Hi Friends,
How are you doing?Trust you are doing fine!As this year comes to a close,I thought I'd do something different! For a change,I thought of featuring five popular posts published on Sonyaa's Random Musings this year...you may call it the editor's choice as well! :) This post sums the crux of the best pot-pourri of content we had on our blog in 2013!Newbies on Sonyaa's Random Musings,we welcome you to the family!
You can subscribe to our monthly posts right here via Friend Connect, RSS Reader or Email.
This month's post would be useful to those who are new to our blog so that at a glance they are acquainted with the content we publish or for those of you who may have missed out some of our earlier posts,here's a chance to catch up or those of our fans who would perhaps like to recommend Sonyaa's Random Musings to family and friends!
So...let's get started right away!
#1 - Earlier this year I had the opportunity like many others to attend a free e-course on https://www.coursera.org/ titled,"The Language of Hollywood: Storytelling, Sound and Color".This was a comprehensive five weeks course conducted by Prof. Scott Higgins of Wesleyan University wherein he spoke on the evolution of story-telling in Hollywood that began in the 1920's from the silent era to sound and from black and white to color.
 |
| A still from Street Angel - The early days of cinema... |
This was an insightful course as we had to watch ten films and decipher the transition that cinema was witnessing in terms of story telling (through visual and sound motifs),story structures and narratives with the coming of newer technologies. Of course, here I'd like to once again at the outset thank Prof. Scott Higgins for the wonderful job done!
Here's Part 1, Part II, Part III, Part IV & Part V of this e-course which is a compilation of what I took home from the lectures as well as my personal notes on the ten films that I jotted along as I watched them. Notably,this course was a pre-dominant content among this year's post that was featured on my blog.
 |
| And they lived happily ever after... |
#2 -Lately,I have once again rediscovered my love for classics particularly those written by women authors with the likes of Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Elizabeth Gaskell- all of whom I consider hopeless romantics like me! There's always an element of love and romance which culminates into marriage or a happy ending in most of their stories. And the characters in their novels are straight from the bed-time fairy-tales you may have heard of as a child about a prince charming who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress or is re-united with his sweet-heart not long after some misunderstanding or difference of opinions and finally everything is sorted as they live happily ever after!
 |
| Even Margaret & John eventually fall in love! |
But that's not all... the real reason why I've fallen in love with classics is what you've got to thank BBC for!It's because this fairy-tale becomes all the more visually appealing when BBC takes helm of these classics and breathes life into it by adapting them into TV mini-series! BBC has indeed raised the bar of aesthetics when it comes to adapting novels- be it recreating the era, getting the fashion right in terms of costumes and hairstyles,a lovely background score to match the mood and occasion and having a maverick director on-board who understands the sensibilities of the period and is well-versed with the novel.And above all what I love about BBC's adaptations is that they always get their casting right!(Pssst...I don't know how they accomplish this feat...but they get it bang on hundred percent! Kudos to the casting directors here!) So...read on, on what I had to say about it in this post.
 |
| True love overcomes all impediments! |
#3 - If you've read #2 then you'd relate to this post all the more because here I recount some memorable moments and dialogues from BBC's adaptations of literary classics (particularly the ones that I have watched)! And if you've happened to watch them too then I guess you couldn't help falling in love once again! So...here it is!
 |
| Of forbidden love..The Thorn Birds |
#4 - Talking of women literary authors and their penchant for romance, I couldn't have missed this one because here's a mature love story from an all new perspective where love is forbidden and you witness a transcending romance between the two protagonists spanning over decades where the equations change with time and circumstances.And above all unlike other novels,the villain of this piece is not a person but 'ambition' that culminates into an impending and eventual tragedy. Got a clue? It's Colleen McCullough's best-seller novel, 'The Thorn Birds' which was successfully adapted into TV mini-series in 1983 starring Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Christopher Plummer and Jeanne Simmons. So...read on and if you have not watched it,then get inspired to (I hope this post gives you a good enough reason to)! :) Here's the link to the post.
 |
| Ronin are coming this Christmas! |
#5 - Earlier this year,I shared my watch-list of films for 2013-2014 in which I made a mention of films that showed promise with the likes of Keanu Reeves impressive directorial debut in Man of Tai Chi, biopics on Steve Jobs and Princess Diana and Matthew Mcconaughey's gaunt transformation in Dallas Buyers Club!And this Christmas, you have Keanu Reeves transform into a Samurai warrior leading '47 Ronin' towards victory and redemption as they avenge the death of their master... Excited? Read on to know about two more such films lined up for 2014 that have already set us abuzz! Could they be the top contenders at the Oscars? You tell us here!
Hope you enjoyed reading this month's round-up post!
Ciao in the New Year as I wish you all- peace,joy,love and happiness!
Love,
Sonyaa
No comments:
Post a Comment