Stoking the fire

Showcase: Silent Night

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:20:11 +1000

The lives of six people interlink in a emptying shopping mall on Christmas Eve. Mistaken identities, desperation and good deeds culminate into violence, fear and one turn of good luck. This film has perfect timing, compact but complex mechanisms within such a simple format— a Swiss watch of a narrative!

Silent Night

This short film by Harrison Norris was inspired by another film, Your Lucky Day, (Brown, 2010) and has been linked to a long tradition of multiple, intersecting narratives in study notes below.

It certainly jogs the mind as to the times people have crossed paths and how much impact we may have over each other.

Dir. Harrison Norris, Australia, 2011. Duration time 09:30 min.

Teaching Notes to come.

n1ckFG: Archiving digital media

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:53:32 +1000

n1ckFG: Archiving digital media:

n1ckfg:

I think it’s a mistake to think of film in general the same way as a paper book (probably the most rugged mass medium invented so far). It only lasts for a century if you store it in a controlled environment—and that costs money to maintain; it’s really only the very few reels our society values…

"Every great film should seem new every time you see it."

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:07:24 +1100

“Every great film should seem new every time you see it.”

- Roger Ebert (via vimeo)

Showcase: The Money Shot

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:24:23 +1100

A man starts photographing items to sell on eBay, looking to make some extra cash. He stumbles on what must be the supernatural, uncanny source of unlimited wealth— or is it?

Part of Campfire’s current “The Good Life” festival showcase, The Money Shot reflects on a philosophical mediation on the perception of a ‘good’ or purposeful life:

“The Money Shot alludes to one of the most common disappointments of the human condition: that we never quite reach the ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’.”

(You can read more from the film’s writer and director Graham Rathlin on the film’s concept and production here)

The Money Shot is a quirky neat little film that resonates with one of storytelling’s oldest themes: wish fulfillment.

So many stories, from our earliest childhood fairytales to the oldest myths rely on an unexpected turn of events: a fairy godmother, the call to adventure, buried treasure. Like revenge stories, there’s a vicarious pleasure in them. So it’s understandable that these stories connect to part of us that hopes for a change of circumstances to propel us into the story we wish we were living.

Drtr. Graham Rathlin, UK, 2011. Running time 4:24.

Teaching notes by Nicole James.

Showcased: Doll Face

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:12:00 +1100

Doll Face A spider-like automaton with a porcelain face watches a human woman on a screen, and paints herself to resemble her. Each cosmetic application makes her more and more lifelike, but things start to fall apart.

This creative animation raises possible topics like the influence of the media, identity, the beauty industry and conformity under examination but doesn’t offer much resolve, only more questions and a shattered punchline. What do you think? Is this the consequences of vanity, or is she being punished for reaching too far in a quest to forge a human life?

By Andrew Huang, United States, 2005. Running time 4:14 min.

Sweet Revenge: Sunrise Surprise

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:12:00 +1100

Matthew A. Smith’s wicked little comedic short about a nice lady reaping her hilarious and elaborate revenge on her rude young neighbour whose her all night ragers and constant noise are too much to live with. His heroine seems to know exactly what will drive her neighbour up the wall and set her teeth on edge—and she has herself some fun as well.

Who doesn’t relish a juicy, long drawn out revenge plot? From Dangerous Liasons to the prime time drama series, aptly named Revenge, there’s a vicious, vicarious guilty pleasure watching a well crafted barbed trap being set that audience have always loved. It may not be high minded, but writing stories of revenge is certainly fun as well.

Sunrise Surprise, Smith, Australia, 2011. Running time 6:24 min.

—M.C

Between the Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:54:00 +1100

Between the Devil & The Deep Blue Sea, Taylor & Schmidt, 2012

Campfire is supporting the release of Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea, a powerful and confronting film about asylum seekers’ journeys. The feature length documentary is screening tonight at Federation Square, and a 10:59 min version is available for viewing on the Campfire site. It’s yet another reminder to me of how important film is as a medium to communicate the lives and circumstances of other human beings in a deep, visceral way that is hard to dismiss.

What about you guys? How powerful and important is film as a way of understanding the world? Does watching a documentary over say, reading a news article or a book change your understanding of information or affect you differently? If you had to use another method of story telling over film, how would it affect what you wanted to say?

—M.C

About us

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:34:00 +1100

Running Campfire is a bit like making a film. There’s

heaps of passion behind it all,
lots of people involved,
piles of unique relationships with different people & organisations, and
not much money!

So we thought it was time to update our About Page.

The most significant recent addition is Miranda Camboni, assisting in production.
We give her a hearty welcome as she starts to settle into the role.

Have a squizz at the full details and metaphoric title-juggling :)

Happy New Year! There is much excitement bubbling beneath the...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:03:20 +1100

Happy New Year!

There is much excitement bubbling beneath the surface at Campfire - much to be glad about from last year, and even more to look forward to in 2013. We’ll be making improvements and changes based on all the engagement we had with teachers and school-related audiences last year, AND interaction for you, our filmmakers… that includes how we run this blog.

Keep in touch, and happy planning & thinking about the year ahead!

________

Richard

A great interview with director Pete Gleeson about his...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:13:16 +1100

A great interview with director Pete Gleeson about his Award-winning doco Something to Tell You. Nice work (again) Pete, and some great questions Tim, thanks for sharing.

Tim Hoar runs a regular blog called Not Now I’m Drinking Beer and Watching a Movie. Definitely worth a look :)

Producing across cultures

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:53:00 +1100

Room3’s AJ Clifford oversaw the production of some great work for the “End the Cycle” campaign we’re featuring during December-January at Campfire. We don’t take on many commissioned shorts at Campfire, but the style and nature of these have a particular interest for primary and secondary students. Here’s an interview with AJ about the project from start to finish.

Timeline of discussion above.

Enjoy.

Open letter to anyone travelling to Asia

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:15:23 +1100

A colleague of mine is travelling to Malaysia to live and work for a few weeks. We got talking about some of the creative friends he’s working with, and I immediately got excited about some potential film connections. The following is an email I sent to him, but I felt it was also worth putting this out there as a call to anyone who might have similar Asian connections.

Hey Rob,

Good to chat just now. Thought I’d shoot this off before I forgot about it.

We’re looking for anything from Malaysia (and Asia more broadly) that fits the following criteria:

Under 11mins in length

Gives insight into Malaysia, whether exploring culture, art, religion, politics, science, music, philosophy

Any genre — drama, doco, music vid, animation, digital story, other

Cannot be R rated (ie. anything up to MA 15+ rating is fine)

Preference given to content that generates discussion / makes people think — especially young people

Campfire is a non-exclusive distribution company (ie. you can keep your film on YouTube / Vimeo if it’s already there, but will look after it online if it’s not) and we get teacher-support notes written for each film. We’re not-for-profit, and are working with government bodies getting content that fits the new Australian Curriculum.

Let me know if you have any other questions… or send through my details through to anyone who you think might be interested.

Have a fab working-holiday!! I’m jealous!! :)

Cheers

It’s worth adding that there’s always a big call from schools about Buddhism too. Are there ANY short films exploring, celebrating, critiquing, promoting Buddhism?

Would love to hear from you if you have some.

Ideas? Links (online/offline)?

Thumbs up for music service

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:24:24 +1100

I’ve already written about score-a-score, but now i also have 1st hand experience. What this service lacks in technical perfection (yep, there were a few little bumps along the way) is amply made up for by Jordan’s personal and attentive service… really looking after us users of the service from both sides of the creative exchange.

Video completed.

Client happy.

Me happy.

Music composer happy.

Three cheers for Jordan and scoreAscore :)

Might have the promo video piece up online at some stage in the not-too-distant future too (that bit’s not up to me!)

shortfilmmasterpieces: A Story For Tomorrow Sweet travelog of...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:04:20 +1100

shortfilmmasterpieces:

A Story For Tomorrow

Sweet travelog of life #niceone

A massive week, with arguably the highlight being the...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:45:57 +1100

A massive week, with arguably the highlight being the Co-creative Communities Forum at ACMI on Thursday.

This was also my first experience of live Tweeting, which enhanced my appreciation of the day and how others were experiencing it. Keeps you in-tune with what’s being discussed up front. Not something I could do everyday, but certainly once in a while!

I learned a lot more about Twitter to (thanks largely to @cobismith) Thanks Cobi :)

Behind THE MONEY SHOT (Script included)

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:26:00 +1100

The Money Shot

In response to a request from Taylor Boxall at Tresham College, Kettering (UK), here’s a post about a top little film by Graham Rathlin. Simple and humorous, what first drew us to The Money Shot was the strength of its visual narrative — it’s completely devoid of dialogue — and its universal theme. Despite its humour, The Money Shot alludes to one of the most common disappointments of the human condition: that we never quite reach the ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’.

Now, here’s some background to the story, and evidence for film students that a plain looking script can end up as great little film.

So what was the back-story? (script follows)…

See the script, watch the film (preview, in full available for members).

THE IDEA

Reflecting on the inspiration, Graham wrote:

I’m never entirely sure where my ideas come from but twice now I have woken up with an idea fully formed in my head (as if I’d written it during the night). The Money Shot was one and my micro-short Little Snaps of Horror was the other one. I mean I didn’t have to do any development on these - the idea was there and that’s what I filmed.

I did this off my own bat, but with a bunch of guys I met on a film course for unemployed and low-wage people here called Digital Futures. While on the course the year before we made a short film called The Score.

THE PROMOTIONAL TWIST

The following details came as a bit of surprise to us, and is worthy of examination at a later date. For now it simply highlights the very nature of “filmmaking in the real world” and the layers of motivation & funding that lie behind any creative work!

I wanted to find an obscure beer in the film to use for the beer bottle part, so I googled ‘obscure beer’ and came across the Kirin First Cut competition run by Kirin Ichiban lager. I had been in no hurry to shoot the film before, but now I had a deadline if I wanted to get it into the competition. I rang Kirin Ichiban, told them what I was doing and asked them if I could have a case of beer - they happily obliged, so I got all the beer for free. I also came runner up in the competition and won £1000, so I was able to pay the crew, who had only received food and expenses up until then.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The film was shot in a friend’s flat which was very run-down. The weekend before the shoot my girlfriend and I painted the entire flat the colour that you see in the film.

The flat was on a flightpath, and if you listen carefully, you can here planes flying overhead. We couldn’t stop shooting every time a plane went over, so I’ve tried to match the sound as best I could in the edit so that the plane sounds match from one cut to the next.

NOTHING LIKE A DEADLINE!

The beauty of The Money Shot was, unlike some of the scripts which I’ve had hanging around for years because I can’t afford to make them, was that I knew I could make this for very little money: one actor, one location. You don’t get much more low budget than that.

I had to borrow the actual money used in the film.

Thanks for the story and the script, Graham. It’s always illuminating hearing how short films come in existence :)

Schmoozing at a festival, tips from a pro

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:43:00 +1100

So you’re off to a festival with your film. Time to schmooze!

Hmmm. If the whole idea of promoting yourself and your work in a crowd of strangers makes you nervous, you’re not alone. Does it come naturally for any of us? Not me, which is why I was impressed by Stephanie Hubbard when she responded to a first-time festival goer on a forum recently.

Stephanie runs a service helping filmmakers called “The Documentary Insider” — obviously for documentarians — but her advice is relevant to any filmmaker, especially those who spend more time in private behind a keyboard than out in public, talking it up.

Here, then, is a swag tips on making your festival experience count. Thanks Stephanie!

First off…

… congratulations on getting into a festival!

BEFORE HAND

Let the PR staff know you are coming and will be available for interviews with the press. Coordinate with them on setting up interviews/etc with the press and have your release ready to send to press outlets in the area of the festival. Set as many press “interactions”/appointments as possible. If you can practice answering questions before hand, like — “Why did you make this film” — then do so. Be prepared for questions so basic they are hard to answer. Know what you want to say about the film that you think will get people there.

Make up cards that have the specifics of when and where you film is screening, and be sure to include laurels from other fests it’s been in.

Find out when the parties are. Again, the press person for the festival might tell you - make sure you keep track of them - and schedule to go.

WHEN YOU GET THERE

Keep your press appointments
Go to everything you can with other filmmakers
Invite other filmmakers out to dinner if there is no party
Be friendly - walk up to people, introduce yourself. If they have a badge great, if they are “just there for the festival” even better invite them to your screening
On this note - invite other filmmakers to your screenings - and go to their screenings - this is the best way to bond with other filmmakers that I have found.
Bring business cards, hand them out freely. Carry a small notebook with you - take down info on filmmakers/anyone you want to connect with later who might not have a card. Don’t be shy about asking for their info and writing it down.
Follow up later, send an email later saying how nice it was to meet them or what ever.
See what you can do for others - if you know of some resource that might help someone - share it - email it to them - and ultimately give referrals.
HAVE FUN - hang out with people you like!

Good luck, and have fun!

Stephanie Hubbard

www.thedocumentaryinsider.com

Your films are in schools via Campfire

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 07:42:00 +1100

We’re excited.

Have you seen some of the comments about individual films?

These are quality responses from teachers and students. I think why I get excited personally is because, AS A FILMMAKER, I know it’s often hard to imagine how our work will be received and used. Especially true if our film was not originally made with a school audience in mind. Rock and Roll is the Only Thing That Makes me Feel Good was made as a music video to promote a song, but…

…it’s inspired students like Karla Brenner in relation to her Philosophy study that brought the subject to life.

Of the same short film chaplain Paul Joy said (see comment beneath the film):

“I used this in the opening session of a 5 day world religion workshop for Yr9s at Yarra Valley Grammar because it demonstrates what drives different people, what fulfils and sustains them and how people express themselves. I used it because it is confronting and explores issues that students would not expect to encounter at the beginning of a week looking at World Religions! I deliberately wanted to push to the kids that they should be thinking about this and that if they had responses over the next few days that they didn’t think was what I wanted to hear, that it was OK. We ended the week with Hope(SR)”

Australia’s Muslim Women was used by a head teacher of “RAVE” (Religion And Values Education) at Mentone Girls’ Grammar School. Kay McCullough said:

“This film helped to dispel the misconceptions about Islam and educate our girls (at Mentone Girls Grammar) about what it means to be a Muslim living in contemporary Australia. It showed them women have a choice about what they wear and the choice can be faith lead. The film really hits the spot as it is based in Melbourne and it humanises the Muslim women by showing them in a variety of contexts, including playing soccer.

One of our students, unbeknown to us, is a Chinese Muslim. The film reaffirmed for this student that her religion was not something to be ashamed of and she opened up to the class. It’s been a great tool to help prepare the students and complements our other excursions that include visits to a Mosque and the AMES work.”

There’s plenty more to come, along with comments we’ll be adding (beneath the film pages) over coming months from the teachers who write Fireside Notes for every film. In case you haven’t seen what these “Fireside Notes” (support notes for teachers) look like, there’s one here.

Fireside Notes for teachers

OK I know this seems like just a shameless plug, but it is really what we are on about, and to be honest, it’s what gets us excited — seeing artistic, creative short films being used in class… hearing about young people in schools really being challenged and inspired by them.

So filmmakers, a big thankyou for entrusting us with your wonderful films, and keep an eye out for more of this kind of feedback in times ahead :-)

Cool new filmmaking App

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 05:50:00 +1100

Cool new filmmaking App:

Nice :)

A Case Study in Releasing Your Video Online

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 07:01:33 +1100

Source: http://www.reelseo.com/filmmakers-share-secrets-releasing-short-film-online-case-study/

A good detailed analysis. “Capturing your fans” as they point out, is what it’s all about. Of course, if you think you might have fans in school, there’s always Campfire :)

As we’ve said before, we think it’s all about the audience.