Gus Macmillan

Hi, Thanks for taking a look at our Pozible fundraising campaign!



The Blue Grassy Knoll have found itself in a dilemna – how can we make our five piece band sound more like an orchestra? This campaign is to raise $15,000 help fund just that! Namely - to arrange our original filmscore to Buster Keaton's film The General for a 16 piece orchestra, and assemble them for a performance with the Blue Grassy Knoll at the Melbourne Recital Centre on July 26th 2014 (2 shows - 4pm and 7.30pm ).

Possibly you may already know Blue Grassy Knoll's work composing and performing scores to the films of Buster Keaton, which have toured locally and internationally since 1996. The scores are written collaboratively by the band and we have performed them everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to the National Theatre in London and the New Victory Theatre on Broadway. We combine our own original music with Buster's amazing films, making for a unique audience experience.

In 2010 we wrote and performed a filmscore Buster Keaton's greatest film - The General. It's an epic piece of cinema, and we decided it needed an epic score to go with it. We began writing it in 2009, and it took 6 weeks of full time collaboration to finish the first half of the film. For those who wonder how we do it, our writing process consists of the five band members (Steph O'Hara, Gus Macmillan, Philip McLeod, Simon Barfoot and Mark Elton) sitting in a room together and literally writing and arranging music to match the film, scene by scene, shot by shot, edit by edit, even frame by frame. We started work at 10am and went through til 6pm, five days a week, for six weeks, thanks to a generous grant funding grant from the Victorian Arts Centre's Full Tilt program.

We finished the second half of the score the following year, taking another 4 weeks, and the first performance premiered at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part of the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival. We regard it now as our most accomplished score, which after 18 years and 12 scores is really saying something. We think it combines the trademark BGK mischeivousness of our other scores with expansive orchestral themes that match the huge scenes of the Civil War that Keaton so lovingly recreated, and which made it the most expensive film ever made up until that time.

Since it's premier in 2010 we have done some touring with it, to large festivals such as the Brisbane Festival as well as around regional Victoria and NSW. What we began to realise as we played it each night, was how amazing this score would sound if it was accompanied by a full orchestra. So on the tour bus, driving between performances, we began to hatch a scheme to make this dream come true.

What we plan to do initially, with the help your donation, is to firstly arrange the score for a small orchestra to accompany the Blue Grassy Knoll. We've decided to begin modestly, adding an extra 16 players - (4 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 trumpets, a trombonist, a french horn, a flute player, an oboist, a reed player and a percusionist) - which will be the beginning of a process which will culminate in a score for a full symphony orchestra.

We have a confirmed date booked at the Melbourne Recital Centre to perform it, (26th July, 2014) and lined up the musicians, and have much of the orchestration complete. By donating to the project you have several levels of participation - beginning with a signed poster souvenir, to a copy of the soundtrack. Larger donations will allow you to reserve yourself a premium ticket (the best seats are being reserved for Pozible supporters), or receive a music lesson from a member of the band. If you always wanted to see your name in the credits of a film, a generous donation will secure that, or you can even have your own private performance, secure yourself a lifetime double pass to ALL future Blue Grassy Knoll gigs or even have your picture displayed on the kick drum at the gig! Your contribution will help fund the expenses involved with assembling an awesome line up of musicians who will make up the Australian Silent Film Orchestra.

This project is a huge artistic leap forward for the Blue Grassy Knoll, and as a bunch of mid-career artists, it is exactly the exciting and inspiring progression that a band who has been in existance for 18 years needs. We hope that after this performance we will be able to continue expanding the score to accomodate a full symphony orchestra and tour it nationally and internationally, offering it as repetoire to orchestras around the world.

We sincerely thank you in advance for your support, and look forward to getting up on stage at the Melbourne Recital Centre on July 26th and presenting a filmscore that will give you goosebumps.

Just as a footnote - we have already applied for grants to both Arts Victoria and Australia Council to pursue this dream, but both were rejected on the premise that it couldn't be considered 'new' work, but rather an extension of existing work, and therefore it was ineligible to be considered. Very frustrating! So it is up to the grassroots community of Pozible to help bring this thing into existence.

In the meantime, we hope you can help us get this mammoth task underway by making a donation to our dream.

Orchestras are expensive. The money we are seeking to raise is purely to cover the costs of paying the extra 16 musicians who will be required to attend 4 rehearsals and 2 performances. At the moment we are seeking professional musicians who are willing to join the Knoll on the adventure of this exciting new presentation of the score in this first incarnation. The $15,000 target will be just enough to cover a basic (and undeservedly low) rate of pay considering the calibre of performers particpating. The Knoll are inviting colleagues of the band whom we have worked with through other projects, and it is largely through this mutual goodwill that we are able to entice these amazing musicians to partipate at modest fees. That said, this target is just the starting line - if we are able to raise more money it will allow us to pay the musicians more generously as well as throw more time and resources at the project.

There are also greater expenses required for the technical production of the show, and a portion of this money will go some way in helping to cover these.

Whilst the risks are low, there are a few challenges to getting this thing happening. The biggest by far is raising the money to give everyone a fair monetary reward for their time and effort. With your help this will be taken care of and the rest of the project will be relatively plain sailing.

An important component will be arranging the music for orchestra, and the writing of the dots is being ably handled by band members Philip McLeod (also Lecturer in Composition at NMIT) and Steph O'Hara.

Another challenge is co-ordinating the schedules of 21 in-demand musicians. This is all being locked in by Mark Elton before we begin to ensure that everyone is onboard and available, with understudy musicians waiting in wings in case of emergencies.

Co-ordinating the whole project is Gus Macmillan, who has produced and managed all the band's tours and performances since 1996. The band have already performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre five times in recent years, and the venue and band have a good working relationship. The Melbourne Recital Centre approve and support this pozible campaign, and have been very co-operative in making tickets available to those who donate to the cause.

Lastly, the technical production is being managed by the band's sound engineer Keith Urquhart, who has been working with the band for over 5 years, and is as excited about it as the rest of the band

So the risks are low, the challenges are high, but it's going to be totally worth it, we promise you!