EVENT: 2011 Shortcuts Film Festival

I had a great time co-hosting the 2011 Shortcuts Film Festival – Western Sydney’s only youth short film festival at the Powerhouse Youth Theatre. There was a turn out of approximately 150 people all coming to support their budding filmmakers and their short film.

I would like to congratulate Vinh Nguyen [pictured right] (whom was involved in Vietnamese Stories Digital Storytelling Project & Vietnamese Theatre Project – projects that I’ve coordinated in the past) on his award for Best Film – The Tech Effect. Vinh has entered into Shortcuts for the past 5 years and have been vying for the major category ever since. He’s definitely grown as a filmmaker over the years, testing different styles, genres and formats of storytelling.

Also a major big congratulations to the makers of short film “Canvale High – School of Cliques”. Directed by John Nguyen and Peter Thai Tran, with the collaboration of their year 10 school mates, their first time ever film took out runners up for People’s Choice Awards on the night. I facilitated their filmmaking sessions at Canley Vale High and am impressed with their developments throughout the short time span I was with them.

It was also awesome to see Mr Robert Shehadie (“Fat Pizza” and “Housos”) made a supporting appearance and share a few bellyful of laughs as well.

This year, we had Aga Kolaczkowski (Emerging & Filmmakers Fund for Screen NSW) and TV actor Steve LeMarquand as our judges. Unfortunately, two of our other judges pulled out the last minute and our dependable and all time mentor Craig Anderson (“Double The Fist”) was happy to fill in.

Big ups to Kimberley Tan for a great festival coordination of the event and hopefully it will develop even further in 2012.

SHORTCUTS ’11 Winners

Best Film

The Tech Effect – Vinh Nguyen

Audience Choice Award

The Tech Effect – Vinh Nguyen

Best Script

Metal Kingdom – Skylie Moss, Corey Bolton & Hayley Franke

Best Actor

Kyle Mcleavy in No Empathy

Best Cinematography

Hello Panda – Ali Kadhim

Best Sound Design

A Rock’s Life – Robert NC Thomas

Best Editing

The Tech Effect – Vinh Nguyen

Charming & clever Rob Shehadie

Clown 101

In the three hour session, taught by Craig Anderson, myself and Joseph Hieu Dinh indulged in the world of clowns and street theatre. This was not a class for people who had a strong aversion to all things silly, because it was a class that rock the boat of acting appropriately and a course that will be sure to give you a stomach full of laughs.

We warmed up to some light bouts of juggling tricks, hula hooping and other circus tricks and soon enough we went straight into a number of rediculous silly music based games such as the “typewriter”.

Craig gave us a quick run down of the historics of clowns (they have a history?), the types, the global clown tournaments back in the 70s, and also acting and storytelling through the physiques.

So what are clowns? They are comical performers stereotypically with coloured wigs, stylised make up and costumes, awkwardly large footwear and red nose, all with the intent to entertainment kids.


Types of Clowns
There are three types of clowns: Whiteface, Auguste & Hobbo/ Tramp.
Whiteface: most common clown, when performing with the Auguste and/or Tramp, this clown will remain in charge, setting up the routine, throwing rather than taking the pie, slap or kick. Although more comical than the Straight Whiteface, this clown is a bit more reserved than the impish and gregarious Auguste.

Auguste: The most comical of all clowns. He/she is impish, gregarious and thrives on slapstick. His/her actions are big, clumsy and awkward. He/she does not have much in common with the Whiteface except for the makeup and costume. His/her personality is that of a rabble rouser. When appearing with the Whiteface, the Auguste (German meaning "foolish") is the brunt of the joke. However, with the Tramp, he becomes the instigator in control of the situation.

Hobbo/Tramp: forlorn and downtrodden character who has nothing and knows he will never have anything, probably be a loner, which is reflected in his determination to be silent, generally not talking to anyone but his peers. His downcast mannerisms and shuffling burdensome movements reflect his hard life.

Does anyone remember...STEPHEN KING's movie IT?

This 1990's movie was one to really traumatise you with the unthinkable horrors of a psycho clown.

A group of adults take a blast from the past. They remember when they were nerds in school, hanging out, victim of bullies. But nothing out of the question compares with one big bully of Evil unspeakable. the bully is a monster in a clowns suit. He is deadly, can be any were anyone, at any time. with supernatural powers. They call him "IT". Written by sam from IMBD.

Prior to this, I only knew Ronald Mc Donald. But what is it about clowns that are so freaky? Aren't they designed to entertainment kids?