EVENT: Short Film "Hot Bread Shop" screening at 2011 Colourfest Film Festival, 4 Jun, 6pm


Here's some excitement. My Vietnamese-first mockumentary is being screen at the 2011 Colourfest Film Festival this Saturday, alongside with Vinh Nguyen's "The Tech Effect" and Marie Setiawan's "Fairytale". I'm definitely dragging my "Film Club Mob" out to this event after we finish our first shoot of movie "Quest For Jackie Chan!".

Colourfest is Australia’s first and only national film festival dedicated to the works of culturally diverse Australian film makers. Screening in three cities, four venues with a total of eight sessions, Colourfest is the upcoming festival worth checking out!
Each venue is screening two sessions, both featuring the best of culturally diverse Australian screen content. We would love for you to join us in celebrating the best of film, culture and expression, representing the realities and dreams of all Australians.

The Sydney session details are below:
3rd of June – Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville (Sydney). Session 1: 6pm to 8pm, session 2: 8pm to 10pm For Tickets: Session 1 and Session 2.
4th of June – Riverside Theatre, Parramatta (Sydney). Session 1:3-5pm, session 2: 6-8pm. (This is my session!)

For information on films click here.

CREW CALL: Looking for a volunteer Hair and Make Up Artist for "Quest for Jackie Chan!" movie


"Secret Palace Test Shoot Production"
Action comedy transmedia movie, Quest for Jackie Chan! is in its final stages of film production. We are looking for hair and make-up artists to be a part of the production team. 

Funding Body Scene -  This is one of the main comedic, slapstick and over-the-topness on film funding bodies going all Hong Kong style when the genre chosen isn’t stereotypically “Australian”. 

You'll be apply make up to 7 people, all who are wearing power suits and need to have a very bland look.

Date of the shoot is 9am-2pm, Thursday, 9th June, 2011. 

Please email your CV, mobile number to maria.tran@questforjackiechan.com

Location: Parramatta Diocese, 10 Victoria Rd, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.

Note: Must have own equipment

FILM FAMILY: My Dad is So Cheap....


My Dad and his handy skills 

With only 7 days till I start filming my first ever feature film, my whole family have been super supportive as always. Mum is doing her bit spread good word-of-mouth to her customers about my film, my sister is sending me random e-marketing tips, and Dad...making me a no-budget film dolly out of the neighbours junk that he's picked up and dragged back to home garage.

I rocked over to Dad's place to enquire about how to make a dolly and he quickly scurried to the garage and pulled out a whole heap of junk, spanners, measuring tapes and an array of wheels to make me the ultimate film dolly for the epic no-budget venture. You can imagine that professional film dollies are expensive as and with the time I had left, I couldn't afford a couple of grand to splurge on some fancy pants equipment. But I really really want to get these particular shots. There were some scenes that in the movie that I wanted to achieve a particular feel through these cinematic movements. But after seeing Vanna Seang (another film colleague of mine, getting all innovative) I thought, why not call on handy man dad to see if he can do the job.

I have great faith in Dad for building me something cutting-edge (even though it will probably look cheap ass junk) I'm sure it won't undersell in performance (and will be burglar proof, they'll probably mistaken it for some transformer junk kit).

Well, if I got "no-budget" to work with, might as well make the most of it. To date, ICE has agreed to support the movie through their camera gear and lighting loan (EX3 and light panels), Dragon Vision Production (Canon 5D, 7D and sound kit), VSS Studios (Dolly tracks and jibs) and lots of talented cast and crew to ensure that project will be something innovative.

So "no-budget"? Yes! But lots of love!

Signing out,

Maria Tran

Actors 40 - 60 required for feature film – Quest for Jackie Chan!


Action comedy transmedia movie, Quest for Jackie Chan! is in its final stages of film production. We are looking for actors 40-60 y.o to be featured in the film.

This is one of the main comedic, slapstick and over-the-topness on film funding bodies going all Hong Kong style when the genre chosen isn’t stereotypically “Australian”.

Date of the shoot is 9am-2pm, Thursday, 9th June, 2011.

Please send a quick showreel/ clip of your abilities, CV and headshot.

Location: Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.

Payment details: no pay

Note: Must have own suit

Applications to this casting call require:

  • A phone number
  • A profile photo

Board of Directors

Any gender, aged 40 to 60 from New South Wales, Australia


Min Acting experience:No previous acting experience
Languages spoken:English
Accents spoken:Australian

FILM CLUB - Session #1



I'm very proud of the organic turnout of FILM CLUB #1 - Brainstorming Session. We had a turnout of 16 people of all levels of film, performing arts and graphics design background attend this intimate yet productive planning session.

Half were new to the little space of "The Shed" (some got lost), but the 2.5 hours came across with some serious introductions and a lot of inspiring visions of the development of Western Sydney and storytelling from culturally diverse.

Most was intrigued to have a "Film Club" a weekly place to connect, share projects on both from a hobbyist and also a competitive perspective. A few reported back with their independent year long project such as Adrian Castro's impressive short film "Django", which later was screened during night. Dragon Vision Production head director, Quan Tran spoke about is collaboration with Poohead Productions, Vinh Nguyen, on a recent documentation of a local Buddhist community event.

Stephanie In, a local emerging illustrator and comics designer expressed her visions wanting to develop herself as an artist via collaboration with other peoples projects. Thug Ng, a 2nd year film student, expressed her frustrations and censorship throughout her training of making "mainstream" content, which she feels does not represent her voice. We were later joined by Youtuber Tuan Le Dang (emerging youtuber and CCD worker), David Vo, Sam Gosper and the crew from Team 9Lives.

MY BACKGROUND
With the inception of an initiative of my very own FILM CLUB, I've started to believe in the film spirit once more post Rumble Pictures. For those who didn't know the story of Fairfield and it's film forte, it started bubbling in 2003 with the head crews of Rumble Pictures, Team 9Lives and Trinity Productions. These teams would battle it out year after year at the local shortcuts film festival held at the Fairfield School of Arts, dishing out action and the comedy genre. Ebbs and flows occurred during my years with Rumble, seeing the success and completion of "Maximum Choppage: Round 2" and "Downtown Rumble" and my long employment at Information & Cultural Exhange (ICE) as the Youth Digital Cultures coordinator. Now, I'm wrapping up with ICE soon, and will be making the transition to SBS commissioned program "Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta", a 1.7 mil epic TV production that is due to air in 2012. In the meantime, the "Quest for Jackie Chan!" is still on, the first shoot with Immi Ho Anh Mai is around the corner (4th June) and I'm so proud to have a team of uniquely skilled and dedicated team of multimedia & filmmakers, whom I believe, will be the future creative leaders. 

CALL OUT: Quest for Jackie Chan! Martial Artists/ Acrobatics/ Parkour Artists

With film production just around the corner for the "Quest for Jackie Chan!", the production is casting for Western Sydney-based Male, Asian 20-30 y.o. Martial Artists/ Acrobatics/ Parkour Artists for a Hong Kong 80s style merged with the experimental fight sequence that is scheduled to shoot on the 16th/ 17th of July, 2011 in Fairfield.

The outcome of this will be part of the movie in the making "Quest for Jackie Chan!", to be launched in Feb, 2012.

Please send a quick showreel/ clip of your abilities, CV and headshot to maria.tran@questforjackiechan.com.

Quest for Jackie Chan! is Australia's first transmedia explosion that follows the trials and tribulations of young filmmaker Maria Tran, who after finishing grassroot Kung Fu movie Maximum Choppage: Round 2 and ABC/ TV micro-series Downtown Rumble, her next project is in one of global collaboration and a response to the explosion of young filmmakers and their DIY guerrilla attitude of You Tube and Facebook generation.

UPDATES: "Quest"


Loads of work whirring at lightning speed and its been quite a funky challenge. I spent the last 10 days renovating my new little Quest for Jackie Chan! office (back of mum's bakery) with loads of painting, cleaning, moving and building things to accommodate the ever growing film project paper work, props, and large wardrobe and collection of wigs.

The next few days I'll be decking it our with white boards, pin ups, signage and of course, doing the final cast call outs for one major acrobatic fight display that I've written into the film.

There's definitely growing interest amongst the film community and once I've locked down who's who, then I can start pairing them up working in different scenes of the movie project.

To add to the transmedia experience, those who are in on the bandwagon are encouraged to develop their own voice through blogging, photologging, vlogging and other social media components. Just simply being an actor or a camera operator is not enough. For those who think I need them and my call out for talent is exploitation, well, I guess they are not visionary enough to see the bigger picture; and so I won't be able to accommodate them.

My priority isn't meeting Jackie Chan (even though he is one of the most awesome person in the world), but to test my own will, push the boundaries and most importantly, seeking likeminded individuals and groups, that I will want to work with in future. So far, in my journeys, its been full of friggin' rocks, but I believe without them, I would of still been in my little snail shell, twiddling my thumbs and just doing whatever.

But at this moment in my life, juggling 3 jobs at once, waking up 8am and finishing at 3am (I feel like I'm going to die sometimes), I feel the drive, I feel the inner venture, I crave to watch, to be inspired by every little thing in life and bit by bit, discover other hidden talents that will join me on my journey of making as EPIC a no-budget production can ever be.

I must admit, I have been very short fused though. Less waffly, but yet less tolerant of waffly people. I've had a string of people who articulate on wanting to be an actor and/or filmmaker who keep saying they don't have the time. Or the classic, "I just want to make it" scenario. That is simply way too vague and does not amount to anything. Hence, I've been spending heaps of alone time and of course, there's work at ICE.

In the last two months, I've been so privileged to have worked with Yassin Alsalman (Aka "The Narcicyst") and multimedia visual arts extraordinare Sundus Abd Hadi. These two are such such great people with a powerful influence in what they think, say and do. There's this element of clarity and universality in the way they see the world and the transmedia ways their activist works have inspired others to see change in their very own life.

No its not a cult, I'm just describing these two. Its hard to explain when you meet people who have an extraordinary energy in them. Yassin's mindset is solid as concrete, and he embraces his own changes, whilst Sundus has a geniune lovely vibe about her; even to the point that I get a bit of worried that I can't reciprocate.

They are both leaving tomorrow. I'm sure going to miss them both. Which takes me to the end of my contract at ICE as an Urban Cultures Program Coordinator, into an Mobile Expressions Workshop Trainer, and then the week after, into my new role on board SBS's 1.7 mil TV series as a full-time associate producer attachment. Everything come in oddly good timing. I was beginning to wish to gain more experience on understanding how big legit budgets and funding works and wanted to set myself right straight after the "Quest" film project. At the end of the day, I can't live off no-budget productions and eventually want to get to a level that I can co-direct and act in my own TV series or feature film.

So when I do start my contract, weekdays will be working at the office on TV series while weekends will be scheduled for the "Quest" shoots. There's still much more to do. Initially I was going to cut up the feature with the footage that I've got, which would have worked out anyways. After an injection of ambition and boundary pushing, the "Quest" will be a wacko of a movie. If I'm haunted every night on it, it means something.

In the meantime, I'm still looking for people to join in to help the "Quest" out. My first shoot is the 4th of June, 2011 and shoots will be scheduled every weekend till August. I'm looking for 10 male martial arts/parkour/ acrobatics for a blast to the past 80s HK fight scene 16th/ 17th July, 2011 (TBC), shooting in Fairfield.

Signing out,

Maria Tran