05_Opportunities

So this week's blog is a late night entry...

Its 11.30pm and I've just gotten home from a long meeting with Max, the director of ABC's Catalyst. We spent the evening scrutinizing  my application for the new tv show with Andrew Denton's production house and Triple J. I've utilised every spare minute of the past two weeks to put my application together, and tonight I had gotten to a stage where I was happy with it. But there's still a bit of a way to go. 

Max had the genius idea of submitting a second application under an alias name, to tick some of the other boxes that my application is avoiding, then filming the entire process right up to the submission, then handing it in with my alias application as my video piece. 

You know... just something to be bold!

So we nutted out what we can  deduce as what they are looking for. Bit of a tough one, but we think we got there.

So a couple more days until its due, then I'm taking the big drive back to Adelaide (thankfully with Sim as some company). 

In between applications and actual work, I've been planning and planning and re-planning for our shoot next week at Concordia College. It's going to be a 7 minute prospectus DVD for new families, covering all the 'new highschool' questions. It'll be a tightly run shoot, but should look fantastic.

I also managed a few crazy things amongst the week. I went along to the Mardi Gras on Saturday night... well actually I missed it because Sim, AJ and I had a late dinner at the Woolwich pub before catching the ferry into the city at 10. 

But the sight of chaotic mess all the way up Oxford St was worth the trip. There's was kilometeres of confetti, coloured plastic chairs, rainbow flags, dancing old men in slinky leather and drunk women with giant angel wings! The aftermath was definitely a lot of fun!

(not my picture... but I'm sure you get the drift!)

El and I went to see the Warratah's play on Friday night (thats rugby for all of you playing along at home). As hesitant as I was, it was a lot of fun - once you get into it that is. You have to yell obscenities at the umpire and shout tactical advice to the players to really embrace the moment!

Once again, Nick and I cooked up a storm in the kitchen tonight. The menu this week was fresh ginger fish with bocchini, followed by rhubarb crumble. The meal was cooked with exact precision; Nick mastering the stop watch for perfect cooking times, and I handled measuring each ingredient down to the mg!

Two fat ladies, suck on that!

So back into the office tomorrow. 

They've started to get me to do some more interesting things for them now, shooting some promo footage, shopping for a cargo barrier, and even some graphic design work for the website... so check out the website soon for some funky new backgrounds!

So not a bad week really!

Take care

Henry

x

04_Out in the big world

Hi all

I didn’t think anyone was reading these, but apparently you are! So I’ll make sure they’re more frequent – each Tuesday I’ll put a new one up.

 

I just got back from a jam-packed 5 days back

 home in Adelaide. I went to the premiere of ‘Coffin Rock’ and ‘Closed for Winter’ (originally ‘Elise’) on Thursday and Friday night. Both looked fantastic, but when Closed for Winter is released in cinemas in April try and get along to it. It looks beautiful, sounds beautiful and Natalie Imbruglia is great throughout. Definitely worth going along to, and you’ll probably recognise parts of Adelaide and a lot of Semaphore.

I also went to ‘Soundwave’ on Saturday – a huge music festival at Bonython Park, and caught up with some great road-tripping friends, before checking out Mike Stewart’s Big Band. Go and check them out during the fringe. They’re playing everywhere and are a lot of fun!

Soundwave

We went out for Matt Kaesler’s birthday on Sunday night – apologies to Jules, I dragged him along to another jazz gig... not really his cup of tea! But we met a couple of Matt’s Uni mates so things balanced out!

 

Last night, Joel and I began planning a corporate video we’re shooting for Concordia – so that’s another trip back to SA very soon! This time however I’ll be daring the big drive over so I can bring all the gear over for the shoot. So if anyone’s in Sydney later this month and wants to share a lift back give me a yell!

 

Filmview have still been keeping me busy at work. We didn’t have many commercials last month but I was kept busy between the office and the warehouse. Always plenty to do there seems! I’ll have to take a photo of the warehouse... it’s a huge old building that has been gutted and filled with hundreds of storage garages. To get into our warehouse its an amazingly narrow rabbits warren of corridor-like driveways.

I worked solely on my first commercial as well a couple of weeks ago. It was a straight forward shoot for sunbeam, advertising irons, coffee machines, mixers and kettles. Very exciting! Even though it was pretty simple, I was pretty chuffed to have started and finished it on my own. So now I’m out in the big wide world, representing our company on shoots.

 

Ive also been looking into some other opportunities to shoot and direct some of my own work. I’m mid-way through applying for a new TV show that Triple J and ABC is putting together. Andrew Denton and his company have asked for applicants aged 18-30 to apply to shoot/direct/host/research/edit the show – the whole she-bang! It looks like a brilliant opportunity to break out into TV as a young cinematographer. The lengthy application is taking plenty of time to complete, as it includes a long written section, a full CV, examples of my work and additionally I must write, shoot and edit a short piece of my choice to demonstrate what I can do with whatever facilities I can get my hands on! Its all coming together quite well.

 

So back to work tomorrow. Ive been looking forward to a run and swim in the morning!

 

Take care

 

Henry

03_Settling in

Ive finally gotten up to putting another blog up.

 

Filmview have been keeping me busy for the last few weeks putting me out on commercials on my own. I even managed to pull a 25 hour day last week with two commercials backing right onto each other!

 

Ive been trying to run and swim as often as I can with Sim. Weve been running along the coast between Bondi and Bronte, through Centennial Park, swimming at the Bronte sea pool and at the Cook + Phillip underground pool beneath Hyde Park in the city.

 

We went out exploring the city last night for Valentines Day with a ‘local’; AJ, the steadicam operator from the last feature we all did together in SA. Had a great dinner in Chinatown and got rained out in Darling Harbour.

 

Planning a big drive south tomorrow to shoot the Fitzroy Falls for a background film for Concordia’s musical ‘Children of Eden’.

 

Got a short 2 day commercial at the end of this week, before flying back to SA next Thursday for the premiere of ‘Coffin Rock’ and the first feature film I worked on; ‘Closed for Winter’. It will be great to catch up with the SA film mob!

 

I wont write too much. I’ll let my pictures tell my stories:

 

Henry

x

Looking back at Sydney from Kings Cross

Hyde Park, and beyond, St Mary's Catholic Church

Inside St Mary's

Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour

At my bus stop

Down at the river with the family

Lucca loved the mud!

This is all thats left of our river

My flowers I got after working on a Telstra commercial in a florist

02_First week with Filmview

So the first week of work in Sydney has finished. 5 days of work came as a bit of a shock as I hadn’t worked on set since Scott Hick’s film ‘The Boys Are Back’ which finished early December.

On Tuesday I did my first day in the Filmview office in Alexandria. Tim showed me around; pointing out the important things like the coffee shops, the best restaurants, the local pub and free parking. We ventured out to the warehouse where all of our equipment is stored. Later this week we are relocating the warehouse to a bigger premises. Can’t wait for 2 days of moving and lifting. We’ve got over 7km worth of cables to get into the trucks!Tim also gave me a long introductory lesson on how to use the kit we take out on commercials so that I can be trained up and sent out to operate the video playback on TV commercials and feature films.

On Wednesday I assisted Tim on a KFC commercial out the other side of town. A 6am start ensured we had use of the most daylight without being out in the heat too long. The humidity is taking a while to get acclimatised to. We shot at a KFC store and a supermarket before finishing for the day at 2.30pm. A great first day on set!

On Thursday I left the KFC shoot to assist the Daemon; the partner operator of Filmview, on a commercial for a new VW car model. We were shooting on the Phantom camera which has the ability to shoot at extremely high frame rates so that when played back the footage is in super slow-mo (the same camera used for the Schweppes balloon bursting ad). Unfortunately this shoot wasn’t as straightforward and successful as my previous day. Simply, the day was a write off. After reviewing the slow-mo footage in the post house, the director, cinematographer and producers found that the footage was not useable. Whether an equipment malfunction or lack of experience with High Definition on the cinematographer’s behalf no one knows or will admit. So the shoot has been postponed until further notice.

Friday I was back with Tim and joined him for the next two days to complete the KFC TVC. By Friday afternoon Tim had me operating on set alone, so decided to get me to operate solely for all of Saturday. I was nervous as hell about the day, but managed to fly through without hiccup. After the shoot I went to the Jazz festival in the Domain with Sim to enjoy some great music from the Gypsy Kings and Queens. As Tim told me, because Sydney is so expensive, any free event held attracts so many people. So once again the park was packed with thousands of people, and there was a surprisingly large fan base of gypsies that came out of the woodwork for the night!

The Jazz Festival in the Domain

So after five days of work I had three days off - tough life! I spent Sunday in the sun with Sim back down at the Bronte sea pool near Bondi before retiring to the humongous 13 story Westfield in Bondi to see Frost/Nixon at the movies. 

Sim and I at Bronte

The sea pool at Bronte

Bronte beach

Then that night there was the family dinner back at the Atkin/Haddrick household. Cousins Sandy and Chuddley joined us for Johnnies mustard Salmon and fruit salad.

Yesterday I rode down to the ferry and headed into the city on my bike. With little geographical idea about the city, I somehow managed to find my way to Darling Harbour where it was packed full of tourists squeezing in last minute trips before school recommences.

My ferry stop on the harbour

A regular scene on George street

Back at home it was my night to cook for Judy, Johnny and El. I created Euge’s famous spag-bog with chilli and red wine with fresh garlic bread. No one has come down terminally ill yet so it mustn’t have been too bad!

This week I have began to slip into more of a living pattern, having been given jobs from Judy, doing my own washing, swimming with Sim at Bronte each morning, having breakfasts with Johnny and wallowing through movies and countless episodes of the OC with El. Not to mention loving my new employment with Tim & Daemon.

Tonight I’m heading out with El, Hugh, Sandy & Chuddley to see The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button at the cinema in Newtown, then having Judy and Johnny join us all for dinner at Hugh’s new place.

Hope everyone is keeping well.
Drop me a message is you have time. I’d love to hear what everyone is up to

Henry
x

01_Moving to Sydney

So begins a new adventure on the Eastern coast!

After dropping Claira and Mum at the airport, Dad and I began the 2 day drive across the border through Victoria and on to NSW on Tuesday 6th Jan. My new car ('Liquid Magma' - preferably pronounced in Dr Evil voice) was packed to the roof with clothes, my guitar, a bike, countless boxes of DVDs and my computers. Staying in Waga Waga overnight then taking a more scenic route through the Blue Mountains, we arrived in Sydney late Wed afternoon. Post 2 days of retail therapy in Sydney city, Mum and Claira met us at my new home; with the

 Atkin/Haddrick family in Hunters Hill.

My new home in Hunters Hill

Toocooya Rd, Hunters Hill

My new room

Having the family come over to help me settle in was great. We spent our couple of days together in and around Sydney, discovering its many shopping malls and tourist attractions. The Chinese Gardens in Darling Harbour were particularly amazing; a green oasis in the middle of an urban jungle.

We ventured out across the city to the NSW art gallery to see the Impressionists exhibition. Then in stark contrast Dad drove us through the crazy Sydney traffic out to visit the Westfield at Bondi. Standing 13 stories high packed full of shops, food courts and cinemas, it makes Marion seem quite insignificant.

Dad also decided to test out both his and my GPS on a trip out to my new work. With me in the driving seat trying to wade through traffic and Dad alongside in the passenger seat, Mum and Claira were left to panic in the back seats. Regardless of both conflicting GPS directions and that of a 2009 Sydney street directory, we got lost. Many times. We eventually arrived in Alexandria at the offices of 'Film View' where I was able to meet Daemon, 1 of the 2 owners and operators of the company. I will be working between the office and the warehouse, and out on locations around NSW. 

Then early on Sunday morning, after a big night out with 2 Adelaide friends at the opening night of the Sydney Festival, I took Mum, Dad and Claira to the airport for a sad farewell.

So my honeymoon period is almost over. I start work tomorrow (Tuesday 13th) on a 4 day television commercial. 1 day to prepare the truck and equipment for the shoot, then 3 days out on location for principal photography. So my expectations of only 2 days of work are out the window which is great news for me!

I'll keep this blog up to date with my new Sydney life!

Henry xx