Film Work: APRIL – Gift Wrapping Horses, Ripping Guys Cloths Off and GAY BUM RAPE!

Posted: April 17, 2012 in FILM WORK
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It has been a while since I last posted an update on what I have been up to with film work and the reason is because there has been a lot!

Me kitted out in my 2nd Camera Assist gear

So in my last post I was talking about how I had caught the eye of a Art Director on an Uncle Toby’s commercial and how he grabbed my number. Well no longer than a week later I got a call from him needing someone to Art Department Assist for a Lifestyle Channel commercial he was Art Directing next. So of course without hesitation I jumped straight at it. The commercial had the jokey premise of big buff models doing random around the house chores, from doing the ironing, to cleaning the pool, to raking up some leaves and all the way to putting out fires until suddenly there cloths explode off them and there ripped, oily bodies are shown.

The job was initially accepted as being a voluntary job with the potential for more work with him down the track if I pulled it off. However due to legal reasons he had to pay me at least minimum wage ($150) so I was covered by the on set insurance. The first thing that I was assigned to do was a bit of pre-production work for the scene where the model is raking up leaves. My job was to construct and moveable mound of leaves that looked like a perfectly swept pile. The process for building it was harder than you would think though. I had to get several thick sheets of styrofoam and glue them all together one on top of the other. Then once it had dried, slowly hack away at it with a saw to calve the shape of a mound which I would then sprinkle leaves on. This really took some time and as I was almost finished with it, we gave up on the idea and just used chicken wire instead with leaves on it and a witches hat in the middle to prop it up.

How far I got with leave mound 1.0

On the day of the shoot I was involved with everything from setting up each location around the mansion we were shooting in (which just happened to be the house of the people from Hawksbury Valley Holden “Where buying a car should be fun!”) to tugging on fishing wire to rip off the models clothing. The clothing on each model was cut away very systematically then held together lightly with tape and magnets. As action was called, my job a long with several others from art department had to tug on one of the 8 strings of fishing wire to create the effect of the cloths flying off. It may sound simple but this often took about five attempts on each model before everything exploded correctly and each reset of the cloths on the model took about 15 minuets, so if I screwed up a lot of people would get angry.

The "pool cleaner" model after the clothing explosion

After finishing with the Lifestyle Channel shoot I then moved on a few days later to a Lighting Assistant role for a Tropfest NY short film by director Abe Forsythe called “One Night Stand”. Abe has directed the feature film Ned (2003) and the Tropfest winner in 2009 “Being Carl Williams”. Because of this I was happily offering my services voluntarily to the production.

Without giving too much away the short film consisted of clubbing, being out on Oxford st in Sydney having actors yell out “Theres so much pussy in this city!” without permits and a gay rape scene of twins. Sounds like a really fucked up film to work on but it turned out to be really interesting production.

Doing some lighting work was something I hadn’t done before, so it was really great to get some hands on experience helping the Gaffer (head of lighting) set up all the different lights with different gels and dimmer and blocking out sun light around the house to simulate night-time.

Following my gay bump rape film experience I then moved onto another art department assistant role with the same Art Director from earlier for a super annuation commercial. Once again I was doing some really weird shit! Firstly I had a day of pre where me and another assistant had to drive all around Sydney to pick up different props. The location the ad was being shot needed to be completely furnished from scratch so we were picking up things like plasma TVs, super heavy lounges and tables, extremely rare and expensive vases and decor. The funny way that the art department works is the Art Director will intentionally go way over budget with buying all these props from places like IKEA and Bunnings with the intention to return them all to fit back with in the budget. So the added pressure was making sure that nothing got damaged at all.

On the day of shoot I didn’t know what to expect, being a super annuation commercial I was expecting some really boring thing where a actor would just talk about it to the camera, however the ad’s premise was based around being disappointed with super companies not living up to expectation. So the story involved some parents desperately trying to impress their daughter by buying her a horse for her birthday. The thing was that we literally had to get a live horse into a house and actually wrap it in gift wrap to look like a birthday present. Now you would think that this might be dangerous with the horse freaking out, but surprisingly the horse was extremely calm and in fact use to it as it had apparently been wrapped in gift wrap several times before.

The horse fully gift wrapped!

So following that commercial I then moved onto a camera assisting job for a music video being made to launch a rock artists new album. This gig was so much fun as I was using some really professional equipment and we were shooting on the RED Scarlet camera, which if you know much about film is one of the high-end professional digital camera’s used on a few films these days. On top of this we were shooting on dolly’s and remote-controlled cranes which I had the opportunity to learn how to build.

The star herself

The shoot went for a couple of days and being 2nd AC, I was writing up the camera sheets, utilizing the clapper and loading the camera with new batteries, cards and helping with changing lens’. All in all I learnt a lot from this shoot and it just further solidified my desired career path in the camera department.

Lastly but not least, I have now  moved onto  a documentary shoot as a Runner for a government organization SDN Ngara Nanga Mai that deals with education of indigenous Australians that other wise may not get the same opportunities. I have never worked on a documentary before and it is so different to a normal film shoot. The crew is made up of me and another 4 people being the Director, Producer, DOP and sound guy which is great as it gives me the opportunity to network on an intimate scale.

For this shoot I am getting paid $350 a day which is more than I have ever earned on a shoot! So far I have been doing a lot of driving around picking up crew meals, gear and props and in between running jobs have filled in doing some camera assisting work where I can lend a hand.

With all this being said you can really see how things are starting to pick up for me and how frequent things are getting, it’s almost getting difficult to meet the minimum of 20 hours a week at my telemarketing job. I have been working often everyday including Sunday’s without days off, but the funny thing is I don’t feel over worked at all as when its film work its something I would prefer to do over a day off at home or a night out clubbing anytime…

How to Get Away With Not Buying Train Tickets

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Travels
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I found this to be an interesting read, I personally make sure I always buy tickets but its shocking to find out there is a whole system to get around it…

 

Buying train tickets is something we never want to do, it’s almost addictive not buying train tickets because of what you save. In fact its pretty much the exact opposite of gambeling, but exactly that: for example when playing the pokies your gambeling small amounts of money each hit, in the hope win big eventually. When it comes to ticket evasion, your saving small amounts of money each trip, in the hope to not lose big eventually.

The art of getting away with never buying tickets is possible though. The following article pertains to that of the Australian NSW City Rail train systems. Ofcourse a lot of other places in the world (especially countries in Europe), wont need to read this as your transport system is easy to evade, and even countries where it isn’t (England, London – $65 fine for no ticket), the fines are tiny any way so its a no brainer not buying a ticket.

THE OFFICERS

The first thing to understand when attempting to never buy a train ticket again, is the power that the ticket inspector actually possess on the train. Here on City Rail, we have two: Police Officers and Transits Officers. Firstly and really most importantly, never ever try lying about anything to a police officer, its fraud, its a crime and its stupid. However a transit on the other hand, they are just pretty much a security gaurd with a blue shirt on.

So Transit Officers have the power to do a few things as long as they are on city rail property. If they are not then they have nothing, so your main goal is to always get off City Rail property as quick as possible.

Their powers include:

  • Issue Infringment notices
  • The power to (citizens) arrest

… that is all.

Beside that, there duties include to ask for tickets and confirm that a valid ticket is presented, direct people to the exits of trains and train stations and request to see ID. However, as I said these are there duties, its the same as being questioned by a cop, you dont have to say or do anything. Unless appointed as a special constable, Transit Officers have no legal basis to demand identification documents under current laws.

As said above though they do have the power to Citizens Arrest someone. Before freaking out about this it is important to understand what this means. Citizens Arrest is not unique to Transits, anyone can do it! You can even citizens arrest a transit officer back if you feel like it. Basically it is the act of arresting someone with reasonable force if they have commited, are commiting or obviously have commited a crime within the last three hours, and then detaining them until Police Officers attend the scene to make a full arrest. Under citizens arrest, reasonable force may be used to detain the person, obviously this is a pretty broad word so it is on a case by case basis, however, if you choose to trial the arrest at court, the “reasonable force” is determined by a judge. I would advise whipping out your camera as soon as they attempt this and begin videoing them and this will scare them considerably. On top of this though, reasonable force would have to be pretty limmited in the case of ticket evasion as its not an actual crime being commited but simply an offence.

THE EVASION

So now for the point of this article, how to actually get away with not getting tickets. Firstly what I suggest you do is work out what your actually gambaling. To do this simply establish the cost of weekly ticket for you and then devide it by 200. For me my weekly costs $36, $200(fine) / $36 (ticket) = 5.6 weeks. So this means that if I can go over 5 weeks and four days without being fined then I have earnt back what I would have spent anyway. Beyond this is just a profit!

With this math in mind, the ways to avoid fines for the 5.6 weeks are as follows:

  1. Get on at the last carrage of a train and make sure you check every carrage for any transits, then make your way up to the front of the carrage after you have cleared the train and watch for any transits on the passing platforms of stations you stop in at. If a transit gets on, get off.
  2. When getting out of the station, ensure there is no body watching and push through the barriers. When doing this act as if you are putting a ticket in as well and then if someone does ask for your ticket, say that the machine ate it because it was a single.
  3. (2.2) If you dont have the guts to simply not buy a ticket all together buy a Pensioner Ticket instead. It is $2.50 for unlimited travel to any destination on any platform of travel (bus, train, ferry). However do be careful as about 60% when using a concession based ticket like this, a light on the ticket gates will light up to prompt transits.
  4. If you end up getting caught regardless of all this put on your acting shoes and answer all the questions they ask correctly:
    • Question: if you have your ticket. Answer: No not on me now I had one before but I cant find it at the moment
    • Question: do you have ID. Answer: No I do not, I left my wallet at home with my ticket
    • Question: Do you have a drivers license or ID card Answer: No I do not (appearing to be a bit of a loser)
    • Question: Whats your name, age and address Answer: All fake and under 18
    • Question: Is that mobile you have on a plan? Answer: Prepaid!
    • Question: Can I call a friend off your phone to verify your details Answer: I dont have any friends
    • Question: Whats the reason for you not having a ticket Answer: I did but I cant find it so I will send it in
  5. Track down someone that has a valid ticket, generally a weekly or mymulti that valid within where you travelled from as well and send that ticket in saying you found your ticket. Problem solved.

Another good thing to do generally is if your travelling in a group or with a partner, just to be on the safe side buy one valid ticket between you so you can send it in.

However, all this info may be out of date real soon as police man are soon to be independantly taking over trains and you definantly cant lie to them!

Film Work: MARCH – The Hangover, Art Department and Uncle Tobys!

Posted: March 8, 2012 in FILM WORK, Uncategorized
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It has been a while since I last updated you guys on whats been happening with me and film work… And the answer is a lot.

A few weeks back I did a promotional short film for a shopping centre chain similar to Westfield. The short was in the theme of The Hangover and followed the CEOs of the company on a bender and the morning after.

On the Hangover set

My role on the shoot was as Runner/Gear Assist but was a very quiet job for me (not too much for me to do). But the really great thing about the shoot was that I managed to make some connections with the production company Jungle Boys which is a very successful TVC agency also moving onto drama now too. I had been told by others that it was a good idea to get on there books as they get a lot of work and they couldn’t have been more right.

Arri Alexa being used for Uncle Tob

Since that shoot from Jungle Boys I have another two potential jobs with them in future as a runner and art department work, and just yesterday did a Uncle Toby’s TVC (television commercial) for a new product release of theres. The shoot was great but didn’t exactly start out that way. I got a call a few days prior and what I understood was that they wanted a runner/extra for the shoot which ofcourse I was well up for. I ended up getting there to find that it wasn’t a runner or crew related job at all but just an extra roll, the confusion came from the fact that the character that my extra was in the commercial was in fact a film crew member. So in the ad I ended up playing the camera operator, which was actually pretty cool because the “prop camera” was a fully operational RED camera. Also for my actions to look more realistic the (real) camera crew actually taught me some of the basic operations of it!

behind the splits

So after an hour of shooting as an extra acting like I was using the camera I was wrapped by the production manager and could have left with my $100 but not only did I feel that one hundred bucks for an hours work is a rip for the production company, but I really wanted to help out for the rest of the shoot. I was mainly assisting with art department, helping them to deconstruct there backdrops and load them into the truck. After 6 extra hours of this, boy did it pay off, at the end of the day the Production Designer/Art Director asked for my number as he said he has a lot of work coming up! and really nothing is more satisfying then making a connection like that.

Green Screen action

Now as great as the opportunity was I also had a great few day shoot on a short film being produced by Screen NSW for ABC. The short is titled He Say and is written, directed and main charactered by Leah purcell who has also been in films such as Somersault, Jindabyne and Lantana. He Say is part one of a series of six short films being produced by Indiginous Australian film and television artists. The film follows the deeply emotional and tragic story of Leah’s character as it explores the reality of masculine brutality and violence against women and the impact it has on ones family.

Matthew Temple operating the steady cam

My role on the production was as Art Department Assist/Stand by Props. A really engaging and fun role,  the reason for this being is that its none stop, there is always something to do and often not enough time to do it. This is great compared to a runner job for example where there is often nothing to do meaning the time moves so so slowly. Also on top of that being in art department you are on set all the time, always working with the key players, such as the DOP (director of photography) and the Gaffer (head of lighting). This role allowed me to really make some good connections so when it came to me emailing everyone after the production they actually knew who I was, rather then the random dude that would be driving between set and the production office non-stop (as you do when you are a runner).

So thats all thats happend within the last few weeks so things are really ramping up as you can see, cant wait to see what happens next!

Hip Hop Australia

Posted: March 4, 2012 in Film making
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A video that I edited and partially shot for a club promotional company called Hip Hop Australia. The video is used for promoting Home Bar at Darling Harbour and also the Lil Wayne and Eminem concert. I was instructed to get as many different people in the video as possible, regardless of whether it made the video drag on to much (which it really does).

The challenges I faced when doing this was all of the Eminem and Lil Wayne concert footage was shot with no audio (the camera operator didn’t realise that the mic wasn’t turned on) and so I had to fake some of the sounds (as you can tell when people yell out “hip hop australia”) and also rely on visual editing to make up for the lack of diagetic noises.

Crazy Dubstep Videos On The Rise!

Posted: February 9, 2012 in Uncategorized
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So lately as dubstep has been on the rise to commercialism, the music has started to get worse and worse. However to every cloud there is a silver lining and in this case it’s the amount of quality dubstep related videos that are now hitting our screens! Whether it’s a commercial for weetbix, a person dancing or simply a music video. It seems that dubstep always seems to make a killer track to motion pictures and a big money maker. Here are some of my favorites!

Now this weetbix commercial is a great example of a big company getting it’s wallet a little wet with a seemingly pointless dubstep tune in the background that I guess they rely on the audience to relate weetbix with.

A lot of people around the net have been bagging out on this video for obvious reasons, but whether it’s selling out dubstep or not, I can’t deny that I get a laugh out of it and it defiantly caught my attention, which is the point of ad’s after all.

Now heres a crazy video which uses the booming genre of dubstep to promote his dancing skillz, this guy has several videos like this including one to Skrillex’s Cinema, but this is the best one.

This is just a crazy example of how a video with dancing to dubstep (regardless of how skilled you are) will get you millions of views and make you lots of money if its a song you have the rights to.

This is one of Skrillex’s music video’s and to be honest I reckon it is one of the best music vid’s I have seen in a while. Check it out.

Here are two of Nero’s latest as well. Not so exciting but its still a dubstep music video which is always fun!

Film Work: FEB – Production Assistant role and more Running!

Posted: January 31, 2012 in Film making, FILM WORK
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So last week was a pretty hectic one for me with film work. You may remember late last year I did a voluntary camera assistant job for a Trop Fest short film: Scratch. Well from this short film I made a great connection that set me up with a paid Production assistant and Unit Manager gig for another short film entitled Spine. This is a great example of how voluntary work is defiantly not a waste of time!

Spine was a picks ups shoot night, filling in all the gaps they had with there edit so far. The film had Screen Australia post production funding, so I really got on the project at the right time. If I had been apart of the first unit I wouldnt have been paid for the work.

From this job, and from yet another connection made I am now currently working on a reality TV show as a runner doing a lot of really cool stuff aswell. The runner job has been pretty wild, from doing stuff like rowing dingy’s at night in Sydney Harbour, to handling snakes with a reptile handler. I guess runner jobs aren’t all driving after all! unfortunately I cant say what the show is or what its about untill May when its released on TV.

Coming up in future I will hopefully be doing a Assistant Camera job on a music video in February with the prestigious RED camera. I find that when it comes to camera work, unlike the rest of the industry, its not just who you know, but what camera’s you have experience with. Whether its film camera’s, digital camera’s or even stereo camera’s, knowing how to operate them is key to getting work. This upcoming job will be great because the RED is one of the most used digital cameras on high budget productions, so being given the opportunity to learn how to use it will be invaluable.

Thats all for now, still hoping to hear something from Animal Logic, as that is ultimately where I would like to be, but for now the wait continues. Australia Day last week

The Best Game Trailers

Posted: January 17, 2012 in Uncategorized
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So in the past few years the video game industry has really been kicking off, games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare have grossed more then films ever have! Something that I have been noticing latly and loving is that trailers to videogames are really starting to go extremely high budget and often even live action! Who cares if the purpose of these trailers isn’t in them anymore (showing the customers the gameplay), I just want to see some awsome effects!

So my first examples of this will be the Halo trailers. The trailers to the Halo games have always been like movies in themselves. In fact the trailer to Halo 3 was directed by Neil Blomkamp which is why Peter Jackson chose him to direct the Halo movie (which ended up turning into District 9). That being said it really goes to show that its not just music videos, commercials and television shows that can lead to a directors big break and moving onto features.

Neil Blomkamp’s Halo Trailer

Super high-budget halo reach trailer

Another high budget halo trailer

The Gears of War games have always been very cinematic and its no suprise that there trailers are the same. This trailer is one of my favourite game ad’s thats acompanied by a sick track.

Saints Row 2 Trailer, another favourite!

And last but not least, this trailer for the new Call of Duty really shows how far game trailers are going! This one includes famouse actors even that are worth millions like Jonah Hill and Sam Worthington.

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