The Barsley Brief

Last weekend I visited Farnham, also known to some as Nottingham forest!  This is because the Lower Bourne Woods in Farnham are a commonly used film location.  The first film to be filmed here was Gladiator starring Russell Crowe.  The opening scene from the film with the Roman army lined up against the enemy horde was filmed in these woods, since then famous films have included Children of Men, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter (can’t remember which), Wolfman, and now Ridley Scott’s 2010 Robin Hood.

In the Bourne woods the film crew are constructing a Fort / Castle, on the top of a hill overlooking a peasant village complete with vegetable patches and surrounded by wooden walls and defences.

The Castle

The image above (click for full size with any image on the page) shows the Castle that the film crew have built in Bourne woods, this is an impressive structure even close up!  It is constructed of scaffolding, covered with a wooden frame which I then believe is coated in fabric and plaster of Paris which is then painted in a brick design.  The Castle is huge, and has ramparts on the other side for reverse shots of the archers shooting over the wall.

The Ramparts

From the back the Castle looks very different, you can see the beautifully constructed ramparts from this shot which are sure to be featured as the castle comes under attack.  You can also see the scaffold construction.

The Battering Ram

There were a few clues as to what might take place here, most noticeably the battering ram!  You can just see this on the left of the above picture.

The Village

From the side of the castle this picture looks down at the village, with a series of differently sized huts with thatched roofs.  Some have vegetable gardens, one looks like an ironmongers.

The Village Gates

The final image shows the village gates, from the right of the image you can see the walls are built up on a mound of earth and sharpened stakes point horizontally at would be attackers.  The village gates are also made of logs with towers either side.  Ignore the trucks, not very period!  Then on the left another tower.

Other pictures I have show the large marquee tents where I assume they will be dressing and doing makeup.  Also there is an area where they are producing the props.  Interestingly many of the village props such as benches and tables have been burnt to a crisp in this area.  I believe this is a sign that the village will burn to the ground!

To conclude it was fantastic to visit the set (I say “visit the set” but it is a public forest).  It’s especially interesting to get a feel for the camera angles they use, for example from the rear or one side most of the castle is just naked scaffolding, (except for the ramparts previously shown.  Also looking round the village the village walls only extend a few meters at the front and much of the rest is exposed.  If I were planning an attack the rear of the castle or side of the village is completely undefended.

After seeing the set up close it will be interesting to see it in the film, I wonder if they’re looking for extras… …

I was looking on the BBC iPlayer yesterday to see what I missed and discovered that BBC 4 is showing The Chaser’s War on Everything.  TCWOE is a ABC (Australia Broadcasting Corporation) comedy show which has a set of satirical comedians discussing and performing odd stunts / public interactions in a cross between Bremner Bird and Fortune and the Daily show with Jon Stewart (hard to describe what the Chaser is!)

I was lucky enough to hear about The Chaser the first time round and view it on ITunes where the first two series are available as free podcasts and on Youtube.  I strongly recommend the Chaser and to get you started here are a few of my favourite clips (if you only watch one watch the last!)

The Ad road test, The Chaser ran a series of Ad road tests, this one is for the Lynx effect.  The cast member sprays them self up and then looks for women who are attracted by the Lynx Effect!  Listen out for the ringing endorsement from Lynx employees at the end!

In their segment what have we learnt from history they attempt to take a Trojan horse into various “secure areas” and see if they can leave it there for the night.  Locations include the Sydney Opera House, Turkish Consulate and the Army Headquarters Land Command.

Perhaps my favourite segment, Open mic.  You don’t have to go to a pub for an open mic night, there are Open Mics everywhere!

And finally the Apec invasion!  When the APEC conference was held in Sydney attended by world leaders such as George Bush, Tony Blair etc security was tight.  But the Chaser felt you can’t have a conference on terroism without inviting terrorists so they dressed up as Osama and attempted to get in, I think you can see the look in their faces when they get much further than they thought possible and it turns from a joke to a serious incident!

Almost a year ago I completed the Great Kent Cycle.  I was reading my ride review to remind myself how things went last year.  Why you may ask?  Because on the spur of the moment I did it again today!  Other commitments I had disappeared so I had no excuse but to go to the ride.  As my lack of posts has indicated this year I have done very few long rides so I wasn’t sure how things would go.

As we arrived in Ashford it was spitting with rain, but we had been assured that this would clear.  We set off at 8am on rather wet roads.  The further we went though the better the weather got.  Most importantly unlike last year there wasn’t a wind coming across the coast and comparing my spilt times to last year I was up to 30 seconds a mile quicker on these sections.

Also unlike last year I pedalled up all the hills!  In the end I was just 3 minutes off last years time, over 60 miles thats not bad!

I haven’t posted much lately so this post is a catch up to mention several things that have caught my attention lately.

Facebook introduces usernames

Facebook have now introduced usernames.  This doesn’t make a huge difference to the site itself but does mean that if you want to link people to your page you now can have an easy permalink such as www.facebook.com/CharlesBarsley.  It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few months and if the site evolves more.  Get your  username here http://www.facebook.com/username/

TV Licencing

June is going to be an expensive month!  It seems most of my quarterly bills have come through plus my TV licence (which means I have physically lived in my house for a year) and car insurance.

I seriously considered not renewing my TV Licence.  I would not be a license evader I would just not have a TV.  The TV licence only covers live broadcast TV (Source MoneySavingExpert) and not prerecorded TV available on the BBC iPlayer.  I find I very rarely sit down in the lounge and watch TV.  Usually I watch most of my TV on my PC while checking my emails / surfing the net etc.  For example as I write this I am watching last nights “Have I got news for you” on the BBC iPlayer which doesn’t require a TV licence.

The only times I actually watch the TV in my living room are occasionally when I have breakfast / supper, I’ll watch BBC News or something on Dave.

However I will renew my licence for two reasons.

• Reason One – The hassle of trying to convince TV licencing that you don’t have a TV.
• Reason Two – I want a TV in my living room for the Xbox and DVD player which I am sure I use more than the TV channels!

I do like the fact that the BBC are advert free – especially for sports.  But I think it is a little unfair that it doesn’t cover the iPlayer.  Surely it should cover all BBC media outlets or none?

New TV?

On a related note I am soooo tempted by this Samsung TV.  40″ with a stand and 5 year guarantee all for £699.  If it was £599 I would snap it up but £699 is still a great deal for the TV just slightly more than I would want to spend on one.  I may wait and see what happens in the sales.

Competition time

As you may know I run the website www.brawngpnews.co.uk, a Brawn F1 fan site.  I was delighted to be contacted by Vodafone this week to create a competition on the site for it’s readers to win 3 day tickets to the British Grand Prix.  I am giving away a pair of tickets.  Its a fantastic prize and a great year to go with Jenson Button doing so well and the fact it may be / is the last time the race will be held at Silverstone.  Competition closes midday 14th June

I posted a while back about the Lovefilm DVD rental service.  I thought a follow up was in order now that I have watched 3 films.

Service

The service has been excellent, Lovefilm have been able to turn around a film “same day”.  That is if I post a disc on a Monday, they receive it Tuesday and post a new disc out Tuesday so I have a new disc in the post Wednesday.

Priority

I have generally not played too much with the prioritisation of DVD’s I have several at Low and then the rest at medium.  This is because my philosophy is that I don’t actually want to prioritise a disc, I want to be surprised and see what comes, and I am using it to see films which I don’t really know much about or missed at the cinema so usually there isn’t much I “need” to watch.

The Films

Michael Clayton

The first film was Michael Clayton.  A film about a corporate lawyer who has spent most of his professional career defending claims against chemical companies.  However over this time he has learnt the truth and switches to aid the claimants.  The legal firm call in their “fixer” Michael Clayton to try and save the day while the Chemical company they represent starts using heavy handed tactics to stop the lawyer from ruining them.

I found this film interesting but a little hard to follow.  I took me a while to work out who worked for who and who was on which side.  There were a few nice twists and I enjoyed it overall.  However that said rental was perfect for this film, it’s not one I would buy, but partly that’s because it isn’t the type of film I usually watch so it was good to watch something different.

Shaun of the Dead

Having seen Hot Fuzz but never Shaun of the Dead, so I was interested to see this earlier film by the same team of actors/directors.  The basic plot is that everyone around them has turned into zombies (I can’t actually remember how or why) and Shaun and his friend have to cross town to find the ones they love and then take then to a place of safety.

This is a fairly funny film, but I just really struggled to get into it and enjoy it.  I loved Hot Fuzz, but I think just the fact this is a mock zombie film perhaps makes it a little less accessible.  However I did like the DVD extras, showing some of the making of and the actors out of character.

King Kong

My latest rental was the new (ish) version of King Kong directed by Peter Jackson.  The plot of the film is known to many so I won’t go over it again.  The film runs for almost 3 hours which was a bit long.  The visual effects are amazing, they meld seemlessly with the actors.  However despite being 3 hours long the film misses some parts of the story, for example, after a long battle they finally capture Kong, and then at the click of your fingers they are back in New York about to put him on show.  I realise the journey back probably wasn’t that interesting but it would have been good to see however briefly and perhaps explore the characthers feelings on capturing Kong.  All in all a good movie, stunning visual effects and a gripping story.   I would buy this film, but at 3 hours I am not sure when I would sit down and watch it again!