The Blackmail is the cyber love child of proud Sydney based parents Tristan Ceddia and his compadre Gabriel Knowels. The site offers regular blog posts as well as monthly comprehensive feature articals from in an around the arts, film, food and fashion scenes of Australia.

Selected interviews by Oliver Georgiou.

February 2010 Kris Moyes "Overarching Concept, Underlying Apparatus"

Director and artist Kris Moyes is best known for his unique and dynamic music video projects for artists such as Sia, Beck and The Presets. While spending a couple of weeks in Sydney recently I got together with Kris to, amongst other things, create some Strata-cut animation. When the time came to shoot, Kris created a lighting rig by precariously placing a lightbox, on top of a cardboard box, on top of a chair, clamped to a half-full 1.25 litre water bottle sans lid, situated next to a $10,000 camera on a tripod. It was at this time I realised that Moyes takes a refreshingly resourceful and intuitive approach when it comes to navigating his projects. Continue reading…

November 2010 Daniel Askill for Collider "Science Of Movement"

At first glance it would be close to impossible to tell that any of Sydney based Collider’s work was made in Australia. From humble beginnings in co-founder Daniel Askill’s bedroom at his mother’s home in Sydney at the turn of the century, he and partners Andrew Van Der Westhuyzen and Sam Zalalns have built their very own design and film media empire. Catering to a huge spectrum of clients including BMW, Hummer, Cadbury, UNKLE, Placebo, Dior, Nike and Lexus – Collider are producing work with an authentic A-grade international edge. Oliver Georgiou caught up with Daniel Askill over the phone to get the inside word on how it’s all happened. Continue reading…

May 2010 Eddie Martin "Create and Cover"

I have always had it drilled into me that when it comes to filmmaking storytelling is key, if you sit an audience down and don’t inform them or take them on a journey then you are wasting their time. The first time I saw Eddie Martin’s Jisoe at ACMI a few years back I was expecting a graffiti video but was met with an extremely comprehensive and candid insight into a strangers life. I left there thinking, wow, who is the man behind the camera that we never see or hear, how was he able to not only capture all of this but be able to fold it into such a complete package? Eddie Martin, the storyteller in the director’s chair, the protagonist behind the protagonist, has gone on to create a feature length documentary on the life of Lionel Rose as well as numerous other projects, some of which are not quite ready for disclosure. I met up with Eddie for a beer and a chat in Windsor last week as a wild electrical storm brewed over Melbourne. Continue reading…

October 2010 Krozm "Smoke, Screens & Mirrors"

Krozm is a Melbourne based, three-part directing collective made up of Chris Hill, Lachlan Dickie and Ewan Macleod. After only three short years together they have managed to compile an impressive reel of music videos for local acts including Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy, Van She and Jet. Drawing from a seemingly never ending skill set, Krozm utilise pretty much every film making technique, from hand drawn animation to CG, rotoscoping to live action, stop motion to digital effects and all the way back again. After gaining US representation with Mighty 8 earlier this year and recently directing Jet’s latest film clip in LA it would seem that Krozm are set to make Australia proud. Continue reading…

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