Post-Film School Life Begins - Part 2

I imagined my post-graduation days to be very productive - I'd be applying for job after job every day; cleaning the apartment more often; catching up with friends; going to the movies more often; making films! Well, I thought wrong.

I've been sitting around spending most of my days in front of the television watching The Wire (I have all five seasons, all of which I stole from Kieran's collection). If I'm not at the television, I'm on the computer browsing Tumblr or Youtube, or checking my Facebook every two minutes. I want to blame it all on being ill over the last two weeks, but I've been feeling much better since a few days ago and I guess everything I say about it from now on is invalid. But here's the back flip - I did, however, go to an interview at the AAP Newscentre for an entry level position last week. Ta-da!

Yup. Such is the life of a twenty-one year old graduate with few 'clear' prospects ahead of her at the moment.

(In other pages of my life, I'm going to Melbourne for the Melbourne International Film Festival this Tuesday to see thirteen films over four days. Excitement will ensue)

Post-Film School Life Begins

Apart from keeping my internship at Titan View, I've been 'busily' applying for jobs here and there from the comfort of my couch. It's been a while since I've been able to sit around with a whole day to waste wrapped in a duvet with my laptop. The other reason for this apart from having just graduated with my Diploma in Screen is to nurse myself better from this cold that has been around since last week. So it all works out in the end - I am bedridden from this illness, so what better way to spend the day than to apply for jobs! Hah, hah.

Kieran and I had booked our flights and tickets to this year's Melbourne International Film Festival, which runs from the 22nd of July to the 8th of August. It's the first film festival I have bought a mini pass to, and the first festival or event interstate which I am indeed traveling to attend. It's a pretty exciting thought, and is in itself one of the first steps in my post-film school life.

These are the films we are going to see:

• Beeswax (dir Andrew Bujalski, USA)
• Ha Ha Ha (dir Hong Sangsoo, received the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes this year, South Korea)
• Mai Mai Miracle (dir Sunao Katabuchi, Japan)
• Boy (dir Taika Waikiki, won the Best Fiction Feature Audience Awards at this year's Sydney Film Festival, NZ)
• Four Lions (dir Chris Morris, UK)
  
• Kanikosen (dir Sabu, Japan)
• A Time To Love (dir Embrahim Forouzesh, Iran)
• Karaoke (dir Chris Chong Chan Fui, Malaysia)
• The Juche Idea (dir Jim Finn, USA)
• Cell 211 (dir Daniel Monzon, Spain/France)
• The Well (dir Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, India)
• Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (dir Omar Majeed, Canada)
• Small Soldiers (dir Joe Dante, USA)

I'm really looking forward to seeing Beeswax, Ha Ha Ha, a childhood 'classic' of mine Small Soldiers and the only Malaysian film featuring at this year's MIFF, Karaoke. We've planned the trip over 4 days, where we will watch 13 films. I have a feeling we will begin to turn nocturnal from sitting in the theatre all day long for the majority of our trip. After all, it could be fun being a movie owl.

That being said, now that I've spent all this money on the trip, I should really get cracking on finding that job if I want to keep living in this city.

This Is Not Poetry Premiere - The Team

Some of the cast and crew at my thesis film's premiere - This Is Not Poetry

Saw my film on the big screen for the very first time.
Oh, and I graduated on the same night too.

All is well, all is well.

(Photo credit to Genesis M)

Sounds Like It Could Be Better

The final cut has been handed in, and all that awaits now is the big screening this Tuesday evening followed by my graduation. A lot of issues had come up from the cut, and there wasn't much I could do about it. The audio tracks for the poem were muddy, and my actor's readings were not clear. There is a distinct 'hiss' from some of the clips on the track that you can hear throughout parts of the film. On the headphones, it sounds perfectly fine. On the big speakers, it makes me cringe. I can only pray that no one will notice during the screening.

I hope to re-record the poem when the actor returns from Hong Kong, and make changes to the picture - all to be done post-graduation. I'm not as happy as I should be with the final product, but I am determined to make it work.

If anyone wants to come along to see the film premiere on the big screen, you are most welcome to! It will be held on Tuesday the 13th of July, at the 5-6PM screening at Chauvel Cinema, Paddington. And if you stick around that evening, the film I produced will be screening from 7PM onwards.