For anyone who wants to learn the basics of filming, here is a free download to get you started - LateNite Rebels Guide

~

Now I better start packing my camera bags to head to SOUTH AFRICA tomorrow to film the TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition as we sail  accross the Atlantic Ocean to BRAZIL to find the beauty of nature and inspire school children around the world to fall in love with our environment and our planet!

BOOM!

x

People from different walks of life, other nations, other ethnic backgrounds, economic statuses, different philosophies, and religions… we need to find a common bond with the rest of humanity and the documentary allows us to do that.

- Albert Maysles (Director)

As a result, we’re proudly supporting the UK team behind The Underwater Realm. Because without inspiring and passionate people like this – our industry would be really boring….” – Chris Hocking, LateNite Films.

A quick shout out to David from Realm Pictures – for inspiring us all to keep our ambitions ridiculously high. Please make sure you see and support their project “The Underwater Realm” – because if they can pull this off, the future of independent film-making will be changed forever.

The last few months since my update in September have been a bit hectic. Here’s why.

THE TOUR DE TIMOR

This was epic. See my previous blog post to read why.

After coming home from Timor, I was on the road again – this time in rural Victoria and New South Wales! Filming an awesome little roadtrip with the crew from Brasserie Bread in Sydney! They basically needed to transport their “sacred” sourdough starter to a new Melbourne location, and along the way they wanted to visit, film a documentary and discover other Artisan businesses. I loved this – we basically just visited and filmed small family-run businesses sharing amazing food, wine and views….

Once back in Melbourne – it was time for the annual 48 Hour Film Project! SO EXCITED to win an onslaught of awards including Best film!!! Now we all need to prep to to to NEW MEXICO next year in March to compete in the INTERNATIONAL COMP! WOOOO!!!WOO!

This month I FINALLY made it to my favourite meet-up in Melbourne – Doco3000! To my AWESOME surporise, I finally met Cassie De Colling – who directed a wonderful little short film called “Beneath the Boarder”. I stumbled across this project when I was shortlisted for the World Nomad Documantary Scholarship! a few months back. I highly recommend you check it out!!!

I also got the oppertunity to go to some incredible premieres. Most favourably – “On Borrowed Time” by David Bradbury.

This film captured not only the essence of independant film-making in Melbourne, but also the essence of what it really means to be an Artist anywhere in the world. It explores mortality in such a profound way – I haven’t really stopped thinking about this film since I left the cinema.

I caught up with Bradbury a few days later to hear his thoughts on the industry and future direction of documentary films. It was quite sobering to hear that his immaculate film has not yet been picked up for further distribution. Independent digital distribution has never been more important. On that note – it was very exciting to hear that the wonderful distributers of “The Tunnel” movie are soon to launch a new distribution platform! We’ll be watching closely to see how that goes! Check out the article here.

Another Premiere I was able to attend was “Miss Representation” with a panel of speakers;

• Michael Ullmer (Former Deputy CEO, NAB)
• Amanda Sinclair (Foundation Professor / Managment Diversity & Change)
• Janet Matton (Vice President, IBM Aus/NZ)

I found the documentary quite bias – but still worth watching, especially for schools and education programs.

On Cup Eve I filmed an insane gig. It was a little bit hectic. Performers included HAVANA BROWN, MGMC and dj NINO BROWN. Awesome footage.

I also got to attend some pretty insane events – probably the biggest party I went to this year was the NIGHTLIFE EXCHANGE, which has such a cool concept! WE GOT GREECE!

Meanwhile – I continue to find and support inspiring films around the globe. You can keep track of who I’m funding via my profile on both Kickstarter and IndiGoGo.

Huge congrats to the team at Gwapa (“Beautiful”) – who have been spamming everyones about their upcoming indie-film. It looks like it will be something truely gorgeous… can’t wait to see how it turns out!!

Fellow Melbourne film-makers have also been busy – with my good friend Mark heading off to IRAQ !! I noticed yesterday he had also started a crowd-funding campaign on the awesome Pozible site. Check out his campaign!

But as the year is coming to a close – and post-production wraps up – Pre-Production for the next projects begin to simmer….. and nothing is more exciting than the new collaboration with my two partners in crime – the incredible DESH and NINA.

Desh, is the most awesome person I met this year. He can, literally, do anything. He is a rockstar. He runs amazing events – most impressively of all, was THINKinc.

Who would have believed that a ridiculously young 20-something could bring all these guys to our shores!!!! >>

• Niel deGrasse Tyson
• Christopher Hitchens
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Tim Flannery
• Michael Shermer
• Father Bob (!!!)
• Shane Koyczan

and most awesomely of all…. Cristina Rad! Rad.

Yup. Desh is awesome. And next year, Desh, Nina and myself will hopefully be embarking on a pretty cool documentary project to be announced soon.

In between everything else I’ve also been really enjoying working with melbourne production house Suitcase Murphey. I really look up to these guys. Mainly, because as their motto states, they really know how to “Tell Good Stories”.

We’ve been working on the Creative Innovations Conference - which has been really fascinating. Some incredible content.

BUT OF COURSE aside from all of this – since returning back from Cambodia all those months ago – I have been knee deep in post-production for our independent documentary SPINNING DREAMS. THERE IS SO MUCH exciting news from this project that I will be updating you all on this further down the track. Here’s just a few sneak photos from the amazing Singapore event (which itself raised over $10k)

What an insane few months.

Now, as I wrap up and finish the last of 2011 – I need to make some crazy decisions regarding the NEXT few months. Update soon.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!! xx

]]> http://blog.jacquihocking.com/2011/12/14/update-nearing-the-end-of-2011/feed/ 0 http://blog.jacquihocking.com/2011/11/21/documentary-must-see/ http://blog.jacquihocking.com/2011/11/21/documentary-must-see/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:59:59 +0000 Jacqui Hocking http://blog.jacquihocking.com/?p=1575 I just watched a film which contains some of the most inspiring editing and cinematography I’ve ever seen… below I have quoted the opening lines from the film, a Documentary; “The Art of Flight”.

—-

It’s funny whats happening to us.

Our lives have become digital -

our friends, now virtual

and everything you could ever want to know

is just a click away.

Experiencing the world through this endless second hand information isn’t enough -

if we want authenticity – we have to initiate it.

—–

DIRECTED AND EDITED (!!!!!) by Curt Morgan.

Want more? Here’s another great blog post on this film…

© Mathew Lynn 2011 (www.matlynn.com.au)

1. It brings together amazing people from around the world who want to challenge themselves and put themselves FARRRRR out of their comfort zone.

2. It’s for PEACE. (This years tagline for the race was “DAME HAHU HUSI HA’U” ~ “Peace Begins with ME”)

3. The local kids are filled with PRIDE as their villages are TRANSFORMED into camp-cities with over 800+ people.

4. The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre provided medical support for the race to mend the “broken” cyclists – but they also donated medical supplies to every village we stayed at!

5. I met a Timorese girl who broke several bones in her hand on the first day in a crash. She continued cycling anyway and FINISHED the day. She then continued for the next 3 days until she was forced to stop by the medical team. When I asked why she did it in an interview; she replied with: “for the pride of my country”.

6. I met the amazing Julio Costa – a Timorese local who suffers from polio. He completed every stage of the race and got a special mention from the President at the final presentation.

© Mathew Lynn 2011 (www.matlynn.com.au)

7. It brings hope - “Ba Futuru” - (for the future)

8. Everyone wants to quit and leave Timor-Leste after the first day. Everyone wants to live there forever after the last…..

THANKS SO MUCH TO THE AWESOME FOUNDATION MELBOURNE FOR DONATING AU$1000 TOWARDS MY CAMERA REPAIRS AND MELBOURNE FLIGHT! STAYED TUNED FOR THE DOCUMENTARY TO BE RELEASED IN THE COMING YEAR BY JUNGLE-RUN PRODUCTIONS! Exciting times.

I recently told someone that I don’t think reflection is important – everything is so unstable with what I do, simply pouring the most of everything into the current moment, for me, seems to work out best. Reflecting on past work, or looking forward to upcoming projects, seems to be less productive. Here’s one of my favorite quotes;

• “The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and somthing else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.” ~ Chuck Close

However – for the sake of argument and more than anything else a resource for others out interested in documentaries, film or art in general, I’ve decided to reflect, in dot-point form, what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months since I returned back from filming in Vietnam and Cambodia (July-ish).

I have been pretty intensely busy and excited – for a million reasons.

One of them: WE’VE MOVED INTO LATENITE FILMS HQ! Which is kind of exciting. The office already looks like an indi-filmmakers heaven, and a spankin’ new shipping-container to live out the back for all our film-equipment will be moving in shortly, so we’re a little bit excited. *yay!

Preparing the “Spinning Dreams in Cambodia” doco for the edit has been incredible, and although it’s been a huge task just getting everything transcoded into the AVID, I’ve been loving watching the rushes and re-living our incredible experience to support CfC.

With no Australian-based producer for the concept onboard yet – I worked with our Singapore team creating RedBull and Canon proposals, and managed to already score our AMAZING music rights (to be announced soon!) #indifilmmaking WIN

I have to add a huge shout out to all the support and awesome tweets and feedback I’ve been receiving for our first “Spinning Dreams” on the FairFax Digital network in Aus and NZ! Cheers to FilmVic, SPAAFringe , and especially Ricky Sutton!

Always looking around the world for inspiration – I found and funded an incredible project on indigogo – “Forgotten Slaves – The Comfort Women of the Philippines”, to be directed by Björn Jensen, Germany.

Forgotten Slaves – The Comfort Women of the Philippines (Trailer) from Gingerfootfilms on Vimeo.

Sadly I’ve been missing the incredible Doco3000 events the last few months due to the fact I’ve been interstate or OS. It’s A MUST do for any film-doc interested up’n’comer ~ “Doco3000 brings melbourne based people interested in documentaries together for screenings, feedback, networking and collaborating. [we] meet monthly for our main event 10 x 10 as well as hosting other events.”

Although I did manage to see Doco3000 founder, and talented Melbourne Film-maker Genevieve Bailey at her film premiere of “I AM ELEVEN” – one of the best indi-docs I’ve seen in a loooooong time. Did you manage to check it out at any of the 3 sold out sessions?

I Am Eleven – trailer from I Am Eleven on Vimeo.

After months of docos, meetups and travels, I responsibly caught up on some much-needed mula by working as an AE (assistant editor) at the Butchery and editor with a local agency. Also had a ridiculous amount of awesomeness filming/editing and screening (in one night!) a world first “DigiHunt” event – more info to be released soon!

***Quick shout out to the wicked guys at Inspiration Studios for holding “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Film™ – A Digital Cinema Discussion! Awesome!***

Less responsibly, filming the talented Stuntman “Brett Solomano” do stunts in trucks… Big Trucks… is highly recommended.

(We didn’t get arrested, so that was nice.)

HIGHLIGHT of the last few months has been working with the AOP – (Australian Orangutan Project ) - on their latest campaign video. To be released soon! I am seriously so excited about this – can’t wait to share it with you!!

Fellow sailor and Director of Photography who joined me in Cambodia, Michael Lutman, has also recently completed his feature documentary “Plasticized”, which will be premiering at EFF later in the year. WOO!

I think one the best events (perhaps also experience) I’ve had since returning to Melbourne, among many other things, was attending the ADG conference with speaker David Bradbury - “KEEP THE CAMERA ROLLING NO MATTER WHAT!” – which kind of changed my life. Meeting David, and talking to him about all the places I’ve loved filming – Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam – was so unbelievably amazing. I bought 7 of his documentaries, and have been devouring and analyzing them ever since.

If you haven’t seen his films – you should. If you haven’t heard of him – you must. I can’t tell you my favorite documentary he’s made – but his first ever film “Frontline” (1981) certainly has stayed with me ever since.

I have to also mention that the Documentary Short Film night at #MIFF was amazing. A wonderful selection of some of the worlds best short docos. LOVE short docs – can’t wait to see more of them online. Loving witnessing the race to see who masters the curation of online content!

Can I also quickly mention a great meet-up I had with talented German Film-maker Nina Spilger who is currently living and looking for production work in Melbourne. We had an inspiring conversation about all things film and doc – watch out world!

But I think all of the events over the last few months have led to one incredibly awesome moment – WINNING THE AWESOME FOUNDATION grant of $1000 to finally fix and repair my cameras for the Tour De Timor. Awesome.

Yup. I’m heading off to Timor-Leste (again!) to film the Tour De Timor (again!). After last year, I couldn’t imagine being able to justify or afford coming back – I broke and lost so much gear last year (the usual way, falling off motorbikes and crashing into things, you know what it’s like…) that I couldn’t justify going this year. And with so many other projects to focus on, like the Spinning Dreams Cambodia project – HOW could I possibly afford to go to Timor-Leste again?

Well, with the awesome foundation encouraging me with their holy awesomeness, I am now in Darwin with my “like-new” camera packed and ready to be broken again! WOO! This time I wont be there with the GoneCyclin team – but instead joining the JungleRun-ners to shoot all coverage of the epic race!

So, tomorrow I fly out into the beautiful city of Dili – and on behalf of the awesome foundation melbourne team – I’ll make sure to be taking plenty of photos, videos and keep everyone updated on the awesomeness!!

Here’s some highlights from last year -

WISH ME LUCK!

~

x

The concept behind the GoneCyclin’ project is to undertake a physically and mentally gruelling challenge to raise awareness for a sustainable social cause and thereby make a positive impact on society.

The GoneCyclin’ team cycled 389km trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap on the 19th-26th of June with the objectives to:

Support Cambodia – a young, developing country and democracy emerging out of a violent past
Raise awareness and SGD 50,000 of funds for Carpets for Communities (CfC) – a NGO based in Cambodia –

Inspire young people to take on their own challenges to make a positive impact on society

CHECK IT OUT!

It’s been an EPIC month! Production for SPINNING DREAMS in CAMBODIA is officially WRAPPED!

First, some tech talk.

With the new FCPX release – it’s definately time ONCE AND FOR ALL to convert to AVID Media Composer 5. Although I’m a big fan of both software, Avid has won out to be my software of choice for cutting the 2 Terabytes of footage that we shot during the expedition in Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam.

I’m thinking about doing a post podcast throughout the process. Instead of ranting and raving about the production, (which was extremely… arrr… eventful… ) I feel that I should be summarising that element of production through the story of Post. After all, I’m a documentary editor, not cinematographer. (Actually, on that note, I found out the the Maysles Brothers actually credited their Editors as Directors. I think for documentary, the editor truly is the director. However, perhaps “directing” simply isn’t a role in Documentary film? But that’s for another discussion..)

Anyway! In regards to the cinematography – luckily I had the talented DP from Lutman Films join me on the expedition, which brought a great cinematic perspective to the documentary! Especially in the interviews, which with a touch of lighting help lift the production value into the realm of Cinema Quality ~

So over the coming weeks and months, I will be updating you about the insane process of trying to convert the footage into a story. A story which is inspiring, motivating, and positive. A story about young, working professionals, stepping outside their comfort zone to take on a challenge and make a positive impact on society. Ok. Sounds simple.

BUT! Umm… how on earth do I do that while at the same time giving a deeper understanding of the cultural history of these places we visited!!!? The positivity only has a deeper meaning and value because of the NEGATIVE context which people need to understand! Having hope and potential is only significant because of the reality that these countries, both Vietnam and Cambodia, have overcome an overwhelmingly haunting past. To understand the immense achievement of the Cambodian people, to be able to get back on their feet and prosper, first we have to comprehend the history.

One article I found very inspiring was an interview with the documentary Director of the film “Brother Number One” Annie Goldson. She explained in the interview;

“…The trick in documentary it seems to me is how to provide historical context without an oversimplification of history while sustaining the narrative momentum of the personal story.”

This is EXACTLY the biggest hurdle I will have to overcome in the editing process!

I have to find a balance between the story of the bike riders and their emotional journey taking on the challenge bike riding over 400kms from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to Siem Reip, Cambodia and the story of the NGO, “Carpets for Communities” which is working to empower women to break the cycle of poverty. The GoneCyclin team hopes to raise over SGD$50,000+ for Carpets for Communities. ALL OF THIS has to be captured while also not ignoring the historical context of both Vietnam and Cambodia. What an EPIC MISSION!

Wish me luck guys, I’ll need all the help I can get over the next 6 months.

DOCUMENTARY WILL BE SCREENING IN DECEMBER 2011- better get to work!

P.S Fundraiser screenings will be held in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Siem Reip, Phnom Penh, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and more cities around the world! If you want to find out more about the GoneCyclin project visit their website!

Just checking in from Singapore! It’s beautiful, sunny and humid ~ perfect weather! Sorry to everyone struggling the cold back in melbourne!

Today I’m off to Vietnam to begin filming SPINNING DREAMS II with the GoneCyclin Initative. Here’s our support team prepping for the project yesterday in Singapore -

The team will be cycling from Vietnam into Cambodia to raise money for Carpets for Communities (CfC) – we’re aiming for SGD$50 000 !! And I’ll be filming the entire time to capture every moment!

Luckily we’ve been out shopping to stock up some last minute equitpment and gear! This time I’ll be partnered with the UBER talented DOP from San Fransisco and Lutman Films – Michael Lutman! He managed to find a creative way to fix a broken RodeVideoMic which we use as a guide track to sync the audio from our lapels; (Shooting on DSLR – we’ll have 2 H4N Zooms and 2 sets of Sennheiser Lapels) >

We’re pretty excited about the team jersy – which features our lovely Latenite logo:

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update the blog while I’m away – but I’ll definately have some amazing photography and video to share when we return!

The feature film will be finished by November 2011 – with screenings planned for Singapore and Melbourne!

Other online videos will be released over the coming months so stay tuned!

We are also planning for the ONLINE unveiling of “SPINNING DREAMS ~ in the tour de Timor!” – as a 100% non-profit FREE video to watch online! STAY TUNED!

Love you all, wish me and Michael Lutman luck on the back of the motorbike through Vietnam and Cambodia!

Bring it on!

~
j

Sorry I haven’t given you the latest update – however if you’ve been following me on twitter < @Jacqui_Hocking > or facebook recently, you’ll know I’ve been very busy!

This blog post will be short and sweet, because as always, I’m on the road (surprise surprise) so don’t have too much time! But I thought I should fill you in on the latest seeing as I’ve been too hectic to update you all since my screening.

Since our Spinning Dreams Screening – I have been working on the 40 Hour Famine for World Vision! in Timor Leste and Post production here in Melbourne!

I was also Director of Photography on a short film starring Ashley Zuckerman, Directed by the talented Martin Sharpe! (pictured below;)

And was invited to Sydney for the opening night of the Audi German Film Festival!

In February LateNite Films hosted our March to Miami Warehouse Party, I filmed the Sustainable Living Fesitval, and went to the awesome Australian International Documentary Conference! Woah! What a month!

After arriving back from Adelaide, it was back to work on World Vision – and in my spare time managed to attend some Young Editor nights hosted by the ASE.

At AIDC I had the honour of watching an incredible keynote by David Gallo:

I also helped my brother film some Seals for his research at the melbourne Zoo! What a cool job!

Then has some fun with a few random freelance jobs like working on TV show Neighbours, and live VideoHits concert in Melbourne!

I also then shot some really cool events after meeting the team at Inspire9.

Trampoline –

and

Mindful –

The month of May was even more incredible – Editing, Shooting, Planning, Editing… woah. At the moment LateNite Films is currently facilitating about 8 independent documentaries – so I’m sure keeping busy!

You’ll have to wait until my next post to find out whats happening in JUNE! Which is just a tiny bit exciting too…

~

Peace!

j