The venue was nearly filled to full BMM member capacity, and we also welcomed 3 Indro Activity Hub members as guests: Claudia, Cliff and Duncan.
We gave our projector its first outing at the IndroHall. The grand plan was to get our sound hooked up to the hall's sound system, but lack of connectivity options was our enemy. Luckily, the old dinosaur of an amplifier from Toowong had made the journey from Peter's home to the hall (thanks Adam!) and Glenn quickly got it up and running in a jiffy. Whilst the amplifier was showing signs of water damage from the recent Brisbane 2022 floods, it thankfully performed its duty for the night. Unfortunately the HDMI cable was playing up, interrupting video streaming, and we later detected signs of water damage.
Equipment is ready for loaning!
With the aid of the recent grant (thanks Ian), BMM's equipment inventory has grown to include a Panasonic S5 DSLR camera, lighting, Mavic 3 drone and various sound equipment. Financial members of more than 6 months standing can contact any of the following committee members (Nigel, Glenn or Peter) to organise the borrowing of equipment. Please note that borrowers will need to enter into a loan agreement that entitles them to borrow equipment packages for only two weeks at a time. The two week time limit is necessary to prevent the equipment from being hogged by club members.
How to deliver a Pitch
Phil gave an excellent example of how to pitch your idea or concept for the 11 Tomorrow's:
Aim for a production length e.g. around 10 minutes
Determine your premiere date: In this case, it's February 2023 for all of the 11 Tomorrow's
Pick your genre: Drama/Comedy
Determine who is your target audience: e.g. Gen X/Millenials/Z
Identify your characters and their connection to each other
Outline your plot in a few bullet points
Identify your theme(s)/core messages that you intend to communicate to your audience
Have a logline - a 1 line catchy summary which can also be used for promotional purposes
Have a working title
Aim for a development & production budget: In this case, around $1,000 was being requested
Have an idea of your shoot duration (number of days you intend to shoot) and when (schedule as in dates, months, time of year etc)
Think about how you are going to cast your production e.g. talent agency, from the club membership
Develop your scripts (dialogue and shooting)
If you are going to feature any product placement, make sure you you obtain permission from the manufacturer. Most will oblige, but don't expect to be paid for it :-)
Identify and scout potential locations in which to shoot your productions. This is also necessary to know for BMM Inc's public liability insurance purposes
If you plan to use a drone, get trained and CASA accredited
Start assembling your crew: Director, producer, camera operator, gaffer, assistants, soundie, lighting etc
If you are loaning BMM Inc equipment, get your request in as you could be competing with other members
Members Movies
Phil's presentation was followed by 4 videos from the members:
What's in the box - Peter made a short video of the club's recent Panasonic S5 acquisition, describing what is in the case of the Club's recent camera acquisition.
Getting Started with the Mavic 3 - Glenn made a very comprehensive but succinct instructional video that takes you through the components and operation of the new drone, also recently acquired
These videos will be up on the BMM website
Next members were shown 'The launch', a short movie made by Michael using stop motion techniques which documented his brief journey in acquiring a replacement microphone, surprisingly from Aldi for a mere $25. It will not be part of the loan packages :-).
11 Tomorrows - David
David is writing pitches for 111 tomorrow's! Examples he gave were climate change and end of life, He also announced that he hopes to have a dedicated studio in July that may be used for the creatives of the 11 Tomorrow's
David reminded members that he is hosting another brain storming (barn storming?) session at 7pm on the 12th of May.
Members broke for networking and after some light refreshments and coffee we reconvened for the 3rd and final Visioning workshop, the theme of which was The Futures problem: pulls and pushes: weights of the past. Some themes were lack of coherent goals, funding, age of cohort, amateur v professional, decline of industry/technology and lack of promotion on social media. We look forward to his final report and direction setting for BMM Inc.
Coming up
Our next meeting will be comprised of Deconstructing an edit (The Garden), Multi-Camera editing, as well as further pitches for the 11 Tomorrow's
Next UGG Competition
If have not started, the next 60 second UGG competition is being judged on 2 June, themed on Drama or Celebration, with a focus on music, so get those creative juices flowing!
Writer: Nigel O'Neill
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