I thought it was about time I put some of my drawings up. The last one I worked on was the Michael Fasbender one below. It isn't quite finished yet as I have been working with inks lately and of course started up with the clay modelling. Below that one are some of my older drawings dating back three years or more. Then finally a couple of my ink works including a quick sketch of Jack Wilshere from my beloved +Arsenal

Hee Hee. Ten minute jobbie for a doss to get the feel of the clay. I think he's cute and I shall call him Sebastian :0)

My new pasta maker or as I like to call it 'clay roller' came today. What a bargain. Got it for 10 euros on Marktplaats and I reckon it would cost over 60 and probably near a hundred in the shops. The best thing for me is the fact that I have seen a few people mention it is best to get one with 1 to 3 settings for different thickness and this one has 9, so well chuffed. It can also do thin strips with two different widths as well as the sheets. So chuffed. Happy days!

OK, so I didn't get my stuff for my clay modelling this week....I couldn't wait, so I got it at the weekend! I went to Harolds as I said I would in Rotterdam on Saturday and I got myself a few things. I purchased some Fima clay for the smaller projects that I'll be starting with. I am as yet undecided as to what clay to get for my bigger projects. I aim to make small ornaments and trinkets and maybe some jewellery for use with my girlfriend, Lara's jewellery making efforts. Eventually I want to make figures from TV, film and comics. Below are some pictures of each quarter of my work surface with the pliers and tools on and another which holds my rotating model stand and the final long double desk, which holds my drawing board and my laptop. I got all the basic tools and already have a good back-up of paints and brushes to paint my models with; and of course my airbrush, which may yet prove invaluable.


    

 Above is a quarter of my workspace and the space I will be using to cut stuff and build armatures and the  like.


    



 Next to it is the other half of the desk, where I will be building the models. Look at my lovely new rotating model stand. Will come in handy to rotate my work and save me handling it too much. I will be working the clay on glass which will hopefully stop it losing any oil and avoid it crumbling or becoming too dry.


 


Some of the tools I purchased. Smoothing tools, wooden and metal. Hole making devices and of course the clay itself.

Below are some more tools, some tweezers and some armature wire both aluminium and a stronger steel. Plus some copper wire for wrapping around the armature to attach parts and bulk others.

 I will use the pliers to cut and shape the armature wire. Below are some varnishes and oils for paint mixing and glazing the models once baked and painted.

More smoothing and shaping tools and some useful wire.

Plenty of brushes in my collection.

Chalks and pastels will come in useful for colouring cheeks as will the actual blusher I have from Lara.

My airbrush.

Copic markers and ink pens  for my ink work.

Various pencils and mechanical pencils and rubbers.

More pencils and lead!

Charcoal, glue, erasers and shaped rulers.

More Copic markers.

Airbrush paints and oil paints.

Acrylics.

Glues and cotton pads.

My pasta maker, for rolling clay, arrives tomorrow. Exciting stuff!

Started getting my room ready today for my model making. Exciting stuff. I have a lot going on in my life at the moment but this is the thing that I am most excited about. Off to Harold's Art Shop in Rotterdam next week to buy all my tools and materials and then I can start and also get this blog going too!

Argo

I didn’t quite know what to expect from this movie but unlike a lot of people I know, I didn’t judge +Ben Affleck on this movie in relation to any of his past work. To be honest, all being said, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had because he can most certainly hold his head up high. With Affleck Having directed, produced and acted in the movie I can safely say that I don’t think he did a bad job at any one of them. Ok, so he has made a few duds in the past but let’s not forget that Affleck has also wrote or co-wrote an Oscar winning screenplay and starred in some pretty good movies too. This movie just proves that Mr Affleck does have talent no matter what his knockers say.

The Premise

Argo is a dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of Iran at the height of the revolution. In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and a group of Americans were taken hostage. However, six of them managed to escape in the melee and made it to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador. Canada got in touch with the American President and he got in touch with the CIA. Many of the top brass could think of no way of getting the six Americans out of Iran safely without alerting the Iranians to their whereabouts. Tony Mendez devised a daring plan. He had worked many ‘exfils’ or exfiltration exercises to great success in the past, but none quite like this one.

He came up with the idea of creating a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and then smuggling the Americans out as part of its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez created a fake promotion for a movie that didn’t even exist, including actors, a screenplay and storyboards. Posters where even placed in an Iranian newspaper. Tony then proceeded to Iran as the movies associate producer. Tony was not only working against the clock but the six Americans did not think the plan could work and neither did Mendez’s colleagues at the CIA.

With his plan falling down all around him Tony decides to go for broke and tries to get the six Americans off Iranian soil. He would have to fool customs and soldiers at checkpoints and the airport and hope that his colleagues back home would back up his plan.

My Thoughts

The direction is crisp and accomplished and not overly weighted in trying to be clever for the sake of it. There are moments when you could argue that this was the case but I think these moments work and pan out (forgive the pun). For instance, there is a steady cam shot which follows a waiter through a service hall into a kitchen that many would say he stole from Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’ but the shot ends on a TV set as an Iranian woman is giving a speech relevant to that part of the movie. It is poignant and the scene delivers. It is also shot really well, so who cares if Scorsese did it first? I don’t and I am a Scorsese fan; and let’s make no bones about it, hundreds of directors have stolen that shot if not outright then at least in essence. The atmosphere of the movie is spot on and you would believe it is the beginning of the eighties. The cinematography is top notch and well captured by Rodrigo Prieto and the photography is faultless. Fresh from his work on ‘Water for Elephants’ and ‘We Bought a Zoo’ he brings a neatness to the picture that is mesmerising as well as good to look at.

So for me as a director, Affleck absolutely nailed it with this movie and he deserves every single bit of credit he gets. I felt that he almost had to apologetically receive his awards for this movie but did so in a dignified manner when inside he must have been screaming ‘Argo **** yourself’ (pun intended).

That is actually a line from the movie and a joke between three of the central characters.

Affleck plays Tony Mendez who wrote the book the film was based on and also contributed to the screenplay. The book was titled ‘The Master of Disguise’ and was written as Antonio J Mendez. Chris Terrio wrote the main bulk of the screenplay, using Mendez’s book for reference and it was also loosely based on Joshua Berman's article in 'Wired' magazine, which was entitled 'The Great Escape'. The story was hidden from the public under the official secrets act for years but was finally declassified and written about in nineteen ninety-seven. Mendez was given the highest accolade or award possible by the CIA, the 'Intelligence Star'. Having been awarded the star in nineteen eighty-one, he was unable to receive it properly until the declassification in nineteen ninety-seven.Affleck plays the role of Mendez with an almost stoic rigidity. He is missing his son in the movie and the chance that he may not make it out of the situation alive is always hanging over the character. Many will quip and my comment and say that he is always rigid but I think he portrays Mendez perfectly and let’s not forget that he is also directing this movie as well.

Jon Goodman and Allan Arkin play great parts in the movie and Arkin is his usual sarcastic character, who is almost belligerent in his fight against the suits. He plays Lester Seigel, an actor, who along with Goodman’s John Chambers, a movie make-up artist, agrees to fake the movie for Mendez. These three come up with the line ‘Argo **** yourself’ and use it whenever they get the chance. One of my favourite scenes in the movie is near the end when Lester turns to John and says….

Lester Siegel: The saying goes, "What starts in farce ends in tragedy."

John Chambers: No, it's the other way around.

Lester Siegel: Who said that exactly?

John Chambers: Marx.

Lester Siegel: Groucho said that?

The principle cast or shall we say the six hostages and the two Canadian’s and their maid, who shelter them from the Iranians are all good in their prospective roles. All the acting is believable and the, at times, almost documentary type feel adds even more to the realism.

It is quite ironic that you get the feeling that here is Affleck, possibly filming in Iran and having to ask permission to film about a guy who has to ask permission to film a movie in Iran. We all know that that is not true though as filming in Iran would cause problems that they could probably make a movie out of; after asking for permission of course. The movie was filmed on location in California but they did manage to shoot Affleck’s visit to Istanbul in Turkey itself.

The movie worked so well for me. A lot of people will say the first hour is slow but for me, it is one of those movies that you have to pay attention to and take in every word to get it. The last 45 minutes of the movie is superb and real edge of your seat stuff. I found it captivating and knowing that it is a true story and that it really happened makes it even more remarkable.

The title 'Argo' is said to allude to Jason and his ship the Argo who went in search of the golden fleece against insurmountable odds. Most of you will know of the story, either through Greek mythology or from the movie 'Jason and the Argonauts'.

The end credits are quite poignant in the fact that the real fake passports that were used for the six Americans are shown alongside each of the actors who played the part. It is amazing how similar they look and kudos should go to the make-up and wardrobe departments for that. Then we are shown many scenes from the movie alongside actual photographs and newspaper stills that they depicted.

Due to the nature of the fake movie within the film being a science fiction movie there are a lot of references to movies from that genre. These include ‘Star Trek’, ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Doctor Strange’ and ‘The Valley of Gwanji’.

The soundtrack is a mix of Iranian music and music that you would expect from the early eighties in America at that time. ‘March to the Dead City’ from ‘Battle For the Planet of the Apes’ from nineteen seventy-three is included. The Rolling Stones, Dire Straits and Van Halen make an appearance as does ‘Concrete Jungle’ by The Specials. ‘’Abwoon Call to Prayer’’ by Jahanara Laura Mangus , "Al Adhan" by Pat Jabbar, "Hace Tuto Guagua" by Tato Gomez and "Adhan - Call to Prayer" by Shaam make for a haunting back drop.

The movie was also known as ‘Escape From Tehran’ in the US (Working Title) and as ‘Operation Argo’ in Denmark, Poland, Norway and Turkey.

Its budget was forty-four million dollars and to date it has grossed about one hundred and forty and is well on the way to quadrupling its expenditure. The DVD sales will make it an even further success.

It was made at Warner Bros Pictures and runs for exactly two hours. The extended version runs for an extra ten minutes and will be made available on a special edition DVD and on Blue-ray.

George Clooney, David Klawans and Grant Heslov initially put the idea together before getting Ben Affleck to sign up as director. Alan Arkin was the first actor to be approached to star in the movie. Arkin would be nominated for an Oscar and a British Academy award for best supporting actor, although he would not be a winner. The movie did however win Oscars for the best picture, best screenplay and best editing by William Goldberg. It also won best editing, best film and Best director for Affleck at the British Academy Awards. So by definition, you could say the movie was a tad successful.

It was widely argued (mostly by Canadians) that the movie put too much emphasis on the CIA in the rescue of the six Americans and by doing so belittled the Canadians role in the operation. I think this is a ludicrous view to take as in the first place it was Mendez who dreamed this up and put it into place with the Canadian governments co-operation. Canada came out of the whole thing with glowing reports when it was declassified and the Americans took a back seat and let them basque in the glory as they were just happy that their people were safe. It is very rare that you can say the Americans took a back seat in anything but on this occasion I thought they gave great credit to the Canadians for their part in the rescue. They did indeed give refuge and a hideaway to the six Americans but it was Mendez who risked everything to get them out.I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I think it is a shame that it will be lost on some without them really giving it a chance. It will also be passed over by the Affleck ‘hate brigade’ without giving it much thought. All I can say to those people is that jealousy is an awful trait to own.

I think Affleck did a wonderful job on this intelligent and engaging movie and I salute him for his great effort. I hope he continues to direct as well as act because I think he will make some damn fine movies if Argo is anything to go by.

A massive thumbs up from me and I give it five out of five stars. I would recommend it to anyone who likes an intelligent movie with a little edge to it.

©Lee Billingham