It took some re-sizing of the Logo image to get it to fit perfectly with the theme.

Other customisation of the theme has included changing the wording on the red buttons appearing on the home page. These originally read as ‘subscribe now’ in the theme, and I had to find the CSS style sheet in order to change it to ‘read more’

I removed the referecnes to word press and the theme title from the bottom of the theme template, and also alterd the width of the sidebar.

The most important change made to the theme has been the expansion of the header section on the homapge. The bog title length allowance on the featured slider was very restrictive and effecting  the look badly as all of the blodg titles were getting cut short and making it look unprofesssional. I corrected this, again using the appropraite header stylesheet CSS.

Starring Geoffrey Rush, the musical is based on an Australian stage musical of the same name, and centers around the romantic adventures of a young Aboriginal couple. The film has already met box office success in its native Australia, and made its U.S. premiere this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Based on “Bran Nue Dae”‘s strong box-office showing in the Australian marketplace, its uniquely charming subject matter and engaging musical score, we believe that “Bran Nue Day” will find an enthusiastic audience in the US marketplace,” said Christopher Mapp, the film’s executive producer. “Working with the experienced Freestyle Releasing team, we are hoping it could, in fact, achieve that rare honor of becoming a small, independent, breakout box-office hit.”

It certainly pays to “shop around” when it comes to quality encoding, as the results can very dramatically. On some sites, there is a risk that your HD masterpiece can become a nasty pixelated mess if their encoding systems are a bit substandard or your film contains a lot of movement in the frame. The first shot of one of our old short films was given the slow-mo treatment by YouTube’s encoding system!

So kudos must go out to Karel Beta for creating the Video Embedding Comparison Site which provides a side by side comparison the encoding quality of each of the main video hosting sites out there at the moment. Check it out:

» Video Embedding Comparison Site

If you know of any others then please leave a comment.

A poignant, perceptive tale of one couple’s effort to have a child to give their lives meaning, The Waiting City can draw on a sizeable Australian audience (the story is based on a number of Australian adoption experiences in India), and with noted Indian actor Samrat Chakrabarti playing the couple’s hotel guide and driver, this could also do well in the Indian market.

In McCarthy’s own script, Fiona, an irritably ambitious corporate lawyer (Radha Mitchell), arrives in Kolkata with Ben, her failed singer/guitarist husband (Joel Edgerton). With their luggage lost, their strained relationship frays afresh as agency clerks announce new delays to see the child whom they have waited two years to adopt. The appearance of a pretty musician friend (Isabel Lucas) from Ben’s past compounds the stress.

Culture shock becomes culture clash as their bemused guide, Krishna (Chakrabarti), offers an Indian’s frank and unwelcome reflections on adopting a child from another culture. Fiona and Ben quarrel and part company before finally reaching the baby’s orphanage. The daughter whom they are to adopt, little Lakshmi, is adorable, but gravely ill. In attending to the child’s suffering, the two reconcile, although worse news is yet to come.

In The Waiting City, McCarthy finds a balance between lampooning local annoyances and probing the real motivations of would-be parents longing for a child.

As Fiona and Ben, Mitchell and Edgerton are so convincing as self-involved adults stumbling into a huge responsibility (and a foreign labyrinth) that McCarthy needs no exegetical scenes about problems inherent in the adoption process.  Mitchell rings true as a ballsy lawyer, fused to her computer, negotiating deals as she prepares to be a mother. Edgerton oozes with the vulnerability and frustrated anger of the weaker half of their partnership.

Playing Krishna as a young father beset with his own stresses, Chakrabarti brings an agility to the film’s encounter of two cultures, particularly regarding raising children. Parents thinking about adopting a foreign child might do well to take look at The Waiting City.

That colourful crowded city is not over-exoticised by McCarthy. With DP Denson Baker, the director has shaped her film to begin with those unsettling aspects of a noisy metropolis that first strike visitors, and then shift gently into a gradual revelation of sounds and images, most of them intimate, that come with a longer stay.  By the time Fiona and Ben adopt a country, McCarthy makes sure you see and feel why.

First it was the music business, now the film industry is beginning to face a sustained assault on its traditional business models, and distribution is the main battleground. As audiences now demand more timely and flexible access to content, Big Media has given up on suing it’s customers in favour of a two-pronged attack: going after easier (and richer) targets, the ISPs; and flashing its cash around halls of government to try and influence policy and law-making to its own ends. Indie filmmakers might be forgiven for feeling a lot like collateral damage in this conflict. While the next Tom Cruise vehicle is unlikely to face any challenges in obtaining distribution, the already difficult task of successfully exploiting an independent film via traditional challenges is getting harder by the day.

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For indie filmmakers with a marketable product, there is a larger audience out there which is hungry for content, and for the most part, prepared to pay IF it is delivered in the right format, at the right time, and of course, for the right price. However for most filmmakers, learning their craft and getting the film made is a hard enough endeavour, let alone staying abreast of the current trends in alternative distribution. Fortunately, a new book from Jon Reiss, Think Outside the Box Office is just the tonic which may be needed.

Reiss is a successful filmmaker with a career in features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos which spans 30 years. He also teaches in the film directing program at the California Institute for the Arts. It is this background which has perhaps lent him to provide a clear and concise view of the digital distribution landscape as it stands today, and refreshingly devoid of much of the groundless hype which has crept into some of the more ‘evangelical’ proponents of digital distribution.

The book is grouped into eight logical sections, covering areas such as Live Events/Theatrical, Merchandising, Digital Rights (a minefield!) and Foreign Sales. While the first two sections cover the fairly bread and butter areas where many indie filmmakers fail (knowing your audience, researching your market etc), the book gets into full swing once it starts looking at strategies for getting your film out there sans distributor (but also in conjunction with a distributor where you can have a complimentary strategy in place.

The book wraps up with some pragmatic advice for keeping sane and embracing the future. Reiss isn’t claiming to have a crystal ball that will tell you how to guarantee great returns on any film, but his concise approach and down-to-earth style should give any indie filmmaker plenty of food for thought.

There are no templates for writing documentary treatments, no pre-given formulas. It can involve a script (not unlike a fictional narrative script), a story outline, a treatment, a creative brief or an audio-visual breakdown.

In many instances, the approach will be dictated by broadcasters or funding agents who require a written document outlining the structure, subjects and visual approach to the film. Given the written form does not have the luxury of sound and image to enhance the story, the documentary treatment needs to work extra hard to engage and compel the reader.

When writing the treatment for our first feature length documentary, Words From the City – a documentary about a number of Hip Hop MCs in Australia co-directed with Rhys Graham, I felt quite unnerved writing about characters and events prior to actually filming with them.

Given the written form does not have the luxury of sound and image to enhance the story, the documentary treatment needs to work extra hard to engage and compel the reader.

The development process made this somewhat easier as it enabled us to film some preliminary observational footage and interviews with the subjects. This, along with research into the subjects and the topic, enabled us to create a written document that gave the stakeholders of the film some sense of how the documentary would take shape. As an observational documentary filmmaker, this felt anathema to the idea of documenting real life events as they unfold before the camera.

Looking back on the process, I think we invested a disproportionate amount of time and resources trying to create a great document on the page than to create a guiding document for the actual shooting and editing of the film.  This was disadvantageous on two levels: one, it put enormous pressure on us as filmmakers to construct a riveting story for the page; and secondly, it set up a high expectation in the stakeholders for the documentary to live up to the written treatment.

Writing to guide the process

With my most recent documentary, Anatomy – Muscle, about an itinerant performance troupe, Acrobat, I wrote a treatment that would not only engage the stakeholders but would also provide a realistic guide for the shooting and editing process.

From the early development phase, I knew that the film would need to explore the idea of strength and fragility in the human body. For this troupe, these ideas inform not only their show but also their way of life.

Once the individual characters arcs were established, I needed to find the story and structure.

Despite looking the picture of health, the three members of the group have all been confronted by the fallibility of their bodies. Prior to their last national tour, Simon snapped his achilles in a routine training session resulting in a complete nervous breakdown. His partner Jo was, at the time, struggling with exhaustion and depression following the birth of her youngest child and Mozes, the third member of the troupe, had been living with HIV and the very real threat that his body could one day fail him.

Once the individual characters arcs were established, I needed to find the story and structure. Given the transient nature of the troupe, I thought that a physical journey charting the tour would compliment the more existential journey the film was exploring.

The edit was no easy feat as we still needed to shape the character arcs as well as the overall story.

Whilst this significantly fed into the treatment to provide a sound basis from which to commence the shoot, I still undertook an observational approach to filming to allow for unpredictable moments to unfold before the camera.

Despite putting all of this planning in place, the edit was no easy feat as we still needed to shape the character arcs as well as the overall story.

Looking back on the footage from Muscle, I realized that I needed to construct a story and character outline for the film with the footage I had shot, not with what I had written about in the treatment. I also realized that I needed the characters to represent a different facet to their complex relationships with their bodies.

Whilst some observational filmmakers would never even write so much as a synopsis prior to filming, the writing process has become an invaluable part of my documentary filmmaking process.

Fleshing this out with editor Andy Canny, we worked out that Jo represented the emotional relationship an acrobat has with their body as she become increasingly torn between the needs on her body of both her children and her work. Simon represented the mental burden of injury, and Mozes the physical challenges of preventing the HIV from destroying his immune system.

Once we had worked out these basic character journeys we could approach the edit with a renewed and consolidated idea of the story that still honoured the premise of the original treatment but that, most importantly, honoured the actual footage that was captured.

Revisiting some my favourite documentaries – particularly the observational films from the Direct Cinema moment – I am reminded of how they utilised the devices of narrative fiction film to create an engaging and compelling story.

It is story that motivates the viewer to continue watching.

The work of the Maysles Brothers (pictured below) is particularly successful on this level with their films setting out to have all of the character development, conflict resolution, tension and plot of a fiction film.

Whether creating a character based documentary like Grey Gardens about an odd mother-daughter relationship or an event driven documentary like Gimme Shelter about the ill-fated Rolling Stones concert at Altamont, it is story that motivates the viewer to continue watching.

Like fiction films, these documentaries create a sense of intrigue prompting the viewer to ask, “what happens next?”, “how will story this turn out?” and “will the subject/s get what they want?”

Some observational filmmakers would never even write so much as a synopsis prior to filming. For me though, the writing process has become an invaluable part of my documentary filmmaking process.

Rather than stifling the creative process, I feel that it has enabled me to be more focused on capturing footage to enhance the story rather than searching for the story whilst shooting.

The important thing is to be responsive and open to those spontaneous, unforeseen moments that give a meaningful insight into the lives of the subjects and the worlds they inhabit. Those moments that, when captured by the delicate observations of the documentary filmmaker, transport us on that serendipitous journey Maysles refers to “so for that period of time, as you watch the film, you are, in effect, in the shoes of another individual”.

What a privilege it is to not only have that experience as a viewer but as a documentary filmmaker.

Natasha Gadd is a Melbourne based writer and director whose recent works include the AFI nominated documentary, Words From the City, and Anatomy – Muscle, awarded Best Documentary at the 2008 Australian Directors Guild Awards.

A thoroughly entertaining documentary which provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of underground art and the cult of celebrity

In his directorial debut, Banksy unleashes a must-see documentary chronicling the rise of graffiti and street art. The film is in turns comedic and poignant, opening the eyes of the audience to contemporary art.

Exit Through The Gift Shop tells the journey of a French man named Thierry Guetta who is so obsessed and passionate about film that he never goes anywhere without a video camera. Every single second of every single day is captured on film. It is his cousin’s artwork that changes Thierry’s life as he quickly finds himself in the underground world of street art, a world where graffiti is not encouraged.

Travelling to Los Angeles, Thierry soon realises that his ‘filmmaking skills’ can be put to good use by immortalising the artwork of various street art visionaries before it is cleaned up and taken down. Skilled artists like Shepard Fairey welcome Thierry into their lives and allow him to accompany them around the world as they graffiti famous landmarks (Hollywood Boulevard and Disneyland to name just a couple). As Thierry meets more and more artists, there is still one person that seems to be untraceable: Banksy. However, a chance phone call unites the two and under strict conditions Thierry is allowed to record Banksy’s daily life on film.

As Banksy’s art becomes increasingly valuable, he decides it would be a good idea for Thierry to put his tapes to use and construct a documentary to show the world that these artists are motivated by their passion, rather than money. But when Banksy realises Thierry is not the experienced filmmaker he previously made out, he encourages Thierry to unveil his own street art, leaving Banksy to rummage through the hundreds of tapes.

Exit Through The Gift Shop makes for an amazing and wildly entertaining ride, and not only for graffiti lovers. While educating the audience, the film also portrays messages on friendship and the need for artists to have faith in their work. Highly recommended.

Have a sync (www.haveasync.com) is the new tool for music licensing, designed and managed by Bixio Publishing Group. It allows directors, advertising agencies, music consultants to find the perfect music for films, documentaries, commercials, TV series and other audiovisual productions. The research is intuitive, fast and efficient, thanks to the innovative Sync Cloud system. All the tracks on Have a Sync are available in full-track streaming. For most of the tracks, the licenses can be purchased directly online for both publishing and master rights.

Music supervisors can find the tracks that best fit their project by selecting the genre, the mood, the style, the instrumentation. With the cloudsearch system, it i salso possible to combine all the parameters. The search results are always reliable, thanks to the experience of Bixio Publishing Group, acknowledged reality in the field of soundtracks.

Have a sync catalogue includes all music belonging to Bixio Publishing Group: tracks by great Italian and International composers such as Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovajoli, Nino Rota, Nicola Piovani, Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, CA Bixio, Bixio / Frizzi / Tempera, Augusto Martelli, The Goblin, Keith Emerson, Brian Eno etc. Over 4000 songs ranging from traditional Italian song to rap, from jazz to lounge, from progressive rock to trip hop.

Each registered user is equipped with a personal page that includes a playlist, to save the favourite songs before making a decision about what to license. Moreover, once acquired the rights online, it is always possible to access to the contract and to the audio file (available both in MP3 and high quality).

The service is running a special offer through to the end of the year. All pre-cleared tracks will be available at half price until December 31 2010.

Visit www.haveasync.com for more information.

The Stoning Of Soraya M

by Annette Basile | May 24, 2010 11:53 | FILMINK Magazine

Beautifully shot and skillfully told, this is a phenomenal and unforgettable piece of cinema.

Iran, circa 1986. A French-Iranian journalist is passing an isolated mountain village when his car breaks down. The mayor and religious leader greet him, feigning a warm welcome. But the reporter – Freidoune Sahebjam (James Caviezel), who wrote the book upon which this film is based – is nervous, and desperate to get back to France. He’s approached by Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who the village officials tell him to ignore – she’s “insane”, they say. But a dogged Zahra connects with Sahebjam. She has a story to tell – a true story that will test your mettle.

Zahra’s niece, Soraya (Mozhan Marno), has just been stoned death, convicted under Sharia law of adultery. The title tells you what you’re in for, and writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh is unflinching in his portrayal of the brutal event. A foreboding tension acts as the film’s pulse, and it doesn’t ease until the final scene. Beautifully shot, the storytelling is masterful. It’s disturbing yet engrossing, as we watch Soraya’s self-interested husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), scheming and blackmailing to have his wife “legally” murdered.
On the surface, this is about Iranian women, but underneath it’s an archetypical story, and the village setting heightens that sense. It’s about the shocking things that people can inflict on others, and about those who stand by, allowing horror to happen. It’s also about defiance, dignity and familial love.

With her exceptional beauty and commanding screen presence, Shohreh Aghdashloo (House Of Sand And Fog) is incredible as Zahra, while Mozhan Marno’s innocent Soraya is heartbreakingly real.

The Stoning Of Soraya M. hits you in the gut. It’s a phenomenal piece of cinema, but there are many who will read about it and think, “I don’t need to go there.” Those who do will be rewarded by meeting these two women. They, and this film, are unforgettable.

http://www.thestoning.com/