Week Three

 This week we were shown a couple great West Australian short films, the first was "The Lost Thing" an animated film by Shaun Tan which won an Oscar for best short film in 2011. A touching story about noticing the little things in life. A social commentary on how we as a society get caught up in drudgery of life; or in other words get lost in the so called rat race and lose perspective in life. The class came up with "Loss of innocence leads to a shallow existence" as our thematic statement for the film.
The narration likened it to somebody reading you a fable, or a children's fairytale thus being universal as the magic of the film can relate to everyone's "inner child". Though it may have broken the "never write voice-over" script writing rule, it somehow works! An absolutely beautiful story and well animated film well worthy of it's Academy Award in my opinion, well worth a look.

The second short film we watched was our own Chris Richards-Scully's "Kanowna", a Western set in the gold fields of Western Australia during the gold rush. It is based on a true story, about choices, justice and a clashing of cultures. Straight away I could see the influence most notably of another Australian Western film, "The Proposition" and also the set design of HBO'S television series "Deadwood", both of which I'm a huge fan of. Though Chris also mentioned "The Assassination of Jesse James" which was visually stunning, although I found the story dull and drawn out.
"Kanowna" was said to be the closest thing to Chris' voice that he has done to date, and the first short film he has written himself since his time in college. He is currently work shopping the script for a full feature film in the near future and I am really exited for this prospect, as I think there is not enough Australian Westerns being made for my liking and this one has some real potential in my humble opinion.

So this week we were asked the question "why do we get involved in making short films?".
Well what are short films good for you may ask? Short films are great for building relationships, networking with other like minded individuals. You've got to keep making films even with no budgets otherwise you're yesterdays news! You have to get your name out there and it can lead to other things.
Why do make short films? The main point is tell a story, or make a point! But there are many more reasons, such as budget, short story or lack of content, necessity like time constraints, less crew required, can be entered in festival circuits, can be more experimental, fun...etc, etc.
Mostly it's a stepping stone so you can gain experience, knowledge in film making and get recognition in your chosen field and hopefully move on to bigger and better things!

Well that's my take on it anyway. Same place, same time next week I guess?

Week Two

Second week in and this time having to attend the lecture without my note taker due to a mix up, so it will be challenging to retain all the information from memory alone but I'll do my best.
This week Chris screened a couple short Australian films "Bound" & "Splintered" and we had to come up with a thematic statement best describing the themes.
"Bound" was about a young immigrant man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, racial stereotyping the main theme. "Racial stereotyping becomes prejudice" was the statement we chose.
Whilst "Splintered" was about two mates who's misplaced loyalties are tested, redemption is the key theme whilst loyalty is the secondary theme. "Selfless loyalty becomes redemption" was our statement for this short.

What is a theme, and how does it help a film?
This week we explored the idea of what exactly Theme is in film, and how it helps us better tell stories...simple right?
A theme is the overall message or argument that a film maker is trying to portray to the audience, all films have themes as they are about something (simply put). Themes are fundamental and are normally implied rather than categorically stated, as that would simply just be lazy story telling. The differences between narrative & theme can be compared to the Semantic & Syntactic approach to film genre. Themes can be compared to a "Syntactic" approach as it's more relevant to the deeper aspects and  focusing on the abstract meaning. Whilst the narrative can be compared to a "Semantic" approach as it's more relevant to the specific action/dialogue in the script. If that makes sense?
It is used in film to convey a message, every director is trying to tell you something! Through the use of tools such as visceral imagery & symbolism for example, the theme keeps the communiqué with the viewer consistent.

So how does it help a film you ask? 
Well in my opinion I'd simply say by making clear what the lesson of the story is, the viewer is prompted how to react.
It gives the audience an insight in to how the director is feeling and how he or she is influencing you to feel. Another byproduct of this is it produces depth to the world the writer created when he/she first wrote the script, and adds multiple layers to the story arcs, characters etc.
Chris advised us that as directors, figuring out at a early stage what our thematic statement was would make the film making process go a lot smoother if we already had a theme to link it all together. The stronger the statement the bigger the theme.


We also deliberated the meaning of a moral premise, so what is it?
 A moral premise is a one sentence description of the physical and psychological arcs of the movie.
Vice leads to defeat, but virtue leads to success. For example, for "The Matrix" the class came up with "ambiguity leads to slavery, but faith leads to freedom".
The stronger you as a director make your statement the better you, as a director, will understand your film and it's themes!

By the way worth having a look in to the Aurora short film festival (above).

Till next week...bye for now.

Week One

"Directing is a lifetime pursuit; subjectivity changes as the message you wish to portray to audiences changes."
                 Chris Richards-Scully.           

My lecturer for directing; Chris Richards-Scully, suggested all the Diploma students start a blog to discuss our take on the lecture and what we thought he was on about. So here goes I guess, I've never blogged before in my life so bare with me folks!
This week was mostly an introduction between lecturer and students, interesting to note Chris is a former CIT student himself from the mid nineties, and how much times have changed and how much more resources we have at our disposal according to him these days.
Chris went on to discuss with us the qualities that a good director should have, the first thing that came to mind when he ask this was COMMUNICATION. After all if a director can't convey his or her vision to the cast and crew then what's the point? I read "Great filmmakers must have excellent communication skills. They must be able to clearly articulate what their production goals are and be able to work with all team members to accomplish that goal." I couldn't have put it better, although there are many other qualities needed to be successful as a director in this cut throat industry such as:

• DECISIVENESS
• CONFIDENCE
• CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 
• PEOPLE SKILLS
• PATIENT
• CALM
• APPROACHABLE
• CREATIVE
• VISIONARY
• PROBLEM SOLVER
• PEOPLE SKILLS
• TIME MANAGER
• STAMINA
• FOCUSED 
• ADAPTABLE
• LEADERSHIP

The list could go on forever, but I think you get the picture. If you want to look in to it further on the Film Schools website there is a page outlining their top 10 qualities for a great filmmaker, worth a look. Here's the link  http://www.filmschools.com/articles/film-top-10.html .
It was interesting to hear Chris commenting about not all the "great" directors having some of the mentioned qualities, but they make it work some how. Although working with someone like that may challenging, so I guess the message here is to start thinking about which of those qualities we may have and which ones perhaps aren't our strong suite and working on how we can improve on them in our quests as young budding filmmakers.
All in all I came away from the first lecture excited and enthused about the year ahead, despite feeling a little overwhelmed by the hectic workload and ensuing madness involved with film making. I left a little more open minded to the idea of becoming a director, rather than an editor or writer. So I guess only time will tell? Till next week, watch this space...