Melbourne down, Sydney and Brisbane to go...

After three days in Melbourne we are back home, enthusiastic and ready to continue the hard slog of editing Into the Shadows together.

On Monday, we arrived in Melbourne and after dropping some bags of at our now regular, City Limits hotel, met Paul Coulter. Paul has had a long life in the film industry, from the days of the Melbourne film co-op, Melbourne Film Festival and finally running the Lumiere Cinema for 12 years before closing it in late 2005.

He made some interesting comments about distribution and exhibition in Australia and views the need for a vibrant screen culture as very important. Afterwards he offered us a lift into the city where we met with Tony Ayres.

Tony is currently producing a TV Series 'Bogan Pride' and we ended up interviewing him in the art-department store room, which actually worked out quite well. Tony spoke openly about his experiences making and releasing The Home Song Stories. He also commented on the way Australian films are financed and the grueling development processes that they must go through from script to screen.

After the interview Phil and I headed back to the hotel, then we were off in search of wood fired pizza and a cold beverage.

Tuesday was not as eventful. Matt Zeremes was unable to do his interview (so we postponed it till later in the month) and I could not get in contact with Matt Saville. Not wanting to waste a day, we packed up the camera and tripod and went scouting for overlay. We shot exteriors of some cinemas and imagery of the city scape then took a taxi out to Westgarth and recorded the old Valhalla cinema (now run by Palace). The building tells its own story of changing times, reflected in the mix of its past and modern architecture.

We then headed back into town to meet Jarred (four4ty), a singer, song writer and our potential music composer. We talked over a beer and discussed how we saw the music working in the doco. Jarred was really receptive and liked the idea of collaborating with us to create a dynamic soundtrack. Phil and I left the conversation with some enthusiasm and headed off to Lygon Street for dinner and more filming.

The highlight of the night was getting to film inside the projection room at the Nova followed by a free bottle of wine and great pizza and pasta.

Wednesday, we checked out of the hotel and headed off to meet Clayton Jacobson, the man behind the 2006 Aussie hit 'Kenny'. Clayton was welcoming from the minute he opened the door to the minute we left. The interview was insightful on many levels, filmmaking, distribution, exhibition and audience perception. We chatted with Clayton for a while after the interview and left inspired to continue on in our work for Into the Shadows.

Yet again Phil and I have returned from the city of Melbourne with more great stories, experiences and encouragement to keep on keeping on...