http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/articles/the-crow-is-getting-a-remake.aspx

Whereas Proyas’ original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style…

. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .“~.,
. . . . . . . .. . . . . .,.-”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“-.,
. . . . .. . . . . . ..,/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”:,
. . . . . . . .. .,?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\,
. . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,}
. . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`^`.}
. . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:”. . . ./
. . . . . . .?. . . __. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :`. . . ./
. . . . . . . /__.(. . .“~-,_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`. . . .. ./
. . . . . . /(_. . ”~,_. . . ..“~,_. . . . . . . . . .,:`. . . . _/
. . . .. .{.._$;_. . .”=,_. . . .“-,_. . . ,.-~-,}, .~”; /. .. .}
. . .. . .((. . .*~_. . . .”=-._. . .“;,,./`. . /” . . . ./. .. ../
. . . .. . .\`~,. . ..“~.,. . . . . . . . . ..`. . .}. . . . . . ../
. . . . . .(. ..`=-,,. . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . ..(. . . ;_,,-”
. . . . . ../.`~,. . ..`-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..\. . /\
. . . . . . \`~.*-,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..|,./…..\,__
,,_. . . . . }.>-._\. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . ..`=~-,
. .. `=~-,_\_. . . `\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . .`=~-,,.\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `:,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . `\. . . . . . ..__
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`=-,. . . . . . . . . .,%`>–==“
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _\. . . . . ._,-%. . . ..`

This should probably be on tech.xxxdan.com but its just too cool not to share with my non-geek friends:

http://www.google.com.au/movies?near=sydney

(you’re going straight to my bookmarks, l’il buddy!)

For those whom I have not yet ear bashed, it would be remiss of me not to mention the new doco Not Quite Hollywood. Its chronicles a huge outbreak of Aussie genre movies in the 70s. The story goes: government introduces a new film industry tax scheme, millions pour in from rich dentists looking for a tax shelter investment, and the industry goes from practically non-existent to prodigious overnight. The documentary explores the gems that arose from the resulting slew of slasher, horror, thriller and sex romp flicks.

The story behind the film is interesting. The filmmakers struggled to find Australian investors to finance the production. They end up pitching the project to Quentin Tarantino, a huge fan of “ozploitation”, who basically told them sure, I’m in, we have to make this movie, how can I help? QT gets lots of screen time, and comes off as a hilarious, insanely caffeinated film nerd, with an encyclopedic knowledge of Aussie B-movies.

If you dislike the the current output of the aussie film industry — “oddball” comedies, dysfunctional family dramas, movies about heroin addicts — you will love this movie. Make sure you catch it when it comes out in cinemas on August 28th. And if your curiosity is piqued, go check out the subject matter yourself at the Chauvel’s (conveniently-timed) Ozploitation Resurrection!

So Nige asked me to be an extra on a feature film (romantic comedy) he’s working on. I am “Trendy Nightclub Patron” #14. It was pretty long and tiring, with lots of pretending to talk and laugh without making any noise, which is quite hard to sustain after the 25th take.

A method for making our mimed conversations look more authentic was to start impersonating a famous musician and see if anyone could guess who it was. Apparently the camera was right on Morgs when he was doing an excellent Stevie Wonder. Hopefully you will be able to make me out, furiously mouthing the words “Ray Charles! Is it Ray Charles?”

By 2am everyone was having trouble maintaining the illusion of being energetic and having a great time. To break up the monotony Kylie and I started dancing around like spastics. The director shouts “Brilliant! That’s the opening shot of the movie! Now do it again!” We weren’t quite expecting that. I was scared he was gonna ask us to break dance or something.

Its called “Makeover”, it will come out late this year or early next year, assuming it gets sold of course.

Yep its finally up and running:

www.midnight-haircut.com

Thanks to everyone who I managed to cajole into helping out! Your comments, good and bad, are appreciated.

And yes, I know the lighting sucks

I am frequently accosted by my multitudinous legions of blog readers at dinner parties, shin-digs and to-dos, with endlesss queries about that little project I mentioned here a few months back. Where’s the show Dan? How much longer? You made me get up early on a Saturday and didn’t have the decency to buy me a coffee! At least post the damn thing so I can prove to my friends and family that I was actually on camera and not a delusional psycho, berating friends and family with sad fantasies of acting in an “internet show”.

Well, the answer is, I’m close. So close. Like, about 95%. And I’m only that far along because I lowered my (in hindsight, optimisitic) target length from 20 to 10 minutes for the first episode. I could have easily padded it out with rubbish but I want these sketches to be quality (read: short and punchy). But I’m really happy with what I’ve got and I really think it will be special.

“So if there’s only 5% to go, just rush that bastard out like bathroom break before a interstate trip!”

The problem here is although there’s only 5% to go, its the hardest 5%. Its a crucial part of the process and I don’t want to screw it up. I really have to take my time.

Of course, besides the 5% of the editing/post production left to do, there’s also 100% of the website part left to do. I kid you not when I tell you, I’d almost forgotten that I planned to distribute this thing on the web, and to do that I’d sort of need a …. whatchamacallit… website. But I have made some cracking progress on that in the past few days (for a start I’ve purchased some hosting and a domain name)

Another reason it’s taking a while is, as an experiment, a rule I set myself at the start of this project was my decision to use only free software. No Photoshop, Premiere, Final Cut, Sound Forge, After Effects… just Gimp, Kdenlive, Audacity and a lot of caffeine. Why? I wanted to see if it could be done. My conclusion: yes, it can, but don’t. The experience is akin to attempting to extinguish a forest fire with a Super Soaker 5000.

Of course, the other thing people always ask me is “when are you putting my sketch up on your site?”. Unfortunately, I’ve already posted two, I need to save some for the actual show! As I think I mentioned earlier, its only ten minutes now. I don’t want to blow my cinematographic wad right here on xxxdan.com, if you’ll forgive the analogy.

The good news is, I’ve watched this thing from start to finish a few times now, and its really funny. Hey, no one’s more surprised than me! I didn’t realise my friends were such good comic actors. I can’t wait for you to see it. So please, bear with me. Picture me with acoustic guitar, strumming the mournful opening chords of GnR’s greatest ballad “Patience”. Not too much longer now.

xox

Dan

P.S. I almost forgot. We finally came up with a title. The show is called Midnight Haircut. w00t!

I was inspired by kids in the US shooting tv shows on DV, and getting millions of views and write ups in Wired. How hard can it be? I’m often struck by weird little ideas that I think would be funny as a comedy sketch. So I went and bought a Canon XM2 with a Rode shotgun mic, with the plan to make my own show.

I’ve written about thirty short scripts, and I’ve got about four films in the can and edited already. The one above stars Hugh, Louise and Alicia. All feedback welcome, good or bad. Now if I can just think of a name for the show…