TOPICS AND NEWS ITEMS


HD SHOT LISTING & SELECTION
27 September 2007

I intend to add to the Archive with a series of hour-long DVD supplements. I have spent most of September shot-listing the nine 64 minute HD tapes filmed so far, and I have been doing shot selection on the first eight.

While engaged on this work I have done a small amount of filming – mainly of moths – as the beginning of Spring has resulted in warmer weather and a reinvigorated insect life.

I have also updated filming of an immensely spreading fig tree, which loses its leaves for all of two weeks. I only get to pass the tree one day a week on my way to the coast. My film diary shows a 15 day gap between filming the tree without leaves and then with new leaves.


VIDEO ARCHIVING FOR SCIENTISTS
6 September 2007

After the Recovering Rainforest Forum, I emailed the two professors at Griffith University (see entry for 25-27 June) and set out my ideas about video archiving biodiversity projects in the field. I subsequently followed this up by letter but have not received replies. I find the professors’ silence disappointing, but would still welcome the opportunity to engage with scientists to see if video archiving research projects is viable. With this in mind I have been in contact with the director of business development at Earthwatch in Melbourne. He had earlier sent me an email praising this website and we spoke on the phone. Maybe the idea can be pursued after all.


BRISBANE EXTRA
21 August  2007

Brisbane Extra is a Monday to Friday TV magazine programme which preceeds Channel 9’s main evening news. I was the subject of a segment which included footage from the Archive. As with Totally Wild earlier in the year, it was gratifying to see my material shown on TV.


SWINGING 60s LONDON
11 July 2007

I received an email from Sandrine Meats, the Sorbonne student who interviewed me last year about my nefarious past. This was for her dissertation on performance art in the UK in the 60s and 70s. It was a roaring success and she has been awarded a scholarship to undertake a PhD.  Also she been asked by the leading contemporary art magazine in France to write a lengthy article about WHSHT (the loose grouping of artists to which I belonged and whose multi-media and street theatre events I produced).

Now is a good time to respond to Clive’s request for a blog piece about my early career! More


RECOVERING RAINFOREST FORUM
25-27 June 2007

The forum was held at Griffith University in Brisbane. I was particularly interested in presentations about biodiversity projects in South East Queensland by two professors from the university.
I had been in contact with one and the other was known to me by name and reputation. I was able to briefly meet both of them.

There were many interesting talks about rainforest in North Queensland as well as in the local area. A talk about fungal conservation in a remnant gallery rainforest was right up my street, given my love of filming fungi.

Hearing the scientists and naturalists talk at the forum, and some of them touch on wanting to find ways to inform the public about their work, confirmed a feeling which I had started to formulate about the potential value of video archiving biodiversity research projects. I mentioned this to both the professors. One found the presence of a documentary crew filming his project (involving scientists from many parts of the world) intrusive. I said it need not be intrusive. I suggested to the other that he should consider video archiving his project using a film student.

BACK BEHIND THE CAMERA
28 May 2007

It became clear after attending the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol last October that in order to add to my archive I needed to buy an HD (High Definition) camera. I chose a Sony HVRV1P. It is a lot lighter than my trusty Canon XL1.

Editing my previous footage took three years. Remastering from digital tape to DVD and getting the website up and running took a further year. So I was delighted to resume filming at last, on 1st April.

My first subject was three Asian water buffaloes gracing a field next to a main road – rather exotic and picturesque. I made the mistake of immediately viewing the footage on an HD TV. The upshot was that having just forked out a tidy sum for the camera, I found myself forking out a whole lot more on an HD TV. Of course it would have been crazy to film in HD without being able to view the footage on an HD monitor.

The camera tapes run for 64 minutes. I have just started my fifth tape. I plan to add to the Archive one 60 minute DVD at a time. As before, all the species I film will be located on the Mountain.

Just as with Parts 1 to 6, I have had plenty of good fortune when filming. On the first tape I have lots of footage of the rather shy Wonga pigeon and the hereabouts uncommon Pacific heron. Previously I only had about 30 seconds of the pigeon and perhaps a minute of a rather distant heron.

Every few years the golden orb spiders cluster in groups of 40 or more. 2007 is such a year and I have extensive footage of two clusters, again next to a main road.

I have some bird species new to the Archive, filmed at a bird bath in the Wild Garden; a few good fungi and the beginning of a serious moth collection. Whereas there are hundreds of Australian butterflyspecies, there are thousands of moths.

Watch out for some pre-release HD segments on YouTube.


INTERVIEW ON ABC RADIO
8 May 2007

I had a half-hour live Queensland-wide interview on ABC Radio with Steve Austin, my favourite presenter, which apparently went very well. I enjoyed doing it – though, as ever, there were things I should have mentioned that I didn’t.

Since we launched the archive and website I have done a number of live radio interviews, either over the phone or in the studio. I only do them live, you know. Seriously, I have so far found them a lot of fun. I particularly recall an interview last year with another excellent presenter, Trevor Jackson on ABC Coast FM.


THE ABUNDANCE OF LIFE
2 April 2007

My pet archive spin-off project is the idea of a documentary series about biodiversity.

That was my reason for attending Wildscreen 2006.It was the opportunity to meet producers and senior TV executives and talk to them about my concept, which has the working title The Abundance of Life.

It was always the longest of long shots. As a last throw of the dice, I today sent the concept to the Head of Development at the BBC Natural History Unit. In my covering letter I made it clear that I wanted to entrust the concept entirely to the NHU because I feel that it is uniquely able to make the kind of series I have in mind. Moreover I have no desire to be a filmmaker or cinematographer, even though I would be happy to help develop the concept and possibly be involved in other ways.

Should anything happen you’ll hear about it. Meanwhile I am publishing the material on this site: ‘You read it HERE first!’


YOUTUBED
15 March 2007

Five segments from the archive have been posted to YouTube.

www.youtube.com

The clips can also be accessed here. More will be added from time to time. I'll let you know when.


ABOUT MAKING THE ARCHIVE
9 February 2007

I hope my Tamborine Mountain Archive will inspire others to do similar projects.

For anyone interested in how I set about it I have made some notes about the process, illustrated with a Flow Chart, extracts
from my Film Diary, shot selection lists etc.
See my Notes


TOTALLY WILD
2 February 2007

A segment prompted by the archive was shown in Australia on Totally Wild, Channel Ten’s national programme for children. It included naturalist Doug White with whom I made a very productive foray into MacDonald National Park, filming more fauna species for the archive than on any other visit to a national park. Appropriately, the segment was filmed in the park one morning last November and was fun to do. The young presenter was very good.

Doug and I spoke to camera about the Mountain’s biodiversity, its fragility in the light of the population growth in South East Queensland and the value to the planet of rainforest like that on the Mountain. The segment included aerial footage by Hugh Alexander and footage by me of fungi, birds, insects and views of the escarpment. It was pleasing to have some of my footage broadcast at last.

I was delighted that shots of a giant Cereus cactus as high as a two-storey house and with the bulk of a tree were used, because the conditions which allow the rainforest to accommodate its biodiversity also allow this alien from southern USA and Central America to flourish on the Mountain.


LOGGING OLD-GROWTH FOREST IN TASMANIA
31 January 2007

I have just got back from a twelve day visit to Tasmania, staying with Hugh and Pauline Alexander who have been renting a house near Launceston for the past year. I stayed with them for five days last March. On this visit we made a six day, five night trip to Strahan, Lake Pedder and Hobart.

Then as now, the one place in Tasmania I wanted to see more than any other was the Styx Valley, home to the biggest recorded Eucalyptus regnans, the world’s tallest flowering plant.

But the Tasmanians I had asked about the Styx were vague as to its whereabouts. It is not part of a national park, but is an active logging area managed by Forestry Tasmania on behalf of a timber industry bent on clear-felling as much of Tasmania’s old-growth forest as it can get its hands on – for no better purpose than to provide woodchip for making news-print.

After crossing the Styx River we finally came to the Big Tree. More


ARCHIVE IMAGES FEATURE IN NEW GARDENING BOOK
18 December 2006

Tamborine Mountain is famous for its gardens and its gardeners.
Its flourishing Garden Club holds an annual Spring Festival which brings thousands of enthusiasts to the Mountain from far and wide.
The Club also looks after the Botanical Gardens which occupy 11 hectares (27 acres) and include a lake which is home to waterfowl, turtles, eels, fish and water dragons.

The Club has just published a completely revised edition of The Tamborine Mountain Gardener. The only colour pages in the book are made up of photos taken from the Archive, which I find most heartening and touching.

The book’s designer, Angela McKinstry, has designed all the Archive’s print material.


WILDSCREEN 2006
25 October 2006

I am home after almost two months in Europe combining pleasure with pleasure, eg I extended my stay to attend Wildscreen in Bristol UK, which is billed as the world’s largest, most prestigious and influential event for wildlife and environmental film-makers.

I had a blast. I was able to progress my concept for a documentary series on biodiversity (my pet spin-off project, even if it is the longest of long shots). I brought back follow-up work which will continue to keep me busy for quite some time.

The archive and website were very well received. One consequence is that we have exchanged links with some more good websites. (See Links page).

I also had a couple of excellent meetings with a producer from the BBC Natural History Unit. He won the top award at Wildscreen for Life in the Undergrowth and is working on a new blue chip series. There is a move to increase the interactive component of programmes and although it is early days yet, we discussed my possible involvement in helping viewers create their own video records.

Interestingly, both the Eden Project people and the BBC producer liked the fact that the Archive was created by an artist rather than by a scientist or filmmaker.


AT THE EDEN PROJECT
5 September 2006

Clive and I had a productive meeting with two of the creative team at the Eden Project in Cornwall about a video installation using material from the Archive – another of the spin-off ideas I want to develop.

Eden expressed a desire to do a project with me and we plan to look at a number of options.

One thing I am keen to do is to show people how they can make their own Archives. Eden likes to energise people to do their own thing.


SWINGING '60s LONDON
28 August 2006

Have just arrived in the UK and had a most enjoyable interview with a Sorbonne student who is writing a thesis on British performance art in the 60s and 70s.

It’s been suggested that I write about avant-garde art in London in the swinging 60s – and my notorious past. I will, I will, but not just now!


THE MAN’S NAKED
24 August 2006

My latest piece about environmental protection is published by 'The Brisbane Institute' on its website.

Hans Christian Andersen's story of the Emperor's new clothes is a much-loved classic about hoodwinkery, venality, wilful stupidity, sycophancy, peer pressure, and a refusal to be taken in.

It is, alas, a story which could have been written about environmental protection in South East Queensland outside the region's sparse National Parks.

The line being sold about environmental protection in SEQ by most politicians, bureaucrats, developers, planners and much of the media, grouped in a seemingly monolithic alliance, is the ridiculous notion that development and growth are consistent with preserving the environment.

Complete article.


NATIONAL TREASURE A BATTLEGROUND
1 June 2006

The following article appears on the Brisbane Line. This is the e-bulletin of The Brisbane Institue, an independent organisation funded by a cross-section of universities, government departments, corporations and individuals. The Institute is a generator of ideas and facilitates discussion.

The common threat to the sustainability of the planet's biodiversity is the impact of Homo sapiens. Nowhere else in Australia has this impact been as pronounced in recent times as in South East Queensland.

It can only become more pronounced with an additional million plus people making the region their home in the next 20 years.

Tamborine Mountain, which has been described as a 'national treasure' has long been a battleground between developers and conservationists.

Complete article.


NOT TELEVISION
April 2006

There is a difference between the Archive and a Natural History documentary film.

'Viewers must recognise that something unfamiliar is on the screen. The Archive is a visual record, not a narrative. It can only be incidentally entertaining . . .' More


BIODIVERSITY – AN ARTIST’S IMPRESSION
March 2006

What does biodiversity mean to me, as an artist?

I set out to present biodiversity in an intelligible way on video – so that the viewer can get a sense of what biodiversity is and can experience its ultimate and compelling inclusiveness . . . More


PRESS
February 2006

There’s been some good local press for the Archive, following its donation to the Tamborine Mountain Natural History Association.

14 Feb
ABC News Online writes up the Archive. Story here.

9 March
Coast FM Radio in SE Queensland gave me a live 30 min interview.

See the Press Release.


THE LURE OF THE WILD

'Until I came to Australia, where the energy of the earth beats so powerfully, I had known only civilisation . . .' More


PANDORA
21 December 2005

A month after going online, the website is included in PANDORA, Australia’s National Web Archive.

This gave me a great thrill, as much for Clive and Christina, after all the years of hard work.


ARCHIVE IN THE STATE LIBRARY
16 December 2005

I lodge the archive with the State Library of Queensland.

In December 2006 the splendidly enlarged library in the cultural precinct on the south bank of the Brisbane River will open its doors to the public. In due course its Heritage Collections will house my camera-original tapes, the DV CAM master tapes and associated papers.


A WEBLOG?

My very good friend Clive Tempest, the architect of this website (his partner Christina is its brilliant designer) has persuaded me to start a weblog on these pages.

People really seem to like the website. They like the look of it, the colours and the variety of content. This is most pleasing to the three of us.

From time to time I’ll send something out into the void which will hopefully connect with you!

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