Its not easy being at the top...

FINALLY!!!, I have ascended to the top of Google's search when you google RCM productions. I AM THE TOP RESULT. I struggled to get there, there was facebook groups, established companies...all sorts.

But no longer. I AM KING, and all those under me are my minions!!!

*laughs from his tower*

HAHAHAHAHAHAH! SUCK OUT!

SUPERHEROES

ARGH!!!

SUPERHERO'S, The next couple of months are going to be exciting times for me and the rest of the comic book fan battalion, oh and everyone else who jumped onto the bandwagon screaming "I TOTALLY LOVE SUPERHEROES TOO".

 

Its going to be amazing.

Its going to be amazing....SPIDERMAN...see what I did there?

"AMERICAHHHH! FUCK YEAH!!!"

While I'm here I might plug someone on YouTube who I seem to always end up watching for his thoughts on superhero film releases, his YouTube account name is justsomerandomguy and if you find playing with action figures and light hearted stabs at the comic book film world. Then this is your guy...

Confessions of a Fanboy: Tron

THIS IS NOT RIPPING OFF STARWARS A NEW HOPE

I love Tron.

The original movie (TRON 1982) was shown to me a ripe age that I cannot remember, but it was back when Yo-Yos were awesome and no one had even heard of  the Poke'mon, It like my other favourite sci-fi series' did its job of embedding its story, characters and most importantly imagery into the back of my retinas for all eternity.  I am often found referring to this when it comes to "Classic" sci-fi and is one movie that I will fight to the death to argue its place among the cinema elite.

DIGITIZING

Tron was the story of a computer programmer Flynn (back when being a computer programmer meant you were cool and hip not introvert and living in your mothers basement) who through trying to hack into the ENCOM computer system is zapped into a digital world by a digitizing laser. (SCIENCE!)


This was back in the 80's when people didn't really know how a computer worked so seeing this physical representation of what perhaps went on inside a computer was fascinating and not as silly back then as we look upon it today with our broader knowledge of digital technology, and by god did it seem plausible to me at the time.




Once inside he is thrust into a host of gladiatorial battles which made up some of the most memorable scenes from the Disk battles, Light Cycle races to tank and airship battles.  He eventually meets a security program Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) who vows to help Flynn to escape the grid and on the way destroy the MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM who has taken control of the grid and all its inhabitants and now even threatens the outside world.

 



 It was new, bright, colourful, fun and engaging everything any computer fascinated child could ask for, a computer based world with fantastical constructions and landscapes that simply cannot exist but really gave the feel of this computer coded land. 

Yori, Flynn and Tron, our protagonists!

It's was a story with many simple yet effective story and plot points such as the the MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM the ruling piece of software was waging war against any program who still believed in the users (the people who created this world, deity's). Tron the loyal security program who once again has a purpose (that of protecting Flynn) and the love interest of Yori. It was a classic adventure and one that seemed fresh through the frankly inspired design of everything, from the suits to the ships to the light cycles. This film oozed style and substance for anyone willing to ignore its few niggles.






And then.... HOLLYWOOD....

I don't know what it is but whatever I love is often later changed into a horrific glaring mess of shots and cheap dialogue that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger cringe. .....*SPOILERS*

So logically, TRON: Legacy was always lurking somewhere in the shadows. But I wasn't instantly against the idea, no when I first saw the announcement of a new Tron film I was literally back flipping around my room and hyping myself up for what surely would be the best sci-fi since Moon. Tron was back baby! and who would be with him?  oh you know...just DAFT PUNK composing the soundtrack.

 You hadn't seen a fanboy this ready to be blown away I gleefully followed all the press and news for this film eagerly awaiting the second coming of TRON, But what did I get?

LAZINESS. Nothing but disrespect for fans and the use of ICONIC imagery butchered to lure in new viewers to sell tickets rather than advance the plot of the first film. JUST A CASH IN.

The plot is that Flynn after defeating the MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM  goes back to the real world, only to disappear 7 years later. Much after that we are introduced to Sam, Flynn's son and the new protagonist of the film, as he commits industrial espionage on the company ENCOM (of which he owns due to his fathers absence) by uploading their latest operating system onto the interwebs (oh noes) and then proceeding to base jump from the top of the ENCOM building. ( this is to establish that Sam is EXTREME!)

"I SUCCCCCCCCCCK"

Later Bruce Boxleitner as Alex comes to Sam and tells him of a message he has received supposedly from Flynn which originates from the arcade (Flynn owned an arcade in the first film) and asks him to check it out.
So we go to Flynn's arcade as we see the set from the first film and the audience wishes thats what they were watching that film as Sam instantly finds Flynn's secret door to his lab of SCIENCE! and sits down at his computer where he instantly hits the "Digitize self" button and is sent into the grid.

He is picked up by a Recogniser and is immediately sent into the gladiatorial battles Ala the first film. Now where this differs is that Sam is INSTANTLY amazing at these games, he takes one look at the disc fights and his Jock training kicks in "fuck yah" he thinks to himself and instantly derezzes (kills) about 4 guys kung-fu flipping all the way. And there is no explanation for Sam's skill in these games and even fights later as he back flips and pummels his way through the denizens of the grid.

Sam: "I know Kung-fu"

 He meets CLU who is Flynn's doppelganger a program made to create the perfect system, who reveals he lured Sam here with the intention of using him as part of his plan to find the location of Flynn who has disappeared to use a bad turn of phrase ....off the grid.

Seeing this face moved made me want to cry at times. It is terrifying.

Looking slightly scary.

So his master plan to lure Flynn out ....he puts Sam into a 5 on 5 Light cycle battle where CLU immediately goes to chop Sam's head off with his disc (umm didn't you need him for your plan?). But, alas Sam is saved by Quorra a mystery hot chick in a dune buggy who springs Sam from the arena and takes him to a safe place that is to use a turn of phrase "off the grid".





Here we are finally introduced to the now much older Flynn (Jeff Bridges)as he channels the Dude from the Big Lebowski in all his "radical" glory. It was nice to see Flynn back in this movie but I really didn't understand his turn from happy-go-lucky computer programmer to The Dude MK II  or Digi-Buddah it was unfounded and distracting and made it just seem like you were watching Jeff Bridges rather than Flynn from all those years ago.

"That rug really tied the room together."

So after a really flat scene where father and son meet for the first time in 10 years or something to that effect, We then are treated to some back story on Quorra, Flynn's Jedi apprentice as she is a rare anomaly of program code called Iso's who evolved without being created by either Flynn or CLU and are a new life form in the grid.

Sam concerned about his father asks him to leave with him and says that they should head for the portal straight away, but Flynn doesn't like this idea as he cannot risk CLU getting hold of his disc and starting his reign of terror on earth. After a sissy fight Sam leaves in a huff Quorra telling him that he should visit Zuse a program who can get anyone anywhere.

Sam Visits the End of line club and is instantly betrayed by the blonde haired douche that is Zuse as he eats millions of pounds worth of what is very nice scenery with his oh so fay Billy Idol on smack routine. CLU's guards storm the club and a fight ensues, again with Sam knowing kung-fu he dispatches most of the guards single handled. Quorra and Flynn turn up to help but Flynn gets his disc stolen almost instantaneously as he arrives and Quorra loses an arm. They flee the club.

"My scenes were pointless" *Idiotic Dancing*

After this we have a brief scene with Rinzler one of CLU's bad ass bodyguards who captures Quorra and who is revealed to be the reprogrammed TRON (You saw TRON killed in a flashback) and we quickly skip away to another scene without the character who's name is in the title.

Hopefully the "T" didn't ruin it for you.

We then have Sam recovering the disc in literally 4 minutes from right under CLU's nose and he manages to leave without much trouble. He just jumps in a ship with Daddy Flynn and Quorra and its off to the final showdown.
Seriously this scene had so much wrong with it I recommend you check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgiZM-0B5oA&NR=1) as I cannot embed it for some reason.


We then rush off towards the portal in your typical chase scene, Sam gets onto the turrets and begins firing away like he was in A New Hope and Rinzler/TRON sees Flynn and decides this would be a good point in the movie to come back to the good side and sacrifice himself unceremoniously crashing into CLU only for CLU to steal TRONS back-up ship and continues the chase. Watch the movie below and try not to laugh at Jeff's "Tron..what have you become".

The crew finally reach the portal where we are confronted by the badly animated CLU doing his best to stay in the shadows so that we don't see his horrible claymation face. Flynn realises that  CLU won't let them leave so activates his....disc hoover powers and sucks the evil CLU into himself thus rejoining the two so they get...deleted? I'm not sure by this point the stupid dialogue and events killing my childhood had taken its toll.

Kind of sums up the ending.

So to wrap things up Sam and Quorra hit the TRON pose from the first film and are ported out to the real world where Quorra can somehow exist (the plot holes her being in the real world raises were simply too many to try and confront in my brain) and they ride off into the sunset.

Wow...that actually hurt to try and remember that much stupid at one time.



I hadn't walked out of a film so angry in literally years. It took everything that was likable about TRON and upped it to a level of Michael Bay incompetence that any sane person cannot bear for longer than five minutes. The dialogue was simply too stupid to comment on at times, hence this review of the plot being quite simple and fast. Because if I had to point out every plot hole in this film this blog post would not be finished anytime in the near future and I have already poured enough time into reliving these horrible events.

The updated look was fancy and effective at points and I feel that's where most average viewers get lost, as the TRON imagery is so unique and fascinating it can't help but capture your imagination. But as soon as you stop to think about the reasoning behind any of the plot, characters and their story arch's you see just how lazy this film is and how much the studios have turned what was a great original idea, did nothing to update it apart from visually and hurt themselves as they could have turned this new film into a beginning of a new trilogy of something that would really echo the era of digital and technological advancements we have made. Instead all we got was another big dumb action film. And one that this fanboy couldn't enjoy.


I have spoken about TRON long enough now. I am going to go lie down...Maybe watch TRON 1....yeah...

Yeah this film is the better of the two...sorry.

A quick glossary of terms

Blog - What you are looking at right now, a blog is basically an online diary which can be publicised and advertised to the owners own discretion. I would link you blogger...but you are already on it.

3G - Is the term used to describe the up and coming roaming internet, mainly used on mobile telephones for users to access the internet on the go around technological hotspots. Still relatively new 3G is carving out its place in the smart phone market but whether it will end up on the tube as they said it would is still looking kinda grey.

www.letstalk.com/glossary/

Blue tooth - Is a short range technology allowing the sending of data between devices using radio waves without wires (wow!) this technology was the spiritual successor to infared used in old school remote controls and also helped popularise console gaming by allowing us the first wireless controllers ....oh how I rejoiced that day.  The information sent via blutooth tends to be quite secure as they operate by createing thier own data networks...or IPANS. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

MMS (Multimedia Messaging System) - MMS messaging is the feature on most of the latest mobile phones that allows its users to send and recieve data such as, emails, pictures, data files, sound clips you name it. these are sent much like text messages except bigger!

www.pcdphones.com/glossary

Url - The Url (Uniform (or universal) resource locator thank you dictionary.com!) is an address of a website, this is what you type in your address bar when you want to get onto Facebook or any other such website. A code which designates which bit of information from the internet to load up for your viewing pleasure. For a more robust explanation please click here

Appropriate language conventions for messaging a friend - "LOL HEY, Just saw that KERRRAZY video of a man eating his own face and i gotta say it was EPIC, cant wait to see your lovely face. Lots of love. Robert"

Basically the use of abriviated words and general misuse of spelling and grammar is usually rife throughout any message sent to a friend online. I dont know why this is but it is a facinating phenomon.

Appropriate language convetions for messaging a business colleague - Would go a little more formal and keep the basic layout of a hand written letter, spelling and grammar become important again and the preservation of the language is restored.  See below for my example.

Dear Sir/Madam,

After much consideration I must say that your pervious statement was in fact completly true. The aforementioned video "Man eats his own face: 2" was exactly what this company would be looking for to promote its new line of videos "how not to eat your own face" and we shall be contacting the creator about gaining the sufficent copyrights to air the video on our next digital short.

Thank you again for sending us the information and I look forward to hearing from you soon

Best wishes

Robert M Cowan.

5 Websites I frequent

Here for you lovely people is a list of 5 media websites I use ENJOY!!

Thatguywiththeglasses.com

Doug Walker - AKA The Nostalgia Critic

Thatguywiththeglasses is a website run by Doug Walker creator of the Nostalgia critic and 5 second movies. It started out as a place for Doug to upload his comedic reviews of old nostalgic kids films but quickly turned into a website that has earned Doug entrepreneur of the year as well as taking on a host of other Internet reviewers and in a way carved out its own niche in the market. Users can now create their own blogs on TGWTG as well as comment and discuss other users and contributors to the site. This is a source for reviews from anything from the old kids films you have nearly forgotten about to the latest in the games markets to old comics no one in their right mind (except the reviewer) would date to touch. There are also yearly feature lengths involving most of the popular reviewers and frequent collaborations between the groups top players on the site.

The Spoony experiment

With Doug having paved the way for reviews of lesser known Films/Games along came the Spoony one with his slightly more aggressive and irritable review style he leapt his way into my heart as the king of snark. He differs ever so slightly in that he often favours doing Vlogs to keep fans up to date on his thoughts of all the latest and lamest that the film and game industries throw our way. He is a avid board game player and Dungeons and Dragons fanatic and these are more reasons I find myself on his site. The community of the spoony experiment is a close knit group and the forums are a good place for discussion of the lesser known games and films that perhaps would not be welcome on other film discussion forums.  Look up Reb Brown movies and Clones of Bruce lee and you will get a flavour of this Internet reviewers eclectic movie taste.

The Spoony one

Blistered Thumbs

The Blistered thumbs logo!

As I am on a bit of a theme here with review sites lets go for blistered thumbs, another graduate of the TGWTG team Joe Vargas aka Angry Joe created blistered thumbs in an attempt to have a more user generated game review website, and using their wide array of personalities including Angry Joe from Tgwtg as well as some others from Game Hero's they created a place where the focus is more on user interaction/contribution rather then just select people telling you what they think. Games are rated by users rather then the reviewers (they give their own review scores but its more about the people). Here you can find all sorts of reviews, retrospects and looks to future releases from the gaming world all the while contributing to the bustling group of followers that blistered thumbs has garnered in a short amount of time.

Internet Movie Data Base

"Hmm whats that's guys name from Jurrassic park.....Click...oh."

IMDB has revolutionised the film buff's arsenal this website is the go to place for any film question you could possibly think of it is an all encompassing list of almost every film ever made. It is run by user contribution as well as professionals being able to set up profiles of actors and producers being able to put their companies up their. It is one of my top visited websites and has helped me widen my film choices by looking at some of the user generated lists of what they would recommend to watch. other features IMDB offers is the latest trailers for upcoming films. Trivia and a host of other information just waiting for you right now...seriously go ahead I will wait right here...

And finally...

IGN

Kind of the polar opposite to blistered thumbs this is what they would like you to believe as the official gaming website. This is where most people go to when they look for gaming reviews release dates and confirmation of rumours. IGN are always in every press conference and get wind of most of the upcoming releases and have some of the more well known game journalists. Widely respected in the gaming journalism world IGN's reputation as one of the biggest and the best companies is common place. They also provide cheats and walkthroughs, (sometimes these can be user generated) as well as FAQ's for users to browse though. Their main attraction tends to be their HD streaming of new games and Insider exclusive info  of development or news that many other gaming websites cannot boast. Definitely a big player in the Gaming industry...

Proving that I use the Comments

Just some screenshots to prove I have commented on some of the other apprentice's blogs.

Commenting on Cherokee's Media blog.

Me commenting on the Edunish blog.

Constructive critism on Joys Digital Media Blog.

My Digital life...

My digital life consists of using a variety of online and software programs almost autonomously. It has become essential to many everyday tasks mainly that of communication. Here on I shall show you (yes thats you mr/mrs reader) what I myself use on a regular basis.

Skype is an IM (instant messaging) service which allows you to IM,voice call or even video call (using webcams) anyone else using the skype service, It has recently been turned into an "app" and is used on most the smartphones on sale today.

My use of this includes video calling friends (see picture below) as I find this a much more personal way of communicating with people than other IM such as Facebook chat that tends to make people rude. Sending files using its handy 'send file' feature. Setting up a conference call with a few buddies from around the country. Other uses I employ skype for is using its voice chat function to use a background device for competitive gaming with a select group of "gaming friends" I have on my skype's friends list.


Images have been altered to protect the innocent.



Emails, where would anyone be today in the buisness world without the reliable old email. I tend to use Microsofts Hotmail service for my personal email and have most recently set up a Gmail (Google mail)account for my more buisness orientated side. I use this for emailing friends and family alike, sending files and other sensitive information as well as the advantage of using your email address to sign up to use other internet services such as Skype, Facebook and pretty much any other online service that will require you to use an Email address.

Webcams, I love the webcam my main exploits of using a webcam have been mentioned in Skype already but one other use I have for the humble webcam is slightly more hedonistic, the websites Chatroulette and Omegle websites that connect you to strangers who also have a webcam for a chat, Now not that I am in any way advocating this websites as they often are a great big waste of time but every now and again you are presented with a piece of sheer comedy gold from some randomer in another country. Its worth a look at least once jsut to see who else is online and has time to kill just as you do. WARNING: these websites are NOT for the faint of heart.



He was so ehtusiastic I just had to use him.



Facebook, This is how most people now days stay in touch, although I am often critical of this site for one reason or another I always end up lurking on this website, Its a social networking site much like Myspace before it and its contant updates and the fact that most people you  (yes, you!) know will be on there has rocketed it to the top of everyones search bar. Its a way of letting the people you have added know what you are up to either through either posting on thier walls to updating you status, nattering away on the Facebook chat IM feature, posting videos of you out and about or uploading that photo of you in you're best sexy pout pose.

My use of facebook is much like the above although I tend not to upload pictures and just let other people "tag" me in them, Although recently I have taken a slightly different approach of becoming a time travelling gentlemen from the 1900's named Reginald H Foresight. but when I tire of that it is just the occasional status update or link to something interesting I feel the people need to see.

A little snippit of ole' Reggie.

The above examples are just a tiny fraction of the technology I and most other people use on a day to day basis to connect, share and explore the far wide reaches of this life and the digital one.



How I'm Technically Good..



Deri and I get stuck into some Tripod action!

This blog post will be used to outlie my role in the as of yet unreleased Viral marketing video for DIVA. As writer, creator, and director I feel my job was perhaps not quite as techincal as some others who very dutifully set up the lighting and white balance of the shots I was still involved in the framing of each shot, the placement of each shot. In what scene who was doing what, as well as doing my fair share of the tripod setup.

My role was to look back to my orginal idea and adapt within the time available, call the shots and get the team working to meet the (rather quick) deadline. It was a very quick and high pressure shoot which is something that I will have to get used to as my perfectionism often had us looking over 7 minutes

of footage for a 10 seconds scene. (self criticism, goes far)



Me framing the acting talents of Jemel and Edun.



My role wasnt just telling people what to do, I did alot of camera work and filmed some great scenes and contributed many nice camera tricks such running footage backwards and whip pans, which should look quite nice in the final edited video.  As well as this I did some off screen prop work such as creating gusts of wind using big corrigated card or throwing paper on screen. (It will make sense, I promise).

the concept drawings of some of the characters.

Other ways I techincally helped to achieve this video was my concept design (again quite rushed) but this helped us compile a list of what would be needed for each character as list which then allowed us to go out and get the props we would need to finish the video within the timeframe.
As well as this I also had my hand in finding the locations for each of the scenes you will see in the video upon completion, I know this doesnt sound too techincal but it was how I looking at my idea, seeing what resources location-wise that we could work with and calling where we would go next to get the footage.



Me, acting out to Jemel and Edun (off-screen) how the scene will look

I felt that I did alot of coaching to the others with acting which I hope helped them get into the headspace of what an actor must go through. Each time I would usually walk through the scene physically as a point of reference or discuss what exactly each character was trying to get across, I would often leave the camera running and work with them describing whether they needed to project thier voice more or say thier lines in a slightly different way. We managed to keep almost all the members of the team involved in some way, as we would tend to rotate camera, lighting etc.





The concentration of the group was intense!

And finally to conclude one last place where I was techincally good was in the cutting room, I helped edit the rough cut version pretty much from start to finish as well as cutting down some scenes that will undoubtedly be in the finished product, working with Final Cut Pro I came up with some quick last minute ways to get the scenes to link together coherently as not all scenes in the orginal idea could be shot due to time contraints  as well as cutting our footage together to give a rough idea of what the final outcome of the video would look like so that the other apprentices can come in and edit to polish off the finished version.

My Trip to the National Theatre



THE NATIONAL THEATRE
 MARVEL...at this jpeg...

 National theatre trip

The backstage trip to the National Theatre was an all round enjoyable and facinating experience that I would reccomend anyone whos intrested in anything from theatre itsself to film production to take a look at, you really get a sense of how these fantastical productions are brought to the big stage. I myself didn't realise the preparation and effort but most of all the  amount of people who work backstage at the National theatre (over 1000?!? it still amazes me) and this for me was an eye-opening experience. Personal highlights would have been Learning about the stage elevalator from the 70's that could move sets was an incredible feat of engineering for its time as well as visiting the props room to see all the old props from different productions (I had always wondered what a props room would be like, I was not left dissapointed).  As well as seeing where they build the set backdrops, being able to see how they went from a model of a house to the finished article was very pleasing and my questions were answered throughly at this point by our charming guide. Any criticism I would have would be slight and would be that we didn't see anything like changing rooms for the stars of the shows (but due to the group size I know this would proabably be impossible) apart from that I found it a wholly educational experience and would think it would benefit anyone from an apprentice like me to just your fanatic theatre fan.

Also NT live is very interesting, take a look at their website to check out how they are bringing Theatre into the 10's!

Talking about NT live

The meeting with the Head of Art and the Head of Digital was really engaging they showed us how they were taking the age old practice of theatre and breathing new, digital life into it, using NT live in such a way that it allowed the form of theatre itself to be untouched but also distribute it via the internet and other methods to a much, MUCH wider audience. I can only applaud the vision and direction of this team to take Theatre to cinemas around the world to such a grand and well recieved reception as truely, a stroke of genius. The NT live team seem to have alot of ideas and insight into their industry and ways to adapt it into this modern technological world. I thought in particular the idea of creating online events for anniversarys of bigger shows streamed live through the internet was the most tantilising idea (to myself at least) even if that was only in its infancy. All in all I was impressed at the depth of how much they knew who their audience was and the best ways digitally and artistically to get these products to them without damaging or putting in jepordy the experience of theatre itself..

Story board Evidence for Viral Marketing/ Pre-production meeting



Talking and running through the shots while drawing...such talent



A sneak peek at some of the proposed shots for the Viral marketing campaign. This was our pre production meeting where I had to stand up and list out the shots, who was playing who and basically try and get people warmed up to my idea for the Viral shoot. I feel it went quite well and we discussed who would act and how we would or could achieve each of my proposed shots. We also ended up with a rough story board for what we were going to produce that proved invaluable in the end.

The finished product!







Also check these, here are some more photos of Storyboard evidence and pre-planning that we made.

A mind map we made of jobs that we have had to do as apprenticees

Some costume ideas that we used to create a proplist

More pre-production!

Diva Viral Marketing proposal slideshow

Here is my proposed Idea for the DIVA marketing campaign This was before we decided to go for the now in the editing process,  Apprenticeman. I bet you can't wait....Diva Viral marketing Slideshow

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