The Truth about Mt Coolum

BMM Club meeting 19 February 2026

President David opened the meeting at 7.35pm and welcomed 14 members and guests.

President’s Report: David reported that he had had a meeting with the President of Indooroopilly State High School P&C Association to discuss a collaboration with their media students and the school’s ‘state of the art’ media studio. They appear to be very well resourced having five Black Magic cameras.

David showed a short movie he shot on his iPhone of a sunrise over Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast accompanied by an AI rendition of music that he had written. He called it Dicky Beach Dirty Blues. David also introduced members to a book on storyboarding by Jack Hamm which he said was quite useful for anyone doing storyboards.

Films to watch out for. David referenced a couple of films he had come across – one was by a New Zealand film maker Taratora Stappard. His latest movie is called Mārama, described as a Māori gothic horror film set in Victorian England in 1859.

Another was a film 500 Days in the Wild, in which film maker Dianne Whelen set out to complete 24,000km journey across North America. The epic story is a 2 hour documentary for which she shot 8,000 hours of footage. Obviously, also, an epic edit.

David referred to Japanese film maker Juzo Itami’s film Tampopo, described as "one of the most tender and heartwarming films you will ever see”. David described it as one of the best Japanese films he had seen.

There was discussion about an AI generator Vidu . It’s had very big wraps from David and Heather who said it was even better than Banana Pro which is claimed to be “the best free AI image generator online”, although admittedly that is Banana Pro’s self proclamation.

David also had a message from Peter W about tickets for his production ME. He said about half the seats had been sold.It  will be screened at Elizabeth Street Theatre on 18 April at 2pm. For bookings go to trybooking.com

FILM BITE Paul introduced his video on Redwood Forests in northern California, shot last year during his 8,000km road trip to the Pacific North West which included five national parks. It highlighted how the once numerous forests of old growth giant redwood trees had been reduced to about five percent of their numbers before Europeans arrived, and the efforts by passionate conservationists and governments to protect and re-generate them. Australia has three redwood forests – two in Victoria which are doing well in the wet climate and one at Pialligo in Canberra, right next to Canberra airport which is struggling to survive.

Paul also introduced a video of Glacier National Park in Montana which he produced by uploading his vision into an AI program. In just ten minutes it spat out a two minute video complete with edits, background music, script and narration with virtually no input from Paul.

Paul's more considered version is in production at the moment. However, he questioned whether post- production was becoming as endangered as the redwood trees.

 Unsettling Truth about Mt Coolum We had another visit from Lachlan who has a YouTube channel Breathe Deep and Seek Adventure. He showed his latest production Unsettling Truth about Mt Coolum, a ten minute video about the post-war search for uranium to fuel Australia’s nascent nuclear industry, and how Mt Coolum was claimed to be the ‘mother lode’. Fascinating story in line with Lachlan’s mission to present Australia’s ‘weird history’.

Editing 101 – the Theory of Editing After the break, Nigel presented a talk on Editing 101 – the Theory of Editing - “people know how to edit, but they don’t know how to edit”.

Nigel showed a video which looked at the assembly of edits, known as the Kuleshov effect, where the first shot informs the second shot, and so on. It has six stages:

• Emotion – setting the tone;

• Story – set good context through editing

• Rhythm/pacing

• Eye-trace – where you direct the viewer

• 2D space – dimensional space 180 degree rule

• 3D space – continuity.

If that all sounds a bit esoteric, watch the video The Theory of Editing It’s had a quarter of a million views, and is an excellent explanation of how to edit and what to edit. For further information on how to edit, Nigel strongly recommended 12 Video Editing tips for Beginners and Pros.

The evening wrapped up at 9.30.

Our next meeting is Thursday 5th of March. Keep up to date with what’s coming up on the club’s website https://www.bmm.org.au/