Thomas Kinsman

Post-production complete!

trak — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:28:11 +0000

This Sunday I was enthused to see through the completion of a short documentary I edited called ‘Three Questions’.
The collaborative project took several months to forge, with it’s sound mix and colour grade finally coming together this weekend. Melbourne post wiz Harry Aronsten from Pine Fresh Media recently came on board as colourist on the project, and put a final spit and polish to the pictures. Adam Hunt somehow managed to impress us even more, by showing up with an evocative sound mix and ambient score which really blew both myself and the documentary’s director, Max, out of the water. Weeks after I handed over the final edit, I think I reacted very differently to watching the project in it’s final form. It was both a relief and a shock to see how the marriage of refined audio and pictures, can elevate a film’s overall conviction and coherence, so significantly. It honestly felt as though I was watching a different film.
‘Three Questions’ will be screening at a number of short film festivals in the coming months.
Thanks to Max Milne (Director), Adam Hunt (Sound), and Harry Aronsten (Colourist).

‘A Kaleidoscope of Noise’

trak — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:19:37 +0000

On Saturday night, I journeyed out to Revolt in Kensington, to film a bunch of the impressive performances that made up the micro sound-art festival ‘Circle Jerk’.
The visceral event took place over the course of 6 hours, and contained approximately 30 sets from some of Melbourne’s most prolific and innovative contemporary sound artists, performing on two dedicated performance areas – one of which contained more than 100 speakers.
The night was an absolute ball-tearing success, and despite the unfortunate scheduling of the Meredith music festival on the same weekend, there was a surprisingly large turnout for the show.
Hats off to the curators.

48 Hours in Lockdown. . .

trak — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:05:24 +0000

I’ve been in lock-down for the past 48 hours. The last two days have been spent with Adam Hunt and Max Milne, in creative isolation, as we carefully put together the crux of what will certainly become the final cut of the ‘Three Questions’ documentary.

Working out of Adam’s fantastic little backyard studio in Preston, our goal going into the weekend was to bring coherency and form to an immense set of interviews which provide many explanations for fundamental human questions.
It was our mission to discover and explore the connections that exist between common ideas pertaining to God, Death, and Home – to expose the similarities that exist between many different every-day cultural beliefs and concepts.
Kind of voluminous stuff to address, don’t you think? In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the most challenging premise I’ve ever had to survey – for that very reason. Where do you start when dealing with something like that? Well, I think now it is safe to say that the answer was to find the simplest method for relating to a character, and use that as the pathway. We focused on the stories they told. And so, three stories have become the crux for each question / answer.

Honestly, I feel like I have been wrenched into a phenomenal investigation surrounding what means to be human. Collaborating with others on this investigation has made it all the more pleasurable – Which I think is funny considering how often I attribute the meaning of life to the collectivist notion ‘work, be with, have purpose’. I guess it’s my own answer to the big questions. . . and if you boil it down, it’s really not so different to anyone else’s.
It’s been a very enjoyable journey so far, and I’ve relished the challenges and ideas the project has presented.
I also had an amazing time collaborating with Max and Adam – two very talented artists in their own right, and I have come away from the weekend feeling completely exhausted and immensely satisfied.

I will now be spending the next week putting the finishing touches on the project’s final edit.

You can see a trailer for the film here: http://pool.abc.net.au/media/three-questions

Adam Hunt is currently curating a sound exhibition called ‘Circle Jerk’, as part of the ‘What is Music Festival’ on December 10th. Details on the show can be found here: http://circlejerk.com.au/about

Mega Delta Force 9 – The VHS Trailer

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:45:24 +0000

I just posted a new video in the gallery. The video is a faux trailer for a film called ‘Mega Delta Force 9′, and was a little collaboration between Seamus Duffy and myself. As you can probably see, we had a lot of fun with the project, and I owe a big thanks to Justin Gibson, Ben Capp, Max Milne, Bec Hulme, and Jamie-Lee O’Shae for helping out.

Shot on both the Canon 5D and a H-16 REX-5 16mm Bolex, our aim was to present a work that reflects many low-budget ozploitation films of the late 70s and early 80s. At first I was a bit apprehensive about the marriage of film and HD, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to treat the high-res video, so that it sat comfortably beside the 16mm film footage. HD certainly has come a long way in the last decade.

Mega Delta Force 9 – VHS Trailer

admin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 07:01:18 +0000

Year: 2011

Runtime: 1 min

Gauge: 16mm / HD

New Project

admin — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 04:35:24 +0000

I recently begun editing a 10 min documentary for talented photographer and visionary Max Milne (maxmilne.com.au). The project focuses on three fundamental questions relating to spirituality, religion, and death. As broad as the topic sounds, it appears as though Max has managed to collect some fascinating and coherent responses from a diverse slice of the public pie. Each talking head presents a curious perspective on fundamental questions as old as thought itself. After some deliberation regarding mac and pc cross-compatibility, Max and I have chosen to cut the project using Premiere.

This will be the first project in seven years I have edited using Premiere (a program I’d long since abandoned). As such, I’m kind of keen to freshen up on my knowledge of Premiere, and determine if/what improvements have been made to a program I cut my teeth on. Excited to be a part of the project!

First Post

admin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Here is my first post, in what will hopefully be a consistent blog that keeps you up to date with the obscure, interesting, mundane, and inspiring.

I wasn’t really sure what to post first, but eventually decided on putting up a frame from a short animation I’ve been working on. As you can see in the pic, the frames are hand-drawn on single squares of toilet paper, which are then scanned on a green background – ready for key and composition in After Effects.

I’ll post the short film in the video gallery when it’s completed.

Anything?

admin — Sun, 08 May 2011 05:01:24 +0000

Year: 2003

Runtime: 2 mins

Gauge: 16mm

Galaxy Blues

admin — Thu, 05 May 2011 05:02:02 +0000

Year: 2007

Runtime: 4 mins

Gauge: Video

Genre: Music Video

Brovio

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:02:14 +0000

Year: 2006

Runtime: 3 mins

Gauge: 16mm