a master or anything at the time, but I loved it all the same. I'm not the build for it now, time and food has got the better of me over the last few years. But, if I were to ever gain the right figure for it again, I'd take it up in a heart beat. Plus it goes back to the days of being 15 again, so there's a lot laced within it. But all in all I treasure all these links to the past, its evidence we have something to show for the lives we've been leading all this time. And for me, there's some times that are far too precious to simply throw away, some way or another they're all part of who I am now, and I don't mind me at all.

So my question to you is, should memories be kept sacred under lock and key on our computers and in the dusty cabinets in our heads,? Or should we make a bonfire out of all of them to kill the chance of us wasting our precious time on something we'll never truly expierience for the second time?

Thomas