Fishpond

Sam Worthington

Before Sam Worthington was in Terminator: Salvation, Avatar or Clash of the Titans he was in a remake of Macbeth set in contemporary Melbourne and directed by Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper).

Here is the movie trailer:



Below is an interview with Sam Worthington about his life and getting the acting role in Avatar, on Australian TV show Rove Live:



Australian Screen Online

The Australian Screen Online website has a range videos from Australian films, but the written commentary that accompanies the videos on the site is largely bureacratically sanctioned 'cultural politics' judgments about 'dominant social practices.'

I do not recommend the written content but there are a lot of videos available to watch free on the site and the written content can be disregarded.

Crackerjack

Crackerjack is stars Mick Molloy as Jack Simpson, a scamming telemarketer who holds a membership of his local lawn bowls club because it provides him with a convenient car park in the city.

His membership has worked well for him until the bowls club, facing financial troubles and dwindling memebership, calls on Jack to play for them in a cash-prize tournament.



Stop-motion short film Zero

Here is a trailer for Australian stop-motion short film Zero:


Below is a behind the scenes video for Zero:


For more on Zero, visit www.zeroshortfilm.com.

Australian blogs on cinema and/or fiction

The following blogs are some of the better Australian ones I have come across on cinema and/or fiction:

The Story Department

Screenwriting 101 or Misadventures in WA Film

Fiction Etal

They each have interesting posts. One day I might find a post on the craft of screenwriting with reference to the work of Akira Kurosawa or Robert McKee, the next I might find a post on what is being taught in an Australian University about storytelling, the next I might find a review of a book by Australian/Canadian author Catherine Jinks or of a book by Stephen King.

For anyone interested in writing, I recommend having a browse of the above blogs.

Australia

I finally watched the movie Australia, directed by Baz Luhrman(Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge), and found it riddled with cultural politics cliches. Here is a trailer:



If your idea of a good movie is one that is designed to symbolically challenge supposed stereotypes of 'race, gender and economic class' then this is another offering of the usual stuff.

If not, you'll probably get the impression that you're being talked down to with cultural politics messages and stereotypes that don't quite work.

Tony Park

Here are podcasts by Tony Park, an Australian author who splits his time between Australia and Africa, and writes adventure novels set in Africa.

His personal blog is at tonyparkblog.blogspot.com

The synopsis for his novel Silent Predator on tonypark.net is as follows:

In a luxury private safari lodge in Kruger National Park, Detective Sergeant Tom Furey has just woken to a protection officer's worst nightmare. The VIP in his charge, British Assistant Minister for Defence, Robert Greeves, has vanished.

Knowing his career is on the line, Furey vows not to stop until Greeves is found - dead or alive. He and his South African counterpart, Inspector Sannie Van Rensburg, go against official orders and start the hunt for the suspected band of terrorists through the outer limits of the National Park to the coastal waters of Mozambique. Increasingly drawn to Tom, Sannie can't resist becoming more and more involved in his dangerous mission, even risking her job to help him.

By the time Tom and Sannie discover that their foes are as elusive and deadly as the stealthy predators of the African bush, it is their lives, and those of their loved ones, that are at risk. This is a fight to the death, and involves a crime beyond anyone's worst imaginings.

Silent Predator

Australian Literary Festivals

This episode of ABC Radio National's The Book Show features a discussion about Australian Literary Festivals.

Here is a link to a post on fictionetal.wordpress.com about the top ten selling books at the Sydney Writer's Festival in 2009.

There are annual Literary Festivals in a range of locations around Australia but many of them depend on substantial government funding and struggle to attract the general public.

For the Term of His Natural Life

Here is a the 1927 Australian silent film adaptation of For the Term of His Natural Life, based on the novel by Marcus Clarke, about a man wrongly convicted of a crime and transported to the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania).

A Country Practice

A Country Practice was a long running series on Australian TV, based around the fictional Wandin Valley Bush Nursing Hospital. It originally began airing as two-part episodes shown on two consecutive nights each week. The first double episode is summarised on fansite acountrypractice.com as:

1/2 -- Pilot "In General Practice"
A woman passing through the Valley has to divert to the hospital when she goes into labour early. A teenage girl tries to convince her father and Dr. Bowen to let her go on the pill.

The same double episode has been summarised on australiantelevision.cjb.net. This site begins with a pop-up ad, and I would normally avoid linking to a site that starts with a pop-up, but it has coverage of Australian TV shows that can be useful and is not readily available elsewhere:

EPISODE 1
A mysterious woman arrives at the Wandin Valley Bush Nursing Hospital in the final stages of labour. Simon's perception of Terence is changed when he witnesses Terence's skilled performance in the operating theatre, but the mystery surrounding Dr. Elliott only depends when Simon later finds him passed out drunk in his flat. Simon borrows a dog so as to have a reason to see Vicky at her surgery, but his advances are once again parried. Mrs. Myers rejects her new-born daughter.
EPISODE 2
Dr. Bowen refuses to prescribe the contraceptive pill to a fifteen-year-old girl without her father's permission. The girl is torn between her father and her insistent boyfriend. Shirley consents to go on a date with Frank but vows that it will be their last. Simon struggles to determine the cause of a young boy's Monday morning migraine headaches.

 Best of Country Practice The

Tomorrow, When the War Began

Here is a trailer for Tomorrow, When the War Began. It is based on the novel of the same name by John Marsden. It has the potential to be among the better Australian movies. I'm interested to see how it will turn out. It could also be the first in a series of films based on Marsden's book series.



Here is a section from an episode of Australian panel discussion TV show Q&A in which I think some panel members unfairly try to attribute political messages to the story and trying to draw John Marsden into using a form of words that can be construed as acknowledging supposed political messages.



John Marsden has written about his thoughts on writing in his book Everything I Know about Writing.

Tomorrow, When the War Began

TV for remote Australia

Due to the practical issues of affordably transmitting and receiving television signals across large sparsely populated areas, many Australians living in remote areas have not had access to the level of television programming that most of the Australian population receive.

Recently, a new deal between Macquarie Southern Cross Media and Imparja to provide a digital free-to-air satellite TV service to remote areas in the central and eastern states. The Federal Government is reportedly offering $400 grants for eligible people to purchase digital set-top receivers and roof-top satellite dishes.

Further details can be found in this article on televisionau.com.

 Mad Max Special Edition

Charlie and Boots

Charlie and Boots is a comedy about a guy nicknamed Boots (Shane Jacobson) and his father Charlie (Paul Hogan). Boots's mother/Charlie's wife dies and the two of them decide to set off on a trip the northern tip of mainland Australia to go fishing.

Here is a link to the official website for the movie.

If you've seen Shane Jacobson in Kenny and found his character likable and enjoyable to watch, you'll probably also enjoy Charlie and Boots.

You may have read in screenwriting books about outer and inner journeys and this film is an apt example of how that principle works, as are road movies in general. Their outer goal is to make their way to the northern coastline and go fishing together but their inner journey is to work out their relationship with one another. Along the way they encounter complications and obstacles to both the inner and outer journeys, and find ways to overcome them, as they make their way from Victoria at the southern end of Australia to Cape York in the north.

Here is the trailer:


Here is an interview with Shane Jacobson and Paul Hogan:



Here is a tour of the traveling production base conducted by Morgan Griffin who played Jess, a hitchhiker who travels with Charlie and Boots for part of their trip:



Here is a behind the scenes featurette on how the car was filmed on the road:



Reviews can be found at theblurb.com.au and on the ABC's page for At the Movies

 Charlie And Boots

The Adventures of Lano and Woodley

The Adventures of Lano and Woodley is a one-season comedy TV series starring Australian comedians Colin Lane and Frank Woodley. It is based around two guys who share a Melbourne apartment and have regular 'adventures' in their everyday life. Each episode starts with them losing a job and something triggering a problem which they attempt to solve throughout the episode. In my opinion, this is one of the funniest TV shows made in Australia.

Plot summaries for each episode can be found on tv.com. The first two episodes have been summarised on tv.com as follows:

The Girlfriend
Frank admits to Col that he is a virgin, thus Col sees this as a chance to show up Frank, so he invents Jennifer his imaginary girlfriend. But what starts off a trick becomes a bit more serious when Frank starts feeling left out and decides to move back home.
One Simple Task
Frank and Col decide to go on a holiday, and whilst Col takes care of the main organisation, Frank has one simple task which he forgets to do, resulting in him making up a number of very original and outrageous excuses not to go on the holiday.

Here is an interview with Colin and Frank on the TV show Enough Rope:



Here is an interview with Frank Woodley on thestorydepartment.com about a short animated film he wrote and directed.

 Adventures of Lano and Woodley The