Suit Up! the production blog

Up on YouTube: Le sous-terrain (Underground)

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 10:51:00 +0930

Having okayed it with my actresses, Clementine and Nescha, I've uploaded my Kino film from this year's Kino Kabaret. From go to whoa (including rehearsal and shooting) this film took four ~~hours~~ days; I had some serious writer's block! I wanted to make a sci-fi film, set entirely in a single room, and in French, so that's what this is. Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Adelaide Punk finally on YouTube!

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:37:00 +0930

In a move far bolder than I have made as yet, Alan Sheldon, my colleague and former classmate from Advanced MAPS 2006 has finally put his masterpiece, Adelaide Punk up on YouTube. The film centres around Jack and Sally, a young punk couple in love who run away from home only to find themselves caught in a spider's web when they stumble upon a madman's tea party. Director Alan Sheldon holds his tongue in cheek and his heart on his sleeve with references to David Lynch, John Waters, Michel Gondry and punk culture.

Adelaide Punk has many ties to Suit Up!; I was production designer and editor on the former and Alan was 2nd A.D. on the latter. Furthermore, two of Adelaide Punk's major characters, Sally, the young punkress, and Eddie Crackers, the mad tea enthusiast, are played by Lynda Ferguson and Trav Nash (respectively).

Do check it out, and of course you can read the now-defunct blog here (and Alan's new project, Mondo Insano, has a blog here.

EDIT: And you can watch the behind the scenes stuff, too!

Trav Nash pleads Plotless @ Adelaide Fringe

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:07:00 +0930

Trav Nash
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

Suit Up!'s own Trav Nash is performing his show "Trav Nash Has Lost The Plot" all this week at Rhino Room (downstairs, 6:30pm, 27-31 March 2007). Adelaideians and Fringe Festival attendees interested in some bizarre comedy, madcap animations and incredible guest stars should go check it out. Be warned: it's not for the faint of heart. I'm scarred for life, but I laughed my ass off.

And good luck to Lynda Ferguson, who this week headed off on an extended trip to Sydney.

AFF07, Kino Kabaret all done

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Wed, 7 Mar 2007 11:16:00 +1030

I was working in the Lab late one night...
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

The Adelaide Film Festival and the Kino Kabaret 2007 are now over. I'm very sad about it all - I'd been looking forward to it for so long, and it was over all too quickly. Still, I am definitely the richer for both events, having taken in about 12 films and 5 special events in the duration of the festival. Can't wait for next time, let's hope I'm around for it!

AFF & Kino Kabaret 07

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:07:00 +1030

Something that I've been looking forward for the last two years is the Adelaide Film Festival 2007. This amazing biennial festival is always so enjoying and mind-blowing; I just hope I can afford the sort of experience that I managed last time as a volunteer.

A major part of this festival for me will be the Kino Kabaret 2007. Kino Kabarets involves rapid-fire film-making: scripting, shooting, cutting and screening short films in the space of 48 hrs. There are four screenings: an opening night, and then one at the end of each of the three 48 hour periods (if that made sense). Screening dates are as follows:
Sunday, 25th February
Tuesday, 27th February
Thursday, 1st March
Saturday, 3rd March
All screenings start at 9pm, all are being held at Electric Light Hotel & Producers Bar (235 Grenfell St, Adelaide SA) and all are FREE, baby! Come along, cheer us on, and let us know if you want to join in.

Pictures: Emily Smart EP launch

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 03:45:00 +1030

Emily Smart
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

A few pictures from Emily Smart's EP launch last night are up now on flickr. Enjoy, and congratulations, Em, on a fantastic show!

Lance Campbell writes up Alan Sheldon, Adelaide Punk

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Wed, 7 Feb 2007 13:45:00 +1030

Great news for my friend and colleague, Alan Sheldon, who, along with his film, Adelaide Punk, has garnered a mention in the newest issue of SALife magazine (February 2007 Vol 4 No. 2, p94-95). In his article "Location, Location", Lance Campbell, the magazine's Arts Editor includes a side-article entitled "It Could Happen To You", wherein he discusses how Alan came to use his own Adelaide cottage for interiors and exteriors in Adelaide Punk.

...A dozen fledgling filmmakers descended on his place to make Adelaide Punk, a film fairytale by Alan Sheldon. The scenes were finished in a day in Lance's kitchen and living room, the film is 10 minutes long and out now on DVD.

Congrats, Alan, and good on you to Lance for being such a great sport - what a lovely house you have!

UPDATE: With further thanks to Lance and to Jacqui Williams, Editor of SALife, I can include this .pdf of the article for those non-South Australians out there. Thanks, guys!

Emily Smart EP launch & Trav Nash Fringe show!

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 07:37:00 +1030

Suit Up!'s Emily Smart has another big show coming up, this time to launch her new solo EP. I've uploaded the poster, but keen eyes (like mine!) might already have spotted it around Adelaide. In any case, the details are as follows:
Jive (181 Hindley St, Adelaide)
8pm, 10th February 2007
featuring Cookie Baker and Nadjeska
Entry is $10

In other news of upcoming events, Suit Up!'s favourite Adelaide comedian, our very own Trav Nash, has a show coming up in Adelaide's 2007 Fringe Festival
Trav Nash has Lost The Plot
Rhino Room (downstairs)
6:30pm March 27th - 31st
Entry $15 ($10 conc.)
Tickets from FringeTIX

Oh, and...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 8 Jan 2007 13:39:00 +1030

HAPPY 2007!
What's in store for Suit Up! in the New Year? Well, a release, hopefully. We'll get there eventually; thanks for your patience!

The Black Doves

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 8 Jan 2007 12:52:00 +1030

Adelaide live music scene nomad, Spoz, has posted some photos from The Black Doves' most recent gig (at the Rhino Room last Friday) on his blog, where I was finally able to catch the band in all their gothic glory (pics about halfway down the page). It was a great show, and I'm so glad that I finally got to catch their act; Illicit Eve and The / Emily Smart / Duo are still in my sights (including Em's EP launch in February)!

Raise 'em high

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 06:11:00 +1030

Raise 'em high
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

So long, MAPS 2006. Love to you all.

The podcast's last hoorah...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Sat, 9 Dec 2006 05:33:00 +1030

The Suit Up! podcast was a fun, experimental part of the Suit Up! project. I first heard about podcasts on an episode of ABC Radio National's Background Briefing, but, like so many people, it wasn't until the release of iTunes 4.9 that I actually started listening to them. The grass-roots nature of podcasting, the way it put power in the hands of people, and the way it was free from censorship was just... electric. I had a few early favorites, including The Dawn And Drew Show and Geek Speak Radio.

When the Suit Up! project began, I got excited: here at last was something possibly worth podcasting about. I had the facilities to record myself at my disposal at school, and had lots of stuff going on to discuss. But despite my enthusiasm, podcasting and me just didn't work out. For one, I'm dull; I'm not well-suited to talking to no-one, as I just end up running off at the mouth and making stupid comments that beg to be edited out, but never will be because I'm no sound editor.

Secondly, it can get exhausting, not to mention pointless, blogging about every bit of your project and then regurgitating it for your podcast. It does nothing for you, and it's just tacky.

Thirdly, and this remained the main reason there are no more podcasts, I had no online server space to which I could upload my podcasts as soon as they were recorded; they'd either hang around til I found a way to get it up online, or they'd have to be compressed to ridiculous quality levels to fit on my measly 10MB Optus webspace. You really need server space to make a successful podcast; it's the best way to set up a good RSS feed, crucial to the subscription model that makes podcasts different from downloadable sound-files. It's that RSS feed that makes it possible for iTunes or iPodderX or whatever podcatcher you use to retrieve new episodes once they become available.

I just found the never-before-released fourth enstallment of the podcast. I still don't have any server space to make a dedicated and clean link, but I've uploaded it to MediaFire: SUPodcast004. Enjoy my rambling one last time, because I don't plan on making more of these anytime soon. I'm also taking down the link to the podcast feed, even though I do love that icon. Anyways, it's all about video-blogging now.

My kingdom for a website... well, not my kingdom, obviously.

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Thu, 7 Dec 2006 04:06:00 +1030

I was looking at the recent traffic statistics for both this blog and Suit Up!'s website. Both have gone up a bit since last week, so hey to all you newcomers. Sorry that there's not much to look at on the ol' website at the moment. I can't honestly say when something will be up, but it's on my mind all the time. It just something that we didn't cover enough this year. I asked a mate of mine who works in this field if he could make a website for me. He said he could do it for $1000, mates rates. I lol'd.

I've been toying with the idea of just making a website based on a Blogger template. It's not such a crazy idea, really. I could have multiple pages. Link to whatever I want. I could easily update it. I'm yet to think about it fully, but it's an idea that I'm kicking around. If anyone has some advice on this matter, I'd love to hear it.

The Army Of The Five Monkeys

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 16:25:00 +1030

The Army Of The Five Monkeys
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

We did it!

The DVDs have landed!

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 15:54:00 +1030

They're here! The DVDs have arrived, and for the most part, they're looking lovely. Everyone's stuff is looking pretty schmick, from what I've seen; I've only snared myself a copy of Adam's Me And My Friends and Stan's Adelaide's St Peter's Cathedral and Let Me Tell You About It but they're both professional efforts. Mine are not right though, which sucks: the printers have not printed the discs properly, leaving a large circle and DVD logo where there should not be either. I know where the mistake has been made, but it's not my mistake, and I'm a wee bit incensed. Nevertheless, everything else about them seems cool. I'd take them back, but then I wouldn't have anything to give my lovely cast tonight.

Tonight? Why, haven't you heard? It's the screening tonight!
7pm, Friday, 1 December
Marion Cultural Centre
287 Diagonal Rd
Oaklands Park, SA
FREE ENTRY!

Hope to see anyone and everyone there!

Bottom's Up!

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 13:38:00 +1030

Go see Suit Up!'s very own Guy O'Grady (Harris) when he treads the boards next week in Urban Myth's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The show runs from the 7th til the 9th of December; it's a short run but it should be fun!

Where: The Unley Village Green. Oxford Tce, Unley.
When: 7th, 8th and 9th December
Time: 6pm for pre-show entertainment, BBQ, stalls etc. This event is FREE.
8pm for A Midsummer Night's Dream
Price: $20 adults, $12 Concession. Various family tickets are also available. Call BASS on 131246 for further details. Tickets need to be purchased through BASS. Limited seating is available as picnic areas, so get in quick if you would like to book one of those.

Catch up...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 13:20:00 +1030

I've been catching up on a bit of Rocketboom. I was so behind on my viewing, but now I'm only a month behind. :\ There were some particularly good episodes, so I'm glad that I went back and covered them.

I went to see Mario Spate's band play the other night, but sadly missed them - again! I did however buy their CD, and it's really great, so look out for it: "Empty Out Your Heart" by The Black Doves.

Trav Nash's side-project Robots Kill Children also played that night, and were also missed by me. By all accounts it was a mind-exploding sensory overload of completely unrehearsed choons and ad-libbed acoustics. I'll have to catch the next one.

And it was a couple of weeks ago now, but Lynda Ferguson should be congratulated on her fantastic work in Pastiche, a play that was part of the Feast Festival. I saw the opening night performance, and Lynda was so good. Congrats, Lynda; hope the rest of the run went well!

A Fistful of MAPS...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:10:00 +1030

The screening is almost upon us, and with it comes our gorgeous poster! The graphic is shamelessly plundered from the original Italian poster for per un Pugno di Dollari so ssssshhutuuuup!

And MAPS is over! Much to tell, but I must now go to bed. More tomorrow, hopefully.

Thanks to Alan for starting the poster. He started, I finished. We stole.

Life Goggles | 4 easy steps to getting your videos online

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 17:27:00 +1030

Here's a great blog post that compares four different online video sites with regard to their sign-up process, uploading time and other factors. This is an interesting experiment, and one that I would like to see extended to other sites like Revver and blip.tv.

At this stage I would like to make Suit Up! available to as many sites as possible - I just want it to be seen. Even so, I have often wondered which offers the best quality - the LonelyGirl15 videos, hosted by Revver, look really great - not to mention the best exposure. We shall see!

Commentary recording (Sorry, Trav!)

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:52:00 +1030

I've been so busy the last little that I've barely blogged a single thing. That's why it's taken me a couple of days to get this pic up from our cast commentary recording on Tuesday night. Apologies to Trav Nash - I should've taken one more pic! :D Despite every recording issue under the sun, the commentary was lots of fun. Sadly, the levels were very very low, and the sound quality isn't as pristine as we like, but hey, in the end it's the content that counts, and my bad jokes are outweighed by the gold offered up by Nash, Guy and Lynda.

I am so excrutiatingly busy at the moment. The DVDs are due tomorrow afternoon. We're getting assessed next week. I'm working on two non-MAPS thingys to boot. It just never stops! It's almost over, but then again, I don't want it to end. :(

Nashember...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 6 Nov 2006 01:09:00 +1030

Trav Nash, Suit Up!'s most mischievous monkey has just posted a pile of dates for upcoming shows on his blog, The Unstoppable Zombie Corpse Of Trav Nash

"November 17th TRAV NASH new show DIESPACE
@ Rhino Room doors open @ 8pm and it's $10 @ the door

November 22nd TRAV NASH hosts RHINO ROOM
woooo!!!! doors open 8pm and $8.00 entry!

I know what your thinking thats a lot of Nash...how can I get more!
WELL!

November 25th SUPER SHOW with
Colonel Kernel, Dr El Suavo and Robots Kill Children
with Dj Zoo Keeper!
@ Rhino Room Doors open 9pm with $10 door entering fee!

WOW! yay talk about NASHember!"

Get along to the shows to support Trav's various vices!

Belittling...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:17:00 +1030

Even before belittle league's excellent track "Rock And Roll Ombudsman" became the opening theme for Suit Up! it was used in the above film, The Headache, by fellow Adelaide Kino-ite, Kate George. This was revealed to me last night when I saw Kate and Justin at the gig. It was fantastic to catch belittle league again after so long. It also gave me the chance to square away a bit of film-making beauracracy; thank goodness that's out of the way. Morgan is an absolute gentleman; in addition to being completely cooperative with regard to my using his music, he also gave me a free CD! Thanks, Morgan!

Once that gig was done, I dashed to the Grace to catch Illicit Eve, but sadly only caught their last two tracks. Next time, next time. I did pick up some sexy new merch, though. Cool beans.

There is exactly one week left to get all things done for Suit Up!, including the DVD. Commentaries are happening this Tuesday! Menus are being drawn up as we speak! It's going to be hell, but we'll see how we go. Wish me much luck!

Illicit Eve or Belittle League... You Decide!

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:54:00 +1030

There're a couple of Suit Up! related gigs coming up, on the same night, no less. Illicit Eve, featuring our very own Emily Smart will be making their triumphant post touring return to the Grace Emily, Waymouth St, Adelaide. They'll be playing with Rejusa, flogging their new t-shirts and generally being rocktastic.

At the same time, just a couple of blocks to the south, Belittle League will be shaking his booty for the masses in support of Home For The Def at The Prince Albert, Wright St, Adelaide. Belittle League is responsible for all the music that's heard in Suit Up!, including the wondrous squelching opening track, "Rock And Roll Ombudsman".

Both these awesome gigs will be happening this Thursday, November 2nd 2006 from 9pm. Get along and rock out!

SUITUPtv.com

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:43:00 +0930

Our proper website is still under construction, and it'll be a few weeks yet before anything really cool is up there. You can visit there if you want, though, and maybe bookmark it for future reference. :)

SUITUPtv.com

Jump in...

suitup@gmail.com (James Mellor) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:13:00 +0930

Well it's been a lovely and relaxing holiday. I just hope I'm ready for the next two months, which are sure to be blisteringly busy. I have secured myself a bit of work experience, which should be fantastic, but might get in the way of the end of my work on Suit Up! This project is so important to me. I'll do the best juggling I can to get things done on time.

Do you all know about the end of year screening? Whatever else happens, you'll get to see Suit Up! there, and on the big screen no less!

ADVANCED MAPS 2006 SCREENING
7pm, Friday December 1st
Marion Cultural Centre
287 Diagonal Rd, Oaklands Park
South Australia

Hope to see you there!