26 July 2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, continued.
Hello there everyone! This blog is a continuation of the video I posted above because I am absolutely awful at remembering everything when I review, no matter how many notes I take. So this is a blog post listing the things I did not mention in the video, but that I would like to say something about. I'll probably come back and add more to this after seeing the film again, but WHO KNOWS. :)
- McGonagall was amazing. I don't know how I forgot to mention Maggie Smith, but that woman is incredible. She played the role brilliantly despite her illness and she was just stunning. She is Minerva McGonagall. TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR.
- I think Dan's acting was at its finest and he did really, really well. Almost my Harry. Almost. The whole trio was really impressive.
- Harry and Ginny never got less awkward. I think it is a mix between the writing on their story being strange, but also Dan and Bonnie seem to have a disconnect. Like they hadn't really rehearsed their scenes together and talked about their passionate connection in the books, I don't know. Ginny is a character whom I probably identified the most with when reading the books and the one who I may be most like now and she was never done justice in the script of the films, which is upsetting.
- I don't think I mentioned The Forest Again, but it was so, so lovely. Tons of lines directly from the book and it was just beautiful.
- Something I didn't notice until I discussed the film with other people was the incredible way that Ralph Fiennes portrayed Voldemort as sort of gaining humanity when each of his horcruxes were destroyed. They all gave him back a bit of his old self and I think that is ultimately why in the final battle scene, he has taken to sort of beating Harry rather than the inhumane method of just killing him on the spot. He wants physical revenge, which is very human. Ralph Fiennes knows his character so well.
- This video at about 2:30 shows more lines from the scene where they bring back Harry dead. Actually, if you watch all of these videos, you'll see tons of bits and pieces taken out of the film. One of the ones I wish was in the final cut the most was Voldemort accusing Harry of running away and Ron yelling "liar!" showing that his enchantments had broken. I would have liked the emphasis on the fact that nothing Voldemort does in binding. Also, I would have liked Harry to tell Voldemort how narrow-minded he had been and how wrong he was about the Elder wand. And "try for some remorse." Gah, the chapter.
- As you can tell "The Flaw in the Plan" means so much to me and mostly I just wish that the film was exactly like the book, even though I'm normally quite fine with making things more cinematic. I think the scene in the book would have looked fabulous, so I'm just forever bitter. (Also, no Firenze + centaurs or Kreacher + house elves, which was upsetting. It would have been nice to see familiar creature faces instead of so many shots of the troll/giant things.)
THAT IS ALL. Sorry the video was long, but I went back and looked at my last review, which was 10:30ish and it had 20,000 views or something insane like that. So I just figured I'd go for it and leave as much in as I could, because It will be nice to have these videos to look back in 20 years when they're doing a remake xD Let me know what you thought in the comments of this blog or the video! :)
21 July 2011
LeakyCon Recap List
I could definitely sit ever going through every day of LeakyCon and tell you how fantastic it was and all of the madness and the tears and the laughter. But that would be a bit overkill and I don't think my emotions could take it. So I'm going to do what I do best and make a list. These were my favorite and most memorable moments at LeakyCon. Sorry if this is chaos. But hey, so was LeakyCon.
Tuesday:
- Getting picked up by a group of friends at the airport and going straight to Downtown Disney.
- Sitting around with said group of friends critiquing the Harry Potter films.
- Walking into the Royal Pacific for the first time.
Wednesday:
- Harry Potter and the Conflict Resolution Line.
- Meeting Abby.
- Seeing Scarlett Byrne, who plays Pansy Parkinson, about twenty times before realizing that she was an actor and not a mutual friend whose name had escaped me.
- Opening festivities. Seeing so many people I know and love on stage or on the screen. Paul DeGeorge snubbing one of the young HP actors for a handshake.
- Open at the Close. The build-up to walking in the park and just that moment where I felt like I'd fallen into the films. (Yeah, I didn't feel like I was in my beloved book-world, but more like the world the films had created. But it was still wonderful.)
- Meeting up with Hank, Katherine and their friend from college and going through the whole park together. (Some hi-lights being Hank NOT throwing up on me on Dragon Challenge, Katherine yelling "Son of a bitch!" as soon as the dragon opened its mouth on Forbidden Journey and seeing Lauren get chosen in Ollivanders.)
- Standing in line for about an hour to get free Butterbeer behind Starkid and with Hank. I'm thinking that the line would have moved quicker were I surrounded by any other group of people.
- The taste of the frozen Butterbeer foam and John making me take his non-frozen one because he said it was disgusting…which is sort of was.
- Sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks with old friends and new friends.
Thursday:
- The panel with all of the young Potter kids.
- Finding Hogwarts. Seeing the culmination of the last few years of my friends hard work and getting to hug Bre, John, Rita, Frankie and everyone afterwards.
- Walking past a Potter Puppet Pals signing and have a line literally form in front of my eyes to take pictures with me or sign autographs. Insane.
- Live LeakyMug.
- The film. Oh god. Seeing the film with nearly every person who has been a part of making my Potter journey so beautiful. Being in the same cinema as so many others who feel the same. Having Evanna, Scarlett, Starkid, the whole Leaky staff and everyone else in there. Having the young cast of the film two rows ahead of me while I watched them on stage and being told later in the evening that it was the best screening they went to because we were so genuine and expressive.
- Starting to cry the second Harry steps out into the Room of Requirement.
- The sounds of choked sobs, suppressed gasps, laughter and cheers.
- Talking animatedly about the film with Katherine, John and Hank as we walked back to the hotel. There was a lot of screaming.
- Night one of wizard rock.
- Spending the evening between meriting and the "VIP" section right behind the table.
- Playing limbo using Evanna's scarf with her, Starkid and tons of others.
- Eventually becoming friends with Scarlett and making plans to hang out when I move to London.
- This picture. Because Tom and I are being adorable and AJ is just passed out on the table and it makes me laugh a lot.
- The final Remus Lupins show. :(
- Bababa's with Eia and Andrew Slack.
- Passing out with about 20 people in the room and waking up to hilarious conversation with Hayley, Kristina and Eia at about 5am.
Friday:
- Live Pottercast. #LeakyCountry
- POTTERMORE. Oh my god, it's going to be so brilliant, guys. I cannot wait to sell my soul to it.
- The final Parselmouths show and going on stage to do weird things like tape streamers and throw party blowers. :D
- The best Whomping Willows show EVER.
- Evanna being all over the stage for Draco and the Malfoys and then playing bass for Harry and the Potters. So epic.
- Dancing on chairs behind the merch table with Abby.
- "That's why I watch porn, for the romance."
- Hayley signing Adam's "boob."
Saturday:
- Coming down early for the Luna, Percy and the Kids keynote and seeing people actually SOB after taking awkward group photos with Starkid.
- HP trivia contest between the actors.
- All of them talking about how cool it was to be in the cinema with such devoted, loving fans and knowing I was a part of that experience.
- Friends and family of Esther Earl meet-up. Meeting such a beautiful, kind group of people who are doing an amazing job at keeping Esther's spirit alive.
- Rosianna doing my hair for the ball.
- These people.
- Asking Rohan Gotobed, aka young Sirius Black, to dance with me. Getting rejected. By a 13 year old. Awkward. Then being told by everyone that "he'll regret in three years, just wait!"
- Dancing with Helena Bow and Ellie Darcey-Aiden, Rose Weasley and young Lily Evans, instead.
- This picture.
- Total Eclipse of the Heart. Three times.
- Post-ball chaos in Jake's.
- Eia coming over having caught a FROG. Convincing her to let it go because we could not take a frog home with us.
- So much love from all of my friends in one of my lower moments.
- After party in the Starkid suite and everyone insisting on "no sleep till breakfast." Until leaving before we all fell asleep on the floor.
Sunday was a day of exhaustion, sadness and goodbyes. The last day of cons is always the worst because I never feel like I get to say goodbye to everyone and it's just a lot of chaos. This was no different. I don't really have much going for me here in Seattle, so being around SO many friends at once, while a bit stressful, was just so wonderful for me. I had such a brilliant time and just thinking about it being over has me welling up.
I'd like to thank Melissa for being a warrior, the Leaky staff for following her lead and just every single person who made me smile over the week. And a special thanks to Kristina and Eia for letting me be a merch girl. Even though I sucked. I am so thankful for everyone and so happy that tons of you came up to say hello! If you were at Leaky, share your memories in the comments. If not, tell me what you thought of the film! I'm seeing it again soon and will have a video up after that.
Cannot wait for VidCon next week and Leaky 2012! (If we keep saying it, it'll be a thing, right? …Right?)
Tuesday:
- Getting picked up by a group of friends at the airport and going straight to Downtown Disney.
- Sitting around with said group of friends critiquing the Harry Potter films.
- Walking into the Royal Pacific for the first time.
Wednesday:
- Harry Potter and the Conflict Resolution Line.
- Meeting Abby.
- Seeing Scarlett Byrne, who plays Pansy Parkinson, about twenty times before realizing that she was an actor and not a mutual friend whose name had escaped me.
- Opening festivities. Seeing so many people I know and love on stage or on the screen. Paul DeGeorge snubbing one of the young HP actors for a handshake.
- Open at the Close. The build-up to walking in the park and just that moment where I felt like I'd fallen into the films. (Yeah, I didn't feel like I was in my beloved book-world, but more like the world the films had created. But it was still wonderful.)
- Meeting up with Hank, Katherine and their friend from college and going through the whole park together. (Some hi-lights being Hank NOT throwing up on me on Dragon Challenge, Katherine yelling "Son of a bitch!" as soon as the dragon opened its mouth on Forbidden Journey and seeing Lauren get chosen in Ollivanders.)
- Standing in line for about an hour to get free Butterbeer behind Starkid and with Hank. I'm thinking that the line would have moved quicker were I surrounded by any other group of people.
- The taste of the frozen Butterbeer foam and John making me take his non-frozen one because he said it was disgusting…which is sort of was.
- Sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks with old friends and new friends.
Thursday:
- The panel with all of the young Potter kids.
- Finding Hogwarts. Seeing the culmination of the last few years of my friends hard work and getting to hug Bre, John, Rita, Frankie and everyone afterwards.
- Walking past a Potter Puppet Pals signing and have a line literally form in front of my eyes to take pictures with me or sign autographs. Insane.
- Live LeakyMug.
- The film. Oh god. Seeing the film with nearly every person who has been a part of making my Potter journey so beautiful. Being in the same cinema as so many others who feel the same. Having Evanna, Scarlett, Starkid, the whole Leaky staff and everyone else in there. Having the young cast of the film two rows ahead of me while I watched them on stage and being told later in the evening that it was the best screening they went to because we were so genuine and expressive.
- Starting to cry the second Harry steps out into the Room of Requirement.
- The sounds of choked sobs, suppressed gasps, laughter and cheers.
- Talking animatedly about the film with Katherine, John and Hank as we walked back to the hotel. There was a lot of screaming.
- Night one of wizard rock.
- Spending the evening between meriting and the "VIP" section right behind the table.
- Playing limbo using Evanna's scarf with her, Starkid and tons of others.
- Eventually becoming friends with Scarlett and making plans to hang out when I move to London.
- This picture. Because Tom and I are being adorable and AJ is just passed out on the table and it makes me laugh a lot.
- The final Remus Lupins show. :(
- Bababa's with Eia and Andrew Slack.
- Passing out with about 20 people in the room and waking up to hilarious conversation with Hayley, Kristina and Eia at about 5am.
Friday:
- Live Pottercast. #LeakyCountry
- POTTERMORE. Oh my god, it's going to be so brilliant, guys. I cannot wait to sell my soul to it.
- The final Parselmouths show and going on stage to do weird things like tape streamers and throw party blowers. :D
- The best Whomping Willows show EVER.
- Evanna being all over the stage for Draco and the Malfoys and then playing bass for Harry and the Potters. So epic.
- Dancing on chairs behind the merch table with Abby.
- "That's why I watch porn, for the romance."
- Hayley signing Adam's "boob."
Saturday:
- Coming down early for the Luna, Percy and the Kids keynote and seeing people actually SOB after taking awkward group photos with Starkid.
- HP trivia contest between the actors.
- All of them talking about how cool it was to be in the cinema with such devoted, loving fans and knowing I was a part of that experience.
- Friends and family of Esther Earl meet-up. Meeting such a beautiful, kind group of people who are doing an amazing job at keeping Esther's spirit alive.
- Rosianna doing my hair for the ball.
- These people.
- Asking Rohan Gotobed, aka young Sirius Black, to dance with me. Getting rejected. By a 13 year old. Awkward. Then being told by everyone that "he'll regret in three years, just wait!"
- Dancing with Helena Bow and Ellie Darcey-Aiden, Rose Weasley and young Lily Evans, instead.
- This picture.
- Total Eclipse of the Heart. Three times.
- Post-ball chaos in Jake's.
- Eia coming over having caught a FROG. Convincing her to let it go because we could not take a frog home with us.
- So much love from all of my friends in one of my lower moments.
- After party in the Starkid suite and everyone insisting on "no sleep till breakfast." Until leaving before we all fell asleep on the floor.
Sunday was a day of exhaustion, sadness and goodbyes. The last day of cons is always the worst because I never feel like I get to say goodbye to everyone and it's just a lot of chaos. This was no different. I don't really have much going for me here in Seattle, so being around SO many friends at once, while a bit stressful, was just so wonderful for me. I had such a brilliant time and just thinking about it being over has me welling up.
I'd like to thank Melissa for being a warrior, the Leaky staff for following her lead and just every single person who made me smile over the week. And a special thanks to Kristina and Eia for letting me be a merch girl. Even though I sucked. I am so thankful for everyone and so happy that tons of you came up to say hello! If you were at Leaky, share your memories in the comments. If not, tell me what you thought of the film! I'm seeing it again soon and will have a video up after that.
Cannot wait for VidCon next week and Leaky 2012! (If we keep saying it, it'll be a thing, right? …Right?)
02 July 2011
Calling all musicians!
Earlier today, I tweeted the following:
I have since gotten quite a few emails of people sending me their music (all of it wonderful) and I was responding to one particular email where a lovely guy named James (man, I hope you’re not a girl named James, because that would make this VERY AWKWARD) offered to write me some music as he is studying music in university and has hopes to become a composer. My response sort of ended up being a blog post, so I decided to reword it a bit and just post is here. I would like to reiterate that if you have music you think would fit behind a video, send it my way! I’d love to hear your music and possibly, at some point in my video future, use it in a video! And now onto editing my response to make it more of a blog post and less of an email response. Here we go…
So I’m just learning how to use Final Cut and I have hours (no exaggeration) of footage I have collected while traveling, around my hometown, et cetera that I want to edit together in different ways now that I have the chance. Having so much creative ability is sort of frightening to me after using Windows Movie Maker when I began making videos and iMovie for the past two years. I am sort of at a point where I have to impress myself with the video video I edit using FCP, more than impress anyone else. Music seems to be what I think will inspire me at this point. Honestly, I don’t really know what I want at this moment. I just sort of want to start collecting lovely music that may shape videos and help me create a certain style of editing.
I love the idea of gathering music from people who watch my videos because I know there are so many talented people out there and I would love to give people like you an audience to appreciate your art. (Much like how I love to mention great YouTubers in my videos to share with the people who watch my videos.) I feel like far too many people out there support me already and I feel I hardly deserve the outpouring of affection I get every time I post a video. More than anything else, I’d love to be known as one of the YouTubers who created a sense of community and encouraged creativity in all forms to everyone who comes across one of my videos. Does that sound snobbish or anything? That isn’t my intention. I just really enjoy promoting those who I think are good at what they do and seem to love doing it.
I do not know exactly what I’m looking for and I hate to ask you to go out of the way to *create* music for me. But if you wanted to put together anything you think might fit behind videos or if you already have written something of that nature, I would definitely try to form a video around it. I guess I’m looking for music you’d think would be behind more arty videos. Acoustic, soft, I don’t know…emotional? Clearly, as you may be able to tell, I know very little about music besides what I know I like! Honestly, I guess just something you’d like to hear behind a video and I will do my best to incorporate it into my favourite form of artistic expression.
If any of you make music you wouldn’t mind me using in a video, link me here or at kayleyhyde@gmail! :) Particularly softer stuff <3 Thanks!
I have since gotten quite a few emails of people sending me their music (all of it wonderful) and I was responding to one particular email where a lovely guy named James (man, I hope you’re not a girl named James, because that would make this VERY AWKWARD) offered to write me some music as he is studying music in university and has hopes to become a composer. My response sort of ended up being a blog post, so I decided to reword it a bit and just post is here. I would like to reiterate that if you have music you think would fit behind a video, send it my way! I’d love to hear your music and possibly, at some point in my video future, use it in a video! And now onto editing my response to make it more of a blog post and less of an email response. Here we go…
So I’m just learning how to use Final Cut and I have hours (no exaggeration) of footage I have collected while traveling, around my hometown, et cetera that I want to edit together in different ways now that I have the chance. Having so much creative ability is sort of frightening to me after using Windows Movie Maker when I began making videos and iMovie for the past two years. I am sort of at a point where I have to impress myself with the video video I edit using FCP, more than impress anyone else. Music seems to be what I think will inspire me at this point. Honestly, I don’t really know what I want at this moment. I just sort of want to start collecting lovely music that may shape videos and help me create a certain style of editing.
I love the idea of gathering music from people who watch my videos because I know there are so many talented people out there and I would love to give people like you an audience to appreciate your art. (Much like how I love to mention great YouTubers in my videos to share with the people who watch my videos.) I feel like far too many people out there support me already and I feel I hardly deserve the outpouring of affection I get every time I post a video. More than anything else, I’d love to be known as one of the YouTubers who created a sense of community and encouraged creativity in all forms to everyone who comes across one of my videos. Does that sound snobbish or anything? That isn’t my intention. I just really enjoy promoting those who I think are good at what they do and seem to love doing it.
I do not know exactly what I’m looking for and I hate to ask you to go out of the way to *create* music for me. But if you wanted to put together anything you think might fit behind videos or if you already have written something of that nature, I would definitely try to form a video around it. I guess I’m looking for music you’d think would be behind more arty videos. Acoustic, soft, I don’t know…emotional? Clearly, as you may be able to tell, I know very little about music besides what I know I like! Honestly, I guess just something you’d like to hear behind a video and I will do my best to incorporate it into my favourite form of artistic expression.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)