Just a week, well just a few days really.

Ever have days when you think that you work on are just totally out of sync with the way they are meant to be? I have and I do. Today I recorded several hours of podcasts. The first was fine as I wasnt on it, I was merely recording it and will edit it later. Later that day I guest hosted on another show and it started off fine but then just trailed off into non enjoyment (for me(, that age old problem of too many cooks and your broth ends up with no unique taste.  After that I recorded another show but by that time I wasnt in the mood due to  few issues going on behind the scenes. So all in all today has been a busy day podcasting but not a day when I enjoyed podcasting.  Over the weekend I shall be thinking long and hard about certain things, sending  out a few emails, tweets etc.and just getting my FromPage2Screen Network back on track, where it should be and not at the mercy of others or at the mercy of me allowing distractions that shouldnt be there.

Thats a hard thing for anyone who is or wants to be creative, time management, enthusiasm management, and making sure that plans are stuck to and more importantly that plans are drawn out and worked on in the proper manner, Thats where I fell over this week. Neglecting my own wishes.

 

Days without the internet.

This week I had a new internet/tv/phone set up installed. Sounds good doesnt it. Well yes it is but before that the old one was ‘turned off’.

Four days I went without internet access. Which in the grand scheme of life isnt a real hardship is it? But its put me a fair bit behind with various projects that I needed to work on. Simon Hansons Movie Roundtable was due on Sunday but that has been rescheduled to another time (not sure when yet), Melissa Craig’s Spotlight Episode, and also a catch up chat with Charity Parkerson and Melissa Craig was also due on Tuesday but that didnt happen (my internet only went back on Tuesday evening)

But of course the biggest cause of delays and its one that I welcome is that I am working again. Its been a very long six weeks with no work, lots of financial juggling and waiting by the phone for the call that I recieved last week.

Apologies for any issues that this lack of internet has caused. But Im back now and will do my best to get all caught up in the next few days.

p.s. Im watching a film called Warrior.. Very good so far.

FromPage2Screens London Locations : The Italian Job

Its that time again, time for another photo taken on a little trip we made to London in January 2012 to capture some famous locations from movies. We didnt take one of those paid movie tours that show you all the things you arent really that bothered about, no we sought out the locations ourselves (which wasnt easy I can tell you) This one in fact we walked past twice on the way to another location. Hidden down a small alley way we found the flat that Charlie Croker (played by Michael Caine in the 1969 film The Italian Job) lived in. Theres a wonderful scene in the film where his girlfriend comes home to find Charlie entertaining another woman, his girlfriend throws a pile of clothes over the balcony, and its that balcony that you can see in the below photograph.

Strangely enough someone had also parked their Mini outside so that just had to make it into the shot didnt it.

FromPage2Screens London Location Tour :Goldeneye

This location was a rather cool one but saw the first of the ‘glitches’ in the trip around London, visiting film locations. You might not recognize the outside of this Church and sadly the Church is a building thats in use and was occupied at the time of this photo.

Its a Greek Orthodox Church and after peering through some windows, there were school sessions of some kind going on and the doors were locked, which was a huge shame.

An exterior photo was all I could get, but thats enough about the downside, lets talk about the coolness of this building.

It was behind those walls that Natalya Simonova (played by Izabella Scorupco) meets with Boris (played by Alan Cummings) in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.  Its a pretty impressive scene and I really would love to have gotten inside the building but even I am against breaking into churches for a photo.

 

I suppose I should do more daily updates.

I started off my creative life as a writer (I say writer, I dont say SUCCESSFUL writer).

Screenplays I think it was, ah many moons ago I used to think I could write movies and you know something, I could. I just couldnt tell the things. Well actually I never really tried to sell them.

Then I progressed to writing my autobiography from year 0 to year 37. Completed.

Then blogs and so on and so on. My latest ventures are of course of the podcasting variety and I would never quite announce that I am a success as that or not, I dont gauge success by download numbers or by comments or feedback. I gauge my success by the fact that I am still doing it after a year with no sign of ending or becoming fed up of it.

Today has been a weird day, in fact these past couple of days have been strangely wonderful.

Let me update you. The best film ive seen so far this year is called The Woman.  Yesterday I received a reply Tweet from the main star of the film. Was a great start to the day. Today I hear that a film maker ‘friend’ of mine actually mentioned FromPage2Screen on an actual DVD thats been released (yes of course I so have to get my hands on the DVD) and that a friend of his is an author and would like to come on the show and chat with us.

Its insane to think that on one hand I have no job and no income and life generally sucks, but in the alternate podcasting world, People involved in film making and writing actually take their time to think about me and chat about me. It blows my mind each and every time.

Tonight I am going to watch a few TV shows and perhaps a movie or two and monitor Twitter like it was my shadow. Sometimes it actually is my shadow.

 

Dreams. Hmm Why can I do that?

I had a dream last night where I was trying to catch up with someone, They had set off about ten minutes before me and I needed to catch up, but couldnt. Why? Because it turns out that I cant run or even walk fast in my dreams. Not sure why but I have thought back to other dreams I have and sure enough. Nope I indeed cant move fast in a dream. Very bizarre.

Its as if there is a weight pushing be back and keeping me from moving forwrd at the rate I needed to go. Freaked me out as part of me wondered if it was in fact that I couldnt run in real lfie. Thankfully I can run in real life as I just did on my way to and from the shops. Which isnt good seeing as I am hammered with man flu but hey. I needed to know if I could move fast.

Do you know anything you cant do in your dreams? Or is it just me thats a freak! 

My thoughts on Drive (2011)

I first saw this film a few weeks ago and whilst I liked it, I didnt think it was the best film of the year as some folks have claimed. I felt it looked like something that was hatched in the 1980s but then I very quickly realised that this was a good thing. Drive is a 21st century film that has connections with films like The Driver and Vanishing Point, both pretty impressive ‘old’ films. Have you seen Drive? What did you think?

I am sitting here watching the film again and find myself really enjoying it in a ‘sit down, switch brain off’ sort of way and I think its important that we have films like that. Whilst I really did enjoy The Ides of March, I know that I couldnt sit down and watch semi heavy films like that all the time. I need a film thats just filled with car engines roars, tires screeching and flashy camera angles.

For that who havent seen Drive. Ive placed the trailer here for you in this blog and also the film has just been released on DVD and Blu Ray. Im still not sure on Ryan Gosling though, He was in The Ides of March and also in Drive, my thing with Drive is that most of the characters seem to attach a couple of seconds of silence before each line of dialogue. Its a very moody broody film but hey it kinda works. Will Ryan Gosling win any awards any time soon . Not a chance. Hes too early in his career for now but who knows what the future brings.

FromPage2Screens London Trip Location 2: The DaVinci Code

This one I really enjoyed. Not sure why because to someone in the UK, Trainspotting is more of a classic film than 2006s The DaVinci Code But anyways no more than 10 minutes walk from the previous location (Royal Eagle Hotel – Transpotting) was a private house. This was used as an interior and exterior shot but of course with it being a private dwelling we only managed to get the outside shots done. Still very cool though.

In the movie the albino monk Silas (played by Paul Bettany) hides out here at this ‘safe house’ Its at this house he accidently shoots Bishop Manuel Aringarosa when the police attempt to storm the house, the Bishop kinda of gets in the way and takes a bullet.

There are some cool shots of the house in the film and I instantly recognised it.

So for those who like photos, here is

Location Number 2. From The DaVinci Code starring Tom Hanks.

FromPage2Screens London Trip: Location 1: Trainspotting

1996 saw a semi follow up to a cool Brit film called Shallow Grave. Now when I say follow up it was written and directed by the same ‘crew’ and starred Ewan McGregor. American folks might not even have heard of Shallow Grave but anyone who loved 90s films and lived in the UK at the time, well they most certainly should remember Shallow Grave. Anyways, enough about Shallow Grave. its a great film if you havent seen it go seek it out.

So. Trainspotting. Most of it was filmed in Glasgow and parts in Edinburgh but some of the scenes were filmed in London. In the film the main characters head off to London to partake in a shady drug deal. They enter a hotel and hope that everything goes well with their bag of ‘skag’ The scene in the film is where ‘the four’ walk out of an archway, across a road and into the front door of a hotel. This was the location scene that I found and the first one on our list.

Strangely enough it was only about 5 minutes walk from the hotel that we chose to stay in for the four days.

So first up on the location tour is the Royal Eagle Hotel, London and heres the photo of me at the scene to prove that I was there.

FromPage2Screens London Trip. Forethoughts

It seems an age since I have been away. And I certainly needed to get out into the world and do something. So I did and we did. Annette & I took a four day trip (3 days 4 nights) to the countries capital. The small town (yeah right) of London.

But what to you do in a city thats interesting? I dont drink, didnt have a chunk of money to spend and of course needed to do something film related. So I came up with the first FromPage2Screen tour of film locations.

I spent many hours online and browsing through the DVDs that I have to (hopefully) come up with a decent list of films that were shot in London and then track down those locations once we got there.

All in all I came up with 32 film locations and of those how many did we actually get to see once we arrived?

13 I think was the count and over the next few days, I shall be posting a blog about them as well as the photos taken at the actual location. I was going to upload a video clip of the film scene but that appears to be gobbling up too much bandwith that I just dont have. So for now, I shall try and write a reasonable description of the clip so that you can see it yourself if you so wish (you probably dont)

First off though, why did I do a trip like this? Well of course its my love of film and movies that caused the trip. But also because I like to do different sort of trips.  I get a real kick out of the fact that films I have seen so many times now mean that much more to me because I have stood in the place where part of it was filmed. Now that might not mean much to some people, but it means a lot to me.

The trip itself cost £42 for 2 round trip bus tickets (taking about 5 hours each way on the coach) as opposed to £160 for 2 roundtrip tickets by train which takes about 3 hours.

The hotel which was in an area called Bayswater cost us £177 for 4 days and included breakfast for us both. I was pretty impressed with the cost of it. and thankfully only ONE location cost us money to get in, £10 per ticket as it was a museum. Worth it though.

London. Nice place to visit but I certainly wouldnt want to live there. Thats a  phrase I have heard a lot over the years and its true. I find the people very different from ‘us folk up here’ Now I am not saying that ALL people are the same, but I do struggle with the differences and closed off personas of a lot of the people we met, but hey I dare say that people from wherever else find us Northern England folk a bit wierd now and again.

tomato tomato (hmm that doesnt quite work when typing it does it)

So until the next blog. See Ya!!!!!