Into the DIrector's chair ...

After 30 years as a Cinematographer in the US,  my good mate Rob Draper ACS has moved into the Director's chair. We used to work together at RVN 2 Wagga Wagga in the Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia.
His first feature is 'Nicaea' - the story of the Emperor Constantine and his coming to power at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. Constantine's victory led to the Holy Roman Empire.
As Rob says in the Skype interview on my web site (it's here), this is one of a number of feature films with religious or Christian themes in production or pre-production in Hollywood.
According to Rob, the producers of Nicaea see a lot of parallels between what happened in 305 – 325 AD and today. “They wanted to produce a film that wasn’t about ‘blow them up, shoot them up and crash them up’, but rather had a positive message that despite the problems we’re facing today, we can pull ourselves out of them,” Rob said. I think the fact that people want films to make them think (as well as be entertaining) is shown by the success of Les Miserables,” Rob said. “It’s a great film and deserves the Academy Award nominations it’s received,” he said.
The interview and press release are here.

Managing first world problems ...

You've probably seen the Youtube videos that highlight what is called 'First world problems'. Like the one with the young man from Africa standing outside a hut in his village complaining that he only has one wireless router in his house. Or the young teenager in rural Cambodia complaining that her brother always steals her iPhone charger. They certainly bring what we see as problems into perspective.
But here are a couple of suggestions from this baby-boomer for those trying to manage first world problems in the first world:

• Your smartphone runs off a battery which will need charging. Develop a daily charging routine so that 'sorry, my phone died' is never an excuse to not ring your family.
• Wearing large headphones that cover half of each side of your head is just plain silly. Unless you're driving a tank in the middle of a war, or recording your latest hit single in the studio, that is.
• Walking or running along a beach esplanade with ear buds (or large headphones on) means you're missing out on the sounds of the beach. The sounds of the waves, people enjoying themselves is what the beach is all about. Unplug and listen ...
• It is impossible to type accurately and quickly on a smartphone virtual key board, so when you're in the presence of your baby-boomer family members, don't pretend you can. It's annoying for us 'large fingered' baby-boomers who can't.
• Ring or text if your running late or not coming - simple.

OK - I feel better now.

From Wagga Wagga to the world

I've just finished interviewing (via Skype) a good mate of mine who now lives in the US. I first met Robert Draper (Rob) when we both worked at RVN 2 in Wagga Wagga (1976-81). Rob was a cameraman and I was a Producer/Director. Together we shot news, commercials and documentary programs. (You can see one of the documentaries we produced here.)
After leaving Wagga Wagga, Rob moved to the US to pursue his career and I went to work for Wesley Mission, Sydney. We got together again when I contracted Rob to shoot the Discovering documentary veries in 1984 and 1985, all shot on location in the middle-east, including Rome.
A few years ago, Rob was Director of Photography on 'The Spitfife Grill' - a story of redemption which was partly funded by the Catholic Church.
As a result, Rob was asked to consider being Director of Photography on a new film about the Roman Emperor Constantine called 'Nicea', After some months doing research, the producers offered Rob the Director's position, which he accepted. So after 30 years, Rob will be back filming in Rome from September this year. I'll post the interview and the print story in the next few days.
Well done Rob.

Giving the kids a hand ...

Night Sleep Wear -
Night Sky

This is an unashamed plug for a new web based business that my son and his wife launched today. It's all about pajamas, or as they call their range 'Night Sleep Wear'.
Blacklist Studios - my son's design business - has been producing great posters and prints for a few years but they believe there's a market for men's pajamas for guys who don't want to sleep in stripes or colours and just want to be comfortable. A lot of the other stuff out there is too over the top of just daggy. Now there is cool.
The designs are in T-Shirt and Singlet style and include the top, bottom and a nifty bag to carry them in.
Check them out. Night Sleep Wear.

The day after ...

Today, Sydney at least is breathing a collective sigh of relief as the weather gets back to relatively normal summer weather. Whilst fires are still burning throughout the state, it seems as if we have been fortunate with no loss of life.
A heat wave produces interesting changes to the regular routine. We walk on the shady side of the street and try and work out how we can go about our daily routine without having to go outside.
Movie theatres seem to be fuller - we saw 'Life of Pi' last night and I'm sure there were only a handful of spare seats. (We loved it).
The kids ring and want to sleep the night under our air-conditioner. Seeing as this includes one of our grandchildren as well, we're more than happy.
But heatwaves are apparently the cause of more than the usual number of deaths among the elderly.
It's hard to imagine communities who live in 40 deg plus temperature for much of the year - it's almost beyond our understanding of how anyone could bear it.
We're told of course that we'd be bored with the same weather everyday. We need the variation to make us appreciate it when it is nice and cool. If only there was a way of fully remembering the coolness today and recalling that when we hit the next heatwave.

Chasing history

For all my life I've known the (short) story of my great-grandfather. At age 18 he left home in Gothenberg in Sweden, jumped a sailing ship and emigrated to Australia. At the same time his brother headed for the US. Fridolf Johannsen landed in Melbourne where he married, started a business and had 11 children, the eldest of which was my grandfather.
Sadly nothing is known of the Swedish Johannsens and so I have no idea of the family that was left behind by the two brothers. Apparently it was 10 years before Fridolf wrote to his parents telling them where he was and what he was doing.
Motivated by one of my sons, I've done some initial research and although the on-line businesses that advertise their genealogical promise to make such research easy - it isn't. (They want you to sign up for $40 + a month, just to start a family search.)
So I've contacted a local geneaological society in Sweden to see if they can help.
If I find anything interesting, I'll post it here.

Christmas is over for another year

Today we took down our Christmas decorations. We don't hold to a particular day, it's more to do with when's convenient. I like taking them down, not because I don't enjoy Christmas, but because if means the beginning of a new year. It signifies expectations. Now all the ideas I had over Christmas and New Year can be put into action.
Christmas is like putting life on 'pause' for a week or two and now it's time to push the 'play' button and get on with what the year has in store.
That's exciting ...