Doug Block
Tue 18 Dec 2001
•
Welcome to The D-Word Forum, John, and thanks for the lengthy and
interesting post. For some reason it didn't wrap around, so to help
everyone read it, I'm re-postinig it with word wrap (which you might
want to check off in your Settings). I admire your courage in going
after the BA and wish you well. Please check back in with us from
time to time and let us know how it's going.
[JOHN WROTE:] I think I will have to be a lurker for quite a while.
I'm an aged dude who has decided to follow his youngest son who has
almost completed a New Zealand BA in film and video. Ben's major video
was taking an ordinary actor and using real stunt men to make him into
a stuntman! (nearly killed the poor bugger). New Zealand is awash with
stuntmen and women as we've had Zena and Hercules productions here for
years (even I"ve been an extra in both) and more recently Lord of the
Ring. I'd like to hear your opinion of Peter Jackson's epic if you
wish to post as us Kiwis are enormously proud of his efforts and I
would like to keep him buoyed up as he moves to the last two parts of
the triolgy.
OK, in a few weeks time I will start my BA in Film, Television and
Media Studies at the University of Auckland which should take three
years to complete. For your interest, the films we analyse in the
first year are "Gladiator" (well it was only the third time a New
Zealander had won an Acadamy Award), "Grease", "The Castle" (a quirky
Australian film about a dysfunctional family resisting losing their
home to an airport extension), "Inside John Malcovich" (a neat film I
thought as I'm an SF buff), "Secrets and Lies", "the Price of Milk" (a
NZ film which has proved strangely popular, especially in the USA). I
have worked for a zillion years in journalism and public relations
(some of the latter, dare I say, multinational). I have made corporate
films and videos. One I scripted on introducing the concept of
employee shareholding to thousands of employees was put forward by the
production company to an Australian version of Bafta and missed out by
one point on the top prize. I used a gifted Maori actor as presentor
who did not possess a suit until I bought one for him.
Since then I have done the high-tech stuff using laptop-controlled
presentations (try coping with it when the idiot presenting it departs
from the script).
Ah well...."by the scars on their backs you shall know them."
Hopefully I can contribute a little bit to my classes as well as
learning heaps in the next three years. What to do with it? Not really
sure but maybe producer-screenwriter.
PS. If you enjoy Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" see if you can
rent an earlier film "Heavenly Creatures" that he made. This was about
two Christchurch 16-year-olds who conspired to kill the mother of one.
It was cause celebre at the time with juvenile lesbian overtones,
secret diaries, adultery involving senior English academics let alone
Mum's grisly end on the end of a frequently wielded brick in a local
park in broad-daylight. In those days I was 18-years-old and a trainee
journalist for the morning paper, "The Press". I had to run
hand-written copy to Post Office telegraphists to send to several
London papers such was their interest in the salacious aspects of the
case. In between hopping on my bike for the sprint to the Post Office
(we took life seriously in those days) I would stand at attention
alongside the pressbox. As the youngest person the court, Parker, the
dark-haired defendent, decided to relieve her boredom by smiling and
winking at me. Hulme, the other, ignored me. I was terrified that the
slightest response on my part would end up with contempt of court
proceedings and losing my job!
Anyway my stocism worked, after both girls serving around 6 years,
Parker joined a nunnery; and Hulme, back in England, became a
successful mystery writer under another name and was only exposed a
few years ago as being involved in a murder herself. I felt sorry for
her. I guess, at 66, I am probably the only person left alive who was
at her trial.
Anyway Kai I think might know me from other posts in history and
political subjects. I look forward to learning from this group. Are
there good sources to access film criticism?
Cheers John
interesting post. For some reason it didn't wrap around, so to help
everyone read it, I'm re-postinig it with word wrap (which you might
want to check off in your Settings). I admire your courage in going
after the BA and wish you well. Please check back in with us from
time to time and let us know how it's going.
[JOHN WROTE:] I think I will have to be a lurker for quite a while.
I'm an aged dude who has decided to follow his youngest son who has
almost completed a New Zealand BA in film and video. Ben's major video
was taking an ordinary actor and using real stunt men to make him into
a stuntman! (nearly killed the poor bugger). New Zealand is awash with
stuntmen and women as we've had Zena and Hercules productions here for
years (even I"ve been an extra in both) and more recently Lord of the
Ring. I'd like to hear your opinion of Peter Jackson's epic if you
wish to post as us Kiwis are enormously proud of his efforts and I
would like to keep him buoyed up as he moves to the last two parts of
the triolgy.
OK, in a few weeks time I will start my BA in Film, Television and
Media Studies at the University of Auckland which should take three
years to complete. For your interest, the films we analyse in the
first year are "Gladiator" (well it was only the third time a New
Zealander had won an Acadamy Award), "Grease", "The Castle" (a quirky
Australian film about a dysfunctional family resisting losing their
home to an airport extension), "Inside John Malcovich" (a neat film I
thought as I'm an SF buff), "Secrets and Lies", "the Price of Milk" (a
NZ film which has proved strangely popular, especially in the USA). I
have worked for a zillion years in journalism and public relations
(some of the latter, dare I say, multinational). I have made corporate
films and videos. One I scripted on introducing the concept of
employee shareholding to thousands of employees was put forward by the
production company to an Australian version of Bafta and missed out by
one point on the top prize. I used a gifted Maori actor as presentor
who did not possess a suit until I bought one for him.
Since then I have done the high-tech stuff using laptop-controlled
presentations (try coping with it when the idiot presenting it departs
from the script).
Ah well...."by the scars on their backs you shall know them."
Hopefully I can contribute a little bit to my classes as well as
learning heaps in the next three years. What to do with it? Not really
sure but maybe producer-screenwriter.
PS. If you enjoy Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" see if you can
rent an earlier film "Heavenly Creatures" that he made. This was about
two Christchurch 16-year-olds who conspired to kill the mother of one.
It was cause celebre at the time with juvenile lesbian overtones,
secret diaries, adultery involving senior English academics let alone
Mum's grisly end on the end of a frequently wielded brick in a local
park in broad-daylight. In those days I was 18-years-old and a trainee
journalist for the morning paper, "The Press". I had to run
hand-written copy to Post Office telegraphists to send to several
London papers such was their interest in the salacious aspects of the
case. In between hopping on my bike for the sprint to the Post Office
(we took life seriously in those days) I would stand at attention
alongside the pressbox. As the youngest person the court, Parker, the
dark-haired defendent, decided to relieve her boredom by smiling and
winking at me. Hulme, the other, ignored me. I was terrified that the
slightest response on my part would end up with contempt of court
proceedings and losing my job!
Anyway my stocism worked, after both girls serving around 6 years,
Parker joined a nunnery; and Hulme, back in England, became a
successful mystery writer under another name and was only exposed a
few years ago as being involved in a murder herself. I felt sorry for
her. I guess, at 66, I am probably the only person left alive who was
at her trial.
Anyway Kai I think might know me from other posts in history and
political subjects. I look forward to learning from this group. Are
there good sources to access film criticism?
Cheers John