dungog highlight #3

HIGHLIGHT #3. Push Bike + other short films

I watched a buttload of short films over the course of this weekend. Some where hilarious, others humbling, some pretty shit (film festival choices so often baffle me!) and a few I will struggle to forget.

Some highlights:
- Vinyl: the story of an African family struggling to fit into Australia. Very little dialogue, no simple charectisation, no flashbacks, no need to explain everything about their tortured background. A story told through images.
- The Wake: a short slice of life piece that didn’t bother with three act structure. It just let us in for a minute, crafted some strong characters and told a bigger story through some snapshot insights.
- Monkey Bar Mafia: a crime film set in a primary school, where the top Mafioso is a greasy haired year seven, the police are the highly organised network of teachers, and the big heist is a quest to retrieve a confiscated footy card from the principal’s office. It’s fun, fast paced, colourful and completely unrealistic whilst still being quite genuinely suspenseful.
- Push Bike: this was my favourite. Like Vinyl, it’s almost all non-dialogue; a story told through images, glances and thrilling performances. It’s dark little film that follows a lonely mother in her late thirties, as over one evening of unfortunate events, she moves through despondence, humiliation and real terror before discovering an unexpectedly gentle, and deeply sensual, connection from a point of absolute fear. I could not tear my eyes away from the at once disturbing and touching story.

Summary: filmmaking is endlessly versatile. Also, I’m kinda now in the mood to make a darker film. Not something about terminal illness or suburban poverty, but something that just moves into darker thematic territory. As the ever wise Freya said to me, as we sat around waiting for Stuffed to screen: “maybe it’s something you have to do, both to help you learn about filmmaking and to help you learn about the darker part of yourself.”

OOOOOH, hella insightful.

Much lovin
xxxx magda

dungog highlight #2

HIGHLIGHT #2. Gillian Armstrong

She’s something of a legend in Australian cinema, and also an inspiration for female filmmakers – having used cinema to make strong feminist statements (My Brilliant Career), tell beautiful female stories (Little Women) and also to just have non gender specific fun (Starstruck). On Saturday afternoon she delivered a panel discussion about filmmaking and her background and her adventures. Here is what I want to remember:

“Don’t ever be intimidated by anyone. If they intimidate you, take them out for a beer or few. Almost everyone in the filmmaking world is mostly alright.”
“You should know whether you love or hate a script after having read ten pages. This test never fails. Also: if you know how it’ll end after ten pages, you should probably throw it away.”
“As a director, you don’t have to worry about technical details: just be a strong communicator with a clear idea. You don’t have to be the one standing there with a light metre, you just have to know exactly how you want that light to hit the person.”
“Story is absolutely the key. Just let story make all the creative decisions for you.”
"Surround yourself in inspiration. Watch films. Also: go to galleries, listen to music, look at photos, see plays, watch dancers, read novels and read magazines. This is the only way to grow as a filmmaker, artist and person."


UM pretty sure there are a hell of a lot more, but I will just edit them in as I remember.
"Someone should have taken a notebook" - Magda Wozniak, 2010

LOVE LOVE LOVE
xxx Magda

screen academy love fest dot com

HELLO blogword, it's been a little while! My guess is that you require some suitable reason to excuse this shamefully prolongued absence and luckily I have one big one, and an aspect of it is pictured below. See:

Pretty? YES, i like to think so.

So, in the last few months I have worked on six different film sets, I have directed one and written three, I have produced over like 80 pages of television script and I have discovered a new love (it is called: "production design"). Am I showing off? Perhaps a little, but mainly I would like to address a much larger issue. Yes, I now have to face the very real fear that I may be becoming one of those swarmpy, pretentious, satisfied WAAPA types that I used to love to hate. (NOTE I actually study at WASA, but no body knows what that is, do they?)

Further evidence:
* I constantly ache to discuss past projects, present projects and future projects (boredom city, population: me & whoever i'm conversing with at the time).
* I have a nonstop screenplay running in my head at almost all times (either that or a live radio interview, feat. me, upon my first oscar nomination).
* I pretty much love my 25+ weekly contact hrs, and would not be adverse to staying the night at uni if required (though I guess that might just be as a result of my already existing love for sleepovers?).
* I am always tired, and there is never enough time for anything, because there is just so much that I want to do (I MISS MY FRIENDS SO MUCH).

So, in many ways, I hate this. I can still remember talking to Caro in Jan, as we drove from Heron's Nest into the bustling Busselton CBD, and being all: "WAAPA isn't even that great, what's it's problem?!" and "those crazy OCD WAAPA types are nut jobs, their lives must suck LOL" etc. (and I guess I made some ^strong points^!). Then again, though, it is kind of amazing. As with so many things that I initially fear, it has ended up being a great decision - it turns out that I love the endless string of challenges, the fun people, and the concentrated creativity. And I just wanted to get that down before I changed my mind, as I am so wont to do.

(though this doesn't in any way change the fact that i am excited beyond all BELIEF about my 2 upcoming non-contact weeks.)

xx magda

ps i will update more from now on OK