THE FINAL FILM

The final Map My Summer film WE WERE HERE is no longer available to watch on YouTube, but will next screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The trailer for the final film WE WERE HERE.

Director Amy Gebhardt talks with composer and musician Oren Ambarchi about the original soundtrack he has created for the final Map My Summer film WE WERE HERE.

With less than 4 weeks to go until the premiere, producer Allison Lockwood shares what's happening at the Map My Summer production office at Exit Films in Melbourne. The final film is in good shape and now has a title - WE WERE HERE. Allison is in contact with all YouTube users whose footage is included in the film sourcing release documents and the highest resolution footage available.

The Sydney Film Festival program has also just been released with tickets now available for the screening.

Editor Nick Meyers discusses how he is creating meaning from the incredibly wide range of images submitted to Map My Summer. The biggest challenge for Nick is the abstract nature of the process heightened by the fact there is no set script to work with. Despite this, the narrative of the final film is starting to form.

Three weeks into the edit and the structure is starting to take shape for the final Map My Summer film. Director Amy Gebhardt shows us how the story is playing out not only in the editing timeline on the computer but also visually via a series of key frames on the wall.

Map My Summer director Amy Gebhardt and editor Nick Meyers provide the first insight from the production office as they start work on the final film using your footage. 15hrs of clips, a lot of water, lots of smiles... tune in as they find a way to weave it all together.

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Melbourne filmmaker Amy Gebhardt (Into the Sun) is hard at work on the final film utilising some of the many hours of footage uploaded by you to YouTube Map My Summer. From flood survival stories, diving with sharks, snowing in Canberra, to a sunny orphan Christmas on Bondi Beach, the imagery will be as diverse as summer itself. But at the end of the day, how does the way we live our summer define who we really are, as Australians?

Funded by Screen Australia and with the help of George Miller, Amy’s film will dive deep into the Australian psyche and promises to go way beyond just postcard imagery. The Map My Summer film will reveal something meaningful and memorable, simultaneously dark and funny. It will interweave user submissions with interviews, sound grabs, news commentary, quotes and narration to offer a rich modern narrative of who we are right now.

The Map My Summer film will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2011 followed by a nationwide broadcast on YouTube.

So, over the next 8 weeks join Amy and her production team at Exit Films as they navigate their way around the summer of 2010/11 and tune in as they try and make sense of it al!

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KICKSTART films

At the start of summer we asked filmmakers Ariel Kleiman, Amy Gebhardt and Luke Doolan to make a short film showing their visions of the Australian summer for YouTube Map My Summer. All the films were produced by Louise Smith.

	Summertimes - Ariel Kleiman Ariel's Australian summer was more depressing than usual as this Melbourne boy is currently stuck in the middle of a London winter. Watch Ariel's vision of summer on our YouTube Channel.
	Into the Sun - Amy Gebhardt Into The Sun explores the interconnectedness between the human spirit and the weather, visualising our innate attraction to the warmth of summer. View Amy's summer on our YouTube Channel.
	Gasolio - Luke Doolan Unfortunately Luke had just broken his leg in two places while jogging so was confined to a summer of watching DVDs and television. On screen he kept noticing a word - 'Gasolio'. But what the #@$! does it mean? See how Luke is spending his summer on our YouTube Channel.