Edwin James Lynch

Revitalisation

2011-01-31T12:21:00.004+08:00

Life has changed a little since 2007 - when I last wrote an entry in this particular BLOG. For one thing, my father was still alive back in 2007. The short story is - we lost him to oesophageal cancer. It can take a whole year to lose someone, sadly.

I stopped drinking, took on a new health regime and focussed more on teaching (at Curtin University) and website design - my day job. I put film-making, my flight of fancy, on indefinite pause, although I was involved in a beautiful series of Documentaries for DADAA. Overall, I decided to live a simpler life.

I'm leaving all my posts about filmmaking so that others may get something out of them, but this BLOG will now simply be about me and what I'm doing.

Working with a Composer on a Film Score

2007-09-15T14:53:00.000+08:00

You don't have the money for the London Philharmonic and you can't afford the rights to Air's Walkie Talkie - but you do have a small budget (or grant, or sponsor) and you've decided you want someone to score music specifically for your film.

There are several ways to go about this.

Approach a professional composer

Composers who do really good work are often good because they are very particular about their compositions. They may be used to working in isolation and, in effect, are already directing music in the same way as a director is directing a film - or a novel writer their book. It's possible that a musician will frown upon the idea of sitting in the same room with Herr Direcktor whilst seeking audience with their muse.

So how do two brilliant and yet temperamental animals work together? Well - the director has two choices; Show them the finished film or don't show the film.

The first choice can often result in the musician re-writing the director's work in musical form. This might be okay if that's what you want. But hearing the same story that is being told can sometimes come over as tautological. This doesn't always happen. Some musicians understand that music has to assist or even ultimately take back seat to story - illuminating some aspect of character or even running counterpoint to your protagonist's emotional journey.

What you don't want is the tautological retelling of the emotional story in sound. It's a horrible thing to watch.

The second method is to just sit with the composer and describe the scene in detail. There's no pressure for the composer to perform and the environment is familiar. Scoring to nothing (essentially) can result in a more natural, less pointed and unencumbered piece of music.

I recently rocked up to a composer's studio without a cut of the film (in fact - there was only a rough draft) and the composer was able to - freely - create a piece of music. I knew I wanted a 1 minute uninterrupted piece and several 10-15 second transitions. The composer enjoyed working this way and was able to score for a variety of moments in the film just by picking up on body language and brief verbal character sketches.

Admittedly, this was a series of short films and so the rigors of constructing a (non-derivative) melody for an entire feature film or TV series are quite different - but at least the filmmaker can get a taste of what is possible.

It's also important to have some boundaries when you sit in with the composer (such as segment length, rough story shape) as the session can end up, basically, becoming a jam session which can go endlessly on into the night or day.

But, as life is short, that may not actually be such a bad thing.

Script development on a budget

2007-09-01T16:49:00.000+08:00

Most people abhor criticism and nobody likes to open their wallet. If you are either, don’t - whatever you do - write a feature film screenplay. I almost guarantee that nobody will read it without being paid.

More importantly never go into production on a script that hasn’t been very heavily criticised, rewritten, analysed, rewritten gain, ripped apart, gutted and finally ... rewritten. I'm sure you can name a thousand movies with huge plot holes or character problems. Problems which could have easily been patched up with just a few bucks investment.

Criticism is not the same as rejection.

While Mum will happily read your screenplay, getting constructive feedback from industry professionals costs money. Constructive criticism is the key to morphing an ailing screenplay into a great feature film. Nothing else will do this. Unfortunately, getting anyone who’s not your mother to read your screenplay (or read beyond your synopsis and director's notes) costs money. Even if you don't get feedback!

In Australia, state and federal government film bodies may give you money to develop your screenplay if they like the idea and you have a producer attached. Development money usually consists of a script editor’s (or script doctor) fee, some travel money, a producer's fee and a small pittance for the actual writer/s.

The traditional Aussie way

Here’s a run-down of how much development can cost (in Australia). I live in the West and this is roughly how an $18,000 script development budget might run:

Script editor $6,000 (pretty standard in Oz).
3 x return airfares $2,000
Per diems $2,000
Producer fee $2,000 (coast to coast 2-3 times)
Writer’s fee $5,000 (split two ways)
Other expenses $1,000

This took us from a rough 2nd draft on one script to a 3rd draft, but I felt it needed another, so we paid David Caesar from ScriptCentral to give it another going over.

Keep in mind that in Australia - more than 60% of a film's budget is usually government financed and getting your hands on the few million that Australia has to invest in film is extraordinarily competitive (although not nearly as competitive as in the USA). About 1 in 100 , fully-developed screenplays will get a guernsey here in Oz - and you'd better have a good director or name actor on-board . . . OR . . . most preferably . . . a great script.

The American alternative

If you have no luck competing for Aussie state or federal development money, you can get good bang for your buck feedback by entering American Screenplay competitions. Don't even think about winning one of these comps - they have up to 3,000 entrants each year. And even though a script report can take many months to hit your inbox, the feedback is top notch.

Four of the more high profile competitions are:

Several comps do script coverage

Australian film authorities no longer give written assessments because readers are expensive. The government bureaucracy can take 6 months to send through a pro-forma rejection letter!

In that light - the US comps are a great way to get feedback and develop your screenplay further. And for a little extra ( maybe as little as AUS$50) some will send additional notes from one of their many professional readers.

Entry fees are up to around AUS$100 - but the notes you get are absolutely excellent value for the money when compared to the Aussie way.

I usually go both ways and like the US take on writing. It's refreshingly different to ours.

What should one do with all this feedback?

It's taken 5-6 months and you've finally received feedback on a draft that was binned early in the year. How does one make sense of all these belated notes, feedbacks and analyses?

Once you have your script reports, you can carefully abide by these rules;

Read it through once.
If you are a beginner writer (not used to criticism) - wait 2 days before reading it again. You’ll be amazed by what you think they wrote.
If one person tells you something about your script - take it on board, but treat it as subjective criticism and look for the constructive bits - things that you are willing to do / change.
If two (non-colluding) professional writers/directors identify a problem - give it some serious consideration. You don’t have to kill your main character or change genre - she is probably just undeveloped.
If three or more independent, professional analysts tell you that something particular is wrong with your script - believe it! . . . Something is wrong.
Ignore words like “genius”, “well done” and “masterfully crafted” (unless you didn’t pay for the feedback). These people are going for repeat business.

You could go into production on your movie right now. But unless you work with constructive feedback and tightly hone your script - you are probably - like most filmmakers - wasting your time on a poorly written story.

Feedback will fine-tune your screenplay and eventually turn into a film with a big audience and a long shelf-life. Heck - you may even get to do it all over again.

The AWG / ScreenWest "Pre-VIZ" Australian Feature Film Marketing and Distribution meetings

2007-06-20T08:05:00.000+08:00

Behind the beautiful Australian Writers' Guild (WA location)

Some interesting facts:

The average Australian film needs to take $1m at the box office in order to cover a distributor's Promotion and Advertising (P&A) expenses.

Most Australian films (about 16) released over the last year or so took around $200,000 at the box office. Only Kenny, 10 Canoes and Happy Feet recouped these expenses and made money.

An additional 10 or so credit card films that were made did not see the light of day or attract distribution partners (probably due to poor screenplays).

When a distributor invests in an Australian film, they are taking a huge risk. A risk which is as much about passion and commitment to an idea as it is for the production team (writer, director, producer).

Phil (w), Carmelo (p) and I (d) are in the middle of the AWG / ScreenWest's (weirdly titled) pre-VIZ consultation program with Beware the Stingray.

The current screenplay has already been blasted by Victoria Treole (ex AFC and Miramax) and Sue Murray (ex Fineline and Miramax, EP on 10 Canoes and Tom White) for a straight three hours.

Thank God we're not too precious.

Today we have another 3 hour script-bash with Mathew Dabner (ex Icon, current FFC assessor, writ/prod The Square, The Best Things, Freshwater).

And then at the end of this week - we have to re-pitch our project to these nice people.

It can be soul destroying having someone rip your idea into shreds, but Phil and I are used to it and it seems to be leading somewhere. We have approached David Caesar - another tough cookie (with a string of feature film credits) - to help us rework our current draft and then we will (probably) be heading off to the SPAA Conference.

I'll let you know how the afternoon goes...

Questions for the Editor

2007-05-13T17:54:00.000+08:00

In my 25 years as an emerging filmmaker, I've worked with many film editors - some experienced, some not so. Some newbies who would rather be directing and others born with a burning desire to cut film. One thing is for sure - all editors approach editing differently.

As a director, I think it's polite to ask how a person likes to work - whether they have a tried and true process or not. "How do you like to work?" I ask. In many cases, the question is met with a blank or even perplexed stare. "I usually get the footage and start cutting," comes the (often embarrassingly predictable) reply. "What other way is there?"

Obvious? ... Maybe. But we directors have to listen carefully to our creative accomplices, which often means learning to read between the lines.

Here are a few other responses an editor might give you.

1. Process? Just give me the script and the original footage.

This always works well with very experienced editors. Hand the script and the footage over.

I once had the opportunity of working with Tim Wellburn - an Australian feature film editor with over 40 years of feature films to his credit. He knew how to read scripts and get to the core of the character via editing. As a general rule, it's always polite to leave the experienced editors to do their thing. There's no need to look over his/her shoulder.

You might get the same reply from an inexperienced editor. Perhaps let them have a go at it and see what they come up with. But make sure they know that you will, ultimately, want final say and that it may have to be done again ... and again ... and again (and in my case ... again).

2. Give me the footage. I don't need the script.

Okay. For me - this answer rings alarm bells. The story (providing the Director has captured it on film) should be in the script. It's the blueprint. It's what attracted the actor/money in the first place. Something there has already worked - especially if you are in production.

Respect the script!

Having said that - many beginner editors have shown me new and interesting things when I've left them to it. I try not to hover. In most cases, we eventually come back to the screenplay. If you have an iconoclastic editor on your hands, it might be a nice idea to see what they come up with. Sometimes the Director's intentions weren't manifest on the day and throwing things up in the air like this may be a good way to solve coverage problems.

3. I dunno. What do you want?

Good. Here is an editor willing to open lines of communication. Or - they might be tired or suspicious because they've heard this question before - hearing it as I'd like you to do it my way. And there's nothing more annoying for an editor than a director looking over your shoulder while you make - every - single - cut!

Be sensitive, Directors. Or - choose an editor who (you think) is better than you are at editing in the first place.

In other words, Directors, find a way to trust your editor. Editors should be adding something to a work - maybe even fixing director's mistakes!

4. I have no idea what I'm looking at. I need your script, notes, camera sheets etc.

The admirable answer. This editor knows that his time will be cut in half if he gets inside the director's head. In most cases, directors don't know what they want. Giving the editor as much information as possible cuts time and frees up the editor. You want your editor involved! Although this answer will mean more work for the director.

5. Let's have a cup of coffee.

Another good answer. But beware. It could be another alarm bell.

Getting along with your editor doesn't guarantee great work. Even though an afternoon coffee may turn into an all night pub-crawl and finding your new best friend, it doesn't mean that you are both on the same page. The first rough cut will tell you that.

Make sure, if you do have coffee and biscuits with your editor, that you talk about the film. Don't talk too much about life and philosophy. The person you are talking to may not be a good listener - or what you are hearing makes sense in a different way to what your editor intends.

You really need to get into the cutting room after the editor has had a go at the film.

Whoever said that a director's job finishes at "It's a wrap"?

NB: The knife cuts both ways. An editor might ask the director how he/she likes to work. Each and every film - whether drama or documentary comes with its own cutting-room challenges. Ask the right questions, be nice to people and don't treat your editor like a splicing machine.

Working with Children

2007-04-16T13:44:00.000+08:00

So far, I have directed three short documentaries for DADAA's the Lost Generation Project and apart from some minor technical hitches, everything is going really well. The sound and images are great and the personalities of our talent is coming over well. I'm lucky to be working with such fascinating characters - disabilities aside.

This week we start editing the films and, while that is happening, I'm hoping to get the odd pick-up. We've already happily picked up a couple of shots which didn't work out in the original shoot - but we may have to get more in editing. Luckily all our subjects are in the one location, so it's pretty easy to run off and get a shot of someone while shooting someone else.

Being filmed for the entire day - with a camera right up your nose - is irksome to say the least and already patiences have been tried and tested. I have asked the producer if we can shoot two films over two consecutive days - with each subject being shot in two half days.

The closest experience I've had to working with the mentally disabled and disadvantaged was my experience teaching at Filmbites where I was working with children. They lasted about half a day, too. Eight hours is a long time for anyone put under the microscope.

It is curious to know that there is a law which governs filming minors. Kids under the age of twelve are limited to 4 working hours due to wavering attention spans, moods and tolerances. I'd say the same goes with the Lost Generation people...

A Lovely Filmmaking Experience

2007-04-06T12:59:00.000+08:00

I directed a 5 minute film for DADAA on Tuesday. We are documenting the lives of mentally challenged and disabled people living in WA for the Lost Generation Project. I must say, it was a very lovely, humbling experience and the finished film should be amazing to watch.

I originally wrote a narrative screenplay - but actually sticking to it for the doco format - was tricky. We really had to go with other things that happened on the day (as one might expect). We managed to capture the essence of the screenplay, however, and some of the scenes are very moving and emotional.

Technical

I shot 1.5 hours of HD with a Sony HDV camera throughout one day. What a lovely, easy-to-use camera. We literally switched it on and started shooting. I had to ride the exposure and focus a little, but the automatic functions allowed me to, literally, interrupt what the camera was doing by touching a dial and going manual - something like cruise control on a car. I was worried about sound (we used a simple RODE directional mic. and camera sound) but it came out nicely and the images are lovely.

I am very humbled to think that the films we make for DADAA are copyright "the subject" (ie. the person we are filming) and I can't wait to see what the various editors and musicians do with the finished film.

All in all - it made me realise that I really do love filmmaking. Sometimes you lose track of why you are doing such a difficult thing. And then it hits you. Like it did for me on Tuesday.

My First Real Documentary

2007-04-02T17:39:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow I start filming the first Lost Generation project film for DADAA and I'm really looking forward to it. We're filming in a pool, in a bus, in the streets, in houses. And we're not quite sure how comfortable our subject will be. Hmmm.

Not Waiting By The Phone

2007-03-27T03:35:00.000+08:00

Zeitgeisters,

As Edwin saith, he will not wait by the 'phone. Well, nor am I; I'm doing bunches of other writing, for other people. Some of whome will pay me cash money. I am attempting this in the four days that I do not work for a salary.

So my weekly financial set up is this: three days working for wages, four days freelancing as a script writer with the occasional magazine article thrown in.

I don't even think about film funding in between times, I leave that to the director and the producer. Concentrating on what might be is quite pointless. And a waste of energy.

The downside of my 3/4 weekly split is that sometimes the projects pile up. Hence,my being awake at 3.45am writing this blog when I need to be up by 6.30am. Deadline stress just adds to my unnatural insomnia. And I've got a paying project really pressing in right after I shuck the present monkey on my back (a short film script).

This is actually a typical dilemma for any freelancer. Suddenly you have too many paying jobs to do all at once. Woe is me.

The upside is suddenly I can afford a new Sunbeam Cafe series 2 slice toaster - the old TA9200. Go here to discover more.

Many in the arts in Australia make their money with a 'patchwork quilt' of teaching and freelancing. It can lead to many hours of soul-searching. Teachers and arts administrators who began as artists often discover they are devoting most of their time to pulling down a wage and sending their kids through school.

This leads to the age old questions. Am I a 'painter (or whatever) if I am not actually painting. This is dealt with by people such as Julia Cameron in books like her 1992 blockbuster The Artist's Way.

So, not waiting by the 'phone, taking on too much freelance work and that affecting the stable paying job. That's this particular artist's way and I know through many conversations over the years I am not alone.

Crack The Script!

Mr Trivia

I've got a really good idea for a film (part 3)

2007-03-26T09:10:00.000+08:00

Well. I'll eat my hat!

After submitting BTS to the AFC and Bluecat, I started struggling with a sci-fi no-budget screenplay, Yellow. I was scheduled to shoot in Feb / March, but the script wasn't exactly writing itself.

Then. Life took hold.

Cancer in the family and a new job writing screenplaysfor DADAA saw Old Father Time disappear.

Last week, I had coffee with a mate of mine who says, "I've got a really good idea for a film". He saw the irritated look in my eye and backed down. But I needed the distraction and, two sips into a strong long machiatto, heard myself say "Go on."

It was a beauty. Story, character, locations - everything. He told me a riveting story about something that happened to a friend of a friend. It had a complete screenplay structure - turning points, mid-points, Voglerian call to adventures - everything! On a plate.

I wrote an outline with my mate in about two hours and we're shooting it at the end of the year. I'm already saving money.

The AFC makes decisions about this year's Indivision projects on May 3rd. I refuse to wait by the phone.

Beware the Stingray

2007-02-09T16:19:00.000+08:00

It's in! Or at least - the screenplay is finished and we've submitted it to the AFC's Indivision initiative (strand I) asking for $750K towards the $1.8m budget.

I can hardly believe it's over. To some degree. Phil and I are happy with it, but we've yet to involve distributors, actors etc.

I recently saw some notes for this script dated 1992 and almost none of the same characters were in it. I dunno what to say. Fifteen years.

After the Fall

2007-02-01T12:30:00.000+08:00

It's been hot here in Perth, Western Australia. 104 degrees in the old money. With no aircon and the damp, sultry weather, I'm amazed I got another good pass in on Beware the Stingray.

A pass?

A pass is when a writer goes right through the screenplay again. It's not a spell-checking session. Usually it's a fine tooth comb looking for; structural problems, character inconsistencies and other believability issues.

Phil read my pass and we're going to podcast about it next week. Once we're totally happy with the script, it goes off to our producer (who has already targeted actors and possible financiers etc.) and the rolling stone tries to gather some moss.

So - barring a few minor fixes - Beware the Stingray (final draft) is finished and shoot-ready. Carmelo (of CM Films fame) just gotta raise the $2m now . . . Easy ;)

Which leaves a great vacuum. Y'know the one. You're all apace and then ... nothing but the sound of wind whistling through the trees. The anticlimax is followed by a real Alexander (Downer).

WASA Screenwriting Awards

In this down time, I will work on Yellow (another low-budget sci-fi script) and read other people's screenplays. 47 of them to be precise. I'm one of three judges for the WA Screen Awards Best Screenplay.

Reading screenplays - good or bad ones - is the best way to learn how to write features (there are heaps right here). You may get your technical skills by emulating the author's style, but actually writing screenplays is the only way to get inside your character's head. If you are there for the entire script - and you've got some character empathy - there's a good chance the reader won't yawn and get to the last page of your script without breaking for a coffee.

Character Empathy

Character empathy is a hard one. Why do we care about your main character? Do they reflect something that is human in all of us? Have we gone deep enough? It's what I'll be looking for as a judge - a writer who really immerses themselves in character. Character is plot. Paste that baby above your writing desk. It's a doozy.

Here's mine.

Fantasists and Bull Artists

2007-01-17T01:13:00.000+08:00

Hi, this is Phil Jeng Kane,
I asked Mr Trivia (now M. Le Trivia for some reason) for a bit of space on this blog to provide a lightning sketch of Edwin Lynch.

Yes, true to his last posting, Edwin is indeed a jock-wearing, shut-in weirdo who constantly peers through peepholes looking for a Godot-like postie. But he’s also a writer-director who studies performance and screenwriting; he networks with actors and filmmakers and has always kept up with filmmaking technology; he has a strong grasp on filmmaking skills, like how to break down and choreograph a scene.

Why the resume? Because it occurred to me that his self-portrait was an ATOMISED version of Edwin Lynch the writer and director. I probably wouldn’t work with Underpants Man and yet, in reality, I have worked with Ed for more than a decade.

Filmmakers are great storytellers. I realised recently that I’ve learnt to take most of what film people say, with a grain of salt. Not because they have lax moral or ethical standards, but because they see reality through an imaginative lens. They’re fantasists, embroiderers, hyperbolists, analysers, searchers-for-truth, attention-seekers, spin-doctors, entertainers and sometimes complete bull artists.

Filmmakers spend their lives looking to create a world, through writing, performance, directing, editing and post-production. After this process is complete, they might have a behind-the-scenes story to tell and this becomes part of the creation myth that they then use to publicise the film.

So there’s before-the-film, behind-the-film, during-the-film and after-the-film. Filmmakers will use all of it to persuade you to see that film and this will help them to make their next one. They love to tell a story.

There’s a line in the 1987 movie OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE (not to be confused with the very funny New Zealand soap on Network Nine that SPAA protested against.) The 1987 film is an odd-couple pairing between Bette Midler and Shelly Long. Long plays a pretentious actor and to get under her skin, Midler’s character says “Actors are just bullshitters who get paid.”

All filmmakers need a bit of the bullshitter in them. And with any luck one will get paid. It's not considered an adult occupation because it calls on all the skills and imagination you used in order to play when you were a child. And therefore its not fully respectable until you get paid. But who wants to be respectable anyway?

Phil Jeng Kane
C/- Mr Trivia

P.S. Of course, I’m an unreliable narrator, myself. I often use a pseudonym and don’t even reveal as much in print about myself as Edwin does. But one day I just might.

Until then I have ventriloquism and my addiction to prescription painkillers to sustain me.

Making Movies In Your Underpants

2007-01-11T19:20:00.000+08:00

Throughout my life, when I'm lucky enough to get a film into a festival, a certificate like this arrives in the mail. A participation certificate, an award or receipt of in-competition selection into this or that international film festival.

I'm usually indoors when it comes - working on a screenplay. Sometimes it's arrives in a quiet email. Sometimes it's a letter which comes with great pizza deals and white good sales. Other times it's registered mail and I don't hear the knock (I check my peep-hole regularly but always seem to miss the knock).

This particular certificate is from Germany. It's nice. Maybe it's worth a frame. It arrived with a well-produced booklet, stills from A Stone Throw and a short synopsis. I always have to haul out myWorld Atlas to see where the city is. Sometimes I get the country wrong. It's always interesting to read how other cultures summarise a film you've been working on for years. I'm probably in bed - or writing - or web-designing or having a coffee with friends when my films screen.

I work from home - so I'm usually here.

I'm about to shoot Yellow, a no-budget feature film - right here in my house. I'm writing this BLOG on my non-linear editing machine and the finished film will be streamed online to a distribution server in HD quality. I've had my eye on several online distributors and I'm watching Telstra (yes, the phone company). By the time Yellow is cut, scored and mixed, I will probably YouTube the film for international festival pre-selection, do a few podcasts for publicity and then walk around the corner to post my Blu-Ray disc for big screen viewing.

Most of this time, I might as well be wearing underpants.

In the Can
Short Film Screenings
Saturday 13th, 8pm Bar 138, 138 Barrack Street Perth

The In-the-Can people offered to donate teh door sales at a local film night. Come along if you've nothing to do this Saturday night and you're in Perth. We'll probably make enough at the door to pay for batteries, sandwich bread and tape for the Yellow shoot.

I'm really keen to make a no-budget film before I do the budget one. I want a fun, creative, happy experience before I embark on another Kafka-esque procedural nightmare.

Hope to see you there.

The Bluecat Screenplay Competition

2007-01-07T09:49:00.000+08:00

Just uploaded a podcast with Gordy Hoffman - director of the Bluecat Screenplay Competition. Rather than putting my efforts into this BLOG this weekend, his talk was so inspiring, that I've decided to write my screenplay. I hope you don't mind.

Also, I put up a rough site for our feature film, Beware the Stingray. Not quite sure what to do with it yet, but I guess I'll use it as a repository for all things related to the movie. It's a good year away from being shot, so I'm taking my queue from Richard E. Grant's Wah Wah Diaries : the making of a film, and I'm self-publishing the diary before the film is made.

Had technical difficulties You-Tubing Indy Nile Investigates the other day. So stay tuned for that fun, 7 minute cartoon pilot (which screened on ABC TV in 2004).

Chennai International Film Festival

2007-01-02T15:15:00.000+08:00

This week, A Stone Throw was awarded Best Short Film at the Chennai International Film Festival in India.

Chennai is home to the international headquarters of The Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Society (emblem pictured), founded in 1875, is a worldwide body whose primary object is Universal Brotherhood based on the realization that life, and all its diverse forms, human and non-human, is indivisibly One. The Society imposes no belief on its members, who are united by a common search for Truth and desire to learn the meaning and purpose of existence by engaging themselves in study, reflection, purity of life and loving service.

While my stuff has sold and been shortlisted internationally, I have never actually won an award (other than encouragement awards and special mentions) outside of Australia.

I'm very pleased about this particular win for two reasons:

After making films since I was but a wee child, I can finally replace "has sold and screend his short films internationally" with "international award-winning director" on my CV - without resorting to semantic sleight.
If the Theosophy Society is anything to go by, then Chennai sounds like my kind of city.

As the world is becoming more and more fundamentalist in nature, I find myself sliding from Atheist to Agnostic. I think our spiritual bent is ultimately the difference between hopelessness and hopefulness. It has to do with my survival and the way I see myself continuing on into my 40s (I turn 40 in December). I could get grumpier (like most pessimistic atheists) or I could become more hopeful (as an Agnostic).

The way I see it is that we're all completely and utterly condemned to nuclear inferno - especially with a whole bunch idiots in charge of Australia and the US presently.

I don't want to feel this way. It affects everything I do. So I'm trying to find god (my definition of it) in a whole bunch of reading and scientific literature. To this end, I've just ordered Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion - which I can't wait to read.

Tomorrow, I will be replacing the 16mm short film, Bertolt with the flash animated ABC short, Indy Nile Investigates which I wrote for my buddy Roberto Palmonari.

Then on Thursday, Phil Jeng Kane and I will interview Gordy Hoffman - director of the world's largest growing screenplay competition, The Bluecat Screenplay Competition for our podcast. Gordy wrote the feature film, Love Liza, starring his brother Philip Seymour Hoffman and since then he has tried his hand at directing a digital feature of his own.

So it looks like 2007 is about to go off with a bang.

New Years' resolutions: stop biting nails, become lean, make films. What are yours?

What's Wrong With The Oz Film Industry?

2006-12-28T22:16:00.000+08:00

Possibly nothing. Maybe there are too many w**kers complaining that there's something wrong with the Australian film industry. Often you'll discover these people write columns in the trouble-free, profitable, circulation-on-the-rise world of newspapers. Attacking the ABC or the AFI, AFC or FFC is so much simpler than admitting you're on a sinking ship that is also on fire.

No comparison? Maybe. What seems to irk the newspaper experts is that public broadcasters and the state and national funding bodies are not as market-driven as newspapers have to be, by their nature. These public institutions often get it wrong. Newspapers often get it wrong. But no public money is expended when that happens.

So I guess the answer is to make The Oz Film Industry solely market-driven. Then all the films would be good like KENNY and not artsy, depressing, out of touch and terrible.

We should be as successful as Bollywood and Hollywood, obviously. Or at least other nations whose populations are similar to our own. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Peru, Yeman and of course English-speaking CANADA! All these countries have thriving market-driven film industries whose product is sold around the world and is critically acclaimed at home and abroad. No?

Or maybe our film-industry is quite like the other faltering, government-assisted film industries of a number of other countries and this need to see us take on the world in equal terms comes from a 1970s notion of Australian filmmaking and its place in the world.

You know how we always feel a little cheated at the Olympics when Australia isn't in the top five of the medal count? You know that oddly endearing way that we don't consider it crazy to compare ourselves with nations that are sometimes 10 times larger than we are? (oi! Oi! OI!)

Might be a bit of that going on.

I think we're all a little too taken with Anthony Robbins style bullsh*t about living the dream and achieving it no matter what the odds are. I love the plucky way that Australia continues to believe the level playing field myth about trade.

The WHAT'S WRONG? story and the WASTING TAX PAYERS MONEY story is a lot easier to write than researching the big picture thoroughly.

I dunno the answer.

And neither do they.

Free Screenwriting Software &Bertolt

2006-12-16T05:05:00.000+08:00

I just uploaded Bertolt. More people will seeing it via YouTube than will ever see it in cinemas. It's been up there for 5 hours and so far 5 people have seen it. I'm posting it here because I'd like your comments and feedback. Good and bad. So, please - don't be shy.

Some great Open Source software has just been released for screenwriters, poets and novelists. It's called CELTX and seems to have mroe functionality than the much more expensive, Final Draft. Despite the focus on "creative contribution" (writers can upload a piece of writing, insert images, work with other writers and get feedback) it has a Hollywood standard, easy-to-use fully functioning FREE screenplay formatting software. I've been pulling my hair out with Word for the last two weeks. Download it writers!

Yellow Lipstick, Yellow Hair

2006-12-06T18:33:00.000+08:00

In an effort to win a bit of our old presence on the web, a new podcast has been added, so be sure to check it out.

I've started writing something very strange. Yellow Lipstick, Yellow Hair is the title of a new screenplay I'm writing - by myself. Phil is to script edit it when I have a rough draft. Carmelo (the producer of Beware the Stingray) is keen to do a no-budget feature and has offered his HD equipment so I will be shooting the movie before the end of March and editing throughout the year (between websites).

In a futuristic world where more than 10 minutes of sunlight spells certain death, 3 strangers; an animist, a naturist and a paranoid neurotic spend their 4 week government-allocated holiday mooching around indoors.

There's a little bit more to mooching around, but in the present draft - it's mooching around. I'll be podcasting a script session soon. So stay tuned.

Great Ideas Are Ten A Penny

2006-08-27T08:10:00.000+08:00

Not to sound jaded, but I can but agree with Edwin. A good idea is nothing until it is turned into some kind of document. Only at outline, treatment or script stage, have you created something that other people (with money) can look at.

Before that point, it is all locked in your mind where it's shiny and brilliant. The lighting, editing, performances, locations, dialogue and music are perfect. Note that only one of these elements - dialogue - will actually be in your script.

If you see the film unfolding in your mind, with all the above elements working together in perfect unison, you may in fact, be a potential director rather than a writer.

I remember saying in a room full of screenwriters, that it is the writer's job to create a blueprint for the film. This idea was not exactly greeted with applause or joy. I believe if you want to control all the elements, then you'd better get hyphenated and add "-director" to your title.

Because no matter how excellent your idea is in your head, no matter how great you get it looking on the page, it still has to make it to the screen intact. All those aesthetic and technical elements have to be working together in order for your great idea to survive.

In fact, if you are an unhyphenated screenwriter like myself, the second most difficult to task after getting it from the back of the mind and onto the page is keeping enthusiastic about the idea.

To have an idea that thrills you and then keep working on it year in and year out - that takes some concentration. Sprinters don't make good screenwriters - it's a marathon event.

P.S. The above photo is a knitted clown doll called "Melancholoy Sid". Every screenwriter needs a talisman of some kind, this is mine. Suss out 'The Artist's Way" or the works of Joseph Campbell. It's probably in there somewhere.

I've got a really good idea for a film (part 2)

2006-08-23T07:33:00.000+08:00

I run a filmmaker's website and most of the queries I get about screenwriting (or even filmmaking) amount to roughly the same thing . . . "I have a really good idea for a screenplay". It's not what I want to hear because I know myself, in the early days, I said exactly the same thing - and often. I now know that basically - it's meaningless warm air.

I dread the day someone tells me their idea and it's a good one and I go away and write it down - legally claiming all copyright to an idea they may have had in their family for generations. That's right. Your idea is only legally an idea if it is written. Of course, I wouldn't take someone's idea like that - not without telling them. But legally, I would be well within my rights. After all, I have reams and reams of evidence to say that I write screenplays. And for every screenwriter, life is research. Conversations are the best research.

The "I have a really great idea for a film" statement requires greater scrutiny. It's a statement not without merit. Indeed (but highly doubtfully) it may even be true. It's probably driven by a burning need to do something. Or at least, the need to be seen by others to do be doing something. And there's something in that. Sometimes it is good to be seen to be doing something - even if you're not doing anything. Especially by the right people; investors, clients, society in general. People feel accepted when they are seen to be doing something. It does something for the confidence.

The actual process of writing is long and arduous and often boring. By the time you've written a screenplay 15 or so times (like we have) you're a little bit over the "I've got a really good idea for a film". Getting someone to read your 100+ page manuscript is a Kafka-esque trial in itself.

I've just uploaded the website for The Last Train to Freo. The crew and cast are all panicking and I can feel their excitement as we approach September 14th (release date). And somehow I feel a part of that - because I'm their web guy. They don't know that I'm also a writer / filmmaker. As the web guy, I get to talk and deal with all the distributors and all the important film people. Directors, investors etc.

I feel like a guy who has a really great idea and just has to let it out - probably to the most inappropriate person in the chain of command. Like I've got a scrunched up piece of tissue-paper in my back pocket with a script idea on it and I've got butterflies in my pocket because I'm about to do an impromptu pitch. How great would it be if I gave my pitch right over the phone during a file upload? To the new marketing girl - or even the secretary at Dendy Films.

That would be wrong, readers. Very very wrong.

Don't perform your idea, write it.

Pitching is the thing you do after the film is written. Indeed, some kids these days go straight into production on the computers in their own bedrooms. But there's a lot to be said about that and I don't have the time here.

I have to go. I feel anxious.

I'm about to do something towards my next screenplay . . .

Right now, it's just a really great idea.

Finding Time to Write Your Screenplay

2006-08-15T09:28:00.000+08:00

I looked at my diary. I've recently started recording my time spent doing stuff (and not doing stuff) and I've always been under the impression that my day job (as a web designer/tutor) has always been at loggerheads with my passion (filmmaking). I don't think I'm the first creative person to have anxiety over this.

However, according to time, it seemed that the opposite was the case.

Out of 5 work days last week, I spent;

2.5 days working on my screenplay with Phil
1 day collating the information necessary for a SPAAmart application
1 full day doing websites and
0.5 days tutoring (or as I like see it - sharing knowledge acquired from above)

I was an almost perfect balance.

Try doing it. Record your hours for a week (or minutes if you're a lawyer) and see what the passion Vs. day job ratio is.

Private Investment in Feature Films

2006-07-25T07:47:00.000+08:00

Films in Australia are mostly financed by the government. You need a distributor and around 40% of your budget sourced from the private sector before you can make a $2m+ feature film here. In an effort to keep the riff-raff out, the FFC have added another requirement to their list - a very high quality, developed screenplay. To this end, they employ a team of readers (usually writers) to vet scripts which ultimately land on the desks of two assessors.

In other words - your screenplay had better be tight . . . and interesting.

But do you think the private sector know any of this? Do the Mums and Dads of Australia know that by investing in Australia's film industry, they can write off 100% of their tax bill under the Taxation Department's 10BA tax-incentive scheme? No. But lawyers do and it's probably why the film industry is suffused with them. That and intellectual property protection.

As you know, I had someone approach me recently with a whole lot of cash - like this lady here. A lot of cash . . . and an undeveloped screenplay which they wanted to go into production with. These blokes were moving from property investment - to film production. They seem like good, honest investors and they have a huge portfolio of clients.

But they also had a very undeveloped screenplay.

To get a screenplay into a condition where it is even eligible for government agency development money takes about 3 full-time months of writing with a good script editor by your side. The money is spent on fees for; the writer, script editor and producer and the odd airfare for deals and meetings etc. (Anywhere between about 20 and $50,000).

Naturally, there will be many more conversations as we all got on really well and want to work with each other on film projects in the near future. In fact, Friday's meeting with the FFC advisor (Tait Brady) and the Fortissimo Sales Agent (Ashley Luke) couldn't have gone better. Beware the Stingray is definately something that the FFC would be interested in pursuing. I was quite surprised. And relieved. What the hell would we do if they weren't?

So it's nose to the grindstone today for Phil and I.

None of the FFC's enthusiasm, of course, was put in writing - despite many pleas from our producer. I feel good about things . . . today.

:)

Feature Film Financing - finally?

2006-07-21T09:04:00.000+08:00

Phil Jang Kane (screenwriter), Carmello Musca (Producer) and myself (director) have a 20 minute meet-n-greet market briefing with the Film Finance Corporation and a major Oz film distributor this afternoon. Based on our synopsis, they will advise us of sales opportunities in today's marketplace.

Should be interesting. We're going about things the traditional, Australian way. Which isn't a bad thing.

The Australian way of raising feature film finance isn't a bad one. We have limited funds and fewer good scripts than the US (where everybody in LA is working on a feature screenplay).
In Australia, screenplays are thoroughly scrutinised by industry professionals before they are even allowed to jump through a series of hoops. You also need private cash, a distributor and the FFC on board for budgets over about $2m. The system only allows scripts which have been thoroughly vetted to make it to the screen. And for writers, it adds to their growing pile of rejection letters along the way - which I think (seriously) counts for something.

The majority of filmmakers could learn a great deal from a little humility and having the odd chomp on humble pie.

I love the films which show a certain degree of humanity (or writerly humility). Most screenplays don't reflect the plights of real people because, sadly, there are so very few real people in our industry.

The Phone Call

What happens when someone calls you up out of the blue and offers you the opportunity to direct a feature film - with a small (but realisable) budget?

This is exactly what happened to me the other day.

In an effort to bring a pre-existing screenplay to the screen, two investment brokers, on behalf of their clients, were scouting around for a director. They called a friend of mine (who they found in the Yellow Pages and on Monday, I get to be the first director to read the script.

I have hitherto said "no" to feature screenplays (often written by well-known Australian writers and with money on the table) - so I was very surprised to hear my mouth say yes to this particular project - sight unseen. I guess my body has heard me say no one too many times.

I told the writer that I probably wouldn't like his screenplay and would want to make changes. He seemed very amenable to this idea and so . . . a new process begins.

We shoot in January and we need to have spent all the investors' money by June 30th. A situation we are all familiar with in this industry.

Writing to House Style

2006-07-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

If you are getting paid to write - even if it's as little as $500 for a script - you are probably going to be working with a script producer or script editor - especially if it's a TV show with episodes. That's because - whoever is giving you the money - is being told to deliver a certain thing to the broadcaster and your script needs to bend like a reed, Grasshopper in an effort to make it consistent with other epoisodes.

This is writing to house style. More often than not, the script editor (and sometimes the TV producer) will rewrite your piece wholesale. It's not a bad thing - but a lot of people don't know this going in and new writers get burnt (read hurt).

House style means to a writer pretty much the same thing as result-oriented direction means to a director. At some point, you are going to be told what to write. You are not going to be left to your own devices a you are when writing your feature film screenplay.

If you're writing TV, you can bet someone is reading your screenplay - regularly - and really closely. Getting somebody to even read your feature screenplay is the hard part. And for the most part you don't get paid!

Short Film Festivals

2006-07-11T07:22:00.000+08:00

I just heard that A Stone Throw is a finalist in the Frankfurt Children's Film Festival (Germany). It seems that somewhere in Germany and India is an Edwin James Lynch fan-club. They've certainly bought films I've directed in the past. But there are just so many bloody filmmakers in the world today.

I'm beginning to understand that AST ain't a crowd-pleaser. How could it be when it was ever-so-loosely based on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (set in a school). I guess it's a bit dark. In fact, pretty much everything I write with Phil (or by myself for that matter) is a bit dark or creepy.

More good news (for us) is that Phil, Carmelo (producer) and I are having a casual meeting with Tait Brady (Feature Film Evaluation Manager, Film Finance Corporation) and Ashley Luke (Vice President, Development & Acquisitions, Fortissimo Films) to receive informal feedback on our feature film synopsis.

Marx & Venus update

I don't know who the successful applicants are, but they have already selected 25 scripts (from about 2,000 submitted throughout Australia) for the Marx and Venus series. So if you haven't heard anything yet, you'll probably receive a thank you for your submission, but there were thousands of applicants and unfortunately your script etc. letter shortly (if they can afford the postage). I'm eagerly waiting for mine. I like to see how they word these things.

Stay tuned to the Taylor Media website to find out more on that one.

In the meantime, Phil and I have a screenplay to write. But first, my dayjob beckons.

The Three by Five Card Index System

2006-07-02T09:46:00.000+08:00

Here's another approach to writing your screenplay. The screenwriter's friend. Introducing the infamous Three by Five Card Index System.

Wow! How can I get one?

In my case - I made it. What it amounts to is this: Three 90cm x 40cm sheets of chipboard hinged together so that the whole thing stands like a concertina on a table or floor.

Every 5cm or so down, I have drawing-pinned small cardboard hinges (triangles if you will) made from old file dividers. These become placeholders for your cards.

A couple of bunches of 3 inch by 5 inch index cards (available in packs of 100 at any newsagency) and there you have it. A sure fire way to make your screenplay bubble to the top of the pile . . . Not. But it's a tool and writers need their tools.

Cool. How does it work?

As you can see - each act has three mini-acts in it (fitting in with Australian script theorist Linda Heys' Second Act Story). Or rather - going one step further and suggesting that all three acts have a beginning, middle and end. You can see from our picture, that we have yet to rewrite our 3rd act. The 3 x 5 card system will only work if you already have a screenplay - even a rough one. Each card represents a scene. We write the scene heading with any rewrite notes underneath. If we feel that there's too much of one character or we want to move to another location (often a hunch thing) we leave a space in the cards so we can go back and fill it in - or at least identify and fix the problem.

Tomorrow we approach our screenplay with trepidation because the third act is a doozy.

Our synopsis is in and we meet with the Film Finance Corporation late July. Nobody will even read our new screenplay for a few months yet. The FFC just want to talk about marketing, casting, ideas - that sort of thing.

I write 2 days per week with Phil. We've given up on the idea of three because life is just too - well - busy. So I just bought a laptop and today I pick up Viki King's 21 Days to Write a Screenplay. I'm, hopefully, about to start a speed draft of a genre screenplay Phil and I have mapped out.

Once the rough draft is done, the three by five card system will come out again and Phil will rip into my draft as I stand there pumping iron and shifting cards around on the board. Feeling irritable because - even though we've worked together for years - when anyone criticises my work, it always feels like someone is tugging an unborn child from my writer's womb.

Am I helping, kids?

Second Act Blues

2006-06-23T00:52:00.000+08:00

One gets to a point - in the second act - when one hits the blues. Phil and I fear it as we write. As we edge closer to the midpoint. The second act is doing a lot of stuff. It's more than 60 pages long. It's the new world and its midpoint . . . the belly of the beast. That's if you wanna quote the Syd Fields, Chris Voglers or the Bobby McKees of this world. We prefer not to at this stage.

So far we haven't hit it. Maybe it's coming - maybe not - but we are treading very carefully (p55) as we go . . . Everything seems to be in order. Katy is having some very interesting moments of self-discovery. She is certainly finding herself. That's clear. But where will she go next? We wonder (we actually know because this is a 4th draft not a rough draft - but we wonder anyway).

We've nearly finished our synopsis. 3 drafts of that so far. 5 and it will be ready to send. The AWG want synopses by Tuesday.

Later . . .

Short Films, Festivals and Feature Films

2006-06-20T07:29:00.000+08:00

The more one plods along, the more one understands that the gap between feature filmmaking and short film production is one gaping big canyon.

A Stone Throw was finalist in an LA festival this month called Moondance. But that has little or no impact on the feature film we were writing last night.

If it had won an award, it would make no difference to what we are doing right now (there is only now, people).

I remember Australian filmmaker, Shirley Barret's Love Serenade (Two sisters will do anything to hook the right man) winning the Camera D'or at Cannes in 1996 . . .

"Notably, the stuntman used in the final sequences died while shooting the scene, and this scene was retained for the finished product: consequently Barrett, distraught, did not make another film for four years, and then it was the major disappointment WALK THE TALK" (leask81 review on IMDB)

What a thing to happen - and then to make Walk the Talk years after. It must have been heart-breaking. Going all that way - from humble short film beginnings in the late 80s to this momentous and horrible experience. Now she's working in TV. Naturally.

Phil and I are half way through our screenplay (page 45). Our synopsis is due next Tuesday and I'm currently clearing my desk of all student marking so I can make a start on our next project.

There is nothing I'd rather be doing than this right now. Writing this brilliant script . . . well, talking and pumping iron while Phil writes ;)

Writing a short screenplay and a feature movie are vastly different. It's the difference between one day and three months - or 3 days and 26 weeks. It's like comparing fixing a car with open heart surgery - or a 100m sprint with a 40km marathon. You're kind of doing the same thing with your hands, but your brain is doing somersaults.

It feels really close . . . The feature . . . I dunno why. It's a sterling script (if I may say so myself) and the creases are coming out easily. I don't know why this hasn't happened before.

Better go press my shirt . . .

In Development

2006-06-14T11:27:00.000+08:00

As a newbie, one may ask, "How do I get into the film industry here in Australia?" What do I have to do?

Writing and organising a team of like-minded individuals towards the common goal of actually making a movie is being in the industry. All you do is write and put together submissions or proposals. Once you are writing - you are in the film industry. You don't need anybody else to tell you otherwise.

Over 95% of your time will be spent writing scripts, auditioning for a gig or meeting with actors, producers and financiers.

In the last two years, I have been lucky. I was actually on set, directing . . . for nearly two whole weeks! (A Stone Throw and Streetsmartz).

The rest of my time was spent:

Writing (I'm pleased to report . . . most wannabes talk about writing. Don't be a wannabe!).
Earning a living (building websites).
Teaching others how to write, direct and build websites (at Curtin University).
Meeting with producers and greater mortals who may help get new projects happening.

Unfortunately I wasn't one of the 60+ directors chosen for a gig on Marx and Venus *sniff*. It's possible that my screenplay will be one of the 25 selected from the 1,700+ screenplays SBSi received (although I won't wait by the phone).

Either would have been nice - but these things come in waves.

The Hottest Director in Town

Usually the hottest directors in town get the gigs - and then they move aside as new heat comes into play. The heat is off me right now because my latest short film didn't hit too many festivals or accumulate gongs. You're considered hot if your film so much as hits a festival these days as it's difficult to even get a screening. Another industry truism to consider as a director is that you are only as good as your last film.

All of this is twaddle, naturally. But it's something you feel as you walk into a room filled with investors. Who is this guy - what's he done recently? The corridor rumours are that Troy Lum (Hopscotch Distribution) will only consider developing screenplays which have a hot director attached.

Nobody tells you that you are hot. But it's your job to know it . . . Ask an honest friend. None-hot directors need hot people attached to their projects. This usually translates to a producer or an actor. And here's a tip for for the non-hot.

Every actor is looking for a good role.

Our New Screenplay

Phil and I have manged to scrabble together a sketchy outline for a new horror screenplay. This one is much straighter than we usually write . . . a genre piece. But interesting enough to keep us amused. We don't have a producer attached just yet. Which, in itself, is a bit exciting.

Meetings with Tait Brady (FFC) have been organised with the Australian Writers' Guild. Hitting the submit-your-synopsis-for-a-meeting deadline is next cab off the rank.

So . . . as usual it's back to the pen.

If you want to be part of the great Australian film industry - you might want to stope earning money and get out your own. I hear it's mightier than the sword.

Ninety-nine percent of the time!

Characters leaping out of the woodwork

2006-06-06T18:26:00.000+08:00

I'm writing with Phil. He's just popped out. We're planning our next screenplay. A traditional horror about a man who sees the error of his ways - just in time.

The early draft of Beware the Stingray is so busy that we've managed to extricate three screenplays out of it. One of them - the short film, A Stone Throw - is doing the festival circuit as we speak.

And as we write, more characters keep leaping out - threatening to muddy the waters of our existing screenplay.

But we remain vigilant. As interesting as all our ideas are, only the story-oriented ideas should remain. Jot the others in a notepad, or do like we're doing and embark on a completely different screenplay.

Why are you reading this?

Stop it. Get on with your own screenplay.

In this materialistic, cancer-ridden nuclear paranoid society - it seems to be the only reasonable thing to do. So - if you've come to Geoffrey because you've got a really good idea. Write it! I'll tell you this for nothing . . . Nobody else will.

Burning the candle at both ends

2006-05-23T23:23:00.000+08:00

This is a picture of us writing. Notice how there's only one of us at the computer? I'm on a beanbag. Phil does the writing, and for those of you who know me well, I talk. I'm actually taking random photos with my new CanonA430 (I highly recommend it) while Phil taps away.

Lately, we've been pleasantly surprised by our work. Twelve years on it looks like we have a worthy mani character (Katy) and a good, solid story.

This is how we got to the screenplay on this particular rewrite:

We used the Clare Dobbin Matrix to analyse the existing story
We broke the story down into about 16 sequences, tracking our main character
We titled each sequence (for main character) and made micro-notes on 3 x 5 cards
We discussed the hell out of each sequence from the main character's story POV
We attacked the screenplay scene by scene

It's taken us about 3 weeks. That's 2 full days writing per week. It's nice to be able to say that. Feels like we've achieved something.

So far we're up to page 20 and we haven't lost sight of our main character, Katy.

My Life otherwise . . .

I get up at 6am, check my Curtin students' online assignments and queries, do website updates, meet with potential clients, chase existing ones for unpaid invoices, continue working on current client websites, mark student assignments, eat stuff and finally write with Phil until . . . well . . . now roughly. Which gives me 6hrs sleep.

All I want to do is sleeeeeeeep.

I wonder what it would be like to die?

I read somewhere that if humans were immortal, the average age would be about 200 years (based on the number of fatal household accidents alone).

I've got a really good idea for a film . . .

2006-04-27T08:34:00.000+08:00

Phil commented on that last piece. I forget that people actually read these things. I assumed you were all lazy and didn't read anything ;)

Yes . . . as Phil says . . . we have taken time to write this screenplay. And it's depressing to think about it.

Sometimes I feel like Marshall in Absolutely Fabulous. Marshall went to Hollywood 20 years ago to develop a screenplay with a studio. People in various episodes ask him how it's going. He usually has an actor attached, or a big producer, or an out-of-work director . . . No doubt Jennifer Saunders has met a few of these people. The industry is teaming with writers working on a screenplay. Until a screenplay becomes a film - it's only a blueprint - not considered an art form in itself. And yet it takes such a long time to write one.

When people ask me what I do - I answer web designer. It's my knee-jerk, "pat" response. It's also less problematic and gets me more $work than if I say, "filmmaker". But saying "web designer" feels like somehow I've lied - like I'm undercover - posing as a normal person.

A boxer called me up the other day (not the dog kind) and told me he had a really good idea for a screenplay. I called his bluff and asked to see the paper version. Really good ideas are two-a-penny.

Legally, if you told a screenwriter (like myself) your really good idea and he wrote it - verbatum . . . it would then become his really good idea. He has legal proof of the idea and you don't. While writing is poorly renumerated, it is considered evidence in a court of law. It's why Production Companies ask you to sign a waiver before you submit your work. They also have really good ideas, but at least their ideas are in development (which means on paper).

"Have you written anything, yet?" I asked him, doubtfully. He stumped me by having a bit of a draft to show me (very unusual) . . . and it wasn't as bad as it could have been!

I had a spare couple of hours, So I did some notes on his screenplay. He was so chuffed, he offered me a couple of boxing lessons . . . I settled for a service testimonial.

So here we both are, working on a screenplay we started in 1994. Call us Marshall.

On the bright side - the story has held our interest for all those years and it has led to many other screenplay ideas. The learning curve alone has catapulted our abilities as writers.

Now that some time has passed between our Arista experience, A Stone Throw and working with Sydney-based script-editor, Duncan Thompson . . . the holes in our script are painfully clear. There are so many really good ideas flying wildly about that we often lose sight of our main character . . .

Katy.

I think that if we can rope the story in - and really make it hers - we will, as some have already pointed out, have a great work before us. In the meantime, I have 100 uni assignments to mark before Phil arrives (for writing session 2013466) . . .

If you'll be so kind as to excuse me . . . the kettle beckons.

Let your screenplay brew

2006-04-19T10:24:00.000+08:00

The other day I saw a locally made feature, The Actress. It was really quite good - for what it was. But my heart sinks when I see a well-directed film with huge writing holes. Holes which are easy to fix if you give your screenplay time to brew.

Directors are Stupider Than Writers

It is common knowledge that directors, in the main, are stupider than writers - often led into projects ego first. But even the stupidest director could probably do well with a short course in screenwriting. Because if you can't read a feature film in the first place, how can you direct one?

Sam Mendez and Alan Ball are a case in point. After the success of American Beauty, Alan went on to write the multi Emmy Award winning Six Feet Under. And Sam? Well . . . just have a listen to the audio commentary on Six Feet Under and you can hear what's driving Sam's engine. Interesting that the commentary is credited as Sam Mendez with Alan Ball.

Writing is one way to remain humble. You get lousy pay (if anything) you get to stand in the shadow of an ego-maniacal director and you get ignored at parties. Nobody sleeps with the writer . . . Except in TV . . . Where writers get to be producers.

So. Back to me. I'm (supposedly) both writer and director. However this year, I've spent about 4 days actually directing anything and about 2 weeks writing. So mostly, this year, I've been a university lecturer - or a web developer. Hopefully I'll get a gig on Marx and Venus - but one can't count on such things.

Yesterday, at least, Phil Jeng Kane and I returned to writing our feature screenplay - probably because this week we have no students. It's a Curtin Uni / FTI holiday. We did a little preparation. Coffee, toast, diary entries etc. And then we started analysing our script with a tool shown to us by Claire Dobbin at an Arista workshop.

The Plot Matrix

If you haven't visited your screenplay for a while (in our case nearly a year) then use the plot matrix. In your spreadsheet program, make 5 columns:

Scene number.
What is the scene about?
Whos scene is it?
What is the emotional subtext?
Do we need the scene?

Then read through each scene (aloud) and answer the questions. The final column we chose to colour:

red means remove the scene
orange means modify it

we'd write a note about how we will do that

green for leave it pretty much as is

This way, you get a quick visual representation of how your screenplay is. If the last column is all green - then that's teh writers' green light! It means go find a Producer you can trust with all your hard work.

You will end up with a bunch of notes for your next draft and you will know more about your main character/s journey. Plus you will have the feeling that you've just breathed life into something that seemed permanently in a state of suspended animation.

I found our clarity of purpose was very acute. Because after a long time:

We approach an old subject with fresh eyes
Our critical faculties weren't distracted by precious writing.
Any ill-feeling / previous bad dealings we had regarding the project were gone.
We re-discovered the energy we had when we originally started writing it

in our case - all those years ago.

If you're writing with a partner, you're also working on a friendship.

After all - if two people are co-writing the same project over a long period, then there has to be something special about the idea.

In about half a day (5 hours) we got through 20 scenes this way and hope to finish the other 80+ by early next week.

So - my advice is - leave it on the shelf. And if you have another idea - work on that. Do a rough draft. Even if it's crap - a lot of good stuff will bubble to the surface later in your screenplay's life. If you use . . . The Matrix!

What not to rehearse with actors

2006-03-21T07:41:00.000+08:00

A picture I did (of an artist) in Tuesday morning's art class. The best stress relief ever! Drawing is like meditation. Not like Saturday. The kids I teach Saturday are in 2 groups.

The 9-12 year olds
The 15+ y.o. teenagers

The differences in behaviour between these two groups is vast. There is no professional approach to acting at all for the younger, immature kids. It's completely a game. The director is merely a part of that.

Things not to rehearse with 10 year olds

When I say not rehearse, what I mean is - just roll the camera and go for a take. Rehearsing is never taken as seriously as a camera shot. On tape, with a tiny crew (ie. me on Saturdays) and with kids as my subject, I shoot all "rehearsals". Young kids get bored and soon wander off to the toilet - or to Mum - or to get a drink.

Instead of rehearsing, just shoot whenever a child has to:

hold hands, touch or hug another (unfamiliar) child
do a fake fall or punch
cry
do anything that is going to require concentration

Things not to rehearse with teenagers

Kissing
Fighting
Hugging or getting close in any way to an (unfamilar) teenager

<>Teenagers will only kiss each other if they like each other. It's an uphil battle if they have to do a first kiss scene. Adults will grin and bear it. But, as I found out on Saturday, just saying stuff like "That didn't look real. She's in tears and needs you. You two weren't close enough," resulted In one of the most touching teenage performances I've ever seen.

Erica and Kelly (male) were laughing after the first take. Erica's character was in tears because of the daily feeding ritual she had to go through (because she was living with cancer). Kelly came in and gave her a blokey pat on the back. We all knew the scene didn't work. It was then simply a matter of gettnig them to solve the problem.

And I'm glad we didn't rehearse it. I, as director, gave them permission (my job) to get as close to each other as possible. On the first take, Kelly was really nervous about going up to Erica and hugging her. And, because I was recording the rehearsal, that nervousness came right through the lens. The scene was perfect. Two teenagers huggin each other for the first time.

It was real because it was really happening. That's why you don't rehearse some things.

Things not to rehearse with adults

Sex . . . basically.

Good adult performances are the ones that come from within. Directors needn't know why or how or what the actors are chanelling. In fact, it's none of our business what the actor is thinking of / emotionally remembering.

We need to respect actors and record sensitive rehearsals as often as possible. With new digi/tape technology, such an approach is becoming increasingly possible.

Giant CRX 1 Flat-bar Road Bike - A Metaphor

2006-03-19T19:47:00.000+08:00

I've been working my guts out doing websites all week (day and night) and now I have to mark 50+ online student usability exercises. Ugh!

I got a glimpse of my girlfriend this week. She lives really far away and - as I ride a CRX 1 Flat bar road bike - it takes me a good 2 hours to get there. Especially after riding from Como to teaching Saturday acting classes in Hammersley.

I got to her place late and then had to leave at 5am to get to Freo on time - where my parents were celebrating their 4oth wedding anniversary.

Hi Ma & Da. Congratulations!

Now for the meat of this post. Read carefully:

It's a nice ride. For every difficult hill, there's a downward slope. I top around 50kmh (peak at 60kmh) but try to cruise along at around 30kmh to conserve energy. You never know when you might need to sprint. I'm mostly on bike tracks - I don't like to ride on sand.

My bike has no shocks, so my energy isn't wasted. I get to feel the ground. Whatever power I have goes straight to the road via my hard Shimano wheels. Just bought a couple of bullbars for handling. I was getting into a physical rut. Now I can fidget as I ride. Move my hands around the bullbars so I don't stress any body parts. Now I can really ride hard, but with a bit of contrast so I don't lose perspective. Don't seize up inside.

I don't ride fast - just cruise.

On a nice, solid foundation.

You never really know when you're going to run out of energy. It's hard to tell which direction the wind will come from. You have to be on guard. Look for the signs. Gauge your ride. Be clear about your goal - and why you are riding, not driving in the first place.

Right, filmmakers?

Marx & Venus SBS TV series

2006-03-18T06:13:00.000+08:00

I just added a link to Taylor Media's website for Marx and Venus (I did the site). The SBS script deadline is March 31st, but, as I did her website and Sue Taylor is exec-producing the show (with Natalie Bell, Ian Booth and Francesca Strano line producing the 25 episodes) I felt it my duty to let everyone know that TM is looking for directors, DoPs and editors.

My CV is in. Phew! But I'm thinking of submitting a cover letter. Or hopefully, explaining my particular during interview - and without trying to sound like I'm gonna break house-style.

Writing with other people . . . Ooooh

I've written two episodes of M&V so far - one with local writer, Richard Hyde and one all by myself. I want to write one with Phil Jeng Kane, but I want it to be his idea. I'm second credit on Richard's and I want the same credit on Phil's. Three scripts sounds reasonable and not too greedy - especially if I'm working with other people.

"What? What kind of filmmaker are you? Get an ego man. This is a competition, not a kabutz. 'I want it to be his idea!' What's all this second credit stuff? Don't you want all the glory? There's hardly any cash. What do you get? Two grand? You gonna split that two ways?"

Well, Angry Filmmaker - my reason is simple. A second writer's credit (to me) - means that I'm working on someone else's idea. Or, at least, that person instigated the screenplay (ideas are free). Working with another writer is different to script editing. As co-writer (I hate the term because often co-writers do as much - sometimes most of the work) I have permission to change (or in my case hack into and delete - sorry about that, Richard) the other writer's words and dialogue.

As a script editor (and by the way writers, I will script edit your work for a very reasonable fee. Click here to find out about that) I have no such write - er - I mean "right". I see my job as being the writer's spiritual guide and mentor. Script Editors should guide the writer towards what it is he/she wants to say. It's a bit different in TV tho - ;) - but that's how I reckon it should work in a perfect world. And we're all heading for that. Right, Aristotle?

As co-writer, you don't get final say on the screenplay. Whic is good because tehre'd be too much to-ing and fro-ing over little stuff.

But as local producer, Carmello Musca put it to me one day (this is why Phil and I have a script with him) . . . "The writing doesn't finish until the execs have left the editing room." That's someone who knows the business. The best producers share a similar POV in my experience. Beware those who don't!

"Ahh, shut up! You talk a lot of crap. What have you done? A few shorts? The odd TV show? Who cares about your Pee Oh Vee, man? Im going to Hollywood. I don't need ScreenWest's money. I know a couple of guys . . . Anyway. Just wait 'til you see me strut my stuff man. I have talent."

The door is to your left, Angry. Talent is never enough.

Yeah. He's gone now. If you're going to work with other people, you have to respect what it is they do. And listen to what they have to say. There are a lot of frustrated and angry filmmakers out there. I pity that guy.

Fine Art and Filmmaking

2006-03-17T07:29:00.000+08:00

I'm tandem teaching an art class at Curtin Uni. Well, teaching probably isn't the right word. Experiencing might be better. Each mini lesson I get to do what the students are doing. It's
called Multimedia design 175 - Theory and Practice. A loosening up class designed for people who think they can't draw.

Each week we do a different, really cool thing. Like the objects above. I drew these by feeling what was in a brown paper bag without actually seeing. Which was the point. I was quite surprised at how the drawings came out. In retrospect, it kind of confused me. We can see things without using our eyes.

Filmmaking - The infamous and oft-ignored Axis of Action

I was ranting the other day - as usual. There was an old movie on Channel 31 which was really bugging me. The camera kept flipping around the room. One moment we were high angle POV (point of view) the next low. It was jarring.

But I noticed that it was still irritating even if the camera was only a few inches below eye-level - or just a few inches above. For one thing, the eyelines were totally stuffed on shot / reverse shots.

We have this thing in filmmaking called the axis of action. Not many people seem to know about it. If you're shooting a football team, then you expect the blue players and the red players to be heading screen right and screen left respectively. It gives us a sense of where the goal is. Shoot over the axis line and suddenly, reds are heading for an own goal.

Well, what I noticed with the 30s film is that the axis of action also works in 3D space. If you shoot 6 inches above your main character's eyeline and then alter the height of the tripod, you get the same jarring effect.

In other words, readers, getting your eyelines wrong could jerk your viewers out of your story.

"Yeah, yeah - but what if I want to jar people. I mean they used dutch tilts in East of Eden, didn't they? I'm a really cool filmmaker and I want to break every rule, Maan!"

All I can say to that argument is . . . Shut up and have alook at the Rorschach blots we did in class.

Gingerbread Men? Or should I say people.

Insect?
Timid rabbits approaching each other?
Not sure . . . Plus 2 koala bears. Ahhh!

Marx and Venus and Bicycle Philosophy

2006-03-13T17:23:00.000+08:00

I ride a bicycle and this is what I see. When you ride a bicycle (as opposed to driving a car) the world changes. Your approach to life changes. My approach to filmmaking changes. The body becomes a metaphor, the road - life - each hill an obstacle.

You are using your own power. You are thousands of years of human technology. You are losing fat, strengthening your muscles, heart, lungs, entire physical wellbeing.Problems dissolve. You de-stress.

Coffee at Just Espresso, Como

Coffee on the other hand freaks me out! It makes me anxious and very often I return home and do everything but work.

I was having coffee with a friend (Rob) this morning and we were talking about our work lives. Comparatively, we are extremely lucky. We work when we want and do what we want. We're not answerable to anyone because we have clients - not bosses.

Most people my age are paying mortgages and raising children - in jobs they don't particularly love. I don't feel the urge to do that and I'm not sure why. It seems . . . like a waste of time.

Why do you have children? Please. I'm not being facetious. Someone . . . leave a comment. Why did you choose to have kids? Was it a maternal drive? Is there such thing as a paternal drive? Is it the desire for immortality?

I'm doing frivolous stuff. Making short films, animations, websites and, hopefully, long films very soon. Doing whatever it is I love and making a living out of it.

Most people find their sense of self in the pursuit of the dollar. No money = insecurity for most people, it seems. Maybe you want what you have. Maybe you are happy.

Are you the happiest you could possibly be at this precise moment in time?

Please. Answer. Be anonymous.

I know that I am very happy - and free - to be able to ride - in any direction I want and with the choice of doing what I love. Make films, animation, write, construct websites. Most of that freedom is probably because I don't have kids. My will is my own.

As I rode my bike home the other day, I became excited. I was really keen to get back to my computer and code up the Bollinger website (nothing there, yet). It's a challenge - a new kind of code. I have to fit in with a highly customised template. It's nothing but a techno-nerd computer gig to most people. But I'm very keen to make my new template work.

Marx and Venus

When I get time, I write. I'm angling for a gig on Marx & Venus (SBS TV series) and I'm writing stuff with other writers. If our script is chosen, writers get $2,000. I suspect that there will also be about 2,000 entries.

Another filmmaker Lotto.

I'll let you know how things go.

In the meantime, try riding your bicycle to work. See how it affects your perception. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Mumbai Podcast & AST Controversy

2006-03-02T06:42:00.000+08:00

Finally put up the podcast interview I did with Phil Jeng Kane (from the FTI) a week or so ago on the 9th Mumbai International Film Festival. The sound is a bit thin because I had to remove a slight buzz.

Today I'm teaching 3 classes of students internet studies. I wanted to get these podcasts ready for them so they could see some of the technology working. I was surprised to find that a few friends of mine had no idea what a podcast is and fewer knew the meaning of BLOG!!!

Well, guys, this is about all there is to a BLOG. You're reading it. It's an online, public diary.

In response to Phil's comment . . .

Yes, I know filmmaking is a team sport. 100 people worked on A Stone Throw (AST). Without them, or yourself, there would be nothing. Obviously. The writer, producer and sound designer overpowered me with an idea and I went with it. It's possible that 50 people may have approached me after the film with, "What were they saying in that long shot?"

My last post came over as a bit of an I told youse all so and I apologise for that.

What I might insist on the next time we make a film is some kind of test screening. Very few people were allowed to see that film as it was getting made and I don't like to work that way. I like to involve everyone in the final stages because my eyes are so polluted by familiar images durnig picture editing.

A huge test screening will probably iron out any future problems. And a day of pick ups!

Three days to shoot 11 minutes with relocation moves of (sometimes) 30kms and such a huge crew was nuts!

AST is only 70% there as far as I'm concerned.

We got 96% of the script right and I achieved about 70% of my intended direction.

The AST shoot was more rushed than when I did an episode of Streetsmartz!

Bedtime thoughts about a short film

2006-03-01T06:05:00.000+08:00

Yawn. It's 6am. Maggies are warbling. Crows are cawing.

There was one thing that came back to me from several people. It's been bugging me all night. The same critique. And it has to do with thinking that the audience are dumb.

For those of you who know the film, I'm talking about the scene where Cassidy confesses his crime to his Mum. Several people at the premiere, including one twelve year old boy, asked me why we got to hear the dialogue between Cassidy and Tess as he confesses his crime. They felt it interrupted the story and hindered their connection with the film (my interpretation).

On the shoot day, Joshua Beechey was a bit nervous about Anna Brockway playing Tess - his mum. So I went with that. I got Joshua (Cassidy) to retell most of the story to her and finally confess based on what he remembered of the script. She would hug him and it would look awkward. It did. To actually hear this bit of dialogue was always going to be a bit iffy for me - but more importantly - we already know all this story information, and so the dialogue is completely unecessary. Jonathan Mustard's music is enough to take us through that one minute scene.

So, for those who came back with that thought. You are right. It was my original plan, but the producer, writer and sound designer were nervous about that choice. They thought the story needed wrapping up. I guess I couldn't convince them (or they convinced me).

In heinsight, I'll really fight for such choices - instead of making my films for a supposedly dumb audience. Instincts are never wrong.

Australian Premiere A Stone Throw

2006-02-28T06:07:00.000+08:00

The screening of A Stone Throw went well, I'm pleased to report. Really smoothly. We had 100 invitees and maybe the same number who came to see "Little Fish". Mum did the tickets and Dad opened the beer and wines - and helped me with the Coles platters.

Mostly, everyone liked the film.

The kids who were in it loved it (of course) and I was happy to see the odd tear being shed by one or two of the adult actors. How weird is that? They're obviously over the idea of seeing themselves onscreen. I don't think I'd have the objectivity if I was an actor - to actually enjoy the film I was in. Maybe only the best actors were crying - as self-consciousness and narcissism are the enemies of good performance (according to Stanislavski) . . .

To me, the film looked good. It still feels a bit like a series of cuts, sounds and images, but it went over well. I didn't notice many of the mistakes and all had a great time. Sort of.

Hosts never have much fun at parties.

Next stop, Marx & Venus. I hope you all know about that one. 25 x 5 minute TV shows about a couple of flatmates who kind of like each other, but don't get together. I'd love to direct an episode or two and I'm writing three on spec.

I think there'll be thousands of scripts sent in. I estimate around 2,000. Here we go again . . .

"A Stone Throw" screens with "Little Fish"

2006-02-23T20:25:00.000+08:00

OK. I've made about 100 phone calls. Nobody RSVPs these days, so I figured I'd save catering money by actually calling people. So far, about 120 people - cast, crew and associates - are coming to the premiere. We're having it at FTI's Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival.

We have a beer sponsor:
Advance Multimedia and Animation
in association with
Cave Pictures.

Micro-brewery beer. No preservatives.

I'd link to Cave, but they don't have a website just yet (I know because I'm doing it).

Should be fun.

Around 300 stubbies. 2 varieties. Red & white wine. 5 Coles platters and my mum and dad doing beer, wine and door entry.

I'm pretty nervous, but also looking forward to it. To the feedback. To the negative feedback in particular. I'm a bit over claps and kisses. We filmmakers need to accept criticism. If we're to move forward. I welcome it in constructive form. There's nothing more useless than, "That was a great film." But you gotta be polite. Smile. Thank you.

For those who aren't on the VIP list, you can still see A Stone Throw. But you'll have to pay. It's accompanying Rowan Woods' pretty cool Aussie flick, Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett. There are light refreshments, it's under the stars, the atmosphere is great.

Venue: FTI Outdoor Cinema, 92 Adelaide St, Fremantle WA
Time: 7.35pm, Friday 24th Feb

Hope you can make it.

Gotta get off the net and call my Mum to organise ice. See you there, Cats.

Mumbai Madness continues . . .

2006-02-20T13:25:00.000+08:00

Hello. I'm back in Perth.

The 9th Mumbai International Film Festival 2006 is very over, but it will return in 2008 (they hold it bi-annually) and Bombay still exists in my head. A Stone Throw didn't win anything, but will be premiered here in Fremantle, this Friday 24th at the FTI's Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival. 7.30pm screening followed by Little Fish and 6.30pm for crew drinks.

So why is this BLOG entry entitled, Mumbai Madness?

Mumbai (Bombay) Madness:

After getting off the plane, I developed an annoying cough. My girl told me I smelt like human faeces and refused to kiss me until I showered and bathed for at least 2 days.

When I finally got back to my (home office) desk, there was a pile of work waiting for me.

Hours and hours of tutoring Usability and Web I.T. at Curtin University
Making 2 x short films with tweenies and teenagers at The Filmbites Film School
Several websites to do (at least 3) and
A whole host of film-related projects that I'm not at liberty to talk about right now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :| . . . . okay, maybe later.

Perhaps getting off a plane from an exotic, faraway country is doing it to me - or maybe it's the unknown, bird-flu like cough that I have developed . . . But I feel different.

Re-energized.

Lighter.

More powerful . . .

. . . and generally more serious and more committed to my work than I've ever felt before.

Now that the party is over, I think it is obvious. I have stuff to say.

Aside: I've been told to read Shantaram- the story based on the life of Gregory David Roberts - Sydney's gentleman bank robber who escapes over the front wall of Victoria's maximum security prison and then travels on a false passport out of New Zealand to Mumbai - where he lives with the poor people in a shanty town and becomes the community doctor, counterfeiter, smuggler and gunrunner! Did Greg catch the madness, too.

I think I've caught a creative sort of madness. I can feel a film (or two) coming on. Beware the Stingray perhaps?

Hallie (the girl who runs Filmbites - my regular Saturday teaching job) has edited a short film I shot (no script) with a bunch of tweenies just days before I went away and it's fantastic! . . . I reckon. I'm about to ask her to put another 50 hours editing into it. We have to clear music etc. Redo credits . . . All shot on a single chip camera with the letterbox function on (thereby reducing image quality). Camera sound, for God's sake! With wind-buffetting. Real off-the-hip. The acting is incredible. We're going to submit it to the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. Plus St. Kilda. See if they take it. It's that good.

I reckon.

But that's all that matters, filmmakers. Right? You have to like the stuff you do. Who cares if it doesn't pick up awards? That part of the process is almost random - and if it's not - it usually means the film is a 3 act joke film - not necessarily an indicator of feature-style filmmaking (a whole different kettle of fish). Juries with mandates and opinions and allegiances and friends make award decisions. An award might fast-track you to being considered for a feature - as does a stint at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) but the film remains the same.

If you like it, you've succeeded! Surely!

My madness has recently been fuelled by two long macchiatos with sugar and a bowl of fruit salad - so bear with me.

Maybe travel does broaden the mind. My mind feels very broad right now and I have all this energy which I want to put into my work. Better cash in on it. Such waves rarely come by.

Maybe the great Shiva has entered my soul? Or Kali? Or is it Mumbai's very own Ganesh?

All my work.

Websites

Filmmaking

Writing

Teaching

Everything

It's all about to explode. When it does, I'll let you know how it goes.

But I feel . . . . . . VERY . . . . . . light!

It's . . . as Milan Kundera once uttered - albeit very self-consciously . . . . . . . unbearable.

Mumbai International Film Festival 2006

2006-02-11T17:36:00.000+08:00

Unfortunately, A Stone Throw didn't win anything . . . *sniff* :(

Most of the international films that won prizes at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2006 had India as the subject / backdrop - or they were made by ex-pat Indians living abroad - or they had an Indian actor - or they were films made by filmmakers who had served on previous years' MIFF judging panels.

I'm not being too cynical. That is just the way these things go. I'd be naive to think differently. In fact, I was surprised that our little 10 minute film, A Stone Throw had been included at all. It was one of only a few non-Indian inspired films.

Having said that, a ScreenWest-funded documentary about the rebel army in Aceh won the judges hearts.

The Black Road, directed by William Nessen and produced by Andrew Ogilvie, was absolutely brilliant and easily deserved to win. In fact, William risked his life making the film. He filmed alongside the Indonesian army as they attacked Aceh - and he also filmed alongside the Aceh rebels! I'm talking gun to gun stuff. Torture stuff. There were no holes barred making this film. It's not for the squeamish. People get killed and tortured and you see the results. Big, graphical, close-ups!

William witnesses the death of some close friends, marrie sthe film's interpreter and ends up in jail (as one would expect). All these events filmed prior to the great Tsunami.

After watching the film, one might conclude that William Nessen has a death wish.

But Billy (his chosen nickname) considers himself an accidental documentary filmmaker. His main line of work is as a journalist / photographer. This is his first film and it began with him simply recording events in his life. It transmogrified into something brilliant - and very important for the world stage.

It was good to see a ScreenWest-funded film getting not one but two important awards. The Best Documentary awards were strictly for the directors, but Andrew Ogilvie also got an award for producing Billy's film. It was edited by Lawrence Silvestrin and sound-posted by the (locally) famous Western Australian, Ric Curtin.

Bloody good stuff.

While the chosen few basked in the glory of cash (up to AUS$7,000 1st prize) media scrutiny and some very impressive gold and silver conch statues, I slunk back to the hotel. My 10 minute short looked pretty good up there and the audience thought it was a wonderful part of a greater piece. A Stone Throw gave the winners a run for their money. I satisfied myself with that knowledge.

I stayed in my pokey hotel room the entire next day. Enthused by the renegade documentary makers, I feverishly returned to working on my next project. I'd managed to dodge disease, not get too-ripped off and I still had my passport. That counted for something.

When all had returned to their respective countries, I got a phone call. It was William - at a loose end. He shouted (bought) me breakfast and talked about staying in Mumbai.

Why? I asked. There's no rebel army fighting for independence here.

He simply likes the place. The people. The hospitality. Billy strikes me as a kind guy with a big heart. I tended to ignore the many beggars here, but he happily gave them a few rupees. One poor beggar-lady told him, I don't want your money - only food. Half an hour later, Billy was lugging sacks of rice and water around for her immediate family.

Not having a background in filmmaking, he asked me for career advice. I felt humbled. And, the truth be told - a bit important. Keep your prize money. Don't give it away. Invest it in the film - in yourself, I pleaded.

I'd rather see William go out there and change the whole world with his particular brand of risky filmmaking than see one small family eat for a week. His kind of filmmaking can change the world.

The Mumbai Film festival had inspired me. Perhaps I can also do something worthwhile. Seeing films like The Black Road makes me do a double-take on my own stuff. I've only just started to make worthwhile films - films that touch other people. Hopefully, A Stone Throw is only the first step toward this and I'll get the chance to go a lot further.

It all starts with a piece of paper and a pen. I'm sincerely looking forward to seeing what filmmakers like Billy Nessen does with his pen.

See y'all back in Perth for my Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) podcast.

Bollywood party, baby iceblock, Mumbai police!!!

2006-02-11T17:12:00.000+08:00

I met the lady who coined the term, Bollywood. Janet Fine is a freelance journalist for magazines like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. After living 20+ years in Mumbai, I think Aussies make some kind of sense to her.

She invited us all to a strange, glitzy party - hosted by a famous Italian chef.

No place in Mumbai is particularly impressive, so when I got out of the car and stepped into a muddy, dirty roadway, I was surprised. We were on the doorstep of the famous downtown Bollywood restaurant, Olive.

Photographers and videographers pumped flashes and lights at model-like actors. Watching the Bollywood films which play every night on TV here (there are literally thousands of them) shows just how skilled these people are. They're not using Stanislavski, Adler or Meisner - they are more like expert dancers with fantastic co-ordination and lip-synching skills. It's a different style of acting. They are more than simply models.

I recognised nobody and ordered a Tom Collins. Fellow Aussies thought me a seasoned drinker, but I'd only read about the big Tom in a cocktail book. It wasn't great. But I can say I had my last one at a Bollywood party.

When actors so much as moved, lights would flash.

It was all very silly.

But the silliest thing by far . . . was the bathroom.

Toilets here are crazy. At one hotel, I turned around and a uniformed guy was standing there. He switched the tap on for me. He even squeezed out some soap as I approached the wash basin and then he issued me a stream of several, palm-sized towellettes for me to dry my hands on.

The Bollywood toilet was even crazier. There was the usual toilet guy standing there to show me the way to the urinal (2 metres away) but the funniest thing was a baby-sized block of ice, sprinkled with flowers - sitting right there in the urinal. I rarely laugh when I'm alone, but this thing really tickled my funny-bone. The only purpose I could think of was to cool my urine before it became an integral and perhaps spiritual part of the great Ganges.

It was an interesting night.

When an Australian actress heard that Aussies were there, she mysteriously disappeared. Out the back door, I suspect. I caught her eye and I'm sure something passed between us. Something not so good. Something nervous - awkward. A mixture of embarrassment and indignation. Being a big star in Bollywood - a film society pretty much run by India's mafia - isn't considered to be a serious career move. Down to earth Aussie filmmakers might have seemed a bit daunting. If the bepetalled ice-block in the urinal was anything to go by, I might have snuck out the back door, too.

The following night, I went to a nightclub with my new Indian friends, Somdev Chatterjee and Rajdeep Randhawa - two filmmakers with excellent documentaries screening at the Mumbai Film Festival. It took us a few tries to get into places.

No stags, sorry, no stags! doormen kept repeating.

In India, men aren't allowed into a nightclub without being accompanied by a woman. Apparently women get hit on quite a lot here. How do men meet women in Bombay? I asked my friends. They shrugged.

The sexual divide in India is an infinite chasm - as evidenced by one MIFF film, Hoon I. Pretty much the Indian equivalent to a women's rights film (made by Amit Babulal Shah). In the film, women were almost daring each other to remove their veils - without seeking permission from their husbands.

You can't simply meet a woman at a party here and then go to bed (not that you can do that in Australia without cushioning a few good slaps on the way). It's a huge, six month battle with phone calls, SMSs and coy meetings with parental involvement. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. In India, it pays not to be single.

We finally get into a club (I think because I'm a white guy - which does mean cash to some degree, here) and we sink a couple of Kingfishers (local beer). We took a few photos and made our way to the exit . . .

. . . whereupon the nightclub was stormed by Police!

My friends hid my beer and we all crouched under the stairwell until my friends could get me out of there without being spotted by the cops.

I had no idea what was happening.

I was told later.

The police are really corrupt here and will go into a nightclub at 1am (everything finishes strictly at 1am here - despite Mumbai's exciting nightlife) to get whatever money they can from . . . white guys! They simply approach the white guy and get cash off him - for no particular reason. If he doesn't have enough, it could mean a night in a cell.

I once asked my friends if they pay much tax. Of course we do. Apparently about 25%. But there is little evidence of it in Mumbai. People are poor and dying, roads are falling apart and in a city of 20 million people, I rarely saw public works, a nice park, or a rennovated building. It's as if India has no government.

It may be different in other Indian cities and let's be fair . . .

How does one govern 20,000,000 people?

t.b.c. . . .

Not the only white guy in Mumbai

2006-02-07T13:58:00.000+08:00

Hi readers . . . and hi Mum! ;)

I've been watching some pretty heart-wrenching documentaries here at the Mumbai Film Festival. Watching docos seems to be a fast track to learning about the world. Many documentaries have an Indian element, but a couple stood out. I tend to make friends with the people who make films I like, so I'm pleased to say that Rajdeep Randhawa is now a close and personal friend of mine.

Rajdeep made a 47 minute documentary called, "Ek Tha Lal Pari." Shot mostly cinema verite, it documents the problematic relationship between a eunuch and her lover. It's an on and off relationship, but the two are still very much in love and have lived together for 20 years! In India, eunuchs live in enclaves. They are ostricised by society, but also revered and considered to have many spiritual powers. So they earn money by performing special rituals at marriages, births, deaths etc. It is a special honour to be blessed by a eunuch. To cross one would result in bad fortune. In one scene, a ritual blessing is performed by several eunuchs at a married couple's home. Anyway - I won't say what happens in the end, but it was an excellent first film.

I also met a British filmmaker who worked in the BBC Documentary Film Unit for 30 years before deciding to settle in India. Holy Men and Fools, documents a journey through the Himalayas with a living Baba (Indian spiritual leader) and his disciples. It's like a mini-quest, but with interesting characters. He should get a few sales with this, so look out for it.

Y'know, it's pointless describing films when I'm staying here in Mumbai. The other day I walked into a Chai (Indian tea) shop alone and several guys stood up to let me have the booth. Hot Chai was immediately set down on the table and everybody suddenly became very considerate. I thought, Uh oh - here we go. I'm about to get ripped off. But when I paid for it, the guy asked for 10 rupees - just like he had with everyone else. I left feeling a bit confused. Why all this red carpet treatment? I get stared at a lot. Often I'm the only white guy walking. But it's not intimidating. Is it curiosity?

I asked my Indian friends. At first I thought it was because white = cash. But it's much more complicated than that - and it goes right back to the British. Many people in India feel that the government isn't doing its job properly. It's a big job, but there are problems with corruption etc. Apparently most Indians (these guys reckon 90% of Indians) feel that India was better when teh British were here. Things ran smoothly - there was organisation, people had a place and there were fewer poor.

White guys are considered to have this extra thing about them. Some people think that they are more intelligent, better educated, wiser and that they have the skills to run things better. More acumen. By treating whites with respect, it is thought that a bit of this extra stuff will rub off on you. As Indians are very religious people, this ties in well.

It's all about luck, karma and anything is possible here . . .

(to be continued)

9th Mumbai International Film Festival

2006-02-05T13:52:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm truly settled in now. The festival has started. Documentaries, short films and animation. Great stuff. Finally found a good net place to post my BLOGs. I'm sure there are millions of readers.

The Mumbai International Film Festival is pretty cool. The Indian docos are nicely controversial and the short films are very entertaining. One short film, "Ryan" was inspiringly brilliant! It was a mind-blowing animation about a guy having trouble hanging on to his creative edge as he grew into his 40s. Not sure why that one was so appealing ;).

I'm learning about India by a mixture of sitting in an air-conditioned cinema and walking the streets. The roads are really dangerous because of the traffic. There doesn't seem to be a system of rules. The whole city is all a little random in terms of the overall organisation. I don't know how the festival organisers have managed to pull anything together.

As I was warned, India has a public service problem similar to England back in the 50s. It pays to carry a bunch of photos with you. A lot of forms and pens. You really have to ply information out of official people as they are very polite. They assume that you know a lot about things and offer only small nuggets of information.

The Indian head-wobble is hard to get used to. As I talk to Indian people, the head starts to wobble - as if in disagreement. But it's the opposite. I kind of knew this, but it's different when you see it so much. It's as if they are about to launch into a great confrontational debate - but it's more of an empathetic gesture.

Also, guys hold hands here - which is a bit confronting. I know a few people back in Perth who would punch the wall thinking about this. I'm sure those same guys would suddenly get really confused if it happened to them ;)

There are Aussies here, and I've made a few new friends - but I'm also making Indian filmmaker friends. By hanging out with them, I'm learning SUCH A LOT about this culture. There are many subleties and things can be really confusing - especially the politics. Whoever is in charge of India has a mammoth task. I don't see how it's possible to govern a country of 1.2bn people. Or this city. Mumbai has a population of between 16 and 20 million people (no census could count for the poor here).

Because there is little in the way of social welfare, people are pretty much left to their own devices - which includes begging.

I saw a documentary about shanty people living under a railway platform - right next to the tracks! The documentary was about how the government was trying to evict them so they could modernise the railway!

I told the cab driver that there was a lot of poor people in India, but he thought I'd asked him to show me the poor people. I nodded in exasperation (my accent is strong, I think) and he took me for a drive alongside the railway. After about 10 kilometres of gazing at people living under hessian potato sacks and digging holes deep in the roadside in search for clean water - I put my camera away. I felt like crap and developed a bit of a lump in my throat.

I remember a fellow Perth filmmaker (now a Producer) asking me what it was that really touched me as a filmmaker - what moved me. What brings me to tears. My answer at the time (I was 21) probably sounded a bit smart-arse. The plight of humanity, I said. He wasn't impressed.

I'm not sure what I really meant then, but I think I know what I meant now.

It freezes me to think about these people. I can't talk about it. It's a real REAL world shame.

No wonder there's a Bollywood. These people have nothing else.

Mumbai madness

2006-02-03T12:26:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I've arrived in Mumbai for what people call the Mumbai experience.

It looks absolutely gorgeous from the plane, at night. I could see fireworks bursting in the sky below and little campfires everywhere. In fact the whole of India seemed to be peppered with lights - not like Australia at all.

But then the plane landed!

Basically, I'm in the world's biggest shanty town.

We got off and had to walk over the tarmac because airport staff were on strike. The papers are all aglow about how efficient things are here and how the government is doing so well. Hmm. Looks to me like the place doesn't have a government.

My first Mumbai night reminded me of Bali (admittedly, the only other place I've been outside Australia). Everything is rundown, disorganised . . .filthy. The taxi driver got lost, the hotelier hadn't received my booking and I've yet to hear from the festival organisers - the same ones who tout the Mumbai International film Festival as being the most organised film festival in the world . . . Read between those lines!

I'm about to go see them. Wish me luck. I could be begging on the streets tomorrow.

Later my small flock of readers . . .

Kuala Lumpur on nothing at all

2006-02-02T16:52:00.000+08:00

I woke up this morning at 5am. There was some guy on a super loud speaker chanting right outside my hotel room. I opened the curtains to a huge mosque. The Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Shah mosque . . . 142.3 metres high! The chanting and wailing was punctuated with short speeches - religious, I assume.

Discovered that there are two types of police here. Normal, state police and Islamic police! Their job is to enforce Islamic law for Muslims. Things such as drinking alcohol and not facing Mecca at certain times (such as 5am!) are fineable offences. But, as a little bird told me - it's not the fine, but the loss of face which really hurts.

Malaysian Airlines is a bit of fun. Not a moment goes by without a piece of food or beer being shoved into your hands. The guy next to me ordered two beers!

Very friendly people here. Not at all pushy.

Saw half a report on TV that Mumbai Airport technicians are on strike. I've been told to make sure that the taxi driver keeps his windows closed (despite the heat). Apparently beggars try to get in at stop lights.

Here's my plane . . .

Bags are packed

2006-02-01T01:45:00.000+08:00

Had my shots, got my digestion drugs and I'm about to cut my latest podcast with Michael Bond and upload it before I go on a filmmaker's trip to Mumbai. Thanks to ScreenWest, the Mumbai Film Festival organisers and the Lotteries Commission of WA, I'm on my way.

I'm not a big traveller, so have no idea what to expect.

What a fiasco to get Visas, medical shots and organise hotels, transfers, insurance and flights etc. Stressful stuff. I guess people who travel a lot get it all the time. I suppose you develop a knack. Anyone travel to a festival? Post a comment. Please!?

I've charged up my MP3 player with The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" - supposedly influenced by their own trip to India back in the 70s. I've also got Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives", Godley and Creme's "An Englishman in New York" and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" to keep me company. Those guys will be my teddy bears. Now I know why some kids suck their thumbs and talk to security blankets.

I got the latest issue of New Scientist, Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" (fascinating stuff) and a whole bunch of podcasting stuff. I plan to "record sounds" and "take pictures" while I'm travelling in Mumbai and post them on geoffrey.com.au when I get back. Plus there'll be a special something for the ScreenWest website.

Stay tuned. Enjoy my podcast with Micky. I'm a bit scared (travelling alone) ... but this should be VERY interesting...

Bollywood or Bust

2006-01-25T06:56:00.000+08:00

I just got a letter of invitation from the Mumbai International Film Festival. My film has been selected to screen in-competition and they want me in Bombay next week!

They're paying for my accommodation and ScreenWest will (probably) come to the party for the flight. When I get there, it'll be bread and water for tea!

All this is right after me doing a podcast called Filmaking is the new rock 'n' roll. I had no idea that filmmaking really could be the new rock n roll. It's definately a rock n roll lifestyle - shooting off to exotic locations at the drop of a hat. It's not a rock n roll lifestyle in that you don't get paid. Filmmakers don't have managers. Well, this one doesn't.

I actually have the flu right now (so stand back a bit) so wasn't feeling in the mood to go anywhere. But the thing is - you can't really not accept such an invitation. How often does such an opportunity come around? I've had films in festivals before, but I've never been invited to one. It sometimes means that they want you there to collect some kind of award or give a speech. It's very embarrassing for a festival to give an award without the recipient being in attendance.

Awards are realy crap, but they give you kudos when it comes to getting cash for say, a feature. They also come with prize money. In Mumbai - that' about AUS$3-7,500 if you win. Which would be nice. I have a lot of bills to pay. But I'm not getting too excited about winning anything.

I'm pretty sure they have the internet over there, so I'll definately post my adventures for you - my meagre, but well-loved audience. I hope you can feel the love ... Because I am giving it...

9th Mumbai International Film Festival

2005-12-16T10:23:00.000+08:00

I had to do a search on the internet. Nobody told me Bombay had changed its name to Mumbai.

From various sources on the internet: "The name comes from the name of one of the old Koli goddesses, Mumba Devi, a temple to whom now stands in Bhuleshwar. The name Bombay may have got attached to the British settlement as an English corruption of the Portuguese description of the harbour, Bom Bahia, meaning good bay."

So "A Stone Throw" has finally been accepted into a festival. Mumbai. It will screen in India next February. Which means I can now organise for a local screening. Cast and crew have been stopping me in the streets - as if the shoot was just a dream. At three days (and a hefty 3 months post-production) - it seems like a dream.

Since making the film, I've been putting my energy into Geoffrey - trying to get in a bit of cash. I'm doing a website and e-marketing campaign for Sue Taylor's feature Last Train to Freo (the link is to Taylor Media as the site ain't up yet).

We didn't get into Clermont-Ferrand. Maybe it was the 3629 other entrants! They selected 77 films - most of which were shot on 35mm.

Last thought: If I were an international film festival with 3630 registered film entries, I'd have some kind of quality assurance test in place. Films shot on 35mm look much better than films finished on tape. No matter what the content. Right?

100 Aussie films for the Cannes rep.

2005-11-23T10:14:00.000+08:00

Just got off the phone from the AFC. As you may or may not know, the Cannes' Film Festival scout, Christian Jeune, is in town (that's Sydney, Australia) and he's here to view Aussie shorts and features made in the last 12 months.

He has about 100 films on his desk - including one VHS cassette of "A Stone Throw".

I bet you every single director and producer has just a little spark - just a teensy tiny wish - that their film will win the coveted Palme d'Or for the best short film.

100 films ... and he may take none!

A pointless post. But you gotta let the kids know how hard this is.

"A Stone Throw" does the festival circuit

2005-10-21T20:48:00.000+08:00

The short film I recently directed (A Stone Throw) is officially finished and my Producer, Dale Fairbairn, has entered it into strategically-picked festivals around the world.

Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand and Mumbai now have a copy. Oberhausen, Germany is next. The plan is, before we release it here, for a local screening in Western Australia, we want to give it a bit of international pizazz.

But the chances of getting our short into an international festival are slim.

Making a short film is strange. There's no demand for it. You don't get paid (well, you get about $1 per hour). And sending it off to the festivals costs a lot of money. AUS$200 for entry fee and freight and another $400 for the Digi Betacam print - should your film be accepted. Some of the bigger, international festivals (like Cannes, Venice and Berlin) receive up to 1,500 short films from around the world and screen about 15. They will only screen your film on 35mm - which means that you (or the Australian Film Commission and your state giovernment) have to suddenly raise $15,000 for a 10 minute print!

It's a crazy business and I'm not sure why I'm in it.

You end up spending your fee. My fee was originally going to be $1,500, but that was pared back to $500 when we calculated marketing costs. So there's no income to speak of. I develop websites and teach for that.

In Australia, if you're lucky, the State government will give you a budget. The WA government usually gets around 50 short film scripts each year - all vying for a stockpile of $120,000. That usually translates to two lots of $60,000. It costs about $10,000 per minute to make a short film. Our film is 11 minutes, so we had to make the money stretch. The Federal government sometimes steps in to finance the shortfall, but you can't rely on that (they get hundreds of such requests per year). Money spent is seen as a kind of industry development and many short film crews are made up of non-paid, budding student filmmakers.

A Stone Throw cost $66,000 and was entirely funded by ScreenWest and the State Lotteries Commission. It's my sixth funded short, but I've made about 25 all together. And I've been down this road before.

In 1991, I directed a film called Bunny. It cost $25,000 and did very well on the festival circuit. It even sold to Channel 10, Seven, and SBS here in Australia. In 2003, it even screened on a Spanish cooking show! That didn't mean I got paid more. The copyright belongs to the Producer, not the director (unless your Producer asks if you want a share like Dale did). Mostly, copyright on a short film is worthless as they rarely return more than about $1,000.

They almost NEVER return their original budget.

In 1991 Bunny was sent to the Australian Film Commission's marketing department who called to ask me for publicity materials. Some big festivals were interested. So I scrabbled together a bio, photos etc. From 300 Australian shorts, Bunny was selected by both the Cannes and Oberhausen festival representatives. The reps took 3 Australian films back to each of the festival juries. Unfortunately, both juries passed on australian shorts that year.

So. While most of me is trying to drum up more web work and marking student assignments, another part of me is watching the phone. Hopefully, I'll have some good news for my next post.

Until then, please leave a comment.

Waiting For The Best People

2005-07-26T20:57:00.000+08:00

How long does it take to make a short film?

Actors and crew call me up every day asking when the film will be ready. We shot for 3 days in April (24-26th inclusive) and it's still not finished. What happened?

Well, firstly, we cut the film and then had to recut it. ScreenWest weren't the only ones unhappy with the cut (and when they're not happy, they withdraw funding). Producer Dale Fairbairn wasn't happy with it and even I thought that there was a cut hiding in the rushes ... somewhere.

We had to wait until Tim Wellburn was avaiable, so that put us on hold for a month.

The new recut also pushed back our post sound and so we had to wait for Richard Mahony's availability. We were meant to do a sound track lay this week, but he's not feeling the best, so now we will start on August 8th.

Jonathan Mustard did a fantastic job on a soundtrack that didn't match the film. He hadn't seen a single image and so had to reconstruct the music almost from scratch! I'd say we had to wait for that, but he was actually always ahead of us by at least a week!

We had to wait for the grade - which was done at Island Films in Sydney.

So there are a lot of stops and starts in post-production, dictated by people's availability. We could get different people to do each of the elements in this film, but we've chosen (who we feel are) the best.

I'd say "A Stone Throw" will be finished by the end of August - which is about right. For me anyway, a short film takes about 3 months. And that's 3 months without pay! This one has taken 4 due to the waiting.

Hope you get over that cold Richard.

Cutting out the story

2005-06-29T06:23:00.000+08:00

Hello.

Just got back from Sydney where I was lucky enough to work with editor, Tim Wellburn (Black Robe, Mad Max 2 etc. etc.). Dale Fairbairn (my Producer) convinced him and Island Films to get involved in our 10 minute, ScreenWest funded short, "A Stone Throw."

I wrote the screenplay with Phil Jeng Kane and no matter how hard we tried, the picture cut just wasn't working. We were slowly losing our story with each attempt and we needed a fresh, experienced set of eyes. There were some difficulties with coverage, but they seemed to dissolve with Tim at the helm.

It took him 4-5 days. I let him choose takes, cutting style - the lot and I must say, he did a fine job. He really got into the story. The cut was fresh, new and completely understandable. I was so happy to see the film working. He'd solved all the problems we'd had with previous cuts (there were 4 of those). Most problems were brought about by limited coverage on an incredibly tight, TV-style shoot.

Now we have to get ScreenWest approval before we go into track lay (Richard Mahony), music (Jonathan Mustard), mix and final online.

Stay tuned.