Michael L Worrall: What does the "L" (Or he) mean?

If you value your life, it is advisable not to become a favourite character of mine on a TV show.

2010-04-16T03:50:00.001-07:00

Pictured above are 1) John Glover as Lionel Luthor (Smallville), 2) Melissa George as Lauren Reed (Alias), 3) Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Price (Buffy/Angel)

These pictures serve 2 purposes: firstly, they contribute to the main discussion of this blog entry, the fact that my favourite characters in TV seriesi that I watch tend to be killed. Its also to show that I have finally learnt how to use the picture uploading function.

Its interesting to look at the reasons behind the deaths of characters on a show. On the outside it can appear that it is merely to push the story forward and to give the audience an emotional reaction (Maybe sorrow at a death of a likeable character, or glee at the defeat of a particularly detestable one). Yet the workings of the writers and producers in planning an adapting a show may choose to do so ulterior reasons.

With Lional Luthor, the main purpose of his death, at the hands of his son, was to show that the character of Lex Luthor had finally, truly become evil. Yet I feel that some background reasons may be due to responses from reviewers who felt that the character was stealing screen time from the other, more main, characters and felt that his character had run its course by the end of the 4th Season at most (The character died in Season 7).

Next, with the character of Lauren Reed, the reveal that she was in fact a double agent and her eventual death at the hands of the husband she had betrayed were apparently planned from the beginning. Yet there was apparently a great deal of fans who were angry at Lauren and Vaughn's (The male lead of show) relationship as it seperated Vaughn from Sydney (The show's female lead, played by Jennifer Garner) and their incredibly predictable love life. So I feel that there could have been some caving in to fans, which is annoying, because I liked the way that the new couple had a dynamic and I liked it even more when there was the reveal of her betrayel. But I feel that killing her was just too far (Although it certainly managed to arouse an emotional response from me and Emily, so it was effective). And she was shot about gazillion times, before finally falling down a hole in the dessert. Or maybe I just am over-reacting because I thought she was hot and liked her accent.

Finally, we come to Wesley Wyndham-Price. A role model of mine of sorts. He started off as a very incompetant, clumsy, thinks-he's-clever, snobby British guy, and slowly became more competent, less clumsy and quite heroic, with shades of darkness. I think I prefer him in his more clumsy form, and I definately prefer him when he's wearing his classes. I would like to have some glasses and brown jackets to be able to pull off his look (Which I probably couldn't do effectively). His death, killed in the last ever episode of Angel, was a very emotional moment, and was definately done for symbolic reasons, as the creator, Joss Whedon, felt that, if his show was to be axed then so must hsi favourite character be. So I feel that this death is particularly effective in making the always emotional moment of watchign a final ever episode become even sadder.

Now, 2 quick points to make:

1) Hooray, Doctor Who is back. Matt Smith is probably my favourite Doctor, Amy Pond is good, fantastic new theme tune and exciting new Doctor's theme (The very epic, choral, adventure peice). Plus, I like the new Daleks, so stop slagging them off.

2) An upcoming new TV series, produced by ABC, which I think looks promising (And contains "Angel" 's Amy Acker - aka Fred) and begins sometime this month is "Happy Town". It is a sort of murder/mystery show, like "Twin Peaks" but less magic. Watch the first 15 minutes on the website:

http://abc.go.com/shows/happy-town

Sherlock Holmes, Prague and Illness, Nottingham, Return to School, and Alias Series 2 and 3.

2010-02-26T11:01:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates for quite a long time. A great deal of stuff has happened (not really a great deal of stuff that will actually impact upon you or your life/death/intermitent-coma-if-ever-you-enter-one or indeed upon the grand schemes of existance in general, unless ofcourse if I have done something small that actually had a pivitol effect upon the flow of the universe) and I haven't really considered that I could do them all justice in one huge blog post, as there would be so much to describe. Instead, I have opted to give a quick account, that will probably end up long anway, of events that have happened recently in my life. In sort of chronological order.

So, I saw the Sherlock Holmes film. Now one of my most favourite of films, with Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of the lead character becoming one of my most recent role-models, though, as one of my sisters pointed out to me, I am not nearly swift enough or observant enough, but then again, most of my role-models are very unlike me. I am not a scientific genius, a vampire, an FBI agent, possessed of supernatural powers, a member of a mysterious organization, able to manipulate people, a rich and powerful business man or one of the many other qualities possessed by those fictional characters I wish to copy. Although I can definately say I have more in common with Benjamin Linus, Walter Bishop and Rupert Giles than I do with other role-models such as Olivia Dunham or Drusilla. See if you can spot the reason.

I was later that week on a school trip to Prague. As with all school trips it was fun and very amusing. However, on the first full day in Prague, I was sick thrice on our tour and consented to return to the hotel. Interestingly, as noted by David and Sammy, I was sick around religious monuments, thus contributing to their theory of my identity as the Antichrist. During my feverish afternoon in the hotel room alone, I had 3 mysterious foreign phonecalls and listened in to conversations outside about a missing girl named Harriet. When David and Sammy came back temporarily before going into town I was apparently muttering and acting more peculiar than usual. Most curious. Later that night were some of strangest series of events involving lots of drunken Portugese girls attempting to enter our rooms. Whilst in Prague we also visited the Terezin concentration camp and saw some most disturbing drawings down by Jewish children that represented their imprisonment. The village of Lidice, which was raised to the ground by the Nazis, was equally harrowing. The next day we had a tour of another place outside of Prague (The name of which escapes me) and were ambushed by snowball wielding kids. We stood our ground, fought and won. Later in that village I had a particularly fantastic WHITE CHOCOLATE hot chocolate. That taste won't soon be forgotten.

Back home, me and some of my family went to see Sherlock Holmes again. My mum picked up on some elaborate camera movements, though I was more interested in some of the smaller, more subtle motions the camera did a key points during dialogue. Something I feel I need to replicate.

Me and Emily finished watching series 2 of Alias, which ended, in typical J J Abrams style, with a huge cliff-hanger, which was also, as with many J J Abrams cliffhangers, a huge game changer. The main character wakes up in China and discovers that she has lost her memory of the last 3 years of her life. Emily insisted that we start the next series the next day. Series 3 is, I believe, a much better improvement than it's predecessors, helped greatly by a new character, Lauren Read (British and very attractive, and so obviously will turn out to be evil) played enticingly by actress Melissa George (I have no idea if she is a well known actress or not, you people are better placed to make such decisions). And Jack Bristow had a beard temporaily, which was most amusing.

Oh, just realised I missed out some stuff I put in the title, so quickly I shall cover them now. I looked round Nottingham Univeristy. The coruse seems good, the film societies seem fantastic and have great opportunities with their industry links, and the hall of residence I saw had a piano inside.

Am back at school now, Debate Club was exciting as always, about EMA. I went to see the Crucible with my grandparents. I might write an article about that soon, but then again, I might not.

This Friday, I have an interview at Warwick...

Row, row, row the boat, gently down the stream...

2010-02-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

...end the title as you will, though be mindful of the theme.

As the title of today's blogpost shows, I have an interest in nursery rhymes. And it is nothing to do with a sense of nostalgia or wanting to relive my childhood (Something I would detest). It is because of the inherent sisterness of them, particularly when utilized effectively in the horror or fantasy genre, and I could also imagine them working quite well in a murder mystery. They always seem to possess underlying sinister undertones, sometimes with deep messages, "...Life is but a dream." Quite a sinister message to tell to anyway, if interpreted in a certain way, terrifying to a child. To learn that nothing in life is actually real. Could force a Nihilist perspective of life upon a person, making them do what they want without the constraints of a person holding this world to be real. Though, talking of dreams vs reality (Two states of which the events in each I am constantly confusing), I have discovered that my powers in dreams have become more contained. Many years ago, I stopped being able to fly in dreams. I am sure there is something psychological to be said in that.

But, back on the subject of nursery rhymes, they also seem to possess an iconic power and, narratively, can somehow provide clues as to potential outcoems to events. They and their lilting tones are also common links with madness. And so, all these factors contributed to me attempting to write a complete nursery rhyme for use in The Nowhere Road, sung by a slightly odd child and with hints as to one of the ongoing plotlines. It deals with the seeming innocent subject of a mouse. It also happens to reference Dreaming. And it is also not the most fantastic nursery rhyme ever, but that isn't really the point of the novel.

It snowed slightly today and, tonight, as I got of the train after a trip with Sammy to Bournemouth, I looked at the snow floating down through the dark, twisted winter trees in the background and rusty station buildings sat all lonely and useless, and I felt that this would be the perfect setting for inspiration for a snowy nursery rhyme. It would probably seem innocent, what with snow being considered fun and all, but actually would deal with the themes of loneliness and death through the cold, and mayber also the bewitching nature of beauty.

On more real life issues, David has set out the dates for the next Philosophers Stoned filming sessiosn and so everything looks set to get going again soon. Perhaps, nearer to the eventual release date, I shall post some analytical peices on the motifs and sounds throughout the musical. But, until next time, remember:

Run and Catch. Run and Catch.

The Lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.

- Drusilla (From an episode of Angel)

Writing on the Fringe of night time

2010-02-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight I have revisisted 2 of my most enjoyed, although only recently developed, hobbies, which I haven't been doing of late due to exams and staying with my grandparents for the past week (Which was, by the way, fantastic, tiring - even though I didn't do much at all - and yet very relaxing). The 2nd of these re-emergences was triggered by the first and is currently being enacted by me as I write: that of, not merely writing my blog, but writing it "Late" at night (Late for me anyway, it is almost midnight as I write this), when one's thoughts are dulled yet oddly spread, the edges of the eyes are stinging softly, and everywhere around is a deathly silence, punctuated by the continuous humm of a computer processing all that knowledge and labour that a computer has to deal with, and also interupted by the occassional tapping of keys on a keyboard. I find it good to type when I am in such a tired state as, although the spell-checking and literary composing functions of my brain aren't as perceptive as they would try to be during a more wakeful mode, I find I am able to entype words of the type more internal to my internal being. As in, I am so tired that I am not very much able to censor my self. So sometimes I end up looking back on what I write, then in a wakeful mind, and consider what I have written to be wrong, although in the end it is probably more true than other such comparable actions. Still, I find it good to blog late night style, particularly when I am tired and yet just don't want to sleep, because that wanting to stay awake whilst I try and go to sleep will cause conflicts in the mind, which means even more conflict between thoughts, which is not helpful as, when it is dark and I am trying to sleep, darker thoughts and imaginative thoughts will conflcit and also combine (The latter being the worse) which cause my mind to be active and stop me from getting rest, but also makes me think of things I'd rather not think. However, sometimes this thoughts can help me with some complex idea or plan, or contribute to my views of people and my place retrospective to them.

The 1st of the returned hobbies is the watching of new episodes of J J Abrams "Fringe" over the internet at night. Due to exams and also due to the watching of Buffy and Angel - and also slightly due to a loss of momentum in some of the more recent episodes - I had fallen behind in the watching of what is probably my favourite and most influential series. But tonight, after deciding I was no longer in the mood for composing music anymore that night, I screwed up the bother to watch 1 of the 3 episodes I had to catch up with. This was a very good episode, more enticing than those I had been experiencing recently and with good character exploration and some interesting sci-fi ideas. My only real complaint is that I would like for the episodes to feel more "Scary", as not many sci-fi episodes seem able to scare me, except for those series made in the 90s, such as The X-files and a select few episodes of Buffy. Anyway, there was some great imagery and some fantastic music, and Olivia Dunham was as cool and sexy as ever (And the best dressed of the regulars in my opinion, but she is FBI and they do get to wear the style of business suit with black overcoat on most occassions, a look I feel compliments her well) with Walter Bishop being as brilliantly wierd and inappropriate as ever. So I then decided to watch another episode. This next episode was one of the best this season in some ways, due to its exploration of Walter Bishop's background (And the relationship with his father) and its connection to the show's overarching themes. It dealt with a rather heavy subject matter, that of the Nazis and their exploration of advanced and unusual fields of science to use in acheiving their insidious goals. And the villian was very well characterized and had the sterotypical glasses of an evil german person.

So after watching these 2 consecutive episodes, I felt I had not enough time to watch another one and thought I would instead proceed to write in this blog. However this article seems to be taking as long to write as an episode normally would take to watch. But watching a show that deals with science and its impacts upon our realities and the future history of many people's existances, it makes me feel that the type of thing I am doing and intend to do will not have any relevent impact upon the world. I mean, even if I publish a book or a whole series of books or manage to achieve something as fantastic as writing for a TV series, I would still not be achieving anything as potential time-marking as a revalotionary science discovery or a truly original (And I mean TRULY original) philosophical idea. Yet I know my strengths, and science is not one of them. And though I can think some quite unusual ideas, I am not sure that any of my philosophical theories would be sound enough or acceptable enough to gain and audience or drastically radicalize the way people think.

Yet I feel that I will achieve something, via my music and stories and videos and being, that will have some impact on the world. Maybe it won't be a radical change, it probably won't. Maybe it will only effect or be known to a few people. I sometimes worry that I won't be able to make it where I want to go in life, but then I always somehow find the will to be so overconfident and beleive that I will, even if all the odds and the logical assumptions of family members suggest otherwise.

Now you may find reading of that to have been pointless, but I say to you people "Its your fault, because nobody watches Fringe apart from me!" And yet, The Society of Liars Theorum would suggest that you all do watch Fringe and just say you don't. And for more on that, you will have to wait for The Insanitorium. I think there is a reason that I gave my text that title. Because the tower is merely inside an even bigger tower, but why is it logical to assume that, just because that is so, another tower has to be without the outer one. Because something different might be outside that isn't describable in terms of any comprehense.

"Oh look," said part of Michael's Mind, well actually he is saying that that part of his mind is saying this due to certain happenings when, in fact, it isn't he had always intended to end this entry this way since halfway through writing it, "It is now 00:35. I feel it would be wise to go to sleep now"
"Yes, but first, lets go to the toilet." Said another part of his mind, thinking logically and noticing that it was infact 00:36.
So he published this post at 00:37 and then went to urinate and sleep.

A haircut, and other tales

2010-02-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

So today I got a haircut.

It is strange, I find,

the way in which the simplest request,

"A little shorter, a little neater",

always seems to become,

complex,

a chance for them, the "Stylists",

to take control,

with a vision of their own.

And what is it with the way that,

when I always tell them that,

I'd prefer for the hair to be more,

on the sides,

they like to load it up on top,

with disperate beads of water, somehow,

holding this peculiar shape.

Then I leave,

tell them, in some words,

not exactly the same as those printed here,

that they've done an excellent job,

though soon I find myself shaking,

my head, to shake the shape,

and once I find a mirror,

comb everything over,

making things,

better.

I have no idea why I just recounted the tale of todays trip to get a hair cut in the form of a poorly written, poorly structure, and not at all poetic poem. However, the urge suddenly came upon me, and I feel it effectively conveys my feelings about having a haircut.

Anyway, I have been less active in the world of Facebook and Blogging and Twitter, due to my residing with my grandparents whilst the rest of my family are away skiing in Austria. You may find it strange that I choose not to accompany my parents and siblings to the icy fun, but I do not enjoy the stress of waking up exceeding early to endure a day of exhaustin fun, then having to attempt to sleep at an incredibly late time at night. That I do not find much of a holiday.

Instead, here at my grandparents house, it is much more of a holiday. I don't have to do my morning paper round, as I am no where near within the vicinity of the houses that are delivered to do. As such, I am able to sleep slightly longer in the morning. Another bonus is that, without all my technology for music and film editting, and without free reign of my TV and computer, I am able to spend my time on other hobbies. I managed to actually finish reading a book for once, "The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of Three" by Stephen King, an intriguing series, which I am attempting to read all 7 books of, not merely because I find them intersting, but because they have apparently been a great influence on the creaters of LOST, a bunch of people I highly idolize. Also, I have managed to actually WRITE a few pages of a book I started work on back in September.

I will also point out that I have seen AVATAR again, but this time in 3D. I am of the opinion that it is much better in 2D, as the 3D is slightly blurry and just distracting. And again, it is visually a very engrossing film and it does deal with some interesting themes, but it is poorly written and much a conglomeration of every other sci-fi film previously.

Well, I may not post until next week. But when I do, you can be sure that I won't be describing the events in poem form. But maybe I shall relay it all in the form of a play...

Note: The paragraphing doesn't seem to working properly, might affect the poem reading.

Did I compsoe with worthy bass sounds until last night?

2010-01-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

So yes, as you probably couldn't tell from my vague and cryptic blog post title that attempts to homage Shakespeare but just fails, today's brief entry will deal with my joy at my newly purchased Virtual Instrument: the Spectrasonics Trilian. For avid followers who can actually be bothered to read all of my very long and pictureless blog articles, you will know that I have been waiting for this for a long time and that it is in fact made by the same company that made the virtual instrument that forms the backbone of all my compositions, the Omnisphere.

Now a few of you may not know what a "Virtual Instrument" is. Well, to phrase it simply, it is a collection of samples of sounds or instructions for the creation of synthetic sounds, sometimes pertaining to a certain instrument or set of instruments or style of music or other such category. Sometimes, particularly with products by Spectrasonics, the sounds that are sampled of actual instruments and which attempt to mimic them can be indistinguishable from the actual thing. This is a VERY BRIEF description of course, and some proper music technician could probably describe it to you better.

Now, as for the Trilian itself, the instruments deals solely with "Bass" instruments, split into 3 main categories: Acoustic, Electric and Synth. Now, firstly, I must praise the extreme realism of the Acosutic and Electric Bass sounds, which give the impression, when played, that they are being played humanly on an actual bass instrument, instead of sounding like they are being played by MIDI commands from Cubase using virtual samples of the real thing. It gives the bass in the music a much deeper and realsitic feel. When I had programmed in some music on Cubase using ALL THREE of my virtual instruments (Omnisphere, Kore 2 and Trilian) I was mightily impressed and felt that my music sounded much more complete. I can not imagine composing songs that require bass by using the low register of sampled guitars, as I had been doing. Finally, as I don't want to do too long a review, I would like to praise the fantastic and really cool Synth Bass sounds. They prove especially useful for my soundtrack composing, because they are so deep, easily editted and modulated and just so exciting to listen to.

Well, I hope you all found this interesting. If not, then for those of you who care more about my TV watching habits, I shall tell you that I am currently enjoying HOUSE Season 5, and watched an episode recently that had some very inspiring cinematography.

This Time: On Michael L Worrall

2010-01-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today has been a fantastic day, atleast in my opinion. It spawns from a great culmination of events that encompasses a few events over this past month and how they have all come to a glorious thing-a-ma-jig today. For, as I said a few posts ago, I am now free from Maths lessons forever. Now I also have my English Literature exam out the way, as of yesterday, which I feel quite confident about and even enjoyed (But thats because I always seem to get a strange high once I have begun a furious written exam under the pressure of a clock). So, with exams out the way until May, and with only the corusework left (Hopefully) in English Lit, life feels much more relaxed. And so, as I left to go to school this morning, I noticed a letter on the floor addressed to me. I opened it and was thrilled (I do not use this word lightly) to discover that I had been given an interview at The University of Warwick. It really set in motion the fantasticality that was to fill the rest of the day. For I had been feeling most down hearted since I had got the reject notification from Bournemouth Uni and had thought that, if I couldn't get into there, then Warwick would be not likely to consider me at all.

The rest of the day was pleasant enough, and involved a little bit of discussion of David Levesley's: Wuthering Heights Musical, in which, it turns out, I have the role of The Director (As in a character who is a Director). For more news on this musicals development, I recommend you keep tabs on David's fabulous blog "Lollygaggle", which I should have a link to at the top of this page in my "Links" section. The evening then involved me and Sammy (The one from Debate Club) going to see an art exhibition in Sway. Now I usually don't go to art exhibitions, particularly not ones in Sawy, but this was a special occassion, as a friend of mine, Laura Fischer (Hopefully spelt correctly), was the one havign her art displayed. The art was fantastic, of course, and one could really see the time and effort and care put into the work. It was fascinating, and the ideas of art and fashion were interesting (People say that I have no sense of fashion, but in the survey I felt I could have written an essay in response to many of the questions linking art and fashion. I feel I have an appreciation of fashion, although it must be my own warped perception of fashion.) and, furthermore, there was free food. It was also a good social gathering. I met a second EPQ teacher and agreed to give a talk tommorrow about my "Weedkiller" film that I did when I was doing the EPQ.

When I got home, even more fantastic news awaited me. For the Spectrasonics Trilian, that virtual instrument that is dedicated to bass sounds, was finally there, a very late Christmas present which my dad had nipped out to get at lunch time. As I write this blog at this very moment I am installing this long-awaited source of musical inspiration. I might even do a review of it at some point.

So all in all, a fantastic day. And, before I go, I have just realised that I forgot to mention that me and my dad went out to The White Buck in the New Forest (A fantastic pub) for a meal (A fantastic meal) to celebrate having all the exams out of the way (A fantastic thing to have out the way). I ate a fantastic chicken and mushroom pie. I also tried "Whitebait" for the first time. They were fantastic.

Rage against the Uni, but atleast I now have a dramatic photo of myself at the top of this blog

2010-01-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

I am writing to you readers now at the end of a most intriguing week, featuring many mixed emotions, mainly anger and tirednessness (Yes, the double "-ness" is done on purpose). I got my first rejection from a Uni, that of Bournemouth. This was annoying as it had been the place I was most hoping to get into and had felt that I had all the right qualities and type of interests/enthusiasm to make myself just the type of student they would want. But oh well, they don't want me, so I will probably go to one of the universities on my list that are actually considered by people to be more intellectual. I like to think that it is Bournemouth who has lost out, not me.

On the upside, I was at the forest last weekend and took some very undramatic pictures of myself. The one I feel to most dramatic in an undramatic, Michaelish way is now being used as the picture at the top of the blog. Doesn't it just make you think that I'm off to heroically fight crime, then realise what a ridiculous idea that is as there isn't any crime to fight in The New Forest. Well, except for roving bands of Gangster Horses.

Musically, I have been breifly experimenting with Microtonal scales and have discovered that the 48-tone Microtonal scale does produce a particularly pleasing unnerving soundscape that I shall be using when I create the Hailey Wentworth film (The surreal-experimental film I have mentioned).

Well, by the next time I write, I shall probably have got my English exam out the way. I definately feel ready to analyse, but I am still a bit "Uhhh" on the Wider Reading front. However, Me and David and Beth recorded some audio versions of poems in preparation for the exam, which was both fun and also, hopefully, helpful. Atleast I got to eat a chocolate brownie anyway.

As one era ends, the rest continue

2010-01-16T04:16:00.001-08:00

Now that the weekend is here, you can all assuem safely that the Maths Exam has been completed, was quite easy (I hope it was anyway, otherwise I may have gone completely wrong) and I shall now never do another Maths lesson again. I have lots more free time now, but for the moment I shall be using it to revise for English. Last Saturday I managed to read 100 pages of Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd" (Penguin Classics edition of course) and today I plan to try and read anotehr 100 pages. This way, by Monday I hope to have read all of the book and have a good repetoire (Probably spelt wrong) of relevent love quotes for the approaching English exam. Its always those darnulating "Wider Reading" quotes that I always forget when doing the English Mocks, so by the time the exam actually happens I will hopefully be able to remember alot, particularly as I am also listening to Romeo and Juliet over the past few days and have made some audio recordings of John Donne poetry, and will soon be recording some more poems with some of my friends. It is a shame we can't reference pop songs in the exam, because they are easy to remember and have lots of deep meaningful quotes relevent to love. I'd much rather quote Aimee Ann Duffy than Carol-Ann Duffy any day.

Keep having ideas for peices of music to compose, but am trying to refrain from doing any composing at the moment due to exams. However, when I do perform the odd bit of composition I find that I seem to be out of practise recently. Once Febuary arrives I will do lots of composing to get "Back in The Game".

Recent influences, musically, seem to be Christophe Beck's compositions for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, particularly the love theme, "Close Your Eyes". I am looking forward to composing some dark and sinister music again soon to a friend of mine's film. When I have actual footage/direction to compose to I feel that I produce better music.

I have been developing ideas for "Hailey Wentworth", the Surreal-Experimental film I mentioned I would script/direct over the summer. I have actually managed to draw all the strands together into a plot, I just need to expand this into a structred plan, then I will be ready to begin the script.

A final note. After doing Latin for almost 4 years now, I have begun to understand Latin when it is spoken in TV and Film. This can be particularly interesting in Fantasy Dramas, as the other day I watched an episode of Angel and I understood the actual context of the Latin they were chanting in the exorcism. Kind of took the magic away, but only a bit.

When I get an overly dramatic, posey picture...

2010-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

...I shall have found a picture that I shall use as the "Banner" of this page, I having noticed that most every other blog in existance seems to have an image of sorts atop the page. My blog seems very bland in the picture variety, so much so that even a blind person might get insulted. For thsi I partly blame my inability to seem to be able to successfully load pictures, though I will one day solve this problem for a less than temporal period. But also partly because I happen not to be in possession of a camera that is geared towards photography. If the image moves I can effectively capture it in an artistic (And big-headed sounding it seems) way. Yet for those detailed pictures of Life, the Universe and Michael L Worrall, it seems that I would require the assistance of one practised in the art of the still image (Or whatever they liek to call themselves). Luckily I know of various people who utilise the camera in such a fashion, so maybe I shall ask them to take dramatic photos of my persona, probably planning the pictures in detail first, much to the annoyance of the artist. But enough of my oddly aquired vanity (As always, I blame television).

Today has been a good day for me. For 'tis the end of an era. I took my last maths lesson today. It was quite a triamphant final lesson, with me getting rather good marks in a particularly hard mock (I thought the marks were good and the test hard anyway). After Wednesday, the Maths exam, I will be done with educatiformed maths forever.

After this and disappointment that no chicken wraps were in existance in the canteen, I walked in the crispy cool snow to get my paper-round out of the way early in the free periods I had. Of course, I had to stop off at my Auntie's for lunch and a drink of tea. So that made up for the lack of chicken wrap. Furthermore, there is something very enjoyable in a sort of spiritual sense to walking alone with one's thoughts, particularly in the snow (Again, I blame this conception on TV).

The day ended with English Literature, almost always intriguing and a good chance for some in depth (And generally abstract) analysis of some poem or text (Hurray I hear you all chant in the fashion of gothic monks), a skill I like to feel is one of my better talents in the field of education (That of analysis, not of chanting like a gothic monk).

My disappointment is still with me that, unlike yesterday at home, when I managed to read 100 pages of "Far from the Madding Crowd" (Which I only realised was "Madding" and not "Maddening" the other day), today, due to school, I managed to read a few pages at best.

Still, things are looking bright (Well actually, Michael, they look rather dark outside because you have decided to write this late at night because you seem to not want to sleep) . Febuary is approaching, which will bring a few months of freedom from exams, chances to work on the musical, the use of a new virtual instrument, and the chance to play a Vicor (Finally, I used to want to be a Vicor when I was younger). Plus, Glee is playing on E4, a series I say you should all watch, particularly if you are fans of musicals.

Regeneration: And how it can be destructive and how I am going to use it as an excuse...

2010-01-07T08:43:00.001-08:00

So, first I will say "Happy New Year" (Notice the quotation marks, denoting that it is definately speech). I will then proceed to apologize for not "Blogging" (Quote marks here for the fact that it is an unusual word) for quite a long time. I could say that with Christmas and being tired and having exams coming up that I have been far too busy to contribute to this pseudo-diary, but the truth is that I really just haven't possessed "The Moment" (As the quotation marks mean I must explain this I am implying that I haven't felt that sudden urge of creativity and the will to divulge my recent escapades). Partly, I feel this is down to being put off by the very formal structure that I set myself. I have come to realise that blogging and, indeed, most other creative outlets require one to suddenly be "In the zone" (This time, I am sure you recognize and understand this commonly used phrase) and so my previous theme of setting a day to weekly update it was an unwise move. And so, with a new year signifying a new start, and following in the footsteps of The Doctor's recent regeneration, I have decided to give this blog its own regeneration. It shall now have an informal structure and I shall update whenever I feel that I should. There you go, I warned you I would be using Regeneration as an excuse.

Now first I feel I should address you on developments on the much anticipated Philosophers Stoned production. Unfortunately, over Christmas we did not manage to get any filming done, due to the extremely icy, ergo unsafe, weather conditions. However, we recently met up with the cast to plan out dates for filming/dance rehearsals from Febuary onwards. So until then, you will have to wait for any real news. I am not going to even compose music for it until Febuary.
"Now why Febuary?", You are probably asking. "Why not start straight away?".
Well the ressurection of The Exams of January means that people, including me, are very busy preparing for these tests and busy taking them. But, soon they will be out of the way, and that means fantastic news for me because: a) After my Statistics S1 exam, I will never have to do another lesson of Maths again, which also carries with it the bonus of freeing up much more time to focus on other, more important, lessons; and b) If I manage to get an A in the English Literature exam then I will have no exam to do in April-May-June time and can focus on the coursework and then have more time to deal with the remaining subjects.

Now, what about Christmas? I was particularly pleased with my presents this year due to about 95% of them being from My List (Of recommended presents). And I also got a £20 Amazon Voucher (Always welcome) which I used, in combination with just some of the money from my paper-round tips, to order the biggest box set I have ever ordered (more on that later).

My most used present was a DVD: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series 4. As always, the show was fantastic, both in an emotional and highly amusing manner, and I ended up watching all 20 or so episodes in 4 days. The final episode, "Restless", was weird, surreal and incredibly inspiring (Creatively). It has contributed to me making up my mind to make a Surrealistic-Experimental Short Film over this Summer, instead of making a sequel to Weedkiller (People have said that I should get away from Weedkiller and try a variety of original ideas).

One present I haven't received yet is a virtual instrument, The Spectrasonics Trilian, I will get once my exams are over. It is an instrument that deals with really good quality bass samples and will prove very inspiring for the musical and useful in other projects I may get involved with.

Now, in the theme of purchases and The Buffyverse, the humongous (Maybe spelt incorrectly - I mean a word that describes something very big) box set I ordered is the complete Box set of Angel box sets. Meaning it contains Angel Series 1 through to 5. Angel is the more adult spinoff from Buffy and though I haven't seen any yet, I stake my life on it being a thoroughly good show (See what I did there, with "Stake", as in staking a vampire...). The important thing is that the box will be HUGE.

Finally, before I finish today's post - the first post of 2010 - I would like to acknowledge the fantastic final episode of David Tennant's Doctor (Yes I know it had its flaws, some of which made me incredibly rageful) and how excited I am towards the next series, with Matt Smith set to play a fantastic interpretation of The Doctor.

And one more thing: "Don't you hate it when you regenerate and destroy most of your TARDIS?":
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Dont-you-hate-it-when-you-regenerate-and-destroy-most-of-your-TARDIS/231197247614?ref=ts
- Yes, I made this page.

And annoyingly, I still seem to be unable to successfuly upload pictures.

Weekend Update 4: Of Old Shows and New Moons/Scores

2009-12-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

General Update
As I write this week's update I am currently listening to the musical score of New Moon. You may know that I am not a fan of the Twilight Saga and it's slanted perception of vampirism. However, I have a habit of lsitening to the soundtracks of films and shows I have never watched, particularly if I am a fan of the composer's previous works. And I am a definite fan of Alexandre Desplat, the composer of New Moon. He previously composed for The Golden Compass, and the soundtrack for that bares many thematic similarities with New Moon. He also composed a jazzy score for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But one thing that he does, which makes all his music rather addictive, is to compose in what seems to be "Slightly off" versions of different keys, giving his tunes a very individual and fantasy related tone. However, I must point out that the main motif in New Moon seems almost exactly the same as the FRINGE theme tune. Also, on the subject of music I am quite pleased to hear a new Hans Zimmer peice, entitled "Discombobulate", from his upcoming score to the upcoming Sherlocke Holmes film. It very much reminds me of his theme for Jack Sparrow, and I again enjoyed Zimmer's fantastic rhythmic backings he was able to provide.

In a strange move by myself, I suddenly had an incredible urge to watch various episodes of Series 2 of Digimon. I think that part I most enjoy about it is the way that it manages to create quite a full backstory, and yet have fairly simple plots. And also, some of the lines are incredibly amusing, if extremely cheesy. Plus, I like the incidental music. And I had to watch something, having finished all of Heroes: Volume 5: Redemption, so far - which was, by the way, much better than the previous series, and I find that I am routing for the character of Samuel Sullivan. Part maybe I just like him because he's Irish, got a long/unique overcoat and some interesting ideas on what is right.

This week I have not done too much. I have felt rather "Off" alot of the time, and am currently very tired. School has seemed very quiet, for many of my friends were off having Oxford/Cambridge interviews, and so in Philosophy not much conversation occurred, a very bizarre twist of fate. Yet, in a not as bizarre twist, I ended up demonstrating how exactly to dance to the class, in response to questions as to how I had done at "Hot Rocks". Surprisingly, I was the only member of the my Philosophy class to attend that "6th Form Christmas Party", but more on that later. On the subject of Philosophy, I managed to make some more headway with reading Part One of Thus Spoke Zarathrusta this week. Gradually, themes seem to be forming from my miscomprehendive understanding of the text (I assume "Miscomprehendive" isn't a real word, but as a writer and a philosophy student I feel I have the right to create my own words).

And in the all important world of J J Abrams productions, the recent FRINGE episode "Grey Matters" was rather fantastic, with a superb story, good acting from the main characters and the new villain, and with many new questions raised. And just to remind you all, its under 2 weeks till that very important occassion...Doctor Who: The End of Time Part One.

Filming Projects
You fans of Philosophers Stoned will be happy to hear that the preliminary editting has been completed on all the footage so far. I still have to alter some of the lighting and reduce background noise interference, but those are taks that will nto be as exciting and I will find a day to get them all done. I am going to go through the footage with David to see if there is anything he wants to change etc; we have already decided that we will refilm Act 1 Scene 2. The next filming session is fast approaching, and the regime for it will be much tighter, and so everyone, including myself, must have learnt their lines very well before hand, which should lend to a more fluid performance anyway.

Also, you may remember me talking about a fantasy drama that I am producing with my cousin. Well editting on the 2nd episode will begin sometime this week, along with composing, and so I will be showing the first 2 episodes to the family for Christmas. I am also going to right one of the upcoming episodes, my cousin Hannah having written all the previous episodes. Mine is set to include a mysterious person who tells of a powerful "Thing", a lot of slaves being killed, and more details on the mystery of The Advisors.

Music Projects
Inspired by the idea of composing music for a friend's film they would be making for media or film studies, I set about attempting to compose some unusual, fantasy style music. The tuen starts with a textural synth sound, with a dramatic percussive sound playing in the background to raise the tension. This is soon accompanied by a mysterious soprano singing some unnerving melodies. The peice then changes to a slow percussive style, gradually gaining mroe and more instruments. It then stops, and breaks into a fast, rhythmic and seemingly eastern sounding tune, with a main melody featuring many accidentals and played on an instrument that vaguely sounded like a harpsichord. The peice ended up sounding very experimental, and I may upload it soon.

Shool Related Happenings
So, on Thursday the 10th of December, I arrived in Bournemouth, early for Hot Rocks, and so went to borders and bought a really cheap copy of a Penguin Classics (I love Penguin Classics) "Far from the Maddening Crowd", from Borders. I then ambulated to Hot Rocks and found that some people I knew were there, so I wasn't as obscenely early as I had at first perceived. At one point, whislt making my way downstairs (for we ate upstairs and the toilets were downstairs) I walked into the supplies cupboard which stood open next to the doors. It is a very easy mistake to make. I did lots of dancing that night, utilizing various props such as chairs and a straw in one case, because dancing is best done with inanimate objects. I also actually happened to know some of the songs for once, although unfortunately they played the Lady Gaga songs whilst I was eating and waiting for dessert. And I managed to remember someone's name for once.

Fictional Influence of the Week
Olivia Dunham, an FBI officer from J J Abrams' show FRINGE (I need to find influences not from a J J Abrams show). She investigates the paranormal, and is very open-minded and perceptive. She is also very accurate when it coems to shooting people. And she seems to frequently wear various long overcoats/trenchcoats, but them seems to be standard with being an FBI agent/main character in a show. She may have psychic powers, which are partly why she is so perceptive, for she was tested with an experimental drug, "Cortexiphan", as a child. Various people are attempting to recruit her as soldier in the coming war between us and them.

Final Thoughts
MyHighcliffe has an interesting new layout which I like.
I wonder what it is that causes me to get obsessed with certain things at certain times?
As Christmas approaches, everyone seems to become increasingly tired and ill.
Is it me, or is the piano the most beautiful of instruments?
Dun, dun-dun-dun. Dun, dun-dun-dun. Din, din-din-din. Din, dun-dun-dun.

Weekend Update 3

2009-11-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

General Update
Hi, everyone. I'm sorry this post is late, but I have been feeling rather ill over the weekend, plus have been doing a lot of editting and composing to keep me busy and exhausted. Furthermore, I knew that this would probably be quite a long update, as an exciting assortment of circumstances presented themselves this week, most of which I shall detail under the School Related Happenings section. However, too keep you hooked till then, I shall mention the fact that I discovered that Carol-Ann Duffy is possibly the most boring lesbian in existance and that any poetry I write I seem to subconsiously fill with dirty lyrics (More on these later).

Also, at the school itself, life has been taking it's usual path of diverting off the subject. Miss Downie has been telling us what to do if we don't get into the Uni's that we want, whilst Miss Karanja has been frequently unavailable for Latin lessons due to other commitments (I blame Adam for this, she showed much more interest when he was still involved - Just kidding, Adam, if you're reading this). This did, however, give me a chance to go to KFC with my friend Sam Cummings, a fantastic photographer with a vast amount of knowledge on electronic anythings. When I find out the address of his blog I shall link it here.

On Saturday, my bike, which has been slowly getting into an even greater state of disrepair, decided that it would rip the metal off the rim of the front tyre, then, after about 10 minutes, deflate dramatically as I was going downhill after detaching my breaks which were malfunctioning. Luckily my dad, who is very skilled at mechanical stuff, managed to fix it all.

Filming Projects
I now have editted all of the footage except for Scene 10 of Act 2, of what we have filmed so far of the Philosophers Stoned musical. It feels so great seeing it all peice together, and I feel that I am getting better at smoothing over the transitions between different shots in the same scene. As I have said many times before, the actors are perfect for their characters. My favourite Scene that I have editted so far (And which was also great fun to film) is Act 2 Scene 9, in which Herr Blick interogates Freud. The scene is dark, edgy and hilariously ridiculous and comedic. I got to do some interesting cuts between a light being turned on and the characters reaction to this. I feel the acting in this scene to be superb, so congratulations to Sam Gibbons and Lucy Errington (Lucy has just started up a blog which can be followed here: http://lucyland92.blogspot.com/). I enjoyed the scene so much that I decided to compose some music to accompany it.

Music Projects

Two main compositions this week. Although I am trying to work out a new version of the God and Aquinas Duet, it is takign some time. Instead I composed two peices of "Incidental Music". The first piece that sequenced was based around Freud's Theme, yet in this case I tried to make it more emotional and representative of the conflicting emotions of the character. I love Freud's Theme, it is catchy and can be played in some many variations to get so many different textures. The piece is titled "Freud's Guilt" and is inspired by the scene when it is revealed to all the philosophers that it was (s)he who had betrayed them. The tune will probably not be used in the actual musical, but I find it helps me to get more in tune with a project as a whole if I compose themes that explore and examine the characters and motifs that run through it. The emotion was created by using mainly a piano, then brining in some very expressive strings, before ending with an ambient sort of guitar. The sogn had a very slow tempo.

The Second tune is the one I talked of in the section above and is titled "Interablicktion". It is very atmospheric and sinister, relying on a textural synth sound primarily, although it moves on to contain an echoing piano (The msot scary of pianos), that plays a variation of Freud's Theme as the synth accompanies it. A deep drum sound keeps the tension and helps to build it to a dramatic crescendo, accompanied by the clashing sounds of the piano and some extremely creepy strings, which suddenly dies away as part of Blick's plan fails. The synth returns, and if you listen closely you will here that it is slowly playing a minor version of one of the love themes, as Neitsche is mentioned. Suddenly, the pad fades away and, as Freud decides on his(/her) course of action, a very sinsiter, dramatic and rythmic variation on Freud's Theme plays. Oh, and somewhere amongst all of this is a variation on the main Philosophers' Theme.

School Related Happenings

So, on Tuesday, me and some other members of the English class took a train up to London to attend an English Literature conference. The trip up involved much amusing conversation, as school trips always do, and we are sure that everyone in the carriage was annoyed with our continuous analysis of classical texts. As we left the train, I made the ultiamte mistake, that of mentioning bombs. But luckily we left quickly enough for people to not descend into panic. In fact, we travelled very quickly to our destination, as Mrs Gabony was speeding along as if her life depended on it (Which I'm pretty sure it didn't). When we got to the lecture, the woman giving the performance was slightly boring and kept making really dirty jokes about herself, which wasn't pleasent as she was old and fat. However, the Shakespeare lecture was fantastic, for he was enthusiatic and really knew his stuff. Then we had a lecture by a very medicore lecture. After his slightly boring talk, the dirty joke woman said that she thought we'd never find a better lecture. We thought, "Well actually, the guy before was much better." Then, at last, was the performance that the event had been culminating towards. Carol-Ann Duffy, the poet laureate, came to read us some of her poems. And you know what, she was the most boring person ever. And I know soem really boring people. And you would have thought that, beign a self-proclaimed lesbian, she would have lots of confidence. Her poems went on and on, and she never had any tone to her voice. At one point, when she said she would read another poem, someone in the audience groaned. And then during the questions, someone asked her a ridiculously long question. However, she finally finished, and then we discovered that, not only is she boring, but she is also incredibly rude. She refused to sign David's book, and sent some envoys to tell him this.

However, the trip back was rather good. We wrote Love Poems, though David had a head start, having written 3 already durign the lecture. My poem, which I though was quite beautiful and contained references to nature and metaphysical stuff, turned out to be full of innuendo once read by everyone else. The winner of the competition was Mrs Gabony, which is to be expected as she has been studying poetry a lot longer than us. It is interesting to note that, every time Beth tried to read her poem, the intercom system spoke over the top of her.

All in all, it was an interesting trip, in which escalators were escaled, tonic waters and apple juices combined, and Thus Spoke Zarathrustas read.

Oh, I almsot forgot. An exciting "Battle of the Titans" in debate club, with Sammy and David on opposing sides. Should make some fantastic footage. The debate was on whether or not abortion should be free.

Quotes of The Week:

Mrs Sibbick: Hardy was very good at doing women.

Sammy: And then you would have an audience of a thousand stars. (In resposne to something I said)

Fictional Influence of The Week

Danial Faraday, a slightly spaced-out, scientific physics genius, yet another character from J J Abrams LOST. He did lots of questionable experiments on rats and humans to try to find out about the physics of time travel. Half the things he says, nobody really understands, and nobody really understands the experiments that he carries out. He keeps a leather-bound journal (Thus making him automatically cool) in which he writes all his detailed notes on quantum physics and his theories. He talks in a vague, rambling way, yet he knows what he means, even if it generally sounds crazy. He also wears a black waistcoat, and has a beard, a look that I sometimes favour.

Final Thoughts

I have been watching Heroes: Series 4: Volume 5: Redemption, and I am enjoying the stories about the deaf woman, and the stories with Sylar in, and the stories with Claire's lesbian room mate, Gretchen./Paragraph formating doesn't seem to be working correctly so I will use slashes instead./Can now play Jacob's motif from LOST on the piano, thanks to my sister Emily./Lots of people seem to suddenly be staring blogs. This is good./I reall hate the wait that one msut go through to be able to watch over 72 minutes of video on MegaVideo.

Update: Found the ultimate clothes website. It deals in tailro made replicas of film outfits, and also happens to sell leather-bound journals: http://www.magnoliclothiers.com/

Weekend Update 2

2009-11-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

General Update
In some respects, this has been a rather uneventful week. Not much has happened at school, I have done no composing so far, and no work has been done on the Philosophers Stoned, in terms of actually filming or editting (Though the latter is merely down to laziness on my part). However, there have been some developments in terms of the fact that I have finally been inspired in the correct direction and managed to work out a basic chord sequence to use for God and Aquinas' Duet. Sudden musical inspiration came to me in the form of me recently purchasing "The Fame Monster" By Lady Gaga. Although the music on it doesn't really bare any resemblance to the style of song that I have decided to compose for the Duet, but inspiration seems to come in strange guises. However, the music on the CD is fantastic, particularly if you are a fan of Lady Gaga and her rather suggestive lyrics, as the new 8 songs, which cover quite a range of different styles, are all rather intriguing lyrically, catchy musically, and are good to analyse. My particular favourite would be "So Happy I Could Die", which has VERY suggestive lyrics, and is also rather catchy. I purchased the CD from Sainsbury's, whilst walking home from school. Me and Sammy, and occassionly others accompanying us, sometimes take pilgrimages to this supermarket when we plan to buy a CD. And if it rains on the way, then it is the fault of the CD's artist. After a recent skirmish with the elements on one such trip, all I feel should be shouted is "BBBuuuuuuuuuuubbbbbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeee!!!!!!!"

One more thing I would like to draw your attentions to, before I proceed with the more specific updates, is the fact that, once every month, I will have a feature on this blog entitled "Review of the Month". In this feature, I intend to analyse a certain peice of film/TV/music video that I have watched in the previous month. This could be something that was on recently, or it could be something that I have purchased on DVD and newly watched, and which I feel has enough depth in it to feature in the review. I will review: The Story/Thematic elements, Points I Liked/Disliked, Visual/Audio Themes, and The Music. The review for next month, looking back at this month, will analysize "Doctor Who: The Waters of Wars". As well as feeling I should make you aware of this so that you can excitedly anticipate it or destroy your computer in fear, I thought it relevent to mention as I did my initial-note-taking-rewatch at the start of this week. Also, by the time you read this, I should have finally sent off my UCAS application.

Filming Projects
Like I said earlier, not much development in terms of film making. However, I have been recording Debate Club as usual, and, also, work is progressing on a series that I am filming with my cousin Hannah, a fantasy/adventure series set in a medieval kingdom. The storyline and script is all written by her, and it shows great imagination and wit. It is great fun to film, edit, compose for and act in, particularly as I have to play every male character. So lots of green screen (Hooray for me, who loves using the green screen. Not hooray for those of you who always shy away from the rather odd effects it produces).

Music Projects:
This week, I have managed to compose 2 new songs. I feel I am back into the composing zone. The first tune I composed thsi week was an eerie piano tune, that gains some unnerving accompaniment towards the end. This peice was based loosely around the key of C Minor, though had lots of accidentals so as to give it the more atonal, sinister feel. The peice is inspired by music that I improvised whilst sat at my piano, with my left hand repeatedly playing the broken chord of C Minor, and my right hand making up the accompanying melody (NOTE: I may not use the correct musical language as I am not highly skilled in the theory or playing departments - I merely go with what I feel, though I do know soem theory). In the end, the overall feel of the peice reminds me of the X-files, the more atmospheric/contemplative moments, particularly at the point when the violins, percussion and bowed electric guitar all come in together. Also, the bit with violins playing a counter-melody to the piano is very much inspired by a motif heard in a few episodes of FRINGE (Probably the TV show that has the most influence on me in terms of ideas, philosophy, music, look of films I make, and in fact the general way I like to react towards things).

The second peice is the God and Aquinas Duet for the Philosophers Stoned. I suddenly figured out the chord pattern, realising that it worked very effectively in E Major, and did some improvising to figure out the main sort of motifs. Then I began programming it in to Cubase, and decided to flesh it out a bit more with guitars, percussion and bass. Then, at some points, to make it have a more unique feel, I decided to add in some Gregorian Monk voices, because, as well as sounding cool, they also nicely link to the religious undertoens of the song. Out of the main motifs that recur throughout the musical, this one only sees the appearance of a variation on one of the love themes (Though it is very hard to even hear).

School Related Happenings
Not too much happened at all at school this week, except for somethign that caused me great rage! I frequently enjoy getting the lunches they serve at the school canteen and carrying it to the 6th Form cafe to eat. I have been doing this for the last year and a half. However, now a random woman in the finace office has told me that she spotted me doing it and that it is a risk to health and safety. WHAT!!! Apparently I could trip and drop it on someone. Yeah, well so could one of the people carrying their food about in the canteen, and it would still cause the same amount of damage. I feel, however, that I shall continue to fight for my rights (Though I am not sure what exactly my rights are) and take my food to the cafe anyway. No one else seems to mind.

Quotes of the Week:
Can't actually remember any of the many hilariosu quotes of this week. Maybe I should note them down when they happen...

Fictional Influence of the week:
Benjamin Linus, a mysterious, sometimes-leader of The Others in J.J.Abrams LOST. Here is always appears mysterious and to have great knowledge of mysteriosu things that are going on. He always has a plan, and frequently when these plans are acted out, it is in a very mysterious way and they have very mysterious consequences. He likes to read lots of classics and sci-fi books, and I like his sense of style (He has been known to wear an overcoat or a waistcoat). He is also incredibly adept at lying and manipulating people, a skill that I greatly admire and which allows him to appear even more powerful and mysterious. And he has interesting views on how important the lives of people are.

Final thoughts:
I have watched an awful lot of J.J.Abrams shows this week, having final finished LOST series 5 and started ALIAS series 2, with smatterings of FRINGE series 1 inbetween.
talking of FRINGE, last weeks episode, that dealt with The Observers was, rather fantastic.
Backstory and mysteries that hook one in are very important.
Me and my youngest sister are very divided in our loyalties to characters in LOST.
The Society of Liers could actually decrease lying, but only if all the "Actors" stopped Acting, but continued Knowing (MLW's: Insanatorium).
There seems now to be an appreciation society of me on facebook, but I would like to point out that there are lots of other people that I know who deserve way more appreciation for what they do and have done throughout their lives. So I would like to end this post by thanking the Highcliffe 6th Form Leadership Team for the work that they do to help 6th Form run smoothly and making sure that we have lots of opportunities/experiences whilst we are here.

Weekend Update 1

2009-11-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

Important Note: The general structure for the "Weekend Update" to the blog will go as follows:

- General

- Filming Projects

- Music Projects

- School Related happenings

- Quotes of the Week

- Fictional influence of the week

- Final Thoughts

General
Why do I always seem to be writing these entries really late. It seems that, whenever I want to write lots and lots in some form, it is always far too late, thus making me produce a great deal of spelling mistakes and not thinking too clearly about what I want to express. However, this week has been a more dramatic and busy one than usual, most of which I shall describe to you in the later section to do with "School Related Happenings". You may have noticed (Though you probably aren't so obsessed with my work that you would notice this) that in my sections I have allocated for a Weekend Update I haven't dedicated a section for Book Projects. This is because I don't really actively do as much towards them as I do with my filming and music making. I am frequently getting ideas that I place into the background information or central plot of many of the plans of the books and scripts that I am "Working On". All of them really are in states of planning and collecting detaisl gradually over time of various plots and back stories and themes and theories that will be explored throughout the relevent material. I feel that the most important part to a good story is for it to have a wealth of intricately detailed background information that can also be easily accessed by the reader and also makes them want to discover more about a character or organization or a theory.

Most of my ideas I will get when out in the fresh air. On my morning and afternoon paper rounds, I find that I have plenty of time to think to myself and, in these rather "Freeing" circumstances, come up with sudden flashes of inspiration. It may be the way the clouds or certain buildings are lit. It could be a certain word or phrase from a song that makes you wonder as to its connotations. Just today, whilst walking back from school with my friends, I came up with a simple acronym in relation to a conversation we were having, and then suddenly thought to myself how it could be a simple bit of background fleshing out in "New Guild", and this quickly evolved into an entire different story arc that already managed to interweave with other ideas I had.

Filming Projects
All the films I work on I feel are very important to me, whether they are a story scripted by me or one of my friends, or even if its the recording of a event taking place at school. In fact, one series of events that I am recording on an ongoing basis is the highcliffe school debate club, The Mass Debaters, of which I frequently participate in, usually as an audience member, but sometimes one the panel. I am filming every debate that we do this year, and will edit them in the style of Question Time, with its very own title sequence and theme tune (See below). However, this DVD will be made for private use only, although thsoe of you in debate club who wish to have a copy can ask me, although I may have to check this with people involved first. Series One will be completed and editted around Christmas.

However, moving on to bigger and better things, I am currently involved in a rather large proejct/undertaking. A philosophy music entitled "Philosophers Stoned". Yes, the idea may sound rather insane, and such is the way that it is. But insanity (Or certain types at least) is good. It is a collaborative project involving a large cast. The script itself, about 70 pages long, was written by my friend David Levesley (Who, if you are reading this blog, you probably already know about and know is fantastic at writing and, in fact, msot other things) who is also acting in many of the roles, writing the lyrics to the songs and actually organizing the days for shooting. The music itself is composed by me quite a lot, with my friend Thomas Smith working on alot of the other songs, and with some of them being composed by Beth Waters. Then there is, like I said, a large cast, which I will discuss in more depth next time.

All in all, filming for Philosophers Stoned is going well. A couple of weekends ago, we did a huge filming session that I am still editting the footage from. Although one scene we intend to refilm, the rest seem to be quite fluid and I feel are all coming together nicely. The actors are fantastically well suited to their roles and give a very enjoyable performance. Highlights in editting so far include: Matt's whale crying, Matt passionately falling into a hedge, Danny as Aristotle and the amount of bloopers in comparison to useful footage.

Music Projects
I haven't done much composing this week, except to create the Opening Theme and Intro Music for "The Mass Debaters" for use in the title sequence which will then fade seemlessly (I hope) into a bit introducing each of the panelists for that episode. The style of tune is very much based around the Opening music in question time, including the way in which it makes use of Orchestral sounds, drums and some synthetic sounds. It is over dramatic, as the music for a political show usually is, and to acheive this sort of effect I composed in G Minor (My favourite of keys, of which most the music for Weedkiller is composed in). There are about 3 or 4 main motifs, all revolving around the notes: G, C, A# and A. There is also a chord pattern that is played as a rhythmic tune on the violins most the time and then is played in a slow progressive way towards the ends of the Titles and the Intros. The structure for the Intros involved a timpani statement before each respective peice of information would be said. On each of these different peices of information a different backing tune, based on a certain motif from the main part of the tune, plays. Then, at the end of Intros, there is a finale bit with almost all the instruments coming in playing a variety of motifs from earlier in the peice.

This coming week I plan to work on a peice for the Philosophers Stoned, "God and Aquinas' Duet", if I get time.

School Related Happenings
This week at school was rather different to most, in respect to the fact that on Thursday there was an Open Evening for the 6th Form and then on the next day those pupils who were interested in looking around 6th form experienced what it would be like. On the Open Evening I was helping with Philosophy and Ethics and luckily didn't manage to scare anyone off, except for Miss Downie when I told her about my idea for a philosophical text. On the Open Day, however, I managed to effectively advertise my film Weedkiller, which I did for an EPQ project, as I was called upon to advertise the EPQ to students.

And in terms of important things we learnt in philosophy this week, we now know which of the Nigh Clubs in various locations throughout England should be visited or avoided.

The biggest event this week was, however, this weeks Mass Debaters meeting, which posed the question: "Should Euthanasia be legalized?" I was on the team that thought it shouldn't, and I had prepared some interesting counter-arguments and points to make that involved concepts such as Hard Determinsim and took some ideas from House MD. However, my team mate had gone for a very different approach which seemed to support Euthanasia on some occassions, as opposed to the hard line approach I was taking. To make matters worse, we were against Sammy Joynson (A friend of mine who I feel will become the leader of some sort of political party someday) who is one of the most aggressive and successful arguers of the people who coem to debate club. It was very dramatic and charged with lots of heated debate (Well it is debate club, what did you expect), though in the end my side lost completely when it came to the vote. However, I feel confident about next weeks debate, more on which I shall describe next time.

Quotes of the Week:
Debate Club:
Beth: One sec, can I just finish?
Sammy: NO!

Sammy: Don't give us that smug smile, its not in the law.

Open Evening:
Me: I don't know where I get alot of these ideas from.
Miss Downie: I think its because your a little bit mad.

Fictional influence of the week:
Walter Bishop, a mad scientist from J J Abrams sci-fi show FRINGE, the character basically reminds me of an older version of myself, what with all his strange ideas, the odd things that he says that an average person would not like saying due to the weird/controversial nature of the subject and the amount of knowledge he has on parallel universes and other mysterious phenomena.

Final Thoughts
Is there any sort of weather that I actually like?
If there are an infinte amount of unvierses, then everything is possible an infinite amount of times, then surely there must exist infinte amounts of beings who can and want to destrou all universes, so surely we should all be dead and should never have existed.
Therefore, are we all merely potential, shadows of what could have been?
I find that my favourite type of key to compose in is always a minor key.
Is it worth doing anything ever, what with the fleeting status of our lives and the fact that we can't prove that anything is real?

Started a blog because Uni said that it would be good way to promote ones self and decided that it wouldn't be too outrageous when I realised that...

2009-11-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

...other people do too, plus I am awake and am not bothering to sleep as my bed has not got its sheets on because they have been cleaned and it will take me a while to put them back on and I am far too rageful to do that/too tired. It has been a very tiring/streesful day, though that always means that a day has been very fun. Which it has, jsut for clarification, even though I lost in debate club, and didn't manage to make some points that I thought would have been rather philosofantastico (P.S. Alot of words I use will be invented by me on the spot. But a lot, too, will just be spelling mistakes because, as I write quickly on the computer, I tend to get letters in the wrong order).

So yes, I am writing this blog both to promote myself, even though nobody may even be following it, but also to promote my work in the feilds of Music and Film. And maybe the odd Philosophical concept. I wouldn't be able to post any of my Philosophical concepts on Twitter, which I will hopefully be able to give you all a link to, as they would take far too long. They are also probably best described as "Crazy Ideas" really, as they are probably a bit too fantastical. I would say that my Philosophy ideas are paranoid, self-centred, and slightly scary, though I don't actually neccessarily believe them. My Philosophical Views are normally influenced by what I have been watching on TV at the moment. My current stance is a sort of Nihilist-Christian (Yep, you thought that was a paradox, and it probably is).

Anyway, my main interests (Apart from Doctor Who, J J Abrams, Weirdness, Fringe Science and myself) are the creation of films. Though slightly amateurish, I use professional technology and feel that I put a lot of time and care into the product so that it seems watchable and more professional than if made on Moviemaker by someone with a rubbishy camera and no script or direction. I treat the films I make as if they were being made to a high standard and take care to make them reflect my directive choices. I also compose the music for them.

If you would like to see any examples of my work so far, in the form of a 30 minute drama about the social and emotional effects of teenagers taking Cannabis, you can watch my film Weedkiller on my YouTube account, where you can also listen to my music I compsoe and hear a cast and crew audio commentary for Weedkiller (It has been said by people that my sole aim in life is to promote Weedkiller):
http://www.youtube.com/user/MLWorrallPro
(Unfortunately, Weedkiller is not in a good quality image format here, but I intend to rerelease it at some point in a quality that is as good as it is on the DVD).

I would like to thank any of the actors and crew who were involved in or are involved in, any past or upcoming projects.

I am working on a variety of other projects at the moment, which I will discuss in my next post...

Next time:
- My music.
- My influences.
- The Philosophers Stoned.
- Weedkiller 2: Acid Flash.