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Viewfinder Magazine — Tue, 21 May 2013 05:10:19 +0000

This post is filed under Category – Issue 2 – so shouldn’t show in next/prev posts.

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Call for Entries: Adventure Film Editing Competition

Viewfinder Events — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:08:51 +0000

The NZ Mountain Film Festival Charitable Trust is running it's annual Adventure Film Editing Competition. The NZ Mountain Film Festival started a new competition in 2011 and we are carrying it on for 2013. We are inviting film makers from NZ and around the world to take some raw film footage (30 minutes) from a Wanaka based “Carbon Free” activities and turn it into a 3 minute film for judging and screening.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Call for Entries: Adventure Film Editing Competition

Film-making Workshops for High Schools and Youth Organisations

Viewfinder Events — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:42:38 +0000

Inspiring Stories is running epic workshops that give young people skills and confidence in storytelling and filmmaking for change. For the third year in a row, they’re hitting the road with a crew of internationally award-winning young filmmakers to run workshops for secondary schools nationwide. The intensive 1-day programme covers storytelling, camera, editing, and project development.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Film-making Workshops for High Schools and Youth Organisations

Free film-making workshops for students

Viewfinder Events — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:31:02 +0000

The Outlook for Someday presents its third annual series of free one-day sustainability film-making workshops, with the largest number of workshops ever scheduled to give more young people across New Zealand the chance to participate.

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Entries for Tropfest NZ 2014 now open

Viewfinder Events — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:32:59 +0000

Filmmakers of all backgrounds and levels of experience are encouraged to get out there and start making short films for the inaugural Tropfest NZ festival. Films can be about anything but must include the annual Tropfest Signature Item (TSI), which for 2014 is 'GLASSES' - Open to interpretation, any glasses accepted.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Entries for Tropfest NZ 2014 now open

Making a Web Series – the Kiwi way

Viewfinder Magazine — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:53:38 +0000

In conversation with Roseanne Liang about the making of the new web series, Flat3. At the end of February 2013 a New Zealand web series created by Roseanne Liang, JJ Fong, Perlina Lau, and Ally Xue, called Flat3, hit the internet. The Flat3 website describes the web series as ‘sometimes smart, often silly, a little rude and a lot awkward. Flat3 is a Kiwi comedy with a unique cultural take – universal in its specificity and relatable in its fresh perspective’. “But what is a web series?” asked Roseanne’s mum and loyal fan. Good question; here in New Zealand the web series form falls largely under the radar. Overseas though, the ‘web series’ has become what rap is to music, with a prestigious Awards ceremony (The Streamy Awards) dedicated to ‘honour excellence in original online video programming and those who create it’ and a Web Series Festival in its fourth year. So what IS a web series? Essentially, a web series is a series of videos, generally in episodic form, released online or on mobile devices. Founder of the LA Web Series Festival and a web series creator himself, Michael Ajakwe Jr, sees the ‘web series’ as The People’s Vision: “with the worldwide reach of the Internet and the cost of Hi-Def cameras and editing equipment like Final Cut Pro now accessible to the average consumer, non-industry creators can now make and market serialised entertainment alongside the industry pro. What’s great is that both the newbie and the veteran can create their own shows without permission from, or the approval of, traditional electronic media networks and studios which historically served as gatekeepers. Now, the gate is wide open which means there’s more opportunity than ever.” Here in New Zealand, the six-part Flat3 web series came about when Chinese-Kiwi actresses JJ, Perlina and Ally were lamenting the lack of diverse roles to play and “having to put on painful FOB accents”. Realising that sitting around waiting for things to change was “just lazy,” they decided to make a comedy web series and approached Roseanne Liang, director of ‘My Wedding and Other Secrets.’ Roseanne joined (“heck, yeah!”) as writer/director/actor/editor and the Flat3 web series was borne. “We spent a good few months just chatting and dreaming,” says Roseanne. So it’s fair to say the plots were largely inspired by the women’s own anecdotes of love, life, hopes and dreams. Flat3 follows Lee (Ally Xue), Jessica (JJ Fong) and Perlina (Perlina Lau) as they try to figure out who they are, what they’re doing in this life, and whose turn it is to buy toilet paper. Creating a web series, rather than say a short film, was driven by the immediacy and cost and “that lovely feeling of just jumping up and doing something, and to have it be seen by just about anybody in the world with an internet connection,” says Roseanne. Then the Flat3 team discovered the NZOA’s (New Zealand On Air) new Digital Media Ignite Fund and applied for funding to make their web series. “We had to submit a marketing plan and timeline, and by the time we found out our application was unsuccessful, we had already started thinking about shoot dates,” says Roseanne. So the team pushed ahead with their dream of creating the web series, albeit with a zero-budget. “We shot over about six weekends, but not full-time. I wrote episodes One to Four through November 2012, we shot early December, then took a three week break over Christmas and New Year, during which I had to finish writing the final two series. Then we shot for two weekends in January as Ally was moving to Sydney at the end of the month. “In our funding application we thought that going live around the Lantern festival/Chinese New Year might be a good release platform, so I was editing and managing post production with a Feb 22nd deadline in mind. “We decided to roll the six episodes out once a week like a ‘real’ TV show, just to keep the ball rolling.” Each webisode is around seven minutes long. “We determined the episode length based on our own experiences watching YouTube videos – and how we might be at work and check the duration of a video to see whether we could get away with watching it.” The crew for the series were all friends or friends of friends. “A lot of people had their own gear – the DOP and sound recordist for instance. I invested in a small clapper board and a new version of Avid Media Composer 6,” says Roseanne. “I used to be an editor for trade, so I volunteered to edit and do post production as well. “Being from a post background, I thought it was important to at least make sure the picture matched, and the sound was good. We shot on two different cameras, a Sony FS-100 and a Canon DSLR (the 500D), and while the camera people had done a great job, there was sometimes a little fluctuation but that was relatively easy to smooth out. “Sound is probably more critical than a fine-tuned grade, but I approached ColorLab for colour grading because I thought it would save me some time evening out the picture with my limited ‘colour-sense’. In the end, it didn’t out work time-wise, and for episodes Three to Six, one of the very helpful and multi-talented camera people did the colour grading within Avid! “When it came to the music for the web series it was a mix of begging local artists we liked to help us out, musicians who were friends, like Florence Hartigan, and a friend of Jess’, called Hong Yul Yang, who had a full-time paid job, but had done some composition before. Hong actually lives in Australia, and I think he did an amazing job.” The Flat3 team didn’t set out to make the series for profit, so they don’t anticipate any monetary return at this stage. “Having Flat3 out there is [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Making a Web Series – the Kiwi way

Making ‘The Lake’ – a short film

Viewfinder Magazine — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:49:59 +0000

The Lake is a psychological thriller which is currently in post-production and is David Morrah’s second short film after making Checking Inn, a short comedy, produced in 2007. The Lake concerns the fraught relationship between Peter, a troubled salesman and his ex-wife Carlie. One day, Peter cheats on Carlie and it is too much for her to bear. Carlie slits her wrists and commits suicide by drowning in a nearby lake. Three years later, it’s Carlie choice and she returns with a vengeance, stalking Peter through a series of subtle mind games. Peter must confront the new Carlie all over again… The Lake is based on a 25 paged short story by Lee Sentes, our original writer. Sourcing the lake itself took about two years of constant location scouting while we were developing the script. Location scouting was our second hardest challenge, the first being post-production. Lee wanted The Lake to resemble a foreign lake, like the sort of impressive and expansive lake you’d see in Canada, so it took a long time to find the right spot. After visiting about 20 different beaches, we finally settled, completely by accident I might add, on Lake Whitby in Upper Hutt. The township of Whitby resembled the sort of idyllic town you’d see in Edward Scissorhands, so finding this location was a real Godsend. We had a budget of $5,000. We applied for $10,000 funding from Fresh Shorts in late 2010, but were not successful. Instead, we embarked on a campaign selling chocolates, setting up a website and running a film festival movie night thanks to our producer, Patricia Hetherington. $5,000 went towards paying the actors, the catering, the make-up and art department necessities. Everyone else kindly volunteered. I would have liked to have paid everyone, but we had to make do with what we fundraised over those three years instead. If we had received short film funding we would have paid everyone. Pre-production was lengthy. Before we got permission to shoot at Lake Whitby, we had to get approval from a Baptist Church next to the area we were filming. We had to choose a day in April 2011 when the church wasn’t having any services and I remember waiting ages until we finally got the all clear to shoot there. The Baptist Church wasn’t happy that we were making a psychological horror near their place of worship, but they were very kind in letting us use their function room as a green room. To be fair, I don’t think there is anything deliberately satanic about this film. The Lake is not a stock horror with copious amounts of gratuitous violence and blood, though there is a supernatural element with the character of Carlie. It’s mainly a drama about a relationship gone awry first and foremost. I tried to create Carlie as a believable villain rather than as a ‘stock psycho’. When Carlie becomes undead, the audience should hopefully understand her for becoming that way; she was driven to it. If people see Carlie only as a freak of nature, then I’m making the wrong movie, I may as well be making Saw or something derivative. Sure, Carlie has changed form, but she is also a person with complex feelings and emotions, the same as a living flesh and blood character. Liz Kirkman was perfect as Carlie and made her believable, whereas a lot of other actresses who auditioned simply played Carlie as ‘psycho.’ Liz was the only actress with the versatility to make Carlie both disturbed and complex. For the water shots, the pollution at Lake Whitby meant we had to shoot Carlie’s water scenes in close-up at Oriental Bay instead. Liz was amazing, especially when we filmed her in the water during those freezing close-ups. Logan Johnson was a great choice for the character of Peter and adapted very well to the conditions of the shoot. Kerina Deas was really patient and professional to work with too. I think it was a bit hard for Kerina because there are only a few ‘Jane scenes’ in the film. As the movie is mainly about Peter and Carlie’s unfinished business, Lee our writer didn’t want the film to be about the love triangle between Peter, Carlie and Jane. Therefore, I had to be careful that Jane didn’t overshadow Carlie in the script. We did about three or four rehearsals with the actors. I started doing a lot of backstory improvisations, the stuff you don’t see in the script, for example, creating the moment the characters first meet. It is really important to do backstory improvisations first as it helps the actors to ground their characters before you later do the scene-by-scene rehearsals. Most of the individual scene rehearsals were performed indoors because it was too cold rehearsing at Lake Whitby, though we managed one outdoor rehearsal. I wrote down the super objectives for each scene first. This is what each character wants for every scene. For example, “Carlie wants Peter’s heart / Peter wants closure.” Then there are individual actions for each character, for example, what each character does from moment to moment. These will change, unlike the super objective. You have to be careful not to be too vague here. “Carlie is angry” cannot easily be interpreted by an actor. “Carlie is furious” or “Get Carlie to badger Peter” is better. I also ‘paragraphed’ the script with lines to distinguish a new dramatic ‘beat’ in the story. Judith Weston, a famous directing coach, says that sometimes less is best. If you have directions that are too specific, the actors can’t find their own feet because you’ve spelled everything out for them. For instance, sometimes I’d say “this is a scene about two characters who used to love each other” rather than saying “Peter wants this in scene seven” or “Carlie wants that in scene seven.” “Play the scene ‘as if’ it were a children’s sword fight [or other idea]” also helps to vary your performances. Our wonderful DOP from Germany, [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Making ‘The Lake’ – a short film

Hens’ Night

Viewfinder Magazine — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:48:06 +0000

Premiering at the New Zealand Documentary Edge Festival 2013, the 32 minute documentary Hens’ Night was single-handedly directed, filmed and edited by Debbie Matthews. Hens’ Night documents a group of Animal Rights activists organising and executing a blockade of New Zealand’s biggest battery hen farms in one of the nation’s most prominent and controversial campaigns against animal cruelty. Hens’ Night is Debbie Matthews documentary directorial debut. Debbie’s background is in editing; she has been editing for almost 15 years, but she has only started documentary work in the last three to four years. In January this year she edited a documentary with director Piata Gardiner-Hoskins about life in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and the challenge of holding onto their language and land in the face of colonisation. She cut the documentary ‘Passage to Rotuma’ in 2012 with director Nikki Si’ulepa, which received an emotional response at FIFO and is about the search for identity and belonging. “I have also dabbled with short film – working again with director Nikki Si’ulepa on her short film ‘Snow in Paradise’ which has been screened at numerous Film Festivals around the world and won best short film at the 30th FIFE (International Environmental Film Festival) in Paris,” says Debbie. “These film festival experiences helped me realise that it was not an impossibility to make documentaries of my own. Last year I attended a directing and producing documentary masterclass with Tom Zubrycki at AFTRS in Sydney which gave me the final push.” The Hens’ Night documentary came about through Debbie being an activist herself, and her involvement in the planning for the campaign action against caged hens. “In the weeks leading up to it I decided I should really film it, because who knew what might happen! I wasn’t sure at the time what I would do with it, but I never expected to have it screening in a film festival.” The documentary was filmed over four days in Dunedin and post production took about four months as Debbie juggled editing around her work commitments – “I chipped away at it during weekends and week nights.” Debbie had no crew and filmed the action herself on a Canon XA10. “The camera was perfect and small for running around with in the chaos,” says Debbie. Debbie filmed the action in ‘real time’ as the protest evolved and the unpredictable nature of the shoot made for some difficulties. “At one stage I thought we were going to get sprayed with factory farm effluent, but I didn’t want to miss the shot. Also the possibility of getting arrested wasn’t great for creativity! There was so much happening all of the time that I wasn’t able to use a tripod either. “Everybody involved in the action had to put up with me pointing a camera in their face at very stressful times, as well as participate in interviews after very little sleep.” Debbie edited the film herself on AVID Media Composer. “But I did enlist help from a few other editor colleagues when I could no longer see a way through the darkness.” The documentary was entirely self-funded and Debbie believes this would have been much more difficult if she wasn’t an editor. Her biggest costs were gear, “camera/tripod/sound gear/millions of hard drives!” plus flights to Dunedin and accommodation. After the acceptance of Debbie’s film to the New Zealand Documentary Edge Festival 2013, she was encouraged to enter the film into the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam). After the film festival circuit is completed the film will be available on the internet. “I don’t think anybody makes documentaries for the money… though I do know a few people who are going to use ‘Hens’ Night’ for fundraiser screenings later this year for animal rights, which is great.” Debbie biggest challenge was finishing the documentary. “I wanted to give up but forced myself to keep going. One of the hardest things I found was continuing to film when things weren’t going well. As people got stressed they obviously didn’t enjoy a camera in their face and I wasn’t too sure how to handle it at the time.” For aspiring documentary makers Debbie offers some advice; “During the editing process I would have said ‘don’t do it!!’ But time has eased the pain and now I would say ‘just keeping!’ It can be really hard to carry on and you may end up drowning in self-doubt, but that’s when you need to organise some fresh eyes! “Don’t do it by yourself – having somebody to bounce ideas off and work through issues is really important. “Chose a subject you are passionate about, because that’s what will get you over those last exhausting hurdles.” And Debbie herself has learnt from her first time documentary making experience; “I’ve learnt to listen to people even when it’s annoying! To not let criticism discourage you – take on the things that are useful, and disregard the rest. And to stick with your gut instinct!” At the Big Screen Symposium last year, documentary makers Dana Rotberg and Gillian Armstrong spoke about documentaries having the potential to change people’s thinking and make a difference, so they were immensely satisfying to make. Debbie agrees wholeheartedly. “Documentaries can be very powerful. I definitely find it more satisfying working on projects about real people rather than fictional characters. “Activists such as the women in ‘Hens’ Night’ are often only given a sound bite to communicate important messages and it was nice to be able to have a more in-depth look into this issue and I appreciated their openness and honesty. “I hope that their journey makes people more aware of factory farming and the cruel egg industry, and why we so urgently need change.” Debbie was prompted to submit to the Documentary Edge Festival because she’d never seen any animal rights related films in a festival. “Plus I thought it was a great story to tell,” she says. “It was more of an experiment I guess, I didn’t expect [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Hens’ Night

Make a movie in 48 hours. Yeah? right!

Viewfinder Magazine — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:43:37 +0000

48HOURS is the world’s leading limited-time filmmaking contest. The goal: write, shoot, cut and survive making a short film in one weekend. With New Zealand’s contest weekend around the corner, Giles McNeil, Director, DOP, Editor and co-writer of last year’s winning zombie short, ‘Brains?’, shares some insights into surviving and thriving the Rialto Channel 48HOURS. PREPARATION Although films for the 48HOURS contest must be written, shot and cut over the weekend of the competition, teams can – and should – do some preparation beforehand. “Get together as a team beforehand and talk about how you’re going to do things and what resources you have available,” says Giles. “Test your work flow; make sure you know how long it takes to export video files and things like that. Don’t be one of those sad people with your bewildered face lit up by the glow of your Macbook pro, as you struggle with the idea that it hasn’t instantly exported your video, like you assumed it would, since you paid so much for it and it’s so pretty. “Assign specific jobs (not just roles) if you know something will need to be done. For example we knew that our raw footage would need to be transcoded from the camera files to something better for the editing software, so that was someone’s job and they knew that before the weekend. “Calling someone a Producer or Production coordinator or anything like that may not be that meaningful in the context of the competition. It’s much better to just work out what they’ll actually be doing. OVERCOMING CHALLENGES Inevitably teams will face challenge; the 48HOURS website has a whole page dedicated to ‘horror stories’ along the lines of ‘when the going gets tough your friends piss off’ – as a warning. One of the judges last year noted that working in a team is an essential skill that is underrated. “I know of several teams that had big problems with ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth.’ It really helps to divide up responsibilities and then trust that other people will do their job. Squabbling over creative decisions can cause the project to run aground.” For Giles’ Noise and Pictures team the main challenge was, “as always”, getting a good script written. “We had lots of different ideas flying around and all kinds of people and locations to use and somehow we had to get words onto a page that would guide us through shooting and make for something worth watching,” says Giles. SUCCESS FACTORS The key success factor for a short film depends on your measure of success says Giles. “In terms of the competition, there are lots of different kinds of teams out there. Success for a first time school team might just be getting a completed film in, in which case the single most important thing might become that someone’s mum can drive them to the finish. But if success for you is getting into the finals, then start with the story.” One of the judges last year noted the biggest setback for most films was audio – the perennial problem with student films. “It doesn’t matter if the script is any good if we can’t understand the dialogue.” Getting good audio requires thought, skill and decent gear. ONLY 48 HOURS In the 48HOURs competition the finite resource – and limiting factor for all teams – is time; just 48 hours to write, shoot and edit their short films. “I think having as few people as possible in the decision making chain is a good idea, especially in such a time-pressured competition. This is where assigning specific jobs is crucial,” says Giles. “Taking the time to get your story down to the essentials will pay off when it comes to shoot. You don’t want to spend all day shooting something that isn’t that important. “Don’t have too many locations. We pretty much just had one last year (in and around a house). It wasn’t a spectacular location, but we made it work for our story (and our story for it, a little bit) and because we never had to relocate the crew, we had more time to get shots done. “Only shooting what you need is a great way to save time, but knowing how to do this might come down to experience a bit. Generally though, in the competition, you don’t have time to shoot millions of angles on the same scene for editing options. Last year we used pretty much every shot we took. I think there were literally only three(ish) that we didn’t end up using. Also, don’t do a lot of takes to tweak performance. This is something I have to try hard to stop myself from doing, but the fact is that in the competition, you haven’t had time to rehearse, so you shouldn’t do endless takes to get the actor to do things the way you imagined. As long as you’ve got the essential content in there, it won’t get better in take 15 anyway. Just move on. The actor is probably right anyway. Someone needs to remind me of this, this year.” GUERILLA FILMMAKING “Guerrilla filmmaking tip #1: have someone who is good at asking for stuff for free. Get your plucky, but well spoken, persuasive, not shy friend to convince people to hand over their locations and stuff for nothing. I don’t know how they do that, but these people do exist. Find one (or more). P.S., it might not be the person you expect to be good at that. Our production person wrangled coffee sponsorship for our team last year for example and has since gone on to scrounging even greater cost/benefit ratios.” “As the team leader of a team that skimped on everything, I can say that you can skimp on anything. Having said that, to be honest, since I had a lot of video equipment already, we didn’t have to hire or buy anything. But using gear that someone already has is [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Make a movie in 48 hours. Yeah? right!

Workshop: What’s What in Visual FXs – May

Viewfinder Events — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:45:35 +0000

NZ Film & Video Technicians’ Guild present a workshop with speakers Charlie McLellan and Alun Bollinger. What was once costly, dangerous or simply impossible to capture on film can now be achieved with visual effects using computer generated imagery (CGI). Increasingly common in big – budget films, in recent years it has become accessible to the Independent filmmaker with the introduction of affordable animation and compositing software. For all departments, visual effects work requires careful planning and choreography in pre – production and production. It also requires an understanding of what is cost effective to shoot as live action as opposed to coining that old catch phrase “We can do it in Post” . Much of the time, due to a lack a basic understanding the best decisions in both pre – production and on set are not always made resulting in either budget blow – outs or disappointing results. This workshop is not about the technical aspects of post production and visual effects. This is a workshop about the practical aspects of working with, preparing for and knowing when visual FX’s is the right choice on set. With 20 years experience in visual effects, Charlie McClellan’s most recent work can be seen as Visual Effects Supervisor on the hit TV series Spartacus: War of the Damned which featured an unprecedented 935 visual effects shots in the epic 1 – hour series finale, 4350 vfx shots in the final season and a mind – numbing 13, 255 vfx shots in the 4 – season series. Supported by Alun Bollinger (DOP & NZ Film & Video Technicians’ Guild President), Charlie and Alun will share their own experiences, but will encourage questions and discussion from the audience throughout the day. AUCKLAND: St Columbus Centre, 40 Vermont Street, Ponsonby 14th May : 10.00am – 03.00pm QUEENSTOWN: The Copthorne Lakeside Hotel, Cnr Frankton Road & Adelaide Street 15th May 12.00pm –05.00pm WELLINGTON: Film Archives, 84 Taranaki Street, Wellington Central 16thMay 01.30pm –06.30pm Cost: Non-members $25, NZ Techos’ members free. For more information, email info@nztecho.com

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Workshop: What’s What in Visual FXs – May

Workshop: Beginner’s Guide To Screenwriting – Auckland – May

Viewfinder Events — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:40:05 +0000

Busting to write for the big screen but not sure where to start? Beginner’s Guide is an intensive two day workshop designed to demystify the nuts and bolts of screenwriting. Screenwriting has much in common with other forms of creative writing and storytelling but it has a distinct form and language. This workshop provides an excellent grounding in both and offers insight into how film and television projects are put together.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Workshop: Beginner’s Guide To Screenwriting – Auckland – May

5 Lessons from Making Dotty

Viewfinder Magazine — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:40:55 +0000

Dotty is a short film from first-time New Zealand Directors Mick Andrews and Brett O’Gorman. Yet to screen in New Zealand, the film is screening on the world festival circuit to rave reviews. At the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Indie Outlook mag said; “Dotty, a sublime slice of life… which surely ranks as one of the best films – short or otherwise – that I’ve seen all year. It’s a small masterpiece of acting, writing and editing, as the simple tale gradually unfolds into one of the most moving cinematic vignettes in recent memory.” The synopsis is simple: Sitting on her bed in a run-down rest home, Dotty is desperate to send a text message to her daughter. When her morning cup of tea arrives, Dotty manages to rope someone else into her long battle with technology. In a screening Q and A session at SXSW, Mick says the pair have been working on a TV pilot set in a nursing home for a few years. “We’re drawn to old people and nursing homes,” says Mick. “They’re places that are a mixture of beauty, sadness and extreme humour as well. Being able to simultaneously feel those emotions is unique and special.” Brett says his Nan had Alzheimer’s, which was “tragic and awful but there were moments I couldn’t stop laughing.” Like the time she made him a cup of tea and put a sink plug on a dish as a cookie. That mix between tragedy and comedy inspired Dotty. Writer Mick said the idea for Dotty came to him “in a flash”. The pair have known each other over half their lives and like to make comedies with heart. “Stuff that makes you laugh and packs an emotional punch as well.” Mick is a writer and director who loves telling heartfelt human stories. He has worked in the film and TV industry in both New Zealand and London for 12 years. Brett is an accomplished actor, comedian and composer. He has played many roles on both stage and screen and composed the soundtracks for several kiwi short films. Dotty was shot on a Red MX from Metro Film and cut on Avid. “We had a two day shoot and finished three hours early and went to the pub on the last day – as you do,” says Mick. “The reason we finished early is because our 1st AD had allowed a lot of time for our 91 year-old actress to forget her lines, and he very sensitively allowed her time to keep her energy levels up. But she walked on set the first morning and did the whole script start to finish verbatim without getting anything wrong – which isn’t easy; I can’t even remember that script.” “Shooting Dotty felt like a really intensive, and expensive, crash course in filmmaking for Brett and I – especially when you have two relatively inexperienced directors with some veterans of the kiwi film industry,” says Mick. The highlight of making the film for both Mick and Brett were the shoot days. “They were a lot of fun! I personally love watching the monitor on set and having the film make you laugh or move you while it’s being shot – that’s pretty exciting,” says Mick. 5 lessons learnt from making Dotty We learnt a lot about how a crew functions together. Crews are a funny beast with everyone playing their different role. Though I’d been on sets before, I don’t think I fully appreciated how much of a dance it is until shooting Dotty. I think at one point on Day One I adjusted the placement of Dotty’s teacup myself – I only made that mistake once. We also learnt a lot about energy on set which is really key in a piece that relies so heavily on engaging and emotionally accurate performances. We learnt to read how much energy our actors had left, how many focused takes they might have left in them and when they were flagging. We learnt to make deliberate decisions about shooting order in order to capture the freshest takes in the right shot sizes. Brett and I had enough sense to enter the shoot well prepared, so we were lucky to be able to watch the likes of Renaud Maire (DP), Shayne Radford (Production Designer) and Seamas Cooney (1st AD) do what they do best and absorb as much as we could. If you’re like me you’ll only get three hours sleep the night before so the preparations will really pay off. During preparation, make decisions about shots that are informed by the story itself. We made our small self-funded budget of $14k work by getting Producer Jozsef Fityus on board. We never would have got so much for our money if it wasn’t for him. Crew members already trusted him because they’d worked for him before which allowed us to get amazing people for a fraction of what they’re worth. Don’t scrimp on rehearsal time. I think one of the most valuable things we did was sit down with the actors over a cup of tea and talk about what the story meant to each of us before even opening the script. And cast amazing people like we did. Visit Mick and Brett’s website: www.jollygoodfilms.com

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: 5 Lessons from Making Dotty

North The Movie

Viewfinder Magazine — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:36:48 +0000

Ben Childs is a twenty-year old filmmaker and student at the New Zealand Film and Television School. Last year he successfully crowd-funded his feature film project ‘North,’ raising over double his $4k target. ‘North’ will be shot in true guerrilla fashion, mostly in sequence with little artificial lighting with the purpose of capturing some great young performances and a unique story. THE FILM North is a dark coming-of-age road movie about the pressures of impending adulthood and running away from yourself, shot against the visual backdrop of the South Island. FUNDING “I’ve been told by a lot of people that it is impossible to produce a feature film for $10k but this is an adventure, and I have a lot of supportive people behind me. And it is true, it wouldn’t be possible, except for the generosity of so many New Zealand filmmakers.” Ben’s next step in raising more funding is corporate based financing. “I am going to start approaching businesses as opposed to people for either money or discounts to enhance the production. The money raised so far has all come from individuals who have taken an interest in the film. I’m going to approach related companies now and I’m not going to push for much more individual funding (but if anyone would like to donate I still have some producer-type credits for sale, hoorah!) “So far I’ve raised just over $10K and for anyone who understands filmmaking this is peanuts but for me this is an exercise in seeing what can be achieved with a small amount of dough. I would love to raise that to $15K, maybe not in cash-money but in production value through discounts on things such as accommodation, flights, petrol, vehicles and equipment,” says Ben. CAST AND CREW Crew are volunteering on the project – thus reducing costs. “Everyone is in on this for the love of it, the DOP is from Christchurch and he comes with a full Canon 5d MkIII kit. I also have the support of my fellow students who are itching to get straight into making films upon graduation.” EQUIPMENT “I’m not paying for a lot of equipment; I may need to hire a few lights and buy a few hard-drives etc but I should hopefully be able to get mates-rates,” says Ben. “We will shoot with just one camera, the Canon 5d MkIII, which is perfect for a film like this, it’s great in low-light conditions and gives off a very pretty image for such a small camera. Output will be HD 1080p, and North will be cut on Avid Media Composer.” GUERILLA FREEDOM? There is a lot of freedom with guerrilla film-making with no funding body to answer to, yet this independence can be tempered by a filmmaker’s self-doubt. “I think the freedom can be a risk though because you don’t have much to measure the value of your film against,” says Ben. “If you get your film funded you can feel confident in the fact that it was picked by a panel of judges and several industry people have come to the conclusion that it is worth making. As a privately funded filmmaker you don’t get that reassurance and it’s something I am definitely struggling with. $10K isn’t much to make a film with but it’s a lot of money to blow on something that’s totally not worth anyone’s time, so I’m definitely feeling a lot of responsibility for even the small budget I have managed to raise. I’ve already postponed shooting once because I don’t want to rush into it and waste what has been entrusted to me.” BUDGET FILMMAKING “There isn’t actually enough money going around in New Zealand for the film industry to survive without the mates-rates culture which exists here. I feel very fortunate to be in a country where filmmaking is done for the love not the dosh,” says Ben. “I expect to spend at least another ten years in squalor and that doesn’t worry me a bit; I love making films so much that I don’t mind eating canned tuna for every meal in order to do it!” BUDGETTING “What we won’t be skimping on is FOOD. I’ll make sure that the crew is being well looked after because they won’t be getting paid. Almost all the money for this film will be going into transport and accommodation for the crew. In a way we will be roughing it; we will be on the road, staying in motels, tents, backpackers, travelling all the way from Queenstown to Golden Bay. It really is going to be a great adventure in and of itself, never mind what happens onscreen.” PRODUCTION “Production is on hold until January 2014 now. There were many reasons for that decision and it was a tough one to make. It was mostly because my efforts were spread too thin with studying at the NZ Film School at the same time,” says Ben. “I’m looking to bring on another producer also who can take some of the load off my shoulders as I finish my studies.” DISTRIBUTION AND THE FUTURE “I have been looking into independent distribution, especially online. I will submit North into festivals but I don’t really expect a theatrical run for this film. The growth of online distribution looks good to me, that could be a really great option, and maybe because of how low our budget is we might have a shot at breaking even. But I’m not in it for the money, I’m not expecting any, North is just a really exciting opportunity to push the limits of what can be achieved for $10K!” www.norththemovie.co.nz/

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: North The Movie

Call for entries: Inspiring Stories Film Competition

Viewfinder Events — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:19:41 +0000

Now in its third year, the Inspiring Stories Film Competition aims to celebrate young New Zealanders making a difference in their community. Make a film 4-minutes or less around the theme ‘young Kiwis making a difference’.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Call for entries: Inspiring Stories Film Competition

Call for entries: NZWG Unproduced Feature Film Script Competition 2013

Viewfinder Events — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:09:22 +0000

This competition is organised by The NZ Writers Guild and is a great way to get noticed, and put your name and work out there, with the ten finalists published and the winner presented with the award at the SWANZ evening event. The SWANZ are attended by top NZ writers, producers, and other creators of film, theatre, and television.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Call for entries: NZWG Unproduced Feature Film Script Competition 2013

Get your Film Selected for a Short Film Festival

Viewfinder Magazine — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:33:48 +0000

There’s plenty of opportunity to get your short onto the big screen in New Zealand, thanks to dedicated short film festivals and other festivals accepting shorts. Show Me Shorts is New Zealand’s only Academy Award accredited film festival and now in its eight year, the festival screens the 40 best short films from New Zealand and around the world in cinemas nationwide every November. Festival Director Gina Dellabarca shares some tips and advice for filmmakers interested in entering the Show Me Shorts Film Festival this year. What are the common characteristics of successful film submissions to the festival? What are you looking for? I always want more surprise zombies, more alien monster trucks, more kissing and more phew/aw endings. The festival team and I are looking for entertaining short films with high production values. We want films with striking ideas, impressive imagery and unique characters. And we usually prefer films with a more traditional narrative structure. Our audience want to be taken on a journey with us. Market research shows they ware highly educated, so we try and craft a diverse programme that appeals to a broad range of tastes. We’re not looking for cheap laughs, but we always want more up-beat films and comedies. So if you make that kind of film you immediately have an edge because of the reduced competition. What common issues do you see that makes a submission unsuccessful? If you look at what kind of films traditionally get funding and try to make a story that fits that model, you are likely to make a flat formulaic drama that no-one wants to see. Especially not me! The films my team and I see are mostly completely finished, so we tend to get pretty technically accomplished work. It’s often the story that lets the film down, which is why we introduced our Short Film Lab for writers. We run this every year with Script to Screen for six selected writers, and it’s proving very successful already, with the first film (‘I’m Going to Mum’s’ by Lauren Jackson) developed in this Lab premiering at Berlinale (Annual Berlin International Film Festival) earlier this year. When we are selecting the films we keep in mind that we want to make our programme as accessible as possible, so we often exclude shorts we think are too experimental. That’s not a judgement on those films, this just isn’t the festival for them. What are the benefits for filmmakers to submit to the festival? Show Me Shorts is a competitive film festival with awards in ten categories. The Show Me Shorts Best Film award includes qualification for entry to the Academy Awards. The other prizes are generally resources to assist filmmakers with their next project, like film stock from Kodak and camera gear hire from Panavision. There are some cash prizes too, and the total prize pool is valued at well over $20,000. Show Me Shorts has a good reputation for selecting strong short films with high production values, so official selection laurels for the festival can be a valuable tool for filmmakers wanting to sell their film or themselves. Once the Show Me Shorts national tour is over each year the festival continues to work for you too. Show Me Shorts regularly programmes collections of short films (with the permission of filmmakers) for screening events like Silo Cinema outdoor films, Auckland Film Society and Federation Square screenings in Melbourne. Show Me Shorts also acts as a sales agent for TV and other media, again with permission from the filmmakers. Sometimes there is some payment for the rights to the films, and other times this is just good additional exposure. Do you have any suggestions for filmmakers on the order they submit to festivals and distribute their short? Don’t let the A-list festivals scare you away from submitting to festivals in your own country! Most filmmakers seem to think you have to save your world premiere if you want to be selected for one of these. However, the rules generally only require an ‘international premiere’, allowing you to have screenings in your home country. Testing out your home market can be a great way of building support and generating buzz. Show Me Shorts doesn’t screen films that have previously played on the internet. Most of the top international film festivals have this same rule, so be wary of uploading your film to a non-password-protected site until after your festival circuit has concluded. What trends are you seeing developing in short films? Short filmmakers are at the forefront of experimentation with new technology and pushing the boundaries of story structure. It’s an exciting genre to work in, because the small budgets and lack of bureaucracy equal freedom to play! I personally love the mixing up of seemingly incompatible genres like animation and documentary, or romance and horror. As the cost of gear comes down, we are seeing more self-funded films. This means we are hearing a greater diversity of voices. And no-one is locked out of this world any more. Can you give us some examples of micro-budget/self-funded short films? We have a stack of free online short films you can watch on the Screening Room page of our website. More new short films are uploaded here every month with a different theme, so join the e-news list for a prompt every month when we do this. What’s your advice for filmmakers making short films? Watch as many short films as you can. It’s the best way to learn. And it’s fun! www.showmeshorts.co.nz/enter-your-film/ Extended deadline: 5 July 2013

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Get your Film Selected for a Short Film Festival

Continuity Error

Viewfinder Magazine — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:00:21 +0000

Despite the sometimes grim picture painted by the media, there are young people doing all kinds of positive actions to make our world a better place and the Inspiring Stories Film Competition wants to spread the word. The Inspiring Stories Film Competition celebrates young New Zealanders making a difference in the community and uses film as a medium to highlight their stories and activism. The Inspiring Stories Film competition invites entrants to submit their four minute film submissions around the theme ‘young kiwis making a difference.’ There are three categories; Secondary, Tertiary and Open with an Awards Ceremony and winners announced this year in November. James Pryor of Whangarei was awarded the major prize of ‘Most Inspiring Story’ from more than 30 entries received as part of last year’s competition. First-prize included a two-day internship at Images & Sound post-production facilities in Auckland, as well as $2000 sponsored by New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFACT). James’ film Continuity Error is a documentary-style film that follows his younger brother, Jordan Williamson, as he talks about what he calls a Continuity Error. Jordan believes we are caught in a vicious cycle of ecosystems that vanish through pollution, over population, and resource annihilation. And he’s looking for a way to change it. James is a past student of South Seas Film School and says he’s only really broken into indie filmmaking since graduating in 2008. “Since then I’ve done heaps of music videos, short films, and docos. I’ve just sort of made what I wanted, when I wanted to make it, with whatever I could at the time.” James says getting good paid work in the FTV industry is incredibly hard. “I’ve been ftv’ing for the past three years, but before that I volunteered five days a week for almost 10 months, and only then was I considered for a temporary job. But I reckon the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. So freelance, make your own stuff, do whatever you can to make people remember your name.” THE INSPIRATION James heard about the Inspiring Stories Film Competition through Guy Ryan and Lu Davidson at an Inspiring Stories Trust filmmaking workshop. “I don’t know what motivated me to make the film, I just woke up and thought it needed to be done. I’d found an amazing location, I’d found a neat little song, I put one and one together and bam the film was made.” TECH DETAILS “Some of the film was shot on a four megapixel Sony handicam, while the majority was shot on a Sony PMW EX3 with my custom Picture Profile. The film was stitched together on a friends Adobe Creative Suite; Premiere, SB, AE and other siblings, and edited over a week.” THE CHALLENGES “The film was shot in three hours because we were in the middle of a storm at the time. We had a kazillion audio takes because of thunder and wind. We ended up making a large duct tape funnel around the microphone which luckily cut out the atmosphere and gave us clean sound bites. “Then the camera completely and utterly spat the dummy after our shoot and had to be sent away for repairs. All our footage was trapped on XDCF cards but thankfully we were saved by a passing news stringer who allowed us to capture the footage through his tech.” Appearing in the film alongside Jordan, is Buddy the dog. “Buddy was amazingly easy to work with, and even when he was distracted, cat biscuits made for a great motivator.” THE INTERNSHIP Part of James’ prize package was a two day internship at Image& Sound post-production house in Auckland. “It was really good and almost quite scary. They can do anything with computers!” “What really amazed me was how fake television really is. I know TV is smoke and mirrors and I understand it better than most; I can key, correct, and track not a problem. But these people take it to the next level. Seriously you would not believe your eyes.” FILMMAKING ADVICE James is humbly hesitant to offer up any tips but says “When it comes to filmmaking don’t over think it, just harden up and do it. Forget the text book, forget the rules, and forget the audience! Make the film you want to see, film it exactly the way you visualise it, then put it out there and give the world something to remember.” LESSONS LEARNT “Ultimately I learnt how much fun it was being involved with Inspiring Stories and their film competition, it was just great fun.” Watch James’ winning film: http://vimeo.com/63450575 Enter the Inspiring Stories Film Competition 2013: http://www.inspiringstories.org.nz/film-competition/

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Continuity Error

Building an Audience for your Movie Project

Viewfinder Magazine — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:00:37 +0000

A recurring theme surfaced at last year’s Big Screen Symposium for the screen industry; the need for New Zealand indie filmmakers to connect with their audiences, to gain access and nurture these audiences during production stages – all the way to release and beyond; even to the next project. One way to achieve these goals is by way of a website and social media – a low cost but time intensive option to attract and connect with your audience; and that’s what the creators of Penny Black decided upon. Penny Black is a feature length movie, shot in locations throughout the North Island in 2012 and is currently in post-production, due to screen in theatres later this year. The movie is about high-living model Penny Black, the ‘face’ of a mega-corporation. When her sister, Alex, inadvertently sabotages a photo-shoot and puts Penny’s modelling career in jeopardy, Penny and Alex hit the road to try and win her job back. Along the way they meet Guy, a charismatic activist who has a different way of looking at the world, and Penny soon warms to his apple tree planting, dumpster diving, billboard altering ways. They band together to expose the secrets of the mega corporation and then somewhere in the middle of their mayhem, adventure, and bending the law, things start to go wrong. When Penny Black was in the development stage Director Joe Hitchcock and Writer/ Producer Fiona Jackson agreed that using social media was a priority to connect with their audience. During casting for the movie early last year, they set up a wordpress website, a Facebook Page and a Twitter account. Their site and social media is a delightful juxtaposition of filmmaking advice (how to write a sponsor letter); shoot images; shout outs for cast and music; press clippings; production updates and even technical details and stats for the filmmaker ‘geeks’. Social media is an important way for Joe and Fiona to connect with an ever-expanding circle of supportive friends of the Penny Black cast and crew. “Encouragement from our early supporters was invaluable as we worked our way through development and pre-production, and it was rad to be able to share our experiences during production. Now we have a group of people as impatient to see the movie as we are,” says Fiona. While most filmmakers start up a Facebook Page – and nothing else – to connect with ‘fans’, Fiona realised a website has many advantages over Facebook as well as being complementary. “The website is great for sharing background information and when we have more to say than a status update. It’s more permanent and we have more control over what is easily discoverable. The Facebook formatting limits what you can do, and there’s always the concern that they might randomly cancel your account and you’d lose all your connections and information. I think more people stumble on the website through links or Google, but people mostly find our Facebook page through their friends sharing pics and commenting on our links.” For a filmmaker finding the time to focus on social media and email amongst a myriad of other things to do is a real challenge. “Joe and I both contribute to the website, our Facebook page, and Twitter (though he’s more of a Twit than I am). We are mindful not to bombard people with updates so we each just share when we feel we have something of value to say. We both have very different voices and ideas, which I think comes through in our posts. We try to stay on top of email but at times we’ve had people asking why we don’t respond fast enough. I’ll get pretty focused on breaking down the script or making props or any of the other hundreds of things we have to do, so I really have to make myself stop and focus on sharing or responding.” Though social media is time intensive the cost is virtually nil. “Initially our site is on WordPress(.com), so it’s free except for our domain name http://www.pennyblack.com, which doesn’t cost much each year, but we’re planning to get our ‘real’ website running soon and a web designer can be expensive.” When presenting at the Big Screen Symposium last year, Ted Hope said crowd funding is for ‘crowds’ who want be a part of the filmmaking process as well – and the same can be said for social media followers. “The ‘audience’ we have through social media is not just ‘viewers’ for the movie, but a community that helps and supports our work. We make requests for cast or props or a location and benefit from everyone’s area of expertise. In this industry it’s not just how many people you know, but what the people you know know,” says Fiona. Once the film is released the Penny Black team plan to supplement their social media with more PR. “We are planning to tour with the film and like the idea of director/ producer/cast ‘question and answer’ sessions after screenings. Filming Penny Black on the road was an awesome experience so partly we want to share that, and partly we just really want to do the road tour again.” For other filmmakers wanting to build an audience through social media, start early, even during development is Fiona’s advice. “Don’t be afraid to personally ask friends to ‘like’ your page. Remember a lot of people look at your posts in their feed but don’t actually comment or ‘like’ the page so your reach is probably wider than it seems.” Penny Black raised some cash towards post-production through crowdfunding platform ‘Pledgeme’ after building their social media platforms. “If you are thinking about crowdfunding, build your ‘fan base’ first. Crowdfunding can be a way to expand your audience, but it is hard work. Make sure you have people ready to pledge before you start, and be prepared to ask people individually. Everyone’s busy (like you) and distracted (like me) and will forget to act if [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Building an Audience for your Movie Project

Filming on the Ledge

Viewfinder Magazine — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:00:47 +0000

James is the sole New Zealander chosen to take part in the challenge where competing filmmakers are tasked with creating a short film on any subject related to skateboarding. The ten chosen filmmakers must shoot their films and edit them using only the GoPro Hero Black Edition, a lightweight camera that produces professional quality digital video. The top three films will be screened at the International Skateboard Film Festival (ISFF) in November in Los Angeles. Dubbed the ‘Oscars of Skateboarding’ by industry heavyweights, the ISFF is the premier film festival dedicated to the creativity of filmmaking within the skateboard industry. The two day shoot for James’ film entry took place at various locations around Queenstown culminating in a large skate jam, complete with mini ramp, 30 skaters, and DJ at the top of the famous ‘Ledge’ at Cecil Peak. THE FILM I’m beyond excited to not only compete in this competition but to have the chance to showcase the amazing Queenstown views from ‘The Ledge’ to the rest of the world. GoPro supplied us with over $2,000 worth of gear – the new GoPro 3 Black editions and accessories. My package arrived mid-March and with summer rapidly coming to an end we shot over the last weekend in March. THE INSPIRATION I’ve had a dream for a couple of years now about filming skateboarding in Queenstown at a rather special, inaccessible location. Ever since I went up to Cecil Peak ledge – overlooking the pristine waters of Lake Wakatipu – a couple of years ago I’ve wanted to do something with skateboarding up there. But I’ve never had the ability or resources to really pull it off – or probably the reason to do it. When you start talking to people about flying a mini-ramp and 30 people up a mountain to skateboard, the general reaction is ‘you’re crazy.’ Not to mention the logistics. But when I found out about being selected for the GoPro Filmmakers Challenge, the Cecil Peak location was the only thing on my mind. THE STORY The story loosely follows one skateboarder meeting up with his friends, being convinced to get on a party boat for a ‘special surprise,’ then there’s the big reveal without giving too much away. FINDING CREW I work with other camera ops and media producers in Queenstown so crewing the project was fairly straight forward. Josh Hutchinson, a camera op and assistant that works with me on productions came on board to help produce and shoot and he was super stoked to be involved. Trent Yeo, who helps produce a China web series I work on, production managed on the day and there were a couple of others that helped out. We had incredible support from local businesses to make the project happen; Heli-Tours, (who flew equipment and crew to the shoot location), The Luanda Boat Experience, Thunder Jet, Tom Tom, SITE Trampoline. Without their help, support and assistance this would not have been possible. This was a $30,000 plus project that cost around $10,000. PREPARATION Once I knew I was chosen to participate in the film challenge I spent over six weeks co-ordinating the logistics to make it happen. I can’t emphasise enough the amount of planning, re-planning, and the importance of the run-sheet in being able to pull this off. The crew were briefed a week before the event, with a run through of the storyboard, their roles, locations etc and then constant communication was kept going up until the day of the event. Early in the morning on the day of the shoot the extras and crew met for a briefing before being taken to the airport for a heli-briefing and then to the marina to board the boat. People were made aware from the get go that this was a production and not a party / day out and the importance of safety on and off the mountain which helped for everything to run so smoothly. SHOOTING WITH A GoPro The way I looked at this shoot working only with the GoPro 3 was to imagine it as a regular camera shoot. We had the LCD camera back screens on both so we could see what we were shooting and we also had the iPhone app if we needed. We used four GoPro3s on the shoot, trying to only shoot with two at any one time. We had a reserve of extra batteries – you don’t get much life out of them at all when the LCD screen is on there. We flew two generators to support the DJ and sound system on the mountain which enabled us to charge batteries on location and although the film looks like it was shot in one day, it was actually two. The skatepark was shot on Friday and the journey to the pier, boat and mountain was shot on Saturday. SKATEBOARD FILMING I’ve filmed skateboarding for years at large events and competitions with the biggest names in the industry as well as television shows so shooting this was fairly straight forward to me. It’s always complicated when you move from the bigger form factor cameras to the GoPro but we had all the mounts etc so we were using tripods, monopods and hand held systems to replicate a bigger camera shoot. The screens helped immensely so we knew exactly what we were shooting. GoPro PLUSES The thing I enjoy most about filming with GoPro is doing exactly what they were designed for; putting a camera on someone’s body, on a skateboard etc, which allows you to tell a more engaging and creative story. GoPro SHOOTING TIPS My tips for newbies is stabilisation! Although the GoPro’s have image stabilisation it’s still like filming with an iPhone and if it’s hand held then it will be shaky and unmatchable. Use a monopod or tripod or something like the scorpion to put it on. Also you have no active zoom, so consider the angle you film at, whether it’s wide, medium or [...]

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Filming on the Ledge

Arboraceous

Editor — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:58:55 +0000

Arboraceous, a four minute short film by 16 year old New Zealand student Natasha Bishop, has now been nominated for the prestigious Japan Wildlife Film Festival (JWFF), where it will compete with 42 other films made by the likes of the BBC, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and other international broadcasting giants. The film was made last year as an entry to The Outlook for Someday sustainability film challenge for young people, where it was chosen by the judges as The Body Shop Standout Winner. The nomination of Arboraceous is an outstanding achievement for Natasha, who created both the animation and the music in her film. She is the youngest film-maker to have a film nominated in the 20 year history of the JWFF, which is the largest event of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Arboraceous

16 year old NZer animation nominated for prestigious Japan Wildlife Film Festival

Editor — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:50:02 +0000

Arboraceous, a four minute short film by 16 year old New Zealand student Natasha Bishop, has been nominated for the prestigious Japan Wildlife Film Festival (JWFF), where it will compete with 42 other films made by the likes of the BBC, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and other international broadcasting giants. The film was made last year as an entry to The Outlook for Someday sustainability film challenge for young people, where it was chosen by the judges as The Body Shop Standout Winner. The nomination of Arboraceous is an outstanding achievement for Natasha, who created both the animation and the music in her film. She is the youngest film-maker to have a film nominated in the 20 year history of the JWFF, which is the largest event of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. Arboraceous is a whimsical take on humanity’s need to take care of the only planet we have. “When I started to make this film I thought about the word sustainability and what it means to me. It’s about renewing what we have,” said Natasha Bishop, who lives in Whitby in the Wellington region. “And I wanted to get the message of sustainability across without using any dialogue so that people can hear it whatever language they speak.” More info at: The Outlook for Someday – Animation by 16 year old film-maker nominated for prestigious international film festival.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: 16 year old NZer animation nominated for prestigious Japan Wildlife Film Festival

Media Design School 48HOURS Workshop – May

Editor — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:19:22 +0000

Media Design School, New Zealand’s most-awarded tertiary institute for digital and creative technology qualifications, is hosting three free workshops for all Rialto Channel 48HOURS participants to help those who are new to the challenge and more experienced players who would like to develop their skills further. Workshop #1: Wednesday 8 May @ 6.00pm The first workshop will look at some key elements of filmmaking and how best to utilize them to tell your story… including camera and audio advice and setting the scene with amazing title sequences. Coming up: Workshop #2 on Wednesday 15 May Learn how to use composition and lighting techniques to help achieve your desired look, set the mood and navigate the viewer through your short film. Coming up: Workshop #3 on Wednesday 22 May Get excited for 48Hours with the final workshop just before the big event. MDS will help to get you ready with production management ideas and helpful advice from 48Hours veterans and past winners tbc. Perfect if you are a first timer or have any last minute questions! Venue: Media Design Centre , 92 Albert St, Auckland Register at: Media Design School 48HOURS Workshop #1 – Eventbrite.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Media Design School 48HOURS Workshop – May

Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2013

Editor — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:44:40 +0000

The eighth annual Wairoa Maori Film Festival, this year once again screening at Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka, is from Thursday May 30th to Monday June 3rd (four days over Queen’s Birthday weekend). Last year was a stellar line-up of short films, documentaries and feature films, and this year looks to be equally compelling. All enquiries please email Leo Koziol maorimovies@gmail.com or phone 0211434113 or visit Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2013.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2013

Show Me Shorts Film Festival

Editor — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:02:32 +0000

Entries for the Show Me Shorts Film Festival are now open. Show Me Shorts is New Zealand’s first and only Academy Awards ® accredited festival, with the Best Film winner now eligible for nomination for an Oscar ® Entry guidelines for 2013 GENRE: Films can be in any genre. LENGTH: Films are to be no less than 2 minutes and no more than 20 minutes in length (including end credits). COMPLETION DATE: Films must have been completed after March 2011. BROADCASTING: Films must not have previously been shown publicly on the Internet. DEADLINES & ENTRY FEES: Earlybird Deadline: 1 May 2013 (fee US$20) / Regular Deadline: 31 May 2013 (fee US$25) / Late Deadline: 28 June 2013 (fee US$30) / Extended Deadline: 5 July 2013 (fee US$35) More info at: Show Me Shorts Film Festival / enter you film | Show Me Shorts Film Festival.

Read the full article on Viewfinder.co.nz: Show Me Shorts Film Festival

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling

Editor — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:06:09 +0000

Ivor’s life is turned upside down after a falling plant pot sparks a series of paranoid reactions. This popular short (everything is pretty much made of cardboard) has toured the festivals and is now online. The short is the graduation project of Joseph Wallace and Emma-Rose Dade. The film tells the story of Ivor, an old retired man who lives on the top floor of an apartment block. When a plant pot falls from his window he asks the question ‘what if I fell?’ and so begins a series of escapades driven by his paranoia of falling. The animation draws upon a combination of stop-motion puppet animation and paint-on-glass 2d animation to tell the story. Everything in the film has been made by hand, from the tiny flowers to Ivor’s little laced shoes. Every time something moves on screen it has been manipulated by hand, 24 frames per second. The sets are made from recycled cardboard and everything is painted with acrylic paint. This is a film about fragility, life and hope. Watch the making of:

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