Most of the people the Writers Guild of America has nominated for Best Game Writing have come from TV land where they worked as writers, producers, assistants, story editors:
Read about the nominees.
"I am the master of my fate.
"I am the captain of my soul."
Just finished. Added fresh chillies into cabbage. Recipes out of Neil Perry's Asian Food book. Tastes fabulous fresh but supposed to be better after a week.
First. Missy Higgins can't act but she gets away with it here because it's a kooky hippie chick she plays - and it's fun which is in keeping with the whole spirit of this film.
Thank goodness they didn't make Geoffrey Rush sing though! (( Meryl Streep just-just gets away with this veteran actor turned singer business in Mama Mia ))
This film is good because it has an exuberant mix of youth and experience - at every level of production, by the looks of the credits at the end.
Some reviewers ask what kind of film is it: adventure, comedy, road trip ... it's a musical comedy!
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Youngsters Jessica Mauboy and Phillip Rocky McKenzie are great as the love-struck teenagers and they are surrounded by a strong cast led including Rush, Ernie Dingo ( who's an amazing singer by the way ), and Deborah Mailman.
The amazing David Bridie produces the soundtrack ( http://davidbridie.com/wordpress/ ) but the original songs by Knuckles and Jimmy Chi such as I'd Rather Be An Aborigine and Bran Nu Dae are the life blood. The musical theatre world has been scrambling for decades to find "the GREAT" Australian musical - well this is about as close as it gets folks.
Soundtrack on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/bran-nue-dae-music-from-movie/id347998297
Broome playwright Jimmy Chi's Bran Nue Dae was first staged in 1990 at the Festival of Perth and he's now one of Western Australia's living treasures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Chi
The choreography is by Bangarra's Stephen Page. Leading writers such as Ray Lawrence and Tony Ayres were script consultants.
Not to mention the cinematographer is Oscar-winner Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings) who did Babe, King Kong, I Am Legend, The Lovely Bones and the upcoming Last Airbender.
This is the second Australian play that director-writer Rachel Perkins ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0674034/ ) has adapted for the screen. The first was Louis Nowra's Radiance.
Radiance is a tough social drama dealing with family and racism - and adapting plays to the screen is tough.
Which makes Bran Nu Dae surprising. Not only is it a play adapted for the screen - it's a musical!
There's not a lot of dialog at all. It's a joyous celebration of the human spirit - the Aboriginal spirit.
And that may be it's greatest asset.
And then there's the Chooky Dancers:
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Three quarters of the way through this film I find myself thinking: "This is hardly a George Clooney film". I'm sitting in a cinema during an afternoon session filled with youngsters who are still on holidays.
The camera goes from the Hollywood heavyweight's big brown eyes to the distraught faces of ordinary workers reacting to being sacked.
The leggy girl in the seat on my left squirms and pulls her feet up onto her seat so she's in a fetal position sitting up.
The boys behind chat a little. They're watching older people's reactions to being sacked by a professional down-sizer, Ryan Bingham.
He's completely honest with people about what he stands for - friends and family only weigh you down. He likes to travel light.
The story unfolds as you'd expect until Ryan Bingham sister's wedding when we're blinded by glints of sunshine on honey sweet moments. Where's the razor's edge? The sting is right at the end.
This isn't a comedy at all - it's more a charming (it's George Clooney) light (light probably pays for the heavy stuff like Syriana) drama.
This is not a movie that you'll never forget but it's one that lingers.
It's about the way people relate to the world and each other today.
And it's about being two-faced.
This guy's a fool - a fool in the old sense of being wise, knowing too much, seeing too much - and he's not actually what he pretends to be and that is an emotionally shallow "prick".
He's found a way to get surefire results - frequent flyer points get him what he needs.
It's much easier to pay for attention - hairdressers, hair removers, personal trainers listen because they are being paid to and they give the impression of "caring".
Ryan earns attention through his frequent flyer points - he's satisfied to be greeted by name and receive VIP personal attention at all the airports and hotels. They make him feel at home.
So this is where he focuses his efforts and this is his "major" relationship - when he puts his efforts into making real connections the results are unpredictable.
There's the rub. It's a sales relationship.
This is a caricature of what is happening to people in our society - it's extended into the digital world now.
There's suspense and comic relief in the way focus shifts from people really listening to one another and when they're looking past the person who's speaking to them.
Ryan flies around the States sacking people for a living - but he tries to do it with as much compassion and understanding as possible because he knows these people are at their most vulnerable when he cuts them loose. He puts himself in their shoes - that's what he values.
This is the lesson he's teaching a young gunslinger who's just joined his company and the company likes her idea of saving money by centralizing business in Omaha - the place he calls home where he spends just 23 days of the year. She wants the company to keep its staff in the office and let them sack people over the internet. This is a good companion piece for Devil Wears Prada.
"What's it all about... ALFIE? Is it just for the moment we live?...."
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In a big clean up of my home I found a box full of old cards that I'd been sent as a child.
In one from my grandma I found this note which no longer in circulation.
It was generous of my grandma who wasn't well off to post me a little something.
I don't know what year I received it unfortunately.
But if was before 1984 when this note was replaced with a coin.
So I Googled what an Australian One Dollar Note is worth and found it could be anything from $30 to $3000.
Knowing my luck it's the first and this note is not in mint "crisp" uncirculated condition.
What it's worth
It's crinkled - though it's been stored flat - and torn and folded and bent a little.
Just like me. :)
To a sunburnt shore,
flock red-skin factions
planting,
umbrella stations.
Cruising ocean souls.
Seek bewdy
Beach uniforms,
Police buggies on beach patrols!
Christian flock stands in the surf,
Blue wave king hit baptism cheer.
New pitch,
bats and balls,
beach cricket calls.
Japanese gent paddles. Quaint.
Trousers, suspenders and bare feet.
Sun glints, a revving,
IRB bucks,
The life guard grips the saddle.
Beyond the break, lapping silence shuns the crowds,
Water fondles,
Boardies chat. Oldies tread.
Salty scrapes and seaweed frowns.
Sprint the searing sands: Ouch!
Parks and bikes and taps.
Age. Art deco. Pee-pee pew!
Rinsing, changing, asbestos - eek!
Gang of girls flag capes, micro-shorts just cover pubic bones, slurring slang - noice!
Parks. Dogs. Kids. Flags. BBQs.
Close quarters at BBQs,
fatty smell of frying meat.
Early run home.
Jump the traffic,
Tennis, cricket, ABC3.
Steady as she goes.
To Do:
Write synopsis
Write CV
Correct manuscript
Enrol in course
Ring about job
Read script
Read tips on publishing
8am Stop wishing to be a dog
Sigh. Dogs don't need to do lists
Life's easy when your gorgeous
Someone always throws a dog a bone
Hey mate! It's hard work writing to do lists
GRRRrr
... switch radio off. GET OFF the internet
Quit writing stuff that's got nothing to do with anything
WORK, work, work... you can't rely on friends and family to promote you I'm told.
Der! And what exactly is a network for then? Why do they send kids to private schools?
Organisations trust the reputations of particular schools to produce people they're interested in hiring?
And they think that publishing school results is going to help someone get a better education, get a better job?
If Education Departments don't know what schools need help - they need to review their TO DO list!
Art is a great sport to share with people you love - competitive and collaborative.
At Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) until April there's the Asia Pacific Triennial. http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/apt
So much fun: sand drawing, pattern experiments, sculptures, drawings, photography, videos... one afternoon is not enough.
Little guys love it to ... this is what gives me hope for the future of this country ... children's minds are being opened by public programs like this.
It has to improve the collective imagination of the nation.
Here's a video of kids enjoying: Liminal Air Descend, by Japanese artist Shinjo Ohmaki, another example of great tactile art that's being produced these days.
You learn more when you're having fun. You learn when you experiment. So I'm experimenting. I've used GIFs here so maybe they won't show.
And I've used a basic export to get a video file small enough to email to Posterous - hopefully it works.
Fingers crossed. I'm no genius as plenty of people will testify willingly.