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…

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.

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…

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…

Here we are.

At WordPress.

This is genuinely strange. WordPress is very involved, but also quite simple. The layout, for now, will stay as it is now, but no doubt I’ll tinker over the coming weeks.

I played Mass Effect for a little while today, after updating the near-neolithic graphics drivers on my PC laptop. The game, for the most part, is very cinematic. I’ve yet to engage in any (no doubt RAM-chomping) combat or any in-depth sidequests, but I’m enjoying it thus far.

At present I’m backing up all the documents, music, pictures and such on the MacBook, in the hope of installing XP Pro via Bootcamp by the end of the day. Once that’s done, I’d love to install both Mass Effect and Vampire The Masquerade on there, just to see how they run on a nice new-ish Dual Core processor.

Anyway, nerdiness aside, I’ve almost completed writing the short film I’ll be submitting to Metro Screen in the hopes of getting a tiny but very valuable production grant. Channeling Abrams, I guess this would be my Cloverfield. I’ve mapped out the remaining 2-3 pages. I’ll let you know how I finish up.

Best get back into it. Writing, that is. Mass Effect I might hold off ’til I can get it cranked on the MacBook.

Until next time…

I went out today with my little camera after work and filmed the first of what I hope will be many, many segments for my new ickle project, details of which I’m hesitant to release to anyone, let alone blogger readers, so don’t feel left out.

It went really well, and I’m pleased that the concept and premise held up in the cold light of practical application. I need to focus on getting a broader range of shots, some B-roll to cut to and keeping everything in focus, not to mention finding a better way of recording sound, but these are minor issues; overall I’m just happy the thing came out okay.

A welcome distraction from my thesis, I can tell you that much.

Until next time…

New template, to show that the blog is not being neglected.

Thesis continues as normal. Onion ploughs along.

Suffice to say I’m a tired Dan.

Until next time…

My latest filmic offering:

Until next time…

It’s done.

It’s finished.

Without a doubt the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken is pretty well done and dusted.

The Writers was submitted today for review by four academics, one technical adviser and a few choice interrupters.

For the most part it was cathartic, reflective and the feedback was immensely positive, despite the fact it was mostly stuff I already knew.

I’m just glad it’s in and over with.

Same too for In Our Time, the little Aussie war epic that could. It was great to finally see the thing as it was intended (even if it had been down-converted to standard-def), and put paid to my doubts that my hard work hadn’t been any good to anyone.

So now I sit, reflective and thoughtful, as another semester of uni is gone, and the 2008 university year is done. Third year, gone. It’s been a big one; it’s hard to imagine that only a few months ago Checkmate was the biggest thing on my mind; that the biggest assessments were for Visual Thinking; that I was working on Switch in the hope of submitting it for Post-Production and Visual Effects.

Long time ago.

But now I have my little political satire. And it is good. I’m unbelievably happy with it. There are a couple of minor things I really want to touch up, particularly if I go ahead with my plan to submit it to film festivals, but yeah, all up all good.

For now, it’s to scripting a couple of short comedy sketches for work, then settling in and not doing much at all really. Here’s to ‘holidays’.

Until next time…

The world holds its collective breath over the next two days as the clash of the titans reaches its thrilling final battle. And remarkably I’m not talking about the Melbourne Cup. No, it’s that other thing; a small news item called the US election that barely takes up any room in Aussie papers. Not to worry.

In furtherance to my second last post, I finished watching Studio 60 and reading All The Sad Young Literary Men, both of which I enjoyed very much. I’m now onto Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and watching as many movies as I possibly can.

Work continues at Onion Media, with much exciting work coming up. I’ve also got a couple of neat event coverage gigs coming up. And Tuesday is not only important for the races that stop two nations, but also because it is the day that The Writers is submitted for assessment. Not too daunting at all.

It was filmed in the second week of October, and went really well; I’ve been editing pretty much non-stop ever since. And I think I’m contented with it. I think. We’ll see.

Until next time…