Ok so there is only room in the academic calender for a MAXIMUM of 30 films

of this list what would you say should be there and what should go.

Is there a film that should be there but isn’t?

Get ten votes for what should and ten for what shouldn’t. 

10 Things I hate about

15 and Pregnant

4,3,2,1

8 Mile

A Guide to recognizing your saints

Across the Universe

Adulthood

Almost Famous

Amelie

American Graffiti

American Pie

American Teen

An Education

Attack the Block

Back to the Future

Badlands

Battle Royale

Bend it Like Beckham

Better of Dead

Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure

Billy Liar

Blackboard Jungle

Blair Witch Project

Boogie Nights

Boyz in the Hood

Breakfast Club

Brick

Bring it On

Bugsy Malone

Carrie

Casshern

Charlie Bartlett

Clockwork Orange,

Clueless

Corpse Bride

Cruel Intentions

Dazed and Confused

Dead Poets Society

Dirty Dancing

Donnie Daro

East is East

Easy A

Election

Elephant

Faculty

Fast Food Nation

Ferris Bueller Day Off

Film Death Match

Final Destination

Fish Tank

Footloose

Freedom Writers

From Dusk til Dawn

Ghost World

Gingersnaps

Girl Interrupted

Go

Goonies

Grease

Green Street

Gremlins

Hallam Foe

Hallowean

Hanna

Harold and Maude

Heathers

High School Musical

Hole

If

Igby Goes Down

Inside Im dancing

Juno

Karate Kid (Original)

Kes

Kick Ass

Kids

Kids are alright

Kidulthood

La Haine

Le Peril Jeune

Les Roseaux Savages

Let The Right One In

Lost Boys

Magdelene Sisters

Mallrats

Mean Girls

Mighty Ducks

Monster Squad

My Own Private Idaho

Mysterious Skin

Mystic Pizza

Napolean Dynamite

Outsiders

Persepolis

Pleasentville

Precious

Pretty in Pink

Pump Up The Volume

Rebel without a Cause

Repo Man

Requiem for a Dream

Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Rivers Edge

Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrman)

Rumble fish

Saved

Say Anything

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Scream

Scum

Serenity

Slumdog Millionaire

Social Network

Some Kind of Wonderful

Somers Town

Sounds like Teen Spirit

Spiderman

Spirited Away

Splendor in the Grass

St Elmos Fire

Stand By Me

Star Wars

Submarine

Summer of Sam

Superbad

Sweet Sixteen

Switchblade Romance

Taking Liberties

Teenwolf

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original)

The Wave

This is England

To Die For

True Grit

War Games

Weird Science

Whale Rider

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Wild One

Wild Things

I seem to have collected many blogs to infrequently post to…

in the mean time here is the logo to a project that you might see this year. i said might.

Such is my inability to maintain a blog that this actually happened last week.

And it will refer to things that happened at the end of last year.

When I was a lad I wanted to be a writer, as a gift my mum once had letterhead paper made up with the the word writer on it, which must have made it official.

I went to Uni, I ‘specialised’ in scriptwriting. and so like so many people before during and after i came out not writing.

After Uni I’d occasionally write but more often then not I’d script edit and what could loosely be called Produce. I made a few shorts, some things which are even considered as all right. And I let a few people down.

Working with Kev brought me the most success, in terms of enjoyment, quality of work and mainstream breakthrough. Which is to say we didnt break through, but it’s the nearest I’ve come as a writer.

A couple of years ago I became a college Lecturer, and I enjoyed it, and occasionally I was good at it.

This year I realised I loved it, and that maybe I could be really good at it. Even maybe make a difference to somebody somewhere.

If I took it seriously, took myself seriously at it.

Normally when I worked with Kev he would write something and in my capacity as Script Editor I’d help him develop it, occasionally it would develop into a co-writer-ship

Last year bouncing off an idea by Kev and going in completely the wrong direction I wrote something. Kev really liked it. a 6 part web series. and it was decided we would make it.

We had discussed making things before, even come close a couple of times, but ironically the thing we would make would be something I wrote and Kev would direct. People seem to come on board. With the incredible supprt and work of Tam Bleasdale it actually happened. it got filmed and is in post production,

So why do I hate Kevin Proctor?

Because this year for various reasons I decided I would focus on teaching and that the writing would be something I did occasionally, maybe.

I met with Kev for coffee ready to tell him. Then the bastard did two things;

1) Pitched me an idea.

2) Showed me the rough cut for our show.

And as focused am I am, and will be on teaching, I know I have to write. Eventually it might be something great, I might blog about it.

You might even see it.

I do hate you Kevin Proctor. With all my heart this valentines day.

The great thing about being a writer who doesn’t write, is that it is incredibly difficult to be told you are a writer who can’t write.

as Ze Frank warned I have become addicted to brain crack.

I’m not far off from becoming this guy….

Continuing on from yesterday, part of the situation of working in media is that it is a collaborative industry and so you don’t always have to worry about your own balancing act.

sometimes it’s others that can bring things to a crashing halt. Not through any real fault of their own, other then their life got in the way. There was an imbalance. This has happened to several projects I have been involved with in the past few years. sometimes its me, sometimes its not, but most times the project comes to a crashing halt.

Occasionally, if lucky, we are able to dust ourselves and it down and pick it up again/ start again. sometimes even with what feels like a great idea we are not.

Im going through that a bit at the moment and wanted to talk about one particular example. Whilst developing an idea on Youth Activism, with a student of mine, Olie Martin, we had the opportunity to film and later interview a Student Union representative from Belgium on the subject of Student Prostitution. In the following months Olie and I would discuss that topic and what we could do about it. the more we researched it the more we wanted others to know about it.

Olie isn’t a ‘typical student’ in many regards, what ever that actually means. Acutely politically aware, with a strong belief in socialism and a desire to achieve his best it was interesting to approach a project not  as lecturer/ student but as equals.

To discuss the merits and our joint desire to bring light to this issue.

However

This has to be done whilst we both find our balance. And so with us both being in college we agreed to meet Thursdays to  discuss things. Even if we hadn’t achieved anything. The right decision was to meet anyway, so that it stays part of our conversation, even micro achievements better then not meeting at all. Because it is very easy for one week to become two and then a month and then you cant remember when you last met to discuss the project.

Media is a collaborative medium and sometimes the collaboration is just staying the course.

Previously I talked about Balance, based on a blog by Tim Clague. Its something i think about a lot.

Finding the right balance between working, writing producing, blogging and living.

Im constantly thinking about my life and what the next step is, from a financial point of view.  Do I want more independence, do I want to be debt free or do I want to create. And in real terms i can at this stage only have one of those things.

And depending on what time of day it is I pick a different thing. I’m very lucky, that I get to make this choice, but I can’t make it. I try and i fail and i get it wrong.

So ive benn talking, well i say talking quizzing, friends about their balance seeking some clarity on the subject. Showing how unbalanced I am, some of them i havent got back to due to work. I hope to share things I have learnt from them with you and eventually make a decision i can standby.

And find my own balance. and not fall off.