The Time has Arrived...

Hello People of the Internet!

   Well...the time is here! Summer is officially over! This is officially the last post before I become a fully fledged University student this Saturday! I reiterate from last week's post...I AM TERRIFIED! I guess the fear comes down to the fact so much change is happening at once. Everything is changing! So, this is just an incredibly short update to say that though the next week may be slightly mental, thus difficult to post, I really plan to stick to posting if for no other reason it both relaxes me and helps me get some of my thoughts about specific films, straight and clear. Change and new environments can be incredibly daunting but if you find something that remains a constant, it can be a definite comfort and thus help you to relax and consequently embrace what is different. This blog will be one of the constants that will hopefully help me relax...even if some posts descend into simple 'blabbering' and just a 'stream of my own consciousness'. Hopefully, University will allow me to grow and improve as a person, thus this blog will grow and improve at the same time.

    One way I am already looking to improve myself, as a film student specifically, is to expand my limited and narrow taste in films. I have set myself a challenge to watch five films in one week, films that are cult favourites or/and critically acclaimed. I am a rather regimented person, sticking to schedules and goals. If you are like me, a person very much on the side of order, you will know. All I would need to say is one word...lists! Oh the humble list has so much power in its ability to calm the anxious mind! I have a list of this weeks five films and am currently working my way through them slowly but surely. The list includes:

1) The Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont 

2) Fight Club directed by David Fincher 

3) Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino 

4) The Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppola 

5) Se7en directed by David Fincher 

     And I must say the Shawshank Redemption and Fight Club are very good films and undoubtedly deserve the praise they often get! Also, it has reiterated a lesson to me about judging too early. Fight Club specifically, with its renowned narrative twist, was nothing like I thought it would be. The directing style along with decision to have a narrator was completely different to what I expected. Arguably, as a film viewer, I  very much have a preferred genre and niche! Ask me questions on Harry Potter trivia and I would probably talk all day, without taking a breath! Fantasy and big blockbuster films, specifically franchises adapted from novels, will always hold my interest and dominate my love for films. However, if nothing else I have learnt to both give older films a chance and to widen my viewing into more genres!

     From films, no matter how cliche the concept is, I really believe we can learn a lot. When you give films that you would not normally try a chance, and then end up enjoying such films, it teaches you to both relax and give other opportunities in life a chance. Reading back through this post I seriously see  no real plan to the writing or any objectives. It is not a review, though possibly it has loosely become a recommendation for those few, who like me, have not yet watched all these widely popular films. If I am to ask you to take anything from this post it is to bear with me. I am still young and trying to find a direction in my life and I think this blog has begun to reflect this, as it will continue to do so as I enter University. Consisting of film reviews and recommendations, interspersed with posts of vague comments on life I hope are at the very least uplifting, this blog is considerably eclectic. I ask that any readers stick with me and simply watch as many films as possible. I am a firm believer that films and television hardly 'rot our brains'. The ideologies or concepts encoded into media texts, with mediation by someone's personal morals and ideas, can teach us a lot. Films can open your eyes to opinions and experiences not thought of already, and all this from the comfort of our own homes.

     If you are a interested in films or simply someone that watches them now and again, or even someone interested more in literature, my main opinion is that variety is the way to go! Watch and read as many genres as possible! I am far from any kind of authority on the subject, just a random person lost in the sea of internet code and webpages. But if you have found your way to my little corner of the internet I hereby challenge you. I challenge you to find as much variety as possible, in the media texts you consume in daily life. By all means if you enjoy fantasy, continue to read and watch fantasy. But if that little voice in your head, that normally urges you away from a bleak looking cover of a political thriller novel, or from a historical dramatic film, pipes up...don't necessarily listen to it! Same with general life...never continue with something you are not enjoying just because you feel the urge or need to try something new, but on the flip side do not be too scared to try new things. I am going to try and listen to my own advice, it is going to be hard but there is no harm in letting go sometimes.

Thank you and until next time...keep on watching random stuff...go for all opportunities offered to you...and just keep smiling!

Note: Images are mine...I hope they put a smile on your face...they have no theme just randomly chosen because I thought they were uplifting!