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JOURNAL

The process diary of film director Glendyn Ivin

Filtering by Category: Video

FIRST / LAST

Glendyn Ivin

Synching up the first and and last shots of some of the great films. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) in many of the examples the first and last images sum up the entire story. It's like you really only need these two images and nothing in between  to explore the ideas and the theme of the film. I also love just how beautifully enigmatic they are. Like the beginning and the end of a film is the time when you can be most poetic, lulling the audience in and out of the experience...

Thank you Jacob T Sweeney for taking the time... I could have watched a whole feature length of just these moments...

Full list of films below...

What can we learn by examining only the first and final shot of a film? This video plays the opening and closing shots of 55 films side-by-side. Some of the opening shots are strikingly similar to the final shots, while others are vastly different--both serving a purpose in communicating various themes. Some show progress, some show decline, and some are simply impactful images used to begin and end a film. MUSIC: "Any Other Name" by Thomas Newman Films used (in order of appearance): The Tree of Life 00:00 The Master 00:09 Brokeback Mountain 00:15 No Country for Old Men 00:23 Her 00:27 Blue Valentine 00:30 Birdman 00:34 Black Swan 00:41 Gone Girl 00:47 Kill Bill Vol. 2 00:53 Punch-Drunk Love 00:59 Silver Linings Playbook 01:06 Taxi Driver 01:11 Shutter Island 01:20 Children of Men 01:27 We Need to Talk About Kevin 01:33 Funny Games (2007) 01:41 Fight Club 01:47 12 Years a Slave 01:54 There Will be Blood 01:59 The Godfather Part II 02:05 Shame 02:10 Never Let Me Go 02:17 The Road 02:21 Hunger 02:27 Raging Bull 02:31 Cabaret 02:36 Before Sunrise 02:42 Nebraska 02:47 Frank 02:54 Cast Away 03:01 Somewhere 03:06 Melancholia 03:11 Morvern Callar 03:18 Take this Waltz 03:21 Buried 03:25 Lord of War 03:32 Cape Fear 03:38 12 Monkeys 03:45 The World According to Garp 03:50 Saving Private Ryan 03:57 Poetry 04:02 Solaris (1972) 04:05 Dr. Strangelove 04:11 The Astronaut Farmer 04:16 The Piano 04:21 Inception 04:26 Boyhood 04:31 Whiplash 04:37 Cloud Atlas 04:43 Under the Skin 04:47 2001: A Space Odyssey 04:51 Gravity 04:57 The Searchers 05:03 The Usual Suspects 05:23

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

Glendyn Ivin

Two heroes of mine punk rock singer Ian McKaye and photographer Glen E. Friedman discuss photos from Glens new book My Rules. Glen E. Freidman released one of my favourite photo books back in the day Fuck You Heroes. I'm looking forward My Rules.

And just cos… here is Ian McKaye belting out my favourite Fugazi song (and one of my favourite songs ever) Instrument.

WHAT DO ARTISTS DO ALL DAY?

Glendyn Ivin

I came across this wonderful episode of the BBC's What Do Artists Do All Day featuring the photographer Tom Wood. I new nothing about him but was so inspired by his photography and his straight forward, honest and down to earth approach to making pictures. His longitudinal studies of his everyday surrounds is really incredible. Reminds me to photograph the regular things around me. The modern ugly cars and buildings in my street. I love how these documents can take on more and more meaning as time passes, things change and what currently seems mundane may one day seem remarkable. Part 1 below...

RUI

Glendyn Ivin

A short and very beautiful observational docco (shot by a young Dean Semler) about group of kids killing time on their bikes in inner city Sydney 1976. Wonderful how it unobtrusively observes the kids who are surrounded by factories, drunks and boredom and how they escape through imaginations and fantasy. "S.W.A.T"

Who is documenting and I mean really observing and unobtrusively documenting Australian life like this these days…?

Thanks Damian for the link! It's quite similar to the film On the Waves Of The Adriatic which I listed below as one of my Favourite Australian Films of all time.

Rui is on the National Film and Sound Archives Youtube channel. There is some amazing stuff there!

PERSPECTIVE

Glendyn Ivin

My Dad's funeral was during the week. It was actually a really good day if you can call a funeral 'good'. It was nice meeting some of Dad's friends who I didnt know and hearing stories about him. It was also cool to re-connect with some of my 'half' brothers and sisters. My brother Leigh who is currently touring with his band through Europe couldn't make it to the funeral. He wrote something for me to read at the service about his memories of Dad and how although Dad was absent physically for much of the time, he still had a strong influence on our lives beyond mere genetics.

Dad was essentially a traveller, a musician and an enthusiastic photographer. Leigh said that Dad  taught him many things not so much by direct teaching but by Leigh 'watching' him, for example, "Dad never taught me how to 'solder' electronics, but I could do by the age of 10…".  I found this really interesting but wondered... How could a man who on the surface seemed so disconnected from us have such a strong influence in shaping our lives and interests?

In the lead up to the funeral I looked through some old Video 8 footage I shot back in the day (1992). Dad and I were on our way back (to Newcastle where I was studying) from visiting my brother in Melbourne. I had my video camera with me and I filmed a lot of the road trip. With my brother's thoughts about indirect learning and influence on my mind I scanned through a section of footage that I had totally forgotten about.

Dad loved a road trip but would never drive for very long without having to stop and take photographs, it used to annoy me because it could add hours to a trip. Perhaps to help deal with the boredom this time I decided to film him while he was taking photographs. It was quite wonderful and a little eery watching the footage back. He isn't teaching me directly how to take photos but I'm observing him and chatting while he snaps away.

I cut a short sequence from the footage and showed it at Dad's service as a way of illustrating what my brother was talking about.

Essentially, when it comes to photography at least, I'm that guy now. The idea of travelling and documenting is ingrained in me. It's become an integral part of my personal life and process as a filmmaker. And much to my families distress on road trips I'm constantly pulling over to photograph something from the side of the road.

I also love seeing Dad and I goofing off and just hanging out like a father and son should. It was a rare moment of togetherness and perhaps we are happy because we are both doing what we loved the most.

I know Dad died thinking he could have been a better father and that he had failed us in many ways. Despite my brother and I having made peace with him, he still lived with heavy regret. If I could tell him anything more now I would say he was a lot more successful than he or I had thought. My brother and I are both living lives exploring our creativity and passions as a direct result of his influence. I know he was 'proud' of his sons and I'm not sure it would have remedied his regret, but I hope it might have eased it a little.

The morning after the funeral I woke up and I really missed Dad. Even though he had been absent for most of my life, Dad was still 'out there' in the world and I had a connection with him. Now he really is absent and I feel I have lost something.

I'm glad I feel this way though. It would be worse if I felt indifferent.

Thanks Dad for 'showing' me how to take photographs. It's a gift you gave me that I enjoy every day. I'll always think of you when I see a 'white bridge' and maybe I'll even pull over and photograph it for you.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Glendyn Ivin

I was a 14 years old when I first saw Pink Floyd's Live at Pompei. It blew me away then and it still does now. The clip below has been such a strong influence on me as a filmmaker over the years. I like the pureness of it all. It's more about capturing the energy that is there, rather than trying to fabricate what isn't. It's about tapping into the essence and documenting it in the most unaffected way.

It's funny how random things inform and inspire what we do. It's usually (and hopefully) such a random mix of things that the culmination of them all manifests to become something new and not derivative of the sources.

One week into shooting Puberty Blues 2, I'm drawn back to have another look at Echoes. This clip is like a compass to me. If you want to cut to the chase, jump to 6:30... Magic happens.

Do yourself a favour and watch the whole film here... (Directors Cut!)

SPRAANG BRAYYKE...

Glendyn Ivin

Saw Spring Breakers last night (trailer here). I haven't been so engaged and inspired by a film in a long time. I've been a fan of Harmony Korine from back in the day. The film Kids (1995), directed by Larry Clarke and written by Korine when was like 18 or so, totally blew me away. And the night I saw his debut feature Gummo, is perhaps one of the more defining moments in my creative life. That film was and still is a revelation to me.

Between Gummo and now he has had a few hits and misses in my opinion, but his work has always remained singular in vision and in and of it's own specific world. The films are not always perfect, but I don't think he's seeking perfection. I think he is exploring other things. He is a bit like Herzog in this way, Korine is searching for deeper truths and in the process discovers the absurd and the beautifully surreal.

Spring Breakers is perhaps Korine's most accessible film, in many ways it's his most extreme and experimental. The approach of using the non-linear narrative aspects of music videos and applying it to a feature drama structure makes perfect sense and mid way through the film I wondered why I hadn't seen this done before . The neon skittles colour palette, the sound design and the dark essay of youth culture, hedonism and materialism.

There was a point in the movie where I wished the film would last a for days and how great it would be to just sit back and let it wash all over me for hours and hours. Thats a rare feeling for me in the cinema these days. I woke up buzzing with enthusiasm and with a very clear and defined feeling that there is still so much potential in cinema and story telling. Spring Breakers got me all totally excited about it all again!

Part 2 of the above interview here.

And just give James Franco ALL of the awards! He is amazing in this!

Enjoy some other Harmony Korine highlights below...