Hugh Marchant

20K UNDER

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 20:23:15 +1100

20K UNDER is the working title for my contemporary adaptation
of Jules Verne’s “Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers”.

I started writing the script in 2004 and the ideas still live.
The issues of radical conservation and human rights raised in
Verne’s book are still relevant.

I started drawing layouts for the graphic novel in 2011,
and I’ve edited the material 4 times since then…

Now, I need to finish it.

Every Monday I’ll publish the random page I’ve done
the previous week, at whatever stage the work is at…

And you can tell me what you think.

Don’t forget to follow and like the page,
and please comment on the work,
it would help a lot.

LOST DUTCH FILM “CHA CHA” ALMOST...

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 11:06:28 +1100

LOST DUTCH FILM “CHA CHA” ALMOST FOUND

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw2HbSR50h4

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/cha_cha_nina_hagen_and_lene_lovich_in_herman_broods_lost_punk_film_1979

LIQUID SKYI don’t recall much about this film except UFO’s,...

Mon, 30 Jan 2017 16:24:59 +1100

LIQUID SKY

I don’t recall much about this film except UFO’s, heroin and post-punk fashion punks in NYC. The synth pop soundtrack is to be remembered with fondness and that’s about all.

Found newspaper advertisement, dated 1st September 1984.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb0SrH4u2rY

Meet Lawrence Schiller, photographer, journalist, Emmy...

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 22:24:16 +1100

Meet Lawrence Schiller, photographer, journalist, Emmy award-winning film producer and director. According to Norman Mailer (in The Executioner’s Song, 1979), Larry’s father “bought him a Rolleicord when he was a kid, and a police band radio, and Schiller would hear accidents come in on the radio, get on his bike and ride to the place. If it was far away, and he only arrived after the vehicles had been removed, he could still photograph the skid marks. Then he would sell the prints to the insurance companies.”

“He was conceivably the best one-eyed photographer in the world - “ “Schiller sold a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe to Hugh Hefner. It obtained the highest price ever paid for a single picture up to then, $25,000.” “He was one of LIFE’s youngest photographers…”

“He left LIFE and went into producing books and movies… on stories that weren’t small. Wanted to do people in depth. Instead, did Jack Ruby on his deathbed, and Susan Atkins in the Manson Trial. He got a terrible reputation… worked hard to change that image. He published a book called ‘Minimata’, about mercury poisoning in Japan, and created the still montages in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ and ‘Lady Sings the Blues’, produced and directed ‘The American Dreamer’ with Dennis Hopper, did the interviews for a book on Lenny Bruce by Albert Goldman. He won an Academy Award… for ‘The Man Who Skied Down Everest’.

It did not matter. He was the journalist who dealt in death.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Schiller

THE AMERICAN DREAMERArt poster for Lawrence Schiller and Kit...

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 18:33:47 +1100

THE AMERICAN DREAMER

Art poster for Lawrence Schiller and Kit Carson’s 1971 study of the film-maker, “The American Dreamer”.

The line at the bottom of the poster reads: Dennis Hopper is THE AMERICAN DREAMER and the camera is the weapon.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2016/jan/22/the-american-dreamer-trailer-dennis-hopper-documentary-video

OLD SCHOOL CELL ANIMATION BACKGROUNDSGouache, marbling, dry...

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 18:03:21 +1100

OLD SCHOOL CELL ANIMATION BACKGROUNDS

Gouache, marbling, dry brush, tissue paper, sand and glue.

BASQUEFrom Barcelona and Pamplona.

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 17:47:03 +1100

BASQUE

From Barcelona and Pamplona.

FOUND PHOTO ALBUMPhotographer unknown

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:53:58 +1100

FOUND PHOTO ALBUM

Photographer unknown

FOUND PHOTO ALBUMPhotographer unknown

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:51:31 +1100

FOUND PHOTO ALBUM

Photographer unknown

FOUND PHOTO ALBUMPhotographer unknown

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:49:49 +1100

FOUND PHOTO ALBUM

Photographer unknown

FOUND PHOTO ALBUMPhotographer unknown

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:48:42 +1100

FOUND PHOTO ALBUM

Photographer unknown

FOUND PHOTO ALBUMPhotographer unknown

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:42:06 +1100

FOUND PHOTO ALBUM

Photographer unknown

KIEV, UKRAINE - February 2014We arrived in Kiev on a Sunday,...

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 17:50:08 +1000

KIEV, UKRAINE - February 2014

We arrived in Kiev on a Sunday, before going to Chernobyl.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/14146112@N08/albums/72157668970080552

"Paul Cain’s FAST ONE, one of the most brutal and compelling of the unromantic gangster..."

Tue, 17 May 2016 10:12:33 +1000

“Paul Cain’s FAST ONE, one of the most brutal and compelling of the unromantic gangster novels… The dizzying complexity of the betrayals and the randomness of the unanticipated deaths… make the effects achieved hypnotic and surreal. Violence is presented in a manner that is so laconic it is like some bizarre accident glimpsed from the corner of the eye whilst speeding past.”

- https://books.google.com.au/books?id=z7sWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=fast%20one%20james%20cain&source=bl&ots=DsDwamC27L&sig=CeelFRSgm2W4KeezQsJtlq2gI7U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUmpz-2MvMAhWMJZQKHUFGBOUQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=fast%20one%20james%20cain&f=false

These are a few of the sketches that were inspired by the...

Mon, 09 May 2016 10:39:45 +1000

These are a few of the sketches that were inspired by the release of crime noir classic “Fast One” (Black Mask, 1932) by Paul Cain. I read the novel in Madrid in 1991 and found the graphic novel illustrated by Geoff Grandfield (No Exit Press, 1991) in London a few months later.

These drawings were created using candle wax and india ink, materials I’d never mixed before. I drew an invisible sketch with white wax on white paper, then applied the ink to render the image in harsh tones. It was a swift and exciting experiment that lived up to the title.

See review (above) of the novel in “The Noir Thriller” By L. Horsley.

ENDLESS ENDLESS STUFFSometimes I have to source vintage things...

Fri, 06 May 2016 10:58:42 +1000

ENDLESS ENDLESS STUFF

Sometimes I have to source vintage things that are hard to find in a short time.

In these cases I can try prop stores and the internet. Prop store material usually looks like it’s been hired from a prop store, the internet is better if you have time and money. In this case I had to find a bright red kettle bbq at short notice. I found one online and the owner was happy for me to pick it up. I usually take the entire art department float, a receipt book and an old axe handle.

I’ve met several complete strangers at railway stations and public car parks. We exchange pleasantries, money changes hands, receipts are signed and the item is transferred between vehicles. In this case the red bbq was waiting for me outside the warehouse, but I spent the better part of an hour looking inside. This man’s storeroom was extensive, the contents mostly collected from deceased estates and off the hard junk. It’s a treasure trove of scrap metal, clothes, glassware, typewriters, furniture, ladders, picture frames, old suitcases and endless boxes full of mysterious stuff. All this and yet not at all.

He was excited, but going by the expression on his wife’s face the burden of his obsession had scarred their marriage. He was full of smiles and promises that he intends to move to a larger warehouse where everything could be seen properly, but this idea did not seem to ease her demeanour. I’m sure that’s what he dreams of still, but I’m also sure she dreams of other things.

It’s a resource I’ll refer to when I’m in need, if I can ever find it again - but these things are not for hire, it’s all for sale only.

NOLITA; GRAFF, STENCILS, COLLAGE & DECALS, NYC - 2014

Mon, 08 Feb 2016 13:42:38 +1100

NOLITA; GRAFF, STENCILS, COLLAGE & DECALS, NYC - 2014

ASAKUSAhttps://vimeo.com/150980283I shot this film during the...

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 17:00:43 +1100

ASAKUSA

https://vimeo.com/150980283

I shot this film during the festivities of the Sanja Festival in Asakusa Tokyo, on Friday 15th, Saturday 16th of May 2015, and before dawn on Sunday, when it rained. I finished editing and mixing sound in December 2015.

Thanks to Lailani Burra and Stuart Soler for their help.

REALITY AND THE RESTI was asked to construct a set representing...

Fri, 11 Dec 2015 13:01:54 +1100

REALITY AND THE REST

I was asked to construct a set representing a clockmaker’s workshop. It had to be designed, built and delivered, along with a few other things, in a week. They also had to cast an actor to play the clockmaker. I am sometimes baffled by these requests, and I have a theory that if we look to reality then we will achieve a much more economic and satisfying result. It sometimes takes a little time to persuade others to my point of view, but if we ask for these things I’m sure we’ll find them.

The artifice of building a set and casting an actor is very rarely convincing, usually due to a lack of resources but always because the eye of the audience recognises the nature of what we present. By suggesting to the client and director that we could well discover a place where a real person has lived and worked, and then by recruiting that person to the task create a true event, this presents a logic that is difficult to argue against.

In this case, the solution had to be within a short distance of several other locations, so I began talking to clockmakers within the area, and because I’m lucky there were only three people who would talk to me. One was on holiday, the other had a large uninteresting workshop, and the third was perfect.

From the outside of his home you would never have guessed what was hidden within. His wife and family had all moved on and left him in a house that was bare of almost every comfort. He obviously lived on whisky and sandwiches and had several refurbished vintage wristwatches on the dining table - I asked, but none were for sale. I explained why I was there and he was open to the suggestion that I might use his workshop as background for a TV commercial.

He invited me into his rear garden, which had a covered balcony and a swimming pool that needed maintenance. He pointed toward what appeared to be a small garden shed built on the fence line, beneath a couple of date palms that were overgrown with ivy. Inside were two small rooms, one with a low narrow door that opened to the west, where the sun was low in the sky.

No amount of time or money was going to create something as beautiful as the space he revealed. It was as it appears in these photographs - I didn’t touch a thing. Every inch was crammed with tools and timepieces, but it was perfectly ordered and clean. It was like stepping into another world, and after speaking at length with the clockmaker I realised it was a reflection of his subconscious. I thanked him for allowing me to enter, and he was happy for me to return and willing to take part, for a fee to be agreed upon.

We were logistically obliged to go with the large uninteresting room.

MEANWHILE ELSEWHEREMy student film -...

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:04:32 +1000

MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE

My student film - 1981

https://vimeo.com/136784945