It’s a little bit late, but it’s worth the wait. It’s my run-down of the 48Hours competition that I participated in this year. My fourth year running. Four years! You think I would have learnt by now and kept well away. But the lure of audience appreciation and seeing something up on the big screen, …
Comet McNaught Again
Contrary to what I first thought about the view of Comet McNaught getting fainter and fainter, it just keeps getting better. Now that it’s further away from the sun, the comet can be viewed against a much darker background, and even though the comet is “fainter” than it was when it was closer to the …
Comet McNaught
In case you’re not aware, there’s a pretty cool celestial event occurring right now: a comet has appeared that is the brightest since 1965. Comet C/2006 P1, also known as Comet McNaught after its Australian discoverer Robert McNaught, is very visible in the evening sky (barring clouds of course), appearing in the south-west sky slightly …
The Final Frontier
Every once in a while, space photography throws up an instant classic, and recently a couple of photos have turned up that deserve to join the many that have come before. Before I get to those two recent images, I’ll give you a quick tour of what I think are some of the most iconic …
Night of the Hell Hamsters
On the subject of writing, a short film I helped write last year, “Night of the Hell Hamsters”, has just had both its world and New Zealand premieres. It was shown first in London in early September (of which I was unfortunately unable to attend, being stuck on the opposite side of the globe and …
Fini Finally
Done. The Wellington portion of the 2006 International Film Festival is all finished. That’s it for another year. I went to twenty showings in all and saw eighteen full length features and seven short films (three of which I haven’t mentioned here at all because, well, there are only so many words in the world …
You Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up
Right, more movies for you. This time a load of documentaries. I’ll have about five other films to look at in my next post, including one other documentary, but for now: “This Film is Not Yet Rated” A very interesting exposé on the “voluntary” ratings system run by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It’s voluntary in …
Films, Films and More Films
It’s halfway through the Wellington leg of the 2006 International Film Festival and I’ve seen more than my fair share of movies so far. In this first post I’ll run through the fictional films I’ve been to so far. I’ll put another post up, probably next week, with the further fictional films I’ll go to …
Third Time Not Really All That Lucky
Unfortunately our entry in the 48Hours film competition (“Coupled”) did not make the Wellington regional final. We thought we might have had a chance this year, but to cut a long story short: no. Still, last night I was able to see the calibre of films that did make it. There were twelve films shown …
Once Upon a Time, Part Trois
We huddled in the front room. It was turning dark, the quickly fading light playing tricks in the sky. Off down the corridor, which had been quiet for too long, we heard the first murmurings. We glanced terrified at each other. Leaving the house was out of the question. That cursed hound of hell was …