JJ Winlove

Wendy Ford Jewellery – a wee plug

2011-12-18T02:16:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to put in a good and much deserved word of praise for Wendy Ford Jewellery. During our shoot they let us completely take over their shop in Randwick for a few hours while we filmed one of our scenes. Virginia and Wendy were both extremely accommodating and enthusiastic about the whole project, and were a pleasure to work with. It was very tricky getting access to a jewellery shop, particularly with the security issues of letting the likes of us around so much bling, so it was huge relief to get Wendy and Virginia on board. Thanks to Zoe Marsh for making this happen.

If you're a little short in the jewellery department, I encourage you to drop in on Wendy and Virginia and peruse their range of goodies. Here's a little bit about them:

Wendy Ford has been in the jewellery industry for over 30 years. Now working with daughter Virginia, their boutique offers a wide range of jewellery, specializing in one-off creations and made to order pieces. In addition to custom design diamonds, pearls and semi-precious stones, they also stock men’s & children’s jewellery and gifts as well as offering repairs and redesigns.

Contact:
36 Clovelly Road, Randwick
Ph: 8021 8228
www.wendyfordjewellery.com

The Mind Job – a post-production update

2011-12-12T02:24:00.001-08:00

It's likely you've been thinking you haven't heard much about The Mind Job lately. Well there's a reason for this.

After an amazing, crazy week of shooting, just as we were about to crack into the editing process with all guns blazing... we hit a snag. A fairly hefty snag. I didn't think it was right to trouble you all with it until it was resolved, one way or the other.

When we started processing all the footage, we discovered we had some serious corruption issues with the footage which had somehow evaded detection during the shoot. I won't go into too much detail, but a significant number of takes were affected, and for a while it looked like we had lost so much footage that we weren't going to be able to finish the film with without a pretty serious reshoot. It's worth noting that the main location was demolished a couple of weeks after we shot. So someone was having a bit of a laugh. Ha ha... keep smiling, keep smiling.

We're still not sure exactly what happened, it's possible we never will, but it looks like it was a problem with the camera and how it was recording files while we were shooting. What we do know is that it's an extremely rare problem which practically no one in the industry had ever encountered. We had all the right measures in place, but somehow... it happened.

At the risk of sounding a bit soppy here, I've never been involved in something where I've felt so much support and enthusiasm from so many people. Everyone has been incredible and I have to say, during the last few weeks, that's really helped.

Since we began trying to recover the damaged footage, it's been a roller-coaster ride of breakthroughs and setbacks. I have to give a massive shout out to Nikki Rubino at Fanatic Films who has been absolutely incredible in doggedly looking for ways to save the footage. I'd also like to thank Suga Suppiah at Method Studios for all her hard work over the last few weeks, and thanks generally to Fanatic and Method for being absolutely incredible with their support.

As I mentioned, I didn't want to bring you all down with this news until we knew whether it was all over or all on... Well I'm pretty damn overjoyed to let you know it appears to be ALL ON. Last week we finished retrieving the last of the salvageable footage, and it's looks like we've saved enough footage to finish the film. And not only finish it, but finish it very close to the standard we have always envisaged (that's extremely high if you weren't sure). It might even give the film a certain quality otherwise unobtainable with uncorrupted footage.

This footage is now heading to the edit room, and we're back on track – a few weeks later than we'd planned, but back on track.

It was all going a little too smoothly, I must admit.

Sneaky Peaky

2011-10-18T22:51:00.001-07:00

Just to keep you guys going through the long, dark hours of post production, here are a few stills from a handful of scenes. This stills are taken straight from the footage and have had no magic yet applied, so they'll only look betterer. I think you can see where they're going though.

Enjoy.

See the full gallery on Posterous

IndieGoGoing... Gone!

2011-10-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

Our IndieGoGo fundraising is now finished. Thanks to everyone's support, we've managed to raise US$8,874! Incredible.

Thanks once again to all of our contributors. I can't say how much all your support means to me and the rest of the team. It's great to know we've got so much support behind us. If I haven't contacted you already to say thanks, I will be doing so in the next few days. And if you've got any goodies coming your way, we'll start putting that together now too.

The last scene!

2011-09-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

We're way ahead of you

2011-09-29T20:15:00.001-07:00

Interesting article spooking close to our story: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/movies-in-the-mind-revealed-by-brain-...

Three days in

2011-09-28T15:39:00.001-07:00

Well it's the beginning of day four of shooting.
We're starting a bit later than usual so I've got a bit of time to send an update.

Things are going really well. The cast are amazing and the crew are all fantastic - a great bunch of very professional and very cool people. It makes the whole thing a lot of fun.

We've managed to keep our head above water in terms of schedule which is a huge relief. We have only two more days to go.

Day one was very productive, we shot all of the outdoor sequences and did about four location moves in the one day. The rest of the week has been at our main location where most of the action takes place.

Yesterday we had Danny Eastwood, our stills photographer come to set and take some pictures of us in action. We'll be uploading some of these to the blog as soon as we can. Stay tuned.

How is it out in the real world?

Shooting begins

2011-09-25T04:57:00.001-07:00

Well folks, the shoot is upon us.
It's been quite a ride getting to this point, so much and so many have come together for this and now it's all about to happen. Very exciting. We're in very good shape, and the general vibe from everyone is great. i think we're all ready to make a film. Things just seem to keep falling into place, so let's hope that continues right to the end. I'll try to keep you updated with our progress throughout the week -- we finish shooting on Friday.

More to come...

Full cast locked in

2011-09-22T04:11:00.001-07:00

Yippee.

The full cast are locked in and ready to go.

We did a wardrobe check today, and everything is coming together nicely. The shooting begins this Monday. Only a few days away, and drawing ever closer. Much to do, but we're in really good shape.

More updates to come.

Meet the full cast...

Preliminary interface designs

2011-09-08T15:39:00.001-07:00

I've been busily creating the animations for the computer screens in the main location.

What happens on the computer screens is a crucial part of the storyline, so it's important this is all carefully thought through. We're trying to shoot as much as we can in camera, so we don't have to drop things like computer graphics into the picture at the post-production stage. As well as saving dollars, it also gives the actors something to react to.

We don't want the technology in this film to overwhelm the human story, so we're going for a very lo-fi look. We've decided on the look of the Windows 95 era, it's a very distinctive look, and I think it's perfect for the tone we're going for.

Here are some preliminary designs for the various screens within the lab.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Location help

2011-09-05T14:31:00.001-07:00

TheMindJob_SecondaryLocations.pdf Download this file

We're trying to find a few secondary locations for the shoot, and we thought we'd put it out there to see if anyone had any ideas, or knew someone who might be able to help us.

We need to find the following:

A back yard (near Ryde)
A couple's bedroom (near Ryde)
A jewellery shop (somewhere in Sydney)

For a more detailed location brief, you can download it here: http://bit.ly/q3JTaA

Please let us know if you have any ideas. You can reach me directly at jjwinlove@gmail.com
Thanks!

The criminal element

2011-09-05T01:49:00.001-07:00

We did a stills shoot yesterday to create mugshots for the wall of the police lab. These aren't any ordinary mugshots, these are images which have been retrieved from the memories of various witnesses and victims.

These play an important part in the dressing for the main location as they show what this lab and all its equipment is all about.

For the shoot we rounded up a series of volunteer misfits, loiterers and drifters, took them to shady locations and shot them in a range of compromising scenarios. Thanks to all who helped out. It was a hectic day, but we're really pleased with the results. You should be very proud of yourselves. Just don't show your mum.

We've just done a preliminary grade and treatment to them, but you get the idea. Check them out.

TheMindJob_Crimemory_6up.pdf Download this file

Week two of our funding begins

2011-09-04T15:07:00.001-07:00

It's week two of our IndieGoGo fund-raising drive and already we're powering towards our target. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed. It really is a great feeling to have so much support. It's something I didn't anticipate when we were putting the video together that it could generate much more than just a financial boost to the project. All the enthusiasm, support and messages of encouragement have really made a huge difference.

We're now exactly two weeks from our shoot dates, and there is lots to do. We'll keep sending through updates as we progress.

Indiegogo Day Two

2011-09-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of our fundraising drive. We're more than a fifth of the way to our target!
indiegogo.com/themindjob

Luther promo

2011-09-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

A good art direction reference for the main location, the lab.

Welcome to The Mind Job page

2011-09-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

This is where we'll be posting news and updates about the project as we go. Stay tuned.

Double Feature

2009-08-31T05:03:00.000-07:00

The invitation for the double banger: short film world premiere meets birthday bonanza

Coming Clean Poster

2009-08-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

The poster for the almost completed 'Coming Clean'.