Peekaboo: Australian Film Festival

Two elderly women overheard on the way out of the cinema: ‘I really liked Peekaboo.’ ‘Me too. A lot to think about.’ It’s always nice to be mentioned.

Peekaboo received an Honourable Mention at the Australian Film Festival last night. It was a great screening to a packed house. I’d seen eight of the ten films before at different festivals: sort of a highlights screening. It was good to see Crosshairs again. The story of a violent conflict between a farmer and two sheep poachers, directed by Mike Hoath, is a tightly wound gem. Check it out if it plays at a festival near you.

today’s inspiration #2: another Wes Anderson Hyundai commercial

today’s inspiration #1: Wes Anderson Hyundai commercial

Peekaboo: WOW awards

Peekaboo won three awards at last night’s 18th WOW Film Festival: the SBS Award, Katie Flaxman won Best Editing, and an Audience Choice Award. WOW indeed!

I’ll let you know when you catch Peekaboo on SBS!

today’s inspiration: Repulsion

today

Today I threw up at work. It’s the first time I’ve ever thrown up at a place of employment. I’m glad I made it to the toilets and I’m glad nobody came in while I was throwing up violently. It was coming out my nose. I think it was food poisoning. Who knew baked oats had such a short shelf life?

I left work early and went home to sleep and watch movies on my laptop in bed. Finally got round to watching Repulsion and Haneke’s US remake of Funny Games. Probably not the best recuperation movies. The Madman Repulsion DVD comes with a 45 minute interview between Polanski and Clive James over dinner in a Paris restaurant. James doesn’t shy away from asking Polanski some tough questions about his relationship with Sharon Tate and the statutory rape conviction. Worth watching. There’s also an audio commentary with Polanski and Catherine Deneuve.

Fun fact from the Funny Games credits. Lodge Kerrigan is credited as script consultant.

IndieGoGo in Sydney next week

Looking for ways to finance your next project? The creators of US crowd-funding platform IndieGoGo will be in Sydney next week for a series of talks/workshops on crowd-funding. You can find the full program, including details on how to RSVP here.

breaking the habit

I had a 6 cup a day habit (4 coffee, 2 tea – to break things up) plus chocolate. I haven’t been sleeping very well – it takes me a long time to go to sleep, I sleep quite lightly and if I wake in the night it takes a long time to get back to sleep. So I went caffeine cold turkey on Saturday. No coffee, tea or chocolate and already it’s made a big difference. I’ve slept like a log, and if I’ve woken in the night I’ve gone back to sleep quickly. I’m even dreaming more! I read somewhere caffeine interferes with your REM sleep.

Saturday was hard. I felt so tired I could barely stay awake, staving off a headache with tablets. Sunday was slightly better. Yesterday, my first day at work, was tough. I missed the ritual (and the break from the computer) as much as anything else. Today I stocked up on rooibos tea and chamomile so I can still make myself a regular hot drink. I made it to lunchtime without headache tablets.

 

Peekaboo: Mudfest

More good festival news. Peekaboo has been selected as one of the 14 films (out of 700 submitted) to screen at MUDFEST – the Mudgee International Short Film Festival, on Saturday 17 March. If the weather holds up the films will screen outdoors. Check out the full program and details here.

Peekaboo: Australian Short Film Festival

Peekaboo has been selected as one of 10 shorts playing at the Australian Short Film Festival at 7pm on Sunday 11 March at the Randwick Ritz cinema (one of my favourite Sydney cinemas)! It’s playing with a bunch of great shorts I’ve seen on the festival circuit this last year: The Palace, Julian, Nullabor, Crosshairs. Full lineup here.

See you there!

Voices Project: almost…

It’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks with grading, ADR sessions,composing sessions etc. We finished mixing both Bat Eyes and Boot last night*. All we need to do now is marry the sound and the vision and the films are done. Not popping the champagne corks just yet but soon… very soon.

Detailed (and much deserved) thanks coming soon – just need to catch up on a little sleep.

*Speaking of sound, there’s a great interview on the NYT with Lon Bender, the Oscar-nominated supervising sound editor for Drive. You can find it here.

Peekaboo: West End Film Festival

If you’re in Brisbane, come on down to the West End’s Rumpus Cinema on 25th March to see Peekaboo in the West End Film Festival! See the full line up here.

Peekaboo: WOW Festival

Peekaboo has been selected to screen at the opening of the 18th World of Women’s Cinema Festival (WOW) in Sydney on Tuesday 6 March. It’s on from 12.30pm to 1.30pm at Customs House in Circular Quay. You can find details of the full program here. WOW indeed!

today’s inspiration: M.I.A.

Cause when she’s good, she’s very, very good.

today’s inspiration: Ben Gazzara 1930-2012

Loved your work.

Voices Project: teasers

It’s a sunny Sunday morning in Sydney and Nikki and I are back in the edit suite cutting teasers for Bat Eyes and Boot. What’s the differences between a teaser and a trailer? About two minutes.

 

Voices Project: Bat Eyes locked

Live blogging from the edit suite: the picture cut is locked! Thank you Nikki. Great job.

today’s inspiration: Kill List poster

Jay Shaw’s new poster for Ben Wheatley’s film Kill List is deservedly MUBI’s poster of the week. Kill List was one of my favourite films at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, and Shaw’s poster perfectly sums up the film’s agaonising feeling of inevitability with its list/domino motif.

today’s inspiration: Albert Brooks’ Downfall

At the risk of this becoming the Downfall meme blog I had to post this. Drive was my favourite film last year and the omission of Albert Brooks is a huge snub. Maybe Jackie Weaver used up the Academy’s sweetie-gone-bad goodwill for her turn in Animal Kingdom.

And here’s the highbrow corrective from the New Yorker’s Richard Brody. As Brody says, ‘rarely has the velvet glove been worn more suavely, on-screen, by the iron fist’.

While we’re talking Oscars snubs, check out NPR’s Joe Reid on this year’s nominees for Best Original Song and why you won’t see the name Cliff Martinez (also Drive) on that list.

Voices Project: Bat Eyes

I spent today in the edit suite with Nikki Stevens cutting Bat Eyes. A solid day’s work with a late dash of inspiration. Very satisfying. We’re close to a fine cut now.