Michael Nicholson
b. March, 27, 1954, East Melbourne, Victoria..
BIOGRAPHY:Michael
has been a film maker since 1976 when he purchased his first Bolex camera and
Miller tripod.
He
first sprung to notice when he set up the Scotch College Film Society and
screened many interesting films to crowded attendances, like “Lord of the
Flies”. Then in Year 12 he was made Editor of the school magazine, “Satura”, and
in the final edition, in September 1972, left Scout camp and went to Canberra
and had an exclusive Interview with the Prime Minister, The Rt. Honourable,
William McMahon.
On
leaving school Michael went into television working for ABC TV, 1973, “The
Inventors”, HSV 7, 1974, “Do It”, a daily teenage programme with Ian Buckland
and Ian Meldrum, GTV 9, 1975, "Ernie Sigley Show" on National TV as a comedy
writer, then ATV 0, 1976, "Ernie", daily evening variety show as writer and
researcher.
Later
in 1976 he became an independent film maker specialising in short comedy and
animated films and had them screened on various TV shows ranging from ABC’s
“This Day Tonight”, to HSV 7, "Willesee" Current Affairs shows, and variery shows
like “The Don Lane Show” from 1976 to 1985.
150 GOALS
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW: Michael Nicholson has specialised in an
interesting film style of making short comedy and/or political films using real
time, time lapse and animation, blending everything together in an absorbing film form.
In all his 16mm films, Michael wrote them, filmed them, directed them, did
the animation and edited them, and sold them.
He managed to get over 12 films
in the Melbourne International Film Festival, and along with animated clips for
TV programmes like THIS DAY TONIGHT, NATIONWIDE, WILLESEE, ABC EDUCATION, DON
LANE SHOW, AUSTRALIA, YOU’RE STANDING IN IT, and COUNTDOWN with animation for
the MIDNIGHT OIL hit POWER AND THE PASSION.
Michael produced and had screened
about 30 films on Australian television, and had the pleasure of directing
actors like John Jacobs, Barbara Ciszewska, Ernie Gray, Ian Scott, Robert
Draffin, Steve Vizard, Tim Robertson and Max Gillies.
Then
in 1985 Michael helped set up the popular political puppets series, RUBBERY
FIGURES on ABC TV and then FAST FORWARD, with his brother Peter Nicholson, The Age political
cartoonist, that went for about 6 years, with a team of about 10 people.
CRICKET SUPERTEST
PERSONAL NOTE:I had a very good upbringing in film. My father took
excellent Standard 8mm home movies and l vividly recall many times of sitting
on the floor in the living room as the images flickered up on the screen in
front of the family.
In my teen years my father allowed me to use his
camera and we moved onto a Super 8 camera, that was much crisper, but still had
that ‘fluid feel of film’. So after a few years working in television, and in
one year when l was writing for ‘The Ernie Sigley Show’ a national Variey Show
on Tuesday and Thursday nights, they had about 8 sketches in each show and I
I spent all my time, seemingly day and night, writing hundreds of sketches, and
on a good night l might get 5 of my sketches used, plus l wrote ‘Opening
Remarks’ that Ernie would use at the start of the show. So in that year l
really improved my writing of sketches technique, plus had great help and
encouragement from the person in charge, Peter Smith.
However, l really wanted to be a film maker, so once
l bought my Bolex 16mml camera and really heavy Miller tripod, l started
making my own short films and here l was totally in charge; I wrote the short
films, shot them, directed and edited them, completely by myself. I was very
lucky that l had a great group of actors who were very talented and this, of
course, enhanced my films no end.
TROY STORY
And then, in those days in the '70s and '80s,
I just went into a TV station and showed it to a show like THIS DAY TONIGHT,
WILLESEE or THE DON LANE SHOW, and they would screen it that night. And all
this experience put me in good stead to help my brother, Peter Nicholson, [who
taught me most about film making] and we set up and produced RUBBERY FIGURES,
which was a great success on National TV on both the ABC and on FAST FORWARD,
HSV 7, for many years, with me doing some writing, filming, editing and
animation, and it was great fun and hard work. That was last century.
This century I switched to Video. Although this format
didn’t have the ‘fluid feel of film’, it had sound and cost nothing. Film was about $150 for 3 minutes of 16mm Negative Kodachrome film. And the
video camera was much lighter. For my early video films l got my film mentor and friend,
Nigel Buesst, to edit with me, but l soon mastered FINAL CUT PRO and then l was
in editing heaven and began turning out, what l thought, was much better work
and far more prolific and as the media landscape evolved l had You Tube and
Vimeo as my permanent archival library, accessible anytime by anyone.
- Michael Nicholson, May 2021.
1976: CRICKET
SUPERTEST, 3 minutes
1981: THE SMASH Vs. THE LOB, 3 mins
FILMOGRAPHY:
Michael Nicholson wrote, filmed, directed and edited all the films, and all were whot on 16mm
Kodachrome film (apart from the more recent ones marked "Video").
THE SMASH Vs. THE LOB
1975: THE ALIEN FLASH, Super 8, 7 mins.
1976: CRICKET
SUPERTEST, 3 minutes, on FIRING LINE, ATV 0 and then WILLESEE HSV 7.
1976: YELLOWCAKE, 3 minutes, FIRING LINE, ATV 0.
1977: THE BUDGET FILM, 3 minutes, THIS DAY TONIGHT, ABC TV.
1980: THE AMAZING DREAM THEY HAD ABOUT MINING, 12 minutes
1981: THE SMASH Vs. THE LOB, 3 mins, NATIONWIDE, ABC TV.
1982: THE WILD DOCTOR, 10 mins, Queen Victoria Hospital Revue.
A GAME OF GOLF
1978-84: THE GIRLS IN THE BOAT, Melbourne University Inter-Varsity Women’s Rowing
8, 10 mins.
1985: 150 GOALS, 7 minutes, Melbourne International Film Festival and opened the first
Melbourne Fringe Festival in 1986.
1985
– 1991: RUBBERY FIGURES, Political puppets, 8 mins, weekly series on ABC
TV then on FAST FORWARD, HSV 7, writer, editor, animator, camera, and director.
1988: A GAME OF GOLF, 10 mins.
1990: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF SCOTCH, 5 mins, screened at Scotch College 150
years concert.
1999: THE EDGE OF FOREVER, Annapurna Ranges Trek, 20 mins, Video.
SCHOOL FOR SCULLING
2000: OLYMPIAD ABSTRACTO, Sydney Olympics Time lapse, 16 minutes.
2000: HULLO MISTER, Life in East Timor After Self Determination, Video, 20 mins.
2011: TROY STORY, Gallipoli, Video, 8 mins.
2008:
8+, Documentary on the Rowing 8, Video, 80 mins.
2012: SCHOOL FOR SCULLING, Documentary on Sculling, Video, 80 mins.
2020: THE GERMAN HOLIDAY, Video, 12 mins.
2021: TASMANIA, Video, 15 mins.
2022: THUNDER DRAGON, Video, 13 mins.
2023: CHAMPION LAKES, Video, 12 mins.
2022: Melissa's Graduation, Video, 3 mins.
1985: 150 GOALS, 7 minutes
1988: A GAME OF GOLF, 10 mins.
2011: TROY STORY, 8 mins.
2012: SCHOOL FOR SCULLING, Promotional clip.
2022: THUNDER DRAGON, 13 mins
Michael Nicholson visiting
The Opera House recently with his wife Fatma,
retired architect from Istanbul,
and their daughter, Melissa,
now enrolled in a media and film making course at
COLLARTS.
