IF NOT HERE, THEN WHERE?

LAST NIGHT

Back in NZ for our final recce bro. Shooting for the next three days...

AUCKLAND

Location scouting...

THE WEEKEND

Over here in Auckland, New Zealand shooting a commercial but had a much needed day off yesterday which also coincided with my birthday. Choice az bro! Spent the day walking around browsing in book shops, sifting through and listening to records and taking photos of things I saw along the way...

On vinyl I discovered the joyous and somewhat indefinable Wild Bill Rickets. Kinda dub, kinda jazz, kinda musical in a way I haven't heard before. Bought two albums. Kinda obsessed with him now. Loo Loo (below) was the gateway track, groovy, haunting and strange!

Also I had been wanting to see Beasts Of The Southern Wild for ever and I had missed it when it was on at our local cinema. I didn't want to see it on a plane, train or download so I was excited to see it was screening in downtown Auckland. It's a beautiful film and I can see why for such a small, strange and extremely art house film it has managed to cut through.

A good day.

ROSEBUD

My little girl turned 6 today.

Super special bonus photo after the break...

QF FLIGHT BLAH BLAH SYDNEY TO MELBOURNE

Yeah. Nah. Maybe. Ok. Let's chat more. Let me think about it. Soon, yeah? Not sure. Perhaps. What if? Lets see what happens. Ok? Maybe? Nah? Yeah?

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

How to destroy angels: Keep it together from How To Destroy Angels on Vimeo.

I KNEW THESE PEOPLE... THESE TWO PEOPLE.

ISTANBUL 3

MORE HARRY

Thinking a lot about Harry Savides passing away... a friend posted the short film below on Facey and I thought it was cool. In many ways even though the interview doesn't go the way the filmmakers planned, I get a greater sense perhaps of who Harry was from this short film than if the more traditional 'interview' had gone to plan. I also love how the film begins and it's about one thing, but in the end, it's about something altogether different. It kind of sums up my approach to directing and to filmmaking in general. You can plan all you want, but in the end, the most important thing is the thing that's actually happening. Full credit to the filmmakers to being able to respond and capture so beautifully what was actually occurring and didn't fight to bend the film into a shape it so obviously didn't want to go. It's way more beautiful because of it!

UPDATE: Wait a second... is this film a commercial for Built by Wendy? If it is, everything I wrote above is bullshit... And maybe now I should write about how clever it is an advertisement. But I feel a little fooled.

ISTANBUL 2

Road trip to Çanakkale...

R.I.P HARRY SAVIDES

I'm a bit late posting about the passing of the late, great cinematographer Harry Savides who passed away last week. Such an inspiration. He shot so many great films but I think my favourite is Gus Van Sant's Last Days. The film is so beautifully shot. I remember seeing it with my Dad in a near empty cinema Kino in Melbourne when it was released years ago. I was so blown away by it's minimalism, beauty and poetry. It's become one of my favourite films. I left the cinema in awe, speechless. My Dad turned to me as we hit the foyer and said in disgust "Don't you ever make a film like that...!". Double speechless...! So whenever I think of Harry Savides, I think of Last Days and when I think of Last Days apart from fathers 'advice' I think of this very simple but stunning scene...

After watching the above clip, watch how they shot it below. Something wonderful about watching a small crew work in unison. I often wonder why they didn't lay all the track for the dolly and then remove the front pieces as they dollied back, and not have to relay and level on the fly. I like to think that not even Gus Van Sant can afford all the toys all the time and they only had a few lengths of track in the (small) grip truck. A perfect example of how necessity particularly in film making are nearly always the mother of invention.

Harry Savides, genius!

ISTANBUL 1

Closely following New York as my favourite city in the world...

DRIVE BY DUBAI

Greeted by a nine hour stopover in Dubai (on route to Turkey), we left the airport and visited the Burj Khalifa 'the tallest building in the world'.

IF IN DOUBT, JUST PLAY

I have a few heroes. Pete Townsend from The Who (please do watch all 9 minutes of that clip, live rock n' roll doesn't get to much better!) is one of them. Just flicked through his recently released autobiography in an airport and was struck by the wonderfully simple and inspiring 'coda' right at the of the book. Words of wisdom whimsy...