We've just hit 1 Billion computers. Now look forward to Trillions

Trillions from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

Brilliant clip. Thaks to Mark Pesce for uncovering.

If you think social networking is a fad, you need to play this

Heads up: Mark Scott.

Sydney Film Festival presents outcomes of Independent Review

Media Release (bold emphasis is mine - LB):

"The Sydney Film Festival yesterday met with members to present the outcomes of the independent review conducted by Booz & Co. in partnership with NSW Government following the 2009 Festival.

"The Sydney Film Festival is NSW’s pre-eminent showcase for independent cinema and has run continuously for 56 years. The review was commissioned to look at the current operational and business model and to ensure that the Festival would be sustainable into the future.

"After examining every aspect of the Festival’s operations, undertaking research and conducting extensive interviews in Australia and internationally, the Booz Review has concluded some key elements of activity and future developments.

"Overall the review recommended a two to three-year development strategy for the Festival that focuses on operational and governance reform, exploration of new markets and further consideration of the Sydney Film Festival’s future position in the local, national and international events calendar and film festival environment.

"The highlights of the Booz Review include:

1. The Festival should continue to be held in June for the immediate future and should consider how it can best expand its activities to include satellite events throughout the year.

2. While centered in the traditional home of the State Theatre for 2010, the festival should look to expand into other Sydney areas in particular Parramatta. This would build on the success of the Sydney Film Festival’s Travelling Film Festival to regional NSW and other centres.

3. The Festival should fully develop its digital media strategy that fully leverages advances in technology and changes in audience appetite.

"In order to underpin these plans for audience development, the Review recommended a program for organisational reform, and presented options for changes to its governance arrangements, bringing it in line with other major arts organisations and state-funded festivals.

“The results of the Booz Review are encouraging to the board and staff who have worked tirelessly over the recent years to initiate and implement change, and to develop the Festival for a wider audience in the future,” said Virginia Gordon, SFF President. “The company has already acted on a significant number of recommendations.

"We feel confident that the recommendations form the basis for the SFF further building its audience and relationship with partners, and continuing to be an inseparable part of the cultural landscape of Sydney and NSW for many years, reaching more people than ever before.”

"As a result of the recommendations, the Board discussed with members last night (Monday- LB) the options available for restructuring of board appointments and the evolution of the organization into the future. Members will be advised on options for change over the next month leading up to an EGM in December and the AGM in January."

(Image: Pieter Pieterse)

Samson sweeps the IFs

IF Award winners 2009.

Congratulations to the winner. Oh hang on, the winners...

Best Feature Film: Samson & Delilah – Warwick Thornton, Kath Shelper

Best Actor: Rowan McNamara – Samson & Delilah

Best Actress: Marissa Gibson – Samson & Delilah

Best Script: Samson & Delilah – Warwick Thornton

Best Music: Samson & Delilah – Warwick Thornton

Best Direction: Samson & Delilah – Warwick Thornton

Best Sound: Balibo – Sam Petty, Emma Bortignon, Phil Heywood, Ann Aucote

Best Editing: Balibo – Nick Meyers

Best Production Design: Mary & Max – Adam Elliot

Best Cinematography: Beautiful Kate – Andrew Commis

Independent Spirit Award: My Tehran For Sale – Director: Granaz Moussavi, Producers, Julie Ryan, Kate Croser, Granaz Moussavi

Rising Talent: Dominic Allen

Box Office Achievement: Australia – Baz Luhrmann, G.Mac Brown and Catherine Knapman

Living Legend IF Award: Baz Luhrmann

Best Film Festival: Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival

Best Short Film: Ralph – Director Deborah Mailman, Producers Jessie Mangum and Kylie Du Fresne

Best Animation: The Cat Piano – Directors Eddie White & Ari Gibson, Producer Jessica Brentnall

Best Short Documentary: Mankind is No Island – Jason Van Genderen

Best Documentary: The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce – Michael James Rowland, Producer Nial Fulton

Best Music Video: Sway Sway Baby – Short Stack – Dan Reisinger

Why classical composers and musicians in film are crazy - Part 3

Sydney Film School sound design and music lecturer Michael McLennan suggests the problem may lie less with their musical subjects per se than with the bio-pic tradition – this type of story is often riddled with cliché and notoriously difficult to pull off.

For avoiding all the traps he highly rates Canadian filmmaker Francois Girard’s 1993 film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (pictured left). As the title suggests, the film is constructed as a series of discrete films providing a multi-faceted view of a complex musician.

Filmmakers also face the problem of how to treat actors giving musical performances to make them seem authentic. Edward Primrose, lecturer in film composition at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, says that viewers inevitably “enter this little game of ‘are they playing or are they not?’“

There’s also the fact that composing is a very internal and solitary act and to make it visually appealing filmmakers go to great lengths, creating scenes that are exaggerated or made up, he says. “The trouble is that in reality, there’s no real relationship between the composer’s internal processes and their ordinary day-to-day life. Filmmakers strive to overcome this, to create an artificial connection between the life and the art – ‘I see this, therefore it inspires me to write my brilliant third symphony’.”

But for all their problems, these films can lead viewers to make great musical discoveries. As a young man Sculthorpe was heavily struck by the music of Gershwin (pictured left), Chopin and Strauss after seeing their respective Hollywood biographies, Rhapsody in Blue, A Song to Remember and The Great Waltz. Several of those interviewed said they thought Amadeus was ridiculous but nonetheless entertaining and filled with marvelous music. Even Ken Russell’s silly The Music Lovers (Tchaikovsky) and Mahler are filled with wonderful examples of their subject’s art.

For one of the finest fusions of cinematic and musical art, oddly it’s Russell to whom we must turn. Before turning towards camp excess, Russell made a series of restrained films for the BBC on the lives of composers including Elgar, Debussy, Bartok and Delius, the latter, Delius - Song of Summer (pictured right), remaining one of the best films about a composer made to date. Not just by Russell, by anyone.

Image: Gershwin, cherylandalex.wordpress.com/.../

Why classical composers and musicians in film are crazy - Part 2

The notion of the artist as a tortured soul stems of course from the Romantic era, with Beethoven – infamously cantankerous and half-crazed by his hearing loss in later years - the emblematic example.

Peter Sculthorpe says he is particularly fond of Eric Smith’s 1982 Archibald Prize-winning portrait of him (detail below left) because “all the previous portraits had shown me as a tortured composer, and this is the first that had shown me as I am – happy and optimistic. Traditionally painters have preferred composers as tortured beings.”

Composer Alan John, whose film credits including work on Three Dollars and Percy Grainger biography Passion, points out that well-adjusted composers and musicians make for dull subjects. Plus you have the fact that many composers were in fact dysfunctional characters, John says, citing Bruckner as one example. “It was a Romantic period and maybe it fed into the way the artists saw themselves – but I think if Schumann had had a choice, he would have chosen not to go mad,” John says.

Schumann’s mental deterioration was recently portrayed in the German film Clara (pictured above) about the three-way relationship between the man, his wife - composer and pianist Clara Schumann - and Johannes Brahms.

Composer Christopher Gordon, whose film music includes Master and Commander and Mao’s Last Dancer, thinks the wild artist, operating outside the realms of polite society, is more than just a cliché to filmmakers. Film, he says, “needs its archetypes, and that can mean making people quite extreme in certain ways. The artist archetype is an interesting one. There’s this thing about the artist being untamable yet the one person that tells the truth. It’s like fire, in a way: it fascinates and draws you in but threatens to burn you. In a mythical kind of way the artist is often put into this kind of role; whether it’s Shine or Amadeus, the artist is seen as this wild and not necessarily social being that tells us the truth about ourselves.”But do these archetypes make for good films? The list of impressive films about composers and classical musicians is a short one. Triteness, distortion and kitsch abounds. Composer Nigel Westlake, whose works include the soundtrack for the film Babe, says that “in almost all these cases, huge liberties have been taken with the subject matter in the name of drama and scandal, to the point where historical fact is transformed into virtual fantasy…

“Where the cap doesn’t fit, the screenwriter will go to any lengths to re-write history in order to conform with the ‘tortured artist’ myth. Can any of these films be taken seriously? I don’t think there would be any historians who would consider these films anything more than entertainment and as about as historically accurate as Gladiator."

Why classical composers and musicians in film are crazy - Part 1

In the cover story for the October edition of Limelight magazine I examined the way the lives of composers and classical muscians have been treated on film, and wonder why the themes of mental and physical illness have been such a constant.

Story runs below in three parts:

In the US movie The Soloist, released a couple of months ago, Robert Downey Jnr played Steve Lopez, a real-life Los Angeles Times reporter who befriended Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic living rough and obsessed with classical music and the lives of the great composers, especially Beethoven.

Nathaniel, played by Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles in Ray), turned out to be a brilliant musician who dropped out of his conservatorium course due to his psychiatric problems. Lopez wrote about him in his columns and, aided by a sympathetic readership, attempted to help him return to regularly playing music.

This follow-up to Atonement for British director Joe Wright was distinguished by its pair of powerful lead performances and its uncompromising treatment of serious mental illness as an often intractable force.

In the latter respect The Soloist was relatively unusual, but in other respects the movie followed a common theme when it comes to the treatment of classical musicians and composers.

Although there are exceptions such as 1938 Johann Strauss biography, The Great Waltz , the musically gifted in the movies tend to have a kangaroo loose in the top paddock, or at the very least to be troubled, physically ailing or strange. On film they are variously depicted as psychiatrically ill (viz. David Helfgott in Shine); irascible and deeply eccentric (Ludwig van in last year’s Copying Beethoven - Ed Harris as the composer pictured above right), or suffering a disabling illness (the MS-afflicted Jacqueline du Pre in Hilary and Jackie).

And who could forget Amadeus, with its pathologically jealous Salieri fixated on murder and a Mozart who is a giggling child inhabiting an adult’s body?

If the men are worrisome, according to the movies if you see a woman seated at a piano, you’d be advised to turn on your heels and run. Witness Isabelle Huppert’s sexually repressed-to-the-point-of-psychosis lead role in The Piano Teacher; the revenge-fixated ex-piano student in last year’s French drama The Page Turner; or Holly Hunter’s wilfully mute axe-wielder in The Piano.

What is it that compels filmmakers to regard musicians and composers as such dysfunctional creatures? It’s not enough to say that some of these stories are based (sometimes accurately, sometimes extremely loosely) on real life case histories, and that their music gives the opportunity for a glorious soundtrack.

We have to ask why the filmmakers have been attracted to these stories in the first place, and not to others. As composer Peter Sculthorpe points out, no-one has made a movie about J.S. Bach (pictured above left), even though he was “probably the greatest of European composers. His life was probably too uneventful to make into a film.”

Alfred Molina vs Daniel Day Lewis

At newmatilda this week I take the wrecking ball to Daniel Day Lewis's hammier indulgences and suggest a worthier candidate for the title of Great British Screen Actor - Alfred Molina (pictured above in Ridley and Tony Scott's TNT mini-series The Company).

Great acting like Molina's often goes under-celebrated for a reason. The audience is not meant to notice the acting. They're meant to notice the character!

Please post any comments on the newmatilda site rather than here please. Thanks.

Extract:
"I, for one, don't like being rudely grabbed by the lapel and told to bow down in obeisance. Great screen acting perfectly embodies a character — and the fact of a character being showily egotistical and extroverted does not make a performance more impressive or prize-worthy. Indeed it can mean the opposite: that the actor has gotten so carried away that the temperature needle has shot into the red-for-danger zone.

"Good films — and sometimes even mediocre ones — are full of great acting that goes unnoticed. That's why they're great — we're not meant to notice the craft behind them. Genuine performances don't have tickets on themselves. Sadly, this means they often pass uncelebrated..."

Audience joins the Last Ride - illegally

Australian film Last Ride (starring Hugo Weaving) was released on DVD yesterday. Director Glendyn Ivin says it was on torrent sites as early as last night & in 16 hours had been downloaded (illegally...) 7000+ times.

Ivin's philosophical comment: "Well at least it's getting out there..." My comment: Perhaps we should add this to the box office stats. Shows there's a desire to see it.

Last Ride recently won major prizes at the Rome and Middle East (Dubai) film festivals

When it comes to political solutions, Moore = Less

Over at newmatilda I go hunting for the missing-in=action politics of Michael Moore

Please post any comments on the full article please.

Extract:

"So is Moore an anarcho-syndicalist or a communist? He talks about moving "beyond socialism" — yet what he advocates sounds quite a lot like socialism. Or is he merely thinking of the kind of democratised industrial relations system in Germany, where workers can elect representatives on to corporate boards? Alas, the film doesn't explain.

"Nor did he make matters any clearer when he was a guest on ABC TV's Lateline Business last week. Asked by host Ali Moore to explain what his system to replace capitalism would look like, Moore paused for an awkwardly long moment before uttering the words: 'I dunno'.

Film agency to shift funding to more commercial, bigger-budgeted productions

The Australian Financial Review today (Thursday) quoted Screen Australia chief Ruth Harley (pictured) signalling that the agency will fund fewer films, but at higher budgets - $15 million and above.

There will be a squeeze on films budgeted at $15 million and below - no surprise given the general collapse of the market for lower budget Australian films documented on this blog and elsewhere.

However the producer's tax offset will remain an option for films budgeted above $1 million (that figure being the seemingly arbitrary cut-off point) - so I wouldn't write off the chances of, say, the next Samson & Delilah appearing just yet.

This extract is not from the AFR article (which I can't find - it seems to be behind the newspaper's pay wall) but from a report on it from Ron Brown of Independent Content Creators Association Australia, who's quoted in the piece.

"Screen Australia's production funds have been cut by government to counter the increase in indirect funding through the offset, the result being it will fund nine films this year, down from more than 20 a few years ago.

"Harley says with it's limited funds , the organisation will focus more on films with mainstream appeal and that can be released on more than 100 screens, all with a view to raising the success of Australian films at the box office. She agrees there will be a downside to this.

"I suspect little credit card films will carry on as before, big films like Guardians (of Ga'hoole) and Happy Feet 2 will carry on as before, but there will be a squeeze on those in the $4 million to $15 million bracket, " she says.

(Image: Victoria Birkinshaw, victoriabirkinshaw.com)

The boys - and girls - are back

In The Australian today I take a look at the cinematic trend towards films about teens for adult audiences , including AN EDUCATION, SAMSON & DELILAH, YOUNG VICTORIA & GENOVA & the upcoming NOWHERE BOY, FRENCH KISSERS, PRECIOUS & THE BOYS ARE BACK (Aaron Johson as the young John Lennon pictured above)

Extract:
"...What's striking about these new titles is that they're told from an adult perspective and clearly aimed at audiences aged 20 and older. These films have broken free of the chains of genre as they find new and unexpected ways to examine adolescence. They make the 1980s hits of John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and so on) seem not so much distant memories as beings from another planet..."

How to market your film: it's 2009, not 1999, stupid!

At newmatilda this week I muse over the recent MetroScreen forum at Sydney's Chauvel on local films' audience problem and draw together some threads. One of which is that Australian filmmakers and distributors urgently need to think outside the box/ get with the program/ smell the coffee (insert your favourite cliche here) when it comes to selling films.

Extract:
...the way you market a film in 2009 has to be very different to the way you marketed it in 1999. Not only has the world of filmmaking changed, so has the world of communication. If you expect to sell a film without a huge Hollywood-style marketing budget today, you start building its profile on the net from the day it goes into production. You keep the ball rolling through interactive websites, early free screenings that help spread the word. You Twitter and Facebook like mad — but not in a way that annoys people. You release clips that tease the audience's interest..."

Please post any comments on the newmatilda website rather than here, thanks.

(Image: stockphotopro.com)

Good radio special on Ozfilm probs

Good Triple J special here on new doco Into The Shadows & the problems of the Oz film industry, in the form of 2 x 15 min podcasts.

Studio guests include Troy Lum, head of independent distributor (and now production house) Hopscotch Films, and director David Caesar, whose latest film Prime Mover is about to be released.

I'll refrain from giving my take now as my thoughts are due for publication tomorrow online in newmatilda.com - I'll link from here, Facebook and Twitter when the piece is up.

Into the Shadows opened in major cities today. Trailer below; click on the film name in the tag box below to find other clips from the film.

AFI and Screen oz - please get thy information shit together, forsooth

What's wrong with Oz film industry Pt 329: Major agencies that seem incapable of co-ordinating a media release across different platforms.

Typical behaviour : PRs send out media release several hours ahead of their IT department's ability to post the info on the orgs' websites.

Hence media and bloggers have no way of spreading the info as it becomes available (ie doing the agency a FREE FAVOUR) using links on twitter, facebook, blogs and other websites. There's no link to link to!

Both Screen Australia and the AFI are guilty of this today. This is Soooo 20th century, folks. It's 2000 and flipping 9 , please get your information shit together.

Of course , there is a solution. I could post the information here. I hadnt wanted to clog up this blog with media releases, as they tend to be a bit long (I'd rather post a paragraph and then a link), but I think I'm going to have to do exactly this.

(Image: sweet.wy.us)

Roll over Mozart and tell your bikie the news

South Australian indie THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (not the Mozart opera) is opening in Sydney on Thurs after reportedly performing nicely on a single screen in Adelaide. Havent seen it yet.

Miller - keep the blockbusters coming down the pipeline

George Miller talks about Mad Max 4, to be filmed in NSW (as announced at the weekend) . Stay with the clip as he has some pertinent things to say about the problem we have with intermittent feature production in Australia - the tendency to fall in to a pattern of peaks and troughs. During the troughs the talent disappears to work overseas.

Miller points out that New Zealand has solved this problem with a constant stream of production in and around Wellington, where director-producer Peter Jackson is based.

Miller is trying to follow this example with plans for several big productions in the pipeline - including Happy Feet 2 - that he wants to film in Australia.

What he doesn't talk about here is the problem of the Australian dollar - when it's high, major productions find it cheaper to film overseas. This lies outside of the control of the film industry.

Thanks to Stunsail for the tip

???????

Today's list of "why" questions:

(1) How come so many indie filmmakers throw away the chance to get free publicity by screening their films to reviewers AFTER long lead deadlines have passed ! while distribs sometimes put up websites only 1 month before the film opens, as happened with Newcastle?

(2) Why dont more filmmakers use social networking and websites to build the brand from the start of production, create interest and fan base from the word go?

(3) Why dont more filmmakers make demo reels to persuade investors to come aboard - as Baz Luhrmann did for Romeo + Juliet and Serhat Caradee did for Cedar Boys?

(4) Why do Aussie films go in cycles of excess - excess of period tales, excess of quirky comedies, excess of battler comedies, and nine years of Lantana-derived naturalism complete with obligatorily dysfunctional families?

(5) Why dont...(etc)

(Image: werbiefitz.mlblogs.com)