April 2009 Archives

Get Heywired

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If you're aged 16 to 22 and live outside of Australia's major cities, share your story with the rest of the world by entering video, audio, music, text and pictures in the ABC's Heywire. The best are broadcast on ABC Radio, triple j, Radio National, Radio Australia, ABC TV and ABC Online.

Winner are invited to take part in the Heywire Youth Issues Forum held February in Canberra. Heywire is all about giving young people the skills to have their say and be heard. So don't hesitate to submit your projects because entries are open until Saturday, 3 October.

Even if you're too old or too young or aren't from regional Australia, you can still view all the projects from Heywire contributors online. And if you're interested in creating and sharing your own story, be sure not to miss FTI's short course in Digital Storytelling, commencing Wednesday, 29 April.

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Kartanym Off and Running...

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Mark 'Kartanym' Isaacson is a writer trying to accomplish the impossible - finishing a script in a month while writing a blog and staying sane all at the same time. Read a sample of Mark's blog Thoughts of a Pondering Kart, about his progress in Script Frenzy, a scriptwriting challenge which has entrants attempting to write 100 pages of original material in 30 days. Why not leave him a comment?

 

The first few days of writing under these kinds of conditions can be a mixed bag. For some, you'll already have a set idea and will dive head long into the story. For others, you'll take it one step at a time, not rushing too far ahead, while considering where you want to go next.

I'm a little lucky in this particular situation that the story I want to write I've had in mind for some time. This creates an added level of security, in the sense that I'm not going in cold. I know my characters, the general plot of the story, and my target audience.

And that's the key right there. If you can figure those three points straight out, you're one step closer. Don't worry too much about the minor details and intricate plot points just yet. Get a general overview of the story written down, a synopsis if you wish, know who (or what) your characters are and how important each one will be to the story and, perhaps most important of all, know who you're writing this for.

First peek at Nick Shorts WA

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Producer Kate Vyvyan has posted a sketch from her upcomming Nickelodeon short 'My Extrordinary Little Sister'.

The FIlm & Television Institute in partnership with Nickelodeon and ScreenWest through Nick Shorts are supporting the creation of six new short films that will screen on Nickelodeon.    Read more about the genesis of Kate's project at her blog.

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Great advertising for a TV show

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The South African trandspotting website Cherry Flavour has highlighted a great advertisement for the TV show 'True Blood'. 

The constantly updated film

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Filmmaker Robert Greenwood is set to release his new documentary on Afganistan across the internet.   He proposes to release the film in stages as it's made, read more about it in the NEW YORK TIMES.

We're often critical of filmmakers who keep returning to re-tweak their work, George Lucas keeps improving visual effects on 'Star Wars', Ridley Scott keeps making 'Blade Runner' a little shorter.

Yet soon constantly updated films could become a reality, an ever shifting never editing edit of material.   In 5 years time will we be saying "Have you seen version 7.5 of the new Michael Moore film?'.

Filmmaker Paulo Alberton made a really interesting short documentary a few years ago called 'Mjin Man' - it was a short documentary acompanied with a number of extended interviews and discussions with crew members about the project.   Whle this might seem like common DVD extras features, becasue the 'extras' were greater in time and amount than the feature it felt more like an exploration when you watched the DVD.  

Preview: Friends, Fans and Followers

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Scott Kisner is about to release a new book 'Friends, Fans and Followers'.    You can preview it at this site.  

The 35 page PDF preview has excerpts from each section of the book and complete interviews with singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton; Mike Chapman of “Homestar Runner”; Michael Buckley of the YouTube show “What the Buck”; Dave Kellett, creator of the comic strip “Sheldon”; and novelist Sarah Mlynowski.

Kisner is the editor of popular screen industry blog CinemaTech

Source: Creative Economy