An Ode To The Seaside Maybe

Something I was working on late one night. Might work on it for that creative competition. But I do have a few other ideas up my sleeve.

The Sublime (version 1)

A true artform

Light unknown

A shining ray

Upon my closed eyes

And a careless breeze

From the waves afar

Creates a picture so perfect

That the pieces cannot break

The sun and me

The moon and I

A cherished moment

That is ours alone

It cannot be shared

This bearable solitude

I wish it would never end

I shout to the sea

All the secrets I’ve been told

Cruel words and lies

Of heartaches and breaks

And my own harrowing pains

The waves call back to me

With comfort and cries

“Tell me your burdens

Forget you have pride

All worries and woes

With leave me

As swiftly as the wind blows”

My whispers and words

Become drowned in the waves

The soft sea breeze

Clearing my lungs

And I am able to breath

With the greatest of ease

Just as the waves promised

I feel as light as air

As bright as the sunshine

And without but one care

For I wonder and doubt

When will it be

The sun and me

The moon and I

Us carefree three

When will it be

Just us and the sea

Once more

When All Is Said And Done

Now that the stress of editing is over (for now) everyone seems at a lose at what to do next. The logical step would be to try and find a job, but to be honest, as much as I would love to start looking for a job, I am going to bask in my freedom, at least for a few days. I would bask in the sunshine too, like a seal on a rock but its actually quite cold outside, plus my fear of wasps and bees prevents me from relaxing. Instead I am going to bask inside and drink some vanilla tea from my awesome new teapot! 

This new sensation of no stress is quite strange and I'm finding it difficult to adjust. I keep thinking I have other work to finish and then I dash around the room until I realise I actually have nothing to do, work wise anyway. I do have to send off the finished film to my actors and crew members, oh and some family members and a few people who let me film in their theatre and of course that nice priest who let me film in the hall. In fact I haven't really stopped working, as I have also ordered some postcards of Space Detective to go with the film and I am now in the process of sorting out some business cards, complete with seal mascot. My dad thought it better that the seal worse sunglasses instead (as I suggested) a club so that he could chase a crazy Canadian. He said it might give the wrong impression, I thought it might make me stand out. He agreed but then pointed out that it would make me stand out, in the wrong way. No one wants to take a card from the crazy seal card girl. If I wasn't me, I would take a card. Then frame it. Maybe a step too far.

The Fruits Of Last Night's Labour

The edit is almost complete! Just the credits, the title, the grading and a small jump cut issue on one shot, and it will be almost finished. I do still have to create the DVD menu and the commentary but for the moment I'm proud of the (little over) 10 minute cut. I've also started my showreel even though I've basically only got two films to edit from. Luckily I haven't got fed up the song (its from the Sucker Punch soundtrack). I should point out that I've been drinking mass amounts of coffee and strawberry tea to be able to stay awake and create such things. Headaches are getting worse but I know in the long run it will all be worth it.

Another part of the whole project is the DVD cover, which is also almost done. I just need to add the UH film and TV logo and sort of the DVD Video logo and it will be ready to print. Exciting stuff!

p.s
I haven't forgotten about Barbara and Boris, more on them after this film thing is finished!

Proof

I wrote this in the summer for a competition. After reading it my sister laughed and called me 'Katie 'bitter much' Hogan'. Can't help it if I dislike cliche films.

Cliché

He drops to his knees, holds out the ring

Looks into her eyes, the piano plays

She has tears in her eyes and joy in her smile

And quietly she replies, just simply ‘Yes’

It’s a moment so special, delightful and fine

And yet it feels quite dull, almost practiced

Even though someone’s obviously forgotten a line

It’s too sentimental,

It’s slightly grotesque

It’s literally a cliché

No hope in the characters

Being that slightest bit diverse

She’s too poor; he’s far too rich

She’s a lady and he’s a tramp

He’s from the south; she’s from the north

She is beauty and he is the beast

But a change in location, period and dress

There in some variety in these films at least

From exposition to climax

From ‘meet point’ to break up

To the picturesque final scene

Where everything is perfect

No jokes, no laughs maybe just a smile

But we’ve finally come to the end of this god-awful mile

Yes it’s romantic and maybe comedy

But in just a month, one week, two days

Love has unrealistically conquered all in a

A genre overused, over played, over done

A script so weak and a crew so strong

And a cast so beautiful that they are

Entirely wrong

It’s shame that it’s all just a cliché

Considering A Career Change, Its Not Too Late, Right?

 A small incident just happened that upset/annoyed me. In the grand scheme of things, its as insignificant as a eye lash in your eye, but right now, its rather important. I've decided that a career change might be good, but after some research, I realized Piracy, even Pirates of Penzance style, is illegal. So my second choice is poetry. Yes poetry. I like very few poems and poets and hated studying it in school and college. I think poetry readings are pointless and that they are over the top. All these negative issues aside, I can write poems, published twice has proven that. So I will become a poet and write words no one will read or hear (unless by some luck I'm published again) and live in a haze, drinking coffee late into the night, drinking port in the day, all the while writing and writing.
If this plan fails I have a second back up. I will work at a Seal Sanctuary. In fact I will work there and write poems only about seals, the book will be called 'Sealed With Approval' and I will see the ocean everyday. Life will be good. Or I will wake up tomorrow and try and forget the incident and get on with my film. We shall see.

I Could Have Been A Post Officer, I Could Have Delivered Post

I've always loved getting post. When I was younger the only post I got was on my birthday or a letter from a relative, because they knew I liked writing and receiving letters. I was known in my family for sending thank you notes in good time and I was always given some kind of letter paper as a present, I didn't complain. I was jealous of my Dad, who got most of the post, even when he said they were bills. I still like sending postcards and letters, an art that has been lost and turned into email. I miss my play Post Office I had when I was younger. I loved writing notes and sending them, didn't matter what they said. I made a post box for each of my family so I could post them letters. Of course they were mistaken for rubbish and thrown away. After that I think I started giving out 'black spots', inspired by Treasure Island. I think I ended up having to sell my post office at a car boot . . .

The anticipation of the post arriving became greater when I moved to Uni halls because I was able to create my own post by shopping online and ebay, oh and letters from home and the bank. Even now, two years later I still get excited, I love opening post. It's like receiving presents when its not your birthday or Christmas. Post this week has included a couple of DVDs, (Monsters, which I recommend you see, and series 1 of Silk, also amazing) a Graze box, which is a this healthy box of nibbles, mostly dry fruit which I love, the Sucker Punch soundtrack, which brightened up the day and I think either tomorrow or the next day I should be receiving some comics and a few things from Little White Lies magazine. All these things I shouldn't be buying, but oh how I love having post!


Update on the film, editing a little over 7 minutes, its looking good so far, only three more scenes to edit and my rough cut is done. I've also started making a DVD cover, won't show you now, I'll perfect it first.

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

Went into to London today with my housemate to enjoy the glorious sunshine and to buy things. I shouldn't have done really, as I am almost broke from making my film. Speaking of which I have edited another scene and a half, bringing the total up to 4 minutes, which is technically not good for me if I want to keep all the funny parts in. I don't want to have to cut characters out either, but never fear I will make a director's cut and a submission cut, like I usually do.

Last week I had a mock interview for ITV, it was part of a module and so quite important. I hadn't really thought about the job title that much but when it was explained to me in detail, I decided, that this is the job for me. A junior research developer, or something. It's a stepping stone on the way to being able to create your own television shows, which is almost exactly what I want to do, but not to work for ITV, I'd prefer if it was HBO. So if I aim for this job, I'll have money to buy things, such as the nice new headphones, which are perfect for editing and another addition to my giant mug collection, an Alice in Wonderland illustrated mug from Urban Outfittetrs, and of course another Tin Tin book, you can't have enough Tin Tin books. I believe all these things will help me in my future career, especially the mug.

Why Do the Good Shows Always Die?

I can think of dozens of shows that were cancelled before their time, Arrested Development, Carnivale, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and now the massively underrated Outcasts will join the ranks. I used to admire British shows and how they only ran for two or three seasons, they knew their time was up and instead of being cancelled, the actors just didn't want to do another series.  Also they only have 6 or 8 episodes, which makes people more keen to keep following the series. Classic examples are Spaced and Green Wing. Both ran for two seasons (exception on Green Wing special), both were hilarious, both have been given cult status, and rightly so, but both ended because the people involved decided it was enough even though the audience and fans wanted more. But if there had been another series for both I bet the audience numbers would have declined, only because a new generation has come to watch TV and all they like are shows that make people look stupid and reality shows that are the same thing over and over again. Outcasts was a victim of this generation, the show started off slow, I admit that, but it got better, the last few episodes were brilliant and it justified the show to have a second series, at least to tie story lines up. The show had the most intriguing cliff hanger, so many characters and plot lines just abandoned. The BBC really need to consider the audience that watched the show. They need to take into account the amount of people who watched the show on iplayer and who watched the re runs. I have never been so angry with the BBC for cancelling a show. I hope they redeem themselves.

First 31 seconds done, I think I might be celebrating too soon

First 31 seconds of Space Detective have been set in stone! I should mention, it was hilarious! The rest of the film is going to be one hell of a mission though. I have to sync up the audio to each clip and that takes ages and don't even get me started on naming clips that I shouldn't have.

I tried uploading the teaser trailer for Space Detective but of course there was an error. I will try next post, but in the meantime (above) is the teaser poster (still in progress).

Tin Tin is my saviour? Ok, I believe you.

At last I am out of hibernation, the dissertation is finished and handed in, thank god! But now that I've finished that epic piece of writing I am now onto editing Space Detective or least naming clips so I can start. Apart from that, I've been able to watch all my shows I had put on hold and start to follow new ones, such as Campus. Advertised as the replacement for the awesome comedy Green Wing, which ended a few years back, oh how I miss it. I went to all the signings of the DVDs, met the cast, it was great. I agree, Campus is looking to be a reasonable follow up. Cast of, actual laugh out loud actors and the quirky-ness is all there too. Really looking forward to the rest of the series.

On another more serious note, I've been having some very disturbing dreams. I think its because of the late nights where I've been going to bed at 3am. The dreams are just like how they use to be when all I drank was coffee, but now the dreams feel as if they are real and I start to believe the things that happened are reality. I can't write down everything, mostly because I can't remember and because some details are slightly disturbing. A distinct memory from the dream last night was that I was talking about Tin Tin and everyone said he was my saviour and that I was leaving for another country or something. I felt quite ill when I woke up. Then I remembered my ordered food from Tesco was arriving today and I forgot about the dreams until I put on my t-shirt on which has a picture of Tin Tin as the Tinman from Wizard of Oz on it. Everything came rushing back so I had a glass of port to calm me down, it worked, for a bit.