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Quiz4Dili will be happening again in 2011, on the 25th of November!

Run by Council’s Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and GRIND, Quiz4Dili will be raising money for the Action for Change Foundation (ACF), a training school operating in an extremely impoverished area of Dili, East Timor.

Last year’s Quiz 4 Dili was organised largely by young people from the Youth Advisory Group and GRINDonline, who ran all the games, raffles and management on the night, as well as writing the quiz. The night was a great success and was sold out, with 110 people attending. A total of $3,429 was raised, which was then increased with $1,000 from Council.

The money was used to provide ACF with 6 computers and an internet connection, as well as ongoing support to help them interact with the global community.

Tickets are $20 ($15 for concession), and this will include a light dinner. Starts at 7pm at the Council Civic Centre on Harry Chan Avenue. For more info, and to book tickets call 8930 0635!

Action for Change Foundation is run by volunteers, and gives young people in Dili access to information, computers, internet training, English language skills and other courses. This provides real opportunities for the youth of Dili to gain skills that lead to employment and a better life.

The Youth Advisory Group and GRINDonline are very supportive of the school’s mission, and had the opportunity to work with volunteers from the school – Veny, Vero and Nata – for The BIG GIG 2011 when they travelled to Darwin earlier in the year.

Which is why Batman: Beyond, with its more teen based marketing campaign, came out at a time that made it far more relevant to me than any other show on. From this original sin, came a more sophisticated appreciation for the old animated series, and then came the movies, The Dark Knight etc. But more importantly soon came the first comic book I ever read. A little known piece of literature called “Batman: Year One”. For many this is the seminal Batman work, the comic book that defined Batman, written of course by none other than the great Frank Miller, who reinvented the character and comic books in general, with his more adult focused tone. Soon this lead to reading more Batman, and more, and more , until of course that leads us to now. Years after that first contact, that first comic book, that first look into the sick and twisted mind of The Caped Crusader himself… And It’s time to take a second glance at that same comic book, but this time, why not watch it? Why? The question these days doesn’t seemed to be, “Why adapt something that was perfectly made for one medium to another?” and more “Why not adapt something that was perfectly made for one medium to another?” So here we are, the DC Animated Feature, Batman: Year One.

The first thing I notice while watching is an annoying CGI Plane. Why does it need to be CGI? It’s a traditionally animated film from what I can see; there is no need to make the plane CGI. Am I supposed to think it’s real? I don’t know, I guess it doesn’t matter, anyway I hear the voice of Benjamin McKenzie, he’s okay I guess, the Batman voice he does is better than most I supposed, better than Christian Bale… As if that’s really saying much of anything. Although it a pretty good voice, it holds absolutely nothing on Kevin Conroy, which is unfair I guess, because Kevin Conroy is the be all end all of Batman and his voice, mastered it so perfectly… Oh I seem to be going off track… Anyway the next voice I hear makes me feel all soft inside. It is the voice of the always wonderful Bryan Cranston. He saves the entire film in my opinion, he is the only really great part about it, all of the other actors are pretty meh. Especially Eliza Dushku, who delivers a bland as all hell rendition of Selina Kyle, who becomes Catwoman, although I’m not sure why she’s even in the movie because she has no real plot, and instead is just strategically placed throughout the film as if to give off the impression that she’ll be important. Look, I know that that’s how it was written in the comic book and whatever that’s Frank Millers prerogative to do so. But you’re creating an adaptation of a comic book you are allowed to take some liberties, especially considering the 64 Minute runtime, I feel like there was more than enough time to flesh out the character.

This film, is certainly the best page for page adaptation of a comic book I have ever seen in my life, but that is also its biggest flaw, when you adapt something from one medium to another, you can’t just do it word for word, that is so lazy, now I get it with movies like Watchman and Sin City, that makes the films seem artistic and cool and all that, but when you’re doing it with an animated movie, it just comes off as bland and lazy, there are practically no colours, all of the framing is the same, I mean there’s even no music as if to make it feel more like reading a comic book. I mean why even animate it? Why not just drop all pretence and scan pages of the comic onto the computer and have Bryan Cranston read out all of the dialogue and narration? It just annoys me when stupid movie makers feel the need to succumb so easily to fan peer pressure, I mean do you really think fans were going to complain if you added an extra half an hour of story to the film? Maybe more actions sequences, I mean it’s not like you gave us any new ones, the one action sequence from the book that you did animate had already been copied frame for frame by another Batman film, I’m not sure, you may have heard of it… it’s called Batman Begins. I mean.. whatever, I don’t really have any more to say about this film. Except that it’s disappointing because I was looking forward to it and all I got was a 64 Minute motion comic with a tacked on voice acting cast (Except Bryan Cranston – I Love You Bryan Cranston! )

Bryan Cranston brings the movie to life with his portrayal of James Gordon

To celebrate another year of young artists and their involvement with GRIND, and to welcome the new year, GRIND will be hosting the second annual Youth Art Exhibition opening December 15th at Darwin City Council’s Community Art Space.

If you are aged between 12 and 20 years, we welcome you to submit your artwork for exhibition. We have the resources to exhibit all sorts of art – paintings, drawings, sculpture, scribbles, photos, short films and ANYTHING YOU LIKE! You can even choose to put your art up for sale if you want!

All you need to do to enter is fill out the registration form, which is here on GRINDonline, in the link below. We will then get in contact with you and organise to get your art to the Art Space. Space is limited, so apply now to get space for your art!

Fill out the registration form

Youth Art Exhibition
On display at Council’s Civic Centre, Harry Chan Avenue in the Community Art Space
8am – 5pm weekdays
Thursday 15th of December 2011 – Wednesday 1st February 2012

The first GRIND Youth Art Exhibition, held earlier this year in January.

A few terms and conditions:

- The size limit for art is 594mm x 841 mm, or the size of an A1 poster.

- Although every care will be taken in handling and displaying artwork, Darwin City Council will not accept liability for any works damaged. It is the responsibility of the artist to ensure that their artwork is structurally stable and ready for display.

- Your artwork can depict whatever you like, within reason – it must be fit for public display, so nothing offensive or derogatory.

Owen Wilson, delivers a surprisingly good performance in this film, although as I’ve already expressed, he pretty much just plays Owen Wilson throughout the whole movie, that sort of earnest interest in the things people have to say, and an intense positivity radiating out of every sentence he gives, even within mostly depressing scenes. But whatever, when it works it works and here it very well seems to work. The supporting cast is where the movie really shines, Rachel McAdams plays Wilsons fiancé, and she for the most part plays the role fairly well. Her parents provide comic relief throughout the film and also in a way are sort of antagonists as well, but only in a minor way. There really are no antagonists in the film; it’s mostly just about Owen Wilson on a journey of self-discovery whilst wondering the streets of Paris at night.

The movie is filmed as if it were an ad to move to Paris, although the interesting thing about it is, although it captures the obvious beauty of the city of love, it also captures the modern day dirtiness that you never really tend to see with these postcard films, which is something that I admire. Woody Allen has always been a director who knew how the capture the essence of a city, and although he falls short of that here, I feel like it’s one of the best foreign interpretations of the city I’ve seen in my life. The music is also very nice, and very fitting for the plot; although there’s definitely a lot of that hijinks music playing throughout, it’s mostly kept to the background. If you don’t know what music I’m, talking about, watch any romantic comedy movie from the past ten years, skip to any scene where some sort of hijinks is ensuing and return…

You’re back? Good. Just in time for a summary. The film is not ground-breaking, in fact it is far from it, and it’s not even trying to be. The movie states its self at the resolution that the lesson learned is only a minor one, but a lesson none the less. The movie is one that is rife with fairly obvious symbolism, but I feel like that’s fine for a movie as original as this, it’s a message to all of the people who have been criticising Woody Allen for his recent work, the days of ‘Annie Hall’ are long and dead, it’s time to stop living in the past and find something you enjoy about the present, because before too long it’ll be gone.

Rating: Go Watch It

Midnight In Paris is rated PG for mild sexual references

Corrugated Iron is currently recruiting 5-6 young filmmakers (animators, writers, directors, producers, photographers/cinematographers) aged 14-18 yrs to join a filmmaking/directing crew at Corrugated Iron this term.

The crew will meet each Friday afternoon at Corrugated Iron, 3.30 – 5.30 pm, for 6 sessions to develop and produce a short film on cyberbullying. The resulting film will be distributed throughout school’s across the NT in 2012 as a part of the Corrugated Iron Watch My Space program.

In the 6 sessions, Corrugated Iron and local filmmakers will be facilitating the team through each phase of the filmmaking process which will include sessions on:

• Film brief
• Pitching your film
• Conceptual development
• Storyboarding
• Pre-Production
• Production

This is a great opportunity for young aspiring filmmakers to get on board a real working team and learn the ins and outs of filmmaking, while producing a film advocating for a better awareness of cyberbullying in our community. The crew will work with both professional filmmakers associated with Corrugated Iron and the NT Police who will be advising the project team.

Keep in mind that this is not a ‘film class’ – while young people will be guided in the process of making the film, they must have the initiative to drive the film making process themselves – just as in the real filmmaking world. All members of the crew must commit to the team for the whole 6 weeks and be ready to play an active role in the process.

Spaces on the team are limited so register now – there are NO COSTS involved for young people to join the team.

Please get in touch with Corrugated Iron Youth Arts if you have any questions:
call 8948 3200 or
email info@corrugatediron.org.au