Commentary on Friday Night's Screening

It's excruciatingly painful to have to go through 12 weeks of pre-production work, filming, and editing only to come out the other end to have everyone say something along the lines of "what a shame about..." Unfortunately for our group, this  was the exact case for our film Under Control. We knew sound was going to be an issue from all the things that had gone wrong last week during post-production...

Animal Kingdom

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to receive wind of a brand new Aussie film coming out that to be honest, I hadn't hear much about but was being shown at Cinema Nova as part of a Q&A session. Every fortnight or so, Nova hosts an evening where the directors, writers and some of the cast of a recently released film come along to watch the film with the audience and then hang around after...

True Blood

Recently, my roommate and I have been sucked in (pardon the pun) by the latest vampire TV hit True Blood. I once tried watching this show a couple of years ago when it first came out but the image of the decomposing fox in a time-lapse style seriously deterred me from watching anything other than the pilot. I have to admit, I regret not being more open to the idea of the show before. Having now watched...

The End...

Well, I never thought I’d say this but it finally looks like we’re finished! Fin! Fini! Forever! Well, until next semester at least anyway.Our end product I have to admit wasn’t exactly what I was imagining at the beginning of the pre-production phase. After having created extensive storyboards, shot lists and script suggestions for the film, I had a pretty good idea about how I wanted the film to...

Final Cut

Everything is on the line today. I mean that literally with every clip being on the FCP timeline and figuratively as today is our final submission date for the film. I spent 6 hours adding the finishing touches to the clips last night and attempting to fix that bloody sound problem but at 2am, I decided enough was enough and I’d just have to see whether everyone else could come up with some ideas.Unfortunately,...

Wild Lines

What is it about that bloody Murphy guy? I mean, who does he think he is creating some law that says anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I’m a member of a democracy! Don’t I have some say in whether this law should be a part of my life? I have some local council representative in Parliament to drive it out don’t I? Apparently not.Yes, it would seem just when you think you’ve fixed a problem,...

Editing Sesh # 2

Editing Session 2Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!!!Phew! Ok, breathe!!!!…. And now let go….Ok, I think I’m alright now. Apologies for my outburst above but I am seriously pissed off right now. I’m not sure how and I’m not sure why but for some reason, looking through the second tape of our fiming on the weekend, I just discovered we only have 2 takes of the clip of Luke speaking almost half the scene…with...

Readerly Reading of Writerly Texts - try saying that 10 times in a row...

I came across <a href=“http://www.jstor.org/stable/20119619?seq=2”?>an interesting article</a> during my research of Roland Barthes theory of the readerly and writerly written by John S. Brushwood regarding the readerly reading of a writerly text. This was an idea I wanted to explore in opposition to Barthes belief that readerly texts are so fixed, so “characterized by the pitiless divorce...

Music Is The Answer

I have played some form of musical instrument almost my entire life. Starting with piano at the age of 4, I progressed into violin at 7, the drum kit at 9, the snare drum in a Pipeband at 11 and dispensed throughout the most of this, dabblings in guitar and voice. I do therefore, like to believe that I have a good ear for music. I’ve realized recently however, that there are two different ears that...

SKFF Session 4

The organisers of SKFF should be shot.I have just watched over 70 of the 150 films that were shown this week and the last session was an absolute let-down! A film festival to me should be arranged in the same a film does. In a feature, the director holds back until the very last 30 minutes of the film where he or she has a very small amount of time to make their mark on you before you get up out of...

SKFF Closing Night!

So after 25 hours of volunteering, 70 short films and a thousand flyers later, I've finally finished my stint at SKFF. I actually had the best time and it was such a nice break from the hectic running around for the film which was slowly taking over my life. I also realised this week how much I missed going to the cinema. For a brief period about 2 weeks ago, I was watching a film almost every second...

SKFF Shift 3

Ok, I was definitely a little ambitious with my volunteering. After getting home last night at 12am, I was buggered this morning when I woke up to start my True Lies essay and then had to rush off to another session at 1:30pm followed by another session at 5:45pm. Heavy. But definitely worth it. Again, it was more forms handouts, friendly chats with customers and Kimiko and watching wonderful Australian...

SKFF Shift 2

Ooh, nearly spelt a rude word just then! (think about the word shift a little more creatively and you'll see how)So yet another fabulous night of Australian shorts, talking to film buffs and chatting with my boss Kimiko about working Inside Film. I have to admit the idea of working in film publications has never been an option I would normally have considerd for my career but according to Kimiko,...

SKFF Shift 1 - Spoiler Alert

Ooh, trying saying that 3 times in a row!Well, after a shaky start (I thought for some reason the rest of the festival would be at The Palais but nooooo, it was at The George...great first impression there) I had an awesome first shift with my Inside Film Award volunteers. I didn't actually realise what I had signed up for until I met up with Kimiko, the lady from Inside Film, who told me that I wasn't...

St Kilda Film Festival Opening Night - Warning: Spoilers!

OK, this is possibly going to be the biggest week of my life starting tonight. Not only do I have 3 2500 word essays to write, 2 films to edit and a blog to maintain but this week also happens to have the St Kilda Film Festival on at the same time and I thought it would be an awesome idea to volunteer for not 1, not 2 but 5 shifts for the week! I really didn't think that one through but hopefully...

Edit Sesh # 1

After a well deserved break, today was the first chance all of us had to review the footage from the weekend’s filming. Just like we had planned, it was really easy to upload the footage onto the computer and log each clip as we went along. All in all (and this was something we didn’t realize we had done until now), we had about 96 shots. 96! We had only predicted we would have about 50 to work with...

What's wrong with this picture?

For the past 2 weeks, Adrian has been discussing with us the differences between Industrial and Post-Industrial media production. In the lectures, you can't help but get a definite attitude from him that he views the Industrial modes of practice as being outdated and useless in the current media world. But my question is, what...

Shoot # 2

After last night’s triumphant filming, everyone began today in really good spirits. We were all definitely bolstered by how successful we were yesterday which showed in how efficient everyone was moving tonight. Louise, Megan and Arthur were all a little late from Arthur’s shoot but that didn’t affect the rest of the night as Patricia, Luke, Roland, Deanna and I were all ready and raring to go by...

Shoot # 1

WOW! I had absolutely no idea my crew and I had it in use to accomplish as much as we did tonight! Before I get too carried away though, I’ll fill you in a little on what has happened in the last 24 hours of my life.Starting with an 8am rise to clean the entire house, I then went on to ensure every prop and object featured in the film was where it was supposed to be. The equipment was already neatly...

Twas' the night before shooting...

Ok, I know. I've done that one before. But it's 11:30pm literally the night before our big shoot and yes, my brain has officially gone to sleep.Nevertheless, I know I have neglected my blog lately and thought it was high time I write a little something about the progress of our production. In a nutshell, this week has been absolutely hectic. Starting with Monday, after having endured yet another 20...

Storyboard

Just in case my laptop disappears again, I thought I would upload the storyboard for Under Contr...

Lighting

Ok, so I have a weakness. Yes, shocked you are I'm sure. But nonetheless, I felt it necessary to discuss with you the skills involved with light direction which I do not possess, the topic of this week's readings. When I noticed lighting was going to be the main topic for this week, I attempted to stay alert. I have worked...

GRANT

Grant's Costume1 x Blue Jeans1 x Punk rock t-shirt1 x Casual jumper or Hoodie1 x Pair of casual trainers1 x backpack1 x belt1 x cap (optional)GRANT Character ProfileAge: 22 year old studentHeight: Tall (185cm – 195cm)Weight: BuiltHair Colour: BlondeEye Colour: BlueDress sense: Casual, generally jeans and a t-shirt. Mostly unwashed.Hair...

STACEY

STACEY - Costume1 x Pair of white leggings1 x tight white t-shirt or skivvy1 x pair of white tight boots (preferably knee length)1 x white chunky belt or tool belt1 x pair of white-framed glasses (optional)STACEY Character ProfileAge: 23 Years OldHeight: Small, feistyHair Colour: BrunetteEye Colour: BlueSkin Colour: PaleBuild:...

How to shoot...

The actors are chosen. Great. Now, we had to decide how we were going to film them. Not great. The reason for this is because we now had 3 ways in which to film:1. We had both actors at both shoots: Wednesday is to be Stacey's shoot where we record her entire performance in front of the camera. We could have both her and Grant there to work lines off eachother and the same with Grant's shoot on Friday...

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Ok, so I am going to split this into three blog posts because really, each decision is so mega it needs its own planet. To start with, we had our review of the audition footage. This was enormous as we auditioned 11 actors, 1 twice, and from there we then had to pick just 2. Excrutiatingly painful. But regardless, we had to find one by the end of the day due to our already behind schedule.We managed...

Product Placement

After having had a quick conversation with Astyn, I seriously thought about all the possibilities that are now open to us by doing a tertiary level student film. Sponsorships, product placement and free stuff are all on the agenda now because we can officially put the RMIT stamp on our film which gives it a greater level of authenticity when approaching companies. These are a couple of things I thought...

The basics of Narrative

Seth recently emailed me a very intriguing link to a a seminar held by SCAD featuring Cindy Chastain, a self-proclaimed "Experience Designer" who presented a talk on the fundamentals of narrative and how they can be applied to any design context to produce something "that engages the minds and emotions of users."I found the talk very conceptual and highly informative. One of Chastain's claims is that...

Directing with David Carlin

For our Week 9 lecture, we were fortunate enough to have the head of Media come in and take our lecture for the day. Dr. Carlin is a renowned filmmaker and writer and therefore his attendance at our lecture was greatly appreciated. The lecture was a basic set-up of the do's and don'ts of directing. Most of them I already knew but regardless, it was interesting to see the way Dr. Carlin orchestrated...

Giving birth to a child

No, I have not just endured 9 months of gestation to then experience what is apparently described as 10 hours of living hell to produce a wailing, slimy, offspring. My title for this post refers to something Adrian said in this week's lecture about how we should treat our K-Films like children. Something we produce but that ultimately, we can not have any control over how they grow-up and are shaped....

Punishment

Ok, so, even after having already completed an entire year's worth of education which included numerous teachings about copyright and how bloody important it was that you checked your sources, I totally forgot about all of this when making Quicken The Heart.I think it was a combination of being totally disorganised and not really knowing what I wanted to do for the last video other than something...