Charting Movie Narratives

I'm home! And with 159 days to go...

...well's there's a bit of a list.

1. Shooting the last of the imagery for the main show

2. Last of the containers have been packed and are on their way to Shanghai (big shipment - 12 containers in this one!)3. Nearly at full pre-Christmas crew compliment in Shanghai - last two team members arrive there this week and...

4. Post production continues at a cracking pace! And so it should if we're going to have it ready for the big reveal on opening day: Bring on May 1, 2010!

What did my week in Shanghai enlighten me with?

Well, thanks to our team there, I'm building up a very good list of places to eat and drink in town. Most importantly found a few places that do great coffee - take away coffee at that!

I'm going to breakdown the sidebar (iChomp) list into Shanghai specials so if you're planning a trip you can start off with some pretty awesome places.

This trip I discovered a place just around the corner from the apartment where we are all holed up called Kommune (here's a map ref). The food and coffee are great - run by a Melbourne mob, so it had better be! It's in Taikang Lu which is just a great way to spend a few hours looking, eating and drinking. I know it's tourist trap, but it's a good one that doesn't go to over the top and isn't overrun with expats.

Back on board and into it! Expect the usual daily barrage of posts - You Have Been Warned!

Off Air for the Week!

China bound on the weekend for 5 days - and as I am still Blogger bound that means no posts while I'm on the mainland - might be able to slide one in from Hong Kong, but that'll be it.

Might have to consider migrating UM to a new server seeing as I'll be based in Shanghai for a couple of months in the New Year.

T minus 176 Days and I can't believe how fast the days are disappearin'...

Over at the post/animation house - Scotties hands vie for a bit of PR while working up the broadcast design for ACT ONE exhibit - "SISTERS".

"SISTERS" is a multi-screen exhibit based in the ramp that leads up to the main show. At any other expo this would count as a major exhibit - and it is here too - but this is an A GRADE World Fair so it's part of the warm up for the main event in ACT TWO.

Evolution of exhibition design is pretty much the norm with gigs like this - some displays stay very true to the execution pitched in the tender - most evolve as the design dollars and client feedback really start to kick in (up until this point your working in isolation on a bunch of ideas) and this is when some ideas go through a radical change of execution even if the intent stays the same.

"SISTERS" is a great example of this. The core creative of the exhibit (the intent) hasn't really shifted but the way that we designed the canvas for the content has varied wildly. It started to change before we signed the contract to produce and build the pavilion with our partners at Bovis Lend Lease.

Most of the exhibits were designed/conceptualised before we had a building design. We briefed the architects (WOOD MARSH) about the nature of the exhibits and how they would tell the Australian story. They started to design the pavilion spaces and we worked up the exhibits to fit within them. "SISTERS" was the exception; it was the only exhibit that was directly informed from the space and not the other way around.

Senior Exhibition Designer (and industry legend) Robert Brunton OAM had worked on several designs for the exhibit before finding inspiration in the ramp tunnels that WM were working up.

The continuation of the ramp motif provided a relevant and dynamic motif for the "SISTERS" canvas.

Placing a show that is about Australian and Chinese women and how we connect with each other within the pavilion context that directly references Australia (the pavilion) and China (the view outside) is inspired.

This is a great example of how design evolves as the process progresses - all of the disciplines feeding off each other, informing to create a dynamic and completely unique experience.

And this in only one of six major exhibits in ACT ONE, there's the main show and ACT THREE to get to yet!

Man - that Google Adsense is good!

No this isn't an ad for acne treatment - this is a blog post from Neatorama about an artist that does living Lichtenstein art using models - it's cool but the reason I'm blogging this is the automated placement of the Google AdSense banner up there.

The program spotted the spotty face and placed an acne cream ad there. As I understand it this is all automated and I find it pretty amazing that has become this targeted.

If I put AdSense on my blog would it place manure ads on there? Or maybe marzipan stuff?

- 177 and countin'

Shooting at the Spice Market - we don't muck around, recce the venue yesterday, shoot there today! C'mon people! Creatin' a pavilion here!

Looking at places to shoot... 178 and countin'!

Dibbs and Col checking out tomorrow's location in Melbourne - The Spice Market. Very nice place!

"NEXT BITCH IN LINE!"

Promo for the Showtime program This American Life - I want to watch this series!

Nice Short Film!

Between from Via Grafik on Vimeo.

A Day at the Races with 179 days to opening!

Shooting the RACE THAT STOPS A NATION! for the show. Colin and Leigh confer or something... about what to shoot - the horses are behind you boys!

Come to think of it... there ARE a lot of vampires out there at the moment...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Mayan Calendar Warns Of Cataclysmic Roland Emmerich Film On Nov. 13

From the Onion:

CHICHÉN ITZÁ, MEXICO—Scholars of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar warned Monday that, according to ancient Mayan calculations, a devastating film by German director Roland Emmerich is set to occur on Nov. 13, 2009. "On this date, near the end of the 13th baktun cycle, when the sun will converge with the centerline of the Milky Way, we will see the release of an overblown ensemble epic by the man responsible for Godzilla and 10,000 BC that could very well end John Cusack's career as we know it," said Thomas Haney, an independent researcher specializing in pre-Columbian cosmology. "At this point, all we can do is hope and pray that the high priests were wrong and the running time is less than 143 minutes." Hastening fears of an unstoppable late-fall disaster has been the discovery of a tablet depicting Mayan king Pacal storming out of a Loews cinema in disgust.

Also well worth a read is this story:

Man Dies After Secret 4-Year Battle With Gorilla

Bloody hell - it's funny!

180 days to go and the brains trust works through a few... kinks.

The greatest minds from around Australia and the globe converge on Melbourne to solve some of the trickier parts of the show...

...should I be worried?

The Cutest Harbringer of Doom I've Ever Seen!

Voice commands... Run! Jump! Kill the President! All in Japanese!

(via: robogarage)

Great shot of the Ares 1-X launch!

STUFF IT IN THERE JAMES! 183 TO GO!

I'm told that you couldn't stuff a business card into this container once they crammed in the last box! Another day and another shipment leaves for China. In keeping with a project this size we have equipment from all over the globe making tracks to Shanghai - let's just hope it's all plug and play...

For all us Chris Ware fans!

More of this would be nice!

"WHERE IS HARVEY DENT?!?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Empty boxes about to get filled with show at 184 days out

Slowly but surely the show leaves Australia to it's new home in Shanghai. Lot's of boxes stuffed full of show into lots of containers.

With each box and person that goes the project starts to get a little emptier here in Oz - at this rate I'll be rattling 'round an empty office soon...

The Sympohy of Science

By golly this is a remarkable work featuring remarkable people.
"We Are All Connected"
by
John Boswell

From the site: "We Are All Connected" was made from sampling The History Channel's Universe series, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Richard Feynman's 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson's cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye's Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking's Universe, Cosmos and more."

Check it out in HQ on Youtube and check the other videos here - kinda blew me away.

(via:papertissue)

185 days to get it over the line and I waste 30 mins to buy a new webcam...

err... nice?

WEDDING CAKE GRUDGE MATCH - IT'S ON!!!

Lord Vader sent this link in response to this post - the Zombie wedding cake might not be the greatest nuptials sweatie afterall - the JAMES BOND wedding cake might just pip it at the post!

186 to go and Dave's not taking this production meeting seriously...

Anne Sykes -Expo Executive Producer and David White, Creative and Art Director, meet in my office to talk over "186 days to go"... stuff... and if she finds out I posted this shot of her I'm so dead! Livin' on the edge!

I don't have a problem with Faith - blind Faith on the other hand...

...or have the courage of your convictions to open them and explore what you have faith in.
Question.
Explore.
Understand.

The Greatest Aussie Film of ALL TIME should have the GREATEST PROMO OF ALL TIME!!!

That's right babies - I'm talking about MAD MAX 2!!! You gotta watch this promo for the film - it completely rocks!

I've posted this to coincide with the news that Miller has finally got off the pot and is in pre-production on MAD MAX 4 (FURY ROAD). Man this has been a long time coming... talked about for years, nearly went into production in South Africa (!?! That shit ain't right!!!) - Heath Ledger rumoured to be the new Max... Epic stuff. Well now we'll see what this is going to be like. It sounds huge - 2.5 years of production, 30 weeks on location it all adds up to a very big film.

Hope it's great - Love the first two and we need a killer genre film to remind the locals what an Australian film can be. First thing - be Australian! Stuff all of this "trans-pacific" accent stuff. As long as you entertain them the Audience couldn't care about how you sound.

This is how you make a low budget genre film - the opening of MAD MAX! This isn't just a film - it invented a genre! Go George!
(I love the fact that this entire 9.51mins is all a build to reveal Max! Now THAT'S an entrance!)

With 187 days to go Anne checks out the last days of the workshop

The spirit guides are making sure the pack goes well!

The greatest wedding cake ever? Maybe... just maybe...

The Zombie Wedding Cake is not only timely but just happens to rock very hard I gotta say, very hard indeed.

(via: neatorama)

- 191 and the glazing is starting to look pretty darn neat!

Not to mention - ORANGE!

Anybody that has watched an episode of Grand Designs knows the glazing can be trickiest part of any building - our pavilion has been no exception but the team at BLL have got it sorted and it's looking fantastic. Or should that be Fanta-tastic?

"I'm done."

Oh this is toooo funny. Not safe for work if you work with a pack of wowzers though.

Scary how close to reality this is...

(via:loldwell.com)

With 192 Days to go it must be time to launch the pavilion!

The official pavilion launch at Parliament House in Canberra. The Minister for the Environment and the Arts, Peter Garrett, fills in the crowd on some of the pavilion details. I love that the lead singer for Midnight Oil is the Australian Federal Minster for those portfolios!

Hey Apple!

Please don't ask why I find this funny...

(via:loldwell)

Ah the memories...

Where the hell is Baz?

-193.

Two Guys, One Car, The USA and a Google camera...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I always wondered what those Google Street View guys talked about...

194 to go and this is looking very nice!