The Good, The Bad & THe Ugly

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2009-03-16T20:35:00.001+11:00

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"12th Anniversary" Practice Shoot

2009-03-15T21:58:00.003+11:00

-CREATED 2007-
I was scared of shooting scene 13 from for my 2nd year student film "The 12th Anniversary" so we did a practice shoot with a mini dv camera, no cast, and barely any crew.

The irony here is that visually (camera moves etc) this practice scene turned out better than the final scene (Bar costumes, acting, sound etc). Without a full cast and crew we were able to shoot all the shots i wanted and had the time to perfect the camera movement in each one.

Unfortunately on the night of the actual shoot due to everything taking longer than anticipated (Biggest Lesson) a few shots were dropped and although the final it looks stunning and works great, it's not quite as visually compelling as this version.

The 12th Anniversary PRACTICE SHOOT from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

Beer Money

2009-03-15T21:48:00.002+11:00

-CREATED EARLY 2007-
We made this film for the 2007 "15/15 Film Festival". It was a radical experience made possible by the blood sweat and tears of a few film school friends and my housemates friend Hugh who scrounged up a few rad actors at the last minute. Without whom this wouldn't be possible. After about 4 hours sleep we woke up at 8am to receive the special item and lines of dialogue to include in the film. 15 hours later after writing, filming and editing the thing we raced madly into the city to drop off a DVD to the festival organizers.

Somehow we made it on time. We were accepted and nominated for "Best cinematography" which was great!

Beer Money from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

Earbats Fashion Shoot

2009-03-15T21:37:00.004+11:00

-CREATED EARLY 2007-

My girlfriend made some clothes for her fashion degree. She organized a fashion shoot, I borrowed a camera from school and went and documented the thing and banged together this cool little video. Emma chose the song which boggles the mind jiggles the eardrums.

Earbats Fashion Shoot vid from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

The Sneeze Guy

2008-10-01T13:25:00.002+10:00

-CREATED 2006/07-
On the last day of our first year of film school 2006, I turned to my friend Ross Hubbard and asked him if he wanted to win Australian short film festival "Tropfest".

"Yes" was his answer. He even had a seed an idea... There was about a month before the entry deadline and we didn't even have a script. We sat down and wrote out a time-line of event goals... ie. write script, cast roles, shoot dates, edit and submit. We both were on centrelink's youth allowance as students and not working so we were pretty much working on this film full time for a month.

The day before we were supposed to shoot there were still about 4 locations we hadn't found/obtained permission and we nearly decided not to shoot the thing at all. We decided to push on anyway because what else were we going to do? I'd probably be homeless if I wasn't making films.

This is our 2007 Tropfest film. It wasn't good enough to be a finalist... Also because it so obviously revolved around tropfests "signiature item" the SNEEZE... we couldn't enter it into any other festivals as it would be perceived as a tropfest reject.

This didn't matter because it was the summer of oh-6/oh-7 and we made a lot of new friends and had fun making a film during summer. We'd made our first non-student film and when we handed it in on time we shat our pants. PHEW!

The Sneeze Guy from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

"Fatal Flame" - First year final project

2008-09-30T22:55:00.004+10:00

-CREATED 2006: Student Film #4-
Script is everything! Every film making book on the planet will tell you this. I finally accepted that I was not a cinematic storytelling genius during the process of making this film. Even though I'm happy with the camera work, cool low-key lighting, sound & some of the performances... the story is shit and doesn't engage the audience one iota. The people watching your film must be engaged right from the very start, it doesn't matter how. It could sweep them off into another world or simply intrigue with interesting character interaction. Something must be happening for a scene to exist. You can't just watch dull characters go about their dull lives watching TV and eating pizza. Especially when there is nothing to like about them and they're all mean to each other. I also learned unless you have a decent budget, do not try and put a creepy alien into the film. Mine just came out looking like a dude in a giant hoodie.

Isn't it amazing what audio can add to a picture? Film is a visual medium but sound is everything. As an experiment Tim suggested we used Hans Zimmers "Batman Begins" sountrack to score this film. It's freakishly awesome how well it fits... and terrifying how bad the film is without it...

I guess when you're among the worlds best film composers your music will enhance pretty much any pictures you put it too...

For our shool's official screening I hadn't finished the CGI earth...Sky Crompton, Peter Allen and the animation students would have shat their pants if they saw it! I was so disappointed at the time with this film I didn't attend the big end of year public screening... Another thing I learned is to go revel in the fruits of your labour... good, bad it's still worth celebrating the completion of every film!

Fatal Flame from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

"Remember Me as a Time of Day" by EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

2008-09-24T02:44:00.001+10:00

-CREATED 2006: Student Film #3-

The third short film project for school was a narrative music video clip: Choose a song then shoot a vid. This is what popped into my imagination when I listened to this song - And I wanted to show people. One of the most fulfilling parts of making a film is watching back yourfootage for the first time. Dan Burke shot this and I was shitting my pants the first time I watched it back at school.

This project was a big deal because it was the first film we got access to the high end equipment, I was so excited to finally use the DVX100, the jib & dolly and all the lighting stuff. What I didn't realize was how heavy the jib would be carting it up the street.

Film people will always tell you never to use kids which isn't true... you just need to get an amazing kid like Wil Conabere. Also I wish I got a close-up of the Choc Teddy Bear when Wil pulls it out of the cupboard...

"Remember Me as a Time of Day" by EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo

Skateboard Season

2008-09-24T01:57:00.001+10:00

-CREATED 2006: Student Film #2-

My second film at holmesglen institute of TAFE was this little skate/snow thing disguised as a doco for the legitimacy of the project. My group consisted of Dan Burke & Doug Gordon who were both awesome helping make this video and Jean Baptiste De La Fontaine was awesome when he came & helped shoot the snowboarding...

The biggest thing I learned making this one is that I will never narrate a film again... Also Sky doesn't credit his last name in his films...

Skateboard Season from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

Detention

2008-09-24T00:52:00.001+10:00

-CREATED 2006: Student Film #1-

You could say this is my first film. It has a plot, actors and was shot with a camera. The first of four short film projects made for my diploma of screen at Holmesglen institute of TAFE, we had to adhere strictly to the following rules:

1# 1 Minute max.

2# No audio of any kind.

3# No camera moves.

4# No editing transitions.

5# No more than 2 actors.

6# Simple B&W credits

Imagine our frustration when we arrived at the screenings and the other class showed up with films full of camera moves, transitions and all sorts of junk. Blast those heck darn group A kids. I'm even living with one of them... despite his group A-ness he's a good kid and infiltrated my group B friends... He's either carrying out the most sinister plot the worlds ever seen or just become a really good mate!

Detention - One minute silent film from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

One of these days I'll paint out the bbq lighter and foley in sound effects, it just sounds too weird without anything.

To Frolic On Talcom Paddocks

2008-09-23T16:40:00.000+10:00

-CREATED 2003-
Good old iMovie... I cut this on my mates iMac when I had my first urge to make films. I didn't think it was a serious urge but I had a crack using this film to get into RMIT's film course anyway... it didn't work.

I like this film and when I watched it for the first time in 4 years last night my mind subsequently melted. All I want to do now is go snowboarding with friends! You can ride the deepest pow and most finely sculpted parks anywhere in the world but a shred with your mates at your local resort will always be more fun and memorable. It also helps that my shoulder doesn't dislocate anymore.

To Frolic On Talcum Paddocks from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.

That's it, That's all

2008-09-18T15:15:00.001+10:00

I know this blog was supposed to be for my films but last night i attended the open house "That's it, That's all" film premiere and subsequently had my mind blown. Lib-tech, Red Bull & Quiksilver sponsored this $3,000,000, 35mm, 16mm & HD behemoth with amazing results. I would nominate this film for best cinematography at the academy awards if I could.

To see what I mean have a look at the trailers at the Official Site.

A few snaps of the evening:

Tommie, Shelley & Sana

Tommie & Tones & my new Skate Banana which on a side note I went back and purchased the next day...

Tommie & Dave

Sana & Banana Bush

"Polly"

Infestation

2008-09-17T15:09:00.003+10:00

Just fired up a blog, an online record of all my films. I started out animating when I got my first computer around 91. I would play Doom all day and animate pixel by pixel using Audodesk Animator by night before mum would send me to bed. Hopefully I'll be able to dig some of these clips up somewhere down the track...

First up, here's my student animation from my diploma of multimedia. I made this straight out of high school in 2000. Imagine if I'd kept up my 3D modeling, lighting and animation skills. I'd be killing it by now and I'd might actually be capable of a proper walk sequence. Unfortunately I wanted to see a bit of the world and do some snowboarding instead of sitting in front of a computer all day.

Ironically I'm back in front of the computer.

-CREATED 2000-

Infestation from tommie mcsweeney on Vimeo.