19/11/2012 - 26/11/2012

 

Huh.

Declan vs. Himself

Back in Christchurch for the week, I spent Saturday afternoon making silly movies with my cousin on my cellphone. Turns out it's the funnest thing in the world. After being initially pretty suspicious, he got so excited about it.

This is the first one we made, with Declan playing both roles.



Then after we finished that one, while taking my puppy Fritz for a walk, we came up with another idea. This was was all Declan's vision. There's an elaborate sequel involved with a character named "Dr. Zarcophagus", who has a snake that comes out of his chest. But we only had time to make Part 1.


Declan declared himself "Okay with being famous," and allowed me to put the videos on YouTube. Can't wait for the sequel.

And just as an extra bonus movie for the weekend, I made my first viral-cute-puppy-video with our dog Fritz.

Hallowe'en

So, Hallowe'en is nearly amongst us. Again.

This year, we had planned on filming episode one of our Clark Spaggeerg TV thing which we've been writing ON Halloween, to save time/resources/having to throw two parties... but it seems people actually DO things on normal Halloween, that ISN'T being in our movie thing.

Anyway, we're filming in just under  month, so I'm in full organising guru mode. Part of which is this poster, which I bade share with you now...

Really looking forward to filming. It's a big party scene, so hopefully people are keen and actually come. Good times rolling ahead.

Liquorice Rope

Today Oli and I made it back to Christchurch to stay with our family for a week. Somehow, we managed to be on the same flight as our friend, and top bloke, Jono. So, naturally, we made a movie with him on my cell phone camera.

You're welcome.

Clark Spaggeerg's Truth Hunt

Back in 2009 or something, Oli and I, on a whim, promised our brother Sam that we would make a film about his life for his 21st. He forgot about this. So did we.

About a week before his 21st birthday we remembered this insane idea, and simultaneously brainstormed this preposterous idea to play it like an expose documentary mystery film. And his birthday party was that weekend.

We managed to cobble together enough footage to form this film, and I've finally uploaded it for the interwebs to see. I actually love this character so much, and we're in talks of making something more out of it. But I'll talk about that later.

In the meantime, here's Clark Spaggeerg.

(sorry Sam). 

Murder In Mind

Finally uploaded this, our V48 Hours short from last year. Felt pretty bad I hadn't done it as this years competition was just this past weekend. Unfortunately, did not take part. Currently going for the "too much on" excuse, but I know as the excitement builds throughout heats and such I'm probably going to regret it sooner or later.

Many thanks to all who took part, and grand apologies for those I haven't even shown it to yet.

It's a bit of a mess but I'll let it speak for itself.

Policeamobiles present, Murder In Mind.

So I'm Losing My Job

Blockbusters lease is expiring in two months so that means I'm out of a job. If anyone wants to employ me, email me. Not only will you be really helping me out, but you'll save me having to try harder to find employment than asking my blog.

The upside is that we're selling all our stock. Which means super cheap DVDs. Paige and I got amongst.

Paige was really happy then I told her to be serious as this is serious business goings on.

 

 Anyway it was super fun and exciting and we got a wicked haul...

 

 Paige's pile ^^^                                                          My pile ^^^ (pretty much just indie wank).

But seriously about that job?

The Continuing Story

I Moved/I Movied

Damien Letter (age 11)

Mostly inspired by Vincents awesome blog, I wrote this letter as a character exercise for my film. It's an old letter, one of the first that Damien writes to NZ Post, asking for a job.

I found it hugely beneficial.

Dear New Zealand Post,

My name is Damien and I am 11 years old. I would love to work for you as a postman right away.

Ever since I was 8 I have always dreamed of being a postman/mail carrier/postie and so I know lots about the subject. However, your industry is one of secrecy and magic, and I wish to join your ranks to uncover more about your inner workings.

I love going outside, and I send letters all the time. Mail, as I am sure you would agree, is a much purer form of communication than email. My mum says that computers are made by “profiteering scum” and are the reason she is out of work (she teaches calligraphy). My dad is allowed one though, but only because he is involved with data input at work and computers are kind of the point. But I’m sure if he could he would do it all by hand.

I have always admired the skill and dedication that postmen/women show, delivering mail every day and in all weather conditions. You are all heroes. I also like how friendly you all are, and how you endeavour to know peoples name and when their birthday is. That is an impressive feat.

I do have a couple questions though.

1. Do you still drive in vans or has the movement officially been made to bikes?

2. Do you really get up at six am or even EARLIER?

3. Are you all afraid of dogs or is this a white lie?

As well as being my dream job, I am also business focussed, and your competitive rates and benefits scheme has definitely caught my eye.

Thank you for considering my application. I am ready for an immediate start.

Yours sincerely,

Damien Wickes.

ps. I am incredibly happy just knowing that this letter was delivered by the power and magic of the postal industry. I look forward to joining it soon.

TITLES

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

Oh man oh man this is cool.

TICK

I'm writing a film. It's called Tick. It's about a guy who can't sleep because of the noises in his wall, and in his muddled state has the best/worst week of his life. It's pretty cool, but it's my first one so it probably doesn't make a lot of sense yet.

Here's some concept art...




I'm now setting myself a goal to bang it out. I'm giving myself a month. I thought I'd let you know because you might hold me to it.

"Work" starts tomorrow...

Good News; Bad News

Good News; Forty Eight Hours

This past weekend I partook in the 48 Hours film making competition for the fourth time. And as what usually happens with 48 Hours, I had one of the most blisteringly productive and ludicrously enjoyable weekends of my life, and I don't know whether thats because of the thrill of the race, or the high that is film making itself. Seeing something that came from your own mind (or in this case, the minds of a bevy of incredibly creative and talented people) grow and develop and turn into something way cooler, and way real-er than your thoughts is outrageously exciting. It's a welcome reminder that this is what I need to be doing with my life. It is honestly so pointlessly obvious I don't know why I'm sitting here telling you when I can be out there doing it already, but I am. So stop arguing with me. Films man. Films. It's the only thing in my head at the moment. Well... not the only thing... (*tee he hee's). But the people around me can probably agree it's the only thing I talk about.

The other cool thing that this weekend did was show me just how awesome and talented my friends are. Like, for one, saying they'd do this for no other reason than as a way to have fun, or be creative, or as a favour, or whatever reasons they had, I am very grateful for. Also, everyone involved just gave it everything. The writing group... oh man, the arguments we had! The ACTORS! I mean christ, I did not see that coming. Brilliant. SO brilliant. And the music. Man, my brother is a god. And we were a team. For this one weekend we had this film. And it was the most important thing in our lives for a short while. Everyone just got fearlessly involved with it, and it was a beautiful thing to watch.

For those involved, sorry for being a cranky/uncommunicative git. You are all brilliant. Thank you. The film turned out amazing, and I shall definitely be posting it as soon as I can.



Bad News; Forty Eight (and a Half) Hours.

Yeah, so we kind of took a wee bit too long, put a wee bit too much awesome into the film, that it took a wee bit longer than forty eight hours to finish, and so we got disqualified. We can blame schedules or technology or karma, but I really don't care that we did. The film stands as something I am proud to be a part of, and a wicked memory, and a perfect encouragement, and as experiences go I can't really ask for more.


Today is a win for optimism.

Now play this:

I love summer and summer smells.

This post is part of my "Its the summer so I'm feeling sentimental" collection. Secretly, I know its only spring. How do I know this?

The clouds are moody and I need chapstick.

Favourite summer smells include damp clean hair and cut grass. I know everyone loves cut grass, but I love it because it reminds me of Hansen Park. That's where we did our athletics at primary school. Towards the end of every year we would do athletics in the afternoons. On Fridays the whole senior school (about 100 people) would walk down to Hansen Park intheir sun hats to do running. It always smelt amazing. And plus we got the afternoon off of school work, so I even enjoyed the exercise even though I run like a desk. And the walks were good too, we would talk about star wars or lord of the rings or something else equally life consuming. And when we did high jump we would fall onto the hot rubber mats and get sweaty backs.

This afternoon I have my primary school reunion. We're taking lemon slice.

"I must be fine cause my heart's still beating"

Thom and I have both now officially created blogs. I sort of convinced him to make one as well, with mine going ever so successfully and all. He always tells me about these wicked adventures he has. Hes here at the moment, so I ask him for an example for you now...

"Thom, whats an example of an adventure you've had?"
...*pause*... "I 'borrowed' my dads van once and went to Akaroa."

Wow. Thom = my inspiration.

Its only now i figure that its probably not the best idea for him to be making a blog... with his life being so much more interesting then mine. And of course life is a competition and everything.

So i did a brainstorm of ways to make my blog better. Here's what I thought of;
-Put in lots of my drawings and music in it.
-Talk about my dreams and figure out what they mean
-Do some sort of long term, goal achieving, striving-for-something blog
-Wank on for ages about how crap my life is (bad idea... as its not that crap really)
-Wank on for ages about my opinions of everything
- Make enormous lies about my life to make it seem more interesting.
-A combination of the above.

I think I'll probably end up doing the last one.

Anyways, today was a good day. Oli and I did some music recording this morning in the lounge with all the doors open (as it was a lovely warm day YAY!). We are taking our time with the recording this time, multi tracking etc... making it sound nasty. However, so far its sounding remarkably similar to the live recording we did with Ben that only took one (very long) day. Hmmm....

Then Thom came round and we stole all his music and we made nachos and played lots of loud guitar. I was then prompted to tidy my room (which was a tip!). It was fun because i got to play with the Dyson vacuum. We made nachos. We ate nachos. I then had to stop tidying my room because the dust started to kill me (man I hate dust... the bastards). And now were watching the Michel Gondry dvd again, but this time with Thom. Michel Gondry is one of my all time favourite artists in the whole world. He somehow makes film which is so crazy similar to my dream life. Watching extended periods of Gondry films really messes with my head... I start to worry about how awake I am, and how much of real life is actually dreams... and how much dreaming I mistake for real life (which happens a lot more). Sleep and dream life, as well as the diluting quality of memory is something which really fascinates me (and I always love finding art that agrees with my head). Thats actually kind of one of the reasons I have this blog.

Something to look forward to.