Next Stop Seoulywood - BTS

On the eve of the KOFFIA screening of Next Stop Seoulywood in Sydney I thought a squiz at some behind the scenes photographs would in order. Taken by Sheersha who filled multiple roles on the day and was instrumental at keeping the behind the scenes (off set) section of this shoot in order and running smooth. Her iphone also proved handy to collect a few production stills and here are some results.

Jo and Ian "no problemo"

A lighter moment.  ...was there never one? Ian, Matt, Jamie & Ed

Ed H - Master of Light...and dark.

Jamie F - Master of Sound/3rd Earth Meastro

Jo & Ian run the lines, Marius & Ed in the BG

It was a simple shoot, re; location, action etc and quite usual in performance and shot selection but where the challenge existed was in the dialogue/languages and the lip syncing to recorded speech.
This made a quickish shoot extend into a full day with a deadline to exit the studio always looming but the crew hummed along, the actors sung their song and we hall had a whole lotta fun along the way.

promo DL # 2

 Screens:                  Sun 25th August, 12noon 

The Event Cinemas in George Street, Sydney

Next Stop Seoulywood

KOFFIA is upon us again, how lucky are we?
Once a year The Korean Film Festival in Australia tours our east coast.
Starting in Brisbane (14-18th Aug), sailing through Sydney (21-29th Aug) and ending in Melbourne (5-11th Sept). This years theme is the many faces of Korean Cinema.

Not only is  it packed with South Korean Cinematic yumminess (check the program) but for the second year running they are running a short film competition.
There are some good prizes up for grabs and they will be decided by an illustrious jury that always includes a guest filmmaker from South Korea. This year we welcome Moon Byoung-gon.
Ten films are short listed from the entries and screened in Sydney (the home of the festival and of the Artistic Director Kieran Tully). This year you can catch them at the Event Cinemas in George Street on Sunday 25th August, starting at midday.
In 2012 I entered an ode to my favourite Korean director Hong Sangsoo but the feedback I got was that a lot of people didn't 'get it'. It relied on not only knowing this director's film work but specifically knowing the trailer for one of his films. This year I approached the competition in similar fashion to last years entry The Way He Arrived, short, sharp, sweet, with the minimum of fuss but I opened up the subject matter to a wider audience.
It's a little story about an audition. Ian Dixon plays the role of a Director who wants to break into the Korean film market with his next film and he is casting for a Korean speaking woman (Joanne Tran) to fill one of the roles, problem being he can't speak Korean, oh and she's not Korean!
So what appears to be a very spooky scenario around the casting couch quickly gets subverted with the woman fully taking advantage of the director's ignorance and prejudice. It even features Google Eyes or Google Glasses and everyones most accurate language aid Google Translate.
She gets what she wants and he is left happily in his blissfully ignorant world.

This films satisfies a lot of wants, I got to play with language, dubbing, actors and I got to use some music from Nylon Pink, The New Black, an original not one of their K-POP covers.
I didn't make it to the screening last year but this year I'm going to blitz Sydney for the day and check out all the other films in the screening.
And the bonus this year???? There is always a bonus with KOFFIA
This year they the session will also include a special screening of Jury 주리, the acclaimed directing debut of Kim Dong-ho, former Festival Director of Busan International Film Festival.
I saw this short at MIFF 2013 and it's one of the best shorts I've seen for a long time. 
Should be a lotta fun.

 

And as for the rest of the festival? I'll catch it when it's in Melbourne. See you there?

A bit MIFFed then go get MUFFed

As the dust settles on another MIFF you know that MUFF is just around the corner.
2013 is the year of the 14th Melbourne Underground Film Festival, born out of Richard Wolstencroft's frustration at Melbourne's showcase festival he has nurtured and grown a festival that aims to truly support the independent filmmakers of his home town and further afield too.

Surely, Poster of the year?

The program has gone live and is available on the web site and contains some pretty wild stuff including a doco by the Director himself 'The Last Days of Joe Blow' which at the very least will be worth a listen with the soundtrack coming from David Thrussell (remember SNOG?)

I want to just highlight a few films that I know and recommend.
For me the most exciting is MADE IN AUSTRALIA, Matt Pastor's latest feature. I aint going to go into it fully in this post but the chance to see it on the big screen is one not to be missed.
Teetering on the thin line of doco and drama, this is a self reflective journey of identity, love, sex, booze and abuse. Love to fuck and fuck to love, loath to love and love to loath.
Be it in Hong Kong or Melbourne Matt wears his influence on his sleeve be it a tad Sion Sono or stuck in a Hong Sang-soo loop. As the program says "a fascinating and raw film"

The bonus is that it is screening with his Hong Kong short 鬼佬 (Ghost Man)

Another cracker to catch is Maria Tran's Hit Girls which I covered in a previous post.
Some of the best girl on girl kung fu action to come out of West Sydney in a long time...or ever?
and there is another Hong Kong connection, JuJu Chan bangs it out alongside Maria.

JuJu Chan & Maria Tran star in Hit Girls

 Lastly I want to mention the twins, Chris & Rob Smellin, two of the most earnest and diligent filmmakers I've had the pleasure to know. Oh and they make pretty good films too.
The laugh is that they have two films in the festival this year....get it, they're twins!!!!!!
oh and the films are both pretty fucked up pieces. Creepy, bloody and kinda confronting.
She's Having a Baby is totally about damaged goods and
Last Night has the damaged goods looking for vengence.
These guys just get better and better with every film they make and the great thing is that they get seen all around the world too. You could call them festival favourites but it sounds a bit tossy, don't it? But their list of festival credits, for every film they have made, is the longest that I know.

These last three are all showing in what is called Mini MUFF and I'm sure they are surrounded by other great shorts but I'll let you discover that.

MUFF XIV September 6th to 14th at Revolt Cinemas 1 & 2 Check it!

Past Students rocking the World # 6

WELCOME TO DOOKIE
don't know where it is? That's cool most don't but if we get behind this project then you will!
Regional Australia has been in decline now for years, decades but not centuries and Dookie is no exception.
It's in the food bowl of North Central Victoria, tucked between Shep and Wang. I only know it because I flirted with Ag science once upon a time and it has the college out there.
Oh shit that's right it also has a train! but that hasn't stopped there since the 50's
 

 Past student, MIFF buddy and friend Alta is part of a creative team that is going to put Dookie back on the map.
A short comedy about the last two citizens of Dookie running a campaign to get the train to stop and 'hopefully' repopulate the town, get it back on its feet so to speak. But Dookie does have real people living there and part of the effort is to raise awareness of their town and I would suggest the plight of most regional/rural towns of Australia.
Concept is good, Team is good and they have some great people getting behind the film.
They're running a crowd funder at the moment on Pozzible if you feel so inspired.

God's Country....right!