Finally, some unofficial but very important Standing There business. Hearty congratulations to Standing There Captain of Industry and founding member Melanie Howlett who married the entirely excellent Prashant Khera this weekend. Standing There has always lamented the fact that Mel no longer production manages our theatre shows, and this weekend was evidence of why. Drums, Indian dancing, fire throwing, an actual horse, a choreographed dance medley, henna, a fire ceremony involving coconuts, and the most amazing food. A more fun, creative, entertaining and smooth-running production is difficult to imagine. Cirque de Soleil, consider yourselves on notice.

Last week, the official Inside Film Award nominations were announced and we were delighted to hear that Melbourne band and friends of Standing There Productions, The Little Stevies were one of three bands nominated for the The Chaotic Pictures IF Award for Best Music Video for their clip "Sunshower". Discerning Standing There news readers may recognise Robin Geradts-Gill. Not only does he make up one fourth of the band, he also directed the clip, and starred as Samsonfish in our very own production of People Watching. Also from People Watching and now a core member of the Standing There Productions team, Stewart Thorn was cinematographer on the film clip.

Massive congratulations to all involved. If you think you'd like to join them all the the awards ceremony in Sydney tickets are now on sale.

The Other Side, a short film written and directed by Robin Geradts-Gill and shot by Stewart is screening online as part of the Portable Film Festival. Watch it online here and place your vote before the end of August.

Standing There Productions has been keeping a low profile over the last few months, which actually means we've been working hard on a couple of our long-term projects. Lorin goes into writing lock-down this week on them, which probably means there will be more regular updates on our diary page including updates on our recent trip to the Sydney Writers' Festival.

Stewart, Lorin and Rita have just spent some time together in Sydney where Rita is continuing her internship with Jan Chapman, working on the new Jane Campion film, Bright Star. The film has just had an amazing response from critics and audiences at its world premiere in competition at Festival de Cannes in France.

Other Standing There friends are off being talented all over the place. Tim Stitz, when he isn't being charming in the social pages of The Age with Carly Schrever, performs from June 10th in Prophet and Loss, at Wyselaskie Hall at the Centre for Theology & Ministry. See more here.

In geographic news, our wonderful website designer Paul Daniel has gone to Norway, apparently indefinitely. We would like to thank Paul for all the work he's done creating and constantly maintaining this site. We're grateful he's only an email away, although he has done such a good job setting everything up that we hope not to disturb him too often. We get comments about our website a lot, and Standing There wouldn't be quite the same without it. Thanks Paul.

Standing There Productions has had an action-packed January, although this time it’s more behind-the-scenes than it normally is around January/February, when we’re usually auditioning hundreds of people in overheated church halls across Melbourne. This year, though, we’re not doing a comedy festival show, so we’re spending less time in overheated church halls and more time in overheated offices.
 
Instead of the auditions and the publicity and the rehearsals and the desperate search for vital props like jellybeans or police uniforms, we’re working on a couple of other projects that we hope Lorin will be writing in the second-half of this year.
 
Lorin and Stewart recently spent a week in Sydney with Rita. We saw some amazing shows (check out Lorin's diary) and had some exciting meetings, several of which concluded at Bronte Beach or the festival garden in Hyde Park.

In others news...

Most of you will remember the very talented Chris Buchanan, from our comedy festival show last year. Chris can also sing. Of course he can. He is appearing this week and next week in the highlariously named “Zanna, Don’t!”  in Chapel off Chapel.

Nicholas Jaffe, who has been very busy sailing around the world, has made a short pit-stop back in Australia. He leaves this week and we wish him all the best. Many thanks to Nick for his help on the website during his brief stay in Australia.

Rita Walsh continues to work with Producer Jan Chapman on the Australian-UK co-production Bright Star (directed by Jane Campion). The film is very nearly completed - very exciting.
 

Stewart Thorn recently shot this gorgeous film clip for The Little Stevies with Standing There collaborator Robin Geradts-Gill, also a Little Stevie.

Robin's short film The Other Side (also shot by Stewart) recently screened at the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in Melbourne.

Nicholas Jaffe who has been very busy sailing around the world has made a short pit stop back in Australia, and we are excited to have him here to catch up with. He's already been helping Stewart manage things behind the scenes on the website.

Rita continues to work in Sydney with producer Jan Chapman on her new film Bright Star. Last week she and Jan received a grant from Screen Australia for Rita to continue her internship next year.

Lorin, Stew and Rita catch up in Melbourne for "meetings" and consume Corner Store quality scrambled eggs whenever possible.

Our 2005 short film, I Could Be Anybody, can now be viewed here on our website. It runs for just under 15 minutes. Watch it!
You can see read about the film here. Thanks Nicholas Jaffe and to Stewart for making this happen.