It’s really awesome, there’s a really creepy lady in the background and she moves. It’s got details of new projects and we will definitely be updating it more often because it’s our shiny new toy that we can’t put down.

Check it out here – www.beateadfectus.com

One of the photographs from my Tin City series was announced as a finalist in the NSW Plein Air Parliamentary Photographic Prize (what a mouthful!).

This will be an exhibition and finalist first for me, and amazingly I’m up against some photographers that I really admire – Dean Sewell and Andrew Quilty from Oculi collective. What a privilege!

The exhibition opens August 31 at the NSW Parliamentary House and you will get to see my photo BIG BIG BIG! More details here.

It was very exciting news, but I got a bit side tracked traveling and forgot to mention it!

I took some photos while I was there – wandering through the castle gardens in the chill of the winter afternoon, diving into the crisp Mediterranean from the side of a Turkish gulet, gazing up into the stars in the desert whilst chatting to Bedouins about politics and a camel named Bob Marley.

I have some rolls to process and an indeterminable amount of digital images to work my way through; but for now here’s a taster, a teaser for hopefully what might come. We can thank their dreamy and ghost like wafting to a cheap and questionable development lab in Istanbul. (I’d like to thank them more than anything)

The members of Beate (myself, Kara Bombell and Angela Woda) have finally got their shit together and made ourselves a website. It’s pretty basic for the time being, but a necessary step towards… world domination? perhaps?

You can check it out at our appropriately titled web address www.beateadfectus.com

We’ve got a little about section on each of us, as well as details of past projects and upcoming projects that we’re really excited about. We’re in pre-production for an animated documentary that incorporates an online element and installation that challenges the user to push their sensory perception above and beyond the normal sphere, it’s called Hearing Yellow and it’s our most ambitious project to date.

We have already completed the primary video shoot for our project DamaScene, in Damascus, Syria. The footage will be rotoscoped and incorporated into an interactive online map with users able to actively explore the old city of Damascus through the map and animated footage.

I made our logo too, do you like it?

It’s going to be a big year for beate!

Kino Sydney has been running since 2006 and they have just released a Best of Kino 2006-09 DVD which includes our little film!

Kino has no preselection process – you make it, they screen it; and the entry fee covers home made nibblies, drinks and the occasional live performance. I’d rave about it some more but I don’t want this great little event to be overrun!

Check out some details about Kino here.

Check out some other Kino films here.

This is the film that was included on the DVD (amongst many other great films):

Untitled Kino Film – Kino Sydney #22 from Jade Cantwell on Vimeo.

This is a promise with a catch
Only if you’re looking will it find you
‘Cause true love is searching too
But how can it recognize you
Unless you step out into the light?
But don’t give up until
True love finds you in the end.

My review for The Dwarf:

There was a buzz of anticipation in the air as people gathered outside the metro, and rightfully so – Daniel Johnston is at once considered an obscure oddity and one of the most influential indie musicians of the past decades. His name is not all that familiar to most yet he has inspired a glut of musicians from Sonic Youth and Nirvana to Beck. The 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston re-introduced this enigmatic performer to a new generation of devotees – of die hard fans who know just how lucky they are to be seeing the reclusive and troubled singer on his first and possibly only Australian tour.

In first support slot are Kid Sam who fluctuate from some calm and melodic repetitive riffs to heavy fuzz in a matter of moments. Their sound is tight and well-rehearsed with just the right amount of grit and tension to keep you interested. There’s a pretty good sized crowd for an early opener and Kid Sam play their current radio spinners “Down to the cemetery” and their final track of the evening “We’re mostly made of water”.

Early attendees were then treated to a half an hour blackout and venue evacuation! Everyone pretty much continued to converse and order drinks lit by approximately three light bulbs before being ushered out onto the street to entertain visions of a potentially candle lit acoustic set by Daniel Johnston. The venue was powered back up in around half an hour.

Old Man River took to the stage to play a few of their own tunes (before returning as  Johnston’s backing band). Opening with a lovely sitar solo, the band launch into some slightly psychedelic, India-inspired sounds accompanied by colourful visuals projected onto the stage. The vast majority of songs however, “Sunshine” being the perfect example, are pure feel-good pop.

Daniel Johnston’s set is easily characterised by not only the beautiful simplicity and honesty of Johnston’s songs, but the absolute adoration of the crowd – the front row is wielding hand made posters of frogs saying “Hi How Are You” and “True Love Will Find You in the End” and between each song the crowd are as reverential as church goers as they hang on Johnston’s every word (and very few they are).

Johnston begins solo, before being joined by a guitarist and then eventually Old Man River as the backing band. Johnston flicks through his song book – a white folder filled with plastic sheets containing his prolific outpouring of songs, the folder is labelled with his name on the front. His hands alternate between clenched fists that hang by his side to gripping the side of his pants as his arms shake, at times uncontrollably. Each audience member is acutely aware of the struggles Johnston has faced with mental instability throughout his life, and as he sings of loneliness, vulnerability and lost love the crowd responds with unconditional love and idolisation. Johnston’s songs are so brutally earnest that it would be impossible not to be able to relate to them, they are completely unselfconscious which is the key to why Johnston’s songs have inspired and touched generations of musicians and fans.

The tracks are a prefect mix of new and old tracks with older tracks “Some things last a long time” and “Speeding Motorcycle” wedged between tracks from the new album Is And Always Was such as “WIthout You”, “Freedom”, “Mind Movies” and “Fake Records of Rock and Roll”. The crowd sings along to most songs, with a big response to The Beatles covers “Revolution” and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (Johnston is a massive Beatles fan and clearly so are the audience).

Everyone revels in Johnston’s voice warbles, off-kilter sense of rhythm and quirky keyboards and guitar riffs, and is treated to an odd little story – Johnston recounts a dream in which a man was sentenced to death for attempting to commit suicide, he then realised the man in the dream was him and he was at the back of the courtroom screaming NO, NO, NO. He later jokes that unfortunately we’ve already heard the one joke of the show.

Johnston plays a one-song encore, and that’s really all that’s needed when it’s an acoustic version of “True Love Will Find You In The End”. I’m not even sure what I can say about this song, tears welled up in my eyes and I’m sure that everyone else left with the same warm fuzzy feeling inside that I had.

It’s first adventure was a road trip from Sydney to Melbourne for Falls Festival – a 3 day camping and music festival over the new year period, set in a gorgeous valley surrounded by eucalypt rainforest. We zoomed along the open road, on our way encountering giant sheep, submarines and RSL clubs that stole our heart. There are a few shots towards the end from my parents house as well.

They had a good energy and the crowd went pretty wild for them, unfortunately I got booted after the 3 song limit so I didn’t get to see the rest of the gig. Here’s a few of the best shots, for more head over to the Passion Pit gallery.

Shot on HD using a red rock adapter and Nikon prime lenses on location at Tin City at Stockton beach Newcastle (check out my Tin City photo series here) and Kurnell, Sydney. It was a massive undertaking but I made it through with some help from some very special people.

Check out the IMDB listing for Porphyria here.

I’m currently in the process of entering Porphyria into film festivals world wide.

Cast:

Hannah Levien

Will Carter

Maddison Scerri

Craig Walker

Joanne Horsburgh

Crew:

1st AD – Josh Mawer

Cam Assist/grip/gaffer – Philip Griffiths

Sound recordist – Emily McDaniel and Joel Caban

Makeup – Cameron Dunn

Editor – Kara Bombell

Sound Designers – Emily McDaniel and Emma Ramsay

Director, Producer and DOP  – Jade Cantwell