Work work busy busy

It almost felt like back in the good old days at the NFT, sitting in the office until 3am, beer in hand, iTunes blasting, take-out Thai when things were getting slow, shouting questions across the office as we all worked through the pain barrier, but this was somehow different… There was air conditioning for a start. Oh, and windows. And the lovely Mr Dan Smith had been replaced by a blonde Swedish female, and I didn’t have Cosi, Marc, Stephen, Camilla or Neda there to share the moment with. Plus, the 3ams in Sydney don’t happen every night for 6 months – they’re once in a blue moon. This is what life should be like!

I’ve been working hard, as you can probably tell from my delirium, to get my shiny new website up and running – isn’t it beautiful? I’m so proud… It’s not the full festival website – that will be launched on 9 May. This one’s just a teaser – an interim website to leave people wanting more. Over the next few weeks it will grow and have lots of fab content, but I’m still really pleased. After working with Dan for the last few years on the festival websites in London, it was with horror that I encountered the website I was to take over in this job. It was one of my first major goals to give it a complete overhaul and make it a rich and innovative place where people felt they were being taken behind the scenes of the festival, and which enriched their festival experience. Hopefully I’m one step nearer to that with this teaser site.

Creating the main image for the festival was a blast too. I organised a photoshoot last week in Wentworth Park in West Sydney, with a range of actors and even a couple of cute dogs! We waited until the footballers’ floodlights were turned off at 10pm, and began our photoshoot. We had a cherry-picker (like a small crane crossed with a window-cleaner’s hoist) which some poor sod sat up in until 4am pointing a spotlight down onto the park ground. Then two colleagues who I’d dragged from the office operated the smoke machine, wafting the smoke with a wooden board until it flowed beautifully and eerily in the spotlight. Meanwhile each actor got a crick in their neck as they took it in turns to gawp upwards into the light for about an hour each. What fun. It doesn’t sound very glamorous (sorry if I’ve taken the mystique out of it for you!) but the images we have for our campaign are beautiful. We’re only using one lead image at the moment, but we’re rolling out the rest over the next few weeks. I’m really looking forward to working with this idea and developing a really strong and effective campaign.

The campaign's hero image


So, for those of you who wonder what it is that I do with my days, and what took me all the way to the other side of the world, check out my mini biog on the Our team page (that was my idea) – you can also see the lovely Australians I work with.

Location, location, location


I’m moving house tomorrow so my next blog will be from my lovely new place in Bondi, 5 minutes walk from the sea. Home sweet home.

cx

Fillums fillums and more fillums

Am back in Sydney from my jaunt in Adelaide. And what fun was had. It’s great visiting other film festivals as a delegate – you get treated v well and don’t have to pay for anything – I could definitely get used to this life. My days in Adelaide consisted mainly of films, (occasionally interspersed with food, working on the laptop in the State Library, and the odd festival drinks event). I did manage to fit in a trip to the art gallery, which was pretty fab – they had a cute little video art exhibition on, which I took some pics of (check them out on flickr).

Film Festivals are a strange experience – just as your breakfast is going down and the sun is getting high, you settle in a darkened and air conditioned room, and allow yourself to be transported to another reality, then you stagger out two hours later into the blazing sun, grab some lunch, then plunge into another cinema, later dragging yourself back into the real world, only to repeat it all again – in my case only 3 times a day for 5 days, but some festival programmers average 5 films a day and can be on the road at consecutive festivals for a month at a time – it’s an emotionally and mentally exhausting experience. I had the good fortune to see some fantastic and often uplifting films, but my chum Matt made some unfortunate program decisions and had a couple of days of back-to-back depressing films. Here are my faves of the AFF:

Infamous – cracking film – I think it might have been out in the UK already – if you thought Capote was good then go and see this – you’ll be blown away by Toby Jones’ performance as Truman Capote.




Still Life – this beautifully made Chinese film had some exquisitely composed and lingering shots, and transported me to a world where a dam causes a whole community to be submerged and disappear, and a man doesn’t call his wife for two years and then asks ‘are things alright at home?’ Episodes from this film are still echoing in my mind. Brilliant.




Dr Plonk – silent film by Rolf de Heer that closed the festival. (World Premiere.) I thought this was going to be a painful experience, but was stunned at how well it worked – and the audience loved it. A captivating time-travel comedy with a live accompaniment by the all-girl Stilletto Sisters. I almost feel like it heralds in a new era of cinema.




Home Song Stories – another World Premiere, this Australian film centres around a Chinese immigrant family in 70s Melbourne, with a fantastic performance from Joan Chen as a night club singer and mother of two. The film deals with how her unstable, turbulent lifestyle affects her children, and while there was one too many suicide attempt for my liking, and it became a bit rambly and lost direction, it was still a great character study.




The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema – fascinating romp through cinema theory (including the cinema of Hitchcock, David Lynch, Tarkovsky) led by Slovenian-born cultural critic Slavoj Zizek – total dude and my new hero. Will read up on his theories and am sure I'll bore you with how wonderful he is once again. Not that I agree with him 100% but I like his approach to film, that’s for sure.




Oh and lots lots more, but won’t attempt to put it all on here.

Am now back in Sydney, working very hard, and looking forward to my festival brand and website launch in a couple of weeks. Good luck to all you guys at the NFT, (sorry, BFI Southbank), for your venue launch this week, let me know how it goes. I eagerly await write-ups on the BBC and Guardian websites (my main ways of keeping in touch!).

More pics of me enjoying Adelaide on my flickr page. Drop me a line if you need me to invite you as a contact (the page is set to private).

cx

Going Interstate

Greetings from sunny Adelaide, where I’m here for the Adelaide Film Festival. This is my first trip ‘interstate’ which means I’ve left my home in New South Wales (NSW) and am now in the state of South Australia (SA) – there are all sorts of strange rules about going interstate which dictate your behaviour (apparently), but all I keep thinking of is the fact that I flew here on a plane, the distance is about the same as London-Warsaw or something, and no-one even asked to look at my passport! Crazy.

Film fan in Adelaide

Five Fascinating Facts about Adelaide

1) Adelaide is in a different time zone! Yes, I’m currently half an hour behind Sydney, so only 10 1/2 hours in front of the UK. Can’t really see the point of this, but there you go.
2) Adelaide has the largest number of churches per capita than any other place in the world.
3) This weekend the Clipsall motorcar race is taking place in Adelaide, bringing a certain type of fan to town. The place is absolutely teeming with bogans (Bogan = Aussie slang for Chav). Wonderful.
4) Next weekend is Womadelaide – literally Womad in Adelaide – sweet!
5) It’s bloody hot. If you hear no more from me it’s because I’ve melted. Plus the air is really dry. You don’t know what Thirst is until you’ve been here.

So I’m watching plenty of movies, hanging out with the lovely Matt, and attempting to meet lots of cool and influential film types. Will take some photos and fill you in on my adventures when I’m back in Sydney next week.

cx