Author: admin

So where have you been?

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Yeah, I’m sure that is what you have all been asking.  I must be one of the worst bloggers on the planet.  I always think about it and tell myself that I must do it, but then life and creating get in the way and I forget.
So what have I been doing?
LOTS!
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Still from video made for Falling
Firstly, I did an art collaboration called Falling with Australian sculpture Annee Miron, Finnish chorographer Favela Vera Ortiz and Finnish dancer Sanne From.   
 

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Video image being projected on sculpture by Annee Miron
 I haven’t made any video art before.  I’ve made plenty of experimental films in my early filmmaking days so there were elements of getting back to my roots, but I’m not sure about this art thing.  It seems a lot harder to make a living from it and I think you need to be even more dedicated to do art here in Australia than you do filmmaking.

 

 

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Still from the film version of the dance Myoclonic.

 

Also, I had a chance to shoot some more footage for Doing it Her Way.  
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Zahra Stardust
All of Australia’s feminist pornographers got together for Porno Camp.  It was a great weekend of skill sharing and networking.  I finally got to meet and interview the political Zahra Stardust, and the very reclusive Ms Naughty. As well as shoot some observational footage of the weekend.
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Ms Naughty

 

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On the set of “New Tricks” shooting “Doing it Her Way.”
I also got to meet Morgana Muse, who won first prize at the Joy awards last year.  I’m hoping to do an interview with her in the near future.  She generously let me shoot behind the scenes on her new film “New Tricks” which was great and made me miss making erotic films, but hopefully we will be collaborating on a project in the near future!
  
Finally, this Saturday 1st June at 11am  “Making it Handmade” will be playing at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.  I’ll be there for chats and craft afterwards, so if you are anywhere near come and say Hello!

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year to you all.  I hope your year is filled with love, happiness and creative times.

I have promised myself that I will write more regular blog posts…you must all be sick of hearing about how slack I am in this regard!

Until I return to teaching at Uni this year, I have a whole 2 months that I can power on with my own film work.  I also decided to do less teaching this year so that I can concentrate on filmmaking.

As stated in my last post I have been working on a new documentary entitled “Doing it Her way.”, which is exploring the rise of feminist porn here in Australia and overseas too.  I actually filmed some of it while I was in Berlin in 2009.  At this stage I have been doing interviews with some of the amazing Australian women making great erotica/porn.

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Angela White

 

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Gala Vanting

 

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Liandra Dahl

The motivation to return to this project came after heated discussion with a student about women in pornography.  Yet again this cliche idea of women being victims within this industry came up, and I listened to stereotype after stereotype about what sort of women work in the adult industry.  So to that student, you know who you are, I’m not mentioning your name here as I know you have a desire for a political career and I’m sure being mentioned on a blog that talks about porn is not the type of publicity you would like!

Til next post.

The Band is finally here!

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I always feel as though I should start my blog with an apology that it has been soooo long since I last wrote an entry.   Generally, I try to wait until a few things have happened in my filmmaking life before I write about them, but other times I wonder if I should just write about anything and everything…..but I’m guessing most of you don’t want to know about the hand painted wrapping paper I made with my small child!

Now that I have finished teaching for the year and the arduous task of marking is behind me, I once again have 3 blissful months to concentrate on what I love best, making films. Its time that brings me great joy as I can actually embark on creating in my office.  During the teaching semester I have only one day a week here, which seems to be eaten up by admin, orders, tax, etc, so its lovely to finally be able to tackle the big creative things I have been wanting to all year!

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It has arrived.

Yes its finally happened.  There is now an Australia release of The Band.  Its strictly limited numbers, so once they are gone, there will be no more!  Thanks to those who all pre-ordered, they all received a special thank you present.  Order your copy here.  It’s a great present for someone who loves smut and music.

I’ve been working on a new documentary called “Doing it Her way!”, more details to come soon.

Falling in…… Stage 2

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Stage 2 is now up and happening and you can check it out the NGV studio from yesterday, Thursday 27th until Sun 30th September 2012. The Studio is open from 10 – 10 Thu – Sat and 10 – 5 Sun.

My video piece is being projected onto the Falling sculptures made by Annee Miron.

And next year the choreographer Favela Vera Ortiz and dancer, Sanna From, arrive from Finland for Stage 3.

I was quite happy with how the video images have turned out and it was great fun to edit them as I could experiement and play with footage unlike a traditional narrative based project.

Yesterday, we had some problems with the projection, mainly being that the space is sooo light filled that the images are quite hard to see.  The photo above was taken at night and the images are stronger and clearer then.

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This is the same image late afternoon.  It actually comes up better as a photo than looking at it with the naked eye.

Its given me food for thought I will go away and rework a few things ready for the next stage!

Developing “Falling in….”

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A work in progress by Annee Miron.

This evening I am off to begin shooting a collaborative piece with Melbourne Artist Annee Miron and Finnish- Argentinian choreographer Favela Vera Ortiz.  It is currently entitled “Falling in ….(insert city of choice)” and is an exploration of sleep.  My partner finds this very amusing as I struggle with insomnia and they feels I have limited personal knowledge of the topic!!

However, via various online medium we have been discussing the project for several months now and Annee has just completed an artist in residence at Yarra Sculpture Gallery, so it has given her an opportunity to begin building pieces.

Getting closer

After what feels like a long hiatus from shooting anything, its nice to be able to create again, but what I am finding most stimulating is the method in which I am working.  Lately, my work has been long format and narrative in style, where as this piece is more experimental, like my earlier work.  Its such a liberating way of working as there is less structure and we bounce ideas off each other.  I don’t feel the usual pressure of shooting as it isn’t constrained to a set period of time and the nature and stage of the work means that I can go back later and shoot again.  Very liberating and stimulating too.

Up close and personal

Inside                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

These are some images I took while visiting Annee in the gallery last week with Royce who had a great time playing in and out of the work.  The gallery, as you can imagine has not heated, so it was freezing cold, but a few cups of tea and a shared coffee scroll later I hardly noticed it at all.  Royce’s hand were like little icebergs by the end but he was having so much fun and like most children doesn’t feel the cold!

I’ll post more images later this week.

Annee helps Royce climb “Rope Mountain”.

Video On Demand

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Its been a very long time between post and please excuse my slackness but I have been dealing with some big health issues, but more on that at a later date.

However, I have been setting up some of my films as Video On Demand or VOD, which is very exciting to have my films enter the next phase of distribution options available to independent filmmakers.

So please find below some of the titles currently available and I will be adding more as time goes on.

THE BAND

BEHIND THE SCENES- THE BAND

MAKING IT HANDMADE

I hope you enjoy!

Tristan Taormino talks and other adventures.

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Last month, I spent a highly entertaining night listening to sex positive feminist, Tristan Taormino talk about her very interesting life and journey to making porn films.  It was a captivating and fascinating two hours.  Tristan is a great public speaker and if you ever get the chance to hear her talk I highly recommend it.

She spoke about her ethical approach to her actors: good pay, reasonable hours, providing safe environments, and giving actors the freedom to do what they wished rather than dictating to them.  It was strange to hear this referred to as ethical treatment of actors in explicit films as I thought it was the ONLY way to treat actors, but then again I have chosen to forge my own path and not be dictated by the mainstream industry, and I guess that what makes the difference. 

I decided to get up and ask a question about safe sex and the use of condoms in her films, as it is one of the things I feel very strongly about and think as erotic filmmakers it is very important to promote, especially as there is a rise in sexually transmitted diseases (which I find shocking, as choosing to have sex with someone is also about making a respectful choice to use condoms).  Her take was quite different and I do wonder how much of it is dictated by the studio she worked for or if it is as she said, a choice she let the actors make.  She was actually quite surpised how many of them would rather have sex without condoms!

The evening also gave me a chance to catch up again with Louise Lush, who I haven’t seen in the flesh since “The Band” screened at the Berlin Porn Film Festival in 2009.  Wow how time flies!  Finally, I got to meet two actors/makers I have been wanting to meet, Angela White and Liandra Dahl.  We where all standing around being total video/film nerds getting excited talking about RED and Lexus cameras, steady cams and jib arms!  Pretty funny!

I actually stood next to Angela White for quite sometime until I realised it was her!  In the photos she has sent me she looks like an amazing amazon, yet in person she is still amazing but petite.  She had just returned from a month in the US filming scenes for her website and was looking forward to going home to several terabytes of video footage and begin editing!

Afterwards, I was hoping to talk with Liandra further about her films, but unfortunately she had to leave early, but we did catch up later that week.  She came by my office and we talked non stop for 2 hours.  I could have spent the rest of the afternoon talking with her, but unfortunately prior commitments prevented us from doing so.  However, I’m sure we will have many more discussions in the future.

It was great to be surround by such a wonderful group of sex positive women and so nice to talk openly about sex without anyone looking shocked, disgusted or horrified, but that it is just a natural part of life.  This is what I love about Pleasure Salon gatherings!

Hats off to amazing sex therapist, Cyndi Darnell from Pleasure Salon for organising yet again another sex positive evening.  Pleasure Salon holds monthly nights in Melbourne and I highly recommend you go and have a look, they are always informative and interesting.

In other news:

I’m giving a talk at Melbourne University this Friday 4th May at 12:30pm about Feminist and Queer Porn, for their “Rad sex and Consent week”, which is free!  I’m looking forward to it but I’m also slightly nervous that Shelia Jefferys and her anti sex minions will be on hand!  However, the organisers look like they are providing a very safe space for people to discuss and explore sex and its many variations through workshops and talks.  If you want more information, check it out here.

Must go and finish practicing my talk.  Hope to see you there.

Writing a new erotic film.

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Finally, I have found  focus and  begun working on a new erotic film entitled “Screwed in Suburbia”.  It feels great to have something to work towards, as I was feeling lost towards the end of last year and didn’t know where I wanted to go in regards to my next film.  More details on it soon, but we already have at least a US distributor attached who is they love it may take on international distribution!

I’ve been trying to write without putting pressure on myself as I have a habit of wanting to make everything perfect then and there rather than just letting it flow and leaving holes in it that can be reflected upon and fixed later.  Fingers crossed I can push out a draft before I return to teaching this year!

Also, I have begun a collaboration with an amazing script writer, Shanti Gudgeon.  We are creating an erotic thriller together which is very exciting.  I love writing with other people as you can bounce ideas off each other.  The last film I wrote in a partnership was “The Money Shot” with Lance Petrie.  It was great as I would write a scene get half way through loose my focus and pass it to him and he would finish it off.    It speeds up the process dramatically.

Updated website finally completed!

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Finally, I have finished updating my website.  I thought this time rather than getting someone else to do it for me I would teach myself dreamweaver and have a go at it myself!  Talk about a huge learning curve, but hey its good to keep your mind active!

Check it out here.  

It is great now to have everything linked in together, as previously I didn’t have a link to my online shop or this blog.

Creatively, I have been having a break and trying to still work out where to go, what to focus my energy on.  Let’s hope over the next few weeks I’ll make some breathing space to sort through it all and make my mind up!

I hope you all had a wonderful Silly Season and a Happy New Year.