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The process diary of film director Glendyn Ivin
Filtering by Category: Inspiration
If your interested in Stanley Kubrick, or interested in film, or just want to watch a great doco. Do yourself a favour and watch 'Stanley Kubrick's Boxes'. An excellent and often amusing doco about the thousands of boxes that Kubrick filled with ideas, research, reference and obsessions. Most of which had never been opened until this film was made. It doesn't get more process driven than this. Full film on YouTube, Part 1 of 5 HERE...
I'm very much in denial about the Melbourne International Film Festival which is currently in progress in this fair city. Over the past fifteen or so years it has been my main cinematic pleasure dome. I've been lucky enough to travel to many of the worlds great film festivals, but Melbourne is and will always be, my number one. There have been years where I have gone into lock down for the two weeks and seen around 40 films. Thats between 3-5 a day for the duration. Bliss! But this year I'm embarrassed to say I haven't even had a chance to leaf through the programme. So wrong! I've just been way too busy. Which is good and bad all wrapped up into one.
So instead I have been trying to catch up on a few 'at home' screenings. Working my way through some of the 1500 before I die. And just like a film festival proper I lucked upon an amazing documentary. The other night in the wee small hours I watched Carts Of Darkness and it was so worth missing an hour of sleep for. You can watch the whole thing below. Or perhaps just wet your appetite with the trailer.
On the surface the film is about a bunch of homeless guys who have developed their own extreme sport where they ride shopping trolleys down super steep hills. But of course like all great films, it's about so much more.
The film is directed by Murray Siple who also features in the film. I don't want to say to much about this as his presence is one of the more surprisingly wonderful aspects of 'Carts', particularly the final sequence of the film which in it's own surreal way is one of the most uplifting and life affirming endings to a film I've ever seen.
I read an interview with Murray today where he discussed the way he approached the film. "I want to make the kind of films where I'm involved beyond directing and actually a part of it. Where I'm not just an outsider pretending it's something cool to document... Make the film "with" them not "about" them." this kind of filmmaking, where it's an immersive experience for everyone involved is such an amazing way of making films, especially documentary. On a personal and professional level it's something I crave.
I must admit I have purchased a few Criterion Collection DVD's over the years not so much for the films, but for the stunning DVD box art. So, so good. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful image and simple, considered typography, and it doesn't get much better than this. Oh, and the films are not to bad either ; ) I just want them all!
I find it interesting when people concentrate on the negatives rather than the positives. Particularly when it comes to technology.
The hilarious animation above was sent to me five times yesterday. Although all the arguments the little bear 'cinematographer' give seem valid. I think the little bear 'producer' is making the most sense.
If you would like to argue, perhaps you should first watch the clip below. Directed by fellow Exiteer Garth Davis and shot by Greig Fraser, who tells me "there were no lights used at all" during the shoot. It was also made with a small crew, the only way of making (in this circumstance), the seemingly impossible, possible.
Ride was the 'main event' film that my film Playground (see post below) and my friend Jono's film Peepshow was made in support of.
Greig used Panovision 'film' lenses on the 5D (using a PL mount). Which makes the 5D even more viable aesthetically. I have seen Ride at full rez and it's even more beautiful. It would be just as stunning blown up and projected onto a cinema screen as well I'm sure. Screw you little cinematographer bear!
I promise this will be my last gushy 5D post for a while...
Trying to be in the moment, but always thinking ahead.
Speaking of the continual search for locations to shoot... I was fascinated to came across a photographer today who explores altogether different worlds for his images. Robert Overweg 'photographs' in the virtual worlds of games like Half Life and Modern Warfare. I love the beautifully eerie and haunting tone of this series where he explores the outer limits of the games designed world. Where the virtual world just 'ends'. Stunning light, landscape and architecture.
This past week I've been heading out most days to scout extra locations for my episodes of Offspring. I can't really publish any of the location shots at this point, but I do love all the other images that get gathered along the way. As I have mentioned before I really love the process of searching for places to shoot, for me it will always be one of the most enjoyable stages of any production. Whether it be exploring the world, or in this case my own neighbourhood, I find there is always interesting detail and beauty in the most unexpected places.
Wasted far to much time over the weekend at Awkward Family Photos. One of the funniest photo blogs on the internet for sure. A few personal highlights below. So, so awkward.
My good friend Ryley is currently in South Africa catching some 'World Cup' action. Every few days he's been sending me some highlights, not of the football, but of some of the amazing photographs he is taking. Ryley is a keen street photographer, and it looks as though he is in his element. You can see more of Ryley's photographs here.
I think it's a Wim Wenders book of photographs called Pictures From The Surface Of The Earth where in his introduction he asks the reader to view each photograph as the opening frame of a movie. Not a still image from a film, but the opening frame from the opening scene of a film. It's a really interesting exercise to get you thinking about 'stories', about the things that may happen after a particular image. Or, as in the photos below, what may have happened before...
Photos by John Luke Smalley
Speaking of Easy Riders... I'll never ever be as cool as Hopper and Fonda but here are a couple of shots of me on my new ride, the 09 Triumph Thruxton! Photos from a quick and wet Sunday afternoon ride in the country, shot very much in situ by my friend Mike. Good times.
Those that know me a little will know I'm totally OCD when it comes to anything related to NIN and Trent Reznor. I recently posted about Trent's new side project How To Destroy Angels and am very happy to say that the new ep is now available for FREE at their website. Yes, for FREE!
Trent has pretty much given away his last few releases. His approach it seems to getting around the whole music piracy thing is to either give the music away, or sell it for very little via his own website. It's very clever. The thinking being, that the music is not a commodity but rather a creative asset, and part of much bigger and deeper, b(r)and / consumer relationship. Of course there will be a hard copy of the album for sale in a few weeks. I'll be waiting and paying happily for the vinyl! And if you followed the link to the free download, you'd see a bunch of other things you can 'buy' that can't be downloaded and digitally copied. See how this free thing works?!
Once again Trent and team have provided beautiful artwork. I'm so fascinated by the illustrations that adorn the album artwork and website. Such a beautiful colour palette, design and tone. Oh and the music is everything you would expect. There is a little bit of the last 6 NIN albums mixed with the smokey whispered vocals of Mariqueen Maandig. Do yourself a favour.
Sad to hear that Dennis Hopper has passed away. I've seen a bunch of Dennis Hopper films but the one that will stay with me will always be Easy Rider. I saw it when I was 19 years old on VHS. There was something about that film which really clicked with me. I'm sure alot of the American counter culture flew over my head, but the sense of adventure struck deep. It inspired my early love of travel and in particular hitch-hiking. I went on many hitch-hiking journeys with a dubbed VHS copy of Easy Rider in my bag as good luck charm.
While at university I found a book of photographs by Dennis Hopper . In the front of the book he wrote an introduction telling a story of when he was a kid he drank petrol, stared at the sun and went blind for a couple of weeks. He went on to discuss how this had altered the way he would 'see the world' for ever. That story has always stayed with me too. Crazy.
In looking through a bunch of a YouTube clips I found some snippets from a film called The American Dreamer. I have never seen this film, but it looks to be a pretty cool 'behind the scenes' of Hoppers follow up to Easy Rider a film called 'The Last Movie'. I'm going to try and track down a copy because it looks pretty promising. (Bit's of this clip look like a whole heap like another film I love. But thats a whole other post...)
What was your favourite Dennis Hopper film? He directed, produced, starred and featured in over 200 of them!
