australian rozie

RPRSNT
Arrived after lunch break (after having stage 1 root canal therapy) on the first day ready to hear Lee Quinones. The announcer said that other people were speaking next. I was like “what the…?” Turns out that Lee “spit the dummy” because of some technical problems in the morning session. Personally, I think that he was the unprofessional one for refusing to speak just because some equipment wasn’t working. Many people paid good money to hear what he had to say and were very disappointed (like me). He thought he was too good to keep to his promise and appear at RPRSNT. Oh well, at least all the other speakers had something interesting to say.

Angela Boatwright: said “Bullshit” a lot! Had a bad attitude, or just a lot of attitude. Basically said NYC kills it and everywhere else is bullshit, digital photography is bullshit, and she does what she like and you can all shove it, or something like that. She had a negative attitude but her photos are good.

ODD Studio – bunch of geeks with awesome imaginations that have lead them to work on special effects make-up and model, costume, character creation for Farscape and big movies like Star Wars & The Matrix. Amazing showreel, would have like to see more work-in-progress shots, showing the various stages in creating a character in full costume and make up.

UMERIC: fantastic work especially his music videos and animations. Quite humble (wanted to speak in the dark on stage) and really creative. He said “Turn the TV off” which I thought was a good idea and “Good Vibes, One Love, Right On” What a KIWI dude!

ASKEW: Kiwi graf guy. Old school but without the attitude and very positive. Talked a lot about where he came from, how he got there, why he does what he does and had a lot of passion for his thing. Luca from Refill interviewed all of the speakers on stage. Sometimes it was annoying because he’d interupt them. It was good when the speakers ran out of things to say because he could fill in the dead air. Askew was very confident and he could ramble on without assistance.

DAY 2
Brand New School : Bloody hot (corporate) shit! It’s weird to see this stuff and find out that they were doing this 4 years ago and really in Australia people are only doing the kind of animation/graphics/ideas now. Oh well, someone had to do it first. What I thought looked so hot right now, they did so long ago, they’re over it!

Supreme/aNYthing/Neckface: a pretty crap session. They were really ripped and weren’t even slightly serious for their time on stage. Felt sorry for Luca at this point, he’d ask a question and get one word response if he was lucky! They perked up a bit when it was question time from the audience. I even asked a question! “How did you get the name Neckface?” It was a long winded answer about some kid he knew who licked his lips alot (his own, not Neckface’s lips) and liked watching action films and punching people in the neck. Basically Neckface wanted a name that no-one else had.

Pablo Ferro: What a legend, it was great to have a seroius old skool designer speaking at RPRSNT. Someone who is an innovator and did stuff BEFORE computers! He was a nice guy, very humble and sweet. There was a massive queue to get his autograph afterwards.

Lizzy Finn: A nice girl from England. Seems to be one of the first people to do the crafty thing in design, now everyone is doing it. She wasn’t the best public speaker but her work was very cool.

Soul Assassins (Mr Cartoon, Estevan Oriol & Rob Abeyta): Mr Cartoon did most of the talking, he seemed to be the more senior one of the group. Although I’m not into tattoos, hardcore rap or souped up cars, I found what he had to say really inspiring and informed. They also had great photos of their artwork on famous artists/celebrities such as Eminem, Dre Dre and Pharrell as well as their LA life.

Andy Howell: Old school skater turns successful artist and businessman. He was a really nice guy too and had a lot to say and show but not enough time.

SUMMARY:
Sure there were a few things that were annoying over the 2 day conference such as Lee Quinones’ no-show, freezing air-con, technical difficulties, late starting of the sessions and Luca’s interviewing style. BUT Overall, RPRSNT was a really inspiring and interesting event. I’m sure it was a mammoth effort to get all those speakers here and organise/promote the event. I hope it was as inspiring to the all the “young ones” attending as it was to an old duck like me.