Cool city. Cool clip.

I must be missing Philly. I watch the film Philadelphia, which is a far greater film than I remembered it to be, and now awake in the middle of night due to jet lag I'm trawling YouTube for cool clips about Philly, so I can see it again through somebody else's eyes.

A few seconds from my New York minute...

Before flying back to Australia, I scheduled a short (7 hour) day trip in New York. I think it really is my favourite city of them all. We arrived at 8am by train bleary eyed with no sleep after wrapping in Philly at 4am. The whole day was a little surreal so I'm glad I took the snaps below so I could prove to myself it wasn't just a jet lagged dream...

I was able to get to a couple of my favourite places as well as stumble across a few new ones. I think thats what I like about NY so much. You can wander off in any direction and find great things just waiting there. It's Disneyland for adults!

Sound Maker pt 2

Have just wrapped the week shoot in Philadelphia. Such an amazing experience. I feel so privileged to have been invited so warmly into the lives of people who live in such a different world to mine. The last 7 days have felt like exploring outer-space.

The textures, places and faces of South Philly have left a lasting impression on me.

Tomorrow a short day in NYC! Then flying home to my family who I've missed alot.

And the edit suite...

Los Angeles Transit

Sound Maker pt 1

Thanks to everyone who contacted me with ideas for the 'sound maker' project. It's been a cool few weeks of discovery and I have been exposed to some totally amazing and very talented people out there in world. For the project we found an amazing 21 year old rapper in Philadelphia and I'm jumping on a plane in a few hours to go and spend a week making the short film. This is a bit of dream job for me. I have been wishing for a project like this for while. Something small, intimate and direct. The crew is essentially me and my assistant Ryley. We will have a some much appreciated production support on the ground in Phily.

What exactly are we shooting? Not sure yet... I have some ideas, but it's going to be very much on the fly, and that is what is most exciting to me. I feel with our subject, the location, the music and the time to explore a little, we have all the elements we need. Fingers crossed.

Everything we are taking to make the film is in the picture below (apart from my laptop and some sound gear we will get in Phily). It's scarily stripped back. It's freaking me out a little..!

But if you look you can see some cameras and some microphones and a roll of gaff tape. Thats all you need really need isn't it? I'm planning to shoot mostly on the 5Dmk2, I did cave in at the last minute and hired a Sony HD Cam (VP1) just incase what we end up doing isn't suitable for the 5D.

Bring it!

HELP NEEDED!

UPDATE - WE HAVE FOUND THE ARTIST!

‘BURN’ DOCO

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I am looking to produce a mini-documentary featuring a ‘unique and unconventional, young urban MALE sound maker’ the doco will be featured on a website for a new 'energy drink'. This artist can be located anywhere in the world! They will be paid!

I am looking for someone who is unique in what they do and is passionate about their music and philosophy. They need to be fearlessly energetic and breakthrough, not mainstream. The sound I'm looking for should be personal and unique, but ultimately have its roots in urban music and culture. It would be best if they used vocals / words in some way, and perhaps electronics in their performance.

We had found the perfect artist in DAN DEACON and the film was going ahead, but 'due to circumstances beyond our control', this can no longer happen. Dan was perfect though, his energy is infectious and plays a show like nobody else. Check him out here...

or here

But it doesnt have to be in that style, have a look at BUTTERSCOTCH. She would also be perfect if she was MALE (we are doing another film featuring a female) and we can’t have both films with women...

Another guy who would be perfect, but he was not interested is DUB FX. His has a unique take on a traditional form of urban music, passionate, creative and dynamic. This clip gets better the more you watch it.

As an example of something we liked but went out of the boundaries, was LUCKY DRAGONS although creative and unique, they were too experimental with their sound. Perhaps more in the sphere of performance art. Which is awesome, but not totally right for this project. But they were nearly on brief...

Ultimately what we are looking for is very hard to define and is open to interpretation and yes, subjective.

But if you could break down... Male, age 18-30ish, Solo (Duo maybe), Vocal, Amazing performance, English speaking, anywhere in the world, new talent - undiscovered or just about to break through!

So is there another Dan Deacon, or someone incredible that we haven't seen...!?

We are working to a very tight deadline and are hoping to find suitable artists over the next 2 days! Please forward any suggestions that you think may be suitable and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly, or via facebook, or leave a comment below...

THANKS!

True Love and Chaos pt3

A few selects from the Knog stills shoot.

Black and White

I'm slowly falling more and more in love with Black and White images. Whether it be for stills or film. The film Strandon In Canton I briefly discussed in the post below this one, is stunning in all it's monchramatic glory, glitches and all. There is something in the way that when you remove all the colour information from an image it becomes so much more simpler, more direct, and I'm becoming obsessed with it! It's more about form, shape and texture. I know this baisc and obvious, but I'm really enjoying exploring it in my work.

I once read somewhere that films are not shot in black and white anymore because an audience won't feel as though they are getting their moneys worth. Insane.

Below are a couple of pre-production stills for the Knog stills shoot I've been working on. The actual shoot was yesterday and I'll post some images from it in the next day or so... It was great fun and I'm really happy with the way it came together.

Stranded in Canton

Every time I see a photograph by William Eggleston I have to stop and look at it. I have spent hours pouring over every page of his books. He is one of those photographers that help you see the world differently. He trains your eye, your perception and keeps you on guard for the unexpected.

Spare but richly hued Egglestons' work is most well known for his colour photography some even calling him the 'grandfather of colour photography'.

However, I only recently came across a feature length documentary he made in 1973. It was shot on one of the first 'portable' Sony video cameras. It's one of the most cinematically pure observational documentaries I think I've ever seen. And it's in Black and White!

It's long (click here to watch it bigger) but well worth it. If you are not sure, just watch the first few minutes... pure poetry!

Casting

I'm doing a stills shoot for KNOG in a couple of weeks. I've been casting people for the different roles. KNOG has given me a crazy amount of freedom to do things the way I want. I love that level of trust. It's hard to find in commercial work.

Young kids in love and up to no good...

True Love and Chaos pt2

I stare at this photo everyday...

(I don't know who it's by, or where it's from...?)

Ron Mueck Rocks

Went to the Ron Mueck exhibition at the National Gallery on the weekend with the kids. Such great work.

No guessing what my poultry loving son Ollies favourite piece was.

The Best Script. Ever.

Last week I read the best script I have ever read. it was sent to me via a US manager. It is by no means perfect and needs work in places, but the subject matter and how it could be realised on screen has my mind bursting with possibilities and potential. It's the kind of script that I feel I became a filmmaker to make. And given half the chance I would work day and night for how ever long it took to get it made.

Unfortunately... the possibility of me getting that chance is about a million to one...

I took a photo of the stack of pages just after I finished reading it, so I would remember the moment.

Who knows? I'm sure bigger dreams have come true.

True Love and Chaos pt1

Lately, I have been drawn to images and films and that explore or portray ideas of 'chaos', as broad as this sounds it fits very specifically into the development of a few film projects and in particular Cherry Bomb.

Earlier today I saw this amazing short film over at Boing Boing. I wouldn't usually be drawn to this overly technical style of filmmaking, however, Nuit Blanche wears it's bells and whistles proudly on it's sleeve, yes it's FX we have all seen before, but here the visual audacity doesn't take away from the simplicity of the idea and more importantly the emotional connection between the man and woman.

What I really like about this film are the two characters who are totally engulfed by chaos, literally, smashing glass and crashing cars, and yet they remain totally at ease and focussed, almost hypnotised by one another.

Please click out and watch the clips in the largest way you can!

Also check out the equally impressive 'Making Of'. I think seeing the process behind making Nuit Blanche made me appreciate the film even more. Even though most of it's trickery is revealed, there is surprisingly more comping and FX work going on that I first thought. Making the narrative and the romantic spell of which the couple are under (of which no computer effect could enhance) even more impressive.

I dont know... maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic!

Sketchy Japan

I've been cleaning out my office at home (SO exciting!) and I came across an old journal I made when I first travelled overseas in 1999 to Japan. I'm not sure if it was because it was my first trip O.S or because it was Japan, but the whole experience was incredible. I don't think I blinked for the two weeks I was there, every moment seemed so exhilarating and unique.

One of things that this old journal reminded me of was my approach at the time for documentation. I had some purist notion that it would be cheap or improper in some way to take photos, particularly of tourist destinations. Rather I thought it more appropriate to sit and draw the places I was there to 'see', this way I would remember the textures, the light and the overall 'scene' in far greater detail. It was great to look through all these sketches and it was true, I think I was able to recall in very clear detail alot more about the location than what the sketch provided. Perhaps because I was required to sit and observe for a much greater amount of time than if I was quickly taking a photo and moving on.

(click on the image for a larger view)

Seeing these little drawings made me dig into the collection of shoeboxes under the bed where all our negs and prints have been meticulously filed and organised (not). The majority of photos I did take on that trip, were point and shoot snapshots of random details and observations that jumped out and demanded to be recorded.

Apologies for the crappy scans!

One image that stood out to me while shuffling through the stacks was from a roll I took late one night on a subway platform deep within Shinjinko train station, Japan's and perhaps the worlds (?) busiest train station. I set my old Nikon SLR up on a signal box and every time a train came in to stop, I took a single shot, which was framed by the trains window, capturing the packed commuters lost in their transient thoughts. Man, that was a cool trip...