After having played in festivals in South Africa and around the world My Backyard is finally online!
Also if you’re interested in how it was made, please be sure to check out the project on Behance over here
Sketchbook Studios Film & Animation
One Fine Day, Love Come to Visit
Check out this fun short by our friend Rus Nerwich. We took care of the post production from the editing to VFX and animation.
SHNIT Film Festival
FOCUS will be screening Friday 7th October at 7pm at the Labia Theatre on Orange Str in the MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA competition.
MY BACKYARD will be screening Saturday 8th Oct at 6pm at the Labia Theatre on Orange Str in the KAAPSE BOBOTIE 2 Section.
One Small Seed - Interview
Thanks to the guys from One Small Seed for the profile piece.
Focus Mashups
Some people seem to have enjoyed Focus so much they mashed it up and made their own music videos out of it. Here are some that are floating around YouTube at the moment. Funny.
Vimeo Stats
I’ve recently realised the power of social networking.
I was trawling the net when I came across a really cool site called The Directors Notes. I started following them on Twitter and they immediately followed me back. Through my profile they linked to my site and Vimeo Channel with all my short films. They then did a post on my short film Focus on their blog and very soon I got a notification mail saying that Focus had been added to the Vimeo HD Channel.
Since that happened the film exploded online. After having been averaging only a couple hits every day to within a week reaching 60K plays and over 1 Million Total Loads. It’s generated a large amount of great feedback and comments as well as reaching an audience world wide.
I’ve been debating for a while the benefits of launching a film online vs keeping it offline whilst it does a festival run (which normally takes about a year). I have another short film which I haven’t launched yet called My Backyard. It’s currently being submitted to festivals and as a result I’m keeping it offline for the time being. However after this recent ‘blow up’ it’s made me question the traditional way of launching a film seeing that the exposure your film can potentially reach online is unparalleled to an audience it can reach through film festivals.
I recently came across a very interesting article discussing all of the above which if you’re interested should check out over here.
Would also just like to say thanks to everyone again for the great feedback on the film !
Ginsburg & Herman - Royale
Here is the second viral clip of the series for cinematic folk duo Ginsburg & Herman.
Check in next week for the third installment of the series ‘Park’.
Tropfest 2011
I have been selected as a finalist for Tropfest 2011 for my short film ‘Focus’ !
MOVIE EXTRA TROPFEST GIVES FILM FANS THE FINAL CUT
Rising Hollywood star Joel Edgerton, ‘Umbilical Brother’ funnyman David Collins, Underbelly pin-up Damon Gamaeu, and Cape Town filmmaker Ari Kruger are among the Finalists in Movie Extra Tropfest 2011, the world’s largest short film festival.
Organisers say the number and quality of entries this year are so strong they were unable to decide on the last film to be for screened on festival night. So, for the first time ever, Tropfest is letting the public choose one of the 16 Finalists.
Ten great films that narrowly missed out have been selected from the official shortlist and Tropfest is inviting the public to vote for their favourite. The film with the most votes will become an automatic Finalist, screening live on the night in front of hundreds of thousands of films lovers. These films can be viewed on Tropfest’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/tropfest) and voting will stay open until Wednesday 16 February.
John Polson, Tropfest’s Founder and Director, says he’s excited to have Tropfest fans decide who should be the 16th finalist. “It’s a difficult task selecting the 16 Finalists each year, and this year was particularly challenging because of the high quality of entries. I’m ecstatic to be giving our audience the opportunity to have a say in this year’s line up, and I encourage everyone to go to our YouTube channel and vote for your favourite.”
Tropfest is a great launch pad for filmmakers and Finalists will compete for a total prize pool of $100k in cash and prizes, including a Canon XF305 digital camera valued at $10,499.
Tropfest’s new partnership with YouTube, enabling online entries for the first time, has been a huge success, organisers say. Over 700 entries came in from across Australia and the world, including films from USA, Canada, China, Iran, Israel, Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand and Portugal. One Finalist comes from South Africa (the director will be flown in for the night of Tropfest) and one of the films in the “16th Finalist Competition” is from Singapore.
Movie Extra Tropfest will be screened live on Sunday 20 February to an anticipated audience of 150,000 at free outdoor public events across Australia. It is also televised live on Subscription TV channel Movie Extra to an audience in excess of 235,000.
Click here for more info.
Ginsburg & Herman Clips
Last night we had a really great shoot for a new viral clip for cinematic folk musicians ‘Ginsburg & Herman’
We’re shooting the final clip in the trilogy next week and will be posting them all up soon.
Focus - Post Prod
Focus is coming along nicely. A couple more VFX shots to go before it’s complete.
This is what I’m dealing with at the moment.
My Backyard is Complete
My Backyard is finally complete. Submitting time now…
Focus - New Short Film
We’re working on a new short film called ‘Focus’. It’s a break-up story.
We had a great two day shoot over the last weekend and busy now with the final edit and some light VFX.
More to follow soon…
ADR
Just finished an intense but successful ADR session at B&S studios for My Backyard. Not much longer until it’s done and dusted. It’s going to sound so sweet.
Ginsburg & Herman - Squash
I’ve just completed this clip for cinematic folk duo Ginsburg & Herman
My Backyard Poster
Coming real soon now…
Rolling A Rollie
I recently purchased the Canon 7d. It’s amazing.
This is a quick little test I shot yesterday to test out the video functionality.
My Backyard - Update
Wow, it’s been a while since I updated anything on the site. I’ve been deep in the throes of post production on the short film. If all goes according to plan, I should be finished with the visual side of things by the end of Feb.
In the meantime, here’s a still image from one of the scenes.
My Backyard - Teaser Poster
Here’s a teaser poster for my new upcoming short ‘My Backyard’
First Look
Things are going well with the short film.
Lots of compositing. Lots of CG environments.
Here’s a first look at the main characters backyard which is entirely computer generated.
Backyard
Stay posted for updates.
Gandalf Cleans up Cape Town
I’ve just uploaded this video to the short films section.
We made back in 2003 and it since has become something of a viral hit. It was pulled from YouTube due to copyright infringement or something like that so let’s hope it stays up this time.
UPDATE FEB 2011
Turns out it’s back on YouTube !
My Backyard
Last week we finished shooting a 3 day shoot for my new short film entitled ‘My Backyard’.
We shot predominantly on green screen so we will be busy working on all the VFX and post up until the end of the year.
Check this space for updates and sneak peeks.
You can view more behind the scenes pics over here
