Postcard from Paris

Ilan and I were in Europe last year, on the leg of a Potbelleez tour.
While in Paris we shot this wee FiL clip - http://youtu.be/yOvy85XaZ1I
Ahhhh oui, looking forward to returning and shooting more in that most beautiful of cities!!!!

Paris is calling

There is a new wind blowing, and we are packing up our house.

Paris is calling.

In two months we will be living out of suitcases, sipping café crème on rue de Charonne and dreaming in French.

Our life here in Sydney is a fairytale, but it is time for a new experience.

All books and clothes and journals and memories and photos and furnishings are going into storage.  And on the road we go...

The Real in the Reel - introduction

One lazy afternoon a few years ago I decided to compile a list of favourite films, starting with several innocuous childhood films, through to angst-ridden teen flicks and the more recent tales of adult relationships and bigger questions of life.   Looking at the list I noticed those works with the greatest emotional impact were for the most part filmed using a hand-held camera ; Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless, Alejandro Inarittu’s 21 Grams, The Dardenne Brother’s The Child, Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves. Indeed the list proved rather extensive, so I won’t repeat all here in this introduction.

Given it was a ‘favourites list’ all the films  there entertained me, and had my full attention.  However those films shot using a hand-held camera proved to have me more emotionally involved, and further connected to the characters and their journey; the tears flowed, the heart strings pulled, the feelings lingered. 

Without much involved analysis my recent films have also been shot using a hand-held camera, with varying degrees of  success.  Shooting this way seemed to grant more freedom to the actors, and the cinematographer was liberated and able move with them.  I started to question why the hand-held camera was so affective.  Needless to say other essentials need also be in place, such as a strong script, talented cast, crafted art direction, emotive music and so forth.   If one has all of these design and performance elements in place, it seemed the use of the hand-held camera allowed them to better flourish.

When I spoke to my filmmaker peers about the influence of the hand-held approach the answer was invariably with regards to the freedom and liberty it offers the cast and crew on set.   But I believe there is more to it, and that on a more subliminal level the hand-held camera offers the viewer a subjective experience; as a fourth wall experience, the voyeur in among the scene. The esteemed filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu sums this up perfectly in My First Movie where he states  “I think that handheld is as close as you can get to how we see things. I experience life with my eyes, which are constantly moving in a free way.”

Further to this, frequent use of the hand-held camera in documentary and reportage has that we may associate this device with the capturing of the real.  When a drama film employs the use of the hand-held camera we may be more inclined to accept the authenticity of the moment, hence a stronger connection to the emotional truth.  


Okay, time for more in depth exploration me thinks  :)

Working title for a work in progress...

The Mother Ship

Stephanie Quinn appears to have it all – a manageable Publishing career, two beautiful young boys (Max 10, Toby 15), a loyal and loving husband (Mitch). In her mid forties, she is delightfully beautiful and has everything she ever wanted.  Or so we would think.

Stephanie is obsessed with all the singing shows on TV, and has recently started recording herself singing covers on Youtube.   The film begins with her most recent posting, and the mounting attention it receives.  When the list of views reaches 1312 Stephanie’s closest friend Bettina jokingly suggests Steph quit her day job.  But Steph isn’t laughing.  She quits that afternoon.

And so begins her journey towards a new found singing career.  Her family do not respond well to this sudden change, and her peers are left wondering.  But nothing and no-one can stop Stephanie from following her dreams – she bleaches her mousey hair a dazzling shade of rockstar blonde, takes up dance and singing tuition,  revamps her wardrobe and knocks em for dead.

Having shifted to writing originals, she now embarks on forming a band.  Beginning first with those around her, she secures a guitarist in her young cousin Josie,  and her son Max’s piano teacher comes on as keyboardist.  The drummer and bass player prove more of a challenge- so she posts a notice in the musical mag Drum Media.  A few responses, a few trials – and eventually a young drummer commits.  She doesn’t succeed in finding a bass player, but opts to go with the four piece.

They start with weekly rehearsals.  Stephanie’s husband Mitch is by now less tolerant, so Stephanie finds a part-time café job to help cover costs.  Here she meets a brooding and brilliant bass player, Karl 47.  The band is fully formed.  The rehearsals pick up.  And the set-list grows.  They call themselves The Mother Ship.

The band is thus made up of:

Guitar – Josie, 27 year old recent Arts Graduate.  Full of buzz but no direction.

Keyboard – Tammy, 35 and single. Always wanted more, but never knew the how.

Drums – Juan, 28 and way too sexy.  He knows how to have a good time (also teaches Latin dance!)

Bass – Karl, 47 and divorced.  Mechanic by day, muso by night.  He also takes on the role of band manager.

In under a year the momentum has built, and they have a support slot for a major international act touring Australia.  Corporate sponsors, glamorous invites, celebrity doo daa day.  All looks good…but in reality the drama has just begun.

The touring schedule is hectic.  The lifestyle impossible.  And Stephanie’s family-life starts to fall completely apart.  She can’t wake up in the mornings, the kids are constantly late for school, Mitch and the boys are completely over it.

And then Stephanie and Karl start falling for each other.  And Juan impregnates Tammy.  And Josie keeps breaking too many hearts.  And the musical shit hits the fast spinning fan.

Yes, the chaos and climax and comedy combine.  In the end The Mother Ship have to cancel the rest of their support slot.  Stephanie settles for a solo spot online, and the others get back to their original business.   What they lose in stardom they gain in sanity.  Or something to that affect.

Ha, I look forward to now writing the idea…and seeing what direction it really goes in....!!

Yes I fancy Godard and Flickerfest...

I am on the selection committee for Flickerfest, and have just finished watching 3o short films from around the world.  Worth noting all of these were shot using a hand-held camera.  The  practical approach, given it lowers costs and invariably enhances the emotional impact!


A few years back I co-directed (alongside Gracie Otto) the trailer for Flickerfest 2009.  Referencing Godard's Breathless, we of course shot hand-held. Yes, Godard we love you!!! http://youtu.be/OiFSaF3s1jg  


In ‘Everything is Cinema – The Working Life of Jean Luc Godard’ (Metropolitan Books, New York 2008) acclaimed New Yorker journalist Richard Brody explores the reason behind Godard’s approach, noting it stemmed less from a concern for the emotion and more about how to facilitate the experience of shooting - for the most part Godard didn’t even have a script, preferring instead to work from a treatment then jot down notes the morning of the shoot.  Brody states that:

Godard wanted Breathless to be shot, as much as possible, like a documentary, with a handheld camera and a minimum of added lighting.  This decision had both an aesthetic component, making the film look newsreel like, and on a practical note, saving the time usually spent setting up lights and a tripod. p60

A love for the handheld camera....

The use of the handheld camera in cinema has been active for many years, with early silent-era experiments in E. A. Dupont’s Variety (1925) and Abel Gance’s Napoleon((1927), plus several examples from it’s origins in reportage and documentary.  At the time the decision to go handheld was primarily for reasons of practicality, allowing the filmmaker to film on the go, and capture the material in a much more free form manner than when mounted on a tripod or dolly.

It’s appeal and reasons for use grew over time.  Roberto Rosselini’s Desiderio (1946) was shot using a handheld camera, and considered one of his first Neo Realist films. Likewise John Cassavete’s Shadows (1959) and Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave film Breathless (1960) both paved the way for a revolution in how drama and documentary forms could merge to create a cinema of heightened authenticité.  If we skip ahead to cinema from the Dogme Manifesto of 1995 or recent British socialist films, it is plain to see that the use of the handheld camera has grown in popularity.

Filmmakers today continue using the handheld camera as a means to engage their audience.  Think of the intense emotional dramas by Alejandro Gonzales Inarittu and Darren Aronofsky, or the socially aware films by the Dardenne Brothers, not to mention the visceral dramas by Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold, and even the minimalist work of Sofia Coppola.  The list goes on and on, and also includes many fine examples from our own turf – David Michod’s Animal Kingdom, Claire McCarthy’s Waiting City, Kriv Stender’s Boxing Day, Bill Bennett’s Kiss or Kill, Cate Shortland’s Sumersault.  And so many others.

It is often assumed that films using handheld camera fit into the art house, indy sector. Indeed shooting with a handheld camera can keep costs to a minimum, and can help give emphasis to story over style.  That said, there are many major Hollywood blockbusters that employ handheld, and it can be readily found in work by Oliver Stone and Michael Mann, not to mention the Bourne Film Series which continues to grow so very impressively and many a British TV crime drama.

Indeed there is much to be said about this marvellous device.  So this is just the beginning…