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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.