Movies for Monday: A bit of Rock & Roll

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I will be looking into films and reviewing certain aspects or even a whole film. I will be viewing my opinions whilst also asking what you feel about it.

The films I look into may be new releases, or films that I have just watched on DVD.

I thought I would focus mainly on music and how it affects people. What better way to focus on music than a film about rock stars, right?

This week’s film is Almost Famous (2000) Directed by Cameron Crowe.

Based in America in 1973, this film is about a high-school boy who is excelling in life. His mother is an over-protective teacher who has lied to her son and made him skip grades. His sister walks out and rebels against the mother because she felt that music was ‘speaking to her’.

The story follows the boy, William, and his story. He gets a chance to write an article for The Rolling Stone Magazine about an ‘up-and-coming’ rock band, Stillwater. William accompanies them on their concert tour, confronts life and befriends ‘the enemy’.

This was a rather funny, feel good movie about a band, their fans and how they connect. It is also about the tensions between the band members, as they reach their big moment of fame.

This film focuses on the raw talent and characteristics of a band, looking into the way they tour and focusing on how ‘The man’ (record companies, etc.) is trying to change rock and roll and make things much more mainstream.

William’s adventure goes further than he first expect, with him travelling the full tour and seeing things nobody else would ever see. Listening to the same music that was inspiring this band to tour and perform.

The long list of songs used as both diegetic and non-diegetic is endless. I was originally going to place the full soundtrack on here, but that would have made the blog go on for quite some time. I mean it is a film about a rock band. What do expect?

There is mention of some great names such as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Black Sabbath (who Stillwater are touring alongside.), Neil Young, Lou Reed and many more (check out the amazing soundtrack at the bottom).

So this story, based on true events is one of charm and classic rock music, but what makes it so intriguing? Why do we watch these films telling us about how a certain band or person became famous?

Take Walk The Line (2005) directed by James Mangold and staring Joaquin Phoenix, for example, the story of Jonny Cash and June Carter; about the darker side of fame and of love.

We want to watch these films because they are real life stories. Stories where people have a raw talent, whether it be singing like Cash or Stillwater, or it be Journalism, they have a talent and they want the world to see this talent, they find difficulty in their journey and also might find love but eventually the bright lights of fame get too much for them and they stumble.

So do we watch these films for the stumble and the good music? Not at all, we watch them because it gives us courage to get out there and show our talents and skills, because no matter how bad they stumble, Cash ending up in Prison and Stillwater almost breaking up, they always seem to pull through and it’s their dedication.

This is why the music in films that are based on real stories are so important, because each band, each singer, has a story to tell. They will all inspire somebody in a different way, so overall it’s more than just the music. It is about inspiration.

Almost Famous (2000) Soundtrack: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181875/soundtrack

If you have any films or film topics you would like me to look into the comment below. If you have any views on what has been discussed this week, also let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Flash Fiction Friday: Simon's New Cape

Hey Guys,

Okay Flash Fiction is a new thing I’ve been told about so let’s see how this pans out and works. Apparently the aim of Flash Fiction is you look at an image of something and you write for an allotted time, or until you reach a certain amount of words. Maybe once or twice I might change these Flash Fiction entries into short films so watch out for them on my film YouTube channel which I have set up for my short films.

This week I have used a prompt book to create my Flash Fiction story. The book itself is The Writer’s Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts, a literary journal.

The prompt I have used this week is the following, in bold, then my story follows shortly after:

A twelve year old boy decides to become a superhero:

It was a cold, early January weekend and Simon was playing with his Christmas toys. Simon loved the weekends because he got to come and see me.

His mother worked on the weekends, and his father was long gone. So he came round and spent some time with me, his one, and only, nana.

Simon loved coming round because I let him play, undisturbed, as long as he was well behaved. I also baked him cakes and cooked him his favourite meals.

As Simon played with his Christmas toys, I watched him from the corner of my eye, making sure he didn’t hurt himself or get too over-excited. At the same time I had the news on the television.

I was watching Simon and listening to the news when suddenly an article came on that grubbed hold of my attention.

The reporter was telling me the dreadful news about a war in some faraway place.

I took a huge a huge gulp and tasted my worry as the reporter continued to tell me that the British army would be getting involved.

I licked my dry lips and wiped my fear stained brow. I thought about my son Jack, who was part of the army. He had been injured a few times whilst on duty and I didn’t want him to be injured again, or worse.

Each time a news reporter came on and informed me of a fight, or a war that needed the British army’s support, the taste of fear and worry would hit me in the back of the throat.

I looked over at my only grandson, hoping that he would stay twelve. Praying that he would stay young and innocent forever and that he wouldn’t end up like his uncle Jack, or divorced and unhappy like his mother, Rebecca.

The sound of clanking toys laid my worries for the child to rest for a short while.

‘Simon.’ I called to him softly. He looked up at me. ‘Would you like a slice of cake?’ I ask. Simon nodded, I was glad of this as it gave me a reason to escape the report on the fighting.

I held onto the sides of my aging armchair and lifted myself out; I walked over to the kitchen counter behind me and reached for the draw. I opened it and pulled out a cold metallic knife.

 I placed the knife on the glossed, wooden surface of the counter and walked over to the fridge.  As I opened it, the light and cold air hit my face and cooled my worried brow. I pulled out the cold china plate which held the chocolate cake that I had baked the night before. I closed the fridge door and placed the cake filled plate onto the counter.

I then placed both my hand on the counter edge for a few seconds, staring deep into the cake, into space, and day dreamed. I was hoping I would somehow find an answer or a release from the pressure building in my pounding heart.

Suddenly I felt a tug on my Knitted cardigan. Surprised, I turned round and looked down. I saw Simon staring up at me, his light blond hair shimmering at me. He was wearing the blue comic-hero cape that his mother had bought him for Christmas.

I kneeled down to see what my little grandson wanted.

‘What’s up dear?’ I stroked his soft cheek as I asked. He placed his hand upon mine and I felt a strange sensation travel from his hand to mine. This sensation then travelled up my arm. I looked at Simon in bewilderment.

‘Nana,’ He looked me straight in the eyes. His pale blue eyes had a certain, special sparkle to them.  ‘I want to help Uncle Jack.’

My fear forcibly built, my heart sunk. It started pounding at the bottom of my stomach. It started racing and forced tears to collect and well up. This was exactly the words I had dreaded.

As my fear built, Simon’s hand tightened slightly and another shoot of the strange feeling somewhat calmed me.

‘You don’t have to worry Nana.’ He paused and smiled. He let go of my hand, letting it drop to my side. He touched the middle of my chest, it felt as if he had extended through my ribs to massage and calm my racing heart. ‘I want to become a superhero.’

I smiled at the little boy’s innocence. He still believed in superheroes and thought that, with this cape, he could become one.

‘You will always be my superhero dear.’ I whispered into his ear, brushing his soft, pale hair behind it as I did so. ‘Unfortunately you can’t help your Uncle Jack or...’

‘I can though Nana!’ Simon interrupted; he stepped back from me and looked up at the counter where I had just placed the cake. I followed his line of sight and wondered what he was doing.

The next thing I saw was unbelievable and incredible. I blinked constantly, thinking I had fallen asleep and was dreaming, yet the tears of amazement that rolled down my cold, wrinkled cheeks informed me that this was real.

The metallic knife which was lying on the counter next to the plate started to rise; it hovered over to the cake and cut through it.

I stared back at Simon in astonishment, wondering what was happening.

‘See Nana,’ He exclaimed. ‘I can help Uncle Jack and become a superhero.’

I looked at my grandson in shock as his smile gleamed at me.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Film Thursday: Mysery - Short Film (2010)

Hey Guys,

This week for Film Thursday I have posted a short film.

This short film was created for my A level, Film Studies, piece. It is one of my first ideas for the Character Mysery. In this film she is a young girl who is upset about where her life is and wants to escape. She manages to finds happiness in her dreams, but knows that dreams can't last forever.

Song: Antony and the Johnsons - Another World (2008)
Mysery: Rebecca Hughes: https://www.facebook.com/Huuughes

MattThomFilm:
Blog: http://mattthomfilm.blogspot.co.uk/
Page: https://www.facebook.com/MattThomFilm
Twitter: @no1mattthom

Welcome Wednesday: Guest Blog: Joseph Eastwood:Why Branding is Necessary

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will introduce a new person who has a simular interest to myself who I think that both myself and you guys can learn from, understand and take things from. Each week I will post a short intro to the person, what they have to say and their important links. Maybe even do a response once or twice.

This week my guest is a good friend of mine from university. His name is Joseph Eastwood, he is 19 years old and studies English and Creative Writing at University. He is an aspiring writer who's book, Lumen, is coming out very soon. This is his blog about writing and how 'indie' writers should have a brand and a genre.

Hope you enjoy it:

Why Branding is Necessary

I feel that as an indie author you need to have a brand, you need to have a genre, you need people to remember who you are---being another self-published author is hard.
I'm going to kick this off by telling you that if your Facebook page doesn't have your name in the title, then there isn't much point in having it.
Book pages are useful, but they are also very boring and don't offer as much as author pages do. I find that author pages are more personal, where book pages just have pictures of the book...or random pictures of people they want to fill the characters etc. and yeah, that's fun and everything, and you want people to "like" your book, and unless that's the only book you're ever going to write, I would delete it!
I believe that if you want to be indie you will not become successful over just ONE book! So quit promoting it to hell and back! Instead, I think you should focus on your writing, Amanda Hocking did not become famous for that one book, nor did Stephen King, or anyone else for that matter. They all wrote several books and have a backlog.
Just like an musician must build a repertoire of songs because lets face it, if they listen to the same song over and over again it just gives you earache and you start to hate it. I think the same thing goes for an indie author who keeps on pushing their book everywhere you look and I've actually said to myself..."No, you're not buying that, it's just spam! The author has done nothing to try and sell it to me, just forever posting it and the reviews they've received."
You need to hone your genre and you need to write, write, write! Not everything you write should be published for money, some things you write can be free! You know, like in your notes that people can read because there aren't a lot of people who are going to be taking a chance on an indie author.

For more information on Joe, his writing or any of his blog posts, check out the following links below:


Blog: www.josepheastwood.com

Twitter: @JoeEastwood

Page: www.facebook.com/josephswriting

If any of you fancy writing me a guest post for next Wednesday, could you please get in contact with me. Either on here, or on Facebook/Twitter. Links below:

Page: www.facebook.com/MattThomFilm

Twitter: @No1MattThom

Stay safe,


Matt