Nasmat London Debut
Thanks to Maani Photography for these photos.
This event The Arab Quarterly show on Sunday 17 February 2013 in the Hoxton Hall.
My costume was from Zara’s Zouk.
Editing: Reasons for a cut
Multiple Oscar winning editor extraordinaire Walter Murch (who literally wrote THE book on editing) famously said…
An ideal cut (for me) is the one that satisfies all the following six criteria at once:
It is true to the emotion of the moment
It advances the story
It occurs at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and “right”
It acknowledges what you might call “eye-trace” – the concern with the location and movement of the audience’s focus of interest within the frame
It respects “planarity” – the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to two (the questions of stage-line, etc.)
It respects the three-dimensional continuity of the actual space (where people are in the room and in relation to one another).
Or…
Emotion (51%)
Story (23%)
Rhythm (10%)
Eye-trace (7%)
Two-dimensional plane of screen (5%)
Three-dimensional space of action (4%)
Emotion, at the top of the list, is the thing that you should try to preserve at all costs. If you find you have to sacrifice certain of those six things to make a cut, sacrifice your way up, item by item, from the bottom.
WALTER MURCH, In The Blink of an Eye
Nasmat London Debut
Sunday 17 February 2013 sees the London debut of bellydancer Nasmat (aka ME!)
Tickets are on sale now for the Arab Quarterly event at the Hoxton Hall. Tickets are £18 each, and are available for purchase from the Hoxton Hall website
The Arab Quarter at Hoxton Hall
Sunday 17 February 2013 at 7.30pm, Hoxton Hall,
130 Hoxton Street, London N1 6SH
Doors open at 7.00pm
The Arab Quarter at Hoxton Hall is set to move hearts and send minds racing with its punchy, dramatic and eloquent narration taken from Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. Palace Walk is part of The Cairo Trilogy, and the epic master piece of the Nobel Prize-winning writer. As yet Naguib Mahfouz is the only Arab writer to win this prestigious literary award. Scenes rich in atmosphere and cultural significance will fill Hoxton Hall and create a special magic. Around these passages will be enthralling and highly authentic Arabian musical and dance entertainment provided by members of The Arab Quarter Band and a host of fine oriental dancers, colourfully costumed and interpreting Arabian music of immense soul and beauty.
Pirates Of The South auditions
I recently got to shoot the auditions for a new feature film, ‘Pirates Of The South’. Here are a few of the behind-the-scenes photos…
From the director, Djonny Chen:
Behind the scene photos from the casting session of our upcoming feature film “PIRATES OF THE SOUTH” on Saturday, 22nd December 2012 at The Phoenix Artist Club (Phoenix Theatre, London).
“PIRATES OF THE SOUTH” Feature Film
————————————-
Director: Djonny Chen
Producers: Jason Cook, Mark Straker, Djonny Chen, Lisa Cachia
Executive Producer: Eileen Hutchinson
Screenwriter: Lisa CachiaMore details at:
– Film website: http://www.southpirates.com/
– Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PiratesOfTheSouthAcknowledgments:
– A huge thanks to Noel Wilson for arranging the location and helping out the casting session on the day.
– Special thanks to Kurt Dimineux, Patricia Hetherington, Chantelle Lavel and Edward Ferrysienanda for helping out on the day.
– Many thanks to Chantelle Lavel and Edward Ferrysienanda for taking the behind the scene photos.
By the way, the Phoenix Artist Club is quite nice.
8 tips for coping with work and art
How do you do it?
A friend recently asked me how I manage working full-time and doing film stuff in my spare time. He got his first full-time office job recently, and has been struggling with having the energy to do anything else.
It’s hard.
It. is. hard.
Interview with Adelaide Screenwriter
Hi all,
You should head over to Adelaide Screenwriter. One, to read the interview that I did there. Two, to read the other posts and pages that Henry has written.
Oh, and if you’ve come across my blog from Henry’s … welcome 🙂
Did I mention I was busy?
Oh, the joys of double booking…
Friday
- The last day of the busiest week of the year at work; then
- Standing in the Globe Theatre and watching Taming Of The Shrew with some of my lovely friends, and
- Trying to get over this cold, in preparation for…
Saturday
- Taking part in the London 48 hour film project. 12 hours of shooting, either as 2nd Camera or Sound Recordist (tbc); then
- rushing to Shimmy In The City (going to see Dina!); then
- sound editing into…
Sunday
- Sound editing for this competition.
- Sleep?
Meeting deadlines and editing
Apologies if you haven’t heard from me lately. I’ve been working on finishing two projects and getting them out. All of my spare time is going into these projects. I think that’s a good thing. Nothing clears the head like clearing what has been stressing you out.
The Arab Quarter
I went to two Bellydance workshops in Shoreditch today. The first was a Hat and Cane choreography; the second, a choreography for veil. The classes were from The Arab Quarter: Bellydancer Melanie Norman taught the classes, with support from live musicians: Hassan on tableh, Georgie on synth, and Emile on violin.
The workshops were great. I can highly recommend them. Melanie is a wonderful teacher. It was really great having live music there; not only for the experience of dancing with musicians (which every dancer should experience), but because one can avoid the issue of having to go from the start of the CD track every time you want to go over a part of the dance. But, I digress.
Sigur Ros music video
The Valtari Mystery Film Experiment is a crowd-sourcing project from Icelandic band, Sigur Ros.
sigur rós have given a dozen film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever comes into their head when they listen to songs from the band’s new album valtari. the idea is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom. among the filmmakers are ramin bahrani, alma har’el and john cameron mitchell.
“we never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. we don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. with the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. none of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it could be interesting.”
They have opened up their experiment to all filmmakers over the world. You too can make a video for Sigur Ros. Details are on their website. What you need to do is download their album, pick a song, make a music video for it, upload it to vimeo or youtube, and enter details on the Talenthouse Facebook app page. You can vote on your favourite music video (so expect posts coming up with links to our entry saying, ‘vote here!’).
The winners get a great deal of promo on Sigur Ros’ websites, and masses of kudos. And $5000.
Last weekend, I was a camera operator on an entry by filmmaker Matt Thomas.The song? Varuo
Busy Times 