~ Michael C. Ruppert

Perpetual Cracker

Pinata fun

Matty Dance

Whatever the purpose, it is there and when sometimes we may neglect or forget it, it is those who truly love us who will follow us to the very end just to bring us back to safety when it counts.

As a rough (very rough) idea of what I’ve been up to – kingofthecastle.pozible.com

We also bid farewell to the Castle, cleared everything out on the 11th of December so they could hand it over the 12th. It made for a sombre evening, with fewer in attendance than we’d anticipated. A quiet goodbye to the place that has housed and encouraged so much of our creativity in recent times.

Now, though, some photos. Perfectly indicative of my mood after I finally slept in Sunday morning.

RPGs is my friends’ new band, a ridiculously talented bunch of people I’ll watch with interest. They had their first full rehearsal recently, a really enjoyable evening of music to witness. I sat in, had some fun with a 50mm on my D60, and these were the results. I’m happy with them.

First thought? Beautiful. At first the film processing technique was jarring, and I suspect we also had a slightly faulty projector, but the quality of the imagery still engaged. The colours were a bit strange, but part of that was involved in the filmmaking, an aesthetic choice by director Jonathan auf der Heide and cinematographer Ellery Ryan.

The film was enrapturing, both visually and emotionally engaging. The characters were all enigmatic, despite their open discourse. There was not a cliché among them, so full was their conception. They were presented clearly as the men they could well have been. Their history, we can assume, they already discussed during their time in incarceration and so is not repeated in the film’s dialogue. This way, the filmmakers avoid that awful tendency of so many, of characters telling one another their history for the audience’s benefit. These men were stripped of their past when they were brought to Australia as convicts for, largely, minor transgressions. Their existence, in this way, was limited to within the frame.

The locations were as haunting as they were arresting. Particularly among the snow gums, a ghost wood. Each location was used to represent the mindset and moods of the characters. When all of them wandered through the bush near the beginning of their journey, there was an oppressiveness in the wet, dark bush. When they were recuperating by a waterfall, the tone was more jovial and hopeful. Towards the end, at the point of madness, the vast field represented well the void of humanity in the two remaining characters.

The story unveiled slowly, which I felt was perfect. It made the acts of violence more malevolent and looming. The deaths were messy and gritty, conveying the terror of what they had come to. The first kill was, I thought, particularly well disguised. The film lay heavy emphasis on the old man who was struggling with the terrain. The other young men were full of energy, and at each hill one of them would help him up. There was appropriate tension between the Irish and Scottish boys and the two English men. All this is laid on to put suspicions in your mind of who their first sacrifice will be.

One of the central characters, a charismatic young man Dalton, injures his leg. He is seen dressing it with his friend, Alexander Pearce (an incredible performance by Oscar Redding), by a waterfall pool in which they all swam and bathed. They discuss things quietly between them, almost conspiratorially. An excellent element of this film was the use of the Gaelic language. This put a barrier, or a safety net, between characters depending on its use. It also showed the committment of the cast, many of whom had learned the language for this film.

A short while later, further in their trek, men were seen discussing their lack of food. Their options were wearing thin (excuse the pun) and with two stragglers they came to the gruesome conclusion. This decided, they pressed on up the steep, hard hill. Pearce helps Dalton, and another man helps the old man.

The next morning, Pearce opens his eyes to feet and an axe, approaching a huddled, sleeping form. Chaos ensues and Dalton dies bloody and gasping, in a twitching mess, still aware of his friends around him and what they had done. The scene was tense and horrific, and the untidy bleeding and hinted carving ended the scene darkly.

Fear, anger and shock burn amongst the characters. The Englishman Robert Greenhill (seemingly self-appointed, would-be leader) knuckles down coldly to the task and the next morning they head on.

From here to the end the killings get swifter but no less delicate. By the end of the film the tension and distrust are so thick between the characters that the film puts the audience on edge as well. Jonathan auf der Heide also treated the growing madness and sickness of the characters very subtly. Though there is not medical link between cannibalism and the often associated traits of insanity and illness, there is still some truth to it. These men would have been driven mad by their recent past, if nothing else, and while they still ate human flesh they would have been malnourished for lack of nutritional variety. Makeup was harsh, and no doubt their surrounds helped, giving the characters a fiendishly ill look to them. A single shot of a character drawing a handful of hair from his scalp (very good makeup) is all he uses to show the balding, which can then be seen in the other characters.

I found this film compelling, and am not surprised that this young film student made such a beautiful film, he is obviously a very talented filmmaker.

Van Diemen’s Land [2009]

Right now, going through what I thought had been successful footage of Castle Crashers (more on that later), I am that pole. Castle Crashers is the fourth person, Twelve Angry Men the third, two dwindling friendships the second, and my father the first. I’m about a single disappointment away from bailing to Apollo Bay whilst yelling “uni is for losers”.

Since the beginning of the year we’ve heard tell of the manifold troubles that can and will occur on set, how the best laid plans can be torn to shreds the moment it all has to come together. “Assumption is the mother of all fuckups” they kept saying, and now I understand. I am infinitely glad that I set out to film Castle Crashers, because we have a great deal of wonderful footage which may or may not come together to mean something for the people who were there. I am painfully hoping to have another shot at it, however, because I made too many mistakes.

Castle Crashers, for the uninitiated, is a jam. It is a wonderful point in time when all the musically talented people I know come together and share, create, perform, collaborate… These people are astounding. Music has forever been an unattainable joy, something for others to do. I would, if I could, join in. I’m simply not made of musical stuff, but I take immense pleasure from capturing it. I have come to the decision that all I needs do to be happy is film and edit music, musical performances, music videos, music sequences in film, or any combination thereof. Castle Crashers confirmed this for me, and made me want much more of the same.

Whilst my friend Sean organised the musical/logistical side of things, and his brother organised sound recording, I set about organising to film the event. It was the second Castle Crashers, there will be at least a third and hopefully one more. I made documents, drew floor plans, organised a crew, developed the concept. The interviews I had to do for uni were conversational, easy going. Folk said what I needed them to say, and in a way that reminded me of the Last Waltz’s blaze style, so this pleased me.

Enter problem 1 – memory card.

Unbeknownst to me, the card on which I was shooting had insufficient transfer rate. This meant it would film in 20-40 second grabs, then cut off. Camera doesn’t tell you, doesn’t beep or flash. Good camera – knows the importance of a quiet, undisrupted set. Foolish camera operator – didn’t notice. We filmed 30 minutes of interviews, from 3 angles. I’ll manage to cut something, but the place I was sitting, and the camera I was using, were best. 29 seconds of footage from there.

Problem 2 – 1080x576i.

I planned much, but I barely planned the cameras. Mistake. 1 large fixed camera captured the whole performance start-finish. For such a large, hulky, expensive instrument, I must admit my disappointment. 1080x576i. For those not too familiar with aspect ratios in film, allow me to explain this disappointment.

HD & SD Aspect Ratios

The above image shows you 3 commonly used image sizes. Your blueray dvd will play the large black one. That’s what the Canon I had was filming on (in 20 second grabs). The next one down is 720p, beautiful image quality, the most you’ll ever need on a television or monitor. The smallest is still plenty, tv sizing. Your small downloads usually come in this form unless you’ve searched HQ. The ‘i’ on the end means interlaced. You don’t want that. You want ‘p’ for progressive. Just trust.

The big, hulking mounted camera films in “HD” but not full HD. We’re talking something that is as tall as the PAL (576) and not quite as wide as the 720p (1080). It is a strange, obnoxious little frame that I will need to piece together in post with the much larger shots from other cameras. But fuckit, right? I was planning on mostly cutting between the three roaming cameras anyway. Sure. See problem 1.

Problem 3 – lenses

Aside from the 1080i “Beast” I had 4 other cameras roaming about. 1 was fixed behind the drums to capture that angle, the footage for which I’m quite excited (haven’t seen it yet). The second was a little handicam operated by Liam, then a Nikon SLR with Monique and the Canon 60d I had borrowed. About 3 hours into the 9 hour shoot, my photographer friend rocks up to snap stills.

‘I think I’ll chuck a zoom lens on,’ he announces. ‘I’ll get some close shots since you guys are all going wide angle.’

Facepalm. I had not even checked to see that we would have variation of shots. We had angles, of course, we were all roaming around and getting different things. Yet he was right, all of us had wide angled lenses on, we weren’t getting close to the performers, we had nothing to cut in and out with, we just had a string of different angles going around the stage but getting no closer. What a clutz. Of course, I immediately switched to some enormous lens my friend had leant me, which was great. For the rest of the night, from one camera, I had closeups. Sometimes.

Problem 4 – operators

I should, by rights, have had twice as many camera operators as I had cameras. When a memory card filled, it meant one of us was out of action while we dumped the card. Often I’d go out the back, start the dump, see ’3 minutes remaining’ and figure that was enough time to chat with folk there, imbibe, check the battery chargers, and return. Unacceptable. I should have had 2-3 cards per camera, tested them all beforehand, and several operators so that when a card was full or the operator got sick of it, they could tag out.

There were also issues with lighting, with framing on the mounted camera, with constant handheld footage… no doubt I’ll find more. The one saving grace was Callum’s audio – he recorded everything into an 8-track Pro Tools file. I feel worst because of the work he has put in, the effort and the enormity of it, and yet what I have filmed simply doesn’t stand up.

The aim, at the end of the day, was twofold. To film and document the event for uni, and to create a lasting memory for those who visited the Castle, and enjoyed the wonderful creativity therein. I still hope to produce a dvd at the end of the day (though hopefully I can film CCIII and make something better) with the full concert start-finish. I want something for other people to watch and revel in the talent that was there that night.

If nothing else, I will make a CD for them. If possible, I will film the third Castle Crashers, do it properly with a crew of uni folk, and be able to learn properly from these mistakes. At the end of the day, I just want to be able to give my friends a memory caught. That’d be swell. Next time, I’ll have a producer around.

Watching V Season 1, it has some very, very strange camera angles, but it uses them only with the aliens so it’s quite clever. And come on, guys, why you gotta kill the only chartacter I thought was beautiful..?