Truth About the Harry Potter Exhibition

                        
           


The truth about the current Harry Potter exhibition at the Discovery Time Square in NYC is harsh, but its the truth. A list of positive and negative aspects will make it clear.

POSITIVE
- All exhibited items were used and seen throughout the movies
- You are yet once more in the world of Harry Potter (huge plus and maybe the only big plus)
- The sorting hat ceremony at the beginning of the exhibition
- Daniel Radcliffe currently plays in the musical "How To Succeed" on the same street as the exhibition
- The poster of the exhibition is cool: "Your invitation has arrived Harry Potter The Exhibition" (Didn't we all wait for the latter from Hogwarts, we did)
- Some of the artifacts are really amazing to see (Ex. Hagrid's Hut)

NEGATIVE
- Extremely crowded. Makes it hard to enjoy the objects in peace
- Full of children (Guess that was expected)
- Don't go on weekends or certain holiday. Maybe during normal weekdays it's better
- Quiet expensive for what is has to offer (Entrance fee is $25)
- Long queue, though it goes quiet fast for its length
- No photograph. (It would have been understandable to not take pictures with flash, none?)
- You are out of the exhibition faster, than in the exhibition. It is quiet short

As a huge Harry Potter fan it hurts me to summarize the exhibition as unnecessary. It gives the obvious impression that its sole purpose is to make more unnecessary profit. Yet all Harry Potter fans like myself will go to view the exhibition, that yet differs from exhibitions we might usually go to.

Just being close to the world of Harry Potter and seeing how much detail has been put into each artifact is worth a visit has a HP fan. And one should try to get a taste of the wizard word as much as possible. Once the last movie hits the theaters, the magic will slowly begin to fade. Simply ignore all the negative aspects and try to erase the muggles around you and you might just get the feeling Radcliffe and Co. had during the shootings.

Yesilcam Award: The future Turkish Oscars

Turkish Cinema's Yesilcam Award Points To Better Future


"The fourth Yeşilçam Awards were handed out Monday night after a week of cinema and art. The winner of the night was director Seren Yüze's movie 'Çoğunluk,' which left his imprint on the award show, winning the most prestigious categories and taking home four awards. The second grand winner was 'Av Mevsimi,' which also triumphed in four categories"

Read more under:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=an-award-show-with-a-hopeful-future-2011-03-29

Exhibition of Irem Tok at Outlet Gallery

If you are by any chance in Istanbul, Turkey the following few days, it is advisable to go and check out aspiring artist Irem Tok's exhibition "Fade Away". She took the time to sit down with me for a reportage for Hürriyet Daily News and really set a new path of art in Turkey. Her art which can be described as Plastic Art, includes a variety of mediums and Tok is fearless when it comes to trying new things. Be sure to hear from her more in the future.
If you are interested to read more about her art, than check out the whole article of the reportage on Hürriyet Daily News's City Brief:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=plastic-art-in-motion-2011-02-21

Address:
Boğazkesen Caddesi
Kadirler Yokuşu No:69
Tophane-Istanbu
Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00-18:00, Closed on Mondays, Sundays 

Oscar Prediction's

Academy Honorary Award
Elli Wallach
Jean-Luc Godard
Kevin Brownlow

1. Best Picture
Winner: THE KING'S SPEECH <3
Will: The King's Speech
Wish: The King's Speech/Black Swan





2. Actor in Leading Role
Winner: COLIN FIRTH
Will: Colin Firth
Wish: Colin Firth





3. Actor in Supporting Role
Winner: CHRISTIAN BALE
Will:Christian Bale
Wish: Christian Bale





4. Actress in Leading Role
Winner: NATALIE PORTMAN
Will: Natalie Portman
Wish: Natalie Portman





5. Actress in Supporting Role
Winner: MELISSA LEO
Will: Melissa Leo
Wish: Amy Adams





6. Animated Feature Film
Winner: TOY STORY 3
Will: Toy Story 3
Wish: The Illusionist


7. Art Direction
Winner: ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Will: Inception
Wish: Alice in Wonderland


8. Cinematography
Winner: INCEPTION
Will: True Grit
Wish: True Grit


9. Costume Design
Winner: ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Will: Alice in Wonderland
Wish: Alice in Wonderland


10. Directing
Winner: TOM HOOPER <3
Will: David Fincher
Wish: Tom Hooper





11. Documentary Feature:
Winner: INSIDE JOB
Will: Inside Job
Wish: Exit through the Gift Shop


12. Film Editing
Winner: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Will: Black Swan/The Social Network
WIsh: Black Swan


13. Foreign Language Film
Winner: IN A BETTER WORLD
Will: Dogtooth
Wish: Incendies


14. MakeUp
Winner: THE WOLFMAN 
Will: The Way Back
Wish: The Way Back


15. Music (Original Score)
Winner: TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS "THE SOCIAL NETWORK"
Will: Alexandre Desplat The King's Speech
Wish: The King's Speech + How to Train Your Dragon


16. Music (Original Song)
Winner: Randy Newman - "We Belong Together" TOY STORY 3
Will:"Coming Home" - Country Strong
Wish: "Coming Home"


17. Sound Edition
Winner: INCEPTION
Will: Inception
Wish: Inception

18. Sound Mixing
Winner: INCEPTION

Will: Inception

Wish: The King's Speech


19. Visual Effects
Winner: INCEPTION
Will: Inception

Wish: Alice In Wonderland


20. Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Winner: AARON SORKIN "THE SOCIAL NETWORK"
Will: Aaron Sorkin "The Social Network"
Wish: Aaron Sorkin "The Social Network"

21. Writing (Original Screenplay)
Winner: DAVID SEIDLER "THE KING'S SPEECH"
Will: Inception (Christopher Nolan)
Wish: The King's Speech(David Seidler)

22. Short Film (Animated)
Winner: THE LOST THING

Will: Day & Night

Wish: The Lost Thing

23. Documentary Short Subject
Winner: STRANGER'S NO MORE

Will: Stranger's No More

Wish: Strangers No More

24. Short Film (Live Action)
Winner: GOD OF LOVE

Will: Na Wewe

Wish: Wish 143 + The Crush 

Daily News: "A Coen Sort of Western"

Here comes the previously mentioned second movie article I wrote, about the Coen Brothers movie "True Grit"that was published last week .

"Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, the movie tells the story of a 14-year-old girl Mattie Ross, played by rising star Hailee Steinfeld, who sets out to avenge the death of her father. Stubborn Mattie, hires the worn down and drunk U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man with “true grit,” to help her find the villain Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), who by then has made his way into the Indian Nation. Mattie joins Rooster on his journey, against his wish, not fully trusting him and hoping to have things her way, saying to herself in the movie: “When I have bought and paid for something, I will have my way. Why do you think I am paying you if not to have my way?” With Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) on their side, who seeks Chaney for his own purposes, they set out on a journey that will truly test their “grit...”"


Read more here:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=the-coen-sort-of-western-2011-02-16

Daily News: 'Black Swan' doles out beauty and horror in equal measure

My very first movie critic was published in the newspaper on Friday 18, 2011, which now can be found on the internet as well.

It's about the Oscar nominated movie "Black Swan" by Darren Aronofsky, feel free to check it out. More will be on the way. 

 http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=beautiful-yet-horrifying-2011-02-14

Interesting yet not surprising scandal!

"Deutschland sucht den Superstar" the German version of "American Idol" faces a scandal that is interesting yet not surprising.
Starlounge.de reports of a former candidate Vidina Popic, that claims that nothing at "Superstar" is as it seems: "It's nothing more then a perfectly well prepared script", she claimes. According to her its not the jury that really decides who stays and who goes, but the producer decide that in an unofficial casting before the casting that millions get to watch on screen.
Further accusations have been for example the elimination of a candidate, because she did not want to wear a bikini. Whether that is true can be doubted, since there are girls that don't wear a bikini on the Maldives.
However it might be possible that later on after this scandals hit the media the producers decided not to put everyone in bikini's, as a proof that the candidates are not forced to wear one if they don't want to.
Unless more candidates come forth with similar accusations, it makes it hard to really decide whether its true or not, yet in the starlounge.de, 83% of the 46380 readers that voted chose, "its true the whole show is fake".
Well on one instance of course its fake, its a show and not a reality show that claims to show true occurrences. With that in mind it really is not such a heavy accusation. After all a magician also does not do real magic puts on a show to entertain us and amaze us.  Moreover no one goes and blames the magician for faking magic.
One could go ahead accuse almost every show on TV with similar allegations, we the audience will never really know how close to reality the things are that we get to see and how much planning beforehand really goes on as well as, whether the telephone voting is calculated justly or if tricks are used.
The positive aspect about the complaints might have a positive effect on the audience, they make us reconsider things and help us to watch programs with a critical eye, this way it will become harder for producers to pull our legs.
At the end, the producers only make certain decisions, because we the audience want it that way. In this case it seems, the audience wants to see young talented girls in bikinis and participants that come across interesting.

Link to the article in German:
http://starlounge.unterhaltung.msn.de/index.cfm?objectid=107496