SFM Vol 6 No 5

Sixth Form Mercury, March 2017 1 Sixth Form Mercury By the students, for the students. Volume 6, Issue 5, March 2017 ...

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Sixth Form Mercury, March 2017

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Sixth Form Mercury By the students, for the students.

Volume 6, Issue 5, March 2017

March edition La La Light? By Matthew Kayanja

In eighty-nine years of the Oscars, nothing draws comparison. The shock, the horror, the incredulous laughs: the end of the 89th Academy Awards will go down for sure as the greatest gaffe in Hollywood’s history.

La La Land and Moonlight couldn’t be further apart in terms of subject material, yet it seems their legacies will stay intertwined forever.

But what of the two films that served as the ingredients for this filmic farce?

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The continued connection between both of

them strengthens the publicity for both as it attracts fans from each film, those who enjoy a bright musical may find themselves drawn to the gritty urban drama of Moonlight when they otherwise never would have considered it. On the weekend after the Oscars,

Want to write for the Sixth Form Mercury? It is open to all sixth formers with an interest in writing! Contact either Tommy MacGillivray or Matthew Kayanja for more information: Email: [email protected]

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Moonlight grossed $2.5 million in North America, compared to the $1.76 million Spotlight, the previous Best Picture winner, grossed on the post-Oscars weekend. This is despite the fact Spotlight grossed more overall, highlighting the fact that this is a disproportionate increase in Moonlight’s revenue that one cannot help but think is at least partially a result of the unorthodox way Moonlight gained its Best Picture award.

Two things are significant. First of all, bear in mind that when La La Land’s name was read out, nobody was surprised in the same way they would have been if some mistake had led to Hell or High Water being read out, for example, a film that while good, no-one tipped for Best Picture winner.

So what does this mean? It means that while Moonlight will go down as the winner, La La Land will go down as the people’s champion, an unlucky victim that deserves sympathy for its heart-breaking ordeal. Fundamentally, La La Land’s Oscars legacy will be greater than any Best Picture loser, and both Moonlight and La La Land, through the inextricable linkage that now binds them, can only become more cemented in film history through this most unlikely of occurrences.

Second, at the Oscar’s there is no second place – you either win the award or you don’t. However, La La Land La La Land seems the obvious loser in seems to have unofficially taken second this whole affair. Yet to be fair, it didn’t place in the hearts and minds of many really lose that much. It still managed to who praised the camaraderie of the win three out of the Big Five Oscars crew, who – in what must have been a (Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cine- crushing moment – had to hand their matography) and the team behind it awards back. All this points to the fact will be laughing all the way to their that people believe La La Land was a bank accounts, as so far they have a great film that was right up there with worldwide gross of $397 million comthe best. pared to Moonlight’s comparatively miniscule $42 million. Though the loss of the Best Picture award is sure to be a source of pain for Damien Chazelle, whose career so far has been as bedazzling as it gets (Oscar wins on his second and third feature films, and smashing the record for youngest Best Director winner), in a way, his movie’s unintentional link to Moonlight puts it in the history books in a way no other Best Picture winner has been.

Celebrating debating By Adam Di Lizia Public speaking and debating has always existed in Wilson’s, firstly under Mrs Guy and now under the enigmatic Dr McClure. Without easy competitions and fixtures to run, it is often forgotten. However, the past year has been truly excellent in both the number of activities we have been able to take part in thanks to tireless efforts of Dr McClure - and the success we have had.

Debating is the main public speaking event that the school competes in. We have travelled to many open competitions this year, held in prestigious London universities such as UCL and LSE. We started strongly in LSE, with all our teams doing well, and Anthony and Toye coming in the top 12. However, to break into the final, you need to be in the top 4, or 8 if there are semifinals.

Success came when Anthony and Toye qualified for the Oxford national final. Then, as one team dropped out, Matthew and Ahmed also qualified for the final too, taking place at Oxford University this Saturday. Then, in the most recent open competition held in UCL, Dan Sharpe scored a prestigious 8 points, only 1 point from qualifying for the semis. However, Anthony and Toye once again im-

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pressed us by qualifying in eighth place by the skin of their teeth. However this didn’t stop them, as after an excellent performance in the semi-finals, they qualified for the final, for only the top 4 teams in the entire competition. While they didn’t win they still performed excellently. Indeed, many others have performed well this term, serving the school in competitions, but also helping out in both senior and junior Debating Clubs. The lower years have also been improving. Organised by a team featuring Dr McClure and Year 12 students, Monday lunchtimes are reserved for training sessions for year 7 and 8 de-

bating. And they also performed well in the recent “Debating matters” competition, where many schools competed in a new style of debating, previously unfamiliar to the school. Furthermore, the Year 12s have been preparing for the national final of the Bar Mock Trial, after success in the heats. This is an event where members of a team take the roles of different member of a court of law, and either prosecute or defend a defendant. Our team’s defendant is Yash, so we are quietly confident for a knockout victory.

the House of Lords, and a few had the opportunity to speak there on the topic of free speech. Crucially, debating and public speaking have improved dramatically, and we are slowly working our way to the position of one of the best state schools in the country for debating, and we hope to do well in the national final for the Mock Trial.

In addition, last term, some students were fortunate enough to be taken to

Procrastination by Finn Malone



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The First Annual ‘Tommies’ By Tommy MacGillivray On the night of the 12 of February the stars were out not just in the sky but also on the red carpet. Music’s bravest and boldest gathered in the iconic Staples Centre in Los Angeles to celebrate the best that 2016 had to offer in music and performance. Everything, from the outfits to the performances and the awards, provided something to talk about. Lady Gaga turned up looking like the raunchiest sea urchin in history and Adele spent her entire acceptance speech (for the evening’s highest honour) gushing about Beyoncé’s album Lemonade.

Best Performance: There’s no night quite like the Grammy’s to provide you with unlikely musical team-ups you didn’t know you wanted until you heard them - and the 59th annual celebration was no exception. Unfortunately the Academy’s treatment of country outside of Sturgill Simpson seemed to be ‘put it with another B-lister and make them sing both songs over each other’ (case in point: Kelsea Balllerini’s aforementioned duet).

So in honour of award season drawing to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to present the final and (arguably) most important set of awards of the season: my own.

“Lady Gaga turned up looking like the raunchiest sea urchin in history”

But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise and gifted us with one of the most unlikely and touching moments of the night when the winner of Best Country Solo Performance Maren Morris, and 15-time winner Alicia Keys, took the stage to perform a bonus track from Morris’ debut album Hero, and stole the show with their powerful rendition of ‘Once’. Best Moment: I couldn’t not give this to Adele for her tear jerking acceptance speech for Album of the Year 25, which she “couldn’t accept” because of the fact she was nominated alongside her “Queen” Beyoncé: so much so that she split the Gramophone into two pieces to share with her idol. You couldn’t help but feel like they both deserved a piece.

Best Dressed: Glancing over the questions of who wore it better (Katy Perry or Lumière? The candlestick from Beauty and the Beast? Rihanna? Lady Gaga’s attempt to make Echinozoa Echinoidea sexy?), we have to give country starlet Kelsea Ballerini the award and forgive her for the mistake that was her mashup performance with Lukas’ Graham’s tepid hit ‘7 Years’.