LOOKING BACK 2010
Thank you to all those who have help the APDG in 2010
Sandra Levy at AFTRS
Sarah Stollman at AFTRS
Leonie Walton at NIDA
Jon at the Ultimo Wine Centre
Michele at Evolution Signs
George Livery at Palace Cinema
Simon Higgins at Showreelfinder
Larry and Gemma Eastwood
Thomas Hofmann at Mindfactory New Media
January 2010
At the committee meeting held 12th January at The Fox and Lion the discussions revolved around the new website, fundraising ideas, a plan for the year ahead, the design and cost of manufacturing an award and of the guild’s judging criteria.
At the committee meeting held 19th January at Photoplay Films Thomas Hofmann presented the committee with a draft of the new APDG website in which a membership joining mechanism, mail-out function, member’s profile page and founding members showcase page were operational. Kate Wills presented an updated business plan and more details of the structuring of the guild were discussed.
February 2010
At the committee meeting 2nd February at AFTRS Thomas Hofmann presented updates to the website build and the machinations of the backend were briefly explained to the committee. Methods for editing and administering the backend were discussed, new plans for the way the as yet unnamed APDG award might be introduced were drafted and the 30th or 31st of March were pencilled in as possible launch dates. Mitchell Seeto was welcomed to the steering committee.
At the committee meeting held 16th February at AFTRS an inventory of the website build was presented by Mitchell Seeto and ideas about the launch date and venue were discussed.
March 2010
At the committee meeting held 2nd March at AFTRS it was decided to postpone the launch date till sometime in April. All possible venues for the launch were discussed and details about the website design were raised again.
At the committee meeting held 30th March at AFTRS new dates for the launch and talk were assessed, new ways of facilitation sponsorship were raised and it was decided to push to collect all the content needed on the website asap. Each page of the current website build was appraised and notes were made on possible changes. Manual joining forms and processes were discussed.
April 2010
At the committee meeting held April 13th at AFTRS four of the six directors of the APDG – Peter Sheehan, Annie Beauchamp, Virginia Mesiti, Kate Wills voted to exclude George Liddle from voting on the special resolution regarding the granting of APDG accreditation. The special resolution, in accodance with the clauses 3.16, 5.1 and 5.6 of the APDG constitution decided that APDG accreditation shall be offered to all the founding members. It was resolved for three reasons (1) The most experienced production designers in Australia are needed to asses the applications for accreditation from equally experienced production designers. (2) Every founding member satisfies the APDG’s criteria for eligibility. (3) There is no better way to initiate a credible and fair APDG accreditation process. It was also resolved that the status of ‘founding member’ will remain in perpetuity, however, the status of being APDG accredited must be, for the sake of fairness, in accordance will all the conditions of certification as set out in the accreditation process page on the website. May 18th was confirmed as the launch date for the website. The launch invitation was designed by Virginia Mesiti.
At the committee meeting held April 20th, it was confirmed that Roger Ford and Kerry Brown were available to give a talk at the launch. A mass mail-out of the launch invitations were sent to 620 addresses and the social media accounts for Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr and Twitter were created. Possible avenues of finding wine sponsorship for the launch were discussed again.
At the committee meeting held April 27th at AFTRS, Thomas Hoffmann presented the 1stage build of the new website and instructed committee members in the way the CMS backend operates. Plans were finalised for the launch and the possibility of having membership cards printed by the launch date was appraised.
May 2010
At the committee meeting held May 4th at AFTRS a press release was drafted and plans for a second event, a talk, in July were discussed. Virginia Mesiti presented designs of widgets for the website and they were accepted. Sponsorship and advertising on the website was discussed and a plan to create a webpage outlining the alternatives was approved. Each member of the committee was allocated social networking and website editing roles and the running order of the launch event was finalised.
On May 18th the new website was launched. Despite torrential rain about 100 people from all corners of the stage and screen design world came to celebrate the launch of the APDG’s new website with a glass of wine and to enjoy a very insightful talk by production designer Roger Ford and set decorator Kerrie Brown.
George Liddle kicked off the event by naming everyone who helped create this here website (names listed below). One could hear a communal sigh of relief – that the APDG has finally created a way to accept memberships – audible even over the pouring rain! Then Roger and Kerrie began their wonderful talk, sharing valuable insights into their many collaborations on feature films. Scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia were projected as Roger and Kerrie shared stories and answered questions from the audience. The confident, easygoing and playful way they approached both their work and their working relationship was subtly revealed as one of the many secrets to their success.
Students from NIDA and the students and staff at AFTRS helped to make the launch a great event. And a special thank you to Ultimo Wine Centre for generously supplying the wines.
All the people who helped create the website : Thomas Hofmann (website designer), Belinda Bennetts (logo designer), George Liddle, Virginia Mesiti, Annie Beauchamp, Charlie Revai, Kate Wills, Peter Sheehan, Sam Clayton, James Croke, Kim Buddee, Nicholas Dare, Mitchell Seeto, Sarah Stollman, Greg Dufy, Sandra Levy, Gary Hayes and Katerina Stratos.
June 2010
The Paypal process for joining was discovered to have a few bugs however 54 members joined in June. The steering committee meetings discussed the possibility of adding interviews tp the website and making it clearer what the guild offers to members. June 30th marks the date by which works must have been published, screened or performed to be eligible for entry in the APDG Awards competition. CJ Johnson was welcomed as a reviewer of films, and the Ozeblast email facility with subscribe and unsubscribe forms was added to the website.
July 2010
At director Jacinta Leong gave a talk at AFTRS Sydney about her experiences working on several films – Wolverine, Nim’s Island, The Ruins, Star Wars Episodes III, The Matrix Trilogy and Anna & The King. It was a warm and informative evening attended by over fifty professionals and students. During all of July APDG Award entries were accepted.
August 2010
Melinda Doring wrote a detailed report on State and Federal funding incentives and how this affects designers working in film and this was published on the APDG website. There were not enough entries received in July for the APDG Awards to proceed in December 2010 so plans were made to hold the awards event mid 2011. An Award committee was formed headed by Jon Rohde with Felicity Abbott and Margot Wilson. It was decided to keep accepting entries into the awards till a new deadline is announced.
September 2010
Andrew Chan presented a talk at Sydney AFTRS on a decade on set design drawing on his experience on films such as Avatar, Star Wars and the Matrix trilogy. Shaun Tan was interviewed by Peter Sheehan and Shaun’s answers about designing and illustrating were posted on the APDG website in a new section entitled interviews.
October 2010
Richard Hobbs, was interviewed about his Emmy award for art direction on the mini series The Pacific. Peter Sheehan wrote a report for IF Magazine on the state of the production design industry in Australia. NIDA generously offered to hold the inaugural APDG Awards on the 21st of Sept 2011 and the deadline for submission of entries was set at 30th June 2011. The $150 entry fee into the awards was cancelled so that entry into the awards is free. A document to seek sponsorship for the awards was drafted and a list of possible sponsors was compiled.
November 2010
Michael Scott-Mitchell spoke at NIDA about designing events such as the The 2006 Asian Games, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the Adelaide RIng Cycle in 2004. Kate Wills and Virginia Mesiti designed and produced the table settings for the SPAA conference at the Town Hall. The Awards committee developed strategies for holding the awards in September. Dee Molineaux joined the awards committee.
