Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Along with just about everybody else on the planet I was incredibly excited about the final installment in the Harry potter film series (until either WB or JK run out of money that is.)

A very enjoyable film. I'm glad that it cuts the crap and gets straight into the action. Within thirty minutes we're in Hogwarts and preparing for battle.

The battle is when it manages to fall apart. David Yates has never been my favorite directer but this is his sloppiest yet. It's almost like he gave up after five minutes and decided to let the film be a success because of the franchises popularity, as opposed to making it a good film in itself. The script was absolutely brilliant as was the acting, Daniel Radcliffe actually managed to look like a proper actor at some points! Direction and editing were the only things that ruined this one. The first couple of scenes were brilliant but as soon as the HP logo appears it all goes downhill.

The Battle of Hogwarts wasn't very well done in the book. But that's because we were following Harry and his quest. It did slightly annoy me when there was one point that we got little more than "And Harry entered the hall. By the way, here's a list of people that are dead..." The film however was built up to have some kind of epic LOTR style battle, even skipping the slightly smaller battle in Hogwarts during Half Blood Prince to increase anticipation. This however never seemed to materialize beyond a couple of lazily thrown together montages with Neville seeming to gain the whit of Roger Moore's Bond, I was almost expecting a 'wand' innuendo. What we did see of the battle was a total letdown. After half an hours worth of setting up, enchanting statues and Voldemort preparing his army for the march on Helms Deep Hogwarts, we were shown a few quick clips. It was just lazy. I think Yates' problem is that he can't handle bigger things. The tri-wizard scenes in Goblet of Fire and the ministry scenes in Order of the Phoenix were terrible when compared to Dumbledore's death in Half Blood Prince and Malfoy Manor
in Deathly Hallows Part 1.

One thing that really bothered me was how obvious it was that Robbie Coltrane was never ever in the same place as Daniel Radcliffe during shooting. Usually some effort is made to hide it, but yet again the post production process seemed to be so lazy that they just didn't bother trying. Something that also affected the final and infamous 'nineteen years later' sequence. When I heard that they were using CGI to make the cast look older I was skeptical. It seems that wearing more adult clothes now passes as CGI as that was the only real visible difference. As sad as it is to say, people in the cinema were laughing at what was supposed to be the sad and emotional scene at the end because of this.

Despite all of this however it was a very enjoyable film. It's a Harry Potter film so it's fair to say that it was almost definitely going to be a huge success. The source material is of course fantastic so they couldn't really go wrong with the story. The smaller scenes between the three main characters along with the Harry/Voldemort scenes were brilliantly done. There were a few nice additions, such as Voldemort massacring Gringotts after the trio get away.

It was also nice to see faces from previous films, such as Professor Sprout. However they tried so hard to fit everyone in that it seemed to turn into yet another lazy montage of poor cameos. When you consider that these are some of the best actors going, a cameo seems a bit underwhelming. None the less, it was a good idea and I'm glad that it did happen. One character that they did give a good deal to was McGonagall, who's almost demented attack on Snape once she hears that he killed Dumbledore is one of the highlights of the film. Julie Walters as Molly Weasley also manages to steal the show in the very little time she has onscreen.

So a very good film flawed by poor direction and editing. It was very fun to watch and it manages to give the 'end of an era' feeling exceptionally well. A welcome addition to the HP series and certainly one of the better ones. It's sad to see it end. Again.

The Green Dagger

Hello all. Long time no post.

I've been working on my latest project being one reason. And this project is a machinima. For those unfamiliar with the term, a machinima is an animated film made using footage from a video game, in this case the ever entertaining Halo Reach. The first episode is being edited right now and should reach a popular video hosting site very soon. After that we'll be working on five more episodes to be posted weekly once they're finished.

The first episode is testing the water slightly really. While I've made a machinima before (albeit a long time ago and on a very different kind of game) I did that on my own and pretty much made it up on the spot. There was no dialogue either, meaning that I didn't get the full production experience of script-to-screen.

A few people have asked me about the writing process of a machinima and I have approached it in quite an interesting way. Reach includes a 'forge world' in which you can effectively build your own map. This is how we created the 'sets' for the film. We created these before I started writing, so I had clear reference points to write to. I've mapped out the overall storyline yet so far only the first episode has been fully written. It's quite dialogue-lite as we're using this pilot episode to get the feel of it. You'll be seeing a large action sequence that won't really be explained until later.

For those interested in seeing my previous effort...

Drat!

Hello anybody reading this.

My lack of posting may have made it look like I haven't been alive. I am.

It's been a busy old month of festivals, writing and return trips to university for evenings out. Alas, my room key has been handed in and I shall not be returning to Stoke for some time.

Still watching 24. I've just finished the third series and will probably do a 'half way there' review at the end of series 4.

I'm also working on a project called Way Station, an idea that I started to develop a while back. The first episode is written (and I'm going to send it to the BBC as a calling-card type of thing). All feedback on that greatly appreciated as I have to completely perfect this script. It can be found here!

Also been looking for a job. That's impossible at the moment unfortunately. Living in a fucked country is no fun.

24

Currently watching 24 and enjoying it immensely. About 3/4 the way through series/day 2. Watching this straight after The Wire has resulted in me needing to suspend my disbelief a fair bit. The Wire was incredibly realistic while 24 is less so.

Still finding it very enjoyable though. Will post about it properly soon.

What Next???

I've been looking at what to watch through now that I've finished The Wire. A few things have been suggested including 24, Babylon 5, Walking Dead and Southland.

I think I'll give 24 a go but throw ideas at me by all means. I'm looking for something a little lighter than the bleak world of 2000s Baltimore as shown in The Wire.

The Wire - Best TV Series Ever?

This is a piece that I've dreaded writing since the moment that I first watched The Wire. There's nothing that I can say about its sheer brilliantness that hasn't already been said 500 times.

First of all, this will contain spoilers so if you haven't seen it stop reading NOW, go on to amazon and buy the complete box set. You will like it and even if you don't, you have to see it. If you have seen it, read on...

At first I didn't connect with it, I even posted on here that this may not be the series for me. But I stuck with it as many people advised me to. By the fifth episode I was completely hooked and I remained hooked throughout the rest of the series. It keeps you going until the very last moment.

It's incredibly well written, you can tell this straight away. There's an enormous number of characters but all of them feel realistic, all of them are perfectly plotted out. We learn things about them very slowly, some things we don't get told until much much later on. This doesn't matter.

The Wire isn't driven by character or plot, both are perfectly balanced. Sometimes the story hinges on one character yet at other times a main character can be simply bumped off, no epic deaths, it just happens. The best example of this comes towards the end of the final season when Omar, a character that has been pivotal to the story on a number of occasions, is shot by a child while shopping. There are literally hundreds of people after him and have been since the very beginning, yet it's a small and simple thing that is his ultimate downfall.

While watching through The Wire I found that some kind of reset button was pressed at the beginning of each series, I lost interest for periods of time before picking it up again. Yet by the end of every series I was hooked, sometimes watching three episodes in a row. The start of a series does see the pace slowed down a bit. This may have been because I was watching series back-to-back and not one a year over five years.

People ask me what The Wire is about, the obvious answer is obviously cops and robbers. However when you look carefully, it's not about that at all. It's about how Baltimore as a city fails to recognize and deal with its own problems and how the system fails those that it should protect. The Wire is really a novel for TV, about how shit life is and how no one can really do anything about it. Every episode is a different chapter and every series is a different volume of the same story, a story that has no beginning and no end and probably never will do.

A brilliant series that is often hailed as 'the best TV series ever' and I can understand why, it's certainly up there with the greats and I would recommend it to anyone and encourage everyone to watch it in its entirety. The ending isn't particularly rewarding but it puts its message across clearly and in a very entertaining way.

Making a film!

I've been here before. A couple of years back a few friends and I decided to make a film. All was going well until we gave up due to it being far too much effort when A Levels had to be focused on.

I went away and wrote 3/4 of a script that could easily be made. I literally wrote it so that it could be filmed in any location at anytime very easily.

And the project is off! People are up for it and now I'm at uni equipment access is so much better.

Here's some of the results of the last attempt, hopefully we'll be more successful this time...