Continental Drift DV Footage

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Things have been very quiet on this blog for months, as I’ve been in pre/production for my short film Continental Drift. Plenty of interesting stories to tell from the process, but for now, while still in post, here’s a snippet about some of the footage we have been collecting for the project.

Most of the film is shot on Super 16mm film, however the protagonist, Adele, shoots video on her DV handycam throughout the film – a comment on how she as somebody with intimacy issues mediates her experiences through the camera, and the voyeuristic nature of being a tourist, as well as a way of getting inside her head as a character. Most of the time the footage is diagetic, inherent to the film, as video she or others is clearly shooting as part of the action. At some other particular times we are using DV footage as emotional atmospheres.

Michael Williams, our wonderful DOP, and myself went down to the bay in Melbourne last weekend to capture some sunset over the water and later the moon, both important textures in the film. Speaking of textures, some of the way the DV camera handles the light on water and other parts of the landscape is just beautiful! Who really needs all that resolution, all the time? This is ungraded, raw DV handycam footage.

Some pictures of our expedition…

Michael Williams, DOP, Fine Art Photographer, Beach Lover

Michael Williams, DOP, Fine Art Photographer, Handycam Appreciator

NATO (Northern Arts Tactical Offensive)

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NATO DUCK (35 sec, 2001) is a promo for the Northern Arts Tactical Offensive (NATO). From NATO’s website: ” NATO is a Manchester-based grassroots art collective. Our work as a collective, or through collaborative projects, aims to bring grassroots and underground art dealing with current social and environmental issues out of the confines of its more typical contexts, exposing it to a more diverse and mainstream audience.”

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Climate On The Linec

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Climate On The Line (1min 53sec, 2008) is a brief clip showing brave young protestors laying themselves on the line (literally – the train line), as part of a series of peaceful direct action blocking the coal trains in Newcastle. Many groups of activists prevented the coal trains from running all day, in one of Australia’s biggest displays of direct action against the destructive export of coal which is fueling climate change.

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Oceania Indymedia Newsreal

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Still from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal 3

Still from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal 3


Oceania Indymedia Newsreal was a compilation of short, critical documentaries focusing on social and environmental issues in South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Distributed online and also on VCD, three editions were produced in 2003, 2004 and 2005 including pieces on Maori struggles in Aotearoa, East Timorese campaigning over Australia’s theft of oil in the Timor sea, life in the slums of Jakarta, climate change in the Pacific, Food not Bombs in Australia and much more.

I co-produced the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal with Tim Parish and Andrew Lowenthal in conjunction with Access News and EngageMedia, and did the motion-graphics and authoring for all three discs. This is one example from the newsreals, featuring a confronting and moving video “Through The Wire” about the 2002 breakout from the Woomera asylum-seeker detention centre, directed by the late video activist extraordinaire, Pip Starr.

More videos from the Oceania Indymedia Newsreal can be found here on EngageMedia.

Fervid Flipbook

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Fervid Flipbook (10sec, 2008) pokes fun at the stereotypical imagery and predictable body-fascism found in a pile of old gay porn magazines of the 80s. Pornography is often somewhat lacking in humour itself, though there’s plenty of humour to be found. Produced/directed by Robbie McEwan and myself for the Tape Projects Locked Groove / Flipbook project.

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Vagina Dentata

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Sister Mary Clancy Of The Overflow Does Vagina Dentata (6mins 37sec, 2007) is a performance by Gaylourdes, evoking the film-theory spectre of the Vagina Dentata, at the Camp Betty Cinema in Melbourne, 2007. This clip formed the first footage for a new collaborative film project exploring the themes of the double, the film within the film, the contamination of reality by dreams and the voyage in time.

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