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!

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:

Well, I’m very sorry to say that already we’re struggling finding the time to update this blog, and it hasn’t even been that long since we started it up! Thing is, we are absolutely flat out! And to make matters worse, our whole team seems to be getting ill in one way, shape or form! Isaac has bronchitis. David has tonsillitis. Caithlin is having surgery on her back. And Anli has been sick now with some kind of bug for the past couple of weeks. I just haven’t been sleeping… pretty much at all, so although I may not be ill, yet, I still look a little worse for wear!

So anyway, illness’ aside – what have we been doing since last Saturday? Why haven’t we been sleeping? Why are we so stressed? One simple answer – casting! We started advertising early in the week, and since then it’s really been “all hands on deck”! We had a MASSIVE response – I’m generally getting around 60+ e-mails a day from people all over Australia. To be perfectly honest, we’re really surprised! We knew our concept was pretty unique and exciting, but we had no idea people would be willing to fly interstate (at their OWN expensive) just to attend a half an hour audition! It’s all been really exciting! We had our first auditions yesterday (as it’s now after mid-night), and it all went very smooth considering Isaac’s lovely cough. We did plan to get some behind the scenes footage, but unfortunately, we just ran out of time. We really need to get someone on board to just take care of all our behind the scenes stuff! Anyone interested? Well, if you’re one of the few people who actually read this, and you are interested in documenting this – lets face it – AMAZING adventure, then get in touch!

So what else has been happening? Well, the search continues for costume designers/builders for our Pinky character. So far we’ve had quotes ranging from $60,000 – $3,000. We’ve been in touch with so many different costumes companies, it’s been incredible.

We’ve also been hunting down crew, further developing the feature film concept, working on the trailer script, doing budgets, schedules, and generally sending and replying to HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of e-mails each day, not to mention many, many phone calls and SMS’. And it never stops. However, at least we’re not alone – believe it or not, but when we put up our first online ad for casting at 3:00 in the morning, we had a reply by 3:30 am! Seems actors don’t sleep either…

So what’s in store for the next few days? More auditions! Meetings with various post production houses, costume design companies, composers, crew, etc. Script sessions and internal production meetings. Really – it just never stops. And it’s not going to stop for a while – we have so much work to do over the next couple of months (and of course, years).

So stay tuned! Lots more exciting things to come! We’ll TRY and get around to recording some video footage at our auditions on Saturday and post it up here on the blog, or at least some photos so you can see how lovely we all look.

Over the next few weeks we’ll also start posting up information on the production and the story on this blog, as well as some of our development documentation and drawings, so you can start to piece together how this whole nightmare came to be. Lots of things planned – and we WILL actually get around to it at some stage.

Ok… I’ve now got 45 unread e-mails sitting in my inbox. I’d better get back to it…

See you in the soup!

Chris!