Lars Von Trier
Controversial director Lars Von Trier faces some sticky questions live via Skype from the Popcorn Taxi audience about his new horror film, Antichrist.
Los Angeles
Infinite sunshine, drool-worthy Mexican food, street festivals, endless cups of coffee – for the last two weeks, I’ve been soaking up the culture of Venice Beach, Santa Monica and the surrounding areas in Los Angeles, California.
I was there on business, so most of my time was spent trekking up and down the freeways and working out of the Animal Logic office, but I was free on the weekends to venture out and explore.
Morgan and Jay work in the Animal Logic LA office.
Orly Olivier, an LA-based photographer – we checked out her amazing polaroid exhibition in Silverlake.
It took us an hour of waiting in line to get our hands on one of Pink’s hotdogs.
Pushing my way through the throng down at the Abbot Kinney Street Festival, I was pretty stoked to discover Soko performing live – I’d missed her show at the Oxford Art Factory last Christmas, so this was an unexpected treat.
Harry Perry, legendary rollerblading guitar player of Venice Beach.
From a work perspective, one of the highlights of my trip was meeting legendary makeup & prosthetic effects wizards Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr, and getting a tour of their workshop. This massive sculpt of an Alien fighting a Predator was part of a jaw-dropping display room next to their foyer featuring highlights of their past work.
A friendly local.
Ang Lee
Last night’s Popcorn Taxi event was a particularly exciting one for me – one of my favourite directors, Ang Lee dropped by to chat with At The Movies host David Stratton about his career, and new film Taking Woodstock.
He was a true gentleman, and a very thoughtful, frank speaker – highlights included a 10-minute response to an audience question about the explicit sex in his last film Lust, Caution where he spoke at length about his embarrassment and difficulty planning the scenes; and a straight-shooter impression of his experience working with Heath Ledger on Brokeback Mountain (a shy, nervous actor who required a lot of attention).
To top it off, he was also kind enough to let me snap a quick portrait of him backstage just before the Q&A started.
[Waiting backstage as David Stratton introduces him to the crowd]
[The Q&A]
Two Fists, One Heart
Last monday night, Popcorn Taxi screened new Australian boxing flick Two Fists, One Heart, and held a Q&A session afterwards featuring a whole bunch of people involved in the production.
The drill with Popcorn Taxi events is that I shoot the Q&A, and then head out back to try and grab a couple of candid snaps of the guests while the team wraps things up. Usually the guests are eager to leave, or are surrounded by publicists and various other people, so it’s difficult to do anything other than a quick group shot or photograph them signing the posters.
This time however, they were gracious enough to let me photograph them individually, portrait-style – I still had to be super-quick, and take the shots in the one location (a small private corridor that opens out to the candy bar at Greater Union Bondi Junction), and had barely any time to set up any kind of lighting. I used a 50mm prime lens, and I attached my Speedlite 580EX II (set to 1/16th power) to an off-camera shoe cord so I could hold it in my other hand for some directional light. All shots were taken at f/8, 1/125th second, ISO 400.
Rai Fazio. He wrote the film, and also plays the character ‘Nico’.
Daniel Amalm. Star of the film, he plays main character ‘Anthony Argo’.
Jessica Marais. She plays ‘Kate’, boxing non-enthusiast.
Tim Minchin. Very funny fellow, he had a hand in the writing and also plays ‘Tom’.
Shawn Seet. Director.
Here’s the trailer for the film – it’s released nationally on March 19th.
Australia
From April 2007 until October 2008, a large team of us at Animal Logic worked on the visual effects for a number of sequences in Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia.
I spent about three weeks in north Queensland, two weeks in the Northern Territory, and then two or three months on and off in Sydney, running around taking photographs of the sets & props, helping to record measurements, and anything else necessary for creating the digital set extensions of 1940’s Darwin.
Besides the landscape and sets, I also took a lot of photos of the extras hired to play the soldiers and townsfolk of Darwin. Playing an extra in a film is mostly about waiting, punctuated with short bursts of activity when you are required for a shot, so I found it fascinating to watch how people spent their time when they weren’t required for filming.
Bowen.
Darwin.
Fox Studios, Sydney.
An outdoor night shoot at Fox Studios, Sydney.
The SMAC Awards
The winners of the inaugural SMAC Awards (Sydney Music, Arts & Culture) were unveiled to the world on sunday night, at a party held down at the Sydney Opera House. The awards, presented by Timeout Sydney & FBi 94.5, were thought up as a way to honour Sydney’s cultural innovators with traditional categories such as “Best Music Performance” mixed in with other more unusual ones, such as the “Remix the City” Award, rewarding the person or team who have used the city’s space in the most creative way.
Fergus Linehan took out the SMAC of the Year Award, for his sterling work directing the lineup of the annual Sydney Festival for the last three years.
- SMAC OF THE YEAR AWARD – FERGUS LINEHAN
- SMAC REMIX THE CITY AWARD – BIENNALE AT COCKATOO ISLAND
- SMAC IN YOUR FACE AWARD – RAISE THE BAR
- BEST MUSIC EVENT – SYDNEY FESTIVAL BECKS BAR/SPIEGELTENT
- BEST MUSIC PERFORMANCE – DAPPLED CITIES
- RECORD OF THE YEAR – THE PRESETS Apocalypso
- BEST MUSIC NEWCOMER – CLOUD CONTROL
- BEST ARTS EVENT – UNDERBELLY PUBLIC ARTS LAB AND FESTIVAL
- BEST VISUAL ARTIST – KILL PIXIE
- BEST ACTOR/ PERFORMER – BRENDAN COWELL – Hamlet
- BEST ARTS NEWCOMER – GREEDY HEN
Analog Spaces
These are some shots I’ve taken in the last couple of days with my new Canon AE-1 Program 35mm film SLR that I picked up on ebay.
Apart from some messing about with a lomo lca+, my original entry into the world of photography was completely digital, so it’s been an interesting experience learning about film, the intricacies of a vintage camera that’s pretty much devoid of bells and whistles, and also not having the instant gratification of the large Canon EOS 40D viewscreen.
I’m hoping this will help improve my shooting style – I’ve been making a conscious effort to think a bit more about what I’m trying to achieve before I click the button, and not taking multiple frames to make sure that I get the shot (well, not more than two anyway).
A rehearsal studio in Marrickville.
Bronte beach.
The stairwell of my building.
A recently-gutted shop at Bondi Junction.
Random tree.
Popcorn Taxi | Wall-E
It’s almost now a given that every successive film that Pixar releases will be bigger in scope, look better, and advance the field of 3D computer graphics by another stride – they are so far ahead of the competition, you only have their other films to compare against.
So, in a weird way, when I went to the Popcorn Taxi event for Wall-E last week, I was simultaneously blown away AND blase about the film. It was spectacular, but deep down, without really knowing much about the film beforehand, I knew it would be.
They’ve succeeded on every level – Wall-E has the usual sweet, “universal appeal” story that Pixar usually blend up, but it also has a slightly frightening message about where we’re headed as a civilisation that offsets the gooeyness nicely. It also looks absolutely beautiful.
The director of the film, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) and sound designer Ben Burtt (inventor of iconic sounds such as the lightsabre and Darth Vader’s rasp, now the voice of Wall-E himself) were there to discuss the production process, from the story development, animation, all the way through to post-production.
I was particularly interested in the idea that Stanton wanted to create a film that looked like the science fiction films of the 70’s – the use of anamorphic lenses (a type of wide-angle lens which stretches the width of the image but not the height, creating a widescreen aspect ratio), and incorporating real-world camera properties such as optical breathing and barrel distortion.
Film geek heaven.
Popcorn Taxi | The Man From Hong Kong
Last week, Popcorn Taxi screened classic Australian film The Man From Hong Kong, an action-packed 70’s spy-spoof Kung-Fu flick starring ex-James Bond George Lazenby and Kung-Fu legend Yu Wang, directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith (who also notably directed a young Nicole Kidman in BMX Bandits).
On the stage to discuss their experiences making the film were veteran stuntman Grant Page (Mad Max) and actor Roger Ward, with Trenchard-Smith phoning in from Los Angeles. Mark Hartley, director of new documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation! (which features interviews with all three guests) was also in attendance.
The Tourist
A few weeks ago, I shot some promotional still photography for a short film that’s about to hit the festival circuit called The Tourist, written, directed & starring Matthew Jenkin.
“Believing the answers to many of life’s questions lay somewhere in the world, a young traveller backpacks his way across the globe. He encounters friendship, love and a confusing washing system in southern France.”
Watch the trailer.
Popcorn Taxi | The Square
This week, Popcorn Taxi showcased new Australian film The Square, a crime thriller written by Joel Edgerton (recognisable for his prolific acting work in many a local production as well as notable international ones such as the Star Wars prequels), and directed by his brother Nash (an Australian film industry veteran, involved in seemingly every single production ever mounted in this country if you go by his IMDB listing).
Also there to talk about the film were producer Louise Smith and editor Luke Doolan.
They came well-prepared, with a DVD containing deleted scenes, animatics, shot tests and even a “mood” trailer that they’d cut using shots from dozens of other films when they were in the planning stages. The film opens in a couple of weeks time.
Muscles | Ice Cream
In October last year, I took photos on the set of the music video for the Muscles track ‘Ice Cream’. It was a one-day shoot set inside a disused ward of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, featuring crazy costumes and large hospital props. Unfortunately, despite being completed, the video ultimately ended up getting scrapped by Modular for undisclosed reasons and will not be released.
Popcorn Taxi | Cactus
I’ve recently started taking photos for Popcorn Taxi at their regular film events, and last monday I went along to see new Australian film Cactus, featuring a post-film Q&A with veteran actor Bryan Brown and director Jasmine Yuen-Carrucan. Yuen-Carrucan is also a film-industry veteran, having worked in the camera department on many high-profile films including Kill Bill & Syriana, and this is her directorial debut. Bryan Brown played a small role in the film, and served as producer, helping to secure finance.
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