The Festival Wraps Up

Festival Friends,

Sadly, the curtain is soon to close on another year of the St Kilda Film Festival -- and what a year it has been! Yesterday the Top 100 sessions had solid attendance, alongside the Industry Open Day and the specialist Forums at the Forum Hall. As has become an annual tradition, Paul Harris hosted Film Buff's Forecast program, opening with, "We are coming live from the foyer of the beautiful, ornate few remaining picture palaces in Melbourne -- The Astor... it might be in a traffic gridlock but it's still looking in all its pristine glory".

Harris got to chat with Colin Usher, director of Top 100 documentary, the very sweet Betty's Tap Catz. Usher says "I like doing an uplifting documentary - so when the audience walks out of the theatre they feel happy about it". Betty's Tap Catz is the feel-good documentary about Betty Crocker ("not to be confused with the cookery icon" says Harris) a mature-aged dance teacher, motivating other elderly folks to get up and boogie down.

Another guest featured was the director of Tranmission Zak Hilditch. Harris mentions that it "has already had a pretty run and has played at several festivals including Tribeca" "yeah, it's been pretty exciting to meet other filmmakers and screenwriters". Funded by Screen Australia's 'Springboard' initiative, the film was made as teaser for a feature or at least "the mood and tone of a feature" as Hilditch says.

To catch the rest of yesterday's 'Film Buff's Forecast' check out http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/  for more filmy goodness.

Ten Things To Know Before You Shoot -- Forum on Friday, presented by Digital Pictures

Triple R's 'Film Buff's Forecast' -- direct from The Astor's wonderful Art Deco lobby

Remember that tonight is Closing Night, for which there are still tickets available to see the Festival's best and brightest be awarded for their efforts. It will be a great night of celebrating Australia's film industry and perhaps a good chance to network...

Also, there are the two final Top 100 film sessions (including the moving Adam's Tallit, the mesmerising documentary collaboration We Were Here, and the hilarious Picking Up At Auschwitz) the first session starts at 3.30pm, the second at 6.30pm. Also, we can't forget about the second Irish Shorts session (from 5pm), another fresh look at Irish culture.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the last night of St Kilda Film Festival 2012.
This isn't my last post, so don't get all teary... I'll be updating the blog with winners from tonight and information regarding the upcoming TOUR for Rural Victoria.

Lots of love,

Can't-Think-Of-Witty-Pseudonym-Intern

Bonny Doon -- A Bucket of KFC

Late last Saturday night, Paul Harris joined Headley Gritter and a panel including Stephen Curry, Matt Saville and Dave Lawson for RRR's The Party Show to talk about their careers, philosophies and SKFF. 

Curry (perhaps best known for roles in The Castle and The King), Lawson (standup comedian) and Saville (director of We Can Be Heroes and The King) collaborated on a short film which features in this year's Top 100, titled Bonny Doon. The film, a car-set impromptu tour-de-force, was allegedly made on the budget of "a bucket of KFC" and is "a wonderful journey from A to A" as Curry describes.

When asked (by its makers) why the film was chosen to screen at the Festival, Harris answered that as a curator of a film festival, he looks for films that stand out, aren't made to a "house style" meaning it isn't 'the norm' -- and when "something as idiosyncratic as [Bonny Doon]" comes along, it's hard not to pay attention.

Another guest to feature on the show was Natasha Pincus, director of the music video monolith 'Somebody That I Used to Know' (with over 215 million views... oh my golly!) who describes her success as having a paradoxical effect -- "Life is completely like it was. But nothing like it was." When asked when she was planning next to make a film clip she said "I'm careful when picking projects because they take a long time". Unlike the few hours it took to film Bonny Doon "it took 26 hours" of (mostly) naked Gotye and Kimbra covered in body paint.


Catch the work of Curry, Saville, Lawson and Pincus during the festival:
Bonny Doon -- Top 100 Session Five: 9pm Friday, May 25
Somebody That I Used To Know -- SoundKilda: 9pm Thursday, May 24     

Listen to the hilarious banter of Headley and company online at http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/

Interview Corman at Ya!

Jamie Blanks and Mark Hartley Interviewed on RRR's Film Buff's Forecast

St Kilda Film Festival's trailer tribute to the "undisputed King of the Bs", Roger Corman, will be screened this Friday from 11pm at The Astor Theatre. For the late-night session, the superbly talented Mark Hartley and Jamie Blanks have compiled the best "money shots" from Corman's long career in film. Paul Harris interviewed them on his Film Buff's Forecast radio show, to get their perspective on Corman and his film career -- with the privilege of "access to Joe Dante's archive".

The dangerous babes that inhabited Corman's world!

When creating a compilation of Corman's filmography highlights, Blanks and Hartley decided "the best way to do it, is to find the best trailers" -- to gather all the strangest snippets of arresting imagery, and accompanying swellings of music. In other words, creating a showcase of mini-films -- a cinematic licorice all-sorts if you will.

"The first half [of the program] is films Corman directed himself," says Hartley, "the second half will be those [films] he produced". They agree they're "in love with the trailers from the 70s" -- an era in which Corman was particularly active. Harris concurs that he loves"the old school trailers" because they "are in effect like going down sideshow alley -- going by all these carny spruikers, trying to get people into their tents". According to Blanks, Hartley and Harris, the intriguing, playful and teasing nature of yesteryear's trailers contrasts drastically to today's trailers which Harris says "are something to be endured" rather than enjoyed.

To expand your opinion of trailers, come along and be swept away in a high tide of DRAMA! INTRIGUE! ROMANCE!

Corman at Ya! 
@ The Astor
11pm to 12.30am 
Friday, May 25 


To listen to the interview, check out http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/  and click the link to Film Buff's Forecast
For more information about Roger Corman, go to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000339/

Pitch Clinic Update

As you (hopefully) know already, there's a great opportunity for filmmakers to learn the art of successfully 'pitching' screen projects to financiers at this year's forum 'Pitch Clinic'. Paul Harris talked to Forum panelist Pamela Wilson-Endrina on his RRR show, a former entertainment lawyer who spent ten years working in the USA, helping to operate a film investment arm of a larger banking company.

Paul: Do you have any view on how films are produced in Australia? 

Pamela: When I came back to Australia, one thing that struck me was the lack of formal education in the packaging and understanding of screen business... as opposed to actually making [films]. 

What makes a pitch attention-worthy? 

(1) As a financier the most important thing is whether you like the person... If you don't like them, don't work with them... (2) Be interested in what they're pitching... (3) [The pitcher] needs to demonstrate their understanding of their audience and how commercial their proposition. 

How long does the ideal pitch take? 

I wouldn't go any more than ten to fifteen... at the ten to twelve minute mark you see their eyes to glaze over... If you haven't got them asking questions and being active in the first five minutes, you're in trouble.  

In response to Wilson-Endrina's anxieties about the state of Australian screen pitching, she's established a short course at Victoria University's Sir Zelman Cowen Centre which not only includes information for successful pitching, but everything in screen business -- from international co-producing to understanding the paradigms of marketing and distribution. 'Pitch Clinic' will be a snapshot of the business of filmmaking with Endria-Wilson alongside a panel of Industry experts who will give invaluable advice for emerging to established practitioners, looking to find funding for their screen dreams.

Also on the panel is John Endrina -- who worked with his wife in the screen investment firm while they were based in the USA -- and Alan Finney, the esteemed chair of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) who formely acted as Vice President and Managing Director of Bueno Vista International (now Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures).

An opportunity to have access to such experienced Industry experts is very rare, so we recommend you come along and make the most of it!

'Pitch Clinic' is the first Filmmaker Development Forum, and will be held at Forum Hall on Wednesday, May 23rd -- 6pm to 7.30pm   

Kthxbai
Intern 101