- Write about what drew you to this studio? What you think this studio is and what are you interested in exploring?
In my final year of my degree, my passion of sorts has been cemented for creating films within the Australian screen industry. My dream would be to play a role in keeping Australian cinema alive and cared for by those who make it and audiences around the country. I think Australians generally overlook cinema as one of the most powerful vessels for uniting people, coping with histories and looking to the future to imagine new possibilities. For all these reasons, I was drawn to the ‘Long Live Australian Cinema’ studio with Tim Marshall and I think it’s the perfect studio to wrap up the studio portion of my degree. I think this studio will be an intensive overview of the screen industry we inhabit here in Australia, its list of limitations and successes, and its evolving potential. I hope to learn skills on how to intelligently navigate and problem solve the swings and roundabouts of funding agencies and audience tastes whilst continuing to research and question what type of stories Australians need now. I am interested in exploring all aspects of the studio prompt questioning why Australians don’t watch Australian films, an area I have studied in my own time. The question is peculiar because there is not a straightforward answer, and the reasons span history, social life in Australia and risk averse funding agencies. In exploring all these aspects, in the studio I am excited to see somewhat clearly how we can begin to change these things, or what needs to happen for change to occur. I want to leave with bold ideas and to have gasoline thrown on an already raging fire within me. I hope this studio turns me into the film equivalent of the aux cord car meme, where no one wants my film suggestion because it’s always obscure, always Australian and usually ‘The Cars That Ate Paris’ by Peter Weir.
2. Workshop Activity Reflections
Interview Shoot
On Thursday of week two, we grouped up to deliver an interview task that would introduce those of us unfamiliar with the Sony FS5, RODE bluetooth radio microphones and LED lighting kits. The task was an experiment in technical skill and creativity. We were asked to record a minute long interview of any description. The class was almost full that day and because I already had some interview filming experience, I was teamed up with two lovely students that I hadn’t met before, Xuefei and Will who had little experience with the equipment. I was excited to show them what skills I had learnt over my studio experience and to test my own blindspots with gear knowledge. We brainstormed the idea of doing a meta-interview of sorts about a failing group project with three archetype characters: a procrastinator, an overachiever and an absent. Taking the equipment we went to film in the editing suites of building 9. Setting up the equipment was easy and I spent quite a lot of time explaining the camera settings to Xuifei who wanted to film and direct the first sequence. I was unfamiliar with the RODE bluetooth microphones and how to connect them to the FS5’s audio inputs. We spent almost half an hour trying to troubleshoot before we felt confident they were working (spoiler: they were not!). The first interview portion with myself as the subject was the most thought out scene that we created concentrating on the mise-en-scene as well as the lighting but due to time constraints the second interview with Xuifei was not so crisp, but still achieved an okay look. In hindsight, agreeing to a complicated idea with students that were not well versed with the technology was a big risk that did not pay off. Even with more time and working microphones, I think our product could have benefitted from a higher production quality with a simpler script. I also find the unintended irony of the work to be hilarious. I backed up the footage and shared a file with the rest of the group. I ended up also being the editor as everyone was busy, and I guess I spend the most time on campus so it makes sense. Not only am I a campus goblin, I was also reminded that short-form group work is better simple and well executed, than convoluted for future laughs (which are rarely reaped).
Treatment Writing Exercise
On Thursday in week four I was reminded that considering treatments are not exclusive to pharmacies and school yard bullying campaigns, but are a useful tool in pitching ideas for screen. Equipped with an informative Screen Australia document urgently called ‘What is a Synopsis? An Outline? A Treatment?’(!), which I like to think is a sentence Screen Australia has yelled sarcastically at an unprepared rookie film maker who is shaking with fear at the far end of the board room. Anyways, we engaged in a fun treatment/ synopsis writing exercise in our class. The mood inside the classroom felt sleep deprived, this activity was the perfect alternative to coffee, at least for me. I had written treatments before, and I have a habit of ‘vibe writing’ which is finding the right set of descriptive words for the aura of a scene, but never with any formal guidance or how-to’s. The Screen Australia guide, despite my grievances, was actually very helpful in outlining how much is too much information and what essential moles to whack out on the paper. I also enjoyed writing in this exercise as nothing was at stake – it felt like creative writing in a can and I had a grand old time. We wrote treatments for a short clip of a documentary about activist and drag performer Terance Alan Smith. I realised I had never written a treatment specifically for documentary so this was eye opening and even a little challenging. I wondered how it had been written before being visualised. It would be impossible to know the exact actions, tonalities and words that would escape the interview subjects mouth so in a way my treatment that I wrote was almost a fictionalised recreation of the reality on screen (minus notes on music swell and archival footage uses, of which can surely be predicted accurately in treatment). I suppose then that this activity opened my eyes to treatments as not just a tool for filmmakers peace of mind but literally a ‘picture-this’ style marketing tool in order to present ideas to larger bodies. Through this activity and with the scope of learning in the previous weeks I was able to conceptualise the importance of treatment writing for both narrative film and documentary in its preproduction and fund sourcing stages.
3. Video Essay Short Film: Australian Rural Cinema Habits.
Video Essay References [APA Style] (Also at the end of video) Textual Aveyard, K. (2015). Lure of the big screen : cinema in rural Australia and the United Kingdom (1st ed.). Intellect. Aveyard, K. (2011). What the country tells us: the place of the “rural” in contemporary studies of cinema. [Paper in themed section: Cinema-going, Audiences and Exhibition. Aveyard, Karina and Moran, Albert (eds).]. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture & Policy, 139(139), 124–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X1113900116 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024). Rural and Remote Health. Kate Bowles. (2009). Limit of Maps?: Locality and Cinemagoing in Australia. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture & Policy, 131, 83–94. Jambor, C. (2018, April 27). Film fans start push for more control over what is screened in regions after cinema snubs Sweet Country. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-27/how-regional-film-fans-stood-up-against-cinema-snub/9704908 Videos ABC. [ABC News (Australia)]. (2021). Film fans cruise into drive-in movie resurgence [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_QOfZ0mGZc Cinema Nova. [Cinema Nova]. (2019). Cinema Nova: Cinema, Curated [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P5bwHGDlz0 City of Melbourne. [Broadcasting Australia]. (2024, December 4th). 1987 City of Melbourne See it all Melbourne TV Commercial [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=938vHB4uvFo Clure, B. [Baden Clure]. (2018). Reading Cinema On A Sunday Night [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ublb1tznuMY Deckchair Cinema. [Deckchair Cinema]. (2014). Outdoor movies at the Deckchair Cinema, Darwin, NT Australia [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8AOaSqwWhs Hoyts. [Hoyts Australia]. (2023). Hoyts Highpoint - The Ultimate Cinema Experience [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw9tPLNkEUQ Lions Gate Entertainment. [Unseen Trailers]. (2024, August 26th). Lantana (2001) ORIGINAL TRAILER [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_iqlGSWrds Ray Fuss, R. [Vampire Robot]. (2023, May 2nd). Going to the Movies in 1978 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpj3hAbYfc Smart Digital Australia. [Smart Digital Australia]. (2018, June 15th). Outdoor cinema in the Australian Outback [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIT7nROh8Iw Transmission Films. [Transmission Films]. (2018). Sweet Country Official Trailer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYKBG1znk4A Images Barkley, M. (2014, April 30th). Closure Prompts New Ideas for Movie Screening. Wellington Times. https://www.wellingtontimes.com.au/story/2249415/closure-prompts-new-ideas-for-movie-screening/ Casar, C. (2024, October 9th). Media Release: Labor’s Bill to Keep NBN Public is a Win-Win for Millions of Customers and the NBN Workforce. CWUnion National. https://www.cwu.org.au/NBN-Co-in-public-hands.html Lowther, N. (2018, April 27th). Film fans start push for more control over what is screened in regions after cinema snubs Sweet Country. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-27/how-regional-film-fans-stood-up-against-cinema-snub/9704908 Music Music Artificially Generated by Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/music/ambient-ambient-music-for-relaxationmeditationcalmness-316749/