BEACONSFIELD

So... I'm directing a film on the Beaconsfield mine rescue (if you are from Australia you should know the story). The film, to be screened on Channel 9, is being produced by John Edwards (Southern Star) and Jane Liscombe and is written by Judi McCrossin. While I'm still in the thick of developing Cherry Bomb and other things, the offer to direct a project like this was to good to refuse. I dipped my toe into the world of commercial TV with Offspring last year and really enjoyed the experience. So I've been keen to do more when the timing and the project was right.

I've been in 'pre-pre-production for the last month or so (scripting, casting, crewing) and official pre-production starts next week. We start shooting in just under 7 weeks for a scheduled 23 days. The film will be around 2.5 hours in length. Fast and furious to say the least. But that's how it rolls in TV land.

I'm heading back to Beaconsfield in the north of Tasmania today and will be going down the mine for the first time to have a look. The kid in me is quite excited about going a 1000m underground into the dark and the heat. The older, perhaps slightly wiser part of me feels a little uncomfortable about it. Much more to come...

ACTORS! TAKE FUCKIN' NOTE!

This is hows it's done in NY-FK'N-C! Snapped this great poster in a subway station.

WHAT A WONDERFUL (google) WORLD

At first glance these images could be mistaken for great fine art or street photography. But they are sourced from an altogether different type of documentation. Similar to this other guy I blogged about a while ago, Jon Rafman who has created 9-Eyes must spend hours (months?) traversing Google Maps discovering the beautiful, bizarre, surreal and spontaneous moments of poetry and drama that daily life brings with it. All these 'scenes' are captured by the nine lenses perched on top of the Google vehicles as they drive around the world collecting data for Googles street view. It's well worth taking the 15 minutes or so it takes to scroll through the collection.

LAST WEEK IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

NYC pt2

The owner / hoarder (pictured) of the 'record store' assured me at least five times in the three minutes I was in there, that he was coming in "tomorrow to clean up and organise everything...". Definitely the strangest record store I have ever been in.

WAR OF THE ROSES

Brunswick vs Venice Beach.

But who will win?

NYC pt1

I've just returned from twelve fun filled days in New York City. Man, I love that place so much. The impetus to head there this time, not that I need much encouragement, was Last Ride played at MoMA as part of  Adelaide Produces, a programme curated of films that have been produced with the assistance of the Adelaide Film Festival. I've been lucky enough to accompany the film to many great places around the world over the last year and half but this screening was very special indeed. Last Ride is unapologetically an 'art house' film, and MoMA is arguably one of THE greatest of art houses! Here, the audiences were really appreciative, their questions and comments afterwards were encouraging and insightful. It was a great experience all round. I think NY is the one city in the world other than Melbourne, where I feel at 'home'. When I'm there I feel as though every moment, on every street, holds the potential for something amazing to happen. A good friend described New York as 'Disneyland for Adults'. It's such an apt description. I love the way how you can have no real plan but just set off in a direction and you will soon stumble upon something great. Whether it be some incredible architectural, retail or gastronomic experience, strange and wonderful people or being drawn to the details and the incidental moments of beauty that spontaneously jump out while strolling block after glorious block.

LA pt 3 ' The Lookout'

Griffith Observatory. Cool place to watch the big light fade down and all the little lights fade up.

LA pt 2 'The Cars that ate venice'

I'm not really into cars, but somewhere along the line I got hooked on taking photos of all the cool old cars in and around Venice. I had to stop myself from doing it though because you could spend your whole life taking photos of cool cars in L.A.

LA LA pt 1

Currently in L.A. on route to New York where Last Ride is screening at The Museum of Modern Art! More on that later... Also I've recently signed to SKUNK here in L.A for commercial representation in the U.S, so it has been a good opportunity to meet the team face to face and not via skype. SKUNK has a great roster of directors, including fellow aussie John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) and one of my favorite Belgian directors Koen Mortier who made a great film Ex Drummer a couple of years back (Such a freaky film, so wrong but so right. Watch the first 5 minutes here.).

I've only been to L.A a few times, but each time it creeps a little more under my skin. I can see why some people love it and some people hate it. Even though I find it a pretty tricky place at times, I'm really starting to like the place and all the possibility it holds.

Nat (below) is travelling with me and this is the first time we have been 'child free' for a long while. It's a good time. Of course we are missing the kids, but it's so good to spending  some quality time together!

Adalita

I want to send a shout out to my friend Adalita who is currently touring for her debut solo release simply titled 'Adalita'. Both Adalita and her former band Magic Dirt have been a huge inspiration to me over the years, and I'm very excited about her taking the very brave step forward and releasing music as a solo artist. Adalita has created a very special album. Intimate, raw, powerful and deeply personal as the record explores some of the emotional territory she has traversed since the sad death of her former band mate and best friend Dean Turner.

I was really blown away when I first heard the music. Adalita came over for dinner and afterwards we sat in the lounge and listened to an un-mastered copy of the album. I respect Ad for being so open and direct in the way she has made this record. It's such an honest and sincere document both sonically and in it's content.

I took the photographed above of Adalita (click for larger version) late last year. As it's her voice that features so predominately on the album, I really wanted to take a photo of her 'throat', as well as try and show some of the turbulence of her life over the past 12 months. The whole album is pretty much just Ad's voice mixed above her trademark dirty distorted guitar (like it was originally a full tilt rock album, but the rest of the band has been turned down and you are just left with Adalita's tracks), I'm moved by the simplicity of the arrangements, which are almost minimalist at times, and yet they constantly reveal ideas far more complex.

Check out Adalita here on iTunes.

Here endith the raving.

The weekend

Spent the weekend camping in Gembrook, Victoria. So lush amongst the trees and sleeping under the 'supermoon'...

LAST WEEK

(R)ADELAIDE pt2

While in Adelaide I saw the premiere of four upcoming Australian features, all of them worthwhile in their own unique way. Mrs Clareys Concert, Here I Am by Bec Cole (couldn't find a web link), Snowtown by Justin Kurzel (more on this later perhaps) and Hail a film by my friend Amiel Courtin-Wilson. I was lucky to be on set a few times taking photographs and I really loved seeing the way Amiel worked with a very small crew in an intimate and inspiring way. Despite the fact the film was shown as a 'work in progress', with some work still to do, it was still an amazingly pure piece of cinema. On this night it was such a pleasure to watch Amiel and crew celebrate what has been a difficult and all consuming process for them all. As we all clambered into the wee small hours it reminded me of the extreme sense of accomplishment that comes from just completing a film. Well before and regardless of the real world markers of box office, reviews, festivals and awards. Just getting it 'finished', with credits tacked on the front and back and flickering on a big screen in the dark is enough and worth celebrating in itself.

Congrats Amiel!

(r)ADELAIDE pt1

Have just returned from a week in Adelaide where I was invited to be part of The Hive, which is a bit like a creative think tank encouraging the 'cross pollination' of ideas amongst artists from different creative disciplines. For five days I was in the 'lab' with a bunch of really inspiring people. Film directors, theatre directors, choreographers, artists, actors and musicians. I felt very lucky to part of the talent pool but perhaps the greatest thing was the time that we were given to just talk about ideas, with no real quantative outcome in mind. To see how for example choregrpahers Meryl Tankard or Gideon Obarzenak would approach a story idea or just ideas in general. It was a great amount of time very well spent. I went in with a film idea and came out with an idea for exhibition, one that I had been thinking about for a while but it was only half an idea, now I have a full idea and I'm very keen to develop it further. It was so nice to be in a development based workshop that was about 'ideas' and not funding or structure or distribution strategies.

It was held in conjunction with the Adelaide Film Festival, which has fast become the best and most progressive film festivals in Australia. We launched Last Ride there two years ago this week. Festival Director Katrina Sedgwick is one of the coolest people I know. I saw her introduce world premieres, launch programmes and funding initiatives, drive guests around and hug the caterers. Katrina has a the very special quality that I have tried to implement in my own life where when she is talking with you, it feels as though you are the most important thing at that time, regardless of the room full of people around her, or the hundred other things that might be taking up her headspace. She is very present in this way and I find it a most generous quality in her and in people in general.

Beautiful light in Adelaide at this time of year...