Family Day Out: Bronte's House in Haworth Visit (1.1)

Today I and my family (Mum, Dad, & Younger Bro) went to Haworth, about an hour's drive from here, to visit where the Bronte family had lived in the 19th Century, which has now been changed into a museum.




The three Bronte sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, are famous for being one of the most famous literary groups in the world, Emily writing the famous Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte writing Jane Eyre (1847) and Anne, though less well known, wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

Reverend Patrick Bronte brought his wife Maria to live at Haworth Parsonage in 1820, and they originally had six children: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, but as Maria and Elizabeth died along with Mrs Bronte within a few years of living here, and Branwell, their only son, was never as succesful as his three other sisters, the children are commonly known as the three Bronte sisters.
Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell lived all their lives in Haworth, but none of them living past 40. Their father outlived all of them, dying in 1861 at 84.

The Bronte sisters were originally reluctant to publish their books under their names as they were female, and instead the books were originally published under Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Charlotte was the only one to be married, and her husband Mr Nicholl moved in in 1854. She was also the only one to become famous in her lifetime.
Branwell was, as a child, considered the greatest genius of the Bronte family and he was the first of the family to see his poems in print, but after his lovelife failed and he was in debt, he later became an unsuccessful alcoholic as his sisters went on to write their famous books.

Charlotte Bronte - 1816 - 1855
Emily Bronte - 1818 - 1848
Anne Bronte - 1820 - 1849
The three sisters would stay up late at night talking and writing. Emily died on the sofa, not admitting she was ill until very late.

All of the Brontes are buried underneath a pillar in the nearby church.


On the trip we looked around the little town, looked in the museum and did a short walk around part of the moors that were inspiration for the books.
The Bronte house contains many retrievable original items owned by the family layed out to look at in the rooms and contains all the original furniture. In the museum/house, you can learn about each of the 10 rooms, (they were quite a rich family) and look at all the exact original clothing, furniture and items that the family used.
The rooms were: The entrance, Mr Brontes study, the dining room, the kitchen, Mr Nicholls study, the servants room, Charlotte's room, The nursery, later Emily's room, Mr Bronte's bedroom and Branwells art studio.
There was also a newly built room, added in 1878, which contains a special exhibiton, "The Brontes: a family history" which was where most of the information we found out came from. There was also an exhibiton, "Sex, Drugs and Literature - The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte" there, that we visited.
It was an interesting and educational trip :)

Up Review (1.3 Preparation and 1.1)

Up / Up- 3D (2009) - Pete Docter, Disney Pixar

Here's the scene. Young "adventurer", Carl Fredrickson, runs along the street playing games at his young age, when he stumbles across a dark abandoned house. He ventures inside, slowly, only to meet another adventurer of his age, a really funny, wacky girl named Ellie, who immedietely becomes attatched to him. They grow up, get married, move into the house and grow old together. Then Ellie dies.

The man lives on in the house, alone, depressed and fed up, the town changing around him, turning into a city, and he eventually has to vacate the house and go and live in an care home.

Or does he?

This is where, in the night, he attatches thousands of balloons to his house, and in the morning, flies away to a lost land in South America, where he and Ellie had dreamed of going when they were small. Only to find he's got a little accidental stowaway with him, an 8 year old boy called Russel.

What follows is their struggle to get to Carl's destination, the uncovering of a shocking secret, and then - their struggle for something else. Involved in this are a group of talking dogs, really - better than they sound - and a rare bird named Kevin.

This is a fun family adventure, lots of funny moments, some action, and though it dies down before the climax and has a bit too much of a friend/love/message moment, people could find it quite a touching film.

The humour and jolliness of the film in general though, made me sometimes even laugh completely unprovoked, at just the whole idea. I wonder if the adults enjoy these films more than the kids nowadays..

This film once again offers the guaranteed charm and laughs of Disney Pixar films even though it's not too special, so it's not one that's going to go down in history, but as far as kids films go, it's pretty good.

What adds to it is the wonderful new 3D it can be seen in. If you haven't seen a 3D film before, this is probably a good one to start with, and if you have, it's a good one to continue with!

Enjoy!

8/10

The Birds Review (1.3 Preparation)

The Birds (1963) - Alfred Hitchcock

Another one of Hitchcock's classic thriller films, this fim offers more of a horror twist as nature turns its back on humanity and attacks.

The film begins slowly as a young woman, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), meets a man, Mitch Brenner, (Rod Taylor), in a bird shop. He appears as mysterious to her, and it is this and her attraction to him that draw her to eventually be staying at his mothers house with him at Bodega Bay.

Whilst she is there, there are a number of attacks on innocent people by a variety of different birds, which as they go, increase in severity. As the attacks become harder, there is more suspense between scenes and more of a darker sense to the film, so it becomes more gripping, exciting and scary in the second half.

Infact, until past half way through, the birds seem to be more of a distraction to what appears as the main story. The characters all have their own stories to tell, their own pasts and even side characters met through the film are very distinct. Even though this spaces out the horror in the first half, the detail behind the characters is partly what this makes this film so good. But it is the scenes that you know are coming, as more birds gather, and the build up to these scenes which makes this film what it is.

Another distinct thing about this film that makes it itself is that, while Psycho, Hitchcock's other classic film from the 1960's, was told and well known by it's story-telling and intense soundtrack, The Birds has absoloutely no soundtrack whatsoever. Throughout the film the peace and quiet of Bodega Bay is crushed by the dark background noises of the birds which substitute the music, constrasting the quiet with the films dark trademark. This is very effective, as are the spooky camera shots and the sometimes quite disturbing horror scenes.

Critisicm for this film are that the characters, despite how interesting they are, seem to do stupid and illogical things that put their lives in danger throughout, for the purpose of adding scenes of horror, and there is a disappointing end.

This is a deep, interesting and moderately scary classic by Alfred Hitchcock. Though it may not quite top other classic mass destruction films, it is quite thouroughly enjoyable.

8/10

Bring Me The Horizon concert (1.1)

Band: Bring Me The Horizon

Support: August Burns Red, A Day To Remember

Venue: Manchester Academy

I'm not gonna write a review because I won't know what to put, but what I am gonna write is: THIS CONCERT WAS AWESOME!!

I loved it all, and I am so happy I went because I nearly couldn't (Luke and Paddy, shush!)

I went with some year 11s and people none of you really knowww lol but i saw our ex-diploma-person Georgia there ><

twas actually amazing and worth £22 :) which was £8 more than the original ticket but oh well

The lead vocalist Oli Sykes said it was one of the best concerts he'd ever played :)

Dead By Sunrise's new album out today!

Dead By Sunrise is the side project of the lead singer of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, a whole new band which features all the members from the band Julien-K and another additional member.

This has been long awaited, as Chester released a demo of his song: 'Let Down' many years ago, and the whole album was originally scheduled for a 2006 release!

Dead By Sunrise fuse elements of grunge and post grunge with alternative rock, and an electronic sound over the top. Fans of Linkin Park should expect a different sound from Linkin Park, but it should still contain some of the feel of Linkin Park's most recent album, Minutes to Midnight.
The album is more personal to Chester than Linkin Park's, as many of the songs are about his past struggle with drugs.

If you're more interested in rap, Mike Shinoda (the rapper from Linkin Park)'s side project, Fort Minor, might be more for you, but as Linkin Park are my favourite band and I'm sure a few of you will like them, I am looking forward to getting/listening to this album and I thought I'd share it with you! Yes, you!

Tmac Art Show (1.3 Preparation and 1.1)

I wrote this review out a couple of weeks ago, but didn't upload it because I didn't have pictures to go with it. After some confusion with the pictures and getting some stuff out of the way I have decided to upload it (without the pictures.)

THE TMAC ART SHOW 2009

The tmac art show 09 featured artwork from A level and GCSE turton students, including textiles, 3D studies, graphic design and photography. The class went along to see what we made of the work we could be producing in a year or two's time, and personally, I was impressed by all of it, and left the exhibiton inspired.

As soon as we walked into the room we met a screen filled with a range of colourful, arty pictures, and then some paintings. Once passed that screen, lots of different styles of art sprang up. I had a short walk round the room looking at the range; it was too much to take in at once, so I re-walked it slowly, looking closely at the works that interested me.

The first thing that took my eye was an interesting and original set of pieces where some photos had been taken, and then overlayed on them were cartoony versions of the original photos, for example one showing some baked beans came to life.

A screen that interested me was one which was filled with textiles collages, lots of things the artists were into (at that time) applied to a background. I could have looked at them for a while because they were filled with lots of different ideas but I had to move on. It suprised me how much I liked them because I have not been interested in textiles much.

There were so many good pieces of work and I left the exhibition wanting to get a camera and do some photography and image editing, inspired by a number of sets of photos and peices of work.

The exhibition was enjoyable to look round and well organised, every where you turned there was something else to look at. I enjoyed looking round a lot and am inspired, but slightly worried what I might produce, comparing my work at the moment to the artwork in here.

A good visit!

Pyscho Review!!! (1.3 Preparation)

Psycho (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock



I have been trying to find time to watch one of Hitchcock's films for quite a while, and the time finally came up this Sunday afternoon, when I sat down to watch Psycho.

This film was not quite how I expected.

First off, I was expecting it to have at first a more complex storyline, rather than the simple storyline having a deep complexitiy to it. I was suprised that the famous shower scene was not so far into the film, and that the film was actually told in a variety of different perspectives as it progressed. (Each of the characters had their own story to tell, and all their own end.)

I was also expecting the film to be more boring, and slightly slower moving. Instead, the film more or less jumped straight into it, gripping me straight away. There were some slower scenes, but they were atmospheric and, like the whole film, full of suspense.

The starting point of the story is of a young woman, given $40,000 to take to the bank as part of her job. She excuses herself from work, off "sick", and then, rather than going to the bank, she drives out of the city with the money, off to meet her boyfriend, she is currently having relationship and financial trouble with, in another city, where he lives. Her journey kicks off the suspense, as she is followed, and as she suspects she is found out after her boss notices her in the car.
Unfortunately, her journey ends before she gets to where she's going. And this is where it gets more interesting.

The film winds up as a mystery solving thriller, as a group of different characters try to figure out what's going on. A creepy, unexpected twist is what comes out of it at the end, as the whole film ties up and leaves you gawping.
Of course, the "shower scene" is the most notorious scene, a deep hack at thriller killing scenes that has gone down in history, but which involves no spurting blood, no knife-body contact, just a fast montage of clips, switching between different camera angles, the killer, above, and the woman being attacked.

But it's not just the shower scene that makes this film awesome. Almost the whole film is gripping and exciting, and by the end the plot is very intricate.

Hitchcock uses sometimes subtle, cinematic effects which add to the film's feel, and add to the feeling of suspense, and forthcoming and immediate danger. The music plays a big part in the film, rising and dying as the film gets more intense, and shaking with urgency as the killing scene(s) take place. Music is also used to show characters current emotions, as in one scene, Marion Crane, (Janet Leigh), drives in her car away from a police officer; though the urgency does not seem to present in our view, Marion's horror is shown vividly in the film's orchestral peices.
The camera sometimes shows things you may not notice straight away, and that are not nessecarily important, but add more texture and feeling to the deepening story, and some speech can reveal subtle notes that are clues to what could be going on. Or are they red herrings?

This film is a brilliant film, that can be appreciated by all, if not amazed at by many. Hitchcock's masterpeice should not just be known for the "shower scene" but for the whole peice, a great, classic movie.


9/10

SCENE PHOTOSHOP WORK!! (1.4 preparation and 1.1)

I finally managed to find my scene work from the first photoshop lesson we did, where we designed the front and back of a leaflet.
Here is the work:
CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE IT BIGGER!!!!

Even though there is a lack of text and I did some things that should be corrected for next time,
I think I did quite well seen as though the original picture that I took looked like this:

(: original picture I took ^