Category: Filmmaking

Making movies, for clients or for fun.

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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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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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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On Set Etiquette

What’s the right way to behave on set?

Many people (not filmmakers) wrongly assume that a film set is always an exciting, dynamic place, where artists of equal standing share and contribute to the making of the film as the shooting unfolds. The public often imagine a director calmly chatting with their actors and department heads about the set design, or the lighting, mulling over issues of form and colour, drama and performance. They assume that the shoot is both a creative and democratic process.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading “On Set Etiquette”

Casting for Free

How can you cast your film for free?

Something for Nothing?

When the day comes for you to cast your ultra-low budget film (short or feature), you’re faced with a problem. You’ve already decided that you can’t afford to pay your actors (we looked at the ethics of not paying in the article Not Paying – coming soon), yet despite this you naturally want the best possible actors for your project. Continue reading “Casting for Free”