Frog
So, I made another movie. I say that not with the usual euphemistic subtext of “I accidentally broke a vase” or “I wish I wish I hadn’t killed that fish”, but rather, quite simply, as a statement of fact: I made another movie and it’s pretty good.
It’s a short film document of a long conversation, in real time, from awkward reunion to difficult goodbye. It’s my first team-up with The Studio, a Vancouver collective who spend their days off from being the paragon of cool to double as damned decent producers. Chad Krowchuk (RV, Mentors) and Smallville’s Allison Mack fill the void on the fairer side of the lens.
You’ll see it later this year at festivals, or maybe on an airplane or something. Expect, for a short, a pretty wide release.
Blocking the final beat through with cinematographer Sasha Proctor (left) and Allison Mack. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Location manager Ithon Harrison-Jones, co-producer Jeremy Regimbal, Sasha and myself ride the action bus before a shot. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
More blocking, this time out front of the action house, with Allison and Chad Krowchuk. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Allison and I blocking a moment outside the house. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Sasha pilots the impossibly heavy steadicam rig. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Co-producer John Poliquin on his pink flip phone. You go, JP! Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
More photos from the film and, eventually, some real information can be once-over’d at www.underthefrog.com
And with some luck, this blog will be getting a whole lot more interesting very soon. I’m in transit again, writing this time from Hamilton en route to southern Africa for reasons I’ll have to take a raincheck on. Listen close and follow carefully…
Videoblog: Film No 3 and the Clayfield
While Austin was still in Australia we were able to catch up with Matt Clayfield who I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was only two nights and he was crazy with election tracker at the time but I got the idea to make a film that was a homage to his “Film No. 2″. So Austin and I went round to places that we equate with Matt. Some of these places are significant in Matt’s films and vlogs.
Check out if you haven’t seen it Matt’s Film No. 2
enjoy
Mark (dig)
Videoblog: Used Video
After years of saying I will make a vlog here is numero uno. I used an entire tape with the new camera and I decided to compile the footage.
Enjoy.
Mark (dig)
How It All Began
On 25-Jun-07, at 10:38 AM, Dan Lake ((Launch Pictures)) wrote:
have another short which I want you to take a look at to see if you’d be interested in directing…
did someone say getting the band back together?
On 28-Jun-07, at 3:29 AM, Austin Andrews wrote:
Hey Dan,
Free internet at Changi airport. At 3am. Qantas red-eyes aren’t supposed to begin the day before. But that’s what happens when you let their online booking engine go a’huntin’ bargains for you. As for the short, well, let’s go over the material tomorrow and we’ll start a little dialogue going. Are you excited about it? Do you have good reason for me to get excited about it? If so, I’m there, and this note may achieve email immortality as the start of something wonderful and glorious.
C’ya tonight!
- Austin
Three months later we’re a fortnight away from the Stray Boys shoot and we have an incomplete cast, no camera and no utes (the key prop). I’d forgotten how hectic the pre-production lead-up can be and I love it. Even if I still not entirely enamoured of the film we’re making, which is something I’ll truck out as an excuse only if festivals are slow to pick it up, it’s been a lot of fun glueing all the elements together and hoping they stick together long enough for me to call “wrap” and retreat back to my editing hovel with the film by my side and the mountain of bills by Dan’s.
More in the weeks to come.
Polaroids of Androids: Shoot Day 4
Lead actress Kaitlyn Clare in makeup.
Production team.
Sneakers on a dolly.
Kaitlyn and Jac load up Wikipedia to verify my hearsay-claim that the taurine in Kaitlyn’s Red Bull is synthesised from bull testosterone. It isn’t. It’s actually made from ox bile.
Bel waits on the footpath to stop strollers from entering frame.
Hemma struggles to start a temperamental generator.
Actors Kaitlyn and Drew Musch in a scene.
Eyelines.
Off-frame Nikki hands Kaitlyn a polaroid mid-scene.
Setting up a shot.
Mark Daley plays a busker.
Simon checks the camera gate after the last shot.
That’s a wrap! Jac, Dan and Nikki attack Hemma with hugs.
The girls after wrap.
Shamere and Hemma waiting to go home.
Polaroids of Androids: Shoot Days 2 and 3
Day 2
Camera assistant Dominik Münch sets up the camera before shooting.
Director Nikki Lake discusses a scene with the actors as crew members swirl around her.
A scene runs.
Actor Luke Middlebrook playing the air guitar.
Director of photography Hemma Kearney shoots through a mess of hanging string lights.
Mark being a goof in the video split.
Nikki blocks a scene with Luke.
Day Three
Crews set up outside Bumbles on the quiet side of Surfers Paradise.
Katherine Pullos, junior diva extraordinaire, poses for a polaroid. A month ago she told her mother, a relative of the Lakes, that she “wants to be a star”, and with one well-placed call to Dan she’s become the new “it” girl of SonyBMG music videos.
Emulsion patterns on a damaged Polaroid.
Bel and Nikki discuss a set-up with the actors.
Hemma’s trio of goldfish, Kate, Miller and Heike, swim through murky waters.
Hemma celebrated her 21st birthday on set today. But she still refuses to give hugs.
Polaroids of Androids: Shoot Day 1
Dan’s sister Nikki went into production yesterday of her graduation film Polaroids of Androids for the same Bond class that two years ago Matt and I made Kite Circuit for. Dan and Alex’s new company Launch Pictures threw their weight behind it with financing and resources, and our entire gang, which expanded in my time away to include new recruits Bel Davis, Jac Robertson and Hemma Kearney, stepped in to lend a hand. My position was stills photographer, assuming my newly-christened Australian name “Roscoe Lake”.
The film, a ten minute short, explores the dying stages of a relationship across an eventful night at an art gallery. Three days’ shooting remain, but if yesterday’s results are any indication then Nikki and her team have nothing to worry about. Take a look:
Mark welcomes you to the set of Polaroids of Androids.
Nikki (right) gives scene instructions to Shamere, who stepped in for the shoot as 1st assistant director.
Bel Davis, production designer.
Hemma Kearney, director of photography.
Lead actress in makeup.
Eyes supervise from the other side of a lighting scrim.
A music rehearsal room subbed as the girls’ gallery.
Actors in the space.
Polaroid wall.
Sound on a wall.
Jac finishes assembling the wall of polaroids.
Dominik Muench, 1st camera assistant.
Shamere and Hemma work through a shot as Dominik sets up in the background.
Extras on a lunch break.
Twelve Hours in the Car (With Hot Chips and a Meat Pie for Lunch)
I’m working on a new film. I haven’t talked about it here yet, although its production will be dominating my life in the months to come so I’ll probably be ranting about it plenty. Entitled Stray Boys, it’s the story of a teenager who dreams of escaping his outback town and the dangerous initiation rite that just draws him in closer. It’s got a highway and a shotgun and farmhouses and windmills and all those ingredients all good movies should have. There are characters too. It’s my first film since Kite Circuit two years ago and I’m really starting to look forward to it.
It’s got a website. It looks pretty but there isn’t much there.
Yesterday co-producer Jac Robertson and I went location scouting to central Queensland, which amounted to a lot of driving and more than a few Cherry Ripe bars consumed. I have another scout tomorrow with the director of photography and first assistant director and I’m pretty certain we’ve found the place. Take a look.
Australia is mired in a record drought and it’s hit central Queensland particularly bad. A state of emergency has been declared across the arid farmland and even in the cities car washing and lawn watering has been prohibited to conserve what little fresh water remains in the dams. This sign serves as a cruel reminder of better times.
