z z z z z z

haven’t slept for two days. yesterday spent three hours writing a pitch and almost lost it. felt Like Apoo from the Kwiki-mart after a 72 hour shift….went through a few stages of melt down 1. anger 2. resentment. 3.depression 4.helplessness 5.rage 6.psychosis

opened a document i’d written days before and realised that i had developed the pitch in one of Stevie’s exercises.  wept (on the inside). 

could not sleep again last night – my brain has been exercised for three weeks while my body atrophies. read a really boring beat novel and still couldn’t get to kip. tried all the usual remedies. Paddy’s doo doo bunniii song rattled in my head on endless repeat during 8 hours of ceiling watching .  

Pitch day. High on nervous energy and constant re-telling of my sordid tale i manage to make it through without looking like a dick. seemed to go down well. we got a laugh in the trailer and i knew from that moment we had em. at the very east they were morally implicated and this could be used against them during discussion. they actually seemed to get the project. but im so tired maybe this is a dream and the alarm is about to go off ….

doo doo bunniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

post pitch session v interesting. . . . much discussion.  the avant hard fought back defending their sperms of films…. go team! 

nuff said. 

zzzzzzzzzzz…….

 

Blown away by the presentations as a whole. Matt Vesely (i taught him all he knows) was particularly excellent. But Hugh dressing up as a fiddling Womble was probably the highlight of this entire experience for me. I recorded it on my phone and i am determined that he will become You-Tube’s next Star Wars kid. Poor Eddie has been hit by his own viral phenomenon and these two animation geeks have been speaking via video Skype – its very moving (picture Eddie at home in bed with his laptop, Toy- Story duvet and tissues coughing through the snot and phlegm while whispering sweet nothings about talking bears)…       

Pie and Chips and Gravy for lunch – poss the best yet.    

Thrashed Bryan Mason today. Still King of Pong. Are there any other takers? Dicky Harris was mumbling something about taking me on but has yet shown the bottle to pick up the paddle….     

Now working on plot outline for the doco. Another meatier challenge to force our hand in the right direction. Pitch (ok so its not a pitch pitch but…) looming on Tuesday (our Thursday) with some industry heavy hitters.  Should be a nerve-wracking experience for all…. 

apols to Paddy for the shite singing today – Monday is not a singing day in my world. only just got through the Bach – if it was somewhere over rainbow i fear i may have killed someone at lunch with a blunt tea spoon.

…and Morocco Mole

So if Julie is secret squirrel that makes me Morrocco Mole…. 

Have had stressful day night / moved house  (well i left the missus to move house = guilt) /got home and it was a bombshell. The worse thing about moving house is having to see everything you own pass before your eyes. Its depressing.

 Many tasks, both lab and other, to finish in a very short time. Am feeling the pressure which im sure is all part of a masterplan concocted by three wise men in Glenelg. I feel like I’m wearing Amanda Plummer’s flagellate jewelry. 

Stevie C decides to drop a DVD off and ask that we watch it and describe the various plot-lines. Another task on the list. Quick talk about moral dilemmas and my role in the Holocaust and i rattle my nipple chains and we are off again into the world of audio espionage. 

The MURK is upon us as we stalk teenagers….i am killing two birds here researching charcters from this doco as well as my POV horror film. What if they catch us? I got searched at IKEA and I had to show (in)security that my bag contained a camera. Told him it wasn’t Swedish designed and he let me go. If only he knew what i had lifted from the joint…  

Tiramisu today: my fave dessert next to Eton Mess. Not a bad effort – although it needed a booze soaking.  

Am at Plexus HQ now editing the audio into segments for tomorrow’s presentation. Have a few tricks up sleeve (next to microphone) so hope it goes ok.  Its not a technical masterpiece but i’m sure thats not the point (is it???)… 

Through the mist and moral miasma (It’s Bleak House Paddy)…i am seeing outlines of revelations that will inform this film and my relationship to it and the characters within. Song, sculpture, script-science and secret squirrel missions are working silently behind the scenes.

Julie blogs again…

Hey blog world… I’m back for the second time at the end of the second week. This week has been a lot of fun as we’ve been out on the streets on a “Secret Squirrel” mission. So good to get out of the SAFC building (I’ve “lived” there since ‘96… enough already with the 80s decor!).

My other mission is to create a 90second “marketing tool” for Film Lab and our project. Are they nuts asking us producers to make what is essentially a TVC? All I can say is “you get what you ask for”… I mean really, producers know how to book the editor and the DOP, not edit and shoot footage themselves!

What Big Ears You Have….

Bach chorus is getting better each day. uplifting daily mind wakener.

painted purple angus young horned guitar then cut it into bits and re-arranged on another sheet. any combination possible, limitless potentialities to abstract and arrange images to tell one story.   

analyzed Bob D and  Billy C, The Wiz (R.I.P, M.J) of Oz and Red Riding Hood (cut to the frikken chase!). Stephen speaks surgically about each story  poking around inside and revealing their beating hearts before sewing back up neatly. Start thinking of scenes like this as well as the whole body of the film inc all important catharsis.    

Assignments handed out: I must respond to the letter from the daughter of one of my central characters and in doing so walk a few blocks in the shoes of another of my characters as well as my own. 

Mission 2: venture into the world to covertly record conversations of the GP. 

I choose to accept both missions. 

Lunch: Rhubarb appears. I personally apologise to the chefs for saying they ate it themselves. More sugar longer stew needed. 

Still King of lunch ping-pong. 

Juggled with “M” (Paddy) while he prepared our gear of audio espionage – a small recording device. We set off for town and stalked people. The rest of our day/night will remain unwritten on the pages of this blog in fear of legal proceedings. Needless to say we got some stuff esp from a hens party and wallowed in the murk of morality. Better stuff lays ahead now we have our modus operendi, locations and moral radar in check.    

Day = abstract activities feeding into pragmatic advice, physical activity  and thought within supportive surrounds and nice grub. Each day and activity creates more revelations about our project and our team, the possibilities and work that must be done.

saturday (thursday) morning

no film lab day…

Woke up and insulted the wife….’Madam you are a ….”

Walked around the house to music      

Sang with Nina

practiced singing matt n sarah’s song

finger painted 

thought about project

Wife has called cultbusters convinced i need rescuing

looking forward to next week and challenges that lay ahead.

week uno ends

end o the week. wednesday night is friday night. 

today began with high society insults…Barry Lyndon meets Shut Up Little Man….my insult sucked – i stole it from Stanley K …. there were some others that were far more creative. Matt C pulling a carrot from the scrotum of  his dead grandmother whose grave he doesnt even visit was a particular favourite. It is now stored in my memory for upcoming fracas. 

Lunch good. Pavlova with custard. Rhubarb still missing. Caterers have taken it home for themselves. 

I am clearly the king of the ping pong table. 

Presentations were v interesting. amazed at the creativity of the others – i always feel boring in comparison. But we did stir debate which for a doco is essential…. things got heated, voices were raised, debates raged, passions stirred. Its all great stuff! Its got us thinking about how the film could effect people. Peter and Ray you dirty little men….we have become another satellite of obsession circling your legend. we LOVE you                          

Stevie C made excellent scary speech about next week as lightening cracked in the sky behind him…. get some rest, he warned…you aint seen nothin yet…..  

Saw a film at Merc. Cockney housing-estate-drug dealer-must-find-new-life-alright geezer-buddy-film. It was ok. Could have been a tele movie tho. All a bit predicable. Ending sucked the carrot that Matt Cormac pulled from you know where. We’ve seen it all before on the Bill really…. I like that kid from the Mike Leigh movies tho –  he’s got a great frying-pan-smashed-face. The Shifty kid suffered the same out-of-focus affliction as Robin Williams in Deconstructing Harry. A highlight was the Barossa Beer which was v nice.     

We need to watch Paddy’s play – he has a copy on tape! He told me it was a masterpiece so i have high expectations.     

Zzzzzz

Julie finally blogs…

Hey world… end of first week of Film Lab and my brain is only just emerging from a cloud of confusion and pain. From chaos comes clarity… isn’t that what “they” say?

Have been loving the “Ideas Workshop” time – painting especially and don’t mind singing as long as I’m sitting next to Sarah (she’s an amazing Alto!).

Feel that our project SHUT UP, LITTLE MAN is going from strength to strength…and it has been really good to explore the emotions of it before starting on the story detail.

presentation

filming my presentation off U-TUBE. Dziga V would be proud.

day 4

Day 1 and 2 too crazed to blog. Assaulted by confronting theatre sports games and songs which at one time may have sent me packing……first song was Oasis…that hurt…however each day the song gets better…BOWIE! Life on Mars – have been singing that since i was a brat. Today Nina Simone – another hero. Imagine doing Seeline Woman!

Painting – more fun.

Stevie C talk about lo budgie action – very inspiring. Always nice to see Gena Rowlands getting crazy. Forgot how much i love those films…Chinese bookie and Love Streams….must see them again.

Glad the schtick word had subsided.

The major themes of our story are being teased out through some great talks one on one with Peter and Stevie C. We are giving birth to a strange LOVE story. Gay alcoholic romance story. Perfect for me really. Things were confusingly foggy for first 2 days / is slowly clearing / hard for Julie and  I to think more abstractly about the film / to stop talking plot and ‘what we have’…and to look at the beating heart / felt the first beats after day 3 chats.

Met again with them both today which reinforced last meeting. Peter’s silence speaks volumes….or is it that i speak volumes to fill in Peter’s silence? He has a face with a million stories on it. Also I have almost forgiven Stephen for being Man U….

Rhubarb still sitting near sink waiting to be turned into a crumble.

Nice to be around my friends for extended periods talking just about our projects / much discussion and debate and investigation.

Extremely interesting ride so far.