16/06/2019

Q&A with Lashana Lynch @ Fragments Connect! AHHH!

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ok I'm still like what the heck at all of this but on Saturday 15th June 2019, I did a Q&A with Lashana Lynch. I was asked if I could be part of the Fragments Connect day which was run on the last day of the Fragments Festival which had been held for the week at Genesis Cinema near Mile End! I have been to this cinema a few times for different film events, so I was super excited to be asked to come and do the q&a! I'll get into the day in a sec but for now, you're probably wondering how this came about.

To be completely honest, I still am to be honest! Hahah! Living in London, there are always so many different film and creative events happening and I try to go to all of them! Last year during the London Film Festival, the BFI run a day for young people who want to be in the film industry and during the networking drinks afterwards, I met Caroline from UNDR LNDN and we got chatting. We actually spent most of the drinks party together and we shared instagrams and that was that. I continued going to stuff, building a bit of a presence on instagram and just enjoying seeing lots of stuff! I do it for a hobby and I absolutely love it! A few weeks ago, I then got an email from Caroline, saying that a new festival was going to start this year called Fragments Film Festival. She said that she loved meeting me and seeing my personality grow so wanted me to be part of it somehow! I was super excited and kinda freaking out but calmly replied that I'd love to! A little later on, I got another email saying that I would be involved with the final day of the festival which would focus on connecting people in all parts of the industry, especially people who want to get into it AND I'D BE INTERVIEWING LASHANA LYNCH AND I JUST KINDA STOPPED AND REREAD THE EMAIL A FEW TIMES but yep, it was real. Caroline and I met again at another film thing I went to (funnily enough it was at Genesis Cinema) and she just said how I reminded her of her younger self, just wanting to get involved and throw herself into every opportunity! She said my personality was great and it was fantastic to see me supporting so much. I've been so lucky to have this incredible opportunity and my advice to you is to just get involved with everything you can and speak to people! Make friends, share contacts, support what people are doing... if you do it and enjoy it, people will see and approach you, like what happened to me! I understand it'd be harder if you didn't live somewhere where all this stuff happens, but that doesn't mean that you can't connect through social media or get your name/face out there in other ways!

So, I accepted and that was that! The theme of the q&a was 'Acting On Screen' so the week of the q&a, I started putting together some questions. I googled Lashana to find out more about her as well as watched interviews she had done so I could kinda get to know her! I knew that I didn't want to go into detail on Captain Marvel, Brie Larson or Bond 25, I wanted to get to know her, what acting means to her and how her advice could help people watching! I sent my list of questions to Caroline and she sent a few back and ready for Saturday, I had a list of 10 questions, in some sort of order! I know that it doesn't sound like many but I knew that more questions would come up as she answered the ones I had and I could add questions as I thought of them! For me, this worked really well and Lashana gave some great answers! Some of my questions were serious and others were quite playful! I really enjoyed myself and I think that balance of questions was nice as it made it quite chill and casual but still informative!

So I got to the cinema about 12:45, ready for things to kick off at 1! There were so many great people talking about what they did and how we could get there! I learnt some great things and got to speak to some lovely, talented people! I love days like this because you meet people at different points in their careers and learn so much and just feel so inspired! The q&a was going to be the final part of the day and it just went so so well! There aren't any videos of it, but I basically asked Lashana how she started acting, about auditions, her first time on a film set and how that was different to a big marvel set, about what she did to prepare for a day of acting, the differences between acting on stage and screen, how cameras and things could be distracting, and of course I had to ask her what her super power would be! It all just worked so well and I hope that the audience enjoyed it too! I was worried that no one would put their hand up to ask questions at the end but we had a few which was really nice so thank you if you asked something!


And that's that, my first q&a/interview thing and it went so well! Lashana was so so lovely and gave me a big hug! It was such an incredible experience and I want to wish her all the best with everything! It was so nice meeting her and chatting, I really learnt a lot!

So there we go! I'm now available for interviews of all kinds! hahah JOKES! But I am excited to see where this takes me and what I do next! we'll see ay, future anna!

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15/06/2019

Bastille's Doom Days Launch Event Experience

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Omg it's 9:04 am as I write this and I'm not waking up on my kitchen floor. I'm waking up in bed, still amazed by the incredible Bastille launch event for their album Doom Days last night! In this blog post, I'm gonna describe the events and talk about my feelings, so if you're not really into Bastille, you may not enjoy, but I think it's cool to talk about!

So, there were 2 launch events which were exactly the same, just happening a few hours apart. I thought this was a fantastic idea because it meant that more fans could attend and be part of the album launch. It was kinda like a matinee and an evening show, and I went to the later one!

The venue, Studio 9294 was a super cool graffitied warehouse style thing, near Olympic Park! Before our show, we decided to explore there and then find the pop up shop that the band had tweeted about.
It turned out to be right next to the venue ๐Ÿ˜‚ which was great! The lil pop up shop featured signed copies of the album (I pick up a CD), t-shirts, denim jackets, pin badges and posters! To be honest, I wasn't really keen on the poster and t-shirt made specifically for the launch event (it wasn't pretty) but I bought another t-shirt that had a super cool design which I liked and a matching pin badge. For the 3 items, it came to £35 which I didn't think was bad at all. I thought it was really cool how they had paper bags printed with the album logo and my bag actually stayed intact during the show which I was pleased about ๐Ÿ˜‚

The first show started at 6pm, and we arrived to the venue about 6:15, so saw people entering. This gave us time to look in the lil shop, and then we were allowed to queue. You didn't really have to queue, but we were there so it seemed silly not to. By being near the front too, we could hear what was happening and know where we needed to stand to get a good spot at the actual performance!

At 8:45pm, we were allowed into the venue with a headset! There were 3 different channels that we could tune into. One played frog noises, another played jazz and the final channel played 90s club music. The wide open space featured a bed, a sofa and a few other little props dotted around.

After listening to what people had said in the queue, we would move to another room to listen to the band after the interactive experience! I may have pretended to go to the toilet to scope out the venue.
So, I found where they were gonna perform, got a free lollypop, chilled in the toilet for 2 secs and then returned and the security guard was none the wiser๐Ÿ˜‚ I felt a bit cheeky but you gotta do what you gotta do!

I then put on my headphones and had a little boogie as I met with friends!

At 9:15pm ish, the room went dark and on 2 projector screens, the boys from Bastille appeared to explain the headphones and what would be happening. It was cute and funny and I hope they release the videos because everyone needs to experience how funny they are!!

Three actors then took their turns to present us with a short monologue to introduce themselves. First a junior doctor told us how he was addicted to drugs although he assured us that he wasn't. Then a lady obsessed with cleaning told us a little bit about her sex life. Finally a man introduced us to his life and how he was living it after a bad army experience. The boys then reappeared on the projection screens telling us to choose a channel to listen to a particular story. You could easily flick through them to listen to a bit of each but I decided to stay on one to get the full story! I was gonna pick the green channel which would look at the army story and PTSD. But I decided to choose the lady and her sexy story instead as I could see her from where I was stood. Whilst the stories unfolded, time ticked towards day on the projection screens, monologues were told, birthday cakes were bought through and it was really cool. At points the stories over lapped, the characters changed places and we could hear all the actors, not just our chosen ones. It was such a cool concept, I'm down for more stuff like this in the future!!

When the stories were finished, we moved through to the other room and WE GOT SECOND ROW! Not bad! We wanted front but Dan was VERY close in certain areas so it was nice to not be front๐Ÿ˜‚
The band played their while new album, all live on YouTube which I will link to here: https://youtu.be/mFz2-DVPNQ0

It was so cool to hear the album played on the day it came out, even though I didn't know many of the words and Dan only looked at me when I didn't know them๐Ÿ˜‚ It was the best time and I feel so lucky that we were that close! It will probably never happen again so I'm glad it did on such a small scale!
The show ended about 11, and we got the train back! Wow, what a night!

I'm excited to see how the Club Nights Tour plays out as well as the actual tour! If you wanna see them, I hope that you can get tickets and enjoy! I feel so lucky that I was able to go to this, it truly was a cool experience!

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14/06/2019

My Thought's on Bastille's Album DOOM DAYS

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omg future anna I can't believe that bastille's 3rd album is finally here! when they first said that it'd be a concept album, I was very intrigued. When they said that the album would follow a night, I was worried that there wouldn't be enough time to frame these songs well and really tell a good story. The singles for the album have been amazing, so hopefully the rest of the album is good too!


I am writing my thoughts for each song as I hear it for the first time, however I have already heard QPM, Doom Days, Those Nights and Joy.

Quarter Past Midnight

omg I love QPM. We were given this song a year ago and have waited for something new ever since haha! Not even the band knew what was happening, but I'm glad we had this song to kinda fill a void til Doom Days was released and we all went mad! I love how electric and exciting this song is. It's truthful and I feel a fantastic place to open the album.

Bad Decisions

Clappity clap! ooooh it's so different from QPM, and I love it. It's kinda like a more upbeat version of Those Nights. I love the beat so so much, it's so bouncy and alive. I wanna get up and dance. It makes me laugh that bad decisions are being made this early on in the night/album! omg the bridge, yes dan show us your range!!!! I really like this song, I'm excited to see how much more of the album is cool and upbeat.

The Waves

Ooh a nice transition there, oh hello there's still a cool beat but we're getting slightly more dreamy and slow. it's reminding me of the currents from the last album, it's not as punchy and powerful, but the idea of water and being swept away with it all. I like this tune, it's very different from anything I've heard them done but it's still so familiar and classic Bastille. I just love the claps hahaha.

Divide

oh, it's sad boy hours. it's slow and meaningful. this song really reminds me of World Gone Mad, which was released as a single for the film Bright, and it's a bit like a continuation for the story. The world is breaking but we shouldn't break down with it, we're stronger together. I don't think that this will be one of my faves from the album, but I like the calm of it.

Million Pieces

ok we're back in a funky beat. yes it's like a cool club song ok I love the prechorus come on give us a good drop... oh yes ok! It's kinda tropical! I feel that it could've lasted longer (a possible dance break???) but I love the lyrics so I guess I'll forgive them. I really like this one, it reminds me of Grip which is a single from their previous mixtape and I really liked it! Yep, I like this tune!

Doom Days

YES I LOVE THIS ONE! When we finally had some news that a new single/the album was gonna come out, everyone was so excited. I think this song perfectly enraptures the current state of our world and what a lot of people think about it. The rap, the words, the beat, it's just wicked! I can't wait to hear this tune live! It's a complete banger. I love that it's kinda cute but also scary and realistic but lovely.

Nocturnal Creatures

ok we're back to a slower pace but it's still got something to it. hmmm... someone guessed the name to this track a while ago so I was excited to hear it. It's slower than I imagined but I love the echo and repetition! I like this song, it's pop-y but not too energetic, which I'm drawn to. I think this will be one of my favourites on the album!

4AM

omg. this sounds so so different. oh wait I have heard this one on the last tour they did, hmmm I think it was the still avoiding tomorrow tour! I can remember hearing it live and not being sure about it. and now, hearing the studio version, I still feel the same. It's utterly beautiful and full and accepting, but there's just something I'm not keen on and I cannot put my finger on it. I'm sure it will grow on me. I don't think I'll listen to it much, but when they perform it live, it'll be the one I hold my friends to. It's gorgeous and so full of feeling, they've done well with this one. omg I love the harmony kinda backing bits of voices! if you can't hear it, stick both headphones in!!!

Another Place

oh hello. Bastille have definitely been inspired by club music and sounds you'll hear from a dj set. I'm really digging it. this isn't the kind of music I normally listen to, but I love how they've put their own personal and precious spin on it. This album is way more electronic than their previous albums which makes me very excited to see how they perform it live. Considering they've not really done stuff like this before, it's really professional and a major step up from their previous stuff, although I may prefer that.

Those Nights

So this song is the most recent single from the album and I really like how it kind of sums up the album in this slow and dreamy way. It's calm and beautiful but also full of gritty truth that you eventually realise on nights like these. It's kinda sad, but also uplifting. a big jump from the previous songs. We're not alone, even if we feel like we are. I love the backing track for this song so much. Dan's voice always takes centre stage but I love the beat and use of instruments so much. This really is a gorgeous song. I get that this song won't be everybody's cup of tea, and took me a few listens to really like it, but it is worth the wait. The outro of this song really reminds me of their previous album, Wild World.

Joy

And here we are beautifully swept into Joy! I love this song and I love that it's being used as the main single but also confused me when I found out this was the chosen one. I thought that the final song on the album would be kept a secret, just so we wouldn't know how the night would wrap up, but we all know how the album ends, which I guess makes it familiar but will forever annoy me. It would've just been nice, in my opinion, to leave it til the album release to present it to the world. I love how alive this song is and the aspects of the choir and just everything about it! Definitely a summer song!


So that is the album Doom Days from my favourite band Bastille. It's exactly what I imagined and at the same time it's nothing like what I expected. I like how each song is very different and they don't go together, yet they all work as one body, telling a story. To be honest, I feel like I needed a song that was powerful, like Doom Days and just fantastic like Joy to really top off the album but I don't feel like we got that. I'm really happy with what we've been given after what seems like the longest wait, but I'm still not 100%. I'm sure the songs that I'm not sure about will grow on me and I'll know every word before too long! I'm super excited to see how the album is performed at the launch event which takes place in 20 hours, so I'd better get some sleep!

I think my fave is Nocturnal Creatures, but I also recommend, Bad Decisions, Doom Days, and Joy! Which songs do you like best from the album?

Cheers for the new album Bastille, we're all super excited about it and to see you all perform these new tracks live! Keep thinking outside the box and creating great music! Enjoy the launch event future anna!

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