Random and Irrelevant Film Trivia

This blog post is exactly what it says in the title... random trivia about films from the past fifty years that you don't really need to know, but maybe one day it will come up in conversation and it can be your time to shine... probably not though.

Without further ado, here we are.

• In the Godfather, there are approximately 61 scenes in the film that feature people eating, drinking, or just food. 

• The Departed is the movie with the most uses of the word "fuck" and its derivatives (237) to win the Best Picture Oscar.

• The large poster in Harold and Kumar's apartment in Harold and Kumar get the Munchies is for a 1942 anti-marijuana propaganda film known as "Devil's Harvest". 

• The "Scuba Steve" action figure in Big Daddy is a fictional doll made up by Adam Sandler. "Scuba Steve" is based on a doll that Adam Sandler owned when he was a child, called Diver Dan. 

• Oliver Stone wrote Scarface while fighting a cocaine addiction.

• The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest in Pulp Fiction was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards. 

• When a Fight Club member sprays the priest with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happens because the cameraman couldn't keep himself from laughing. 

• Alan Rickman's feature film debut was the original Die Hard.

• In the final scene of Snatch, the 86-carat diamond is referred to as an 84-carat diamond. 

• Johnny Depp wore contact lenses in the first Pirates of the Caribbean which served as sunglasses so he wouldn't be squinting in the sun all the time. 

Introducing... Go Lazarus

The three strapping gentlemen you see above are tonsillitis sufferer Adam, almost-apple-genius Ant and half Italian, half film nerd Dan. These men are each a third of the alternative rock band Go Lazarus. They spent their twenties looking for the perfect sound, experimenting with different bands such I Am Without Shoes and Red Feather Lake, and have combined all their varying musical tastes and copious experience within the industry together to create something new, catchy and pretty damn epic. This month I caught up with Ant and Dan to get to know the inner workings of Go Lazarus.

When and why did Go Lazarus start?

Ant: Well, GL actually started in 2006 but when Dan and I were at college, we used to play together a load, like Stone Roses covers and stuff, then life kind of got in the way. We went to uni so stopped for a bit, then started, then Ant went travelling for a year, so we stopped, and when he got back we finally decided to do something properly.

Dan: It's like the Blues Brother, we were trying to get the band back together... we basically procrastinated for ten years.

If GL could play with any band, who would it be?

Ant: Mutually, it'd be the Stone Roses. Imagine saying something like "Did you like our support act, the Stones Roses? They're pretty good, ain't they?". It would be cool to play with Alexisonfire but they're a completely different genre so it'd be a weird gig...

Dan: I'd quite like to play with Bloc Party... or early the Cure... or maybe Led Zeppelin.

So if you could be one musician for the day, who would it be?

Dan: Buddy Rich, all jazz on your ass. That is jazz not jizz by the way, that could be awkward.

Ant: I'd have Eddie Hazel [psychedelic guitarist from Funkadelic] but he did have a pretty bad PCP addiction so… maybe not.

Dan: Adam would probably be Daniel Beddingfield, he actually loves him. 

Use one word to describe Go Lazarus.

Ant: Fractured

Dan: What? (A similar reaction to my own).

Ant: Musically, recording, writing, when we're tryna organise who drives to a gig... fractured.

Dan: Tempestuous.

It was at this point Ant and Dan decided to look up old Victorian words that are the best to describe oneself.

Ant: Lunting; walking whilst smoking a pipe... haha, this is a good one; "Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist".

Where is the band going to be in five years time?

Ant: Lunting whilst fractured; then spermologing.

Dan: Hopefully still together.

Ant: Emotionally.

Dan: Spiritually, physically...

Ant: Hopefully we'll still have all our teeth.

Dan: and our hair... we're pretty fucking rock and roll. Yeah.

Who writes the songs in the band?

Ant: That would be me.

Where does your inspiration for song writing come from?

Ant: Just life, I guess. I write what I want to listen, I write something I hope the other two will like. 

Lyrically some songs mean a lot, for instance 'Avalanche' was about someone who's parents passed away, but sometimes I write throwaway songs that I just feel like writing at the time.

Tell me about the new EP.

Ant: It was recorded in Cambridge last December with a guy called Mattie Moon.

Dan: We spent the majority of the year writing the tracks and went down there for a couple of weeks to a shitty little industrial estate with no heating. We laid the tracks down and he spent a month producing them.

Ant: At one point, I had four amps at once, it was like an acid trip with an ego.

Some of your songs seem to be different genres, some more rock based, some more indie based. 

What direction do you see GL going for in the future?

Ant: I like stuff to be up tempo 'cause I get bored. I get a lot of my influence from The Rapture and warehouse parties, much to Dan's annoyance. It's all varied though. We'll just continue playing the best music, a combination of all our influences put together.

Since the release of the EP "3 Strikes" in February, Go Lazarus had been played on the radio in America, Australlia, Canada and have been played on numerous occasions on BBC Introducing. It can be bought on iTunes or listened to at www.soundcloud.com/golazarus.

The Fall of Print Based Media as the Power of the Internet Rises; Documentary Script

Below is the first five minutes of as documentary I wrote about a year and a half ago about the fall of print based media as accessibility and usage of the internet increases.

AUDIO 0.0     – 0.20 MAN Facebook WOMAN Twitter MAN YouTube        WOMAN Google WOMAN Hotmail MAN MySpace GIRL Yahoo BOY Wikipedia GIRL Instagram WOMAN BlogSpot WOMAN Tumblr MAN Amazon MAN eBay WOMAN Internet Movie Database MAN ITV Player WOMAN 4OD MAN BBC iPlayer MAN AOL WOMAN Vimeo MAN Facebook GIRL Twitter WOMAN YouTube WOMAN Google MAN Hotmail WOMAN MySpace WOMAN Yahoo GIRL Wikipedia MAN Amazon WOMAN BlogSpot MAN eBay MAN Instagram WOMAN Tumblr MAN Internet Movie Database WOMAN BBC iPlayer MAN ITV Player WOMAN 4OD MAN VIMEO WOMAN AOL WOMAN Facebook MAN Twitter WOMAN YouTube MAN Google WOMAN Hotmail MAN Sky Sports Online BRONTE What about print based media? 0.20 – 0.30       THEME TUNE Alex Clare - Too Close (Instrumental) 0.30 – 1.15 BRONTE       Hello, my name is Bronte Dawson and throughout      this documentary I am going to reveal to you the truth that is right beneath every one of our noses... but no one is realising.       The internet is an incredible source, you can get anything you want from it; shopping, socialising, research, information, music… but is it getting to powerful? And are we forgetting some of the world’s most reliable resources – in print based media? Each of us will have our different opinions when it comes to the Internet and print-based media such as newspapers and magazines. This documentary will explore different views and hypotheses and maybe, just maybe, together we can see the truth, the reality.     It’s internet vs. print based media. Who will win the final battle?       To start it all off, I have taken to the streets to see what the public think. Here is what they said. 1.15 – 1.17 BACKGROUND NOISE OF BUSY CROWD 1.17 – 2.17 DEBBIE HARRIS       To be quite honest, you can’t really believe anything you read in the newspapers these days. No wonder print based media is going bust, what do you expect with such a bad reputation?     I guess it’s wrong to stereotype all printed publications by the few tacky and badly written ones, but the quality is really gone for most. Most newspapers just contain gossip, scandal and lies. I don’t understand why people would buy it – just the same as most magazines. Hardly any of its true and even the very little that is true is exaggerated.       Local newspapers don’t contain as much nonsense but they don’t contain any real news anymore, they don’t reach the real needs of the audience. People like me wouldn’t go out of our way to read about the local fate at the church or want to pay £3.50 to vote for a local girl in a scam of a modeling competition. Local newspapers used to bring the community together but don’t even get paid attention anymore and it’s not surprising.       As for the internet, I’m not naïve enough to believe everything I read but it’s so much easier to search for something I am actually interested in and find a decent source straight away – it’s cheaper, more reliable and easier to access. 2.17 – 2.19 BACKGROUND NOISE OF CARS AND PEOPLE 2.19 – 3.19 MARTIN HEALY      Who cares about printed publications these days? Like really, what is the point? I don’t understand why anyone would want to go out there way to go to a shop or a newsagent to get a magazine or a newspaper when it is so easy to get it online. I mean I could pull out my phone right now and find what’s going on right now on Twitter or even Facebook; I could watch videos about it on YouTube. I’m pretty sure there is an app for iPhones and iPads that lets you read the news easily, without having to pay much or go out your way to get it.      The same goes for magazines, pretty much all decent magazines have a website which is free or an app which costs much less than having to go out and buy it every week, or fortnight, or month, or whatever. It’s just so much easier to get exactly what you want.      The only reason I could justify someone going to the shop to get printed publications is if they don’t have a smartphone, laptop, PC, computer, iPad, tablet or a Mac. And really, how many people don’t have at least one of them? 3.19 – 3.21 BACKGROUND NOISE OF AN ECHOED PIANO AND CHOIR SINGING INSIDE BUILDING 3.21 – 4.21 PATRICIA BOURNE      I don’t see what the big deal is about the internet. Instead of going out and having a coffee with a friend and being socialable, people are spending all day on their computers and phones and the rest of this technology.      It’s not bringing the community together like it is meant to, it is tearing it apart. People don’t have time to take part in local plays like they used to, the numbers here have dropped from around 100 attendants to about 27. People don’t seem to have any need to come together and entertain eachother when they can find it all online.      As for local newspapers, they have gone from the most important news source to the least. I used to go out my way to get a local newspaper and I really appreciated it, and now people get them dropped through their front door and don’t bother to pick it up.    It is a real shame that today’s society has let this technology rule our lives, but that is just the power of the internet. 4.21 -  4.46 BRONTE There is quite clearly very mixed opinions amongst the public, all of which seemed inconclusive, so I decided to take my search for the truth a bit further and decided to talk to the people involved. Journalists.      I got in touch with one blogger, one local journalist and one national journalist to see what they thought about the matter. Here is what they had to say.

VISUAL INT: WORK OFFICE MS of 30 year old man wearing a suit, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE TOPSHOP MS of 23 year old woman wearing casual clothes, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE A COLLEGE MS of 19 year old man wearing casual clothes, centre screen. INT: IN LIVING ROOM MS of 42 year old woman in relaxing clothes, centre screen. EXT: IN PARK MS of 32 year old woman in winter clothes, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE MUSIC VENUE MS of 27 year old man in punk clothes, centre screen. INT: BEDROOM COVERED IN BOYBAND POSTERS MS of 15 year old girl in school uniform, centre screen. EXT: ON SWING MS of 16 year old boy casual clothes, centre screen. EXT: IN PLAYGROUND MS of 14 year old girl in posh school uniform, centre screen. INT: IN CAFE MS of 27 year old woman in casual clothes, centre screen. EXT: ON HIGH STREET MS of 18 year old woman in fashionable clothes, centre screen. INT: IN CAR MS of 35 year old man in work clothes, centre screen. INT: SAT BY COMPUTER MS of 21 year old man in geeky clothes, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE LESUIRE CENTRE MS of 28 year old woman in gym clothes, centre screen. EXT: ON TOP OF RAMP AT SKATEPARK MS of 18 year old man in skater clothing, centre screen. INT: IN QUEUE AT CINEMA MS of 24 year old woman in evening clothing, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE NEWSPAPER OFFICES MS of 37 year old man in suit, centre screen. INT: IN NEWSAGENTS BEHIND COUNTER MS of 52 year old man in casual work clothes, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE CLUB MS of 21 year old woman in clubbing clothes, centre screen. INT: IN PUB MS of 45 year old man in typical pub clothes, centre screen. EXT: ON BENCH IN TOWN MS of 17 year old girl in casual clothes, centre screen. INT: ON TRAIN MS of 30 year old woman in summer clothes, centre screen. INT: AT DINNER TABLE MS of 38 year old woman in casual clothes, centre screen. INT: IN LIBRARY MS of 24 year old man in casual clothes, centre screen. INT: IN SWIMMING POOL MS of 25 year old woman in swimming costume, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE BULL RING BY BULL MS of 21 year old woman in warm clothing, centre screen. EXT: STANDING BY SCHOOL GATE MS of 14 year old girl in school uniform, centre screen. INT: IN COLLEGE REFECTORY MS of 18 year old man in casual clothing, centre screen. EXT: ON HORSE IN RIDING SCHOOL MS of 32 year old woman in smart riding clothes, centre screen. EXT: STANDING BY TREE MS of 45 year old man in warm clothing, centre screen. INT: IN RECORDING STUDIO MS of 25 year old man in rock star clothing, centre screen. INT: IN GYM ON ROWING MACHINE MS of 18 year old woman in gym clothing, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE TOWN HALL MS of 55 year old man in a smart suit, centre screen. INT: IN HAIRDRESSERS CHAIR GETTING HAIR DONE MS of 34 year old woman in casual clothing, centre screen. EXT: ON BENCH OUTSIDE PUB MS of 29 year old man in casual smart clothing, centre screen. INT: DOING MAKE-UP IN HOUSE IN MIRROR MS of 22 year old woman in lounge clothing, centre screen. EXT: OUTSIDE JACK WILLS MS of 19 year old man in Jack Wills clothing, centre screen. EXT: SITTING OUTSIDE STARBUCKS MS of 19 year old woman in summer clothing, centre screen. INT: IN NAIL SALON MS of 36 year old woman in glamorous clothing, centre screen. EXT: AT TENNIS COURTS MS of 30 year old man in tennis clothing, centre screen. INT: SAT ON SOFA IN HOUSE WATCHING TELEVISION MS of 25 year old woman in pajamas, centre screen. INT: IN UNIVERSITY LECTURERS OFFICE MS of 42 year old man in a suit, centre screen. INT: AT STUDENT UNION MS of 20 year old woman in casual clothing, centre screen. EXT: IN FOOTBALL FIELD MS of 22 year old man in a football kit, centre screen. EXT: TOWN HIGH STREET MS of Bronte, centre screen. INT: NEWSPAPER PRINTING ROOM WS of printing process.  A Dawson Productions Documentary enters from the bottom left hand side of the screen. INT/EXT: CENTRAL HIGH STREET IN CITY Camera work by Dean Smith enters from top left hand side of the screen. Edited by Julie Andrews enters from mid-left hand side of the screen. Produced by Thomas Scott enters from bottom left hand side of the screen. BACKGROUND: LOGOS AND TITLES OF DIFFERENT PUBLICATIONS Title of the documentary appears in centre screen. EXT: BUSY TOWN HIGH STREET LS of Bronte walking down the middle of a busy high street. Other people in the shot are sped up and blurred out, Bronte to be centre screen and the public to be on either side. EXT: OUTSIDE LARGE DEBENHAMS IN TOWN HIGH STREET MS of Debbie Harris, centre screen. Name Debbie Harris appears in writing on the bottom left hand side of the screen. INT: INSIDE DEBENHAMS CAFÉ ON SOFA MS of Debbie Harris, right hand side of screen looking central towards the camera. EXT: OUTSIDE LARGE CINEMA MS of Martin Healy, centre screen. Name Martin Healy appears in writing on the bottom right hand side of the screen. INT: INSIDE CINEMA, WITH BACKGROUND OF QUEUE WITH MAINLY YOUNG PEOPLE IN IT ON MOBILE PHONES MS of Martin Healy, left hand side of screen looking centre at camera. EXT: OUTSIDE SMALL TOWN HALL WITH SIGNS ADVERTSING LOCAL PANTOMIME Name Patricia Bourne appears in writing on the bottom centre of the screen. INT: SAT AT ENTERANCE OF TOWN HALL ON CHAIR TURNED AROUND FROM AUDIENCE CHAIRS WITH BACKGROUND OF CHOIR AND PIANO MS of Patricia Bourne on right hand side of screen looking central.

Day in the Life of Nadine Forshaw; WINOL

Meeting Susan Witt

Susan Witt is a Liberal Democrat local councillor in Winchester. Her ward is the St Barnabas which operates in the Weeke area and also includes fellow Liberal Democrat Councillor Anne Weir and Conservative Councillor Eileen Berry.

When last recorded, the area of which the St Barnabas ward has effect has 5,513 people living there with an average age of just under 45 years old, over 75% of which are Christian. Over 54% of the population are over 45 years of age. 

I asked the councillor about her ward and the main issues they faced.

"The main problem we seem to face is the public complaining about the parking situations, particularly outside the [Peter Symonds] college. We've tried to resolve this issue many times including introducing parking permits which didn't seem to work. We have had discussions about possibly building a new car park in the area but it is still in the discussion size. It is important never to make promises incase you can't keep them."

Witt, who has another job working at a primary school, was elected as a local councillor after working on a local magazine: "I saw what the other councillors were doing and I knew that I could do it better." The last re-election was in 2010.

When asked how feedback and comments are received from the public, Witt said: "We talk to the public in various ways. We go door to door dropping off surveys and then come back to collect them. They can also e-mail us and find details of the ward online. We like to sort out the current issues."

99 News Bulletin

The Dreyfus Affair

INTRODUCTION

The Dreyfus file, commonly known as the Dreyfus affair, is about a Jewish French artillery officer who was wrongly accused of treason after secret French military documents were found in a bin at the German Embassy in Paris in 1894.

By 1895, Dreyfus had been stripped of his army rank and sent to Devil's Island for a life sentence.

France was now divided; the army, the monarchists and the Catholic church stood in one corner and the  republicans, the socialists and the Jews stood another. At the time France was materialistic and considered the army as a symbol of French identity, there was also hope for vengeance and the army became a status symbol both collectively and individually. The army became the safe keeper of a close tradition society and was racist and anti-Semitic.

In 1896, the real culprit of the crime is found, French army major named Ferdinand Esterhazy, by a man named  Lt Col Piquard. However, high ranking army officials were content with the way things were and suppressed the evidence. Piquard was then sent to serve at the southern border of Tunisia. 

In 1989 a story was written by Emile Zola called J'Accuse. This is one of the most vital happenings for the media in history. It was one of the first stories that actually got shit done; it brought to attention to happenings and unveiled a political scandal. 

The Dreyfus Affair within the media was one which sparked the very nature of investigative journalism. on 28th October a letter was received at Le Libre Parole with information about the Dreyfus case, they proceeded to publish the article about the arrest questioning as to why the military authorities sought to keep it silent, this resulted in a violent press conference and subsequently produced what we know as investigative journalism today.

It worked though, it worked well, and today it is still newspapers uncovering political scandals and world news. For example, the watergate scandal was uncovered by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, which saw the only American president ever to resign, Richard Nixon and many other arrests.

There is also the example of the Daily Mail when they printed a front page with the pictures of five males, with the headline "The Mail accuses these men of killing. if we are wrong, let them sue us". They blatantly identified the murderers of Stephen Lawrence with pictures and names; using the media in a significant way to appeal for justice.

Back to Dreyfus, in 1899 he was pardoned but not acquitted but after no end of public campaigning, seven years later in 1906, he was acquitted, and given his job back with a promotion.

Anti-Semitism and Zionism

The growth of antisemitism has been virulent since the publication of Jewish France by Édouard Drumont in 1886 (150,000 copies in the first year). Jewish emancipation has evolved since the French revolution. Jews were killed in street and the press is virtually free to write and disseminate any information, even when offensive or defamatory. Legal risks are limited if the target is a private person. La Libre Parole newspaper: “France is for French”  allowed Drumont to further expand his audience to a popular readership. 

Bernard Lazare was a French Jewish political journalist and anarchist. In 1894 he wrote about anti-semitism, its history and causes, an in-depth study of the origins of anti-semitism. He believed Jewish assimilation and dissolution would stop such hate. He didn't want to be involved in the Dreyfus affair and said “ the Dreyfus family is wealthy enough to sort themselves out – mainly if he is not guilty”.

Bernard Lazare wrote The State of the Jews in 1896 which envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish State during the 20th century; the believed the end to anti-semitism could only be achieved if the Jews had a land of their own.

Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian journalist and writer and is seen as the father of modern political Zionism. and in effect the foundation of the State of Israel, despite being entirely secular.