Author: Steven

Writing on Film – Article 2 – Django Unchained

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My second article for my Writing on Film class at Edinburgh University was a review of the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. The review had to be roughly 250 words. The article is below:

Django Unchained Review
The main theme of Django Unchained is revenge and this is presented within the context of the slave trade in pre-civil war Mississippi. The deep American South is very much a back drop as two Bounty Hunters – Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr Schultz (Christoph Waltz), travel the outposts and slave plantations looking for outlaws. Django is not your average bounty hunter, he is a black man given freedom by Schultz and hired as an assistant.
Schultz is ruthless and prefers to take his victims dead, as opposed to alive, however he is very much a forward thinking liberal. Schultz has joined forces with Django to free the former slave’s wife from slave traders, whilst capturing a group of outlaws.
Taking its major influence from Spaghetti Westerns, Django Unchained presents the viewer with an atypical perspective on the slave trade. We see the story from the viewpoint of Django as he endeavours to find justice within a prejudice society. The intriguing elements of the movie occur when Django has the upper hand and finds himself with power and respect. This creates a effective method to present a fantastic take on a story of power and ignorance.  

Writing on Film – Article 1 – Buffalo 66

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I have been doing an evening class in Writing on Film at Edinburgh University. I have written many articles and reviewed several films. I am going to post the articles and essays on my blog. The first one is below along with a link to the course.

https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/F/film-media-and-contemporary-cultures/C1644/writing-on-film-introduction-to-film-journalism/

With this essay I had to review a scene from a film. The film I chose was Buffalo 66 (starring Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci) and I chose a scene about 1 hour in to the film involving a photo booth.

Buffalo 66
Directed By Vincent Gallo
Starring Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci
Scene – Photobooth
Duration – approximately 4 minutes.
The scene begins when we see Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) leading Layla (Christina Ricci) into a photo booth. Billy forcefully commands Layla into the booth, however she appears to be willing and excited at the prospect. The camera follows the pair, sweeping across the bowling alley, as they walk across the concourse. They could be an average boyfriend and girlfriend, however their relationship is not simple.
When we cut to inside the booth the viewpoint changes; we are looking from the point of view of the photo booth camera. This enforced viewpoint presents the couple as being concealed in a tight space. This could be seen as underlining the closeness that the characters feel towards one another but also highlighting the tension between them.
What makes this scene pivotal is that this is the first time we explicitly hear Layla express her fondness for Billy. She has been free to leave to him, but has stuck by his side. In previous scenes we have uncovered elements of Billy’s past and understand his anger and short temper, however Layla’s motivation remained a mystery. Despite being kidnapped by Billy she has stuck by a man who has insulted her and treated her with no respect. Layla however does not come over as a victim. We know she is in a busy bowling alley and could seek assistance if she was seriously othreatened by her kidnapper.
Layla teases Billy in the booth. She trusts him and does not fear his anger or rage, despite the fact the he is arrogant and dictates orders with patronising repetition in his language.
The mischievous nature of Layla is in contrast to Billy. He stares into the camera without smiling. He is not in the mood to play and purely sees the photo opportunity as an exercise to take an image for his parents and not as a romantic gesture towards Layla.
Despite this, the affection that Layla clearly has, foreshadows the conclusion of the Buffalo 66 and creates an intriguing scene.

Exhibition and Publication in New Comic Book – The Great Tree

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I will soon have a short 2 page exhibited and published in a magazine for Adventures in Comics.
www.adventuresincomics.org/aic3-the-great-tree.html

The theme was on ‘The Great Tree’ and my story can be viewed at the Adventures in Comics website and also below. I took inspiration from poetry and may add this to my poetry web comic.
The exhibition is in Margate at the Pie Factory – 5 Broad Street – CT9 1EU.
It runs from 21-24 February.

Writing for White Coffee Magazine

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I have recently started writing for a Movie and Fashion magazine called White Coffee. I am concentrating on Style Icon pieces, where I write about stylish actors and actresses and the movies they are in. I am also going to write a few classic movie reviews.

www.whitecoffeemagazine.com

So far I have published two Style Icon articles – Antonio Banderas in ‘The Skin I live In’ and Vincent Gallo in ‘Buffalo 66’.

www.whitecoffeemagazine.com/2013/style-icon-antonio-banderas-the-skin-i-live-in
www.whitecoffeemagazine.com/2013/style-icon-vincent-gallo-buffalo-66/ 

Webcomic – Preview Panel 10 –The Observer.

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In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the tenth Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic The Observer. Using a series of illustrations to present photographs and CCTV footage we have a voyeuristic story.

Webcomic – Preview Panel 9 –Buzzing.

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In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the Ninth Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic Buzzing. Combining traditional and digital media we have a webcomic that looks to present a personal story through multimedia.
 

Webcomic – Preview Panel 8 – Porcelain Breakfast.

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In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the Eighth Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic called Porcelain Breakfast. This comic makes use of markers pens and ink, to tell the story. The text of the poem has a somewhat narrative focus and this counterbalances the images to take an atypical approach to visual storytelling.

Webcomic – Preview Panel 7 – Approrpraiton-Part2.

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In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the Seventh Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic called Approrpraiton-Part2. This webcomic poem makes uses of appropriated visuals to convey the themes of the text.

Webcomic – Preview Panel 6 – Police Box Coffee Shop.

StevenLeave a comment
In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the Sixth Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic called Police Box Coffee Shop. Making use of bold character designs and abstract backgrounds, we have a poem comic that links panels together using different shapes and styles.

Webcomic – Preview Panel 5 – Need Nothing

StevenLeave a comment

In late 2013 or even early 2014 I plan to put out my webcomic. This is still untitled but I have completed 35 pages so far.
The comic is a series of poems told in the form of a comic. Making use of images and words to create poetry that focuses on visuals as opposed to just telling a story.
This is the Fifth Preview Panel from the series – a poem/comic called Need Nothing. This comic was created on my Ipad and composed together on my laptop using Photoshop. The text takes second place to the digital 8-bit visuals