Cupboard of Nostalgia

When I came into my room today, I went into my cupboard searching for my camera's adaptor. Instead, I found a source of great nostalgia. A paper mache castle set I had made in the first year of Secondary School. For all Year 7's a mighty project was assigned, to inform people of every-day life within a castle, or the strategies used to attack one. With my lust for film-making raging epicly at this point, I decided upon making a short animation documentary on how to attack a Castle. My mind immediately set to the task the following evening, and using the script-writing programme my dad had bought for me, I got straight to work. After spending much times with my friend Joe, I realised most of my friends in my year kept their humour to people hurting themselves, looking like idiots. This, I decided I could fit into my project. I had heard somewhere, you can draw the younger ones in with humour, to get them to realise the point your making. I decided, what ever character I designed to give the facts, he would have to fail at every stage. After concentrating slightly on Aardman Animations, I decided plasticine would prove a useful substance in the stop-motion process.

The two weeks of the Easter holidays went by like a breeze. My crudely designed plasticine character 'Phil,' was fairly easy to animate, though the bulb for my light heated him up immensely. My parents helped out in individual ways. My dad, setting up the studio, and my mum, crafting the props. After each 30 second section, I imported the clips onto iMovie. I was pretty familiar with the system, and editing them was no hassle. I burned it onto a disk on the final weekend of the holidays, and brought it in the next day, anxious to show it to everyone, without seeming cocky. I decided to post it up here to give you folks a look. Bear in mind this way made 2 years ago, when I was merely amateur to the animation routine.

Preserver Gods and Cheap Guns

My friend Billy, of whom I've now known for 2 years, I met in the beginning of Seconday School. In a way, he was a project of mine, and I his. When we met, he was of what I described as a tough nut, sport fanatic, a right flirt with the girls and a Call of Duty addict. When I say flirt with the girls, he has a weird technique of irritating girls to get their attention. I always try to tell him why don't you just be really nice to them, and he tells me I'm crazy. But we're both average with girls so it's ok. Anyway, by my reckoning I've transformed this guy into a fairly open minded guy. He's a lot sweeter to his girls (by my influence,) and he in return gave me a lot of confidence in front of everyone, and introduced me to the most popular people in the year,  in turn making me popular also. ANYWAY, Billy Facebooks me today and says he wants my help with his Religious Studies project. I say what the hell can I possibly do to help, and he said he was making a film. My mind literally sparked to his words as he told me how he wanted to feature a short comedy about two soldiers in battle being saved by the Preserver God of Vishnu. A typical Billy to chose something to do with combat, but I agreed happily.

Within the hour he came over with a bit bag of things he imagined would help on the production. i myself had put the camera on charge, checked the tapes, took my 'So You Want To Make A Film' manual and my clapperboard (homemade.) He went into the garden and he said 'So where's the script?' in the goofy way he usually does. I said 'It's been an hour since you told me about the film itself, you expect me to have written a script?' He just looked at me in a shocked manner, which made me laugh, and we got down to business. He had brought every bit of clothing he had that might resemble a soldier's uniform. I had brought out some paints, saying we could paint ourselves in camoflauge colours. My garden is known by most of my friends are very, very big. When we first moved to the Shire from London in 2000, the entire place was a mess. Everything was overgrown, the pond was completely covered with duckweed and the grass reached my sister's knees. But after a year my dad trimmed the place up and it's got a nice lawn with paves, and a sweet wooden platform looking over the moors. All in all, we weren't really short on space. After doing so, we discussed some good shots and the effects we could use on iMovie to make it look twice as good. I was wearing my badman director/wooly pompom hat to give me twice the thrill of making a film again.

Nicking £3 from my mum's purse, (all for the budget of the production, and the debt to be repaid when the film has made zillions of pounds,) we headed straight for the News Agents and brought the cheapest gun there. It actually did fire small plastic things that stuck to glass, but we didn't use them. Instead we simply brought it up to our shoulders as if we had just fired them. There were plenty of outtakes, I was surprised it wasn't all just a big gag to Billy. But I think all in all, we just wanted his R.S class to laugh at this ridiculously stupid flick that featured us. We agreed to continue the work next weekend, when we would buy some little plastic soldiers and shoot some shots of the army we're about to fight as 'ninjas of war.' I have some sick ideas for other productions hopefully Billy and some others will help me out with. He's also gunna come to Film-making club with me, so that might be pretty badass. Now my friend Joe wants to make a stop motion animation for our Science project. It feels good to be in the swing of Film again.

-Best Regards, Jojo.

Concerning Teenagers

My name, though clearly stated all over the blog, is not Jojo Vertigo. Jojo was a nickname I gained after apparently having a uncanny resemblance with the teenage character from Horton Here's a Who. Though not as quiet and emo-like as this guy, I am 14, and fairly short for my age in comparison to the rest of my year. I live in the very heart of Devonshire, England, known to be the heart of JRR Tolkens' inspiration for the Shire. It is a tranquil and fairly bohemian-cultured town crossing the River Dart, though mostly a lot of hill to my legs (very weak and lazy.) My heart lies within the lens of a film camera, and I can be sure this interest runs within my blood. My great-great grandfather, William Friese-Greene, was known as a pioneer and inventor of Kinematography. Not to bore you with the facts, but we both shared the same passion for film, and I hope it to become a great role in my career some day. 


Devon is a never-ending countryside of grassy hills and woodlands, which I frequently look at from both the negative and positive. I've always loved large cities such as New York or London, but I've always had a slight aggravation for the common public, especially if they come in large crowds. The countryside, I've always felt is a little neglected by the rest of the planet, though I can't be sure if that is just Devon. My school, King Edward VI Community College (Kevicc) is a performing arts college, though most of the boys there are only interested in their sports. I, however, suck at physical ed and everything to do with it, therefore I hate it. Those tough nuts only have Modern Warfare 2 and footy on their minds, but I tell them they can stick it up their Arsenal. My family being the more arty than physical, I never indulged in anything related to kicking a ball into a net, and I don't know if that is related to fact I'm in my room typing a blog no one will ever read. My dad is a music producer, who worked with Queen, the Sex Pistols, and many other 70's bands of his time. He is now self-employed to Heligoland. 


My parents are always bugging on at how I'm talented and need to participate in extra-curricular activities, but actually compared to most of the dumb-asses in my classes at school, I'm just average. They only compare me. The other kids call me a boffin, but I'm only making an effort. I play trumpet, a bad choice I inherited when I was 9, thinking it was oober cool. Now I am in regret for not taking up something like guitar of drums, something original. But now the folks have got me doing lessons again, (my former teacher moved and they forgot about the whole idea of it) they want me to join jazz bands, orchestras, folk groups, the whole sha-bang, aswell as a Dance GSCE they blackmailed me into (though I shan't lie, it is good fun.) But in all fairness, the only thing I'm interested in is film, and there it lies every Tuesday after school. I think I've negotiated with mum that I can mix and match with it and folk group. So this blog is dedicated to a small section of my devotion to pulling out my old camera and scouting about for interesting things all around the Shire of Devon.