I was pleased to be invited to two screening-cum-Q&A sessionsorganised by the Australian Cinematographers Society over the course of two days in Adelaide.  Million thanks to Lawrence Horsburgh, Key Account Manager for Kodak (Australasia) for sending through the invitation, really appreciate that, ! 

The first screening was - The Tourist - followed by an interview session with Oscar winning cinematographer John Seale, and the second session was on the 1979 classic - Mad Max - and an interview with the British cinematographer David Eggby.  I can now tell you that both of them are great legends in cinematography - they know what they are talking about.  Both the Q&A sessions were moderated by the gorgeous and mutli-talented, Sydney based interviewer Renee Brack from the Movie Network.  

I have learnt a lot from these sessions even though I did not fully understand a lot of the jargons that were thrown around throughout the sessions as I am currently doing a degree which is not related to the industry.  But I was amazed by the complexity of the ART and SCIENCE of film-making.  Not only does film-making require artistic and creative abilities of an individual, the film-maker should also be able to utilise their equipment innovatively.  I am proud to announce that Australian cinematographers always like to think out of the box and can and will do more than merely reading word for word from the manual of their cameras.  This is where technical skills including some Physics and Chemistry background are also essential for a film maker in order to get the right lighting and get the end product printed on the appropriate reel format. I kid you not, SCIENCE is equally as important as ART in the film-making arena, .

I particularly admire John Seale for his courage to take risks in his craft.  One of his best kept secrets is that he uses multiple cameras during shooting.  Thanks to this craft of his, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp could have a brilliant, award-winning performance as they could interact with one another better and secondly, this would allow more material with which the editor can play around.  Most importantly,one of his most inspirational remarks was: “Always finish what you have started…”  If it was not for his firm stance during the course of the shoot, I don’t think I would have had the privilege to watch The Tourist yesterday.  Not to mention, John was also part of my favourite Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone movie - that’s definitely my bonus points for him too.

Mad Max was indeed an iconic and a classical piece which had paved the way for Mel Gibson’s Hollywood stardom. The rawness of the film due to the lack of technological advancement really depicted the amount of effort, sweat, blood and tears which had been put in the production.  This includes the breath-taking, life-threatening stunts and processes involved during shooting especially at a speed of 180mph on a windy freeway, can you even imagine that? I wonder how much more sacrifice and courage could they have left at that point in time?  Well, I guess sky should be the only limit for all of the crew members then.

Overall, the sessions have given me a whole new insight in film-making as well as a sneak-peak of the tumultuous journey of the legendary film-makers.  As the saying goes, ‘no risk, no fun’; awards and nominations in the industry are simply defined by the level of risks that a film-maker is willing to undertake.  Similarly, we need to be more proactive, determined and persistent and knock on doors of opportunities and not the other way round.

Thanks to JoAnne Bouzianis-Sellick for being the official photographer for the sessions as well, she did a great job...and I was literally blown-away by her friendliness, .