News

Emma Freeman’s highly anticpated film Hawke screens on Network 10 at 8:30pm this Sunday night, immediately following MasterChef - so just keep watching!

Click the image above to view the Hawke Trailer on the Network 10 site.

View “Choctop Vs Popcorn” here

Let’s face it. When it comes to attending the movies these days, we’re blessed with a myriad of choices. But making a decision? That’s the hard bit. Will it be comedy or drama? 2D or 3D? The front row or the back row? Or, the biggest dilemma of all: do I want a choctop or popcorn?

Charged with producing the Melbourne International Film Festival Trailer, director Damien Kelly, producer Josh Butt, and the team at Badjar Ogilvy faced this predicament head on by getting a box of popcorn and a choctop to fight it out in the backstreets of Melbourne, 70’s Kung-Fu style!

Despite the city’s relentless attempts to slow the shoot down, the crew never wavered from their task. Neither rain, beer deliveries, belligerent builders, random acts of God, or those pesky kids could stop them from a fantastic day’s shooting.

Stuntmen Sirios Niaros (Choctop) and Paul Rochford (Popcorn) did a hilarious job in the suits and they were well controlled by fight co-ordinator Brett Anderson. Glen Maynard’s beard scratching might not have won him any awards, but it did win him the love and respect from the MIFF marketing team (seen behind him in the queue at the Candy Bar).

All in all, it was a lot of work to do in one day, but it went pretty smoothly in a back alleyway in Chinatown. Everything that needed to be filmed was — all on the brand spanking new RED Mysterium, thanks to Inspiration Studios mastered by DOP Gary Richards.

Once shot, Editor Owen Norling worked his magic to cut the TVCs and cinema trailer, as well as doing the Lightsaber effect. Online editor Eugene Richards added in the ice cream splashes, titles, effects and bomb fuse. Colourist Martin Greer did a wonderful job with the grade and from there, it all went to Stevo Williams — where the sounds brought Chocky and Poppy (and their duel) to life.

Mixed together with music by composer Michael Allen and a voiceover by Lee Perry it was a great experience for all.

Big thanks to Digital Pictures and Flagstaff Studios for all their work in Post, Deluxe for printing the trailer to film and Soundfirm for the Dolby 5.1 master.

Click PLAY to view a slideshow of the behind the scenes.

Client: Melbourne International Film Festival
Production Company: The Guild of Commercial Filmmakers
Director: Damien Kelly
Producer: Josh Butt
DOP: Garry Richards
Agency: Badjar Ogilvy
Executive Creative Director: Michael Knox
Writer: Darren Winter
Art Director: Joe Hill
Agency Producer: Tim Marxsen

• View "Choctop Vs Popcorn" here

Mat Humphrey and Simon Isherwood have just been crowned 2009 Australian Superboat outboard champions. The Doug Wright designed 30-ft racing cat “SUV Dodge Ram” has dominated the 7 race series across the Australian east coast.
 
The smaller cousins to Class 1 Superboats, the Superboat outboards have two engines with a maximum of 600 hp and and minimum weight of 1800 kg. The sleek twin hull design creates a wing effect that traps air under the boat and gives aerodynamic lift allowing them to reach speeds over 170 kph even in the roughest conditions. Throttle man, Simon Isherwood, a 20 year veteran of the sport, puts the teams domination down to meticulous preparation and a singular focus on the big prize.

“We set out to win the championship, and to do that you need to get as many points as possible. It sounds simple, but you need to know your limits and when to protect your equipment. We opted to run the older style Mercury 2.5 offshore race engines rather then the newer more powerful optimax engines. Although down on torque, the older higher revving engines are a pure race engine. They are built to race and that’s what they do best”.
 
SUV Dodge Ram was the only boat in the entire “Superboat” fleet to finish every race and was never off the podium.

Owner and driver Mat Humphrey says it was a supreme team effort. “First of all we had a great sponsor. Conn Salloumidis from SUV was fantastic. He transported the boat around the country and allowed us to use his workshop. Sean Edward’s from South East cat Co. Well he is the boat building magician. He modified and reinforced the American hull to cope with the more extreme Aussie conditions. Jason Warmsley from Zigs Marine did an awesome job preparing the boat in conjunction with Race Marine to  ensured we finished every race. Denis Hoffrichter from Race Marine was great support at every race changing props and making last minute adjustments to set up. And finally looking after all of us was Simon Isherwood. To be honest he was the X factor. Every body thinks it’s about top speed and horsepower, well its not. An experienced throttle man can win you races especially in the rough, and they don’t get much better then Simon”.
 
The team are now looking towards the lucrative X Cat race series in Dubai, which has attracted competitors from all over the world with huge prize money. “It’s an identical class to us with similar rules, but racing overseas is expensive, so we’ve got this boat up for sale and are hoping to lease a boat in Dubai” says Humphrey. “At this stage its just a dream,  but so was winning the Australian championship so you never know”.
 
For more information of the The Superboat championship go to the AOPC website.

By Bob Wonders

Click here to view STIHL - Tiny Dealer

Director Damien Kelly has just completed a big job about a little man for Stihl Dealers. Conceived by creative hot shop The Foundry, the commercial reinforces Stihl’s serious support message by depicting a tiny Stihl Dealer living with one of his customers to help him out whenever he needs it.

Shot over three days, the commercial required a large amount of green screen, rig building, model making, and compositing work in order to create the overall effect of a miniature man in a giant world. It also required a lot of careful planning to make the effect as believable as possible. After all, people are never going to believe that our tiny man is real but Damien wanted to suspend that disbelief. To help convey this he decided to treat each effect as a single shot, which resulted in a much more convincing illusion.

One of the most challenging shots was when the customer hangs the little guy up on the shed wall. To achieve this a rig with giant hooks was built so that the actor could be literally hung up on it using cables. It meant that the motion of the little guy being carried and then attached to the wall was real rather than a less convincing animated motion effect. The little guy was then composited into the hand of the customer, who was hanging up a proxy scale model.

Click to view Effects Sequence 1

Another tricky shot was when the tiny Stihl Dealer passes the big screwdriver to the customer. Damien felt that large scale props and sets would look fake so instead decided to break the shot up into two components. The first was a separate background plate of the bench with a small rig that had two retractable claws to hold and release the actual-size tool. This meant that the actor could reach in and take the real tool out of shot in real time. The second was to film the Stihl Dealer holding a proxy tool that was again built to scale. The two shots were then composited together to create a seamless visual effect.

Click to view Effects Sequence 2

Director: Damien Kelly
Producer: Helene Nicol
Line Producer: Julian Bryant
DOP: Wayne Aistrope
Post Production: Active Motion
Agency: The Foundry
Creative Director: Annie Price
Art Director: Melinda Pritchard
Writer: Eugene Horat
Music: String Theory Creative
Agency Producer: Jon Mahney

Click here to view STIHL - Tiny Dealer

Getting 25 kids to school on a Saturday is a big ask.

And then you have to keep them entertained. So how do you do that?

Bribe them with the product of course. After every take the question would be “Was that one Oreo worthy” - “if it was can we eat one?”

Great kids, great agency, great client.

Oh yes, and it seems a rather great product.  Yummm.

• View "School Yard" here

‘Directing 1.01’ = ‘Never Work With Children And Animals’
Obviously Mat Humphrey skipped that class…

Revised Pupcake Recipe according to a film crew:
1 x foolhardy Director
2 x 435 Cameras
1 x ‘A team’ crew led by Simon Duggan, Leilani Tomaszewski and Alan Robinson
6 x rolls of Kodak Film Stock (250D)
1 x f@# off gene and electrics truck (did we mention Pat Hagen was the Gaffer?)
1 x van and smiley Jason Trew (from Big Toys of course)
1 x Kitchen Location (leafy Turramurra preferred)
1 x Precocious 4yr old
1 x Stage Mum (frozen as child misbehaves between each take)
1 x dozen prop cupcakes made up by Igor using No More Gaps and Polystyrene
(he is still sweeping his garage clean)
2 x bowls of icing (consumed by the end of the day)
1 x canny Stand by Props guy AKA Pete Davies
1 x Sound Designer over at Song Zu. (using Skeet’s recordings…or not)
1 x Post Production Facility to edit and online ‐ MRPP
1 x boutique grading facility to grade called Bean
did I mention the incredibly well trained Dog? Ennisky?
And they said it would never work!

Click here to see the spot

Director Damien Kelly has just completed a new commercial for the launch of new Mars Red. The spot was dreamed up by Cummins Nitro and features a big angry bull trampling over a guy, who is eating the red-wrapped product. The whole ad was shot in the grassy car-park at Caulfield racecourse to accommodate Melbourne council restrictions on rampaging bulls. Who would have thought? The effects team at Active Motion then turned what was a sun-dried wasteland into a lush green park. Luckily the bull was a one-take wonder because the director wasn’t game to ask it for a second.

• View "Bull" here

Emma Freeman is one of this month’s featured directors on the Source E Creative
website.
Click here to check out Emma’s work or visit Source E Creative.

• View "Flatlands" here

Director Damien Kelly has just completed another spot for Snooze. Conceived by creative hot shop The Foundry, the spot depicts a group of insomniacs camped outside a Snooze store waiting desperately for Australia’s biggest bedroom sale to start so they can finally get a good night’s sleep. Shot in fabulous Dandenong, the spot actually features Damien’s new producer (and accomplished actor) Michael Robinson as a sleep deprived husband.

• View "Your Last Sleepless Night" here

We’ve all received bad gifts from our relatives for Christmas but what happens when the culprits come over to visit? Director Damien Kelly’s latest spot for Coles Group humorously explores this idea. We see a a young couple in a race against time as they frantically put all the unwanted gifts they’ve received over the years out on display before the folks come over. The solution to this dilemma? A Myer Gift Card. Conceived by Marmalade, the spot also features a cameo from tambourine wielding agency producer Beaver who appears on the cover of a tacky CD. Fortunately for the world, this will never be released.

• View "Bad Gifts" here

“Happy Birthday Rusty. Here, have a cardboard box,” from Mat and Justine.

Another fun job with Rusty, Michael and Amanda from The Campaign Palace, Sydney.

• View "Box" here

In one of the the roughest offshore powerboat race’s Queensland has ever seen, Team SUV Dodge Ram has taken first place in the Superboat Outboard class.

Spectators on the Gold Coast witnessed a truly spectacular race that saw the lead swap numerous times between Saracen, Blade and SUV Dodge Ram.
In the end it was brains over brawn that won the race. In the final sprint to the finish line the ‘SUV’ managed to squeeze out the larger and more powerful ‘Blade’ by less then 10 seconds after over an hour in the torturous conditions.

“We just sat back and let them go. I knew it was going to be consistency that would get us over the line” Said Throttle-man Simon Isherwood. “We didn’t push it until the last two laps . It was really great to come away with another win after all the hard work the team did getting the boat ready for Queensland”

With two wins back to back, SUV Dodge Ram now has a 575 point lead over their closest rival. The next round of the Superboat championships is in Williamstown Victoria, on the 28th of February.

Team SUV Dodge Ram is proudly sponsored by.

SUV Dodge Ram
Race Marine
The Guild of Commercial Filmmakers
South East Cat Co.
Zigs Marine