Trailer Tuesday: Liberal Arts

This week sees the trailer for Liberal Arts, a film written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (perhaps better known as Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother). This indie-drama-romance has a unique take on the difference in perception of life between a 35 year old and a university student, and how love brings them together.  Radnor's firm optimism and drive to make feel-good things is blatantly present, with a charming style and sense of humour to match, making this a front runner on the indie circuit. Here's what it's all about:

"When 30-something Jesse returns to his alma mater for a professor's retirement party, he falls for Zibby, a college student, and is faced with a powerful attraction that springs up between them." - IMDb

• Performances look great from the two leads, Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen, which is good considering that most of the screen time will likely be solely them. 
• Radnor seems to be tackling the issues/joys of Uni life and the scary world that comes after it, with a head on approach -- something which has earned it the right to be called "The best movie about college since I don't know when.".
• Although absent from this trailer, Zac Efron also stars, albeit in a small, student role (I presume). 
• Desperately holding back the How I Met Your Mother references here (Break-up beard, Classic Schmosby, etc)...
• Not quite sure of the specifics of the distribution, but here's hoping for a wide release range. I believe Radnor's a true up-and-coming talent that needs some more recognition to be put beside the likes of Zach Braff.

You can catch Liberal Arts out now in the US or October 5th in the UK. 

That's all for today's rather brief post, see ya next time.  

ATR

More Trailers

Facehook: A Short Film

Finally, after over a year of waiting, I am happy to present Facehook: a short film from myself and three cohorts -- Ben Wilton, Joe Beesley and Max Newall. It wasn't easy, but after a long process Facehook was marked 50/50 from the exam board leader in Media Studies (GCSE Level) and won a Best Editing award at the school ceremony.

That don't make it a masterpiece, of course. It is instead a patchy first attempt that gives a somewhat visionary experience of what's inside the web, doing what it can with the limitations of iMovie (ours had probably the most fancy effects/editing in the school's mix). Also, very liberal with award-winning movie scores... See for yourself:

Feel free to Like, Comment and Subscribe
Clunky yet charming, right? Yeah kinda dark too. And congrats if you managed to keep up with those horrendous subtitles; you're a fast reader!

I will note that all my work was specifically behind camera (writing, directing, editing), although not exclusively down to me. Collaborative efforts and all that. However, the upload of this video marks the first project of DudeMeisterFilms, which will endeavour to bring more original content over the time (this time mostly down to me).

So stay sharp, and keep an eye out for any devious Stranger 116s out there...

ATR
Follow Me: @The_DudeMeister
Arnold Thornton-Rice

So You Want To Know My GCSE Results...

With the GCSEs all over, and that monstrously eventful (*cough* five posts *cough*) Summer drawing to a close, the grades have finally been given. Yes I was predicted all A*'s and no, I obviously didn't get all that; who do you think I am, Hugh Freaking Turnbull?! But what I did get were a number of capital letters to be somewhat proud of. So for all you nosey pokes out there, here is what I got along with some unwanted commentary which I'm inevitably going to give:

First up, the 4 A*s:
Maths - I got that last year.
Media - Thank god; it'd be little embarrassing if I didn't. Thanks to a certain little film I made, the course work score was at a tidy 117/120 -- look out for that film premiering on here soon!
English Language - Again, mostly coursework, this time a full marks on that. Let's just not mention that *shudder* Of Mice and Men exam...
History - Whoop, worked hard for that one: full marks coursework, full marks paper one, 6 marks off full on paper two.

The 5 A's:
Geography - A pleasant semi-surprise, wasn't too confident on the papers.
English Literature - Respectable, though an A* would've been nice, but that was those darn Of Mice and Men/Animal Farm markers from last year, because the most recent paper (Poetry) was maxed out at 60/60 which I was very happy about.
Music - Another one I worked for, and came out trumps. Looks like I was right to be confident about that exam, and my very own musical composition was a high scorer. "Writer's Block" will be online in some form soon!
RE - I think they might want to check that because as I remember it, I wrote the biggest pile of theological nonsense ever thought up. Seriously, how does "the sanctity of life" used at least 17 times constitute this grade? But whatever, I'll happily take it.
Biology - The only science worth a damn, glad for that.

The 4 B's:
Statistics - Meh.
Latin - All things considering, this is pretty good. A very difficult subject, split into 4 papers, so I'm happy. Oh and the paper I happened to get an A on, also happens to be the paper I put a Mad Men reference in. Connect the dots, people!
Chemistry - Thank everything that I'll never have to take this again.
Physics - As above. I've always said I'm a fan of science fiction, not of science fact.

On top of these there was a Merit in ICT (just scraped in the coursework before the deadline, phew) and a lovely U in Additional Maths. I knew that was coming though; an AS-equivalent exam, with 3 months to learn and all this other stuff to revise? I think not-trying was the best option.

And that's it; 5 years of Secondary School amount to 15 letters, thankfully most coming from the first 2 in the alphabet (plus some asterisks). Happy with all. Until next time, grades!

ATR

The Morocco Trip: Part 1

Two days after arriving back from the sandy lands of Morocco, I've decided to share my travels with the world, or at least the small portion of it that reads DMb. So, as you may know, as part of a school geography trip, I (along with 30 classmates) jetted off to Northern Africa, specifically Morocco (no duh).  Here's a sort of commentary in pictures (and a few words) to guide you along my adventures. Enjoy!

On the plane over, easyJet no less. Pretty bumpy ride including one random hit of turbulence resembling that of a speed  hump. Didn't phase me though, and my ears stayed unusually unaffected by the changes in pressure. After about 3 hours we disembarked into the intense and humid Moroccan heat, before collecting luggage and changing money.  

This was the first coach journey, when we were all excited and happy, completely oblivious to how many hours we would end up lounging hopelessly in its not-so-comfortable warm embrace... However, Airport to Marrakech was a mere 20 minutes, giving us a chance to marvel at:

The wildlife...

The culture...

And the architecture...

There's still a lot more after the jump below!