Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Michael J. Fox Quotes & Wisdom

I have this habit of ruining my favorite books by scribbling in them, making notes, highlighting, etc. Today, I re-read Michael J. Fox's 'Lucky Man,' a really incredible book that I think everyone should read (literally, everyone.) I thought I'd share a few interesting quotes from the book in the hope they may interest you, and hopefully spur you on into buying the book, or borrowing my copy.

"Whatever anyone else thinks about me is none of my business."


On Parkinson's Disease
"These last ten years of coming to terms with my disease would turn out to be the best ten years of my life - not in spite of my illness, but because of it."

On School, talking to his Mother
"These are absolutes, Mom. They're boring, take math, two plus two equals four, I mean, that's already on the books, right? Somebody's already nailed that down. So what do they need me for?."

On Auditions:
"A word about rejection. Auditions, most struggling actors will tell you, suck. You get a few pages of a script and read it over and over in hopes of picking up some clue to the character, some insight that will give you an edge in translating written words into a living, breathing, engaging, and profound approximation of human behavior. If you can do this better than any of the other actors in competition for the role, you get to eat; if you can't, you don't. At least, you delude yourself into thinking it's that simple. It's not.

You also have to be careful that you're not too skinny, fat, tall, short, blond, redheaded, dark, light, loud, quiet, young, or old, and that there isn't something about you that reminds the director of his or her girlfriend, boyfriend, father, mother, priest, therapist, or despised stepchild."

Care to share?

Monday, 1 March 2010

Best Entertainment Blog - 2010 Weblog Awards.

Kid In The Front Row won the 'Best Entertainment Blog' award last night at the 2010 Weblog Awards, or the bloggies, as they're also known.

I always try to be a bit Woody Allen about awards; mumbling about how I'm 'interested in the work, not the awards' but in truth, I am really excited by this. It's great to know people are interested in the site and its content.

I started the blog because I struggled to relate to the cynicism and negativity which often permeates the industry. I was tired of talented people I know who feel polarized and oppressed in this line of work. My hope was to focus on all the things we can, will, and do achieve. The struggles of a young actress, the pain of being a writer who can't write, the kid alone in the cinema, the geek with glasses who gets ridiculed for liking old movies, the dude who gets talked down to by film snobs because he loves big action films -- these are the people I wanted to write about, and for, because they are something special. They know the joy of being alone in a cinema and the pain of a DVD getting stuck 34 minutes in. They are Kids In The Front Row.

Thanks for being here, thanks for voting, thanks for the award.

Care to share?

The Oscars & My Woeful Predictions.

So, I gotta be honest, I've never actually watched the Oscar's. Sure, I love catching the odd acceptance speech on YouTube, but generally - I've never cared too much about them. Of course, that will change when I'm nominated for one - but until then, It's not a big deal for me.

However, a guy called Nick from http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk emailed me; and asked me to partake in a thing whereby a bunch of us film writers post predictions to our blogs, and tell everyone how wonderful the vouchercodes people are (they are wonderful, they have many discounts for amazon, play, etc -- and they may even cure terminal illnesses, I'm not sure), and in return - I stand the chance to win a heap of vouchers and whatnot if I get the most right. So how could I resist?

Here are my nominations. Bare in mind a) I haven't seen many of the films I've nominated b) I've also nominated films I didn't like, so no need to blast me for taste or for getting things obviously wrong -- you're right, I'm sure, I'm just playing the game.

Best Actor - Jeff Bridges

Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz

Lead Actress - Gabourey Sidibe

Supporting Actress - Maggie Gyllenhall

Animated Film - Up

Art Direction - Dr Parnussus

Cinematography - Avatar

Director - “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary - “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith"

Editing - “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke

Foreign - “A Prophet (Un Prophète)” France

Best Picture - Up In The Air

Visual Effects - Avatar

Writing Adapted - Up In The Air

Writing Original - A Serious Man

You can see other bloggers, journalists and filmy people's predictions here: http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/competitions/oscar-predictions

Care to share?

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Patch Adams.


"So what now, huh? What do you want from me? Yeah I could do it [JUMP], we both know you wouldn't stop me.

So answer me, please. Tell me what you're doing. Okay; let's look at the logic, you create man. Man suffers enormous amounts of pain. Man dies. Heh, maybe you should have had just a few more brainstorming sessions prior to creation. You rested on the seventh day, maybe you should have spent that day on compassion. "

Care to share?