Open Range Shootout Parts 1, 2 and 3

One of the best western shootouts ever made! Please comment!

Once Upon A Time In The West Opening Scene

A clip from the western masterpiece "Once Upon A Time In The West". This scene is very suspenseful and features slow and effective build-up. It is also a major influence on my film. Please comment!

Vengeance- a short story by Paddy Johnson

Here is a short story I wrote yesterday. Please tell me what you think about it or your interpretations of its meaning, which I will eventually reveal.

Vengeance

1000 eyes but he’s still blind. He staggers on through rain, thunder and shine witnessing first hand accounts of hate, love, loneliness and discomfort. He struggles on through desolate landscapes, barren lands, desperate times and alienating experiences. He wonders and wanders endlessly under a pitch-black cloak of suffering, shielding his face from the outer world. But they can still see him, sense his presence in mind, body and soul.

It is solitude, which most affects him. He finds that, sometimes not everything is what it seems. Some keys unlock more than one door, rain can bring the brightest of weather and no-one is ever completely alone. He finds comfort, happiness in his head. An irreplaceable feeling which he is certain no-one can steal from him. He realises with a triumphant grin outstretched on his darkened face, that friends aren’t everything.

He releases himself from their tight grips, and lets out a cry of happiness. He is completely free, with more enthusiasm and comfort than ever before. He does not care what anyone thinks of him. His expression triumphant, he knows inside his brain that he has reined victorious overall.

He does not feel the need to be understood, as he now understands himself. He fears no longer from hate and abuse, but returns to many a happy cheer, his face a portrait fixated in the heads of everyone for miles around. The wrong reasons redeem themselves, and all is forgiven almost as if there was never anything to forgive in the first place.

He rips the chains of solitude from his flesh, the needles of hatred from his skin and dashes triumphantly towards any direction. At last, his sense of full loving is fulfilled. The experience may have tainted him, but overall has done him well.

He does not stand up for any nonsense, treads carefully retracing every step, forever watching his back cautiously. He has changed and now the tables have turned. He is the oppressor in a land of false judgement. They now experience and breath the same foul, twisted air that he once inhaled. Experiencing in full detail his hardships, troubles and pet-hates to full realisation.

They beg for his apology, but what is done will always be done. Now his past is their present and no power in the world can change that except him. But he is once again bitter, sour and merciless in his ever-burning lust for revenge. Sadness smothers him and strangles his insides. Isolated in a cold dark room, feeding on thoughts, drinking the blood of those who suffer under his own iron fist.

The blood reigns from the walls of his existence. He stammers, and breaks. He cannot take this any more, and forcefully kicks open the door. He has exploded and his excessive emotions are released onto the unsuspected victims, as they once victimised him. Like dominoes, they fall one by one. He feels unstoppable, and screams out his emotions, breaking his victims as they have done to him so many a time before.

He is crazy, wild eyed and without a care in the world. Past emotions, nothing but an empty, desolate shell remains. They cannot control him anymore, fear his presence, his existence. He knows he cannot struggle on in these conditions. He is not that sort of person. His emotions have transformed him, broken his existence into a mere shard of glass in an ocean of windows, all reflecting on his past suffering.

He faints, quivers, exposes himself to the elements and eventually joins hands again to the forgiveness of authority. He is deep in trouble, but is perfectly aware of the fact. He collapses under his own weight of mind, his head swollen and shuts the door on outer society.

Triumphant, dominant, although far from happiness, he seeks the very things that he has ignored for so long now. Where have the good times disappeared to? People who he once knew, respected, cared for turn away in disgust as he watches helplessly. Only he is to blame.

He tries to hide his weaknesses, although they are blatantly obvious even to the most unaware of folk. Behind his vision, lie haunted, tainted pupils of distant morals. Unexplained examples of sickness become more apparent. He hates himself now, sickened by his grief and anxiety. He shakes his head, in a brave attempt to eradicate the fever. He cannot.

He is the cause of his own failure. A failure which was by no means his fault, but the fault of others who had pushed him to unforgivable limits. If there ever was a sin to be committed, this was by far the worst.

He tries to regain qualities such as friendship, loyalty and trust, but drowns in a swamp of uncertainty. He has lost his identification, a false character in place of a kind, helpful gentleman. He cannot believe what he has just done. Cannot face the outside world ever again…

They are past understanding and refuse him once again, retreating on his appearance and whispering behind his back. Once again, he cares about them, and more importantly, what they think of him. His sense of freedom evaporates into thin air and for once, he turns back and welcomes his abusive past with open arms.

His tormentors, although far less wise and emotionally developed as him are what make him human, body and soul. He understands fully now, that, there is absolutely no point in any violence whatsoever and his vengeance has only worsened his condition.

He grits his teeth, but this time to bear a different pain. Thankfully, the worst has past, and he unlocks the door. Welcome faces and blurry visions fill his view, and he closes his eyes once more. He lets them take his friendship, his unification and mingle them with outer society.

His eyes open once again to perfect joy and happiness. He cries tears of solitude, for one second forgetting everything that has ever happened to him, before sighing and raising the object to his head. The end is nigh…

By Paddy Johnson

The Short Films Of David Lynch Review

The Short Films Of David Lynch Review

The basic and pointless animations of Six Figures Getting Sick, the creepy, alienating images of The Alphabet, the dark, depressing atmosphere of The Grandmother, the disturbing, sick filming of The Amputee, the quirky, nonsensical footage of The Cowboy and The Frenchman, and finally, the horrifying, nostalgic weirdness of Lumiere dominate this freaky collection of Lynch’s short projects.

Firstly, I will tell you that most of the short films displayed in this collection are black and white, miserable and lack any kind of meaning whatsoever. Vague connections to some kind of distant plot are recognisable in the 34 minute The Grandmother, and the 26 minute The Cowboy And The Frenchman.

The Grandmother involves a poorly treated, hideously abused young child as he searches for love and comfort until eventually finding a bag of seeds. He plants one of these seeds, which subsequently form a grandmother, who is caring and kind towards the boy. But, soon after this, fate intervenes and the grandmother dies, leaving the boy to mourn sadly over her death. The fact that there is hardly any colour in this except dark, depressing visuals only further enhances the gloomy atmosphere.

The Cowboy And The Frenchmen, perhaps the most normal and welcoming of the films, involves three cowboys on a ranch who come across a Frenchman. The Frenchman is scared of an Indian who has been tracking him for quite a while, but they soon become friends as a car (yes, a car) pulls up alongside the ranch and some women step out. That was basically the furthest I could ascertain before loosing the storyline entirely.

This aside, you can’t argue that the films are influential, and completely original. The animations are clever and well done (but extremely weird).

Overall, Lynch’s collection is quirky, abnormal and sometimes shockingly grim. At times slightly amusing (The Cowboy and The Frenchman), and at other times shocking and disturbing (The Amputee), this is nonetheless strangely enjoyable in places. A rather hit and miss affair.

I haven't posted anything for a while, but that's because nothing particularly interesting has happened recently (except a concert I've been to, see below). I usually watch a film a week, but have been rather busy these last few weeks, and just watched TV instead.

The concert was very entertaining, with a rather small orchestra led by an energetic, enthusiastic Russian conductor. I went with my mum and uncle, and as you have already guessed, this wasn't a rock concert, but instead a thoroughly memorising and equally as brilliant classical concert. The highlight of the show was a brief, but nether the less impressive solo by famous trumpeter Alison Balsom. To my amazement, she wandered onto stage without any music whatsoever and proceeded to play the piece from memory!

I also play trumpet and am currently working at grade four, but have still got some work to do before I'm as good as her!

Diploma Homework: Hitchcock Thrillers

Alfred Hitchcock Thrillers

·Alfred Hitchcock has become famous over the years primarily for his ingenious and psychological thrillers, which are full of suspense.
·He used sound recording as a crucial element in most of his films.
·1922- “Number 13” was Hitchcock’s first film as a director and remains unfinished.
·1927- “Downhill”, a silent, black and white film.Also“The Ring” features climatic boxing sequences.“The Mountain Eagle” was Hitchcock’s first silent movie thriller.“The Lodger: A Story Of The London Fog”, another silent film about a serial “Jack The Ripper” type killer and a man who is wrongly accused and forced to prove his innocence.
·1928-“ Easy Virtue”, a romantic thriller
·1929-“Blackmail”, a crime/thriller film.
·1930-“ Murder!” a mystery thriller.
·1931-“ Mary”, also a mystery thriller and “Rich and Strange”, a romantic comedy thriller was created.
·1932- “Number Seventeen”, a mystery crime thriller.
·1934-“ The Man Who Knew Too Much”, a mystery thriller, is considered to be one of Hitchcock’s greatest British films.
·1935- His next successful thriller was “The 39 Steps” and has been heralded by Total Film as the 21st greatest British movie of all time.
·1936- “Secret Agent”, a romantic mystery thriller and “Sabotage”, a mystery thriller were made.
·1937- “Young And Innocent” a crime thriller.
·1938-“ The Lady Vanishes” was the last Hitchcock movie to be made in the UK.
·1940-“Rebecca”, a mysterious romantic thriller, was Hitchcock’s first American project. “Foreign Correspondent”, also in 1940 was a mysterious romantic war thriller.
·1941- “Suspicion”, a romantic psychological thriller based on the 1932 novel “Before The Fact” was made.
·1942-“Saboteur”, a mystery war thriller.
·1943-“ Shadow Of A Doubt” was confessed by Hitchcock himself to be his favourite film he ever made in America.
·1944- Hitchcock’s war thriller “Lifeboat” received Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Original Motion Picture Story and Best Black and White Cinematography.
·1945- “Spellbound”, a psychological mystery thriller won an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring Of A Dramatic Or Comedy Picture.
·1946- “Notorious” involves three people whose lives become entangled during an espionage operation.
·1947- “The Paradine Case”, a crime thriller was made.
·1948- “Rope” was based on a 1929 play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton.
·1950- “Stage Fright”, a crime/drama thriller filmed in London.
·1951- “Strangers On A Trian” was based on a novel of the same name.
·1953- “I Confess”, a crime/film-noir/thriller.
·1954- “Rear Window”, a mystery thriller involving elements of crime and romance is created and rated 16th on IMDb’s (Internet Movie Database) top 250 films of all time. Also in the same year, “Dial M For Murder”, was based on a stage play of the same name.
·1955- “To Catch A Thief” won an Oscar and another 4 nominations. “The Trouble With Harry”, a comedic mystery thriller was released.
·1955-62- “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, a TV thriller series releases its first episodes.
·1956-“ The Man Who Knew Too Much”, a remake of Hitchcock’s own 1934 film was released.
·1958- “Vertigo”, an American psychological thriller, is now considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.
·1959- “North By Northwest” is a suspenseful thriller considered to be one of Hitchcock’s most stylish and best films ever made.
·1960- “Psycho”, a horror thriller, has spawned two sequels, a prequel and a remake and is considered a work of cinematic art, not to mention one of Hitchcock’s greatest films.
·1962- “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”, a TV thriller series begins.
·1963- “The Birds”, a classic romantic horror thriller is released.
·1964- “Marnie”, a mysterious romantic thriller is made.
·1966- “Torn Curtain”, a cold war thriller is released.
·1969-“Topaz”, a crime thriller is released.
·1972- “Frenzy” was the first Hitchcock film to receive an R rating in the USA.
·1976-“Family Plot” was the last film Hitchcock ever made.

Diploma Homework: Lynch Timeline (Photoshop)