Sunday 16 October 2011

UK Premiere of "Johnny English Reborn"

Hello fellow bloggers! This is my first blog post back at university; I am now in my third and final year at Canterbury and will continue to update my blog from here! I am writing this post atfer what has been a simply amazingly inspiring day I have had yesterday with my friend, James Brown, at the UK Premiere of "Johnny English Reborn" at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square. And yes, my friend is actually called James Brown...and I think he feels good...and so do I after yesterday's awesome events!

Well, it all started off from checking online for the latest premieres that are happening in London. Having decided that this seemed like a cool one to go to, I started to invite friends...and ended up with my best buddy, James. We were planning on getting the first train from Canterbury to London Waterloo on the day and returning in the evening. However, a phone call from home gave us the idea which would eventually lead to us getting a front row view of the red carpet! With no prior notice at all, we decided to act on a spur of the moment decision and to go to London the night before the premiere! And if you're thinking that we camped out, we didn't. We stayed the night at my house, in order to get there as early as possible the next day! And sure enough, that's what we did; we were greatly rewarded by our 6:00am start...we were the first one's there! I know, I know, call me a geek. But hey, it's not every day you get to meet a Hollywood star!

So we arrived in Leicester Square even before anything was set up! So what did we do? We waited...and waited...and waited...I noticed that in fact, we weren't quite the first one's there, as 3 people were there already...now I recognised these 3 people. It turns out that I had met them at an earlier premiere I attended, the most recent one to date. That was the premiere of "Cowboys and Aliens" at the O2 a few weeks back. I also met them throughout the next 3 days running at the movie event at the O2 called "Empire Presents Big Screen", which was England's version of "Comic Con", the American movie event of the year. You're probably thinking, why did I not mention that I went to this before? Well, for the simple reason that I had not created my blog at that point! So there you are, I have been to those two events, along with several film premieres before then, including "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1" and "The Expendables", both in Leicester Square. In fact, these are the only other premieres I have ever been to! I hope this low number will soon change, as my decision to become a film director is now set in stone. I hope, one day, to have my own premiere either in LA or London. One can do one's best to achieve this...and I aim never to falter in my goal.

So back to the main event of the day, the premiere of Johnny English Reborn. After a period of what seemed like quite a while, 5 hours in fact, everything started to take shape. The barriers were put up, the red carpet was rolled out and slowly but surely everything started to come alive! The news media arrived opposite us, we secured our place in the front of the barriers and the stars started to arrive. First of the stars to arrive was Dominic West, followed shortly by Daniel Kaluuya, who plays Johnny's assistant. As they both started making their way up to our end of the red carpet, the director Oliver Parker, Tim McInnerny, Gillian Anderson and finally the man himself, Rowan Atkinson arrived in quite a spectacular fashion...in a Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé...the car used in the film. Slowly but surely, they all started to head our way and to our delight, stayed for a while in front of us on the opposite side of the red carpet to where we were, as this is where the press were set up. After a period of press interviews, Rowan Atkinson came to us! If there ever was a point during the day which I felt could've been better, it was the moment I actually got to meet Mr. Bean personally! I was, to put it simply, star struck. I didn't say a word. All that I could eventually mutter out were the words "can you sign my poster"? My friend, James, on the other hand, actually had a decent conversation with him, mentioning that we got up at 6am to see him and that it was a pleasure to meet him. How jealous am I? Very, I tell you. Very. Oh well, hopefully one day I'll be able to say that I have worked with him, along with many other stars. That day will come.

So as the remaining guests wandered through into the cinema and things started to wrap up for the day, with James delighted at his success with Rowan, myself not so much, we decided to go to McDonalds for lunch. It was at this point where I thought, before heading back to Canterbury; let's see if we can obtain a few more film posters to give to friends. After the meal in McDonalds, we headed back to the cinema and got talking to a few very nice security guards. They told us that we could take down the gigantic poster boards that surrounded the cinema. The only thing I thought, being the more practically minded of the two of us, was how on earth would we get any of them back to Canterbury? A challenge in its own right, I'm sure. And it proved to be one heck of a challenge.

It was at this point where my luck with the stars soon made an about turn, as we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. On a greater scale, the success of my career will potentially involve me being in the right place at the right time!! The stars and guests had finished watching the film and were starting to exit the cinema. At this point, what I can only describe as a convoy of Mercedes Benz cars started to appear around the cinema! We were in luck. We would get to see Rowan Atkinson for the second time! A chance no doubt, for me to redeem myself of my earlier impression of a fool I made of myself in front of him. To be honest though, it's his job of making a fool of himself in front of others...I guess I was merely trying to copy him! What happened in the next few minutes was very awesome, indeed. We didn't get to meet Rowan again; he walked past us into his car. However, Warwick Davis, A.K.A Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter walked right by us! I wish to state that I was not star struck; instead I struck up a conversation with the man himself, shook his hand and felt very delighted! It had indeed made my day! I had met Warwick Davis.

What followed after everyone left was something which was a joint decision, a little crazy and definitely something which I won't do again. James and I attempted to get the gigantic poster boards off the wall, keep them and carry them on the train back to Canterbury. At the time, we thought it a cool idea to have these boards as one of the most awesome souvenirs of the day. However, we realised the hard way that the sheer weight of these boards was more than double our entire body weight. Yep. I think you can come to the conclusion that we in fact didn't carry these boards back to Canterbury! We tried...we came close...but we had no cigar at the end. However, I decided that our effort shouldn't be wasted; we managed to get one of the best boards back to Canterbury, along with the standard movie posters which we aim to give out to friends. How we managed to practically get these posters along with just one board back to Canterbury, all the way through London, somehow mystifies me. I can only describe it as a miracle.

So, after a long but very awesome weekend, we arrived back in Canterbury at about 1am the following day. We had a quick glance at YouTube to see any videos the press uploaded of interviews, in the hope that we might have been in the background. Well now, there was one final surprise of the day! One video we found through YouTube, that we were filmed by the media! Well, we were obviously the centre of attention...it's just that Rowan Atkinson was in the same shot. The video was by itn's "showbiz" channel. The best way for me to describe the video to you is to link it at the bottom of this post! So there you have it, my experience of the UK Premiere of Johnny English Reborn.

As I update my blog in the next few months here in Canterbury, with updates to films I've seen, premieres I will be going to and films I will be making, keep this somewhat funny but true thought in mind. I am aspiring to become a Hollywood film director, yet, I have never been to Hollywood and I have never made a proper film before! However, I will probably be going to Los Angeles with my parents next summer and I have an aim of making one proper film during my final year of university, with a few friends and aspiring musicians. Not to mention any names, James! He will be helping me with the music side and will be the musical director and conductor for future films I endeavour to make. I also have recently been playing and experimenting with my new green screen, which came with my Pinnacle Studio video editing software. I've found out the practically infinite things I can now do with it!

So for now, keep this more important thought in mind, instead of the above. God has given you the gift of life. The least you can do is live it! That's what I'm planning on anyways!! Goodnight all.



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