All posts by Mark

About Mark

Mark Poole is a writer and director of both drama and documentary. His most recent film Fearless about 92 year old playwright Julia Britton recently screened on ABC1. His career began when the feature film he wrote, A Single Life, won an AFI Award in 1987. Since then he has written more than 20 hours of broadcast television drama, won a directing award for the short film Basically Speaking at the St Kilda Film Festival, and was honoured with a major AWGIE, the Richard Lane Award in 2008.

Tropfest 2012 winners

Film, Latest News, , , ,

Wild weather can’t dampen spirits as winner adds some fizz to
Tropfest

Garry Maddox – SMH – February 20, 2012

Winners are grinners … Alethea Jones (with some other dude in the background)

IN THE race between the films and an approaching thunderstorm, the films won –
but only just – at the 20th Tropfest in the Domain last night.

In heavy rain and intermittent lightning, a judging panel that included Cate
Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Toni Colette, Asher Keddie and John
Polson gave the top prize at the country’s biggest short film festival to Alethea Jones
forLemonade Stand, a comedy about a man and his grandfather whose efforts to sell
lemonade bring a clash with an officious council officer.

She collected her prize in a near-deserted Domain, without a working microphone,
amid a few hundred hardy souls sheltering in the VIP tent.

Jones said she was ”absolutely thrilled” and ready to take the next step in her
filmmaking career. Asked whether she planned to step up from shorts to a feature
film, Jones said: ”I’ve got five ready to go.” She is the third woman to win in the past
five years, winning two weeks after signing up for the dole.

In a year in which the 700-plus entries were required to include a ”lightbulb” as the
signature item, Jones’s prizes include a trip to Los Angeles to meet film industry
executives, a $6000 camera and $10,000 cash.

Continue reading Tropfest 2012 winners →

Grand Designs – Building egos as well as homes

Documentary, Latest News,

Grand Designs – Building egos as well as homes

OPINION: Michael Duffy – SMH – February 20, 2012

I have a recurring dream in which the television program Grand Designs becomes
mixed up with Midsomer Murders. A serial killer is taking out all those irritating
couples in their North Face leisure wear, splattering viscera over the bare white
interiors of their concrete brag boxes in the English countryside.

This uncharitable vision stems from my love-hate relationship with Grand Designs,
which cleverly applies the hero’s journey to home building. In a typical program
Kevin McCloud, a natural television presenter, takes us through the journey of a
wealthy couple who overcome adversity to complete their building. He manages to
express telegenic surprise when deadlines are missed and budgets exceeded – as
though this were completely unexpected – and, at the end, blesses the enterprise with
an emotional, if somewhat vague, homily, such as: ”Although it is a very assertive
building, it’s also very subtle and sensitive” and “this brilliant, if unfinished, building

was snatched from the jaws of doom … buildings like this need heroes and heroines.”
The show is watched by a million Australians and its success tells us a lot about the
way we live now.

Continue reading Grand Designs – Building egos as well as homes →

Oscars voters white and male

Film, Latest News

Oscars voters have been finally unmasked – they are 94pc white and 77pc male. What a surprise!

As a well-trodden red carpet is rolled out the 84th Academy Awards ceremony this week, the question of who casts the final votes has reared its shiny gold head once again.

Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain, left) befriends herusekeeper Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer, right), in 'The Help' 'The Help' - A bitter-sweet tale

Octavia Spencer, who plays housekeep Minny Jackson in The Help, has been nominated for an Oscar Photo: DALE ROBINETTE

By Amy Willis, Los Angeles

Claims of inequality at the Oscars have rocked the Hollywood guild for years, with less than 4 per cent of awards being won by African Americans and only one award being given to a female director – Kathryn Bigelow; yet the academy has notoriously remained tight-lipped about its 5,765-strong voter roster.

A single statuette can add millions to box office revenues and propel an actor to instant stardom, but while winners reap the rewards, mystery still shrouds the voter-base – until now.

A study by the Los Angeles Times has finally unmasked the highly-secretive electorate, claiming to have identified 5,112 of the guild’s 5,765 voters, and finding that the voter-base is 94 per cent Caucasian and 77 per cent male.

Continue reading Oscars voters white and male →

Julia Overton honoured by AIDC

Documentary, Latest News

22 February 2012

Julia Overton has been awarded the 2012 AIDC Stanley Hawes Award. She will
accept the award at the opening of the Australian International Documentary
Conference (AIDC) being held in Adelaide, South Australia from February 27 – March
1.

According to the AIDC commendation, ‘during her time at the Australian Film
Commission, the Film Finance Corporation, and most recently, at Screen Australia,
Overton was known to be the human element within the bureaucracy. She was
always willing to look at guidelines as guidelines and not interpret them as rules. She
will go to great lengths to assist individual filmmakers and promote the documentary
genre as a whole, and has opened more doors for documentaries, both in Australia
and to the rest of the world, then anyone in the business.

‘Besides her work at the agencies, she has a multi-faceted track record in production,
encompassing feature films (Cut, Spider and Rose, Fistful of Flies, Until the End of
the World, Travelling North), TV drama (Aftershocks, The Long Ride, Tudawali) and
the multi-award winning documentary (Black Man’s Houses). Prior to her work as an
independent producer Overton worked on documentary programs for CBC Canada
and drama for London Weekend Television, UK.’

Mitzi Goldman, Co-Chair of the AIDC Board describes Overton as a ‘powerhouse’ and
says that, “Julia’s imprint on Australian documentary has been immeasurable and
AIDC is absolutely delighted to honour her with this year’s Stanley Hawes Award”.

Following the Award Ceremony on Monday 27 February, Overton will deliver the
Stanley Hawes Address.

The Stanley Hawes Award was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Gilbert Hawes
(1905 -1991) who was the first Producer-in-Chief of the Australian National Film
Board and Commonwealth Film Unit. The award recognises the significant support
Hawes gave independent filmmakers in the documentary sector and is awarded to a
person or organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to the industry in
Australia.

The Simpsons top episodes

Screenwriting, Television

According to a recent survey by The Guardian in the UK, here are the top Simpsons episodes of all time:

Number 10: A Streetcar Named Marge (Season 4, Episode 2)

This episode has it all. Great songs (“you can always rely on the comfort of strangers”); dozens of film parodies (including a subplot involving Maggie’s Great Escape at the Ayn Rand School for Tots); Marge channeling her anger at Homer into some top drawer amateur dramatics and, as @alitadepollo notes, “the revelation that Flanders is buff!“.

Number 9: Homer Badman (Season 6, Episode 9)

Poor Homer is wrongly accused of sexual molestation and hounded by the press but is proved innocent when Groundskeeper Willie reveals that his hobby is secretly filming couples in cars. “I dinna come forward because in this country it makes you look like a pervert,” he tells Homer. “But every single Scottish person does it!” It is “simply the most sublime 22 minutes of television ever,” says @shellsuitwarrior.

Number 8: Homer the Heretic (Season 4 Episode 3)

According to @bunnymen this episode is “Homer’s finest hour”. He quits church, develops his own religion, invents moon waffles and gets to dance in his underpants like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

Continue reading The Simpsons top episodes →

Screen Australia’s 30 Favourite Australian Love Stories

Directing, Film, Screenwriting

Screen Australia posted a list of ‘Favourite Australian Love Stories’ in honour of Valantine’s Day on their YouTube Channel.

It’s interesting as it is sometimes said that Australia doesn’t make ‘romantic comedies,’ yet SA has come up with a list of 30. However Muriel’s Wedding is the first, and it doesn’t have a ‘man and woman’ scenario unless you figure the two lead women are the romantic couple!

The top ten:

1. Muriel’s Wedding
2. Australia
3. Samson & Delilah
4. A Few Best Men
5. Crocodile Dundee
6. Crocodile Dundee II
7. Any Questions for Ben?
8. The Man From Snowy River
9. The Delinquents
10. We of the Never Never

Continue reading Screen Australia’s 30 Favourite Australian Love Stories →

Storytelling in Documentary

Documentary, Screenwriting, ,

STORYTELLING IN DOCUMENTARY – THE UK’S JOHN SMITHSON

One of the late entries to AIDC 2011 was this masterclass with UK producer John Smithson, of 127 Hours and Touching The Void fame. As the publicity announced, John would arrive in Adelaide hot from being nominated for 6 Oscars – and unfortunately he didn’t win any. Even more unfortunately, he had been pipped for Best Oscar by the Aussie film (sort of) The King’s Speech.

Despite that, his session on storytelling was one of the best at AIDC.

“It’s really stating the bleeding obvious that the story is the heart of everything we do,” John began. “Storytelling is what gets me out of bed in the morning and keeps me in too many bars at the small hours of the night.”

Continue reading Storytelling in Documentary →

Screen Australia at AIDC in 2011

Documentary, ,

Last year Screen Australia held a session at AIDC to talk about their new documentary guidelines. Here is my coverage of that session in Screen Hub:

SCREEN AUSTRALIA

Today Screen Australia posted their brand spanking new draft guidelines for Documentary Programs.

The surprises?

A few.

Ross Mathews announced that he is not the Colonel Gaddaffi of the film industry, and Screen Australia is not going to dictate to the industry or decide what is going to be made. However they do reserve the right to make a decision when faced with more projects than available funds, which is increasingly the case.

Screen Australia have maintained the funding available for documentary at $16.5 million over all programs, but they have shaved funds off existing programs to make room for a new program, All Media, which will cost $500,000 a year. Details on this new program to be advised.

Continue reading Screen Australia at AIDC in 2011 →

BOOKS at MIFF turns 5

Film, Screenwriting

BOOKS AT MIFF turned 5 in 2011, and I honoured the birthday with this coverage for Screen Hub:

MIFF turns 60 this year, and is theoretically eligible for a pensioner discount on Melbourne transport. Books at MIFF is 5. So does that mean it has learnt to walk and talk and begin to take bigger steps into the world?

I’ve been to all five Books at MIFF, and I’d say 2011 marked a smoothness of delivery, and an ever increasing signs that the world of publishing and the world of screen production are beginning to understand each other’s opportunities and limitations.

The event continues to gain critical mass, with support from Film Victoria and the Victorian Government as well as Screen Australia, and a growing influx of producers from interstate as well as locally.

Each year there is a session where ten pitches are made to the audience, and these have grown in confidence and ability too. As somebody called out, Seph McKenna from Roadshow would probably have won the prize if it had been a reality TV show for his pitch of What Makes Us Tick by Hugh MacKay, but the others were at least competent, and some intriguing enough to entice producers to check out the works later.

Continue reading BOOKS at MIFF turns 5 →

Michael Rymer: Face to Face

Film, Screenwriting

Well known writer and director Michael Rymer gave an inspirational talk to the Australian Writers’ Guild last year.

He is one of very few Australians who have managed to build a career straddling Australia and Hollywood. His film Angel Baby (1995) won a truckload of AFI Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, and it also won a Writers Guild of America award for Best Original Screenplay.

As Michael told us, his career began by getting into the University of Southern California Film School, where he studied writing under Robert McKee, and learnt the principles of drama according to Aristotle. He then did a two year course in acting, where he learnt a lot having classic plays and films scripts read and workshopped.

He returned to Australia and sold his first script to Roadshow, Dead Sleep in 1992. However for Michael this became a learning experience in why it’s sometimes better to keep control of a film yourself. So when he wrote Angel Baby a few years later, he was determined to hold onto the directing reins.

Continue reading Michael Rymer: Face to Face →