It takes 2 to mango

More film festival & the writer's fringe

2009-02-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

Pft what a funny day. I spent all day at the AWG writer's fringe today listening to seasoned screenwriters discussing the importance of good writing and its process with great fervor... and then went to the film festival only to sit in a dark room with strangers and watch, surprise, bad writing. Sigh. There's no doubt i've seen some shockers at this years festival. But none even come close to the train wreck karaoke quality mess that is "Chocolate".

I saw "Chocolate" last night and well... visually it looked like the video images you find on cheesy karaoke videos (The ones that all seem to have been made in the 90s even though the songs are recent). The music belonged on a japanese breakfast cereal commercial and the writing...well what writing? Most of the story either didn't make sense or belonged on "The Bold and the Beautiful". New characters would enter into the film and hold absolutely no relevance to anything going on. It was to say the least ridiculous to the extent that although the film was not a comedy the audience could not contain their laughter. I am most definite it was not intended as a comedy. The only redeeming feature was the fight scenes... but if i really want to watch fight scenes i think in future i'll tune into the sports channel. I suggest you do too.

To summarize our other viewings: "Let the right one in", good, swedish vampires, lots of shots of trees, could be shorter but good writing; "Tears for sale" Was in love with this film...until the third act and it fell apart... someone didn't know how to end their script and decided that exploding things would be good. It had great design and promised to be a great fantasy at the beginning if only they could have written even a conventional ending which at least was fitting with the rest of the story. Very disappointing considering its promise; "Mad Detective", after 20 minutes i just didn't care what happened, the "mystery"in the murder mystery was basically not very mysterious and was somewhat solved early on leaving me to fall asleep intermittently.

More on some other films later... hopefully interesting ones

Adelaide Film Festival 2009

2009-02-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

We've been filming it up so to speak at this years Adelaide Film Festival. So far i've seen some good things but i've also seen a lot of films that make me want to crawl into the fetal position and cry - in pain - not because the films have any emotional impact upon me... Let me expand.

Our first film was a French drama called "Home" about a family whose lives are disturbed when the abandoned freeway they live next to suddenly reopens. Peace and silence turns to fumes and horns yet teenage daughter Judith remains insistent on sun baking in their front yard (much to the amusement of the gridlocked cars only meters away). The youngest daughter Marion develops a paranoid obsession with the "poisonous" vehicle fumes and develops theories upon how long it will take for the hole family to drop dead from them, etc, etc, etc. Very quirky, very weird, if only it went somewhere. Without giving away too much of what actually happens let me tell you it roughly - nothing. Unfortunate, i did quite like the characters and i was enjoying myself until i realized it wasn't going anywhere- much like the gridlocked traffic. The performances were all great though and it WAS visually interesting.

I'll get to the rest later... i need to go and watch a good film!

Taking the punches

2009-01-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

OK,

So we're starting to hear about people's films getting shortlisted for Tropfest. Which means we haven't been -SURPRISE. I guess i'm not that let down because it was pretty unlikely we'd get in anyway and even if one has a really super film it doesn't mean it will make it into tropfest...because Tropfest is a bit all over the place when it comes to the films they pick. Some are great but some are terrible and you wonder how they got in when you know there would have certainly been better films.

What's a bit crap though is that there are films that have been shortlisted that i don't think necessarily deserved it... or the people who made them don't deserve it.

But so is life...and the film industry. It is this harsh lesson i learn time and time again. It always seems that the people who least deserve things get what you want, not because they're more talented or better people...but just through chance (And some evil over-ruling spirit who is intent on smiting me).

The best tool a filmmaker can have is the ability to pick themselves up after being figuratively punched in the guts and continue on with the same fervor they had before being admitted to said figurative hospital.

A film i did production design got shortlisted though...if only there were an art design award...I designed the inside of a giant lobster!

Check out our refurbished website.... www.mangofandango.net ... working on it right now-ish

Quiz Night?

2009-01-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

Had a chat to a very helpful friend about Quiz nights and how much we could expect to make from one. Sounds like as long as you can rely on being able to get people to come it's all pretty sweet. Only major problem in this sense is we live in Radelaide...home to the "wait to the last minute to see if i have a better offer" people and also the "oh heck i'll just stay at home because i'll run into them at the supermarket anyway" folk.

If you live in Adelaide you know exactly what i mean. Hmmm

Apart from that this looks like a reliable way to make some of our budget up for "Miss Transylvania".

Funding our film PLAN B

2009-01-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

Have been getting a bit apathetic lately because fundraising for our latest film "Miss Transylvania" wasn't going to plan. We had originally banked on private investment after taking a mirth of bad advice from various people. We since got the advice "checked-out" and well, it doesn't check out. Vague enough for you?

PLAN B, "THE NOT PUTTING ALL OF ONES EGGS IN ONE BASKET" Plan

First idea is raising funds on www.indiegogo.com

But how do we get people to find out about our film? Let alone like it so much they'll donate $10 or $20 bucks? Well i've always relied on the kindness of strangers...

time for a VIRAL WEB CAMPAIGN!...hopefully

That's the first idea, we've got this cool short youtube worthy video which relates to our film and just might be the thing to get some people checking out our film.

Stay tuned for the rest of our marketing campaign ideas!

-The Dancing Mango

NEWS NEWS NEWS

2008-11-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

Today i can happily say that our little mocumentary "Smoking Kills Fairies" is finally in the bag. We recently had an ADR extreme makeover with some sexy sound thrown in...and all of this by one man, his name is Dan.

So it's looking good, it's sounding good, if only i could tell whether i liked it or not. I always loose perspective after working on a film for so long, i see it day after day and it's just not the same anymore. So that's one for Tropfest entry... although unfortunately it's so hard to tell what Tropfest will select from year to year that we'll just have to cross our fingers.

In the meantime our other short Miss Transylvania has been pushed back to next year. This is frustrating in some ways but better overall because we don't want to rush this baby. We're full steam ahead on the train of investment.

CHOO CHOO CHOO I think i can

Smoking Kills Fairies

2008-09-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Besides the mammoth that is "Miss Transylvania" sits our little often forgotten "Smoking Kills Fairies". Ahh the middle child of the family.

Excitingly its special effects makeover has been completed by Andrew J Clark this week. We've also got some rocking elevator beats from an uber talented chap called Aaron. So all that is left is some darned ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording, for those of you who wondered) and we're in business!!

Here are some sneaky peaks. Above: our two alcoholic fairies

Below: One of our day-to-night shots with fairy (Would you believe that shot was taken at 4pm on a sunny 40 degree day?!? I hope you at least have some trouble believing it)

Your filmdango Fact-tango for today:

Only 3 women have ever been nominated for an Oscar in Directing. None have ever won. The Academy Awards have been running for 80 years now which means women directors have accounted for approximately 0.77% of nominations...not even 1%.

Who were the lucky three you wonder?...

Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion & Sofia Coppola

Film a boys club? Never... If you don't qualify for the boys club why not join Girls in Film

Fangs For Bangs

2008-09-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

Our "Fangs For Bangs" film FUNdraiser went stupendously the other night. The night was held at the Promethean and raised funds for our next short film "Miss Transylvania".

It wasn't the way we usually raise funds but we thought we'd give it a go & it worked!

There was a live performance from "The Doormats", a fashion parade by Little Potty Red Shoes, wine, gourmet nibbles, cupcakes & a rafflishious raffle.

The highlight of the night for me was when a number of strangers requested passionately to come to the premier! It's usually so hard to get support for short films but obviously this story has struck a chord & we've got some great mates!

Now it's on to the hard stuff for the producers. We're organising private investments to fund "Miss Transylvania". It's not something that's done all to often in Australia. We generally just rely on Government grants... but we figure if we can do it n true HOLLYWOOD style, then perhaps we could do the same for a feature someday. I tell you what, after our fundraiser, i was feeling pretty pumped.

The sky is the limit, just don't hit a plane on your way up.

OUCH propellor-y