Tuesday 22 October 2013

Booger and Lacey

My partner Carolyn has written a children's book about our 2 dogs Booger and Lacey. The book is a picture book so I put the pictures in the timeline, added music and dialog - easy peasy. Zero work for me! And this is my first time I have approached a book's author for permission to turn it into a film. I have always wanted to produce a children's film and I reckon this one is a beauty! Thanks Carolyn.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Bitter Harvest



Bitter Harvest  grew out of observing the cat's behaviour, plus a crazy idea for a comedy that I'd come up with. Our cat Meow Meow's performance was very good, although I only wanted her to do stuff that comes naturally anyway. The music once again is by Kevin MacLeod and fits perfectly into the tone of this film. I am very happy with the way that Bitter Harvest has turned out considering the wacky underlying idea behind it.





Monday 2 September 2013

Some News!!

I was lucky enough to have the ABC decide to show my film Video Postcard from A Country Station,  on the ABC Open program on ABC News 24 on Friday, September 6 (6:45pm AEST). This is a shortened version (90 seconds) and features narration - which are the rules of the Video Postcards series.
Plus:
I recently got in touch with Steve Galley - a very talented composer from Adelaide. Steve has agreed to supply me with some music for a number of my upcoming films! I have worked with Steve before and his music has a very interesting original sound. I am excited to be collaborating with him again and look forward to producing more films together!

Monday 29 July 2013

This Message Will Self Destruct

THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT was created for Newcastle Video Makers one minute competition. The D.O.P. for the shoot was the ever helpful Mark Owens. The day we shot this was really hot ( as you can see by the highly exposed footage). Mark and I worked on this film for around 5 hours and I copped the worst sunburn! We tried to mix our shot selections up a bit and we used a dolly and a crane where we could to create movement. Carolyn Starr plays a lawyer in the short final scene. I have played the film quite a bit and mostly get no reaction to the Occupational Health & Safety joke at the end.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

A Slither of Snakes

I shot A Slither Of Snakes in my friend Greg Lenaghan's shed! Greg lives quite close to the swamp and these 5 big carpet pythons come and stay in the rafters of his shed each year for around 6 weeks - and Greg thinks they are there to mate. The roller doors don't get used (which is a good thing because you'd have some confused and cranky snakes when the door gets rolled up...) Once again I was so lucky to get this footage - it was very exciting but a real pleasure too. I chose 'ARCADIA' by Kevin Macleod for the film. This tune has a'wonder' feel to it . I didn't want to put creepy music to the visuals. I feel that snakes aren't creepy or evil - they are just living their lives. I entered this film in my club's one minute competition and later on I did a show and tell - I'd brought along a green shopping bag with a 10ft long snake skin which the snake in the roller door had shed. Then I asked for a volunteer from the audience(to help me roll out this skin but the audience didn't know what I had in the bag and you could feel the tension starting to rise. It was very funny...) I've never been in the company of so many snakes before. They were mainly placid but they just wanted to be left alone - and that will do me.

Wednesday 27 March 2013

A Country Station

My latest film A Country Station is a work in progress. I shot this film at Harden railway station. I'd been down there previously and noticed a huge spillage of grain on the railway tracks which was attracting a large amount of birds. Most of this seed was gone but the birds were still there but a lot fewer in number. The station is still in use but was very quiet and mostly unvisited by people. I went down to do some filming around mid afternoon and then once again close to dusk. The evening before I observed a full moon rising over the hill and I was lucky enough to position my camera and score a wonderful moon rise on film! I also had been on the lookout for a country link train to come barrelling through the station and scatter the birds - but it was not to be. I did manage to film 2 loco's creeping along to park for the night at the station. I had to speed this footage up greatly, but I do like the night time lens flare of the train's headlights. I gave my raw footage to my great friend and colleague Geoff Peel. Geoff has a very good 'eye' and a very different editing style to me, and he has promised to have a crack at editing my footage. I'll be very interested to see what Geoff comes up with. Once again the music is by Kevin Macleod. I know his music is much used by short film makers but it is such a windfall to have music of such a high standard available, and his tune 'Windswept' is just a lovely fit to the footage. Hope you enjoy A COUNTRY STATION.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

New Seasons Robes

I made New Seasons Robes for my club's one minute comp. I had shot all of my scenes in the car and operating the roller door earlier and had set up the green screen on the front of my house, and unfortunately my actor couldn't make it. So at short notice I stepped in and played the roll of GOD also. I've acted before but never opposite myself - now I know how Kirk Douglas feels ! But honestly it was a hoot. Cars would drive past and see this crazy God apparition on our front veranda.. Our neighbours must be wondering about me! Once again Caroly Starr was the D.O.P and she did a fine job. My green screen was a bit scratchy but I'm learning.This was another entry in the one minute comp and overall I'm very happy with the final film.

Saturday 2 March 2013

WD-40

This is actually my latest film. We made it recently in Hamilton at Mark and Laura Owens place. I dragged my trailer over there and we shot it off the cuff in just an hour or so - in the gutter in front of Marks house. I cut it that afternoon and showed it that same night at the Newcastle Video Makers club's Letters and Numbers theme competition where it scored 2nd place to Ian Huish's 32. It was a very hot day filming and Mark and Laura were very helpful in making what turned out to be quite a fun little film. For the music I used Kevin Macleod's Radio Martini . I've used Kevin's music lots of times and he is a brilliant composer and I really appreciate having access to his stuff, good music adds such a lot to a film.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Anti Climax

I made Anti Climax whilst we were up at Rockhampton attending the Rocky Fringe short film festival. We won the competition with The Evolution of Bovine Language and Ian Huish was the heart and soul of that one - he done every thing . So, I noticed the Huish sign on the road with an actual meat ant's nest just below it and with Carolyn's help, quickly filmed our small movie... I think Anti-Climax works well as a rare double pun. I also think Queensland meat ants are fairly mild - in N.S.W. you wouldn't come out of it with much left on your bones.....

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Counting The Lines

This film was a group shoot produced for Newcastle Video Makers club. The film features Malcolm Young, an ever reliable go to man for Crimean Pictures, Pip Ditton-Phare - I've just finished a concert film of Pip's wonderful singing group- BELLA VOCE, Isabella and Alex Rousos( 2 fine young talents...) The music for the film once again is provided by Jason Paris and what a striking tune it is ! Young Abbey's singing sure does lift you. On the day of shooting we just loaded the cast into the car with a rough outline and 2 or 3 cameras hidden behind the driver's seat E.T.C. - easy really... And for such a complex project the result we got was a credit to all the cast and crew.