The big night!

Lots of glamourous dresses, and bow ties, and even Steve wore long pants and a shirt!

‘1080′ was the first film up, and we got up to do our well prepared speeches….

Then sat down nervously and waited… and waited….

A few technical problems, but the projectionists eventually got it started after a couple of minutes nervous anticipation. But everything worked fine, and the audience seemed to appreciate it. We had a lot of good feedback after the event, and I was happy to learn that a lot of people learnt things from the film, which was our main aim.

A big thanks again to all those who have helped make our film possible over this year. There are far too many to mention.

For those who couldn’t make it to the Premier on Saturday, and would like a copy on DVD. We are currently working on that, and once we find a reasonable place to print the media we will put details on the blog of how to get hold of a copy.

 

Countdown to Premier and ODT stardom!

I am back in  New Zealand still suffering from Jet lag, but arrived back in sunny Dunedin to watch a test screening of our film on the big screen at the regent.

Steve has done a great job with the sound track and it now looks and sounds like a proper documentary film.

After showing the film to a few people we are happy that we have achieved our initial aims.

There are a lot of documentaries around at the moment that are very biased towards one side of an argument, and almost try to sway the opinion of the audience to the viewpoint of the film maker.

Our aim was to produce balanced viewpoint on the 1080 issue, and give the audience enough information to either make up their own mind, or encourage them to go away and read more about the issues and facts about 1080, rather than forming an opinion based on anecdotal evidence and media headlines.

We know that we will not solve the 1080 debate with this film. I personally believe that the issue has gone past the point of resolution and there will always be people on both side of the argument who stand true to their beliefs whatever information is presented to them.

There will be some that think our film is biased, either for or against the use of 1080.

But hopefully a lot of people will feel more informed about 1080 after watching our film.

We welcome any feedback from anyone who get to see the film, either at the Premier on Saturday (Regent Theatre, Dunedin, 7pm, Sat 21st Nov), or on DVD later in the year.

 

We have also just been interviewed by the Otago Daily Times, so look out for our mug shots in the next couple of days!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Less than a month until the Premier of all the student films at the Regent Theatre in Dunedin.

Compared to other teams we are ahead of schedule, mainly thanks to my sister who is getting married in a weeks time back in the UK. So I’m heading off to the UK for three weeks, leaving the polishing of our film in the very capable hands of Steve.

He has been doing a great job tidying, adding foleys and various sound effects and we have just got a draft music score from Richard White, our musician, which is sounding good.

The story is complete, and just the final  polishing jobs of getting all the sound levels correct, and doing the painstaking job of colour correcting!

and then making sure it works in the theatre!

Big thanks to Steve for finishing things off while I am away!

The topic of 1080 was a challenging one, and we have met some interesting people along our journey. I think we have achieved what we set out to do, which was to produce a reasonably balanced documentary on the current use of 1080 in New Zealand. I am sure there will be some people who disagree with some things that are said and presented in the film. But I would rather have people voicing opinions on the film than not taking anything away from it.

The Premier is at the Regent on the 21st November at 7pm.

Tickets have gone on sale, and this event usually sells out. There will be 7 student films in total, covering a wide variety of topics. Should be a great night.

If anyone is unable to attend, we will be producing DVD’s of the film, sometime in December. They will be at a reasonable price.

If you want to pre-order a copy, please send an e-mail to 1080documentary@gmail.com

For those of you that do get to see it at the regent, please drop us a line afterwards and let us know what you think!

Pete

Picture Lock Baby!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats right folks…the end is near, after a grueling several months of being locked in the edit room, endless meetings with of test audience (Cheers Sophie!) and executive producers. We have finally hit the long awaited picture lock! For those people, not familiar with the film production lingo, picture lock is when the main edit is done. No more changing shots, no more filming, just the business of making our movie look pretty and attractive. Kinda like airbrushing a supermodel, although probably not as glamourous. November 21st is the premier so its not long now people!

Moderation…

I have been reviewing some of the comments  posted on the “public opinion” page and they  show how strongly people feel about this topic, which is as we expected.

However I am concerned that a couple of them have begun to get a bit personal, and I do not want this site to end up as a arena to air personal grievances. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and if you wish to present an argued case against any comments posted then that is fine, as long as they do not get personal or aggressive.

This site is intended to allow people to raise any concerns they may have with the use of 1080, and to present any information that they believe backs up their argument, and I thank all those that have contributed in a constructive way.

I can understand that some people are angry about certain aspects of the 1080 debate, but we do not condone this anger being expressed in a personal manner, and in future we will edit or remove any comments that I believe to be overly personal,  vindictive or in any way slanderous. (and will be asking some of the comments already posted to be reviewed)

What the 1080 discussion needs and what we hope to show in our film and encourage on this site is that people need to listen to the information presented on each side of the argument, talk to people about it, and then make up their own minds. Shouting at each other, or trading insults will not change anything.

I encourage people to continue to use the site to present their arguments, recount personal experiences, and communicate information.

Keep talking!

Thanks

Pete

The long awaited update!

Hello all patience readers of this blog! We first have to apologize (ok just me really, Im the slack one) for the lack of updates. We have been really busy filming, creating sets and editing the rough cut etc etc…and finally something tangible is beginning to rise out of the meters and meters of tape we have accumulated over the last half of year. The end is in sight and we are somewhat scared haha.

okay so here is the run down of what we have been doing…Myself and wildlife camera legend Robert Brown spent a day making a small table top set to represent the forest floor in order for me to get some footage of rats in a control environment…we had two rats at our disposal but one was being somewhat of a diva so we quickly learned we were back to one haha. With rat talent aside, in the end I think we got the results (or close enough) we needed.

We have also been busy in the studio doing various ‘artsy’ shots of science imagery to make our film look really fab. What else can I say but playing with dry ice is probably one of the more enjoyable moments in my life so far!

 

Outside the studio we have been busy trying to create some very emotive scenes with the animals. Now the main rule of show business is to never work with children and animals…well Both Pete and I know this more than ever (well maybe not the children part). We have now spent several months trying to co-ordinate pets,finding animal props and chasing possums all over the greater dunedin area. But as tiring as these tasks can be, we have had some good luck when we were welcomed to shoot a 1080 drop which was something we have been chasing for some months and we got to meet Jojo the possum who resides at Agresearch and keeps the scientists under a watchful eye.

Sometimes we wonder maybe we should just go into the drama game and shoot and write for Shortland Street! But even though it has been a long and sometime frustrating process, the people that we have meet and helped us along the way has been a humbling and welcoming experience. Lets just say at the end of this film we might have a very long list of credits!

Cheers for now

Steve

PS Keep commenting my good people!

Its been a good guide to see how the general public feels about 1080 so if you have more stories feel free to post them in the comments

Snow Joke

Ok, apologies for no updates, but at the moment planning and carrying out filming is taking prescident over writing Blogs.

Last week was spent organsing a road trip to Christchurch, 7 people to interview, as well as some zebra and a bird or two… (Zebra??? – All will be revealed in the film!)

But, you can never plan for the weather, and this morning we woke up in Dunedin to this:

Snow on Stuart Street, Dunedin

A nice layer of snow over a layer of ice! Living at the top of one of the steepest streets in the world made the idea of setting off on the roads a very foolhardy one.

No problems I thought – In the back of the car is an unopened box with strange Japansese instructions – Snow Chains!

20 minutes of trying to figure out the strange pictorial instructions, I finally realised that the chains were too small for the car! So trip postponed for today and hope that tomorrow the roads out of Dunedin will be less treatcherous, and we can crawl our way to Christchurch.

The unexpected weather does give me time at home though, and thought I should spend some of it updating the blog.

Since Steve’s last entry, the script development has been put on hold, and we have been full go on filming. Because our film is heavily interview based, our script will develop a lot in the editing phase. We have been out filming several interviews with people from both side of the 1080 debate. Our story took us across to Haast on the West coast of the South Island, where there is a strong feeling against the use of 1080, so plenty of people to interview on both sides of the issue, as well as a chance to get some shots of the stunning landscape, and get some strange looks as we sat next to the river with a laptop doing timelapse shots…

Emotions

We knew before starting this project that the topic we have chosen is a very emotive one, but that has been drilled home over the last couple of weeks filming. We have heard some emotional and remarkable accounts from both sides of the debate, and been lucky enough to get some of them on film.

Sad tales of Dogs dying from 1080 poisoning, as well as tales of anonymous threats made to people who use 1080 in their work.

I find it difficult to understand what people hope to acheive from these threats, apart from generating more anger. I believe that the people that we have interviewed who are against the use of 1080 would not condone such acts, because all it does is give them a bad image, and undermine the message that they are trying to get across.

But it shows how much anger and emotion there is in this issue.

The big melt

Just looked out the window, and it has stopped snowing, so hopefully we can make it to Christchurch tomorrow for a frantic few days filming. We are already up to 12 hours of interviews and footage. I reckon we should be up to 18-20 hours by the time we have finished.

18-20 hours of footage, that we need to edit down to 24 minutes!! Thats what the next couple of months has in store!

Our first interview!

Hurrah! We have finally gotten of our butts and picked up a camera! After months of script writing (which is still going by the way), it was a nice change to behind the camera again. The shoot itself was an interview with Greens MP Metiria Turei who shed some light on her party’s official stance of the use of 1080 in New Zealand. Apart from the ever-unpredictable sun (note to self: never film a interview outside again haha!) casting weird highlights that lead me to stare at the sun with the ND filter, the interview went well. Metiria was a pleasure to interview and never once looked at the camera (which is rare when you interview a newbie) but seeing that she is a politician I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This week we also experimented with a few ‘special’ effects. Not going to completely give away what we have been doing but it involves a chilling bin, thermos, and some bee keeping equipment! Haha confused? Great! Watch this space for the results. I would also like to remind people that we have the pole still running and would love to get more peoples opinions on 1080, so pass this blog around and helps us understand how the public feels!

Steve

How do you storyboard if you cannot draw?

Ok first I must apologies for the lack of updates. The last couple of weeks have been rather hectic with Pete being sick (British immune system go figure) and me being stuck between various odd jobs for people. But we are both back on track and raring to go! The script is of course being reworked and reworked which has of course lead me to believe that scripts are never finished but are rather an ongoing exercise in frustration. As soon as you allow someone to look at them they seem to distort and any gapping holes become apparent. Kind of like a moviemaker’s version of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle…(resounding sound of nothing but a lonely cough)…um right so I guess I’m the only one that reads about quantum physics in my spare time. Ok word of advice, if you think you are finished and you enjoy that feeling of completion, then it pays to not show it to anybody! We learnt the hard way and showed it to our EP Peter Hayden, our lecturer Ian McGee and filmmaker Rod Morris. 3 people, and three different sets of feedback! We shouldn’t complain because they identified some gaping holes we had missed and as much as I wished our script to be finished, in the long run this feedback is nothing but helpful…documentary tough love! So back to the drawing board, but on a positive note we have done enough progress to do some story boarding…Hurrah! That means I can pick up a camera soon! Which leads me to the title of the blog. I love art and I wished I could draw something more substantial than stickmen in compromising positions. It is probably the reason why I became a photographer or what the art world calls: Painters that cannot draw. So below is an example of my storyboarding technique, basically draw something to seem like I have done work and then scribble it out and replace with words…brilliant if only my high school art teacher could see me now. That vaguely animal looking figure is in fact our possum we shall soon be filming, with a green screen no less! Watch out Hollywood! Another exciting development, Pete has just order 5kg of dry ice (insert evil maniacal laugh here)…what will it be used for? Ha-ha wait and see, all I can say is this is going to be fun!

Steve

 

Opinion Poll

Even though we still have many people that we need to talk to for our research, we need to start deciding how to tell this story.

We are starting to pull together a “shooting script” for our film. This is a written document describing a combination of the images that will appear on the screen, and the words/sounds that will accompany them.

This is always an iterative process – many versions and alterations before we get to one that we feel will tell the story how we want it to be told.

One of the hardest things with this topic is deciding which areas to leave out, or to cover in less detail. It is a huge topic – everyone we talk to gives us another 5 people we should talk to, and each one throws up ideas and opinions. Unfortunately we only have 24 minutes, so have to decide what to focus on.

We have added an opinion poll to the Blog. We already know that there are some people who have strong feelings either for or against the use of 1080. However, what is the feeling amongst the general public? I am not suggesting that this will give us scientific data, as opinion polls always have their issues. But it will be an interesting exercise non the less.

Please take a minute to cast your vote – click on the “1080 Opinion Poll” link at the top.