NSWFTO

Dealing With Rejection

Just a quick note to tell you all the NSWFTO declined to back our little project 'Crashing by Design'. The prospects for which were essentially sunk by an unfavorable Reader's Report written by one NG. MW informed me by phone that the meeting essentially goes on what the Reader's Report says so they decided not to go ahead.

Which is fine until you sit there and ponder if the Reader's Report was actually fair. I've been canvassing a few fellow screenwriters who have come back and said, "what she says is right, but how she says it is hostile". I actually disagreed. The Reader completely missed the Hamlet plot points we worked into the story and she kept complaining that it didn't ring true to her when in fact, the part she was complaining about was based on a true story.

If you get sunk by somebody who is making a good point, then yeah. It's a fair cop. When you get sunk by somebody who didn't get the story, then it's not a fair cop. Thank you NG, I'll never forget you and your idiotic input that sunk our application. One of these days I sincerely hope I have the opportunity to repay that favor when I get to sink one of your projects.

I also imagine that a script that tacitly points to the various corruptions in NSW is not going to win over a NSW Government organ, but you get that.

Is There Any Point In Even Trying? - Part 2

Sorry About The Comments Section
I'm sorry that the comments section isn't working. Encouragingly, I received a number of phone calls to that effect after my last entry. People wanted to tell me they felt strongly enough about this situation in Australia. They wanted to comment, but couldn't. I don't know what's going wrong with google, but you might just have to bear with me a little bit.

An AFTRS Graduate, You Say?
I've been reflecting some more on how this situation even came to pass in Australia. Back in my days at AFTRS, it was bleeding obvious that there was an industry and that it was on the verge of making s big mark on the world. Films were getting made. People who graduated only years ago were making feature films. They had distributors and were winning spots in prestigious international festivals. It seemed the Australian Film Industry was finally coming of age as an industry.

Well, I can report to you the simple fact that none of the people I graduated with have directed a feature film on film. It's amazing, really. Daniel Kriege and Samantha Lang from the years after me have made their films, but I don't think anybody from my year has directed their feature film. It's a sorry tale, but it's true.

Last December I was working a Christmas party for some Pay TV company and ran into the guy from the year above, who was once the "the Most Likely" to go and make his films. In all this time, he hadn't gone on to be that. Neither have I - well, I hve Key Psycho, but what the hey? We both were just 2 guys who had not fulfilled the expectations that were placed on us by the lofty institution - That night he was the DJ, and I operated the video camera as people who barely knew anything about lighting gave speeches in the dark. We barely acknowledged one another and kind of walked off with a shrug. It's sad, really.

From a bird's eye point of view, what happened was that the investing part of the industry contracted severely in the wake of the 10BA rule changes in the early 1990s, and this was followed by a general contraction of the scope of the industry to the point where the market for Australian Films in Australia itself evaporated. My part in the story has been the year in year out struggle t convince people that I can actually direct a film, but each year the hurdles get higher, the terms get tougher, the opening gets smaller until I can no longer even get an application accepted by the NSWFTO for project development.

You'd think that anybody who graduated AFTRS and was still in the business decade later was committed to the business in spite of its state was somebody you would want to at least look into, but no - they really didn't want to know. Why the hell is the Federal government even funding AFTRS to create graduates like me, if the State government isn't interested? The mind boggles. And I'm not alone.

I'm not really here to go over that terrain again, but needless to say, there's a gigantic disconnect between what the government thinks it's doing and what actually happens at the policy level. If you're going to produce 10-20 film makers a year at AUD$9 million p.a., you'd think that you wanted an industry that was making at least 50 films a year. nobody seems to be doing the maths. Nobody seems to be copping the blame for the fact that only 14 get made and all f them have government funding. There are a lot of angry people out here as a result.

PB was telling me he knows a Sydney based producer who is working with a Brisbane based Director, and neither can get support from the NSWFTO or Film Queensland because one of the 'Key Creatives' is not living and working in the state. This is notwithstanding that the film is about something overseas. Yeah, the NSWFTO won't help because the director attached is a Cane Toad and Film Queensland won't help because the Producer is a cockroach. Hooray for State of Origin!

Russell Crowe Isn't Interested, Why The Fuck Should You Be Interested?
The bottom line is this: our top talent want to come back to work in Australia as a perk. The world is a big place. Once you are out of Australia and you become a bankable star in the world market, it's really hard to justify coming back to Australia.

The problem is, any time you want to talk to the commercial entities such as a distributor about making a film, they always seem to ask for big names (And the big names ask for distributors to be lined up before they read your script but that is another travesty). It's wishful thinking that the A-Listers who have effectively *graduated* to the world market would be interested in working on a small Australian film when they would be working for mega-bucks playing a comic book super hero (Yeah, I'm talking about you Hugh Jackman!). By insisting on the unrealistic, producers, directors and writers are forced to wait. And wait. And wait some more... until they get no answer and they move onto the next A-Lister who won't return communications (That would be you Guy Pearce!)

The question that begs to be answered is, why on earth do the distributors and production companies keep on insisting on these pipe dreams instead of just developing new talent? All you gotta do is look. Untapped talent is the 'market inefficiency', but nobody with any money seems to have sense - which seems to confirm the adage: 'Money is Wasted On The Rich'.

Ask The Market, Stupid!
Year after year, Australian films fail in the market place. They do. It's just the stark reality of it all. They get made half-cocked, and they they get to markets half-heartedly. After 20 years, the Australian public has learned to totally mistrust the brand. Ironically, there's probably a stronger market for Australian product in say, Europe than Australia simply because we're exotic to them. Until we're successful overseas again, I just don't think we're going to win back our own public. The thing about the 1980s was that the market didn't hate Australian Films as much as they do now.

How did this happen? Imagine if I was a parochially loyal customer of say, a local cheese company. You keep buying the cheese even if the quality is uneven because you're loyal to the brand. Until one day you come across a string of really bad cheese and you say, "That's it. I'm done with the local cheese factory. I've supported their product for years but this last run of cheeses has been dreadful." And so you stop buying from them on principle. This has been happening for years.

The most commonly asked question by non-film people is "why don't we make Mad Max type movies any more? That was fun". Why don't we make exciting action movies?"
The answer is not: "because Mel won't come home to do anything."
The answer is: there's a whole cabal of people in government and in the private sector who don't want the Australian industry to be commercially driven.
"But why not? I'd love to see a kick-arse Aussie action movie."
"I'd love to make one myself," I tell them. "But it just won't happen."
You should see the bewildered looks. They're the market. They hate our cheese.

Is There Any Point In Even Trying?

The 'Australian Film Industry' Is Not An Industry - It's A Rort For Superannuated Bureaucrats

I always get some flack when I call it as I see it, but put frankly, the Australian Film Industry is not an industry proper when you consider that it only makes 14 feature films a year and every single one of them gets a government grant to get to the crank in. Let's not even forget to mention that when it does get made, the Australian public lines up in queues NOT to watch them. They discover them years later and ask, "why do our films suck? I mean, why, do, they suck so-o-o-o MUCH?!"

That's right. The average Australian film goers hate our films and would much rather spend money on Hollywood fare or English fare or some exotic European movie than pay to see our own low budget, state-sanctioned, ideologically controlled, politically correct, historically-revisionist, culturally cringing craptastic, BORING MOVIE. I don't blame them as lately, I've felt the same way. Heck, for $12.98 at K-Mart, I'd rather buy an old, odd, DVD title than see a dumb Australian picture at the cinemas for $15.50.

The rest of us who (sometimes) toil in this business hoping to make anything are just in denial of this fact. Your average Australian tax-payer is always astounded at how much money goes to the filmmakers who manage to get funding out of this system - and then they promptly vote with their wallets not to support this system. It's been going on for years. Any time anybody says "I'd like to make a kick-butt genre picture," they get given the cold shoulder. Any time any body wants to make a picture that might go and earn export dollars, the funding bodies tell the producers developing the project claim it is "not an Australian Story".

Sometimes it seems it is a lot more important that the story is parochially Australian than the fact that Australian filmmakers are struggling to make their films. It's an insult that gets repeated year after year, after year. I wish I could vote them out like I would a government - but alas, I can't. Think about that. Think about the oppressive tyranny of that utter lack of options. That, my friends is the stench of bullshit emanating from these 'Film Bureaucracies'.

And with that, I bring to you the latest brouhaha in the disaster that is known as the Australian Film Industry.

GEORGE MILLER: We're kind of stuck in those old paradigms, where anything big, or anything Hollywood is bad. Hollywood is in turmoil, Warner Brothers is cutting down its production, the biggest studio in the world is cutting down its production by half.

So they're in turmoil, everyone's bewildered there, and we're somehow back here in this little back water, resting on our laurels, and we don't have a film industry anymore.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: George Miller's tilt for the rebate is being hotly debated by the powerbrokers of Australian cinema. Many of them gathered in Canberra to celebrate the merger of the three major film funding agencies into Screen Australia. But it's the change to the way movies will be financed that was causing most of the excitement.

SIGRID THORNTON, ACTOR: I think this gives back some ownership to filmmakers. It's a very exciting period. It's going to go through some teething stages, and I'm sure that the Government will be responsive to those teething stages, and I think it will take time to settle.

BRIAN ROSEN, FILM FINANCE CORPORATION: It will allow Australian filmmakers to tell bigger stories. Because an offset basically delivers 40 per cent of your budget, which is a big step in the right direction to get your film financed.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: Finding the right formula to finance films has always been tricky. the controversial 10ba tax incentive paid for many of the films in the 80s. It was a generous tax incentive which was often abused and eventually dumped.

Private investors scampered, and although the new Government incentive guarantees a refund of 40 per cent of a film's budget, the producers still have to find the other 60 per cent.

GEOFF BROWN, SCREEN PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION: Financial markets are collapsing around us. Films are a very risky business. But that's the challenge for us. We've got to change our profile with the investment community. We've got to engage with them on a different level than we have in the past. It's not Government handout, it's bloody hard work.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: Making films is one thing. Attracting audiences is quite another. Last year Australians spent nearly $900 million on movie tickets. But they spent only 4 per cent of that figure on the 25 Australian films released. And half of that was on George Miller's Happy Feet.

GEORGE MILLER: I heard a critic the other day, a serious critic, say "going to an Australian film is like going to the dentist; you know you ought to, but you know you're in for a lot of pain".

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: There were high hopes for Gillian Armstrong's new film Death Defying Acts. An a-list cast, a proven director and a good story. It was an Australian Scottish co-production. In the top 15 films, it came in a disappointing ninth on its first outing last weekend in spite of sophisticated marketing.

Another lower budget movie, The Black Balloon was the only other Australian entry coming in at number 11. Gillian Armstrong is used to the cut and thrust of movie financing and the whims of those who decide whether or not to fund a film.

GILLIAN ARMSTRONG, DIRECTOR: When we would tried to make me a career, we were knocked back by the AFC, the Australian Film Corporation, and it was lucky we had the New South Wales one to go to, because the AFC said there's been too many period films, go away.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: So it could backfire?

GILLIAN ARMSTRONG: It could backfire by putting them all together and making a small number of people decide which films are made, so it's no easy answer.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: And even star power is no guarantee.

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, ACTOR: I've had a few little projects I've wanted to do in Wales and I've been just been knocked down. And I've gone personally knocking on doors. And it's like it's not really... it's too kind of like, it's too Welsh.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: There's no doubt that this is a watershed moment for Australian films and why the key players are nervous about George Miller's criticism.

If he walks he says he'll take not only Justice League away, but also Happy Feet Two, which would probably qualify for the 40 per cent producer rebate.

GEORGE MILLER: We've virtually lost them to this country now. I just got off the phone trying to keep Happy Feet Two in this country.

Justice League is absolutely borderline. And we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars circulating through the economy, and more importantly, thousands of high-end skilled creative jobs in a sustained industry. Work for the next five or six years and it's been frittered away by people who do not understand the industry, they're stuck 20 years ago in the past.

BRIAN ROSEN: Look, there's a truth in what George has to say. Definitely the industry is a cottage industry.

There is a underemployment in the industry. We all know that, that people really only work six months of the year. And what we're hoping with the offset over the next five years, is that the industry will grow from $600 million to $1 billion, that's where it should sit to have gainful employment from everybody in the industry as it is at the moment.

ANNE MARIA NICHOLSON: But two important questions remain. What is an Australian story? And do audiences here really care about them any more?

Yeah, getting your teeth pulled is about right. It's just as I said. And in all the kerfuffle, you don't really get the sense of urgency from these government bodies that maybe this is not working out the way it should. My own personal experiences of this make me feel like there needs to be a serious revolution and these bureaucrats need to be shot against the wall or placed under the guillotine. It's criminal that they pull down immense amounts of money in government salaries while they put up roadblocks every which way to stop films from getting made. They all make Beth Morgan look like the Virgin Mary - at least with Beth Morgan, you had a shot at getting your building put up if you shagged her.

Meanwhile, the distributors are pulling out:

Palace Films was until recently the most active and sometimes very successful distribber of niche Aussie pics ("Chopper," "Ten Canoes"), but after suffering from an oversupply of underperforming fare, the shingle reined back its investment.

"We tried to reach a critical mass, but we had too many; it's so much work," Palace Films manager Benjamin Zeccola says.

"We are shifting our focus back toward international titles," he adds. "We will still support certain Australian titles, although we will be far more selective."

Roadshow Films has been the major distrib of broader Aussie fare, but the shingle has none dated, and only actioner "The Square" is confirmed for 2008.

Last year, Roadshow released "December Boys" with Daniel Radcliffe and Greg Mclean's frightener "Rogue," but neither met expectations.

Topper Joel Pearlman says the shingle isn't gun-shy. "It just depends when the scripts are ready," he says.

According to some producers, there a two reasons development as stalled -- first, the drawn-out review of film-funding prior to the introduction in mid-2007 of the new rebate; and now, the many questions about how the rebate can be best used.

Pearlman, though, has Roadshow raring to go. "Traditional funding mechanisms are still there," Pearlman says, adding that the company has a staff working on just Australian films. Roadshow has significant plans to capitalize on the new 40% rebate, Pearlman says.

Christ almighty, I hate my industry right now. Having gone past the fear, I absolutely loathe it.

Film Script Update

It's Like Talking To Martians

As you may know, I'm working on a story about a North Shore widow who is dating a drug lord over the objections of her grown children. The working title at one point was 'Grandma is F*cking A Drug Lord', but we eventually settled on 'Crashing By Design'.

Last week, we finalised the treatment and lengthy application form and sent it in to the NSWFTO by express post. Within the day of it arriving, I received a phone call querying our collective writing credit. Yes, my writing partner has only written one short film but it's not like she doesn't know how a script works, having worked as an actor for years. Me? well, I told them I *do* have a screen credit for a feature film.
"Oh," the woman who I will not name here (just yet) said. "I'll get MW to give you a call. He's away for a couple of days, but I don't think you can submit a treatment. We'll need a first draft before we accept an application from such an inexperienced pair."
"I'm sorry, inexperienced?"
"Look, MW will call you later this week when he gets back.
"Uh-huh."
Except, he didn't.
The rest of the week went by with nary a peep. Finally, MW called my writing partner's place and left a message yesterday, and I spent the whole day today, trying to call him back. I left messages, I waited, I called again only to find the FTO was closed at that time; probably loafing off having Christmas lunches, I thought. Wouldn't you?

I finally caught him at 16:08. According to MW, I "didn't have enough professional standing".
"I have a feature credit. What's wrong with it?"
"Well, you share it with a number of people."
"So?"
"Well it seems hard for us to judge that you have sufficient experience as a writer. We'll at least need a first draft."
"Insufficient experience? Have you read my CV?"
"Well these are the guidelines."
"I know I'm not David Williamson, but how is anybody ever meant to get in?"
"What do you mean?"
"You only made at best 15 feature films last year. That's the whole Australian Film Industry. How can anybody qualify if they're NOT David Williamson?"
"We did fund a lot more projects in the periphery of those films."
"Yes, but only if they had multiple credits hat were produced. So you only want to fund the people other people funded."
"Well these are the guidelines. I know they're strict but I have to apply them."
"I read your guidelines very carefully. Had I applied for the new writers grant..."
"...That program is under review at the moment."
"Well, look, hypothetically, had I applied for that grant, you would have disqualified me for having had a credit. I read your guidelines very carefully in the interest of not committing fraud."
"These are the guidelines."
"Yes well, I'm asking how does anybody ever get in"
"The thing is, this development frame work only accepts treatments from very experienced writers only. People with at least one or more feature film credit."
"So what's wrong with mine? You accepted TE's submission a few years ago on the strength of the same project that he and I worked on. I don't see what the difference is."
"Well, that was a few years ago. Guidelines and their interpretations change over time."
He sounded uncomfortable. Why wouldn't he, because he knew I was right and he was caught out in a contradictory position. not that that stops a bureaucrat from being obtuse.

MW then went on to say that the guidelines were about to change in 2-3 months and that they would become more *lenient*.
Lenient. Get that? LENIENT Like some judge handing out sentences. Talk about a Freudian slip.
"So what do you recommend I do?"
"That's up to you how you spend the next 2-3months. Wait to submit again or do something else?"
Christ Almighty. Did you get that? If those were the choices, I wouldn't be asking. You wonder why people loathe and detest the FTO, there you have it - the kind of obtuseness that makes you want to run screaming in the streets yelling abuse. I'm amazed that spree killers target Churches and shopping malls and not Film funding bodies.
Anyway, I put the phone down and thought there you have it. After 20 years of toiling in the industry, I don't have enough "professional standing" to even have my treatment read by a bunch of bureaucrats. Then I went screaming abuse through the streets.

Shuttle Update

What Goes Up Must Come Down
Or so goes the saying. NASA of course delayed the shuttle re-entry for 24 hours .

"We are going to officially wave you off for 24 hours," shuttle communicator Ken Ham told Eileen Collins, commander of Discovery. The shuttle crew are unlikely to be disappointed, said astronaut Mark Polanski, in Florida to watch the landing: "A bad day in space is better than any day on Earth."

The weather forecast for Florida on Tuesday still predicts a slight chance of rain. If weather conditions remain unsuitable, the shuttle could also land at Edwards Air Force base in California - where the weather forecast is excellent - or even at White Sands in New Mexico. NASA prefers not to land in these western locations as the shuttle then has to be transported back to Florida for its next launch at a cost of millions of dollars.

In theory the shuttle could remain in space until Wednesday, but NASA will be extremely reluctant to leave the shuttle in orbit until then, as it would then be forced to land whatever the weather. It is therefore all but certain that Discovery will land in Tuesday.

The touchdown will be the first since Columbia disintegrated during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere in February 2003, and is certain to jangle nerves at NASA and beyond.

Damp Night

Earlier on Monday, practice touchdowns by the Shuttle Training Aircraft at the Florida landing strip helped evaluate the weather, and found a deck of broken cloud at 300 metres (1000 feet) altitude. This could restrict the returning shuttle's view of the well-lit runway, and so entry flight director Leroy Cain chose to delay the landing.

The weather around the space center had been damp for most of the night.

Rain prevents a landing as the moisture damages the heat shield tiles. That does not endanger the craft, which would have already experienced the heat of re-entry, but would require repairs before the shuttle's next mission.

Once cleared for landing, Discovery's Orbital Maneuvering System engines begin their de-orbit burn about 90 minutes before touchdown. This marks the start of the fiery descent through the atmosphere. At the end of the three-minute burn, the craft is committed to landing at the chosen site.

So it's no big deal. It's just the weather.

Cowra Visit Part II
The second day of our Cowra visit was to do with the 61st anniversary commemorative events. Or as Geoff put it, 'commercials for Cowra'. We got up early to observe the ceremonies in 3 different locations as well as bugle-calls and speeches. Then it was off to the studios being built in Cowra. For the first time, there was also a wreath laid on behalf of Featherstone, NZ where a similar turn of events took place albeit on a much smaller scale, in 1943. Geoff, being the most prominent and possibly only New Zealander present got asked to lay the wreath at the cemetery. It should be noted that there was a sudden drop in temperature as proceedings got under way at the cemetery.

Basically we were there to check it out, and check it out we did. Brian Burgess swung into his hard-question mode and once again, I was hearing the same questions being fired in two languages at once. I won't go into the details, because that would be too indiscreet, but I will report that Geoff felt that we could start shooting on their premises tomorrow if we had to. That doesn't mean that's what we'll do, but Cowra studio did make a big impression on the team.


The general inspection of the studio was followed by an interview with the News/CAff from PRIME TV with Brian, Brian, Geoff and studio boss, Graham Patrick. The piece aired and went for 90 seconds, which means it was significant local news. Brian Williams also did an interview for ABC radio.


Then it was lunch at the Japanese Gardens with Don Kibbler, the deputy mayor of Cowra and other important dignitaries.
After the lunch, we headed back to Sydney with our heads filled with the things we'd seen and heard. It was a very good fact-finding mission indeed. Hideki seemed quite surprised by the scale and the detail of the Japanese Gardens.

Yankee Season In Doldrums
It's that time of the week where I grumble about the Yanks. First of all, the week saw the Yankees drop a series to the Cleveland Indians, and then squeezed out a series win against the Toronto Blue Jays. What's really annoying was the way the Yankees lost the 2 games pitched by recent arrival Shawn Chacon who pitched quite okay; as well as the 2 rather crappy starts by Randy Johnson; a bad start by Moose; all making the starting rotation seemingly a black hole - as in no-light and all-suck. Al Leiter got a 6-2 win today and Aaron Small picked up his third win on the trot but these fill-in guys aren't supposed to be the ones doing the winning. In the absence of Carl Pavano Tiger Wang and Jaret Wright it's supposed to be Randy, Moose and Shawn (though it was the bullpen that squandered both of Shawn Chacon's good outings). I guess you take any wins you can get, but the pitching situation is looking worse than grim.

Now we find Carl Pavano might need surgery as his shoulder has turned out to be a bigger problem than thought; and Randy might be hurt too. On top of this, the Bosox have been playing well, moving further away in the standings, and the Oakland A's have been securing ground in the Wildcard race as the Yankees played .500 ball this week.
So you can see I've got a lot to grumble about.

The Ashes Series.
I just had a thought while I was watching some of the second Test this week. The Aussies looked tired, bored, lackluster and a little panicky without Glen McGrath. They failed to contain the English bats. In stark contrast, I don't think I've seen a English side as hungry-looking as these guys the Aussies faced. They remind me of the very young 1989 Aussie side that ushered in a decade and a half of Australian dominance. I'm not saying the current crop of English are as talented as that side, but it seemed very clear to me they were as hungry. Unless the Australians find a bit of fight in themselves, they have a real battle on their hands.

Cowra Visit 2005 - Part 1

The Director Cometh

The 'Giants at Dawn' creative team finally got to gather in Cowra, thanks to the efforts of Michelle Wilde and Robin Clifton at the NSWFTO. In rode director Geoff Murphy and producer Brian Burgess, and then it was on the road to Cowra via Goulburn with producer Brian Williams; Japanese producer Hideki Ujiie; project stalwart Michael Jacob, and omni-functional cameraman Peter Beeh.


It might not seem like much to outside observers, but I have to say it was a big event. Most importantly, we got to the actual place where the events took place, and presto, everybody got a feel for exactly what the event might have looked like. For years Brian and I have been talking about the importance of the landscape, both geographically but also morphologically, as having had a big input into the events that transpired 61 years ago. Once we were on the sloped hill. Geoff was onto its important in a flash. Looking at the diagram on the sign, he commented, "looking at this alone, it's clear they weren't breaking out. Their intent was suicide."


There's a lot that was discussed and analysed on the site; one of the big cards played was by Cowra 'heavyweight' Don Kibbler who broached the concept of actually building replicas on the site and shooting the film there on-site. Geoff commented that perhaps that would be something that would galvanise the cast if they knew what they were about to re-enact actually took place on the very slope. It seemed insane, but also inspired. All I thought was, "Why does that seem like such a damned natural idea?"
Anyway, I told Geoff it would be excellent because it would extra weight when he gives the cast his famous direction "Run like bastards" on the day.


I looked for the flat bit of ground in the private property that had the baseball field, but this time, the earth was not exposed, and so the old baseball diamond was not visible. Instead, I give you this rather lame picture (above) of the flat bit where they played ball. How do I know for sure? It's because it's the only flat bit in the entire campsite where they could have played baseball. The slope on the hill is that steep.

Brian Williams was pretty excited that things were going really well, and Brian Burgess was motoring away asking the hard questions; and as it turns out Hideki Ujiie was asking the very same questions in Japanese, so I had a heck of time interpreting on the fly. It was madness at one point as Brian Burgess and Hideki Ujiie were asking each other the very same questions about the logistics of the possibility of actually shooting on the site. Don's suggestion essentially blindsided us and we were staggering around wondering the same questions at once.


Later we visited the cemetery as well as the gardens, but undoubtedly the biggest breakthrough of the day was the possibility of shooting the actual exterior stuff on the actual site. Are we excited yet? Oh yes we are.
Mr. Ujiie came to the stone laid in honour of the Japanese war dead and said, "Art, I think we'd better go deliver a prayer."
And it so happened Don Kibbler had some incense ready; he actually keeps them stocked in his car for these moments, which goes to show how well-practised his routine is. Thus it was that Mr. Ujiie (above) got me up to the stone to lay down some incense for the Japanese war dead and *gulp* pray. What can I say, but *things* keep coming up with this project. :)

---

A funny note: Over a few beers at the Imperial Hotel Geoff and I got into a discussion about the suicide mission mentality as he's been reading a detailed account of the kamikaze missions staged out of the Philippines in late 1944. - Geoff's a big time WWII buff; like me he just digs aircraft carriers and naval aviation stuff. Some guys are into infantry or artillery; some guys (like Peter Jackson) like tanks. Geoff and I like airplanes and aircraft carriers. Indeed, Geoff's first words off the plane to me were "I've built the (aircraft carrier) Shokaku. It's about 6 foot long at 1/144tth scale."
I asked him what he thought of 'Pearl Harbor' and he commented "I was in Hawaii at the time it came out. I heard there were actual veterans who saw action at Pearl Harbor, who were invited to the movie premier and they came out crying. They were crying because it was so wrong; not because it was any good."
Not to mention the zero fighters were painted ocean green (!).

Today Is Another Day

Space Shuttle Discovery Does A Backflip

And as it turns out, so does NASA as it suspends further Space Shuttle flights.

"As with any unexpected occurrence, we will closely and thoroughly evaluate this event and make any needed modifications to the shuttle before we launch again," the NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, said in a statement on the NASA Web site. "This is a test flight. Among the things we are testing are the integrity of the foam insulation and the performance of new camera equipment installed to detect problems. The cameras worked well. The foam did not."The foam does not appear to have struck the Discovery, so the decision to ground the shuttle fleet will not curtail its 12½-day mission to the International Space Station, the officials said. But further flights will be postponed indefinitely, starting with that of the Atlantis, which was to have lifted off as early as September.

"Until we fix this, we're not ready to go fly again," William W. Parsons, the manager of the shuttle program, said at a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center here on Wednesday evening.

John Shannon, a NASA flight operation and integration manager, said today that NASA asked the mission management team on Wednesday to think about what they would do differently if the Atlantis does not fly in September.

"That decision certainly hasn't been made," he said. "But we have to face reality, we had a significant problem that we had to go address and fix."

It goes to show 100% safety is actually quite difficult to accomplish. BTW, here's another spectacular pickie from the NYT:


From The Pleiades Cable Wire Service
This came in this morning from Pleiades who keeps an eye on this sort of thing.
The recent police shooting of a Brazillian Electrician in England has some people scratching their heads.

Ok, this thing with the murdered Brazilian is just too much. Why isn't anybody talking about this in what would seem to be an extremely logical deduction. Consider:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/22/london.eyewitness/index.html

"As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified," said Whitby.

"The next thing I saw was this guy jump over the barriers and the police officers were chasing after him and everyone was just shouting 'Get out, get out,'" Wells said.

"He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."
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Now this is saying they thought he was a suicide bomber... well is that how you confront a suicide bomber? I mean the man is wearing pounds of explosives, or must be, so is it the best tactic to chase him into a crowded area, throw him to the ground, and fire at his torso five times, exactly where the explosives must be...?

We all know, now, that Menezes was not a suicide bomber. He was just a Brazilian electrician. So why, then, was he so scared or as the witness says "petrified". I mean if the police are chasing you (or just some random 3 guys, as by some account the "police" were plainly clothed) then would you be "petrified"?

You might be startled, a nerved, surprised, ready to defend yourself or maybe scream for help (as he was in a crowded area). But not petrified!

It seems we have both the victim and the officers behaving not at all as they should have been. The police behaved as though Menezes was not a suicide bomber (or at least not one about to blow up) and Menezes did not act as the innocent electrician that we're told he was.

http://rense.com/general67/cops.htm

"Jean was followed from the apartment building where he resided, to a subway station, where he was then accosted by 'plain clothes officers' who chased him down to the train, tripped him, jumped on him, and then shot him five times in the torso."

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/22/london.tube/index.html

Go figure. The rest of the article is as unnsettling as they come.

Yankee Ups & Downs
The Yankees lost yesterday 7-3, to the reigning Cy Young winner Johann Santana and the Minnesota Twins. The game featured this play by Joe Mauer of the twins:



Take a look at Mauer's legs. Not only is he blocking the basepath, he's on the outside of the 3B line. His left leg is actually stretched out practically tripping the runner (which just sso happens to be our man, St. Derek of the Pinstripes) . Technicallly, in any rulebook (even the one used by the Major Leagues) this is obstruction. The runner's safe. But of course in the major leagues, all sorts of things go on. The amazing thing, is, nobody says anything. Nary a comment - which is why I'm taking this opportunity to point it out. :).

I remarked on the Nomo signing yesteerday. here's the NYT take on the signing :

Nomo, who turns 37 next month, will join Class AAA Columbus today and is not a candidate to start Saturday because he has not pitched since July 15. That was his 19th and final start for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who released him after he went 5-8 with a 7.24 earned run average.

"He's got to get some work in, sharpen up and get a feel for it," Manager Joe Torre said. "It's just like being on the D.L. He just needs to get some action down there and have them tell us what they think."

Even if Nomo cannot help the Yankees this weekend, Cashman said it made sense to sign him considering the state of the rotation. Nomo has pitched for six teams over 11 major league seasons, with a 123-109 record.

"He's Hideo Nomo - he's one of the premier pitchers of probably all-time, for what he accomplished coming over from Japan to come here," Cashman said. "You know he's not afraid. He's one of those rare special ones. If you look at Nomo and compare him to some of our other in-house choices, it's a no-brainer."

Goodness. With that logic, you'd bring back Ron Guidry.
More Jeter hagiography as a palette of icons

Emergency starter Aaron Small had his second outing and came up very big today .

Against the Twins, he gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings, walked none and struck out one, retiring his final 12 batters after Jacque Jones' tying double in the fourth. It was the longest outing in the major league career of Small, who has just five starts among his 149 appearances.

Tom Gordon pitched the eighth, and Mariano Rivera finished for his 26th save -- all in a row since failing in his first two chances of the season. New York, with only Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina remaining from its original five-man rotation, closed within 1 1/2 games of idle first-place Boston in the AL East.

Sheffield hooked a three-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole in the first inning off Joe Mays (5-6). After Minnesota tied it on Luis Rodriguez's two-run single in the second and Jones' double, Sheffield put the Yankees ahead for good with a run-scoring single in the fifth. He is batting .396 (38-for-96) with runners in scoring position this year.

So the Yankees still sit 1.5 games behind the Bosox.

A Night At The Opera
I attended a function held by the NSWFTO with Pleiades and Mrs. Pleiades last night. The FTO function was for the regional film fund and the various film bodies in rural Australia. So we got to meet important liaison people from Cowra for our 'Giants at Dawn' project, which of course is starting to gather momentum.

There's a lot of industry interest in this production now that we are talking to a big time Hollywood Agent about a certain star he represents; as well as having sewn up some big names at the Australian end; not to mention the mighty Geoff Murphy being signed on as our director (and he's not fading away!)

We got to speak to people from Northern Rivers; Film Mid North Coast Armidale; the ACT Production Liaison officer; Broken Hill's Tourism Services Manager various FTO officials and they were all very positive and enthusiastic. All in all it was a very encouraging night. Stay tuned for that one too.