another night in the audience of the 'house

(Source: Malthouse Theatre photo)

i loved how blood wedding was staged. directed by marion potts and written by frederico garcia lorca, it's gathered a lot of critical success but i wasn't too enamoured. maybe it was my mood, i don't know. the story of bad blood and betrayal between two spanish families and the fall-out at a wedding. i was entertained but not enthralled.

a sleep in....

i had a lost weekend - three days off with not much planned. those sort of days are usually mornings of writing and afternoons of watching a movie or dvds. i watched a heck of a lot of tv this weekend, box sets. jb hifi had it's mad july buy 2 get 1 free deals so i did go a little berserk. maybe a little more than berserk, mental maybe.

anyway... a sleep in was had. i told myself it was in preparation. of MIFF. yes, the melbourne international film festival starts this week, for me on friday and runs through three weekends. i have booked 40 films for the 17 days, with two days off for other planned events. i believe i chose well, and even with 40 films on my passport it doesn't feel as hectic as the years previous. but we'll see how i fare through MIFF 2012.

loosely based on a real story

a freebie film at nova. it was nice, nothing special, just nice.

a tv industry forum (i'm not an insider yet)

in my time in melbourne, film victoria have put on some fabulous seminars for practitioners and emerging film-makers/ writers alike. yesterday's offering connect with subscription tv included 200 attendees, 17 speakers, 5 panel sessions and a networking session. so all in all a pretty useful event for the low cost (including lunch and snacks) of $25. met some interesting people, had a laugh, almost a snooze and kind of felt like i almost belonged.

it seemed mostly a foxtel plug but there were some interesting speakers, though not all stations commission local content and are seem unlikely to in the future. but it gets one thinking at least. options are always good.

time to lift-off

another year's MIFF program launch. i trammed along to the forum theatre last night to see the clips picked to illustrate the quality of films we will be seeing at this year's melbourne international film festival. i trammed home again clutching the program and flicking through the pages to see what caught my eye.

i'm booked in to see 40 films between august 3 - 19. yes, i should see someone about my problem.

to the border and back again

took a drive up to the north border town of mildura. it was a nice drive - except for ivy's flat tyre. first one i've had with her so i guess i can't complain too much. mildura is larger than i imagined, and kind of reminded me of bunbury/ mandurah in w.a. - though of course they're beach towns and mildura is situated by the "mighty" murray river. i explored the town and some of the smaller communities nearby. went to the sunday market at red cliffs and also drove across the border to n.s.w. didn't even need a visa. ha!

the below photos are from the mungo national park - it's about an hours drive north from mildura, most of it off-road. i did think that my little car might shake herself apart at some stages of the drive, but she made it through.

she was parked up against all these big 4wds - the little car that could.

i took the trip because i was looking for a location to set a tv series that i'm developing, but it's not what i imagined. pretty amazing but not what i've got in my head. i see the towns that i used to drive through in w.a. so maybe i'll just use one of those for a setting.