Who is Joseph Kony and just who are Invisible Children?

No doubt if you're into social media, you will have heard of 'Kony' or 'Invisible Children' over the last few weeks, days and hours. It's the new viral thing. But with a change. This isn't a video of a kid biting his little brother's finger to make you laugh. This is a video claiming to be an experiment, to see what social media can do. So here it is. Watch it and make up your own mind:

If anything it is inspirational! The only thing I would say is that for a 'worldwide' video, it sure is aimed mostly at the USA! Anyway, share it, talk about it, sign the pledge, do what you want in reaction to it. After you have read all the facts. But remember, this is only one of the terrible things going on in the world today, perhaps we need to focus on more than one issue at a time. Spreading awareness of something this awful can't be a bad thing, surely, and together perhaps something can be done about it. However, I am not going to endorse buying anything from the Invisible Children's website and I am going to try and explain why.

Some people are claiming that Kony is no longer at large (see the WordPress article). That he has moved into other parts of Africa and his atrocities committed in Uganda have largely blown over. So what? He committed the crime, and one of the number one points that Invisible Children are campaigning for is to have him arrested. This is surely not a bad thing, even if it has blown over. He has turned young girls in to sex slaves, allowed the rape of hundreds of women and stolen young boys away from their families, turning them in to child soldiers. Therefore, regardless of whether or not this has all blown over, surely it is important to bring this man to justice. Remember the Nazis? Well, long after the war ended there were all sorts of organisations trying to find Nazi's who had committed horrifying acts and bring them to justice and had fled (many to South America) following the war. Why should this be any different?


As I've already stressed, Joseph Kony is only one person in the world committing atrocities, there are many more who should also be stopped and/or brought to justice, but this is a start. The important thing is, it's got people thinking about more than last night's episode of Eastenders. It's inspiring enough to watch the video, and then to see it shared all over your Facebook news feed, by people who have never previously shown any interest in what's going on in the world outside their country. I think this in itself is brilliant. I hope that at least some of those people continue to stay interested and this isn't a one off thing. If somehow a campaign like this can help this awful man be brought to justice, then in some ways, whether or not he has left Uganda or the issue has 'blown over' is a little bit irrelevant. OK, if the world had sat up and taken notice in 2004 or 2005, it may have been dealt with quicker, and less children would have been affected, but at least something is being done now. After all, short of having a time machine, we can't go back and change things.


Now for the real bad bit. I have linked to a reddit post at the bottom of this article. This claims (along with the Visible Children tumblr - really worth a read) that Invisible Children hardly spend any of the money that they receive in donations on actually helping their own cause. Most of it goes on 'expenses'. The figure quoted is 32% of their income going on direct services. Many charities have between 80% and 90% going on direct services. This is obviously worrying. I can't verify this, but there's more than one person saying it, in fact, there's quite a lot, and they're starting to shout it. Obviously, make up your own mind. I've shared the video on all my social media platforms; I find it inspirational. I will not, however, be supporting Invisible Children; just their cause.


On balance, Joseph Kony is a man who I would like to see the back of, but I don't think Invisible Children are the ones we should be throwing money at to make it happen. If anyone knows of any charities that spend their money more appropriately, then please link me to them and I will include them in here for those who still want to donate something. 

If you want to help, write to your MP or a Lord (or if you're from outside the UK, whoever represents you). Get involved that way, but I would urge people to keep hold of their money until things become a little more transparent. Remember, sitting through a 30 minute video on a subject does not make you the expert. Charities do have motivations and it is important to read up on the facts before getting swept away. I shared the video on facebook, and also shared some articles to the contrary. The sentiment of the video - bringing about change through mass awareness, protest and pressure on governments is fine, but donating to certain charities doesn't always do the good you think it is going to do. It's sad, but it's the truth. 

If you've read this and feel truly disheartened, I'm sorry. The video is inspirational, and hopefully some people have sat up and taken notice of an issue on the global stage which normally wouldn't interest them at all. Campaigning for something you truly believe in is brilliant, but always make sure you do your research.

Here are some links to counter articles to add some balance (I have referred to these):
http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/qk0pd/kony_2012_help_raise_awareness_and_stop_joseph/c3ycvhb


For those of you who are too lazy to read this, my basic sentiment is: Sure, go and spread the word and the video, but please please please don't donate to Invisible Children!

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Open Letter To Sky Movies (Oscars 2012: Episode III: Revenge of the John Williams Fans)

Dear Sky Movies,

I settled down at 11.30pm on Sunday 26th February 2012 for a 5 hour viewing of your Oscars coverage. I was excited. This is arguably the most important day of the calendar year for the film, fashion and television industry. I expected laughter, tears, frustration, joy (with regards to the awards) and Billy Crystal doing something incredibly American and cheesy. No doubt the speeches, dresses and spectacle would be talked about for weeks to come.

At 11.30 your 'Red Carpet' coverage began. I enjoy watching the stars arrive and I thought what better way to do it than with Sky Movies, a package that I would be lost without. They know what they're talking about, don't they? They always seem to be showing films that I enjoy and want to see, they must have some sort of amazing coverage planned. So you can imagine my surprise when Alex Zane, Nick Moran, Natalia Tena and a film critic from Heat Magazine (Heat Magazine have a film critic?) were broadcasting from a studio. If I had wanted to hear a bunch of people chatting about the films nominated, I would have started a conversation about the Oscars with my friends. I don't think one meaningful insight into films was made, yet the 'panel' were discussing how 'totally awesome' The Artist was as if they were wisened scholars.

Nick Moran. Who is Nick Moran? Has he ever been nominated for an Oscar? Who is he? Seriously, can someone please tell me. Alex Zane set himself up for a fail by introducing him as "the guy who terrorised Harry Potter and has recently turned his hand to directing". The guy I thought terrorised Harry Potter and has recently turned his hand to directing was Ralph Fiennes, and for a moment I was pretty impressed that Sky Movies had managed to get someone so famous on their show. But no. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be entitled to their views, but he was about as contrary as he could possibly be. He simply had to express the view that is not held by the masses. Fair enough if he's not into mainstream films, but that is essentially what the Oscars are about, is it not? I don't recall an award for best independent picture.

I think this Nick Moran (whoever he is) probably received a hard enough time on Twitter for his horrifying remarks about John Williams, one of the most famous and well-loved film composers of all time, but it really was out of line. Just in case he was wondering, I can sing Schindler's List and then Harry Potter with no trouble whatsoever. His soundtracks might have a very distinctive sound, but they don't all sound the same by a long way, and he's written some brilliant music for fantasy, sci-fi, war, dramas and comedies. Just because he always uses a full traditional orchestra it really doesn't make him boring. Fair enough he's rather mainstream, and probably filthy rich, but he's had 47 Oscar nominations... he's not exactly lazy is he? If his soundtracks really do all sound the same, I'm pretty sure someone at the Academy would have thought 'hang on, this soundtrack to War Horse is the spit of the Jaws soundtrack, he's clearly self-plagarising' and not nominated him. 

(Totally on a rant here, but: besides, there's brilliant composers that self-plagarise way more than Williams - Hans Zimmer literally lifted a whole part of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack from his Gladiator score, and his Batman Scores are definitely from the same family as his Dan Brown scores (Da Vinci Code etc). Composers recycle ideas, get over it. It's better for a composer to use his own idea again and again than to use someone else's again and again. Film music works because the audience are comfortable with a set of rules that most mainstream film music sticks to - they know how to read the music - John Williams is brilliant at this, why should he change just because Nick Moran wants something different. No thank you.)

In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'd advocate censoring Nick Moran's views on film music because he is quite obviously wrong.

As for Natalia Tena, I've always found her annoying, but tonight she really brought it to new levels. She should have been forgotten about after About A Boy, but no, they had to bring her back. She was probably the least pleasing member of the 'panel' because at least Nick Moran tried to express some sort of intelligent opinion, I don't think she said anything worthwhile the whole time she was there. Plus she fiddled. ALL THE TIME. She was like a small child who had been given way too much Coca-Cola.

Oh well, I thought, it can't be too much of them just chatting about how 'overrated' Hugo was or how Meryl Streep leaves Nick Moran 'cold'. After all, it's the red carpet coverage. So after an hour, I was getting a little worried. I could see from Twitter that people such as FilmFour and Total Film were seeing red carpet coverage somewhere, but Sky Movies was still lacking in any interviews with celebrities. I finally switched over to E! where the majority of people on Twitter seemed to be headed, and that was what I wanted to see. Some guy with a mic asking celebrities who they were wearing and a couple of questions about who they thought should win. Then there was a panel gossiping about the dresses and stars. If you're not going to have a proper debate about the films and nominees, then please go the whole hog and have really shallow discussion about the films. Given that all the credible film critics are probably at the Oscars, this is probably a safer bet than having people who think they know what they're talking about chat mindlessly about their favourite films.

Next year, please sort yourself out and actually give some decent coverage of the red carpet, or just don't bother. Also you could save a lot of money by not putting on the panel after each advert break, but rather just broadcast the whole ceremony live without any interruptions from annoying television presenters like Alex Zane.

Yours sincerely,
The writers at Movies, Music and Soap

Hey, you! Like the blog? Want to be involved? We're now on Twitter (@MoviesMusicSoap) so feel free to follow and drop us a line. Maybe there's something you want us to write about or maybe you have an idea you want to write yourself, get in touch! If you're a band, filmmaker or any other kind of artist and want us to review you, again, please get in touch! Or hey, maybe you're just lonely and fancy a chat...

Oscars 2012 (Episode II: Attack of the Academy Awards)

This is actually the serious post about the Oscars, following the last shambles! We're not making predictions, this is just a post about which films we want to win. We usually end up backing the films that don't end up winning the award, so we're not much good there, but such is life. The ones in red are the ones we want to win, and the ones in blue are the ones we think will win.

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

The Tree of Life was a pretentious load of garbage, and we haven't heard brilliant things about War Horse or Extremely.. (although the latter does look interesting). The Descendants was a really nice film, despite being generally quite scathing of George Clooney's performances. We think The Artist may win, if the BAFTAs and the worldwide crush the entire population of film critics seems to have on it, but we're supporting Hugo for this one. It was a beautifully made film, a lovely story and had a fantastic cast - even the kids were good! We didn't see it in 3D, and can't imagine it actually being that good in 3D as a lot of the beautiful set design would have been lost (that's our main problem with 3D films). Obviously we're always going to cheer on any Woody Allen film too, but Hugo was just lovely.

Best Director:

The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius

The Descendants - Alexander Payne

Hugo - Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

 

We didn't rate the Tree of Life, but it's the kind of thing that critics might enjoy. The Artist might get this too, just because it's the 'in thing' at the moment. The Descendants wasn't particularly unusual or stunning, so maybe it shouldn't win this particular award. As you may have guessed, we love Woody Allen, so any directing award for him is a good thing. Especially when you consider how hard he must work, and how much he does for his films, he usually writes, directs and produces them. However, he doesn't actually care about winning any Oscars, so we think Scorsese should get it for Hugo, just because it's such a lovely picture! 

Actor in a Leading Role

Demian Bichir - A Better Life

George Clooney - The Descendants

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Surely it's got to be Clooney?! It'll probably go to Jean Dujardin (again, The Artist seems to be flavour of the month, so it really wouldn't surprise me). George Clooney was very good in The Descendants. Perhaps Gary Oldman should win an Oscar, but we don't think he will this year, and let's face it, everyone knows he's a top actor, maybe that's why we want Clooney to win.

Shamefully, we haven't seen any of the films that feature any of the actors nominated for Actress in a Leading Role, so we'll gloss over that with a Star Wars-esque scene sweep.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Berenice Bejo - The Artist

Jessica Chastain - The Help

Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Janet McTear - Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer - The Help

Shailene Woodley was robbed of a nomination for The Descendants and that's all we have to say about that. Probably one of the actors from The Help will win it as the Academy seem to like films about white people helping solve racism (see Sandra Bullock's performance in The Blind Side). It would be nice to see a comedy win an acting award, because that so rarely happens, so we're going to back Melissa McCarthy!

Music (Original Score)

The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams

The Artist - Ludovic Bource

Hugo - Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias

War Horse - John Williams

Kudos to John Williams for getting nominated twice! He's pretty much the most famous/successful/commercially viable film composer ever, so it's not like he needs the award. If he doesn't win, people aren't going to say "hey, there's that guy who almost won the Oscar once. Don't think we want him doing our movie." Also if you're making a movie that looks like it needs a John Williams soundtrack/are Steven Spielberg making any movie at all, chances are, you can afford to get John Williams to write the soundtrack. The music must carry The Artist, what with it being silent and all, but from what we've seen of it , it seemed like all music that's played in any 1920s movie ever or in any movie since that's depicting the 1920s. The music for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, wasn't noticeable. If a film's soundtrack didn't stand out for us, chances are it wasn't very impressive, but that's just because we're massive soundtrack geeks!
This leaves Howard Shore. I guess he's a bit like John Willams really - he's been pretty successful since Lord of the Rings (he won three Oscars for two of the three films - two for the third one), and he's one of those people who if you're making some sort of epic film, you probably want him to write the music for it. However, he's done a lot of soundtrack work that wasn't epic orchestral work, plus he's the only composer to work with Tim Burton who wasn't Danny Elfman, so maybe it's time for him to win another Oscar?! Here's to guessing he might be nominated for one or both of The Hobbit films coming out this year and next year, so maybe he can wait. But we want it to be him! As far as the actual award goes, it's pretty open - John Williams is a favourite of everyone, so he's a safe choice, but they may feel they have to give Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy something.

It would be nice to see Harry Potter win the awards it's been nominated for - particularly Best Visual Effects, as it seems to have done a lot for visual effects in films, just because of what was required from J. K. Rowling's writings!

Oscars 2012 (Episode I: No Hope)

It's the Oscars soon (yay!). I might even stay up all night and watch the ceremony live on Sky like I did last year (OK, so it wasn't on Sky. I was in my university house and that involved some dodgy website streaming with ad-links to very dodgy websites indeed. But I did stay up all night). If you don't stay up all night, and you want to watch the ceremony, you have to isolate yourself from any other people who might know the results, the whole internet (including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Google, Google News, the BBC, the Guardian, Google+, BBC iPlayer, Youtube...), the radio, the television, newspapers, shops that might be playing the radio, shops that sell televisions that are demonstrated in the windows playing news channels, shops that sell newspapers... Basically, it's not practical. One day's sleep deprivation for finding out the results for yourself is worth it.

It's the same reason why I used to buy the Harry Potter books at midnight on the day they were released and read them as fast as I could. There were some pretty mean kids at school who definitely didn't take Harry Potter nearly as seriously as me, and trust me, if they had read the books faster than me, they would have delighted in telling me that Sirius Black died in the 5th one, or that Dumbledore (Note: I love that I spelled that wrong and my spellchecker actually corrected it!) did in the 6th et cetera. But no! Not one mean kid would take the joy out of it for me, for I may be a geek, but being a geek means I can read books quicker than your average bully. And, by the looks of this post, write a completely ridiculous post about the Oscars 2012.

I promise the next one will actually be about the Oscars 2012.

Hey, you! Like the blog? Want to be involved? We're now on Twitter (@MoviesMusicSoap) so feel free to follow and drop us a line. Maybe there's something you want us to write about or maybe you have an idea you want to write yourself, get in touch! If you're a band, filmmaker or any other kind of artist and want us to review you, again, please get in touch! Or hey, maybe you're just lonely and fancy a chat...

5 Reasons Why They Really Shouldn’t Make a Buffy Movie

We have, up to know, restrained ourselves by way of Buffy posts for fear of saturating this blog, but we've finally decided to let the cat out the bag: we love this show! Anyway, a few months ago, they announced a new Buffy movie, without the original cast and without Joss Whedon. We're pretty sure everyone knows this is a travesty, but here's our reasoning:

1.     No Joss. 
This is the obvious number one point, and almost all the main cast members have said something about this. Clearly this man made Buffy and as Buffy fans we should all bow down to him. The point is, he’s not having anything to do with it, so it’s not even proper Buffy. It won’t be as clever or full of the hilarious pop culture references we all know and love. 

2.     The cast. 
Let’s face it, you can’t replace Sarah Michelle Gellar, she still is Buffy. But the rest of the cast too! We can’t see anyone else playing Giles, Willow, Xander, Spike, Anya or Angel. Or anyone else. I mean, I’m watching a film now and it’s got Tom Lenk in it and even though he looks older, I still see him as Andrew. You can’t just replace amazing people with lesser mortals.

3.     There are 7 seasons. 
So where do they start? It’s obviously not going to be added to the end of season 7 because that’s already been done in the comic books, and they’d use the same cast, but the TV series covers from her beginnings. So when is it going to be?! Are they going to try and redo, say, season 1 in a film, or will it be like the daptation of Series of Unfortunate events where they tried to unsuccessfully roll about 4 books into 1 film. You can’t do that much in 120 minutes. We’ve seen all we need to see!

4.     It will be like 'copying' Twilight.  Only it's quite clearly not.
So everyone loves vampires at the moment, so why saturate the market with something that is already going to be rubbish?! Sorry but it’s true, it’s going to be the weakest of the vampire films/tv shows out there at the moment, because it’s not so serious. Buffy’s always been pretty light hearted, at times, almost a comedy and the new stuff is so serious it hurts. All the kids who love Twilight and have never seen Buffy just won’t like it. They should just repeat it from the beginning to the end on TV. 

5.     Spike, Riley or Angel? 
Who’s going to be the love interest? If they put either Spike or Angel, it’s going to divide people, for obvious reasons; I don’t know anyone who likes both! Surely one film is too short for her to have two love interests. This also brings me back to my second point… who the hell will play them? I can’t really see Zac Efron (or any other young American heart throb) bleaching his hair and donning a cockney accent!

Films That Really Matter To Us: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

For more info on my 'films that really matter to us' posts, see this post.

Where do I start with this film?! My mum introduced me to the genius of John Hughes' 80s teen movies when I was about 10 and I have been in love ever since. It made me want to skip school for just one day and have the most amazing day of my life. In hindsight, my mum shouldn't have shown it to me at such an impressionable age, but she's always kept my film taste cool before its time and for that I can only thank her! I could have written about The Breakfast Club (another one of my mum's favourites), Pretty in Pink (yes, my mum was responsible for me seeing this one too. In fact, she made me watch it the night before my year 11 prom) or even Weird Science at a push, but there's just something magical about Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Again, this is one of those films that is constantly parodied, and once you've seen it, you start seeing homages to it EVERYWHERE.  

Skins' main character, Tony, narrated a trailer saying "A wise man once said, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it… and that would be a shame." The wise man was, of course, Ferris Bueller. I loved this because it pretty much summed up the way Skins was going to work - so long as you knew where it had come from. For God's sake, someone on the bloody X Factor sang Twist and Shout while incorporating the Ferris Bueller dance!

Matthew Broderick plays Ferris Bueller, a clever, cocky high school senior who just wants to take the day off from school to enjoy himself. In order to properly enjoy his day, he must convince his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck) to steal his Dad's Ferrari, and trick the his school into letting his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara).

However, this becomes incredibly difficult when the headteacher, Ed Rooney (played by the marvellous Jeffrey Jones) and Ferris' annoying sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) decide to foil his plan to simply have a relaxing day off. If you have ever seen Home Alone, you'll know how slightly unbelievable John Hughes' scripts are, but yet you accept everything! This is exactly the same with Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Everything that happens to him, be it catching the stray ball at a baseball game, somehow ending up in the same restaurant as his unsuspecting dad, or stealing a Ferrari from his best friend's parents is all totally believable, and what more it could happen to me if I skip school. 


Ferris Bueller's Day Off has had a lasting impact on pop culture and not without its reasons. It's oddly moving, funny, clever and still says something to schoolchildren today. But don't ever show this film to a 10 year old!

Thoughts About Harry Potter (no film spoilers)

So I really feel that I should write something about Harry Potter now it’s all over. Having written this, I know I haven’t included anything about the films, but they will never mean the same to me as the books. I love them dearly, and have decided to write this now because having seen the 7^th film, I realise that it is the books more than anything else that draw the strongest emotions from me. (Oh, the video games are amazing too!)

I’m not going to bore you with how much of a Harry Potter fan I am – anyone who knew the 11 year old who rolled up to the first day of secondary school can vouch for me, but let’s just say, off the top of my head, if you’re looking to buy some dragon’s liver in Diagon Alley, I know it’s 17 Sickles. OK, so yes, I was a bit of a weird child, I probably still am.

I’m not alone in saying Harry Potter changed my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think as I’ve got older, rereading all of the books proves what a wonderful writing style J. K. R. uses. The books are not written ‘for children’, as such – there is wonderful language and metaphors, seldom seen in other children’s books. I don’t claim to be a English lit expert, but J. K. R’s use of the language is fantastic, and I’m pretty sure there’s more than a few children who have a wider vocabulary (I’m not talking about words like ‘Muggle’!) thanks to reading Harry Potter. I love J. K. R’s writing style because she never talks down to her readership – she assumes they are all capable, and the books are much better for it!

I was lucky enough to be born on 8^th July, which will be remembered by some as the date that Prisoner of Azkaban was released in 1999, as well as Goblet of Fire in 2000. Those days were amazing, and somehow, my parents managed to get copies of the book to where we were living in Norway. What stars! Once we’d moved back to the UK, I went to the remaining midnight openings, which were almost more magical than the books themselves! Book number seven, the Deathly Hallows was released the same year that I finished school, so by that point, I had literally grown up with Harry.

Reading all of those books for the first time is something I will always remember, or rather, finishing them is – that longing for it to last just a few more pages, yet a desire to see how it will all turn out, and finally, the realisation that the next book might not come out for a couple years yet! The emptiness on finishing the 7^th instalment, in the early hours of 21^st July 2007 was mind numbing. I’d never experienced anything like it before. The feeling of satisfaction that you know how it ends is combined with the horror that there’s never going to be anything ‘new’ – fair enough, the films were yet to be released, but I knew the storyline.

J. K. Rowling has made me escape to a world I could never hope to dream up, laugh and cry like a baby and she deserves this lowly blogger’s thanks.