Featured Guest | Stephen Abbott
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Posted August 15, 2011
Evening Focus,
Well well! Dirty Laundry wins at the Durban Film Festival: best South African short film as well as best short film. I guess the jury liked it. It's funny: even though the film is very Joburg, I feel it has some resonance in Kwazulu-Natal. Maybe it's the funny Zulu insults, but there's just something.
The festival was kind enough to fly me down to accept the awards in person, and to give a mumbly acceptance speech that I really should've worked harder on. My friend and documentary director Adrian Loveland happened to be in town, so he gatecrashed the after party and we drank punch and beer 'til the wee hours. The whole DIFF team was incredible: organised and helpful, despite my arrival at the very end of a long hard festival. Thanks guys.
Dirty Laundry has some more festivals coming up. I think the Netherlands is next. Then, ja, I've been away quite a bit these last few months. Let's see:
Spitzkoppe, Namibia. I met a local teenager named Fifty who liked to rap, and sported DIY tattoos made using a pin and cassette tape. I'm used to hearing American, but it was still strange coming from the middle of the desert. Perhaps anything is strange near these surreal rocks. I saw tons of depressingly defaced rock art and quite a bit of sublime preserved paintings, too.
Markha Valley, Ladakh. I ate momos and thukpa, then walked up into the thin thin air: 5000m, which is well past my previous cable car assisted record. A bit of AMS at first, but otherwise all good.
Alberobello (and Locorotondo, and Polignano, and Lecce, and Bari, and…), Italy. I subsisted on gelato and swam in the Adriatic as if it was a lake. I met Italy's premiere stand-up comedy translator/subtitler: ReRosso from ComedySubs.
Chat soon.
Thunderstorms and serviettes
Posted April 04, 2011
Evening Focus,
Tonight I'm writing amid a beautiful highveld evening thunderstorm, sitting underneath a steel roof that amplifies the downpour to a deafening roar. One of the things I love about Joburg.
So ja, Dirty Laundry still sits. A few festival screenings are coming up in New York and Toronto, here. You can read a preview of the screening at the New York African Film Festival at Shadow & Act. I've shown it privately around town, too: it's been fun to watch people watching the story and characters unfold.
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Writing continues… slowly. The feature is taking shape, but it's at that stage where everything is under scrutiny; some days I seem to undo all the work from the days before with a new insight or shift in genre. My table is full of index cards with scribbled scenes.
But yes, the basics are there. A thriller/horror, telling the tale of a man's fall to utter disillusionment and rise to a kind of redemption. I'm trying to write a more mainstream story – compared to Dirty Laundry at least. It's exciting to have the time to carefully lay down twisting plot lines, and toy with how they interact.
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Travels and photos:
Marseilles. Rainy, but full of life. On my way through I met up with co-Africa Firster Daouda Coulibaly. He showed me his fantastic short Tinye So, which recently won the Bronze Stallion at FESPACO. I like how fluidly Mr. Coulibaly moves through the film's scenes, tearing along on this really strong musical current. The puppets are awesome, too.
Barcelona. The serviettes are thanking me, but it should really be the other way around. A week wasn't nearly enough to explore the incredible city. I was lucky enough to stay with a local historical façade restoration architect – a great guide to the city. I stumbled across an exhibition on the charming Mariscal, and felt spoiled all day.
Chinese New Year. Chinatown Joburg may only be a few blocks in Cyrildene, but that doesn't slow down the celebrations much.
A wedding in Cape Town.
2011, eish
Posted April 04, 2011
Hi Focus,
2011, shoo. Here's a picture from the Eastern Cape, mid December.
Dirty Laundry? Well, it sits. Accepted into a few festivals, but mostly rejected from all the Big Shots. Still, I'll post screenings here when they come around.
Next step is a feature film. I've bought the rights to a short novel, and am slowly adapting it into a screenplay. The NFVF, our local film funding body, has accepted me into their feature development programme, so now I write for them - with the help of a script editor.
The feature is a thriller - a dark, rural, mountainous thriller. I see it as a chance to spin a really good tale, set in an epic and relatively unknown part of the country. There's no comedy through-line from Dirty Laundry, but I feel that a certain stillness will be similar. More in a bit.
Oh ja, another photo, from the roof of my apartment building, Joburg style. What's with all the pictures of the sun setting?
India
Posted November 21, 2010
Afternoon Focus,
Back from a 3-week trip to India. Rattling around my chaos-of-depature flat, the usual travel hangover melancholy. India was awesome. Some photos.
Started in astonishing Bombay. Which has old art deco cinemas.
Such as Eros, in South Mumbai. Single-screen theatre. They don't make 'em like they used to. I watched Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish, unfortunately in a multiplex, but sweeping and sumptuous nonetheless.
Tuk-tuks can drive like pedestrians walk, Udaipur.
Good cow, Jaisalmer.
Not quite the Darjeeling mail, Rajasthan.
Actors, Frames and IMDB
Posted October 06, 2010
Evening Focus,
We screened the film for cast and crew a few nights back. It was good to see everyone again.
Twas good to see the actors! I've watched all the takes, all the slates - essentially hours of people watching. That kind of knowledge usually runs both ways, but in this case they certainly know less of me. Perhaps actors should be primed with 20 minutes of video of a director's fumbling… "I liked the first take"
Dirty Laundry is also IMDBd, here.
I put these three frame grabs up on the website, but here they are on this blog, too. Bryan van Niekerk, James Ngcobo, and Carl Beukes.
Bye!
Of sound, finishing and festivals
Posted September 17, 2010
Howsit Focus,
Ja so we're done. Dirty Laundry is delivered, archived and done. Jo'burg's in full spring swing, but still we wait for the rains.
It's a strange feeling, y'know? There's all this intense work in finishing the film, and then it just … sits. There's a long delay between working and reception, quite the opposite of, say, theatre.
So, meh. I'm still quite happy with the short, and still chuckle at the characters when I watch it. I figure this must be a Good Sign. We're starting on festival submissions, and local screenings are coming up soon.
And lastly, sound! Here's a snap from a foley session. Sound designer Guy Steer is pouring sugar to help accentuate Paul's excess powder.
Guy came to the mix with a whole lot of cool sound design. The Wishy Washy is this sort of other-worldly space, so there's lots of space for strange sounds.
I'm off.
Trailer, website, olé!
Posted August 24, 2010
Evening Focus!
To celebrate actually being done with press materials and DVDs and Blu-Rays and websites and trailers, here're two juicy bits. First, the 30-seconder:
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Second, the website: www.dirtyshort.com. If you look closely, you can see yourself, dear FilmInFocus.com.
'Night.
Done!
Posted August 16, 2010
Morning Focus,
It's done! I'll write more once I'm done with PAL-NTSC conversions, playouts and Fedex. For now, here's that promised poster:
Picture lock
Posted August 16, 2010
Evening Focus,
We've just locked the picture on Dirty Laundry. After some good feedback from Africa First and the NFVF and many, many watch-throughs, I've come to the conclusion that there's very little left that can change. As always, the proof is in the picture:
Tomorrow the film heads to mix, where I'm looking forward to lots more sound design. All told, I'm pretty happy! Tons of small-time VFX to process - cables and booms and the like, ugh. Now all I really want is to finish the film and get it out there...
In the spirit of more picture less talk, here're two snaps from a recent weekend visit to Lesotho, the mountain Kingdom. Chilly but beautiful.
That's me for now. We'll have a poster for you early next week!
The Land of Post
Posted August 16, 2010
Afternoon Focus,
Surrounded by the World Cup and vuvuzelas, a most festive atmosphere. A pic from a trip to Durban last week, to watch Portugal play Brazil. The crowd was great, but the soccer was ... lacking. Durban is a pretty relaxed Winter spot: shorts and a t-shirt!
Dirty Laundry? Well, there's a first-n-a-half cut. I'm quite happy. Lots of fun discoveries in the edit, as always. Lots of pain in the edit, too. Sound design is coming together slowly, but nicely.
I think it's fair to say the film is Not Broken. Beyond that ... it's hard to say. The feedback from Africa First and the NFVF has been useful and positive, so I'm really trying to address their thoughts and deal with the quirks I don't like and know I can fix - and make the cut as tight as possible.
More in a bit, once the second cut is more polished.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Pariah
Being Flynn
ParaNorman
The Debt
The Broken Tower
Flashback Feb 06, 2010 
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