One Foot In The Grave

I made this film for last years Screen Scream and Zombie March Competition. We got into the top 8 films and it screened at Newcastle's Tower cinema. Renee Monday (the bride) won a bloodied severed foot trophy for best costume and young Alex Rousos was awarded a severed hand trophy for best supporting actor. Again Ian Huish did all the special effects and Mick Rippon provided the audio and music. The film also features Josh Garroway, as the groom, Chris Rousos as the corpse, Mark Owens as a feeding zombie in the park and Pip Ditton in a star turn as the zombie Mother.

Go Weave

I made this film last December at Glenn Denning which is near Sydney. It was made for my film making club’s One Minute Competition. I just love watching the dogs go through their paces on the agility circuit. On the day there was an Old English sheepdog doing the weave but because there was three Rinks and a lot going on I missed it!! However the Australian Agility Championships are on at Hillsborough near Newcastle this coming February and I hope to get more footage. In this film the music is done once again by the wonderful Mick Rippon and is narrated by Kath Jones. Making this was a lot of fun.

Coming Soon

I have 3 more films to publish soon. 'Go Weave', 'One Foot In The Grave', and 'Every Angle'.

At The End Of His Rope

I'd  got in touch again with Rob Prosser a few years after we'd made a previous film  together, and he was a big help in bringing 'ROPE' to fruition.  Rob never overplayed his acting ( which was exactly what was needed ). We arrived on Stockton beach.  Just Rob and I – no crew, and just a rough idea of the script ( no story board this time ). We pretty much winged it, however when you look at the finished film it all flows very nicely. It was also the most fun I've had making a short film in some time - we had a lot of laughs. Ian Huish helped again with images of Sperm whales and a Japanese Submarine. Prior to Ian's assistance I'd asked a librarian for help and he said he was going to brag to his mates that he'd helped a film maker with a request for sperm....

The music was recorded some time ago by Mark Salter ( or Merewether Fats as he is known ).  Harmonica music is an unusual choice, however Marks music works brilliantly - it adds so much.  And you can tell he's a virtuoso...

Cut Price Avatar

I’m going to post about this Film before I actually upload it to YouTube. I will aim to upload it in the next few days, so check back soon.
This film is a fairly obvious one joke story. An overgrown section of bush and palm trees at Swansea Heads Newcastle, stood in nicely for a distant jungle planet. The Avatar is played by Josh Garraway who used his tallness to great effect. His "I'm suffocating" facial expressions were a treat. Renee Mondy featured as part of the film crew. You'll notice Renee in many of my films - she always does a great job.
Ian Huish as the director rounds out the cast. We had a fun afternoon filming it then Ian applied himself to the special effects turning Josh blue, the burning meteor and the opening credits plus the delicate white floating creatures at the end. Ian certainly is an ace up Crimean Pictures' sleeve. The music is by Mick Rippon who is a very fine musician who has provided both Ian and I on many of our projects.

How Grandma Kept Her Cool.

This film was made a few years ago for the Newcastle Shootout - a 24 hour in camera edit film making competition. It was the central part of a larger film called CHOOK, CHOOK, CHOOK! I trimmed off both ends because "GRANDMA" was always the joke. My film was about her and the other parts of the film contained shootout reference locations that I had to include to be legal in that competition- which I no longer needed.

The film featured Nancy Tarren, who plays Mrs Ada Wilson and does the voice over in the 'air conditioner' scene. Nancy has had a long career in rep theatre and commercials and T.V. drama. Her performance was spot on- especially when you consider it was all shot under in camera conditions( meaning at the end of the day I only had one take of each scene available...) Gerry Mason plays the radio jock on the street talkin 'chooks!' He's very bubbly and compliments Nancy's performance nicely. Gerry also appears in THE HAMMERS, which I'll be posting eventually.

'Young Ada' is played by Angie Fall. Angie's timing with Lucy ( the chook) was critical to the selling of our joke and I think she handles it very well. Lucy ( the chook ) is my pet silky hen. She was always a very friendly and approachable bird. Amazingly, she did her section in only one take! And I can assure you we were all holding our breath! Plus her flapping looks terrific and could plausibly have a very cooling effect...

The costumes were by Wilma Reynolds and Angie's outfit looked especially good in sepia. The drawings featured are by Steve Ezzy - a talented artist friend of mine. The music is basically chop stix and was created by Jason Paris - a huge talent who has collaborated with me on a number of my films. It added just the right tone to our film with Jason's screwball vocals. Music is so important to a film...

Our sound edit was done by Nigel Kentish - a good man to have on your side if you're in the middle of a hectic 24 hour film making competition!

Our crew were Carolyn Starr, Renee Mondy and Danny Diagostino

I just think it's a crazy idea to turn a chicken into an air conditioner!

Grandma

I’m working on getting my YouTube Channel up and working. Over the next few days I am going to publish one of my Films How Grandma Kept Her Cool. I plan to upload several over the next few months.

Crimean Pictures

This is the CRIMEAN PICTURES logo.

It was drawn by Rod Williams about 13 years ago. I love the way that Rod has captured the dusty old fashioned feel in his drawing. It was our intent to have the logo look like it could have been from the 30's or 40's.

Crimean Pictures is named after my friend John Crimean.  John and I plus Larry Millican and David Mossman made films together as far back as 1980.  When you hear the word 'CRIMEAN' you immediately think of the Crimean war, or something very dusty and old - exactly what I wanted.

For my film THE HAMMERS, we filmed a group of actors performing the 'punch' action in our logo with a prop silent camera, a director with a bull horn and the crew wearing pork pie hats....

One day I hope to reshoot this scene again as a Claymation.... Roll em!

Coming soon.........