OK… I’ll be honest. I haven’t absolutely no idea how anyone can maintain a daily blog – especially film makers. I just don’t understand how they can possibly find the time! We’ve been absolutely positively flat out since my last post – it’s really been a bit silly! Chris Jones I salute you! I have no idea how you not only find the time, but also write stuff that actually makes sense, and has good spelling and grammar! OK, so now I have to find back to what has actually happened over the last week…

Well, as I said previously, Saturday was camera test day. We piled up James and Doris (the names of my 4WD and Isaac’s van), and headed to a football grandstand in Melbourne to test some Super 16 stock. We shot several different things (colour charts, grey scale charts, city skyline, people running, etc.) using the different stocks (specifically Kodak 50D VISION2, 200T VISION2 and 500T VISION3) at different exposures, and using different filters. We also shot the exact same material using a Panasonic HVX202 and Sony Z1P (using the fixed lenses) to use as a comparison. Originally we intended to use a P+S adapter on both the digital cameras, however we couldn’t get one that weekend. The day went pretty much as planned – although the weather was horrible and freezing! Here are some photos of the day for your viewing pleasure:

As you can see, we had a lot of fun! Especially when Anli and myself had to run around pretending to be Sakooz creatures! After many hours of freezing and burning film, we wrapped for the day. On Sunday, with a substantially smaller crew, as a lot of people got sick on the Saturday, we headed off to Lara (near Geelong) to find a location for our big “crash landing” sequence. After much searching, we eventually came across a road that, although not perfect, seemed to look pretty good. We shot some camera tests at the location, and then when it got dark, we did some night fire camera tests. We especially wanted to test out how the new Kodak 500T VISION3 stock compares to the VISION2. And all of a sudden, the weekend was gone! Dear, oh dear!

Monday through to Friday was pretty much, what is becoming a stock standard week. Meeting after meeting, discussion after discussion, no food, no sleep, millions of e-mails! Who would want to live this life? Really! It’s all so crazy! Thursday was probably one of the bigger days, with meetings non-stop all day at various places around Melbourne for all different things. It was great though – we got to meet up with so many interesting and diverse people, all interested in what we are trying to achieve.

This weekend, it was all about location scouting. Anli, Isaac and I jumped in Doris (the 4WD) and zoomed around Victoria looking for suitable spots to film. Yesterday (Saturday), we mainly looked around the Geelong side of the world looking for “places in the middle of no-where” for the dramatic opening of the film. Then today, we headed down Mornington way, and around Portsea and Phillip Island, looking for the epic ending location. All things considered, we did quite well – we’ve found two locations that are almost exactly what we’re after, which is fantastic! They’re still not locked in 100% as of yet, but they certainly look the part. So we’re getting closer – which is great, as we haven’t got that long to go till we need to start shooting!

But there’s also been some huge announcements recently! Singer-songwriter Katie Weston is now opening our fund-raising night with an acoustic set, which is fantastic! But also, we’ve made the Nigel blog live! There currently only one episode online (plus a bunch of random blogs) – but another is coming online very soon (maybe even tonight). The production values aren’t great – but it’s quite funny, and well worth a look and listen! As the weeks go on, there will be more and more stuff appearing on Nigel’s site, so stay tuned!

So what’s in store for this coming week? A lot! A hell of a lot! On Friday we will be pitching our concept to our university, so that we can get “green lit” and given official permission to hire the gear required for the teaser/trailer. We have a lot of work to do up until then! Storyboards, shot lists, budgets, bla, bla, bla! The list goes on and on! We also need to lock in the final Sakooz costume designs, continue work on the animatronics, start building sets, etc. So more work to do, and so little time! What’s even more annoying is that now I’m starting to get sick! How annoying! It’s only a cold – but it’s not something you want when you need to get so much done. But I’ll survive! Unfortunately however, Anli and Isaac are also both still slowly recovering from their various bugs.

Anyway, I must be off! As always, if you have any questions or queries, feel free to either post a comment on this blog, or send us an e-mail! We’re ALWAYS more than happy to answer any questions you have about us, our work or about movie making in general. Until next time…

Chris!

A lot has happening this week – and boy, oh boy do I mean a lot! When you’re only getting around two hours sleep a night (maximum) you sure do get a lot done. But regardless of how much coffee you drink to keep you awake, you still seem to just run out of time. In film making, time is your number one enemy. It’s always against you, and it’s always looking for ways to make your life a living hell. But enough bitching about time…

Monday brought with it a whole heap of meetings. We met up with a whole collection of extremely talented costume design students, and other people interested in helping out with the Sakooz characters. You’ve really got to be careful when you do meetings all day, as you really do intake a massive amount of caffeine, simply because generally speaking we’ve been having crew meetings at the local coffee shop. After a very massive day, and exactly 318 e-mails later (for me alone that is!), after a quick two hours sleep, it was suddenly Tuesday! Once again, we had more meetings and discussions. This time with actual costume builders (more about this in the coming weeks!) and sound designers. I can’t really go into too much detail at this stage, but all the meetings went exceptionally well! Everyone seems genuinely excited about our concept, and they all really want to help us transform our idea into an actual feature film! It’s actually really inspiring to see people get inspired themselves, from an idea that we came up with. It really makes our day, when the eyes light up of the people we are pitching to – and start getting carried away thinking about how we can various bits and pieces to make the film happen. We’ve had so many great ideas and suggestions!

Wednesday was audition day again! 9:00am till 6:00pm – one audition every half hour. It’s only just longer than your standard working day – but I’ll tell you what, sitting in the one place for 9 hours straight, having to repeat yourself over-and-over again, and having to really concentrate on what in front of you, really takes it out of you! It’s just so exhausting! Once again, we had a great mix of audition’s, and some more interstate travellers. Unfortunately though, by the end of the day, our fearless leader, Director Isaac’s body had finally given up – and he started getting really sick again. Unfortunately he was too ill to make it on Thursday, so Anli and myself had to do it alone. But, as we’ve been developing the script and story together, this wasn’t a big deal, as we all equally know the every aspect of the production and story back-to-front. Despite the fact that Isaac had to take a “sickie” – despite the doctors request – he still continued to work at home. I’m not sure if it’s just a complete and utter devotion to the project, or whether he’s just clinically insane. Probably a bit of both. And then, he did something even more crazy – he still went to work on Thursday night, despite nearly being on his death bed. Unstoppable!

Today it was back to uni for a rarely attended class or two – and we also had to pick up gear, as we’re doing camera tests this weekend. We’re planning to do some tests using different stocks (Kodak 50D, 200T, 500T VISION3, etc.) on both a ARRI SRII 16:9 16mm and AATON A-Minima 16mm camera. We’re also going to have a Sony Z1P and Panasonic HVX202 set up for comparison. More on the camera tests in the coming days!

There’s lots of exciting things coming up as well! Within the next few days, we’ll be introducing a new blog to the site! I don’t want to give away too much just yet, but I can tell you now, that a person called “Nigel” has joined the team, and will be following us around. So keep and eye out on our website, as Nigel will soon be here to entertain and inform all! We’re also running a fund-raiser night at Loop Bar in Melbourne on the 12th of June. We’ll post information about it on the website soon – but in the meantime, if you join our Facebook Group, you’ll see the event we’re talking about. It’s going to be a fantastic night, with a silent auction, DJ, raffles, and lots more! So please, if you live in Melbourne, come along and help support our film! We’re planning to raise around $15,000 to help make the best possible trailer we can.

We’ve also been getting a lot of e-mails asking us various questions about the production, and why we’re doing certain things. Over the coming weeks I’ll explain all as to why exactly we are making a trailer, and not just a short film. I’ll also talk at some stage about our marketing strategies, and how we think we can actually achieve in making Sakooz a commercial success.

Ok… That’s about all I’ve got time for tonight! I need to start getting ready for a weekend of extensive camera tests and potentially heated discussions about how we intend to film the trailer, etc. I leave you today, with some photos of the week that was. Have a great weekend readers! And thanks to everyone who has sent us e-mails of support and encouragement! Already this blog is getting a massive number of hits, so thank you! But also, please tell your friends about it – as the more the merrier!

Ok, so there may be a slight hint of sarcasm in the title for today. Unfortunately everything is not going exactly according to plan – but it’s not a complete disaster either! Yet – anyway! Nah, I’m kidding. We’re seriously heading in the right direction – a lot slower than we hoped, but on course none-the-less.

Boy, oh, boy! What a week it’s been! On Tuesday it was back to uni for our production class. We had a discussion on post production, which was actually really helpful for us. Of course, once class was over it was just back to work – replying to e-mails, working on the script, completing documentation, drawing up costume designs, researching, the list goes on! Looking back in my diary, the “to-do list” which came out of Tuesday completely filled the page from top to bottom, and there was even righting horizontal on the page. So many things to do – so little time!

Then Wednesday it was all about meetings! I had to get up really early to pick up Anli, and Isaac (we all live on different corners of the globe!), and off we headed to having a meeting with Frank Strangio, an extremely talented and well respected composer. Rather than write for hours about all the amazing stuff Frank has done in the past, it’s probably best if you just check out his website. Apparently it’s a bit out-of-date (as he’s done heaps more in recent times), but it still gives you a very good idea of just how talented and remarkable this bloke really is! We spent nearly two and a half hours in his beautiful studio just chatting about each others projects. He’s one of the most lovely people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting – and I mean this in all honesty. He has such a passion for film making, and the industry – it’s very inspiring! I’m sure we’ll be talking much more about Frank over the next few months on this blog!

After meeting with Frank, it was off to Digital Pictures to talk about all things post! At this stage, we are looking at shooting the Sakooz trailer on Super 16mm using an ARRI SRII film camera – so we need to somehow get the footage from film to our editing system. This is done through a process called telecine. For those that have never been to Digital Pictures – the facilities are incredible and very much world class. The staff are fantastic, and they all genuinely got excited about our project.

Then it was off to Soundfirm – another leader in their field. Once again, the staff are not only the very best at what they do, but extremely friendly, and excited about what we are trying to achieve.

In an effort to jam as much as we possibly could in the one day, we then headed off to Federation Square to attend a special industry forum called MINDSHIFT, run by Film Victoria. Although it was a very interesting discussion – and lots of good points were raised, the fact that there wasn’t any young up-and-coming film makers on the board, nor was there any full-time script writers, was kind of a disappointment as the purpose of the event was to talk about the future of the industry, and about the lack of good ideas and concepts coming out of Victoria.

So, after a very busy day, it was time to head home for a couple of hours sleep and get ready for another day of auditions! Thursday brought with it another 18 auditions… Like previous days, there was an amazing array of different talents! There a few people that you knew straight away, when they walked in the room, that they could just play their chosen part. It’s a fantastic feeling to know that this up-and-coming actor could one day be the next Hollywood icon! After a very long day, and another night of very little sleep, it was Friday…

After some great acting workshops at uni, we headed off to have a meeting with Chris and Tim – our animatronic gurus. After a lengthy discussion at a pub in Richmond (next to Barnes), we finally got to a point were the duo are ready to actually start making something! Exciting times!

Friday night was set aside to finally catch up again with our own family and friends. However, even when we decided to have a break from one another – for just a night – we still end up running into one another! Out of all the venues in all of Melbourne, amazingly I still ended up running into Isaac completely randomly. I guess after spending two weeks together stuck in the same hotel room in Hong Kong, we are just drawn together whenever the alcohol is flowing – weird! Eventually, Friday became Saturday. We continued work in the comfort of our own homes, and Saturday soon become today – Sunday!

What was on today? Well, despite the fact that it was mothers day – we had auditions from 9:00am to 5:30pm! Sorry mums! As always, we had a great mix of different peoples, auditioning for different roles. For some reason, we also had a large amount of people travel from interstate today – some from Perth, others from Brisbane, and a couple from Sydney! It’s absolutely terrific that people get so excited about Sakooz, that they are willing to fly down to Melbourne, at their own expense, just to attend a half hour audition. I’ve been thinking a lot about why people actually do this – I mean, seriously, it’s only an unpaid student film after all! But, I guess, at the end of the day, you never know where one of these unpaid jobs may lead. In our case, we are confident that we’re going to get Sakooz “off the ground”, into a feature film and onto theatre screens world wide. In fact, we’re almost certain – it’s just a matter of when! So I guess, keeping this in mind, auditioning for a freebie gig could lead to something big and amazing. It’s probably worth the risk! So, a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that flew in today to audition! And I guess, at the end of the day, I’d personally be more than happy to fly to New Zealand to work for free on any Peter Jackson projects! But yeah, I guess we’re not exactly Peter Jackson… yet!

So anyway, I must be off! Since I started writing, my computer has already beeped about fifteen times – signifying fifteen e-mails to read and reply to. The fun never ends! And I leave you with some snap shots, of the auditions from today… Enjoy!

Not to be confused with Yang Chuan’s 1980 film, also set in Hong Kong and as of the same English translation, Kenneth Bi’s “Zhan. Gu (The Drummer)” is his third feature film (despite popular belief, as his first feature film, “A Small Miracle” only received a straight to video release). Nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, this film is the first from Hong Kong and Taiwan to be selected for competition in the festival, and is already gaining positives reviews all around the world, no doubt helped by Tony Leung Ka Fai receiving the “best supporting actor” award at Taiwan’s highly acclaimed Golden Horse Film Festival. However, the film is not without its critics – with many describing it as “ill-conceived” and “unconvincing”.

The Drummer tells the story of Sid, a pompous drummer in a rock band by night, and an insufferable pain during the day, played by Jaycee Chan – the son of one of Hong Kong’s greatest talents, Jackie Chan.

After eyeing off a beautiful woman during a sold out gig, Sid ends up sleeping with Carmen (played by Hong Kong pop sensation, Yumiko Cheng Hei-Yi), despite knowing that she’s having a relationship with Stephen Ma (Kenneth Tsang) – a triad kingpin. However, even when Sid is caught messing around with Carmen in a hotel hot tub by a very infuriated Mr. Ma – accompanied by his nasty looking henchmen – Sid just yells at the top of his voice, “You have to deal with my father if you hurt me”.

However, even though Sid’s father, Kwan (played by a typecast Tony Leung Ka Fai) is also a triad leader, unlike Ma, he doesn’t wear a suit – and in these underground societies, a suit signifies a lot more power than those who wear gold chains. Incidentally, Kwan also owes Ma from a previous triad-related encounter, and is suddenly thrown into an incredibly difficult situation, as Ma wants Sid’s hands – quite literally. Unfortunately for Sid, his usual “get out of jail card” is of no use this time round, and ends up taking refuge in his sister’s veterinarian clinic. But he’s soon discovered when he stumbles out of hiding to his sister’s rescue, after Kwan goes mental and starts bashing his daughter and destroying her practice. Despite objections from the rest of his gang – who would much rather Kwan hand his sons fingers and palms over to Ma for the good of the team – Kwan decides to sneak Sid out of the country to Taiwan, while he tries to smooth things over in Hong Kong.

Accompanied by his official triad babysitter Chiu (Roy Cheung), Sid finds himself stuck in a beautiful Taiwanese town, with nothing to do. Chiu even resorts to joining a small adult school where they teach you how to be a “better person”. However, one morning Sid is awaken by the distant sound of drumming, coming from the nearby mountain. Together, Sid and Chiu hike up hill to investigate, and come across a group of Zen Drummers. Instantly, Sid is enchanted by their powerful rhythmic drumming, and he entices them to allow him to audition, despite Chiu’s prior objections. Put head to head with the youngest group member, a fiery and stunning young lady called Hong Dou (Angelica Lee), who Sid has already had an altercation with back in town, he soon gets bored of following her lead. Holding up the audition, while he rearranges several other drums around him, he then decides to improvise, smashing them as if they were a drum kit and he was back at home in a dingy nightclub. Despite the noise pollution, the group decides to let Sid join (much to Hong Dou’s disgust), supposedly because he has talent, but more probably because they want to teach him a lesson in humility.

He moves up to the mountains to receive his drumming training, but soon realises that it’s not all fun and games. Before he can put stick to canvas, he must earn their respect and learn to “drum without drumming”. Following along the same lines to movies such as “The Karate Kid”, Sid also endures several “wax on wax off” moments, as he learns virtues like patience, discipline, hard work and perseverance from his wise and patient teachers.

This section of the film, as Sid truly become at one with himself and the world around him, is truly beautiful. The cinematography is stunning, despite the fact that it’s Sam Koa’s first time in the role of director of photography – although, thanks to a picturesque location, it would have been very hard to mess up. Chan’s acting is impressive, especially during his character’s spiritual transformation, and he certainly proves his come a long way since his debut on “Twins Effect 2″.

However, once Sid finally becomes “one with the moment” and masters the art of Zen drumming, the movie takes, what most critics describe as a turn for the worst. Leaving the breathtaking scenery of the Taiwanese mountains, the film heads back to pollution filled Hong Kong, for clashes with treacherous triads and ham-handed moralizing.

However, despite the many complaints from reviewers and film critics, I for one personally agree with the directors choices. Although there is a good argument that this film could have really be made into two completely separate films – one a film about triads in Hong Kong, and another about Zen drummers – by combining the two very different worlds together in the one motion pictures creates a very unique piece of work. Although the differences between the two worlds are almost jarring, this adds to the impact to the film, in what I believe is a positive way. In essence this is a very simple coming of age story, of an impatient youth, and in many ways a lot of the plot and subplots are almost clichéd in nature. However, by dramatically contrasting the fast paced and dangerous Hong Kong streets with the serenity of the Taiwan mountains, the director has created a whole bunch of visual and aural metaphors, which help add many extra layers of meaning onto the quite simple framework.

But one of the biggest things going for this film is the score by Andre Matthias, and the sound design by Du-Che Tu. When viewed in a surround sound environment, the scenes with the Zen drumming are just absolutely spectacular – the beautiful and organic sound just floats all around you. But then in more dramatic scenes, the score (which also features a lot of unique drum sounds) builds dramatically in tension to reveal a whole orchestral score. Obviously the fact that the director has actually won several awards for his composing work on previous films has meant that he put a lot of importance into getting the sound elements of this film just perfect. Continuing to follow the same path as past films, Kenneth Bi also took on the roll of editor for The Drummer – he really is the kind of director who likes to retain absolute creative control over all elements of his production.

Internationally speaking, this movie should do quite well for several reasons. Firstly, it stars Jackie Chan’s son – and for this reason alone, it will draw a big Western crowd. But by also merging two very visually strong and bold worlds together (the land of the gangsters and the land of the Zen drummers, high up in the mountains), the audience is really taken on a journey of stunning proportions. Forgetting about the story for just a second – the sound design and cinematography alone is reason enough to watch this film.  That said, I still don’t agree that it was necessarily a poor script (as some critics have suggested – although notably a lot of them were actually from Hong Kong) – I just think that maybe the director decided to go down an unconventional route when it came time to making the film. And of course, the U-Theatre fans will obviously come flocking to the theatres to see these amazing drummers up there on the big screen.

In conclusion, The Drummer is an amazingly beautiful film – with visuals that easily rival the very best BBC documentaries and Hollywood blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings. However, the highlight of this film is by far the music and the drumming. The soundscape that is created by the filmmakers is truly incredible. It’s also great to see Jackie Chan’s son up there on the big screen – as well as a host of other fantastic actors. Although the script may not be as tight and exciting as some might have liked – it really doesn’t matter. You have to sit down in the theatre, relax, and become at one with the drumming…

References:

• Bi, K (2007), Zhan. gu, DVD, Kenbiroli Films, Hong Kong.
• Making Of, DVD (Special Feature), Kenbiroli Films, Hong Kong.
• Zhan. Gu (2007), Internet Movie Database Inc., viewed 27^th April 2008, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831386/.
• Kenneth Bi, Internet Movie Database Inc., viewed 27^th April 2008, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0080456/.
• Wikipedia contributors 2008, Zhan. gu, Wikipedia, viewed 27^th April 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drummer_(2007_film)
• Wikipedia contributors 2008, Kenneth Bi, Wikipedia, viewed 27^th April 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Bi

It’s extremely hard to believe it’s already been four days since I last updated this blog! Where the hell does time go? No really – I honestly want to know! So what’s been happening since my last message, well, quite a lot! Last Saturday we had more auditions – eighteen of them to be precise. Everything went smoothly, and there was some great talent in the mix! On Sunday we met up with Ben Hidalgo – our amazing DOP for the Sakooz project. We talked all things light, around a coffee table in Prahran, and started to put together a game plan for this epic adventure. Then on Monday is was back to uni, and a meeting with another Chris – an animatronics expert that studied at the VCA. After another discussion around the coffee table, and some more discussions and planning – we walked away a lot more confident than what we were on Friday. Everything seems to be heading in the right direction. Our DOP is the best (and I honestly mean it), so we have little to worry about in terms of that department. And now with another Chris on the team – we’ve got animatronics covered. So despite all odds – at the moment, we appear to be winning the war. Of course it’s still very early stages, and there are a lot more battles to go… Money is probably one of the biggest issues. Oh, if you’re rich, and have some cash to spare – then get in touch with us! Unfortunately, I’ve got to get back to work – but before I leave, here are some photos of our auditions: