Educational resources to teach students about good digital citizenship,
intellectual property and copyright through the lens of film and TV.
Writer, Director and Actress Matilda Brown provides an overview to the process of making a film: from the development of an idea to its release in a cinema. Taking an average four years to develop and two years to produce, it’s a complex process involving tons of equipment, hundreds of people and enormous persistence.
Actress and conservationist Bindi Irwin talks about the incredibly talented people who work behind-the-scenes on the film and TV hows we all love and we hear from some of them on the impact of piracy on their jobs and the industry.
Killian Maguire spells out the differences between the roles of a 1st AD, 2nd AD and 3rd AD on a film set. He talks about the pivotal role of AD’s which saw him getting up at 2am to be on The Wolverine set by 3 am in the freezing cold, sometimes to stand in the rain for 12 hours – and how he loves what he does.
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What is a focus puller? The on-set workings of the camera department explained by Camera Assistant Jack Mayo who went to Japan as part of his job on The Wolverine and says putting down marks for actor Leonardo di Caprio was initially ‘quite scary’.
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The first film Troy Lum ever bought to distribute was The Blair Witch Project. Troy describes the role of the distributor and talks about why releasing Australian films is so much harder; how only one in four films are successful and about distributing the biggest Australian film of 2012 – The Sapphires.
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Jason Ballantine’s first feature film was Wolf Creek. A much sought-after Film Editor, he talks about the changes technology has brought to the job since the days of handling film strips, cutting frames with scissors and sticky-taping them back together.
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Claire Gandy started out tearing tickets at her local cinema – now she gets paid to watch 1-2 films every day as one of the few female programmers in the Australian film industry. Here she talks about her ‘super-busy Mondays’, her favourite set visit and the costs of installing technology to run digital cinema and 3D.
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Bec Taylor on how hair and make-up artists help create characters and a ‘feel’ for a film, or help produce tears or sweat for actors on set and why it’s not so glamorous when she’s covered in dirt and blood.
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Heilan Bolton works for 20th Century Fox Film Distributors and one of her key tasks is to identify the audience for each of their films and collaborate with her publicity and promotions colleagues and media agency to find the most effective ways to reach out to the audience in the hope of maximising box office revenue. She says the highlights of her job include working with really creative people and sometimes getting to meet Hollywood superstars like Hugh Jackman.
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Guy Gross grew up in a film and TV family – his parent are producers of such Australian classics as Blinky Bill, Skippy and Flipper. He studied composition at the Conservatorium High School and forged a successful award-winning career and has some advice for aspiring composers.
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Producer Nicole O’Donohue takes us through the process of finding a story, collaborating with a writer to develop the screenplay, then finding a director, seeking out financial partners and a distributor and sales agent. Her first feature film, Griff the Invisible, taught her a lot including that it takes three hours to pour an actor – in this case Ryan Kwanten – into a superhero suit.
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As a Production Designer, Felicity Abbott works closely with a film’s director and cinematographer to decide on the ‘look’ of the film and then supervises the Art Department to achieve that vision. She spends most of her time covered in mud or paint and says patience, endurance and creativity are the three most important qualities in her job.
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Hamish Mason got his first film job as a Production Runner on Tomorrow, When the War Began and has worked steadily since on productions like The Great Gatsby and The Wolverine. Considered the entry role for many people wanting to work in film production, he describes how the runner works with every department involved in a film and has some tips on the qualities needed to be successful.
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Ingrid Kleinig says she gets to do the fun stuff on a film – jumping off cliffs, setting herself on fire, riding Motocross, driving and crashing cars and getting hit by cars. She has taken on some terrifying stunts, doubling for many famous actors, on films such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Pacific Rim, The Great Gatsby and several of The Hobbit films.
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An industry veteran who turned his car collection into a film career, Geoff Naylor has worked on Superman Returns, Mad Max, The Great Gatsby, Tomorrow, When the War Began, The Wolverine and many more. He talks about how his role interacts with most departments on a film when it comes to anything that moves (and isn’t an actor).
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Chris Godfrey, visual effects whiz who worked on Tomorrow, When the War Began, Australia, Moulin Rouge and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring talks about recreating Times Square on ‘green screen’ for The Great Gatsby using state-of-the-art technology.
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