Cloverfield Viral Site

If you never saw this cool cloverfield viral site, check it out. It's very sophisticated in how it draws you into the world of the film:

http://www.1-18-08.com

Horror

Well, the second week of AFTRS has just flown by... it's been stressful, but was definitely a fun week. I got the opportunity to direct another short film in the studio, this time a horror scene taken from the movie "Halloween." We had 5 directors in our class who each interpreted the material radically different. The variants were a traditional horror, horror / action hybrid, pshcho thriller and even a creepy "bad boy bubba" version. In short, I learnt heaps from such a talented bunch of people and got to pick up a few technical skills as well. So that's now two weeks, two short live action films, both shot in the studio. This coming week is going to be a study of classical storytelling.

In the meantime, my partner and I managed to move house which was no mean feat considering all the curricular work going on. I didn't really have too much time to watch many horror films at home but did check out "Shadow of the Vampire" which is a very postmodern horror film poking fun at "Nosferatu." Worth a look.

Went to the another "Friday on my Mind" sessions this week too. This time it was some people from the Jameson's short film initiative that has already produced 3 cool films that I've seen at a few festivals around the place. One in particular called "Octopus" is hilarious, featuring some very cool stop motion animation.

AFTRS

Ok, well it's been a long time since my last post... one because I haven't really had too much to post about and secondly because I've been run off my feet. The long and short of it is that I returned from LA quite poor, was laid off from my place of work and subsequently got selected into the Directing course at AFTRS. This is awesome for me because I've been trying to get in for quite a few years now. It also means a transition from animation to live action filmmaking which will be fantastic on many levels.

The first week literally flew by. Inbetween trying to find a house in Sydney and get orientated, i managed to direct a short dance musical piece for our genre workshops. I'd put more about it here, but again I'm pushed for time. On Friday I went to the AFTRS Friday on my mind session (I'm only mentioning it here because of course requirements) where a horror director / producer was giving a talk.

So far its a great place... I'm sure the year will be interesting.

The Novelty has worn off

Ok. I haven't posted anything in weeks probably because... yes, the novelty has worn off. I've had better things to do and have been exceptionally busy running around to Vegas and what not. A bunch of crazy things have happened that I could never have predicted including a chance meeting with Obama the weekend before he got elected. My trip to the states is really turning out to be a bit of a Forest Gump moment and quite enjoyable.

Here's a picture I grabbed from the Canberra Times of our meeting:


It was even weirder to find this picture in my home town paper on the other side of the world. Right place and the right time. You can read the whole article here too:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/obamas-wind-of-change-gains-strength/1349929.aspx

Thats enough for now.
Peace.

Time Warp

One of the coolest new features I've recently found on the web is Time Warp on the Discovery Channel site. It has a heap of clips recorded in ultra slow-mo that can be scrubbed back and forth at any speed. There are punches in the face, explosions, balloons popping all recorded so you can see every time bit of squash and stretch. It's quite illuminating really, I'm glad there's no naked fat people. 

Check it out:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/time-warp/time-warp.html

Michel Gondry Ad

If you don't know who Michel Gondry is, here's a short advertisement with him in that shows some of his style of work. Sweet.

Here's another clip, "The hardest button to button" - One of the clips he's so well known for.

Puppet Up

Saturday we have the awesome pleasure of going to "Puppet Up" in Hollywood. Don't be fooled, it wasn't some kinky hollywood and vine thing but an improvisational night of puppet radness brought to you by the jim henson company (a small puppet company that happen to work down the road). Needless to say we enjoyed it from the word go. It was completely hilarious and technical skill of the puppeteers will blow you away. The evening went something like this: 

The MC has a scenario and some puppeteers. The audience then yells out key words to flesh out the scenario. Its then acted out. My personal favourite was a james bond opening number featuring the evil villain "Steve." Obviously this can't be looked up on youtube but there are some other links such as 

Check this out if you love the muppets.

D.