Let's Do The Timewarp
Go back 1 week ago and a bit. This is where I have returned to explain. Let's do the timewarp....


Thursday

Uni was Uni. But at the end of it all I had my warm light to greet me - my girlfriend. Once we (Her, her mother, and I) went to the Royal Children's Hospital and meet up with Bob The Taxi Driver, Kat and I were dropped off at Spencer. Fast forward to us walking the streets of Dandenong for 1 hour looking for a friggin FISH AND CHIP place. I mean a hairdressers was open at 9pm for God's sake but no fish or chip under warm lights in an aluminium container to be seen. Hardcore Hunger Pains. Thank God for some lonely quiet pizza shop.
We are our pizza in the new place at the very epicentre that is the slums of Dandenong. The place was quite nice actually. The bedroom had potential too. After our feast we settled down. But something was wrong. With respecting as much privacy as possible to her, Kat didnt like the place. There wasnt that excited and happy feel. Something else was at play. Tears were shed and it was finally decided the place wont work. Back to the drawingboard I guess. What was at play is the Polish soccer player flatmate of hers had changed the rules and ONLY allowed to use the phone to ring Mum. Not even give out the number to her own mother for Pete's sake! Considering that and similiar absurd ways of living, I understood in the end why she didnt want to stay. And so for the first time in months....I went to sleep before 1:30am. Or was it 4?

Friday


When You Laugh The World Laughs With You, Cry and You Cry Alone.



You have to hate waiting. Epecially to be picked up somewhere by your mother.As we waited in each other's arms, my mother came tottering along in the stationwagon. This is where the nervousness first set in. How will it go?
Arriving at the Dermotologist for the ever-determined bastards called pimples in Noble Park I began to feel relieved that Im finally doing something about them. But then the nervousness would take over of leaving my mother and girlfriend to talk. What will they talk about? Will they get on?, I wondered as I faced Douglas Wong - persumably skin extraordinnaire man who got rather snappy when asked too many questions, read the side-effects of achne medication like a Bingno announcer with a spilling of 100 side effects. Dryness of.....skin. Dryness of.....lips. Dryness of.....knees. Dryness of.....scalp. Dryness of.....hands. Dryness of.....of hair. Did I mention I could go dry? An incontinent person's greatest dream.


I was rather scared of the consequences and numerous tests I may have to undertake in case my current medication doesnt work. It really turned my stomach. To add to things it was raining and a massive traffic jam.

I coudnt help but to woory....alot about how Kat will go when she arrives at my place. Will she be ok with how it is? What will she think of what I have in my bedroom? What will I do if she doesnt like the house and feel incomfortable? I was so scared. I was so paranoid. I just wanted it to work.
As soon as we entered my house I felt her immediate reaction. How would I overcome it and deal with it? One small step for me, one giant leap for the relationship. I took her into my bedroom, she sat still on my bed. No movement. No nothing. I knew it all along. How was I stupid and irresponsible enough to have bikini-clad girls up on the wall and a collection of "mens magazines" on my bookshelf whereby you can easily read their splines. I feared the end for she would never comfortable again in my bedroom, let alone the house. It is a big thing in a relationship the porn issue. How could I have been so selfish and immature? What have I done? Straight into the bin they must go.

To make matters worse; my mum was hassling us to eat because "it was that time of the night" where most people eat. Nor did she like the fact we were going to Maccas. Even after I told her "We are NOT hungry!" How dare they make a fucking show too with screaming, "Leave the door open!. Leave IT OPEN!" Even phsically pushing it open. They have deceived me too. When Kat was going to come down things were fine with her sleeping on a small bed in my bedroom - trust no one. FUCKING BASTARDS! Cant they consider how I was feeling and just wanted everything to go smooth. Anyway not getting too vented with ranting, we left.

I didnt pipe a word in the car. I was on the verge of crying. When you really think about it my Mum and Gran put on such a show no wonder no one really wants to come here and put up with their shit. Upon entering the Macca's we had a long discussion. What we spoke about is between her and I and that it will stay but all I can say is - she is the most amazingly understanding girl Ive met. After reassurance and what not and other things which Im sure you dear reader really give a tinker's curse about we ate Maccas and travelled to Morwell.





Wait. Demo at Noble. Asian Doc. Storm. Traffic Jam. Nervous bout home. House first time. Bedroom. Door open. Pack car. Maccas. Me upset. Kat cheer me up. When it rains it pours. Drive. Talk..CRY! WATER! WAS thinking" Video Ezy. Lil Princess. Nugget. Coles. Popcorn and wanka bar.

Sat

Up 1ish. Lawn. FUCKED CORD:@ Tree. K-Mart. Mothers Day shopping. Safeway. Target. Nothing. Home and me shower. G. Video Ezy and Coles. First Kid. Massage. Bad mood. No talk or look. Leave room. Me cry aloud. Me on floor. Hug. Talk. Phone. Me being pissed, used and upset. Serious talk. This | |. Ok in end. So tired.

Sun

Late outta bed. No pillow. Rest of tree. Pack car. No go for Dandy...arghhhh! Loose Ciggies. Me late shopping at Coles. Gran and shits. Gods and Monsters. Bed at 2ish.

Monday

Thankfully I arrived just in time for the first-ever Australian Effects and Animation Festival. As before I kinda got lost in the shitty complex that is known as Federation Square. It was packed upstairs After receiving all the necessay showbags and pass I browsed thru the Tech Lab. To my surprise I bumped into the man responsible for a small children's show on the ABC called "Plasmo". I had met Anthony Lawrence at a library talk her gave us on both occasions. We caught up ever so briefly and he enquired about where Im at with my CG talent, but that was it. The Tech Lab was mind blowing!! They had various guys and girls from the industrry selling the products that make films you see at your local cinema realised. I was fascinated by the guys from "Apple's Shake" Their demos and showreel was astounding. As were the guys for Discreet. Panasonic was there as well with their cameras which reminded me to talk to them at a later date about hiring prices for my next film. Apart from the widescreen TV's and monitors showcasing the most amazing software it really was one big eye candy feast.

First up on the agenda were a couple of guys from "ESC Entertainment" who made The Matrix: Reloaded. Works woudnt be able to explain what we were shown at their session. They particularly showed the "Burly Brawl" sequence. Next a guy from ILM came into to talk and explained the happenings at ILM and what's it like to work for such people as "Titanic" director James Cameron or Steven Spielberg and George Lucas himself. It was a bit disappointing though as he didnt show much "break down" of their latest projects.

Having lunch at Macca's I bumped into a fellow festival-goer, Andew. Exchanging emails I was happy to make my first contact at this festival.

After lunch we were shown a pice of software called Boujou - a great easy to use program that camera tracks your 3d object into a scene. Great stuff.
Next was the TVC (TV Commercial) company Illoura with their behind the scenes work on the Monaro Car Game ad and the Craft Bullants Peanut Butter ad. I managed to chat to the speaker afterwards about work and was motivated after he said they have employed anyone from brick layers to air conditioner installers who have had just a simple passion for things 3d.
The guy from a Sydney based company who did the Wiggles In Space was pretty shithouse. He was nervous, repetitive and tried his hardest to fill in his time ratio.
I was really excited to see the guys from Complete Post (a company in Sth Melb just down the road from my Uni) who did the FX on Ned Kelly. That was just fantastic! And incredibly interesting as well.
One more shit session was seen from the German female rep and French/Canadian male rep from the company Pinnacle. I dont hold a high opinion of these guys as I have a video editing product that has caused nothing but hassles for me one too many times. It seemd as if they knew their products are shit and so they tried their hardest to convince us theirs was the best. Truth is...they are really shit and everyone in the cinema knew it.
Things picked up as the Dinner/Drinks session began out in the foyer. Free Beer and Sausage Rolls for everyone. Brilliant. Wish I drank more beer now but was too busy on my eye out to plug myself and get my name known to a few industry figuers. I happen to speak to a rep from Tasman AV (Audio/Visual) who my friend Adam Chander hiring an awesome camera from for his Yr. 12 movie last year. I struck something of an interesting proposal to the Tasman Rep and stated how they dont treat young student filmmakers as myself as kids. If we were to break the camera then we simply take it back to them and they will replace it straight away so you dont fall behind in schedule. She also mentioned a rate of $80 and up for a week. I await their latest catalogue in the mail. Marvellous! The guys from Shake I decided to chat with about how to use this brilliant compositing program. Little did I know at the time I was talking to Tim Baier the man responsible for working on Fellowship Of The Ring and Matrix 2.
The Short film festival was top notch. The shorts were interesting, original and extremely funny some were. Didnt disappoint one bit. But I was glad to get out of there and get home late I was exhausted.

Tuesday

Damn I was buggered but I had to get there on time - for the first session were the guys from Weta Digital discussing Return of The King and their character portrayla of Gollum and how he came to life. That was really in-depth to the point where it was information overload. Bloody good stuff though!
The guys from a company who did the FX for a film yet to be released called Danny Deckchair was boring and put me to sleep. But I soon awoke for the guys I met from a film course I did back in 200 at the AFTRS (Australian Film Television Radio School) Michael Gracy and Peter Webb. They spoke about the effects in the Sugababes's video clip "Shape". Im obsessed with that song now. They had a great session with us as they were funny (Gracy is a legend IMO), original and now their craft so well its inspiring everytime to see it. Good stuff guys. I was hoping and praying I would get to talk to Michael after the show but some stupid cinema patron of a bitch kicked him out. There goes my chance to get in contact with him. Fuck.

I really wanted to stay awake for the "Shake" session that followed with Tim Baier but the warmth of the cinema increased my incredibly overwelming tiredness that made my eyelids heavy as rocks.
Even the guys from Harry Potter and the Chamer of Secrets put ALOT of people to sleep. As an Englishman he was softly spoken and had the most monotonous voice. Not to mention he showed the same thing over and over. Still interesting to a degree though mind you - such as the scenes involding the Weeping Willow, the Cobra, opening sequence, and train/invisible car chase.
The guys from the short Australian film "The Forest" weren't too bad but didnt have much to show except nearly all the ins and outs of colour grading and digital crows.
The festival came to a close with the Adelaide guys who did some of the major effects on the soon to be seen movie, "The Core". That was pretty good except there wasnt much behind the scenes breakdown or step by step footage. As everyone left that bloody German woman and Canadian guy came along once more to TRY and plug their shitty Pinnacle product. Unbelievable, they were really desperate, exclaiming to us to "Dont forget to get our free showbad with demo CD" out the front. Some people should stop trying sometimes, epecially on the sales side.

Once again I was damn glad to get back home and collapsed. I cant remember if there was any other eventful happenings as Im writing this on Fri 13th June. 3-4 week from all of this.