SHERLOCK   ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the famous detective Sherlock Holmes in a modern take of the novel by
Sir Conan Doyle.  In the scene ‘I Am Sherlocked’, it’s the final hour, and Sherlock has to crack the code that
Miss Adler, a dominatrix who holds all the nations secrets, has on her mobile phone.   The scene puts Sherlock, his brother and Miss Adler in a tense situation.  Miss Adler appears to have won, however Sherlock overcomes.  Sherlock confirms that Miss Adler is in love with him.  She mocks him, how did he know?  Cumberbatch,  lowers his tone, speaks slowly, softly, his hand sweeps across her skin and her hair, and he whispers to her.  He explains how he took her pulse when they first met, a montage flicking from past to present, he tells her about her eyes, how they dilate when they are close, she melts.  So did I .   Cumberbatch made Sherlock sexy.  He’s funny, witty, and his timing is brilliant.  It’s no surprise that his roots are in voice acting. The slow-paced music is timed well in order to play the scene slowly.  Intimate close-ups, on their faces, hair, wrists and hands used as they touch.  Such as when he unlocks the code on Miss Adler’s phone.  The scene becomes intense, emotional, Miss Adler breaks down, Sherlock remains restrained, cold, even after she begs him, he leaves, giving a very ‘untouchable’ side to Holmes, unmoved by Adler’s tears.  The casting on this series was brilliant, first class.   Every actor is believable, the series is totally watchable and unpredictable.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock well because his mannerisms reflect the character in the book, though he brings humour and style to the character without losing the essence that is Holmes.  His acting is flawless as he keeps in character throughout.

SPEAKER COMPARISON

Manu Taylor and Gary Henderson

Manu has good humour and youthful energy, his voice projected well and he continually moved around during his lecture.  Manu was in control and did most of the talking  You definitely got the sense of being in a lecture, in contrast Gary led more of a tutor session.  He spoke in a relaxed manner with a gentle voice and was engaged with his audience throughout with exercises to do to help us think about where ideas for stories come from.

Both Manu and Gary were clear about what they were going to cover and gave direct advice –   

“…know who the f*ck you are!”  That was the first piece of advice Manu gave,  “…you need to be cool with being you,” the qualifier.  Manu placed emphasis on originality and freshness. , his vocabulary simple and street, his natural accent was warm and pleasant. 

.   Although Manu’s interests lay in music and people in this industry, his advice applied to anyone in life.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable talk especially as he taught lessons through stories of his experiences in life.

Gary started with the statement that play-writes are rarely well known.   One doesn’t go into this career for money and fame. 

As Gary is a play-write, I would have liked to know more about how to get a play on the stage, or published.  Although he gave a tutorial on putting a story together, I would rather have heard about his writing experiences, how he broke through, does he make a living, what avenues would he recommend for new writers.  As a keen writer, I was interested in how Gary created his characters and what motives him to finish a play.  I enjoyed this talk, though I would have liked to know more about the man and his experiences.

PRESENTER and COMEDIAN

Jimmy Dore

American political presenter, Jimmy Dore, host of The Jimmy Dore Show, is a comedian whose regular show is on You Tube.  Jimmy couples an excellent sense of humour with his political knowledge and experience of life.   He doesn’t take prisoners, what you see is what you get with Jimmy Dore.  When he is live-streaming, his language is colourful, appropriate and he doesn’t sugar-coat anything.  He’s proud of not being part of the ‘main-stream’ and his political ideology is left. 

Jimmy uses his voice with pent-up emotion, he gets angry at what he sees as injustice and shouts a lot.  He is passionate in his delivery and constantly rides mainstream-media companies at being useless at their jobs. He views them as all being bought-off and he often jokes that he’s just a jag off comedian and yet knows more than them.

Jimmy Dore uses simple terms to sufficiently and effectively target as wide an audience as possible, uses of allegories and metaphors are used commonly throughout his ideas and opinions also.  He’s an excellent conversationalist and interviewer, only ever interrupting his wife Stef, who is also on the show.  Jimmy is a very warm and honest guy and that comes through on every political piece of performance. 

The Jimmy Dore show use high quality microphones and have a good studio with decent aesthetics, their layout is professional.  They also have live interviews in the studio and conducted through live services like Skype.  Jimmy is a good interviewer.  He listens, his questions are appropriate and he thirsts for knowledge of the political arena.  Jimmy’s comedic influences are George Carlin and Bill Hicks, politically his influences are Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and Tulsi Gabbard.  His show attracts US Senators and other like minded politicians and comedians.

Manu Taylor

Manu’s introduction immediately focused on his audience.  He made eye contact and wanted to know more about them.  He fired out questions and got a good response.  Manu has good humour and youthful energy, he continually moved around during his talk.

Manu was clear about what he was going to cover and gave a lot of direct advice –  

“…know who the f*ck you are!”  That was the first piece of advice Manu gave,  “…you need to be cool with being you,” the qualifier.  Manu placed emphasis on originality and freshness.  Manu’s voice projected well, his vocabulary simple and street, his natural accent was warm and pleasant. 

Finally, Manu was a motivator, he gave his contact details to help students, his empathy for young people and passion for music was clear.  He created an energy in the room and students were lifted for it.   Although Manu’s interests lay in music and people in this industry, his advice applied to anyone in life.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable talk especially as he taught lessons through stories of his experiences in life.

Gary Henderson

In my opinion, this was a practical tutorial rather than a lecture.  Gary spoke with a relaxed manner and gentle voice.  Although I sat at the front I couldn’t always understand what he was saying.  Gary started with the statement that playwrites are rarely well known.   One doesn’t go into this career for money and fame. 

Gary started with an exercise that involved having a word for every letter of the alphabet.  I think using a name up to ten letters woud have saved time, as only half the latter was needed in the final exercise.  It would have saved time   Gary engaged with his audience throughout his talk. 

As Gary is a play write, I would have liked to know more about how to get a play on the stage, or published.  Although he gave a tutorial on putting a story together, I would rather have heard about his writing experiences, how he broke through, does he make a living, what avenues would he recommend for new writers.  As a keen writer, I was interested in how Gary created his characters and what motives him to finish a play.  I enjoyed this talk, though I would have liked to know more about the man and his experiences.

I managed to complete a performance despite my heart beating at 160 bpm. I’m so glad that I didn’t completely mess up the lines, just a couple; but I did it 😀

I performed ‘Then I Ran Down the Street Naked’, it’s a story with a beat that is in continual edit, mainly because of it’s length. The poem is written in three parts. Each part is about 5 minutes in length. I chopped the first part to a 3 minute segment for my performance assessment and memorised it.

I chose to do this for my performance to see how it played to an audience and as it’s based on a true story… could I be that brave?
It turns out, yes I can, and it was fun too!

I’m off to a slow start, before AUT I couldn’t remember what it was like to be ill. Two weeks into AUT and I’m a victim of the dreaded ‘virus’ that was probably cooked up in a lab. at Area 51.

I’m re-organising my life, not just on paper, reminds me of the saying: ‘You plan & God laughs.’ Oh what a sense of humour he has…

Re-learning how to read; because I write, YouTube and Spotify, but I didn’t read a lot before AUT.

I’m here because, up until 15^th July I had lived like a virtual recluse, unable to mix with society because I found it too painful to live in.  Before I dived into the lions den, I had suffered with the anxiety of worrying about the youth and doing nothing, because I felt helpless.  So, as many of us do, at some point in our lives; we think, there’s only three ways this can go – the same ole same ole, kill myself, or be radical, so I chose the latter remembering the golden rule, ‘though shall not kill, not even the self, have faith, doors will open, just knock.’

It’s in our moments of despair that we see the madness that is this world.  Where white is black and black is white.  But inside, we know what is right, it’s just things get a little grey sometimes and we get lost; that is how I felt.

Forward! From the gloom I started my current degree in Communication at AUT, which is an amazing place full of inspiration and incredibly delightful people. I’m looking forward to the challenge and I am very grateful to the Labor Government for giving me this opportunity (though they enabled the Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).