Tag Archives: film

Docklands Playground Sculpture

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On one windy day in Melbourne I managed to take some footage of a fun and playful wind sculpture. The sculpture is part of the Docklands, Melbourne, and situated within a children’s playground.

Watch the film in High Definition on YouTube.

The sculpture appears to be referred to as the “Blowhole” and “Docklands Playground Sculpture”. An earlier form, or variation, appeared as part of the “Sculpture by the Sea” exhibit in Sydney in 2000 with the title “Windy”.

Update October 2011: A metal plate in the near by children’s playground explains all. A photo of the plate appears below.

Blowhole by Duncan Stemler

Blowhole by Duncan Stemler - Click for a larger version

Windy, Docklands Playground Sculpture, Melbourne

Windy, Docklands Playground Sculpture, Melbourne

Looking through to the Docklands playground wind sculpture

Looking through to the Docklands playground wind sculpture

The artist credited with “Windy” at the “Sculpture by the Sea” and this sculpture “Blowhole” is Duncan Stemler, and the engineers of this sculpture appear to be Design Stainless Industries Pty Limited.

Melbourne’s Moomba Festival 2011

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During the long weekend in March, Melbourne celebrates Labour Day with the Moomba Festival.

This year many of the same attractions from last year appeared. We had a walk around and I took photos and some film footage. This time last year, Melbourne was being drenched in a sudden hail storm. Thankfully no sign of anything less than sun and blue sky this year.

Ferris wheel, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Ferris wheel, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Big teddy bears as prizes, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Big teddy bears as prizes, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Water skiing, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Water skiing, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Blue sky and rides at Melbourne's Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Blue sky and rides at Melbourne's Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Catching up on recent movie releases

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Megan and I have always enjoyed going to the cinema and catching up of recent movie releases. Recently we stumbled upon a big green box outside of a local supermarket. The Oovie box claimed to be a self-serve DVD rental machine. I looked up the name and discovered Oovie offers free rentals on Wednesdays. You need a code, but they are distributed freely on the company’s FaceBook page and through an e-mail mailing list.

For the last few weeks, we have been enjoying a Wednesday movie night courtesy of Oovie. Only once have we encountered problems, and a quick e-mail to support sorted out the mislabelled film.

Oovie's big green box - self serve DVD rentals

Oovie's big green box - self serve DVD rentals

Oovie was founded in 2005 and is now part of the Australian Hoyts Group. Great to see a small company find success.

I now hope they will publish a little more history, drop the Flash web site introduction, and maybe share a story or two about the creation of their boxes.

Waterskiing on the Yarra River

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This afternoon Megan and I visited Melbourne’s annual Moomba Festival. Yesterday’s storm made the Yarra river’s banks muddy and slippery, but did not appear to reduce the crowds.

Carnival ride, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Carnival ride, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Carnival ride, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

Carnival ride, Moomba Festival, Melbourne

I put together a short film of the waterskiing on the Yarra River. This is my first film experimenting with Garage Band. The result is not what would I like but I learnt a lot.

Watch the High Definition (HD) edition of the film on YouTube.

Japanese Summer Dance (Bon Odori)

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This afternoon we visited Melbourne’s Docklands to see the Japanese Summer Festival 2010 (メルボルン夏祭り2010開催). I had fun capturing and editing together some of the summer dance performance.

Watch the High Definition (HD) edition on YouTube.

Once again this short film was taken on a Canon SX200IS and edited with iMovie on Mac OS X. I continue to be impressed with the quality of the footage from a point-and-shoot Canon. iMovie’s stabilisation feature has been great for making more of my shaky footage useful.

iMovie on Mac OS X

iMovie on Mac OS X

Chinese New Year – 2010 Year of the Tiger

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Today saw the Chinese New Year celebrated in Melbourne. Megan and I found ourselves in the crowds watching the performers and doing our best to keep out of the exploding fire cracker debris.

Chinese New Year celebrations in Melbourne

Chinese New Year celebrations in Melbourne

Below is a short film showing one of the performances. Watch the High Definition (HD) edition on YouTube.

Once again the film was shot with our point and shoot Canon and edited in iMovie. This film is longer than any of my previous films. I wanted to keep in as much of the performance as feasible to give an idea of the build up to the fire crackers.