As expected, surf.

Summary of the first months of surf in Australia. More to come, also other sports, thanks to GoPro :-)

The Last Post

The destiny of the vast majority of blogs is to be abandoned after a couple of posts. In this case, it lasted 102.

I'm proud to introduce a -probably- more useful (at least for me) substitute:

IRACHE.COM.AU - Video Production and Advertising in Sydney

No blog in there. Just self-promotion. Maybe a tutorials section in a near future or a link to this old fellow. But according to the SEO rules that now manage the world, the last one might not be a good idea.

Of course, the change was asking for a new showreel. Not really different in terms of content, but reshaped to fit new needs.

Lately, we (I) have been involved in interesting challenges. One of them was the quite-wide online communication project for Sweeney Tiggemann Solicitors. Content has been the keyword throughout the process, and we (we) are quite happy with it. You can check out more on either their or my new websites.

As you might have noticed in the showreel, I now own a GoPro, and I surf. I'm just to bad or too shy to share the footage. Be patient.

That said, this is not the last post. I just don't think I'll have time to update this regularly enough. Also, I might end up redirecting the .NET domain name to the .COM.AU one for bloody SEO reasons. So if you really want to keep up to date, add "cinemaperestupids.blogspot.com" to your bookmarks/feed and be very patient. Now, it would be much more useful -for me, again- if you got to my brand new site and pressed some of the "share buttons".

Petons & besos.

Cheers mates!

Highlights and shadows

Here's what I've been up to in my spare time. HDR video.

I've tried to test the limits of HDR video (thanks to Magic Lantern) and they seem to be wide enough. From now on, I'll probably tend to use it in a more realistic way, but the kitsch cartoonish look is something that didn't seem possible just some weeks ago.

Just to insist with Sydney, and to compensate the very little I had shown of it before, here's the possum.

Cheers.

Creative Syncing

Copying is not theft. If you follow this blog you already knew that, but there's a much more interesting concept that I have experienced many times and cannot explain: Creative Syncing.

Yes, I just invented the term, but it refers to the common phenomenon of two or more creative projects with very similar features being released at almost the same time. The duration of a film pre-production is long enough to discard, in most of the cases, that any copying had been involved.

One can find lots of examples in movies: Armageddon and Deep Impact, Antz and A Bug's Life, The others and The sixth sense... but there are many more in the short film market, also unknown projects that were not finally developed.

Here's my own case. After producing lots of short films in many different ways, I have only started preparing a feature once. I didn't write the full script, but there's notes and documents on how it would be. Even a producing company had access to them, but they refused the project. Basically, I wanted to go a step further in the mockumentary genre. The story had to happen during one day only: a wedding. The movie would be exclusively composed by the footage that the video crew would have filmed in the church, the reception, etc. And, of course, it had to have all those cheesy effects, filters, transitions and music that typical wedding videos have. It was a comedy, so many bails and accidents would have fitted there perfectly.

Some months later, I came to know that this was being produced:

Two basic differences: Even though I'm sure the directors have included some funny moments, the main mood is horror, not comedy. Also, at some point, they decide to switch from mockumentary to classical fiction, for the first time in the REC saga.

Of course, the details of the two plots would be completely different.

And here's the last coincidence. I'm currently working in a Sydney based video company as a cameraman and video editor. Guess what most of our projects are. Correct. Wedding videos.

Maybe, this whole Creative Syncing thing can be explained by the combination of: cultural background, generational references of the writers, a common way to read present events, analysis of what the audience want in a precise moment and, most of all, the human tendency to find coincidences and give them a meaning. Maybe.

Foresight

After almost two months in Sydney, I already have a routine: Studying, working at the Spanish Club (for what would be a huge bar-tender salary in Spain but it's just enough to survive here), some partying, and sleeping. No time left for finding cinema-related jobs or exploring Australia.

By the way, I have managed to shoot my first commercial work here. Got decent salary (for being the first one, of course) and, most important, seeing my work recognised. That is already setting a big difference with Spain, so this might actually be a land of opportunities, as some say.

As you can imagine, Pirates are still throwing my time down the sink, but not only the Catalan ones: the last week I gave a speech at the Pirate Party of Australia's Congress. Quite tough. The nice thing is that the videos that I had shot for Pirates de Catalunya were the main reason why the guys from eCoffeeCard hired me. It's finally paying dividends.

Just to let you know. The campaign in Spain is going great. Getting into the Parliament would still be a huge surprise, but we are growing faster than ever, and the Pirate Film Festival gave it's fruits. You can see the winning videos here.

Greetings.

Que els teus vídeos els facin els altres... mola.

És tendència en publicitat, demanar als teus fans que et facin els anuncis. El rollo càmera de mòbil queda modernet i així apropes el públic a la marca, la humanitzes i bla bla bla. Així que ens hi hem posat.

No són els nostres fans, però integrants dels Partits Pirata de tot el món ens han ajudat amb aquest vídeo per al concurs 1dels50mil.cat:

Hi podeu veure un petit "cameo" meu a Singapur i els nous companys del Pirate Party of Australia.

Tampoc són els nostres fans, però hem demanat a amics, joves cineastes, publicitaris i companyia que participin al concurs d'anuncis FAP!. Tenim premis, un jurat de luxe, els anuncis guanyadors sortiran per televisió... una ganga! ja us n'havia parlat.

I això és tot. Per Sydney bé; ja tinc feina no qualificada :-). Recordo que em podeu seguir a Twitter: @JuanIrache

Salut i rom!

Aterrizando

Empiezo etapa en Sydney. No sé de qué irá este blog a partir de ahora, de momento, os presento a uno de los bichos que rondan por el parque botánico, en pleno centro.

He aprovechado un rato para actualizar mi bobina, espero que dentro de unos meses esté llena de canguros y boomerangs.

Para lo que queráis, me tenéis por aquí, en Twitter, etc.

Ara mano jo

Fa temps que tenia una idea al cap: Crear un festival de curtmetratges.

Havia de ser alguna cosa original, no un festival més, que el món n'està ple per alguna raó. Havia de tenir alguna cosa a veure amb la cultura lliure, però ja existeixen projectes com el BccN i els Premios Oxcars.

Així que, aprofitant la meva última malaltia -els Pirates-, he organitzat el primer Festival d'Anuncis Pirata, per escollir el proper anunci dels partits Pirata per a les generals.

La gràcia -i també és una idea que em rondava pel cap des de fa anys- és que un partit polític té accés gratuït a certs espais televisius, cosa que suposa una oportunitat per la gent que està començat i vol que les seves creacions tinguin difusió. A més, hem aconseguit afegir una petita recompensa econòmica als guanyadors i un jurat de luxe que valorarà els treballs: Nacho Vigalondo, Pere Vall, David Bravo... ahí es ná.

Hi esteu tots convidats:

http://fap.pirata.cat/

Final de cicle

Aquesta setmana tanco un cicle.

Aquest cicle ha estat marcat, principalment, per un curt: Mecanoscrit v2.1.

Per si algú encara no l'ha vist, aquí el teniu, amb els seus pros i contres.

Moltíssimes gràcies un altre cop a tots els que hi vau participar.