Book review: "Dinosaur Theory"

Dinosaur Theory: Uncovering a New Approach to Screenwriting is one of those 'inevitable' books. It was inevitable that someone would write it one day. The surprise is that it was written by an Adelaide-based screenwriter. [In the interests of full disclosure, I have to tell you that Chris Tugwell was my first ever script editor.]

Even before I'd read it, when all I'd seen was the blurb outline, I knew I would like this book. Chris understands that the old Three-Act Structure Theory is misleading, and, when it comes to creating a story, unhelpful. In this he is neither first, nor alone.

Chris Tugwell

Some witnesses for the prosecution:

• Paddy Chayefsky – Dramatic writing is really nothing more than telling a story, and nobody ever tells a story quite like anyone else.
• Charlie Kaufman – There’s no template for a screenplay, or there shouldn’t be. There are at least as many screenplay possibilities as there are people who write them. We’ve been conned into thinking there is a pre-established form.
• John Truby – Three act structure, albeit a lot easier to understand than Aristotle, is hopelessly simplistic and in many ways just plain wrong. ... Three-act structure is a mechanical device superimposed on the story and has nothing to do with its internal logic—where the story should or should not go.
• William Froug – The best way to tell your story is the way the story itself dictates. Do not try to contort it into a predetermined form.
• Daniel Pyne – I completely eschew the formula of first, second, and third acts. I've run into too many writers who get lost in that old formula. They know where the first act ends, and they know where the second act ends, but their entire script is treading water because they're just writing from point to point.
• Howard Suber – With regard to any specific movie, everyone will agree on where the first act begins and where the third act ends, but there is often no agreement about where the second act begins and ends—even among the people who make the film.  
• Bill Idelson – The rich construction (read, 'structure') experts are not so much instructors as critics. They take a successful movie and dissect what the successful writer did. They remind me of wannabe painters who move a canvas chair into the museum and copy the brush strokes of Whistler's Mother. I only mention these charlatans to save student's time and money.

 

None of this helps the writer in the creation of their script

In Dinosaur Theory, Chris says this:

• The trouble with all the graphs and diagrams that supposedly measure our emotional engagement in the script, and on precisely what page your turning point should occur, is that none of this helps the writer in the creation of their script. Worse, I believe it actually gets in the way.
• I say this as a screenwriter, and as someone who over the past 20 years has edited, read and assessed literally thousands of screenplays by budding as well as highly skilled writers. In that time it has become clear to me that what all the good and great scripts have in common is not this mysterious Three Act structure. It isn't even that they have a great story, though that is pretty vital.
• What each and every great script has is shape.

Yeah, shape. This might sound weird at first, but give it a chance.

• I use the term 'shape' to distinguish what I'm talking about from what is described as 'structure,' of the Hollywood-guru-Three-Act variety. The two are fundamentally different.

They are focused on storytelling as an inorganic thing,
rather than part of the natural world

After studying structural theory for years, I went through an exercise whereby I reduced the major schemes—by Syd Field, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge, Christopher Vogler, Viki King, and Blake Snyder—to an overlapping chart, which highlighted the commonalities of their theories, and I submitted that chart to Brian McDonald (author of Invisible Ink) for comment. He approved my analysis, then said:

In the end we all say the same thing in slightly different ways. For each of us, I'm sure, there are subtleties that only matter to us. I think those authors are great, but they are focused on storytelling as an inorganic thing, rather than part of the natural world. They tend not to relate these structures to real life, or at least, to how we relate stories to one another in real life.

... the natural and obvious connection of events in your story ...

Chris Tugwell goes on to say: 

• I'm talking about the natural and obvious connection of events in your story that draws it into one single, unified and sublime whole. Where everything fits like a jigsaw puzzle, where each piece has its own unique place, and the picture is incomplete without all the parts.
• The shape provides the support, the skeleton, the bones on which your story hangs.

There are lots of different story 'shapes.' Just think about it. There is the 'Time' shape:

• one night (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
• a day (Pulp Fiction)
• a weekend (Weekend at Bernie's)
• a school year (any Harry Potter)
• a year (1900)
• summer (The Seven Year Itch)
• a week (Home Alone, Risky Business)
• a prison term (The Shawshank Redemption)
• a pregnancy (9 Months)
• a course (Legally Blonde, Police Academy, Private Benjamin).

There is a 'Deadline' shape, a 'Task' shape, a 'Place' shape, a 'Journey' shape, 'Another Reality' shape, an 'Event' shape, an 'Anniversary' shape, an 'Object' shape, and so on. I can't reproduce all the information here; you'll have to read the book for yourself.

• This is not new. The ancient Greeks and Persians knew about it. As did Chaucer and Boccaccio. Shakespeare used a wide variety of shapes in his plays; an island in The Tempest (a place), the Battle of Agincourt in Henry V (an event), the summer solstice in A Midsummer's Night Dream (one day). In Romeo and Juliet it is the length of a relationship from their first meeting to their deaths.
• Each shape has particular features that make it powerful. Each has a certain character and qualities that make it suitable for particular stories. Although there will always be those writers who break the boundaries and find a way of using a shape in a surprising and unexpected way, whether it is Tarantino breaking a single day into out-of-sequence fragments (Pulp Fiction), or Pinter making time flow backwards (Betrayal). 
• Genre isn't a lot of help in determining the shape of your film. It doesn't narrow your choices down that much. For this reason using a 'genre' can create as many problems as it solves; it is the ultimate one-size-fits-all approach. And genre doesn't help you explore your character's emotions and their response under stress. 
• If it's a thriller genre, is it in the shape of a 'place' like the motel in Psycho, or is it in the shape of a 'journey' like Wolf Creek?
• If it's a romantic comedy is it the Bridget Jones's Diary kind, that lets us into the head of the main character via the diary (relationship) shape, or is it the A Fish Called Wanda kind that is in the shape of a heist (task)?
• Once the shape of your journey is clear, the way that events unfold will become more and more obvious and large parts of your script will fall into place.
• And because it is so vital, uncovering the shape must happen before any thought of acts or turning points.

Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground

All of which leads into the theory element of Dinosaur Theory. Very few people ever get a complete idea for a story in a single instant. I usually think of a character in a situation. Then I have to scratch around to work out how that character in that situation translates into a complete story.

The bulk of Dinosaur Theory addresses the question of, How do I get my story fragment out of my subconscious? How do I dig up my complete dinosaur skeleton, without losing any of the vital pieces? It's a question Stephen King touched on briefly in his book On Writing.

• My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. (p.188)
• Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground. (p.188)
• Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small; a seashell. Sometimes it’s enormous, a Tyrannosaurus Rex with all those gigantic ribs and grinning teeth. (p.189)

Whereas Stephen King just mentioned the problem, then moved his focus to what Brian McDonald calls 'wordsmithing,' Chris Tugwell spends a lot of time walking us through the process of discovering our own stories. If you struggle with the how of unearthing a complete story, this book is a good place to go for ideas.

However the breakthrough element in the book, for me, is Chris's idea of 'shape' as the predetermining element in devising the structure of a story. It’s a solid, accessible concept, easy to grasp and explain.

I'm already using it.

First posted:  6 August 2012

"The Cat Piano"

The Cat Piano is a beautifully animated, short film made in Adelaide by The People’s Republic of Animation. It was voiced by Nick Cave, written by Eddie White, and directed by Eddie White & Ari Gibson, in 2009. 

The Cat Piano won awards at a heap of Festivals, including Flickerfest, Melbourne International Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival, and made the Oscar shortlist for the 'Best Animated Short' category at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010. 

It is also the best example I have come across of a short film being marketed across the social media spectrum. You can read about the film, listen to the soundtrack, check the vital statistics, discuss it on Facebook, buy the DVD, or simply watch it, at several locations. See the list below the video window below.

Note: This is not a cartoon for children.

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First posted:  18 November 2011

 

"The Harvest"

This short film was an entry by Thomas Phillips in an international competition at jamessuckling.com for ‘Best Video of the Harvest 2013′. It finished up as #6 in the world.

The video provides a view of the 2013 grape harvest in McLaren Vale, at Oliver's Taranga Vineyards. It takes us through the entire process during harvest, from picking, to the crush, to fermentation, and then finally to barreling. McLaren Vale is situated south of Adelaide. It usually features prominently in the telecast of the Tour Down Under (which is about cycling, for the uninitiated).

Thomas Phillips is a young filmmaker who has been shooting and making films since he got hold of Dad’s camcorder at the age of twelve.

The music was provided by the trio Spine.

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"Total Football: the Movie"

Here's the story of two brothers, a suburban soccer team in Adelaide, the 2006 World Cup, traditional Australian mateship, a crew of Aussie battlers, and a writer/director who wouldn't give up.

In 2008, Gian Carlo Petraccaro (Carlo) wrote a screenplay about an amateur football team led by two brothers; one the captain, the other the coach. 

They're brothers, but they're very different people.

Charlie, the captain, is preoccupied with winning, and with women.

Lots of women like Charlie...

Not only is Charlie good with women, he's good at soccer football.
 

Up there, Cazaly!

The team members have all the usual problems.

"But I like beer and pizza!"

"Is this work? ... Or football?"

"What about you... Are you a virgin?"

"You said that you weren't going to take this seriously.."

It's not easy to sprint up Montefiore Hill in 40°C [104°F] heat.
 

"I think this might be my last season."

Frank, the coach and team virgin, loves South American football. He is obsessed with sporting purity—the Joga Bonito, the Beautiful Game, Total Football. 

"God has given us mud."

But once it becomes clear that their goal of winning the Cup Final is in jeopardy, Frank crosses to the Dark Side. 

"So, what is it that you do now... You're a... barista?"

 Charlie's nemesis is a big, bad professional footballer, played by Lehmo.

"Do you know what I do?"

Meanwhile, Charlie falls in love, but what's gonna happen when he finds out she's a professional stripper?

"Okay, fifty thousand dollars."

Then the big-money guys start paying attention, betting on the Cup Final, and the likely outcome becomes murkier than ever.

And that's the basic setup to the story. ________________________________________________________________________

Carlo scraped together all the money he had, talked local businesses into supporting him, and gathered a cheap cast and crew. Filming took place in January 2009, during a heat wave. There were problems during post-production, especially money problems, but also some ego problems.

A version of the film, hastily cobbled together, was screened a couple of times at a local art house cinema. Reviews were mixed, and the project descended into some kind of post-development hell.

Three years passed, slowly. Then the producer released the original footage into Carlo's hands, so he could re-cut it the way he planned it.

Now the re-cut film is available. It is one of the few all self-funded films made in South Australia in recent years. No help at all from the SAFC or MRC. 

You can view the film online for $4. Meanwhile, here's a trailer...

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Interview with Chris George

Chris George is an Adelaide-based musician, songwriter, animator and story-teller.

He is best known as the creator of the animated web series Fried Rice, but is also a busy musician.

His song Time Waster is available on iTunes. ________________________________________________________________________

•   Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia.

•   What kind of a family did you grow up with?

I grew up with two older brothers. Both my parents were supportive of all my creative endeavours, even from an early age. From attempting to create my own comic books at age six, to making short stop-motion films. My mum always praised my work, as mothers do, even when my drawings were not much more than stick figures. As I progressed from comics to video, with the family video camera, my dad brought me my first video-editing machine. By today's standards it was very basic, but still allowed me to add music, fades, and wipes to my short films. So the family has always shown support with my projects.

•   Where did you go to school?

Underdale High School, then on to University of South Australia. I was deciding between enrolling in a filmmaking course, or something more practical. I decided on the practical side, as there was a high demand for work.
   I completed a Bachelor of Business with a major in Information Technology/Systems. Keeping my creative side alive, I chose Digital Arts as one of my electives. I also went on to do a short script-writing workshop with the South Australian Film Corporation, and some basic animation courses at a local adult college.

•   What was your first paying job?

Working in a seafood factory. At the end of the day the smell was hard to wash off. This was very good encouragement to study hard at university.

•   When did you first take an interest in films/stories?

As previously mentioned, from an early age. Inspired by films, such Star Wars. I was always keen to create something equally as engaging and exciting. I remember watching The Making of Star Wars on television, and being blown away by the model-building and special fx work that went into creating the film.

•   Who has had the most influence on you as a filmmaker?

That's a tough one. George Lucas would have had to been the first filmmaker that inspired me as both a writer and film maker. The guy is a genius. 
   As I got older, filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith also had a big impact. The idea of creating a film, on a miniscule budget, was inspiring, and showed that anyone with determination or drive could accomplish great things.

•   What are three things you wish someone had told you about filmmaking when you were starting out?

1. Set realistic goals.
2. Just keep making movies.
3. Every film/project teaches valuable lessons.

•   Where did the idea for Fried Rice come from? And what is the significance of that name?

Fried Rice is an idea that has floated around in one form or another for a long time. When I was about fifteen, my cousin and I made a few short films about these oddball characters.
   I remember after seeing the film Mortal Kombat, we attempted to create our own supernatural martial arts film. From there the idea continued to evolve into different stories. I kind-of forgot about it for a while, then decided to put together a cartoon series. I thought about those original ideas as a kind of inspiration—oddball characters, super-villains, martial artists, and so on—and Fried Rice, the web series, was born.
   The name came from an idea that was kind of lost on my first season. Each episode was to be about two homeless characters, who were trying to earn money to buy some fried rice. Each episode was to end with the two eating their takeaway and discussing life.
   I am currently working on Season Two, which is different from Season One in that it's an ongoing story. Cut together this would play as a 75 minute movie. It's way bigger than Season One, with lots of guest stars, such as aspiring voice actors and musicians from around the globe.
   Once Season Two is finished, I plan to relook at that original idea for Season Three and expand on that. There is plenty of room for change in my web series as the full name is actually Fried Rice TV, where as the TV part stands for TOTAL VISION. So, in essence, Fried Rice could be considered the alternate reality where these characters live.

•   You started out more as a musician, writing songs. Why did you move to animation?

Actually, from a young age, filmmaking was my passion. It wasn’t until I turned thirteen, that I took an interest in music production and song-writing, after being inspired by a cousin. She was a singer and I used to help her by creating beats and loops, then moved on to making my own music. About three years back, after a discussion with a co-worker/friend about one of my scripts, I was inspired to go out and make Fried Rice happen.

•   If you could recommend just one filmmaking advice book to a newcomer in Adelaide, what would that book be?

That's easy, I would recommend Rebel without a Crew, by Robert Rodriguez. The book tells the story of how Robert created his first feature and how a film maker should use what they have available to create something.

•   What are your ten favourite movies of all time?

Star Wars (1977)
Clerks. (1994)
El Mariachi (1992)
Mall Rats (1995)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Batman (1989)
A Man Who Was Superman (2008)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Friday (1995)

________________________________________________________________________

Here is Chapter One of Fried Rice the Animated Movie.

This is the Legend of the Legendary Lost Legend! Join Fong and Chicago as they embark on mission to save the world from evil forces.

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Beam me up, Scotty

William Shatner is a living symbol of cult television. He has appeared in over 200 films and TV shows, most significantly in Star Trek (1966-1969). But he also played T. J. Hooker on T. J. Hooker (1982-1986), hosted Rescue 911 (1989-1996), and starred in the television dramas The Practice (2004) and Boston Legal (2004-2008).

His experience hosting the Miss United States beauty pageant qualified him to appear at the 2013 Oscars via video hook-up in order to help out the host.

These days, the man is 81 years old, which is about the right age at which to start making your own web series TV. His show is called Brown Bag Wine Tasting.

Bill goes out into the public with a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag. After meeting a new friend, they taste and rate the wine together.

Yeah, I know, you don't believe me. But it's true. Just watch this.



Now why this is interesting, apart from the obvious cinematic qualities of the show, is that the man is coming to town. By "the man," I mean William Shatner; and by "town," I mean Adelaide.

The Oz Comic-Con will be held in Adelaide on the weekend of March 16-17. Mr Shatner is so excited by the prospect of being in Adelaide that he wants to meet some interesting people here. And drink some wine with them. I know this because he tweeted the information.

So, if you are two camerapersons living in Adelaide, or if you're simply interesting, e-mail the man: Press@WilliamShatner.com. Good luck!
________________________________________________________________________

Actually, no, he's not coming to Adelaide now. Changed his mind... Sorry if I raised anyone's hopes.

  

"Fried Rice"

Fried Rice is an Adelaide-based animated webseries written, directed, edited, animated and voiced by Chris George, who also provides the music.

West City can be a strange place. Superheroes, ninja, spies, criminal masterminds, this place has it all. Join the Homeless "Chicago" and oddball Ninja "Fong" as they discuss spiritual Faith.

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2013: A new year, a fresh start

I wanted to start the new year by supporting an Adelaide filmmaking project, and this seemed like a good one. 

Nate and Steve Vs. Zombies is an interactive, animated web series, written by Levi George. It’s in found footage style like Rec (2007) or Cloverfield (2008), but the plot also unfolds like an Alternative Reality Game similar to Marble Hornets (2009) or LonelyGirl15 (2006).

Nate and Steve are trapped in a house that is surrounded by zombies, and infested with zombies. With your suggestions, they can purge the house of the zombie threat and survive until rescue arrives... If it ever arrives.

Yes, your suggestion might just save an animated life.

The Pozible fundraising campaign has only three more days to go, and—at the time of writing—the goal has been comfortably exceeded. Nonetheless, there's room for more. Every dollar will help with another episode.

Given Levi's obsession with the zombie apocalypse, and the fact he lives in my neighborhood, I'd feel better if he had plenty of work to keep him busy, so he's not out on the streets. Know what I mean? Help him out. Keep him working. I'd consider it a favor.

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It's Christmas Day!

What do you want for Christmas? 

Me, I'll settle for a quiet life. Not everyone gets one of those.

And, for an Xmas celebration, here is a short film made by a student filmmaker in Paris, Walter Elias Teddy. When Santa Claus gets into the Matrix... 

Interview with Michelle Prak

Michelle Prak, enjoying
Farmers Union Iced Coffee,
a legal but addictive substance,
manufactured locally.

Michelle Prak is an Adelaide-based social media consultant, with over twenty years experience in communications spanning journalism, politics, government, and public relations. She produces content for the social media world, writes a regular blog on social media, Tweets compulsively, has a weekly segment on radio, lectures in Public Relations at the University of South Australia, and is a Board member of the South Australian Writers' Centre.
     I first came across Michelle earlier this year when she was a newly-elected member of that Board. My initial reaction was that, as she appeared to be neither writer nor filmmaker, she was of no interest to me. Then—influenced perhaps by the ads she had running on Facebook at the time—I reconsidered. One of the demands now being placed on independent filmmakers is that they develop social media skills, and build audiences and online communities that will support their work into the future. And, by then, I'd thought of a few questions of my own I'd like to ask.
________________________________________________________________________

*  Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

Born in Perth, WA, but grew up in Whyalla, SA, from aged 6 until I left for university in Adelaide, aged 17.

*  What kind of a family did you grow up with?

It was an eclectic mix! I have a brother, four years younger. Our parents separated when we were young and our mother raised us until I entered high school. We then went to live with my father, his partner, and their children. There were seven children in the house at one point!

*  Can you tell us something about the origin of the surname, Prak. I could only find reference online to a minor character of that name in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It’s Dutch but just as uncommon there as it is here. The Dutch say the closest ‘meaning’ or translation for the name is ‘mashed babyfood’!

*  Where did you go to school?

Stuart High School, a public school in Whyalla; then did my BA and MA at the University of South Australia’s Magill campus.

*  What was your first paying job?

This depends on the definition of paying job! I was paid a few dollars to help edit a football column for the Whyalla News when I was fourteen or thereabouts. 

My most substantial first gig was a part time job with Coles supermarket, from year 10 to year 12. During year 12 I was working seven days a week: every day after school, 9-5 on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. I loved earning my own money and I was saving to move to Adelaide to study.

*  How did you come to be professionally involved with social media?  Was that part of a plan, or just something that happened?

My career in social media evolved, but it was as a result of me following my passion for it. I was digital content manager at the South Australian Tourism Commission, looking after our many websites, etc. I then started looking at TripAdvisor and what was happening with tourism content there. Our first forays into social media were for our major events—specifically, the Tour Down Under. 

I was very keen to get our events and campaigns into social media and, luckily for me, those were the days when one could experiment and didn’t have to leap through layers of permissions and hand-wringing, which can happen in large organisations today.
 
I found I enjoyed social media immensely and seemed to have a knack for it—though I do think that was assisted by my long career in communications before that.
 
My roles since then have all been social media-focused.

*  Crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Pozible, IndieGoGo, etc.) provides filmmakers with a way to raise money for their films that bypasses traditional funding sources. What advice, if any, do you have for filmmakers considering Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding isn’t a speciality of mine, but from what I have read and researched, social media platforms can be a great boost to any crowdfunding efforts. That is: if you have Facebook and Twitter networks, they’re great to help you get the word out about your project. It’s very difficult to draw visitors to your Crowdfunding site otherwise. And genuine social networks, as you’d know, are something you build up slowly over time. It’s a long term undertaking, so if filmmakers want to ‘self promote’ in the future, they should be active on social media platforms now.

*  You were mentioned in a local newspaper last March in an article about prolific Tweeters from Adelaide. You were ranked #20. Did that article, or the subsequent debate, alter your approach to Twitter (in even a small way)?

I was quoted in that piece too, reflecting on why more women were in the list than men.

The piece didn’t alter my behaviour at all. The subsequent debate about ‘quality versus quantity’ on Twitter was quite amusing, with many people criticising the high-volume, enthusiastic tweeting of the most prolific accounts. My philosophy is that you use Twitter as you like, you enjoy yourself, and others will choose to engage with you there or choose not to, according to the value they place on your tweets.

*  What do you think of retweeting services? Should we get involved with them?

If you’re alluding to auto retweeting services, I’m not in favour of much automation on social media at all. It is open to too much backfiring and spam-like activity. It’s tempting to use these if you have a large social media workload but there are other means to manage this, via social media dashboards for example, garnering genuine supporters, developing a popular hashtag and so on.

My favourite social media dashboard is Hootsuite. I’ve tried others like Tweetdeck, and even played with tweeting via Crowdbooster, Socialbro and a myriad of other tweet tools, but Hootsuite has served me the best for years now.

Before Twitter was taken over by the bots and corporations, genuine ‘hand crafted’ retweeting services were fantastic. I think Adelaide Tweet remains a good example of this—the owner hasn’t set up a program to retweet any old tweet that meets content parameters. 

Rather, Adelaide Tweet has a team of people reading and assessing #Adelaide marked tweets and trying to share genuine pieces of news interspersed with some local reflections. It means Adelaide Tweet has become an established part of many local organisations’ promotional strategies. 

I don’t enjoy job vacancy retweeting accounts, or the proliferation of city-based retweeting accounts that almost mirror what Adelaide Tweet is doing, but without the same care and quality.

*  What’s the point to “liking” something on Facebook? Isn’t that just another way of handing your life over to Zuckerberg, so he can make more money off you?

We ‘like’ things on Facebook for many reasons. Sometimes it’s to get discounts at a retail chain, sometimes to support a cause, sometimes to protest something, sometimes just for plain old fun. While Facebook may sell that data to the ads that show on the right hand side of your screen, that’s the price we pay for a social network that is free for individuals to use, that connects us to people around the world, that’s continually updating and improving its interface, that provides free emails, online space for our photographs, and so on. ☺

If anyone is truly anti Zuckerberg, they can of course stay away from Facebook.

*  Given that you’re not primarily a writer, why did you become involved with the SA Writers’ Centre?

I was a member about a decade ago, when I did want to be a writer. I was invited onto the board recently because I have some skillsets that are valuable to the Centre right now: not just my social media skills, but also my PR and media relations skills. I am very excited to be back there and in fact getting my passion for writing again.

*  What are three suggestions you would make to a writer or independent filmmaker trying to build an online support base?

1. Share yourself: give followers insights into your work, the process, your hopes and failures and successes! People just love a good story.

2. Don’t just broadcast: have a conversation. That means asking followers questions, reading their content and responding.

3. People love images, especially on Facebook, but you can do a lot via Twitter, or just use the free Instagram app for both. So share photos of yourself at work, at events, of your craft, what inspires you, and so on. 

*  What is the biggest mistake you see writers or independent filmmakers commit online?

I can’t say I’ve watched the field closely enough to comment. But the biggest mistake anyone makes online, regardless of industry, is not responding or replying to others. If you’re broadcasting only, you’re a very dull social connector indeed.

Another mistake is not having a professional-looking profile. Make sure you take advantage of all the available biographical and image fields that social networks provide you. Tell people who you are. Have your website address there. It sounds like commonsense, yet some accounts don’t do this. This means they look uninspiring and even frightening, because people may think the account isn’t real or it is spam.

*  What one social media advice book would you recommend to filmmakers in Adelaide?

I'm not really a socmedia book reader. I’ve read Brian Solis’s Engage, and also WikiBrands: Reinventing Your Company in a Customer-Driven Marketplace, by Sean Miller, Mike Dover and Don Tapscott, but other than that, I find that online sources serve all my needs as far as social media reference material. 

Even more importantly, I’m a member of Facebook Groups for online community managers where we share case studies and news of platform changes. 

I recommend that filmmakers scour the internet and connect to some of the many sensational blogs, online forums, networks and online magazines that may appeal to them.

*  Name ten of your all-time favourite movies.

I’m not an art house person!

• The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
• Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Vanilla Sky (2001)
• Working Girl (1988)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• 12 Monkeys (1995)
• Love Actually (2003)
• The Outsiders (1983)