NEWS - Sydney Film School · The Tacoma International Film Festival in the US is about to screen the short ... studied at the Marilou Diaz Abaya Film ... that offer a cornucopia of

NEWSSFS NEWS 7 Oct 2011

“If the question of where to start seems overwhe-lming you are at the beginning not the end of this adventure. Being overwhelmed is the first step if you are serious about trying to get at things that really matter on a scale that makes a diffe-rence. So what do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Well, you have two things – you have a mind and you have other people. Start with those and change the world.”

(Liz Coleman, president of American Bennington College with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary, hands-on learning)

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25th sydney film school

newsletter

Dear Friends,We trust you are well and making the most of the last three months of 2011!

What’s new since our last Newsletter? ‘Broken Wings’, a thesis animation by our most recent graduate Jonathan Persson, has won the best film award at the Dalarnas Film Festival in Sweden and is now about to screen at the Swedish November Festival.

Another screening in Sweden is set for a thesis film ‘Shadowplay’ by our 2010 graduate Vitaliano Rave. The film is screening in the official competition of Uppsala Film Festival, the only academy award recognised festival in Sweden.

The Tacoma International Film Festival in the US is about to screen the short thesis film ‘Sweat’ by 2009 graduate Sam Grant and ‘Camera Obscura’ by Marta Maia is on its way to Mexico to screen in the ION International Film Festival.

Following their successful premiere at the Chauvel Cinema in March this year, short films produced by the Secret Film Society, a collective of 9 SFS graduates, are screening at festivals worldwide. Check out if they are coming to screen near your town.

‘Lotus’, the first SFS Industry Advisory Board funded project, has completed shooting and is entering the exciting postproduction phase. You will be able to find out all about it and see the final product at our approaching 15th SFS Festival in mid-December. Until then peak behind the scene via production images provided by graduate Filippo Grando.

A total of 81 films is currently being produced in our school – 13 documentaries, 8 major drama projects and 60 thesis films. They will all premiere at the 15th SFS Festival. Find out more about them…

In our Graduate Careers corner we bring you 4 interviews with our Australian and Interna-tional alumni.

Swedish graduate Niclas Törnblom talks about his recent experience of working in the camera department of David Fincher’s (Social Network, Fight Club, Seven) new feature ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. ..

…Elisa Chaffer discusses her involvement with the production of Australian feature ‘Burn-ing Man’ soon to be released in cinemas.

Graduate and SFS IAB Member Lauren Teiko Bayliss is premiering her debut feature docu-mentary ‘Life in Vitro’ at this Sunday’s Antenna International Documentary Film Festival. The screening will take place at 4:30pm at the Chauvel Cinema. We’ve talked to Lauren about her courageous first feature directing experience.

‘Attach Boat to Motor’ by our 2007 graduate Nathan Lewis received a ‘special mention’ at the most recent Melbourne International Film Festival. Find out what makes this film unique.

Enjoy reading about all of the above and more in the 25th SFS newsletter. Ira & SFS

EDITORIAL

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14 Oct ‘Naked on the Inside’ Documentary Workshop for alumni, 6pm

RSVP to [email protected]

1 Nov ‘Visual Literacy: Value of Teaching Film in High Schools’ Panel Discussion, 6.30pm


14 Nov Advanced Diploma of Screen & Media PRE-ENROLMENT NIGHT, 6pm


28 Nov Close of Applications for the Advanced Diploma of Screen & Media Course

30 Nov Diploma of Screen & Media INFORMATION NIGHT, 6pm


14 & 15 Dec 15th SFS Festival (Chauvel Cinema, Paddington)

10 Feb Close of Applications for the Diploma of Screen & Media Course

15 Feb Orientation Day for Diploma and Advanced Diploma Courses

20 Feb Commencement Date for Diploma and Advanced Diploma Courses

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

TALE OF IMAGINATIVE ENVIRONMENT

SFS thesis film ‘Broken Wings’ wins The Best Film Award at the Dalarnas Film Festival in Sweden!

A regional competition for young Swed-ish filmmakers Dalarnas Film Festival took place on 16th of September 2011 screening a total of 51 short films. The SFS thesis film ‘Broken Wings’ screened in the middleweight category (age 17 -21) winning the Best Film Award and a cash prize of 3000 Swedish Kronas.

The 9 minutes long animation, produced at the Sydney Film School in June this year, was previously recog-nised as the Best Thesis Film at the 14th SFS Film Festival in July 2011.

Beautifully crafted and emotionally brave, Broken Wings is the story of two broken souls fallen from a world above.

“The intention was to create a story about something most of us unfortu-nately experience, falling in love with someone who is already taken. At the same time I wanted to create a world that you would want to go to,” said 19 year-old Jonathan, born and raised in Sweden. Jonathan enjoyed telling stories from a young age and started making films at age 14. Two months after finishing high school in Sweden he moved to Australia to study film at Sydney Film School.

At the recent Dalarnas Film Festival, his SFS graduating film was described as ‘out of ordinary’ and ‘a timeless tale of imaginative environment’.

Following the screening at the Dalarnas Festival, the film will screen at the Swedish number 1 film festival for emerging filmmakers – November Festival - where up-n-coming Swedish filmmakers connect across age and regional boundaries.

November Festival is a national final for the films that have earlier in the year been selected at one of the 19 regional competitions around the country, Dalar-nas being one of them.

The 2011 November Festival will take place from 18th to 20th November at the People's House of Culture in Trollhättan. In 2011, the festival celebrates its 16th consecutive year and will present more than 60 of Sweden's best short films by young filmmakers.

The festival works in close contact with the film industry and is part of an interna-tional network of other international short festivals and forums for young filmmakers. The winner of last year’s Best Film Award at the November Festival was

‘It Happened One Night’, a short film by another Sydney Film School graduate, Ludvig Hedlung.

More about the November Festival at:http://novemberfestivalen.se/

Produced in first semester 2010, the 6 minutes thesis film Shadowplay features SFS International Students Manager John Buckmaster in the role of a lonely soul communicating with his own shadow.

“Even the loneliest soul needs a com-panion,” says writer/director/producer/editor Vitaliano Rave who was born in Manila Philippines but spent some time living in Sweden where he received formal media education and training from the Grafisk Utbuilding Center for television and radio. Before undertaking the Diploma of Screen & Media course at the Sydney Film School in 2009 he also studied at the Marilou Diaz Abaya Film Institute and Arts Center in the Philip-pines.

keep up with ‘THIS LIFE’

SHADOW OF THE UPPSALA

‘Shadowplay’ to screen at the Academy Award recognised Uppsala International Short Film Festival in Sweden.


Shortly prior to its screening at Uppsala, Shadowplay will also screen in the official competition of the Comedy Cluj Film Festival in Romania, alongside two other SFS thesis films: Red And Green and Clean Up On Aisle 9. The Comedy Cluj Film Festival will take place between 14th and 23rd October.

keep up with ‘THIS LIFE’Now back in the Philippines, he is working as a freelance videographer and editor and has been shooting for Nat Geo Philippines “The North Face 100 Cam Sur” while at the same time, as he says, “cook-ing up a new short NOIR”.

His SFS graduating film ‘Shadowplay’ previously screened at the 2011 Warram-been Film Festival and the 2011 Dungog Film Festival. Between 24th and 30th October the film will screen at the 30th Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Sweden's premier arena for short film.

Taking place in the university town of Uppsala at four cinemas located in the city's classic cinema district, Sweden’s only Academy Award recognised short film festival will screen more than 130 films and host numerous lectures, seminars and meetings between Swedish and international filmmakers.

Buyers, distributors and festival represen-tatives have access to a videoteque during the festival. The festival offers filmmakers many opportunities to meet their audience, and discussions are held both at the screenings and at special directors’ talks.

Based in the United States, the Tacoma Film Festival celebrates current indepen-dent film from around the globe bridg-ing the gap between the local commu-nity and outstanding works of art house film.

The eight-day festival takes place at the Grand Cinema, one of the region's strongest art-house movie theatres, that seeks to support indie filmmakers throughout the year and, when possible, plays TFF films for a theatrical run following the fest.

The number and quality of films in TFF improves every year and in 2011 the festival will screen 107 short and feature length films.

Directed by Sam Grant, Sweat was produced in the second half of 2009 and premiered at the awards night of the 11th SFS Film Festival.

SWEAT

The art house Tacoma Film Festival screens Sydney Film School thesis film ‘Sweat’.

Under the tagline “Music can be terrifying”, Sweat takes place in a late night carpark where a lone woman’s mind wanders as shadows dart. Is she really alone at all? The music swells as the stalker reveals themself. Much to the woman’s confusion, it’s far from what she expects.

The inspiration for Sweat's concept came from a dream Sam had many years ago. A dream that was strange enough for him to write down at the time. “I must have recently watched Spielberg's Jaws because I was on a beach surrounded by sand dunes, and something was stalking me assisted by the classic Jaws theme. drrrr dn drrrrr dn. Instead of an oversized shark, a band of violinists playing their own menacing music were hiding behind bushes,” describes Sam. His inspiration for the film changed slightly in its realization due to the time and budget restrictions but kept the same effect and feel.

If you are based in the States don’t miss Sweat’s Tacoma Film Festival screening!

Vitaliano (first from the left) with his fellow SFS

students



For those of you to whom the Secret Film Society is a new term, here comes the story:

In 2009 9 filmmakers, Sydney Film School graduates, pooled their creative talents and shot one film every month. Under the flag of what they’ve decided to call the Secret Film Society, each month they chose a new director, assumed crew roles, and time moved rapidly.

In the beginning the only rules were: the film was to be shot with just 10 minutes of 16mm film and only one month would be given to write, plan and shoot the film. The rules were initially obeyed, but as ambitions grew they were abandoned.

In the end, collaboratively, 10 short films that offer a cornucopia of fresh styles and stories have been produced and we’ve seen them premiering at the Chauvel Cinema in March this year.

Since then the life of these extraordinary shorts kept breathing and films are now screening at festivals locally and interna-tionally. Below is the list for you to check out when they are coming near you:

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

• Oct 28-Nov 6 ‘Still’ at the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival Curta Cinema, Brazil• Oct 19-22 ‘Magpie’ at the Lucerne International Film Festival • Oct 13-14‘Carry Me Home’ at the Blue Mountains Film Festival, Australia • Oct 5-14'Augustine Confessions' at I've Seen Films International Film Festival, Italy• Sep 29-Oct 19'Augustine Confessions' at the ATOM Awards, Australia and Tasmania• Sep 29-Oct 14‘TGIF’ at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada

COMPLETED SCREENINGS:

• Oct 4‘Augustine Confessions’ at the Seoul International Extreme Short Image & Film Festival, South Korea• Oct 1-3‘Why We Trade’ at the Foster Film Festival, Australia• Sep 15-25'Carry Me Home' at the BUSTER Copen-hagen International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Denmark• Sep 17'Still' at the Canberra International Film Festival, Australia• Aug 20‘TGIF’ at the New York City International Film Festival, USA• Aug 8-14‘TGIF’ at the DC Shorts Film Festival, USA• Jul 14-24'Augustine Confessions' at the Revela-tion Perth International Film Festival, Australia

• May 27-29'TGIF', 'The Fall' and 'The 10 Film Project' at the Dungog Film Festival, Australia• Apr 27'Magpie' and 'TGIF' at Name this Bar, Australia• Mar 23'The Fall' and 'Liminal' at Name this Bar, Australia• Mar 3The complete '10 Film Project' premiered at the Chauvel Cinema, Australia

Further details and updates can be found on: http://www.secretfilmsociety.net/To see the trailer visit http://vimeo.com/19405417

SECRET FILM FESTIVALS

If you’ve missed the Secret Film Society screening in March this year you will be pleased to know that you can see some of this wonderful work screening near and around you.

short corner: extra news snaps


• On Saturday 8th of October at 3pm our graduate Maya Newell (winner of the Outstanding Talent award at Adelaide Film Festival 2011) takes part in ‘Cross Projections 2011’ - a cinematic screening of documentary photography held at the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Tuscu-lum (Potts Point, Sydney). To book your ticket visitwww.crossprojections.com.au

• At the recently held 5th Sydney Underground Film Festival 2010 thesis film ‘Real Time’ by George (Bang!) Nagle won the Boundary Breaking Short Award as judged by Brendan Fletcher (Director of Mad Bastards), Simon Foster (SBS) and Jamie Leonar-der (MuMeson Archives).

• 2010 thesis film ‘Camera Obscura’, a stunning stop-frame animation by Marta Maia is about to screen at the 8th ION International Film Festival, this year held in Mexico. Held in a different country each year, the ION Film Festival strives to bring awareness to individuals and organiza-tions who are creating socially relevant films to positively impact our world. An interview with Camera Obscura’s director Marta Maia can be found on the News section of our website.

• Sandfly Short FF, organised by our graduate Ulysses Oliver of Marshmallow* Productions, is around the corner. Entries are open until Friday October 14th. Sand-fly Film Festival showcases and promotes local, national and international short films and music videos with bite! From tear-jerkers to rip-snorters, thrillers, classics and indies; the Sandfly Film Festival supports quality entertaining film.See entry forms at www.sandflyfilmfestival.com

• SFS documentaries ‘All Gone, Extreme Clean’ and ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ screened in the student competition of the inaugural Antenna International Documentary Film Festival in Sydney. Two SFS shorts screened alongside 12 other short student films from five major Australian film schools.

• Short documentary ‘Asha/Hope’ and short drama ‘Letters Home’, SFS films directed by graduate Neilesh Verma, have been selected to screen at the 2011 Parramasala Australian Festival of South Asian Arts. The festival is taking place from 30th Oct to 6th Nov in Parramatta, Sydney.

• 2010 thesis film ‘Back to Me’, directed by Tiffany Parker, screened at the 2011 Down Under Berlin Film Festival in Germany.

graduate careers

ALWAYS READY TO MOVE

After graduating SFS in 2008, Niclas Törnblom moved back to his native Sweden and got proactively involved in the film industry freelancing as a clapper loader on commer-cials, music videos and TV series; and shooting small budget shorts as a DOP. He also didn’t shy away from volunteering on bigger pro-ductions including video assisting on the "Anglavakt" (Among Us), award winning feature film produced in 2009.

The experiences he gathered paid off when he received a phone call from the producers of the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo who offered him the role as 2nd Camera Assistant (AC) on B camera. Directed by David Fincher (Social Network, Fight Club, Seven) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a remake of the equally named Swedish film from 2009 and was shot during the sharp winter in Stockholm. In our 25th Newsletter we’ve asked Niclas eight short ques-tions about his work on this feature scheduled for USA release on 21st December this year.

SFS: Niclas, you’ve worked in the camera department of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher and with Jeff Cronenweth as DOP. What were your main responsi-bilities? Niclas: My responsibilities were to assist the DOP, the camera operator and the 1st AC. But also change lenses, filters, SSD cards & hard drives, keep the equipment neat and clean. Write camera sheets. And of course feed everyone with coffee in the camera dep.

SFS: How did you come across this opportunity? Niclas: The production company called me. One 2 AC I met while work-ing on previous features recom-mended me to the Office.

SFS: What was it like to be involved in such a big production and working with some of the world’s best filmmak-ers? Niclas: It was fun but also really hard. The tempo was high and the shoot

was very intense. But I learned how to work the right way. It was fun to see all the equipment. All the cranes, the big sets, cool locations etc.Working with someone of Jeff Cronenweth’s calibre (DOP: Fight Club, Social Network, Seven) was an amaz-ing experience. I’ve learned so much from him!

SFS: What has been the most valuable aspect of working on this production for you? Niclas: My biggest lesson learned was to listen and always be ready to move, change and make sure the Camera department is two steps ahead. Keep track of every simple thing from camera equipment to pens.

SFS: What was your secret recipe to deal with challenges? Niclas: Try to listen and apply by doing. No time for errors. Try to do it right the first time and do it fast!

SFS: Could you recall the most memo-rable event from the set of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Niclas: I think it was the first day when I saw the amount of people and gear.

SFS: What are you planning next, now that this production is finished? Niclas: Me and Johan Rosell (SFS graduate from 2009) are in pre-production of a short film ‘Mus-tachen’. We will hopefully shoot around 21st of October.Niclas Törnblom

Scene from the film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’

starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig

In the graduate careers corner we bring you stories about our alumni. Where they are and what they are up to. Their film careers, as you will see, have taken different paths….

graduate careers


Home Song Stories, Mullet, Animal Kingdom, The Hunter, etc). This, she believes, took her career on the right path.

“Porchlight Films really took me under their wing and taught me a lot about the industry. I worked really hard to impress them and tried to make as many industry contacts as I could!”

“The hardest part (in finding work in the industry) is getting your name out there, but once you impress the right people, the job offers keep coming in! I'm lucky enough to be in a great position now, where I'm always working on different projects and I get to be picky about which jobs I take - but it took a lot of hard work to get there!”

Burning Man, a story about an English chef (Matthew Goode) with a chic restaurant on Bondi Beach trying to put his life and his relationship with his son back on track while surrounded by women (Bojana Novakovic, Rachel Griffiths), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, where it was described as a reckless, haunting, funny and ultimately life-affirming love story.

Burning Man, to be released in October 2011

SFS: Any advice for fellow SFS Alumni?Niclas: Listen and try to be professional to everyone. Your network is every-thing.

Behind the camera - in pre-production of a short film

‘Mustachen’ directed by Johan Rosell

HELPING THEM MADE

2007 SFS graduate Elisa Chaffer talks about her work on the soon to be released Australian Feature Burning Man and reveals what it takes to get your name out there!

Since graduating SFS in 2007, a passion-ate producer Elisa Chaffer has been successfully working in the film industry - on ABC shows Dance Academy & Outland (released early next year), on commercials for SBS, on a Screen Australia funded short film Franswa Sharl that won a Silver Bear at Berlin Film Festival and now most recently as production secretary on new Australian feature Burning Man written and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (Better Than Sex, Gettin’ Square).

Soon after finishing the Diploma of Screen & Media course at the Sydney Film School Elisa had the good fortune of finding an unpaid internship oppor-tunity with major Sydney production company Porchlight Films (Little Fish,

graduate careers


In Elisa’s words, Burning Man ‘is a very sexy drama’ with ‘a great cast of Australian actors, as well as English actor Matthew Goode (A Single Man, The Watchman, Matchpoint).’

The rewarding aspects of working on the film were many starting with the fact that it was the first feature she had worked on from start to finish.

“There were really fun times, and of course really testing times, but in the end you come out with great experi-ences! There was a great sense of team working on the film. Like any crew you become a bit of a family for the 8 weeks you are shooting!”

The responsibility of working as a production secretary on feature film production can sometimes seem countless (normally including assisting producer, production manager and production coordinator with tasks such as organizing cast and crew agreements, location permissions, compiling cast and crew lists and many more) but long hours of work are easy to bear when fulfilling one’s dream.

“I love working on films and bearing the responsibility of helping them being made. Burning Man was shot on 35mm film and I was responsible to reconciling all film used, and creating daily reports for funding bodies. It was definitely eye opening to see the amount of film used compared to screen time shot, and the money that it cost to shoot every second of the film!”

“Because I'm a freelance worker I generally just go from job to job and never have more than a week’s break between contracts - when the job offers come in you never want to turn them down! But I'm forcing myself to take a break now, and spend some time thinking about my own projects (whilst lying on a beach in Italy!)” she laughs.

And what about longer term plans?“I'm hoping to move to New York in the next two years to do some work for an American producer I assisted whilst doing a contract at MTV. He has some projects coming up, and it's a great opportunity to crack the American industry!”

While considering experiencing the most powerful industry in the world she is still full of praise for the domestic one.

“The Australian film industry has a bad reputation, but I think it's completely unjustified! There are great films being made in Australia. Films like Animal Kingdom and The Hunter have both secured American distributors and achieved great reviews and success at international festivals. I think it's about time we stopped trash talking our industry and start to realise the amaz-ing talent working in this country. We all need to start being a little more supportive of our industry and encour-aging each other and audiences to go to see Australian films.”

“We also shot mostly on locations around Sydney (over the 8 week shoot) so each location also came with its own set of challenges for the production team and crew!”

“The filming also involved quite a few stunts (and one major crash scene) and it was really great to see how these are done, and the amount of work that goes into the planning for one day of stunts!”

Working in production for almost 4 years now and being lucky enough to work for producers from all over the world, who each taught her the secret skills of their job, reassured Elisa that producing is definitely where she sees her future.

“I've had a few job offers recently for TV series and films starting in Novem-ber, but right now all I want to think about is Europe!” she says while answering our questions lying on a beach in Italy where she went with her best friend to wind down after the production of Burning Man finished.

Palace Verona invites you to a special preview screening of Burn-ing Man on Thursday October 13 at 6:30pm! Prior to the screening director Jonathan Teplitzky and female lead Bojana Novakovic will introduce the film and participate in a special Q & A ahead of its national release on 17th November Tickets are on sale now!


With a fellow SFS graduate Thomaz Labanca

graduate careers


FOLLOWING HIS OWN PATH

SFS graduate Nathan Lewis receives a special mention at the most recent Melbourne International Film Festival!

receiving some ‘very useful feedback’ about his first application he made sure every aspect of his second application was ‘rock solid’ with as much reference materials as possible. In 2009 he was awarded a grant as part of Screen NSW's Emerging Filmmaker's Fund.

In September this year the film screened at the prestigious Melbourne Interna-tional Film Festival where Nathan received a special mention for Emerging Australian Film Maker.

“The Sydney Film School graduate distin-guished himself from the pack with this beguiling mood piece,” writes the latest METRO Magazine. “It is a mesmerising viewing experience that captures the aimlessness of youth. Nothing momen-tous or life-changing occurs, and the film’s enigmatic synopsis – ‘The events of one day in the country lead a young man to follow his own path’ – really sums it up. Much of its charm comes from its look and feel.”

The film was shot over two weeks in and around the historical goldmining town of Hill End, just north of Bathurst in NSW, and its scenes of faded, refracted light give it the feel of hazy childhood memory.

“The film was predominately inspired by a number of unplanned excursions that lead me to "Hill End" a remote town north of Bathurst,” explains Nathan about his choice of location and inspiration for the story. “I was so taken by the place that I wrote a short film set in and around Hill End based on my youth. We shot the whole thing there over a week shooting for a couple of hours at dawn and dusk.”

Lewis doubled as the film’s cinematog-rapher, shooting on super 16mm film and using natural and situational light only in order to capture “the reality of the place as I saw it.”

“16mm also helped keep the film neutral in terms of time and place - digital can be too contrasty especially in Australia . Before I came to SFS I just made little handy-cam films and docu-mentaries and then I got my hands on the Bolex and became obsessed with the aesthetic of film but continued to shoot as if it was tape.”

His commitment to telling stories through non-traditional narrative struc-tures and unique visual representation lead him to make a film that was ‘as close to reality as possible’, so he chose non professional actors, shot many scenes with a handheld camera and simply followed the characters around “as they explored their environment.”

Shot on 16mm “Attach Boat to Motor” captures

aimlessness of youth

Since 2003 the Melbourne International Film Festival’s accelerator program – a unique professional development program for directors of short films – has been showcasing tremendous breadth of young Australasian filmmaking talent. Writer and director Nathan Lewis marks himself as a name to watch at this year’s festival.

Nathan Lewis has been fascinated by moving images since childhood, and made his first video at the age of 7. After pursuing a career in commercial film and video, he graduated from Sydney Film School in 2008, going on to work on several short film projects and video clips of his own.

Shortly after graduation, he applied for Screen NSW funding for his short film "Attach Boat to Motor". His first applica-tion was not successful but in an unusual set of circumstances was invited to reapply the following year. After

Nathan Lewis

Natural and situational light preserves the reality of

the place


graduate careers


THREE PEOPLE, ONE JOURNEY

On Sunday October 9 at 4:30pm we will be attending the premiere screening of Life in Vitro – a feature documen-tary by our 2004 graduate and IAB Board Member Lauren Teiko-Bayliss.

Asked to describe his path through a filmmaking career so far he says: “Slow but rewarding. At the end of the day, filmmaking is one of the greatest jobs I can think of so I am just happy to be getting by making films that are in the most part on my own terms. Biggest lesson learned? Stick to your guns.”

To check Attach Boat to Motor trailer and screening updates visit www.attachboattomotor.com

overcome all adversities. The film is screening as part of the inaugural Antenna! International Documentary Film Festival at the Chauvel Cinema (Sydney) and we invite you to join us at the screening!

Bellow you can read an interview with Lauren about her debut feature length film and documentary filmmaking in general.

SFS: Lauren, could you tell us a bit about Life in Vitro? What is it about? Lauren: Life In Vitro is a feature length documentary that follows a couple and their egg donor (me) over 18 months as they attempt to become pregnant using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). More than that it's a film about desire, consequence, individual strength and the fragility of human relationships.

SFS: How come you’ve decided to document your decision to become an egg donor? Lauren: It started with my search for information about becoming an egg donor. I wanted to know what to expect. And I wanted to hear it from an egg donor's perspective. When I couldn't find one from someone that wasn't in the 'selling eggs/embryo' industry, I decided I needed to docu-ment my own experience for future donors.

“The non-traditional narrative is a result of the way I shoot. I still tend to shoot the same way whether it be handy-cam or 35mm. Very observational and free from too much structure which is a lot of fun. Until you realise you have to piece a story together, so the edit often becomes the most creative process of my films.“

In order to avoid ‘a generic feel on screen’ and stay true to the naturalism of events, he decided to work with non-actors and cut out all the dialogue in the editing process.

“I have not worked with a great deal of actors but those that I had worked with seemed to create a similar feel on screen almost a little generic so I decided to work with people I already had a strong relationship with. Tailoring the character to the non-actor made more sense to me.”

“When I first started out with Attach Boat To Motor I thought the dialogue would just write itself in the process, but the end result was that it just sort of felt tacked on and out of place. The story felt better with the dialogue removed letting the visuals, sound design and score take the reins (indie sound of Yo La Tengo, Mum and Liars etc). In saying that, this film could not have held an audience any longer (the film is 15min long) than it did without the addition of dialogue.“

Lewis is currently working on the screen-play Two Punks, which is set in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, and also centres on the relationship between three young people and the “hazy boundaries between friendship, lust and love.”

Life in Vitro is a personal and intimate story about Lauren’s determination to help a couple in their last chance to have their own child. It is a story of bond, courage, endurance and gener-osity, about three unique people who all share a common goal, and the power relationships have to


graduate careers


SFS: The process you went through is quite an intimate one. How did you feel about it being exposed and recorded on cameras?Lauren: The IVF process is the most emotionally and psychologically challenging thing I had been through. Having the cameras turned on us wasn't the hard part. We all knew the value in sharing our experience - so that people could know the behind the scene's story, the one not men-tioned in the brochure.

SFS: Did this experience benefit you as a director in any way?Lauren: I had been elected Director of both the Cert IV and Diploma films whilst I was at SFS in 2004. After gradu-ating, I headed off down the path of Producing and hadn't come back to Directing till Life in Vitro. So, I guess the benefit of this film was in bringing me back to Directing.

SFS: How do you feel about others seeing the doco?Lauren: The final stage of filmmaking is giving your film an audience. I can't wait for it to premiere. The few test screenings that we have done have ended with lengthy discussions about

the human story, nothing was men-tioned about our technical choices, to me that is a successful screening.

SFS: How would you describe the film stylistically? Were you focused on the subject matter mainly or on style as well?Lauren: 'Shoot everything, it's digital', were the first words of advice given to me by my Producer. I'm a nuts and bolts production girl. At the time I had just finished managing a network television series. So I needed a refresher course on how to shoot, light, check sound and digitise tapes. I didn't have a style of shooting, nor did I have a prior interest in documentary making, I just had a story to tell.

SFS: Where/How did you get funds to make the film?Lauren: The film was a collaboration. My business partner, Hayden Topper-wien of Motion Pictures Militia, gave his time to Edit the doco as an in-kind contribution. Media Farm, the produc-tion company I just finished managing a TVS for, lent me a kit; P2 camera, Kino Flo, radio mics, a C-Stand and a couple of shoties, while between seasons of their flagship program. They

later came on as Executive Producers and once I finished the primary filming one of the partners, Rami Fischler, offered to Produce the film for me.

SFS: Were other SFS grads working on the film with you?Lauren: Nate Martin. Same graduating year as me, 2004, helped me familiarise myself with the equipment and later came on as cinematographer for the opening titles (the sexy 5D footage) and a couple of the interviews.

SFS: How long did it take to make the film?Lauren: Filming happened over April 2009 - Oct 2010 (19 mths). Editing took Mar 2010 - July 2011 (16 mths). Distribu-tion is ongoing.

SFS: Could you please reflect on the ups and downs of the process? Biggest challenge/s? Most rewarding aspects?Lauren: Filming the IVF process helped me immensely, the camera became like a friend that I could talk to; the video diary area was setup in my room the whole time I was going through the treatment. The biggest challenge was interviewing the recipients. I didn't like turning the camera on them, but oddly enough they liked talking through the process as much as I did. Hardest was having no crew when filming ie lugging the camera gear to the doctors every other day and guesstimating focus when you are the subject in front of the camera. Best thing was having a talented and patient Editor to work with me through the months of postpro-duction.

SFS: Lessons learned?Lauren: If you're making a documen-tary you need to be prepared to share everything. You'll need a tough layer of skin when people are not only critiqu-ing your film but your personal life deci-sions. I've had people tell me I'm an idiot for what I did and others that


Lauren Teiko-Bayliss documents her decision to help a

couple in their last chance to have their own baby

The use of IVF treatment is a moral and ethical topic

that is still hotly debated


graduate careersIn the graduate careers corner we bring you stories about our alumni. Where they are and what they are up to. Their film careers, as you will see, have taken different paths….

praise my gesture. You are putting it all out there to be judged by doing a project like this.

SFS: How would you define the social message of this film, if there is one?Lauren: The use of IVF treatment is a moral and ethical topic that is still hotly debated (even though 1 in 30 children born these days is IVF aided). We avoided stating our pro-stance explic-itly but the fact that I decided to help a woman aged 50, that I'd never met before, have a child late in life sends a message. There are also quite a few other issues surrounding the social message of this film, but you will need to watch the film to learn about those.

SFS: Is this a film about social justice?Lauren: There is an element of social justice that underpins the film, but it's not the focus of this documentary.

SFS: What are the distribution plans? Lauren: Media Farm as the film’s EPs have contracted the rights to sell/distribute the documentary until 2013. They have taken the documen-tary to ABC and SBS but are yet to explore the PAYTV channels. We are hoping the festival route will gain us more traction for the sale of the film. Life in Vitro is scheduled to be entered in 15 selected international and domestic festivals. The film is currently being pitched at MIP in Cannes, France and we are researching the possibilities of online distribution.

SFS: What else have you been up to since graduating SFS? Lauren: My experience since leaving SFS has mostly been in the Production side of things. I've worked as a

Field Producer for National Geo-graphic and Shine. As a Prod Manger & First AD for Channel Seven, Disney Playhouse, Nickelodeon, Sony Music Australia, Universal Music. I have also worked as a VTR Assistant on Tomorrow When The War Began. Motion Pictures Militia, my partnership, has worked with; Oglivy, QANTAS and Sony Music.

SFS: What would you say is the main difference between making a short doco and a feature length one?Lauren: The difference is how big your story is. If you have a lot to say then you need time to say it, but if you are able to summarise and get straight to the point, then do that. Don't ever put in filler to make a certain time require-ment. Go and shoot more if you have to, but everything in a documentary needs to be giving you more informa-tion.

SFS: Is documentary making a career you plan to pursue?Lauren: I have four projects in various stages of development/production, two of those are documentary. I also 1stAD because I love it and I think a

good part of my future will be in helping other people's projects come to light.

SFS: Can you define what makes a good documentary? And, what makes a documentary a good film?Lauren: I think really good docos challenge people's status quo, they introduce you to lifestyles, attitudes, values and world views that you might not have otherwise been exposed to. When I walk away from a documen-tary, I want to have learnt something about how other people exist in this world. What makes a documentary a good film? A strong level of human interest in the story you're telling. Ask yourself, who would be interested in my story. Think of your audience first not last.

Life in Vitro screens in the Austra-lian competition of the inaugural Antenna International Documen-tary Film Festival. The screening is taking place at the Chauvel Cinema THIS SATURDAY, October 9 at 4:30pm. Tickets are on sale now: http://www.antennafestival.org

LIFE IN VITROSydney PremiereSun, October 9 - 4:30 pmCinema 2, Chauvel Cinema


Lauren and her crew (editor Hayden Topperwien and

producer Rami Fischler) at the opening of the Antenna

IDFF on Wednesday Oct 5, 2011


in production

PART 1 DRAMA PROJECTS

The Part 1 Drama Projects are the major 16mm film projects produced in the first half of the Diploma of Screen & Media course by student crews of twelve, using a cash budget allocated for the purpose. Each student fulfills a key crew role. The twelve key roles include: camera operator, clapper loader / camera assistant, director, director of photography, editor, first assistant direc-tor, focus puller, producer, production designer, production manager, and a sound team of two recorders/designers. Creative contributions from all crew members are necessary if the project is to reach its full potential.

Three weeks are set aside for the final preparation and shooting of these films. Editing is done on steenbeck. The scripts for the Part 1 Drama films are written by the previous group of Part 1 students and are adopted by the new bunch. These films are approximately 7 minutes long.

The 3 films selected to go into produc-tion this semester are:• BEFORE THE WAVES ARE GONE The story of a man's loss of his wife and the glimmer of hope he gets through a young girl with the same illnessGenre: Drama• AWFUL WEDDED WIFEA first love is rekindled when a bride is kidnapped on her wedding dayGenre: Dramatic Comedy• FRET NOT An aging rock star and his quest for the ultimate prize Genre: Comedy

PART 1 DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS

The Part 1 Documentary projects are also produced in the first half of the Diploma of Screen & Media course. Each student works as part of a crew of four on a documentary project over the term of this Subject. The four key roles include: directing, editing, sound recording and producing. These films are shot and edited digitally and are approximately 7 minutes long.

IN PRODUCTION SEMESTER 2, 2011

The following films have been selected to go into pro-duction in the second semes-ter of 2011 (8 Major Dramas, 13 Documentaries and 60 Thesis Films). All the films will premiere at the 15th SFS Festival held at the Chauvel Cinema on the 14th and 15th December 2011.

The 9 films selected this semester are:• CANDY IN THE CROSSPeter is a bubbly middle-aged man who owns a small lolly shop on the Golden Mile in the heart of the red light district of Kings Cross• PASTA IN AUSTRALIAA short documentary showing, through Brendan and Nick, how Australians go about preparing themselves a plate of pasta along with Filippo (an Italian in Sydney) • YOUNG BLOOD Why do young men desire to join gangs, posses or brotherhood groups?• WHERE THE HEART LIESLove is the only gold?• AFTER SHOCKA personal film about the experience of the earthquake in Japan• IN THREE PARTSFeet are closer to our faces than we thought• SINGING FOR OUR SUPPER An exploration of the world of the highest stake performance - buskers• AFRICAN DIASPORAA Kenyan student faces disappoint-ment in Sydney• MAKE ME LAUGHAn elderly woman overcomes stage fright to become a stand-up comedian

Part 1 students shooting Awful Wedded Wife (photo

by Part 1 student Adam Johnsson)

Candy in the Cross: a documentary about a lolly

shop owner (photo by Part 1 student Chloe Nichols)

in productionPART 2 DRAMA PROJECTS

After completing semester one and publicly screening all their films, students will have experienced the complete process of dramatic film and documen-tary making from concept to comple-tion and witnessed the response to their work.

Now, in the second half of their Diploma of Screen & Media course it’s time for them to make another set of more ambi-tious films. In this stage of the course they can choose whether they want to concentrate on drama or documentary filmmaking.

Part 2 Drama Projects are again produced by student crews of twelve and can be shot on film or digitally. The main difference is that this time students write, pitch and direct their own scripts.

The length of these projects is approxi-mately 10-15min.

At the 15th SFS Festival you will see the following Part 2 Drama Projects:• ABSENCE One forgives to the degree that one lovesGenre: Drama• THE FENCEA boy, a girl and a six foot fenceGenre: Comedy• GARLAND Get Happy Genre: Drama• TRAIN MANCatch the train, mind your manners, or else! Genre: Super Hero Movie• WEB OF LOVE When Adrian Cantone, a bohemian womanizer, fell in love with the wrong girl he never imagined how much his life would be transformed by only a feelingGenre: Musical

THESIS PROJECTS

Each Part 2 student directs their own 16mm or digital thesis film, enabling him or her to find their individual creative voice. The thesis films are crewed by the student’s peers providing numerous opportunities for every student to pick many valuable hours of hands-on production experience in a variety of roles.

Within the thesis film classes each student is helped and encouraged to go on a personal and fulfilling journey of discovery, to investigate a compel-ling cinematic issue, question of style, or technical challenge. Each student will seek out relevant examples of their thoughts from cinema history (visual and written references) and keep a diary of their ideas through images, sketches, quotes, etc to be shared with their colleagues and teacher.

This process of exploration builds up to the making of an individual short thesis film (approx 7 min in length) as a practi-cal embodiment of the student’s answer to their personal challenge.

60 thesis films are to be produced from July to December 2011. A full list of thesis films will be announced in a couple of weeks on our website.

PART 2 DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS

Longer documentaries are produced in the second part of the course. The size of the crew stays the same (4 crew roles) but the length increases to approxi-mately 20 minutes. These films are shot digitally.

Selected in second semester 2011 are:• ETHANThe inspiring story of my younger brother and his struggle to be "normal"• THE WORLD THAT COMES LATEA Chinese fortune-teller's journey of seek-ing the brightness for his children and himself• PARKIE BUMRob believes that 10 years of living on the streets has made him a better human being• SEEING SOUNDSAn exploration of the way people experi-ence sound ... making the invisible visible

It’s a wrap! - crew of the Part 1 Major Drama Awful Wedded Wife (photo by Part 1 student Adam Johnsson)


we invite you to...

Visit our school on Wednesday 30th of November at 6pm to meet some of our teachers, see our premises and find out a bit more about the course, timetables, the school's philosophy and daily life.

Woven into the discussion of the hands-on course structure we will be showing samples of our students’ film projects and answer your questions about the details of the course.

You will also have a chance to meet our current students and see them editing their films for screening at the upcoming 15th SFS Film Festival held on the 14th and 15th December at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington.

To RSVP for the Information Night and find out more please email [email protected] or call (02) 9698 2244

Diploma of Screen & Media INFORMATION NIGHT

Wednesday November 306:00pm 82 Cope St, Waterloo


we invite you to...5 EASY PIECESLeslie Oliver, our Head of Teaching and Production and also an amazing sculp-tor, is exhibiting his latest work as part of the 5 Easy Pieces exhibition at the Defiance Gallery in New-town.

5 Easy Pieces features 36 artists. Every sculptor was given the same 5 pieces of metal to make a piece. The outcome is an exciting and diverse exhibition that reflects the depth of innovation and intellectual rigour in Australian sculpture today.

Leslie has enjoyed juggling the disciplines of film and sculpture for over three decades. As a sculptor, he has attracted numerous corporate and private commissions, been included in over 40 group shows in Australia and abroad and lectured in sculpture at the Australian Catholic University.

He believes "sculptures, like films cannot be experienced in a still photo". There-fore, “you need enter their world, move around and through them creating your own series of tracking shots.”

“As a filmmaker I work with teams of people on written scripts that are then worked into storyboards (visual ideas that inform the shots of actors captured

with cameras). This material is then re-worked again in the editing room. At every stage of the process we are trying to build ‘characters’ that stand, live, are credible, engaging and reveal fundamental human qualities.“

“As a sculptor I am thinking more and more in the same way, though my char-acters are seemingly static, they need to have a narrative to generate a sense of life and engage the viewer. A sculp-tor works alone so the processes appear less apparent however they remain the same; a sketch or thought (a script); collecting and capturing material/s (shoot); assembling them (edit); seeking a narrative, a struggle, a test of character, a story.”

5 Easy Pieces exhibition runs until 15 October!


we invite you to...

Film and video culture is becoming a bigger influencer on today’s youth, and there are concerns about the kind of attitudes this can inculcate. This panel will argue that the problem is not so much with the quantity of films and videos that young people watch but with the passive, indiscriminating nature of so much of their viewing and with the quality of the films they choose to watch.

Could it be that the current systems of education were not designed to meet the changing nature of our contempo-rary times? Is there a value in

AN EVENING DISCUSSION:‘Visual Literacy – The Value of Teaching Film in High Schools’

Presented in association with ABC Big Ideas

Tuesday November 1st 20116:00pm for 6:30pm start

Sydney Film School82 Cope St, Waterloo

Followed by Drinks

RSVP: [email protected]

challenging the fundamentals of education to encourage growth of visually literate individuals empowered with skills of visual content analysis and evaluation?

Coinciding with discussion around a new National Cultural Policy in Austra-lia and presented by ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas program, this Panel will discuss the social, artistic and personal value of teaching film to high school students and the various teach-ing methodologies used to both anal-yse and create films.

“Shooting for LOTUS took place in and around Petersham and the inner city of Sydney over 7 days and nights in early September. Most of the shoot took place during the night and well into the wee hours of the morning given most of the film takes place after dark.” (G. Sofarelli)

“In comparison to what most of us had experienced during film shoots at school there were ambitious elements to the shoot given the concentration of night shoots, the scale of some of the exterior lighting and camera set ups and the sensitive nature of some of the performances required by the story.” (G. Sofarelli)

visual stories...Lotus, the first SFS Industry Advisory Board (SFS IAB) funded project, has completed shooting. Written and directed by Gary Sofarelli, 2010 SFS graduate, Lotus is a sexual awakening drama about the psychological preparation one teenager goes through in order to be able to take the sexual plunge with his girlfriend. The premiere of the the film will take place at the Chauvel Cinema during the 15th SFS Festival in December 2011. Peak behind the scenes ... (Photos by Filippo Grando)

Jamie Ward (Sonny) & Meredith Penman (Nadine)

“With these challenges in mind it was always going to be an intense process to capture most of the 18 page script in seven consecutive days but the cast and crew worked incredibly hard for long hours and achieved that massive milestone so full credit to all of them. The crew consisted of a dedicated mix of Sydney Film School students and graduates, and despite not having had much experience working together - excluding the heads of department - settled in remarkably quickly to produce relatively high quality product. Post production is now well underway and we hope to inject the same amount of energy and passion into this as what was seen during pre-production and production to deliver in December a product that fingers-crossed will entertain audiences.” (G. Sofarelli)

Julio Peraldi (Sonny's father)

visual stories...

Alexander Palacio (Nadine's boyfriend)

visual stories...

15 SFS graduates worked on the production of the first SFS IAB funded film

FOR MORE BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS, NEWS AND UPDATES VISIT

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lotus/146845025400261

ABN 50 106 693 190 82 Cope Street, Waterloo, NSW 2017 RTO no: 91074 CRICOS 02631G VET Provider: 7147

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82 Cope StreetWaterloo 2017

Sydney, NSW, Australia+61 2 9698 2244

www.sydneyfilmschool.com

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