Life On Mars returns home

Six months into a very successful film festival run, How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life On Mars recently returned to Queensland for its first public screening in its home state, held at the Dendy Cinemas in Brisbane on March 30 as part of the 20th Warner Roadshow Studios Queensland New Filmmaker Awards. The awards component itself was held last night at the Queensland Conservatorium Theatre and saw How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life on Mars walk away with four trophies: the QUT Creative Industries Award For Best Tertiary Drama Up To Ten Minutes, the Scope Award For Best Sound, the Bolam Legal Award For Best Producer, and the coveted Warner Roadshow Studios Award For Best Overall Film. Additional details and press coverage can be found online at the Brisbane Courier-Mail website and on the Pacific Film and Television Commission website.

posted by Austin on April 12, 2006

Life On Mars at the red carpet

How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life On Mars has been nominated in seven categories at the Spirit On Screen Awards, the premiere filmmaking competition in New Zealand and also the world's southernmost film festival. We're up for Best In Festival, Best Student Film, Best Short Film in the "Screenplay" category, Best Performance (Thomas Malios as the Boy), Best Sound, Best Special Effects, and the People's Choice Award, which you can vote for by SMS during a nationwide television broadcast on November 19. An internationally recognised jury, including Thirteen Days director Roger Donaldson and King Kong sound designer George Nepier, selected the film from several hundred entries.

If you're in New Zealand, you can also watch the awards ceremony on Sky Digital 90 on the evening of November 22, or via webcast from their official site. We've had a good string of luck at other festivals lately, too, which you can keep abreast of in the festivals section.

posted by Austin on November 4, 2005

Premiere Announcement

sequentialONE Filmworks is pleased to announce that the Queensland premiere of the ten-minute short film How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life On Mars will be held on Tuesday, September 27 at 7:00pm at the Sanctuary Cove Village Theatre. The night will be a celebration of all things vaguely Mars-related with the finished film screening alongside two rather indulgent making-of documentaries and the world premiere of Loskop, a charming animated short by Brisbane-based animator Daniel Snaddon. Feel free to bring friends and family; entry is free and drinks and nibblies will be available for purchase. Free DVDs for cast and crew will be available at the door, with additional copies available for a modest price.

We're also excited to announce that the film's world premiere will be held on September 23 at the ACMI Cinemas in Melbourne, as part of the prestigious Equinox Film Festival. The film will screen alongside some of the very best Australian short films from the past few years and has also been nominated for the Audioloc Award for Best Achievement In Sound. Keep a close eye on our festival calendar as more screenings will be announced soon.

posted by Austin on September 10, 2005

Premiere

Sound and animation is complete and, thanks to the concerted efforts of Adrenaline Studios, we're on the home stretch where visual effects are concerned. A final cut is less than two weeks away, with an additional three weeks allocated before the premiere to give us time to prepare content for the DVD and take advantage of the September festival rush. The premiere date stands now at Friday September 23, but is subject to the availability of our venue and may change to another day that week. Stay tuned. Notifications will go out to cast, crew, and everyone on the mailing list once the date is confirmed.

posted by Austin on August 17, 2005

Website Update

Don't let the half-full progress meter to the right deceive you - How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life On Mars is very nearly complete and a premiere announcement isn't far away now. The website, too, is undergoing a two-tiered overhaul leading up to completion, and will ultimately serve as both an update base and an online publicity kit. The first tier is underway as I write this, with an expanded gallery already online and a new trailer, featuring the terrific original score by Televise, on its way soon. The second tier will go live on the night of the premiere, and will feature the film available for streaming-on-demand, alongside two featurettes (one on production design, the other on visual effects) and a half-hour behind-the-scenes documentary. Our goal is transform the website into an interactive online DVD of sorts - completely free of charge for the user, of course.

posted by Austin on July 24, 2005

Post-Production Update #3

A month in limbo came to an end last week with post-production resuming after a lengthy funding drought. Televise is hard at work in the studio recording the film's soundtrack, Adrenaline Studios has begun work on the film's extensive visual effects, Cutting Edge in Brisbane handled our final colour grade, and the film's narration will be recorded next week at Emmedia in Canada. Additionally, Rodrigo Urbano delivered the final cut of his half-hour documentary on the making of How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life On Mars last week. Keep an eye out for that one when it makes its debut alongside the film itself at the premiere.

posted by Austin on June 25, 2005

Post-Production Update #2

No, I didn't forget to add content.

Yeah, it's kinda like that.

posted by Austin on May 10, 2005

Teaser Online

While I still maintain that the whole practice of cutting trailers for a short film is redundant, there's also no better way to demo footage to cast and crew than through that carefully controlled form. That way, I'm only being semi-hypocritical when I direct you to the Showcase section for a first sneak peek at "Life On Mars". That tune, by the way, is "1000 Stars Burst Open" by The Pale Saints.

posted by Austin on April 29, 2005

Post-Production Update

Nerves were sufficiently wracked, <already depleted> bank accounts were further crushed and one suspiciously cross-eyed cow was ritually sacrificed, but the film has survived through the most testing of post-production phases and dailies have emerged from the lab intact.

Following wrap, I had three major worries. My first, and most private, doubt was that the film wouldn't cut together as imagined after a sprawling shoot saw it adopt, at long last, a voice independent from my own. The second was, as always, financial; with the project running further over budget, I think we all questioned how much money it would swallow up before it was through with us. My third worry was, with the shoot ending and the thrill of the "what-if?" cemented firmly into images, the general interest and participation level would drop. The second has come true and the third probably will, but I honestly couldn't care less because the footage has proven that first worry so gloriously false.

This rough assemblage, silent and without the animation that will prove so integral, has come together in a way that was at once surprising and unexpected, even with six months of planning and expectations heaped upon it. The film is longer, too, attributing three extra minutes to my sweet-as-molasses pacing that's never been questioned or, oddly, considered in adding to its length.

So what's next? A lot of waiting and not too many more rapid-fire developments, I'm afraid. The animation gets set in motion this Wednesday, and sound design will begin once the designer returns from a well-deserved vacation. 'Til then, keep checking this space for periodic updates and feel free to drop us a line.

posted by Austin on April 23, 2005

New Website Takes Flight

Welcome to the new face of the oft-neglected Life On Mars website. Though it's a bit sparse at the moment, keep an eye out for more functionality to appear online as the film barrels through post-production, including the latest news and periodic snippets from the accompanying behind the scenes documentary.

To the production team: this little news corner has taken the reins from the blog that everyone - myself included - has forgotten about. Fire me updates or thoughts you'd like to make public and I'll post them here.

posted by Austin on April 22, 2005

Welcome

Hello All,
This will hopefully become a blog for the core crew of the production of "How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life on Mars" - a short film being produced on the Gold Coast, Australia over the next four months.

At least one of the four crew members will update you on the goings on with the production once a week - hopefully making for an interesting read.

We also ask you to make your own comments, say hello or just have a chat.

Well that's it from me, I have a large pile of work to complete and it ain't going to get done on its own. Production awaits!

Cheers,
Daniel Lake
Producer

posted by Daniel on March 17, 2005