The French Riviera

One of the most fabulous things about the Cannes Film Festival is you can hop on a train for a break and end up here, at Antibes. Wow! Stunning, so old and beautiful. You can pretend you have just discovered this phenomenal place and it's your own secret. If only those millions of visitors, billionaires and historians would just keep quiet.

Why aren't they on the beach?

Marché du Film

Unfortunately I'm not at Cannes this year, because I'm in Sydney... working. But as it's all going on over there - meetings, screenings, buying and selling films and concepts and scripts and companies, I've put up a few images from previous years, to give you a flavour of the Cannes Film Market.

La Croissette, Cannes

A walk down La Croissette will take you to shops, restaurants, parties, hotels and eventually The Pavilion and Cinemas. It's a wide, beautiful street that starts to fill up with people from 6am and is still bustling way, way past 3am

RYAN GOSLING & MICHELLE WILLIAMS

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams talking about BLUE VALENTINE, their Independent film that

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Columbia University

Shoot Day 5 - The last few small scenes of Big Apple Dreaming were shot in a cab, which proved to be quite challenging. The day was overcast and due to the tall buildings, not a lot of light actually made it's way into the interior of the cab as we traveled. Fortunately the scenes were brief so we were able to do shoot them several times to make best use of the changing ambient light. New York streets are bumpy, so going hand held in the cab is really hard work.

We shot the scene, stationary, with a green screen. Mainly because we needed shots of Evan driving and it was  safer this way and better for Evan, not enjoying driving in NYC, especially in a cab with other drivers cutting him off. We'll add movement to these shots in post to better simulate travel.

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Shoot day 4 - Our production team had been working for several days to secure a very special location for our last scenes, The Waldorf Astoria. The stunning Park Avenue foyer has a massive chandelier sparkling above an intricate marble floo

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Shoot Day 3 - A 5am start. Central Park is beautiful at this time and today the weather is shaping up to be gorgeous. Our first location is the Delacorte Theatre, a huge outdoor theatre built in 1962 with a seating capacity of 1800. Originally the scene was written as an interior, so we quickly figure out how to make it work as an exterior scene to take advantage of the stunning park backgrounds. As we walk to our location, a massive bicycle race begins, allowing us excellent cut-aways of park life.

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

With the first day under our belts, a later start and a lighter day is planned for our second shoot day. The sun is shining, filling us with energy and we're back at The Boathouse Cafe, in Central Park, to shoot a few short scenes with HILDY, played by Randwick student Gillian Fahey and CHIP played by American actor Evan Newman.

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Day 5 - THE SHOOT: 6am on location outside the Ritz hotel. Cold and dark, full of anticipation for our first shoot day. The students prep the cameras and sound equipment, the director and DOP discuss the particulars for shooting the script without being noticed. The actors arrive and greetings are made. It strikes me how crazy the whole plan is - to shoot a rom-com musical, in New York City, with 10 students, no budget and no permits! Flight to Manhatten - $1700. Cream cheese bagel & coffee - $4. Shooting guerrilla style with Team Randwick in NYC - Priceless!

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Day 4 - Begin pre production for our film, BIG APPLE DREAMING - camera & sound equipment is checked & technical rehearsals performed. Our team is organised and energetic, ready to tackle an ambitious shooting schedule.

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Day 3 - Began with our trip to meet the staff and students at our sister college BMCC Borough of Manhattan Community College. Security was so tight the security guards almost didn't let us in! After a gracious welcome and a brief intro of the college's history, I quickly realized just how big BMCC really is. Located in the Tribecca district, built in the 80's and originally designed for 12000 students. Being two blocks from the twin towers they narrowly escaped a major catastrophe, if a tower had fallen their way. It was the first facility to reopen after the disaster.

They currently cater for 24,000 students, and have nearly 1000 film & TV students in their media section alone. At Randwick, TAFE, we have about 80 students in Screen & Media!