A Marvel-ous film bite, getting framed, and updates on club projects.

Paul's still gallivanting in the USA so here's another email edition of what happened at the meeting on 19 June. I last heard that he's in Montana revisiting a natural attraction. I think he's gathering B-roll footage for a documentary he is making.

The IndroHall TV was on the blink so we had to bring out the projector, soundbar and roll-up screen. We had a consistent showing of 13 members and 1 guest.

The modern Western - Film bite

The meeting kicked off in Hollywood style with Freddie-Lee introducing us to the world of Deadpool versus Wolverine (from the Marvel Universe movie franchise) which can be described as a modern version of a spaghetti Western face-off but with an MA+ rating (warning: contains graphic gore and violence and strong language). Like the pivotal scene in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, there's the Mexican stand-off between the protagonists, cheesy close ups, punchy sound track (courtesy of AC/DC), fast action, tons of attitude (delivered with humour) and in case I didn't mention it, lots of graphic violence, gore and profanities? All in just two and a half minutes!

Getting framed (Murray)

Murray first showed us his top framing tips in a short video he prepared, before taking us on a practical exercise by plugging his camera into the projector so we could see what he was doing. Murray explained the rule of thirds, balance, leading lines/vanishing point, symmetry, distractive elements and frame in frame. Afterwards he demonstrated with the assistance of Nigel what different shot framing looks like such as close ups, extreme close ups, medium shots, establishing shots, using depth of field as a framing (subject emphasis) technique, pull focus, looking into space, high and low angles (to demonstrate superiority/dominance and subservience, respectively), the two shot, maintaining headroom and watching your eye lines. Although not mentioned by Murray, here's a handy online article of 50+ types of camera shots. You may have heard of the two shot but what about the three shot? If not, read the article!

Quiet Achievers of Brisbane (Glenn)

Glenn is already in production for his feature on PeterW and Nigel is in pre-production for his focus piece on Ross

Smoke & Mirrors (DavidW)

David took us through his comprehensive project that he is in the planning stages with Freddie-Lee Jones III.

• 11+ more-or-less finished screenplays collected

• 2-3 partially finished screenplays …

• Have a core committee with the remainder still being formed

• Most ready-to-go screenplays:

  • Glenn’s Too Easy

  • FLJ III script

The members present then discussed the following delivery & quality scenarios

• Hollywood style quality - this would require 6K or better cameras, of which BMM would need to consider applying for a community grant as such a camera would be around $8,000 (or more) to buy

• User Generated Content (UGC), as in the style of the Eleven Tomorrows filmed in 2K, 4K, iPhone etc intentionally in a semi-professional style for ‘ordinary people’ authenticity

The consensus was that UGC would probably suit the equipment and editing capabilities of BMM member equipment.

In terms of what a typical episode or production would look like

1. Length: 30 seconds up to 20 minutes maximum:

2. A ‘futures theme’: from soft to hard core …

3. Absurd or weird fiction is good:

4. Any genre: parody, comedy, horror, everything in-between.

5. Any media: AI; anime; CG; live footage; hybrid; still images;

6. Fiction, non-fiction, blurred, hybrid …

David then walked us through his 10 criteria for inclusion

1. Why is this story worth telling? Why is it important?

2. Why do you feel strongly about this theme?

3. What is novel or significant about the story?

4. The ‘reality stretch’? Is it beyond the ordinary, extra-ordinary?

5. Is there a twist, intrigue, turn of events?

6. Your hoped-for audience response to your story?

7. What is the best media to tell the story? Live-footage or AI (largo.ai) or animation, etc.?

8. Of the archetype scenarios (best case / worst case / business as usual / nostalgia) where do you see your story situated?

9. References? Related stories, films you have read/seen.

10. Anticipated budget?

As part of the submission procedure, David recommended the following:

• Watch at least 3 episodes each from:

• Black Mirror:

• Love, Death & Robots:

• Oats Studios

This will give you an idea/examples of the story telling style/genre David is aspiring to achieve, then:

• Make your BMM pitch:

• Send the story to the chief editor – David – in editable format.

If you would like to discuss your story idea, you can also call David on 0413 400 644

David also briefly showed a story template. For a copy of the template, refer to the last slide of the attachment

The meeting closed with a short video from Don of the awesome audio visual technology installed on the Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas. Now if I could only talk my partner into investing in such immersive full screen technology... !

I hope you enjoyed reading this email edition of The Blog.

Nigel