36 posts tagged “video”

Dig was one of my favourite local groups.
Recently they played at the Darling Harbour Jazz and Blues festival in Sydney.
This is a video of them performing Dreamtime.
I remember this song being a lot more 'pumped' ;-)

The ‘all encompassingly’ christened Australian Film Television and Radio School had their Open day on Saturday.
I went down and had a stickybeak.
This is ‘the’ school for anything audio-visual in Oz.
They recently decamped from the creative wasteland of Sydney’s ‘bible belt,’ and moved the whole shebang down into the middle of Syn city.

This school has government funding so they have the best of everything.
The building was built by a bank at no cost to the tax payer. WEIRD! I wonder how many souls are required to burn in hell to repay that curtesy???
The facilities are bloody amazing! Latest gear, full wardrobe and props departments, offices for student productions to camp in, industry standard Post and CGI.

I had discounted this school as in the past they have only taken students from the industry, who wish to hone or add to their skills.
Next year the school starts something new called a foundation diploma, which covers everything from story development to video games, and is available to anyone who has the chops to be accepted (subject to a portfolio submitting process.)

So now I have two options.
One school I need to prove to the facility that I’m good enough, and the other I can buy my way in.

So why have I been posting strange little YouTube videos for the last couple of years?
I’ve been practising.

I’m planning on ‘chucking’ full time employ, and doing a film coarse next year.
The mid-year intake Open Days are currently being run so last weekend I attended the Sydney Film School Open Day to check out a potential option.

The school fills out a converted old ware house in the middle of the city.
I could see students cutting up strips of film on editing desks as I entered the common area.
The building didn’t seem overbearing or pretentious and I instantly felt comfortable.

Documentary and drama production are taught. The school has the belief that good films are made by good teams

Drama students start with film, and then move them onto digital. The school reckons that learning with (old fashion :-) film builds good discipline.
Doco students are digital all the way through.

It’s a private school, and the only entrance criteria are that students pay the tuition and that their personalities ‘fit’ with the place. That entails and interview with the staff.
Last year a hundred student short films were produced, and in four years forty three films have screened in film festivals round the world.
They believe in a broad training in a variety of disciplines rather then train specialist directors or sound guys.
Strong affiliations with international schools.

I liked the vibe of the place. Vibes are important. It’s your sub-conscious elbowing you in the ribs and wiggling its eyebrows.
I really liked their emphasis on collaboration, and they are actively trying to build a larger film community in Oz. This is important to me as unlike a doctor or a teacher, I don’t NEED to go to school to get in the industry, but I’m looking to find a community to slot into.
If there is one thing I’ve learnt in life, it’s that connections are more important then qualifications or talent.

Get yourself a cuppa, light some incense, and chill out with the ducks...

A video of bugs shot mostly in Australia with macro.
I’ve been collecting these little clips of insects for a while now. Suddenly had enough to string together into a short video with a bit of music to keep the pace up.
Mostly glitch with a bit of Hiphop (all done with Acid.)
Featured are a lady bug, a Weta from New Zealand, two beetles (one green and the other iridescent,) and my finger.

Don’t watch if you don’t like spiders!

Bit of live video, bit of time-lapse. Lot’s of lightning.
More sensitive viewers will appreciate my editing efforts. While I was cutting up the footage, I discovered that at one point I heard my voice exclaim ‘fuck that was close!’ on the soundtrack, so I cut the sound and overlaid thunder.

Continuing the write up on my trip to New Zealand.

I kept forgetting I was in an other country, this seaside town Kaidoura Especially Reminds me of Oz.
Exit the train station and walk to the right, and the road becomes a wide highway lined with chain hotels and eateries (the worst of Oz.) But hang a left, walk through the town, and down the tree lined esplanade beach road, past tiny holiday batches (N.Z. for cottage,) and lapping surf (the best of Oz.)
Originally established as a whaling town, but now the locals make more cash from whale watching and other touristy type activities such as fishing expeditions and scuba diving.
Got sunburnt a second time. I keep forgetting that N.Z. has less ozone layer then Australia.
There is also a Huge blister on my foot from all the ‘tramping’ (N.Z. for walking around) that I’ve been doing.

Was scoffing a breakfast fry-up sitting outside a café, my first morning there, and a Seagull swooped overhead and shat on my plate. A group of them landed on the edge of the roof and hung around watching me. I got the impression that the cheeky buggers did it on purpose, thus forcing me to finish up and move on, leaving the remains of my meal behind. So I waited around until my plate was cleaned up by the café staff.
Now I know that this might sound a bit mad, believing that I was subject to an organised seagull ploy, but there are stories of crows in Japan using cars stopped at traffic lights as nut crackers, and the Minor birds back in Oz are spookily well organised as they swoop around in packs (I know that I group of birds is usually called a flock but watch Indian Minors for a bit and ‘pack’ is a much more apt description.)
If it's true that dinosaurs evolved into birds, then our feathered friends have had a long time to get their shite together.

Kaidoura is more then seals and whale watching. You will not be surprised to read that there is also a major bird nesting site.
Lots of angry parents flapping about, and I took this last video of some geese that walked past me while I was looking at the seals.

Last of the seal videos and I’m struck by how much seals reminded me of dogs.

This guy (or could be a girl) was basking in the sun. Humans are required to give the seals about ten meters of personal space and all of these videos were shot with a 10x zoom.