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!