Another one of those “can’t say too much about anything or they’ll put my head on a spike” updates, but suffice to say I’m continuing on at Iloura and am REALLY excited to be working on a film that I think is going to make a large portion of its audience pee their pants laughing.

Yes, a comedy. With VFX.
It’s written and directed by a very special and popular fellow indeed and working on it is going to be slow torture as I just want to watch the film already!

I’ll post more as I’m allowed to, but for now...

Tartare.

(sorry)

This is a LONG overdue post, but in case you’ve missed it, the first trailer for GHOST RIDER SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE was released a couple of months ago. You can check it out on YouTube HERE, ‘like’ it on Facebook HERE, and follow the word of mouth on Twitter with #GhostRider.

It’s received a fair bit of attention and rightly so. It looks dark, evil and awesome - the way Ghost Rider should look.

He even pisses fire at the end.
Not joking.

Enjoy.

The trailer for KILLER ELITE has finally hit the interwhatsit and it’s going for BIG!

It’s an impressive cast with DeNiro, Clive Owen & Jason (did you just call me Jason?) Stratham all batting it out for king of the biffo. There is substance to the film, believe it or not, and the script leaves a more mature flavour in your mouth than the trailer does.

However, as far as a balls-out-actionfest, this trailer has it in spades.
They even chose SCORPION’s Rock You Like A Hurricane for the music.

For what it’s worth, two of my composites made it to the trailer - but I can’t say which ones.

Once it’s released, please go to the cinema and PAY.
I want to keep my job.

Check it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F1wrDsUqYc

Cheers!

In almost as many months, I’ve already doubled my feature film credits - which arguably wasn’t hard, starting with none.

As mentioned (to my Mother), for the last few months I’ve been hard at work at Iloura, lending a hand to some of the finest compositors in Australia on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance starring Nicolas Cage, Ciarán Hinds and Christopher Lambert. Shot in Bucharest, Romania, and regions inside what was once... Transylvania! This will keep me happy, educated and very, very busy until at least August 2011.

Adding to this however is some even more exciting news - I’ve now also been included in the team working on the visual effects for the new Clive Owen, Jason Statham & Robert De Niro action-thriller, The Killer Elite. Shot in Paris, London, Melbourne and Morocco, it looks to be a great spy thriller.

Both features are set for an early 2012 release.

Of course, working on studio films such as these there is a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement in effect so I can’t say much more than the above. However I can share one tid-bit with you... this new Ghost Rider film has, in my opinion, finally nailed Ghost Rider as a bottom-soilingly scary character. His physical presence in this movie... I’m lost for words... he just looks absolutely, terrifyingly awesome. In fact, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is looking ...HOT!

Sorry.

I’m excited to be starting a new project at Iloura VFX tomorrow that will have me wrapped up until at least August 2011.

I’d like to thank all my clients that saw me through my first 6 months in Melbourne. I promise to return to ‘available’ status in due course - but for now I’ll be rubbing shoulders with some of the finest visual effects talent in the country, working on a US feature film, due for release sometime in 2012.

Primarily, I’ll be using The Foundry’s NUKE compositing software and I’m absolutely pumped to get going!

Since beginning to learn Nuke last year it’s become a revelation to me - the difference between compositing in that and something like After Effects is night and day. Nuke assumes nothing, therefore anything is possible. It is easily the most powerful software I’ve ever seen which provides an excellent and unending motivation to continue learning and to refine my craft. What’s more, although originally designed as proprietary software and used internally by Digital Domain, The Foundry, literally, develop the software. Unlike some companies *cough* Apple *cough* they have an open, focussed commitment to the Visual Effects Industry, one that’s active and ahead of the curve.

This marks my first long-form, exclusively Nuke focussed contract. It’s sink or swim time. Luckily, I’m an Australian. Even the babies and physically challenged can swim here.



PS - The Foundry are still using my testimonial for their FURNACE CORE plug ins... although now it’s closer to 11 years, than 9!

PPS - No, I do not work for The Foundry

Look, it’s no secret that NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is good. In fact it’s bloody good.

For some time I’ve been aware of the three trilogies the single filmed spawned. One from the original’s director George Romero, one from the original’s co-writer John Russo, and an Italian one, mostly directed by Lucio Fulci, that came out of Dario Argento’s re-edit of Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD (also brilliant).

I decided to have a play with a new application I’ve found called MINDNODE by ‘mapping out’ all these sequels. What I uncovered was a mess of both official and unofficial releases. Sequels, prequels, additional trilogies, unrelated films accidentally becoming marketed as new instalments in the already saturated (and by this stage very artistically diluted) chain of films that connect some way with the original.

Here is a link to a PDF of, what I’ve called, the WEB OF THE LIVING DEAD. (Yes, thank you, the name is brilliant, isn’t it?)

This isn’t necessarily finished either. It’s fairly light on information and may be missing a film or two. It could even be wrong, though I think it is pretty accurate. If you have any suggestions, by all means email me and if I’m ever stupid enough to open up this can of undead worms again, I’ll update it.

Thanks be to MINDNODE for supplying some pretty cool (free!) software.

Enjoy.

I’m currently editing a film shot in Toronto, the script of which has been finalist at screenwriting festivals in both New York and London.

Of course, I can’t say too much about it yet, but I’m very excited to be working on drama again.

I do try not to swear, honestly, but holy f**king sh*tb*lls... SNOWTOWN, the new film directed by Justin Kurzel and produced by Sarah Shaw and Anna McLeish for Warp Films Australia looks like a contender for my favourite film of 2010, even though it’s not due until 2011.

I was lucky enough to be invited along to a work-in-progress screening at Digital Pictures, Melbourne yesterday. The film was approximately two weeks away from picture lock and of course was not mixed, or graded etc. Justin has done a phenomenal job bringing to the screen the horrendous goings on of suburban Adelaide in the mid-late 90’s in what was to become the tale of the most prolific and sinister serial killer in Australian history, John Bunting.

A controversial subject matter, of course, especially for the survivors and residents of the area, SNOWTOWN paints a disturbing picture of the fragility of dysfunctional surburbia and manages to entangle the viewer (well, me) in a web of empathy, sympathy and barbarity that avoids the common pitfalls of other reality/horror/biopic dramatisations, in that it subversively manages to neither glamourise nor moralise the subject matter.

I had the overwhelming feeling that I was hopelessly falling into Bunting’s abyss of psychological entrapment and manipulation, which is of course an indication just how effective and disturbing the film is to watch, and how masterful the performances and film making were. Having said that, I must say that the brutality in the film, while extreme, is thankfully essential to the narrative. It is not in anyway gratuitous, and is on screen for just enough time as it needs to be. No more, no less.

SNOWTOWN was an excellent film, and it’s only going to get better as it nears completion.

I’m not sure when it’s due for release, but do make sure you put it on the top of your calendar for 2011.

After four weeks away, I’m back in Melbourne and raring to go!

There’s a very good chance I’ll be disappearing around the same time in 2011. Frightfest London is about the best time I think I’m capable of having. Four and a half days locked inside the biggest, most expensive, most freaktastically awesome cinema in the United Kingdom (Empire, Leicester Square) watching premiere upon premiere of the latest in horror and the macabre from around the globe.

I’ve hit it up three years running now, and if I’m lucky I’ll never have to stop.