HEAVY METAL PICNIC!

While digging around for some history on the post below... I have just found another film Heavy Metal Picnic which was shot in 1985 a year prior to Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and was only just uploaded to Vimeo five days ago! 'Picnic' was produced by Jeff Krulic (who then made 'Parking Lot' in 86). Heavy Metal Picnic takes you way deeper. What is essentially a bunch of kids fooling around with a camera, has become an incredible social document. This film makes Heavy Metal Parking Lot look water downed. This roughly assembled edit provides us with an astounding amount of authenticity. truth and access into a very specific time and place. A time and place I myself am totally fascinated with. My feature film Cherry Bomb is drawing heavily from this world, although it's set about 6 years before these guys were listening to metal and getting wasted on some hillside in Maryland, USA.

It looks as though the filmmakers partied filmed as much as they could until the camera batteries went dead.

Heavy Metal Picnicer "Are you guys really from CBS?"

Filmmaker "Nah, we just stole all this shit!"

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (films that changed my life pt 1)

Last week I did guest lecture at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television. One of the things I had wanted to do for a while was just show a bunch of short films that have really effected me over the years. I think I took in about 20 -30 shorts, but I only had time to played around five, once we chatted about each of them. I wanted the students to think about why it is they want to make movies. If it's "to tell a story" or "to create worlds and characters" why not consider writing a short story or a novel? Is your 'film idea' a better idea for a painting? A song? A photograph? A stand-up routine? A newspaper article? What makes a film want and need to be a film and how do you best use the elements of cinema for your 'film idea' so it can only be a film, and nothing else, because all those other options will perhaps be easier for you and definitely less expensive and require way less people to make it happen.

One film idea I'm sure glad isn't any other art form is Heavy Metal Parking Lot. I showed this as an example of how films don't need to be huge in scale, overly planned and /or require the hearts and minds of a mulitple cast and crew. Sometimes all you need is to be at the right place at the right time and with the right attitude.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot is more than just a cultural time capsule, it's a couple of filmmakers doing what all great documentary filmmakers do. They are simply holding a mirror up and reflecting who 'we' are, in the most raw and pure of ways.

There is a great interview with Jeff Krulick who made Heavy Metal Parking Lot here, and another here with guest Dave Grohl. And also check out this excellent site Triple Canopy that not only has a pretty cool interface but also features alot of Jeffs other work, including Harry Potter Parking Lot!

Welcome to Hoaxville

No, you are in the right place. You haven't clicked on the wrong the site. GlendynIvin.com is now Hoaxville.com. Why the change...? Well I originally grabbed www.GlendynIvin.com as a URL for the obvious reasons, mostly cos, like, it's my name and it seemed the right thing to do at the time. But for some reason the idea of publishing blog content under my name never really felt right. HOAXVILLE feels to me more like a destination, a place  you can 'visit'. Under this new banner my plan is to post more often on a slightly wider range of things. HOAXVILLE will still be my process diary and a place to dump the things that have caught my eye or inspired me. But HOAXVILLE feels a little broader, a place than can grow and slowly manifest into something bigger. Lets see how it goes.

In migrating all the content from the old site to here alot of the formating has gone. I've gone through and fixed the last page or so of posts, but the nature of blogs feel like they should exist in the here and now. So from now on I'm loving the freedom Wordpress has given me over Blogger. Bigger pictures, better layouts and total control, well as much control as my crummy html skills provide me with.

So please update your bookmarks and enjoy!

The Clapper Angel

5D in tha House

A quick link to a great interview conducted by Phillip Bloom with Greg Yaitanes, Executive Producer and Director of US TV show House. Which has just shot it's entire season finale on the 5Dmk2.

The interview is about an hour long and goes into quite alot of detail into the whys and hows of shooting one of the most popular TV shows in the world on sub $3000 DSLR camera. To shoot with the 5D (and the cameras that will soon follow) is no longer a decision and discussion based around budget, but one about creativity, control and creating a working process that most filmmakers have been dreaming of. Myself included.

I have never watched House, but I'll be certainly sitting down in front of the TV to watch this ep.

Herzog coming soon in 3D!

Werner Herzog talks (like Jesus to his disciples) about his new documentary about 30 000 year old cave art in France, which he has shot in 3D!

Obsession

Every now and then I go through a period where I listen to a single artist or album constantly over and over (to the dread of all around me) until I kind of exorcise them from my being.

Right now it's Neil Young. This happens a couple of times a year.

You know when you go through those stages where you get so into an artist/album/song, you kind of wish your whole body was an ear.

Right now is one of those times.

He's been so awesome for so long!

7Delicious

I'm totally amazed by the music video below. Over 8 minutes long and beautifully shot on the Canon 7D. Have a look at it, it's stunning. And it was shot with a CREW OF TWO people. One being the singer! On a camera you can buy for around $1500. Epic!

Small crews, small cameras. Less fuss, less logistics, freeing you up for so much more actual film making! I find this kind of thing totally inspiring for so many reasons. Some of which I'll go into more detail when I post the 'Sound Maker' film here (hopefully in the next week or so...)

Along with the minimal fuss approach to the filming, what these guys have done so well is choose great (public) locations, that are already lit and look great. This is where the Canon 7D / 5D's excel, in low light. So not having to use expensive film lights, opens up the possibilities, everything out in there in the perfectly lit city is ready and waiting to be utilised and pre-lit location. That said, the sequences shot in the snowy / foggy forest are equally amazing!

Here is a brief 'making of' the 'Break My Soul' video. And a few more details here.

Sound Maker pt 3

The 'sound maker' film I just shot in Philadelphia is almost finished. Just a few more tweaks and couple of days of post. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the finished film here, but I'll put it up ASAP. It's been a fast and furious edit, but I'm very happy with the way it's come together.

Here are some random frames I picked up from the cutting room floor...

R.I.P Jim Marshall

Farewell Jim Marshall, the legendary music photojournalist, or perhaps more appropriately 'musician photojournalist'. You may not have heard of Jim, but you would have definitely seen his images.

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!