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The Sculptor (Can You Keep A Secret?)
The trailer for The Sculptor is online now, so you should go and watch it right now (or download it). In case The Sculptor is new to you, you should know a couple of things: first off, it’s the feature film debut for director Chris Kenworthy and scriptwriter Chantal Bourgault (a rather talented colleague of mine from Communication Studies). Chris cut his teeth on innovative low-budget special effects heavy shorts such as The Dream Sequence so he should really been able to do some amazing things with a full feature budget! The film is also the first Western Australian production (as far as I know) to be shot on the fantastic Red Cameras, giving it an even crisper look. And given Chantal teaches scriptwriting and film production, I’m sure the story will take some classical narrative ideas and make them just that little bit more intriguing!
One other reason this film will be extremely important to the filmmaking landscape of Western Australia is that the production company, Skyview Films, is both practically and philosophically focused on funding and promoting internationally-competitive local productions. As their mission statement attests, they aim:
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- To deliver high quality Australia feature films for the Australian & international markets.
- Use of “high concept” scripts.
- Use of “state-of-the-art” equipment and techniques.
- To provide significant contributions to a sustainable feature film industry in Western Australia.
- Three full length feature films programmed from 2007-2011.
- Additional films scheduled beyond 2011.
- Shareholder and board commitment to re-invest in additional films before investment dividends are paid.
- Private equity funded company, including international shareholders.
- Board of Directors paid solely from dividends.
- Operations to provide meaningful investor and stakeholder returns, commercially and by fostering growth within the industry.
- Prioritise the employment of local cast and crew with a Western Australian management team.
- Provide innovative opportunities for new talent to obtain training in all facets of feature film making.
Skyview already has two more features in pre-production, which is a great sign both of their confidence in The Sculptor and their long-term commitment to local film production. Oh, and if you wondered what the film is actually about after that pretty but mainly impressionistic teaser, here’s the quick description:
A struggling artist dabbles in black magic to find success, but when he has everything he ever dreamed of, the demons come back to haunt his life, his work and his family.
And the tagline: Can you keep a secret? (Clearly I can’t, as I think this will be a very exciting debut feature you should all know about!)
Links for August 15th 2008
Interesting links for August 15th 2008:
- Ancient Free Gardeners – flying the CC banner [Creative Commons Australia] – “… Ancient Free Gardeners, a Melbourne-based indie band who use CC licences to distribute their music. We’re very pleased to announce that AFG have released their new single, Innards Out, under a CC BY-NC-SA licence, which allows it to be freely distributed and even remixed. And they’re getting quite a bit of attention from it.”
- Internet becomes Iraq’s new matchmaker [The Age] – “Young Iraqis in Baghdad are surfing the internet to search for partners to tie the knot as violence and sectarian tensions take their toll on more traditional forms of socialising. Dating has fallen victim to the insecurity that has reduced the capital to a sullen network of rival neighbourhoods, leaving little space for men and women to meet other than in cyber chat rooms. “I think the Iraqis are looking for love on the internet because there are no other places for them to meet,” said Mustafa Kazem, a 20-year-old engineering student who found his soulmate on a university chat forum.”
- Brands line up for Bond sequel [Variety] – “James Bond is bringing back some familiar brands in “Quantum of Solace.” Sequel to “Casino Royale” will again be backed by Ford Motor Co., Heineken beer, Smirnoff vodka, Omega watches, Virgin Atlantic, Sony Ericsson cell phones and other Sony electronics. These brands all have products placed in the film and each will shell out tens of millions of dollars as a promotional partner of the pic. Sony Pictures, which is distribbing the movie, declined to disclose how much the brands are ponying up, but returning partners spent up to $100 million worldwide on ad efforts around “Casino Royale,” industryites estimate. The same is expected this time around.” [Via The Frodo Franchise]
- Italy blocks The Pirate Bay [The Age] – “An Italian judge has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block access to The Pirate Bay, a Swedish file-sharing website, as part of a probe into copyright law violation, officials said on Thursday. Since last week, Italy’s anti-fraud police have been informing providers they must heed the order of a judge in the northern city of Bergamo, police Col. Alessandro Nencini said.” (Apparently the impact of this ‘ban’ has been to increase Italian traffic to The Pirate Bay!
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 in Australia (Rather Late)
So, Australia is finally getting Battlestar Galactica season four on television: TV Tonight reports that the season will kick off with the ‘Razor’ double ep-cum-telemovie on September 4th. Given my interest in the tyranny of digital distance, I find it noteworthy that Razor will arrive eight and a half months after it was screened in the US (and will, in fact, be released on DVD in Australia just over a fortnight before it’s televised down under)! Presuming that the entire season is played thereafter, the rest of BSG season four will be five months behind the US.
Ten will be playing BSG exclusively on their High Definition channel (great for those who get it, no doubt infuriating for those who don’t) but, really, the audience they’ll pull will be infinitesimal compared to the eyes they’d get if BSG was concurrent with the US schedule. Meanwhile, a few people might just have downloaded BSG via BitTorrent given the series is amongst the most downloaded TV shows of this year (and last).
Links for August 14th 2008
Interesting links for August 13th 2008 through August 14th 2008:
- Fallout 3 ban lifted in Australia [Digital Life – The Age] – “A revised version of Fallout 3, one of the most highly anticipated games of the year and winner of the “Best in Show” award at E3 2008, has been cleared for release in Australia. Bethesda’s role playing game, which is set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC, was refused classification last month because it featured “material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use” and “drug use… related to incentives and rewards”. Bethesda and Australian distributor Red Ant have declined to reveal what edits have been made to the game to obtain an MA15+ rating for the upcoming PC and Xbox 360 release.”
- Facebook overtakes MySpace as social network king [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “Industry figures available today show Facebook has dethroned MySpace to become the world’s most popular social networking website. Slightly more than 132 million people visited Facebook in June as compared to the approximately 117.5 million that went to MySpace that month, according to industry tracker comScore.”
- The “IP” Court Supports Enforceability of CC Licenses [Creative Commons] – “The United States Court of Appeals held that “Open Source” or public license licensors are entitled to copyright infringement relief. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the leading IP court in the United States, has upheld a free copyright license, while explicitly pointing to the work of Creative Commons and others.” (More in the NYTimes and at Lessig’s blog).
- Heroes Embrace, Cast Comic Book Fans [io9] – “It’s taken them three seasons, but Heroes is finally embracing its heritage with the announcement that Seth Green and Breckin Meyer are to join the cast of NBC’s superhuman drama, playing two massive comic book nerds. Does this mean that we’re going to see more of 9th Wonders, the show’s deus ex comic book plot device? According to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello, the two fanboys are going to “cross paths with (and perhaps serve as advisors to) one of the Heroes.””
iTunes Australian Store Starts Selling (and “Renting”) Movies
I must have blinked and missed a Steve Jobs announcement festival somewhere, because the iTunes Australian Stores is now selling and renting films:
That said, $25 for some new releases and $6 for a ‘rental’ which kills itself (thanks to DRM) after 24 hours (from the time the movie is first played, I think) seems quite a lot. It’ll be interesting to see how many people are willing to start using this service in Australia (and whether Apple will share any stats). [Via PerthNorg]
Links for August 11th 2008
Interesting links for August 10th 2008 through August 11th 2008:
- having “exclusive rights” in a region is a remnant of the twentieth century’s mass media [jill/txt] – “The tyranny of digital distance is most often experienced by people outside of the United States. … Another aspect of these cultural blockades where being outside of the US has been an advantage is baseball. In the US, if you’ve moved away from where the team you support is based you often won’t be able to watch their games because the local television stations won’t broadcast them. So MLB.tv lets you subscribe to watch all baseball games – except local ones, because the local television stations have exclusive rights to them. If you live outside of the US, you have no local games – so you can watch every baseball game live, no holds barred.”
- Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely (NOT Harry Potter) [Illegal Art] – Brad Neely’s hilarious “unauthorized re-envisioning of Harry Potter and the Philosophers/Sorcerer’s Stone”, released in 2004. It’s a long audio parody to be played at the same time as the DVD of the first Harry Potter film. Like a DVD commentary for evil! [YouTube Version] [Script] [Wikipedia Entry]
- 1.8 million hits in four days for grocery pricing website. [WA Today] – “The new GROCERYchoice website received 1.8 million hits in its first four days, showing consumers are interested in the information it provides, federal Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen says. GROCERYchoice was launched last week by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to provide consumers with more information about grocery prices.”
- How to Get Your Indie Film on iTunes (…It’s Not Easy) [CinemaTech] – Scott Kirsner’s really useful guide to distributing independent films via iTunes and (more feasibly) via their main competitors like Amazon Unbox. For the upcoming filmmakers of tomorrow, this is essential information! (Especially if you’re already planning your own Dr Horrible!)
- Amazon Adds Universal Wish List [Micro Persuasion] – Amazon.com’s Wish List feature has been around a long time – over 10 years in fact. However, recently the e-commerce site expanded it with a new feature called The Universal Wish List. Using a simple bookmarklet … you can now add any item to your list from anywhere on the web.” (I use Amazon’s wish lists a lot, both for purchases and to fill out bibliographies of new books, so this looks like a really useful little addition to me!)
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