Film festival’s Lot Fourteen flavour

A scene from When Pomegranates Howl, one of the films premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival which was worked on by Artisan Post Group.

The Adelaide Film Festival opens tonight and will have a distinct Lot Fourteen flavour, thanks to the involvement of Artisan Post Group (APG).

APG provides the full range of post-production services to the film, television and content creation industry, including visual effects, sound production and editing, music composition, colour grading and editing.

Creative industries is one of the focus sectors at Lot Fourteen innovation precinct, which is also home to APG’s neighbours, virtual reality specialist Jumpgate VR, infrastructure visualisation company Convergen and film producers Dancing Road Productions.

“We’re really proud of the range of support that we’re able to give local film makers as well as balancing interstate and international projects,” says Mike Darren, who co-founded APG with brothers Anton and Carlo Andreacchio.

“The industry is evolving, and it’s exciting to see how local projects and productions are finding new ways to navigate this changing world.”

APG worked on three films that will have their world premiere at the festival. When Pomegranates Howl was filmed in the streets of Kabul by Iranian Australian director Granaz Moussavi, whose first film, My Tehran for Sale, also premiered at the AFF in 2009.

Video Nasty: The Making of Ribspreader was created by local directors Matthew Bate and Liam Somerville and the king of the local trash film scene, David Dale.

The Calm Beyond, a debut feature from Hong Kong director Joshua Wong, is set in a bleak, dystopian vision of his troubled city’s future

APG also worked on three proof-of-concept films which will be screened as part of Film Concept Lab at AFF to showcase SA talent. These were created by local creatives Tom Phillips and Jeremy Kelly-Bakker from We Made A Thing Productions, award-winning cinematographer Aaron Schuppan, Chan Griffin (Aquaman and Mortal Kombat) and Leela Varghese (comedian/award-winning filmmaker) and film making students from the University of South Australia. The works include Spellbound, centred on a witch who tries to salvage a date with her magic, and Hood, a sci-fi spin on the tale of Robin Hood.

And APG contributed to post production on two of the features in the Made in SA section of the AFF for locally produced short films.

The Choreography of Emotions features the Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre and was directed and produced by its artistic director Garry Stewart. It’s described as an experimental excavation of human emotions painted through the kinetic brush of dance.

Aftershock tells the story of a waitress fighting to overcome her rapist while stuck inside a diner with him after an earthquake. It was filmed locally, produced by Lisa Bishop of Never Too Late Productions and directed by Gareth Wilkes, and took home Best Foreign Short Film at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival.

APG has built dedicated spaces for its services in the Eleanor Harrald Building, including a 4K theatrette, where members of the AFF competition jury are viewing documentaries and feature films vying for awards.

APG also has three edit suites, two sound mix stages, a 4K colour grading suite and offers online access to projects in production to other studios in Adelaide and around the world through the Gig City network.

But while the tech is impressive, Mike says that’s not the focus of APG.

“Technology is playing such a disruptive role in so many industries, but rather than focusing on these incremental changes, we are starting with that which won’t be automated and embracing the changing tech. The art and craftsmanship is really a human process, so we are building around the artisans with the latest in technology. That’s why we feel we belong at Lot Fourteen.

The team scales up depending on the project need and may have up to 20 local artisans across visual effects, editing, sound design and colour grading. The leaders of film and TV projects will sometimes temporarily co-locate at APG to work alongside the team.

“We work across a range of projects, from Stateless and Mortal Kombat through to local feature films” Mike said. “That is what’s exciting and it’s how we build not just a community, but a pathway for young people to start to step forward with their careers.”

“It’s been a very hard year for the industry. A lot of film makers have shown incredible courage in getting their films together for this Adelaide Film Festival. There’s a lot of excitement and pride.”

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