May 2013
11 posts
Very Afraid
ridiculous dancing and a greenscreen is all you need for one ridiculously amazing videoclip.
Too old to be new, too new to be classic.
12 Years of DFA: Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.
A good little look into a small but pretty influential New York record label DFA..otherwise known as the Department of Funny Americans, Dumb Fucking Acronym or Death From Above.
Cannot wait to see this..
Small Board
So a year ago I rested my legs on the sticky tiles of our Puerto Viejo paradise house by the beach. It was our second documentary class and Aubrie played us a bunch of good little doco’s.
One of them stuck out for me, not only was the editing superb, and the fact that it was set in a city I have been drawn too, it was the character, an extraordinary man with a complicated but fascinating...
oh heyy home.
Hong Kong is Home. from Javin Lau on Vimeo.
This video makes the city feel so distant and isolating. How do people connect with this overwhelming mass? When you feel this insignificant, can you connect?
Jujitsuing Reality from Chad Mann on Vimeo.
Today I sat on my kitchen bench eating a sandwich and innocently clicked on a link to watch this film. Fifteen minutes later I found my face was wet, outside a sudden rush of melbourne hail exploded on the verandah.
Manoeuvring the weight of his pain and suffering behind him to jujistsu reality. That’s a pretty great metaphor for life.
Freedom & Bonsai Trees
Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution from Alexander Meillier on Vimeo.
It’s kind of hard to believe how normal Xanana and Kirsty Sword are after watching this documentary/blockbuster.
SOUND IN IT'S MANY FORMS
Do you want to see what sound out of a pickle looks like?
this is just ridiculously cool
OSCILLATE from Daniel Sierra on Vimeo.
Good One Katz. What a man! standing up for us women!..nah but seriously thats not what this is about. Jackson Katz gives a well needed speech. Male culture is just as problematic and just as in need of talking about as women’s rights. Violence against women is not a feminist issue, it is a human issue. Lets talk about how we can stop the perpetrators and the culture they come from as...
October 2012
3 posts
Into The Abyss
Micheal Perry and Jason Burkett were eighteen years old when they committed three murders and a robbery. One seems to be unimaginably violent, the other fatuous.
Ten years later we meet them in prison. Michael is eight days away from being put on death row, the other is in jail for life. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that the people that exist in this film, really do exist in...
Meditative Film
German Philosopher, Heidegger divided our modes of thinking into two categories. Calculative thinking and meditative thinking. He implored that the integrity of mankind depends on our ability to think meditatively. He does not demand men to abandon calculative thinking, but that this mode is limited and can only be given meaning and purpose through meditative thought.
In the 1940’s he...
Covers
September 2012
8 posts
Walter Murch on Editing.
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Moonrise Kingdom
Project Update
SLR footage from our second shoot day.
Cubbies - Mac and PC from Benji Tamir on Vimeo.
Selling on the Street
Observational Exercise in class.
At first we wanted to observe the Big Issue Vendor, but he was on the phone. Instead we decided to focus the lens on a girl who was handing out flyers for a sale. After a while, we realised that both of these characters were very interesting to contrast with each other, visually, socially and politically.
SELLING ON THE STREET from Elle Marsh on Vimeo.
An Island
The man behind the concept of takeaway shows and la blogotheque, Vincent Moon made a documantary last year on the Danish amazing band Efterklang.
This little outtake from the the documentary ‘An Island’ shows some amazing hand held work. A lot of Vincent moon’s stuff is hand held and we except its wobbles because it feels so natural.
EFTERKLANG - Modern Drift (AN ISLAND...
When to Reveal?
I tried to tell this joke last night about some guy who wished there was a restaurant called ‘I don’t mind’ because then he could take his wife to that place she was always talking about.
I fumbled and jumbled up this simple information and missed the punchline. Nobody laughed. How we arrange information/content, when and what we decide to reveal is crucial. It bears equal...
Private or Pendantic?
Our world has become extremely regulated in order to protect and respect the rights of the individual, but is it at the detriment of the truth or of other individuals around them?
When a young vietnamese girl named Phuc was photographed naked running down a war torn street, how was the photographer meant to know that this image would become an iconic reflection and powerfully political image that...
Oh Mercy - Deep Heat (Live at SYN)
My First film/editing exercise at SYN on our show New and Approved.
New & Approved on Syn - Oh Mercy from Elle Marsh on Vimeo.
Was paying to much attention to the performance and the sound on the panel board to realise how completely out of focus Alex is. Fairly devastating.
August 2012
17 posts
Digging Up the Truth
John Safran. Nicholas Hanen. Dennis K Smith. Helen Gaynor.
Each Documentary filmmaker on the panel today came from a different background and had their own unique styles and techniques, from Helen Gaynor who has a classical observational and participatory style to John Safran who inserts himself into the film and has a large presence in his films.
Documentaries are the creative arrangement of...
Youngin's
More and more, children and youth are being given a voice. In How I Met Your Mother teenage Marshall in groovy overalls writes a letter to future Marshall about what he kind of man he thinks he will become. The opinions we hold when we are young are important and valid, they are a stringent reminder of who we are or want to be. I think this project will be a fantastic archive for when these...
What is the Point?
There are some big questions in life. Like, What is the meaning of life? Is their a purpose to mine? what purpose can I create for it? What am I going to have for breakfast tomorrow? and what is the point of the documentary we are about to make in my TV2 Class?
Tonight I went to a very interesting talk with Dr. David Corlett. He is the host and resident expert on asylum seekers for the SBS show...
Last Hoorah
Last night I went to see a documentary on Lcd Soundsytem’s last show called ‘Shut Up and Play the Hits.’ The film follows frontman James Murphy through the noise and silence of his weird week of performing and retiring simultaneously. This band really goes out on a high.
Camera Control
This short film by Cronenberg makes me feel uncomfortable. The topic of film’s effect on the mind and body seems to be a running theme in Cronenberg’s work. His feature length film Videodrome was a fantastic sci-fi that dramatically and obscenely highlights the power TV has over it’s viewers.
People Like Pets
Some pet themed ideas for a 5 minute artistically stylised short documentary.
IDEA NUMBER 1:
A highly stylised short documentary which introduces viewers to a bunch of dog owners and their dogs. All those featured in the film have only two things in common:
1) They love their Dog
2) They also are told on a regular basis… that they kinda look their dog
IDEA NUMBER 2:
RSPCA Volunteer...
MIFF DOCO SHORTS
I have to admit, I love a good staged scene in a documentary.
Walk Tall was my favourite film from the morning.
Project Update
For TV 2 Our group is focusing the lens on the adventure playground tucked away behind the commission flats on Brunswick St. Its a green garden and a safe haven for the kids of the commission flats.
We went and visited it last week and met the man in charge, Peter Brown. He talked to us about the history, the activities and the issues that face the children that come to Cubbies. Some activities...
I AM ELEVEN
I can distinctly remember when I was eleven. I was in Mr Del Prete’s class, Year Six. We were rulers of primary school and I had all my favourite friends in my class.
I felt really mature then, and yet was stringently against growing up. I remember Alice and I played the priest and the banisters at a mock wedding in the playground (it lasted about a week,) even pretend romance was too...
Braid Face
An interview exercise done in class featuring Victoria Tunbridge
HANDS interview from Victoria Tunbridge on Vimeo.
shoddy photo's are still important.
I love this. The stories and discussions in this film are so detailed and so pointless. The scene seems to explore the beautiful absurdity and pointlessness of the things we hold dear in life.
Pet Gravestones
Errol Morris’s Film ‘Gates of Heaven’ made me first think about Evelyn Waugh’s satirical and dark humoured novel ‘The Loved One.’
Choices
A filmmaker has so many choices.
Often films look like they just happen. But they don’t.
As with any rule, there are exceptions, and in some rare cases they do..just happen, as in GasLand..possibily?
But I don’t really want to bank on our film falling into place in the editing suite.
So lets get prepared.
The Faithful Fan
A moment is stronger than a shot.
Rather than placing some B-roll in front of us, Koch invited us into the moment.
Thats why ‘We Are the Faithful’ by Micheal Koch worked.
Not one interview, all shot on one setting, I think he did it with 2 cameras.
Just a man cheering for his team on the soccer field. Only you don’t see the game once.
Tells us more about the culture of the...
Metal & Melancholy
Couldn’t find a good version of this online. So I guess I will just have to write about it!
Set in Peru, this short documentary is about a man showing us his run down taxi and how he has made it ‘unstealable,’ (apparently not a word.) It was such a simple story that touched on so many themes and broader concepts.
The man shows the audience his trick wires and missing ignition....
July 2012
3 posts
Birdemic - Shock & Terror
The worst film I have ever seen… and yet also the most hilarious. My favourite scene is either the board room meeting tracking shot where everyone claps for about 5 minutes. Or maybe it is the scene where the couple awkwardly dance in a restaurant to the worst singer ever.
It is well worth your time to watch the whole thing, and I am being genuinely serious. Just sit down with a mate and...
I just found a film my friend made when we did a season working at Mt Buller. yaya
June 2012
13 posts
Watched ‘Eat Pie’
It’s about NY High School students going to a farm for a weekend and learning about where food comes from.
Albina - By Jon Shenk (The Island President)
About one woman’s struggle to fix the garbage problem in Peru and empower the people to see that they can change the system.
IDEA...
A short film about the ridiculous nature of the family court system.
Before a husband can take his wife to court over the custody of their children, the couple have to undergo mediation. This is a ruling to unclog the family court system. The problem is that if a party fails to show in Mediation, there are no repercussion’s, as there are when someone fails to show at a court hearing.
So...
Kramer Vs Kramer
Dustin Hoffman & Meryln Streep.
Weekend
I’m the sort of person that will deny any real connection and or a real relationship or serious attraction until it is too unfeasibly impossible to ignore the fact that the connection may be more than I pretend it is.
The character dynamics, screenplay and acting in ‘Weekend’ was so real that it made me feel as though I was awkwardly tagging along to some serious dates with two...
Circular Storytelling
We Need to Talk about How Good This Film Is
In so many films, we grow to love and relate to the victim, we are shown their faults,their dreams their family and their reltionships. We grow with them and then when the film takes full hold of it’s thriller or horror genre, we watch them suffer and die or by some miracle escape but at the expense of watching others die or something like that, blah blah. It is a formula that works, we love...
