BMM club meeting 17 October 2024
Wow, what a night to be at BMM. Our special guest was international documentary film maker James Lingwood, plus we had the screening of the club’s latest production Awakening. We had a tremendous roll up of guests supporting the crew and cast of Awakening including Stuart, Therese, Celia, Erin, Errol, Fumi (from Japan), Alexia and Liz, along with 17 club members.
To start the evening, Glenn showed a film bite… How to shoot seemless handheld motion track B roll a video on YouTube by videomaker Ben Sake. As Glenn pointed out, it ticks all three boxes for a film bite – it was inspirational, educational and creative. Ben made the points that shooting hand held B roll is great for versatility and quickness. He strongly suggested adding a hand grip to steady your camera, track your subject’s motion and use high frame rate to slow things down to give “enormous flexibility”. If you weren’t at the meeting it is well worth having a look, and if you were then it is well worth seeing again to absorb the tips and tricks.
Our special guest was James Lingwood, a Brisbane based documentary and film maker with decades of experience. Born in Iraq, he went to boarding school at Cranbrook in England but said he always felt an ‘outsider’, but that gave him ‘discipline and resilience’. At Flinders University in Adelaide he studied French cinema where he said he saw more than 200 films over a two year period and was enthralled and enchanted by the French directors who were experimenting with light and movement. It opened his mind to seeing new things. After travelling around the world in a Kombi van taking photographs and movies using a 16mm wind-up Bolex camera, he applied for a position as Assistant Producer for the Channel 9’s international television educational children’s television program Curiosity Show and beat some 200 applicants “because I had travelled a lot and they wanted someone with life experience’. James took us through his years up-skilling and up-grading making training films, documentaries, cooking shows, coroporate videos, television commercials and even appearing on Chinese television as a ‘chicken hypnotiser’.
Currently, James is finishing a ‘passion project ‘ called A Light in the Slaughterhouse, a documentary 15 years in the making about Fr Joe Maier, a Catholic Irish/American priest who, over the past 50 years has put 80,000 children from the slums of Bangkok through school and rescued thousands from Bangkok’s notorious sex industry. He shared with us a sneak preview which clearly showed that the documentary is as remarkable as it is deeply confronting. James is raising funds to finish the project which is currently in post production. If you want to know more about the project, go to https://www.filmink.com.au/interview-james-lingwood-looks-to-the-light/ As James said, he has taken an unconventional approach to life and film making by thinking outside the box.
The second half of the meeting was devoted to a screening of the club’s recent production Awakening, directed by Jenn, written by Heather, crewed by Murray, Jonathan, and edited by Glenn, with actors Lilian Harrington, Nicky Whichelow, Aveena Anthony. It is a deeply moving story about the toll that caring for a parent with dementia can take on the caregiver. As the crew explained, it was as much about opening the conversation on aged care as it was about exploring the challenging relationships for caregivers. Great work by a great team.
The evening ended with a shout-out to the eight club members who volunteered their time and expertise to film the International Tartan Festival at Auchenflower last Sunday. Now there is a need for a team of editors to pull it all together. If you can help let the club know.
It was a great night of inspiring movie making on so many different levels, which ended at 9.25pm.
NEXT MEETING: Thursday 7 November -
Film bite - a short, fun film by Stewart G;
"Together" update and screening of clips by Peter W;
Momentum update - Pamela;
filming rain - Freddy Lee and Noel (tbc). updated and screening of cli y 7th Nov
Film Bite- A short, fun film by Stewart G.
Together Update and screening of clips Peter
Momentum update- Pamela
Filming rain- Freddie Lee and Noel (TBC)
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