This week at Casey we write, shoot and produce a five minute short film in two days for the 48hr Antarctic Film Festival and Aaron re-opens the Greenstore after a years work on the inventory project.

Lights, camera, action!

The Antarctic 48 Hour Film Festival is a big highlight of spending a winter in Antarctica and this past week some of the staff down at Casey have been working over time to get their entry written, filmed, edited and submitted in time to compete.

For those who have never heard of the 48 Hour Film Festival here is a quick rundown on how it works.

It is an international film festival where any station in Antarctica can compete. The stations only have 48 hours over a weekend (August 3–4) to make their films which need to be around five minutes long. To make sure no one starts filming early there are five elements that must be included into the film. The elements are chosen by last year’s winners; Kerguelen Island (they are French) and are sent by email to each station on the morning of Aug 3.

The elements were:

  • A sneeze
  • A ping pong ball
  • Bathtub
  • “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir”
  • The gingerbread man.

Once all the films are uploaded to a shared file, each station gets to send in their votes for the following categories:

  • Best film
  • Best acting
  • Cinematography
  • Screenplay
  • Use of elements

Co-written and directed by Ben and Chad, filmed and edited by Michael, starring; Scotty, Leon, Gav, Matty, Tim, Jeremy, Mark J, Abrar, Allen, Jukka, someone in green down jacket who keeps appearing in the background, Wilfred, a Blue Penguin and two Black Penguins… that was Casey’s entry into the 2013 Antarctic 48 Hour Film festival!

Tune into Icy News next week for the results.

Green Store inventory project — completed

On the fourth of March the first pallet was pulled down in the Green Store to be reviewed and recorded in the new inventory system and five months later the last one was completed! During this time the Store has undergone some changes such as structure work, Work Health and Safety (WH&S) implementations, better use of the limited space available and maximising the use of that space, locating and identifying items or equipment for faster turnaround time for the trades during the day. There are 620 pallet and shelve locations in the Store and there have been over 160 locations made from the project available for use.

All pallets and items now have an ID tag displaying general description, group owner, weight and current location of where that pallet/item belongs, in the inventory spreadsheet there is a more detailed breakdown description of items in that location. There are two mezzanine floors in the Store; the first floor is now used for all the smaller items such as nuts, bolts, tool accessories etc. And the second floor is now used for bulk storage of items that are rarely used or oversize to fit in the racks.

Last week I had a ‘re-opening’ of the store with a tour showing the station the work completed and new procedures in place for the Green Store finished off with a BBQ and games of basketball and badminton

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