Karl von Moller » Mark Hartley

The final leg!

Karl von Moller — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:25:35 +0000

My final entry for Machete Maidens unleashed covers the Philippines & Singapore.

Following our first nights sleep in Manila, we drove out to the house of Eddie Romero to interview him. Eddie is an important figure in both our documentary and Filipino filmmaking. He’s a living legend and is highly respected everywhere in the world. In the past, Eddie had directed films for Roger Corman and his interview gave some valuable insight into the Corman approach to filmmaking. After the interview, we had a chance to roam around the streets of Manila for the first time. The Crew took the opportunity to do some shopping and sight seeing. The next day, we drove for about 2 hours into deepest darkest Manila. The driver actually got lost at one point in a very poor section of Manila. Finally we ended up at the house of Eddie Nicart. Eddie Nicart is a Director/ Stunt Actor who produced a film staring a very small Filipino Actor named Weng Weng among other films. The film “For your height only”, was a popular success in the Philippines and premiered at the 1st ever Manila International Film Festival held at the newly built Film Center in Manila in 1982. We visited this Centre later that day to discover that it is almost in ruins. The building has a very sad history. During its construction, it was the scene of a terrible accident. The documentary covers this in detail.

Having completed all the possible interviews for that day, we resumed some more sight seeing. This time, we were taken to the old Spanish walled city within Manila. Manila has a fascinating history which I really implore you to read about. I had no idea for instance that the Philippines was a colony of the United States! In 1898 the Battle of Manila Bay saw the beginning of a terrible war (Philippine-American War) that lasted for years and was responsible for the deaths of millions. Actually the Philippines have been occupied by the Spanish (1581-1898), The British (1762-1764), The Americans (1898-1942), The Japanese (1942-1945) and have only been allowed to rule themselves since 1946! Our documentary deals with another important time frame – the Marcos era and martial law (1965-1986). Without a doubt, the Philippines and particularly Manila has an amazing history. Our final act for the day was to walk around central Manila and head back for a dinner near the hotel.

Day three of our Manila experience was spent in the Studio. The facility (Unitel Manila) was a reasonably large and busy Studio with it’s own camera/lighting rental service. On this day we interviewed 5 more filmmakers. However, one of the interviewee’s couldn’t make it so we left our setup at the studio in place to return the next morning.

On the 20th of Feb, shoot day 16 of the documentary, we shot an interview with Ricardo Remias, a Filipino Cinematographer, before rushing to the airport. We flew to Singapore, arriving just in time for dinner! After checking into our hotel, our subject for the next days interview, Marrie Lee aka Cleopatra Wong, took us out to the East Coast Seafood Centre for dinner! It was a great night & despite us all being totally shattered, we had a great time. The next day, we conducted the last interview for the documentary! Packing down the gear for the last time, I said goodbye to the crew as they sped off to the airport, bound for Melbourne!

Machete Maidens Unleashed was an enormous undertaking, with a gruelling schedule! We crossed the USA, visited Paris, London & outlying suburbs, Manila & Singapore in less then 22 days! Many of our nights were spent in planes flying incredibly long distances with total disregard for timezones. We setup and stripped down our portable TV studio so many times I lost count! If we weren’t flying we were driving for hours across deserts, through the English countryside, thick Paris & Manila traffic etc! Shooting documentaries is always a challenge and this one was no exception! On the way, we endured bleak wintery conditions in New York & Palm Springs California and even doug out a driveway of heavy snow, just so we could enter the house of one particular interviewee! We sweated in the intense heat and humidity of Manila & Singapore. However, it was an incredible learning experience! Just like “Not Quite Hollywood”, this experience was like an intense film school experience! I have to confess, I had no knowledge about Filipino Filmmaking or it’s Filmmakers! I wasn’t really aware of just how many American movies were made in the Philippines during the 1970′s either. Mark Hartley’s documentary is set to be a definitive account of this era, with first hand comments from original Filmmakers, Actors, Cinematographers, Editors, Writers and Producers. I can’t wait to see what he does with it over the next few months!

New York, New Jersey, London & Paris!

Karl von Moller — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:16:20 +0000

Again it’s been difficult keeping up with the blog. Our schedule on Machete Maidens is very tight with filming activities and travel. I’m writing this article from my hotel in London. We left New York late on Thursday the 11th of February after filming and traveling all day to Freehold New Jersey. There, we interviewed Producer Sam Sherman. Before that interview could take place though, due to the recent snow falls we had to organise to dig out Sam’s driveway of snow, just to be able to get our equipment into his house! Our local contact, Rob Most, rallied some local kids and a man with a snow clearing machine to do the dirty work which took a better part of an hour! The interview went really well and we then drove through the crazy traffic of Manhattan to JFK. The team then flew overnight to London England, arriving very early on the 12th of Feb.

On the 13th of Feb, the Machete Maidens production team headed for Paris for the day to interview Production Designer Dean Tavoularis. Dean was Production Designer on many films including the Godfather Trilogy, Tucker & Apocalypse Now! Waking in our hotel in London, we had a quick breakfast before piling our production equipment into a van and driving to Heathrow. An hour of flying across the channel & then piling all the gear into yet another van, we braved the -3C Degree temperature! Driving into the centre of Paris we glimpsed the Eiffel Tower & the Arc de Triomphe, but as we would find out later, this was the extent of our sight seeing for the day! Arriving at Dean’s beautiful apartment building, we gathered the equipment & either walked it up a circular staircase or piled it into a coffin of an elevator built in the last century! We setup our set in his elegantly art directed lounge room and for an hour and a half, we listened to some incredible stories of the making Apocalypse Now & filmmaking in general.

Packing down the gear, we only had enough time for a group shot in the courtyard of Dean’s apartment building before calling the driver & heading straight back to the airport! So much for the glamour of Paris! We didn’t even have time for lunch! We arrived back at Charles de Gaulle expecting to be able to buy a descent meal. Instead Mark had to pay some incredible bill of around €50 for bay marie food that was awful & a beer! Dinner was again on our flight back to London!

Machete Maiden Stories

Karl von Moller — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:58:56 +0000

Now that we are on to Shoot day 6, we seem to be in a rhythm. The Production team back in Australia have been lining up the contestants very efficiently and today, we are actually interviewing 9 people!!? Normally I have to say this is too much but given that we have little time left in LA, we really don’t have any choice. As a result, the Crew have been working pretty hard and when we had any downtime, it was spent in the back of a car traveling for miles. Yesterday, we drove all the way out to Palm Springs to Interview a former James Bond Girl, Trina Parks. Racing across the desert in pouring rain, we glimpsed snow capped peaks as we headed for another interview at the Joshua Tree. There we interviewed a real “Machete Maiden”, Leigh Christian, who shared some pretty interesting stories. As a result there aren’t too many photos of anything! We simply haven’t had any time!

The previous day, we had driven to an interview with R. Lee Ermey, an hour out of LA. That interview was legendary in our minds, especially when Jock, our sound recordist, looked out the window of the van and noticed the Drill Sergeant from Full Metal Jacket storming towards us! He was extremely gracious and awarded us all a personal commemorative medal with his name on it and autographed photographs for us.

We landed back at the hotel quite late that night! All in all, LA has been tight for time. Mark has had to work on his research after hours also so I think everyone is showing signs of sleep deprivation. Tomorrow is our last day in LA. It’s reasonably full with more interviews before we fly out late evening to New York. Until then, Adios

Filming on the old Warners Lot in LA

Karl von Moller — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:25:20 +0000

The location for today was inside the the Writers Building on the old Warners Lot in LA. The place is so steeped in history it was really cool to think that possibly Mel Blanc roamed the corridors here once?!

The days have been pretty full on, interviewing as many contributors to the Machete Maidens Project as we can get. Today (day 3) we filmed another five Interviews including Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Allan Arkush & John Davison. One of them was actually a double interview which made up the 5th set. Mark Hartley is pretty happy with what he got I think. The frank and open nature of the interviews was not only fascinating but incredibly funny at times. I wish I could explain the content of their discussions but you will just have to see the film when it’s done! Needless to say, I learned a great deal on their careers, Roger Corman and shooting in the Philippines!

Another bonus of today was to take a quick tour of Howard Hugh’s Building in LA. This occurred because our local LA Production Coordinator, Dan Hooker took us to a Producer friend of his who happened to have his office in the original Howard Hughs building. Amazingly, many of the sealed vaults haven’t been opened since the days of Hugh’s departure. It’s filled with oddities like escape routes, underground train lines, 18 or so Vaults, 26″ thick concrete walls, Steel doors and even bunker style apartments. It’s all very odd but wonderful at the same time. The art deco style is everywhere and is completely original. A true honour to be able to visit this place!

Currently the Howard Hugh’s building is serving as a Film Archival facility which was in itself amazing to see.

Tomorrow is a bit of a big one with 8 interviews now scheduled!! I might not be able to update on that until my eyelids recover but we’ll see!

The first Leg

Karl von Moller — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:18:04 +0000

Arriving in Los Angeles, the Machete Maiden’s team went through the usual immigration procedure and processed our Carney before catching yet another flight to Las Vegas. I’m not sure what I was expecting for our accommodation, after all Las Vegas is famous for it’s huge Luxor Casino Pyramid, New York New York Casino complete with a section of downtown New York city etc etc. However when I caught sight of our accommodation the Excalibur Casino Hotel, I had to laugh! It was Disneyland for Adults! Mark was heard saying in the car “Someone booking this place was wired into my brain”! Completely tacky but fun I guess?

Angelo & myself took some time around sunset to play with our cameras by walking around the main drag in Vegas. The photo’s you see here are as a result of this. Later we gathered ourselves together, despite being absolutely exhausted and had a steak inside the New York New York Casino.

Next day we setup for the first interview. The process had begun. For about two hours we enjoyed some pretty amazing stories of Genre Filmmaking in the Philippines! Definitely a good start! Completing the interview, we rushed the packup so that we could checkout, make our way to the airport and catch our flight to LA.

I’m writing this from our new abode, the Magic Castle Hotel Suits in LA. Hungry now, so I’m off to eat dinner. More soon

Revisiting “Not Quite Hollywood”

Karl von Moller — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:00:05 +0000

As we make our way across the Pacific Ocean towards LA, I thought that a quick march back in time, to 2008 was in order. So much of “Machette Maidens Unleashed” will be compared to a previous documentary job called “Not Quite Hollywood”. Directed by Mark Hartley also, we set off in 2008 on a very similar journey. On that occasion we also had a 5th member, make up artist Heather Ross, who unfortunately isn’t joining us on this trip. Otherwise, the band is back together again and traveling with a very different kit! With me is Angelo Satore (Camera Assistant), Jock Healey (Sound Recordist) and Mark Hartley (Director). Not a huge crew but a very effective group!

We shot “Not Quite Hollywood” on a Sony F900R using the latest of Cook Digital zooms. The kit included HD Monitors, heavy tripods etc etc. This time around, we have gone very light weight! Working with a different budget and using different technologies, we have chosen to shoot “Machette Maidens” on a Sony HDV Camcorder. The model is called the Sony HVR-Z7P which we have hired from Melbourne Based Rental house, Videocraft. Additionally we have a light weight carbon fibre tripod, LED Lightpanel & a Dedo. That’s it! Everything else will be hired at each location. In terms of weight and excess baggage, we are far better off then before. I have already written up a blog entry dealing with the gear here.

“Not Quite Hollywood” was an enormous job in terms of travelling, working and having fun! There are so many funny stories of almost missing planes, rushing to get to locations, meeting incredibly interesting people etc etc. I’m sure Machette Maidens will be similar. Lets hope it’s another great experience.

For now enjoy a few snaps from “Not Quite Hollywood”.

“Machette Maidens Unleashed” Begins

Karl von Moller — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:18:05 +0000

Packing for any job for me is a huge deal. Most of my work involves travel on airlines not only internally in Australia but quite regularly Internationally. I thought I’d start blogging about my new project “Machette Maidens Unleashed” by talking about the logistics of travelling and working.

The project is uber cool! Directed by Mark Hartley, the project reunites almost all the team who participated in Mark’s other documentary “Not Quite Hollywood”. I return to my former role as Cinematographer. I don’t usually shoot these days for other people but Mark and I are old friends now. Beside “Not Quite Hollywood” was such an amazing experience, I often say “It’s the film school I never had”! So I couldn’t pass on “Machette Maidens” simply because it will be another amazing “film school I never had” experience.

Here is the official blurb on what the project is about:

“Machete Maidens Unleashed! is a fast moving odyssey into the subterranean world of the rarely explored province of Filipino genre filmmaking.

It is the new feature film from Mark Hartley, the director of the award-winning documentary Not Quite Hollywood.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! is the first detailed examination and celebration of Filipino genre films and the undervalued auteurs and actors who brought them to life in such an explosive way.

From the early ’70s well into the ’90s the Philippines was a back-lot for a bevy of B-movie mavericks and cinema visionaries alike. The country was utilized for its inexpensive labour, exotic locations and distinct lack of rules. A large body of genre work emerged that somehow managed to capture the raw, chaotic energy of contemporary Filipino culture. These productions (a cavalcade of monster movies, jungle prison movies, blaxploitation and kung fu hybrids) were miraculously made at a time when the country’s political situation was repressive at best.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! begins with the partnership of acclaimed local filmmakers Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero whose BLOOD ISLAND trilogy found large and enthusiastic drive-in audiences across America. When legendary maverick producer Roger Corman was introduced to Romero and de Leon he instantly discovered the Philippines was economically suited to low- budget filming. Corman quickly set up camp and produced a number of “Woman In Prison” films starring genre favourites Pam Grier and Sid Haig.

Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s the appetites of thrill-hungry cinemagoers around the globe continued to be satisfied by prolific local auteurs Cirio H. Santiago (TNT JACKSON) and Bobby A. Suarez (CLEOPATRA WONG).

In the late 1970’s Francis Ford Coppola re-invigorated a whole new epoch of filmmaking by choosing to shoot APOCALYPSE NOW in the Philippines – leaving the jungle full of discarded sets to be used repeatedly by a host of low budget productions over the next couple of decades.

Our journey climaxes in 1981 when this country fights back and reclaims its very own special national identity via the inaugural Manila International Film Festival and accompanying Film Market. Conceived to showcase the Philippine’s glorious screen culture, the market’s biggest success was FOR Y’UR HEIGHT ONLY, a low budget, home-grown James Bond spoof starring an 83cm primordial dwarf named Weng Weng. The film sold to countless international territories and is now arguably the most well known exemplar of the Filipino genre film abroad.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! is the ultimate insiders’ account of genre filmmaking in the Philippines. A role call of local and international survivors from this period will be interviewed all adding their distinct and honest account of this Devil-may-care school of filmmaking. Sitting alongside the talking heads will be a dazzling array of outrageous film clips from key Filipino titles.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! is produced by Fury Productions and Bionic Boy Productions. It has been financed by Screen Australia, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Screen Queensland, Film Victoria, ABC Commercial and The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Premiere Fund.

It will be completed in July 2010.”

Gear

Mostly we are carrying everything we need for the production. Gear has to be light. Here is some of the gear I’m taking with me on this trip and I generally take on every trip:

My trusty Canon 5DMKII which is still only shooting 30P at the time of writing. I’m hoping a firmware update will see this camera shoot 24/25P.
Manfrotto 190CXPro4 Carbon Fibre Legs with a 128RC Pan/Tilt Head.
100-400mm Canon Zoom
50mm f1.4 Prime
15mm f2.8mm Prime
24-105mm Zoom
Gorilla Pod
9 CF Cards most of which are 16Gig Sand Disk
Zacuto Z-Finder
Apature GigTube Viewfinder
2 x 580EX Flashes
2 x Pocket Wizard Radios + Trigger
Remote/Intervelometer controller
IR Cut Filters
IR (very dark) filter
ND8 Filters
Polar
UV/Sky Filters

Additionally for the production, we are shooting on a Sony HVR-Z7P HDV based camera, recording sound via a mixer & pro mikes. The decision to shoot on this old school style camera platform has more to do with logistics. Because we are filming for 22 days straight, with little time between interviews, we don’t wont to carry raided drives to download flash based cards to. Instead, we tested several Tape based cameras for sharpness, dynamic range and build quality and arrived on the Sony HVR-Z7P. This was after a full blown lighting test and then grading it on Melbourne Based Lab, By Deluxe’s Scratch system, before printing it back to 35MM film. The tests were so conclusive it actually shocked me. I tested a Canon HDV camcorder and several other systems including the 5dMKII. It looked amazing printed back to film and will be our backup system should the “A” Camera go down. The 5DMKII shoots 30P so it’s not a great option at this stage for that reason alone!

We’re carrying our immediate lighting kit which includes a 1×1 LED litepanel, a Dedo for a backlight and stands. Mostly we will run things off battery (except for the Dedo which we will use a 120V & 240V supply) because we are filming in so many countries with different power systems. On “Not Quite Hollywood” I used a Chimera Ball light as our main key.

The problem with this is that we move so quickly, the 500W globe takes 30 minutes to cool down. This time the Key will be the LED light. It stays cool all the time so we should be able to pack up much quicker then last time. It’s also a bit more hard wearing then a fragile globe. All these kits will be stored in Pelican cases for security. There are some other things like a white bed sheet as a cheap & light weight bounce board, Flexifill’s, Batteries, Adapters & Power boards. That’s actually a major point. I always carry an Australian power board to connect all my chargers & accessories, via one OS adapter, to the local power supply. Seems simple but often forgotten. I also carry an Airport Express base station to create a WiFi zone in my hotel room. There are still many places that offer cable access only so having both my Macbook Pro and my iPhone connect to the internet is important.

Finally everything that doesn’t fit into Pelican cases and my onboard Lowepro All Weather Trekker, goes into a hard shelled suit case. Because we fly domestically and internationally all the time, the cases cannot exceed 20kg per bag. This figure varies with each airline but that’s the general rule. The problem this time is that we are traveling to the Northern Hemisphere for a good portion of the project and then ending at the equator where the temperature is +31ºC all the time with humidity reaching 90%! At the moment, New York is experiencing -9ºC and so is the UK and France! This makes packing for your own personal comfort really hard, while maintaining that 20KG limit! I’m taking a single ski jacket (onboard) a leather jacket and jumper, 2 pairs of jeans, some shirts and a reasonable supply of under garments. The rest is a good set of thermals, 2 pairs of shoes and toiletries! My suitcase is also carrying my Tripod, extra lens bag and flashes, so I’m full! I can’t afford any T-shirts or other clothing and have decided that I’m going to have to buy stuff along the way. We don’t have a lot of time off on the job so I’ve made sure I have enough to cover me for 9 days straight at any given time.

So as you can see, a great deal of thought has gone into the packing process. For me this is actually compounded even further as I will be leaving the production in Singapore and staying on to complete a Canon TVC there. That’s for another 7 days. I then fly to Jakarta Indonesia to shoot another TVC there also before Posting it in Singapore. So I’m actually gone for nearly 2 months.

So Monday 1st of February, we kick off the Doco! We fly to LA and then on to Las Vegas for the first round of interviews. I will do my best to update the blog as I go, but there may be large portions of inactivity due to lack of time or internet access. Cheers!

December Update!

Karl von Moller — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:15:29 +0000

Rundown!

Through the month of November, I went back to Singapore to work on yet another project. I spent about three weeks there and even attended a special conference held by Apple which was great. Due to various Non Disclosure Agreements, I haven’t been able to update the blog as often as I perhaps could in recent times – Sorry about that! However, I can inform you on a few things. Firstly, Mark Hartley’s Documentary “Not Quite Hollywood” has been very well received over the last couple of months. Critically it has performed exceptionally well. It has played in many Film Festivals all over the world. Last night, at the Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI’s), “Not Quite Hollywood” took out the best Documentary category which is fantastic news.

The official website can be found at: http://notquitehollywood.com.au/

The AFI’s site can be found here: http://blog.afi.com/afifest/index.php/2008/10/29/10-burning-questions-not-quite-hollywood/

While I am back in Melbourne, I have been busy location surveying in Country Victoria as well as trying to spend some time with my family. With the current economic climate, there is always the tendency not to relax and take time out but lets hope next year will improve so we all can enjoy some time with our families.

I’m still waiting on my new camera, the Canon 5D mark 2, which I am very excited about. A big purchase in uncertain times but I know I will not only enjoy it immensely, but also use as a tool for work!

Artisan Films has also been very busy preparing a budget for the doco “Broken Wings”. There may be some good news on that front in the near future also. For now, I can’t say more on so many things which sounds very pretentious of me however I would if I could! Hopefully, I will soon be able to blog retrospectively on quite a few issues. Cheers Karl.