Reference Photo

>> Wednesday, March 31, 2010

One of the shots in the Going Home short film I wish to have is quite nicely summed up by this photo I found on flickr.


I had this exact shot in mind for when the main character looks down from his office into the street, and sees a woman in a red cheongsam and red parasol, disappear round the corner. A really freaky but awesome find really.

Also, just cast the actor for the lead in the film. Met him on Tuesday, and am quite happy with him to take the lead role. Asked my dad to play the Grand-father figure, and will get some makeup on him, mainly grey(er) hair ;). Changas has a little cousin who can play the kid-version of the main character. Still need to cast a housewife. Can hopefully start shooting by next weekend!

Keep an eye out for stuff. =)

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New Lenses

>> Saturday, March 27, 2010

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the lens I got with my Pentax k7, the beautiful DA* 16-50mm f2.8, was damaged in the lat day of my Asia trip. I have been devastated ever since, but some good news arrived last week when CR Kennedy, the only guys in Melbourne who deal with Pentax directly for repairs and what not, finally called me up with a quote to fix up the lens - AUD$324.50c. Quite a bit, but not as much as I was expecting. *sigh*, more money out of the pockets...

Anyway, I was on a bit of an eBay addict phase the last few weeks, looking for lenses. It was the first time I ever used eBay, and needless to say, I was hooked. I have currently about 30 items on my watch-list... but I've only won 2 items so far. So I'm not THAT crazy over it - I did manage to control myself at least.

The items I went after, and won, were some Pentax primes. I just needed some glass to put on the end of my beautiful k7... it had been out of action for 2 months, and my trigger happy fingers were getting restless. So, now I have a SMC Pentax-A f2.8 28mm, and a MC Vivitar f1.7 50mm. Got them both for AUD$160.00, so not too bad. Maybe not the best types fo lenses out there, but I'm not that anal, and I'm more than happy with both of them for that price.

Was thinking of selling them after I get my 16-50 back, but I reckon I'll hang on to them. Primes are damn useful, especially since I'm considering investing in a lens adapter for digital film cameras. I'm looking at the SGPRO at the moment... *sigh* need to save up more money.

Below are a few photos taken with the 50mm 1.7. Not bad. I was debating between the 1.7 or the 1.4, but I just didn't have the cash for a 1.4, so just went for the 1.7 anyway. $56 versus $300+ ? At the moment, anything cheap and good will do. And as you can see, it ain't that bad :)

The night shift on Friday...

...fun times...

...watching the Friday night crowds walk past...


The depth-of-field on the 50 is awesome.

I like how the colour turned out on this one - no PS, just a different white balance I guess.

What the? All the best to that guy in the cab, driving with karaoke-style singing in blaring from the back seat ;)

Never knew that karaoke was that big a hit in this town... but I guess there have been ALOT of new karaoke bars opening up around town. Catered mainly for Asians of course, but I reckon they're trying to break into the mainstream market as well.

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Asian ANZACS

Just doing some research on Asian ANZACS for my Project.


Quite difficult to find information out there on this interesting part of Australia's War History, so every little bit counts for a lot.

I've compiled a list of links to online sources that I've found so far.
  • Forgotten Heroes - post from 'the tigers mouth' - lists several notable Chinese-Australian Soldiers who served Australian in World War 1
  • Caleb Shang entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
  • Chinese Australian Exservicemen Database - from the CHAF (Chinese Heritage of Australian Federation) website, a project from La Trobe University.
One particular Chinese ANZAC I have been focusing on is Caleb Shang. Below are the links to d¡

Big thanks to Yuey who's kindly passed on some information and resources he has found. His blog, Asians Down Under has been quite an inspiration and definitely worth a look.

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Some Research

>> Sunday, March 21, 2010

Just placing some of my research links on here so I don't lose them. Feel free to check 'em out for yourself if you so wish...

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Going Home - A Short Film

>> Friday, March 19, 2010

Just completed the screenplay for one of the short films that I am making for my Honours Project, currently titled 'Going Home'.
The central plot isabout an Asian man in his mid-30s, going home from work. As he makes his way home, his senses are stimulated by certain smells and images which spark memories of his childhood home.

This was the first fully formed idea I had for a short film for this project, and it was strange because I had been intending to avoid stories of the 'first generation' of migrants. This was because I felt that most diasporic/Asian-Australian stories out there generally revolve around that generation, and those themes of moving and adapting to a new foreign place, of being distant from the homeland, were themes I did not fully understand, since I moved here when I was only 6 months old and basically grew up here. I was more interested in stories from the later generations like mine, who grew up or were born here - the ABC (Australian Born Chinese) stories.

The inspiration for the idea was my dad. I cant' remember what I was doing late last year but I was thinking about my dad, and was wondering what made him and my mum decide to move to Australia, and how he felt about it. Then a story sort of just fell into place in my head - a simple narrative that expresses what I feel to be quite a strong nostaglic emotion.

Will be moving into production on it as soon as I find an actor who can play the lead character. I have been sketching shots that I want to shoot, and have also scouted out some locations. I am nto much of a storyboarder, but I do sketch out shots and sequences that I am very clear about. I've posted up some of my sketches below.

Opening shot.

Scene 1 & 2.

Scene 2 opening shots.

Scene 2 Wide Shot - in front of Restaurant.


Scene 2 - leading up to first flashback.


Train sequence.

Walking home - plane flashback sequence. Not sure how to pull this on off yet, probably a VFX shot.


Walking Home.

That's all the sketches so far. I don't think I need to do anymore unless more come to me. I have a good idea of how it shoudl all look now anyway, and I like to leave some space for creative improvisation on set whenever I shoot. Hopefully can get this baby done very soon - keep your eyes open.

Ciao for now.

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Reflections prt2 + Asian-Australian Project

>> Sunday, March 7, 2010

Part 2 of reminiscing.

In Malaysia, I stayed with my mum's family first. Whilst there, I shot a few videos of my Grandma preparing dinner. She was making Yeung Dao Fu, or.. the best way I can describe it is Stuffed To Fu.

Grandma in the kitchen.

I loved the natural light that the kitchen had, with the sun coming in through the back door. The wall int he above image is a little blown out, but I like that, especially in the videos.

This brings up something that I have noticed lately - I have noticed this general difference in preference of image quality between video and photography. When Changas was over, I showed him this awesome new plugin developed by the awesome guys at Video Copilot, called Optical Flares. This plugin allows you to add, yup you guessed it, Lens flares into your video footage so you can achive certain looks. The plugin is so comprehensive that it allows you to imitate flares from real lens irises, and even adding Chromatic Aberration, which Changas was quite surprised and impressed with. Changas is a photographer, and he says that most photographers go for the cleanest look they can, choosing lenses and photoshopping to remove any sort of Chromatic Aberration in their images, as well as removing grain. Whilst int he video world, you can find plenty of plugins that allow youto imitate certain film stock grain, and generally making the footage more dirty. I wonder where this difference of preference comes from?

Anyway going back on topic, I filmed my Grandma preparing dinner, and the footage I got was quite extensive and looked great. I am currently editing it into a short doco that I am making as part of my Honours project on finding Asian-Australian stories. I am intercutting the footage with footage of my mum cooking Chinese New Year dinner. The doco is currently titled 'Tastes of Home', and is just an exploration of my mum and her cooking. Themes I'm looking at exploring are generational influences, senses of home, how cooking is used by displaced peoples to recall home, whether it actually means that to the older generations of migrants, etc. I have the style already, just need to do a few more interviews, and I am considering introducing my sister into the story, so that I can explore the themes from 3 generations of Chinese-Malaysian women.


Changas was over to help me film some things on his newly aquired Nikon d3s. The above image was taken by him, me and my mum as subjects.
My k7 is currently non-funcitonal because I damaged my lens on the last day of the trip. It's in Japan now, getting fixed... I hope. But yes, Changas' d3s is a beautiful piece of equipment. Check his stuff out on his blog here: http://iamchangas.blogspot.com/
Thus I am stuck using uni gear, though the z1p is still a very ncie camera. But I'm waiting to test out the newly acquired z7p.

Back to Malaysia. Below are pics of the end results of my Grandma's cooking, and the relatives consuming the fruits of her labour. *note the box of roast duck was brought from take away :) *

Resting after the meal.
Getting all artsy... but i quite like the photo. I love the light.

Since my Grandma was already there, decided to do a kind of portait.
Shopped one in b&w for kicks.

Not sure if they're good though, seems way too dark in her face. What do you think?

Some more photos from my first stay in Malaysia.
This beautiful, succulent sambal sting-ray. My god I miss it...



Stay tuned for more next time

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