Its been a long week of work and filming and am now in Auckland for the weekend filming a fashion show. Been in my hotel room for about half an hour and already I’m bored and over it. Never was one for hotels, the novelty of it wears off pretty quickly and by the end of it, your trying to figure out how get rid of the dead hooker. Typical.

Anyway, in other news, there’s word of a Preacher movie again, this time its ‘confirmed’ with Sam Mendes directing this time. The last I heard about this project, it was going to be an HBO series, but turns out it got dropped for being ‘too dark’ and ‘religiously controversial’, which is kind of the point right? Well anyway, I hope they don’t fuck it up, cause I friggin’ love Preacher with all of my body (including my pee pee).

The Mountain Goats have finally announced their return after postponing the Australian leg of their tour and breaking my heart. December 17th, I’m there and so should you.

Man, I’ve now had this tab open for so long and can’t think of anything more to write about. Not that you’d notice. I’ve been clicking between tabs and keep coming back to this window with the blinking icon saying “finish writing this post you lazy fuck. Stop ignoring your blog. Update use more often. We maybe annoying like a herpes sore, but we’re yours to deal with for the rest of your life”… okay… shit, I must be really tired. I’ve just written a whole paragraph of my train of thought and am now writing about me writing about writing my train of thought… wow… I’m actually confused now. Oh and if your reading this Ross, I forgot to return that library book and its up in Auckland with me. Will return it on Sunday. My bad.

I need to sleep.

Friday was a false start to the weekend, where there was no work, not much that needed doing and just a lot of general creative activities including mask making (which was fun and involved working with paper mache, which I haven’t done in a long time).

Saturday I woke up at seven in the morning after very little sleep, even though I knew I should have and filmed on this yet to be titled wintec project all day until five-ish, six. Had about a half hour to prepare and shot straight out again for more filming, this time at the Great Race masquerade ball. This time with an even heavier camera and a lot more people to dodge.

Eventually finishing up at three in the morning, I got myself a bit more sleep for more filming at eight, which was interrupted a few hours into it by having to rush home and move in a piano. Rush back for more filming and I finish up about four to come home for some rest, catch up with Ross (back from a most envious time in Wellington) and then out to work again for the night, where I was nearly dead on my feet and screwing up an unbelievable amount of amusing times.

Still awake for some reason, I’ve now hit that plateau of so little sleep and exhaustion, I’m not really tired any more and nothing can touch me.

But yeah, the masquerade ball was a very pretty event as always. Being in with the organisers, its actually much more interesting on the behind the scenes of things, than it is as a patron. Mind you, in saying that, next year I’ll just go as a patron, rather than a worker. Its much easier that way.

Meanwhile, there’s now a piano in my room. And a big one at that, it’s actually slightly bigger than most pianos I’ve been around and a bit more than I was expecting. But yeah, it’s in my room. I’ve always been amused by some stories or jokes where someone comes out of something (most often a crazy night out) and some action has come back to haunt them. Out of boredom, exhaustion and being underwhelmed, I bought a piano. And it’s in my room.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the piano. But it’s like this thing I remember from somewhere in family guy (I’m guessing) and they’re saying “if you just ignore it, it’ll go away” and pull out and theres a cow (or something) right there in the room with them… yeah, for me its a big ass piano. I’m gonna have to try and convince the flatmates that it’s a good idea to move the bastard into the lounge instead. The out of placeness and monstrosity of this piano is freaking me out a bit.

Meanwhile Ross had a great time in Wellington being accepted as a shortlister for First Writer’s Initiative (remembered the name this time) and I finally got around to reading his accepted script and it’s got potential to be good. Really good. So all the best as he keeps using that alien brain of his to write stuff (which I’m starting to not do very well anymore).

Actually, the tiredness is coming back to me now. After this weekend and all previous shoots for that matter, I’m now formulating a general set of rules for myself on how I’m approaching anymore filmwork…

No free corporate/wedding/etc work.
Read the script before committing to anything.
Plan the hell out of everything.
Don’t say yes so quick, just because she’s hot.
Don’t compromise so much other regular activities to work on a project.
Don’t buy pianos on a whim.

Actually, it sounds like I’m complaining about working on this wintec shoot, but I’m not. I’m actually really enjoying myself. I’m just so exhausted from doing all the work on my own, which I always seem to get myself into doing and unfortunately prefer it that way. And yeah, people are right, I should take a break for a while, but… actually, there is no excuse, I just should. But I’m a film whore like that I guess. Got another short film coming up, possibly acting in another, possible music video to do too, wanna get onto writing and rewriting some stuff and oh yeah, lots of footage sitting around that needs editing. After those, I’ll take a break. Actually, I’ll probably be accepting more stuff again in no time soon just because I like the person offering. But one things is for sure, I will not to go out buying pianos at the drop of a hat next time.

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.

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.

So where the hell have I been? Everytime I wake up in the morning, I ask myself that same question. Usually followed by what the hell is a traffic cone, orange wig, empty cases of import beer and one pissed off monkey doing in my room? But enough about how I cured cancer, on with the update…

The deadly life threatening flu that I contracted has all but gone and has dropped down to orange alert, annoying tickling cough. Would have been over it faster, but have been keeping myself way too busy, mostly with video store work and helping out on a wintec short film, which has been interesting to say the least. Lots of very cool gear being used and at one point, there was a 30 ft crane on set that had me changing my pants several times from pure delight. But the set is on a farm that was at first stinking to high heaven of sheep shit and now after some wonderful winter weather, reduced to a mud field of very squishy proportions. Its not so bad, but for some reason, walking around the dark at night, the constant squishing sounds of the mud just gets to me, even though no said liquids are in contact with my person. Washing machine is getting its run for its money though.

Best part about this is the fact that to both of our surprises, my friend Rob who disappeared from my life years ago to Wellington, turned up out of the blue for this film and he’s awesome and reads this blog. But yeah, its an interesting shoot and only being a helping hand on this one, it’s always still facinating to me to watch how other people’s productions run. Especially the other low budget stuff, its almost overkill how professional this shoot is, there are a couple of industry professionals here and the set ups are being rigged in a very industry professional manner and that on the level of this kind of production is making for facinating sideline viewing for me. Details another time no doubt.

At the same time, I’ve been juggling my work and pulled off the ridiculous amount of hours at the video store this weekend (28ish in 48 hours), but meh I say. Worst off is the fact I have a couple of corporate videos that need cutting and the deadline is only a few days away and the time to do so is getting tight. Oh and forgot to mention earlier, but the damn computer with Pictures of You on it is now sitting in my room waiting for me to start chopping into it as well, that’s my job on it now, but that’ll have to wait just a bit longer as I vainly attempt to clear up my workload.

Also to mention, I finally got myself a copy of Auckland’s international film festival booklet and as thought, the list is sweet. Already planned several times to just go up and watch as much cool stuff as possible. One particular weekend has about nine films pencilled in as “yeah, I’d really like to go to this one and that one and oh, this one will be cool” blah, blah, blah. Fact that I’m working this year will probably mean I’ll be seening more festival films in Auckland than I did last year when I was living there. Go figure.

Oh yeah, and the national winner of the 48 Hour competition was announced tonight. Hamilton’s entry didn’t win and to my disappointment, Lemonade Coup didn’t get Cinematography (though they still get a nice panasonic dvx102… dastards), but it was a very interesting line-up of finalists. Auckland’s finalist was a surprising winner and it’ll be interesting to see how it actually compares to their finalists. My bet was on the Christchurch entry that come in second and was just great, but in the end, Lease, one of Peter Jackon’s wild card entries took the top spot.

Now its off to some much needed sleep, been getting so little in the past week, and that’s not gonna let up for a few more days, so here is two highly amusing videos of street magic and stuff.

Back from Auckland… something about driving back and forth from Auckland to Hamilton always has me playing Tom Waits albums. Totally nothing wrong with it, I just find it a really strange reoccurance.

Long day of filming today that started out quite hungover, progressing to mindsplitting nausea, to numb headache, to nap, to all good and followed by another nap and then sweet as. But really, don’t get me too wrong, it wasn’t that bad today and there was some very good stuff shot for this promo/intro video. Which I’m so not looking forward to putting together considering the amount of work I’ve got coming up in the week.

Last night I got to catch up with a whole bunch of people from South Seas and yabber the night away about what we’ve all been doing since escaping. Of course, the people with proper jobs and all weren’t really there or showing up, but surprisingly enough, there was a lot less people there then I under-expected, which is saying quite a bit considering. But it was still a decent enough night seeing people, plus I got to drink at another student screening thing, which is always good in my books. I’m just thinking what to do for the University’s screening at the end of this year and how to make it really ‘worth going to’.

Also got to sneak a listen of the Gin (not the drink, but just as awesome musician) recordings, which sound great. It’s odd to hear it all being playing and tinkered around with in the rehearsal period and then to suddenly hear it recorded, mixed and attached with purple midgets (or whatever the music industry does when making albums). But it’s all looking really good and my favourite of the bunch from the rehearsals, which I can’t name here (because I don’t actually know the title of it) is sassy cool and I’m just looking forward to receiving a copy of the master next week…. I’m secretly thinking up concepts of videos and stuff, but don’t tell.

Also got to catch up with a whole bunch of people and cheers to Tanya for holding onto and looking after my jazzy scarf for me since her birthday last year. And hey, I finally, though briefly, got to meet her elusively mysterious man, which everyone will be happy to know is most definitely human and not a shadow lurking zombie Kodiac Bear sent back from the alternate future to hunt down fish… which not all had assumed except for… well, me and the homeless guy that lives in my garden… yeah, okay, me. But really, he’s cool and me and Dr.Hobo are quite pleased.

Its ANZAC day and all tomorrow and I’ve got to work in the morning and I’m pretty tired right now (can you tell from this rather erratic post?) There’s an English bloke sleeping in the spare room and… no, that’s all I’ve got about that really. This has been a tired, exhausted post that makes less sense read, compared to being written, but hey… yeah… ping pong balls.

Got some filming of Spit-Takes done yesterday evening and photography is now about 45% complete. Tried to do a few more shots today or at least some for The Montage, but no one was available at any point for some strange reason. Stupid guerrilla film making.

But with some luck, the majority of filming will be done by the end of this week with just the montage to finish off. Editing shall be started soon, with hopefully not much disorganised footage to plough through. I’m quite happy with how its turning out so far and if done in time, it’ll be most worthy of submitting into film festivals around the place.

Here’s just how classy we are…

On another note, big congrats to Joe and Marama on their recent betrothal. I’ve had a long day of not doing much and things not all going to plan, but coming home to read this news of theirs made me warm and fuzzy inside.

And I was gonna write up some other stuff, but I just got a phone call from Director Ben and a rather big problem in the Pictures of You editing has just occurred and I must be off.

Some issues with blogger and little bits of apathy prevented any posts from happening this week. Plus there was actually a lot of working during the day and editing during the night that kept this site at bay.

We had our Pictures of You wrap party on Friday which was a nice affair to see people again, catch up, drink and look totally ridiculous. A big happy birthday to Old Friend Scott for yesterday… I spent Saturday well and truely hungover all day and sleeping and eating a lot and the recovery was just in time for me to work a graveyard shift where once again, I watched movies, read comics and abused drunk customers (orientation week man…). Just about to head out to film some more of Spit-Takes and knowing that I’m not gonna watch enough on a cheap Tuesday, thinking of going to a film tonight… Oscar season, always too many to go to.

Quickies… Proof that the universe’s karma is against me, Penn Radio which I’ve recently been listening a lot, had its last show on Friday. Which is a shame but I think its missing out on the rest of a Moon Landing conspiracy thread you can download the casts here and here. Which is facinating stuff, but we’ll probably never hear the conclusion to it.

The new trailer for Paprika is out and just simply look amazing. Satoshi Kon is one of my favourite directors and everything he makes and touches turns to edible gold. Watch any or all of his previous works and you won’t be disappointed, my personal favourite is either Perfect Blue or Millennium Actress… Actually I really love the series Paranoia Agent, which would just leave out Tokyo Godfathers, but I loved that film too… screw it, trailers here.

Started out Friday with very little sleep, worked, rested, filmed a charity auction (with beer) and then played poker (with burbon), slept for two hours and then with a hangover in hand worked for just over eleven, then hung out with more people (more burbon and then rum), but not for too long as hangover was still hovering above my tired body at that point. Eventually slept for many many hours and woke up this afternoon not feeling very filmmaker like much to my disappointment (sorry Ross). Will have to reschedule Spit-Takes for another day (not too far away). Today was also friend Zoe’s birthday, where eating and drinking wine out of a jar (classy) took place and now I sit content to not be doing much.

Have started using tags for this website and have been attempting to tag previous posts, but there have now been over 100 made and that makes for a lot of clicking and tagging… ah well.

For coolness, here are a series of photos taken at just the right angle with just the right object, creating some of the coolest illusions around. Click on the sample photo for more.

And on my recent occasional visit to the Mountain Goats site where I wait with bated breath for their next New Zealand tour, I’ve noticed their website has had a new design. Do I mention how much I love the Mountain Goats enough here? Do you love the Mountain Goats? If you don’t, that makes you a communist. Forever I’ll have Rob to thank for introducing me to them on a fateful drive to Wellington, thus allowing me to pass the Mountain Goats love to a good portion of Hamilton. I wonder if he still reads this site… if you do… sup.

Here’s “No Children” live…