As an ex-graphic designer, I find hard-copy printed material very stressful, especially when designing things for yourself. It’s one of the things I love about the web, it’s always liquid (the ink never dries), so you can always go back and fix and refine details, but with print, once it’s signed off that’s it. It’s on the press, to be printed X amount of times, over and over, mistakes and all! I had a few print bungles when I was a designer, can you tell…? : )
Thats said, I’ve been very excited about the printed material for the release campaign. The poster looks great, (thanks Marcus ! I’m sure I drove you a bit nuts, but I appreciate your fine work!). Also I’m very pleased that Madman printed the posters ‘double sided’, which means the colours and print will be more solid and saturated once in the light boxes. Geeky I know, but so much thought, time and effort goes into making these items, it’s cool to know they will be presented as best they can be. I’m sure it makes an impact on the public even if it’s on a subconscious level.
Along with the regular A5 flyers, we have also designed some beautiful ‘limited edition’ fold out poster/flyers, that should be in your favorite cinema, cafe, bookshop etc very soon…
My friends Jono and Tim who shot all of the behind the scenes footage and are now neck deep in over 40 hours or so of footage that once cut down will eventually make it onto the DVD etc. They have been doing a great job (at making me look like a dill).
“235″ as in an Arri 235, one of the most compact 35mm film cameras. It’s light-ish (you couldn’t really hold it like that picture shows for too long…) and portable, but it’s not a synch camera which means you can’t shoot and record sound at the same time, unless you want the sound of the camera whirring away in the back ground.
“M.O.S” stands for ‘Mit Out Sound’. Deriving from an old Hollywood story where a German director asked for a shot to filmed ‘Mit Out Sound’, without sound, and the camera assistant complying and writing M.O.S on the slate.
We shot quite a few sequences of the film like this. “235 MOS” meant we could strip right back and work as a (even) smaller team, usually just 3 or 4 people, and work very quickly. I love shooting this way, it really frees you up. Depending on the set-up and what the scene requires what might normally take a 3-4 hours, might take an hour. Of course you can’t shoot with synch sound, which means it will have to be created later in po$t.
Apart from just saving time though, I find it creates a far more direct and intimate shooting situation. And this above everything else is what I crave.
I’m really happy to have this out there. It was always going to be a tricky trailer to cut, as the film relies on the audience not knowing much about whats going on, particularly in the beginning, so we never wanted to reveal to much about what actually happens in the film, it would be very easy to give it all away.
But I think the trailer sits in the right place. it gives you a good idea of the look and the feel and suggests what happens in the film, but doesnt show you everything. It teases in the best kind of way.
Most importantly I hope it makes people curious enough to see the film.
Rumour has it that Tom has had to shave his head, smooth to the skin! Hard to imagine. All part of his next role in the new Nadia Tass and David Parker film.
Ahead of our national release on the 2nd of July, Last Ride will screen at the Sydney Film Festival on Sunday the 7th of June, at 4:30pm at the State Theatre. Tickets on sale now.
On the weekend I met a book publisher (who coincidentally publishes the book that one of my favorite films of the year is adapted from…). He was a very interesting guy and very passionate about books and the publishing world in general. He told us that when he turned 40 he was confronted by the fact that even if he read a book every week until he was 80 or so, he could only ever read around 1500 more books. And he set about forming a list of what those 1500 book would be, increasingly lamenting the fact that he would be forever missing out on more and more books that he would love to read but through his own mortality would never be able to read. The more he put on the list, the more he realised would be left off the list.
It’s really got me thinking about the never ending stream of films, books and music that enters my life. Just when you think you’ve explored a certain writer / director / artist / genre etc, you find out you’re just scratching the surface. The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know.
Think about it though. If you knew you had a finite amount to read, watch and listen to, what would you choose?
Above is a snap of the ‘To View or Re-view’ section of my DVD collection. Every film in this section I really want to watch (and every couple of weeks new films get added to it). If I was to watch one of those films every week or so, that’s nearly a years worth of viewing just there. And thats not taking into consideration the constant MUSTSEE films that are constantly coming my way, from the past, present and future.
Last week I spent a day filming with an old friend Celeste, who lives in Strathewen, one of the communities that was devastated by the Black Saturday fires.
Even two months after the fires, although there is some regrowth peaking through, the place still looks and feels apocalyptic. Also kind of beautiful, in it’s own sad and surreal way.
I haven’t shot anything documentary related for a long time. It is my first love when it comes to film making. It’s what I studied at film school, and docos have inspired and challenged me more over the years than any other type of film.
It felt great to be there with just a camera with a mike on top, chatting to and observing people as they did their thing. It’s a really simple process that’s totally stripped bare of all the organised chaos that shooting drama brings with it. Hopefully I will get back up there and shoot some more.
As an ex-graphic designer, I find hard-copy printed material very stressful, especially when designing things for yourself. It’s one of the things I love about the web, it’s always liquid (the ink never dries), so you can always go back and fix and refine details, but with print, once it’s signed off that’s it. It’s on the press, to be printed X amount of times, over and over, mistakes and all! I had a few print bungles when I was a designer, can you tell…? : )
