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.

into the box

a weekend aftrs course on writing and thinking about writing for television. it was a lot of fun and i met some cool people. i do know that i have chosen the right path, i just need to stay on it and stay moving and then i might just get somewhere.

two shocks, one night

so last night i sat in a cinema to watch a horror film. first time since 1985 when a nightmare on elm street visited my town (yes, a year after it was released, but we're talking kalgoorlie, western australia here). i am not a horror fan. in fact, i go out of my way to avoid them. but this was joss whedon so i had no choice. it was a funny kind of horror, though i was still made to jump and look at my lap (and close my eyes), i enjoyed it. written by whedon and drew goddard, it made me laugh. of course it did. it was saying all sorts of things but i'll give it a few days to try and make sense of it. but i liked it and no, there's no real chance of me getting more interested in horror films. i don't see the sense in them.

the second shock was also during the viewing. we had an earthquake. well, i didn't know it was a tremor then - what i assumed was that someone was tapping their foot/ leg on the ground and it was vibrating the seats. it lasted for 30 odd seconds so it was lengthy. it was only when i got home that the news came in that a 5.3 quake had it's epicentre in moe, a town about 130km east of melbourne.

sort of, but not quite, back

had a bit of a sabbatical from blogging. it's not that i haven't been doing stuff, stuff has been done. it's just that i haven't been bothered to write about it. i mean, since i last wrote there's been the annual trip to sydney for the writers festival, many films, trips to the theatre. oh, i went to the circus (research, i promise), a couple of art galleries and a day trip to clunes. so like i said, there's stuff done to be written about i just haven't.

but maybe i'm back, i don't know. i'll give it a shot.

i just finished watching a cool tv series from new zealand. i first read about it on a uk website, i can't remember if it was cultbox or den of geek, but anyway, one of those mentioned the almighty johnsons and i stumbled across the first season at jb hifi about a month ago. timing, i hope thou are looking up, as season two finished not so long ago and i was able to purchase that online as well. i was hooked. i love the story of norse gods who had immigrated to new zealand and found out their true identities on their 21st birthdays - awesome. hope the creators james griffin and rachel lang get picked up for a third series.