Sensational-Adelaide.com

If there is one thing I've learnt ... it's that quality and cost do not climb hand in hand, and a tight budget doesn't have to mean a tight belt. My cronies and I explored the streets of Adelaide to bring you the ultimate cheap eats guide.
From the familiarity of the city centre to the outer suburbs where affordable dining is flourishing, here are the cheapest meals in town.

Presenting: the ultimate student/slacker/financially-challenged guide to good, cheap food.

As the reach of the internet grows, the work of new filmmakers is winning greater recognition.

A category for best web series has been added to this year's South Australian Screen Awards, recognising the net's ability to attract a worldwide audience for a budget film.

In underground rooms of a vacant Port Adelaide hotel, a cult web series called Wastelander Panda is being shot.
The story of a mutant panda in a post-apocalyptic world first went online two years ago and had more than 100,000 views in 150 countries within three days.

Series producer Kirsty Stark says it is easier than ever to attract global interest.
"Most of our fan base is online and I think without the internet this project never would have got off the ground because we were able to harness a huge group of fans from all around the world."

Panda series gains federal funding
The project now has been picked up and given federal funding for a six-part online series, so all the cast and crew now can be paid.

Wastelander Panda's success reflects how the internet is proving to be an important training ground for the next generation of film producers, says Gail Kovatseff of the South Australian Screen Awards.

"It's a really critical place for emerging filmmakers to build an audience base and I think some of South Australian practitioners have done that really well. Wastelander Panda is probably the most successful of that," she said.
It was a winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The producer of 52 Tuesdays, Sophie Hyde, says SA's film industry is thriving.
"There's so many creative people here, so many people doing really great things and I think we've been really overlooked in the national industry until recently, just recently loads of films have been getting great recognition."

Wayno wrote:Watching the usual crud on tv tonight? Bored? Want to learn something and be entertained? Well do I have an opportunity for you. You can watch Alain De Botton talk on a truly interesting topic that impacts us all - The News.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stori ... 977893.htm. Click 'entire talk'

In this video De Botton examines why we're addicted to news. He questions what we are really seeking, and whether it does us good. He even explains why everyday normal people suddenly become insane when posting comments below online news stories.

One of the most fascinating things is there are only 43 different news stories. Period. He does not cover them all, but asks us to become more aware of archetypes.

I'm off to buy a human skull!

An hour well spent.

Will wrote:Thanks for the link Wayno - it was very interesting! Love to watch stuff like that.

P.S. it's great to have you back on the forum!

Wayno wrote:Your welcome.

Wayno wrote:... the lowest common grammatical denominator...

Isosceles

Wayno wrote:I think Mono was targeting myself Phantom. He's the grammar police who comes to you in your sleep (wasn't that a song?)

Anywho, Like many I've become overly reliant on technology (my iPad in this case) auto-correcting my laziness.

And so technology helps the world of words decline, inevitably, irrecoverably, in a slow spiral, towards the lowest common grammatical denominator.

I'm feeling quite philosophical today. Been reading Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Isosceles, etc...

Rising Sun Pictures hopes for more Hollywood success from Adelaide studio
A top-secret project is taking place in a visual effects studio tucked away in the heart of Adelaide with hopes of more Hollywood success.

It is work for the latest movie of the X-Men franchise and any leak of the smallest of spoilers could put the Adelaide team on a Hollywood blacklist.

The Pulteney Street studio is home to visual effects company Rising Sun Pictures and X-Men: Days of Future Past is just the latest in a long list of Hollywood movies it has worked on.
The space thriller Gravity won the Academy Award this year for best visual effects.

Rising Sun Pictures worked on a two-and-a-half-minute scene in Gravity in which a space station re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.
An Oscars acceptance speeches can go just 45 seconds, but in that short time Rising Sun Pictures got a mention.

Minutes of success take months of work
Paul Kirwan was the shot supervisor on Gravity and says the scene took 25 artists a total of 15 months to complete.

"We will do a certain amount of work, send it to the director. He'll talk to us over the phone or through the internet ... and give us his feedback and then we keep working," he said of the creative process.

After working in Los Angeles and London, Mr Kirwan moved to Adelaide to further his career.
It might seem an unlikely location to work for a high-end visual effects business but clearly it is succeeding, with credits for movies such as The Great Gatsby and five of the Harry Potter films.

"People will ask what you do and when you tell them and they go, 'Oh so do you do that in Sydney or so you do that in London and then fly back?' and they're always quite surprised to realise that you do it here in Adelaide," he said.

Despite the team's success in Gravity, Ms Fuller says it can only claim to be as good as its latest work. She hopes one day people will stop asking 'Where?' when she says Adelaide.

"I think we just need to drop the name Gravity and they'll go 'Oh OK, they're capable, they're right up there, they know their stuff," she said.