act 6 scene 1

sunset or sunrise.

It’s winter here and sunrise is late and sunset is early. It’s not as bad as the UK and, by all accounts, the 20 degrees Celsius weather we had this week is better than in the other hemisphere. This week has been hectic. We have been thrown in the deep end with a whole load of practical work on cameras. I’m really enjoying it and tomorrow we must shoot the first thing that we will be assessed on (yes, on Saturday). We also have journals to do and this week we are looking at the subject of self.

DSTV (the African ’sky’ satellite company) showed a film on one of their movie channels tonight. I sat down with the intention of watching a few minutes of BBC World and then got sucked into an amazing film called “Before Sunset“. It’s 80 minutes of real time conversation between two people who met in “Before Sunrise” and now meet nine years later. I like it as the acting is superb and it’s shot is such a seemingly simple way. The majority of the film is shot from a steadicam that the two main actors are following. There are no jumps in time and few edits. The film would be utterly boring if not for natural acting and a script that brings it alive and makes it real life. I was totally engaged and as other people wandered into the room they to gradually came under the spell of the simple yet effective magic recipe that makes the film stand out.

I didn’t know that it was a sequel - I’m keen to find and watch the predecessor this weekend. Once I’ve completed my journal and video assignments of course.