La La Land (2016) Review

(Directed by Damien Chazelle)

"A jazz pianist falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles." - IMDB

Well, probably the most hyped film of last year and I wanted to turn it off! It really does pain me to say that as I was really looking forward to it. I love a good musical. But, to be honest, even from the film trailer, I wasn't as enthusiastic as I would of liked to have been, I didn't get what it was.

The main reason I didn't like it was the plot. It was pretty flat. I got so bored by half way through. I think I was kind of confused as to what was going on and I couldn't 'get it'. I do know it was pretty much a love story about a pianist and aspiring actress who's relationship was tested etcetera etcetera. It felt like there should have been more to it. Nothing exciting happened, just when you thought it would.

I keep saying this but cinematically, it was fantastic. There were lots of scenes that were all one shot (I love a good continuous shot) and when they were dance numbers there's some pretty impressive directing going on! It was aesthetically pleasing and Emma Stone (Mia) looked stunning throughout! It saved the film to be honest.

A few of the songs were pretty good too. I particularly loved Mia's audition song, Fools who Dream.

Although I do feel like Gosling and Stone were both a bit uncomfortable with performing. They are actors after all! But they didn't do a bad job.

I'm surprised it's been nominated for so many Oscars. I'd like it to win Best Cinematography, Best Score or Best Song (although Moana is in that one...), Best Actress and/or Best Director. If it wins Best Film or Screenplay I'll be shocked! It doesn't deserve it. I reckon it'll do a 'Revenant' (I thought it was very similar in terms of plot against cinematography and acting.)

View the full nominations list here.

Life as a Media Graduate, 1 Year on

Wow, time flies! 1 year (and a week) ago I was putting on my cloak and hood and graduating from the University of Leeds with 2:1 in Cinema and Photography. Such a great day and one that will hold a lot of happy memories. I thought I'd write a little post to those of you graduating this year, hopefully making you feel a little better whilst uncovering what it's actually like to be a graduate!

So you get all dressed up, walk up the stairs, collect your degree, and then what?

I won't lie, during your degree your tutors big up about getting into the industry and doing all this amazing work and being able to work your way up. Does it work like that? No.

There may be an entry level job a what feels like the very bottom of a company that you think you'll walk straight in to, no competition, but you're not necessarily going to get it. In fact you probably won't (sorry!) There's hundreds, thousands, of other graduates all thinking the same thing, all with the same skill set as you and most with that little bit more experience.

I feel like unless you've worked since high school in the industry you want to be in it's not going to be an easy ride.

So when I graduated I continued in my part time job in retail I had whilst studying. I upped my hours and grabbed any overtime I could get so that I could pay rent. I was applying for any job in the industry I could find but all I was getting was that I didn't have enough experience or that there was someone who had better experience than me (deja vu central). It's not a very nice place. I mean, I had experience, fairly good ones, I'd won an award for a film I made, but still not good enough.

It can get quite demoralising at times and you definitely go through a period of thinking that you'll never get anywhere and think of other career paths to go down. I almost went back to uni to do a PGCE so I could use my degree to teach people what I learnt - at least I wouldn't be wasting 3 years!

I got quite lucky after that. I managed to grab myself some part time work experience at an amazing production company in their post production department (I want to be an editor) which fitted nicely alongside my 12 hour contact at work.

Then I got the job I'm in now with a charity. Still only part time but so much better than retail. Also gave me the chance to gain some new office and project/relationship management skills.

It was at this point I considered going freelance. It was almost in my grasp, I had it all planned out, what I needed to buy to be able to set myself up. I have a few contacts within the industry so I knew I could get some work to start me off. But then I realised I had rent and a car to pay for. It's not easy living away from home. Back to square 1.

Then I got even luckier.

When my work placement ended I managed to up my hours and start working full time. The team I work in manages events within the community and they needed someone to go to said events to take photos and film and being the enthusiast that I am, I went and edited a 60 second video for them, showing what I could actually do.

Now, alongside my current job role, I create videos which are used on the website to promote the charity's work. It's becoming a regular thing.

It feels so good being able to put my degree to good use and it's such a confidence boost. It's not where I ever imagined to be, but it's working for me and I'm earning money doing what I love. It's also nice to know that I can actually make a little film on my own!

So don't let job hunting get you down. It's horrible. I've always hated it. And you can't let it get you down if you don't get the job you think you can't work without! You need to expand your mind and realise what skills you've gained from your degree, what you enjoy from it. For example, I liked producing film so I thought, 'Hey, I can manage a shoot, so I can manage an event'.

Being a graduate is so much harder than being a student! You have to do it on your own. There's no tutors reminding you of a deadline or setting a plan of the year for you. You graduate, then what?

Wherever you end up, whether it be days, months, or years after graduating, never stop selling yourself. You never know, it could end up turning into something great!

Game of Thrones

Created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

While a civil war brews between several noble families in Westeros, the children of the former rulers of the land attempt to rise up to power. Meanwhile a forgotten race, bent on destruction, plans to return after thousands of years in the North. - IMDB

I've not really been interested in watching Game of Thrones since everyone started the hype about it... until now. I've never been in to Lord of the Rings or that kind of genre of film/tv but after watching Once Upon a Time (review to come) the idea of starting GOT has appealed more and more to me. What pushed me over the edge was dedicating a good 5 hours of my life to playing GOT Risk. I felt like after that commitment I needed to know more.

That's where it all went wrong.

Well, not wrong, but almost ruined my life. All I want to do is come home from work and watch it. Why? I do not know. All I know is that I've caught the bug. And I hate that I love it!
We're currently halfway through season 2 so I can only review up to there but I shall write a part 2 when  we've watched it all.

So my initial thoughts were that series 1 was very slow and season 2, not much has happened.
I feel like, with season 1, I could have edited it myself and made it half the length (not trying to be bigheaded, I just felt like it was poorly edited). I guess that they didn't have a big budget in the first season, it's quite slow paced and not a great deal happens in the long space of time. There's a lot of scenes that don't really need to be in there and it seems like they've just added some shots in to kill the 50+ minutes.
Again season 2 doesn't have a lot of things happen in it. I get the impression though that the season is a big build up to something big, followed up by the end of season 2/season 3.
I'm terrible for getting caught up in TV series though so I'm definitely sticking with it.

To say it seems like a big budget, the locations and sets are pretty awesome though; they definitely went to town there. To be fair, the whole mise en scene is pretty special and you can't tell that it was filmed in the early 2010's at all! I like how the style of each family changes too. You can look at a character and put them straight into which family they belong to.
It's pretty cool to look at the behind the scenes photos. Having a degree in film I find it so interesting to look at and to see how much work goes on behind the camera, and I thought they'd use a lot more green screen/use it in different places. It makes you appreciate what the actors and post production team have to do.

I still feel like I'm in the early stages and there's a lot more to learn about the story. There's a lot to keep up with and I was painting my nails while watching it the other day and I feel like I missed some stuff. I'm excited to catch up with the series, I've heard a few things so I want to see how it plans out (and be able to get excited with everyone in the office on a Monday).
I was worried it was going to be too much 'swords and sandals' but it's so much more!

Definitely worth a watch if you like a good TV binge.

My TSW Story (Topical Steroid Withdrawl)

I apologise now, this is a rather long one!

 Those of you who know me or follow my social media will probably know that I suffer with eczema, quite badly. I've had it on and off for as long as I can remember but never as bad as it has been over the past year I'd say. It started as little red spots all over my hands which were itchy and got to the point where it was getting red raw and sore and just wouldn't clear up at all. Even when they seemed to be getting better it'd come back just as bad as before. I never thought that I'd find any hope of a cure or something that would clear it up for longer than a week or so. Eczema isn't curable, just treatable, is what I believed for years.

I've used all sorts on my skin, and have done for a long time. I've tried Hydrocortisone, Eumovate, Betnovate, Diprobase (ointment and cream) and yes, they may have all worked, but with the exception of Diprobase, they are all steriod creams. I knew using them was bad for you. I knew it thinned your skin and didn't really help you in the long run. But I didn't know just how bad it can be until I met Nina. She was shopping one day in Leeds and came up to me while I was at work. She asked me loads of questions about my eczema, which by this point was red raw on my hands, and told me about how she had the same but all over her body and that now she's completely clear thanks to not using steroid creams anymore. Her skin looked amazing and it made me want to do the same.

Having eczema had never really bothered me before. I've had it since I was a little girl, and I've never been one for hiding something like that, especially when I had it on my hands, face, arms and legs. But by this point it was stating to become red and sore and I could see people looking at it - not something want when you worked in clothes shop.

My skin would go from red and spotty to dry and tight and then began to spread and become red patches.

At this point I was ready to try anything. Whatever the doctor prescribed me didn't work and they wouldn't refer me to a dermatologist. I got a few things from Nina to try, pure coconut oil was my first point of call which started to work and heal my hands but then made them red and painful again. Over the next few months I tried all sorts including cocoa butter, E45 hand cream, Vaseline, even 'normal' hand cream.

After using coconut oil, it began to clear up...

 

 ... Until it got worse.

 It wasn't until I posted on the TSW Facebook group that I decided to try dead sea salts (I used Himalayan salts) as a few people told me that it had helped them. I'd fill a bowl up with warm water and a good handful of the salts and soak my hands for 20 minutes. It worked amazingly. It took the redness out of my hands by the next morning and then I'd use one of the moisturisers I'd tried to stop them from going dry and itchy. But I still couldn't find a moisturiser that worked really well and that I was happy to stick with.

Let's rewind to my 22nd birthday in October 2015. My boyfriend bought me lots of Lush stuff to try (Lush's products are pretty good when it comes to wanting soft skin) and amongst all of the bubble bars and bath bombs was a Ceridwen's Cauldron. These little bundles of joy are a mesh bag filled with oats and cocoa butter. You can use them as a bath melt or to rub them over your skin. I run them under the shower and rub them on my hands and other areas where I have eczema. They're not good for clearing it up but are so good for getting rid of that morning itch and removing the dead skin.
Anyway, after having some success with these, my boyfriend told me to try using Aveeno cream as it is an oats based moisturiser. I'd heard it mentioned on Facebook so once again I thought there was no harm in trying it. I cannot recommend it enough. It's been amazing and I am still religiously using it to this day. I use it when I get out of the shower and have a little refillable pump in my handbag to use as hand cream during the day. It's really helped to keep it under control.

I also met another girl in work who told me that she had eczema and wore a pure amber bracelet. She said that when she wore it her eczema cleared up and when she didn't it came back. Again, being the open minded person that I am (a.k.a willing to try anything to get rid of my sore hands) I thought I'd buy one and give it a go. I don't believe in crystal healing but the amber is meant to use your body heat to heat up and release succinic acid which is a natural healing agent.

If all else failed, I'd bought a pretty bracelet!

I wore my bracelet  for a month or 2 and I didn't think it was really doing anything. With my salts and aveeno working, I thought that it will have just been those doing the trick. I took it off to get in the shower one day and decided not to put it back on. After a week or so my hands were beginning to get really sore again and it wasn't until one evening I twigged that I'd taken my bracelet off. Still not really believing in the healing properties I put my bracelet back on and after a few days my hands were beginning to feel better.

I started my TSW journey in November 2015. In the past 6 months I've tried a lot of things and it's definitely got worse before it's got better. But my skin, now, feels amazing. I'm still not 100% there but it is better than is had been in a long time. And the initial pain, your skin craving the steroids, is worth it!

For anyone who feels the same, I definitely recommend trying different things, hopefully I've helped you a little bit. The Facebook group is amazing too; there's so many people on there sharing stories and will help you if you feel stuck. Everyone's skin is different and hearing what different people have used gives you a lot of options and support knowing that it will get better.

I know I haven't had the worst time going through this, and I'm so grateful for that, and I've had a speedy recovery but it just shows what coming off of the steroid creams can actually achieve!