Ah the mad world my masters. Looking at lists of the great romantic stories of all time and top for most is Wuthering Heights. That's love disaster not love story and the next Anna Karenina which is just as bad.
Had a good turnout for the last meeting of 2008 and all did presentations and Mike and Daniel filmed and everyone eat the mince pies I made, thank you it made the cook in me happy.
Last night went to Cineformation drinks at Persuasive Media and had a fascinating conversation on deaf culture and on digital versus film cameras with a guy 25 years working for Kodak.
Dinner with director friend who is finishing editing his block of Being Human and heard tales of filming Robin Hood in Budapest. Now he is a respected and busy director yet he had little comedy on his CV so although approached not offered pilot of BH. He then went to do Robin Hood whose executive producer was also producer on BH and she saw how he handled the comedy moments out in Hungary and a result, bingo, he then he gets offered a block on the series of BH.

Rip roaringly sunny day and the end of the week looming and this means a frenzy of mailing and texting for all next weeks meetings I still have not finalised. Have prospect of Touch party on Thursday. Bafta voting starts soon and all the films I have not seen are now in a pile ready for the Christmas break. Recomend podcasting Radio Four The Film Programme www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/filmprogramme/ listening to Morgan Freeman on working with Jack Nicholson and Jack N's take on the state of film now is a joy. Frank Cotterell Boyce citing The Apartment as the perfect script. We must watch it plus his other fav Cool Runnings.

Wednesday and mighty cold. Planning a new initiative with Chris form Performing Arts a continuing web drama set in the university toilets looking to submit proposal to PEDR for a grant. This could run and run if you get my meaning.

Read second draft of Sarah Swords script Beneath the Earth and The Sky and it is great. It respects the first rule of telling a good story tell it like a fairy tale then the magic comes. Now for a director and a winter shoot in Nevada

I have added a link to Pauline Kael the greatest film critic of her age.  Suggest a read of her article Art Trash and the movies.  

I also read interview with Christiane Annapour the emminent CNN reporter of the gulf and Iraq wars

" I think the type of storytelling doesn't exist anymore.  It just doesn't.  The unrolling of the economic crisis on our television screens is arid and flat told by experts in suits, not ordinary working people.  There is a lot of jargon, there is no storytelling.  I want to see pictures of what is going on.  I want to see the people. Storytelling is as simple as that"

Contrast this with Jeff Jarvis at his blog buzzmachine.com talking about the power of Twitter at the Mumbai attacks.

"Ever since I survived the 9/11 attacks, and later saw the coverage the world saw - smoke spied from rooftops miles away- I have made sure to always have a camera with me.  If I had had that then, the image I would have shared would not have been of smoke and helicopters, but instead of the black tear-tracks on the face of an African- American woman covered in the grey dust of destruction.  Such will be our new view of news: urgent, live, direct, emotional, personal.

The media is available to all to run and populate with programmes and bulletins