30 Mar 12 | Deep Corridors - A Symposium for Emerging Artists in South West Sydney

Hey everyone,


I've been recently been invited to speak at this fantastic initiative based out west. Do come and join in the conversation! 


The Bankstown Youth Development Scheme (BYDS) is holding Deep Corridors, a free symposium for emerging artists, at the Bankstown Arts Centre on 30 March and 13 April, in the lead up to Youth Week. 

Deep Corridors will feature two different forums exploring film and literature and will follow the artistic endeavours of young and established artists in South West Sydney.

The interactive forums hopes to act as a launch pad for creating and fostering relationships between artists and the community, and are open to anyone with an interest in the arts and aims to spark ongoing dialogue between artists in the region.

Andy Ko, a writer from South-West Sydney who will be on the literature panels, said the symposium would allows young writers to mature and share information.

“Deep Corridors - Writing in the West is a fitting event grown from the incredible ongoing activity of BYDS's Westside Publications that has, for years, nurtured young and emerging writers and their work, helping these voices reach wide audiences through quality publications, literary events, and theatrical productions, stimulating cross-cultural dialogue, critical reflection, and artistic engagement.”

Maria Tran, a Fairfield resident who is going thorugh Screen NSW's Producer Extension Program will be on the film panel. She said she was excited about the opportunities the symposium offered.

"It is so important that the young people in Western Sydney have opportunities not only to make films but also to get together, in open dialogue and reflect on our journeys of making our stories on the big screens. I believe Deep Corridors is about that, and I'm quite excited to be a part of the sharing."

The forums are being co-ordinated by two young locals and each forum will be catered and will feature visual art around the venue.

Deep Corridors – Visionaries will be held on Friday March 30th at 7pm and will explore film.

Deep Corridors – Writing in the West will be held on Friday April 13th at 7pm and will focus upon literature.

For any enquiries or bookings please email projects@byds.org.au or phone BYDS on 9793 8324.

Week 2 - Connections Project - 23 Feb

I finally got the post production edits finalised for the holiday intensive class. It turns out the whole show was 30 mins long but all with interesting content that was devised during the 5 day intensive. You can have a look at the updates on vimeo.

Scene 1 - Breakfast Time

Scene 2 - Heading to School

Scene 3 - Classroom 

Scene 4 - Lunchtime

Scene 5 - From school

Scene 6 - After school hang out

Scene 7 - Dinner time

This week was again, looking at further more scenarios and characters of Western Sydney. The students were matched with one another and improv training was set in Lurnea had a good 10 students who all paired up to work in the scenarios that were given and after that, they had the chance to catch up on what did go on during the 5 day intensive.

Fairfield HS class were more keen in working in the realms of dance choreography and dropping in their class mid way revealed to m that Ellena (their teacher) was quite good at this. After also tuning in to watch the works in early this year, the kids were keen to devise something as a group and was more physical as well as musical.

Week 1 - Connections Project - 16 Feb

Returning back to the schools with the Connections Project was such an invigoration as the kids all wanted to know what is the final stages of the program. The majority knew about 

Role playing scenarios

their absences during the 5 day holiday intensive component (only 5 made it to the final outcome, of which, came predominately from Lurnea High School). But setting aside this, they all continue forth with the activities that went before them.

Stage 3 met that we got straight into business and I'm ever so grateful to have the support of Danielle to give me a hand with the classes and some input into critiquing their performances.

Fairfield HS writing exercises

The first session coming back delved into more theatre improvisational activities, from creating on-the-spot advertisements selling magical products (in reality, it was a scarf) to building scenes with absurd characters and script development, the kids all actively got involved in it.

Fairfield HS had new faces and the numbers were surprising large in comparison to Lurnea HS (after school classes are harder to get the numbers). Lurnea's venue was in a hot and stuffy demountable and we all hoped that next week we got an upgrade.

Lurnea HS Father/ son roleplay
 

Quest for Jackie Chan: Editing

Act I Edit

After almost two years of the "Quest" I have finally started with the editing of the first act with Adrian Castro my co-producer. Who knows when I personally would get around to it but with the undying support of a good friendship and partner in crime (film wise) we were able to finally start working on this little piece of epicness.

Also on the same day, my travel buddy-turned-bf did us a good deed by setting up a 3 screen movable arm that complimented the editing process.

So our progress? We have powered through a solid 30 mins of draft content, and to my surprise we had no shortage of a diverse range of stories to tell within the framework of the Quest for Jackie Chan! I think the beauty of this project is it is doco style which opens the doors to a myriad of shooting styles, mediums etc... From the shaky cam to sleek fight sequences, this film will have it.

So the next steps are more editing sessions, scenes to shoot and revving up to the finale, which I can see is not to far away.

Trung Ly & Adrian Castro

MOVIE: A Few Best Men (2011)

Trung Ly and I enjoyed a quite funny movie on the weekend. Directed by Stephan Elliot and written by Dean Craig, this film deserves credit for creating a succession of bellyfuls of laughters (even though there was only 6 in the cinema).

The film itself is like a crossover between Hangover and The Braidsmaid and I really enjoyed the fast paceness and crude humour. Despite some harsh reviews from the Australian critics  I still think its profit making capabilities (Budget $13 million, Box office $26 million) will sure make any film credit envious.

I didn't really care too much for the performances by Laura Bent and Xavier Samuel (they were just your typical straight characters) but the friend team and  the druglord (played by Steve LeMarquand, who I got a chance to meet during the Shortcuts Film Festival).

In conclusion, I loved it and so proud to see the industry supporting films like these.

DINNER: Celebration of "Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta" SBS TV Series Success Date: Wed, 14 Feb, 2012 @Bach Dang Restaurant

After such as long and trying year with the SBS production, the show has finally wrapped up with a  friendly celebration as initiated by the Vietnamese Community of Australia (VCA) - NSW Chapter.

It was a project I was very much proud to have been a part of. I learnt some many new skills and developed a new found love for documentary making. It was fantastic to see John Godfrey (SBS Doco commissioner), Craig Graham (Fredbird Entertainment) & Sue Clothier (Northern Pictures) travel all way out here to the west to have dinner with  everyone.

Post dinner was a number of plaque tokens of appreciation as well as (my favorite) movie poster size memorabilia.

The overall picture is, everyone was very impressed with the outcome of this show. From rating number 2 trending on twitter and SBS top rated show of the year, "Once Upon A Time in Cabramatta" is beyond a series, it was the driving force for some community healing.

VCA, Sue Clothier (Northern Pictures) and Maria Tran

Craig Graham (Fredbird Entertainment), VCA, John Godfrey (SBS) and Sue Clothier (Northern Pictures)

NEW JOB: Screen NSW

Click here for their website

It's been a back to back 2011 onto 2012 and I've just slipped into another exciting job in

regards to film and screen culture. It's has been a consistent move though, from community to mainstream and now funding applications and I believe everything is forwarding me in my developments as a serious filmmaker. Of course, I do enjoy the sensibility of the 'indie' producer but I don't want to be starving either so a little give and take will surely see me winning in this field.

So first day, what was it like? Well, honestly, overwhelming. The development and production finance team are super cool and supportive but today was a reality check for me.

I finally realized how much paper work and intricacies it is to get some buck back up for your project. Partnerships, deals, etc... really need to be though through and nothing is 'made up'. You literally cannot write any estimate fib amounts in terms of budgets as everything is thoroughly looked at, internally and externally.

Creatively, ideas need to be developed thoughtfully and you also have to think about your audiences and also which broadcaster/ network might pick it up.

Overall, I want to send my shout outs to the ever so helpful Donna Chang (Credits include "Happy Feet 2") who was the previous recipient. This girl was such a dynamo and took me through the A-Z of my position for the next 6 months.

I'm definitely looking forward to the team (overseen by the Development Executive - Nerida Moore) and soaking it as much as possible.

EVENT: Dong Tam Martial Arts @ Sydney Twilight Parade

Its been like forever since I've delved into the world of martial arts. After Maximum Choppage: Round 2, Downtown Rumble and ongoing Quest for Jackie Chan!, I'm still itching for to see some more martial action. What better place to go to is the local Dong Tam Youth Martial Arts Association (1 min from my home!).
Introducing Trung Ly (whom I bumped into time and time again throughout the Vietnamese community), who is the head of Dong Tam and the forefront of this long running dynamo team.

From what I know, Dong Tam Youth Martial Arts Association is one of the oldest in Western Sydney and largest Vietnamese martial arts school in Australia. They specialise in traditional martial arts ranging from Shaolin, Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Hapkido, Tae kwon do and kick boxing. Their specialised class is XMA (Xtreme Martial Arts) and Dong Tam is well known for its lion dancing performances across Sydney.

Anyhow, check out their involvement in this year's City of Sydney Twilight Parade via the clip that I filmed (with my camera team) and edited below.

For more info, check out their site www.dongtam.com.au. They are Fairfield based (New South Wales, Australia).

Here's my film buddy, Adrian Castro's BLOGCAM version.

Below is a few photos of the night.

CAMERA CREW: Maria Tran, Adrian Castro, Shaun Cheng, Lorrie Peduto & Emily Wong
EQUIPMENT: David Minh Tam Nguyen, Khoa Nguyen
EDITED BY: Maria Tran
TEAM MANAGER: Trung Ly
COORDINATORS: Khoa Nguyen
PERFORMANCE TEAM: Tony Minh Tri Pham, Jimmy James Pham, David Nguyen, Tony Nguyen, Lily Phan, Tony Phan, Peter Phan, Thien Nguyen, Charles Lu, David Truong, Ian Tran, Jimmy Tran, Lisa Tran, Katherine Ho, Jonathan Truong, Alan Tran, William Nguyen, Martin Ha, Sarah Ngo, Peter Lam, Jessica Sen, Jimmy Tran #2, Stephanie Ho, Christian Hernandez, Caitlin Vo, Bradley Tran, Andy Truong, Khanh Lam, Joanna Tram, Son Dang, Suzanne Thai, Jenny Huynh, Ronald Nguyen, Christina Doan, Sean Truong, Johnny Nguyen, Wattanak Sam, Jimmy Nguyen, Anna Le, Kevin Doan, Bill Nguyen.

LAST MINUTE: Maria Tran 27th Birthday | 28 Jan 2012

Arrghh! It's almost my 27th birthday! Time does fly when you are having fun. I'm celebrating in the most casual way this Sat @ 7.30pm at The Shed, 6 Carramar Ave, Carramar, 2163. Its probably a slash between my Digital Series team meet as well as a good get together with all my extended friends.

Naturally, the people I know would hit the clubs in celebration in the city, but I just can help back making my out here in the west, booze free but lotsa love.

Also, it is last minute so I'm definitely keen to know who would rock up!

Overall, 2011 has been a whirlwind year of spectacular achievements and I think my 27th will mark plenty more excitement to come.

Here's the open invite, just RSVP at maria.tran85@gmail.com.

Oh yeah, I'll also dag it out with a movie that is just as old and me. At 8.30pm, we will be settling with "My Science Project"with the pressing suggestion by my film buddy, Adrian Castro.

One Day In Cabramatta - Have your story involved!

We are currently inviting the community to be part a book of your personal stories about living/ working/ studying/ connecting with Cabramatta. You can write it or draw it; in English or Vietnamese, contribute in your way to this great storytelling initiative!

Click here for the storycard http://www.scribd.com/doc/79222272/One-Day-Contributors-Cardpad

The series of "Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta" is now all online for the next 30 days.

Episode I

Episode II

Episode III