Paul Ryan in studio

A friendly rapport between the painters, both possible contenders for the prize, has developed during the filming of the documentary. Both artists are capable of providing an outside and inside view to their work and each other’s practice.

Finally, on a beautiful sunny day at the start of this week, the paintings moved from their private space in Paul Ryan’s studio in Thirroul to the Art Gallery of NSW, under the dutiful care and gloved hands of Sean McElvogue from Art. Van. Go.

The day started early, and slow paced…by the end of the day the Art Gallery of NSW had received 3 paintings from Paul Ryan and 110 paintings from various Australian artists for this years Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes.

And there they will stay, in the holding dock of Art Gallery of NSW, awaiting their future. Like all the artists who have entered paintings in the Archibald and Wynne this year, Paul will be waiting on tenterhooks next Wednesday to get that phone call confirming selection.

Arts Live Media is committed to completing this documentary. As funds are limited, we will continue filming and hope to deliver the final edited documentary in June 2011 – while the Archibald and Wynne Prize are still on exhibition at Art Gallery of NSW.

Any further contributions to this documentary would be greatly valued and ensure completion of post-production of the documentary in the specified time. Many heartfelt thanks to those contributors who have supported our vision and enabled us to continue this far.

Sharralyn Robinson, Richard Davis, Paul Ryan, and Joe Davis

To date, Arts Live Media crew has been busy filming final sequences for the documentary. A meaningful and emotionally connected discussion between Sharralyn Robinson (Chair of the Illawarra Land Council), Richard Davis (Chair of Jumbulla), Paul Ryan and Joe Davis (local historian) was filmed. Many of the contentious issues around Paul Ryan’s No Country For Dreaming paintings and exhibition were aired.

There was an open and interesting discussion concerning the role of the artist, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in creating artworks on the theme of first contact Australian history.

After the meeting Paul noted that he, “learnt things about Aboriginal culture that I didn’t know before”, particularly about “Aboriginal men’s sensitivity to the depiction of Aboriginal people as victims.”

Paul Ryan in studio

Following this passionate discussion, the crew visited Boolarng Nangamai Aboriginal Art and Culture Studio in Gerringong to continue this discussion, and record the views and opinions of other local Aboriginal artists regarding non-Indigenous artists representation of this period of Australian history. The filming on the day was part documentary and part mediation between Paul and the Aboriginal community with a strong didactic around Aboriginal protocols.

Kelli Ryan, Director of Boolarng Nangamai and other founding members such as Bonny Foley Brennan and Debbie Callaghan, expressed their opinions regarding Paul’s exhibition. All three expressed different viewpoints but all agreed that Paul’s exhibition of masterfully created paintings raised an important dialogue about Aboriginal history in the Illawarra.

This article will look at simple, cost effective methods to distribute your video and reach maximum impact with your target audience. In addition it will look at the best ways to evaluate the success of your video during the campaign through analytics of the “view” and “click through” rates.

Embedding or linking the video to your home page or landing page

This is the simplest and most effective way to distribute your web video, TVC or web advertorial by including it on your homepage. More and more small and large businesses are using video on their homepage or landing page to engage with viewers and connect them to information, products and services. Humans are visual so the use of video in teaching and persuasion (aka marketing) is a natural. Return on investment for video advertising on business websites is high and will only keep improving as more consumers come to expect a rich media experience from business websites. Use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to promote and share your video with your existing clients and the world.

Embedding or linking multiple videos to your Web TV page

The rise in the popularity of the Internet and improvements in streaming video technology mean that producing and distributing a web series is relatively cheap by traditional standards and allows producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the videos 24 hours a day. The solution to multiple videos on your website is to produce a web TV player, capable of playing multiple videos and one that keeps customers returning to your website. Using social media devices such as Twitter and Facebook is an excellent way to promote your web TV channel to your customers and the world.

Enabling your web video to be shared with the world

In addition to the video appearing on your homepage, you can also use a number of video distribution sites to broadcast your video to a wide audience. The industry standards are Youtube and Vimeo, but there are literally hundreds of similar sites to choose from depending on your target audience. Video sharing sites have a number of advantages in that they are usually free to use, charge nothing for bandwidth and allow viewers to easily share videos across blogs, websites and through social media networks. They also enable you to look at the video analytics which include how long a person has watched the video, from what country they are viewing from, and if the video includes a click through button to a part of your website, the analytics can show the click through rate.

Paid placement on selected websites

This is where you choose to have either an image link or the actual video located on a selected website according to your target audience. In some cases locating your video on an external site can be a cost free exercise; however to gain the greatest impact in most cases you will need to pay a fee to advertise your video. You will either be charged for a time period for the link or video or more often than not, as is the case with Google, you will be charged a “pay per click” fee. Google is currently over the $2 mark for this sort of advertising. Importantly, when paying for advertisement like this, you need to pay close attention to the way consumers are viewing your video. Information such as how long the video is watched, where the viewer is coming from, and whether viewers are choosing to “click through” to your website after the video, often referred to as the CTR or click through rate, are valuable pieces of information that can be used to shape and optimise your campaign.

Create real world linkages to your web video

The most obvious method is to include your URL address on all printed media and signage. However, a relatively new technology exists called QR codes. These 3D bar codes can be scanned by portable devices such as smart phones, iPhones and iPad device cameras and once read by the device, immediately links the user to the website video or any other information that is linked to the QR code?

media is now the number 1 activity on the web. YouTube has over 100 million

videos and there are over 200 million blogs with 54% of bloggers posting

content daily. And the latest statistics show that 78% of consumers trust

peer recommendations with only 14% of consumers trusting advertisements and

only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generating positive ROI (return on

investment).

But what does it all mean Basil…

Its not quite as overwhelming as you think. The answer is that successful

business need to have a web and mobile based content providing solution.

Instead of traditional adverting business need to supply content in the form

of rich media such as video and aggregate this via social media.

Today this can be achieved a well designed web page, with a simple eCommerce

function and a social media platform linked to the page. Rich media such as

video is an ideal way to communicate ideas, new products, services, a unique

brand or business objective.

Once your rich media content is ‘share enabled’ the world is truly your

oyster. Share enabling your content for web and mobile devices allows

millions of users around the world to post your content to their blogs,

social media networks and websites. As this illustration from Theme’s Vimeo

site shows, your videos reach places in the world you may never have dreamed

of promoting your products and services.

So act local and develop your web presence and social media networks. Think

global and create rich media and share enable your content. And be a part of

the e-Tail, social media revolution.

Talk to Theme Media if you want to know more. In the meantime check out

these share enabled videos below that will illustrate further what we are

talking about.

Why mix WordPress with business?

..and it looks pretty

This article could be seen at putting the cart before of the horse, in that the article describes in detail the last phase of the production schedule of a web video – the distribution. However industry experts are beginning to realise that to make a truly effective web video, producers need to think like marketers and consider the target audience and return on investment. Too often good web video commercials, advertorials and testimonials are created with no consideration given to the effective distribution along with the resulting impact and effect. This article will look at simple, cost effective methods to distribute your video and reach maximum impact with your target audience. In addition it will look at the best ways to evaluate the success of your video during the campaign through analytics of the “view” and “click through” rates.

Embedding or linking the video to your home page or landing page

This is the simplest and most effective way to distribute your web video, TVC or web advertorial by including it on your homepage. More and more small and large businesses are using video on their homepage or landing page to engage with viewers and connect them to information, products and services. Humans are visual so the use of video in teaching and persuasion (aka marketing) is a natural. Return on investment for video advertising on business websites is high and will only keep improving as more consumers come to expect a rich media experience from business websites. Use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to promote and share your video with your existing clients and the world.

Embedding or linking multiple videos to your Web TV page

The rise in popularity of the Internet and improvements in streaming video technology mean that producing and distributing a web series is relatively cheap by traditional standards and allows producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the videos 24 hours a day. The solution to multiple videos on your website is to produce a web TV player, capable of playing multiple videos and one that keeps customers returning to your website. Using social media devices such as Twitter and Facebook is an excellent way to promote your web TV channel to your customers and the world.

Enabling your web video to be shared with the world

In addition to the video appearing on your homepage, you can also use a number of video distribution sites to broadcast your video to a wide audience. The industry standards are Youtube and Vimeo, but there are literally hundreds of similar sites to choose from depending on your target audience. Video sharing sites have a number of advantages in that they are usually free to use, charge nothing for bandwidth and allow viewers to easily share videos across blogs, websites and through social media networks. They also enable you to look at the video analytics which include how long a person has watch the video, from what country they are viewing from, and if the video includes a click through button to a part of your website, the analytics can show the click through rate.

Paid placement on selected websites

This is where you choose to have either an image link or the actual video located on a selected website according to your target audience. In some cases locating your video on an external site can be a cost free exercise; however to gain the greatest impact in most cases you will need to pay a fee to advertise your video. You will either be charged for a time period for the link or video or more often than not, as is the case with Google, you will be charged a “pay per click” fee. Google is currently over the $2 mark for this sort of advertising. Importantly, when paying for advertisement like this, you need to pay close attention to the way consumers are viewing your video. Information such as how long the video is watched, where the viewer is based, and whether viewers are choosing to “click through” to your website after the video, often referred to as the CTR or click through rate, are valuable pieces of information that can be used to shape and optimise your campaign.

Create real world linkages to your web video

The most obvious method is to include your URL address on all printed media and signage. However, a relatively new technology exists called QR codes. These 3D bar codes can be scanned by portable devices such as smart phones, iPhones and iPad device cameras and once read by the device, immediately links the user to the website video or any other information that is linked to the QR code.

Elephant Seals: St Andrews Bay, South Georgia

Theme is pleased to announce on behalf of Sharon K Schafer, one of our resident artists, that two of Sharon’s photographs have been selected for the Best of Nature Photography Show, an international juried competition. They will be on view in the The Ordover Gallery, at the San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, California.

The exhibit runs November 13, 2010 – January 30, 2011
Both photographs were taken on a South Georgia visit as an artists-in-residence for Theme Media’s Polar Arts Program.

Elephant Seals: Gold Harbour, South Georgia

Gentoo Penguins: Port Lockroy, Antarctica

Sharon K Schafer’s new work “Gentoo Penguins: Port Lockroy, Antarctica”, has been selected for the 50th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists. The exhibit runs September 1, 2010 – October 31, 2011 at San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, California. he SAA show will then travel, to The Wildlife Experience, Parker, Colorado where it will be on display 20 Nov 2010 to 21 Feb 2011. Reference and field sketches used to create this painting were gathered on an Antarctic Peninsula trip as an artist-in-residence for Theme Media’s Polar Arts Program.

The Society of Animal Artists is the premiere international association of animal and wildlife painters and sculptors. Founded in 1960, the Society is devoted to promoting excellence in the portrayal of the creatures sharing our planet, and to the education of the public through its informative art seminars, lectures and teaching demonstrations. Some of the finest animal artists from the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Japan, and Australia are represented in the Society’s membership.

Over the past 50 years the work created by these artists has established new standards of artistic excellence and respect, helping animal and wildlife art to achieve a place of honor in the field of fine art. Link for more information click here

To help us celebrate, come see our video on display at Project Gallery in Wollongong from the 27th of October, or join us at the opening on the 6th of November.

See Skein Sea is a video project that explores the relationship between memory and place, and attempts to disentangle the complexity of the sea’s intricate and often abstract visual landscape.

Our art projects begin with an open-ended production brief.  The subsequent evolution of the piece becomes a reflexive process, receptive to the different ways artists choose to construct the shots.  The editing happens in a similarly collaborative way, resulting in multi-perspectival video art pieces.

I live in Thirroul and am 19 years old. I spend most of my time hanging around with my closest friends. On the weekends I like to listen to music and in the summer go to the beach and surf. I really enjoy going to music festivals, my favourite memory from this year so far is Splendour in the Grass with my best friend. I like most kinds of music… my favourite band for a while was Florence and the Machine, but now I just have lots of favourites.

Splendour would have been fantastic. So, girl-of-many-talents, I hear you’re also a visual artist as well.

Well, it started at school. My HSC work was a combination of painting and photography. I used my friends’ bodies as my canvases and photographed them. Essentially my work represented

an exploration into the dominating world powers among society. I wished to present audiences with a visual image of how these powers have the tendency to conform, control and consume individuals. I choose to do this project as I wanted to combine both photography and painting and thought this was quite an original idea.

I think so too. Did you ever see yourself being on TV?

I had never pictured myself presenting on camera, although, I did drama at school and always loved being in the spotlight. Getting in front of the camera to present at the Biennale for the first time was totally nerve-racking. I found it really difficult to think on the spot and became quite fidgety.

How did you deal with the nerves? Not with alcohol I hope!

I guess to deal with the nerves I breathe and clear my head of the worries of stuffing up. I try to avoid alcohol as a way of soothing the fear – I think it’d just make it worse, make it harder for me to concentrate.

The Green Room is a pretty quirky program, how would you describe it to a friend?

It’s a short informative show about art, travel, music and wine. It explores these subjects from a creative angle with a very relaxed vibe.

So you filmed the first episode a while back, how do you think it went?

It went well, but there’s definitely room for improvement. The shoot was mostly impromptu – having pre-written scripts for some sections would help the flow. I think the set and the relaxed energy of the show made it very good.

But you weren’t out there alone, what’s your male counterpart like?

Scott is great to work with, I couldn’t ask for a funnier person to present alongside. He’s very good at thinking on his feet and always asked really interesting questions and was never stumped on what to say… which made it a lot easier for me.

Is this something you’re going to pursue in the future?

I am not sure if I’ll continue to work in front of the camera. I really enjoy it, but it’s very stressful at the same time. I guess if I kept going with it and got better it would become less stressful. But I’m not sure what I’ll do yet.

And lastly, what did you’re mum and dad have to say?

My mum and dad are really excited for me and think it’s a great opportunity being in front of the camera. They will support me in whatever I do with my life. Cause they looooooove me

But I bet you haven’t seen the side project Jamie worked on in his spare time (of which he has very little) – the music video clip for local band The Strides with their single Inspiration. Jamie did an amazing job, and I was glad to catch up with him before the success got to his head.

So Jamie, tell us a little bit about yourself?

Im 22 and love everything about cameras…

Personality wise… quirky perhaps… I’m a bit of a compulsive person… indie maybe? ha…

Right. What kind of music are you into?

Radiohead and the Beatles. I have a pretty eclectic taste but I always come back to my two favorites.

Ok, enough about you. We want to know about The Strides. Who are they? Where did you meet?

The Strides are a world class reggae band that absolutely  kill it… I grew up knowing one of the brass instrumentalists, and after hearing that I was in the film industry they asked me to film the music video for the track “Inspiration”

I can safely say The Strides got me into liking reggae. They are so much fun live.

Describe their music a bit more for us?

Afro beats… insane horn sections… rasta rhymes. They will make you DANCE!

So I understand you filmed the whole project solo, were you nervous?

Not really. I was mostly exited. I got as much creative freedom as I wanted, and combined with the local scenery and the beautiful nature of the song itself, I knew it would be easy to get some amazing shots to work hand in hand with the song.

Nice one. Your pretty confident with the camera then. Can you take us through some of the steps involved in a production like this?

Well, Al the percussionist, he did a rough storyboard for me, shot types, timing of shots etc. After that he let me do as I pleased. I’ve grown up on the south coast so I knew exactly where the shots had to be done and what time, so location scouting wise, there was no problem.

Lucky for me deadlines weren’t really an issue, I had quite a lot of time for post-production, but in saying that, deadlines are good because you know you have to get the job done by a certain time, and you don’t have time to critique yourself and the edit over and over, most times that will screw the edit up.

What concept did you guys come up with for the shoot?

The song is about nature and how it inspires people.  They wanted to encapsulate that with sunrises, bushlands and especially for them, being surfers, the ocean.

They wanted to intertwine these elements with the concept of showing a “day in the life” of The Strides, so from early morning wake-ups to a chilled afternoon party and finally heading to the gig night.

That’s their life… music and the splendors of nature…

I really think you managed to capture all that. Was it hard work?

Well, it was 2 solid days of filming which all went super smooth, but it was post-production that almost sent me to the cuckoo’s nest. I hate technology (but I love it!)

Were there times you couldn’t handle the pressure?

The night of the Premiere, I seriously thought I was having a heart attack… the final export I got to DVD 30min before the screening. Just when you think everything is going swell, fate likes to play a little game called “lets screw with Jamie”

Did making this video bring you closer to the band?

Yes definitely, especially with the drummer Al. He sat in on the whole post-production. And I won’t mention the after parties…

What’s the best memory you have of making this video clip?

Probably, as stressful as it was, editing with Al. We had some pretty funny times. Also the gig nights. You can’t beat the vibes those guys bring

to a live show.

Are music videos something you want to do more of?

Of course. I love the whole idea of bringing sound and visually stunning footage together…. Look out for my future work