Sydney Film Festival

Today after 2 and a half years of blood, sweat and tears on Monday 16th February we put INTO THE SHADOWS into an express post bag and sent it off for submission to the 2009 Sydney Film Festival! This is our first submission for Into the Shadows and also our debut entry into a national and international festival.

Now, fingers crossed and we begin the waiting game.

Breakdown

Yesterday we packed the car early in the morning and were on the road to Sydney by 6am. We were heading up there to interview Brendan Cowell, the lead actor in Noise and then come back that afternoon. Get up early, leave on time and everything would work out...or so we thought.

Unfortunately, the car had other ideas. An hour and a half outside of Canberra the car broke down. First the radio cut out, the digital dashboard went blank and the Speedo was stuck on 120 so we decided to pull over. As the car came to a stop it lost all power and stalled on us.

An ABS light had come on, which the manual told us meant we had no ABS. No anti-lock braking wasn't the worst thing in the world, so we decided to keep going. On the second try, the car started and we were on our way…5 minutes later the car conked out again.

This time we did what must be done and called Phil’s old man as well as the NRMA. 10mins later the NRMA was there to rescue us, but to no avail. All he could say was that our alternator might need to be fixed but that everything else was fine and as long as we kept the radio, air con and cruise control off (basically everything besides the basic function of driving) we could try our luck and continue on to Sydney or take a turn to Moss Vale and find a ford dealer to check over the car.

So with none of the luxuries we have come to depend on we headed for Moss Vale. The car was running fine and all was well until the gremlins struck again and the car blanked out.

By this time Phil’s mum who had decided to drive to our aid and swap cars was coming up to Goulburn and so she continued to Moss Vale. We called Ford and the NRMA. 45 mins later Phil’s mum turned up, we exchanged cars and were back on the highway.

Thanks to Phil’s stunt man driving and a bit of luck we got to Brendan’s place by 11:30am, half an hour late but nonetheless there. Brendan was very gracious about it and so the interview went on.

Huge thanks to Bob and Lorraine for giving up their entire day to ensure we got the interview.

Today we have captured the interview, and are continuing to prepare for the AIDC 2008. We hope to have a complete promo reel done by Friday, so for now it’s back to the grindstone.

A side note - FILMINK has also added Into the Shadows to their links page - thanks Dov for your continued support.

On to Melbourne

Ah the ole City Limits. It’s a little hotel tucked away on Little Burke street, but its got all the right comforts, nice staff, brekky in the fridge and cheap internet– great for any indie filmmaker looking for a place in Melbourne.

Adelaide is down, Melbourne and Sydney to go. Spoke with a taxi diver this morning about the upcoming Indian tour of Australia. Meeting with Paul Wiegard from Madman today followed by Robert Connolly, Richard Wolesncroft and Antony Ginnane tomorrow.

Preparation

Its 10:30 at night and I should be sleeping in preparation for tomorrow’s trip. Instead I am watching the behind the scenes featurette of 2:37 and compiling some research on Shane Abbess. Phil is rocking up at my house at 5:30am then we are off to Sydney.

We will be interviewing Shane at the Sony theatrette at 11am and hopefully meet with Peter Cody at 2:30pm for a quick discussion about the possibility of interviewing him for our project.

Then it’s back in the car and off home to Canberra. Today was also the first day of working on the film 8:30-5pm as I quit my job on Friday- it was a great feeling, here’s to many more productive days ahead. Well enough writing from me, back to work and hopefully sleep...soon enough.

Organising trips away

Andrew has half a day off work today so we are working together trying to organise trips away to Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. Tough to do with only a few weeks before Christmas, so we'll see how we go.

Pre-ADG conference

September has come and gone and as you can see, another month of not many entries. It has been an interesting month full of ups and downs, we only wish we had the time to write them all down. That is the one word that encapsulates September, Time. We are quickly learning that as filmmakers you always want the time you don't have. Then when things are going slow you wish something would just hurry up and get the project up and running again.

This weekend we are about to embark on a trip to Sydney for the Australian Directors Guild conference. We are looking forward to meeting many of the people who make the films that create the cinema culture we live in. We have had some recent luck, a late email last night from the ADG has given us permission to film the event and to network with Directors.

The bags are packed, camera is in the boot and we are off...