Hi Guys and Gals,

Where are we now as Last Star throws anchor? Tentatively I gaze over the ship’s side at the deep unsettling water and feel the fear rise within me for I know what lies beneath the waves. The great Beast! Black as night and cold as death, its many tentacles searching, always searching. It’s been following us for some time now waiting, and the longer it waits the bigger it gets. I’ve felt it breathing under my skin, sliding between the sheets and curling around my dreams, with incestuous longing it wants to eat my brain.

It’s hunger must be satiated, it can wait no longer. Gingerly I remove my shoes and fumble at the buttons on my shirt, the fabric falls away revealing rubbery muscles that have spent far too much time behind a desk, the pasty white skin criss crossed with mis-matched tan lines.. Oh.. My apologies ladies, please allow me to Mills and Boon that last part for you – Kicking away leather studded boots he loosens the laces on his shirt before casting it to the knotted wooden planks of the ship’s deck, another wave hits the side of the boat sending up a fine mist of sea spray that kisses his naked bronze skin with glistening silver beads. Summoning all his strength he grips the rail with grim determination as the silvery beads gather together forming rivulets which trickle down over hard worn muscles that ripple with anticipation. For every doxy in every port, for every lady in waiting, for every child that ever was and is still yet to be, for every brave man on the battlefield the terror beneath the waves must be confronted… So, let’s dive on in shall we.

Where are we now?

Three gig left on the computer, Hard Drives choc full of video footage, it was time for a bit of house keeping!

An absolute necessity I’ve been dreading, not that everything is a complete mess, its just that there was a lot of sorting to do. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to be meticulous when life is frantic, so after purchasing another external hard drive I got to work and have cleaned a few things up. Exciting stuff I know! The next stage is creating some more (hopefully reasonable) edits of the scenes we have filmed. There is one scene in particular that I’ve been grappling with over the last couple of weeks. I found it difficult to film and worse still to edit for a variety of reasons, this isn’t a reflection on the wonderful actors, in fact after watching the footage it has made me appreciate their patience and hard work all the more. In truth the fault for the most part lies with me and the following…

Without causing any panic or alarm I’ve noticed some troubling phenomenon while filming outside. For example, the Sun moves across the sky causing shadows to shift, clouds can vail the Sun at inopportune moments, the wind too is also changeable, not the mention the inventions of man flying in the sky above and roaring across the land below. Thankfully there are also tools available within editing suites that, with a little brainstorming allow us to tackle some of these issues. I’ve attached one such example of what was supposed to be sunny day – same frame, before and after. Still a little tweaking to do but its closer now.

This world has grown large and there is much to do. The story of Jarod and Oona is still to be told and the main course still needs more ingredients before it can be cooked and served to you good folks so I had best not dally any longer and get myself back into the kitchen.

ps. If anyone knows the coordinates of the nearest Borg vessel please let me know. Sometimes individuality is overrated and I desire perfection.

Kindest Regards

John Ratcliffe

Hi Ladies and Gentlefolk

Just a little muse on the magic of cinema.

Growing up in the heart of Otara it was only a short hike to the Starlight picture theater in Hunters Corner for a chance to be whisked away and thrown into a world of fanciful wonderment – from the italian films of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer to the space faring adventures created by George Lucas there was always something to see.

When finances allowed there were also excursions into Central Auckland to perhaps some of the more well known cinemas of yesteryear, The Odeon, Regent, St James and of course the birth of the multiplex Mid City not to mention the Civic which thankfully was lovingly restored to its original beauty and is still in use.

To quote Bladerunner “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… ” or perhaps you would as I suspect many of you are in love or still in love with the silver screen.

There are some films from my distant past that remain only as fragmented images to the point where I wonder if they ever existed at all, they lay hidden within the subconscious with only fine tendrils weaving through conscious thought. “..All these moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain.” Some films of course deserve to be forgotten, though as I said to someone recently – trying to make a film makes you appreciate even the bad movies – well unless you’ve got a full production company behind you with gazillions of dollars then there’s really no excuse.. or perhaps there is as it takes more than money to create movie magic which can be proven by successful films made on shoestring budgets.

Aside from the nearly forgotten there are of course films that stay with us long after the credits have rolled, they tap into something deeper and resonate on an emotional level that reminds us that film is not only just a homogenised serving of entertaining fluff but is also a legitimate form of Art.

“I would like, if I may to take you on a strange journey.” We all have different tastes in film just as we’re all different from one another – though at the same time we are also paradoxically similar, or how else could we relate to each other. Keeping this in mind I’ll share a little of some of the more influential films I’ve experienced. I’ll get the obvious over first.. Star Wars (1977) before it was eaten by the creation of its own commercialism and “enhanced” with CGI. I cannot overstate the impact of seeing this film for the first time on the big screen.. It was just amazing. On a side note and hot on its heels was an Italian director Luigi Cozzi ready to cash in on the sudden resurgence of science fiction with the release of Starcrash in 1978, it stars a very young David Hasselhoff so you know we’re talking quality cinema.. to be seen to be believed, however it does have an ernest charm – watch at your own peril (yes it’s that bad). Now if there were a film I’d recommend it would be Amadeus (1984) directed by Milos Forman, I saw this when I was around 12 years old, there were no space battles or sword fights but I was captivated by some of the most exquisite descriptions of music I’d ever heard but more than this was the unfulfillable longings of the Human heart laid bare -Antonio Salieri speaking to a priest “I will speak for you Father, I speak for all mediocrities in the world I am their champion I am their patron saint ” composer Antonio Salieri is wheelchaired through an insane asylum and continues.. “Mediocrities everywhere… I absolve you… I absolve you… I absolve you all. Such a gloriously beautiful film. There is also Legend (1985) by Ridley Scott filled with gorgeous imagery, it stars Tom Crusie before he was Tom Crusie – the making of is as fascinating as the film itself with different edits and soundtracks for European and American releases, it’s a good study in the “wisdom” of corporations when it come to Art and the effects a test audience can have on a director. The City of Lost Children (1995) by Marc Caro and Jean-Paerre Jeunet, these directors have made many fascinating films, what more can I say.. it’s French! and the thing about French films is…, well they tend to be very French. I would advise subtitles as opposed to an audio dub so as not to lose the beauty of their language. There are in fact far too many films worthy to be mentioned and commented on from the bizarre films of Terry Gilliam to the imaginative animation of Hayao Miyazaki, so I’ll leave it at that.

You may have noticed many of the films mentioned above are older movies.. well perhaps part of the impact is seeing these films at an impressionable age. By all rights the meat cleaver of life should have severed my heart stings years ago but I can walk into a cinema today and still be filled with wonder and over priced popcorn. There are many forms of media that compete for our attention but I think like stories around a campfire and the written word in books, films will continue to endure for many years to come.

Kind Regards

John Ratcliffe

Are you awake?.. The night is quiet and the moon is casting a strange light through my window. Some company perhaps.. I’ll pour the tea.

A collection of thoughts.

I once knew a woman who was very caring but when she was tired she would sometimes say “I’m beyond caring.” I now wonder where this magical land beyond caring is so that I may visit and lay my burden down. I couldn’t stay in the little room where she lay in a coma as the final moments drew near, half a lifetime ago I lacked the emotional fortitude to endure it. She celebrated in all things beautiful that we gift to each other through art, paintings, music and poetry but she had long since fallen to the bottom of the heap with her self esteem shattered. It is a strange and awful contradiction to think so little of yourself and yet be so prideful but I do understand the legacy very well.

Forgive me, my fingers feel like lead and I’ve yet to fill your cup.

It’s just an illustration, a painting of words, sometimes the circle is not always complete, life does not necessarily tidily package itself up when it is finished, things are left undone, unfulfilled and sometimes the whole thing is cut terribly short. It helps remind us why it’s so important to encourage each other where we can and to unfurl our wings and at least attempt to fly even if our wings are broken.

Life is an altogether most curious phenomenon, more so the ability of self awareness, a function by which the universe would seemly seek to know itself. On the cosmic scale of things the fact that both you and I share this small fraction of time and space together is truly wondrous, though I will confess I cannot say with any amount of certainty as to why we exist at all. We are both the same and yet so desperately separate, each of us harboring our own unique collection of grief, love, joy, pain, laughter and sorrow, heaped in unequal servings. Consider too our ability to see, touch, feel, and experience this profoundly beautiful planet in it’s vast arrangement of color and texture, then look up and see the stars..

The Hubble telescope reveals about 100 billion galaxies in the universe, this number is likely to increase to around 200 billion as telescope technology improves. It’s calculated by counting the number of galaxies imaged from a tiny portion of sky then using the ratio its applied to the rest of the universe to determine a total number of galaxies. This process does take into account some assumptions which you can investigate, but for our purpose I think we can safely say that the universe is immensely huge.

As far back as I can remember the cosmos has been a constant source of fascination and possibility. In all this vastness it seems the hight of human conceit to assume that we alone are the custodians of conscious thought or that we, on this tiny fragile speck adrift in the great cosmic ocean are the only planet on which life exists. There is of course no hard evidence to suggest that life exists elsewhere, at this stage the distances between the stars is too great for us to investigate fully, we are for the time been very much alone. But let us postulate for a moment the possibility that we do not hold some privileged position, that life is commonplace and that the universe is in fact teaming with a multitude of civilizations. Is this really such a preposterous idea, I would argue that it is the far more likely scenario.

I am curious, what would these creatures look like? I expect the reality is something more fantastic and varied than anything we could ever imagine. Some of these beings would no doubt operate on an entirely different level to us, a plane of understanding beyond our ability to comprehend to which our self awareness would be like the musings of an insect in comparison. At this very moment on a billion worlds could life be asking these same fundamental questions. What am I? Why do I exist? Am I alone?

Perhaps there is no answer at all.

Are you awake?..

So with all this power of observation and self awareness I wonder how we spend our days. Often times it seems our lives are immersed in a distraction of triviality as we run around in frantic circles going nowhere, a soul destroying exercise of routine and conformity interspersed with moments of clarity and revelation. Of course its all well and good to entertain such lofty observations but they will not necessarily pay the bills and self discipline, repetition and structure to our days are the means by which we often achieve excellence. I suppose as always it comes down to finding a balance.

The scientific and technological achievements of humanity over the last 100 years in particular is nothing short of astonishing and it continues to accelerate. The one area I feel we’ve let slip is the advancement of space travel, although the participation of some commercial ventures is encouraging, which reminds me.. Sarah Brightman will be part of a three person crew aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft for an estimated 10 day jaunt aboard the ISS in 2015. She will be the first professional musician to sing from space, I find this a rather delightful notion – her angelic voice descending from the heavens. I had no idea she was such a space junkie, although in 1978 on the Kenny Everett show she did sing a sci fi themed song, I was tempted to add a link to the video but out of concern for your safety I refrained. Apparently a single viewing can cause permeant brain damage. However I’ve watched it several times in an effort to quantify the experience and seem to be unaffected.. I’m not quite sure what that means. Anyway be warned, do not underestimate the 1970’s and the formidable power of spandex.

I hesitate.. the clock ticks, I couldn’t hear it before there was too much noise but here in the hollow of the night it reminds me that our time together is short and your tea is getting cold, however I cannot let you leave without telling you how much I appreciate the time you have taken to contribute to Last Star from those that bothered to audition for a role to the extras and of course the wonderful actors and people behind the scenes, even those that follow our progress on this page your interest is appreciated, I think its a great act of courage to walk into these little productions, I mean goodness knows what you’d find and let’s face it the rewards are few.

Last Star cannot function without you.

Kindest Regards

John Ratcliffe