Cats of Malta Christmas Special Interview

Just when we thought it was safe to sign off for Christmas, the last interview for Cats of Malta in 2021 is happening this Saturday on ONE TV. Yes, it’s a special Christmas edition!

Check out Pink Panther on ONE TV Christmas Day 6pm Central European Time (CET), where you can see director Sarah Jayne talking Cats of Malta in Maltese and English.😺🇲🇹 You can also watch online here.

We will be sending the details out in a Cats of Malta newsletter later this week and we have the link up on the website when it's available.

Life Improvised Micro Short Shot in Lisbon Coming Soon

We shot this Life Improvised film titled Encentro on our last weekend in Lisbon in early May, we can’t wait to bring this story about two friends who are keeping a certain matter from each other in order to save their relationship. It was a pleasure to work with Lisbon locals on this one, which will be released in a weeks time through our newsletter. Join our Creatively Connected monthly Newsletter to see Encontro first or subscribe to our YouTube channel for a notification.

“After a pandemic, lockdown lifts and life goes somewhat back to normal. Ines seizes the moment and invites her friend Joanna to catch up on life as they walk through Lisbon, but there’s something troubling Ines.”

New Art Department Masterclass Unleashed

Our latest educational class, How To Become an Art Department Dynamo, is finally released. The course is presented by Sarah Jayne, who has fifteen years of experience working in various art department roles in Australia and internationally. You can take the course through Ribbon Experiences, Udemy or Skillshare through our referral link. The latter allows you to watch and sign up to Skillshare for free (for the first 14 days) and not only view our course but watch thousands of others on all sorts of topics.

If you watch on any platform we ask you to please leave a short review and share it with others who will benefit from taking that class. If Art Department is not your thing, you can view our other masterclasses here.

From Malta to Melbourne: In Corpore Featured in Lovin' Malta

Popular Maltese news outlet Lovin’ Malta did an extensive interview with co-director Sarah Jayne about our latest film In Corpore. The article focuses on love and sex and how our international, sex-positive relationship drama tackles these complex topics from the perspective of the female gaze. We are very grateful to Lovin’ Malta for the terrific write-up. Read the article here and choose a platform to watch In Corpore here.

New Art Department Masterclass Live Across Skillshare & Ribbon

How to Become An Art Department Dynamo, presented by Sarah Jayne is a masterclass that was in the works early this year as we travelled through Portugal. Finally, we can say that we have launched the class.

You can take part in the masterclass across the following educational sites - Skillshare, Ribbon Experiences, and really soon, Udemy.

Remember that we also run other masterclasses, and they can be found in our SHOP under Masterclasses. We hope you learn something new (we guarantee you will) and that you find these classes as enjoyable as we found them to create for you!

New Years Eve Friendship Drama now streaming on Tubi →

Our favourite New Year's Eve female-led friendship drama Friends, Foes & Fireworks is now streaming through TUBI TV in the US and Australia.

That’s huge news which we will happily drink too! Check it out on TubiTV here.

Latest YouTube Interview for In Corpore

Just before the end of 2020, Clara Francesca was again taking part in press interviews to discuss her role as an actor and producer on In Corpore, our sex-positive film that looks at the grey areas of relationships.

This time around Clara spoke with The Fan Carpet's Marc Jason Ali EXCLUSIVELY and the video is now up on YouTube. You can watch it here, or find it on our MEDIA section. with all the other In Corpore media bites.

Lockdown Inspires Filmmaking

It’s a crazy time, I don’t have to tell you that, we are all living through this COVID-19 pandemic hell and some of us are having a hard time more than others due to factors in our lives which existed before this hit. Some of us now are feeling the hardship suddenly wash over us as we loose our jobs, our income, our physical connection to others and our sanity.

To keep us going in lockdown and self quarantine we have been writing screenplays, developing ideas and shooting films. These films are short films which fit under our Life Improvised micro film banner and shot mostly in one location, with Sarah Jayne as the lead and Ivan Malekin as DOP.

The first one is called Hiding and is about a woman becoming more and more paranoid about the rise of COVID-19. She puts herself in self-quarantine as she battles her fear.

The second micro-short is called Hoping, and is a reflective look at our ‘new normal’ with hope for the days ahead.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these micro-shorts as soon as they are ready for release.

Talking Film with Geeks

The latest interview is up and this time we chatted to Ben and Keith from The Two Gay Geeks on their webcast about Friends, Foes & Fireworks and how we shot this film in one night, totally improvised. This is one of our more fun and laid back interviews and we thank Ben and Keith for chatting with us and ChicPR for making this happen.

Listen here now and find the link on our PRESS section.

GONE WEST

One of our favourite short films, El Western, is finally available to watch completely for FREE thanks to the all Australian streaming platform Ozflix.

Screening at multiple festivals around the world and winning Best Western Short at the Genre Celebration Film Festival as well as Bronze at Worldfest Houston, El Western is a silly send-up of spaghetti westerns from yesteryear featuring mismatched love, outrageous characters, guns, quips, whips, and, naturally, a high noon showdown.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH. …And while you are browsing the growing OzFlix library, take a look what is still selling on the main page - our improvised, single night feature Friends, Foes & Fireworks.

Sign up to www.Ozflix.tv today and enjoy a great range of Australian film.

Life Improvised Round 3

One last shoot before we left Australia was a given!

We booked a night at one of Melbourne’s premiere five star hotels just for the Melbourne skyline views and got some of our favorite crew members together to shoot improvised micro-short XChange, as part of our Life Improvised series.

The third in this ongoing series of YouTube exclusive shoots stars resident sex-columnist at Maxim Magazine and award winning actor Vanessa de Largie as Yvette, an over worked marketing manager in need of a release, who orders a male escort, played by up and coming TV actor Frank Fazio.

Everything on the night ran smoothly and we have the latest micro-short in the can. Stay tuned for it on our YouTube Channel and also on our Vimeo on Demand platform.

New Year, New Project

New Year, new film in development.

That’s right, while on a break to visit family in Australia we spent most of our lead up to Christmas plotting and planning a double shoot day for our new improvised, experimental relationship drama titled To Hold the Moon.

To Hold the Moon is an indirect sequel to Friends, Foes & Fireworks with Whitney Harris and Asleen Mauthoor reprising their roles as Lucinda and Summer, as we follow the relationship two years on.

What we needed to capture while in Australia was several images for a proposed poster and some footage for a teaser video as we prep for pitching the project to potential investors in Malta and apply for funding.

The double shoot kicked off at Lightdrop Studios Kensington, where our photographer Kristian Pirotta and hair and makeup artist Mirjana Laferlita helped us to create the concept art director Sarah Jayne proposed around the theme “the relationship between the Sun and the Moon”. Our team, including our acting duo perfectly pulled off all the concept variations and we all walked out of the shoot content .

We finished off the day shooting way past sunset with commercial DOP Daomay Keo and our talent on Half Moon Bay Beach. The theme for this shoot was more of a dream like sequence made up of quick shots, as if dreamt up by the character of Summer showing her ideal oasis with her lover, Lucinda. A short but sweet and dreamlike sequence to introduce our characters and tease about the storyline.

For now we work on completing both of these two creative materials for the film, plus the written documents and then we must move on to applying for funding through the Malta Film Commission, which opens in February.

In the meantime, give our To Hold the Moon Facebook page a like to support the film and also you you can join us on this exciting journey of bringing the film to life.

Director guest blogs on Filmmaker Freedom

This month writer/director/editor Ivan Malekin was featured as the Filmmaker Freedom guest blogger and his article about our improvised filmmaking technique, links back to our Udemy course and how we shot Friends, Foes & Fireworks in a single night, without a script.

Read the informative blog via the link here, which also includes a free chapter and a direct link to the course. Big thanks to Rob Hardy for letting NPG utilise the Filmmaker Freedom blog. Be sure to sign up the the Filmmaker Freedom newsletters, as we believe they are one of the best our there for indie filmmakers to learn the craft and get informed.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS MICRO SHORT

Late October saw NPG dive into a second Life Improvised shoot, this one titled First Impressions. The story for this improvised micro short shows an out of touch man who is doing through a divorce attend a first date with a younger arts student. Both he and his date make a lasting first impression on each-other, but not in a positive way.

Like all of NPG’s micro shorts under the Life Improvised banner, the film explores relationships, everyday interactions between humans, awkward moments and times of disappointment.

Just like it’s predecessor Our Lady, First Impressions was set in Malta. The Lower Barrakka Gardens (Il-Barrakka t'Isfel) in Valletta, with its eye catching views of the Grand Harbour sets the backdrop for this story and stars local talent.

Expect to see this film up on NPG’s YouTube Channel in January.

Director SJ's Television Appearance this Sunday

This week on Maltese DownUnder Marlene and Mark catch up again with filmmaker Sarah Jayne, who featured in season 2. This time round Mark and Sarah will be chatting about NPG’s latest films, Friends, Foes & Fireworks and In Corpore.

The interview just happened to come about when SJ and Ivan were visiting Melbourne in March due to the Friends, Foes & Fireworks cinema run at the Classic Cinema. Both Mark and Marlene from the show and SJ and Ivan happened to be in Caroline Springs, messaging each other on FB, so they decided to meet up a couple of hours after and do a follow up interview on the spot!

WATCH what transpired that day, this Sunday 23rd of September on C31 Melbourne and Geelong (channel 44) @ 4pm with a repeat on Tuesday @2.30pm AND Friday @12.30pm! Viewers outside of Melbourne can watch the episode on Monday demand via the Maltese DownUnder YouTube Channel.

NPG thanks Marlene, Mark and the Maltese community in Melbourne and Malta for the support.

Image is the property of Mark Avellino