Melbourne Bound

Well I'm off to face the heat wave at the studios at Docklands, Melbourne. I leave on the 28th of Jan and taking the family with me on this little adventure.

For the past few months I've been concept artist for a the production Called 'The Moon and the Sun' from Producer Bill Mechanic and Director Sean McNamara(Soul surfer).

Up until now I've been based at home in Wellington, NZ but for the next few months I will join the Design team led by Michelle McGahey in Melbourne for Pre production.

We're making some very cool art and design. It's a privilege to be part of it. :) Below is a link to some info about the project.

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/mechanics-moon-finally-set-to-rise-in-oz-1200672608/

Minos - Update

Last year my script 'Minos' was shortlisted for NZFC funding by Blue Harvest.  The Blue Harvest team supplied Marc and I with extensive script and production notes. Marc quite wisely kept them from me until after a bit of a holiday:).   I've had a chance now to absorb and make revisions.  I've just today sent a second draft of the script to Marc as well as a first draft on a treatment. We have until the 7th of Feb to continue our revisions and make our final submission after which time we wait a week or two for the final decision on funding.

The work is great fun and is feeding our feature film project immensely... as well as all my other work :).

I cannot share with you the script at this time but I thought I might post my treatment for your interest.

Please note that this may change for our final submission. Also I have left out the final paragraph which speaks directly to a feature film project which must remain confidential at this time. Hope this sparks a bit of interest and discussion.

Minos – Director’s Treatment 17 Jan 2014

One question has stayed with me since the pitch of ‘Minos’. This treatment is a chance to address that question again and discuss the central element of this story, ‘The hero’.

Steve asked me, ‘how does this story relate to the story of Theseus?’ At the time I half answered the question. I related to the metaphor of the maze and beast through the setting, conflict and trauma of war. What was under developed in my answer was the ‘Theseus’ element that, I think, Steve was hunting. The central figure of any story is the Hero and the final draft of ‘Minos’ aims to bring that concept home.

I believe most of the script notes relate to this question and therefore so do my revisions. McIntyre is the central character of the film but each of the other 4 men are heroes in their own right. Each faces the enemy with equal bravery and self-sacrifice. What makes this story human is that each character carries with him both a light and shadow side. In each of them is the potential for equal amounts of fear, despair and rage alongside, selflessness, bravery and compassion.

In the story of ‘Theseus’ the king’s daughter Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of thread that helps him find a way out of the maze. In classical story telling terms woman often represent the archetypal ‘light’ qualities the hero must embrace for success. In ‘Minos’ those qualities are within our characters. They are most obviously present in the scripted moments of stillness.

All of the characters in Minos have an unwavering self-belief. They are fighters that believe in their own physical ability, skill and intellect. They never call on help from anyone. One by one though the men fail. They all fall victim to their own bravery. It is only once all avenues of personal strength are exhausted, when our hero finally gives up on his self-belief and resigns to his failure that a way out finally presents itself. 

There is no Ariadne character in this story but her qualities are within our central character just awaiting the chance to be recognized. Audiences are ready to embrace characters in contemporary storytelling that contain not only the light and dark but also qualities that can best be described as masculine and feminine. Instead of separating out the archetypes to tell stories I here have the opportunity to bring those archetypes into the one character.  As a director it is my ambition to avoid archetypal stereotyping and create human characters that reveal truth. This script will allow me to do this.

Angels in colour

Angels Completed :)

Angels - Work in Progress 7

Angels - Work in Progress 6

I couldn't keep myself away much longer. So I came back to this drawing last night. The lower third of the drawing will come pretty quickly now

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Minos - Minotaur Painting from Anthony Allen

Minos - Shortlisted For NZFC Funding

Great news and in the company of some great teams. Here's the full announcement and short list below.

Blue Harvest Shorts is delighted to announce our shortlist. 

Shortlisters - please feel free to give your logline in this post! I could make some up, but I think you'd prefer giving your own versions.

In no particular order…

INK 
Casey Whelan (writer/producer), Alex Clark (producer), Luke Schuetzle (producer), Paul Campion (director)

FEEDER
Mhairead Connor (producer), Christian Rivers (director), Guy McDouall (writer)

JUDGMENT TAVERN
Ruth Korver (producer), Dean Hewison (writer/director)

FUCK 
Morgan Leigh Stewart (producer), Rupert McKenzie (director), Tom Dreaver (writer)

MINOS 
Mark Tyron (producer), Brendan Heffernan (writer/director)

Many congratulations to everyone involved. We're looking forward to developing your projects with you.

Nolar Millar Library Exhibition finished

I picked up the 'Airport' Drawing this week from the Nolar Millar Library. This ends the series of drawings in the space.  I'm stoked by the reaction. There is nothing as rewarding as people enjoying the work.  There have been inquiries into further exhibitions as well as a few commissions. My schedule is all locked up for the next few months but will have new work soon.

I will exhibit at Visual Culture Gallery, 108 Oriental Parade Wellington. The mid Feb dates TBC.

facebook.com/visualculturegallery

The Nolar Millar was a first step in sharing work. I wanted to share work with my local community. I was teaching design in the building at the National Drama school at the time so I selected the library as a way of reaching my colleagues and students. My immediate community.  My next community bubble is Wellington city itself. I'm looking forward to the chance to reach friends, family and my broader community with art.

Special Thanks goes to Kris Wehipeihana for welcoming my journey to begin within the walls of Nolar Millar :). And my gratitude also to Caryl McKirdy who now welcomes my next piece of work into her Gallery.

Toa Fraser's 'The Deadlands' News

Some More news for Toa Fraser latest film 'The Deadlands' at the link below.

http://twitchfilm.com/2013/12/toa-fraser-explores-maori-martial-arts-in-the-dead-lands.html

Minos - Marquette Design Sketches, painting and reference.

These are 2 of my design sketches as well as a full figure painting I made for the Minotaur sculpt. What follows is some of the supporting reference that I used to fill in the gaps in the design. From this point Nicky had to do a tonne of research of her own to make anatomical sense of the concept.  Making the creature work in 3Dimensions is a massive step up from the page...but hopefully you can see the connection between the two stages.  Moving this into a full scale creature will involve many heads to capture the qualities we've targeted in this design stage.

Minos - Marquette and Pitch

Marc and I had a great time today pitching the short film 'Minos' to the Blue Harvest team down at the NZFC offices.  In time we'll release more art and design from the process.... but first up here are some pics of an outstanding creature marquette from sculptor Nicky Campbell. Beautiful work and a thrill to reveal to the selection team our vision for the films Monster. :) 

The Dead Lands - first art released on FB

NZ Film 'The Dead lands' has started a bit of social media through facebook with some of my illustrations for the film. Really enjoyed making these and working in what for me was a very different approach to film design.

Hope you enjoy these. As more about the film gets released I'll be sure to update.

Bit of drawing..

Been pretty busy the last week. No new drawings to Post.  This vid I recorded a year ago. Got some ideas bubbling as to more video art/drawing works. It'll have to wait till sometime next year.

http://vimeo.com/80181589

Angels - Work in Progress 5

'Minos' get's long listed by 'Blue Harvest' for NZFC funding.

Got a wonderful acknowledgement for both Marc Tyron and myself with this selection. We've both done a tonne of work on our creative process to submit a work that we thought was both strong and unique. We're in esteemed company so will value this achievement and not put too much stock in where it all might lead. Like in my drawing I'll build from the last line onto the next. Will keep you posted as to where it all leads.  

Angels - Work in Progress 4

Angels - Work in Progress 3