Updating: stuff (hair + FAT awards)

I have a few things to update today so please excuse the higgledy piggledy nature of this post.

First up, the No Shampoo challenge - Day 33.



As you can see (I know it's not an awesome video but I haven't figured out how to properly use the HD camera and Dean Semler has stopped taking my calls), the hair is getting a little greasier but overall it still seems ok.

It still doesn't smell, it is a little flat and my scalp rarely itches at all these days. I'm a little curious about the white patch at the crown of my head - never seen that there before.

Next - the CIT FAT (Film and Television) awards.

This is another one I've been a little lax in reporting on - essentially the Communications Media and Music students at work here have an annual awards night / screening of the ten best first year student films.

This was a couple of weeks ago now and having had a bit to do with student films (both as a student and a teacher), I made some predictions on this blog about what I was expecting.

Some will be dark and showcase the extraordinary inner angst through a series of moody images of people gazing sadly into the distance and walking slowly.

This was a bit of a gimme and I was rewarded within the first 10 seconds of the screening with pretty much exactly this in the film "I hate" (which was still pretty well made)

Some will be great stories well told.

I was impressed that there was a fair bit of this - everything from simple documentaries about the experience of Asian students and migrants in Australia ("I want to be an Aussie") to the tale of an inventive old man ("The Shed") and a quirky 50's b-movie flick about the zombie menace which started off looking for all the world like a Douglas Sirk melodrama. ("Down by the lake")

Some will completely abuse the digital tools available in the editing software and apply filters and transitions all over the shop.

Nope, admirable restraint was shown here - although in general most of the films could have worked a little more on their sound.

At least one character will die for every two films (and possibly more).

This prediction was looking a bit wrong as well for a while but if you include references to deaths as part of stories, a couple of films (including a stylish but slightly thin Film Noir one that I don't remember the name of) pulled through gave me my minimum five deaths.

There will be at least two fairly funny Tropfest style one joke films.

Nope, totally wrong there.

Some of the films will appear to have been much more fun to make than to watch.

Some did look like they would have been quite fun to make but managed to stay enjoyable. Wrong again. (However, if it had been a screening of all the films made, I might have been closer to the truth)

Some will be far more fun to watch than they were to make.

Obviously hard to say but given the multitude of things that can go wrong on a film shoot, this is a bit obvious really.

Small pockets of the audience will cheer, laugh and applaud disproportionately when certain films begin (and at key points within the film)

Well of course you would, it's a huge buzz seeing your work on screen.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with a lot of the works here - particularly with the ones that I've named already and also with the bravery of the attempt at stop motion animation in "Blob the loser", which while rough, had heart and a funny bone.