Sunday, July 31, 2011

MIFF 2011 - Sessions 2 and 3

No, you're not going crazy. I am intentionally not writing about my first session at MIFF because, well, for a start, it wasn't technically my first session (I missed that due to me being exhausted from the film shoot) and secondly, I couldn't sit through it long enough to draw any logical conclusions about the films and then write about them (it was the experimental shorts category)

Today's sessions however were a little more interesting and engaging. We began with the Accelerator shorts which showcases the latest up and coming talent from young filmmakers around the world. This particular session (I'm not sure if this was deliberate or not) contained only 2 other films which weren't Australian. The rest were all from NSW, VIC and South Australia with varying degrees of amazement. In order of preference, here are the films screened in the session today:

1. The Palace
2. At The Formal
3. Attach Boat to Motor
4. The Stranger
5. The Father
(I missed the last two films unfortunately so I apologize to those filmmakers for not being able to include them in this list)

The Palace was an epic, tragic movie which combined all the suspenseful elements skillfully within the confinements dictated by the short film genre. I was amazed by how well the filmmakers were able to draw the reader straight into the narrative and thus, the character's predicaments. I believe it was the subject matter which aided this as the story is set in Cyprus, 1970's and shows a family literally running for cover in the middle of a battle. They hide in an abandoned house with a few other Cyprians? and await their fate. What happens next is so shocking for a short film, I do remember being speechless at points. I believe the success of this film had a lot to do with the editing, particularly with the sound, and the cinematography. Acting was half-helped by the fact that the actors spoke with their native tongue (for non-native speaking audiences, this means we already believe half the performance) but it really was the technical brilliance of the film and the way it was laid out that impressed.

The second session for the day was the Australian Shorts category, 2 films of which I have already seen which was great as I could focus more on attempting to place those films I had once seen within some order amongst the others. Here is my list in order of preference for the films of this cateogory:

1. The Missing Key
2. PeekaBoo
3. Mooncake and Crab
4. Its Him...Terry Lim
5. Air

The Missing Key easily outshone all of the other participants within this screening and I didn't even need to watch it again to know that. The images from this film are still firmly planted on the retina of my eye whilst the notes of its beautiful film score still float within my inner ear. The film is masterpiece and without having seen The Lost Thing yet, I'm surprised it didn't receive an Oscar (maybe next year). The film, whilst an animation, draws the audience in by setting up that classic me against the world narrative, something I feel many individuals are grappling with today. This dilemma we all face in trying to forge a mark for ourselves amongst the constraints of this tainted society can be seen in the main character of The Missing Key and it is for this reason, I warm to the film so greatly.

I have many many more session coming up to chat with you all about so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for more posts.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

I've Been Here So Long

If you are all wondering where I have been for the last 2 weeks, you can find the answer by reading the production blog I have been keeping for the short film I just wrapped on

"I've Been Here So Long"

More posts to come about my experience on set soon.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Everyone's Talking About ... Offspring

Found this great article through my old media teacher on all the cinematographic specs of the amazing Aussie series, Offspring. Finding this information about a television series that is still on the air (and has been recently picked up for a third season) is rare to say the least so it's really awesome to have this info whilst watching the show, trying to piece together the behind-the-scenes with the front-of-camera stuff. Anyway, have a read of it. I didn't understand half of what was said in regards to the camera tech stuff but I'm going to ask the DOP on the film I'm working on at the moment to explain a few things for me next time I see him:


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Some Striking Statistics

I find it easier to remember things once I've re-written them down in a separate place but have an easy time remembering numbers. Things get a little hazy however when the numbers get mixed up with the statistics. Recently, I've been engaged in a few conversations with various friends and family members over the numbers associated with the Australian Film Industry, mainly, the number of attendees to cinema theatres annually and the highest grossing films. I decided to assist me in my conversations (arguments) I should get my facts straight and thus have produced this list of 10 statistics I feel are most interesting in relation to the Australian Film Industry:

1. The number of cinema screens in Australia as of 2010 is 1,994.
2. The number of digital screens in Australia as of 2010 is 452.
3. The number of theatre admissions in 2010 reached 92.4 million.
4. The annual gross taking for the Australian box office in 2010 was $1,132.8 million, an increase of 4% compared to 2009.
5. The top five films ever screened in Australia list as follows: Avatar, Titanic, Shrek 2, Lords of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Crocodile Dundee.
6. The proportion of Australians attending cinematic screenings in 2010 was 69%.
7. The average number of attendances for this 69% was 7.4 screenings.
8. 14-24 year olds averaged 9.3 visits during 2010 making them the largest demographic associated with cinematic attendances.
9. Australian films earned a 4.5% share of the total box office takings for 2010. This was a total of $50.6 million.
10. The Australian film production and post production services industry incurred $1,857.4 million in production costs in 2006, with that figure reported to have increased significantly over the past 5 years.

The reason I added in that last statistic (unrelated to Australian cinema income) was to show how little an impact Australian cinematic distribution has on the ability to recuperate the costs incurred with Australian film production. To demonstrate the ludicrousness of this situation, read my next post comparing the financial set up of the American film industry compared to the Australian film industry.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

What I've Learnt So Far

Over the years, I've had to had many, many hard-edged life lessons drilled into me. Over time though, my brain does a good job of forgetting all those lessons and I tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. Remembering this from last year, I checked out my old production file on the Mac and discovered this little gem - an extensive list of all the things I need to be aware of when working on set. As I am currently working on another short film at the moment, it was a great opportunity for me to re-read this list and make mental notes about what to take into account before our shoot next Friday.

To give you a better understanding of the context within which this list was written, you can check out the TV1 label which houses all the blog posts I created last year related to the shoot, the link for which is here.

What I learnt on set:

NEVER leave the creative decisions to the last minute:
Not insuring that I had properly considered which take of Lara’s performance we were going to use for the filming drastically reduced the overall quality of the film. Because I did not think about the implications of hearing my voice in the recording, we were left with the serious complication of trying to erase my voice during Luke’s performance which proved to be impossible without a reshoot.

ALWAYS film ambient sound and wild lines:
Not having these clips made it really difficult to fix the sound problems encountered when attempting to erase my voice during Luke’s performance. If we had had wild lines filmed at the set, they could have easily replaced Luke’s hacked speech. The ambient sound clips would have also helped with blending the wild lines.

NEVER record wild lines anywhere but on set:
By not recording Luke’s lines from the exact position we had him in during the hacked take, the sound recording we eventually did get was too close and sounded like it had come from a recording in a studio. Even with all the post work we did on that clip, it still sounded like it had come from another place and did not work at all.

ALWAYS have at least one other experienced person on set:
Having Arthur on set made all the difference. His presence was what got the film done in such a timely fashion and why we did not have to worry about lighting errors or shots being out of focus like many other groups did. Ultimately, I’d prefer to have someone who has experience as a production assistant. That way I would know all the important decisions that need to be made about the production will not be something I need to worry about.

SAFETY FIRST:
No matter how pressed for time we are or how cold everyone is or how hungry they are, it is vital that safety comes first for both crew and equipment. After nearly dropping the camera twice and nearly throwing Arthur’s back out at the same time as well as doing stupid things like putting the camera on the tripod on top of the camera boxes, there were many a times when we definitely jeapordised our own safety for the sake of the production. Whilst nothing seriously went wrong, the fact is it could have and better safety measures will need to be put in place next time to ensure those “nearlys” are non-existent.

SPONSORSHIPS:
There is such a thing as too much food when it comes to working on set. What would have been much better would have been to think about what type of food everyone wants and have it all arranged to be picked up on the day of filming. Collecting food over a series of days only led to there being a excess amount of food, particularly fruit, being left over at the end of the shoot. Had we just had Subway, Dominos, the fruit from one day and maybe some snacks from the fruit and nut shop on both days, we would have been perfectly fine.



DON’T be afraid to talk to your tutor about ANY problems you are experiencing:
Having Robin as tutor got me through the whole thing knowing I had someone who understood how frustrating it was to film with people who had no experience whatsoever and did not seem to have the same work ethics as I did. It’s important to know when to ask for help.

Get to know your crew:
It was only until my laptop was stolen that I found out how much of a great crewmember Louise really was. At the beginning, I just assumed that she had no experience or previous training in the film industry, hence her reserved attitude at the beginning of production. Eventually I found out though that she was just shy and apparently had all these ideas but felt too scared to voice them. I knew Roland was useless and he only proved that to me again. Deanna I had a bad feeling about from the beginning and she too proved to continue that until the end of production. Needless to say, sometimes I am right in picking out people I know will just be useless. However, that does not mean everyone is useless. Give everyone a chance (unless you know them). They may surprise you.

Monday, July 11, 2011

About A Girl

I find it very difficult to speak of films I have found extremely resonating without giving away too many details about what I have seen, ultimately affecting the next person due to watch it. "About A Girl" is one such short film recently shown to me by the director of the production I am currently working on that fits into this category. Without revealing my initial reaction to this piece of work (at this time), I shall give you the same description he gave me which is that it is a great film and one I encourage you to watch if you have the time.

http://www.silverfilms.co.uk/movies/short-films/about-a-girl

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Hot Off The Press...Sleeping Beauty

I feel slightly vindictive about repeating my dislike for Sleeping Beauty over and over again but I can't help it. Here's news.com.au's take of the film:

Everyone's Talking About...The Australian Film Industry Part 2

Having woken (barely) from my exhausted state after work last night, my numb mind drifted towards the Film Vic website to see if anything exciting had been recently posted. Accidentally, my mouse hovered over the Audiences link which lead me to view the Resources page. It was here I uncovered a treasure trove of information related to the relationship between Australian audiences and Australian film. Clicking on the first link, I discovered the results of a recent survey conducted in 2010 "AUSTRALIAN FEATURE FILMS, FICTIONAL TELEVISION AND DOCUMENTARIES: The results from our
Roy Morgan Research."


Scanning through the document, there were a number of key statistics which I found not just interesting, but also slightly worrying. The first positive sign was that it does seem that Australians are watching traditional formats of television and film, with the report stating that of the 660 participants within the survey, "66% of people stated that they watched feature films at least monthly and fictional television at least weekly." When weighted for the size of the Australian population, this number becomes inflated to 11,838,000 Australians. WOW. So there's a potential there for the Australian film industry to prosper at least (compared to previous thought where the belief was that there just was no audience at all for film and TV and we would instead have to appeal to a different online audience)

Not surprisingly, the report states that "about a fifth of regular viewers do not watch any Australian television programmes or Australian documentaries (20% and 18% respectively), yet only 8% of regular viewers do not watch any Australian feature films." Whilst these figures aren't tremendously worrying, we do need to take into account that that figure represents approximately 2,500,000 Australians, Australians who go to the movies. Add on the remainder of the population who DON'T go to the movies or watching television regularly and you have a much bigger proportion of the population who are not engaging with our Australian content than those who are.

The final interesting point of the survey, and something I have been harping on about recently, was found in the observations part of the document. Here, the writers state how "The results of Roy Morgan’s research also bring into question the importance of content origin to viewing choices. It appears that Australian audiences may have less knowledge of, or be less concerned with, content origin. Also, Australian audiences seem to have a far broader definition of what is “Australian” content than the screen industry itself."

I'm finding more and more these days that a move for the industry towards more co-productions between Australian and other international filming industries is the only way our industry is going to survive. The bottom line is Australia is just in capable of returning the investments placed into film and as a result of this, the stigma surrounding Australian film production is constricting the practice before its even begun. Australian's have just never been big movie fans. America defined this term and it's use in popular culture I believe is what drives their industry. Australians lack this "fandom" associated with film. We are far more interested in other hobbies and it is these activities that we place more of our energies into. Therefore, if more Australian productions teamed up with American or English investors, and lost the Australian label, I feel that whilst this would be a sad omission of origin, the Australian film industry would ultimately discover more success.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

David Michod


There's something about David Michod and his ability to tell life at it's most real. I don't know if its something he strives to achieve but what I have seen of his work so far has strung a chord with me somewhere deep inside my soul which scares the crap outta me. For someone to reach in like that and offer up all these feelings you know only too well, that's talent.

I found this little gem accidentally after I decided to check out Aquarius Films, the production company in charge of the upcoming feature, Wish You Were Here, starring Teresa Palmer and Joel Edgerton. I didn't realize until I hit the link that this was another film from Blue-Tongue but after watching for just a few moments, I would have been able to identify that style eventually.

The film is another great story, one based almost on what you would call an urban myth.  Told in an extremely voyeuristic manner from the POV of an anonymous narrator, the camera glides around the set like another character, revealing to us this dysfunctional family but not letting us relate to them too well. Its the same way we would probably remember our childhood. Growing up with "that" house down the road our mothers always told us not to stand too close to. We never really knew what was going on in those houses but we knew it was trouble. All the more interesting for curious child-minds.

Michod taps into that desire to know the unknown and I have found that like Animal Kingdom, he likes to reveal stories about people who most of the Australian public would probably have no personal connection with. In Crossbow, it was cheap, drug taker. In Animal Kingdom, violent criminals. We're attracted to these stories in the same way people used to be attracted to the freak show at the circus - because it felt so far removed from our own existence it had to be worth a look.

I know this film is an old one (2009) but its clear Michod is developing his niche. I just hope he doesn't change for the sake of fitting into the mainstream.