Posted in Uncategorized on July 27th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
TV is definitely cool again. And I will be doing my bit to help make it cooler this September at Adelaide’s TV Mini Lab.
The brainchild of the South Australian Film Corp, the TV Mini Lab will help up to ten TV projects reach pitch readiness, with the ultimate aim of stimulating local production for their new studios.
From the perspective of both a writer who developed a drama project with Southern Star and now a development exec helping the company shape drama projects for network pitching, I’ll be outlining various processes, models and creative approaches undertaken at Southern Star for making drama projects network friendly.
Applications close August 6 through the SAFC, so get yourself a form (and hopefully a South Australian based producer) and I hope to see you there.
Posted in friday on my mind on July 26th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Rise to Power of the Telemovie
Richard Keddie
The ’80s was the era of the “historical miniseries”, and particularly the political one (remember The Dismissal?). Now, with Hawke having taken centre stage, and the Whitlam-esque Cleo to come, producer Richard Keddie (Hawke, Curtin) looks at the rise and rise of the period telemovie and the real-life aspects that make them so powerful.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 30
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in friday on my mind on July 20th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Thinking Outside the Box Office
Indie Strategies for Success
Known variously as one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch” (Daily Variety) and “the subculture guy”, America’s Jon Reiss produced and directed Bomb It!, a feature film about graffiti and the battle over visual public space. Based on his experience releasing with a hybrid strategy, he wrote Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era.
Using examples such as The Age of Stupid, Jon will share innovative tools and strategies for filmmakers to distribute and promote their films in an overcrowded marketplace.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 23
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
still from Bomb It!
An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in friday on my mind on July 12th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Creative Force
Alice Bell
Alice Bell is known for creating explosive and unpredictable characters, from the murderous “Hurricane” Katrina in Bell’s first feature Suburban Mayhem which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, to the risk-taking schoolgirl Violet, in last year’s AFTRS film of the same name. She talks here about the importance of breathing life and surprise into a script, drawing from all of these projects and her next, Gin & Tonic.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 16
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in friday on my mind on July 5th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Defining Characters
Belinda Chayko on Lou*
In order to attract finance, most Australian films these days are having to secure internationally renowned talent. Belinda Chayko, the AWGIE winning writer (Saved) and second time director (City Loop) tells how this project went from being a university script to securing John Hurt (Harry Potter, Alien) – all through having well-defined characters.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 9
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
* Special screening of Lou in full after the Q&A
Posted in friday on my mind on June 29th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Foreign Correspondence
Claire McCarthy and Jamie Hilton
Likened to Monsoon Wedding and City of Joy, The Waiting City (starring Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton) is an ambitious depiction of a couple’s growing intimacy with a city – and each other. I talk to writer/director Claire McCarthy (Cross Life, Sisters in Calcutta) and See Pictures producer Jamie Hilton about the performance and production challenges of bringing this relationship to the screen.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, July 2
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
An inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in my reviews on June 23rd, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Writer/Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Producers: Oliver Damian, Philippe Martin, David Thion
[In Australian cinemas August 26 through Palace]
Serge: “Why do you work with Stig Jensen. Are you a masochist?”
Grégoire: “Did you see his retrospective?… Garden of Eden’s a masterpiece.”
Serge: “Never heard of it.”
This dialogue from Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest Cannes acclaimed feature is emblematic of both the film and a central plight at the core of modern cinema production: how to maintain integrity in an increasingly commercialised industry. That classic conundrum of art versus entertainment made all the more apparent by the GFC is the subject of this necessary and finely wrought film. Is film a commodity or cultural artefact? And who carries the debt of that decision?
Grégoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is a film producer whose slate is crumbling under the pressures of blown out budgets, testing auteurs and uncompromising financiers. This is compounded by the demands of three active daughters and an increasingly dissatisfied wife (Chiara Caselli). All very relevant for the Cannes Film Festival setting where it won last year’s Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard.
The film abounds in subtle motifs such as the white sheep detailed in a church mosaic (“They’re the believers,” Canvel tells his daughters on a rare holiday outing) to Le Moutin Blanc bar outside the Canvel home; faith being one of its central themes. Also the marvel of creation, as witnessed through an impromptu play devised by Canvel’s youngest daughters one evening.
It is from the joyous performance Hansen-Løve evokes in these children – a talent she exemplified in her César nominated All Is Forgiven (2007) – that the film’s greatest success springs: combined with unfailingly realistic dialogue and considerable shooting in low-light conditions, the naturalism creates a sense of extreme intimacy with this man, his colleagues and his family; most of all an empathy with the juggle between all three. What happens to disciples when their guiding light goes out?
Posted in friday on my mind on June 23rd, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Making It in Music Television
Jakub Jacko (MTV World Stage)
After working for over a decade with MTV, MCM and Channel [V] and making an AFTRS short with Angry Anderson, Jakub Jacko directed a one-hour launch special for MTV Classic, featuring rock legend Slash. Such was the reception that MTV requested additional shows, the most recent for MTV’s global series MTV World Stage that aired on June 11 in 550 million households across more than 160 countries.
He shares some short cuts on the long way to the top.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 25
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
A free and inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in friday on my mind on June 16th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
The New Television
Kim Vecera and Peter Rose
In 2007, Foxtel and Austar launched showcase – the premium channel with
landmark Australian drama such as Love My Way, Satisfaction, Tangle and the soon to be
seen Cloudstreet.
With their strategy to attract subscribers with high end, high concept, high quality content, two of the industry’s most influential leaders Kim Vecera and Peter Rose talk about what they refer to as Australia’s “New Television”, about what makes “showcase material” and the ways in which the HBO model can or can’t be replicated here.
TV is definitely cool again.
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 18
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
A free and inspiring AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
Posted in friday on my mind on June 8th, 2010 by Rachael – Be the first to comment
Emotional landscapes
Andrew Commis
Recently named the ACS ‘Cinematographer of the Year’, DOP Andrew Commis, ACS talks about working with directors to create an evocative visual style, depicting landscapes both literal and figurative – from Cannes acclaimed shorts such as Nature’s Way and Blue Tongue to music videos to feature film Beautiful Kate.
– How does a cinematographer translate the emotional brief of a project?
– How do different techniques help create senses of memory, nostalgia or loss?
– What choices influence the evolution of a distinct visual style?
Time: 5-6pm
Date: Friday, June 11
Event: Friday On My Mind
Venue: AFTRS Theatre, Fox Entertainment Quarter
A free and thoroughly three dimensional AFTRS event bringing you face to face with the industry’s brightest thinkers.
Free entry. All welcome.
