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This was another piece of work published on grads.co.uk.

You can view my work at: http://blog.grads.co.uk/2013/11/19/mentoring-an-experience-never-to-forget/

Every time someone asks me what my greatest achievement is, I always reply with the same thing, and every time someone views my CV, it’s the same item that interests them. Mentoring. In my first summer after uni, I found myself bored and not knowing what to do with myself.  I was officially not a fresher any more. I wondered to myself, apart from catching up with friends from home, what should I be doing now that’s productive? The answer appeared straight in front of me one day whilst I was checking my email.

“Volunteer over the summer!” (Literally in big letters like that) After scrolling down the emails list of opportunities, mentoring a teenager in care was the activity that took my interest.  I contacted the student union rep for more information, and soon booked myself in for two training days and a CRB check.  All paid for by the University of course. (Score!) The training taught me how to deal with children in care and what they might have been through in the past. It was an eye opener to say the least, and it was all I needed to confirm that I wanted and had to do this.  So after playing the parts of both mentor and mentee in some role play, learning the 1-10 grading step technique, and speaking to a representative from the county council, I was ready! Or was I?

Our first meeting

I remember at first I was quite nervous after I was paired with someone with a learning disability. I honestly didn’t know what to expect.  When I was taken to the care home for the first time and met my mentee and his care supervisors, I suddenly realised the seriousness of what I had put myself into. Then to my horror, whilst all the paperwork was being settled, I was left alone with my mentee! HELP! Well that’s what I thought at first. He soon told me that he enjoyed playing on the wii. The pairing had worked, I was successfully matched to someone I could get along with and mentee with no problem at all. Time passed and before I knew it, we had to end our game of bowling as the introductions and paperwork was all finished. All I had to do now was to arrange a day and time each week to meet for three hours of my time.

What did we do?

Week by week , hour by hour, time flew. I was given an £80 budget each month to take him out. Some of the activities it covered included bowling, going to the cinema, golf and taking him to his local football club to see his favourite team play. This killed me inside as I support a different team. (I refuse to wear your teams’ shirt!) Nonetheless it was worth it to see how happy and confident he had become since our first meeting. Once I took him out for sushi as he had never tried it before. I still remember the look of excitement on his face when he saw the conveyor belt with all the small dishes on.  Sadly he didn’t like the sushi, but he and his supervisors were so happy that he was experiencing new things away from the care home. It was nice to see him smile after that day when he told them about how I tried wasabi. (HOT!) We all giggled.

What did we get out of it?

My mentee really enjoyed coming out of the care home and spending time with someone else.  As his mentor, it was my job to guide him through those six months by talking about many things such as careers, and student life to asking simple things such as how his day at college was. My mentee was most confident opening up about these things to me during our cycling days, which we went on fortnightly to lower the budget spending.  It also kept us both fit and healthy.  Not only did mentoring increase his confidence, make him happier and get a better view on life. It gave us both an experience never to forget.

There are not many animated films out this New Year so far. In fact the only one out at the moment is a French film, redubbed for the UK, ‘A Monster in Paris’. So how does the only animated film so far look and set the target in the cinemas?

Director Bibo Beregon (Shark Tale, Flushed Away, The Bee Movie) sets his latest film in Paris, 1910, during the ‘Great Flood, where Emile, voiced by Jay Harington plays a shy movie projectionist alongside Raoul, Adam Goldberg, a vivid inventor who finds themselves on the hunt for a mysterious creature terrorizing the city. But with the city’s ruthless striving police chief Préfet Maynott Danny Huston on the hunt for glory,  their opinions are changed when they join forces with Lucile, the big star of the City Vanessa Paradis, and a well mannered monkey in an attempt to save the monster, their latest friend.

There are certain aspects of this film that make it a stand out to Beregon’s past films. In The Bee Movie, a theme shown is on the present and how it is essential that we look after our environment, but his latest film focuses on the past during a historical event and to keep hopes high and not judging the character of someone. Throughout the film, the city is seen as desolate, using bleak shades of colour such as black and grey that would definitely impress the likes of Tim Burton. The dull colours certainly represents how run down the city was during the disaster. In contrast, the choice of colour shown in the characters are represented with many bright colours, for example Emile in bright green and police chief Maynott in yellow. As well as this the viewer gets to see that the citizens are keeping morale high by viewing regular films and shows as seen in the film.  This being said, the message and themes is the only aspect that represent the film positively.

Because the film isn’t originally English, it drags on with jokes that aren’t funny. The audience didn’t show much of a good reaction and for this to happen in an animation where most of the viewers are children, this isn’t a good thing.  The poor humour slows the pace down and the film doesn’t pick up until the very end where the action is shown. Furthermore for a film which shows the historic event of a flood, there isn’t much water shown, as there is only a few seconds of it represented when they are stranded in the flood. This could be because water is the hardest thing to animate, but that being said Beregon managed to do this fine in Flushed Away.

Compared to one of Beregon’s previous films, A Sharks Tale, which features big names such as Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, Jack Black, Rene Zellweger, Scorsese, and De Niro the cast isn’t great either. The lack of cast and big talent that isn’t shown in this animation compared with Shark Tales, brings this film down, as well as the songs that aren’t as catchy compared to the hit ‘See you at the car wash’.

This animated film shows little effort in trying to be successful through its bad script letting it down. A child in primary school could do much better. For this reason I give it a small 4 out of 10.  The failed film doesn’t set much of a target for other animations this year to follow, but with the likes of Madagascar 3 to come out later this year, at least then animated films can hopefully be redeemed.

New comer to the film industry, director Josh Trank raises this question in his first film,Chronicle, an action, sci-fi, packed drama. Three teenagers at high school gain these powers after making a mysterious discovery that changes the path of their lives momentarily. School favourite Steve, played by Michael B. Jordan (Hit US TV show, Friday Night Lights) friends with looser Andrew, Dane DeHaan and his more popular cousin Matt, Alex Russell and causes havoc amongst the city with practical jokes, but it isn’t long until their friendship is tested when power gets to their head and a darker side from one of the friends is embraced.

The jaw dropping film is filmed entirely from Andrew’s camera point of view. He films his life and the antics he and his friends get up to, for example playing practical jokes in the grocery store and so the camera shots we see revolve around what he and his friends are filming when they use their powers, So some of the shots we see are first person, much like the ones shown in Cloverfield.  But this is not like Cloverfield in the sense that mot all of the film is shot in first person, but it takes that perspective as once the camera can be controlled by the characters minds, they are able to keep the camera in the air, and this is when filming in the traditional way with panning and tilting camera shots filmed as normal, for example when the three of them are flying in the sky. Filming in this way gives the film a slow start but in the context it is filmed and along with the films humour and seriousness, it adds to the plot and builds the storyline, without this kind of filming, it wouldn’t work as it has become part of the story.

With amazing special effects, you will be left convinced that this is believable. The use of chroma key technology by using green screen is shown remarkably well throughout, during scenes where access is not possible to location sites, like that of Tibet to flying through the air. Alongside this are the kick ass physical effects such as explosions that give you the action that you are paying to see.  

Story wise, without the way it is captured on camera, it would have been shockingly bad and wouldn’t be the same. Viewers would just be left with a sense of de je vu, as some of the themes shown towards the end such as darkness and betrayal are identical to that of Star Wars. In fact if you have seen Star Wars you will instantly be reminded of the relationship between Anakin Skywalker and Obi One. This being said, you mustn’t be put down in watching the film. The storyline of the film is fantastic. It has humour shown in the characters rebel personality portrayed by their practical jokes, and in contrast seriousness is made known with themes such as domestic abuse and rage.

If you want something different to the regular sci-fi action dramas, then Chronicle is definitely worth adding to the list of films to watch. The special effects and camera work is perfectly executed throughout and with contrasting themes shown next to it throughout the story, I give this film a high topping, 9/10. 

When it comes to films based on Roald Dahl’s classic books, there hasn’t been many. Remember Matilda and James and the Giant Peach in 1996? Well it was 9 years until another Dahl film was made when Tim Burton directed the remake to the loveable, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Well 4 years after that, in 2009, Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Rushmore) delivered an incredible stop motion animationfor the family, of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.

This is the tale about a Fox, not an ordinary fox, but a fantastic fox. Mr Fox, played by George Clooney, is a family man, but he wasn’t always one. Once a farm raider, stealing chickens for dinner, now retired after Mrs Fox, Meryl Streep was pregnant with cub Ash, Jason Schwartzman (Bored To Death). He gets bored of his new life as a family man and a column writer for the paper, and decides to move out of his burrow into a top of the range tree, which overlooks three of the meanest, nastiest and greediest farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean Michael Gambon. Its then that he decides that he has to go back to his old ways crossing the line of family responsibility  and ruin the farmers businesses during his midnight adventures.  It isn’t long before the famers join forces to stop their pest problem and causing problem not just for the Fox family but also for his other animal friends in the community.  

Unlike most book films brought to the cinema screens, Fantastic Mr Fox, is just like its book, which is good for those that have read the book. The titles of the chapters of the story are shown at the start of each new scene at the top of the screen, keeping to its story book style. The rhymes and complete randomness within the story are also kept in.  For example, when Coach Skip Owen Wilson explains the rules of’ Whackbat’, as fast as he can so that nobody understands the rules of the game, and when Mr Fox makes his long speeches and describes all the animals by their Latin names.  The film also sticks to the books themes by focusing on family and good and evil.

Compared to other Dahl films, this is different and in ways a lot more successful than previous films. 

First of all, is the random and spot on hilarious script, and the amount of top acting talent that was involved with the voices of the film. The all round cast adds to the humour of the film, with their well recognised voices giving the characters more of a comedic value within their quotes. For example, when Clooney delivers repeated one liner’s such as, “Here put this bandit hat on”, in a devious yet calm tone.  This delivery of the quote emphasises on the films randomness which makes it funny.

What also makes this film different to any other animated or Dhal film is the way it was produced. It uses stop motion animation, a very hard and time consuming technique, with puppets. Although jagged in motion, it creates a better effect for the viewer making it look good. For example when the characters walk, run or stand up tall, we see the puppets slowly move their legs in a rough movement. Puppets aren’t just used for the animals; they are also used for the humans. Close up shots of both humans and the animal faces looks spectacular when seeing their speech and movement of facial expression, especially as we get to see the fur of the animals move.

Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards and for The 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, it is clear to why this film was a nominated for these great awards.  Keeping to the book, its script and actors add to the humour and the way the animation is produced differently by using stop motion with puppets, certainly makes it a feverishly, fantastic must watch film and so i give it a high and a very foxy 10/10.