My Love of Cider

I finally found my favourtie alcoholic beverage after seven weeks of living here in Canada, it was weird what joy it brought me as I am not a heavy drinker. Perhaps this cider just reminded me of home and the times I would go drinking with my friends. The summer that has past was my cider summer!

I started drinking cider at 18. On my last day of sixth form we went to the Toby Carvery near our school to celebrate. I had not been 18 too long so it was still very enjoyable to order alcohol legally. Hugh who was one of my friends recommended I try cider (Its odd I never tried it before then) as I drank beer even though I was not keen on it at all. I ordered a pint of strongbow and thought wow, this is so much better than beer (I still dont like beer much 6 years later). So from then on I would drink strongbow at parties or nights out clubbing where I might also drink snake bite which was Beer, Cider and black-current mixed and drinking too much would result in being sick on the way home.

Over the years of early uni life I mainly stayed with Strongbow as it was quite a cheap option. Now and then I treated myself to Magners and Bulmers. I had a little phase of Gaymers pear cider but then became sick off it not long after.

Now in 2012 for whatever reason, this was the year I started to enjoy a drink more, not at an alcoholic level but on a nice Saturday or Sunday afternoon or one or two nights after work or Uni I would fancy a drink. I started to really like Magners Pear Cider as I had started to get a little bored of apple Cider so this was a nice try. I then discovered what is now my favourite alcoholic drink ever and the one I finally found after seven weeks which is Kopparberg Pear Cider.

I thought I would do a little review off the main brands of Cider that I have drunk over the years and rate them out of ten.

Me after my seven week hunt for Kopparberg and 

below dragging some along to the checkout

STRONGBOW

The drink that started it all for me. The best option for when you are young and dont have too much money (I remember buying 2 litre bottles for about £3 which was great for parties). Although here in Canada I have seen it put down as a premium Cider which I found funny. It is a nice cider which is not too sweet but not too dry either and easy to drink. 6.5/10 I think is a fair score, easy to drink but nothing too good

I also tried the pear cider Strongbow released this year, was not too keen. Not as sweet as you hope with a pear cider, I felt it just tasted like a slightly sweeter normal Strongbow. 4/10

Bulmers

The apple cider is one of my favourite apple cider's I have tried. Its odd Bulmers owns Strongbow as the best way I can descirbe Bulmers apple cider is a better, more expensive version of Strongbow. The flavours are stonger and a nice balance of sweetness to it. 8/10 like I said one of my favourite apple ciders so gets a good score.

I have also tried Bulmers pear cider and their fruit one. The pear one is like the Strongbow in it is not as sweet as you would expect a pear cider to be so I give it 5/10 and I have not had the fruit one too much but remember it is a quite nice but nothing amazing 6/10

Magners

Magners cider was probably the second brand of cider I drank after Strongbow. I liked it but this summer really went off their apple brand of cider, like I really struggled to drink it when I had it. I dont know why, maybe it wasnt as sweet as this year I starting liking my ciders a little sweeter. So poor Magners apple gets a low 4/10 but I did have one recently and enjoyed it much more than earlier in the year.

Magners pear helped my love of pear cider come back. It was just a very nice level of sweetness and extremely easy to drink. I feel I could drink many of these without getting sick of the taste. It gets the highest rating so far with 9/10 perfect on a summers day with ice.

Stella Artois

Not being a fan off beer I did not think I would like their Cider or should I say Cidre. But their apple cider is my favourite. It beats bulmers by being slightly sweeter and I feel richer in flavour. I drank this at Hop farm music festival and when you are drinking for four days you ideally want to enjoy it alot. So I give it 8.5/10 defiantely my favourite plain cider and worthy off a very good score.

The pear brand of Stella Artrois Cidre is nice but a little too sweet but still a very enjoyable drink but not as good as Magners so it gets a 8/10.

Rekorderlig

I do not know if Rekordelig had been about before this year in England but it seemed to be the drink of summer 2012. I noticed loads of people drinking it. All varieties were popular, it was actually rare to see an apple brand. I only remember trying it once so feel I cant really give a review of that. I enjoyed the mixed fruits one and remember drinking it one night but got that feeling on your teeth where you know you have had too much sugar.

The mixed berries gets a 6.5/10 as was nice but not something I would drink to much of.

The Pear brand was very nice, very crisp and refreshing so gets a 8/10.

I do not like strawberry cider, I find it way too sweet so Rekorderlig's Strawberry and lime I give a 3/10.

Kopparberg

My Favourite drink as I have stated is Kopparberg's pear cider which is a perfect level of sweetness and so refreshing and the best drink on a hot day with lots of ice. I have never been one of those people who after a days work feels like a drink but this drink was the first I have craved after a hard days work or on a very hot sunny day. I give it 10/10 as I have never enjoyed an alcoholic drink more and after not having it for 8 weeks it was not a let down when I had it once more.

The apple brand of Kopparberg was a very nice surprise as you can really taste the apple whereas in other brands you dont get such a strong apple flavour. It is really nice and the sweet apple flavour is a lovely surprise which you wont get with the other apple ciders. I give it a 8.5/10

The mixed berries and strawberry and lime I am not to keen on. The mixed berries is ok so gets a 6/10 but as I said I dont enjoy Strawberry Cider so gets a 4/10.

Vancouver film festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

I arrived in Canada over half way through the festival. I found out about it online and saw they were looking for volunteers to help with the festival. I thought it would be a good little experience for when I first arrive in Canada.

As I enjoy film very much and enjoy all sorts of film from big hollywood blockbusters to smaller indie films, I thought this would be a good oppotunity to meet fellow film lovers and also learn more about Vancouver. 

As I arrived so late into the festival I did not get a chance to see any films but I do have recommendations from some off the other volunteers on what to check out which I will do so.

Most of my time working there I worked in an outside tent where festival passholders and volunteers would collect tickets for what films they wanted to see. It was a nice job which gave me the oppotunity to talk to some off the volunteers and moviegoers.

The white tent is where I was mainly based.

Granville Street after I had finished my shift.

Move to Canada

CANADA

I have recently moved to Canada on a year long working holiday visa. I have family here and used to visit alot during summer vacations while growing up and I loved it. From the age of 12 I wanted to move here and getting this visa is the first step to achieving that.

I finished University in July along with my girlfriend and we have now moved here. 

Below is some pictures I have taken since arriving.

 Danielle and Lister (my cousin's pet lizard)

 Too many colourful choices

 Granville Street at night.

Making the characters

Hopefully you enjoyed the film (its in the post below). I wanted to post a bit more making off process and this is how I made the stop motion models.

To make the armature, I used 2mm aluminium wire and twisted it together using a screwdriver and pliers.

Using bits of balsa wood for the areas you can see above I glued the lengths of aluminium wire into holes in the wood I had made. So above is the basic armature I used for my models (also a minstrel easter egg box), worked very well when filming. I did do a practice one about a month or two before my final ones just for preperation.

I then applied plasticine to the head and fingers (which were made using a thinner aluminium wire). For clothes I bought tights as they were a good thin material appropriate for this size models. I practiced on my practice model (as seen below) and I used uhu glue to glue them together, the back was a tiny bit messy looking but ok as not a lot of filming involved their backs. I used teddy bear stuffing under the clothes to pad them out a bit.

For the shoes I used Milliput. Drilled holes in the feet, painted them. This gave me good strong sturdy shoes.

 The little eye on the stick was how I made Archie's eye, for the monster I used these eye beads but for Archie I painted most of it white except a little circle of black in the middle as I didn't want them having similar eyes and more white in the eye would show more fear which I wanted Archie to have.

AHH!!!! It's on fire

My Film

Ive decided to finally post my film, as i'm taking forever with the making off pictures. I uploaded it to Youtube but private link as i'm not ready to properly unleash Der Blinkfang upon the world.

As stated earlier this was my third year studio project inspired by fairy tales and German poems such as Struwwelpeter.

Please enjoy, it took ages to do as it was my first stop motion film. If it's too small, you can click the button in the corner so it takes up the whole screen.

Getting the outside scene finished

For the outside I wanted a dead, eerie looking tree just by the door of the shed. I felt it would help build fear and therefore question why Archie would be so curious but like a few fairy tales I feel the character's are too curious for their own good and it normally comes back to get them.

Making the tree i used about 15 strands of aluminium wire (all equal length) and using a cordless drill to coil the wire and seperated the ends for the branches. Then i applied Wood filler to give it that bark look. Below are the pictures.

 For the rest of the outside I had to make a old looking fence which I did using balsa wood, For the grass I used a static grass mat. For the area around the shed I experimented with a mixture of things including sand, soil and the inside of a tea bag. I painted the shed and scratched and basically attacked it to make it look old.

     Me painting the shed and experimenting with the area around the shed

The Fence in place

With the tree also

The pictures are not the best to see but I gave the fence and shed a slight purple tint because I wanted to show how the monster bleeds into this real world to lure in his victims, he watches the real world and is not just a hungry stupid monster. I wanted him to come across as more intelligent than that.

Below shows the background for the outside scene, i did this with my girlfriend Danielle which i just kept simple with dark clouds, dark blue sky and the back fence and trees for a night time scene

Inside cont.

Its been a while since my last post. Been busy enjoying post student life including a great weekend at Hop Farm music festival.

I will just continue where I left off showing the process of my film.

Carrying on with the inside, I had to make the sharp iceberg like rocks which I wanted to so it would give the environment hidding places and help build suspense. I wanted them sharp and like icicles to give the environment a sense of coldness and pain. Below was a test I did, like everything I had to make sure it would look right and work for the film. I used expanding foam which I then cut and using mod roc I shaped the sharp edges.

The real thing below, and then painted black.

Put together it looked to dark and black so I gave the walls a re-coat of black and added more glitter so there was more colour.

For the sharp edges i painted silver again to give the sense of cold in the lair. I will show more pics of this later.

Building of the monster's lair frame

For the interior I wanted a cold cave type atmosphere and look, the walls would be rock like and there would be these sharp iceberg looking rocks going around the main space (To allow hiding spaces for the monster). The main colours would be black to give the feel of darkness and evil, purple for a magical mysterious feel and blue to give a cold feel. 

I will show more of the concept later, below is how the build went. 

I used a 9mm sheet of MDF and cut it down using a jigsaw. Below shows it put together using braces (using braces allowed me to take certain walls of for different camera angels and easily re-attach). Below you can see the interior was much bigger than the actual shed, i wanted the illusion of transporting to a new world (so if someone the monster didnt want came in, it would be a shed), this was the Alice in Wonderland inspiration.

I used mod roc for the walls, scrunching it to give the effect i wanted. I then gave it two coats of matt black wall paint (which i luckily had spare from 3 years earlier after painting my room) and then sprinkled blue and purple glitter on (I gave it another coat later on and added more glitter).

 

For the door i used MDF again which i cut to shape and used small hinges so it could be opened. I gave the door a different sort of shape to add to the feeling of being in a new weird distorted world. 

Building of the shed

Below is the building of the shed, It was the first thing i starting to make for the set. I remember how it felt good to finally get started on the build after months of designing and planning. I used balsa wood for the shed and the process went very well other than running out of wood and being delayed for a while until i got more.

For the door, i bought doll house hinges which were 1:12 scale and used a thick bit of balsa wood for the door. The little screws which came with the hinges weren't very good, some not even fitting in the hinge's holes so i improvised using pins as i knew they would be painted anyway. The swing of the door was stiff but that was perfect as the door was going to have to open during filming and that allowed me to control the movement easily. For the window i just used a clear plastic which i cut out then scratched up a bit to age it.