possible worlds

Media Industries Day – Friday 1st September, 2006 Kaleide Theatre

Think you know all about the media industry? Think again.

Coordinated by final year RMIT Media Students and launched by BAFTA, AFI and Logi awarding winning producer Ewan Burnett,
the MEDIA INDUSTRIES DAY is a FREE seminar aimed to provide you with important information about current and future trends
facing the industry. Divided into three sessions, the event is structured so as to specifically address key fields.

9.30am-11.45am Content is King
Come and engage with content creators from all aspects of the burgeoning media industry, including scriptwriters, journalists,
investigative reporters and online bloggers.

Guests include:
Chloe Saltau – Chief Sports Reporter for The Age.
Gerard Whateley – Lead football commentator for ABC radio and writer for the ABC website.
Michael Brindley – Writer for Australian film and television
Gary Hughes – Investigative reporter and Interactive editor for News Limited.
John Safran – Documentarian, scriptwriter and media personality. (TBC)

1:00pm-3:00pm The Visual is the Visceral
Explore the methods behind the madness! Join the teams from Em 4 Jay and Macbeth as they discuss their experiences of shooting
edgy Australian films within the current film industry climate. Discover how they achieved their desired visual aesthetic under the constraints
of low budget filmmaking.

Guests include:
From – Em 4 Jay
Paul Walton – Producer
Alkinos Tsilimidos – Director
Joined by their Production Designer, Costume Designer and Editor From – MacbethGeoffrey Wright – Director
Will Gibson – Director of Photography

3.15pm-5.15pm Future Radio
Investigate the future direction of radio in terms of digital programming, podcasting, the changing nature of the audience
and other challenges facing the industry.

Guests include:
Mark Newstead – Media Analyst and Consultant for Media Mark
Daryl Mitchell – National Sales Director for the Macquarie Regional Radio Network
Roger Jones – Station Manager of PBS
Tony Walker – Manager of ABC Digital Radio
Andrew Kruger – Executive Producer for SBS Digital Content Development Unit

I can’t believe it’s NOT BUTTER!

No, that’s because it’s the
INTERNATIONAL PODCASTING EXPO 2006.

A 3-D Virtual Expo on October 20th – 22nd.
A great opportunity to learn some tricks and tips
from the Podcasting experts.

Check out all the info at the link below.
enjoy!

http://www.internationalpodcastingexpo.com/

Here’s an update on the “Filmmaker tries Online Auditions” article I posted recently.

Daniel Myrick, the co-creator of “The Blair Witch Project” is currently
casting for his new feature film “The Objective”. If you have a burning
desire to audition and take part in what has arguably been heralded as
the first online audition in the world. Then follow your passion and go
to the link below. Good Luck!

http://web.mac.com/gearhead2003/iWeb/The%20Objective/Home.html

Garry Maddox, Film Writer (Sydney Morning Herald)
cited: August 7, 2006

Want a part in a new American movie? You may fancy playing a captain in a special forces unit, described as “decisive, in charge and in control”, on a secret mission in Afghanistan. Or a corporal (“full of youthful bravery”). Or even a British medic (with a “a quick and dark sense of humour”).

After pioneering movie marketing on the internet, one of the creators of The Blair Witch Project is revolutionising the casting call, so that actors anywhere from Malibu to Malabar can audition.

Daniel Myrick, who reputedly made $US4 million ($5.3 million) when that low-budget horror movie became a huge hit, is casting his next movie on the net. He is seeking “raw, motivated talent” who can bring dramatic realism to the supernatural thriller The Objective, which is due to be filmed in either the US or India later this year.

“I’ve always liked casting real people in my projects,” said Myrick, who is editing the horror-drama Solstice in Los Angeles. “I like reaching out to as wide a pool as possible to see what kind of talent is out there. This is probably the best way of doing that without having a logistical nightmare.”

Myrick is encouraging actors from around the world to audition, especially those with military experience.
“We have a little bit of a budget to transfer people, depending on who we get and how much we like them. Anything is possible.”

Is this the future of casting? “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be,” said Myrick, who accuses many Hollywood casting agents of being myopic and casting familiar actors in movies.
“For independent producers and filmmakers, this is a really good way to inexpensively see a lot of people.”
Myrick said there had been great interest in the online auditions in the first few days. Some budding actors had dressed for the part. “We’ve had a couple of guys in full fatigues,” he said.

The spin-off benefit for the filmmakers is that casting this way also spreads the word about the movie.
“There’s always value in getting press for a project,” Myrick said. “But hype is one thing. I do want the film to pay off and stand on its own merits.”

Here’s an interesting bit of art technology: Japanese Art Scene Monitor reports that one of Japan’s largest printing companies is releasing a slideshow of art by Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Homma, Kenji Yanobe, and others for viewing on iPods. The Artstar project comes on CD and includes on music track plus 175 images, from drawings to photographs. Or in some cases, meta-photographs: “[Takashi] Homma has taken photographs of his photographs, creating 167 deliberately low-fi images, perhaps in a humorous acknowledgement of the iPod’s limitations as a visual media.”
Above: works by Yoshitomo Nara. (Thanks, Lynn.)

The above article was cited on 26.7.07 at the following website.
http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/?p=137

The Picasso exhibition has arrived at NGV Melbourne 30 June to 8 October 2006
and it’s a great opportunity to take a look at the art practice of both Picassso and his muse of the period, photographer Dora Maar. Mixing photography, painting and sketches, this exhibition provides an insight into the inspiration, planning and production of one of Picasso’s most famous paintings “Guernica”.

I have just seen the exhibition and I was so impressed by the high quality of the work exhibited by both artitsts. I highly recommend this exhibition for anyone with even a slightest interest in modern art. Afterall, Picasso is arguably the shining light of modernism. Check out the website below for details. It includes an  Education Resource that’s chock full of info that will provide you with a solid background on the artists and the work on show.
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/picasso/
Enjoy!