Booger and Lacey

My partner Carolyn has written a children's book about our 2 dogs Booger and Lacey. The book is a picture book so I put the pictures in the timeline, added music and dialog - easy peasy. Zero work for me! And this is my first time I have approached a book's author for permission to turn it into a film. I have always wanted to produce a children's film and I reckon this one is a beauty! Thanks Carolyn.

Bitter Harvest

Bitter Harvest  grew out of observing the cat's behaviour, plus a crazy idea for a comedy that I'd come up with. Our cat Meow Meow's performance was very good, although I only wanted her to do stuff that comes naturally anyway. The music once again is by Kevin MacLeod and fits perfectly into the tone of this film. I am very happy with the way that Bitter Harvest has turned out considering the wacky underlying idea behind it.

Some News!!

I was lucky enough to have the ABC decide to show my film Video Postcard from A Country Station,  on the ABC Open program on ABC News 24 on Friday, September 6 (6:45pm AEST). This is a shortened version (90 seconds) and features narration - which are the rules of the Video Postcards series.
Plus:
I recently got in touch with Steve Galley - a very talented composer from Adelaide. Steve has agreed to supply me with some music for a number of my upcoming films! I have worked with Steve before and his music has a very interesting original sound. I am excited to be collaborating with him again and look forward to producing more films together!

This Message Will Self Destruct

THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT was created for Newcastle Video Makers one minute competition. The D.O.P. for the shoot was the ever helpful Mark Owens. The day we shot this was really hot ( as you can see by the highly exposed footage). Mark and I worked on this film for around 5 hours and I copped the worst sunburn! We tried to mix our shot selections up a bit and we used a dolly and a crane where we could to create movement. Carolyn Starr plays a lawyer in the short final scene. I have played the film quite a bit and mostly get no reaction to the Occupational Health & Safety joke at the end.

A Slither of Snakes

I shot A Slither Of Snakes in my friend Greg Lenaghan's shed! Greg lives quite close to the swamp and these 5 big carpet pythons come and stay in the rafters of his shed each year for around 6 weeks - and Greg thinks they are there to mate. The roller doors don't get used (which is a good thing because you'd have some confused and cranky snakes when the door gets rolled up...) Once again I was so lucky to get this footage - it was very exciting but a real pleasure too. I chose 'ARCADIA' by Kevin Macleod for the film. This tune has a'wonder' feel to it . I didn't want to put creepy music to the visuals. I feel that snakes aren't creepy or evil - they are just living their lives. I entered this film in my club's one minute competition and later on I did a show and tell - I'd brought along a green shopping bag with a 10ft long snake skin which the snake in the roller door had shed. Then I asked for a volunteer from the audience(to help me roll out this skin but the audience didn't know what I had in the bag and you could feel the tension starting to rise. It was very funny...) I've never been in the company of so many snakes before. They were mainly placid but they just wanted to be left alone - and that will do me.

A Country Station

My latest film A Country Station is a work in progress. I shot this film at Harden railway station. I'd been down there previously and noticed a huge spillage of grain on the railway tracks which was attracting a large amount of birds. Most of this seed was gone but the birds were still there but a lot fewer in number. The station is still in use but was very quiet and mostly unvisited by people. I went down to do some filming around mid afternoon and then once again close to dusk. The evening before I observed a full moon rising over the hill and I was lucky enough to position my camera and score a wonderful moon rise on film! I also had been on the lookout for a country link train to come barrelling through the station and scatter the birds - but it was not to be. I did manage to film 2 loco's creeping along to park for the night at the station. I had to speed this footage up greatly, but I do like the night time lens flare of the train's headlights. I gave my raw footage to my great friend and colleague Geoff Peel. Geoff has a very good 'eye' and a very different editing style to me, and he has promised to have a crack at editing my footage. I'll be very interested to see what Geoff comes up with. Once again the music is by Kevin Macleod. I know his music is much used by short film makers but it is such a windfall to have music of such a high standard available, and his tune 'Windswept' is just a lovely fit to the footage. Hope you enjoy A COUNTRY STATION.

New Seasons Robes

I made New Seasons Robes for my club's one minute comp. I had shot all of my scenes in the car and operating the roller door earlier and had set up the green screen on the front of my house, and unfortunately my actor couldn't make it. So at short notice I stepped in and played the roll of GOD also. I've acted before but never opposite myself - now I know how Kirk Douglas feels ! But honestly it was a hoot. Cars would drive past and see this crazy God apparition on our front veranda.. Our neighbours must be wondering about me! Once again Caroly Starr was the D.O.P and she did a fine job. My green screen was a bit scratchy but I'm learning.This was another entry in the one minute comp and overall I'm very happy with the final film.

WD-40

This is actually my latest film. We made it recently in Hamilton at Mark and Laura Owens place. I dragged my trailer over there and we shot it off the cuff in just an hour or so - in the gutter in front of Marks house. I cut it that afternoon and showed it that same night at the Newcastle Video Makers club's Letters and Numbers theme competition where it scored 2nd place to Ian Huish's 32. It was a very hot day filming and Mark and Laura were very helpful in making what turned out to be quite a fun little film. For the music I used Kevin Macleod's Radio Martini . I've used Kevin's music lots of times and he is a brilliant composer and I really appreciate having access to his stuff, good music adds such a lot to a film.

Anti Climax

I made Anti Climax whilst we were up at Rockhampton attending the Rocky Fringe short film festival. We won the competition with The Evolution of Bovine Language and Ian Huish was the heart and soul of that one - he done every thing . So, I noticed the Huish sign on the road with an actual meat ant's nest just below it and with Carolyn's help, quickly filmed our small movie... I think Anti-Climax works well as a rare double pun. I also think Queensland meat ants are fairly mild - in N.S.W. you wouldn't come out of it with much left on your bones.....

Counting The Lines

This film was a group shoot produced for Newcastle Video Makers club. The film features Malcolm Young, an ever reliable go to man for Crimean Pictures, Pip Ditton-Phare - I've just finished a concert film of Pip's wonderful singing group- BELLA VOCE, Isabella and Alex Rousos( 2 fine young talents...) The music for the film once again is provided by Jason Paris and what a striking tune it is ! Young Abbey's singing sure does lift you. On the day of shooting we just loaded the cast into the car with a rough outline and 2 or 3 cameras hidden behind the driver's seat E.T.C. - easy really... And for such a complex project the result we got was a credit to all the cast and crew.

The Evolution of Bovine Language

I'd heard about the required item for the Rocky Fringe film festival (BULL) and I had an idea, so I story boarded it and pitched it to Ian Huish. And that was the end of my involvement with the film. Huish took the Bull by the horns and ran with it - his finished film had lots of different ideas and jokes, Ian provided all of the wonderful animation, the narration, the Bull's vocals, the sound edit, incidental music. Ian's wife Jen sang the ROCKY'S MOOSLI “keep ya movin” jingle and the eye catching titles - he did the lot! And I think he had a lot of fun making the film. The only other input was my wife Carolyn who gave the film it's title. So we took a punt and flew up to Rockhampton for the Rocky Fringe film festival on the 31st of August earlier this year AND WE WON!!!! Wow, what a huge thrill. It was great to collaborate with Ian - he is such a talent and has a wonderful sense of fun. Thanks mate.

The Hearts Eternal Vow

My friend Jason Paris has provided the music for many of my films over the years and we shot this at a few different locations from about February this year onwards. The film features some shots of a terrific water spout as seen from Newcastle's King Edwards Park. Jason's music is wonderful and this is my first crack at making a music clip. I hope I did his song justice.

The Bully

We made The Bully a few weeks back specifically for the Rocky Fringe film festival. The film features Malcolm Young, Carolyn Starr and me. It was shot in the Teralba Bowling Club. The Saturday morning drinkers were treated to the very odd spectacle of a man in a cat collar blubbering away. Carolyn's performance as "the bully" was spot on and Malcolm always brings his wonderful personality and good humour to our short films. To round out our crew Renee Mondy did her usual fine effort as Director of Photography. Very pleased with this one.

The Staring Competition

We shot this last year at the back of the K Mart car park in Glendale NSW in about 40 minutes. The story comes from a real event, a dog in a Woolworths car park did actually beat me in a staring competition! Carolyn Starr was the D.O.P. for this and does really well considering Chloe the dog wasn't keen sitting in the car for very long! Nathan Searle was Chloe's owner and Dog Wrangler in the shoot and was a big help to the overall look of the finished film. Jeremy Sherman's wonderful tune "Showdown" was perfect and is probably the closest I'll ever get to making a western. The Staring Competition will also be screened at the Good Dog Film Festival at the Balmain town hall next weekend - 17th, 18th & 19th of August.

Goog Dog Festival

I have 3 Films showing at the Good Dog Festival starting on the 17th and finishing 19th August. Go Weave, Dr Boogers Casebook and the Staring Competition. Go Weave is being shown 3 times!!

Llynda Nairn Lady Juggler

Llynda Nairn Lady Juggler was shot earlier this year whilst Llynda was performing at a local shopping complex. She is such a talent and the children just loved her awesome juggling skills. During her show Llynda sings and does humorous banter. Sadly we couldn't use the raw audio because the backing tracks were all copy write. The music that we did use however, was by Sarah De Jong and mixed by Phillip Howe. We had 3 cameras on this one: a wide shot from me on a tripod behind the children; Mark Owens with his wonderful camera work doing various angles; and Graham Bryant who had a roving commission and did a lot of hand held stuff - including some quite lovely reaction shots on the kid's faces. The 3 cameras made a huge difference in the choices we had available to us in the final edit. Ultimately the success of the film lies squarely with Llynda. Check out the cups and saucers on her head.

A Home Away From Home

Great mate Mark Jones owns a houseboat moored at Bulahdelah and he was kind enough to let me film A Home Away From Home on his boat going down river and onto the Myall lakes. Mark is very comfortable on camera and has a warm personality. The scenes at the leafy camp site and again with Mark around the camp fire worked out fine. But I hope we achieved our main aim which was to give the viewer a feeling of: " oh wouldn't it be nice to go for a ride on a boat..." Thanks Mark, it was a lot of fun!

More from FAMM

Here is another article from the Australian Film and Video Magazine.

5th Place

I was included in an article in this Winters edition of FAMM. I entered Rope into the one minute comp and it placed 5th. Ian Huish came 1st with Belonging.

www.famm.org.au

 

 

I will be posting a film shortly which includes a great friend of mine Mark jones, who owns a houseboat moored at Bulahdelah NSW.

Dr Boogers Casebook

We made this one at home with Renee Mondy once again doing a marvellous job as D.O.P. Our 2 year old Dachshund Booger ( I picked his name...) did very well under highly unusual circumstances and completed his acting duties with great style, having only small dog treats as his reward. What a pity I can't get all my other actors to work for this! Our set was a green screen in the back yard in the bright sunshine with the veranda table in front of it. For a very short one joke film I think DR. BOOGER'S CASEBOOK works well. The main thing is I haven't been sick since I took the prescription!!