To open the current newsletter, a few words from two Aussie acting legends, Ben Mendelsohn and Jackie Weaver
The current term has again produced some outstanding creative performances and has seen our students continue to make serious inroads into television drama and feature films. Keep up the great work one and all!
Term Dates
Term 3 classes end Saturday 23 September.
Term 4 classes return from week commencing Tuesday 10 October.
Film Acting Master Class Review
The Film Acting Techniques master class held over two consecutive Sunday’s on August 20 and 27, produced the short film Ez, starring Jai Miller, Sarah Morabito and Gabi Finkelsen.
The film looks great and was a joy to edit due to the high quality of the performances and the actors understanding of the important craft aspects of acting for the camera. Well done and I’m looking forward to submitting the film to selected film festivals.
Jai Miller as the eccentric Aunt Ez
Sarah Moribito as Ez’s neice and Gabi Finkelsen as Ez’s bohemian housemate
December Kid’s Film Acting Workshop
The October holiday Children’s Film Acting Workshop filled within three days of advertising in early August.
The December workshop will run from Wednesday 22 to Friday 24 December (9-30 am to 5 pm) and bookings are now open.
Contact Us for more information and a course flyer.
SF3 International Film Festival
The third annual Smart Phone 3 International Film Festival was a great success and three of our advanced adult students had films in competition.
Lakshay (Lucky) Dhiman’s film, Harmless, Reckless, Regret made the Top 12 Runner Up Films list and was screened on Monday 12 August along with the other 11 runner’s up/short listed films at The World Bar, Potts Point.
As a sponsor of the festival and one of the industry judges I made it along to The World Bar but unfortunately couldn’t make the finals this year as they were held on a Thursday evening while I was teaching.
Liam J Phelan’s film Drop, starring Liam and classmate Kael Leak made the Top 10 Finalist Films and I would have loved to have seen it on the big screen as opposed to on my laptop when judging the finalist films.
Although Kael and Liam failed to receive a gong this year for their effort, it was a great story with an unexpected twist at the end and deserved its place among the Top 10 Films. Liam, however, did win big at last years SF3, winning the Best Male Actor award from a field of hot local and international talent.
Well done to the three of you and keep up the great work lads!
24/7 Youth Film Festival
The long running 24/7 Youth Film Festival – now in its seventeenth year – screened some interesting and engaging films again this year by the Top 10 Finalists. The production values and acting gets more accomplished each year.
The competition is open to people aged 14 to 24 years. The smart proactive young people enter their first film at age 14 and continue to submit films every year until they reach the age of 24.
Past participants with strong entries each year have gone on to full time careers in the film industry.
This year’s Best Male Actor (under 18) was advanced teen student Noah DeJean (who also won the award at last year’s festival!) From his performances thus far, Noah looks like a strong contender for a potential acting career. Noah’s film Smile, directed by his older brother Charles was an extremely creepy horror flick – an audience and judges favourite. Keep up the solid work boys!
Sydney Indie Film Festival
The Sydney Indie Film Festival, along with SF3 and 24/7, is also sponsored by the Screen Actors Workshop and festival director Shailla Quadra has a fabulous program for this year’s festival.
The festival kicks off on Monday September 18 and runs until September 28.
If you’re into great cinema then you’ll see some outstanding films at this year’s festival, held at the Event Cinemas in George Street, Sydney.
I’ll be attending the red carpet opening on Monday after another very important event, also held at the same venue.
The Australian Directors Guild are running a Make it Australian campaign before the Indie Film Fest kicks off and I’ll be agitating along with the other full members of the guild for more quality Australian drama on television. The hideously cheap and nasty reality TV fad is way past its use-by-date and by promoting more Australian content we are aiming to generate more work for talent both in front of, and behind the camera.
We have a phenomenal amount of talent in Australia who deserve to earn a living making quality TV drama, as opposed to the questionable “talent” required to produce cheap reality TV programs.
So stand up and fight for your rights as an artiste and let’s create some more excellent programs!
Featured Actor
This newsletters featured actor is advanced graduate Paul Millett.
Paul in a screen shot from Greg Perano’s feature film Prufrock and Co.
Former health inspector Paul Millett had no idea that he was about to set out on a new career path when he commenced classes at the school in 2012.
Paul has since appeared in a wide range of television drama productions including Meet the Habibs, Pulse, Old Man, Doctor Doctor and Home & Away, along with TVCs for the Commonwealth Bank and KFC.
Paul has also performed in three popular plays with the Elanora Players and is currently studying in a theatre course at NIDA.
Expect to see a lot more of Paul in the future both in TV drama and on stage.
Class Scene DVDs/USBs
If you would like an edited DVD or USB of your past term’s (or previous term’s) scenes then see me in class or email me and I will organize it for you. Class scene DVDs/USBs are $50-00 per term’s scenes and are a highly beneficial means of improving your craft via further home study.