A Case Of The Clappers

A Case of the Clappers was shot as a group shoot project for our club Newcastle Video Makers. We shot this at Carrington and Teralba over 2 days in 2010. The film features a huge cast. Malcolm Young, Dani Huish, Emma Elsley, Stella Rose, Zoran Markovski, Danny Di Agostino, Ian Huish and Trevor Anderson. The fabulous special effects we're provided by Ian Huish, look for the shadows below the clapper boards, those flying Clapper boards look awesome! The music and all important sound effects are by the ever reliable Mick Rippon. Mick chose to be a little spare in his score and this works well with Ian's wonderful animations. Our film does look a little blood thirsty but it is cartoon violence and a lot of fun. Clappers went on to win the audience favourite in our club's national competition plus a weekly prize in Harold's Shorts in Sydney. The crew on the film were Me, Mansell Williams, Ian Huish, Mark Owens, Geoff Peel, Laura Owens, Ralf Jorg, Stella Rose, Kathy Prior, John Robertson, Mick Rippon, Carolyn Starr, Renee Mondy and Donna Drysdale. I've just re watched Clappers to write this and remember it was a massive undertaking but it still looks incredible.

More Films

I will be adding some more Films very soon. Watch this space…

Water Spout Footage on NBN Channel

This is my footage shown on the 14th of February on our local television station of some amazing Water Spouts. I was up at King Edward Park shooting a music video clip for my friend musician Jason Paris for his song THE HEART'S ETERNAL VOW, it was around 7.30 PM and we were after a dramatic evening sky as a backdrop. Jason had just run through it when whilst we were recording the spouts started forming up in the background! It was amazing. For me it was a once in a life time opportunity and I ended up with eleven and a half minutes of footage containing the 3 spouts either in the background behind Jason singing or by themselves. Wow, I got lucky!

Suburban Archaeology

This film developed out of a bugger of a job that needed doing. I had to dig out the concrete so why not create a film around this odious chore? Camera man was Renee Mondy. A lot of times Renee is my right hand and she regularly saves my bacon, I wouldn't have made this film without her. Suburban Archaeology was originally shot for one of Newcastle Video Makers one minute competitions, however, when I entered it into the Rocky Fringe film festival they required a 'flame' so I invented another short gag that was slotted onto the end and I think works quite well. Carolyn Starr did the camera work on the short flame section and we shot it during a commercial break as there was something good on the telly!

What’s coming up…..

I've just completed 2 short one minute films - Le Pont D'Amour my first foreign language film and ‘Walkies’ another comedy starring Malcolm Young. This week I'm hoping to complete my next film LAIR. Lair is a creepy atmospheric story and once again Ian Huish has been a big help in bringing my idea to its conclusion.

In the next month I'm filming a gaol story with Don Lowe and two comedies called Back Summie and Earthquake Man. Plus I've already shot, but not edited a film about a comedy juggler. Llynda Nairn. I’m going to be busy.

 

IN THE FUTURE……

The big one for us is on the far distant horizon (four years) we're going to have a crack at making a mainstream movie on a budget that you'd need a microscope to find. And that will be really something to look forward to.

Dirt Doggies

Dirt Doggies was filmed a few years ago at Barnsley NSW. The film features a friend of mine Nathan Searle and a mad keen group of his fellow BMX riders. Nathan and his mates have developed this bush circuit over a number of years and they regularly maintain the track when it rains or is attacked by vandals. It is such an exuberant, high energy sport and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to make a short film about it. Newcastle Video Makers friend Geoff Peel helped out again as second camera on the day. Music once again was by Mark Salter or Merewether Fats as he is known in Newcastle. Nathan had previously shown me some examples of BMX films and most of these feature Metal or Thrash music but I think Mark Salter's Harmonica blast is just the perfect background for the warp speed BMX action!