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!