MORE THAN A FEELING

Hot off the press. More Than A Feeling, photographs from the second series of Puberty Blues. Available in hardcover and ebook. Or as a special volume with Flaming Youth and More Than A Feeling together. Way more info here.

It's taken a bit longer than I expected because of Gallipoli, but as I've been working through post production, I've been slowly getting a normal life back and I've been able to find the time and headspace to complete the book.

More Than A Feeling feels different to Flaming Youth (photographs from series 1). Not sure how, maybe in the way that Series 1 felt different to Series 2. I flick through the pages of Flaming Youth and feel an overwhelming pull of nostalgia. Flaming Youth feels as innocent as Debbie and Sue in Series 1. More Than A Feeling feels darker, perhaps revealing some of the sting of discontent that comes with older.

I think it feels more complete as a document and as a collection. It's more stripped back and perhaps like Debbie and Sue in Series 2 slightly more confident.

Excerpt from the foreword by Brenna Harding... There is a place on the set of Puberty Blues that escapes the chaos of concentrated pressure. Here, the background noise fades to nothing and the challenges of the day are lost for a brief moment. It is in this place that the quiet beauty of what we are creating is realised in the click of Glendyn’s camera. Suddenly we are not in the high-pressure world of a television set nor even experiencing the newest development in character, but instead in a limbo between art and life.

NOMINEES

The very best of luck to the Puberty Blues cast members who are nominated in tonights AACTA Awards. Puberty Blues has scored seven nominations all up, including Best Drama Series. Very proud of these guys (and all of our cast of course!).

Brenna Harding, Best Young Actor

Ashleigh Cummings, Best Actress

Dan Wylie, Best Supporting Actor.

Susan Prior, Best Supporting Actress.

FLAMING EBOOK

Flaming Youth, Photographs from Puberty Blues is now also available as an eBook here for AUD$4.99 (or click on the book cover, top right, for more info). The eBook is pretty much the same as the hardcover version except you can't feel the weight of it in your hands, or the texture of the paper on your fingertips or press your nose firmly to the page and inhale the sweet perfume of freshly printed ink. The eBook also costs a fraction of the price of the physical copy, which is a true indicator of the cost of nice paper, ink and boutique printing these days.

I could have just created an eBook, but I love, love, love the printed page and buy photographic books almost obsessively. Apart from actually taking photos (or making films), sitting and observing the work of others is the best education there is!

Also available on iTunes.

FLAMING YOUTH

Here it is, Flaming Youth, a book of my photographs from Puberty Blues.

Available in two flavours.

1. Hardcover, 100 pages (AUD$75.00+p) HERE

2. eBook, 100 pages  (AUD$4.99) HERE

I started documenting the making of the show from the start. Like visual notes the photographs became part of the process of discovery of how the series would look and feel. From casting and location scouting to scene ideas, documenting a colour or how the light looked at a certain time of day. What worked, what didn’t. Portraits of actors I admire deeply. The people, places and things that make up the texture and tone of Puberty Blues.

Most of the time the photos were taken in the moments just before ‘Action!’ was called. Or in-between 'takes' to maintain focus and momentum throughout the stop / start rhythm of shooting. Brenna Harding (Sue) called it ‘the gap’. That small amount of precious time just before the cameras roll. I would sometimes take a quick shot just as that moment of transformation would take place, from 'actor' to 'character'.

Sometimes the photo would become the key on how to shoot a scene. A way of trying to find the essence, or a reduction to a single image. An attempt to find stillness in and amongst the chaos of a film shoot.

From the foreword, written by Alice Bell... This book is not a behind the scenes look at Puberty Blues (2012). It’s much quieter than that. It’s as if we’ve been invited to visit a world within the world of Puberty Blues. A place where these characters live and breathe. In Glendyn’s gentle and collaborative way he has captured moments that otherwise might have slipped away, a fleeting glimpse of untamed innocence found somewhere between the sunlight and the shadows. 

SOON

A book of my photographs taken while making Puberty Blues. The first image below is of Ashleigh Cummings, who plays Debbie. I took the photo when I first met her at Mullinars Casting for her initial screen-test November, 2011. Second image, Sue (Brenna Harding) and Debbie going nowhere fast in the front seat of a panel van.

More details soon...

PAPER EDIT

POSTCARDS FROM PUBERTY 2

Wrapped shooting on my last two episodes of Puberty Blues during the week. I found directing this block (Eps 5 and 6) different to my first (Eps 1 and 3). The first eps were all about finding what the series was. What it looked liked, how it sounded, how the scripts translated, how the drama worked, where the performances should sit and how to work with each actor. It was such an exploratory process yet at the same time we were making the series as we went along. Which I love.

But by the second block a lot of the things I didn't know the first time, which kept my eyes open wide, I now knew. This made it a little less exciting, or because it was more familiar it didn't feel as 'special' maybe and perhaps even trickier than usual to remain aware and in the ever elusive moment. But on the other hand, because we had edited and finished the first two eps, we could refine what was working and push harder on the elements that  we wanted to see more of.

In some ways this was a little like my dream model for making a feature film. Where you shoot the film, cut for a period and then go back out and shoot more. The idea being, that the first shooting period is all about finding the film, the second is about refining and adding to what you have already discovered. Building on what the story has become rather than what you thought it might be.

The downside here is that everything that was once exciting, new and fresh, isn't so much the second time round. There is a tendency to become complacent or just used to whats going on around you. I had to remain focused and often remind myself just how beautiful it is what we are doing and within the tight schedules and budget there are wonderful opportunities still there ready and waiting and well worth exploring!