BMM meeting 4 September 2025

Grandma's Nuts - find out why

BMM Thursday 4 September 2025

Following the Extraordinary General Meeting which elected David Wright as President, Glenn opened the club meeting at 7.35pm with 13 club members present - David, Nigel, Paul, Murray, Neal, Val, Michael, Peter, Noel , Ian, Heather, Adam, along with guests Sandeep, Bala, Ayaka, Lee and Viin. Apologies were received from Damian and Leonie.

Shoots underway Peter thanked Murray, Glenn, Nigel and Sandeep for filming at the Playback Theatre and for attending his Saturday morning Green Room exercise. Peter, Glenn and Sandeep entered a two line scenario into AI which was expanded into a longer story line. It was then worked up as a two-character script which will be used for a filming exercise looking at the roles of director, sound, acting with each taking turns at the various roles.

The dynamic duo also shot an interview for Nigel’s Quiet Achievers of Brisbane project with Ross at his audio studio talking to him about his music and music business. They also collaborated to shoot the annual Battle for Australia commemoration at Chermside. It honours the service and sacrifice of those who defended Australian shores from invasion in the Second World. Between the two of them, they set up seven cameras to cover the high profile event.

Murray and Nigel are shooting three scenes at City Hall and Shingle Inn on 14 September for Sally’s feature film “Because of the War”. Set in the immediate post war period, it is about people from a small township who went to the war, the ones who came home, the ones that didn’t and the ones left behind.

B Roll: Murray referred to the three-camera Polyamory interview at Peter’s studio for the Me project including shooting B Roll material. That segued neatly into a discussion on B roll which Murray described as relevant overlay including drone shots for interviews to keep interest going, Murray. He showed an example of B Roll from an interview he did with a 100 year old lady talking about her life in the suburb of Teneriffe and using B Roll footage of places referred to in the interview. Nigel contributed with a ChatGPT explanation of B Roll “It enhances visual story telling, providing context and atmosphere keeps viewers engaged, by adding variety and breaking up monotonous footage, provides endless opportunities to cover up errors (in filming), smooth transitions or condense the interview.”

FILM BITE Michael showed a sequence from the telemovie Adolescence – a mini series of four one- hour episodes where each episode was shot in one take requiring incredible planning, dexterous camera work and acting ability. Definitely not for the feint hearted film maker.

Upcoming projects… Glenn reviewed the major projects underway including Quiet Achievers of Brisbane, David updated progress on Smoke and Mirrors, and Peter outlined where he is at with his Me project.

Future club meeting program format Glenn said it Is good to reflect what are we doing and review the meeting program format which currently include film bite, production ideas from interstate clubs, discussion and promotion of major projects, planning and shooting of projects, occasional special guest, tech/skills workshops, occasional weekend drone or gimbal skill sessions, screening of our films and UGG competitions (which seem to have gone by the way).

He proposed changes, saying “it’s not about throwing the baby out with the bath water”, but the need to keep what’s good and what people like. He suggested that as we are a film making club, we should be focusing more on making films, keep time aside at our meetings to nut out the planning, do more research, work through planning with both internal and external parties, do script reads, discuss possible re-writes of scripts, actor auditions, focus on developing shot lists, call sheets, story boards..

Peter suggested we revive the Ugg competition to keep members focused on basic film making, reviewing a films to get people thinking about what makes a good film, revisit My Journey as a Film Maker to see what motivates and drives club members in their film journey, revise the idea of creating a long term plan for the club meetings and activities which could be followed or changed as required. Murray suggested we need to encourage people members to become more actively involved in the film making process. Peter said people come here with different motivations, some to make films, some for the social experience, others to watch films. Paul said everybody has the opportunity but not everybody has the inclination to actively be involved in the film making process and we need to be mindful of not excluding those people.

Glenn wrapped up the lengthy and lively discussion saying we want the club to grow, do more collaboration but we also want to make it doable.

After the break…. Nigel announced that he had been advised by the Gold Coast movie club is closing down and told us they would like to give us $140 from their funds.

The second half of the meeting focused on club projects underway and being planned.

Glenn said Carindale Shopping Centre has a “Local Hero” award  “recognising the important contribution they and their organisations make to the local community” which is not dissimilar to our Quiet Achievers concept, and could be the source for Quiet Achievers talent.

Meanwhile, Peter has two movies underway – one is running nine and a half minutes, and the Playback Theatre is currently running 11.5 minutes. Nigel’s Quiet Achievers interview with Ross is in editing.

A number of other potential projects were suggested by David, Bala and Paul.

Granma’s Nuts…. Nigel has re-worked the script suggested by Sydney Video Makers club to make it longer, and suitable for shooting in the club room, specifically the kitchen. It has two characters, 85 year old woman and younger person (son?). The video will be shot at the club at our next meeting on 18 September. It will be directed by Nigel, with Val and Glenn ‘volunteering’ to be the actors, Sandeep and Neal will do camera, Michael on sound, Nigel and Adam will look after lighting, Paul will do the editing.

The meeting wrapped up at 9.30pm

OUR NEXT MEETING 18 September will include a welcome and vision by our new President David, a film bite “Table Read’ by Glenn, and head to the kitchen to shoot of Granma’s Nuts’. Keep up to date with info on the club’s website