Yep, slackness in the posting, but I’ve been working a lot again or still, to have enough money next month for a wintec shoot coming up. Actually, the shoot already started on Saturday and got off to a good start. But the schedule is broken down into weekends only, which for me, means a little work in staying consistent in both energy and levels of creativity. But still, I’m looking forward to it.

But let’s see, Saturday night we held a party shindig for flatmate Fabian’s Birthday at the flat and it was pretty cool. Did a lot of setting up of lights and gels beforehand and it was most pretty and a good night overall. Good people were there, lots of drinking to be had and good friend Daisy and Sean came on down from Auckland to drink with, and that made me happy. So did the cute girl on lap, who’s finally getting a mention on this blog.

Then Sunday was old friend Tim’s wedding to his lady Irene and that was a really great lowkey ceremony. Best of all from it was I got to witness quite possibly the best choice of a wedding song ever… Spice Girls… uh… what the hell do you call that song? ziggazigah? Or whatever the hell it is, that, “if you wanna be ma lover” bollocks. Bad song, but that being played for her walk down the aisle, was fried gold.

And also to mention an eeeeeh! to Nick and Sarah for finally giving birth to their way too cute son whom they’ve been keeping track of the pregnancy here, but its still awaiting the cuteness of photos to come. And not to mention last, Dan and Ester, who are in the UK, they too had a baby girl Maddy (did I spell that right?). Everyone is just growing up, aren’t they?

And as for photos, here are some favourites from the party courtesy of the immaculate Petra Jane. There were other people with cameras there, but I’ve yet to track them down. Stupid drinking… actually the photos are all with me, cause I’m a whore for the camera like that. In front and behind.

What a week. Been working a nauseating amount of hours recently cause I’m going to need the extra cash once I start working on this upcoming wintec shoot next month. Why do I allow my time and precious energy to be used on so many other people’s projects? Meh, guess I’m just a delicous whore like that.

Today was a bit of the worst where a long shift, was nicely rewarded with a trip to the liquor store and a stop off at friend Ross’ house, but upon leaving, I discovered that my car once again conspires against me and decided to first decide that the battery was flat, and then not flat and then turn back on the alarm system which it turned off a couple of months ago, thus immobolising my car with an immoboliser I did not even know existed until this very evening. Which all resulted in me waiting on the roadside for an ungodly ammount of time for the AA fella to turn up.

But been watching a large quantity of films again, which I’m happy to say relishing in doing so once more. That, as opposed to watching them as a chore. Those last two sentences rhymed. It’s way past my bedtime. Let’s hope I don’t keep rhyming no more.

Okay, that was a little wierd. I do need sleep, but I’ve also got to prepare for my class tomorrow, a rehearsal for a scene and two film festival movies to watch. Yes, the Hamilton run has finally started and it’s a very sexy line up. Much to look forward to.

After several weeks of drinking, today shall mark the start of a sober week. Not to say that I’ve been drinking to binge Peckinpah levels, but I’ve been having at least a few drinks every night, either socially or unsoicailly. So what to do in this situation? Check out the trailer for Michel Gondry’s new film Be Kind Rewind here.

Or even better, watch a video on models falling on the catwalk.

And have just finished watching Jesus Camp. My tagline for this movie is “It’ll make you say JESUS!!”. I mean, seriously, you know those scenes in films where someone or something is happening and everyone else can’t believe it’s happening and all they can do is stare with their mouth wide open and completely frozen in whatever their doing? Yeah, I was doing that quite a bit through the whole damn thing, but I also beat that super computer robot at his own game of chess at the same time. I’m too good. But yeah, do check it out at the film fest if you can. Hell, I’m tempted to go just to see how out there the reactions may or may not be.

Anyway, here’s Minesweeper… THE MOVIE!

Right after a post about how I’ve been taking some time off films and not watching anything, I go ahead and watch four movies in a 24 hour time frame.

First was a rewatching of Scorsese’s Gangs of New York which I haven’t seen since I first bought it a couple of years ago. Then the doco This Film is Not Yet Rated which was suprising, funny, informative and made me also scratch my head at the oddity that is the MPAA. Dinner with the folks and finally, I went to see The Simpsons Movie which was just great. There must be something wrong with audience members these days, I seemed to be the one laughing the most at so many of the gags in that film, yet so many seemed reserved in enjoying themselves. Douches. And finally, I just finished watching Ozu’s Tokyo Story, which I’ve always read great things about and great it certainly is. Such beautifully composed shots and such a simple story with so complex characters, I was moved to say the least.

Now to consider finally watching Flags of Our Fathers or set it aside for another night and get some of that thing people call sleep.

Well, well, well… been a while eh?

Since the last post I got bogged down a busy with work and several shoots around the place, while also having a near breakdown with the total overload of work. So much so, I dropped myself out of contact with the world for a bit and tried to center myself. Sounds like a lot of zen bollocks, but I was really needing it to just clear my head for a bit. But now I’m back, feeling a bit better and the supermodels of the world can now rest easy knowing I’m alive.

But to recap, there has been a lot of drinking and a lot of reading and just recently, finished watching an excellent TV series called Dexter, which is just neat. Oh and ate camel the other day cause they had it at one of the cafe’s and that was pretty interesting. Tasted good. Overall, I’ve just been getting away a bit from the film scene, tried not watching or think about any movies and just generally kept myself occupied on other things. So apart from the film festival and one small day of filming, I’m gonna try to keep the rest of August free of anything too film related.

I started writing this post with a lot of things in mind to mention, but now I’ve got nothing. Save it for another time I suppose. At least it’ll mean another post. Hopefully sooner, rather than later too.

Currently working on Paul Barlow’s Orb of Ra youtube series as part DOP, part actor. The thing about this particular gig is that we’re filming in full frame 4:3 aspect ratio. And I hate that ratio with a passion. It makes the composition of shots really hard to get right and again, with limited lighting and stuff, it’s a tough stretch. But I’m getting there.

Still not completely happy with what I’ve done so far, but we’ll see how it turns out in the end. Problem most of all with this shoot is the fact that I’m not going to be there for all of it and having to act as well could possibly throw me off in either role. But it’s a new interesting challenge to get past and it’ll be fun.

This weekend I’ll be making a late entry into the viewing of the film festival. Already missed a few films I’ve wanted to see, but I’ll do the mega catching up real soon. Plus, there are still a few interesting one’s that’ll be in the Hamilton run that I can possibly afford to miss in Auckland. But drinks on when I’m up there.

Oooh, and posters for Stardust have started turning up online. The international one is fairly nifty, though it feels like it should be a spot more up to awesome. Hoping too much for the movie itself? Let’s hope the hell not.

And for the gaming geek and fans of awesome, here’s a video sent by Cam that makes me soil myself with simple delight.

Work, work, work. Right in the middle of my third weekend of overnight video store work, which means I’ve depressingly been having little of a social life, but I tell myself I’m doing these shifts so I’ll have ridiculous amounts of money to whore myself out to the Film Festival in Auckland. Next weekend will have me up there for a few days, scheduled the hell out to watch a lot of movies in a row. Plus drinking. Can’t forget that.

Anyway, with a new semester of uni just started up and plenty of fresh new students to pass down my knowledge and wisdom and to corrupt at the same time, I’ve also been right into the planning stages of another short film from wintec. This time with the more prestigious role of DOP and I’m gonna go all out to make this one both pretty and very fleshed out in its thinking of how the shots are composed, which means lots of storyboarding, shotlists, colour palettes and general filming dogmas to adhere to. Which is just gonna be fun.

Actually, I’ve been a little too focused on such things, I’ve slightly miscalculated my schedule and have to go to another shoot in five hours to also DP on. Better get some sleep from now till then, so here are some fun links…

Article on a man robbing a bank disguised as a tree can be read here.

And one on giant badgers terrorising an Iraqi port city to be read here.

Hilarity all around.

The thing about being hellishly busy sometimes is the fact that you find it hard to stay consistent with posting and stuff. I have no idea how I kept it up during the Pictures of You shoot, but that’s because I’m Superman. But then again, when you’ve got nothing going on and you’ve got plenty of spare time to blog, sometimes, there just isn’t anything interesting to write about.

I worked this weekend. Second week in a row of doing graveyard shifts and this weekend is probably the least amount of work I’ve ever done and that’s pretty exciting if your me. Or the loch ness monster. Then again, he ain’t up to much these days.

But I did watch quite a few films and worthy of mention is Idiocracy, where Luke Wilson gets frozen and ends up in the future where everyone has devolved into idiots and he’s the smartest guy on earth. And it was good and very insightful into how I feel sometimes… or better yet, how people feel around me. Cause I can be a goddamn moron. A sexy moron. But a moron none-the-less. And when I’m working and customers come up with their um… opinions… a little bit of myself keeps dying in hope of the human race. Actually, I’m in retarded but good looking territory right now. Up all night and writing a nonsensical blog about nothing and just ranting on about nothing in particular and whatever pops into my head… Pigeons… See?

Currently at work and it is a quiet night for a change. Which is good, considering today’s is a ten hour shift and I’ve been in need of a little down time from the past few days of madness.

This afternoon saw me with a minor brain numb and a house full of empty beer and wine bottles. Turns out what was meant to be a few drinks with friends and such at the end of the Wintec shoot I’ve been helping out on and off on for the past week, became what I guess is the semi-official wrap party. Strange how they can evolve like that. All I provided was a venue.

But yeah, was a most interesting shoot and I’ll say that tensions were high at times, which fed into a very interesting night for me last night to observe the looks and thoughts between people and drinks. Then again, I was drinking a lot, so maybe I’m looking too much into that.

Oh, but Friday morning, I should be recieving a prize from the Waikato Times newspaper as I’ve won some thirty odd DVDs from them for a competition I didn’t even enter. Funny and awesome.

Still going and several more days of ridiculous amounts of video store work to do. Still got Pictures of You to finish rough cutting. Next week uni starts and I’ve got a fresh batch of students to corrupt. And the week after that, production starts on Paul’s youtube series The Orb of Ra, where again, I’m whoring myself as a DOP plus an actor this time. I’m such a cheap date.