Metro : Media & Education Magazine back issues from October 2004:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Oct 01, 2004; ... Dear Editor, In Metro No. 140, John Martinkus' article, 'Bearing Witness', about Carmela Baranowska's documentaries on East Timor, cites my earlier article on three documentaries about East Timor, (Metro No. 138) claiming my statement that 'filming in East Timor "was impossibly ...
LEE ROBINSON, CHIPS RAFFERTY AND THE FILM INDUSTRY THAT NOBODY WANTED
Oct 01, 2004; ... During an interview with Andrew Denton on his national television program, Enough Rope, Rachel Griffiths told Denton that she opposed the free trade agreement with the United States, as she feared that it might destroy the Australian film and television industry, and that in time we will return ...
SHORTCUTS
Oct 01, 2004; ... IN Metro 140 Shortcuts told of the integration of the National Film and Sound Archive (known for the last few years as ScreenSound Australia) and the Australian Film Commission, announced in May last year, and how it had became a contentious issue. The story continues ... The Sentimental ...
A delicately crafted Somersault
Oct 01, 2004; ... Somersault (2004) received a standing ovation when it screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May of this year, and it's obvious why. It is a visually beautiful film with every frame delicately Grafted. A character-driven drama, the film is about sixteen-year-old Heidi (Abbie Cornish) who runs ...
AUSTRALIAN COMEDY WHAT'S THAT?
Oct 01, 2004; ... As filmgoers, do you sometimes wonder if the phrase 'Australian comedy' is an oxymoron? Certainly, as I watched in a concentrated burst over a couple of weeks a half-dozen films from the last five years, it did quite often seem to me that the phrase was yoking together two concepts with little ...
'STEALTH' A RUNAWAY THAT GOT AWAY
Oct 01, 2004; ... Over the last decade there has been a shift in cultural policy, which now sees Australia's state governments competing with one another to entice Hollywood production companies to Aussie shores and their states by providing prime real estate, giant shacks of film studios, infrastructure and tax ...
FINDING AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CINEMA IN NEMO
Oct 01, 2004; ... Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003) is an animated feature film set in the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Harbour. For someone interested in examining Australian cinema, this film's production, content and reception give rise to several important questions related to the study of contemporary ...
THE FEAR AND LOATHING OF RISK
Oct 01, 2004; ... And the Underdevelopment of Script Development An Audience of 3 A FEW WEEKS AGO, I saw Under the Radar (Evan Clarry, 2004), an Australian movie released in multiplexes a week before. There were two others in the audience, we paid a box office gross of $44.40 for the session, and ...
Towards a Postmodern Avant-garde
Oct 01, 2004; ... THE TEMPORALITY OF THE REFRAIN N THREE FILMS OF WONG KAR-WAI IN ASHES OF TIME (Wong Kar-wai, 1994, hereafter Ashes), Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990, hereafter Days) and In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000, hereafter Mood), a form of temporality is crystallized in the use of ...
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Oct 01, 2004; ... Finding a Film Along the Way: An nterview with PEN-EK RATANARUANG HAS EMERGED as the leading director of the Thai cinema. He visited Australia recently as a guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2004, where his latest film, Lasf Life in the Universe, was one of the major ...
THE NEW FACES OF ASIAN FILM
Oct 01, 2004; ... HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004 Coming back after the year of SARS, the Hong Kong (HK) International Film Festival took off its face mask and returned under a newly-privatized structure. The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement between HK and Mainland China, and the more ...
THERE'S A MILLION STORIES, AND A MILLION WAYS TO GET THERE FROM HERE
Oct 01, 2004; ... In case you are having trouble recognising the source of the quotation which provides my title, I will immediately break the suspense and tell you: it is a line from the song 'Satellite', on the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing 2 (Guy Ferland, 2004). I put this up front to indicate that I take my ...
FILM CRITICISM ... SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT
Oct 01, 2004; ... PETER THOMPSON (SUNDAY), PAUL BYRNES (THE SYDNEY MORNING HEHALD), ANDREW URBAN (URBAN CINEFILE), AND JAKE WILSON (SENSES OF CINEMA) SPEAK WITH PHILLIP GENERE ABOUT FILM CRITICISM IN AUSTRALIA AND THE CHALLENGES IT FACES. Film critics spend their workday at the cinema, munching on ...
ADRIAN MARTIN
Oct 01, 2004; ... RICHARD ARMSTRONG'S SCRIBES ON SCREEN Scribes on Screen is the result of research I have been engaged on to develop an online resource devoted to film writers from around the world. Provisionally entitled filmliterature.com, this resource will carry important information and summaries of ...
BY DESIGN: THE ART OF CREDIT TITLE DESIGN
Oct 01, 2004; ... As with a memorable film, the opening credit title sequence can make a vivid and lasting impact. Saul Bass' wonderfully expressive, appropriately vertiginous graphics accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's enigmatic score ensure the opening credits in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) are as ...
INTRODUCING THE NATION
Oct 01, 2004; ... TITLE SEQUENCES IN AUSTRALIAN CINEMA FROM 1930-1970 My initial thoughts about what a title could do was to set a mood and to prime the underlying core of the film's story; to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when ...
THE BEGINNING BEFORE THE BEGINNING...
Oct 01, 2004; ... JANET MEREWETHER WRITES ABOUT HER WORK DESIGNING OPENING TITLES AND MOTION GRAPHICS FOR SHORT, DOCUMENTARY AND FEATURE FILMS, INCLUDING HER MEMORABLE TITLE SEQUENCE FOR ROWAN WOODS' THE BOYS. Opening titles. Post production design. Visual effects. Motion graphics. These were almost ...
FIRST FRAMES: TITLES IN THE DIGITAL REALM
Oct 01, 2004; ... It's a strange relationship, almost a legal obligation, but every film includes words flowing across the screen. In its simplest form we watch a list of cast, crew and title followed by audiovisual narrative, then more reading as credits roll. Typography in film is usually an anonymous ...
I LIKE YOUR OLD STUFF BETTER THAN YOUR NEW STUFF: FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Oct 01, 2004; ... 'THE TRUTH IS CRUEL BUT IT CAN BE LOVED, AND IT MAKES FREE THOSE THAT HAVE LOVED IT.' (GEORGE SANTAYANA) Back in my student days, I remember an issue of Farrago1 in which a cartoonist depicted two student politicians standing on soapboxes at election time. The left-winger screamed ...
STORIES BEYOND THE FRAME
Oct 01, 2004; ... DILEMMAS AND CONTRADICTIONS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN A DIGITIZED AND GLOBALIZED WORLD To engage in the practice of photojournalism is to occupy a position of privilege, because the practice involves entering, albeit for a short while, the lives of others. But with this privilege comes the ...
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY STERN
Oct 01, 2004; ... REVISITING AFGHANISTAN IN THE NOON GUN Anthony Stern's short documentary film, The Noon Gun, is a poetic reminiscence about a young cameraman's journey to Afghanistan in 1971. Stern began his work as a director and documentary filmmaker in the 1960s and 1970s. He won awards for ...
The Theatre Of War1
Oct 01, 2004; ... 'The theatre of war', he answered, 'and here we are at the stage door!' E.W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night According to Amnesty International, 'the war on terror has been bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle'.2 Perhaps that's why commercial television signed up as an honorary ...
A CONVERSATION WITH SHANE MALONEY
Oct 01, 2004; ... FROM PAGE TO SOUND STAGE, KEEPING FAITH WITH THE MATERIAL, BRINGING MURRAY WHELAN TO THE SCREEN. Of the five Murray Whelan novels written by Shane Maloney, two have just been produced as telemovies for the Seven Network. Stiff was adapted and directed by John Clarke and the second, The ...
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST: OZ
Oct 01, 2004; ... Oz might be intended as a sort of wake-up call, Indicting the Horrors that Lurk Within the Prison System, but the result is thankfully far more complicated. There is occasional chest beating about issues like capital punishment, but normally Oz is an unnervingly casual show, with sensationalism ...
AFTER THE FALL: AUSTRALIAN IDOL 2004
Oct 01, 2004; ... Australian Idol 2004 suffers from the loss of innocence that many of such shows exhibit second time round. The idols are definitely more talented this year (notably, many are music students or already working professionally) but not necessarily more appealing. They/we know how this goes now, and ...
THE HARSH REALITY OF MARRIAGE AND ALLIANCE
Oct 01, 2004; ... I maintained way before The Apprentice hit our television screens that reality shows like Big Brother, Survivor and even The Bachelor are products of our harsh capitalistic labour market. Given that many past Big Brother contestants have gone on to secure jobs with numerous media ...
GALLOWS HUMOUR: ENOUGH ROPE
Oct 01, 2004; ... When Enough Rope's new title sequence appeared, I thought the ring proclaiming One show to rule them all' was pretty funny. Given Rope's awards and ratings success it was a joke that had more than a grain of truth in it, and like the giant foot that crushes the logos of lesser programs, it ...
'YOU'RE WRONG AND YOU'RE A GROTESQUELY UGLY FREAK!': BRASS EYE REMEMBERED
Oct 01, 2004; ... It's undeniable that British TV comedy has seen a renaissance in recent years, with shows such as The League of Gentlemen and Spaced achieving great success. In Australia these shows have gained a particularly large following; it can be argued that this is due partly to their boldness, a common ...
NEW MEDIA ART
Oct 01, 2004; ... NEW MEDIA IS A LOT OF THINGS TO A LOT OF PEOPLE BUT THE QUESTIONS REMAIN-WHAT IS IT, WHO IS IT AND WHERE IS IT HEADED? What makes the new? New Media is a catchall phrase that refers to an area of art that includes video, the web, sound and, on occasion, film and photography as ...
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Oct 01, 2004; ... Uwe Boll is the Devil Uwe Boll is the devil. It's a statement that can be taken as defamatory but this does not change the fact that it is true in the hearts and minds of gamers worldwide. Why is he the devil? House of the Dead (2003), Boll's first but unfortunately not last foray into ...
Hamish Koci: Animator
Oct 01, 2004; ... Two years ago, a young animation student at Melbourne's RMIT handed in his six minute short film for final assessment. The animation of a little girl alone in a hospital made its debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2003 and for the past year, the twenty-four-year-old's creation ...
NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004
Oct 01, 2004; ... A few hundred years ago, white people decided to colonize the Southern Hemisphere and attempt to destroy the cultures of all the people who were there first. In doing so, they would have done well to consider not only the moral implications, but also the fact that they were setting themselves up ...
STORYTELLING THAT MATTERS: THE 2004 WIFTI SUMMIT IN NEW ZEALAND
Oct 01, 2004; ... OVER 200 MEMBERS ATTENDED the 5th Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI) Summit from 21-24 April 2004, including delegations from chapters in New York, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, the UK, Australia, Denmark, and Canada. The biennial event, held this year for the first time in the Southern ...
HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS
Oct 01, 2004; ... Wellington (NZ) director David Rittey wrote and directed Closer (2004), one of only ten short films selected for competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Closer is the story of a deaf teenage boy dealing with the death of his sister, and has also recently played in the New Zealand and ...
SPAA MART CASE STUDY: WEST
Oct 01, 2004; ... In only its second year, SPAA Mart, the feature film market, has cemented its reputation as a highlight of the annual SPAA Conference, and has already made a significant impact upon the financing of market-ready Australian feature film projects. As SPAA Mart Market Director Duncan ...
AFI AWARDS FINALISTS
Oct 01, 2004; ... FEATURE FILMS 01 A COLD SUMMER Producer: David Barda, Grace Yee, Paul Middleditch Director: Paul Middleditch Writers: Olivia Pigeot, Paul Middleditch, Susan Prior, Teo Gebert Cinematographer: Steve Arnold Editor: Peter Whitmore Sound: Craig ...
SCREENTECH
Oct 01, 2004; ... The human desire and fondness for nostalgia (insert statement beginning with 'In my day ...') is a very interesting phenomenon when viewed through the lens of recent technological developments. Take, for example, the humble yet iconic vinyl twelve-inch record. It's been fifteen-odd years since ...
TAKING THE POST-PRODUCTION PATH LESS TRAVELLED-SONY VEGAS 5 SOFTWARE
Oct 01, 2004; ... When surveying the media post-production landscape,, it's very easy to come to the conclusion that you have only two choices available when it comes to digital media post-production systems. You can take a drive down the well-paved road that is the highway to the land of Avid-a wonderful, broad ...
HOW FILM MEASURES UP
Oct 01, 2004; ... At a time when we have come to expect advancements in digital technology almost on a daily basis, it has become commonplace to assume that film technology is 'mature' and unlikely to develop much further. But it's worth looking at how far it has come, and at the same time to notice how it, too, ...
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATES-GETTING IT RIGHT
Oct 01, 2004; ... The Digital Intermediate The task of any intermediate process-optical or digital-is to capture and maintain all of the information (detail, sharpness, colour, and even grain structure) of the original image with no loss, so a print from a duplicate negative will be as good as a print ...
PUTTING YOUR MOVIE ONLINE
Oct 01, 2004; ... Hosting your video online is always going to involve compromise, given the shrinking needed to pass even a short movie through the average Internet connection. Even with a rapidly increasing broadband audience, careful efforts are needed to compress your movie effectively and allow it to be ...
PICTURE COMPOSITION FOR FILM AND TELEVISION
Oct 01, 2004; ... PETER WARD PICTURE COMPOSITION FOR FILM AND TELEVISION Focal Press, Oxford, second edition, 2003 Effective visual composition is one of the most powerful factors in communication via the screen. Composition is the arrangement of all visual elements within the boundaries ...
PREFIGURING CYBERCULTURE
Oct 01, 2004; ... DARREN TOFTS, ANNEMARIE JONSON, ALESSIO CAVALLARO PREFIGURING CYBERCULTURE AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY Power Publications, Sydney, 2002 In the introduction to Prefiguring Cyberculture co-editor Darren Tofts identifies the need to think about technology in historical terms. While the ...
THE TECHNOLOGY OF VIDEO AND AUDIO STREAMING
Oct 01, 2004; ... DAVID AUSTERBERRY THE TECHNOLOGY OF VIDEO AND AUDIO STREAMING Focal Press, London, 2002 No longer a black artstreaming media is still not for the faint-hearted. On one hand, anyone with rudimentary knowledge can accomplish fantastic results, on the other, it can be the nightmare from ...
THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH
Oct 01, 2004; ... JOHN LITTLE THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH Hodder Headline Australia, Sydney, 2003 The first thing biographer John Little wants us to know about The Man Who Saw Too Much is that it has an agenda. The book opens in Cambodia, 1992: a country struggling to right itself in the wake of Pol Pot's ...
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Oct 01, 2004; ... LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING Peter Jackson (d) Fran Walsh, Phillpa Boyens and Peter Jackson (w) NZ, 192 Minutes. CAST INCLUDES: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, Miranda Otto, Orlando Bloom. DVD FEATURES INCLUDE: 'A ...
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
Oct 01, 2004; ... THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST Mel Gibson (d) Mel Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald (w) US/IT, 2004, 120 Minutes. CAST INCLUDES: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Hristo Jivkov, Hristo Shopov, Rosalinda Celentano, Francesco Cabras, Claudia Gerini. DVD FEATURES INCLUDE: ...
SCHINDLER'S LIST
Oct 01, 2004; ... SCHINDLER'S LIST Steven Spielberg (d) Steven Zaillian (w) Thomas Keneally (novel) US, 1993, 197 Minutes, BSW (with some colour). CAST INCLUDES: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Rennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagali, Malgoscha Gebel. DVD FEATURES INCLUDE: 'Voices from the List' and ...