Blind filmmaker wins eight international awards
Kristie Lim
Eastern Reporter
October 10, 2019 2:45PM
LEGALLY blind filmmaker Peter Renzullo has won eight international awards in three months for his first film, Anticipation.
The Bassendean resident, who has three per cent left of his central vision, released the Perth-based feature film in July.
The film explores the life of Lenny, a musician who struggles to make it in the industry while battling social anxiety.
Mr Renzullo used a Blackmagic Design 4K camera, along with Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve to edit the film.
The film won best screenplay and best supporting actress at the American Golden Picture International Film Awards, best main theme song at the Oniros Film Awards in Italy, best independent feature film, best screenplay, best lead actor and best team performance at the Five Continents International Film Festival in Venezuela and best director at the Anaheim Film Festival in Orange County.
Mr Renzullo, who owns a music production company called Scudley Records, said winning the awards was beyond anything he could have hoped for.
“I dreamed of the day I could just enter an international film festival, let alone win eight awards from four different ones,” he said.
“I’d just like to give a big thank you to Blackmagic Designs and DaVinci Resolve, as the technology and software they have provided made this all possible.
He said he was in the process of organising the production for his next feature film.
“The trusty Blackmagic Production camera I have; the camera that served me so well for Anticipation, will hopefully be taking a back seat to the newer URSA Mini Pro, which is very exciting,” he said.
Emilie Lowe’s ‘The Canary’ set to take off in WA
by Sean Slatter
April 1, 2021
Source: if.com.au
https://www.if.com.au/emilie-lowes-the-canary-set-to-take-off-in-wa/
For most uni students, juggling work and study is part of life.
But the casual jobs used to subsidise tertiary education don’t often come in the form of writing, co-directing, producing, and starring in a feature film.
Such is the case for 21-year old Emilie Lowe, who is preparing to shoot The Canary while completing the final year of a scriptwriting degree at Edith Cowan University.
Set against the backdrop of 18th century Australia, the story follows Claire (to be played by Lowe), a young woman who is forced to navigate the open ocean after the transport vessel she is aboard sinks.
With little but a lifeboat and caged canary beside her, her survival depends on defying the social standards of the time and utilising her inner-strength and determination.
Lowe, who has set up a crowdfunding campaign for the film, said while she had initially planned to shoot the project following the completion of her degree, the uncertainty of the last 12 months had prompted her to take what she had learned and put it into action.
“I thought for ages that I wouldn’t be able handle both [uni and the film], but when the pandemic happened, I thought ‘You know what, I’m just going to do this’ because you don’t know what is around the corner,” she said.
“I’m working with some amazing people and we all just wanted to make a big WA film, so we just went for it.”
Like her character, overcoming the odds has been a defining trait in the work of Lowe, a dyslexic writer, and her co-director Peter Renzullo, a legally blind filmmaker, who have previously collaborated on short films, music videos, narrative pieces, and imagery shoots since meeting on the set of Renzullo’s debut feature, Anticipation.
The pair are in the final stages of pre-production for their upcoming project which is a co-production between her Salt and Honey Productions company, Renzullo’s Scudley Films, and Silvergum Publishing.