Everyone's Talking About ... Ides of March

After a month of quiet solitude, I am starting up my posts with a bang. A startling statement sure to shock every critic in the world at the moment and possibly cause me to eat my words in 2 months time. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I did not think The Ides of March, George Clooney's latest "success" was as good as it had been...

Hot Off The Press...Warrior

This was a film I cannot say I was looking forward to. It was not a film I had on my radar. And it certainly was not the film I thought I would say was the best thing I had seen all year.  Warrior is as delicately paced fusion of Scorsese's emotive, self-reflexive Raging Bull and Fincher's more evocative, dramatic...

PLUG PLUG PLUG! - Shame

I have never done this before because I haven't yet found a movie that has excited me as much as this film. Without further ado, I give you Shame...

Crazy, Stupid, Loving it anyway.

I've had a majorly intensive week so far and decided to reward myself (slash, just take a minute to breathe) by going to see the latest Rom-Com to hit the screens. Crazy, Stupid, Love features an all-star cast made up of Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, Emma Stone, and Julianne Moore with Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei guest starring....

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation

Turn up the bass and prepare to blast your speakers because this has got to be one of the best opening sequences I have seen in a movie for a long time. The final chapter in my Cinema Studies major ends with Australian Cinema, an in-depth look at the history of our nation's most unique and exciting art form with an indigenous twist. Most of the films we have seen so far have had an indigenous focus...

Bad Teacher. Good Film

I was lucky enough to win a double pass to see Cameron Diaz's latest flick, Bad Teacher, in which she plays possibly one of the bet characters I have seen on screen in a long time.  The film centers around Elizabeth Halsey, your typical, dysfunctional 21st center who doesn't see fault in the old-fashioned tradition of...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 so...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: Your browser does not support ifram...

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....

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...

Australia can only make short films...Thoughts?

This is a pretty harsh statement, even by my standards, and I apologize for being so blunt, but its a saying I've been hearing quite frequently over the past few weeks and I thought it was about time I did some research into the background of such a comment. In Australia, there are very few places Aussie films can get noticed. The box office is almost always consumed by the latest American blockbuster;...

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

I've had a few opportunities this week to ask people this question: "What is wrong with the Australian film industry?" Now, don't roll your eyes at me because I've already placed the idea in that person's head that there's something "wrong" with the way we make films. This is indisputable. In an industry that thrives on NOT making money, there is going to come a time in the very near future where...

Blue-Tongue Films

For those of you who have ever wondered about the origin of this amazing film group, this is a great article I've scalped from another blog. http://cinematicpassions.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/aussies-rule-blue-tongue-films-arrives-on-the-scene/ Your browser does not support ifram...

'The Secret Life of Us' - Where Are They Now?

I've recently picked up all 4 seasons of John Edwards' "The Secret Life of Us" and am absolutely loving it. I remember nearly 10 years ago how this was one of my mum's favorite shows which I was not allowed to watch because it was "adult TV" which makes me laugh watching it now. I was going to write this post at the end of...