Jason Stringer

I popped my internet cherry back in the late nineties by designing and maintaining a tiny website about my favorite film, The Exorcist. Today that site has progressed into the unofficial home for Exorcist fans online, gathering tons of traffic and providing in-depth discussion about the film daily. When I’m not shooting, editing, being Daddy or Caring Husband… I’m usually tinkering with captainhowdy.com. I recently gave it a much-needed overhaul, take a look:

I ‘ummmm‘ and ‘arrrr‘d through my little speech introducing my short film Living With Benjamin to a moderately seated Cinema 1 at Luna Cinemas on Oxford Street in Leederville. Happy to have the introduction over with I promptly took my seat and found comfort in the fact that, no matter how this went, it was cold and raining outside and I would be enjoying a warm coffee in the elements soon enough.

The audience was there to see the UK horror-thriller picture Mum & Dad (2008) and my local short film was playing as a bonus beforehand.

The lights dimmed, the curtains closed in (they had to mask the majority of the windscreen as the short is 4:3, if you can believe that) and away we went. Living With Benjamin was on the big screen.

While sitting in the darkness watching Benjamin stir his coffee and wash his mug, three hings became very apparent to me during those seven nervous minutes:

1. Kerry was holding my hand. She told me she was equally nervous — and she held my hand for every second it was up there. I appreciated that gesture.
2. In the final act, building up to the big finish, I could feel my heart pounding throughout my whole body. It felt like my chair was shaking. But I wasn’t panicked or worried anymore (the hardest parts were over) — it must have just been adrenaline.
3. The respect from the audience was first rate. Sometimes a screening like this is treated more like a trailer and there’s still occasional chitter-chatter and movement. In this case, the whole cinema went dead silent and watched Benjamin play out. A bonus of screening at an international film festival, I guess– you know the people attending are mostly film enthusiasts.

And so the credits rolled and the audience applauded. Just like that, it was over. The transfer looked fantastic on the big screen and the sound was magic. I’ve never heard it sound or look so good. Taking it from my PC monitor and TV screens up onto the cinema screen was definitely a wonderful experience and one I will always remember.  Best of all I got to enjoy it with my wife Kerry (thanks to ‘awesome’ Uncle Danny for watching the kids!!), Benjamin himself Clint West, and industry colleges including sound designer and co-editor Warren Money, Gemma Gittins and Sara Horvat.

I look forward to seeing more of our projects on the big screen in the near future.

I’m compiling the special features and menu for the Living with Benjamin DVD, which will be available soon.
Watch Living With Benjamin online now

I’m eagerly anticipating the ‘premiere’ of Living With Benjamin on the big screen this coming weekend. It will screen before a feature film as part of the Night of Horror International Film Festival in Perth on Saturday 10 October. After that screening I will be packaging it on DVD and sending out to those who were involved and further festival submissions. Here’s a look at the artwork I’ve put together for the cover.

It was at the start of the year that I sat-back to re-watch my short film Living with Benjamin and finally saw all the ways I could cut it to create the concise film I was originally aiming for. Over time I have chipped pieces away to eventually settle on this: the absolute final cut of Living with Benjamin. It gets to the point. It doesn’t mess around. And you still feel lonely watching Benjamin slowly lose his marbles.

The film now runs a comfy seven minutes as apposed to the original 12. Five whole minutes removed and it still feels like the exact same film. I’ve learned a great deal from shooting and cutting this — it will always remain dear to me.

This is the version that will be screening at the Perth Night of Horror Film Festival in October. I will be part of the audience and look forward to seeing it with a sizable crowd. That’s both a scary and exciting prospect!

This cut will also appear on the long-awaited DVD, accompanied by some beefy bonus material.

After four months of meetings, auditions, rehearsals and careful planning we have a new short film almost completely in the can, ready for editing. I say almost in the can because, while principal photography is finished, there are still a couple of pickups that need to occur (shots not requiring principal cast).

The task of directing a film in any format is always a challenging journey. This shoot ran for three solid days and pushed the boundaries of every emotion I could possibly muster. From sheer frustration to overwhelming exhilaration — not forgetting tiredness, anger, joy, and jealousy.
Jealousy because I have given the cinematography role a shot before (during film school) and here was Danny Clark, a good mate of mine, producing pure gold in every shot without a paycheque. I’m very happy with how good this film looks.

I got to work with an acceptional team on this independent project. Assembled by producer Sara Horvat, people were dedicated to their roles and delivered fantastic results at every level. Thanks to everyone who donated their time and be part of a wonderful filmmaking family.

Personally, That Year They Were Bridesmaids was all about exploring my abilities to direct some honesty to the screen.  The film deals with topics I’m close to and I felt confident I could tell the story accurately. I cannot wait to see the final product, scoop up everything I learned and muscle it into the next project.

What’s important for me now is to turn the film around in a timely manner.  A post production schedule is in place and some upcoming festival deadlines will keep us in check. Even before That Year They Were Bridesmaids hits screens, I’m already working hard on planning what to do next.  What do I need to practice? What do I need to learn? And how can we go about these things in an entertaining way?

Someone should write a book about this stuff…