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Monday, 06 July 2009

Empire Rising

Some interesting news/rumour last week about the Star Wars TV series from Australia’s Sci Fi TV.

Rumours about the pre-production of Star Wars, the live action series, to be shot in Australia, have been confirmed by several inside sources.
The quality and style of writing that will be used will be of the highest quality, and local, and writers will be sourced from outside traditional Science Fiction shows. Several big names within the Australian industry (including writers from the Award-winning Love My Way and the Award-winning Secret Life of Us) have been approached by Star Wars uber-producer, Rick McCallum.
…..
More solidification of rumour into fact will come as soon as possible.
Source

I’ve never watched Love My Way or Secret Life of Us, but I’m all up for some character driven Star Wars as long as they keep it Sci Fi! What they would really need in the show is some great heroes and villians that are memorable and would form what would be, A New Hope.

Saturday, 04 July 2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I was looking forward to Transformers. If you’ve had a chance of reading my review of the first film, you’d know that I’m one of those man child that grew up on the series.

One of my main dislikes of the first film was that it focused a bit too much on the human characters. Well, this time, the human cast are the supporting characters and it’s more about the conflict of the Autobots and the Decepticons with people thrown into the mix. They’ve even created their own Transformers mytho… so really, if I’m waiting for the films to mimic the cartoon, I’m dreaming.

This results in a lot of robots in the film and a lot of action scenes. This is a good thing but used just a bit too much. The story tries to fit as many fan favourite characters that they’re never really delve into their character. Would’ve love a scene where we see more of the Autobots and Decepticons interact.

In the end, it’s just multiple fights throughout the movie, 1 v 1 or X v X with Michael Bay’s shaky cam to heighten the action. Which doesn’t really work that great as a lot of the time, you can’t tell what’s happening and there’s a lot of foreground in the way.

But even though there are flaws with the film, I felt that I was entertained the whole 2.5 hours. Michael Bay did a good job of heading such a large film with such a large cast. But it just needs to be questioned, what if this film was written by just one person than 3 people?

Out of all the summer movies out so far, Transformers was the loudest and had so much potential. But I would have to say that as far as character development and emotion, Terminator and Star Trek is ahead. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen just had too many characters and things happening that it’s just not as memorable as the first film.
2.5/5

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Fete de la Musique 2009

Fete de la Musique was held in Chatswood last Thursday on the 18th June 2009 in anticipation to the international music event held throughout the globe on the 21st June.
The event went fantastically, especially with the calibre of musicians that were busking. It’s great to see young and old artists all performing in the mall.
The only draw back was the weather. With showers coming in and out throughout the day and pouring at around 5:30pm. We had to cancel the final music session and the awards presentation. This is now postponed to the 2nd July in Chatswood Mall, during the Melody Market.
Images of our event also got placed on the official Fete de la Musique site in France, called “Echos de la Fete”.
So, if you’re around Chatswood on Thursday 2nd July, come over to the Melody Market in Chatswood Mall to witness the final acts from the busking competition!

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Live feed and full same day edit

Over the weekend, I got to film a concert at UNSW Roundhouse. It was of a popular Indonesian band, Ungu, organised to come over by the Indonesian Embassy.

Their music was pretty good, even though I didn’t understand any of it.

The next day, Santo (from Paper Cranes) and I worked on the wedding of Gordon and Lina. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the best… It was pouring during the outdoor ceremony at one stage. But everyone was still happy and the bride was a great host.

It was the first time that we had to do a full same day edit (SDE). So as soon as each part of the day was filmed, we had to transfer each tape across to the laptop for editing later on.

Here is the edit:<
Gordon & Lina SDE (Same Day Edit) from Paper Cranes Productions on Vimeo.
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Hectic would’ve been the word. It’s awesome that Santo was able to edit this in just only 2 hours. There was some hiccups along the way. Something to remember is that we should play the edit from Final Cut now on as exporting resulting in some distortion and interlacing.

The reception was at LeMontage in Leichardt.
Terminator Salvation

Terminator 2: Judgement Day was one of the movies that inspired me as a young teen to pursue a career in film making.

With Terminator Salvation, you can see that the makers of the film were inspired by James Cameron’s masterpiece also. This film is oozing with homages to the original films and really seems more like a fan film on a big budget.

The film is good, with great action scenes and lots of guns. The two male leads, Christian Bale and Australian actor, Sam Worthington portrayed the characters well. One being the rising leader of the Resistance, the other, a man that awakes to an apocalyptic world.

Even my girlfriend, whom has never watched any of the previous films thought Salvation was good.

But as a fan, I thought about what I enjoyed about the previous films of the franchise, yes, even Terminator 3 wasn’t too bad. It was the mytho on time traveling. Salvation unfortunately doesn’t really touch on this subject at all. Most likely it will in the sequel, when both the Resistance and Skynet develop time travel technology…

With time travel as the subject, I realised there was one big plot hole that McG and Nolan over looked. In the film, Kyle Reese is on Skynet’s top target list, with John Connor the second. But, if the film starts with John Connor just an ordinary soldier, why would Skynet know that he was going to be the leader of the Resistance?

Can Skynet see into the future? Has Skynet from the future came back to 2018 to tell it’s younger self of who’s the leader? Or does John Connor go running around like a maniac, claiming to be a prophet and that his father is Kyle Reese of the future? This might be explained if I watched the film a second time, as I recall there was a pretty long prologue that touched on this subject.

But overall, I enjoyed Salvation. It didn’t touch the mind as T2 did, but it was a good action movie. And for that, I’ll give it a 3.5/5.

It would be interesting how Salvation would’ve played out if poster boy geek, JJ Abrams directed it. And on that note, I should watch Star Trek.

Sunday, 07 June 2009

In a case of art imitating life or vice versa, the event that happened near my neighbourhood last night pushes me forward to bring White and Black to fruition even more.

According to news reports, the owner of the house and vehicle is a figure in Sydney’s underworld and was shot five times by a rival gang. He is alive and at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
The event took place at approximately 11:30pm. I left my home at around 11:15pm, I guess I was lucky to not be around there at the time. But also would’ve wanted to be there to see or maybe help...

On a semi lighter note, Joseph whipped up a temporary logo for White and Black so that I can use it for media releases.

I’m also currently working on an information video for work. It is a revamp of the old Civic Place Philanthropic video with brand new renders, fly-through, voiceover and footage. I need to get it all done in 3 days. Wish me luck!

Civic Place render

Wednesday, 08 April 2009

Busy

The past few months sure have been busy. And to think that I would’ve started filming in March… how wrong was I to think that.
January was busy with training a new member into the Events Team and three major events. Being the Chinese New Year Media Launch, Australia Day Celebrations and Chinese New Year Celebrations. Also initial casting for Panda: White and Black.

February I was in Japan. Panda: White and Black now has been renamed to just White and Black. It has been redrafted many times since then.
March was the big one, with two events every week and ending with an Earth Hour Festival. Also, I’ve been a secondary camera for Paper Cranes productions for a few weekends now. Check their site out, they do great Wedding videos.
The story of White and Black has expanded and character names have changed. Panda is now called Cedric “Tally” Ho but is essentially still the same torn character that wants to get out of the criminal world but vowed to revenge.
From a 7 page short to a 50 page mini feature, this project has gotten a lot larger than anticipated but the excitement is still there. I can’t wait to start secondray casting later this month.
Casting call for White and Black can be found here. I use Starnow to put up ads. It’s for free, and there’s a large pool of Australian talent, highly recommended.

Sunday, 18 January 2009

The awesomeness of YouTube

First it was the Wario thing.. now look at this!
This is indie too, even more impressive.

I'm sure it's gonna be pretty popular.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

One lucky guy...

By chance, our lives crossed paths. Seemingly in different worlds, our laughters and cheers brought our bonds closer together. My blurry world seemed to be clearing up.

I haven't written much about my girl, I hardly write anymore. But I want her to know that I am so grateful that she has come into my life. She brings me great happiness and a sense of completion.

I admit, I have fucked up, more than once. But I am sorry that I have made you hurt, made you tear, made you lose your faith in me. Yet, you have allowed us to hold onto together. I am learning from my mistakes. I am learning from you. I hope that my skin is getting thick enough to become the man I should be for you.

You really do make me feel like the luckiest guy in the world, you really do.

It's been nearly a year and a half now, yet, my feelings for you grow stronger daily. Holding you closer deeper into me. I hope that our love will last our lifetime.

Michelle, I love you.

I am sure one lucky guy...