Perth Voice Interactive

EMERGING filmmakers can no longer turn to the Film and Television Institute WA for support, after the not-for-profit closed its doors recently.

FTI was responsible for nurturing up-and-coming talent in the screen sector for 45 years, but will now merge with Screenwest who will take up the role.

Former FTI chair Mitchell Wells said the group was faced with an uncertain future and funding cuts, and the merge would provide stability to emerging filmmakers.

“It is of course with a tinge of sadness that we make this announcement… this move is not made lightly, and we examined closely our various options,” Mr Wells said.

“It is clear that consolidating with Screenwest is the best way forward to ensure services to the emerging filmmaking sector continue to be delivered.”

FTI relocated from Fremantle in 2014, and historically have provided edit suites to filmmakers, an animation centre and production facilities for filmmakers.

Most recently, FTI provided many Aboriginal filmmakers their first broadcast credits as part of the Deadly Yarns series.

“I would like to acknowledge the FTI Board and staff and thank them for their professionalism in what has been a tough few years,” he said in a statement.

Screenwest chair Janelle Marr said her organisation was committed  to ensure that funding continues for effective, efficient and strategic programs for early career filmmakers.

“Screenwest will provide a range of early career programs including short film initiatives; mentorships, coaching and advice; and skills development short courses.

“We will work with FTI to make sure there’s no gap in the delivery of these programs,” Mrs Marr said.

Department of Culture and the Arts director Duncan Ord said the move will provide “considerable administrative efficiencies which will enable more money to be spent on grass roots programs for emerging screen practitioners.”

by CHARLIE SMITH

HAROLD STREET residents have got together for an adorable little project to brighten up their street, installing a micro-library where people can borrow books and trade seeds.

Local Katrina Montaut said she heard about Transition Town Vincent holding a workshop and went along to help paint the teeny bibliotheque for her street, emblazoning it with poppies and calling it “Poppy on Harold”.

Locals have stacked it with books for neighbours to borrow and seeds to encourage people to plant them and bring colour to the street.

They’ve already had a fair few people borrowing books or seeds and they’ve added free fruit, giving away extra lemons and pomelos from overladen trees, and people have been writing cute notes of thanks in their little guestbook.

IT’S happening more and more.

Extremely talented indie filmmakers producing incredible pieces of work with little-to-no financial backing.

Plum Loco, a seven-part web series written and directed by actor Harry Quinlan, was shot in his Perth home, which he shares with six others and the film is so low budget he played the two main protagonists, Harry and Hari.

“My two leads were available whenever I needed them,” Quinlan laughs.

“I could shoot whenever I had the house to myself without making enemies out of my roommates.

“Early on I was a one man band: I put the camera on a tripod, hit record, acted, hit the editing hard that night, discover the whole thing was out of focus or that the mic didn’t record then do it all again the next day.”

Recently the Film and Television Institute WA, which provided financial support for emerging filmmakers, closed its doors, merging with Screenwest.

Quinlan says it has become much harder for Australian film creators to get their work shown in the cinema or on TV, so many are doing low-cost web series to showcase their talents to a global audience.

“It costs so much to enter shorts and features into festivals,” he says

“I just wanted to tell a story that people could see from anywhere in the world at their own leisure.

“A web series seemed like a good choice for this reason.”

At its core, Plum Loco is an absurdist version of The Odd Couple, with surreal outcomes at the end of each episode leading to a heart-melting finale.

“I liked the idea of the traditional odd couple dynamic,” Quinlan says.

“Plum Loco is an extension of that premise but viewers are left wondering why there are two of the same person living together.

“I loved the challenge of coming up with an original twist which I’m sure will surprise most viewers.”

Quinlan called in favours from just about everyone he knew to help out with technical roles, like sound mixing and the more complicated camera operations.

“Credit must be given to Jessica Witt, another housemate whom I induced multiple panic attacks by asking her to do tricky focus pulls and complicated camera moves,” he says.

Quinlan recently won best actor at the inaugural NextGen Webfest held in conjunction with the Revelation Perth International Film Festival at The Backlot Perth.

All seven episodes of Plum Loco are available on YouTube.

by MATTHEW EELES

VINCENT CEO Len Kosova will meet with Ink Remedy owner Rachel O’Shea this week to sort out why her bid to open a gallery in Oxford Street is taking so long (“Vincent not in the swing,” Voice, July 15, 2017).

Mr Kosova told the Voice this week his council was enforcing state laws when Ms O’Shea was told her front door didn’t comply with regulations because it swung inwards and she couldn’t hold exhibition openings.

But the CEO says there is some discretion built into the regulations, so he’s going to help her look into a compromise.

He says if they can’t work out a way of modifying the front door that’s cost-effective, the council may look at accepting an application for a reduced number of patrons at exhibitions.

THE new Constable Care traffic safety school opened in Mt Lawley this week.

But ironically, the well-attended opening of about 150 car-driving adults and only a handful of kids, copped flak from neighbours who say their streets were clogged with dangerously-parked vehicles.

The safety school aims to teach primary-aged kids about road, bike and pedestrian safety, and incorporates a mini town with roads, traffic lights, railway and pedestrian crossings and even a train station and bus stop.

“The safety school is the very first road and transport safety school of its kind in WA and it is desperately needed,” said Constable Care Child Safety Foundation CEO David Gribble.

“Few people realise that transport-related injuries are one of the leading causes of death amongst young people under the age of 15.”

In a world-first, kids will use iPads with augmented-reality software to encounter hazards on their trip through the town.

Mr Gribble says teachers will be able to assess the students’ success (or otherwise) in negotiating hazards in order to see how they’re fairing.

But locals say the new facility is already creating problems in local roads, complaining the opening had parking backed all the way up Sixth Avenue and spilling onto the local primary school grounds.

“If this becomes an ongoing issue, maybe City of Bayswater could issue local residents parking stickers and erect signage,” suggested one of the members of the Sixth Ave Residents Action Group on its Facebook page.

by STEVE GRANT

DELAYS in replacing water pipes in and around Ruth Street in Perth’s inner city have resulted in traffic and parking chaos, claims local Rowland Benjamin.

He says workers arrived in mid-April to replace the 100-year-old cast iron piping in the street, but shortly after erecting fencing they left without finishing the job.

“Ruth Street is not the only street left in limbo,” with Brisbane Street and others nearby in the same predicament, Mr Benjamin claims.

He says it’s been “left virtually abandoned for nearly three months”, leading to parking chaos in the street.

“I don’t understand why they don’t complete one street before moving on to another.”

The Voice contacted Water Corp about the hold up, and the next day Mr Benjamin reported workers had returned to the site.

Water Corp’s Mark Leathersich said workers had to go to Ruth Street in April to survey underground services like gas, power, phone lines and existing water connections.

“A number of factors delayed the schedule on Ruth Street, including the very narrow width of the street to work in with large equipment, the complex network of underground services encountered in the street and more recently, the wet weather,” he says.

“The new pipe has now been installed and most properties have been switched over.

“We have started to remove the fences on Ruth Street as the connections occur and we expect this to be finished by Friday July 21”, then they’ll finish reinstating the asphalt by the end of July if the weather stays ok.

Mr Benjamin was happy to hear his street would be finished shortly but hopes Water Corp will expedite the rest of the works so others aren’t inconvenienced.

by DAVID BELL

THE BIG Blue Head should be a little warmer this cold season, with guerilla knitters yarnbombing him some winter gear.

North Perth Knit Natter and Crochet were behind the yarning, and a lot of planning went into the giant knitwear that was slung over the sculpture outside Vincent council last weekend.

It started seven months ago when the group got in touch with then-mayor John Carey for support, then they got the thumbs up from the sculptor Ken Sealey, who was happy to have his work “Beseech” given some new duds.

The group first assembled a pattern for his cowl out of newspaper and assembled it off site.

To make the beanie they reconstructed a replica of the head in one of the member’s loungerooms, mocking up his approximate size with pillows and doonas and sewing the squares together on the model head.

More than 30 members knitted squares for the project, some of them learning to crochet especially for this project.

It took more than a thousand hours to complete, with 453 squares and 40 triangles.

Some yarnbombers have included special squares with meaningful messages to their families.

Most knitters were locals, but squares were contributed from interstate and as far away as Tennessee in the USA.

The group plans to leave the giant knitwear up for a while, then they’ll take the squares and recycle them into blankets for people in need or local cat and dog homes.

If you’re into knitting, nattering or crochet, the group meets every fortnight on Friday afternoons at Vincent library, where they catch up for a yarn and teach beginners new patterns.

The group’s got a Facebook page called “North Perth Knit, Natter and Crochet”.

by DAVID BELL

NINE-year-old Rebecca Puccini from Dianella completed her 50th parkrun this month, smashing 5km in just 25 minutes.

The free weekend parkruns started in Perth a few years back and now there’s about a dozen spread across the suburbs.

Rebecca’s dad Alberto says he’d been trying to get her interested in running with him but had no luck, until her friend Amalia invited them along and now they all jog together.

Seasoned runners

Now hooked, Rebecca does the Maylands Peninsula parkrun almost every weekend.

The modest runner says during her first run, “I got a really bad time! Like 30 minutes or something”.

“I want to beat my dad’s best time: 24 minutes and 45 seconds.”

Her dad’s originally from Italy and says, “I am also trying to convince my friends in Lucca to organise a parkrun on our magnificent ancient walls.”

He plans to send them a copy of the article on Rebecca in the Voice to encourage them.

The Maylands Peninsula parkrun launched in March last year and usually has about 50 or 60 people participating, from beginners who amble along at walking pace to seasoned runners who dash the whole way.

They run every Saturday at 8am and it’s free, and they’re on Facebook at facebook.com/maylandspeninsulaparkrun

by DAVID BELL