Random China (pt1)

Back in Melbourne after two very cool weeks of shooting and travelling across China. The local Chinese production company were amazing to work with and delivered above and beyond what I expected. They worked very hard and have left me with not only great footage for the TVC's, but also provided us with many great experiences and memories.

As I said in a post below Shanghai is an incredible city. It's more Bladerunner than Tokyo, in fact I think it's way more Bladerunner than Bladerunner (except there are no flying cars, yet...). I really fell for it in many ways. So many contradictions, it's a very raw and at times confronting place but also a very cosmopolitan city (It is known as the Paris of the east), with great restaurants and galleries. Ultimately from where I was standing and looking only through travellers eyes, I feel it could be a very liveable city. I would love to spend more time there. Although seeing how quickly it is changing, by the time I get back there, it could be a very different city again.

The shoot also took us high up into the mountains of South-West China into the provence of Yunnan where after two flights and a seven hour mini-bus journey across and through some of the most steep and rocky mountainous passes we found ourselves at our destination, the incredibly lush Lugu Lake.

It would be so great to go back and shoot a film. Perhaps just a short. While I was there, my mind was constantly filled with random images, sequences and scenes from possible stories that could be easily and simply shot there. There is so much life and energy on the streets, it's all there, waiting.

Carmageddon at -6

Shooting on a Shanghai rooftop in the middle of winter...

I've seen the future...

Currently in Shanghai continuing the commercial shoot I began before Xmas. Man, what a city. The local production crew call it the Wild Wild East. It's pretty crazy and intense. I love it! An amazing and very visceral mega-city where thousands of years of chinese culture and heritage is ramming face first into a fast, ever changing and modernist future.

Despite the giant leaps though, Chinese officials do block Facebook and Youtube (Gasp! Horror!), and much to my surprise they also block all eBlogger and Wordpress sites, thats about every blog on the internet! So I've used my limited hacking skills to get around the firewall for now, but I doubt I'll be updating in the next week or so...

Twenty 0h Nine...

Here are a few of my favorite things... of 2009!

MASTODON - CRACK THE SKYE

Probably album of the year for me, Mastodon brought stoner / prog / metal with a healthy dose of the old school to a whole new audience. From the very first note of opening track Oblivion I was totally hooked.

DEVIN TOWNSEND - KI and ADDICTED (pts 1 and 2 of a 4 album release)

OK, I'm really showing my metal geekiness now. I've been a tragic, obsessive HevyDevy fan for over 10 years. Everything he releases I buy and devour. This year has been particularly exciting as he has come out of a hiatus and released 2 new albums, both very different from each other (and the next 2 promise to be even more different) but thats the genius of Devy. I wont bore you with any tracks, as Devin is very much an acquired taste, you either love him or hate him.

But I would love to put this clip up of Devin working in his studio. As this blog is part of my process diary, I'm really fascinated with seeing how other artists work and do their thing. I've also always been interested in watching people record music in studios and this very basic clip of Devin laying down vocals all by himself in his studio, for me is totally fascinating (and so geeky). Devin is totally in the zone. Creatively, physically and technically. This kind of birds eye (dicks eye?) view is the next best thing to sitting there in person, I just wish I could have a cup of green tea from his silver thermos.

I also might have finally been able to access and appreciate the music of THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, made infamous from their appearance in the great music doco Dig. Although Anton Newcombe made a great documentary subject, I could never really understand nor appreciate his rambling madness and detuned brand of psychedelia. But while working on this current job, I spent alot of time driving with DOP Germain McMicking and he had a compilation of BJM on high rotation. And this one track just clicked (such a beautiful song)... And now all the other tracks are beginning to make sense as well. I so love it when that happens.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

This Swedish vampire film has appeared on a few 'Best Of' lists going around and I totally agree. Every frame, ever beat of this film, in my mind, is a masterpiece. One of the few films while I was watching, I wished could have gone on for hours and hours and hours...

Here is a link for the trailer in HD.

Also, interestingly Greig Fraser who shot Last Ride, is currently in New Mexico shooting the Hollywood remake of Let The Right One In, to be called Let Me In... My fingers (and thousands of other fans' fingers) are firmly crossed that they don't fuck this up.

VAN DIEMAN'S LAND

When I first saw this film at the Adelaide Film Festival I had no expectations of what it might be like. But a few minutes in I knew I was watching something remarkable. I was really blown away by the film and the filmmakers who made it. I've since become friends with Jonathan (writer, director, producer) and Oscar (writer, actor, producer) and they are very cool guys and downright inspiring to say the least.

Sadly, despite good reviews VDL was mostly overlooked. The film is beautifully shot, had incredible performances and was bravely directed. It's another example of how a good film can slip by relatively unnoticed. I find it hard to believe that people just don't care about this kind of cinema. Speaking of which, I was surprised when VDL was totally overlooked by the AFI's and IF Awards, especially the IF's 'so called' Independent Spirit Award. This film was made with no Government funding and was realised through, donation, credit cards and good will. I'll step off the soap box now...

It's out on DVD soon and I strongly urge you to 'do yourself a favour' when you see it. I can't wait to have a copy up on my shelf.

RED MEAT

I had my first piece of red meat after 16 years of being a vegetarian. After a few years of not feeling right and unexplained lethargy, I gave into a primal urge that I had been fighting for a long time. I suited up and headed to The Savage Club with my friend Mike and had a medium rare steak and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. It felt like pure medicine. I've been having the occasional hunk of flesh since and I feel so much better for it. Much to the discomfort of my (vegie) wife.

KIDS

Watching my son Ollie complete his first year of school, reading and writing and making films!

And beginning to have the strangest and cutest conversations with my 3 year old Rosebud as she learns to thread words and sentences together.

THE LEICA M8

If you have been reading this blog over the past few months, you would have seen a few entires regarding the new 5DmkII and it's HD video shooting abilities. I have been using this camera for a while now and I'm still blown away by what it can do, and also by where this technology will take filmmakers of all kinds over the next few years.

But while I had my hands on such beautiful camera equipment I became more and more aware of finding a camera that would take me back to my love of photography in a more pure sense. Hence, I started drooling over Leica Rangefinder cameras, a camera system I have been aware of for years, but have been all too aware of the prohibitive cost, so I have been careful not to get to close.

But after the Black Pearl which also came with a cash prize I bit the bullet and bought a Leica M8 and a 28mm Leica Sumicron lens. I mean, if it's good enough for Wim Wenders... (Beware Leica porn ahead! but it's OK cos it's in black and white so it's ART!)

The M8 is a very simple camera but a very precise one. It just takes photographs (weird huh?), no HD video, no bluetooth, no HDMI out. Leica offers no auto focus or other bells and whistles, it processes images slowly, it's not great in low light and the fact that it has Leica engraved on it makes it at least twice as expensive as any other camera. But once you get your head around it, the files it produces are stunning and have a different feel to every other camera I've seen or used. The Leica lenses are simply breathtaking. Like Wim, it makes my heart beat faster just thinking about it. Learning to use a use a rangefinder has been like learning to take photos from scratch, but I think (I hope) I'm becoming a better photographer because of it and that is something I want to continue doing much more of in 2010 and beyond.

Happy New Year!

ps: Also over the next month or so I have plans of overhauling this site and making it into something a little more involved and hopefully much better.

Xmas 09

Home town Tamworth

Chicken Boy

Natalie watching sunset

Tired fairy

Shooting...

Recce

Some photos taken over the last couple of weeks while searching for locations...

Currently in the thick of pre-production for one of the biggest commercials I've done. A ton of locations spread far and wide across the state (and the world! heading to China to shoot part of the campaign on Jan 1st : ) need to be found.

One of the things I love most about making any kind of production, whether it be a film, clip or commercial is the search for locations. The perfect room, the perfect house, the perfect field, mountain, road. The perfect whatever.

Infact, I have always found it one of the greatest privileges of being a filmmaker. To be invited into a strangers home, to be offered a cup of tea and a tour. To be taken to and given access to beautiful, ugly, broken and old, shiny and new, important or forgotten, even secret places. To have doors and gates opened that would normally be closed. To be given little windows into other peoples worlds.

Chook Chook

As my 6 old son Ollie doesn't have a blog (yet!). He has asked me to post
his film debut here. It was made as part of the Future Shots
Sustainability film comp.

UPDATE: Ollie won his age section! Award winning filmmaker at 6!?!

Music by the amazing Charlie Parr! Thanks Charlie!

Cherry Bomb

I have been working on the 2nd draft of my script Cherry Bomb, a film I was working on before Last Ride was sent to me. Cherry Bomb is about a bunch of teenagers who rob a bank in Brisbane, Australia, in 1978. It's based on a true story.

I first heard the story on talk back radio 5 years. The headline news story at the time was about some prisoners who had recently escaped from a Perth jail and the radio host was asking callers if they had ever been 'on the run'. A caller named 'Pat' rang up and told his story about what it was like to be on the run from the police when he was 16 after robbing a bank. I was so taken by the story, I was driving at the time and I had to pull over and just sit and listen to his story. Over the next week or so, I tracked Pat down and flew to meet him in Brisbane. My producer for this project Jane Liscombe and I optioned his story soon after.

The photo above is of 'Pat' aged 15, (That's Alice Cooper make-up he's wearing!) one year before he and his 15 year old girlfriend and two other friends robbed a bank and (almost) got away with over $40 000. The photo below is from the same time. I find these images, and a bunch more I photographed from Pats childhood photo album amazing. If I can get a sniff of the atmosphere and the energy of these random polaroids in the script, I think I'll be on the right track.

Cherry Bomb has taken along time to come together, partly as I was swept away with Last Ride. I find it really difficult to work on more than one thing at time, something I need to get much better at. Progress is slow, but I'm really happy with the direction this script is heading in.

Pitching...

Last Ride DVD 'Unboxing'

I'm really happy with the final packaging (and the content) of the DVD release of Last Ride. Madman said yes to all my wishes, and with this release you can see them all come true.

I've always wanted to create a DVD that is not only has cool and what I hope are interesting extra features but also a really cool physical package.

I'm very pleased with the book that fits inside the case. It's 48 pages of photos taken through out the entire process of the film, from initial location scouting, through to a few of my favorite stills from the film. There is also a conversation between Mac Gudgeon and Denis Young about adapting the film from the book, as well as a printed version of my online journal of the 6 week shoot that started this blog over a year ago.

The films commentary was done by me, Cinematographer Greig Fraser and Editor Jack Hutchings. I've posted about that here.

There is also Cracker Bag which one the Palme d'Or for short film at Cannes in 2003, another short of mine called The Desert which was nominated for an AFI, I was able to do a commentary on this, as it's a strange little film that in many way was a test for the shooting of Last Ride. There are 'Deleted Scenes', 'Rehearsal footage' and whole bunch of other cool stuff.

The 2nd Disc also features Along For The Ride a 55 minute 'making of' made by my friends Jono and Tim. I think it's a really interesting film, but it's hard for me to look at it, as it's focused on me most of the time. The only direction I gave the boys while making the film was to not even think about making it a 'puff piece'. I find the majority of 'making of's' so full of puff and ego, with people sitting around patting each other on the back. This film is kind of the awkward opposite of that. I actually considered at a few points ditching it from the release, as sometimes I think it might not paint the best picture of me or the way I made the film, but it's not for me to say. Maybe I'm just being overly conscience as I really hate seeing myself on camera, let alone trying to string a sentence together. I'm far more comfortable behind the camera.

A friend saw it the other day and said it was one of the most truthful and revealing films about 'making a film'. I'm not sure it's all that, but as I said I find it hard to have an opinion on it. I hope people like it though. Jono and Tim worked really hard for along time for no money and I really appreciate all their time and effort.

So along with the film, which I think looks better in this digital transfer than the print, I hope we have created something that people will consider value for money and worth purchasing.

It should be available now in most (Australian) shops like JB Hi-Fi, Readings, KMart etc. And for rent in Video Ezy, Blockbuster etc, if it's not, ask for it. Or you can buy it online via Madman.

If it wasn't mine, I know I would be really keen to get my hands on it : )

The Black Pearl and Abbas Kiarostami

I guess the highlight of my trip to Abu Dhabi and the Middle East Film Festival was winning the BLACK PEARL for 'Best New Narrative Director'. It was a huge honor to accept the award not only because it came with a nice bit of metal, with a large black pearl mounted in the middle of it, plus a sizable and very generous cash prize, but mainly because it was awarded by a jury that was headed by one of the few true masters of cinema and hero of mine, the legendary Abbas Kiarostami.

Abbas Kiarostami (AK) has been a direct influence on me for many years. All his films (that I have seen) are like book marks in my continuing education as a filmmaker. I can recall each of them as a precise and life changing moment.

Needless to say that when I learnt that AK was to head the Jury at the Middle East Film Festival I was excited at the mere chance of meeting and perhaps shaking his hand. I never considered winning a prize or anything.

It was a cool experience just sitting in on the competition screening of Last Ride knowing that Abbas and the rest of the jury was watching the film in the audience with me. It could have been quite nerve wracking, but I felt regardless if AK liked the film or not, I could see parts of the film that he and his films had a direct influence on. It was a great feeling. I walked away from that screening feeling that if nothing else, it was very cool to have sat in the same audience with AK and watch my film together (even if we were on opposite sides of the dark cinema).

Any of AK's films are worth seeing, but the film of his that has had the most direct and personal influence on me was actually an extra feature on the DVD for his film Ten. The film is simply called Ten on Ten and it is essentially AK's 10 point guide to filmmaking, using the film Ten as an example, but I dont think you have to have seen the film for it to be valuable, but it would help, as Ten is an amazing film that I highly recommend! He filmed Ten on Ten himself with a camera mounted on the dashboard of his car as he drives through the hills surrounding his home town of Tehran. It's like riding shotgun, on a Sunday drive with one of the most incredible film makers, having them discuss their thoughts on technique, process and philosophy. Each section covers a different aspect of filmmaking: Camera, Music, Actors, Locations, Story etc..

As a fan, and as a filmmaker, it is a gift. All ten parts are on YouTube and if your a film student or interested in learning about filmmaking from a totally different perspective then it's the best hour or so you could spend. It's everything they don't teach you in film school. And if you buy into the rhythm, style and the content, the final two minutes of part 10 'The Final Lesson' is one of the most cinematic, profound and poetic moments I have experienced.

But it only really works if you spend the time working through the 10 steps. You have to spend the time for the payoff to be effective. And in this way its very much like all of his films. I hope I'm not building it up to much... it's actually a very, very small but in so many ways an illuminating conclusion, for me anyway.

I could go on and on about AK and the ways in which he has inspired me over the years, and not just as a director, but also as a photographer and as a writer. If you are really keen to learn some more, I recently found this great interview, featured on Facebook of all places.

I had the chance to have a good conversation with AK after the awards ceremony about Last Ride and bunch of other stuff. It was very cool to say the least. I'm not one for having fanboy photo's taken with people of whom I'm fans of, but this was one meeting I just couldn't resist.

One of the happiest moments of my life.

I've been lucky enough to travel to many film festivals all around the world, but I would have to say that the Middle Eastern Film Festival would be one of the best. It has been able to strike that great balance between shall we say 'hospitality' and cinema. It's what a great film festival should be. (And I must ad I was feeling this way before I won anything!)

We were made to feel most welcome and there was alot of interest in the film and in Australia in general. The nightly parties were spectacular but most importantly the selection of films were amazing. Such a high level of talent. So again I was as honored to receive any prize, as to just have Last Ride in competition was reward enough.

Random Abu Dhabi (pt2)

Fire Works in Abu Dhabi

Just arrived home from Abu Dhabi and The Middle Eastern Film Festival. What a blast! More soon...

ps: I'm so over eBlogger, and it's constraints. Newer and more betterer site coming soon - stay tuned.

5Dmk2 crazy war footage update.

I'm not sure about the objectivity of this film and the music is a little OTT. But there is no denying the incredible camera work of imbedded journo Danfung Dennis (cool name!). This teaser trailer for his upcoming PBS docco appears revealing, intimate and engaging on so many levels. It also looks stunning and again it's all shot on the very small, very cheap and very accessible Canon 5Dmk2. I'm so inspired by this kind of thing at the moment, not just the energy of the production but the evidence that the technology is providing a different kind of access and opportunity for filmmakers at all levels.

Battle for Hearts and Minds Trailer from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Insane.

Via Planet 5D where there is more info and less superlatives...