Darlene Johnson's "Crocodile Dreaming" (2007) , Peter Duncan's "Unfinished Sky" (2007)

I though Crocodile dreaming was a terrific aboriginal short film, considering it was the only one i have seen it was very good, although i did not like the river comming alive with fire. I know this relates to the traditional fire that aboriginals belive in and look too but the effect on the water for me wrecked the mood and realistic quality of the short film. The colour in this play has also been played with in the opening dream sequence, here the reds and yellows have been toned down to make everything appear blue and depressing, for me i liked that effect although it was most likley done in post. The use of the "sun" as a source of light is also well done as it creates a backlight for the characters while they deliver their lines and can also be reflected onto the actors faces as front light. Fire is also used as another natural source of light, creating interesting flashes and fading of light on characters as well as the background and helps warm the scene.

Duncans film Unfinished Sky is an interesting portrayal between the language barrier and the averade australian. For me this movie was a pretty good australian film, although the lighting in this movie did not show anything i had not seen before. Here we get the traditonal use of torches and lamps as a source of light (coupled with some low intensity background light to give depth). We also see car headlamps being used as a source of light as well to highlight the bike accident as well as the search light the cop car has on it to search for Tahmeena. Off topic the yellow rain jacket that Tahmeena wears when she is first introduced is what i thought to be a contrasting colour to the rest of the begining of the movie, it is the first introduction of a propper yellow to the movie. Now that i think about it another great effect is filming through the heat wave, creating a rippling effect on the camera, although this effect has been done before it was a good portrayal of the australian heat and helps set the tempreture of the movie.