I lied

yes i did. so XXXXXX what. I had an actor that I gave the benefit of the doubt to in terms of auditioning for a role I had on offer. I just offered it to him. He’s a stalwart on the Australian acting scene – 60 years old – in several WELL KNOWN australian films – and damned if I’m going to release his name to you… Ordinarily he’s a dream to work with – I used him on a feature film I directed in 2004. But therein lay my problem. Once I gave him the role without getting him to audition I experienced the small very subtle power dynamic that started to ensue. He started to ask me about who I’d gotten to work opposite him. He then became more and more demanding on days that he could work, finally making mention of how if paid work came up he’d have to take it in favour of my film. Considering the shoot for my film is only for 1 day I found the claim to be a narcissistic attempt to remind me of the ‘talent’ that he was bestowing upon me, and how lucky I was to have him in my film. Ordinarily [to those that haven't been exposed to the 'language' of film making] it’s never the actors right to ask about who they’re being cast with. The emperor [me] was being toppled from his throne. Damn it I thought, I just  cant have this… So in a bold climactic moment I sat down this morning and wrote an eloquent, balanced, frank and empathetic email to him detailing how I can’t have anyone on set that feels they’re in control of the feel/look/tone of the piece BUT myself.

YOU may think I’m being pathetic and petty but I’ve been on sets before that have been commandeered by non-directorial forces and FUCKME I’ve never seen anything so shambolic and embarrassing in my life. So my decision to rescind my offer to him was based on experience and learned observation and a serious attempt to not have the film that I’ve been working on for the last 4 months go FLOP. So I had this email… sitting there…. ready to send to him…. but I couldn’t go through with it. Both film making and acting are a form of prostitution – and this pro couldn’t create enemies at this stage of my trajectory. So I lied – said that the locations fell through and that i had to put the film on the back burner… Lied lied lied… I tried to justify it to myself many ways… but I was weak in not being honest with him. It means that he’ll still feel he was justified in being as parochial as he was. And by virtue of my lying to him I gave him the power. Does that make me two faced

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Monkeying around

A friend whom i helped out on a project wanted me to re-edit something we did. Basically it was an exploration of “Media” and the animal that is created from it. We used a few templates as a backdrop – the Corey DeLaney [sic?] and the Andrew Simonds case involving Cricket Australia [the greatest 'sledgers' in the world] making a ‘formal’ statement against Harbahajan Singh for calling him a ‘Monkey’. Whether this was a result of the neon lip gloss that Simonds wears – whether it’s because one of his parents is from the Solomon Islands or whether he was described [by the Indian cricket fans] as a ‘monkey amongst the kangaroos’ is uncertain to ascertain. So what we did was come up with a plan to storm onto the field at day 4 of the South Australian test match dressed in a monkey suit.

Me and another guy would record the event, post it onto you tube and then launch the project and see where the media animal would take us. Firstly we all got dressed up in big black wigs, yellow shorts and handed out flyers to the [freshly] published website. Then after we’d handed out the flyers and lunch was over the unnamed monkey man ran onto the field to a herald of applause and laughter. basically the thinking was that the use of the term ‘monkey’ to Andrew Simonds was an insult to monkeys world wide and that we were rectifying a wrong made public by the media. After I edited the project in an internet cafe I found in the Adelaide CBD we uploaded it and watched as the counter rose. Within the first 3 hours there were over 300 hits. As we scoured the internet for news clippings we returned to the video and saw it has grown another 30 people in just 5 minutes.

 

Then the information started to get obscure. One ‘Reuters’ picked up on a piece of information that was incorrect [having been released and NOT fined $3000 and then three online newspapers ran with the story – so much for investigative journalism. What was interesting about it was the way these amorphous inaccuracies continued to grow and develop in their own organic ‘Chinese Whispers’ way. Each story added another fantastic element onto the next and then blatant mistruths were being bandied around. The ‘monkey-man’ in question at the time was in the Adelaide CBD police holding cell and had just been released to face a court charge some time in the future. It was of little concern to him. His was an experiment in information and ‘hype.’ How did Corey Delaney manage to create such a stir with his public disgrace? And how did his moment of celebrity rise and just as easily tumble??? The internet and new systems of media breeds such brief temporal heroes and then throws them to the ground with equal disdain. No wonder celebrities need such thick skin… and the constant tragedies that plague their lives in order to remain ‘hot’. It doesn’t allow for weak souls. However when weak souls inevitably get thrown into the melting pot we feel we need to exploit the weaknesses, capitalize on them, because maybe in some way it makes their rise that much more attainable, real, and therefore marketable. Eeeek. I’m glad I’m with the guy in the monkey suit.

Anyway the counter is now at… well see it for yourself – HERE

 

 

The shape of things to come

Having a number of assignments due at the present time I’ve been visiting RMIT uni on a regular and prolonged basis. Hours on end on a saturday Morning, Sunday afternoon, all day Fridays seem to be the norm of late, but i like having the computer room all to myself. Anyway i bumped into a friend on Friday and realised that I didnt even bring a pen and paper to uni… it made me start to wonder to what extent I’m a part of the digital animal. I mean to not even bring a pen to uni anymore.. is this heard of? What struck me most was the person with whom I was networking [contemporary term for 'making friends with?"...] withalso didnt have a piece of paper nor a pen. I’ll have you know I’m including tram tickets in this as well. The idea of this quite amused me, made me reflect on the shape of things to come.

And then i started my assignment in a computer room with Mac’s all turned on and silently beckoning me to make them useful. So I decided to use three computers at once. It seemed logical at the time. Using one computer just seemed reductive and paltry, surely I was above that – no? So three computers on, around me, me on a swivel chair wheeling between them all; each focusing on a different assignment – or when the shape of my project changed – a different part of the one assignment. So this was it – I felt not so much the Emperor on his throne controlling the pieces of information I was receiving but more an Avatar fielding the explosion of information and trying to scrutinize and make sense of that which was coming through. I’d lost my God-like powers. I was no longer in control – was I? Well of course i was in control in the sense of the one typing the questions and pressing the links, sifting through the input and teasing out what i wanted according to relevance. But I didn’t feel like I was the one in control. I felt like I was more a guide, directing the flow of information, a conduit… is this the shape of things to come? I didn’t even have a pen to write any of these thoughts down.

Taxi Strike

Since living in the ‘Capitol’ Building I get a great view of the city in its various disguises. Last Wednesday night I happened to be staring out my window as I was eating dinner and saw an inordinate number of taxis on Swanston st. WTF? Not only was there a sense of ‘force’ about them but also camaraderie. I knew something was going on but I hadn’t heard any news of what or why [owning no TV has it's down points]. So I grabbed my Cannon [sponsorship money insert here please] and ran down to see what the fuss was about. What i saw was truly inspiring. The Taxis had blocked off Flinders, little Flinders, Collins and Swanston St and were sitting down in the middle of the busy intersection in a great show of force and fraternity. It was spectacular. Even to someone with an Indian heritage the true depth of the problem facing taxi drivers with regards to racism, physical assult, lax response time etc was foreign to me. It reminded me of how protests live on such a knife edge – there is such beauty in the common ideal and such terror in the way certain fringe groups reassert the power of assembly. 

see G12 meeting in melbourne

And here

But this protest had such a vocal and unifying message – there were continual shouts for peaceful demonstration and this was adhered to by all of those present. I circled the mass, acutely aware how many protests in India turn ugly very quickly and hoped the police wont be justified in using violence to stop a protest against a violent act – the stabbing of a taxi driver at Clifton Hill and subsequent 2 hour response time from the police in finding him.

Yesterday I was on a tram on my way to a friends house in Thornbury and saw an MX reporting the incident. I was intrigued how they would tackle the many burning questions regarding media I had

# How does the idea of a peaceful RESOLVED protest fit into the general field of social conditioning – will it herald the use of protest as a tool or try to dampen down its effects and ultimately its power?

# How culpable will it paint the assailant?

# How much coverage [protest went on for 36 hours - if anyone knows how to stay awake its a cabbie!!!] will it have of the entire show of force of the many many people there

# How much will it describe the ‘inconvenience’ and ‘gridlock’ experienced by commuters

Sadly although the MX paid token service to the strike it did delve with any great insight into the motivations of the Union requests. The photo of it took up 3/4 of the page though. Covertly Racist? Australia? Surely not…

I don’t mean to sound bitter. I’m not. Just the idea of ‘open’ dialogue and freedom of expression doesn’t really occur from the easily digestible mind snore of MX – although does anyone look for anything of meaning from it?