Category: Review

Just my opinion…

PFTC Slaves

For once the PFTC gets it right, and gets slammed for it.

Yeesh – it seems the PFTC is damned no matter what they do.

Today’s Courier Mail had a headline on page three that read “Movie body backs down on search for ‘slave labour’“. You can view the online version of the article here (note the online edition is now gone – it had a less sensationalist headline, but the body of the article appears the same as the print edition). After reading it a couple of times, it looks to me like the PFTC tried to do the right/smart/realistic thing on a slightly touchy subject, handled it a tiny bit clumsily, and got well-and-truly roasted for it.
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BIFF 2003 Screening

In which Skevos tries not to rant about BIFF 2003 since he only attended one screening.

Unlike last year, I’m not going to write a full rant about this year’s Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF). Due to work commitments I only went to one screening at BIFF this year, so I can hardly comment on the festival. The film I saw was the short film, Other People, produced by Vickie Gest and written and directed by Kieren Galvin. I helped out a bit with the sound on the film, and it was great to see it in front of an audience and on a 16mm film print. Remarkably, the print was taken directly from the PAL video edit and kine’d to a 16mm print, rather than going back to the original negative. I must say that the kine looked very good indeed, I found it very difficult to tell that it was a PAL video blow up and I’m usually pretty good at spotting that sort of thing (though the State Library doesn’t have a huge screen, and I’m sure being a black and white film hides a multitude of sins).
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Cheaters

I’ve just watched my first, and hopefully last, full episode of Cheaters on Fox TV. I’d seen bits of the show before, ages ago, but never actually sat through a whole episode. Wow. I had my hand over my mouth through most of it, I was so shocked at how bad and yet how compelling it was. If there really are aliens out there tuning in to our television broadcasts to find out more about our species, Cheaters is one of those shows I pray they don’t see or else we’re doomed to be shunned by the rest of the cosmos.
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Making Ned Dull

In which Skev vents his disappointment with the film Ned Kelly.

Ned Kelly was a let down. Not since In a Savage Land have I been this disappointed with an Australian film, and for mostly the same reasons. With all that money and talent, both in front of and behind the camera, I foolishly got my expectations up before seeing Ned Kelly. It’s not that Ned Kelly is a bad film in itself, in fact it’s quite good (and a lot better in many ways than In a Savage Land), it’s just not what I was hoping for.
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Anything but Boring

Wow. Every day this guy produces an image from his 3D software, and he puts it up on his web site, which he oddly calls Boring 3D. Images range from apparently random flights of fancy to the on going “story” (if story is the right word) of box and naked mining guy, along with other great images. Simple but great composition and colours.

Check out his archive. Scroll to the bottom and look at them in chronological order as you scroll up. Is he really doing this every day? Amazing.

BIFF 2002 Nitpicking

In which Skev gets the irrits at the Brisbane International Film Festival.

This week, thanks to the generosity of a friend with a spare gold pass, I attended about eight screenings at the 2002 Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF). I’ve attended a few festivals in my time — from small to medium sized — as an audience member, a filmmaker, and even a judge. Maybe it’s just my bad luck, but film festivals I attend seem to have more than their fair share of issues. BIFF was no exception.
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Milligan’s Autograph

Farewell Spike Milligna, the well known typing error…

Some people collect autographs as a passion. Others casually get autographs from famous people they meet (athletes leaving the field, an actor in a coffee shop, that kind of thing), keep them for a while, then throw them away. From a fairly early age I realised that autographs meant nothing to me. I just didn’t “get” it – and I still don’t. What’s the big deal about getting someone famous to sign a piece of paper? Perhaps my contempt of autographs was just part of my contempt for fame. I’ve rarely been “awed” by seeing a famous person. But there is an exception. One day I did ask someone for their autograph: Spike Milligan.
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