Torn about what there is to blog about, which is a lot.

Last time I was in touch, I was in Singapore. Remarkably enough, that project continues. We finish off with a shoot in LA in about a weeks’ time… I’m looking forward to LA. Everyone seems to hate it, but you cannot deny that it is the centre and heart of this industry into which I have entered. I’m looking forward to absorbing it.

Since last post I’ve been to southern France (the Pyrenees and surrounds), Barcelona, Figueres, La Jonquera, Le Perthus, Fowey, London and Paris. Well-travelled, have I become, indeed. Yes, all the same project. After LA I will be bored, indeed.

The other new news is that yesterday I ceased being a denizen of the Inner West. I am now a mountain-folk. I moved yesterday from my studio apartment in Dulwich Hill, into a two-bedroom cottage in Katoomba. And, so far, I am loving it. I love having my own everything: from the backyard to the kitchen to the front yard to everything. Love. It. All. And it’s all mine – bwoohahahaha.

Anyway.

That’s about it for now. Was there an election? I have no idea.

Until next time…

The last few days of filming have been going really well. The interviews are gleaning some important insights, and the freedom that the writers and the crew have been given means that we are able to ask some tough questions, and the answers are worth it.

It’s also been great to film B-roll out amongst the hustle and bustle. This was particularly great in Hong Kong, which I actually prefer over Singapore as a city. Hong Kong feels like a living, dynamic and vibrant place, with a truly developed culture, people and feel. Singapore seems too artificial in a lot of ways – it’s an effective system, in that everything is engineered to keep the city clean and the economy running, but, like Dubai in a way, the city feels fake.

More on this on my return – we have to film now!

Until next time…

Days 1-3 were an enormous challenge, logistically and personally, as we balanced people, politics and production, but came away with the goods: 8-10 great interviews with some wonderful responses from clients, colleagues and industry veterans. Day 1 saw us back up at Taree, at Jim Frazier’s farm, and Days 2 and 3 were in Sydney.

This post finds me in the bizarre and crazy city of Hong Kong, where we flew yesterday. Today we’re headed to the InterContinental to film another couple of interviews, thence out into said craziness to pick up some B-Roll and pieces-to-camera. We’re still in Honkers tomorrow morning, at an optical distribution factory/office building, then tomorrow night we fly to Singapore, where we’ll be getting more interviews and seeing some of the Fusionopolis complex.

Back to Sydney on Saturday morning, where a few weeks of ‘pre-post’ and data organisation will take place, alongside some standard Onion work (and Ph.D compilation/research for me), then we’re off to France in early July.

All very exciting!

Until next time…

One trip to a careers market in – of all places – Penrith, fixed that for good. A passion for the romance of the cinema, an awareness of the media and how technology was changing society, not to mention a love of all things art, led to my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Communication, passing in a blur, and Second Class Honours. And now I’m doing a Doctor of Philosophy in the same field, at the same uni.

In the past six months, I’ve travelled myself to New York, Boston and Washington DC, and for work I’ve flown to Brisbane, Dubai, and, most recently (yesterday), to Taree, in mid-NSW. The trip to Taree was, ostensibly, a lens test, but was also a chance for the new crew we’re working with to sink their teeth into a new project, and I must say it worked brilliantly well. We even came away with a short trailer to show my superiors and the client.

This extensive introduction is a means of outlining how I have come to meet a man by the name of Jim Frazier.

Jim Frazier is an Australian cinematographer, most famous for his work with, among others, Sir David Attenborough. Many of the images you have seen in primetime on Sunday night nature documentaries were shot by Jim, camping out for months in trees, deserts and grottoes, to get the one perfect shot.

Of importance to Onion, professionally, is how Jim came to invent the now-famous Frazier lens. Much is confidential, suffice to say, personally, that Jim is an incredible and inspiring man, and one that I am proud to say I have met. His enthusiasm, intelligence, wit and larrikinism are truly inspirational to me.

This is a man who grows crystals, and photographs them for fun. He has made over 20,000 slides in 30 years, and they are beautiful. A man who fixes clocks (one of his first apprenticeships was to a George Street clockmaker). A man who pulls things apart, not only to see how they work, but to put them back together differently just to see what happens.

Watch this space, because what we are working on now will blow you away. It already has with me.

Until next time…

Bottom line: tabloid journalism is even less concerned with the news that matters. It has fallen far below what is considered ‘trash’ and is now almost completely devoted to perpetuating papparazi snaps and ’sources close to the couple say’ hogwash. Even The Age, The Herald, fell into to the same trap this week. As the public eye turns to scandal, such must the broadsheets just to sell papers. I have bemoaned this problem time and again, and my entire university degree was centred around this very issue, but there must be an accountability of the press outside the bottom line. I am predicting, however, that the possibility of any kind of redemption, beyond citizen journalism, is long extinct.

Until next time…

* – I have a feeling this is an early draft of the article I referred to.

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…

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.

Live coverage of my crossing the Harbour Bridge

And there you have it.

Until next time…

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…