Low Budget High Impact on its way…

In and around all of this stormy weather it’s hard to remember that the blog is still here! Don’t forget about us!

At the moment were getting onto cranking out the FilmLab website, so consider this a lull period and we’ll return to your regular transmission soon.

As for a Lab update, following from their attendance at the FilmLab workshop earlier this year, Eddie, Hugh, Julie, Matt, Ashlee, Sonya, Sophie, Bryan and Matt will be undertaking a six-day intensive script development workshop.

Run by the South Australian Film Corporation and facilitated by Stephen Cleary, the workshop will include a series of lectures and one-on-ones to fast track the script writing process. Now that the teams have the ideas we’re going to push through what Low Budget is all about – momentum!

For people interested in participating in this innovative low budget filmmaking initiative, a FilmLab side door will be available – this is for teams who may already have a script that’s ready to go, and need the funding to make it happen. Guidelines to the side door will be released in late February 2010, followed by an application deadline in May. How exciting!

Applications for the second round of the FilmLab intensive workshop and production funds of up to $350,000 is expected to be in September 2010, followed by the workshop in early 2011.

For more information about FilmLab, visit http://www.safilm.com.au/Content.aspx?p=161

See you soon!

AT

SA FilmLab: Where did we all go? I’ll tell you where!

Hi blog readers!

It’s been quite a while since the last blog post. The first official intensive is now far behind us and the Labsters have been squirrelling away in development with the occasional word for the past couple of months.

A few things have happened recently that you could call highlights!

Firstly, you may or may not have noticed the FilmLab logo popping up here and thereon the SAFC website and perhaps even on this user profile. It will be appearing more and more so keep an eye out for it. We personally think it’s a bit of alright, but would love to know your thoughts!

Secondly, we’re madly working undercover to get resources from FilmLab together for the industry – in a format to be released  soon. I was thinking we could do video holograms of lectures, to be beamed direct to your frontal lobes – but was told that this wasn’t in keeping with the “Lo Budget” mentality. Oh well, one can dream. Stay posted.

Thirdly, we brought the labsters back together for a half day seminar presented by one refreshed Stephen Cleary, and each team got to sit down for an hour to discuss the next stage of their project. As we predicted, some teams are raring to go knocking on production’s door, while others are keen to explore their stories in development and let them ripen into something fabulous. We also had a chance to chat to the Labsters in retrospect and ask them what they thought of the process and what they learnt about Low Budget film making through the Lab. Their answers were very interesting, and we’ll share them soon.

That’s it from me for the moment, but I’ll be sure to keep upating as often as I can, and see if I can get you guys back here regularly.

Unfortunately no pictures of food or otherwise for today’s post, but I do care to mention a rather delicious curry I had for lunch if anyone needs something to visualise.

AT

FilmLab Day 15 – Beyond the first ridge there’s always another

So we’ve reached the first peak. (And although I write about it 2 weeks later it’s still as though it was just yesterday)

The first ever intensive workshop for FilmLab has finished. Survivor, eat your heart out! Biggest Loser, they’ve gained a lot more than you’ll ever lose! But to put aside any more references to reality television, the final day of the workshop certainly didn’t fizzle, and everyone was already a winner. (But we knew that before we started)

Following the previous day’s presentations to an industry market panel for feedback, there was a big general sigh of relief. The scariest part was over, and we could all come back into the safe circle of trust that has been one of the driving forces of encouragment in the workshop.

But first, an early start. “Meet 9am at the op-shop on O’Connell street!” Paddy says.
Sorry Sophie, contrary to your suggestion op-shopping was not on the agenda – instead, it was time to show the world (the world being the 3 people at St. Pauls Cathedral) just what we’d been learning to do with our voices. So much pressure, and what a room to fill! After a few warm up excercises the group realised how much difference there is between the terribly echoey kookaburra cafe, and the wonderfully vast ceilings of the cathedral. With the instruction to “fill the space with sound until you can hear it come back to you”, we certainly noticed a lack of Sonya’s strong soprano contribution.

We spent enough time on Somewhere Over the Rainbow to give Dorothy a thousand trips to Oz and back. The guys certainly had it tough, considering the higher the pitch, the easier it was to make the sound resonate. In any case, 45 minutes of “singing to the window” proved successful in an explosive rendition of Life on Mars, complete with big finish, followed by 90 seconds of Bach – entry music for the churchgoers arriving for their 10am service (after which we promptly vacated, lest they ask us to join in some hymns and discover we can only really sing 3 songs!)

Back at base, the Labsters finally had an opportunity to reveal their final presentations to the other teams, for feedback and discussion. This revealed that we have some very varied projects on our hands, which will certainly all take different amounts of time to complete. The next few years will certainly be interesting to watch.

Our final delicious lunch together made us realise that from now on, we’d have to cook for ourselves again, and the reality of leaving the lab began to set in. Still, with so much to go on with, a well deserved break has definitely been earned – and there’s plenty of homework assigned, no doubt about that. Unfortunately everyone declined my suggestion of staging a scene resembling “The Last Supper” with Stephen at the centre after lunch. We got a good group photo later on, but still… Next time gadget…

The teams then got a few final hours of project time, during which Paddy recorded Matt’s song – and to redeem ourselves for the morning’s performance, we all got a session with the headphones and microphone, to add a bit of something extra to the song. Kudos to Russell for putting it all together in one day. Masterful!

As we neared the end of the “official” day, it was time for the producers to show us their masterpieces. Each compiled a 90 second clip of what FilmLab has been for them, and amidst excuses of “I’m a producer, not a cinematographer or editor!” (like we didn’t know), every clip was actually pretty fun – except of course Bryan’s, who (being a cinematographer AND editor) really showed us what a fish eye lens and time lapse can say in 90 seconds. These are intended to be posted on the FilmLab website as soon as it goes live, and you’ll definitely hear about it on here!

A final supper of dips, crackers and cheese made us late for our own end of workshop celebration, but as soon as we arrived no fun was spared. The best part was that we got through to the end, alive, in one piece mentally and physically, with no major dramas.*

*In actual fact what we ended up with is more like a comedy, a doco, a docu/sortof/drama/something/maybe, and a non-threatening skeleton that will be fleshed out in due course

Although the first workshop is over, alas, I can not excape so easily. This blog will continue to be updated periodically with information about all things FilmLab – so be sure to stop by every now and again and grace my pages with your gaze.

It’s been fun for me, and I hope reading it has been the same!

AT

This picture can tell its own thousand words.

“Alright divas now don’t mess up my harmony and make me look bad…” directs Sarah.

I think this was healthy as well as being delicious, although I still have no idea what to call it.

Good luck all!

FilmLab Day 14 – The Last Lap

Today was the pinnacle moment of the week’s preparation. After a few quick tech checks the the Labsters were thrust in front of a Market panel comprised of Nick Batsias, Rachel Okine, Antonia Barnard, Michael Favelle and Katrina Sedgwick. This complex blend of distrubutor, producer, sales agent and festival programmer extraordinaire were to hear a presentation from each team, outlining the project they had chosen to pull out of the other side of the lab and produce through the scheme.

Once major difference that marked this presentation was that none of the other teams were going to be in the room to hear it – the focus was completely on engaging the market panel and getting their honest feedback. This meant that in comparison to previous spiels, the projects were being introduced to an entirely new audience of people who had not gone through the whole process. They would not have read the very first concept documents, they would not have seen the creative exploration to find the heart of the story, or the genesis of the characters. The Labsters had a challenge of condensing all of the past 3 weeks into 10 minutes, clearly, with a point, and some indication of the film that would be made from it.

Fortunately for me, most teams decided to keep it simple technically, which gave way to honest, engaging and concise delivery. First up was Matt C, Sophie and Bryan, who stimulated much discussion and questioning from the panel (maybe a little too much because we seemed to run out of time too quickly). Next, Matt B and Julie sandwiched their presentation between some effectively cut imagery, eliciting a number of laughs from the panel (which they may have regretted later). Ashlee and Sonya then stepped in, armed only with their voices, their facial expressions, and most importantly a great story. Matt and Sarah turned things around with a DVD representation of the presentation (what a mouthful) of a few days earlier, giving a great sense of atmophere and the next step in their low budget feature journey. Finally, Hugh and Eddie treated the panel to a change of location (and a cushier chair) in the mixing theatre, for some live demonstration of bear development.

Overall the panel were impressed with the process, and are interested to see the next stage of each film as it develops. Granted, they recognised that some projects had been created 2 years ago, and others only 2 days ago, so the veritable fruit salad offered was always going to be diverse – and they were very open to that.

In the evening, we dragged the panel to the Mercury Cinema, where they bestowed some wisdom on the local industry about marketing, distribution, sales, and what film makers should be thinking about and when. The venue was packed with film makers of all levels, which was great to see. We really should have panels like this more often!

After a gruelling and informative 2 hours, we released our guests back into the wild, and set off home, to get some rest for the 15th and final day of this FilmLab intensive work shop. Not the End, nor the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning of the beginning… or something to do with spanners…

It’s been quite a ride.

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Our guests have a chuckle (which we hope was the intended outcome of this particular presentation)

Julie rejoices – whether because of the beer, Michael Favelle’s presence, or the fact the presentations are over I’m still not sure about.

Sweet relief, bitter brew, and something about a film.

Information in people form.

Day 13 – The Heat is On!

It seems somewhat ironic that I would choose such a title for this post, considering that last night was one of the coldest so far this season, and tonight looks like it might be even colder! Although the building here may experience that cold from time to time, the Labster’s are certainly feeling the heat with only one more night before they have to present their chosen project to the panel of guests.

Ready and raring as they were to start brainstorming and writing, the morning would not be complete without a musical warm up. I must admit that I did miss today’s singing session, as I was running around like a headless chicken picking up equipment, but I hear that the Bach is coming along nicely, and everyone is slipping into the German lyrics with a bit of encouragement. I think tomorrow I may hand out moustache growing kits just to get everyone into the spirit, and follow this with 1L Oktoberfest steins if they still need assistance in feeling the mood (they’ll have to supply their own beer though). Later in the day I heard people humming along to an African song Paddy taught us early last week, so I can only assume that formed a part of this morning’s session too.

The focus of today’s lecture was exploring tools to sum down all of the essential elements and add any important points that must be included, then cram that all into an engaging 5-7 minute presentation that says all the things you need to say, but not too much about plot, and make the audience want to see the film you haven’t yet made. EASY!

Thus the task for the day was set. Bellies full of lunch (not photographed today but can be described as a vision of risotto, shepherds pie, stuffed capsicums and raspberry and pear crumble of delight!) the Labsters scurried off to begin drafting their presentations. They then proceeded to meet with Stephen, Paddy and Peter for a practice run, some feedback, and then back to the drawing board towards perfection.

Fortunately we’ve managed to convince the market panel to stay on after the FilmLab presentations, and they will be presenting a discussion chaired by SAFC CEO Richard Harris (senor tenor extraordinaire) at the Mercury cinema tomorrow night at 6pm. They will be discussing the all important (but often overlooked) aspects of marketing film, and it should be an informative event for everyone who attends – and everyone is invited so no excuses! More details are on the SAFC website, just click the link on the right.

Technically speaking, no one has asked me to build any rocket ships or program any androids, so tomorrow should go fairly smoothly from that point of view. This is just as well, as I discovered my motor skills had somewhat diminished at 5am this morning as I struggled to assemble a kinder surprise toy. One wonders why I was assembling children’s toys, eating chocolate, or even awake at all at that time of morning… but the three elements seemed to play together nicely, even if it took me longer than usual to construct the plastic character I have now nicknamed “Paddy Note-head”. Paddy Cunneen was introduced to his mini-me at lunch today and I’m sure he’s now gone to a loving home. (The plastic toy, not the ACTUAL Paddy)

Wishing good luck to the Labster teams for tomorrow, I’ll leave you with some images of the new additions to the family.
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Paddy Note-head, who has now been dubbed “Crotchet Head” by the REAL Paddy, composes scores for us to sing in weird languages…

Crotchet Head’s distant cousin Stephen Opaquey. Mr. Opaquey did not require any assembly so was therefore not as entertaining at 5am. Sorry Stephen!

“And then you make them go WOOP WOOP! – Don’t you see Eddie? It’s just genius!”

There’s no escaping this all seeing eye! Extreme wide angle of the “fishy” kind courtesy of B Mason. (Let’s name him Lord Sauron…)

Day 12 – Time to to Jam (It all together)

Following yesterday’s epic punctuality fail, I was determined to get to the SAFC on time this morning and not miss out on the vocal warm up. I seemed set to acheive my goal until I was rudely interrupted by a series of police cars on Port Road doing some random drug and alcohol tests. Foiled again! I thought, resisting the urge to ask my allocated policeman if his moustache was real or if it was some kind of motorcycle cop fashion statement. “I swear, this wide eyed look of inspiration on my face is not drug induced… come join us for some singing officer!”

I finally arrived during the last repetition of Life on Mars, just in time to move on to the Bach. The basses and tenors were taught the final phrase of the song, and we were ready to combine all of the glorious elements – the only one we weren’t expecting was to try to sing it all in German. I have to say the overall sound was quite impressive, even if the language suddenly turned our chorus of “oooos” into a phlegm-fest. I’m still struggling to read a squiggly “B” as an “s” sound, and with only 3 days to really perfect it we’d better lift our game. Still, with Eddie now returned from the land of the germ infested, we don’t have to reach so far.

The songfest was wrapped up by Peter who assumed Paddy’s position behind the keyboard (but to our disappointment didn’t use the thing), directing the Labsters into pairs for some conversation and story telling. I’m sure many people discovered some interesting new things about others that they didn’t know before.

Stephen’s lecture today (recorded of course!) began with a group activity. The Labsters were to construct the main elements of a horror/slasher film, starting with establishing the characters in the film, the order in which we meet them, and then plot events that lead to the death of most of them. Made me think twice about going to my grandmother’s dilapidated log cabin any time soon…

Each team was then instructed to write up a log line for their project and present it to the group. They were then asked to further abstract the information in those paragraphs and present a simple 3 or so sentence outline of the essence of the project as it were. There has been a lot of creativity distilled in the past 2 weeks, and now it is time to compile all of the information into the necessary documents. Ashlee seems thrilled that she is no longer confined to the art room, and the embargo on her writing has been lifted. The teams then spent the rest of the afternoon fleshing out their story ideas, in preparation for the final presentation to the market representative panel on Tuesday.

There were a lot of locked office doors while the Labsters pondered their latest offering. I’m glad the only major decision for me today was at lunch time, leaving me to decide whether to fondue or “fonDON’T”.

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Bryan explains his feelings on the moment he discovered he was half man-half tiger.

“Give me some characters for this story so we can kill them off in interesting, exciting and generic ways.”

“Sure you can take my photo… Then leave me alone so I can get back to work!”  – One wonders what kind of work involves a roll of toilet paper Sarah…

No soup for you! (Because we ate it all… delicious!)

Day 11 – Time to Rise

I wandered into this morning’s singing session 10 minutes late, and found to my dismay that all of those silly sounding vocal warm ups actually make a massive difference. So, while trying to find the right key, I amused myself by failing to take photographs of an elusive Matt Bate, who kept hiding behind his sheet music. In the end I gave up and decided that the sheet music should get the spotlight instead (photo below).

We do seem to be doing a lot of work on perfecting these harmonies however, and I’m beginning to wonder what we’ll all do once we have mastered it. Will the Labsters get together once a week to make sure we still got it? Hope so. It puts everyone in a great frame of mind each morning.

Today’s singing was wrapped up with a bit of a wild card from Peter, who unwound all of our sweet choir style rehearsal with some yodelling and cow herding practice. Great fun. Good thing it is really Saturday and there is no one else in the building… Makes me wonder if we’ll be manoeuvering cows through the offices in the next few days… Anything is possible.

Stephen then rounded the troops into the lecture theatre for a detailed breakdown of story elements, and what the Labsters should be thinking about for the coming week. They were recently informed that this coming Tuesday would bring their final presentation – but the catch?…

…The usual team spectators will be replaced by a panel of Market Representatives and SAFC staff! These same people will be presenting a panel on Tuesday night at the Mercury Cinema, “Beyond Production: Getting Your Film to Market” (more info is on the SAFC website – see the link to the right so you don’t miss it!) The pressure is on the Labsters to present their ideas to highly experienced industry members, who haven’t been around to witness the creative process of development. It is time to break down the project presentations to the usable elements, and put them together for a new audience.

We figure that this would be yet another engaging challenge. But if the Labsters can get into their own locked offices without keys (no names) sheerly on the basis of desire, then I daresay there will be a lot of socks hanging from the ceiling fans in the presentation room*.

*Here I wish to note that I have been making many references to socks and ceiling fans within the SAFC building. However to my knowledge I have not seen any ceiling fans since I have worked here. Consider this an effective visual metaphor and please do not make a note of bringing it to my attention. For those of you that were considering it… well done, aren’t you clever, let’s move on now.

With only four more days to go and the pressure mounting, my premonition is that the Labsters will finish this process energised and inspired, rather than exhausted, which is great footing for the next step in FilmLab.

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I can’t make neither head nor tail of it. I just watch Paddy’s eyebrows go up and down indicating which note comes next…

Julie knows when she’s hit the note she wants.

Paddy tells us we need to do it again, this time, WITH FEELING!

Matt misinterprets Paddy’s instructions above and feels himself. Ashlee hopes she isn’t next…

“Just a couple of complex points to remember off the top of your heads guys. No need to write them down.”

Day 10 – Conflict, Catastrophe, Catharsis

Today saw the secound round of SAFC staff join in with the morning vocal exercises. Although we didn’t quite have the numbers of the previous day, we certainly managed to reach the same volume. The highlight of the session was most definitely learning the second phrase of the Bach, with the soprano/alto combination positively melting the hearts of any innocent bystander with open ears. (Ok maybe a slight exaggeration, but the tenors and basses certainly looked impressed and I may have seen one or both of Paddy’s socks hanging from the ceiling fan from the force of being knocked off…)

There was quite a buzz within the caves where the “secret squirrels” (a phrase duly coined by Julie recently) worked steadily on their latest presentations. Today the tasks were directed with a lot more consultation from Stephen, Paddy and Peter, so it was no surprise that each group was nervous prior to spilling their latest offering (sounds almost like a sacrifice doesn’t it?)

I have to say, in the spirit of low budget, today’s tech set up was quite lo-fi, leaving me with very little to stress about except the possible dropping of a heavy and OLD overhead projector onto a much younger digital data projector. Makes me wonder who I would bet on if the two got into the arena together – surely the overhead projector would have the size and weight advantage, but the digital projector is younger and oh so much more attractive.

First up in presentations was Ashlee, who, for a nice change of scenery, led us through the art room on a tour of her characters and their development. Ashlee and Sonya have been keeping track of this and blogging about the process if you are interested in reading more.

Next up was Matt, Sophie and Bryan, who dispayed their 23 minute film shot and edited in the past 3 days. This stimulated much discussion amongst the other Labsters and the 3 stooges and raised many important questions for the team. One of which relates to “rules” and following them, or breaking them, or just putting them in a blender if that’s what you feel is best.

Next up Matt Vesely wowed us all with what I can only describe as live cued theatre, with audience participation. It built up quite intensely and kept everyone in the moment for the 20 minutes.

We thought we’d seen it all, until the PRA boys revealed, a terribly ancient looking overhead projector. That’s right everyone, the SAFC still has one of these, and it was used to full effect by Eddie for real time, ultra lo-fi animation. Accompaniment? I’m glad you asked. Live music, provided by one Hugh N. wearing a bear costume. Curioser and curioser down the rabbit hole it goes…

Finally, Matt and Julie presented us with their secret squirrel assignment. We’re always listening to everybody’s conversations, natural born eavesdroppers that we are, but when they are recorded in public? Paranoia kicked in as everyone realised that Matt had been wandering around all afternoon with a radio mike hidden up his sleeve. The ensuing discussion made everyone think about moral, ethical and legal implications of “documenting” the world around you even if everyone else can hear it anyway…. and then what happens when you start editing?

Week 2 ended with a lot of good fodder for the mind to process over the 2 day “weekend”. Everyone should enjoy their well deserved break, but are no doubt raring to get into the final week. Stephen says the intensity will be lifted yet again. What will be in store for the Labsters? You’ll have to read on.

AT

Which came first, the Eddie or the over-heady?

Ghost theatre! Two Matts oversee the presentation.

Hallway debrief. Who needs offices, cafes, couches and lecture rooms eh?

Ok, so I broke the blog diet. I’ll start over next week… Pumpkin scones for ALL!

FilmLab Day 9 – Music to our…fingers?

Today started off on a very musical note (HA!) as Paddy invited all of the SAFC staff to join in on the morning vocal warm up and singing session. A handful of apprehensive desk dwellers crept into the Kookaburra cafe, where they were awaited by the Labsters, now complete singing pros and ready to attack the sheet music with mighty breath.

We started off with some do-re-mi-ing to loosen up those vocal chords (complete with hand signals which I can’t say was a complete fail, but not far off) , and soon were rolling through “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” complete with bass/soprano harmonies and what Paddy calls the “big finish”. This was then followed by a thrashing of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars”, which we had been working at for the past week.

During the Bowie classic our rock star CEO Mr Richard “Buckley” Harris clearly demonstrated the archetypal characteristics of a tenor (as described by Paddy) – and was quite a rival to the adjacent Eddie White when it came to hitting those high notes with energy, enthusiasm, and VOLUME!

Finally, with five minutes to spare Paddy pulled out the Bach (still yet to add the German lyrics, unless of course “ooo ooo oooooh” means something profound).  The Labsters knocked the proverbial socks off of the newbies with a fantastic 4-part harmony that was beautifully lifted by the few extra sopranos in the group. It is amazing how relaxing and inspiring a morning of singing can turn out to be, and I’m hoping that everyone who participated went back to their desks with something special, or even just nice thoughts to last the day.

Once the crowd dispersed and producers and directors went to their designated fox holes, work continued on the previous day’s projects. Tomorrow is the 3rd presentation to the group, and as teams have been given directed tasks in preparation it will be interesting to see where they arrive. Stephen’s Low Budget lecture was once again, fast and furious (surely the theme of week 2) and focused on identifying or exploring what an antagonist is in a story. It’s not as black and white as one might think, and this lecture stimulated much discussion and suggestion.

Following lunch it was back into individual project time, which presented me once again with some digital file juggling. I think all has worked out ok, and as far as I know none of the present equipment has yet been destroyed – unless it has been intentional of course (I’m looking at you iMac!)

It feels as though living the workshop has become the norm. Everyone is synched in with the routine and it seems to really be stimulating thoughts, discussion, conflict and all of the other great things that inspiration rides in on. There is also a lot of very hard work going on, and the Labsters haven’t missed a beat. Well done guys!

Following today there was a low budget screening of the film Mum & Dad at the Mercury Cinema, which was another project made under the Film London Microwave scheme. You could call this an example of the scope of low budget film making, or you could just call it a gorefest. Either way, clenching my fists around my collar for 90 minutes can’t have been good for my circulation. I may elaborate on this another time, but for now I want to process it by thinking about it as little as possible, lest I resume the rant I had in the foyer directly after the film.

Tomorrow, week 2 of FilmLab will draw to a close. We’ll see what sort of crescendo will be reached next week as we approach the final “big finish”.
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Tremendous (or should I say tenormendous) “ooooohing” from the tenor section.

The biggest finish yet!

Peter complements Matt on his gnarly t-shirt. (*If I ever hear Peter say the word gnarly in real life that would be just awesome!)

Glue, string, scissors, bubblewrap, chux and a HAMMER! Just about everything Eddie needs to create a complete mess!

Matt attempts to “taste” Sophie’s inspiration. FilmLab IS about engaging all of the senses after all isn’t it guys?

FilmLab Day 8 – Happy Hump Day!

A sense of disbelief and a little bit of sadness touched us all at lunch time today when we realised that we had reached the mid point of this FilmLab intensive. Hence the phrase “hump day” which I’m sure will cause some controversy and a few immature giggles around the place. Considering Monday is actually our Wednesday however, I believe this to be even more appropriate.

This past week has flown by so quickly everyone is scrambling to get their projects done in time for the next lot of presentations. Funnily enough, in accordance with Murphy’s law when you want technology to work quickly and effectively it decides to present obscure errors that no amount of googling and forum searching can resolve. I apologise to the Labsters who were around for my numerous Mac vs PC rants today. I think I have finally decided the best system is a brick – simple, effective, and operates at a much higher speed than most processors (when thrown properly).

Today’s lecture wasn’t a lecture at all – it was a screening of a film called Butterfly Kiss (1995), directed by Michael Winterbottom. Stephen used this to exemplify certain characteristics of low budget films that are effective (like my brick), that the Labsters should be thinking about along with everthing else. Story aside, the film was definitely edgy and kept us guessing about what was going to happen next. Confronting I think would be another word I’d use to describe it, although it didn’t have me curled up in a “ball of wuss” like yesterday’s lecture.

The next Low Budget film screening at the Mercury cinema is Mum & Dad (2008), a horror film made under the Microwave low-budget program created by Film London. This follows on from last week’s screening of Shifty. The screening begins at 7.30 – we hope to see you all there! The following week to finish up the SAFC will be presenting a panel at the Mercury - Beyond Production: Getting Your Film to Market. This will be attended by a number of interstate guests and will be chaired by the SAFC CEO Richard Harris. More on this later.

I’ve heard that tomorrow morning all SAFC staff have been invited to partake in the morning warm up. I will definitely be documenting this in as many forms as possible (that would be two forms – video and audio, but if anyone can sculpt in real time you’re welcome to join us). I will present the full lowdown in tomorrow’s blog, as long as no one objects to me including every small detail (after all, how else will I make this thing amusing?)

Until tomorrow, enjoy today’s spur of the moment snaps. There are no food photos today, as this blog is beginning to put on weight!
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Stephen is impressed with Paddy’s juggling skills. The same principle can be applied to life he says…

We call this “mixed media”

The place where dreams are made (if you dream of Sophie, Matt and Bryan)

Where are you two off to? You know that when they dress like ninja’s they’re up to no good…