I can’t believe that this is my first post for 2010! It seems as if I’ve been trying to put together this blog entry in my head for months now… and the fact of the matter is, I have! Lots of things have been happening, and I’ve got lots to tell… So from the offset – please let me warn you that this post may be a bit all over the place, with lots of random ideas, and no particular direction. But, hey! If you actually read this, then this is the kind of thing you’ve come to expect by now!

The end of 2009 was crazy busy on both personal and business levels for everyone. After wrapping “Handle With Care” (our very successful 24-hour film festival entry – for those that don’t know, we picked up the “Best Script” and “Best use of Character” awards), we began proper post production on “One Flu North” – a Tropfest Entry Script written and directed by Nick Colla. Although we shot One Flu North earlier in the year, “real life” got in the way of things (as usual), and we kept on putting off the editing stages of the short. But, as always happens, time crept away, and before we knew it, December was upon us, and time was running out for the January Tropfest deadline! So after a crazy period of editing around the clock for several days, then suffering a massive hard drive crash (hint: always have several backups of everything in several different locations! I know, I know – you already know this – but come on!) and having to re-do all the visual effects, rendering and conversions (from 30P to 25P!), we eventually got there in the end. Despite the obstacles, the short film turned out exceptionally well – even though it didn’t make it into Tropfest this time round. We will be submitting it into several festivals over the coming months, so stay tuned! The end of 2009 was also busy for our friends at Pocketbonfire, who are still deep in post production for “There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake” – which we have been assisting with.

However, what made everything just that little more busy, stressful, and exciting in December 2009 and January 2010, was that I was planning a four month adventure away overseas! In fact, I’m writing to you now from a hotel room in remote Vietnam!

I have been planning this holiday adventure for a while now. Although I’ve been overseas plenty of times before, most of the time it’s been for business – so this is my first really massive overseas holiday holiday! Starting in China, I then travelled to Thailand, then Cambodia, then Vietnam. From here, the next stop is Laos, then Thailand again, then over to Egypt, and then down the North/East coast of Africa. I am travelling with my girl friend Karen, who’s keeping a blog of our journey at Melbourne To Moshi, if you’re interested in seeing any photos!

The lead up to the holiday was insane, because not only did I have to plan for over four months away (which was a challenge in itself), but I also had to train up a new staff member at The Butchery (a leading editing post production facility that I was working at full time last year – “i.e. my day job” which allowed me to devote so much time to no-budget latenite films projects!), and tie up heaps of loose ends so that both The Butchery and latenite films could run smoothly without me (you’ll be pleased to hear that both companies are running exceptionally smoothly – thanks Andrew, Jacqui & Nick!).

Originally I had planned to take these four months “properly off” – meaning no mobile phone, no e-mail, no contact. That lasted for a little while – but as Karen was keeping a blog updated, she had a computer with her, so it wasn’t long before I was checking my e-mails again. Luckily, Jacqui and Nick are getting all of my important business e-mails – so I haven’t had to do any real work whilst I’ve been away – just the occasional fun thing – like writing this blog!

So anyway, the reason I’m writing this blog is because something motivated me recently. I actually ended up in hospital in Vietnam. Nothing too serious! Like a lot of travellers, I ate something dodgy and got your typical food poisoning. After a few days of “bad things coming out of both ends”, I took some medication to help stop me spewing up. It worked for a couple of days, but then after one meal when I thought I had finally recovered, I got an allergic reaction to what I presumed was the food – but was actually the drugs. My body started freaking out, my throat started closing up, my tongue grew bigger, and I had serious trouble breathing. I hate hospital. No, seriously, I really hate hospitals. Nothing scares me more than needles. But, given that I couldn’t breathe, I had to be rushed to the doc by a very scared, but very calm and wonderful girlfriend, and an amazing Intrepid tour guide (which was handy as he spoke the local language – something Karen and myself haven’t mastered yet!). Luckily, after a scary few hours, the incredible doctors and nurses at the hospital fixed me up, and after two days, I was good to go on my way. Now… why am I telling you all this personal stuff? Because… and I hate saying this because it’s so cliche… but life is short! You never know what’s around the corner, so you really need to make the most of it. You need to make the most of every single opportunity. You need to push boundaries. You need to try new things – but not get scared when things go wrong. In life you just need to keep “bashing at it” – and film-making is exactly the same.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading droidMAKER – the story of George Lucas, and the digital film revolution. If you need motivation – read this book! It’s INCREDIBLE! Almost every single person featured in the book is inspiring. Each talented individual was presented with a seemingly impossible (or at the very least, extremely challenging!) task – but instead of just giving up, they push boundaries, invented new things, and just “made it work”.

But making a film is not just about “bashing your way through” by yourself. It’s all about team work. It’s all about working with like-minded people to achieve a common goal. The thing I love about this book is not only the technical that’s being discussed, it’s not only about the art that they were all trying to make, it’s the relationships. It’s the people. It’s the friendly competition. It’s about working with people – not against people.

I was so lucky that I ended up in hospital with such a good team behind me. In all seriousness, if I wasn’t travelling with such amazing people, then even such a simple thing as taking some dodgy medication that doesn’t agree with you, could have caused me fatal problems (to put it lightly!). Having a good team, a good family, behind you in vital.

When you travel through rural places in Cambodia, where large families have very little income, and as a result little food, but still survive and smile, you realise how important belonging to a supportive community is. It’s hard to get through things by yourself sometimes. But if you’ve got a group of people beside you, who are going through the same issues – the same problems – then you no longer feel alone. The old look after the young – and the young look after the old.

When you learn about the Vietnam War, and how the Viet Cong defeated the American Soldiers with the assistance of complex tunnel systems, and deadly & horrific (but also scarily ingenious) bamboo traps – you realise that power and brute strength isn’t everything. Sometimes you need to just think outside the box. You need to get together a team of like-minded people, and come up with new ideas. You need to innovate. Experiment. And educate – so that others can learn from your mistakes.

Ok… so this blog entry is really going a bit all over the place, so apologies if you’re completely confused as to what exactly I’m trying to say. I guess my point is the same as it always is. Film-making is all about working as a team to achieve a common goal. It’s about pushing boundaries. It’s about trying new things. It’s about failing, but then getting up and trying again. It’s about enthusiasm and excitement. It’s about the thrill of the chase! But it’s all very well to just say this – it’s another thing to truly believe it.

One of the biggest problems I found at film school was that the majority of the students weren’t motivated. They wanted to make movies, but didn’t want to join the film-making community. They wanted to get their ideas on the big screen – but they didn’t have the passion to really push boundaries. Which brings me to my final point (I promise).

Travel. I have never believed it before now. Everyone always says travelling, and exploring the world is one of the most important and brain-expanding things you can do. I never thought it was true. I always thought I was “worldly” because I’d been to several different countries, and experienced “local” things. But the more travelling I do, the more my mind is becoming active. It’s seems cliche (again!), but travelling helps makes everything clearer (and I’m only in the few stages of my holiday adventure!). It gives you time to relax, and rejuvenate. It gives you time to consolidate all the ideas you have in your head.

I’ve always known that team-work and community was important, in both film-making and life in general. Hell – it seems like common sense. However, it’s not until now that I really UNDERSTAND that importance.

So in summary. I highly recommend working your butt off for a while, then go travel. Go somewhere far away. Go somewhere new and exciting. I highly recommend Cambodia! Leave your phone. Set up an e-mail auto reply. Escape. Relax. Enjoy. But also don’t be scared to jump straight back on the bandwagon when you need to. Because, at the end of the day, as much as I needed a holiday, doing stuff like writing this blog isn’t just a job. It’s a way of life. I enjoy what I do. In fact I love it. It’s not just a job. It’s not just a passion. It’s a way of life. Film-making, technology and the PEOPLE behind both is the reason I get up in the morning with a smile. It’s the fuel that keeps me going right through the night.

A few months ago I read a great article on Chris Jones blog discussing separating work life from home life. That although film-making can become addictive, it shouldn’t become more important than living. I now tend to disagree. Please stop me if I’m getting a little too deep and meaningful – but there are lots of people on this Earth, and they are all going to be doing different things. I believe that if you have a passion for film-making (and lets be honest – in the scheme of things, only a few select people truly have the passion and the drive), then you should just go for it. If you love doing it – then do it. There’s no reason to stop for breaks. “Shop till you drop” I say!

Anyway, that’s probably enough discussion for today! Let’s wrap things up by looking at what’s in store in the months to come…

Well… despite my absence… lots! Nick Colla and Jacqui Hocking are seriously full steam ahead on several exciting projects – including “Shotgun”, a feature film concept that’s been floating around outside of latenite for years now. Nick also has some serious acting jobs in the pipeline, as well as his radio show. Jacqui is about to head overseas, and has been knee deep in post production on several projects. Her new blog should be up again shortly, so stay tuned for that.

As always, things are busy. Things are exciting. Every day brings with it new challenges, and new adventures. Despite the fact that I’m personally far away from the latenite bunker, I can honestly say that I’m probably in a better head space for film than I’ve been in years (which is both surprising, and wonderful!). I’ve already started planning several special projects that will kick start as soon as I return to Australia in late June.

So don’t despair – the latenite camp is not sleeping. Things are happening. Things are busy.

Well… that’s all from me today. I’ll be in Vietnam for the next couple of weeks, and then I’ll be heading off to beautiful Laos. The adventure continues! However, while I’m away, make sure you keep an eye on the latenite site, as things are certainly going full steam ahead in my absence!

Onwards, Upwards and always spinning, spinning, spinning…!

Best Regards, Chris!

The amazingly talented director Rhett Dashwood has just wrapped post production on his video clip “Black Bones”, for a great band called Teenagersintokyo. The video clip looks amazing (it was shot on Vision Research’s Phantom high speed camera), however that’s the not the only reason I’m writing about it here.

Like a lot of low-budget productions – in fact any film production for that matter – this one had a lot of hurdles. For instance:

• A rouge pyro guy let off fireworks without a permit and blew off his hand meaning the council closed down all pyro for the first day of shooting.
• As a result of last years horrific fire season, the production team were worried about total fire bans – however, the day before the scheduled shoot, the weather turned bad and Melbourne had the biggest thunderstorm it has had in ten years!
• The production lost half of its crew due to re-scheduling.
• The director had a baby! (Congratulations Rhett!)
• Only days after shooting, the director found out two of the most important shots in the video clip were in fact corrupt (yes, as you guess, it was the most important explosion shot!).

However, despite all these major problems, the team got through it all… and the clip looks great.

I was personally only involved in the post production stages, and I must say I was tremendously impressed with Rhett’s courage, determination and sheer talent. When he found out that two of the most important shots of the clip were corrupt, and even the expects (i.e. the people who actually make the camera!) couldn’t fix the problem, he still bashed his way through and in the end worked his way around the problem. By actually opening up the CINE files in a HEX editor and manually copying the headers from one working CINE file to the broken CINE file, after a lot of trial and error he eventually got it working. Not bad work considering how many people told him they the clip was broken and couldn’t be fixed. 

The point is, with all film-making ventures you need to think out-side-the-box, and just keep chipping away at problems. Rhett didn’t give up when things go too hard – as each problem presented itself, he and the rest of his talented team found a way around it.

This is why I love film-making… the people. The sheer determination to get things done.

Again, congratulations Rhett (Director), Ari Wegner (Cinematographer), The Butchery (Editing), Digital Pictures (Online/Grade) and Teenagersintokyo. You’ve done a beautiful job!

As part of our Language and Communications class, we split into groups of four people and conducted a series of interviews. One person acted as camera tech, another sound tech, an interviewer and an interviewee. The purpose of the interview was to try and learn something about the interviewee that the interviewer didn’t previously know. It gave us a chance to consider documentary ethics, practise the technical aspects of documentary production, and to experiment with different interviewing styles.

Our group decided to use a very natural, down and dirty interview style. The interviewer and interviewee sat on the ground just casually chatting away. The camera was also on the ground, shooting in a black and white mode, handheld, shakily shooting angled headshots of the two people. The reason for this was primarily to do something different from all the other groups, but also as we were shooting on video (a very natural and realistic medium compared to film – video basically looks like Neighbours), we thought that we might as well not try and attempt to make it look like film. Shooting handheld, in black and white, and with poor lighting, took advantage of the rather grainy and comparably low-resolution of the DV format. The lighting of the scene was natural, with sunlight coming through the window striking the girls from above. Although it would have been nice to ‘tweak’ the look, possibly by simply using a reflector to bounce sunlight into the girl’s faces, we simply didn’t have the time. Audio wise, despite my objections, the boom microphone was placed in shot, in the centre of the two girls. This meant that the footage looked cluttered, but also meant the audio quality sounded very poor, as the ME66 is very directional. Although I was personally happy overall with the look of the film (despite the microphone being in shot), others suggested that it distracted them from what the people were saying, giving the footage a very unnatural feel. The interviewee and interviewer didn’t like the footage either, saying that by being on the ground, with all the other class members looking down on them, made them act in a contrived manner. Personally, I disagree. I believe that by shooting them in this way, when they are under quite a lot of pressure to deliver something interesting, brought out their true personality – even if it was just them panicking and struggling. Both the interviewee and interviewer insisted that they had no problem discussing ‘interesting’ topics off camera, but as soon as the camera was shooting, they were in struggle town. I think that maybe they were just too scared to discuss the things they were talking about off-camera to tape, because they would be judged by the audience. And although they didn’t talk about topics they did before the interview, the camera still managed to capture a reality of the situation. Watching the footage showed two girls struggling to find an interesting topic to talk about for the audience. I found the footage we captured fascinating. However, shooting in this style did affect the interview in a way I didn’t predict. It made the interviewer feel like she was on the same level as the interviewee, despite the fact there was a visual sense of hierarchy. What I mean is that it felt like the interviewer and interviewee had equal power. Despite the fact that only one person was asking the questions, it felt as is neither person was in complete control of the interview. So, by shooting in the style that we did, we effectively changed the whole feeling and pecking order of the interview. Is that a negative thing? For the purposes of this exercise, I think it was a positive. As this was only an experiment, it gave a valuable insight into documentary interviewing practises. However, I would probably not use this style for most documentary pieces, unless I was evaluating or investigating human communication or something similar. I think one of the main areas lacking in this interview was pre-interview, that is, defining a solid list of interview topics. I think the fact that little planning was done was the main reason the interview seemed so hard. The other thing that really annoyed me was the quality of the audio, not only due to the positioning, but also due to the handling noise of the boom pole.

Other groups used several different styles. Some had head shots of the interviewee, some had wide shots, some had the interviewer in frame, but all of the other groups kept the camera on tripod. Audio wise, everyone used the ME66 microphone and all the interviews (except the last one, in which I acted as boom operator – he says arrogantly!), had really poor sounding audio. The reason being, like our groups interview, the positioning was bad (shotgun mics work best shooting directly at the source’s mouth at around three to five feet away), the manual riding of the gain was overcompensating, and the ME66 is not really suitable for broadcast quality indoor audio capturing (a hyper-cardiod is preferred). Also the boom handling was also very poor, resulting in a lot of handling noise coming through the track. Although the operator is partly at fault for not holding the boom pole gently, the fact that no shock suspension is available doesn’t make the operator’s job any easier.

Generally speaking, the best interviews were the ones with the best content. It didn’t really matter how poorly the technical side of the production was. If the interview was interesting, you can forgive the poor audio quality and lousy framing. Although in some of the interviews the poor camera work was slightly distracting, such as when in one interview, the camera started panning down the interviewee’s body for no particular reason (completely unmotivated). As is always the way, the moment the camera was off the interviewees face, they said something really out of the ordinary. What did I learn? You should only move the camera when motivated to do so, and even then, you have to seriously think about it and predict what’s going to happen next.

One of the interviews had the interviewers head on the far left of frame out of focus, with the interviewer centre frame in focus, with the shotgun microphone also in view. This visual style was very distracting, and seemed to waste a lot of the frame space as the whole right side of the image was just white. The most visually appealing interviews I found were just generally static shots of the interviewee, with the occasional slow zoom or pan to add a bit of life to the footage. The fact that everyone’s footage was shot from on a tripod gave the interviews a very manufactured, yet professional feel, as if you were watching a news program or police interrogation.

With documentaries it’s my belief that there should always be an invisible line between the crew and the interviewee. Unfortunately, in some of the interviews this line was crossed and in some cases completely ignored. For instance, in one interview the focus changed from the interviewee to the interviewer as the boom operator started to ask him questions. The camera operator had to follow the action, and filmed the interviewer, leaving the interviewee off-camera, off-sound, and probably very bored. This destroyed the pacing and authenticity of the whole interview. The viewer, who was just starting to become interested in what the interviewee had to say, all of the sudden has to watch the crew interviewing each other. Very unprofessional! What made matter worse was when the interview eventually shifted its focus back to the interviewee, the camera person asked him an extremely hard pressing question, abruptly ending the interview, in a very contrived manner. However, this was only an experiment – so not hard feelings, just another lesson learnt.

The main things I learn out of the days efforts were that production values are important. To get good usable footage you need a good camera, audio and boom operator. If you have someone that doesn’t really know what they’re doing, the whole shoot can be jeopardised. Planning is also extremely important. If you don’t spend time planning interview questions, and developing a well thought out plan of attack, there is a good chance that nobody will have anything appealing to talk about. An invisible wall also has to be developed, and then everyone has to stay on their own side. As soon as a crew member steps from one side to the other, the whole interview is put at risk. The camera operator and sound technician just need to do their job as quietly and professionally as possible, without interrupting or distracting the interviewer or interviewee.

The other thing I realised was that you really need a clear plan of what you want to get out of the interview. If you do in there just wanting to ask a couple of questions, then you may come out with some good footage, but footage that you don’t know what to do with. For instance, in our group, we went in there trying to find something we didn’t know about the interviewee, but actually came out with footage that essentially just explores human interaction. Although the footage we captured was good, and very interesting, it wasn’t what we needed to complete the task at hand. This was the same with the interview in which the crew started getting involved in. It started off just a traditional interview, trying to find something new about the person, but ended up being a train wreck, with cast and crew asking each other unplanned questions. Because the interviewer wasn’t connecting with the interviewee on a personal level, the interviewee decided to act, instead of being himself. The result – just a big mess!

Ethical considerations also came into question when watching the different interviews. In one case, the interviewee admitted to recently loosing a girlfriend, offering the interviewer the opportunity to ask some very hard-pressed questions, but decided to ignore the topic and move on to something else. The reason – he didn’t want to ask a series of very personal questions as he didn’t know the interviewee very well. Was this the right thing to do? Maybe – it’s a tough one. The interview probably would have been a lot more interesting if the interviewer decided to pursue the topic. But he simply didn’t want to. Even when the interviewee corrected the interviewer when he mistakenly said the girlfriend came from the same town as the interviewee, the interviewer just changed the topic once more. Without question, the interviewer could have gotten a lot more out of the interviewee. However, his morals told him not to do it. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is, like I’ve said, hard to say. I guess as these interviews were filmed in a university with the whole class watching the filming take place, and knowing that the class will be analysing the footage at a later date – it was the safe decision to make. Better to only ask innocent questions than to risk the interviewee becoming completely overwhelmed or overly uncomfortable. However, in a real filming situation, I would probably say that it’s better to ask the tough questions. I mean, in all honesty, although the interviewee was very nervous, I don’t think he would have minded being asked questions about his ex-girlfriend (despite the fact that they only broke up a couple of days previous). This was even more apparent when the interviewee corrected the interviewer.

It seemed to me that because these were filmed in a university, and everyone in the class was watching, no one seemed to ask any heavy questions. Everyone played it safe so they didn’t get their hands burnt. On the more technical side, people took risks. Our group shot in a very unconventional manner; the complete opposite to everyone else. Some camera operators decided to take the camera off the interviewees head and film more random things (like panning down the interviewee’s body). Although these would be quite major risks in a professional environment, in the context of this experiment they were just further tests, to see if it worked.

My favourite interview had the interviewer asking the interviewee a series of great questions, but also a lot of very random questions. For example, “if you were a tree what tree would you be”?  This caught the interviewee off guard in most cases, making for a really fascinating piece of footage. The interviewer established a really good connection with the interviewee, and I think these random questions really helped do this. The important lesson to be learnt out of this is that to get good interview footage a good relationship needs to be built between the interviewer and interviewee. They need to be comfortable with each other. If the interviewee is scared of the interviewer or vice versa, the footage will look forced, fake and probably unusable.

After looking at the various different groups’ footage, it’s clear that the questions asked by the interviewer are also very important. You need to ask open ended questions that interest the interviewee so that they talk casually and passionately about their view on the topic. Questions that just result in the interviewee answering yes or no hardly make for an interesting interview. But how do you know what types of questions to ask? I guess doing your research before the interview helps. If you know where the interviewee’s passions lie, you can ask questions that you know will generate a lot of gusto. But also I think it’s very important that the interviewer actually listens to what the interviewee is saying. They need to listen and base their next set of questions on the interviewee’s responses. In the interview where the crew started interviewing each other instead of the interviewee, obviously the interviewer wasn’t listening to the person he was asking questions to. If he was then the conversations would have never had changed viewpoints. This is also a very good example of the interviewee becoming intimidated by the interviewee and as a result, he spent way to much time talking, instead of listening. The result – a self obsessed interview that didn’t really work.

Overall, I found this experiment to be tremendously useful. Although a lot of the stuff learnt could be regarded as common sense, it’s always better to do it yourself and learn from your mistakes than by just reading a book or being told what’s what. It’s also extremely beneficial to test out all the interviewing practises yourself and then evaluate what you’ve done. It’s one thing to know how to do something – it’s something completely different to actually follow your own advice and wisdom. It takes a lot of self control, persistence and self-confidence to listen and follow to your own advice. It’s a lot easier to be lazy and say “it’ll do”. I also strongly believe practise makes perfect, so any chance of practising our skill is welcome in my books!

Over the course of the film festival, I spent a lot of time travelling on trains, which although I hated, did give me a lot of time to spend reading books. I’ve spend so much money over the years on film-related books. I basically got a collection that rivals the ACMI bookshop! I’ve got everything from scripts, magazines, lighting books, production books, post production books, user manuals, audio books, movie books, acting books – pretty much something for every department. During MIFF, I’ve been reading some of my more recent purchases.

One I’m still in the process of reading is “Documentary: The Margins of Reality”, which is a book exploring the definition and understanding of the documentary form, as well as the relationship between documentary and drama. I’m finding this book really hard to read, because it’s written in a very academic and formal language. It reminds me too much like reading the stuff I need to read for the media studies class at Hawthorn. However, the content is very useful, and I will make myself get through it.

I also recently purchased the 3^rd Edition of “The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook”. I’ve already got two of the original guerilla books by the same authors (Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe), and loved them so much that I just had to buy this newest one. Yes, I guess you could say I’m obsessed with spending money on books. With 768 pages of jammed packed information, plus a CD with additional pages, this really is one of the most amazing books on low budget film making. Split into chapters such as training, concept, screenplay, finance, pre-production, production, post production, sales, etc. this book covers every aspect of making movies from conception through to completion, distribution and beyond. It’s full of easy to read, and in depth interviews with people actually working in the industry, and honestly answers most, if not all of the questions, you have. But the thing I love best about this book is that the authors are independent filmmakers who have actually made three movies; despite the huge obstacles they’ve had to work around (such as being thrown in jail). I have a great respect for these two people, as they’ve just gone out there and made movies, ignoring all consequences. Over MIFF I read this book from start to finish.

I also started reading “Friendly Enemies”, a book by Delia Salvi that explores director-actor relationships. Although I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, this is a really useful and easy-to-read book that will hopefully teach me more about dealing with actors when directing student films in the future. I also think it will assist with dealing with people when making my documentary.

I guess the reason I spend so much time and money on books such as the above is that I’ve come to realise that knowledge is power. You won’t learn half of everything you need to know about the filmmaking industry by just reading books, but the information you do learn will be invaluable and can only help to make you better at what you do.

To be perfectly honest, I quite enjoyed complaining to people about having to attend MIFF. No sleep, no food, too many films, I would whinge. Although, I didn’t really care! It’s all part of the fun and adventure! I’m used to working in the entertainment industry, so my stomach is already minute, and I have the fantastic ability to be able to happily manage my sleeping pattern. So I’m basically the perfect candidate for attending MIFF. The look on peoples faces when you tell them you’ve just been watching film after film after film as part of your university course is priceless. What a great life I lead! While others at uni are reading pages and pages on highly complicated and technical mumbo-jumble, doings tests, exams, projects, and all other kinds of hard work, I’m just sitting back at staring at the big screen. But now that MIFF is over, I have to say I’m pretty depressed. I can now imagine why people who make films spend so long just going on the festival circuit. It’s such an amazing atmosphere! The amount of times I had to run from venue to venue (as I booked continuous sessions – no time to waste!), wide eyed and ears ringing, scoffing down a no-doubt week old 7/11 meat pie, only to realise that there are another four or five sophisticated looking people behind me doing exactly the same thing! It was great to see all these stylish people eating complete and utter crap, just so they could make it from film to film. MIFF brings together a whole lot of things that I’ve never experienced before in the one event. It’s pretty much a military campaign. You have to plan well in order to survive! I spend hours and hours reading up on all the movies and wanted to see, and spend a huge amount of time designing my non-stop timetable. Unfortunately, the three weekends in which MIFF runs over coincide with my brothers and two of my closest friend’s birthdays, so I had to count out weekends from my schedule. Never-the-less, I still fitted in a lot of movies. Some of them were crap, but, hey, that’s the price you pay! One of the best things about this festival was that as there are seventy or so of us first year film and television students, there was always someone in the theatre or in the lines that you knew and you could chat to about what you’ve seen and what you will see. I was kind of selfish and anti-social in planning my schedule, as I just decided what films I wanted to watch, didn’t allow for any social time, and didn’t really plan to meet up with anyone specific. But, it worked out great, because I still got to meet up with heaps of friends in the short time between films. I also had some really interesting conversations with random people in the MIFF queues, about various films. I made a special effort to see a wide range of films, from local to international, comedy to action, animation to documentary. I also decided to see most of the documentaries, to give me a better idea of what sort of film I would like to make this year. I’ve never seen such a hugely wide variety of different films! It was fantastic! I feel so more educated in cinema, now that I’ve successfully survived MIFF. What’s scary though is that after reading an article in “The Pundit”, a free independent guide to the festival, I realised that I had become, what the author described as a “MIFF Zombie”. I had become one of those people who had “taken it too far”. The only conversations I was having were about films. The festival guide became my bible. I was one of those people who could be found “leafing painstakingly through the festival guide, looking confused” as I tried to work out what day it was, and what I had planned to see next. I was one of those people who “shovelled in food absently and ignored dining companions as I pondered what to see”. I reached the “second stage of zombification”, as I sent out a mass e-mail listing what films I was going to see, and noted that if people wanted to see me, you’ll find me in the appropriate cinema. As the author put it, “The mass e-mail is terrifying proof that MIFF zombies have lost all interest in any social plans that don’t involve seeing films”. Admittedly, I even reached the final stages of “infection” towards the end of the festival, as I was “stripped of all social skills beyond primitive mutterings about genre, auteurism and mise en scene”. But you know what, it was worth it. I quite liked being a temporary, MIFF zombie. I felt like I was part of something special. I felt as if I belonged to a group of likeminded “film geeks”, who survived off the love of cinema, McDonalds and train station vending machines for a couple of weeks. But, despite the fact I loved it, there were some moments which were tough. Catching the last train out of Flinders Street every night, changing at Ringwood station, and then driving home everyday was a struggle. It’s always packed of tired people who just want to get home. Friday nights are the worst however, when all the drunken idiots are coming home from the footy. I hate public transport at the best of times, so that was a bit of a struggle. Another thing that was challenging was staying awake to write a bit about the films I saw each night. The last thing you want to do after watching films all day, and catching the last train home is sit in front of a computer and attempt to type relevant notes! But I’m so glad I had the self discipline to do it. Reading back over my notes is the only way I can remember the vast amounts of films I saw. Also, writing at the early hours of the morning, when I was desperate to go to bed, means that everything I typed was straight from my head, giving a very accurate and honest view of what I thought of the film. Overall, I’m so glad I came to university, if only because it forced me to attend MIFF. It was such a terrific experience, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!