Tre espresso

The Business Trip

Last year, Scott Alexander and Stuart Moulds of Aquafruzzl Films asked me to be a cinematographer on their next short film called “The Business Trip”. It was something I’d never done before but was very grateful for the opportunity as it’s another form of storytelling I’m keen to explore. We did the shoot over three days in November 2009 using two Canon 7D cameras, which proved very useful for filming in cramped spaces and the fact that most of the shoot was in low light.

Here is the finished product! Visit the film’s Aquafruzzl page for more info.

Enjoy!

Red Water Red

This is the printed flyer for a short film I did stills photography for, called Red Water Red. The key image here is one of the photos I took on the first night of shooting.

In November 2009, the film was selected for the 2009 Stockholm film festival. Many congrats to the director, Qing.

Digitalis

ardor
Melbourne
Dec 2009

So I think it was about a month ago that I finally upgraded my digital camera to a Canon EOS 5D Mk II. My previous digital was an EOS 350D and, these days, rarely used; so why upgrade when I mostly shoot film anyway? That’s certainly something I thought about a lot beforehand, but there were a few things that influenced my decision.

1> Video. DSLRs have created somewhat of a revolution in filmmaking and is something I’m very interested in. Introducing time into an equation of storytelling has been something I’ve wanted to do and this appeared to be the perfect chance to do it. Recently, I was cinematographer on a short film which used two Canon EOS 7Ds and it was a lot of fun. Definitely will be doing more in the future.

2> Digital helps me shoot film better. My digital camera was crucial to me learning and understanding photography in the first place and in improving my photographic skills. Also, due to the technology of digital, things such as the ever-increasing ISO ratings, allow a digital camera to do things that can’t be achieved with film (of course, the converse of this argument also still applies).

3> Professional work. Due to the nature of paid work, a digital camera is a much more useful tool to have (particularly when shooting in low light on a film set). So hopefully I can pay it off over time too.

Having said all that, my digital camera isn’t a replacement for my film cameras. Shooting with film is still a lot of fun and something I think I will always enjoy.

Tram 55

I spent the intervening months planning to post many things on this blog and yet managed to come up with nothing. So now I present you with… another tale involving a tram.

Tonight I boarded the tram on Flinders St, headed for Brunswick. As I was sitting down, I noticed two girls seated opposite. One stated to the other “There’s a tram inspector” or something very similar. I glanced around at the sporadic occupants to see what she was talking about but there were none even standing that could be conspicuously thought of as being an inspector. So I thought nothing further of it and opened up my morbid tome of H. P. Lovecraft. To those not familiar with Melbourne trams, inspectors are a rare sight; I’ve only seen three this year. So, ten minutes pass and the tram stops somewhere on Flemington Rd. A tram inspector comes on and then quickly busts the girl who made that weird comment to begin with. It was all too surreal for me. Maybe, in a rather Vonnegutian irony, she could see the future, but in our deterministic universe was powerless to change its course.

Next time, something different…

Life in loops

In an effort to drive less, I’ve been travelling to work via two different trams. The first one, heading south, stops in the city on Collins St and then I walk across the road to catch the second tram whose route then runs east to where I work. While the route running south has only one tram, heading east I have four different trams to choose from, some running quite frequently while others can be quite rare in comparison.

Yesterday morning I got off at Collins St as usual and immediately saw an easterly tram just arriving at the stop across the road – it was the one labelled “Victoria Pde/Hoddle St” which I would see the least often and it’s not very popular either. Great for me since then I can always grab a seat. So I moved quickly across the road to get on and reached the front-most door just as it was closing. When the door is already closing, there are two options: press the “door open” button or muscle your way through and force it back. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried either so I pressed the button repeatedly but the door continued to close and then the tram moved away. I was a bit annoyed since I was standing right outside from the tram driver and he just couldn’t be bothered I guess. I made a mental note for next time to not bother with the button again.

So, this morning I got off at Collins St as usual and immediately saw an easterly tram just arriving at the stop across the road – it was the one labelled “Victoria Pde/Hoddle St” which I would see the least often and it’s not very popular either. Great for me since then I can always grab a seat. So I moved quickly across the road to get on and reached the front-most door just as it was closing. When the door is already closing, there are two options: press the “door open” button or muscle your way through and force it back. Slightly weirded out by the fact that this episode was exactly the same as yesterday I ignored the button and pushed at the closing door. It gave way, then tried again while I was entering and closed on my legs before giving way again.

Tomorrow I’m driving.

Silence, in the eyes of others

Whenever I actually manage to sit down and type something, let’s call it a story, and that story could simply be an email or an essay like this one, or even an actual story, there’s this niggling burden of responsibility at the back of my mind that the ending of the story should already be known when I begin to engage in the act of writing it. Possibly it’s the same when we watch a movie and try to figure out the twist before the ending, but why is there such a compulsion to map things out like that? It seems that it’s human nature that the beginning and end of all things must be inextricably woven together.

George MacDonald once wrote of the “welcome already overshadowed by the coming farewell”; that there is an irony that while an ending brings us the comfort of certainty, it also haunts us with the sorrow of finality. Instead of being able to simply enjoy something now, we must “worry” about future goodbyes and ephemera. However, we must do this to bring about happiness itself. If there is no ending then there is no beginning either, so we sometimes acknowledge the truth of the coming sorrow in order to recognise and appreciate the current happy moments in our lives.

It’s probably easier if looked at from the other end, to be at an ending gazing back towards the beginning. In essence this is what we label “nostalgia” and is rather a more popular subject in art and literature. For example, in the movie Citizen Kane, Kane longs for his “rosebud”; but Rosebud only has significance because of the subsequent journey his life made from that point. If Rosebud never ended, then it never really began either. What is innocence if it is never broken? So sorrow must exist in order to bring about joy.

Whether it is consciously or subconsciously, these themes creep into every art form, possibly the most powerful and least noticed is that of music. I know nothing about music theory, but quite often I find that long emotional pieces end the same way they began, in a way to recall the beautiful innocence of the beginning, that despite all of the different events that occur in between, ultimately the most important thing to us is how we began; innocently. An example that comes to mind is the first part of Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge where it ends exactly as it began. He even revisits it in a nostalgic reference on a later album. It’s also quite a staple of music scores for movies.

Probably the whole reason for writing this in the first place is how I feel it relates to photography. In some ways a lot of photography, not necessarily all, reduces moments to silence, frozen forever in a suspension of movement and time. Once in a silent state, the image becomes more universal to the viewer, the contemplation of which can connect an image to a particular memory or a feeling. They can then adopt their own sounds, music and aromas. Our propensity to create our own stories, beginnings and endings – our ability to fictionalise and connect to our own experiences and feelings is what elevates art in the eyes of the viewer. But more about that in a future post.

Korean film maker, Kim Ki-duk, preferred to have no dialogue in his films in order to make the story more universal. Once you introduce language, barriers are created in both expression and communication. Silence, in this regard, can be a great unifier…

The Princess & The Goblin

During the week I was on the 109 tram reading a book and a guy sat down next to me. Fresh stitches intersected at various angles across his face. He looked at the pages I was reading and probably noticed that the novel had some pictures in it.

“Hey mate, what book are you reading?”

I didn’t reply in words but simply turned the book over to reveal the cover.

“The Princess & The Goblin!? What kind of book is that?” Exclaimed in a way that would normally precede laughter.

Knowing how silly such a book might seem, I knew the choices of my reply lurked somewhere between offhanded and nerdy. Instead I went for honest, hoping that wouldn’t equal nerdy.

“It’s a childrens book written for adults, written about a hundred years ago.”

He seemed quite amused.

It did seem too complex to explain to a stranger why I liked the book as I would have to start explaining in personal quotients. Part of that reason, is that the writer of the book has had a profound effect on me over the years. Reading his work informed my artistic aesthetics, including photography, more than any other writer. It’s hard to explain why except that it’s to do with the way he sees the world, just as all artists, writers, painters, photographers alike, have their own way of seeing. Admittedly, The Princess & The Goblin is the first book of his I’ve read that one could say is a fantasy story, in our modern definition of the word. Not being too far removed from stories like The Hobbit. So that’s the pigeonhole into which it will superficially fall.

As a side note, it’s interesting also how storytelling and culture have changed over the years. There’s a part in the story where a miner’s son tells his dad that he would like to stay in the mine overnight, as he might discover what the hordes of dangerous goblins seem to be planning. The dad’s response is a classic.

When he told his father, he made no objection, for he had great confidence in his boy’s courage and resources.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay with you,” said Peter; “but I want to go pay the parson a visit this evening, and besides I’ve had a bit of a headache all day.”

Way to go, dad.

The writer is George MacDonald. Thankfully, due to our new age of Barnes & Nobles, Borders and Amazons, books are less often out of print. Also thankfully, I’m rediscovering how much I enjoy reading them.

Absence

an autumn afternoon
Seoul, Korea
November 2008

Already some months have past. Been away from this for too long. I hope you’re still watching

Celestial Avenue

picnic
Elwood, Melbourne
March 2009

Starting today I’m spending the next six days as stills photographer for a short film called Celestial Avenue, written and directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes. Should be a fun set to work on, also working with a few familiar faces from previous films.

(The above pic is something I happened to spot when I first arrived on the Elwood foreshore, but doesn’t have anything to do with the film.)

Incidentally, I shot my first wedding yesterday. Since it was my first time I was a bit worried about how it all would go, but just having a look at the shots now and it seemed to turn out quite well. Thanks to Lawry for backing me up on the day. It really took the pressure off! Also, many thanks to Audunn for the loan of the lenses!