Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Vote for my Short film, 3 days to go..

"Aussie's Younger Days"

G’day All, only 3 days to go friends please view my latest film clip and vote if you like it! (You could win a prize from the organisers NSW Australia Day Council for voting TOO!) Oh yeah and pass it on to your friends every vote counts! Thankyou for your time and attention
regards geoff

Saturday, November 27, 2010

ROBE Village Ambrose and New Film done...

Been a great week on the course to be honest the enjoyment has been all about hitting the ball well. Have played myself into some good form for the Robe Village Ambrose today after winning the 9 hole Chicken run Friday arvo, 41 off the stick and 22 points. It has rained for an hour and a half this morning which will settle the dust and take a bit of the bounce off the fairways and greens, happy with that I still do not have the ball striking ability to get the back spin on long iron shots developed well enough yet.




The club AGM was on Wenesday night and after listening to the Club President speak, some alien force levitated my arm and I have ended up as the secretary of the club for the next year.

I had decided earlier to nominate for the committee and undertake a dedicated membership drive. Instead I have chosen to get a little more involved as the club is beggining to struggle and like many smaller country clubs is finding active members a scarce commodity. I have done my time on committees in the past and was never going to do it again mainly to avoid the situation that many who do this encounter, nobody else ever stands up to replace them.



I am sure that in coming months I will be more forthcoming on this and what is happening at the club. I have already written a three page letter on major considerations for the club to act upon and things I will do in the next twelve months.



Okay big day on the Golf Course for me In the ROBE Village Ambrose. So for all of you who have not yet had a look at my new film for the NSW Australia Day Committee have a look today and PLEASE VOTE!!! (One lucky voter will get a prizeTOO!!)



Aussie’s Younger Days Some friends have got back to me that the link sometimes goes to a film of a young girl singing that is an occaisional glitch on the site if that happens to you please look at the entrants list for my film name above. And please VOTE one lucky voter will win a prize donated by the NSW Australia Day Committee

Aussie’s Younger Days by geoff dening
Reel Australia
Film Competition
AUSSIEVAULT®© geoff dening
Australia Day Council of NSW. Images are the property of the respective artist(s). All rights reserved.



Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Thursday, November 25, 2010

REEL AUSTRALIA - Geoff Dening's entry

REEL AUSTRALIA - Geoff Dening's entry

It has been a very busy past month with two short film's completed and entered in various competitions. The most recent being the Reel Australia film "Aussie's Younger Days" Please have a look at my entry and vote (Shameless plug - there is a prize for one lucky voter!)

"Beginning with three flags representing the indigenous people, a state and the nation, I then recited selected poetry of Australia’s national poet Adam Lindsay Gordon who captured the first utterances of Australia’s forming identity. I chose to use images of monuments to explorers of our nation and immigrants together with a memorial of fishermen lost at sea to highlight the challenge it took to set off to the new lands. Australia is still a young country and the combination of rural and urban life is not hampered by the tyranny of distance as it was no more than a century ago. The view of Lake Albert at Meningie that was shrinking for 2 years, in the space of a month was back to past levels when the Murray began to flow again. Children are the future and being active and having a go is part of the Aussie ethos. Humanity and nature are things Australians do react to and our origins needed action to succeed and that is why I end with another iconic passage of Gordon’s poetry."


The Reel Australia Short Film Competition aims to encourage all Australians to create a 2 minute film in response to the question What is the Reel Australia? that ultimately showcases Who We Are as a nation. It could be about what we wear, what we say, where we go, how we play...it's completely up to you!




Thank you for your time and attention, Geoff

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Reel Australia film production

The past month has been very busy and late last night I finished a 12 hour stint on the PC editing another film project That I was only recently made aware of and in a very short space of time have managed to get filmed and produced before the closing date on the 3rd of December 2010. At this moment all of the work of the past two weeks is now dependent on if it is accepted for the competition. That is the only reason why I have not supplied a link for it to be viewed. If it does pass muster a link will be supplied and yes I did manage to get golf in the 2 minute film.

“Create a 2 minute film capturing ’ What is the Reel Australia?’ Your film should ultimately showcase Who We Are as a nation”

“Beginning with three flags representing the indigenous people, a state and the national flag, I then recited selected poetry of Australia’s national poet Adam Lindsay Gordon who first captured the utterances of Australia’s forming identity. I chose to use images of monuments to explorers of our nation and immigrants together with a memorial of fishermen lost at sea to highlight the challenge it took to set off to the new lands. Australia is still a young country and the combination of rural and urban life is not hampered by the tyranny of distance as it was no more than a century ago. The view of Lake Albert at Meningie that was shrinking for 2 years, in the space of a month was back to past levels when the Murray began to flow again. Children are the future and being active and having a go is part of the Aussie ethos. Humanity and nature are things Australians do react to and our origins needed action to succeed and that is why I end with another iconic passage of Gordon’s poetry.”
 
From time to time this thread will continue to have fresh posts. As the “Another Crack At The Title” film is still being produced there will be updates for readers of the progress and developments associated with it. The pic in the corner is a scan of a recent interview about the Golf Documentary. I am fortunate to recieve such a detailed article in the local media and I would like to comend the reporter who did the job so well.




Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

MOVIE EXTRA Film finalists announced

Thanks to all who viewed and voted for "Another crack at the title" The dates of the competition were changed twice and that threw the marketing and promotional timing out. The 15 finalists are all worthy of success and you can check them out here MOVIE EXTRA FINALISTS No matter, there were more positives than negatives. The Southern Ports Tournament is now being covered by Golf Australia magazine valuable national exposure for free. The popularity among the Australian Golfing community was very encouraging, none of this would have came about if I did not do the re-write and enter the competition! The project will still be going ahead as was planned before being entered in the Movie Extra Competition. Which proves the whole point of the exercise, if you sit back and do nothing that is what you get!


The Movie Extra comp. was out of my readiness zone, for want of a better description. Even so I had to have a crack at it, that is my nature. The filming will still happen next year and at my own pace and level of capability. I was always aware that the topic and format of being an actual documentary was not what others would choose. Fact is the time it takes to write and craft a 7 episode series film is not that easy. I chose to re-write an existing project otherwise there would have been no worthwhile entry available.






The fact that I had the people available who can do the required work in production at short notice was a good thing. Also the support from various people here and across other mediums was much appreciated. Work is a serious business and in this case my pedantic attitude in setting up promotion was definately thrown out. The newspaper article will not be out until this week and that will be too late, “Any publicity is good publicity” is a fact though and this will be good for other work I am doing. As another bonus the Tournament is now being picked up for coverage in Golf Australia magazine which was not on the cards for the organisers until I started my promo works.


It is a lot of fun doing the work and truth be told it is a great reason to have to get out and play more golf.


Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

On the Home straight

What you think I am going to give up now with only two weeks to go to get enough votes to make the finals. Hell I am only a few thousand behind and I am putting in all the effort I can. Heading off to Adelaide today which was unexpected, as important as the film project is a family emergency has precedence. Bit of a bugger as the newspaper article is out today on my project and I had a lot of promotional work planned to get the maximum benefit out of it.




No matter that can always be done when I return Friday, It has been good to see the number of views this thread has (633 at the minute) whick perhaps 30 are from me doing posts replying and editing typos in my posts. It would be great if my work had been good enough to turn the other 600 views into votes for the trailer. There is still time to do that with your help of course you can vote once every day it takes less than a couple of minutes and in two weeks 600 votes from this site alone with my other efforts can get me into a higher ranking.

So go on click the link and vote I promise I have no political agenda at all lol I have too much honesty for that.



ANOTHER CRACK AT THE TITLE

View the trailer here and click on the VOTE button if you like it. For me it would be even more satisfying to produce the full 7 part web series that the trailer is for in the Movie Extra competition. Based at the 36th 2011 Southern Ports Golf Tournament week. every vote you give until then is very much appreciated. Thankyou for your time and attention. regards Geoff Dening

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Don't try and be happy...!?

  9/11/10 Somewhere in my way of looking at and living life there is a distinct difference in my character to other people. Not that this difference makes me any better in comparison when it comes to successes or failures than anybody else. It is purely a thing that I notice from time to time when reading, listening or talking about people, that disdain and criticism that is thrown at people who are trying to do something. To use the vernacular "Having a crack at it" is becoming a socially unacceptable challenge for a person to attempt.




I could be totally wrong this is not a simple topic to discuss, among the complexities of the variety and number of individuals this broadly covers. Even so it has became a symptom of the cynical nature that is required to survive in this world today. When the News is actually entertainment, make no mistake I do mean that statement. How often have you been watching/listening to the news, or reading it and an item has been included that is about a person or program that is a feature of that stations scheduling. A recent example of this was the ‘News” that a character in Channel 7’s “Packed to the rafters” was ‘killed in a car crash. It was the character not the actor and a part of the series yet it was included in the regular new reports. It was a publicity and promotional act yet people tuning in to the news were confused, some thought that it involved a member of tennis player Patrick Rafter’s family, others thought the actor had been killed. The same story was aired on 7’s morning show as well in total 8 times for the day, it was not the intent of the station to mislead viewers but it is a great example of not believing everything you hear literally.



The natural disaster in Pakistan in 2010 followed a run of similar disasters around the world and the fundraising efforts for aid were finding that the public were not responding. It would be very rude to say that Australians are not generous in supporting people in need, in most cases assistance is given willingly and without a demand for recognition. This time though the media had to make a concerted effort that got some support flowing there were even media reports of a possible,”Charity fatigue” among Australians and this was hampering the appeal. Then there is the everyday need to manage personal finances, it is a good thing to have food in your own fridge and a roof over your head as well.



Then through the numerous social networking sites on the ‘net, users are subjected to neverending requests to like this, support that, play a game, check a list and all these requests come from our ‘friends’. This is not a new phenomenon getting support for any cause, appeal and even business takes hard work and effort. What we have now is the establishing of a ‘Supporters fatigue” being so accessible to new friends on the internet it is a 24 hour a day effort to maintain the contact and communication to show that we care. Champion surfer Kelly Slater has a passion for playing golf and it has been mentioned that at 38 he is getting too old to keep being a professional surfer. In this mention it was intimated that perhaps Kelly may take up playing golf professionally. This is not easy to do but nothing says he cannot have a crack at it. Yet the number of golfers who spat out the disdain for him to even consider trying to do this was a surprise. Yes it is hard yet golf is a sport that although many try, few do become successful pro’s. Among those that do succeed many continue playing and winning professionally into their 50’s so why shouldn’t a 38 year old athlete consider the sport as a way to continue following a passion as a career.  

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Monday, November 08, 2010

GOLF - Robe Open

8th November 2010 Good weather on the day of the open had it set for a good score after my build up over the week. That was not the end result finishing the day with 100 and a nett 81. The two 8's on the front nine had me on the ropes after the front 9 and a 52 off the stick. I still had not given up on getting a reasonable score, a 40-42 on the back nine would have been fine and was the target after lunch. The final score was a 48 yet not a day to forget at all, golf is a social game and the group was a very convivial and entertaining one.




Being my home club open for a change I did not have to leave early to return after the round. I caught up with several golfers who I had played with and met over 2010 playing at their club opens. The experience of playing off the home patch was a major benefit to my game this season.



Five shots were the cause of my high score each and every one was from a bad tee shot that added more strokes to my tally with each error in simple terms, 5 Tee shots x 2 penalties each = 10 and 100 - 10 = 90 and a reasonable round. There is confession to be made I could have held back on my drives and played the accuracy option instead of my less accurate distance off the tee choice. Through the weeks practice my accuracy had been okay and confidence in that was a major reason I took the distance option.



No matter what the occasion the day comes when a golfer has to make the decision to play what they are practising. This time last year I did not even carry a driver in my bag and only played with irons and I won the nett section of the open. I also played with a fella who in March 2010 was doing the same with irons only. Yesterday he had a driver that for the first two holes he hit off the tee. Not well so he put it away for two holes got some confidence with his tees shots them used it well for the rest of the rounds 14 holes. Finished tied in first (second after countback) in the B grade Nett with a 69.



For me hitting a long ball is not a search for an ego booster, I could return to using irons only if I was satisfied with staying at a low 20 handicap. After playing with many golfers of various handicaps and against others in matchplay the advantage of a long drive off the tee has been made obvious to me for lower handicappers. The need for accuracy is crucial and that is lacking at my current standard even though it is improving the hardest factor for me in this is the lack of a driving range to practise on. I can now hit the ball consistently 240-270m and apart from on certain course fairways there is nowhere available to refine this part of my game. The course driving range area is 200m long and is great for developing control and rythym up to that distance. Eventually you have to set up and hit the

ball long to get the ‘feel’ of the changes. I can hit long and straight where the aim is yet still make errors that can be easily corrected in practise. Yesterday the decision was made to ‘practise’ on course. Here is the ego gratification, I easily went past the long drive by 10-15m, the ball just trickled off the fairway on the first attempt. As we play some fairways twice off different tees I had a second crack at the long drive, from a tee 30m further back and fell 2m short of the mark in the centre of the fairway.



Golf is pure joy at times and these two drives epitomised that. Setting up playing the stroke and feeling every facet of the swing working to perfection, making contact with the ball and watching it soar is a delight. With the commentary of your playing partners sharing the moment, as I have done when seeing other golfers make the perfect shot nothing can beat those moments. It was just timing, rythym and a full swing that felt effortless. Which is where I am finishing todays writings with that moment being refreshed in my memory. Thankyou for your time and attention. Hit ‘em Straight all regards GeoffThankyou for your time and attention, Geoff
 
ANOTHER CRACK AT THE TITLE



View the trailer here and click on the VOTE button if you like it. For me it would be even more satisfying to produce the full 7 part web series that the trailer is for in the Movie Extra competition. Based at the 36th 2011 Southern Ports Golf Tournament week. every vote you give until then is very much appreciated. Thankyou for your time and attention. regards Geoff Dening

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Golf - Robe Open omorrow

Played 9 holes at Meningie on Thursday afternoon, enjoyable and great to return to the course and the new greens which have replaced those that were damaged by the salty water last year. Totalled an enjoyable 48. Robe 9 hole chicken run on Friday afternoon with a wipe after hitting the wrong ball on the first and still getting 16 points. Then a quick 9 this morning and a 41 off the stick with 15 putts. Hit 2 of the biggest shots off the tee for my standard both 270m straight and on the fairways.




Very happy with my game in total so if the mind stays focussed tomorrows Open should be a good 18 holes. The work put into practise the last 2 months is slowly improving my game. Of course the spring/summer weather with hardened fairways and hot dry air are certainly assisting the distance and accuracy of shots for me. The same applies to every other golfer as well so it is just a matter of enjoying the game and having fun. Anything else will be an unexpected bonus. Thankyou for your time and attention. Hit ‘em straight all.

ANOTHER CRACK AT THE TITLE






View the trailer here and click on the VOTE button if you like it. For me it would be even more satisfying to produce the full 7 part web series that the trailer is for in the Movie Extra competition. Based at the 36th 2011 Southern Ports Golf Tournament week. every vote you give until then is very much appreciated. Thankyou for your time and attention. regards Geoff Dening



Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

2011 A Golf Odyssey

My passion for golf is more than just the experience of playing the game, like some other golfers it is the esoteric benefits that have me out hitting the little white ball for hours on end. It is the joy of practise that actually keeps me passionate about the game. I can understand how the golfers who go on to professional careers never lose the desire to play. Not to go by the single digit handicap golfers who play for the pure enjoyment of the game as well.




I get a vital benefit from golfing that stimulates my mind and physical activity for work. It is something that is a fortunate blessing and has a lot to do with why I returned to the game seriously after so many years. The creative process for me does not rely upon sitting around reading and thinking it has to involve social and actual interaction with people and activities.



Which is why my liver has stretch marks from the many social activities that involve the casual consumption of alcohol. I have even got the experience of having spent a year getting home when the sun was rising from another session of world series nightclubbing. Partying is flaming hard work and playing golf is a lot more rewarding and generally involves a lot less drinking, most of the time.



The Southern Ports Tournament has a good social atmosphere and with three tournament rounds in the week the socialising is a major plus. Compered to the post match gathering after a weekly club round there are added facets to the tournament post round presentations. One of the newer benefits is being able to check online the post round scores as well and be able to calculate what is needed and a strategy to achieve the target for the next round.



Besides the live round coverage in the documentary the post round clubhouse interviews with the rest of the field is going to be a specific feature. It is not a film about one golfer having a crack, it is about a complete field of golfers and their experience of the 2011 Southern Ports Tournament.



ANOTHER CRACK AT THE TITLE



With a couple of mouse clicks you can give your valued vote to making this Real Golfing documentary a reality in 2011. It would be much appreciated. Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff Dening