This Is Not Poetry - Teaser

Back in the editing suite, the end of KOFFIA, and applying to AFTRS

I'm back in the editing suite, trying to make a final edit out of my thesis film in time for the Women's Film Festival's extended deadline this Friday. There are still a lot of things I want to change, for example, the poem's recording is inconsistent in quality throughout the film (due to my actor being away during post-production, and not being able to make good quality recordings). So right now, the priority is to lock the picture down, once and for all.

Otherwise, we just wrapped up the first Korean Film Festival in Australia last week. The festival went overwhelmingly well, especially for a first time festival. The team I worked with was possibly the best festival team I have ever worked with. It was such a pleasure to work with such a great team on an amazing and promising festival. If you missed out this year, watch out for a bigger, better Korean Film Festival in 2011.

Also, I don't think I ever mentioned my new job. Almost a month ago, I started working part-time at a new and upcoming digital subscription/semi-IPTV company (Foxtel's newest competitor) as a marketing assistant. It's been extremely interesting, to say the least. There is so much more to the operations behind a subscription television service and it's amazing how each product competes against others. I guess the notable point I should also bring up is that I'm no longer an intern. Excitement!

I'm also planning out my application for the Graduate Certificate in Screen Culture course at AFTRS, to start in 2011. I've decided that since I'm working and earning my own money, I could most likely afford a part-time postgraduate course much like the Grad Cert at AFTRS, if I save up. I thought about it, and a part-time post-grad simply sounds like a realistic option compared to going back to university for a three-year degree.

With that being said, I suppose all's well in my world for now.

Starting Fresh

As I have been revisiting my thesis film in the cutting room, I've started writing down some ideas for another short film I'd like to make. Rather than making something for contention in a festival, I really want to make a short film just for the sake of making one - and, of course, because I love making films and want to continue making films long after film school.

Music has always been a strong driving force in terms of what inspires my work. The stylistic approach for my thesis film "This Is Not Poetry" was partly inspired by Jon Brion's "Theme" from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The short film "Night" which I shot as a storyboard for the thesis film was inspired by Carter Burwell's "Lost Fur" from the soundtrack of Where The Wild Things Are. These tracks, to me, feel like mini-ballads. At 2-3 minutes long, they feel like short films themselves, like fragments of a much bigger story.

My next projects will be similar to the approach I took with "Night". 2-3 minute shorts, or 'fragments' that may, or may not grow into a bigger picture. Firstly, this could probably be the only way to get me right back into making lots of films at a regular (if not, more often than 'never') basis. And secondly, it puts the idea of 'making a film is as easy as you say it is' into action. And I believe it.

I'll end this post peacefully with the opening scene of Paranoid Park, which features a great track by Ethan Rose - "Song One". I need this soundtrack so badly.

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.

This Is Not Poetry - Production Wrap Up

Note: this post is long overdue, and my head space has already moved on to the post-production side of things, so excuse the sloppiness of this entry!

Slate it!

The thesis production went very well, and much to my liking. It was my very first time running the show as both producer and director, and I must say it was an enjoyable experience. Of course, no production would be complete without the many downs and problems. Yet overall, we got some great shots and coverage, I worked with a fantastic, but small crew of four, and I had great actors who were accepting of my ideas.

I worked with a small, small crew. It consisted of four - a Director of Photography, who was also the camera operator and gaffer; a sound recordist, who was also boom operator, and a bit of a 2nd AD; a make-up artist; and a wardrobe manager, who also acted as my production designer. I initially wanted to have a small crew based on the idea that a short film doesn't need a dozen hands to work. They teach us about how to design a crew and what sort of roles are imperative to the operation of a film on and off set, but they don't really tell us that it's not always necessary for 1st Assistant Directors, production managers, gaffers and boom operators. To me, on a short film like This Is Not Poetry, there was no use for a bigger crew than I had already organised, yet I still had classmates and even crew members wondering why I never considered it. I even had my Director of Photography complain about how I failed to organise a gaffer to set up the lights for him. Filmmaking isn't about having lots of different hands on set in production. We are film school students, and we know about the roles - so why waste space with another body to do a job I know my crew members can already do?

Shooting the sunrise at Circular Quay
(From left to right) James, Karan and myself

We were sorely behind on schedule on the first day. Having organised to start at 5:30PM and finish around 11:00PM, we ended up spending far too long with make-up and hair dressing, and too much time shooting each scene. We spent so much time in all the wrong places, that we eventually finished at 4:30AM the next morning. I had two out of three of my actors sleeping in my apartment, one sharing the bed with me and another on the couch; and one other crew member taking the floor in a sleeping bag. All of us had at least an hour's sleep, as we had to get up to start shooting at 6:30AM, much to our distaste. I wondered, after the shoot, would this have happened to us if I had a proper First Assistant Director who was focused on making sure I was getting the shots I wanted in the scheduled time, or was it just a failure in scheduling and planning? It could have been a mixture of both. Nevertheless, the crew and cast worked even better the next morning, despite looking half-dead and about to collapse.

I worked with an open mind all throughout the film. At times, being too open-minded to different ideas and allowing your cast and occasionally your crew do what they feel is best can be considered lazy. I felt otherwise. I wanted my film to be as honest and organic as possible. I changed the names of each character to the actors' name, and I made sure the actors possessed similar if not the same qualities of my characters. I had given my actors directions that were open for them to play with. This was an experiment I wanted to play with, as based on previous experiences, often times when you work with experienced actors, they can tend to make action and emotion feel awkwardly fake, and inevitably spoil the entire film. I didn't want this to happen to mine, and so I gave my actors the freedom to 'do as they would', but at the same time, made sure they channeled and concentrated on the emotion of it all. It was, much to my surprise, a success.

The actors with the wardrobe manager
(From left to right) Arnie, Lucy, James and Genesis

All three of my actors were around my age. Two of them were younger than me, and the other was my age. I felt that this helped me work with them better because we were all speaking the same language with each other. Another great thing about working with younger actors is that there is a sense of honesty in their performance, and they are continuously open-minded to different ideas and techniques. Out of the three actors I worked with, only one had experience in theatre and film. My lead actor had no experience in film, while the other had some training but through short courses and school. Truth be told, I was concerned about this. I was worried that their inexperience may project through the camera and onto screen, but it never did. They were fantastic. I was extremely lucky to have found my three actors, and I won't lie - they were all chosen out of gut feeling. In the end, they looked great together, did an amazing job and were such a delight to work with.

I think this whole production has been based on luck, to be honest. Both my composer and lead actor were from mutual friends, and I even had to contact them via Facebook (a la stalker style). Others like my wardrobe manager and make-up artist were creatives who I really wanted to work with - my wardrobe manager Genesis is a good friend and ex-uni mate of mine who really introduced me to film with my first Wong Kar-Wai film, while my make-up artist was someone I had worked with previously on a short film I produced. It's so great to work with people who are like-minded, and who share the same vision while having the ability to enhance it with new and different ideas. The right people were there for me, and that's what made the production work so well.

Most of the team at the end of Day 2
(From left to right) Karan, myself, Lucy, Genesis and James

When a film works out that way, it's such a great feeling when you look back on how far you've come.

And now it all comes down to putting the film together. The final product is due in 8 days, next Saturday 3rd of July. I'll have an update on how the edit is coming along. I've got a few sound problems, but hopefully nothing I can't fix.

* Photos taken by Mimi, our make-up artist

This Is Not Poetry - Stills

A few production stills from This Is Not Poetry to keep you going.

This Is Not Poetry - Day 2.5

We wrapped on Tuesday afternoon, with most of us having had not more than an hour's sleep from a 5 hour over-time. It was a tiring shoot all together, but we managed to make the best film we can as seen in the rushes. I've been labeling sound clips and matching them up to their respective shots, but it takes time when you don't have a professional sound recordist on set to do it for you.

It's now 5:35am and I am waiting for my DOP, wardrobe manager/production designer, make-up artist and of course, lead actor to arrive. We're heading over to Circular Quay for a sunrise shot - that is - if everyone gets here on time - just had to let my make-up artist in. First to arrive, that's respect.

I'll write up a proper update once this is over.

This Is Not Poetry - Day 0

19 hours to go till we begin shooting my thesis film This Is Not Poetry.

Excited? Yes. Nervous? Very much so.

The fact that my film is very simple in its execution plan, I'm continuously feeling as if I've missed something or have already made mistakes. I think a major concern right now is how I'm putting a whole lot of trust on my actors (two of whom are inexperienced, the other is otherwise) to help me bring vision to reality for the camera. I've only had one rehearsal with all three actors, and this is partly due to lack of time and other commitments. I put Kieran (as he leaves for South Africa. Left just today) at the top of my priority list over my film, which may have been a sweet mistake - but I shall never know otherwise. Apart from that, actors have lives too and it's just hard to arrange a suitable time that works for everyone. My DOP/Camera operator is acting in another classmate's film, set in Nowra, while I haven't had a face-to-face meeting with my 1st AD/Production Manager about the film at all (besides the phone call I just had with her of a run down for the film's plan of action).

However, all this lack of organisation and preparation may work out. I've had quite a lucky run with this film from fortunate acquaintances and such, and I feel like maybe this film will be just fine at the end of the day.

I'll touch some wood before I go to bed, just so I don't jinx anything. Also, my mum just arrived from Malaysia and brought a little babushka-like doll made completely out of a Keyaki tree from her trip to Japan before coming over here. I don't know what it is, but it has a body of hair painted on its chest. Well there's a hilarious tangent for you.

A Thesis Update, and Melbourne

I thought I was pretty set for this week leading up to the thesis production next Monday and Tuesday, but today presented a whole lot of new problems. For example, I still haven't locked down one of my locations, that being a classroom. Genesis, an ex-uni mate has been helping me delegate with the people who run the College of the Fine Art in Paddington, which is great since he is on the student committee. Other than that, I'm still missing my lead girl actor to play the role of Alex. It's difficult when the actor doesn't respond - it's hard to tell if they're disinterested in the role, or just plain busy.

I've also taken on two more projects, both of which fall in the same week of my shoot. At times, I wonder why I bother pushing myself into such challenging compromises. I guess you could say that I try to mould myself into a better person. I'm producing a thesis film titled Tree of Hurt, and production managing a thesis film set in Vietnam. A challenge and a half, no doubt.

Apart from doing busy things, I recently got back from Melbourne with Kieran. We'd spent last Monday to Wednesday there for a quick holiday. Mainly to see the Socceroos play New Zealand in a farewell friendly, and to celebrate our 11 month and pre-12 month anniversary (since he is going to South Africa this Sunday for a lengthy duration of the World Cup). We didn't do very much other than eat excessively and walk around the city looking for ways to make good use of our Metcard day-passes.

Our highlights would have been the Australian Centre of Moving Image in Federation Square. We browsed the Australian Mediatheque archives and watched classic advertisements (I had a great laugh at De-de-decore!), then spent a good hour wandering around their permanent exhibition Screen Worlds. Another big highlight was our anniversary dinner, which was supposed to be a pizza or two at D.O.C's Pizza and Mozzarella Bar in Carlton followed by a bit of ice-skating in Docklands. However, we were so knackered by the time we got home for tea that we over napped our way into the later part of the evening and decided to just have pizza at D.O.C's. It was great, by the way. I recommend anyone and everyone to check it out. They don't do reservations, so get in quick. They serve mozzarella in fistfuls. How could you say no to that?

Our quick sojourn down to Melbourne made me realise how much Sydney is lacking in everything. People are strangely nicer there, and there is so much focus on the arts and culture scene over there, which simply excites me. ACMI has their super Mediatheque program, where you simply walk in, take a seat in one of their very comfortable booths and flick through their archive of features, shorts, adverts - you name it. Melbourne has this incredible public transport system as well, similar to the intricate systems in London's Underground Tube. It's amazing, and not to forget - cheap!

And now we are back in Sydney, dealing with 90kmph gusts in the city and everything that goes wrong in a film production a week before it's shot. Such is life.

Will try to update more as I approach the D-Day, which is next Monday and Tuesday. For now, check out Kieran's blog. He updated, how rare!

That's A Wrap!

We completed the production shoot last Friday, exhausted and in need of a good sleep. Having started at 7:00 AM on the last day with most of the crew evolved into zombies (we finished at 12am earlier that morning), everyone including myself was relieved to have finally completed the four day shoot. Nothing feels better than wrapping up a shoot.

Overall the four day shoot went fairly well, minus a few tiny issues that came up throughout the course of the week. Such as my production designer falling ill on the second day and not being able to show up for any part of the day, leaving the already frazzled First Assistant Director and myself to spend more time on designing the set. Another 'tiny' issue that came up was the lack of time I organised for each day, which really wasn't my job in the end but for some reason it felt like organising the call sheets was my responsibility. Everyday apart from the last day started at 3pm (start shooting at 3pm, call times between 1 and 2pm) and was scheduled to finish at 10pm. We ended up finishing around 12am every night, which wasn't a good idea as I had Kieran and my younger sister also living in the flat who had to deal with a noisy and messy crew outside their bedrooms. It was stressful for me, as producer, to make sure both the film benefited from the time we had while making sure my home wasn't being ripped to shreds from C-stands and inconsiderate strangers. Face it, if it's not my home, then who cares is the approach everyone seems to stand by in situations like this.

Dealing with actors and their big egos was a big lesson I've learned from this production. We had an actor who was constantly disobeying the directions of the director, and it was difficult to see him stalling the director's vision especially when we had to stick to a tight schedule. The problem with student small budget short films such as Grey Zone was the known fact that we are amateur film-makers, and experienced actors will pick up on this. Some, like in our case, will actually exploit this and that is not what you want on your production, no matter what level of experience the crew have.

Another issue I found was the lack of assistants I'd organised prior to the shoot. This was a stupid, stupid mistake and probably would have helped in situations like my ill and missing production designer and having someone help clean up at the end of every day, instead of doing it myself. We didn't have an assistant production designer, 2nd assistant director or runner, so a lot of times I found myself doing the running around and organising the food etc. It's a good lesson to learn that a small crew doesn't necessarily help with anything, as I was under the impression that such a small apartment begged for a small crew to occupy it.

As producer, I organise the crew to 'get organised'. To be honest, I didn't do this quite right. On the day before shooting, I'd said to everyone that I would be picking up the equipment from all hire centres. Problem was all hire centres were spread out across town and I had no access to a car or driver during that time. So I paid $180 from the budget to catch a taxi from the city to Manly, to Lindfield and back down to the city. It was not the best option, but it seemed like I had no other choice especially when I had to be at all hire places to sign documents and pay insurances. I realised that what I should have done was organised a courier which would have cost me less than half the price I paid for that taxi. I've also learned that sometimes you need to know the right people, and it was in the last day that Kieran's sister offered to organise a courier from her work for me. Amazing when you know the right people.

Otherwise, I think in the end I worked with a great crew (minus the mishaps along the way). My camera department was a Swedish team of great ideas, and they were always on the ball no matter how important the issue. If your first assistant director tells you to fuck off on set, then you've made the right choice about them being there. Otherwise I probably would have sacked my script supervisor (continuity) for his lack of anything on set, if I had the power to.

I'll keep you updated on how the editing process goes. Apparently we shot around 100 hours of footage over the 4 days, which is excessive but considerably normal for a digital film shoot.

In the mean time, I've been working on my thesis film which was just finally green-lit by the Head of School. I've also chosen my lead actor to play the role of Justin (whose name I am now deciding to change), which was exciting because I knew I wanted this guy to be my lead when I first met him. I'm going with the gut feeling, so I hope anything outside of that doesn't let me down.

More updates on my thesis soon.

Thesis Character Reference: Justin

The lead character of my thesis film "This Is Not Poetry".

Justin, 19
A young man out of school, and madly in love with a young girl in his lit class. He wants nothing more than to be with her, but does nothing more than dream and write about her. He is quiet, introverted and loves writing poetry. Writing is a talent of his.

The overall look of Justin has been inspired by my youngest cousin. I simply can't imagine anyone else than my cousin to play the role of Justin, but alas - restrictions, restrictions being that he is currently in Melbourne completing his IB course at school. I remembered he found his Doppelganger, a very accurate match with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. To me, he has a type of sullen look in his eyes. I love the humbleness he emits, and I think this would be key in the characteristics of my main character Justin.

I liked JGL in 500 Days of Summer, and could probably relate some of my film's concepts to it (including character similarities). I have heard some interesting things about Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin and intend to watch it some time soon for character references.

Now, to find someone who possesses just that!

Jon Brion: Some Kind of a Musical Genius

Jon Brion is currently the best music discovery I've had in a long time, if not ever.

His music makes me feel both happy and melancholic at the same time, and it isn't one riddled with turbulence much like the rest of my busy life right now. Much like "Theme" from Eternal Sunshine in my last film "Night", I feel like he has written the songs to my life. I'm becoming really inspired by his music, from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind right through to Synecdoche, New York's score - I think he is a genius.

If I find a composer who is influenced by Brion, I think my thesis film will be complete.

Green To Go!

So today we had to sit with our thesis teacher and basically pitch the project to her to be greenlit for production. I was fully prepared to be told I would have to do more work on the development side of things, including the treatment and shot list, but for some odd reason I felt the urge to just push for success.

Having heard we needed either a script or shot list to be greenlit, I immediately whipped out my laptop and began to write my shot list up to present in class. I spent at least an hour on three pages detailing the shots I wanted. Together with the treatment and example film (I showed her "Night", which basically demonstrates the style and shot-type I am after for this thesis film), I basically nailed my pitch and was given the greenlight on my project - given that I still don't have cast and locations organised.

The title of the film is "This is not poetry", derived from the thesis statement. Since I'm in a fairly good mood, here's the working synopsis of the film:

A young man with a penchant for poetry writes about his affection for a girl, only to achieve nothing but beautiful expressions of love and lust. He slowly becomes obsessed with his works just as he has with the girl, till he realises the only way out is to overcome his feelings – and as a result, destroys his memories of an unrequited love, with a click of a button.

And now the hunt for actors and locations begin.

I shall reveal more later!

Last "Night"

Since that last post about my thesis film, I have come up with a completely new idea and story which I am confident will make a great short film. It is along the same lines of my initial concept and thought, but down a different path.

The new concept or thesis statement is "May I remind you, this is not poetry". It will be a simple, under 10 minute short with a narration or voice-over of a piece of free verse poetry over images. That's about all I intend on giving away at this stage of time!

Yesterday I watched Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman's beautiful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the fourth time, and it had made more sense than it did the last time I saw it. I found how much the film's themes and ideas related to my new thesis film idea, and found inspiration to adopt a similar Gondry style to my proposed film.

As I am supposed to have my film greenlit tomorrow, I decided to start writing a treatment for the new film, or some sort of a proposal. By the end of the day, I had not one word down on a document, but a two-minute short film titled "Night" inspired by Jon Brion (who composed the music on Eternal Sunshine) and Michel Gondry, starring my very helpful boyfriend, Kieran. The film is an extract of a young man's sleepless night. I'll eventually have to write that treatment tonight, but check out the two-minute short we shot and edited last night. Also, I shot this on my new Canon 7D with a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. There seems to be a problem with the quality of the film as there are clear lines moving over some of the pictures. Nevertheless, it looks quite the success.

The song is "Theme" by Jon Brion, from the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Writing My Big Thesis Film

I'm currently in the midst of writing a treatment and script for my final film, otherwise known as my 'thesis film'. We have been developing thesis statements in which we are required to explore a concept, thought or idea. The end result will be a film we would produce, direct and essentially make by ourselves.

I haven't been progressing as well as I should be, considering the thesis production period is in about 5 weeks, and I'm only just getting started in preparing for the major drama film I'm producing with my classmates. I only found out a few days ago that our thesis films need to be 'green-lit' by the end of this month, complete with a detailed treatment (including cast, crew, locations, possible budget, technical wants/equipment, etc).

My working thesis statement at the moment is "Feelings For Sale", which I shall let you interpret for yourselves till later down the track.

I don't particularly want to reveal as much about this project as perhaps being discrete could help me build the best film I can. Nevertheless, I will keep you as informed as I can about how the project shapes up as I get closer and closer to the end.

Here's a quote I found, which relates to my thesis statement to feed your curiosity:

"All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal"

- Nick Hornby, author