Binnsy's Hovel

My blog was ridiculously comment-spammed lastnight. Like, we’re talking a spam-conflagration. Sadly, every time I get a comment, I have to moderate it, and WordPress sends me an email for each and every comment that’s posted. That’ll learn me for not setting my email filters.

Had quite a leisurely weekend; spent much of it playing videogames or watching others do the same, or watching movies. Began initial meanderings in and around my PhD topic, so it’s nice to have some PDFs on my computer awaiting printing and highlighting.

Flew back in from Brisbane last Thursday afternoon, after hitching a ride on an earlier flight (gotta love a busy weekday at Virgin Blue), then was filming a documentary all day Thursday in Sydney’s West. The morning part was shot in Punchbowl, and then the unit moved to Lakemba to grab some B-roll and more importantly some lunch. We had the most amazing Lebanese food at Jasmine Restaurant – if you ever find yourself out that way give it a go.

It was very interesting being out that way. Lakemba feels like the heart of Sydney’s Islamic community, and with many of the most controversial and influential spokespeople of that faith calling Lakemba, and particularly its mosque, their home, it seems as though the place is buzzing with opinion and unsettledness. I never felt threatened, though, or unsafe, and it was great to be amongst such a dynamic and socially-aware community.

Until next time…

Dan Binns filmmaking, work Brisbane, documentary, filmmaking, Islam

I and my work colleagues sing for Haiti…

Dan Binns work Onion Media Group

This is Binnsy of the Hovel, coming to you live from a cafe in North Brisbane, in the land where there aren’t many monarchs to be seen, contrary to what it says on the brochures.

My day has been truly epic. I was meant to pick up camera gear for this gig lastnight, but due to a number of miscommunications and the convenient tragic demise of my iPhone battery, I ended up having to go and pick it up this morning. I live in Dulwich Hill (Petersham area), the camera lives in Ermington (near Parramatta). My flight to Brisneyland left at 8:00am. Hence, I was up and about at 5am, madly packing and getting stuff organised, and I was on the road at 5:20, out to Ermington (30 minute drive) to get the camera from the poor guy who owns it. I then drove my car home, nabbed a cab, and hot-footed (hot-feet?) it to the airport, where I arrived in plenty of time.

Anyway. I am now in the odd, very wet, and backwards* land of Brisvegas/Brisneyland/Brisothersuffixhere. The gig is a bit up in the air; because it’s sport-related, we have to wait and see if the event will even be going ahead. Regardless, after being drenched betwixt my hotel and the cafe in which I now sit, shivering, checking emails and generally working remotely, I am slowly drying off and trying to get my bearings in this new city. I have been here before, in about 2002-3, but I was with family, and I was young, so the job of navigation/remembering landmarks wasn’t mine. How things change.

Anyway – will no doubt report in once everything’s sorted with the gig… check the Twitfeed for the latest.

Until next time…

* Not evolution-wise, just time-wise; Brisbane doesn’t observe daylight-savings time, so I left Sydney at 8am, and after a 90-minute flight, arrived in Brisbane at 8:30am.

Dan Binns filmmaking, work Brisbane, filmmaking, Onion Media Group

Just in case you missed it, last week I live-tweeted my progress as I caught a bus over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Here it is, posted for eternity…

Live coverage of my crossing the Harbour Bridge

And there you have it.

Until next time…

Dan Binns Uncategorized

I was all set to do a massive hardcore blog on how awesome and swell things were looking and then I was in a car prang this afternoon. Joy of joyous and joyuble joys.

Anyway. Unravel Me is in the can, and boy, am I glad to see it so. I hand it all over to my editor on Wednesday, and I can’t wait to see a rough cut. I also like contracts/releases where the payment section lists only ‘Asahi,’ with some clause pertaining to ’sharing.’

Kevin Rudd is on Good News Week. Shouldn’t he be doing more important things? Like, well, running the nation, and such.

Anyhoo. That’s it from me, for now. Q&A is on.

Until next time…

Dan Binns Uncategorized

All is in readiness for the second day of filming of Unravel Me on Saturday. It was a mad dash to the finish line, with camera equipment availability and casting to be done up until yesterday afternoon!

But I’ll be picking up the camera, kindly being loaned to us by a friendly fellow production company, and the 35mm adapter on Friday, and all will be well.

Lastnight saw me finish my second short film in as many weeks. I’m just super-crazy-productive at the moment. I hope I can channel this sort of enthusiasm into my Ph.D. writing when it gets going in a month or two.

Work has seen me production managing a shoot in Pakistan, doing some great creative work for a rather large and well-known multi-national, and implementing a stack of new management systems, mainly JobBag. I’m also organising contracts for a stack of short films (not mine, sadly).

More soon.

Until next time…

Dan Binns film, writing filmmaking, Onion Media Group, short film, Unravel Me, writing

Today I closed the old ‘binnsy’ Google account and signed up for a new one. The old one was so overridden with spam, both in Blogger and Gmail, that it was hardly worth keeping. Being bored, I had a brief flick through the T&C, and found this little tidbit of legalese goodness:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Ooh, er, guv’nor!

So basically, post what you want, you own it, all good – but if Google wants it, they’ll damn well take it! Google has this appearance of being an organic, innovative, progressive ‘community’ (as opposed to overlording corporation), but this is the way they will take over the world. The planet Earth will very soon be designated, for real, ‘Google Earth.’ We will all be known by our Google IDs. TV commercials, billboards, the lot, will be governed by AdSense.

Essentially, the world and all kinds of freedom will be nommed by the Goog.

Best start stocking up on canned goods. That’s gonna be a looooong winter.

Until next time…

Dan Binns rants apocalypse, business, corporations, Google, government

It appears to be yet another hyper-commercialised, overrated and under-criticised day of celebration.

Happy Valentine’s Day, folks.

Yes, it is that horrid day of roses and chocolate, of teddy bears and gratuitous spending that can only come from a total misinterpretation of Christian history. Sigh.

I have no issue with expressing feelings, exchanging presents, and generally being a big softie. What I take significant umbrage with is that people wait for this one day to do it. Why not spice things up and buy a dozen roses for your valentine on May 29th? How about a box of chocolates on December 4th?

Of the true St Valentine, it appears we don’t know a great deal. We know his name, we know that he was one of several Saints named Valentine to be martyred for the big dude/dudette upstairs, and we know where he was buried (somewhere in Italy). According to Wikipedia, his relics are kept at the Church of St Praxed in Rome*. There is no notion that he was the patron saint of lovers – and I would’ve thought such a conservative institution as the Catholic Church would frown on such a patronage.

One wonders where it all went wrong. Well, as is usually the case, you can blame the pre-Tudors. Geoffrey Chaucer, well-known for his Canterbury Tales (possibly deserving of a rewrite in light of the gallavantery of various rugby league teams), was, among other things, a courtier, and held a great and loyal circle of friends – think an old-school Vincent Chase. Up until his time, St Valentine’s Day was a fairly benign affair, having been originally sanctioned by Pope Gelasius** about 500 AD. Couples would exchange flowers and be very chaste***. Chaucer was a man about town, and it was around this time that courtly love was the thing. Courtly love is the ancient precursor to the practice of men being sleazy, asking if they can buy a woman a drink, which eventually leads to a drunken ravishing. Back then, it was only slightly more gentlemanly. So it was that Saucy Chaucy started sending ‘valentines’ to the women he fancied. 500-600 years later, Hallmark got a hold of the holiday and that was that.

My point is, Valentine’s Day is pointless. Pick every other day of the year to be romantic. Damn the Man.

Until next time…

——————————————

* Poor St Praxed. Praxing sounds an awfully painful process.

** I’m sure he was.

*** Read: ‘Boring.’

Dan Binns rants holidays, rants, Valentine's Day

Two of my projects have been submitted to Metro Screen’s Short Breaks program. I hope they do well – I’d love to see both of them made, and better still with someone else’s money!

I’m also submitting a couple of scripts to various other film festivals and grant schemes. In doing so, though, I’ve ignited this need in me to produce something simple. To write a short 5-10 minute script, set it in an easily filmable location (there are a couple around where I work), and film it in an afternoon. A simple edit, an upload to YouTube, maybe some film festival submissions, and the satisfaction of making something well-written and profound.

I caught the bus with a friend yesterday, and we got to talking about a few projects that we’ve seen or worked on, and it really drove home to me how the best stories – the ones that really stay with you – are the simplest. A simple premise, well-executed, can be the most effective narrative, and the most visionary.

I’m running away down south for a few days starting tomorrow. Expect simple things soon.

Until next time…

Dan Binns writing cinema, film, filmmaking, narrative, story, writing

I’m not ashamed to admit I like the new Channel Ten promo. You can see it here.

What I take issue with is the nigh-immediate response it got from folks that work in the mental health industry, who state that it unnecessarily lampoons the very serious issue of mental health.

Point number one – at which point does it poke fun at real people who are genuinely suffering from mental disability (which, may I say, is definitely a real problem, and not a single person is doubting this)?

Secondly, I despair for the advancement of comedy when something so benign is taken as being offensive. Making fun of minorities, of society’s fringe, is wrong. But this kind of humour is brilliantly self-deprecating in the most wonderfully and classically Australian way.

Making fun of oneself is a comedic principle the British pride themselves on, and is the reason for the success of Monty Python, Little Britain and other comedy gold. The second Australia tries it, some advocacy group comes out of the woodwork and slams it down.

No wonder there’s nothing good on TV any more.

Until next time…

Dan Binns Uncategorized Uncategorized