Edwin James Lynch

Generating Leads. How hard is a soft-sell? I'm working part time for a mob. On commission. Six days per week. For those of who know me you're probably wondering - but why? I spend so much time promoting Content Marketing , why would I actually go sit in a shop and wait for people to approach me? It would be a thousand times worse if I had to push flyers into people's hands. But it's nothing like that. I literally just sit here, at a table, hiding behind flyers and leaflets. What I'm actually doing is working on client websites and doing SEO. I do nothing at all to promote the product I'm selling. YOU come to ME. It's a slow sales revolution. Everybody's tired of the intrusive fast sell . Surrounding me are flyers, leaflets and promotional material advertising the services of Climate Roof Restorations . Technical information about tiles, roof cavity heat and sun reflectivity surround me. Sometimes I forget to look up. That actually works best. Am ...

How we perceive the world. Today I'm a living poster. A mascot for capitalism. I am - the passive sell . For 7 hours I sit at a desk in the middle of an air-conditioned shopping mall. 6 days per week. An array of pamphlets. A nervous smile. It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I've barely exchanged glances with anyone, let alone produced a lead. I'm helping a mob called Climate Roof Restorations ( www.climateroofrestorations.com.au ). The idea is simple. I sit here, in the middle of this fairly obscure suburban shopping mall in the Northern Suburbs of Perth (I didn't know there was a North)  doing whatever it is I want to do - on my iPad (that's mostly doing SEO and setting up websites for clients). Should anyone come up to me, I am to engage them in conversation, takes notes and email the lead to HQ. It costs $800+ to hire this spot for a week. A bit under $800 for me, plus a commission of $XXX for each successful lead. After paying about $700 per month la...

I just heard that Mum's neighbour, Margaret, has finally died this morning at 8:30am. She was 85 years old. Her husband John died (also from a heart attack) back in 2007 - several months before my own Father.  Both Margaret and John died from a heart attack. I only say this because a curious thing happens when someone dies. We are instantly reminded about our own mortality. My knee-jerk reaction, even before consoling the family is, "How did she die?" or, if feeling a little more empathetic, "I hope she died peacefully." The short of it is that we really want to know what happened. How did the person die? It's almost instinctual and while most people don't ask the direct question, I personally feel the need to know. Why so? I'm not sure. I also want to know how a person "lost their leg" or "caught a disease". It's a stupid, selfish thought, but we all ask it. Internally if not overtly like myself. Not asking would be inauthent...

Digital footprints in the playground of my mind I had a birthday breakfast yesterday with Mum and a few friends. I met my friends in various places here in Western Australia. High School, University, during my poor years as an Australian Filmmaker. I love my Mum - and my friends. Most of my mates are mostly 45+ males and we have a lot in common. I live with my best friend - also my fiancee. But my 47th birthday breakfast made me think back - to the much more exciting, early birthdays. Neurons Outlive Our Bodies I was pretty sure we fake most of our childhood memories by looking at family photo-albums rather than the actual re-firing of old neurons, but this article begs to differ. And to me makes sense. Long live the neuron Accoring to the article, both neurons and olfactory smelling cells are the only cells in our bodies that live as long as we do. In fact, if we were to migrate our neurons into longer-living bodies, they would easily outlive us (all this science suggests to ...

This article was going to be about a new drug I'm on called Duomine , but as I knew very little about River Phoenix (aka the vegan Jimmy Dean ) I thought I'd swat up on what's really going on behind that brain-worm ditty. I'll talk about Duomine another time. The song line I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix is from Aussie alternative band TISM's tasteless 1995 single (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River - and it's a bit cheap, frankly. The single's cover shows a mock-up of River's tombstone and was released shortly after his death. TISM were well-known for criticisin Imperial Hollywood and US pop culture, but they were masters when it came to borrowed interest marketing. More about these guys later. River Bottom's Awkward Life In 1944, River's mother Arlyn was born to a Jewish family living in the Bronx. When she finished school, she married a computer programmer but quickly grew bored of her secretarial life. In 196...

When Dad died in 2007, he left Mum his old wooden boat. Suffice it say that my Mum's not the most mechanically minded person (God Bless her) so the upkeep and maintenance rests with me and my brother-in-law. The Pisces now sits awkwardly on Jetty #2 at The Swan Yacht Club in East Fremantle . The hull rim needs replacing, the boat needs sanding and painting and now the engine's stopped working. I go down there every 2nd Friday night to give 'er indoors a bit of peace and quiet and spend time with my mates. One of the members was going to have a look at the engine, but after a few missed appointments and several un-returned phone calls, I went somewhere else. The Swan Yacht Club has operated in a certain, "charming" way for over 100 years. Mostly this is a club built on the back of working tradesmen and small businesses. These men have built the club into what it is today. Need a new wall? "Member Bob will fix that." Engine kaput? "Hand me tha...

They are making a lot of bikes, but not any of them are flat-bar bikes designed for riding long distances. In fact, if you go check out a shop, you may not see even one on display.

There's a whole bunch of stuff you can't say on your business website , so maybe here's the place to say it. I moved to The Swan Valley at the end of October this year. I was kind of dreading the distance, but weirdly, it's had a very positive effect on my freelance web site development business. For one thing, it's quiet here. As long as you're tucked away from major traffic routes, most places in Perth are quiet, but this place is deathly quiet. There are absolutely no excuses not to get down to work. Most of my friends have left  freelancing and are now working for the man in various capacities, so I'm unlikely to go skiving off for a coffee at the local cafe. I've got about 10 websites on the go presently and about two websites need to be finished in the coming week. I was going great guns until last week, when about 20 of my sites (I have about 100 clients) were needlessly hacked. I rolled the questionable server back to the day before the ...

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.

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'...

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 d...

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 Tr...

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 an...

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 h...

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 simp...

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.

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 ...

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 ye...

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.

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...