The Blog of Ryan Kent

Top 20 since 1992

2009-09-06T18:21:00.004+01:00

In honour of Quentin Tarantino's Top 20 films since 1992 (the year he made his first film), I have decided to do the same. Although I never released a film in 1992, nor any year since for that matter, I've decided to stick with the same year. You could argue 1992 was the year I got Batman Returns on VHS...

OK, so in alphabetical order:

4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile/4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

All or Nothing

Sheep

2009-08-02T03:14:00.002+01:00

Hamlet Posters

2009-05-13T22:23:00.004+01:00

Some of the Hamlet posters I've been working on... Click for bigger images...

Hamlet Promotional Photos

2009-05-07T02:26:00.001+01:00

william II

2009-04-29T00:59:00.000+01:00

william, king of england

2009-04-28T13:47:00.002+01:00

le silence de suzy

2009-04-28T13:40:00.002+01:00

Stella Campaign

2009-04-16T04:47:00.003+01:00

Stella have come up with a fantastic campaign that borrows heavily on French cinema and culture of the 1960's. They have made three short films that appear to have been dug from the French cinema archives. They are very cool. One is below and the others you can see at www.smoothoriginals.com.

A bit of free advertising there from me. Clever Stella.

thanuj thevar

2009-02-22T10:24:00.000Z

blaahhhhh

2009-02-16T22:17:00.004Z

i'm doing another theatre poster for a university production... this time it's twelfth night (this shakespeare guy must be popular)... inspirations this time are atonement, pride and prejudice.... that kind of thing...

haunted by a vicar

2009-01-19T01:47:00.002Z

not much going on except essays at the moment... i had a work shadowing evening at the dukes playhouse in lancaster (once haunted by a vicar, did you know)... it was a good insight into how it runs...

in the meantime, i've discovered this guy... he is going to write and record a song every day for the entire year... most of the songs i've heard so far are very, very good considering the time-limit he has for each...

au revoir

mixamatosis promo final edit

2008-12-18T16:54:00.003Z

finished season five of 24 in about 3 days... i really should be getting on with essays over this christmas holiday period...

anyway, as promised i managed to finish editing this mixamatosis promo video in-between my fixes of 24... here you go...

Mixamatosis Promo from ryan kent on Vimeo.

mixamatosis promo

2008-12-12T10:22:00.004Z

i'm currently editing the footage i shot at the first night of mixamatosis in manchester a month or so back... i've finally find a way to get the footage from the camera to my mac, which involves a friend's girlfriend's computer and an external hard drive... bit of a pain, but it'll be worth it...

i'll post the video up when it's done...

flying rats

2008-12-09T17:36:00.002Z

does anyone fancy using this as an album cover???

trick or treat, the bitter and the sweet

2008-11-17T16:48:00.000Z

othello final

2008-11-10T15:29:00.001Z

one of the final posters for the Othello show in December... i might be doing one or two more with different photos...

hello ween

2008-10-31T22:49:00.003Z

happy halloween, freaks

allcity

2008-10-31T02:19:00.004Z

came across this company earlier tonight... allcity

allcity design posters and dvd art for films... i've seen their work for years and i've always been very impressed, without realising they've been from the same company... recent posters and artwork they've done have been for amores perros, breathless, 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days, as well as a range for shane meadows films'... check out their site which includes out-take posters that were never used for campaigns they've been commissioned on... look out for the brilliant out-takes for the baader meinhof complex...

also they have included a stage-by-stage process of their design ideas for the amores perros poster campaign...

very inspiring stuff...

Othello

2008-10-23T18:52:00.000+01:00

the bell witch house party

2008-10-22T02:54:00.002+01:00

listen up you skinny rats and fashion cats, head over to seabeds myspace for some dark and delicious ditties... there's only the one song up right now - which was originally supposed to be a longer song, but it sounds better as a short 25 second 'intro' song... the sick sound of the spook machine to come? think the fall meets the fuzztones...

blank generation

2008-10-19T00:58:00.004+01:00

I can't find my camera battery anywhere... Where is it? I know you have got it somewhere...

Uni has started up again in the last two weeks. Not only do I have work to do at uni, I have to find my battery and do the photos for The Shadowcops album, and design the poster for the upcoming Othello show at the Nuffield Theatre. Busy busy busy!!!

I'm quite drunk right now and in my mind reminiscing of old times...

How good are/were Richard Hell and the Voidoids????

Film Review: Prom Night (2008)

2008-10-18T02:22:00.025+01:00

It seems the stream of horror movie remakes aren't coming to an end any time soon, with Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Evil Dead amongst many others, either planned or in production. Hollywood, evidently, has run out of ideas for scary new material. So how does Prom Night fair in relation to other contemporary remakes?

A remake in name only of the Jamie-Lee Curtis-staring 1980 slasher, Prom Night is written by J.S. Cardone, a man so inept at constructing original and believable characters that even Uwe Boll probably wouldn't direct one of his scripts. The story follows a group of seen-them-all-before teens on their senior prom night, led by Hairspray's Brittany Snow, as they are stalked and slashed by their former high-school teacher-turned obsessed psychopath. The story however proves of little significance because it is both insipid and inane. There have been plenty of horror films with ludicrous plots before - see Dario Argento's back catalogue - but those films always had something else to back them up. Prom Night has nothing. Characters spew lines like they grew up in a small dark room analysing expository dialogue from Friday the 13th sequels (the bad ones at that).

For a post-Saw horror film Prom Night is surprisingly tame - there's no sex or nudity and bare-minimum blood. The 15 certificate also comes as a shock, as there’s little here that would amount to anything above a 12 rating. Its intended audience seems to be teenage girls looking for a suitable, less-bloody alternative to Halloween. A cheap scare on a sleepover perhaps? Whatever the case, anything remotely resembling tension and suspense is wasted because in almost every scare-scene there's a sense that we've seen it all before; the anticipated reflection in the bathroom mirror, the killer disappearing behind a passing vehicle in the street, the point-of-view shots, they are all here. Every frame of Prom Night has been recycled from previous, better films. Nelson McCormick's direction is uninspired and instantly forgettable, which is a shame considering he’ worked on some of America's most critically-acclaimed shows (The West Wing, Prison Break, Nip/Tuck). That said, he has little to work from with Cardone's tired script. If The Fog and The Omen were never redone, then Prom Night would certainly be the worst of the lot.

Prom Night is directed by Nelson McCormick and is written by J.S. Cardone. The film stars Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Johnathan Schaech and Idris Elba. The certificate is 15.

The trailer can be seen HERE.

work work work sleep sleep sleep

2008-10-04T18:25:00.005+01:00

the album shoot was done today with an immense hangover... the day included a dog named colin, german beer-hall songs, a flamingo, and a drunken priest...

i don't think i'll post anything until nearer the time the album comes out... i'll post some outtakes perhaps... in the meantime here's a minotaur...

a big pot of hot (or how i stopped worrying and learn to love the bum)

2008-09-30T07:38:00.006+01:00

i've got a photo shoot coming up this weekend... actually paid!... i'm taking the photo for the shadowcops debut album 'a big pot of hot', which will be released in january/february next year... it should be interesting and i'll post the photo(s) when i'm done... listen to some ear-bleeding rock and roll here (for men only)...

meanwhile, here's a photo of my nephew's... the colouring is a little flat but i can't be bothered to fix it right now...

human or dancer?

2008-09-24T14:37:00.004+01:00

an old photo but i like the colours... plus i think suzy looks ace on it in a tongue-in-cheek way (she hates it)...

i don't think i've listened to much apart from the new killers single 'human' in the last twenty-four hours... i actually have a lot of love for the killers - i'm not really a massive fan of mainstream indie but i have a soft spot for these, particularly their second album... 'human' sounds less like springsteen and has a sort of european dance-type feel to it - if that makes sense...

othello

2008-09-15T11:52:00.003+01:00

here is a poster i've been working on for lancaster university's production of shakespeare's othello. it's the first of at least two, maybe three, posters that i'm planning on doing to promote the show. i think i'm supposed to be taking the publicity photos too nearer the time...

the poster is supposed to represent a bloodstained, battered hardback copy of othello from the 19th century (or 18th century, whatever) that has been crudely modified by some student promoting a theatre show...

i can't decide whether it's the most satisfying poster i've done so far (of the three i've finished) or whether i will learn to hate it. probably both...

it's not the full-size version btw - that's over 7mb in total...

cigarettes and alcohol

2008-09-08T15:28:00.002+01:00

moved into our new house in lancaster on saturday... our attic room is pretty huge, could fit two double-beds easily...

glass structures

2008-09-03T02:31:00.003+01:00

recently i've been experimenting with various synthesizers in logic pro. mainly making noise and strange waves. you can see the results here. it's not exactly what you would call music and it's very experimental. imagine ramleh was asked to score a stan brakhage film. well, it would probably sound like glass structures.

a way to pass the time i guess.

oh, and i go back to lancaster this weekend... hull has had its fill of me and is sending me back across the country.

elvis

2008-08-22T16:41:00.002+01:00

romeo and juliet

2008-08-17T23:43:00.004+01:00

something I have been working on today... was originally supposed to be a Romeo and Juliet poster, but i tried several fonts which didn't work, so I've left it as it is... i'll probably modify it again if I feel like it... it's not great but it's only the fourth image i've completed... a lot to learn yet! p.s. it looks a lot better full-size, so click on the image.

a city of vacant spaces

2008-08-16T14:19:00.004+01:00

here is a poster for my friend, chris leech's upcoming ep. i'll no doubt be making a few more for him for variety, but this is the finished draft of the first version. you can hear his music here or read his blog here.

from ali with love

2008-08-15T14:17:00.003+01:00

I've been working on a couple of posters in the last day or two. I've never really attempted to do anything like this before, but it seems I've taken a huge liking to it. It'll bode well with my advertising course next year.

be your own prat

2008-08-07T16:36:00.003+01:00

a mix of the first seabeds song is almost complete. 90% of the tracks have been recorded and mixed and i only need to add one or two more parts plus the vocals i reckon. it's a rehash of 'sweet apple cemetery' that i posted not so long ago, but i've ditched the acoustic guitar and replaced it with pure distorted trash. it sounds like mika miko choking on radioactive waste - well, maybe not that harsh. but it's pretty raw. i originally wanted to rename it 'zombie beach party' (it sounded more appropriate) but it turns out that be your own pet have a song called 'zombie graveyard party'. arseholes. so i guess the name won't change.

anyway i'll post it on myspace soon...

the bird with the crystal plumage

2008-08-06T23:47:00.003+01:00

sunshine on a sunny day

2008-07-26T16:26:00.003+01:00

i'm sat in the back garden enjoying the rays of yorkshire's sunlight at the moment... suzy is in the hammock reading 'the hidden diaries of marie antoinette... andrew is fixing his bike, and ann is pottering about the garden doing bits and bobs... did some sanding of the windows before but came to the conclusion it was way too hot to be doing any work today... been discovering lots of good 1960's garage bands from the pebbles trash box-set - rogues, shadows of knight, sons of adam, positively 13 o'clock etc... lots of good fuzz/garage/psyche stuff... beat happening hasn't really been off my playlist, the same with mika miko too... wrote down a couple of scenes i want in my television script, one of which includes a man who wears rollerskates but has no feet...

sweet apple cemetery

2008-07-20T02:22:00.004+01:00

there is a short 25-secs sample of 'sweet apple cemetery' now available HERE... check it out... the full song will be available in the next week...

top ten films

2008-07-17T18:18:00.003+01:00

1. angel heart (parker, 1987)

2. blowup (antonioni, 1966)

3. le cercle rouge (melville, 1970)

4. this is england (meadows, 2006)

5. profondo rosso (argento, 1975)

6. heat (mann, 1995)

7. apocalypse now: redux (coppola, 1979)

8. the dreamers (bertolucci, 2003)

9. weekend (godard, 1967)

10. nil by mouth (oldman, 1997)

and directors...

1. ken loach

2. alfred hitchcock

3. michael mann

4. shane meadows

5. woody allen

6. jean-luc godard

7. paul verhoeven

8. steven spielberg

9. jean-pierre melville

10. dario argento

the first cut is the deepest

2008-07-16T17:44:00.004+01:00

i've decided to start a new blog... for various reasons i won't be continuing with sounds from the street... mainly because i want a fresh start... i've been working on a new musical project called seabeds... it's a lo-fi indie sound in vain of beat happening... sound good? i don't have my microphone on me at the moment so that's why nothing has been recorded except for the drums on logic pro... there are ideas in my head somewhere for a dark television comedy, gotta write them down or i will never get rich... my lack of motivation scares me... been working on the house at suzys mums, gardening, sanding window frames etc... been swimming a couple of times, gonna keep it up... went to york and saw a lot of old buildings, i love that stuff... more updates soon. peace out and all that jazz. ryan