The Piano

Whilst writing all my production documents (call sheets, shooting schedule, etc), I decided I needed a little bit of inspiration to remind me what all this movie-making business is about. Scanning my vast array of DVD's, I came across The Piano, Jane Campion's award-winning feature produced by Jan Chapman, who I happen to be researching for my MI2 Personal Networking Report. I know what you're thinking. HOW could I have never seen this film? Well, between all the crap on the TV and terrible films I watch in the cinema (i.e Transformers, Wog Boy 2...you get the picture), I have never made time for the classics. Or rather, the classically beautiful. Two categories that The Piano fits into quite snugly. Ironically, I have played many of the scores produced for the film during my piano practicing years. It is with this that I have decided to direct this post for one question which resonated for me throughout the watching of the film just now is whether the music dictates the narrative, or the story dictates the music? A description of the score would be a good place to begin answering this hefty question.

Created by Michael Nyman, the piano music featured in the film moves from a haunting, minor key, dramatic rendition such as The Heart Asks Pleasure First to a sweeter, more dainty Ballet-esque style piece such as The Scent of Love. As the music plays, you feel your emotions swell and your ability to become carried away, sucked into the diegesis of the film is exceptionally heightened. One scene in particular where this occurs is in the film's finale. As Ada's death becomes imminent (don't be fooled; this is not what happens), the music swells in tempo and tone, contrasting with the action on screen which begins to slow. It is a classic example of the film playing with that balance between the tempo of the editing and the tempo of the music to dictate the scene, rather than the performance dictating the score.

This is quite possibly the reason why the film was nominated and awarded many, many accolades following its release in 1993. Adding to this is the amazing performances generated by Neill, Keitel, Paquin and Hunter, all extremely convoluted characters; all working towards their own selfish means, the only one acceptable of the quartet being Paquin who is only 6 years old and not yet capable of quashing her desires. And there's that key word: desire. The running theme throughout the film that had this viewer feeling a little hot and heavy at the most random of times (i.e Keitel and Hunter at the piano with Hunter in full corset and bodice). I believe though that the word desire is explored more intrinsically within the film. The consequences of desire, the implications of thinking selfishly, and the impact of ones own desires on others can be seen throughout the film. I believe this is quaintly represented in the land sale exchanges between Neill's character and the Maori tribes. The desire of the White Man for more land we know in hindsight was the beginning of the downfall of the Maori tribes, reflected in the various scenes amongst the Maori characters when confronted with White Man's traditions (The Nativity Play) and ideologies (Swapping land for something as trivial as blankets and guns).

The Piano's greatest strength I feel is in the performances and the cinematography which captures the complicated New Zealand landscape beautifully. I've run out of steam but I'm extremely glad I used this film to prop myself up for next week's shoot.

Greatness is upon us!

We've finally secured our 4th guest! 


Completely unexpectedly, Ariel Katz of The Vine, one of the greatest online publications for all things music, fashion, TV and entertainment, has confirmed her attendance at our seminar this week. With just a few days to go, we were obviously a bit concerned about whether we would have enough people joining us for the day but luckily, Ariel said yes immediately. 


This now means our panel will consist of the following professionals: 


MOOP JAW – Rhett Wade-Ferrell – Executive producer @ MOOP JAW – http://www.moopjaw.com/


EA GAMES – Cameron Lee – Producer @ EA Games - http://www.ea.com/au


Media Saints – Michael Woods – Executive Producer @ Media Saints - http://www.mediasaints.com/


The Vine - Ariel Katz - Entertainment Editor @ The Vine - www.thevine.com.au


Obviously this has boosted all of our confidences considerably. In the lead up to this week's seminar, Mel and I are continuing to work on arranging the exhibitions so that we have everyone's work on display during the break, and just ensuring that we have all the material ready to present during the seminar. I'll update soon on how it all went. 

Hot Off The Press...Crownies

Ok, its not exactly hot potato hot but damn is this Aussie series good! 


Having heard about the production a while back now, I had made a mental note to keep tabs on the show and make an effort to watch the series premiere in early July. That was of course in the middle of all my crazy filmmaking/MIFF volunteering days and TV by then had become a blip of my radar; the reason why I missed the premiere. It was purely by chance today that stumbled across a free episode hosted by iTunes on the store that I made the decision to watch the first episode and boy was I glad I did. 


The series is based on the Department of Public Prosecutions and the people that run it. Janet King is the Senior Crown Prosecutor, the matriarch of the entire office and the firm bullet amongst the chaos of her much younger, irresponsible colleagues. The series premieres at an interesting time period, Christmas in Australia, where emotions (and hormones) raise with the mercury. We are introduced not only to the crosshatched collection of lawyers who work alongside King but also the standard of cases that regularly march through the DPP; everything from apparent inherited aggressive tendencies leading to assault, to diabolical cases of sexual abuse from the Attorney-General. The show is no holds barred and is swift and  exciting in its delivery of the convuluted facts (associated with the cases), as well as throwing you into the deep end with its clever assortment of DPP staff.


There's Lina, the slightly straighter-than-your-average-ruler do-gooder of the group; Erin, the ferocious-firecracker with hair color to boot; Ben, your typical eye candy who makes you feel sexy just by being on-screen; Richard, the disastrously awkward nerd of the clan; Tracey, a god-fearing, jealous old-b*#$h who's great at her Briefing and HR Manager role; David, the top-cat with the big title as Director of Public Prosecutions; and finally, Tatum, the little office intern who puts all of the above through their paces despite her age. I think of them all so far, I like Tatum the most. She looks like your average bimbo and I commiserate with her on the attitudes that this can get you from others around but luckily for her, Tatum has brains as well as boobs which makes her character all that more interesting. Layers, my friends, like an onion, aren't complicating. Just challenging. 


And it is the many layers of this new show that should have Australian audiences glued to their seats. Unfortunately however, due to its broadcast on the ABC (the only rightful destination for it really), the show has not had that great a reception. Not only that but competing with Ten's Law and Order:SVU, Seven's Masterchef, and Channel 9's AFL Footy Show, it was hard pressed to reach the much needed audience it deserves. I urge you strongly to consider this as your port of call when you're next in the mood for a little bit of great Aussie drama because Crownies really does surpass all the other reality rubbish (Yes, I do mean you Masterchef, Gap Year, Renovators and The Block) in terms of talent and story. 

Production Managing. AKA: How to function on 2 hours sleep a night.

It came to my attention recently that I promised you all recently that I would inform you of my role on the recently produced VCA third year short film "I've Been Here So Long", and how successful the overall production was. In a nutshell, "good" and "good" are two words that can be attributed to those comments. However, I know you are not merely interested in a one-word response so I thought I would give you a bit more insight into how I worked during the production.

I came to be involved on the shoot when I met the producer, Joshua Smith, at the St Kilda Film Festival earlier this year. Josh was acting as the Front of House manager for the festival whilst I was volunteering for IF and at one shift, we discovered that each one of us had a connection to the short film - me being extremely interested after hearing about it at the VCA Pitch Night, and Josh being the producer. When I explained to Josh that I had wanted to approach Rudolf (the film's writer and director) to offer my services as a crew member, Josh offered me the role of producer's assistant. Right there and then. Needless to say, I was floored. Then my mind went into overdrive - Could I do the job? Was I qualified? Did I need to be qualified? Do I have the time? etc, etc. It turned out that over time, a lot of my insecurities about my capabilities for the role were easily quashed but I'll get to that in a second.

The next step was convincing Rudy (Rudolf) that I was going to be a benefit, rather than a hinderance, to the project which involved possibly the longest interview I have ever had for a job at the VCA cafe. Rudy "interrogated" me beyond belief but in a weird way I appreciated the cross-examination as it may me face a lot of the hard questions I would need to answer over time such as, what skills could I provide for the role? and how would I be able to benefit the production? I managed to calm both Rudy and Josh's qualms by explaining that whilst I may not have any formal qualifications, I had the right attitude and if faced with an unknown task, would not stop until I had worked out how to complete it correctly. That approach worked wonders and within 2 hours of the interview, I had received a message from Josh informing me I had the job.

Over the next 2 weeks, I felt slightly useless getting into the swing of things. Coming into a production mid-way through pre-prod is possibly the worst timing because a lot has already happened without you which means you feel pretty dispensable. Luckily for me, Rudy noticed my floundering and gave me a list of jobs to complete during my time with him and Josh. A little more about the film itself at this point may give you a better indication of the scale of this project and the impact one small failure could have on the entire production.

"I've Been Here So Long" is a short film about a young man who's irresponsible lifestyle of partying and general antics is about to come to an abrupt end as he discovers the dynamics within his family are about to change for good. It is an epically majestical production shot not only in Melbourne's outer suburbs but also the beautiful alpine landscape of Lake Mountain, one of Victoria's most breathtaking unknown skiing resorts. The film was to involve many logistical complications from a large crew of around 18 - 20 average; to transporting said crew plus equipment, catering, cast and personal belongings from Melbourne to Lake Mountain for 4 days in the freezing mountain atmosphere. As well as this, the film was being shot on 35mm, an epic ambition in itself which came with its own dilemmas and production issues (i.e requiring a 3 - man camera crew at all times for loading, clapping, and general assisting)

My job within all of this foray eventually became to maintain the online profile of the film through the Facebook, Twitter, and blog set up before production. I found this to be an extremely easy aspect of my job as those online tools have become second hand to me now thanks in part to my experience at RMIT. Related to this however, were a number of other tasks which I was to complete to assist the film financially. This included finding and approaching potential sponsors for the film who would be interested in donating funds towards the film's completion. Despite my efforts, I had no success in this department and felt completely wounded and useless until I had a small win gaining a sponsorship from Lake Mountain Resort in the form of them lending us an entire snow gear range for our 22-man crew up in the snow. After that, a few other successes occurred leading up to the film so that my insecurities about how irrelevant my role was became less impacting.

The shoot itself was an amazing, inspiring experience which brought me right back to 2008 when I worked in Perth. The thrill of being on set for 12 hours a day, working till all hours of the night to prepare for the next day's shoot sounds like a nightmare to some but to me, it's the biggest adrenaline rush. Nothing makes me happier than physically seeing a film being made in front of my eyes. I don't know whether this is because I have not yet reached a point where this experience has become old hat but for now, I still revel at the idea of waking up at 5am after going to bed at 3am to work for 14 hours. Call me weird but I can't helpt it. For the 7 days we filmed, I worked on a variety of tasks ranging from wrangling extras on set, to setting up unit on location, staying on top of paperwork, attempting to source 1990's Nokia mobile phones, finding equipment vans for the snow, and keeping everything in general order amongst the chaos. And believe me, there was chaos. But that I have learnt is to be expected on film sets.

After completing the shoot, I haven't had that much to do with the film as Rudy and Josh have nestled themselves in snuggly amongst the editing suites at the VCA. I have yet to arrange with Rudy's mum and PR guru, AnneMaree Fitzgerald, a handover meeting where I will explain the processes and procedures I implemented for the running of the online profile but as far as I can see for the near future, this will just have to wait until I've completed my short film for RMIT. I'm extremely excited about seeing the final product however and from the rushes I brought back to set during filming, it is going to be look amazing. All in all, it was an amazing experience for which I will forever be indebted to Josh and Rudy for giving me and I hope that I'll be able to work with every one of the amazing crew members on that set sometime soon.

So where have I been in the last 21 days?

I realized today that it has been exactly 21 days since I last posted here and for this, I am extremely apologetic. I was getting into a really good rhythm during the holidays but since starting uni/working at MIFF/finishing the film/travelling, my life has been one hectic day after another after another. So I decided to fill you in on what's been going on in my life in this little time space which will bring you up to speed on where I am now.

So 21 days ago apparently, I finished up my shifts at MIFF. That's the Melbourne International Film Festival for you non-Aussies, a must see exhibition of Australian and the World's finest shorts, documentaries, feature films and seminars related to the wonderful land of filmmaking. I was working for both MIFF and IF which may sound confusing (and trust me, at times it felt like that), which was both a great experience and an amazing opportunity to network with some of the country's best up and coming producers and directors. IF for those of you again who are unaware, stands for Inside Film, Australia's leading independent film magazine which also hosts the IF Awards each year, an event I will also be attending later this year (November 16 to be exact). Volunteering for both companies allowed me to not only see a whole bunch of films for free but to also meet some of the filmmakers, most importantly, Andrew Kavanagh who created "At The Formal" and Katrina Mathers, producer of the animated short "Nullarbor" which did extremely well at the festival winning the award for Best Animation. I didn't get much of a chance to speak with Katrina as she was on her way out of the screening but Andrew helped me out with my VCA/No-VCA dilemma, repeating what ALL VCA graduates had said which was that without the VCA they would not be at where they are now.

As well as that, MIFF allowed me to witness the unveiling of the highly anticipated series from Matchbox Pictures, "The Slap." I have had my eye on "The Slap" ever since I read the book for the first time all the way back in 2009. It had been a while since I had found a read so engaging and written in such a way that really made the reader feel like they were a part of the story, rather than just the reader. I'm now currently re-reading it and am still finding it to be just as exciting and breathtaking as the first 3 times I read it. As you can imagine, there was tremendous anticipation on my part once I found out the book was being translated into a TV series by Matchbox. When the news was released late last year, I even drafted an email to Matchbox pictures offering my services in any way, shape or form for the set but didn't send it as I knew my life would be too hectic at that time coming back from America and starting up third year. The premiere surpassed my expectations and whilst there were definitely some elements of the book removed, what remained was delightful for the avid fan. Matchbox were extremely successful in capturing the inner monologue of the characters which features so heavily in the book, due in part I feel to the talent of the actors, but credit can also be taken by the directors and scriptwriters. All in all, it was a magically surreal experience and I was even fortunate enough to approach Tony Ayres at the end of the screening (EP of the whole series) to thank him for creating "The Slap." He was extremely grateful for me being such a fan and a lovely guy in general which capped off the night for me immensely.

After the festival, it was time to get serious about uni. We had started a good week before all the other unis for some reason and already, there was a lot going on. First was my production unit which saw me become producer for a short film to be created in conjunction with other people within my class. These students had opted to be selected for particular roles and whilst I have not worked with any of them before, they have certainly proved their stripes thus far. The film has developed extremely well since conception and with the shoot less than 2 weeks away, the nerves are starting to kick in. For more info, check out my next post about how the production is going.

As well as the film, I am studying my final contextual studies unit in the form of Australian Cinema; an online unit title Introduction to Photography (yes it sounds like a cop-out but its actually quite hard!); and finally, a course designed to assist me with my leap into the industry in the form of Media Industries 2, a follow on from last semester's Media Industries 1. Australian Cinema so far has been a little bit of a disappointment as the main focus for this semester is on Indigenous Filmmaking. Now don't take this the wrong way. I have every interest in all forms of filmmaking including Aboriginal filmmaking. It's just that I have a bigger interest in Australian contemporary cinema and Australian cinematic history from the great filmmakers like Peter Weir, George Miller, Jan Chapman etc. Unfortunately, that was not to be this semester but the films we have watched so far have definitely been an enjoyable experience and a great opportunity to be exposed to some new art.

Media Industries, I have to admit, has sat a little further down on my priorites list until recently, with our big seminar due to occur this coming Friday. Hectic. The aim of the course is to prepare students for their entrance into the big wide world of film/TV/advertising/PR whatever tickles your fancy, and the main work for the semester is split between organizing a seminar related to a particular media topic. As I missed the first 2 classes, I had to choose Alternative/Digital media instead of my first preference (Film) however, the group I am working with are really great and motivated and some of the speaker's we have coming to talk are really interesting. The second part to this semester for MI2 is focused on creating your own personal networking report, or rather, an opportunity for you to schmooze others within your field for information related to an interest of your choice. Naturally I chose producing and have already had success in contacting a few people I know in the industry for later interviews and have got quite an extensive list of others who I am interested in interviewing as well.

Other than that, life is just one big snowball growing larger and larger up towards my graduation in December. Its hard to believe that just 3 years ago I began this new cycle of my life and now it is about to end. Whilst I am a little timid about my future prospects, I have to admit I am much more relieved than some of my co-workers. I know exactly what it is that I want to do with my life now and slowly learning how to go about doing just that. It will take time but I know eventually I will become a film and TV producer within this country. Before then though, I have a lot to learn.

For the next 3 months, I will be using this space again to document my experiences at RMIT in my final semester for my production unit and MI2. I will try as much as possible to create other non-RMIT related posts if I have the time but until this short film is wrapped, there is not a lot of that going around. Either way, the work I am producing at RMIT this semester will be extremely interesting to you either way as I will be either reporting on my producing skills, commenting on my success at networking in the industry, or updating you all on new indigenous films I have discovered. Stay tuned and you will be rewarded I promise.

The Exhibitions

So Mel and I have started collecting and collating everyone's work for the purpose of the seminar and its really exciting to be watching/reading/playing with all these products knowing we will soon meet the amazing creators behind them.

From Moop Jaw, we have been given permission from Rhett to present their music videos during the break on the main projector. Mel and I are planning to have these playing whilst everyone is talking and eating to fill the audio space a little bit. They're also amazing videos so I'm sure people will be interested in watching them too. Here is one of my favourites:


Bag Raiders 'Not Over' (Directed by Rhett Wade-Ferrell for MOOPJAW) from Moop Jaw on Vimeo.

From Cam at EA Games, we decided to purchase one of their most successful games but switch it up a bit by buying their iPad version. I have a 1st generation iPad and the idea is that we will have this available on a table for people to play with during the break. Here's the trailer for Mirror's Edge, one of their most successful productions:

At Media Saints, we decided to try and shake things up a bit by displaying one of their websites which, surprisingly, was produced for a client that we all know very, very well. Playschool's website was designed by Michael Woods and his team and is a brilliant example of alternative media production. Here's a link and a screenshot:

Playschool

Finally, for Ariel, we decided to present The Vine online as well as have a few of her articles printed out for people to pick up and read. The Vine is a great example of where your life can go post-uni if you are looking to produce but not necessarily become too involved in creating photo shoots or movies. The Vine is basically a professional blog and relies on the entries of others to support its content which is then monitored by editors like Ariel. Here is an example of one of her articles: Animals with stuffed animals.

The idea on the day is to set up all of these exhibitions around the seminar room so that people physically have to get up and move to interact with them. We're hoping this will lead to a more informed discussion between the audience and the panel with the audience actually being able to ask specific questions related to the content our panel members' produce. This way we should be able to get a better flow of questions. Here's hoping!

EEK!

So we've hit a little pothole in our MI2 seminar plans. Whilst originally believing we had all 4 guests secured and ready to go, we just found out that Brad Giblin from Film Victoria was not actually a certainty anymore which means we are back to that tentative 3.

It's not that 3 is a bad number but 4 is just so much of a better number for panel discussions, to give a more rounded reflection of the industry (we would have someone from games, music videos, the film financing sector, and someone from corporate video). Because Brad is MIA, we can't confirm the film financing sector being represented so are now on the hunt for a 4th panel member.

I've made a few suggestions to the group based on some research I did of the new media industry. Red Snow Productions are a new production company that specialise in anything from corporate videos to music videos. My interest in them and their company came out of their involvement with TVC production, something we hadn't yet explored for the purpose of the seminar. My second suggestion was Big and Small Productions who again specialise in advertising but in the online format - definitely something relevant to our seminar.

I've posted these suggestions on the Facebook page and so far no one's commented so we will see if there's an interest. Alternatively (pun intended), I may suggest we approach the online written portals, similar to Portable where Flavia used to work. Shall see how it all goes.

Apologies

I had a pretty bad start to MI2. I missed my first two lectures due to engagements in Perth and a shoot I was working on in Maryland. As a result, I wasn't in class when everyone was placed into groups for their seminars. I knew how the seminars worked based on the ones I went to two years ago in 1st year so knew there would be a TV seminar, film seminar, etc, etc. I really, really wanted to be in the film seminar as it would have been an opportunity to meet professionals within the film industry and ask them to come speak with us in the seminars. It's also a sneaky bit of networking which is great for us third years about to embark on our journey to the professional universe.

As fate would have it, the film seminar and tv seminar (my second choice) were both full and I had a choice between sound, distribution or digital/alternative media. I chose digital/alternative media based on the group that had already begun to form for the seminar who I knew were really good students, dedicated individuals who would work really hard for the project.

At today's lecture, I met up with the group and made a point of being open and available to everything that was floating around. By this point, the group had already made amazing headway, having secured 3 guests and already beginning to think about how the seminar itself would run. I asked how I could help and eventually it was decided that I would assist Mel in organizing the run schedule thinking about how we could arrange the examples of work from our guests in a creative way. Mel and I are going to converse using Facebook over the weekend whilst I'm in Perth so that hopefully by next week we'll have something set up.

MIFF 2011 - Session 4

The session we rated on Sunday was none other than the second part to the accelerator program which was extremely exciting for me as I didn't even know there was a second half. The reason this was exciting is because the Accelerator program promotes the best up and coming talent in film making and basically, these filmmakers are the future of the industry and will be the ones to dictate the direction it takes.

The films in order of preference again are:

1. A Fine Young Man
2. Nullarbor
3. Eli The Invincible
4. Toy Soldier
5. Collision
6. If I Dance Will It Keep Me Warm?

This was a really tough session to arrange my preferences from. The reason for this was that unlike The Missing Key, there were no films in the selection which had a lasting impact on me mentally (save for Nullarbor which I have already praised beyond belief so I thought I would be a bit different this time) This isn't to say that they weren't well-made films - it's just more that none of them had that "je ne said quoi" about them which leaves an audience breathless/restless/speechless.

That may have been the experience for A Fine Young Man however, as I believe many members of the audience didn't see the twist coming like I did (which I am always looking for even though I know it will spoil the surprise) The reason I still liked the film though is due to its impeccable cinematography which was shot beautifully on 35mm, and its set design, which nailed the 1960s decor and atmosphere perfectly. The acting was a little bit too over the top however which I believe is the reason behind why I could tell what was going to happen at the film's climax. A little inconsistency in their performance may have helped the non-believers.

Other than that, A Fine Young Man deserves the award it received on Sunday night (City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film) and is, I think, a great precursor to a much larger feature film project which I hope the producers will consider for their next production.