Old Man Love

Well I’ve finally made Old Man Love public.

A vindictive old man creates a Voodoo Doll to emotionally torment his enemy. Little does he realise, playing with other peoples emotions can have unexpected results.
Shot in a Katoomba Cafe named Blue Hour, this is a completely no budget short film shot with actors and crew living in the Blue Mountains of NSW Australia.
Shot the Cafe scenes with a Sony Z7 and the Study scenes with my Canon 550D.

This was a big learning experience for me. I loved every minute of it, but there were definite issues that arose in the shooting and editing processes.

Old Man Love from Guy Jamieson on Vimeo.

Digicell TVC

Recently finished animating on a TVC for Digicell. Directed by Stefan Wernik, I was one of the two animators on the project. There are 2 of these TVC’s, and I have to admit, they look pretty nice..

Digicel Pacific TVC from Stefan Wernik on Vimeo.

How to Write a Screenplay

If your trying to get your the first draft of you feature film screenplay completed, like me, and you’ve been reading a mirriad of books in the hope of finding the right tools to help you out, stop looking.

To start off, keep it simple. Keep it very simple.

SCREENPLAY STRUCTURE
THE FIVE KEY TURNING POINTS OF ALL SUCCESSFUL SCRIPTS

I read this article the other day, and it’s helped me out so much. In fact there are quite a number of articles worth reading on this site. The one titled Arena’s and Finish Lines is fantastic. It really convinced me to define my hero characters goals more clearly. And as a result, I’m giving my structure a bit of a rewrite.

Michael Hauge is one of those screen writing gurus that I actually follow quite easily. Although I haven’t read all of his book yet(I takes me a long time to read a reference book), I’ve learnt quite a lot from skimming through the various topics.
My motto is Learn by Doing. You can read and learn as much as you want, but in the end, it can very easily be just another way for you to procrastinate.

I just love it when the pieces of my screenplay puzzle start to fit together..

Movies I’m embarrassed to like

There are a few movies that, as a film maker, I’m kinda embarrassed to let people know that I like. I’m slightly scared that potential producers will see my passion for movies that have done spectacularly bad at the box office, as a bad thing..
But, it’s not like me to keep my thoughts locked up inside. So here’s a movie I like, and one I don’t like, and my reflections on the matter.

Speed Racer
I loved this film. It is such a guilty pleasure to rewatch this movie when I have a night to myself. So much so, that I just bought it on BlueRay. (Even though I don’t have a BlueRay player, figure that one out..)
Why do I like this film? Well for starters, the opening sequence is a corker. I just love it. The race with the back story woven in there. All that exposition rammed down our throats in such a way that i didn’t gag at all. Genius.

The next 2 hours of the film is a story about a boy who wants to follow his passion without the need to sell out to achieve his dream. It’s something that I can imagine a lot of Hollywood film makers go through. Do you leave your dream of making you own independent films to work for a big studio that will try to control your film, but offer you financial and big name success? Or do you step into the unknown, and follow your heart instead of your head?
I wonder if the Wachowski brothers had a similar experience to what happened to Speedy…

The finale, emotionally really pushes my buttons for some reason. I know a lot of people don’t feel the same way, and that’s cool. But it does make me realise how different stories can move people different ways determined by the viewers emotional past.

The story of someone reaching their true potential and changing the world is something that rings true to me. My childhood was spent watching Jap cartoons. Astro boy and Defenders of the Planet were the main ones. I grew up wanting to be a person that saved the world. I believed I was destined for great things. But then life happened.
I remember during one of my many viewings of Speed Racer I was feeling a little sick and maybe a tad emotionally vulnerable. I cried like a baby at the end. Speedy became a hero that battled against all odds, he embraced his passion and purpose and was rewarded because of it, in the greatest possible way. Christina Ricci and Milk…

Up
Yes, the pixar film that scored 98% on rotten tomatoes and 8.4 on imdb. I thought it was terrible. Like Speed Racer, the opening sequence was wonderful. One of the most moving pieces of story telling I’ve ever seen. But then something happened, it turned into a kids film. I completely lost all emotional attachment to the characters. Except the dog. I really liked the talking dog.
But yeah, the old man just wasn’t likeable enough. I had real sympathy for him at times, but I don’t think he ever really stepped out of being a grumpy shit. He needed something else to keep me caring. I admit I’m a little cynical towards the film. As I’m sitting here remembering the movie, there are some great moments. It’s packed with that Pixar sentimentality that we all know and seem to love. But it just seems scattered and the concept a little too abstract.

But what do I know? One of my favorite Pixar films is Cars..

Broken Promises

I recently made a pact with myself and some friends that I was going to make a couple of short films a month. Just small dialogue based things that can be acted by my wife and I.
I managed to finish one pretty quickly. All up it took me about 5 hours of writing, shooting and editing. So, to complete a couple of these every month didn’t seem like too much of of stretch.
I uploaded my first attempt to Vimeo and stated my plan. I was ready.

I’m not a Pussy! from Guy Jamieson on Vimeo.

I started writing, but I didn’t really like anything that was going down. They were sounding too whingy, or they were just going nowhere. In the whole reason for the project, the writing wasn’t even an issue. I didn’t care that the writing was bad, I was doing this to practice directing, editing, writing and even my acting. And once each film was finished, I could step back and look at where I was successful, and where I big time sucked.

But I hit a wall.

My writing block stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to create these films that were theoretically simple. But I could barely jump off the starting block. What was stopping me?

Well for starters, I wasn’t really getting far on the writing. I tried for about a week, then kinda gave up. Isn’t it funny how easily we can break a promise..
Then, I scored a job in the city. I wasn’t going to be home much over the next month, which would make the whole process kinda tricky. And I didn’t have a laptop at the time, so writing would be hard.

But in the end, these were just excuses. I could have written on paper, or even on my iphone. Then filmed on the weekend or late at night.

What I’ve learned in this process is that I can break down any excuse. For every reason that you can’t follow your dream, there’s a reason why you can.

There are no things external stopping me. The only thing stopping me is me.

The real kick in the balls was when a stranger left a comment on my vimeo account saying “So you broke your promise”.

ShowReel Updates

I’ve just updated my reel with a few new shots.

First one is a Dino composite I did whilst working for Hive Studios. It’s the one with a bunch of dino’s running toward the camera. I only comped this, didn’t do any animation here.

Next shot is a motion graphics work mainly produced in 3D. It’s a corporate job teaching the processes of filing. A completely bland topic that we managed to spruce up a bit.

Anyway, I’m finding myself doing more and more motion graphics work at moment. An area that I didn’t really think I’d be heading towards. But, here we are, and I’m really enjoying it!

Filming!!

I have just completed of my first day EVER, of Directing.

I was very excited leading up. Nervous like you wouldn’t believe. Everything in my ultimate life plan was beginning with this moment.

I had about 12 unpaid actors, extras and crew to manage inside a closed cafe. So I knew I had to be organised. To start with, I used my 3D skills to whip up an animatic/previs type thing. They were completely invaluable. I showed the camera/lighting guys my creation and they made me go back and do it all again. But this time, from different angles to make use of available light, using the environment better etc.
Here’s one of the animatics www.mustardfilms.com.au/films/OldManLove-Scene01_v002.m4v

In the morning when we arrived, we grouped all the shots into about 3 different lighting setup groups. We then shot the groups. We shot about 4 minutes in 12 hours.

God it was exhausting.

Things I learnt.
This is the important stuff here. This film was always about me taking the first step into my dreams and, whether it worked or not, I was determined to learn as much as I could from the experience.
So, this is what I think I have learnt and what I think I’m going to do differently next time.

1. Tell everyone that if they are going to be helping out, they’ll need to make themself available for the whole day. Especially the main actors and extras. I was stupid and thought the whole shoot would take half the time.. Yes, I WAS naive
I guess, will a little more experience I’ll be better able to gauge how long it’ll take to shoot. But I’m sure shit happens.

2. It’s the directors job to get good performances from their actors/actresses. If it’s not working, then your not communicating well enough what the characters motivations are, or what the actor is doing wrong. So, I guess, when your running through the script initially with everyone, really ensure that the actors understand their characters.
There is no time to do retake after retake on the day of shooting(especially when no one is getting paid to hang around). So make sure your actors are going to do great takes, every time.

3. I had a good DP and a great production manager/helper type of person. They took so much of the stress away. If these guys were newbies, I wouldn’t have shot half of what I did in the time I had.

4. Tripple check that the sound is recording properly. Play back takes that have new sound setups, with your headphones on. To make sure levels are right and background noise isn’t an issue.

5. Eat and drink like you normally would. Do lunch and arvo tea as normal. Don’t just snack all day on nuts and chocolate. Don’t drink more or less coffee than you normally would either.

6. Keep as little number of people on the set as needed. If your not going to need someone for an hour, let them know and give them the oportunity to go for a walk, get some food or something.
Things went smoother when there where less people around. I don’t know if it was me being easily distracted or what. But things just seemed easier with a less overflow of people.

7. The more organised you are, and the quicker the shoot goes, the happier the whole crew is going to be.

I still have another scene to shoot. The next one is in a house though, with much less people needed. Hopefully easier…

New Showreel

Yes, the time has come for me to upload a new reel. The two years I spent at Hive Studios has come to an end and I am braving the world of the Freelance Animator once more.
Thankyou Hive for the wonderful time.

Click on the showreel page to view my latest achievements.

Now, lets see if I have the audacity to get off my ass and make some films in this time that I have free..

Dramatic Incredible Panda Fight

Oh My God. Just returned from Kung Fu Panda. I assume everyone’s heard the hype/seen the movie by now. Just like to say “awesome”. Couldn’t really fault it really.

So, of course the big question on everyone’s lips is “is Kung Fu Panda better than the Incredibles?”
I’m comparing these 2 films, because they are the only 2 cg animated action films that are remotely of the same high quality(if there’s another one, let me know cause, I ‘aint seen it).

I would like to tackle this amazingly important question in 2 parts.

1. The mo fo action. Kung Fu Panda action was all oh so beautiful. It really left me wanting more. Don’t misconstrue my level of film intellect here.. I love my drama and stuff , but the action in this film really had me so damn excited, I felt like a little boy again. The fight scene choreography was simply awe inspiring, funny and quite original. There were 4 main action sequences of note.
Now the action sequences in the Incredibles were, of course, great. But they left me thinking that I’d missed out on something. To help clarify my point, in the Incredibles, during the whole chasing through the forest sequence. When the family re-unite and start beating up the henchmen together with the whole family using their powers, this part of the action only lasts for about 10 seconds! I can see the director was only trying to build up the suspense for the last sequence where the family fight together again in the city, but I didn’t find that sequence so incredibly satisfying to justify the grossly cut short family ass kicking forest scene. And as a result, the family never quite got to use their powers together in the most awesomest way possible.

And, you know, that’s what I wanted. I wanted pure, unfiltered awesomeness. I ache for it. Sometime I wake up crying at night because I don’t get enough of it. I don’t like having to watch through all of Crouching Tiger just to find out Chow Yung Fat only has a stick fight with a 15 year old girl.

AWESOMENESS DAMN YOU! GIVE ME AWESOMENESS!!!!!!

Incredibles had small sections of ear bleeding awesomely cool bits, but Kung Fu Panda had lots and lots of this rectal clenching, hard core action(that’s a good thing by the way).

2. The drama. Now, from an emotional thermometer side of the coin, the Incredibles comes up trumps. It manages a crap load more character development and a little bit more of some sort of script. In turn, more characters manage to get fleshed out. Whereas Kung fu Panda really only had 2 or three character plots of note, but I didn’t care. If they put in more character development, it could have eaten into the action sequences. And we did NOT want that

OK

I read some book on Story once. The writer talked about a good script is set in a world that contains fascinating bits and pieces around every corner. Whether it’s set in another culture you know little about, or just another persons frame of mind, it all has to be new and exciting at every beat. So many animated cg films just don’t throw you into this world. But Kung Fu Panda does. The Incredibles does.

After watching both of these 2 wonderfully eye popping films tonight, I have come to the conclusion that…..

They’re both fucking as good as each other.

Sorry if that was anti-climactic.

Fantasy Films Today

It’s been a while since I last wrote anything substantial, and i’ve seen quite a few movies since then. I watched Spiderwick Cronicles, Hulk, Terrabithia, etc etc… I guess I’m talking about fantasy films here. But wow, they’re all pretty much crap. Maybe they’ve always been crap? I rewatched the Goonies recently and i’m quite sure that that was an ok movie. But all the shite we’re getting over the past couple of years all seems to be kinda shit. Was it just me, or was the Lord of the Rings trilogy kinda forgettable?

I like to rate a film by 2 things. By how much you think about the film the next day, and it’s rewatchability. It seems to be the majority of the films targeted towards kids these days have, in general, hit none of these marks. I’m left asking the question of whether these marks were ever hit? Was Goonies rewatchable? The Lost Boys? I know Hulk films definitely were NOT. Terrabithia, Narnia, no, no, no.
But admittedly, I’m 30 years of age and don’t quite have the mind of a child any more(no matter what my wife tells you) and I can’t help but think, what movies are kids of today falling in love with? What are they quoting at school? I admit that I don’t have kids myself, so I don’t actually know the answers to these questions.

Myself, as a child, the movies that really hit home with me were… Big Trouble in Little China? No, that was actually quite forgettable. I honestly can’t remember. I remember rewatching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves quite a bit, but I’d never admit that to anyone.. The only thing that really touched me when I was under 10 was Astro Boy, and G Force – Defenders of the Planet. These obviously were not films though. Shows that appeared after Inspector Gadget and Peter Russel Clarke on the ABC in fact. Why they ever put a cooking show in between 2 cartoons I’ll never understand…

So, what was it in these shows that that touched my 10 year old heart?

Emotional responsibility for the characters.

In these shows, the episodes that pulled my heart strings, were the ones where decisions had to be made by astro that could effect the lives of the ones he loved. They were impossible decisions that had to be made. It was love, mixed with the fear of losing that love.
Maybe a shrink would undercover the fact that my mother never hugged me and that’s why I was brought to tears by a cartoon at such a young age. But, maybe it was the act of watching this cartoon that brought me to realise my issues and allowed my young mind to process and search for hugs, and love from other places.

Therefore, in some crazy conclusion, how much can our fantasy films and tv shows that kids watch actually teach them things about life? Whether they consciously understand it or not…