To Watch: The Water Diviner. (Russell Crowe Director).

[Wayne Morellini]

I was feeling a little off tonight but I finally got to see the water diviner. What a film. It became the highest grossing Australuan film of last year in less than a week. People know that when I write something I usually nail it, and this is a great film and a must see.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Diviner

Release in the States is April the 24th.

It may not seem it at first, but it is an emotional film to watch, which is it's charm. As for directing it is pretty good actually. Being in the business we can see that when Russell is on screen and not working to camera, sometimes he looks like he has a great directorial weight on his shoulders as he concentrates on the oerformance of others (such as in the tent at Gallipoli). But it is too subtle normal audience members are unlikrly to notice.

The color and framing are good. The action serious.

This film is a classic in disguise. With so many great productions these days it is easy to miss something like this, but it is something you can watch down the decades. Compared to the dark days (most of the stuff before the 90's) this would rate as one of the top classic film of all time. But these days there are strings of films that outdo many top films of the past. Even the Battle Star Galactica Blood and Chrome scfi telemovie out does many past scfi films before the 90'd, such is the art of acting and productikn these days.

The Water Diviner brings back some personal memories for me too. On my first attempt at water divining I found the cleanest bore in my area (now the second purest I hear). We were walking down the main track without luck, and I thought I would try several feet off the track and the rod started bopping, and I called NY grandfather in to verify. Now they all think he found it, which reminded me of this comedian we had in our class at school, regular Paul Hogan want to be. I was looking through an encyclopedia and saw an entry for Nazi's, so I coined the phrase Nasty Nazi's (sort of thing Horrible Histories does now days) and I told him about it, then months latter he thought he invented it. You would not believe the amount of things that have been ripped off of me.

 

[Robert Hart]

Wayne. I second that. Potential US audiences may make an assumption it is an Australian "Saving Private Ryan" clone, which it most definitely is not. The story stands uniquely on its own.

The historical backdrop may mean a little less for US viewers than for third to fifth generational Anglo-Australians and Turkish-Australians. Of them there would be very few who do not have a bloodline connection to the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, which is as much at Australia's cultural core of identity as the Alamo and Valley Forge may be for U.S. folk.

Olga Kurylenko fits her part well don't you think?

A hint for future viewers. - Look up on google - "Mustafa Kamal", "Ataturk", "canat" or "canats", "jam tin bomb". This is not a spoiler but it will give you couple a little extra knowledge payoffs when you view the film.


Keep an eye open for "These Final Hours", which has just moved to DVD and "Paper Planes", which premieres tomorrow in Australian cinemas.

The productions I understand have each been shot on both the RED and Alexa systems. Both films were also shot in part in my home locality of Roleystone in Western Australia. A closing scene for "These Final Hours" was at the old Martin property on Urch Road where I stayed overnight a few times when I was a small kid. For "Paper Planes", some scenes at my old school in Roleystone. One shot which picks up a doorway framing a teacher, is my old Grade Four classroom.

"Paper Planes" is a heartful quest genre story which should do well for Disney film family audiences.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Maybe best foreign film this time .

I'm one of those probably not related to Gallipoli men, my grandfather was a rat or Trobouk, but that is entirely another story.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

We really need better films in Australia, you could nearly count good international releases several years apart or by the decade. Let's hope the next Matrix film is made here.

Most of our old films looked like what you rent direct to video tape American productions except you didn't really want to watch them except they were Australian and somebody really overjoyed the marketing. The nest thing since kangaroo hopping sliced bread snake oil marketing. Freak in learn to rehearse and ACT, and it will start looking better even on a low budget

Saw Mad Dig MMorgan the other night, what a performance from an American actor.

Saw the imitation machine, now that deserves an award, but this was better, even without regarding emotional content about Gallipoli.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

We had somebody at our writers festival saying the big problem with Australian film is scripting, you have got to be joking There is nothing to scripts, nothing, try to write a freak in award winning novel, now that's a work. Most of a film is work around a script to such an extent the script matters vaguely sometimes. They change it at will, and there is basically very little content in them, it is all up to the director/ talent to barstidise it to "their" tastes. If they can't conform a mediocre script to a great film maybe its their talent that is lacking in Australian film. Do they think they can just turn up on the day get something handed to them and produce good quality. They have to be all over every aspect to get it right, and talent has to act like they are talented under a good director. I've seen some good Australian film recently, even low budget like Mystery Road. So hopefully we have got past this no thought slap it together and out the door quickly mentality. We could make gold in this country. When I see those low budget children's scfi series on the ABC they used to make a few years ago, it makes you wonder what such a crew could do with adult science fiction on a budget.

 

[Fredrik Callinggard]

We had somebody at our writers festival saying the big problem with Australian film is scripting, you have got to be joking There is nothing to scripts, nothing, try to write a freak in award winning novel, now that's a work. Most of a film is work around a script to such an extent the script matters vaguely sometimes. They change it at will, and there is basically very little content in them, it is all up to the director/ talent to barstidise it to "their" tastes. If they can't conform a mediocre script to a great film maybe its their talent that is lacking in Australian film. Do they think they can just turn up on the day get something handed to them and produce good quality. They have to be all over every aspect to get it right, and talent has to act like they are talented under a good director. I've seen some good Australian film recently, even low budget like Mystery Road. So hopefully we have got past this no thought slap it together and out the door quickly mentality. We could make gold in this country. When I see those low budget children's scfi series on the ABC they used to make a few years ago, it makes you wonder what such a crew could do with adult science fiction on a budget.

What hahaha. Not sure if this rant is about that Australian directors should learn to make better movies out of mediocre writing. Or if Australian writers should know that Australian directors are mediocre and write better HAHAHAHA

 

[Robert Hart]

Wayne.



There is that aspect that a Cadbury's nugget, you cannot hope to polish ( for Americans read Hershey's ). No amount of directorial, DoP-ing or actor finesse will make it shine. Then there are good Aussie scripts which don't get past first base. I think though that the poor scripts mantra is becoming a bit stale. Maybe historically, too many wrong ones have been made. Let's face it. During the reign of 10BA, some of the product WAS dreadful.

There's one Oz-American project, "Greenfelt Cowboys" which is "international" and set in the American mid-west. It went over really-really well ( as opposed to patronisingly well ) at a live read here.

It was intended to be made here and in Illinois but couldn't get up. It has the heart and soul of a similar old genre piece, "The Flim-Flam Man" but is a standalone story in its own right, drawn from a man's own life story which is often where the best come from. The actor-writer behind it has since moved to the US and is trying to get it made there.

Did you get to see "The Reckoning" yet? It is on DVD. It had a limited cinema run in Oz. I understand that all of eight screens for a week was about all they could talk anybody into. It went to DVD pretty quick. They did a pretty good job of it I thought.



Fredrik.


Australian culture has this weird "cut down the tall poppies" mentality which goes way beyond self-deprecation. Principally, too much of the time, too many of the people who matter do not always believe that what can be done, CAN be done. Some of our best innovations and inventions make big money for overseas entities, simply because venture capital in this country would not go near them or bid realistically against offshore financiers.



In General.


As for our motion picture product, there has evolved an enduring local audience expectation that if it's Australian, it can't possibly be any good. Yet we loved "Croc Dundee" and "Mad Max" ( The Road Warrior ).

A debate has gone on for far too long when it comes to government co-investment support. It has been contended that it is selling out to the commercial market by making an "international" product versus doing the art and promoting our own culture. The two need not be mutually exclusive but the fact is, Australia is a "butt" pimple in the world scene. Every now and again when we have an evil angels event, folk will be moved to scratch us. We know far more about the US than the US knows about us.

The funny thing is that now the tide seems to have swung. Government co-investment seems now to be favouring offshore projects to bring them here. The culture also now seems to be towards backing fairly big potential winners. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I wish they'd done it for at least one of the automotive manufacturers. However the slide may be moving away from preserving our own identity.

The overall lesson is perhaps to content creators is to write and produce something the audience actually wants to see.

In the meantime, for some producers, trying to get a meaningful number of cinema screens for a meaningful period of time within Australia for Australian product is apparently a hard go, let alone try to flog it overseas beyond festivals.

It is a yin and yang thing I guess. Wayne will surely put me right on a few facts I might have addressed a little incorrectly.

Many folk feel that whatever we do here has to be better than best for an international market, just to even get a look-in.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

What hahaha. Not sure if this rant is about that Australian directors should learn to make better movies out of mediocre writing. Or if Australian writers should know that Australian directors are mediocre and write better HAHAHAHA

Lol!

Many of the good ones move overseas apparently..

But you know the average Australian work ethic outside of certain suburbs of Sydney etc.

There is no much in a critical t anyway, some concepts plot moves and dialogue, let's face it. The best remedy is to get good directors that are good writers with something to say and make their own stuff. Like what cable TV started doing I'm the 90's in the US. Giving somebody like that money they can actually use, might be better than the oldrr formular of throwing money at a shit film that the director has no visionary investment in. Babylon 5 tv series was an early example if this production value, and I would say the best of its day that I know of

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Robert.

I was getting at if directors etc are going to change everything and get it rewriten at a whim, they should be able to do it right and make it a better screen play. The result is there maybe not much accuracy to what you wrote, so they should have do it right.

In general:

I think the expectation is from bad content not meeting ecoectatuin, and BAD pityful government investment, not that we can't produce great content. The American market distorts the international market, they pay for the TV content in earnings in the US and effectively sell it greatly subsidised overseas, cutting the knees off of the local TV industry and with cinema control it effectively cripples local production talent and investment that could move around to cinema.

I've met the head of Queensland film and sgebis pretty good (though I did tell her about a classic A grade film development opportunity somebody in the industry could take up, A grade blockbuster feature film material that a freind was putting together firvyears before he died, and it went over her head).

A guy I know was one of the guys behind getting Pirates of the Carribean up here. If you got a sure call like that which is going to replenish government coffers, why not invest in it. If it was something that is only a maybe, that's different.

It is goid Robert, if people can make films very good to get a look in, at keast it will be watchable locally.

I've argued innyhe coast we only need to have a single screen at a cinema available to show local content, if any are available. If the cinemas could do this for every 5 or 6 screens they own, we have a start of a film industry.

But this is also why I was so excited about Redray, local content could get up even if they could not get a screen. I've talked tontge only independent cinema owner up here about the redray projector, probably a cafe theatre down south, and talked to the director of Mystery Road about Redray, and what happens it vanishes. Every independent cinema in the country would probably love it.

 

[Robert Hart]

Wayne. You probably have it about right. I get a bit cross and contentious at times. Don't get me started on the Coles-Woolworths duopoly and what they are doing to our primary industry and small manufacturers.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Boy, typing in this browser produced a lot of mistakes, I can barely see what's happening. I wish old Opera mobile was back and not an unreliable price of. They used to open up the text window to full screen width in high contrast text to background color and not side scrolling as you type. Since they abandoned their tendering engine SNF went to the chrome rendering engine posting from phone us a pain. It would be so easy for them to confirm their old text editor to chrome, and a lot of issues solved.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Robert a couple of things. I agree with you about the duopoly. Any range reductions and constrictions just progressively forces more local manufactures out of businesses. If these groups want to be "Australian" they need to support more local manufacturers st s good price, and tell the big companies, now often foreign, with too big a range of simular products to crowd out competitors to nick off and reduce their range

 

[Wayne Morellini]

New Australian film distribution ideas.

New Australian film distribution ideas.

Back on topic. We, the local industry, need to get together on this distribution topic, about how to get better distribution here and internationally, in a Q&A like panel with Skype participation, that has prearranged speakers, questions, but also actively filtered questions, speakers, and even text/emails. A good episode for Big Ideas.

My suggestion would be for productions to say to cinemas we will go in advertising and marketing with you where we advertise our film and say see it at your cinema, promoting your cinema, for a share of the advertising costs. Alternatively you just say it is showing at their cinema. The implication is if the big boys don't give descent screen time we are advertising for people to ho and check out independent cinemas. The other aspect is ifvyge big boys don't want to give a screen per greater region for Australian film aniindependent cinema per greater region could be enticed to specialise in it, or such a theatre taking over by a group setup to promote Australian film, and all good regular film (mainly US and UK films ). Do that would be a screen every 200 thousand people, or ten minute traveling distance in cities, and one per large regional center.

The other idea is to setup a Redray like distribution network for independent cinemas to play Australian films, and post season paid direct view, and advertised view for old films. If we can garrantee a broad band service, which might be possible, and a back camera feed to verify audience members with linked ticket purchase system we could do it, otherwise we would have to use a cached system with something like Redray. So we are here at Red, and they might want to help. If independent cinemas hot a film distribution and a nice laser projector upgrade they probably would be more interested across that community. In axtijnbus the hall mark of Australian society, if people want things better they should try.

 

[Robert Hart]

Wayne. Please refresh my memory. I was out in the sticks and away from film culture such as it was for a good few years. Did Roadshow initially start something like as in give the the Aussie films a go? I think the original entity was Roadshow, Coote and Carroll.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

I'm a technical person Robert, so I don't know, but when I was young it seemed that way, but I also remember roadshow on American films.

I don't think it is the real issue now, it is to get fair competitive screen time under, is it fair trade practices, act, If people really wanted to they could, maybe, collectively as a industry body of independents (keeping the big boys out who have foreign and cinema interests) look at and fund legal solutions to some of these issues. Sure enough a dog of a film maybe should not get a showing and go to the internet, DVD, or film, but we let more foreign not so good films on the screen than all Australian films.

Funding is an issue, my friend was in military intelligence decades ago, set up the special forces base out your way, and before he died he told me (I think that it was known ( he did protect official secrets)) that the Australian doller was pushed down to 50c to the US deliberately by the US interests because Australia refused to hand over one of its SE Asian bases, which helped our film and export industries to no end in those days. As long as the dollar in artificially pushed up towards parity, locals and the government are going to have to fund films. However, a good film is only a good talented work effort on somethjbg worth it, away from a bad film n the sane budget.

The Australian TV market gets away with it cheap compared to America, picking up cheap already run foreign shows, so there is big opportunity for government to expand their local content laws, and extend this to cinema chains, they either show % local content or fund % local productions, that would work. They are charging equivalent of around $16US for an edukt ticket, many times for some food and beverages etc. We live in poverty so their shareholders can live in luxury on Sydney harbour (boy I wouldn't mind that too much myself). Like in any business, if they make wise investments they could can make their money back with profit, so it is pro business, not anti business. The extra money is what we need to pay for extra quality, best people, extra reversal etc I don't believe in blank time percentages but that people can spend the percentage on quality. So they might sound the whole percentage on two series. Imagineif we ccould generate an A grade I twrnational series this way. TThat sort of money grows home grown quality talent that feeds into other productions.

Now here is the clincher, a percentage production can also be additionally applied to TV to produce cinematic film. This would pull spare TV resources into the cinematic world and improve them and feedback into quality TV productions. Some of the great old quality TV series cone from Australian talent returning from Hollywood cinena and bringing those lessons with them, and these black and white series are still great to watch today.

A question for you Robert, now I've forgotten the series, I think it was Z Force army one from many decades ago, how did that get done? I enjoy watching that.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

A good question, whatever happened to that billion plus Granada Seven network production fund?

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Are there any quality production forums in Australia Robert?

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

Im from Turkey and havent seen this movie yet.

 

[Robert Hart]

Wayne.


Unfortunately I was out in the sticks with only ABC Radio for company for much of the heady days of Austraian commercial network TV drama production. I can't help you with the name of the "Z-Force" series. Was it called "Attack Force Z" or was that a motion picture ?? It was not until about mid-1990s when I became re-aquainted with the urban jungle that I saw my first foreign-language film. Talk about a culture shock. You might today loosely equate it with "Housos" but very, very dark and tragic. It was pitched as dark comedy but my jury remains out on that. It was titled "Leolo".

The 48 cents in the US dollar thing ?? Wasn't it something about giving a Labor government a kick in the slats?? We usually get punished for voting in Labor governments. Not long after I think we sold 2-door VS Commodores to them as Transams but it did't last long.

Production forums? I don't know of any open ones. FTI has one but it gets heavily spammed. I think facebook is the surrogate these days with people clubbing and clicheing into loose networks.

As for the cinemas, I think like the Drive-ins, their days may be numbered. There remains no inner-city cinema here any more. Plaza was the last one. I guess it won't be long before there is an insurance fire so that any restrictive art-deco heritage considerations will become moot.


I wouldn't hold my breath on any new independent distributors getting up. As soon as they look viable, they may be bought out and shut down.


Kemalettin.

If the film comes your way, take a look. The story brings out a few truths from the Turkish side of the Great War that Australian folk would be otherwise ignorant of.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Yes, it is said to portray Turkish life (of those days) very well.

Sorry about the spelling here, my phone's spell corrector and keyboard are a bit hopeless, and I can't see what is happening properly to correct it myself. As the editing text at Red user is small grey on a grey background. You will all have to figure it as you read please.


Robert,

People can set up distribution, and constitutions, so that it can't be sold out or shut down easily, limiting the hands ygst may pisses it. It is about collaborate effort, the people get together under tgeir reoresebtative orfabusatikn with like minded cinemas, and set it up. Same with forums. If there us a professional body, it even a magazine journal, there is opportunity to setup a forum under them and everybody hop.on.board.

What is bad and telling, is that only you and be are talking about this here, or presumably concerned about it, so it is unlikely enough people off oust will be interested enough


Z force was the name I think, and was seventies maybe sixties it started Bug bold and brassy.that one. Shocking to believe we did that then things went fine hill with things like Cop Shop, Sins and Daughters etc bring among our "top' productions (though neighbours and The Sullivan's where great coming out I think after Cop Shop started). (Sons and Daughters was like a higher grade days of out lives in the day). I don't remember anything as good as Z force internationally in the day, veryggood if I can watch it now

Didnt you Australian have satelite TV out tgere?

The cinemas are going to gave to get real, either they are going to have to reduce screen wastage (where they have 3 or 4 virtually empty screens showing the same thing) and drop prices, or they are going to have to raise the experience. People don't go out to sit at home and watch the movies, so there s giving to be a much yhere for cinema They could have cinema (as I have written in.the coast), as part of a entertainment experience. While you wait for s session you eat or entertain yourself ,(kids and multiplayer gamss systems experiences that you don't get T home). You can even have shut few. Wine and dine theatre for certain movies. (Imagine sitting down to watch an Inconvenient truth).

At the moment we are getting like a watchable film a week, I think deliberately. But what if you want to watch more than one film in a week, giving them money. I think we have yo reduce screens and sessions to keep theaters on average constantly 1/3 rd full, that better pays the theatre owns. We need to have more variety and.weekly releases to get more people to cone nore often to full up the extra avaikabke screen time. At $18 a ticket going to the cinema us a special occasion luxury, redycing theatre patronage. The theatres probably don't even break use this because it us a figure against what it would be with lower priced tickets over the last 8 or so tears since the GFC With $8-10 tickets and more variety people are more likely yo he interested in going more often. Eventually people might go a 1/4 as much at $18/20 and put the chain in jeopardy. But at the moment it ispprobably too late, as people are getting more used to not going to the theatre.