The Film Industry

Last week was the biggest week in the Film Industry calendar as the winners of the Academy Awards otherwise known as The Oscars were revealed. Outside of school holidays the run up to the Oscars are a busy time for the cinemas the publicity of the awards encourages more people to go to the cinema.

The British film industry had huge news to celebrate as the film Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards at the Oscars a film which had British cast members, a British Director and was funded by British Film companies like Film4. Not only this but Kate Winslett also won the best actress award so Britain had more than one reason to celebrate this weekend.

Even with the huge success of Slumdog Millionaire which had a comparatively small budget compared to Hollywood Blockbuster films British film company Film4 that funded it are still be forced to be very careful with which films they support due to the financial times we live in. So just because of the success of Slumdog Millionaire it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more British films made and more funding available for them.

I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire a couple of weekends ago and I really enjoyed the film but my local cinema charged me £7.50 for my ticket. When you can buy a DVD to own for less than that with the sales that go on in the high street and online I think £7.50 is a bit steep for a ticket. If the film industry wants to survive the economic downturn it needs to encourage more people to go to the cinema and not squeezing money out of loyal cinema goers and putting people off from going.

If you want some free entertainment and are aged under 26 I found this online the other day which I thought was a great idea:

http://www.anightlessordinary.org.uk/


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

The benefits of the Credit Crunch

Now I know I have written a lot of blogs lately on the credit crunch but there were a couple of interesting stories this week which caught my attention. Now most talk about the current economic climate is normally from the angle of doom and gloom but the stories I am going to discuss offer hope.

The first story to catch my eye was a report I read saying that University applications are quite significantly up this year with many people sighting the credit crunch as the reason. Young people seem to be concerned about the lack of jobs and job security at the moment so are deciding to spend some time in University hoping the economic climate is better when they graduate.

Now I am not saying that University is for everyone but it is great to see young people really thinking about their future and what the best route for them is. In a time of economic downturn some said applicants would be put off University as in these times they may have found it hard to come up with or justify the tuition fees so I am glad the University system seems to be surviving these tough times. That’s the thing which is overlooked a lot by the media as it is not only the corporate world which affected by the downturn.

The other story I read was a bit of publicity for a film coming out at the Cinema called “Shopaholic” now I haven’t seen the film so can’t comment on the quality of it but I thought the film was apt for this period. In a time where we need to be watching what we spend and our finances it is great to see a film which deals with a real problem for many people. Regardless of the way they film portrays the issue it is great to see it talked about on the news and by the general public.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Premiership Managers

This week in the English football Premier League two managers have been sacked only months in to their contracts. They aren’t the first to go this season and may not be the last but when you have a big name club like Chelsea axing their manager it makes headline news. It brings me on to my point of discussion which is how long should professional sports people be given to prove themselves after signing a contract.

In professional sports clubs take a gamble on players and managers when they bring them to the club. Normally they would have been scouted and chosen for what they can bring to their club. The scout’s watch these people excel at other clubs and bring them in on the hope that they can do the same for their club. To get the services of these staff they are sometimes wrangled in to long term contracts with no probation or trial period.

In reality just because a player or a coach is good at one club it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be good at another club. There are very few players or coaches that join a new team and click right away. For most it will take a bedding in period where the player or coach gets use to the set up, the way things are doing and working with their fellow players and or coaching staff.

In the Premiership a lot of the clubs are run by short term thinking who want to see an instant return on their investments and want to see results in the short term. If things aren’t going well owners will get worried and forget about long term plans and just worry about the short term. With every result getting even more vital every year the time managers are given becomes less and less. If a team is doing bad usually the responsibility is laid completely with the manager and if things aren’t going well it will be the manager who is the first to go not the players.

My question is how long should coaches and players be given? I think that too much expectation is put on new staff and new signings and too much pressure is put on them. I don’t think there is a given period of time you can say that a person has to prove themselves as it will vary from person to person but I do believe they need to be given a chance. Maybe trial and probation periods should be brought in to football but one thing is for sure something needs to be done about manager turnover in the premiership. More clubs and managers should be made to keep to their contracts instead of clubs having to pay millions in compensation when they don’t honour a contract.

The manager merry-go-round is damaging to the reputation of managers as it is so easy for them to be a hero one minute and fired the next. With every new season the clubs seem to forget about their past success and just base their decisions based on the current results. However with the money involved in professional sport I don’t see any changes happening soon.

We want to know your thoughts on this in our topic of the week. Do you think managers are given long enough to prove themselves in professional sport? Should they have better job safety and what can be done to change what is happening? we want to know and you can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=659

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Politics

Politics is everywhere at the moment. Wherever you look politics is a hot topic. I’ve always been fascinated with Politics and trying to involve young people where possible in to politics, getting them interested and getting them talking about politics. There has never been an easier or better time to get young people in to politics than the world we live in today.

Barack Obama has made politics cool again in the process of making history as the first black American President. Barack has really captured the imagination of the world who followed his campaign right through to inauguration through papers, TV and the Internet. People who wouldn’t usually talk about politics are talking about Barack Obama, people of all ages, races and backgrounds know who Barack is.

Closer to home in the UK the big political debate of the week is what to do to stop walk outs by UK staff of various companies up and down the country which was started by a contracting company who wanted to use an all foreign staff force at a UK Oil Refinery. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has harped on in the past about British Jobs for British People but who is to blame in this situation? Are the staff right to walk out? What should Gordon Brown be doing about it, if anything? These are all questions which young people should be debating and engaging with.

Then we can move on to things like The Credit Crunch how could Gordon Brown have handled it better? Should the taxpayer be bailing out the Banking system? All of these are serious and huge issues with big implications but it doesn’t half make politics interesting. Then we have other issues on local levels like should London have been more prepared for the snow? Again it comes down to politics.

I think schools and councils should be doing more to encourage young people to think about and talk about politics. I personally encourage any of you reading to get in contact with your school or local council and see if there are any ways locally or nationally in which you can get involved like becoming a Youth MP or joining discussion and panel groups.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com