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Been spending the week sitting in the dark, colour grading guys sitting in the dark.
Most our conversation about the grade has been about how 'dark' we can make 'the darkness'. I wrote a few months ago about how black a mine really is and I know if we were grading for 'cinema' we could perhaps go a sniff darker than we have. But as Beaconsfield is for broadcast we have to take into consideration that people may watch the film, heaven forbid, with a light on or even wierder, they may not be watching the film on a 'broadcast calibrated monitor'.
Regardless, I'm really happy with the direction the grade is heading and it feels great to be on this side of a long production schedule and to be almost 'finished'.
When I first saw the clip below, my first thought was how useful this would be to see if how effective your visual storytelling is, to asses composition and to study how an audience views a sequence.
My second thought was how all the marketing folk will use it to asses if an audience is staring at their hamburger/cereal box/car long enough.
And my third thought was how incredible Paul Thomas Anderson's has 'blocked' this scene! The way the camera leads you to reveal the other characters and open up the dialgogue between those characters.
Either way this is pretty bloody fascinating!
'This is an excerpt from There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007). 11 adult viewers were shown the video and their eye movements recorded using an Eyelink 1000 (SR Research) infra-red camera-based eyetracker. Each dot represents the center of one viewer's gaze. The size of each dot represents the length of time they have held fixation.'
More info and research examples from TheDIEMProject here.
Spent some time in Sydney over the last week with Stephen Rae who is composing the soundtrack for Beaconsfield. Being a story that takes place predominatley underground, early conversations were about 'elemental' and 'organic' sounds. The sound of rocks, air and water and music that forms in and out of the environment. For the past few weeks (amongst our discussions about cameras, watches and motorbikes) we have been working through demos and musical sketches and these ideas are now becoming more defined.
Through Stephens sonic explorations we have settled on the clarinet as one of the key instruments. I must admit I've never been drawn to the clarinet, I tend to steer clear of 'reed instruments' in general, (except I'm quite fond of the oboe), but the way Stephen is using it is really different. Then I realised there is a whole album I love that uses the clarinet in a beautifully textured and ambient way. So I'm really looking forward to see how it all keeps progressing.
Below: Sydney mid afternoon storm, recording studio flowers and Peter Jenkin (lead Clarinet of the Sydney Opera) recording clarinet sounds for Stephen to compose and edit with.
Took the kids to see Red Dog a few weeks ago. So good to sit in a 'packed' cinema for a Australian film, and one you can take the kids to see too. Red Dog is a lot of fun and I can see why audiences have been going to see it in droves. But rather than this be a post all about Red Dog, I thought it could be a good excuse to post one of my all time favourite short films. Two/Out which is directed by Kriv Stenders, who also directed Red Dog.
Two/Out was a bit of revelation to me when I saw it for the first time. There was and still is something so compelling about the simplicity of this film, which is so brutal and raw, yet at the same time, so warm and human.
Every now and then I go and chat to film students and I always try and show them this film in a hope to inspire and acknowledge that you don't need much to make a great film. If you have a good story, all you might need is two characters, one room and a single locked off camera. Can't really get more simple than that.
I've had four images selected for the Documentary Photography Award exhibition at CCP (Centre for Contemporary Photography) here in Melbourne. The four photographs selected are of some skate kids I met in Vladivostok, Russia last year.
From the CCP invitation...'The CCP Documentary Photography Award is a biennial showcase of contemporary Australian documentary photography. Since the inaugural exhibition in 1997, this event has grown in profile and significance. It represents a unique, national initiative in support of documentary photography, providing a rare opportunity to assess the themes, styles and ideas that characterise this fascinating genre. This year's exhibition demonstrates the breadth of contemporary approaches to documentary practice from traditional black and white narratives through to vibrant colour recordings, all of which have been achieved without digital manipulation. Themes range from the effects of war on US Marines through to dog shows, roller derby and the annual Miss South Sudan Australia pageant.'
For anyone who'd like to come along, the opening night is this Thursday the 27th of October at CCP, 404 George Street, Fitzroy. Exhibition details and more here...
I found the shots below buried in my Aperture files of the sorting process back when I was submitting the work.
If you have no interest in 70's inspired jazz-fused-prog-rock... you might want to click somewhere else. But if you do, you might like to listen to this 8 minute 'edit' of the 23 minute epic from Steve Wilson's new solo album Grace For Drowning. All of it, the flutes, melotrons, saxophones, guitars, pianos, choirs, it's nerdy as hell but I'm totally obsessed with it right now.
Steven Wilson - Raider (edit) (full track from Grace for Drowning) by Kscope
Travelled to Canberra this weekend to see my wife Natalie dance in a show, which was great. Arrived after the seven hour drive from Melbourne at the venue to find a metal kid, an 80's thrash kid and a skin head kid drinking beer together directly in front of where I parked. I looked around thinking there must have been a photo shoot taking place or a film being made near by. These kids were styled so perfectly. Got to love Canberra!
Along with another great album that's also having a significant anniversary, I can't believe this week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
This is an album that had a real effect on me. It defined a very distinct time and place in my life.
I was already a huge fan of the Chili Peppers with Mothers Milk, and I was literally counting down the days for the release of Blood Sugar. A friend actually got an advance copy on Cassette(!) and I can distinctly remember the first time I listened to it. I was in Newcastle, studying design at University, living right on the beach in a tumbling down terrace. My girlfriend and I sat on our lounge room floor vying for the sweet spot directly in-between the speakers.
I remember being quite struck by how different it sounded. This wasn't the Chili Peppers I was expecting. The punk / funk was gone and it was more like funk and hip hop and had it had a 'rawness' to it. It sounded more like Public Enemy than say, Bad Brains. But by the end of that first listen I was totally and utterly hooked. An album so epically broad and appealing and yet so intimate and warm. It's an album that introduced me to a world of sounds, musical ideas and influences. Blood Sugar Sex Magik went on continuous rotation and quickly became the official soundtrack to my summer of 91-92.
I think the album still stands today. And although I feel old in saying this, it's now a 'classic', where sadly most (all?) Chili Pepper albums post Blood Sugar have not been.
But this post is really an excuse to put up Funky Monks a film documenting the recording of the album. It's easily one of my favourite rockumentaries. There is something immediate, organic and very cool about it. And perhaps because the album has become such a classic, Funky Monks serves as an oppotunity to be a fly on the wall to witness the alchemy taking place.
When I was in L.A a couple of years ago I went and found the mansion that Blood Sugar was recorded in and subsequently Funky Monks was filmed in. Listening to the album you can 'hear the rooms'. It gives the record such a unique ambience and tone.
I went and stood outside the house like a stalker it was some kind of sacred site. I peered through the cyclone fencing in the hope of hearing a distant echo of Blood Sugar being recorded, but all I could hear was traffic... just like at the very end of THIS TRACK (turn it up right at the end!)
Who ever said "... you never finish a film edit you just abandon it..." knew the feeling of locking off the Beaconsfield cut over the weekend. But I think the feeling is always there whether you have 10 weeks or 10 months or just 4 weeks as we did on this project. There is always something to tweak and explore and I don't think you could ever feel 100% 'finished'.
This is what the film looks like... all 125 minutes of it.
Huge thanks to editor Andy Canny who was a pleasure to work along side. Andy put in so many extra hours to try and make the film as good as it could be in the time allocated. Over the many late nights, early mornings and a few of all nighters, I appreciated his objective eye and attention to detail.
I do love a good picture of a picture. And I do love this Tumblr site Dear Photograph. The visual mix of the past and present and the simple written thoughts create wonderfully whimsical and sentimental moments. I'm such a sucker for this stuff...
Thanks to the cool guys who stuck these B/W photos of Bob up in their front windows in Carlton. I saw them as I walked past and they made me go home and listen to Dylan records.
