2016 Lights! Canberra! Action!
So, following on from the success of being shortlisted for our entry in the 2015 Lights! Canberra! Action! Marina and I set about making an entry for this year's short film festival. The film is titled '237' (after the hotel key that must appear as one of specified objects).
The format of the festival stipulates that entrants have 10 days to shoot and submit a film. The film must contain 10 specified objects or places and be somehow linked to a nominated theme ... this year's theme was 'Chance'. The ten objects or places for this year's film were:
- A deck of cards
- PJ O'Reilly's - either southside or the city
- Weather Report 'Chance of rain' - this item can be audio
- Weetangera Cemetery - MAP
- A question mark
- The National Film and Sound Archive
- Dice
- The Police Box on Red Hill by Geoff Filmer - MAP
- A raffle ticket
- The key to room 237, Avenue Hotel
We managed to include all ten ... see if you can spot them!
Our movie is largely a meditation on the nature of freedom, it's a kind of love story and it's narrated beautifully in Italian by Marina.
And since we were shortlisted and made the Final Twelve we got to attend the public screening of all twelve shortlisted film at the Rose Gardens, Old Parliament House.
Here's a picture of Marina and I accepting our finalist certificates from Chris Bourke MLA
Please let us know what you think of the movie in the comments below :-)
Masked
So we made this little movie ... an arthouse piece in a world that plainly isn't. In the movie, we're wearing masks ... well, in the latter stages we're wearing masks plural seeing as we had only one mask when we began filming and had to share it. It wasn't until I came across a supply of masks in Chapel Street in Melbourne over the final weekend that we were able to appear together both wearing masks. But that's an aside.
It's a strange feeling to be wearing masks in public, on the street, in coffee shops and shopping malls. Noone seemed to think it particularly odd, we didn't get asked to leave anywhere and anywhere people did look a little alarmed we just assured them we were "making a movie" and everything was fine! One thing I did notice though was that when I was masked, people I was flashing a reassuring smile to as they walked past or lingered couldn't actually see said reassuring smile; just some nodding weirdo in a mask.
I did take the opportunity to take some stills as we were shooting but likely nowhere near as many as I perhaps should have :-)
Here's a few.
You can watch the movie here