I thought about this a lot. If I have an interest to write this blog. And if I can find time. But as long as I have time to binge-watch Netflix, I also have time to write my blog.
Let’s take an update.
I live in Amsterdam now. I’m in exchange. For my studies that I started two years ago. If you’re interested in reading more about me and my actual life, not just about movies, feel free to browse “The List Lover” posts that you can find from the left side menu.
I’m still pursuing my dreams. One way or another. I will be studying Business of Sports and Events during my time in Amsterdam. That will start on Monday. And after that I will have my practical training aka Internship time. I have quite big dreams concerning that but I will talk about it later.
So, how about my lists. Well, as you, who have read my blog earlier, know I love the Oscars. And I already made my early (very long lists of) predictions for next February. Check them here. And please feel free to tell me if I’ve forgotten something. Or make suggestions for the best documentary category, I’m so lost with that one. Thankfully, I will be here in Amsterdam when they are having IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November, the mother of documentary film festivals.
Then, IMDB top-250. Yeah, I haven’t watched any since January. Yay for me… Tomorrow I’ll be seeing Manhattan though. I’m going to visit the Eye that is contemporary movie culture centre in here Amsterdam and they are showing the film.
Ok. 50/50. I haven’t watched that many films this year to be honest. But I did see 15/64 in cinemas. That’s not bad, I think. I listed the series, just to explain to myself why there aren’t more films in the list.
Well, my Bucket List. I’ve started number 56. Hah, I actually had my IQ tested (66). It’s normal. I never thought it would be very high but at least a bt. To be honest. It’s not. Wow. I’ve been too honest there… Well, what’s written it’s written… I guess. Number 90. is thankfully getting closer everyday.
And lastly, my list of 101 things in 1001 days. The deadline is gone. I managed to do quite many things from the list:
1. Get into some school to study something you really want to study and stay there.
Still there.
Then I volunteered at film festivals (though I still want to go to Sundance or Toronto), joined Pinterest and Twitter (still using both) and started a blog (actually two but other one is in Finnish). I unpacked and then packed again as I don’t have home in Finland anymore. I saw new artists and tried new foods and restaurants and shot more people with my camera. I got new haircuts and new glasses as well. I made a short film, I used earrings and started to use more feminine clothes altogether. I saw Wicked and Supernatural season 6 (it was a drag…). I visit Lapland and Louvre. I got a bicycle(s, actually). And I got a pasta machine from my friends for my birthday (didn’t by it myself but who cares!). I managed to do 36/101. Not bad. And I will continue it. From now on it’ll be list of 55 things in 555 days.
It’s been almost two years since I posted for the first time. That makes it one post per week. And almost a year since I’ve posted something about my personal life if you don’t count those mentions in other posts. The last time I wrote about my life was in Spring Rambling in April 2014. It’s been a while. I’ll try to collect some thoughts and happenings in this post. As the readers who have visited my About page or read my first “List Lover” (that’s me) -post, know that I’d like to work in movie industry and I have big plans for me. More about my plans and how I’ve managed to gain them so far, you can read by choosing The List Lover off the menu on left. If you’re interested. 🙂
So, what’s been going on since last April. I was quite tired back then because I was working approximately 25 hours per week plus all that school work. But thankfully during the summer I managed to take it easy. I had just the perfect balance between work and play. And the summer all together was very nice, the weather was warm, even hot and I spend a lot of time at parks and beaches. Or at the sea, my favourite place during a summer. Here’s me enjoying it.
Otherwise the last year was not the easiest one. The summer was good but the rest of the year was quite a struggle. Emotionally and physically in that way that I’ve been sick quite a lot and because I tend to stress about things my whole body gets stressed and my muscles are killing me that badly that I can’t sleep. And when I can’t sleep, I get irritated and restless. And that leads to drinking and so on. You get the picture. When it comes to my dreams; are they still alive? To be honest, I don’t know anymore what I really want and I need to figure that out. Following wise words have been my guide during the last couple of months:
And now when the new year has started, it feels like it’s a bit easier to breath again.
How is it going on with my lists? Well, not so good. I’ve been really lazy with all the stuff from 101 Things. And that’s kinda sad as those things are not that hard to achieve. I only managed to do few things. I unpacked (28.) finally when my nowadays roommate moved here and I changed to the different room in the apartment. I kind of achieved number 39 as my friend moved back from Minsk… 48) I am nice these days most of the time, so that’s not a problem anymore (quite weird to notice that there has been this kind of huge change… Wow.). I did use earrings for a day (59) and several actually. 85) I got a bicycle last summer and I’ve been using it from time to time. My roommate has been using it a lot more though. 😀 And I just decided that my favourite quotes are safe enough in Pinterest where that pic above will lead you (100.) And the last thing that I did was to shoot (read: photograph) at least five different people for practise. That’s one photo of those sessions. I really like taking portraits.
That leaves us 50/50 that looks like this: 50/50 Challenge where I managed to read four (how sad is that!!!) books and watched only 105 films. But I did watch quite a lot of series. And thankfully, out of those 105 I did watch 26 of them in cinema.
I don’t know if this is any interest of yours but I kind of like to keep this as a part-time diary too. Reminds me of things. In a good way. But I’d like to get your opinions too, what do you, my dear readers and fellow bloggers, find the most interesting to read, so please choose. You can choose more than one. Thanks! And if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment. 🙂
I’ll be back soon with the review of the latest Hobbit (which I didn’t like that much) and my new TV series challenge that I gave to myself. See ya soon!
As an amateur photographer the visuals of films have high importance to me. I can forgive a lot to a film if it looks great (eg. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug). And when a film looks especially great, I can even forget to follow the story and concentrate on cinematography. When done right, it’s a breath-taking experience. And that’s why I want to celebrate cinematographers on my new The Best of the Best list (previous ones you can find here: Actresses, Actors, TV Shows, Directors, TV characters, Films of 2013 & Future Husbands).
Like always, I want to mention a few bubbling unders; and remember these are my favourites, not the masters that have taken the field necessarily forward or something like that. No, they’re my favourites, so the most of them are guys (unfortunately, only men) that are still working today actively or even guys who have just started gaining reputation. If you’re interested in the masters, here’s list of 50 best by Total Film.
Scandal in Belgravia – Sherlock
Ok, so, the bubbling unders. These guys have gotten my attention but they’re lists of accomplishments are just not that long. Yet, I hope. Fabian Wagner has shot television, most notably Game of Thrones and Sherlock Holmes of BBC. Especially the latter has some unbelievably beautiful shots and he was nominated for Emmy for his work in the series. I already mentioned Desolation of Smaug, so I have to mention Andrew Lesnie who’s Peter Jackson’s choice for cinematographer, he has shot all Jackson’s Middle Earth movies. Beautifully. John Alcott was Kubrick’s regular. His best work can be seen in Barry Lyndon where they actually shot a lot of footage in candle light! That must have been a nightmare.
Another legend: Conrad L. Hall has shot eg. American Beauty (amazing work!), Road to Perdition, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and many more. He has been nominated for the Oscar 10 times and he won three of them. He has been mentioned in all of the great cinematographers lists as well. Robert Richardson is one to mention as well. His career has been amazing and it doesn’t look like he is going to slow down anytime soon. Just ask Tarantino, Scorsese or Oliver Stone, his regular collaborators. Him and Janisz Kaminski (Spielberg’s pal; Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln) should probably be on my top-10 but like I said, it’s my favourites and these guys just didn’t make it. But they really should have, they’re amazing. And the last one outside of my top ten, who is my number 11, is Greig Fraser, who seems very much upcoming with works like Zero Dark Thirty, Snow White and the Huntsman and especially Killing Them Softly.
The most notably to me he is the cinematographer of Drive. And Drive is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen. Ever. I was in tears in the cinema while watching it and at the same time it is brutally violent. Such an unbelievably great work. He has done a lot of “whatever” films too but just because of Drive, I love him. And he has shot the new X-Men film; I have quite high hopes for that.
I just noticed that this sucks. I hadn’t put them in order yet and it’s really hard. He could be upper on the list because even though he hasn’t done a lot yet, what he has done, is impeccable. Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One In), Her and the best so far; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. If you haven’t seen the last one, just see it because of the cinematography. It’s so good. He has also shot Nolan’s upcoming Interstellar. Can’t be bad. I’m also glad he’s totally international, born in Switzerland, origins from The Netherlands and Sweden and studied in Poland.
Here’s the man who inspired me to do this list. Inside Llewyn Davis is a masterpiece when it comes to cinematography. Dark Shadows and Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince also have beautiful cinematography. Delbonnel is specialised in darker subjects, he uses a lot of darkness with a hint of light. Or a lot of colours like in Amélie. Which ever way, he does it superbly.
A long time collaborator of Alfonso Cuarón just won the Oscar for Gravity. However his best work is in Children of Men (video above, sorry about the quality), it is unbelievably. Well, just see the video. He is also doing a lot of work with Terrence Malick and has gotten a lot of praise from Tree of Life that I have not seen. Lubezki is not exactly my taste but there is no denying his talent.
Slumdog Millionaire (for which he won the Oscar), Rush (which he should have been nominated), Trance, Dredd, Antichrist and 127 Hours. This man has his own view and it works. I hated Dredd but I can’t deny that the visuals were stunning. Next up another film with Ron Howard, Heart of the Sea, set in the sea, surprisingly. That’ll be a tough shoot.
Fincher and Cronenweth are the couple here. And as you might know, I’m a big fan of Fincher and I guess that means I’m a big fan of Cronenweth, who in fact is the second generation cinematographer, son of Jordan Cronenweth who was also nominated for the Oscar. He was already part of camera department in Se7en and The Game and heading it in Fight Club (tribute above), The Social Network and The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Next installment these two are cooking is Gone Girl. Another great one, I suppose.
He’s Nolan’s trusted guy. Inception (above), The Prestige, all batmans Nolan made and even Memento. He is not shooting Interstellar because he is making his directorial debut Transcendence which is on quite many film fans “most waited of 2014” lists. And it’ll be out in a next month, we’ll see if he is as good director as he is as a cinematographer.
My top three are all so good that I should not even try to separate them. Iran born Darius Khondji is a genius who can make even films like Wimbledon look cool. He has shot visually shining films like Se7en, Evita, Panic Room (scene in the video above, watch it, it’s marvellous!), Midnight in Paris and Amour (try watch that without flinching; I couldn’t even watch it all the times). Damn, he’s good! Upcoming is Magic in the Moonlight, again with Woody Allen, shot in France. Can’t be ugly.
Another video but look at that scene! It’s amazing. It makes me cry every time I see it. (And that remind me of that I should do a list of composers too, Dario Marianelli made brilliant work in that film too). McGarvey is regular collaborator with Joe Wright who is one of my favourite directors. His films are always so beautiful and beside Atonement McGarvey has shot Anna Karenina, that is staged on the stage. But it works. And McGarvey has also shot We Need to Talk About Kevin that is full of visual storytelling. And The Avengers! Though that one I don’t know, I’m more of a “real” cinematography kind a girl instead of CGI. Next up is Godzilla, 50 Shades of Grey (that is probably rubbish but the name says that there is room for interesting visuals) and Pan with Wright again. Can’t wait!
The greatest cinematographer alive. 11 Oscar nominations, no win. He’s basically nominated every year and for a good reason. He’s the best. I though he did the best in Skyfall but take your pick: True Grit, Revolutionary Road, Doubt, Prisoners, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Village, Beautiful Mind, Fargo… and so on. Maybe next year he will finally win when his collaboration, Unbroken, with Coen bros and Angelina Jolie will be released.
While writing this post and trying to find suitable photos for it, I ran into this great blog of Beautiful Stills from Beautiful Films. Check it out!
It’s been a year since I posted my first post. Surprisingly it was about the Oscars. I’ve had posted a few more within the same topic since then. Hoping that you won’t get sick of the subject. At least the Oscars are bringing more visitors to my site because there’s never been more traffic than on the day they announced the nominees. And right now the most read posts daily are the ones that are about the Oscars. I don’t mind! I love writing about them.
I’ve got a little over hundred followers for my blog and then of course everyone following me on Twitter. It’s kinda funny that it shows both. But pleasant, of course. And I don’t think one should pay too much attention to stats (although, I got to admit, I still do check them regularly) because the best things in writing a blog and living in the blog world are of course the fellow bloggers. So thanks to all of you who have visited here and especially thanks to all of you who are writing these splendid blogs I love to read and comment! Here are some of my very favourites, check them out!
That Leo pic has actually nothing to do with those blogs but I love it and I can post anything today because it’s my blogoversary. And my review of The Wolf of Wall Street is the most commented post I’ve ever written. And this cheery one is the most liked post. Oh, and if I forgot to mention someone on the list, please, feel free to come and shout at me, my memory is not the best one.
It’s been quite good blogging year. Inside and outside of the blogging. Like I mentioned I’ve gotten to read great blogs, seen great TV series and watched a bunch of very good movies and then written about them. Which is good. I also have had quite an eventful year in real life too. I got into school, I’m finally following my dream; my most viewed post of all time is “If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It” (quote by Walt Disney). I am now studying International Business and basically minoring in Media Studies. I’ve found out I’m quite good at Scriptwriting, I just need to get my English more natural, and Stats which was quite a surprise. I tried to find a summer job in England but didn’t, so I’m staying here, doing bartending but attending to summer uni to study either Stats or German, depending on summer courses. So it will not be total waste of time. And then next year this time I’ll be applying to exchange to abroad. To United Kingdom, to be precise. And at the moment the plan is to stay there after that half of a year. Hopefully I’ll find internship placement on some bigger production company, on the distribution side preferably. Here’s one that seem quite like the one that I have in mind, if you’re interested.
I also traveled to few places during this year. I went to London and Dublin, saw amazing musical of Wicked, go see it if you at all like musicals and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. After quitting my horrible job, I went to Prague for a short holiday and had a great time. That great that the photos from there are not so good… But I love the city and will definitely go back there. During the summer I visited to Lapland for the first time and participated as a volunteer to Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä. That was amazing! I also took part to Helsinki International Film Festival and will take a part to Tampere International Film Festival in three weeks, as a volunteer like always. It’ll be interesting. I should do a post about Tampere altogether, this is a nice place to live. Anyway, I also visited to Copenhagen that probably was my favourite trip of the last year, the city is so relaxing and easy to go around. And I loved Danish food! During the autumn holiday I went to visit my friends in Spain (read how no one should travel) and then came back via Paris. I still haven’t edited all the pictures from that trip but I will post them as soon as I have! Here’s one from Paris:
So, not a bad year at all. I’ve had my sorrows but mainly I’ve had quite a good time! At the moment I’m doing a business plan (school project) for a photography studio, another hobby of mine and marketing research for actual customer that happens to be privately owned cinema here in Tampere. School can be fun! Blog-wise, I will continue writing about the Oscars (next week!!!!), The Best of the Best lists and anything movie-related. I try to keep you guys updated how I’m doing with my lists and dreams because that seems to interest the most of the visitors here. Meanwhile, enjoy the show below, they are the most searched people who bring readers to Fairytale Pictures:
I did check my Bucket List too but I haven’t done any of them. To explain a little to all of you who haven’t noticed my pages on the top of this, is that I love lists and challenges, so I’m basically all the time trying to achieve something. That’s in my nature. I’ve posted few List Lover’s (read: me) posts previously, they can be found by clicking the link of The List Lover on Themes (right hand side on the Home page). I mentioned I will be updating how I’m doing but guess movies have just taken me so thoroughly that I really haven’t paid that much attention to my personal life here in the blogverse. But let’s take a look.
The first, 50/50 Challenge. This is the third year I’m participating. And I never manage to read 50 books. But I’ll try again. I just updated the page so you can see I’ve watched 16 movies this year so far and read one lousy (well, to be honest, it’s almost 800 pages, but still…) book. Movie-wise I try to watch 200 films this year, let’s see how it goes. Here is how I did last year.
IMDb-250. I think I’ve tried to watch those films forever. And I’ve only managed to watch three more since last time I updated. Quite sad. But I’ve seen Pulp Fiction, Casablanca and Big Lebowski that I only watched yesterday. Only the middle one lived up to its hype. But because I own quite many of 250, I promise I’ll watch the following during the next two months:
The Shawshank Redemption
Goodfellas
Cidade de Deus
Vertigo
The Green Mile
Intouchables
Reservoir Dogs
Amadeus
All About Eve
Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
El laberinto del fauno
The Kid
No Country for Old Men
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Trainspotting
Annie Hall
Warrior
Into the Wild
The Graduate
Roman Holiday
The more personal one, 101 Things in 1001 Days. I have about 18,5 months left. Not that much then. And I just calculated that means doing one thing in a week. That’s a lot… Since last update, I have managed to get into school that I enjoy and have stayed there (1). Even have done quite well, so that area is nicely covered. I’m still studying International Business but I’m basically minoring in Media Studies and the combination is perfect. I’ll write more about it later. I also managed to throw the clothes that were broken away (30). And got some much closer to unpack my stuff that has been sitting in the boxes forever (28). I’ll probably manage to finish that in this month and same goes for filing the papers (29). I also saw a play when my friend had a part in one. And I visited to Paris and also Louvre (93). I really should edit those photos from there and make a photo post here! Here’s one:
And the last but not least, the Oscar winners predictions. I just updated it today. Took the lists straight from IMDb. I still have about 30 of the features to see and 13 of the shorts, so I can’t have a proper opinion yet. Only thing that is clear to me, I really think 12 Years a Slave should win the Best Picture just because how it handles the subject. And I thought Leo was better than Ejiofor but I haven’t seen Dallas Buyers Club yet, so let’s see if it changes my mind about my favourite. The ones in italics are my favourites, the ones in bold are the ones I’m predicting. What are your favourites?
I read my first Potter back in 1998 or 1999. I was working at the book store and because I was the youngest (18, to be exact) and Potters started to get popular, the other staff asked me to read one, so we would know what it’s all about. And I fell in love. I’ve read fantasy since I’ve been nine or ten years old and even though I also love Belgariad and Mallorean series by late David Eddings and the character of Raistlin by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, nothing has ever given me the same feeling of home that Harry Potter series have.
Whenever I feel sad, lonely, lost or somehow disorientated I pick-up a Potter and dive in to the world of magic and somehow the world seems a little bit better place again. When I was living in Germany a few years ago and felt homesick, I always started to read the last part of the series and I was good again. When I was living in England back then when the fifth book was released, I cried probably three hours while reading it. It hurt (not gonna spoil it if there’s still some people who haven’t read the novels or haven’t seen the films). Even though I’m not an orphan and my life has been quite nice, no one there to bully me, I can easily relate to Harry, Hogwarts is home.
I’m again reading the books; I tend to read them once a year. I’m not planning it but like this time, I was leaning to my bookshelves and trying to decide what to read and nothing seemed as good as Rowling’s masterpieces. And once again, I got lost in the world of Harry. So inconvenient when you have a lot to do with the school and need to go to work from time to time too. The problem with Hogwarts is that you don’t really want to come away. Besides that I love the novels, I admire J.K. Rowling so much. She made the kids to read again. Plus her story is worth of a movie itself. (Wonder if anyone is going to do one? Have any of you heard anything?) Kind of fairy tale comes true. And the world she created, the way of using the words. I especially admire word “Slytherin”; it really sums up what it is describing.
Ok, the movies are not that “wow” but I still like them. And the first part 12 years ago (time flies, doesn’t it?) was a little bit of a wonder. To see the world that you have imagined and they did make it well, didn’t they? And while few of the first movies are not that generally considered as “well done films”, all of them have over 75 % at Rotten Tomatoes and the final part of the latter part of the last book has spectacular 96 % freshness. And I do love to watch the films as well.
The pictures above and below all are from our trip to Scotland and taken by me (from the moving train). I still kind of hope Hogwarts actually exists. It just would be so cool. During the trip we were calculating by time how far the castle would be from London. Unfortunately we’re merely muggles and didn’t find it. But while in Scotland, we took a ride with the Hogwarts Express and saw the most amazing scenery of Scotland. And we even crossed the Glenfinnan viaduct that is seen in Harry Potter & Chamber of Secrets. I recommend if you have a change to travel to Highlands, it’s definitely worth every penny. It’s breath-taking in there.
But I’m off now! Got to go back to Hogwarts. See ya later!
I’ve been fortunate enough to been able to travel the two best cities in Europe in a very short time. The first to Prague and then to Copenhagen. The cities are very different, like a night and a day but both are as lovely as a place (that’s not New York) can be. Copenhagen, the day, was so welcoming and sunny. The weather wasn’t the sunniest the whole time we stayed in the city but people were. They tend to smile a lot. A rarity to a Finnish girl like me. And the food! Oh, the food! Copenhagen IS the food capital of Europe! I don’t think I ate anything mediocre. Well, the kebab in Tivoli when we were in a hurry but otherwise the food was every time a top-notch. Amazing! And I love food as you might know from my previous posts. So here’s a round around Copenhagen via my cam and me. Enjoy!
The first day we arrived really early so we needed to spend time somewhere before the checking time. We decided to take a canal tour with DFDS and that was the best decision ever. We got to know a lot to Copenhagen by sitting still while seeing the city from the sea hosted by the very entertaining Nico, the guide of our boat.
The tour started from Nyhavn that used to be the red-light district of Copenhagen.
Den Lille Havfrue aka The Little Mermaid, the 100-year-old lady by the sea and a few tourists…
… We being two of them.
The cutest thing to live in.
The canals are not the widest ones.
Amalienhaven and Frederik’s Church that’s right next to Amalienborg that is a home to Danish Royalty. You can see the Danish flag, Dannebrog, on the right side. It means the Crown Prince was home at the time.
After the tour we got the room from the hostel, Copenhagen Downtown, where the location was perfect but because I was totally spoiled by my hostel in Prague, I found it a bit too expensive compared to what it had to offer. But I still might go again, not just book the private room.
The next day we slept in after drowning few beers at the bar called Drop Inn that was right next to our hostel and had a very very very good brunch at RizRaz to start a day.
After the brunch we took a long walking tour around the city on the hottest day of the year.
Cock’s and Cows had the best sign I’ve seen in a while:
In Copenhagen, you need to rent bikes at least for a day. And we did. The city is just a right size to ride around and get to know to the parts that are not right in the centre.
Where we, by very pleasant surprise, ended up seeing the band called 30 Seconds to Mars.
Friend of mine, whom I was travelling with, had her birthday that day, so it was kinda perfect ending for the perfect day. And Jared Leto is very much hot. Still.
Hope you enjoyed my trip to Copenhagen. I surely did and will go back again. To the next time! Good night.
P.S. Talking about the food: the best dessert I’ve ever eaten. The dark bread, the softest gorgonzola and plum jelly. AMAZING. I cried.
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