I left University in 2013 with a degree in Film Production. I was an average student, I came out with a 2:1, and I thoroughly my time there. Making films was fun, and to be able to do this on a daily basis was a dream of mine. During my time studying, I made films which I was proud of and, equally, films that I cringe at when I watch them back, but it’s not really about the films. …

I wrote this as part of my job as a Technical Specialist in Esports Broadcasting at Staffordshire University London, to highlight the work I did for the Virtual Open day on the 4th April. Please enjoy.

Working from home has become the norm for most of the UK due to COVID-19, and we’ve all had to adjust to not being able to work from, well work. Universities need students and one of the main ways we recruit students is by holding Open Days. But you can’t do an Open Day if there’s no access to campus, right? At Staffordshire University we disagree. As soon as we knew that an in-person Open Day wasn’t going to be possible, we began transitioning to a Virtual Open Day. This was two weeks ago.

At Staffordshire University London, a satellite campus based in East London, we were fortunate to be the third campus to host our Open Day (behind the Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent campuses.) The problem we had was that the shutdown of the campus was imminent, and the situation was changing quickly. We were set the task of fleshing out the Open Day on a Monday, and the campus was, unbeknownst to us until that afternoon, to close on that Thursday. I knew we had to plan, film, and collect all the content as soon as possible before the inevitable happened. …

Spoilers, duh.

I’m not going to make out like I’m a CW DC “Arrowverse” newbie. I have watched four seasons of Arrow, two seasons of The Flash, and the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. It has, however, been a while, and to be honest, I suspected that these shows have moved on considerably since I last saw them. And my knowledge of all things DC is surface-level at best. I know Batman and Superman (Duh), and the stuff that I picked up from the TV and films that I have watched, but I can’t say I have a deep understanding of DC. …

LG was first to announce their 2020 line up of consumer gadgets at CES this year. There was the usual slew of OLED and LCD TVs, washing machines, fridges, and a… wine cellar (weird flex, but ok.) One thing that did catch my eye is the inclusion of the ThinQ branding on most products. According to LG, the ThinQ moniker is attached to any of their products which happen to have a smart feature, this could mean the product uses AI to intelligently wash your clothes, you could get notifications from your fridge when you’re out of hummus, or it knows when you want to get wine drunk and makes sure that bottle of Chardonnay you were saving for a special occasion is at the right temperature. …

How many times do you leave your phone at home? I’m imagining not often. It’s becoming increasingly important to use digital tools like phones and computers in day to day life. But what if you’d not only grown up not having a smartphone, like I had, but had never owned a computer device until you were well into adulthood. Well, this is the situation that many people find themselves in, especially people over 70. People like my Grandparents.

David and Rosemary don’t regard themselves as being computer literate. But for people who don’t “do computers” they use it every day, especially Rosie. “I mostly use it for newspapers, puzzles, Daily challenge,” my Gran tells me (Daily challenge is a daily solitaire game). This is a huge change from even 5 years ago. When I first suggested a computer to them, they bulked at the idea. They told me it wasn’t for them and they were never going to do it. …

My last blog post was about Movies with Mikey, a film review series that deep dives into a film. So, I decided to do a homage. Enjoy.

Spoilers.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), is the second instalment of the Hunger Games games quadrilogy of films, based on the books by Suzanne Collins. The film was adapted by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, and directed by Francis Lawrence. Oh, and it’s a film worth watching. Please, don’t dismiss the film because it came out in the myriad of Young Adult adaptations in the early 2010s. …

The movie video essay has become boring. The YouTube genre popularised by the now abandoned ‘Every Frame a Painting’ channel, has become stale. You know the videos; slow male voice stressing certain words to add some gravitas to what is being said, onscreen graphics that ease in and out onto brightly coloured backgrounds, and chill hop music in the background. But one Movie essayists has broken from this convention and created something so fresh and unique it can’t be replicated.

Movies with Mikey, is exactly what it sounds like. It’s like going to the movies with Mikey Neumann, the creator of the series, as he tells you exactly why he loves the film he’s concentrating on.

There’s no question that games have come on a long way since the 8bit era of the NES and Megadrive. Character animations, lighting, and texture quality are at a point where they’re rivaling animated films in their quality. But they don’t look quite as good as the latest Pixar or Dreamworks animation. Why is this?