The Sleeper

Directed by me.
Shot and Edited by Dermot McGuire.

We're experimenting with using mobile phone cameras for cinematic projection, working with the lo-res instead of against it.

Soudtrack is Godspeed You! Black Emperor- "Sleep"

Warning: also contains me acting.

the sleeper

Derm and Kate dip their toes into creating a film for big screens with a mobile camera. And yes, the second image is supposed to be upside down.

teh 'dance

oh yeah- our film totally made it in for the Experimental Witch Project.

Which has been preselected for the 'dance. You read correctly. THE 'DANCE.

Our director was Aaron March, and we did Heron Ryan- scroll down on the experimental witch link above to see his name on the winner's list.

pretty chuffed.

Saving for a ticket to Utah, starting, now.

beach house and hair dye

Kait and I dyed our hair last night. She got purple dye ALL OVER MY FACE. So we tested my ex-hairdresser's theory that purfume takes it off and it worked a trick. My hair's not bright purple, it's kind of black that really wants to be purple. Hers is MJ from Spiderman red.

After the hair dying debarcle and with purple dye still conspicuously all over my hands, I rushed over to the hoey for a mexican food-and-dreampop adventure evening with Ky. I was actually more impressed with Bachelorette- this too-sweet chick with a thick NZ accent and a couple of old computer monitors set up with some pictures and some sound waves coming off them. Her voice is pretty good too, and I liked some of her soundscapy stuff. Her lyrics didn't grab me but I liked her show. Beach House were kind of the opposite... loved their music but their banter broke the spell. Which is such a shame because that girl has the most delicious speaking voice. It's a shame that she didn't say anything interesting. She had this odd way of saying something banal that made me feel really uncomfortable. A feeling not unlike that horrid sinking panic that you feel for someone when the traffic blows their skirt up and they still have to stand there waiting for the pedestrian light with all the people that saw their knickers.

Oh, the food at the hopetoun's upstairs bit Rider did not disappoint. Get the warm king prawn salad with chorizo and slow roasted tomatoes. My lord. Sex in a salad. (p.s. I was looking for their website and this review came up- holy fuck, if you don't like carlton, go without a drink for two hours, and you're lucky they served your beer in perspex. It reduces the chances of you getting glassed for being a wanker.)

We're doing a film clip for MzAnnThropik in september too, which I'm quite excited about. We have to camp out near warragamba dam the night before the first day of shooting. I hate camping. I'm planning to steal the backseat of whatever vehicle we arrive in. We also need a shitload of shagpile carpeting- so Internet, if you have any or know where to get it cheap, let me know.

Meanwhile, in today's podjob tubing I noticed that Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls film clip has been watched over 45 million times. That boggles my mind.

kino and the hunt begins

Both 'foreign film' and 'Mine Demons, Mine Own' screened on Monday night at Kino. Everyone seemed to dig it, so that was cool. Black and Blue Gallery was my big discovery of the evening though- I want to have all my parties there. The bathroom has a skull-design shower curtain, there's two sexy columns to frame the projection, and it's got an awesome view out over the city. Stealing simon's good work again. I really need to start downloading my own photos, I'm about three months behind.

K-blonde and I are going to check out a couple of appartments this week- we are the huntresses of real estate rentals.

foreign film update

I took yesterday off the office job to sleep and spend some face-time with the lover, who has been mysteriously absent during the week. It would be justafiable if he was blowing me off for cheap booze and loose women, but i'm pretty sure it was just long sleepins with the bed to himself and online blackjack. Either way, spending time together yesterday was really fun. This 'couple that sleep on the same time rhythm' thing could catch on. Watch out, nation.

Due to my sleeping all day I edited the challenge film all night. It's alright. The light was making the focus do crazy focus things that I didn't notice on the wee camera display and for some reason the lover imported it into imovie instead of FCP, so I think something was lost in the translation copying the clips over. So it has a gentle fuzz to it. Which may or may not look monumentally shizen when it's projected. Either way, the costumes looked cool, as you can see from Vic's far more focused still shots. Despite my technical anti-skillz, you can't argue with Vic and Stevie's bangin production design. I'll post the little monster after the screening.









post script: actually, these particular shots are pretty representative of the focus thing. Softly, softly...

long weekend

F: BdR
S: Come Together- british india, VHS or Beta, Y & R, o my.
S: Come Together- but colder, and wetter, with a bit more tea and a bit less pop. Living End were a nice throwback to high school. Hit the Agincourt and danced it off.
M: made "Foreign Film" for Kino. Vic and Stevie put together some bangin' mod costumes for Kaitlyn, James and Leticia. Troopers.

teething

I have one wisdom tooth that's bustin' on through in a really painful manner... went to the doc last night and he was rather blase about the whole thing. Apparently my tooth isn't some kind of rabid alien spawn trying to force its way into my brain through the back of my jaw, it's a normal, albeit kinda giant, human tooth growing upwards in my mouth the way nature divined. Which would be cause for great comfort if it wasn't making me so damned uncomfortable.

Something exciting and adventurous may well be happening at work... shhhhh for now. But it's making me bounce (silently) all over the room like a puppy that swallowed a fairy on meth.

Working on the poker doco this weekend, which is another cause of my bounce-owch my jaw!-bounce refrain. I've never really been a poker player, but B, the director and all-round champion of the project, has been putting me through Hold 'em 101 in the last few weeks. The game is fun but what appeals to me the most is the way the old gamblers speak about their profession. There's an old-world gentleman's code of war about the way they strategise, play and make deals, and a hypnotic romanticism to the way they talk about risk and loss. Daddy, when I grow up I wanna marry a hustler.

Should

work some

alas

there are too many interesting things to see

Kino #13 was rock and we were all remarkably well behaved at the pub afterwards, in that no one got jacked off under a table this time- or maybe people are just getting subtler about it.

I accepted a challenge film for the first time. A challenge film is where the audience or the hat chooses your topic for your next film. The hat handed down my fate in the form of a white strip of paper with "FOREIGN FILM" written on it. I've scraped together the bones of a script from my sickbed today.



Kino #13, from the POV of the fan. Will be a bit strange not going to the chalkhorse any more.

Spoiler

I went down to my grandma's on the weekend with my brother, which gave me the chance to finish off the book I'd been trying to read for six weeks but had been interrupted by my involvement in the local Witch of Portobello Experiment (our team did Heron's Story. I'll post the youtube clip for the entry I worked on when it's up online) and throwing together two films for Kino Sydney, Cut Off, directed by me, and Mine Demons, Mine Own, the Surgical Sideshow collaboration directed by Victoria.

Anyway, the book I'd been trying to read was Karoo by Steve Tesich. Generally, it's an entertaining story, but it started off so masterfully that I thought I was reading some kind of new american classic. Then the ending died in a hole in a way that you can't help comparing to James Joyce and finding rather sparse and angsty in comparison. It's such a shame because most of the book was really enjoyable, then Tesich goes and ruins it. I spent about two hours cursing him for coming up with such an indulgent wank of an ending.

Still, you should read it. At the very least, so that I have someone to commiserate with.

Corrupt Hieroglyphics

So I stayed up until 3am making the call sheet a work of organisational art.

Then I find out this morning that the fucking 90 day trial on my flatmate's laptop only sent corrupt hieroglyphics to everyone and I have to try to do the whole thing today in my lunch hour. I know I've been a fragile sooky la la this week, but that was just a cruel twist, Computer Jesus.

On the upside, this is all in aid of the rather enormous amount of fun we'll be having making a delectably demented short film piece with whacked performance artists Surgical Sideshow tonight. At midnight no less, coz that's apparently how the sideshow freaks roll.

Surgical Sideshow are like a nightmarish silent children's pantomime show, where the oversized demons like to perform random acts of surgery and sometimes eat foam entrails. Pretty jazzed to be working with them. And of course my Punk-Monk Propaganda production tribe.