Saturday, March 31, 2007

one down, and about fifty five billion to go

I've completed my script, but there are parts of it I want to change before I shoot it off. I'm glad to have made it through the whole onerous process, but at the same time, it feels like the biggest anticlimax - as in, where to from here? I guess the worst bit is not knowing whether they'll get made, and not being able to have a lot of input into the production of your own script. I know this has to be done for a reason, but it's the first time for many of us to be put in this position, and I just find the uncertainty of it a little uninspiring. I'm sure once groups are formulated and we get our own production balls rolling, things will fall into place.

It's starting to eke closer, as much resistance as time has yielded in passing. This week's readings go into detail about light balance, how to focus a camera, all kinds of other delectable technicalities that will come in useful in the near future. I'm itching to get back into it, though.. to be honest. It's been far too long.


And now to change this bloody ending. I can't decide whether it's more difficult to begin a script or to suspend it. They both do my head in.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

time's a tickin'

So our scripts are due on Monday. Mine's about half-way done, so about 90 seconds left to go. I never dreamed one would need to muster so much energy to get three minutes' worth of film onto paper! Deceptively difficult, that one.

Still, I'm having a hell of a lot of fun crafting Fiend, particularly the voice-overs of Art himself. The character is really beginning to grow on me. I wonder if this is a natural part of the scriptwriting process? Do writers form curious bonds with the little imaginary fragments they breathe into life, or am I just uncessarily sentimental about these things??

In my mind I have a vision of a very experimental, sound-driven narrative. I want the audience to get inside this guy's head, to feel and experience the smacked-out delirium that had overtaken his world. The disorientation associated with a come-down is like a metaphor to mirror his fall from grace... from humanity, from himself. Though being the overwhelming optimist I am, I can't let it simply be a reflection based on that fact. There needs to be change, there needs to be movement. Characters must be fluid, as all humans are.

I'll bring him round full circle, but I won't lead him the entire way. Change is in the hands of the individual. Still tossing up a few motif ideas in my head, but I daresay there'll be a jehova's witnesses encounter somewhere along the lines - just ot keep life interesting of course :P

Watch this space.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

nature of the beast: learning the ropes in cinematography

Today's hour of power was spent brushing up on what, by now, ought to be a given/second nature for many of us, but it certainly can't hurt to reiterate the basics at this point in time.

The nature of the camera has a large impact on the way films are shot, as it has a direct correlation to the nature of the frame. These composition choices need to be clearly thought out from the very beginning, so that mise en scene can be taken care of accordingly.

We are lucky in that the cameras we are using have viewfinders. Apparently a feature was shot on someone's mobile phone last year - I can only imagine how much of a headache it's going to be to edit something of that quality, but hey, it's a world-first and the technology makes it possible in this day and age.

The aspect ratio of a frame should always be used to its full potential. We can opt to shoot in 16x9 as opposed to the native 4x3, if stylistically this will add specific meaning to the narrative. The key to always ask oneself is how much are your shots going to reveal? How flat do you want the frames to be? Remember, the frame is NOT reality, i.e. cheating is permissible.

Godard commented on the nature of watching (audiences), whilst watching a film. The idea is to make viewers forget that they are, in fact, being engaged - that is, to sublimate their senses without becoming overbearing. The sky may be the limit with character, but from a technical perspective, everything must serve a purpose. Once people remember that they are watching a film, it loses any lasting impact it could have had on them, making it moot.

There's one hell of a fine line between theory and practice - will any of dare to cross it this semester?

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

conceding defeat

Well, I've given up and given in to some extent on trying to get WordPress to be my friend. I figure that if I do get it up and running I can just set it up to feed straight from here anyway, so that's that.

This morning's lecture gave me a lot to think about regarding how I want my script to be shot. I hadn't really given it a great deal of thought prior, but the aspect ratio used to film with can make an enormous difference to the narrative structure. A film like Apocalypse Now, for example, would not have had such an oblique, end-of-days feel to it had it been done on 3:4 or even 16:9. Its very structure and cinematic dexterity is heavily reliant upon the inclusion of the wide-wide screen, and Coppola's meticulous attention to detail is enough to awe the pants off generations of audiences, 28 years on from its release.

It's funny to think that movies were awesome well before I was born.

(No, I'm not an ageist, damnit!)

I'm thinking 3:4 might be the go with mine, but we'll see. I've flirted with the idea of 16:9 but honestly, I think it's probably best to stick to convention - at least for the purposes of this task and the genre it pertains to. I have thought about filming in black and white though, not just for the memory sequence, but the entire piece. Hmmm. We'll see what transpires when I finish the script.

Speaking of which... I'd better get on it - while I've still got energy (and motivation).

Monday, March 26, 2007

metamorphosis

I want to get inside this character's head. How would I feel if the closest thing to living was having methamphetamine coarsing through my veins? When did blood cease to be enough to sustain a human being?

I'm basing this story partially on two people I know. One (M) is a recovered meth addict, the other (J) is a current crack addict. The latter I would consider quite a good friend. The age group is similar, but scenario here is totally different - both of these people I know via the melbourne queer scene - but the principle still stands. Though it wouldn't really occur to me to broach the subject (the term deaf ears springs to mind), I do hope that, eventually, he finds a reason to rid himself of his crackpipe, of his own will.

Maybe I'm trying to personify courage. I don't know. I'm trying to put into a metaphor what is impossible for me to conjure up into my verbal interactions with the world. I've seen drugs do some nasty shit to people, their relationships, their interactions with the everyday world, and most of all themselves. The fact that most of them live in denial scares me. 'Creatures of habit' takes on a whole new meaning when one of your 'friends' goes through a good $100/day of crystallised cocaine.

I understand the desire to want to put a barrier between yourself and your emotions. But it's a depressing way of life and a degenerative one if you let it control you. I'm 21 and already I can see this... does that mean I can make a difference?

Friday, March 23, 2007

flickerfest 2007 - opening night

Last night I ventured out with a good mate to KinoDendy cinemas in Collins St, to catch the Opening Night of Flickerfest. Currently in its 16th year running, Flickerfest is Australia's most competitive International short film festival. For $14 apiece we were treated to a swag of award-winning films from around the world, varying anywhere from 6-20 minutes in length - not to mention the catered (booze included) afterparty, where they served up these gorgeous little lamb cutlets with pomegranite seeds on top.

Pretty swish, eh?
You'd better believe it.

We actually sat in front of Christine Rogers, the old Prof Comm admin officer and my tutor from Writing Media Texts last year. The film she was invoved with didn't make the cut for the Melbourne screening, but apparently she'll be working on some bigger and better things in the UK and LA next month. It's always good to see Melbournians heading off into the big smoke... unfortunately, we missed our chance to talk with the two directors of the Melbourne short that's on everyone's lips at the moment, Booth Story. Shortly before the screening, Kassimir Burgess and Edwin McGill gave a quick thank you speech, which I probably would have appreciated more if I'd known how good the film was going to be.

Brilliant stuff. I gave an incoherent, gushing review in the tute today, which probably didn't articulate any good reasons why my fellow students ought to suss this film out, only that it would have them rolling in the aisles and send shockwaves of patriotism down their spines. I guess clever, local cinema always takes me by surprise.

They were all pretty good though. Another stand-out effort was 'Dreams and Desires', which gets double points for originality.. Who'd have thought to rip off dodgy home-made camcorder footage in the style of animation? Really understated yet really effective. My lack of innovation really depresses me when I watch this sort of stuff.

Hoping to get along to tomorrow or Sunday's screenings, but can't foresee having the extra time or money to do so. Bah humbug.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

research: ABC/Four Corners' 'The Ice Age'

[This is what I just watched]
'A shocking close-up study of the new drug of choice: ice'

I guess it had to be done in order for me to understand what I'm getting myself into.. as far as my leading man is concerned. but fuck. Some of that doco is just purely and utterly disturbing. And there really is no other way of putting it.

I guess it's difficult to remain truly objective in the face of an illicit addiction. It is also very hard to rationalise that kind of thing, and the sorts of people they use on their programs really typecase addicts in a way that I don't agree with. Why do they scour the streets until they find the most derelict individuals with children they cannot name and cardboard boxes for homes? That is so disturbingly inaccurate of Australian drug culture it isn't funny.

Most of these addicts have jobs, lives, and friends that they try to hold down, while most of their suffering happens in private. That is the side I want to expose - the boy(or girl)-next-door aspect that gets overlooked in favour of what society deems palatable. If 'people' really knew what went on behind their neighbours' closed doors, they mightn't be such a judgemental mob. Because I know for a fact that drugs are *that* imminent.

It isn't always the junkie sleeping in the cardboard box whose life has been reduced to next-to-nothing.

Damn representation shits me sometimes. I'm going to have so much fun next semester ripping these freaking docos apart. Still, at least now I have some proper food for thought.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

'the art of ventriloquism'

So today's lecture moved onto the technical aspects of filmmaking. I can tell we are gonna be in for a long haul when it comes to learning the ropes with all of the gear we are expected to make use of this year. No more puncing around with mini-DV decks! Naturally I predict many a teary tantrum on my part, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it shall we.


In sum:
-Music can serve a variety of purposes in narrative, not the least common of which can be to act as a transition between shots.
-Sounds can be superficial (imaginary) or filmed on location (wild sounds)
-Silence can speak volumes (we watched a bit of footage from a movie where a rape scene was omitted and instead a clip of some wartime soldiers was inserted, whilst the characters continued to discuss the events - thus we were left to imagine what had happened, evoking a deeper sense of pathos than if we had just seen what these characters were speaking of)
-Dialogue is a key form of synch sound
-Music and sound-effects are known as non-diegetic
-You must choose wisely the location from which you record sounds
-Soundscapes provide good grounds for experimentation, particularly in reference to point of view (take Hitchcock's Rear Window, while Jeff is lying in bed)

Will write more once the readings are done, and will possibly comment on some more Hitchcockian use of sounds.

Monday, March 19, 2007

the million-dollar question

how to avoid being cliche in a postmodern world that continually rips itself off left, right and center?

Thursday, March 15, 2007

from bad to worse

Okay, so now that you all know I'm a religious zealot when it comes to Home and Away, you're going to wet yourselves when you discover my little rainy-day fetish:

Crashing out on my beanbag watching Dawsons Creek DVDs.

Yes, I own all 6 seasons, including the finale.

No, you do not have permission to shoot me.

I don't see what's so bad about it anyway. I mean, a girl's gotta have a hobby, and if it's keeping me off the streets, why not...?


Is it wrong of me to idolise? :P

PS: Cold Feet is an close 2nd... Hey, at least I've got all bases covered! (Aussie/UK/US drama wise)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

light reading

Pretty surprised by this week's readings. I guess when writing a script there is only so much you can say/do before getting back to basics. So far I've enjoyed the lectures, and kind of wish Di was in a position to stay on with us throughout the course. Her input and influence is going to be missed when she moves on.

Since it isn't quite off topic, I'd just like to take this moment to go off on a little tanty rant about the sad, downhill-headed state of one of Australia's most well-loved dramas: Home and Away.

Now, I've been a longeroom Summer Bay resident since the ripe old age of 9, so pardon me if this all sounds like it's hitting a little close to home. Every new season there are new credits, which are infinitely more annoying that the seasons' preceding. Not only this, there is a new style of filming/acting/construction that really only serves to make the show tedious and repetitive... I know, you're all thinking, 'but what else can be done with a drama that's been running for all those years?' - I'm not bagging out the plotline (although some of it in the past few seasons has been utter shite), but I have to say that as one of our main Aussie exports, the way this thing is put together nowadays doesn't do our name or country a lot of justice.

It really is said to see a show like this grow more formulaic and less suspenseful as the years pass. Why doesn't anyone have the guts to change the face of mainstream drama? We could all do with some sense of refreshment. As Alf Stewart would say, viewers are now copping the 'rough end of the pineapple', and the only thing I can attribute this to is a state of sheer complacency.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

snippetts.. or teasers if you will

I find it curious that we are doing both 'drama' and 'documentary' this year when the latter is enduring quite a significant transition. I wrote a Media Ethics paper last year, relating Baudrillard's theme of seduction to the lucrative advent of 'Reality TV'. Also dubbed 'docu-drama', shows such as Big Brother have called the nature of the genres under question, raising a number of ethical questions along the way.

This is just the beginning of the essay. I'll be saving the rest for later on.


Perhaps the most seductive television format to emerge over the past decade is what can loosely be termed 'reality TV'. Programs such as Big Brother, Australian Idol, Survivor, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and The Block have continued to dominate network ratings both nationally and abroad. This mode of observational 'docu-drama', or fly-on-the-wall camera has arguably transformed the viewing style of millions (, playing on presumably different aspects of audience engagement than its 'fictional' predecessors. Most notably, the scriptwriters and actors we've come to know and love are finally eschewed in the process; in which the dramatic displacement of reality masquerades as a kind of voyeuristic 'entertainment', of other peoples (edited) lives (Davies 2000, pp37). Apart from sparking fierce debate about the changing nature of documentary, ethics has resurfaced as an arena for intense discussion - partly because the ethics of this new form - at first glance - appear questionable indeed (Armstrong 2005, pp73).

Friday, March 9, 2007

tips and tricks

Di really knows her stuff when it comes to defining the nitty gritty of character.

The way to getting to really know the in's, outs, strengths and weaknesses of your character is to put them through the mental ringer a few times over. That is, take them out of the context of the story - out them under pressure, gague their reactions to a vast milieu of social situations and predicaments. Will they cave when push comes to shove, or will they persist? What is the life-affirming message you wish to embed in your narrative... or is it even life-affirming?

You could even write a biography.

Di reccommended a good source of internal monologue/reflection, a book entitled 'You'll never eat lunch in this town again'. No better or more compelling way to get inside a persons' head than through a memoir.

Basically, you are not going to make progress with these characters if you aren't willing to get confrontational. This is often more or a challenge for the writer than the character in question. The key to writing colourful, evolved fiction is to dress up every situation to the nines, and work out exactly where their quirks of personality lie.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

meditating on creativity

So the first chunk of this subject seems to be devoted to getting us to 'unleash the dragon' in relation to our creativity reserves.

Most of us are a little rusty in that department. Me especially.

According to Di, it's a writers' volition to tell the world about things. The innate desire to create, to reflect, is something we are driven to share with those around us. Whether it be to make a serious comment on humanity or poke fun at its foibles, the propensity to share that without is part of our cultural makeup. It's what truly helps us form our social identity.

Subtle tension, irony and conflict must be used to a maximum extent, particularly if the piece has been created to serve a greater moral precept. Noir, for example, is a narrative device used to elicit tension. Often, a set of technical formula is so ingrained within a specific genre but that it is indeed subconscious.

Of course, nothing exists in stasis - so these genre are continually evolving, growing. This is also relative to ever-changing values of the viewing audience, who as educated moviegoers are anything but a static, homogenous group.

Today, the sky is in fact the limit when it comes to putting a pen to paper and writing for cinema. Though there may not be a one-size-fits-all approach, the main thing is to relax with the medium and trust one's instincts. Then, and only then will filmmaking retain an element of unrelenting truth... no matter how fictitious the premise or story.

Monday, March 5, 2007

underwhelmed?

Am I the only person who finds the entire scriptwriting process completely underwhelming?

Maybe this is a testament to my boring personality, who knows. I used to be able to make up characters in my head faster than I could conceptualise what I'd just done. Is that the trick...? How do screenwriters manage to stay in that constant, child-like imaginary stasis... or at least, be able to call upon it whenever they like.

Maybe I am underrating myself. I know of a few stream-of-consciousness type exercises that can supposedly get the brain juices flowing. But it's the start of another long and daunting semester, and everytime I think about putting words onto paper my brain starts to freeze up.

Maybe the solution is anti-freeze? hmmm.

Mackendrick's reading this week purports that 'Movies SHOW.. and then TELL'. Films are supposed to be 60-80% comprehensible even if the dialogue is in another language. With this in mind, I'm having difficulty running over the ideas in my head in a way that would have them make sense without the spoken word.

I guess that's where one's ability to work with and adhere to production elements comes in.

Is this a confidence issue? Surely all of us who know how to properly read a film, know in the backs of our brains how to construct one to have it make sense to a viewing audience. I guess we'll find this out in later weeks. Until then... wracking my brains.

Friday, March 2, 2007

list pertaining to the art of moviegoing

Purely for my reference come script writing time:

popcorn
first dates
haunted
darkness
anticipation
storylines
social gathering
time out
french theatre
curtains
magic
communal dreaming
suspension of disbelief
composition
tension
conflict


Okay, so that's rather rough and disorderly.. but there's gotta be a pearler in there somewhere.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

coming out, not copping out

I imagine the feeling I get when admitting out loud that I want to work in film is somewhat similar to coming out of the closet.

I hear that it's not uncommon for gay people to tell friends and family that they're 'bi' first, to ease them into the idea. Which is kind of what I've done in the past, except 'media rep' has always masked my true desire to become a filmmaker.

Well, I'm over it. I'm in my third year of my degree now and I've basically thrown caution to the wind, finally allowing the eternal filmgeek within me to surface without feeling an inexplicable need to silence it.

I guess it's more of an insecurity issue than anything else. The moment you define your destiny - everything changes... And the sheer, fickle competitiveness of the industry, especially within Australia, is enough to shoot down anyone's meagre hopes of big screen success. However, it has been pointed out to me that that alone is not a sufficient reason to abandon my life dreams altogether, and 'copping out' at this point would be perfectly inexcusable on those grounds.

So. 'Ere I am. Enrolled in TV1 and utterly, utterly in love with the content and everything to do with it. This blog is going to be pretty discursive - and, at times I expect, self-deprecating. I really want to make the most out of this course though. I mean, it's pretty much gonna suck if I fail...!