Tag Archives: film

TRIVIA IDEAS

It’s been a while since I’ve attended a trivia night. The last time I turned up was in September last year and I had just shaved my head for the first time. It was a gooood Grand Final weekend.

But things have changed since last time. My good friend Daniel has taken over from Michael “Chuck” Norris as Trivia Master and besides a couple of minor hiccups, he did a damn good job! Finding out that Danny was $150 the wiser for his services got us all thinking though. $50 an hour plus beers and a meal is a recipe for a terrific story.

My friend Caius introduced me to the idea that Danny would play the part of the perfect Corrupt Trivia Master. Friendly enough to be in with the pub owners, but responsible enough to give his mates the answers. And the reward, a $40 bar tab. Between 15 people.

As silly as an idea it is, there seems to be a bit of stuff that I can work with. Regarding plot points and character development, the story basically writes itself. I suppose now the next step would be to take the idea and twist it so that the narrative isn’t too predictable. If anything eventuates, I will keep you posted…

– Gabriel

FORGOTTEN SILVER BLEW MY MIND…ONCE

The first time I watched Forgotten Silver, I was going in to year 11. My media teacher at the time played it to us for orientation. I distinctly remember as soon as it finished he said, “It’s all bullshit”. This was the point that I began to think more critically about filmmaking, and specifically documentaries. I’ve hated him since.

Making an event out of “exploiting the gray area between fact and fiction”, as Jones puts it, is common practice in documentary making today. The magical sense of ‘reality’ that shines through adds a dramatic effect that can’t be replicated in strictly fiction narrative.

Watching Forgotten Silver for the second time, I felt all the years of film analysis catch up to me, and couldn’t help but laugh at how foolish I was back then. Perhaps the closed environment in High School with such assurance from a teacher led me to believe what I was seeing to be the truth. It was this excitement of uncovering unknown information that led to the enjoyment I felt the first time watching.

Which begs the question Jones asks: “What does it matter what’s staged and what isn’t?” Peter Jackson is obviously aware of this conundrum and felt compelled to make a humorous ‘documentary’ about a Colin McKenzie. This story of Colin McKenzie, is so playfully absurd that it flirts with the concept of reality. A wise man once said (me): “Blow my mind once, I’m convinced. Blow my mind twice in quick succession, I’m sceptical”. Mastering the technique of mind explosion is what these hybrid filmmakers are all about.

But even if the story of Colin McKenzie were true would it really matter that much to anyone outside of film studies courses? I mean who knows the Lumiere brothers anyway?

Reference Material

Jones, Kent “I Walk the Line” Film Comment, vol. 41:1, January-February 2005

– Gabriel

PROJECT BRIEF 2: MISCOMMUNICATION

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The footage included in my self-portrait was shot in Ballarat, my hometown, and Melbourne (I still spend some time in Ballarat). When it came to capturing the footage, I had pre-meditated shots in mind, but it wasn’t until I started editing that I began to focus on themes. I have broken it up into two parts. The first half focuses on influence, education and growing up in Ballarat, and the second half focuses on confusion, creation, and reflection in Melbourne.

The first sequence of my father singing, hanging towels, and the photograph of 2 generations of brothers, symbolises his influence growing up, by spending time with family. The red, white and blue towels are a subtle hint at my being a Western Bulldogs supporter. Terrible decision… Dad always played music, which developed into a passion of mine, which becomes obvious in the second part (my music being the background track).

Flicking through school photos of myself is an explicit depiction of growing up, education and moving on to a life of independence. Dissolving into an unsolved Rubik’s Cube signifies how scrambled I felt after school. I then felt settled going to university completing a degree in Music Industry, hence the solved Cube followed by a piano being played. It wasn’t until after this course that I felt like Music was more of a hobby than a profession. The photograph of my computer with ableton loaded on the screen, and my RMIT certificate in the background represents this.

The lyrical content of my dad’s song playing in the background: “Don’t change me, I can’t be changing, chasing other people’s ways”, is about focusing on achieving what you want to do. The audio at the start links with the audio of the closing shot where I am listing my likes and aspirations as a 4 year old. Reflecting on this, travelling to outer space is a metaphor for dreaming big, and that is something I am happy to do.

‘Miscommunication’ is the name of the song in the background of the second half of the clip. I feel that it goes well with the footage because without this explanation, everyone would have a different interpretation.

– Gabriel

BRIEF 2: THOUGHT PROCESS

When I got wind of this assignment, quite uncharacteristically I instantly had an idea. I imagined the final piece being a sort of mixture or at least being influenced by this:

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And this, which Thump on YouTube describes as “like a Wes Anderson Movie on techno and acid.” Pretty spot on?

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I created a small mock project to try out some ideas, and it was looking like it had potential. After a few days though, I was struggling to think of ways that these quick cuts would represent my personality. I found myself just waiting for inspiration to strike, and it wasn’t a pro-active approach to the assessment. I was stuck in the mindset of making something cool rather than meaningful. Back to the drawing board…

All this editing talk coupled with the inspiration courtesy of Ross McElwee’s ‘Time Indefinite‘, I have decided to film/photograph everything and anything to build up an archive to work from. ‘Blood In The Gutter’, although focused on comics, definitely applies to film. Going from panel to panel is the same as going from shot to shot in a filmed production. I like the openness for interpretation in comics. I haven’t read many, but this reading opened my eyes to art of story-telling and difference in western and eastern traditions. Now I plan on transferring this interpretation concept to my project brief. Editing to ensue…

I’m still pretty keen to make something that binds the music videos above, but maybe for a later project.

– Gabriel

NARRATIVE EXPLORATION

Today’s narrative exercise reminded me of the adult swim short films ‘Too Many Cooks’ and ‘Unedited Footage of a Bear’. Basically, they are made up of seemingly unrelated events linked together on the thinnest string, taking wild directions. I advise people to check them out. At one point our (non-fictional) narrative sequence was:

I woke up in a gutter
I went insect hunting
I lobotomised my sister’s new boyfriend
I got $10,000 in debt
I sold a mortar and pestle full of toenails to a geriatric Jew
I told my sister I loved her
I fell asleep in a gutter

This honestly did seem like the most logical progression of events. We did forget to add in “I walked in on my wife in bed with 2 large bees” though. It probably fits in best before going bee bashing. The class was a bit of fun, and although we took a ridiculous approach, it was a form of narrative practice, I guess.

I realised during Liam’s talk that I’ve probably underestimated the power of editing in the past. I wouldn’t say that editing is wholly responsible for progression of narrative; we have other elements of film for that. But it does have a strong ability to affect our understanding. For something like ‘Too Many Cooks’, the editing is a key focus, as it does not adhere to a logical structure. And to be honest, by the end of it, you just feel downright confused. There are some juxtaposed images that will never create meaning; Christopher Pyne has no chance of sitting on The Iron Throne.

– Gabriel

UNSUCCESSFUL PRE-PRODUCTION

“Can I swear?” – Paul Ritchard to a class of first year media students. “Damn” was my initial reaction. I hate it when someone takes the pleasure away from me by asking if it is okay to swear. It seems so sinister and unsuspecting to say ‘fuck’ or ‘shit’ to emphasise a point. It is such an easy way to grab attention. The point that Paul wanted to make certainly got through regardless. Time, more often than not, will slip through the cracks when working on a production. I like the idea of allowing an extra hour of time to set up for a shoot as Daniel Binns suggested. Just to get the head settled before hours of guaranteed roadblocks and, a-hmm, fuckarounds. Most of which are bound to be sorted in an unorthodox and challenging matter.

Film shoots are the reel test of media production. Although I haven’t been a part of many, it’s easy to note the critical thinking directors have to go through to reach a final product they are happy with. I made a short film to test my knowledge and skills of my camera, and encountered plenty of problems along the way. The biggest of this was being able to direct everyone while appearing in the film itself. For some reason I just thought it wouldn’t be too hard. I was wrong. Even with a cast of friends who I could speak to freely and effectively, time slipped away as the deadline approached. And there was lots of swearing, mainly because I was stressing, thankfully no verbal abuse was hurled. It was a bit of fun, but definitely not as good as I would have liked. Bit loopy that it’s called “Unsuccessful” really. Have a geeze below.

It has since become obvious that I need to invest more time in pre-production, and probably more in post-production too. Paul’s reiteration of this will resonate with me. Sometimes I operate on the fly without considering everything, and end up with an egg on my face. Too much egg, not enough fucking Caesar salad.

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– Gabriel

PROJECT BRIEF 1 – LO-FI SELF PORTRAIT

“A noise annoys an oyster, but a noisy oyster annoys an oyster more”

This is a tongue twister that my dad’s mate Tony taught me when our families went to Wilson’s Promontory all those years back. Thinking of it now takes me straight back to memorable Summers.

This sound clip is of the daily routine of buying groceries to get by day to day.

The second sound recording is of myself playing piano and singing some lyrics I was messing around with at the time. I will never give up playing music.

This photo summarises my opinion of how restricted the Australian Music Industry is. With such a small population and large land mass, It’s hard to establish yourself as a professional musician – almost a sacred profession…

Which has led me to consuming music at parties. This photo is more though about the emptiness that I have felt recently since my housemate moved back to Singapore. This was his last gig. From now, his music will continue to play, but he will not be present.

I think I am quite a sharing person, which is certainly necessary in any sharehouse. Bread makes up a lot of my meals. I am poor.

Recycling stacks up when you are forgetful:

This is my view walking home each night through the back alley. I lost my keys recently and haven’t been proactive about getting another cut.

The smoke represents my often smokey/unpredictable nature. Sometimes good and sometimes bad…