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Alan Brash

Alan Brash at premiere screening of Be Careful...

Nearly 100 crew, colleagues, friends, family, film students and industry-ites braved a miserable mid-winter night in Auckland to be the first in the world to see my short film up on the big screen.

Four lucky members of the audience also scored bottles of 26000 vodka from McCashin’s Brewery, and Cable Bay Vineyards Chardonnay and Rose in a draw on the night.

The staff at The Academy did a great job and I thought the film looked (and sounded) awesome. The crowd enjoyed a drink beforehand, and many stayed on for a drink and chat afterwards.

Personally, I wasn’t drinking – mainly because I’d spent much of the previous night throwing up due to a stomach bug… (But, hey, “the show went on!”)

….

….

The Auckland audience who braved a cold, wet night to see Be Careful...

The Auckland audience who braved a cold, wet night to see Be Careful...

Here are some comments about the film from people who’ve seen it:

“A treat of subtlety, layers of innuendo upon layers of expose…”

“Really enjoyed your short – it was slick!”

“Excellent!”

“[My wife] and I loved your film, the ride home we kept on picking up on little allusions that you have made throughout the story. Very nice… Congratulations on a superb effort.”

“I really enjoyed your film last night. Hopefully it’s the first of many.”

“[My wife] and I very much enjoyed the premier of your first film. It was a thoroughly professional movie and was an excellent script with interesting twists in the presentation. Many thanks for allowing us to be part of the evening.”

“Very well done. You have every reason to be really pleased with yourself.”

“I liked the film immediately… the actors were great. Good direction and editing. Good job.”

“Well done, it’s cool! I really liked it!”

“The look of the film was great, but the story really stood out – loved the twist! What I admired the most is you had a script that wasn’t overly written, pretty minimal dialogue-wise, didn’t feel the need to waffle on and explain everything, good sh*t.”

“I was delighted with the way the film hung together on the big screen. As well as the quality of the sound and images.”

“A strong film… intriguing. The storyline concise and mysterious. The cinematography, acting, sound design were all very good.”

“Loved the twist in the story.”

“Big congrats… You must be thrilled with it. If I was more expert I could offer specific comments – but I just know it looked bloody good!”

“Congratulations on a great accomplishment!  I really liked the film – everything was top notch: the writing, directing, acting, cinematography.  It looks really good.  It seems to me that it would be a great calling card for future work.”

“It’s everything a short film should be, and more.  Well crafted, superbly acted, tightly scripted, and just the right length.  Technical elements and casting are top-notch.”

“Thanks for the absolute pleasure of your film. Your story was unique, surprising, different.  Your look and sets suited the story well.  The pace and performances were very good.  And there was a wonderfully bizarre and ironic and smart humor to the piece.”

“I loved your film. It looks fantastic.”

"One ticket to Be Careful... please"


Now we just have to get that response from some film festivals… and the judges of the New Zealand Qantas Film & Television Awards!

“BE CAREFUL…” IS FINALLY COMPLETE

If you’re in Auckland, come check it out on the big screen:

Date: Monday, June 28, 2010
Time: 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: The Academy Cinema
Street: Auckland Central Library Bldg, 44 Lorne Street
City: Auckland
Description:
An independently-funded short film, ‘Be Careful…’ is my directing debut. It’s a cautionary modern fable starring Craig Hall and Lisa Chappell, Lynette Forday and Narelle Ahrens. (Cameos from Mike Edward, Michael Saccente, Elizabeth Hawthorne & Milton Justice.)
8pm drinks; 8.30 screening. 13 minutes long. Stay for another drink after.
For cast, crew, friends, family, & industry. Get there early to ensure a seat!
A koha/donation (gold coin or orange bank note…) to cover costs would be hugely appreciated. “Ticket holders” will go into draw for wine from Cable Bay, vodka from 26000 and other goodies.
If you can’t make it but are interested, here’s the URL for the relevant website page. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the shooting script in pdf:
http://shootfirst-productions.com/projects/be-careful-short-film/
And here are some stills:
http://shootfirst-productions.com/2009/03/23/2-days-down-2-to-go/
and
http://shootfirst-productions.com/2009/04/09/photos-from-the-2nd-weekend/

Check out the following message from Wade Jackson:
I’m writing to let you know about a play I’ve co-written called Eulogy that opens at the end of this month on the 30th June at the Maidment Theatre mainstage (400 seats) and runs till 16 July. Eulogy is a dark comedy that shows the rise and fall of a religious leader told through the eyes of his son who may or may not be the reincarnation of Christ. We’ve got Scott Wills, one of the country’s top actors starring in it. Scott was in the TV2 show The Cult and has twice won Best Actor for his roles in the films Stickmen and Aprons Strings.
The play received absolutely no funding from local or national government but it’s been truly humbling the amount of people who’ve come on board to help make the show work;
  • Half a dozen mac operators and a video editor are inserting our lead actor into famous moments in history
  • The Orange Group are providing all props and set at no cost
  • Image Centre are covering our printing expenses
  • Kurt from Cut Collective has created some phenomenal art direction
  • Ruban from the Mint Chicks has produced a haunting soundscape
  • Misery is creating animation for the audio-visual material
Because we have zero dollars for traditional marketing we’re having to do it more guerilla style. This is where you come in! We’re asking people we know to send this information out to their work & personal databases/networks with a special offer. What we can offer in return for your support is a cheaper ticket price for the people in your networks. All they have to do when they book a ticket is say Network Ticket and they can get tickets for $23 instead of $28. They’ll see a great show and you get to be a hero by giving them the bargain! And yes, you yourself can also take advantage of this offer.
Of course if you don’t feel comfortable doing this then no worries. But please know, your support is truly appreciated. And if you know someone who has $5k / $10k or $15k burning a hole in their pocket and wants to be a patron and/or sponsor of an exciting play, please let me know – we have a great sponsorship package.

“As the Director of a performance venue that hosts more than 30 theatrical productions each year, Eulogy is a breath of fresh air. The work is contemporary, cleverly conceived, without apology and has the potential to leave audiences gasping. Eulogy is certainly not easy middle of the road material. It is mercilessly satirical; of our time and could well take Auckland by storm. I believe that it will be one of the more significant productions of 2010 in Auckland.”
Paul Minifie, the Director of the Maidment Theatre
I trust all is well and hope to see you at the show!
Best,

OK, so a bit of a boast here :)

I wanted to do one of Steve Kaplan‘s acclaimed courses on writing comedy as I’m working on a couple of rom-com screenplays, but all his courses seemed to be in the US (or maybe London) – most often in LA.

So I emailed him and asked if he’d like to come to New Zealand. Turns out he was going to be in Australia around the middle of 2010 and had always been keen to come to Kiwi land.

Next, I contacted the good people at Script-to-Screen whose raison d’etre is pretty much all about bringing international screenwriting experts to NZ, and before you know it, he was on his way.

If you live Downunder, here are the dates and if you’re in NZ, check out the relevant Script-to-Screen page.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Here’s our entry, updated in the last few days – check it out!

Sigh… the road to hell is paved with good intentions about keeping this blog up-to-date… c’est la vie.

In news since December (date of my last post)

1. Eddie and I parted ways and the music was brilliantly done by Rhombus. They brought real creativity to the job and also an incredibly diligent, reliable and professional work ethic – thanks guys!

2. Lisa Chappell came in and post-synched some dialogue and recorded the vocals of our Paul Kelly song, Be careful what you pray for. Despite being knackered from a full-on theatre show (The Importance of Being Earnest) in which she played a leading role.

3. Matt Aickin, working out of Ant Nevison’s sound studio, did a truly awesome job of the sound design and sound mix. The whole project has been given a huge lift with the addition of music and sound FX, including foley, room background noise, etc, etc.

4. The titles and opening credits were finalised. Big ups to Brenton Cumberpatch for his work. Simple, but very effective titles!

5. The colour grade was done, tweaked, and tweaked again. Thanks to the invaulable input from Dan Wagner, DP, and of course to Paul Lear, the fantastic colourist working out of Images. Again, the often subtle work he did with colour, contrast, light, etc all added up. Taken together it really adds to the emotional impact of the film.

6. Having submitted ‘Be Careful…’ as a work-in-progress, I’ve officially missed out on being selected by the film festivals in Cannes, Edinburgh and London. (Including the Director’s Fortnight and the Critics Week in Cannes.) But I’ve been keeping busy stuffing envelopes and courier packs. I’m waiting to hear back from:

- Melbourne

- Dances with Films

- Palm Springs Short Film Fest

- DC Shorts

- The New Zealand International Film Fest (including the ‘Homegrown’ selections)

- Sidewalk Moving Picture Fest (Birmingham, Alabama)

- Hawaii International Film Fest

- Hollywood Film Fest

- St Louis International Film Fest

And will submit to more when I’ve run-off more of the locked-off copies of the film. Keeping fingers and toes crossed! :)

Next step is to lock down a date and venue for the cast, crew & friends screening!

Another overdue update

Guess it’s ‘cuz of the busy time of year, but I’ve been spectacularly remiss with these updates.

In a nutshell:

1. Got the pick-up shot re-shot that I needed. It’s the opneing shot of a child (or is it…?) drawing a picture while the lead character speaks in V/O. Nic, the editor, felt it didn’t quite work as shot, and given it’s the very first image we see, we thought we’d have anoter crack at it. Big ups to Daryl Habraken and Peter Simpson who shot it and provided the RED camera respectively. Thanks, too, to Auckland University (whose camera it was, and whose studio and lights we used).

2. Got the drive back to the editor to do the final off-line pass with the new shot.

3. Eddie’s now got a music-free version of the cut so he can start putting some music on it – including some composed by our female lead, Lisa Chappell. Can’t wait to hear how it sounds!

4. Have locked-in our on-line edit facility: Images & Sound where we’ll be doing our grade, credits, etc. I’m really hoping to get in there before Xmas, but failing that, it’ll be first thing in the New Year.

Oh, and who knew credits took so long to finalise! :-)

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