The Blind Photographer

The Blind Photographer is an intriguing short movie. It focuses on a photographer who goes to unusual lengths to capture unprompted pictures of homeless people. To use his own words he wants his pictures to be “not gloomy staged or posed but spontaneous and full of joy”.

Yet perhaps this photographer’s eye is not quite what it should be as we follow him to a viewing of his work at a swanky art gallery. My immediate thoughts were well, that's biting the hand that feeds you. Watch the short through to the very end to see what I mean – it is a thought provoking yet not entirely downbeat ending. Cynicism and decadence are, perhaps, trumped by youthful hope – morally at least.

The Blind Photographer was made by Christian Denslow, who sums himself up thus - filming things makes me happy – which is cool. It start the very photogenic (can one say filmogenic?) Thiru Naidoo (pictured) as the eponymous artist whose last scene (and I am sure he didn’t mind) was completely stolen by Ino (another one name only child actor in the vein of Sabu, perhaps?) who gives this short film its heart.

The Manhattan Project – Time Lapse

Hold on to your hats for a whistle stop tour of Manhattan.  Cameron Michael lugged 120-130 pounds of gear around all of Manhattan in order to bring you this astonishing footage.  Not all of it, strictly speaking, was legally done but I am sure you will turn a blind eye once you have sat through this amazing piece of work!

What I particularly like about this stop motion piece is the camera work, strictly speaking the way that the camera pans while the stop motion is actually happening.  This is a fairly new technique and has not been attempted successfully (let alone brilliantly!) by many people.  Here it is seamless. Just awesome work!

The Astronomer’s Sun

The Astronomer’s Sun is a multi-award winning stop motion animation directed by Simon Cartwright and Jessica Cope.  A young man enters an observatory which was created by his father many years ago – to confront the events of those times and to follow, ultimately, in his father’s path.  He is accompanied by the mechanical teddy bear which has been his companion since the traumatic events of his childhood.

This really is quite a magical piece of film, mysterious and haunting – and which stays with you long after the final credits have rolled.  Little wonder then that The Astronomer’s Sun has won 16 awards.  If you are in or near West Yorkshire in the UK and want to see the sets and characters for yourself then pay a visit to the Animation Gallery at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The Cast Courts

The Cast Courts of the V&A museum in London are simply exhilarating although many people puzzle why what are effectively copies should entrance visitors to such an extent.  You get the answer in this video which takes a close look at some of the gallery’s most famous pieces.  The two which stand out, of course, are the plaster cast of Trajan’s column and the 5.5 metre high cast of Michelangelo's David which we see getting to see really close up here. Fascinating.

Covert Cashew: The Secret Life of a Nut

It’s difficult to know quite where to start when it comes to the cashew nut.  To many people it is nothing more than an occasional (if moreish) snack. So, let’s begin with a picture of one on the tree – there it is, above.  Not quite what you expected?  It’s a nut with a number of secrets hidden in plain view, not least the way it grows. And before we go any further, let’s get another thing straight: it isn’t a nut either.

Image Credit Premasagar

The way it grows will only be a surprise to you, of course, if you live outside the regions where it is farmed – and there is one good reason for that too.  Originating in Brazil the cashew was introduced elsewhere in the 1500s and is now grown in countries such as India, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Vietnam. In fact anywhere between the latitudes of 25°N and 25°S, where the tropical evergreen can flourish, it is farmed.  It takes shape like this...

Quizzes for GCSE English

Are you looking for some good quizzes for GCSE English? Over on our sibling site, Pass GCSE English, you can find many a good reason why giving learners quizzes in the classroom is a good idea – even if the terminal exam doesn’t have any! A quiz can do a lot more than just ask for answers – it can be the trigger for a whole lot more.

So, whether it’s structure, language, writers’ perspective or synthesis, there are quizzes that can be made – and this site is the gateway to a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) that allows learners working towards GCSE English to do loads of quizzes. Loads and loads and loads!

Here’s the first two paragraphs from the article: When a student walks into that big scary hall to take their GCSE English exam, they won’t have to do a single quiz – unless you count the “true or false” element of Paper 2 which is worth a measly four marks out of the 160 up for grabs across both exams. So, why on earth use quizzes as a teaching and learning tool in preparation for this incredibly important exam?

That’s a good question – and a simple one too. My very simple answer would be “because they’re fun” and generally that’s where I would like the questioning to end. I’ve never seen anything engage students more than a good quiz, especially on a platform like Kahoot.

Want to read more – then go to passgcseenglish.com

10 Things to do With Nettles When You’re Bored

Normally, nettles are associated with that nasty sting that they give you should you be foolhardy enough to examine them with bare hands or unfortunate enough to have a brother or sister willful enough to want to push you in to them.  However, they have many more uses than a tool in the escalation in to nastiness of sibling rivalry.  So, what exactly can you do with nettles when you are bored?

Push Someone in to Them

Image Credit Flickr User Jason Roberts

We may as well get this one over with now. There are any number of people who have contemplated throwing (sometime) loved ones in to a forest of nettles. We wouldn’t advise this course of action. Unless you know you can get away with it. Nevertheless, when dealing with annoying family members it must be noted that a cliff is a more effective – not to mention permanent solution.

Me or the Dog

Tom believes that his dog, Dudley, is talking to him.  Not only that, the dog sets out to prove that Tom’s girlfriend is cheating on him.  Me or the Dog is a both a bittersweet comedy drama and a thought provoking short film.  It was funded by the Wellcome Trust with the aim of a positive portrayal of schizophrenia and to raise public awareness of the condition.  Starring Edward Hogg, and Kemi-bo Millar it features Caddy as Dudley and Martin Clunes as his voice. 

Goodbye Mister De Vries

Mr De Vries is old – terribly old and he sits alone in his house awaiting his inevitable departure from this world. Yet one morning a mysterious package arrives and he realises that there is one more thing he must do before he leaves.  This very touching animated short was directed by Mascha Halberstad and won the international short and animation film award at the Schlingel Film Festival in Germany.

Danza de los Muertos

On Dia de los Muertos, a young boy named Tomás visits his grandmother’s grave. But this enchanted day of celebration brings his grandmother back from the afterlife where she attempts to share a dance with her grandson. 

This is Cassie Urban’s Senior film which she made at Savannah College of Art and Design 2013.

Kismet Diner

If there is one thing in life of which we should all be certain is that we don’t get much of a choice about who we end up loving.  It happens and it may make us scratch our heads but why question something which is obviously out of our hands.

Written and Directed by Mark Nunneley, Kismet Diner follows Laura (beautifully played by Ilinca Roe), waitress and aspiring singer who often takes a turn at the mic at work (now there’s an understanding boss). 

The problem is that the object of her affection, who she doesn’t know from Adam, the guy she has fallen for, simply doesn’t listen to her.  How she gets around this is the story of this rather charming short film which won the Manhattan Short Festival in 2013.  A word of warning – you may need a hanky!

Land of the Rising Sun

Land of the rising sun is a time-lapse short created by Todor Vankov made in Japan in the summer of 2013. It takes in Tokyo, Funabashi, Kyoto, Hagata, Fukuoka, Aso, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Sakurajima.  You will see the breath-taking Japanese countryside as well as the hustle and bustle of the towns and cities. It really gives a great flavour of the country and its people.

10 Positively Peculiar Plants

The Buddha's Hand

Image Credit Wikimedia

The Buddha’s Hand fruit looks, to all intents and purposes, as if it could have been grown in a certain town called Springfield.  As well as a three eyed fish, it would come as no surprise to see the Simpson siblings discover this peculiar fruit, grown as a result of contamination from Mr Burns’ nuclear power plant.  However, this fruit is for real.

For more information, CLICK HERE

The Rainbow Rose

Image Credit lickr User INTV Gene

These are not artificial roses! The Rainbow Rose is now available in the UK for the first time and although you may think that these weird and wonderful blooms are painted or artificial they are one hundred percent natural. Almost. Well, ninety nine percent. Well, OK, they have been messed with, but not, as you may expect, on a genetic level.

For more information, CLICK HERE

Preguntas Hermosas - Beautiful Questions

This is quite extraordinary. If you are doing something else at the same time as reading this, then focus, please, for two minutes on this wonderful animation. Preguntas Hermosas is a story about a time that was shared between two people. It is told through a combination of Poema X by Pablo Neruda and Under the Harvest Moon by Carl Sandburg.  It unfolds in three parts; a fond remembrance, loss, and then finally acceptance.

The imagery is amazing, a woman silently explodes in to a mass of butterflies, a train makes its way underneath a carriage clock – just astonishingly beautiful animation by Süperfad, a collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists..  Plus, the poems are very well translated in to English if you do not understand Spanish.

I would like to add another language to the mix too – Welsh.  I think the closest word we have in the language to the effect that this sublime combination of words, images and music has is hiraeth.  It has no direct English translation.  It is a feeling tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia and wistfulness. Preguntas Hermosas made me full of hiraeth.

E.T.A.

Do you have a boring job? I will guarantee (almost) that it is not as boring as Marvin’s.  He is on a long haul cargo flight and is bored, bored, bored.  His estimated time of arrival is over two years but all is not as it seems!

This is a very cool animation by production house Junkworks – plus if you are a fan of a certain science fiction franchise there is a real belly laugh for you by the end!

ETA was originally premiered at BreakPoint 2008 in Bingen, Germany where it won the 1st prize in the animation competition – not surprisingly.

Would You Stand on The Kjeragbolten?

The name means the Kjerag Bolt – a massive 5 m³ boulder wedged in to a crevasse on the edge of the Kjerag mountain in Lysefjorden, Norway. Without the help of any mountaineering equipment, brave visitors can walk on to the bolt – it is said to bring good luck.

Image Credit Flickr User tgsaw

Yet there are consequences for those unsteady of foot: the nearest ledge is 241 meters below. Once you bounce off that there is a drop of a further 735 meters. So, the question is, would you – like these mad fools brave souls – stand on the Kjeragbolten? There is absolutely no Photoshop used here, so if you don’t like heights, look away now!

Image Credit Flickr User epicxero