SCORCHED NOMINATED FOR AN AFI
More big news!!!
We have just been nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award for Screen Content Innovation!! The awards ceremony is on August 1st, 2009, so we’ll be holding our breath until then.
This is the first time for this category for the AFI’s, so we are stoked that we are a nominee in the inaugural award for innovation.
To see all the nominees, go to URL; AFI Nominees Announcement
Ellenor Cox and I will be speaking at the TV Production Seminar which is part of SMPTE tomorrow (22nd of July) and this evening I am speaking at the Creative Social Gathering in Surry Hills.
Additionally, I have been invited to speak in South Korea at the Broadcast World Wide Forum by the Korea Creative Content Agency in September. And on August 5th I’ll be doing a seminar by Skype wtih Charles Sturt University. My first virtual speaking engagement.
Signing off
MG
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WE WON!!!!
Marcus Gillezeau is currently in Cannes at MipTV celebrating our win of the International Digital Emmy Award.
Below is a story that was in the Herald Sun online and links to a number of other stories.
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March 31, 2009 12:00am
AUSTRALIA has won a historic first International Digital Emmy award at a ceremony in Cannes.
Telemovie Scorched took the fiction prize at an awards dinner on the opening night of the international entertainment content market, MIPTV.
It has also just been nominated in the Logies drama section.
Senior Australian and international television executives in Cannes said it was an extraordinary achievement and a great boost for the Australian television and digital media industries.
Co-producer Marcus Gillezeau of Firelight Productions, who accepted the award, said it was a “life-changing experience”.
“We hope it will open doors in the US,” he said.
“And we hope it will focus awareness in Australia that all-media story-telling is the way of the future.”
He dedicated the award to his father who died 10 days ago, He said his father had been his mentor in developing his media career.
He also paid tribute to his wife and co-producer, Ellenor Cox, who came up with idea for Scorched.
She had to stay in Australia as she was managing two projects.
The futuristic drama by Firelight Productions combines a 90-minute tele-feature and extensive online elements.
In a movie eerily reminiscent of the events in Victoria last month, it depicts a drought-ravaged Sydney encircled by huge bushfires in 2012.
The cast includes Vince Colosimo, George Parker, Rachel Carpani, Cameron Daddo and Les Hill.
Scorched was up against entries from Argentina, the UK and Germany.
When it was broadcast on the Nine network last August, the show was geo-blocked on the internet so it could not be seen outside the country.
This means the award could give it fresh impetus for international distribution.
The online elements include daily webisodes in an online prequel and sequel at the website, www.scorched.tv.
There were also online “news” bulletins and weather reports using Nine staff.
Over three months, two million Australians reportedly checked out this “future” world on television and online.
More than 200 international executives from the television, broadband and mobile industries attended the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences ceremony.
Celebrity presenters included William Petersen of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
The president and chief executive of the academy, Bruce Paisner, said the award winners had “embraced the creative and technological opportunities that the digital space presents”.
Ironically there are no mainstream digital awards in Australia.
- The writer is a member of the academy
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25270844-2902,00.html
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=15565&s=News_files
SCORCHED IN THE NEWS TODAY – 16th March, 2009
Bushfire drama Scorched in Race for Emmy, The Australian.
FIRELIGHT NOMINATED FOR AN EMMY – 10th March, 2009
Some great news for us at Firelight, we have been nominated for an International Digital Emmy Award for Scorched!!!! We got the news at 8am on a work day, so unfortunately we couldn’t crack the champagne on the spot – it had to wait. The crazy thing is this is the only mainstream digital media award we are eligible for as there are none in Australia – no Logie, AFI or IF Award. So we had to be content with… the biggest TV award in the world. The competition is stiff of course with projects from the UK, Argentina and France. It should be a fun night at the ceremony which is in Cannes at MipTV on the 30th of March. I was already heading to MipTV so this is a bonus indeed.
We are also nominated for Scorched for Best Entertainment for the Australian Interactive Media Awards. We’re off to the ceremony this evening with lead actors Kate Bell and Zac Garred. So it should be a fun night. Fingers crossed we’ll win. We’re up again a couple of good projects. It’s a kind of odd category as we are up against the ABC’s iView which is an app? If we do win, it’ll be great as this is the highest honour for an all-media project in Australia.
Also this evening Ellenor and I are speaking at the AFTRS at ‘Friday on My Mind’ – a kind of ‘in conversation with’ session they do each month (or week?). So that should be a bit of fun as we will already be in our sparkly outfits for the AIMIA awards this evening. Kate will also be at the talk at the school. It’s good we are able to finally speak at the school as Gary Hayes and Peter Giles who are in the digital media department were instrumental in the development of the project though the LAMP workshop that we did a few years back.
And, on another note, we are totally stoked as Storm Surfers continues to storm on. It looks like we’ll be making some more episodes, one in NZ and another in the US. At MipTV I’ll be chasing the gap finance we need to make it. I guess it will be a real test of whether the market is buying at the moment.
Cheers,
MG
MARCUS GOES TO LA-LA LAND – 5th November 2008
In L.A. in the big US of A on what is, of course, a massively historic day. These guys have voted in, somewhat resoundingly, a black president. There are plenty of people, especially coloured people, who are still in disbelief that such an amazing thing has happened. And did you see Obama’s acceptance speech? It was pretty amazing and will likely go done in history. Let’s hope that from here something really will ‘change’.
Spent the night last night in a bar that seemed to be Obama supporters – I’m quite glad they were. I was hanging out with Cameron Daddo who played David Langmore in our film Scorched. It was good to learn more about life in LA for an Australian in the business over here.And the business. It’s so, damn, big. I am still trying to get my head around it. There just seems to be an incredible amount of opportunity.
Yesterday I did a screening of Storm Surfers at Redbull’s HQ. What a lot of fun. They seemed to really like the film which is good. Now we just need to nail down a US sale.Tomorrow I am speaking at the American Film Institute Dififest Conference on a panel about Scorched. That’ll be fun. Then I get to soak up another day of seminars before flying back on Saturday.
Blogging off…
MG