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Showing posts from 2016

Why films are no different to life imitating art, far more than art imitating life.

"Life imitates art far more than art imitates life". Oscar Wilde I had to include a photo of me taking a picture, recording life, events and never leaving home without it.  In fact, no body leaves home without their camera any more.  It sits in the back pocket, ready for a selfie, to snap a weird combination of objects set aside somewhere, or a recording of any event that is important.  Art imitates life, constantly, and those recordings are of everything that exists, everything that the eye or the heart can see.  Art is not just about photography however, art encapsulates all the creations that come from an enlightened thought or inner gift.  All creations for me are art.  Film is art, and film, also needs to imitate life, but for a long time now, life has been imitating art, meaning that life has been imitating film.   I'm spurred on today by the comments made by a friend after watching Rogue One; A Star Wars Story, that there were not enough female characte

Looking into the future of film exhibition

"Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now." Mattie Stepanek Mattie Stepney died at the age of thirteen,but in his very short life, he managed to publish poetry, and complete a volume of essays on peace. He also suffered from a rare disorder, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy.  Despite his age, he was a visionary and a philosopher.  To me, the quote that revolves around the future starting right now is very poignant, especially in the shift that is evidently occurring in the exhibition of film.  If we are stop and look into the future of what exhibition would look like for film, it is best to look at what is actually happening right now. No other time in history has the ability to exhibit and view film been so easy.  Gone are the days where the only time you could view films was with a collective audience in a public space or cinema.  Nowadays, films can be viewed online, in galleries, in outdoor public spaces with pop up projectors, i

Chevalier-a film by Athina Rachel Tsangari

Chevalier-a film by Athina Rachel Tsangari Chevalier has a few meanings in the English language-It could mean a member of the French orders or knighthood, or it could mean a chivalrous man.  When Athina Rachel Tsangari and Efthimis Filippou co wrote their screenplay for Chevalier which Athina Rachel Tsangari went on to direct, I suspect that the latter definition was at the fore of their thinking for their film.  Six men, connected in some way through relations or friendship, come together to holiday and dive on the doctor's yacht.  The nature of their relationships are vaguely conveyed through their work, or loosely tied by the relationship of some to the doctor's daughter, Anna.  This though, is not the driving theme behind the film, what drives the story forward is the game that they all decide to participate in; a game that will narrow in on a winner who will ultimately become the general best at everything and win the signet ring, the chevalier, and wear it with pri

Marketing the Indie Film

Marketing the Indie Film  "Good marketers tell a story." Seth Godin It wasn't long ago that I had blogged about the importance of marketing the Indie Film.  I knew that marketing began at the very start of the film, what I wasn't entirely sure about, however, was what sort of tactics the studios were using to let people know about their new film in the making.  After some research on the marketing techniques used, I came to realise that clever marketing begins with the accumulation of 'fans'.  For, it is the 'fans' that become an audience.  A film cannot be successful without an audience and the marketing must revolve around this one simple fact. The techniques that the studios use, mainly revolve around the utilisation social media tools, and whilst this is certainly accessible and free to everyone, the question still begs on how it can be used cleverly, interestingly and uniquely to formulate a marketing plan that is going to accumu

The Cinematographer and the Director

"Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities...much more so than music or language." Conrad Hall There is always such a sense of achievement when the full stop is placed at the end of that script.  As a writer and director, that script has already been played out, but how to relay to the cinematographer exactly what is in each shot?   Con Filippidis is a cinematographer with over twenty years experience.  Together we have completed two films to date: 25.12 and Lifting Clouds.   Both films required lots of planning in pre production that entailed shot lists, recces and storyboarding.  I asked Con a few questions on his experiences as a cinematographer and the responsibilities that come with it, which in so many ways make it "infinite in its possibilities." 1. How does the cinematographer work with the director to create a film? As a cinematographer it is important to spend as much time as possible in pre production talking about and analysing the

Location, location, location

Location, location, location "I mean, the whole idea of movies was it was special to go and see - you went to a movie theatre to see something that was magical and amazing, in a very special location." Bob Balaban. The magic of a film can always be attributed to the location that the film is set in.  A location is not just a space where the characters will play out their roles, it is more than that.  A location is the space that becomes a character in its own right, a new world, familiar, but all so alien, sets the mood and the tone of the film, and becomes the overall psychological precipice for the duration of the film.  In a lot of ways, it is one of the most important elements for consideration, for it becomes the canvas that the director will draw and paint on. The photo on the left was taken on location for Lifting Clouds, a short film I directed which is in post production.   It was filmed on an estate in the Warrnambool area, isolated, beautiful, dreamy, w

She Shot...

“If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.”  -Kathryn Bigelow Women in Film and Television, Victoria, have for a number of years now, been celebrating International Women's Day by showcasing women filmmakers/graduates from the different Film schools across Victoria.  Since its inception in 2013 with what started as a screening of women filmmaking students and graduates from the Victorian College of the Arts, it developed to present Swinburne University female filmmaking students and graduates in 2014, and Deakin University female filmmaking students and graduates in 2015.  This year , Internation al Women's day will be celebrated at RMIT with female students/graduates from the School of Media and Communication.  The filmmakers and media collaborators that will be represented are as follows:  Big Girl ( work in progress) - Sheer

THE ARTISTIC BUSINESS ACUMEN

The Artistic Business Acumen "You cannot be a success in any business without believing that it is the greatest business in the world...You have to put your heart in the business and the business in your heart." Robert Sobel IBM: Colossus in Transition (1981) The one aspect to being a creative is that creativity is never really synonymous with business.  Artists will be quick to note that they are not business people, but creators, and I am quick to note that artists are the ultimate business owners.  In a normal business, a product is developed by someone else, bought by another business, marketed and on sold.  It passes through so many 'agents' before it reaches the final destination; the consumer.  I call this the 'business mile', like a 'food mile', only it directly refers to the mileage of the product before it reaches it's destination.  The artist or creator though can reach the final destination; the consumer, without all of

Marrying your craft

Marrying your craft "Where there is love, there is life." Mahatma Gandhi Often I think of the commitment to one's art, the passion that is involved and the headiness associated with creation that it always brings me to the one conclusion that it really is a marriage of sorts.  I cannot anthropomorphise art, but I can attest that to delve into creation one's complete being has to be given over in all capacity of mind and body.  It becomes a union, there is no doubt about it, all consuming, like a lover's glance at the very beginning of a relationship when euphoria takes over, only with art, this euphoric state lasts for a life time. I pretend that art or creation does not infiltrate my entire life, that I have normality around me, but here is where I lie.  I must accept that when I am creating I am all consumed, and when I am not, I am still all consumed.  To others, it looks like a vagueness, a far away state, my head elsewhere, my head in the clouds, and I
Marketing in Film. "You can't sell anything if you can't tell anything".  Beth Comstock It is apt that I begin my first blog of 2016 featuring a female marketeer, Beth Comstock who initially studied science, moved into television production and is now the new vice chair of business innovation at General Electric, USA. More than her achievements, it is her take on marketing that excites me.  Essentially a sale cannot occur without a story, and so here, the big global companies of the world are all banding to create stories for their products that potentially induce an emotion or a journey for the consumer so that the product is appealing and consequently sold. I have to add that right there, is the one advantageous aspect that filmmakers have, the ultimate storytellers, and yet, the concept of marketing in the filmmaking process is always thought about right at the end, and by then, it can be all a little too late. The big studios have caught on to this and