Spartacus - Gods of the arena, Trailer

Go Dusto!

Spartacus - Gods of the arena, Teaser #2

Go Dustannicus!

Spartacus - Gods of the arena

Here is a first look at Dustin Clare, as Gannicus in the new series of Spartacus Gods of the Arena.

Looking great mate!

Congratulations Geoff!

Kanowna's Composer, Geoffrey Russell has been nominated for a 2010 Screen Music Award, in the category of Best Music for a Short Film.  The national awards are conducted by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers and recognises outstanding achievement in music for film and television.   Geoff's beautiful musical score for Kanowna is wonderfully emotive and lyrical, which perfectly compliments and enhances the vision of Director, Chris Richards-Scully.


Geoff has also been nominated for Best Music for a documentary, for Wheels in Motion.  The awards will be presented in November.  


The Kanowna team would like to thank Geoff for his amazing work on the film and wish him the very best for the awards night.  Wish we could be there with you.

(L-R) Kanowna's Composer, Geoffrey Russell is congratulated by Producer, Michael Facey

Onya mate!


If you would like to hear a sample of music from the film, visit our website.  Just follow the link on the side menu.

Look out Canberra!

Michael Facey, Producer of Kanowna, begins his Big Canberra Adventure tonight.  First there will be a short flight to Sydney followed by a long drive to Canberra with Kanowna DOP Devris Hasan.

We look forward to hearing all about their adventure.

Kanowna screens with Animal Kingdom

Great news!  Kanowna will be screening before the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema Jury Prize winning film, Animal Kingdom at the Raglan Film Festival in New Zealand.

Two screening dates have been confirmed, Sunday, October 3 and to close the festival on Saturday, October 9.  If you know anyone who lives in the area, tell them it's a must see combination.

Kanowna goes to Canberra

Great news!  Kanowna has been invited to screen at the Canberra Short Film Festival.

The film will be screening on October 1st at the Dendy Cinemas in Canberra.  If you know anyone who lives there, tell them to come on down and support our little film.

Kanowna teaser trailer

For those of you who haven't seen the Kanowna teaser trailer yet, here it is.
Stay tune for more news coming very soon.

Official Spartacus trailer for series 1

For those of you who know nothing about the series, here is a little look at the series 1 trailer.

Spartacus role for Dustin Clare

Hello Friends

I've been holding on to this little gem of news for quite some time and now I can officially let you all know the fantastic news from one of Kanowna's stars.

Dustin Clare has been cast for the lead role of Gannicus in the Spartacus TV series prequel and he will also be continuing into Season 2 of the highly successful series.  It's absolutely fantastic news for Dustin.  Check out the Hollywood Reporter announcement.

Apparently sword training is "sick"!

Well done Dustin, we can't wait to see you in the show!

Exciting

Well, the long awaited Cast and Crew screening of Kanowna is tomorrow night.  This will be the first screening to an audience larger than seven, so it is very exciting.  We are looking forward to seeing how an audience reacts to the film.  It will also be good see the crew again.

Screening speed bumps

The Kanowna team went down to the Film and Television Institute in Fremantle yesterday, to ensure everything was in place for Thursday's screening.  Luckily they did.  It took two hours to load the hi-res film into the system, which was a surprise, but it was worth the wait.  Finally we got to see the film, in all its glory on the big screen.  It looked fantastic, but during the screening it was noticed that it wasn't playing back in 5.1 surround.  The question was asked of the technician who explained that other files would need to be supplied for this to happen.  Once again, nothing is as easy as it seems.

The bonus to this story is that 'Boogie Monster' Post have been using Kanowna as a test and we now have the film in blu-ray and will be screening of this format on the night, with full 5.1 sound.  Woohoo!

Teaser now available!

The Kanowna teaser trailer is now available on the film's website.  For everyone who has been following our film's progress, we hope you enjoy your first peak at the finished product.

Kanowna teaser trailer coming very soon!

Friends, sorry for the lack of posts recently but we've been busily working on the Kanowna teaser trailer, which is coming very soon.

Cast and Crew peek

Thanks to Ben, I know have Kanowna on my iPhone, which is definitely cool!

We now have a confirmed date for the Cast and Crew screening of the film, which will happen on Thursday June 17.  Invitations will be sent to all Cast and Crew, plus some special guests.  It is going to be exciting to show the film to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

Thanks Roy

http://www.warrambeenfilmfestival.com.au/links-pm-119.html

The Eye of the Storm

Congratulations to Dustin Clare who plays the main character, Trooper Brown, in Kanowna.  He has landed a role in Fred Schepisi's latest feature film The Eye of the Storm, which will see him perform alongside Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Colin Friels and Helen Morse.

It's great news for Dustin and he has promised to show Kanowna to Fred.

Finished!

It's been a long journey, but finally we have a completed film.  Steve at Boogie Monster finished the colour grading this afternoon and we now have the film in Hi-Def, complete with the 5.1 sound.

Steve did a fantastic job with the grade and the final product looks 'a million dollars', which is a credit to everyone who has been involved with Kanowna.  It's amazing how much difference the grading made to the final product and we are very excited to finally be able to send a high resolution copy out to film festivals and the various awards we want to enter it into.  That said, Michael ran out with the first DVD copy, to send via overnight courier to the AFI awards.  Who knows if we'll get a nomination for Kanowna, but you've got to be in it.

Now we will have to wait for our first film festival invitation.

A little help goes a long way

I'm pleased to announce that ScreenWest has been kind enough to contribute to the marketing of our film, Kanowna through the Short Film and Low Budget Feature marketing grant.

The grant provides financial assistance to help us with film festival submission costs.  We would like to thank ScreenWest for their assistance and look forward to the film festival journey ahead.

Top 50 NetworkBlog

Just discovered that the Kanowna Blog is ranked at number 18 in the top 50 Blogs in the category: acting, as rated by Facebook, NetworkedBlogs.

I have no idea what how the rating is measured, but I thought is was cool that someone is taking notice of what we are doing.

http://www.networkedblogs.com/topic/acting/

New Kanowna film poster design

We have been trying out different marketing materials and this is the latest Kanowna film poster design, which the director, Chris Richards-Scully put together.

Please leave a comment or visit our Facebook fan page and compare it to the current poster.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kanowna-the-film/107906619232285?ref=ts

Final colour grade and output

Kanowna's Producer, Michael, spoke to a local post production house today about doing the final hi-resolution colour grade, designing the end credits and output to various formats for dubbing.  Because Screen Australian didn't come to the party to help us in this final phase of post production, once again, we have to find the funds.

We are so close to finishing the film, we just have to get over the final speed bump.

Kanowna on Facebook

Hello everyone

You can now join Kanowna on Facebook.  You don't want to miss out.  Keep up to date with all the news and happenings on the Kanowna express!

Just click on the link below and become a fan.

Kanowna's Facebook Fansite

Update

A disappointing outcome for the team today, but we've come this far on our own and success will be sweeter when it comes, knowing that we did it all by ourselves.

All quiet on the Kanowna front

Like the calm before the storm, all is quiet on the Kanowna front.  We have sent DVD screeners off to a number of festivals and all we can do is wait!

In the mean time the press kit is being finalised and should be finished very soon.  The website is now online and has had close to 300 hits since we went public.  Interestingly we've had visits from Mumbai, Kiev, Klaukkala, Ovideo and Misawa just to name a few (I have no idea where some of these places are).  It's a good indication of how global film is.

I was trawling through the many photos from the shoot and found a couple gems of Clarkie.  I've used one in the press kit and this is also on the website, but for those of you who haven't visited it yet, here it the photo I'm talking about.  Taken by Ben, I think the crew had moved on to do the final shot and they stayed behind in the Asia town alley set to take this.

Excellent photo, don't you think?

Making plans

Now that the DVD screener has been sent out and the website is online, it's time to focus on other parts of the marketing plan and get everything in place, in readiness for when we get invited to a film festival.  As you know, we have been working on the poster, with one design being pretty close to the final, but the other not really working out.  So its back to the drawing board to work on the second poster design. 

The press kit is coming along well,  the layout has been ready for some time now and everyone has been submitting their biographies, making changes and proof reading the press kit copy.  As soon at the press kit is ready it will be uploaded onto the website as a downloadable PDF for film festival organisers to download and use.

Michael, Ben and I will be meeting today to chat about the marketing thus far and any other ideas which may arise.  

Visit the Kanowna website

Here it is!  Something you've all been waiting for.  The Kanowna website is officially online and going public.  Check it out, tell all your friends, add it to your favourite bookmarks and keep an eye on the progress of our little film.

www.kanownathefilm.com

Have DVD will travel!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, since returning from LA I've been a little crook, must be the flight, the cleaner air or maybe I've just been running on adrenaline that's now all gone!

Anyway, after a few hiccups we've finally got the graded DVD screener of the film completed.  We still need to go back in and make some adjustments when we output to whatever format the film festivals want, which is usually DigiBeta.  Although I was talking to Richard Turner from Turner VFX today and a lot of work he does is now delivered digitally by uploading to a site or onto a hard drive.  It would be much easier if film festivals followed suit, much easier to put a program together with all digital files, while also ensuring quality.

Great to finally be at this semi-finished point and to have the film begin it's journey into the world.  Palm Springs International ShortFest has officially invited us to submit Kanowna for consideration, which is great.  It doesn't mean we have been selected, but it is very positive.

So we're busily working on publicity, marketing and website.  We are also trying to set a date for a cast and crew screening, which will hopefully be very soon.

Post LA depression

Note to self:  Professionals make the job a whole lot easier!

I miss my LA colleagues.

Grade and titles

After a long 20 hour trip, I'm back in Perth.  Have had a good night sleep to try to readjust to the timezone as soon as I can, but we'll see how I go.  Meanwhile, Kyle has been working studiously on the colour grade, in collaboration with Dev.  Still images are being sent through to me for comments and it is all looking really nice.  I will be great to finally see high resolution images of the film, as we've been working with the low resolution images for so long.

Kyle has also been working with the opening title and the credits, so I am looking forward to seeing them this morning..

Sound Dubb completed

Sound mix is finished!  Sounds F#*kin amazing.  David has done a fantastic job!

Dustin, Peta, Krisztian, with our friends Aaron, Brian and Kai, came in to the mix theatre for a quick viewing and to give notes.  The feedback was that they really enjoyed the film and there was only a handful of notes, which we have acted on and some worked, some didn't. 

This dubb has been a great learning experience and so beneficial for the film!  I'm a little tired now, but very happy and I head to the airport in an hour to get on a plane for home.

We're working hard

Game On!

We're in the final dubb and yes, I should be listening, but I'm letting you all know how we're going.  Currently mixing background tracks and dialogue for each scene and making adjustments as we go along. 

Geoff has just informed that he is uploading the final score, which is great.  However, that means he has been working very late or is up very early in Sydney, because it is about 5.30am there.

Things are going well and it is sounding fantastic!

Getting close

It's all coming down to the wire, we start the mix on the dubb stage at 8am tomorrow.  Michael has been frantically managing all our requirements from the Perth end and Geoff has been busily putting the finishing touches to the score.  The trail of communications is long and I'm probably going to be hit with a very large phone bill when I get home.

Note to self:  ensure your comms are effective and cheap, when you next visit LA.


David and I played the reels today to see how the music and effects were sitting.  It all worked really well and we have room to move and make adjustments in the mix.  Geoff's doing a fantastic job with the score.

Kanowna gets a parking spot

I had a little chuckle the other day.  You know you've made it when you have a sign in the carpark!

Update

We recorded ADR yesterday morning with Dustin, the session went really well and I learnt a little more about the process.  Dusto did a great job and it was good to finally catch up with him, over here.  David and I then went to 'the Valley' to deliver the dialogue files to Jim Fitzpatrick who is doing the dialogue edit.  Jim's a lovely guy and has a credit list as long as my arm span.

We then went to Warner Brothers and finally caught up with Katy.  She took us through the WB studio lot and through a number of the Sound mixing rooms, one was mixing 'Cats and Dogs II'... I know, I know...you might say what a crock, but hearing the mix at 85db was impressive on the mix stage.

Geoff has be uploading the music cues and I managed to listen to them today.  Lesson to self:  Next time make sure I have a laptop!  Communications have been difficult, but we're getting there.  Anyway, he has delivered the 2nd last cue, the 3rd cue and is working on all of them simultaneously.

We listened to the effects today, which were supplied by Bob Arons, they were so good and I only gave about 3 notes.  They will however, impact on the music score, so Geoff and I had a good chat this afternoon on iChat.

This evening I went out to Blur Studios to catch up with Jan, who was the Vfx guru on Iron Bird.  He is doing really well, now works super quick and is an expert with al the software they use.  It was really good to see him as I hadn't since the end of Iron Bird.

Then David, Katy and I went to this great Korean BBQ which was fantastic!

Music update

Just got off iChat after a long discussion about the score with Geoff.  So far I have heard 3 music cues and it is all sounding really great, I had a couple suggestions about the cues and we talked about the ones he is working on, as well as the end song.  He is putting in some big hours to meet the deadline and it is really appreciated.

Looking forward to recording Dustin's ADR tomorrow morning, then David and I have to deliver some sound files to someone in the valley, then we'll be going to Warner Brothers Studios.  Katy Wood, who is an AFTRS friend of mine, is working as a Dialogue Editor there on Clint Eastwood's latest film.  She invited me up to view the facility.

So it's getting very busy on the Kanowna front, both in Australia and in LA.

LA

Well I arrived at LAX and made it through Customs in record time.  Went straight to the B&B that I am staying at and got settled in.  It is a lovely place in Hancock Park, which is a really nice area and quite central.  David organised for us to attend an MPSE event yesterday evening, which was about Inglorious Basterds.  I thought it would be great to hear the sound guys discussing the film.

To my surprise Vfx legend John Dykstra, the films editor Sally Menke, DOP Bob Richardson, Supervising Sound Editor Wylie Stateman and Re-recording Mixers Tony Lamberty and Michael Minkler were in attendance.  The big surprise was Quentin Tarantino showed up halfway through the forum.  Wow!  what a way to start an LA visit!

We're now working hard on the dialogue edit, discovering little gems in the material that Adrian sent to us. Geoff is working hard on the musical score, but communication over the past few days (while I was in transit) was difficult, which meant he worked on a cue for a day longer than he actually needed to.  The clock is ticking, but it's all coming together.

I will be going to see Ep.3 of The Pacific this evening with Dustin, the series hasn't been release in the US yet and probably won't get to Australia until later this year, so I'm excited to see it.

I guess this is the difference about living in the sleepy town of Perth and the American film capital of Los Angeles, there is so much going on over here that you would probably be able to find some sort of film function to go to every night.

2nd cue

Geoff and I spent much of today and this evening working on, discussing and coming up with ideas for the 2nd cue of the film.  Communicating electronically from across the country can be fraught with misunderstanding when files don't upload correctly and you can't get comms working as they should.

That said, the second cue is sound very nice and there is a lovely touch, which I won't reveal here.  I wonder how many people will pick it up, when they watch the film?

Bag is semi-packed, communications tested (partially working)... ready.

ADR

Three hours doing recording ADR for the film.  We didn't have enough actors so Ben played a number of roles, as did Michael and I.  It would be great if we had the resources to do this all properly, but I'm sure we've go enough to do the job.

Ben did the best Chinese laundry owner!

Very tired now, need sleep.

Congratulations Clarkie!

Clarke Richards, who plays the role of Trooper Clarke in Kanowna, has just been awarded Best Actor at the 2010 Tropfest Film Festival, for his role in the film Happenstance.  It's a fantastic achievement and we are all very thrilled for him.

The happy award winner, pictured here with Katie May Johnson who won the Woman in Film Award

Onya mate!

First music cue

Geoff sent through the first music cue which goes for all of 27 seconds, but in that time he has managed to do something incredibly emotional and haunting at the same time.

You choose

Red or Gunmetal?  Which one do you like for the opening title?

iChat rocks

I had a three hour sound spotting session with David today who, as you know is in LA.  We used iChat and were able to play the film in one portion of the chat screen and discuss scenes as we played them.  I've done lots of discussions over Skype, but iChat was clear, with no lag time and didn't drop out once! 

The film was discussed from start to finish with effects, foley, ADR and the relation to story of all.  At the conclusion we decided that we need ADR from Dustin and Ben, and also group sounds for the town scenes. 

It was great to be working with him as he isn't a one man band.  He has this team who do various parts of the project, overseen by him and I, which are all pulled together at the mix. 

I am heading to LA next week, for the final sound lock-off and dubb.  Exciting time, we're getting very close.

Sound spotting

Just finished a two hour music spotting session with Geoff, the films composer.  We went through the film scene-by-scene and discussed emotional beats, story points and structure.  I really enjoy the creative process and working with Geoff is always good.  Interestingly we are working over Skype, as he is in Sydney and I am in Perth.  So long as you are working off the same files, with timecode, it is really easy to communicate and get your ideas across.

Sound spotting session has be organised for Wednesday morning and I am really looking forward to that.  We're getting close!

Larson Studios

David will be working the post sound on Kanowna at Larson Studios in Hollywood.  The gang at Larson's are highly regarded and have won around 20 Emmy's and 1 Oscar between them.  So there is a lot of knowledge and talent around the place.  I visited there when I was last in LA and they were really friendly and accommodating. 

It's mad that our little film from Perth, Australia will be mixing there, but it's exciting and I know it will lift the film to another level just by having professionals of this level involved with the film.

Kanowna (short film). Sound Post begins!

Due to a little delay we are about to go into Post Sound and Music.  LA based, Emmy nominated Sound Editor David Raines, will be leading his team for the post sound on Kanowna.  We are really excited to have David involved in the film.  His involvement eventuated when David offered to work on the project during a telephone conversation with Kanowna's Director, Chris Richards-Scully. 

The final mix is scheduled for March 5, so keep watching for updates and a few surprises.

Kanowna poster

Hello everyone and sorry for the lack of posts of late, we have been very busy and will be adding more to the blog very soon.  Here is a draft of the Kanowna film poster, Michael and I have already made suggestions for alterations to the designer, but I thought it would be nice for you all to see it anyway.

We are discussing the colour of the title's font and will be posting the options for your feedback in a future post.  If you have any comments about the poster please let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Follow Kanowna on Twitter

http://twitter.com/kanownathefilm

Kanowna website

I've been busily working on the Kanowna website, which is looking pretty funky and almost ready to go live.  Unfortunately you will all have to wait until the film is finished, before we advertise, but when we are finally ready to 'go live', we'll need everyone's help to get the web address out to everyone they know and encourage them to get it out to everyone that they know and so on...

For now, we'll keep modifying the content and wait until the official date.

The package is in the mail

Two big deadlines on the same day!  Always happens this way doesn't it?

Anyway, they weren't for the same project and Michael had to do most of the work in the final sprint to get the Screen Australia submission into the mail.

Writing a synopsis and director's statement post filming of the film was a really strange and annoying experience.  We've shot the film and just need help financing the post production, can't we just show them the film, they'll love it and want to support us? ... nice try.

Post production continues to move forward and we will finish Kanowna regardless.

I've found my DOP!

Our DOP emerged from the abyss today, to say hello and talk about the colour grade.  No, really Dev has been working hard and has had only four days off since Christmas.  We had a great chat about the colour grade.  It will be exciting to see all the footage graded, it already looks so good.

Kanowna's Music

I had a long Skype music spotting session with Geoff today, we went through half the film and discussed dramatic moments, in-and-out points and styles for the musical score.  Exciting to begin this phase. 

Mathilda dropped in on the last part of the meeting to give her input, which was a laugh for both of us.

Kanowna begins post sound and music

I had a quick chat with our Composer, Geoff Russell today and I realised that we only have two weeks to get the music right, before we are scheduled to go into the mix!  That's putting the pressure on.  Geoff a fanastic composer and this will be the third film I have worked with him on.

The first was my film school film, Icarus, the next was another self funded short called Hearts and Minds, each time he has come up with amazing film scores.  He is an incredibly talented Composer, a great collaborator and friend.

I'm looking forward to working with him again and hopefully one day soon we'll get to work together on a feature film!

Kanowna (short film) - fine, fine cut

Today, Sarah (Editor) and I went through the film again and addressed the feedback from the LA gang.  Some of the suggested changes really worked, some needed slight tinkering with the suit the pacing of the current cut and some didn't work at all.

It was quite a draining session, but I think we're really heading towards a much better cut.  Still, we need to be mindful about what film we set out to make in the beginning.  Some scenes have been dropped, some scenes shortened and sometimes we've had to make big calls about sequences we loved, which didn't work within the narrative structure and storytelling.  It is a great process and an exercise in maintaining objectivity throughout.

We reconvene tomorrow evening and that will probably be the last editing session before we present to Michael, our Producer.

Feeling a little drained, but we're almost there!

On another note, I had a long conversation with Dustin on the phone today about marketing, festivals and the feature, which was all very exciting and we came up with a really good idea that I will look to incorporate into the feature treatment.

Vision lock-off delayed for Kanowna

This morning has been a very busy morning.  I spent an hour on the phone to David in LA, who has finally gotten feedback from a number of people over there, about Kanowna.  The feedback was very comprehensive and targeted at improving the films focus and making it more dramatic.  This is the kind of feedback I have been looking for, every scene was broken down and questioned, with no attachment to anything.  Questions were asked about what characters were doing, where should the focus be and what was I trying to do.

A few big changes were suggested, which will make the film shorter and more focused.  I really want to try them so we've made the decision to delay the lock-off for a week.

Aside from the edit, we've been working on poster designs and the website.  These are progressing really well and I think we are close to having a really 'striking' poster!  Very exciting, but there is still much to do!

My AFTRS film

I came across a link to my DOP friends website today and found that he has a QT which shows a snippet of our film Icarus

Happy New Years

Welcome to the year of 'Kanowna'!