Yum Creative
Yum Wrap
The blog of latest goings on at Yum Studio. Follow along for invitations, musings and irregular news.
Associative Lyrical Formalist
Turns out I’m an Associative Formalist filmmaker in the lyrical tradition. Who knew?
Mechanical Analogue Digital
Analogue cameras capture blacks that are blacker and the whites lift like ghosts from some great beyond.
Works In Progress
Works that dig into the heart to reveal feelings will always need curious audiences.
A Cinema Darkly #5
Cinema’s unique use of darkness and light creates an atmosphere of promise.
On intimacy in isolation
Joy and pleasure are not frivolous – we seek them – they give us hope.
A Cinema Darkly #3
‘Cinema’is derived from the Ancient greek word for movement κίνημα (kínēma)
Dancing Queen
For the beautiful Ange, now dancing across the sky in your twirly skirt, big smile and magnificent heart. Within one minute of taking the photo of this badge in the car...
What’s The Story
When I was a kid it felt like my dad had a movie camera in his hand every day.
Spark Report
The Spark Report I had the honour of speaking with the women of The Refinery. A group of women interested in ideas, creation and ideation. Here’s some of the learnings:...
Random Number Generator
We hope you will come and see our new work commissioned for White Night Ballarat. ONE NIGHT ONLY. RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR by Christine Tammer & Erin M McCuskey...
Merry with Love
Wishing you all the very best from Yum Studio. Thank you for your support, and challenges, over the last 12 months. It's been a wild ride and 2018 is saddling up now!...
White Night Reviews
We are so grateful to those who experienced our work Do Not Go Gentle at White Night Ballarat, and then told us what you thought of the work. Thank you from Erin &...
Do Not Go Gentle
DO NOT GO GENTLE CHRISTINE TAMMER & ERIN MCCUSKEY We hope you will come and view our beautiful, one night only work: Do Not Go Gentle by Christine Tammer &...
Last night I shook with rage.
Last night I saw the film The Neon Demon at #MIFF2016 (Melbourne International Film Festival). Actually I saw only part of it. I walked out, shaking with a rage that...
Stranger Art
Recently I was asked to give the opening speech for a fabulous artist Ms Anne Chibnall. Anne and I worked together making films for about ten years at Future Films. In...
Rejects. I’ve had a few.
ON BEING REJECTED. I give you... dut ut dut dar... Recent Rejects for Savouring. Note: I always skim the reply email to find the key words, phases, details....
The Time might be Now?
Creative Media is not easy. It's important to engage with experienced creatives. I used a great little app/platform to put this post together. Storify. [View the story...
Luxville Delusion – Artist Talk
Artist Talk Sunday 15th November 2015 Erin McCuskey Filmmaker - Yum Studio - Madame Yum Luxville Delusion This talk is dedicated to those around the world who have...
Welcome to Luxville
Welcome to Luxville, and have a nice day. Through moving image, still and word we bring you the story of Luxville, a once golden place – now cursed. In Luxville, a...
Dance on dear Marge…
Jim and Marge Welsh flew down the Melbourne Road to Ballarat in their borrowed Jaguar. It was December 1960. They arrived at the dance studio, upstairs at 12 Armstrong...
From Red to Purple
What a fabulous turn out for Red, thank you all so much for joining us. Here are some images and thought provoking opening and closing, and some middle, lines...
Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer…
Can you put your hand in your head? Oh no! Me either... But we are putting our hand up for the Ballarat Cabaret Festival this year. And we put our hand up when...
Burlesque Sideshow
I LOVE BURELSQUE and I don't care if I'm shouting. It fabulous, fun, feminism with humour. Such a beautiful tradition of performance with female power. I LOVE...
Blood on Ballarat
Creative media is never more creative than when linked with a cultural event. In this case the Death in July Festival posed such a fabulous challenge: women,...
Project Grief
Today I feel a bit sad. I have project grief. The project that I lived and breathed for eight months has finished. And clearly I have no idea what to do with...
A City of Chaos & Hope
It takes people to make a city. Literally, to dream it, to think it, to plan it, to build it. Figuratively, too bring it to life. A building, no matter how...
Preview – The Inside Story
Madame Yum here, I have been loving working on a social history project called The Inside Story, and we are one week away from preview. Can you come? " Good...
Hawk Man Cometh
One of the most difficult things to capture on screen is passion. I had no trouble with this bloke. Mickey Gee has passion coming out of his ears. And that...
To heck with suspense
To be a good writer, apparently, you need to be a good reader. I reckon you also need to be a good listener. At Yum Studio we are always writing; whether it be posts,...
We’re All Winners
What a fabulous party, thank you all for coming. And thanks to those who took time to vote, five seconds work for a glittering prize... not bad. And the fabulous winner...
Yum Studio 86th Oscars Party
The fabulous fabulous awards season is upon us, and while we hate to brag, Yum Studio has again a nomination in every category. You believe? Want to win glittering...
Radio Springs Eternal
You simply must do yourself a favour and visit the Radio Springs Hotel at Lyonville. We did, and fell in love, with it, not each other, that happened quite some time...
Six Reasons
There are many reasons to visit beautiful Ballarat. Some reasons are so totally fresh, others are as old as time itself (well after the swamp was reclaimed)....
Mick’s Cinema
I love films, I love going to the cinema, I love the rituals, I love the slow all-encompassing dark. For me, it's as much about the experience of viewing, as the...
threads that bind
threads the bind exhbition by the Warrnambool Textile Group (Ros Barwell, Kaori De Guchi, laurene dietrich, Monique Pope, Rachel Watt). The exhbition is open...
A Most Fabulous Film
The film of the year for me is one that was a complete experience. A cinema that dripped fabulousness, a film that opened my heart like a hot butter knife, a...
Fail daring greatly
Pres. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt seated on lawn, surrounded by their family; 1903 I'm not usually one for inspirational quote sharing, for me it diffuses the meaning...
Spreading the Message
Just a quick one to let you know how well spread is the film 'Ta Phin: A hard life, easy to live.' Thank you all so much for sharing this film, it is a testimony...
The Ballad of Miss Audrey Dash
When I was young love was an enticing elusive strange and fragile thing. Now I am a wise old crone love surrounds me, embraces me, holds me strong. When I first heard...
Tim & Anne the usual crazy…
The Hudson Project crew (left to right) Joel Gills, Michael Gwyther, Jay Morningstar, Anne Chibnall, Erin McCuskey, Maria Van Ravenstein, Tim Sedgwick and seated...
Ta Phin: A Hard Life, Easy to Live
Spin a globe, toss a coin, follow a friend’s recommendation, revisit a favourite place or embark on the path less traveled. Picking a holiday destination is a...
Louise is an author…
Self-publishing is like anything else in the new tech field - it's free, relatively simple, but will only work if you drive it. Technology is about people, it's...
Ly Ta May – a world apart
Women of Ta Phin 5: Ly Ta May - A series of images and tales from Viet Nam. Ly Ta May is the daughter of Mrs Ly Man May our homestay host in Ta Phin. She no longer...
Meet Thurstin
Thurstin is a young photographer of 14 who is asking people with a passion for the arts to spend $10 to help him get to Canada. Thurstin has Aspergers Syndrome, an...
Mrs Ly Ta May King – it fit you can buy
Women of Ta Phin 4: Mrs Ly Ta May King - A series of images and tales from Viet Nam. This is Mrs Ly Ta May King and her baby son Tan Lao San. We walked into the market...
Daisies were Chained
In the best possible way of course - those daisies can be tricky. "Daisy-Chaining Robots was a full day masterclass in Social Media for creative businesses, run June...
Tracy Bourne in Finale
We love to create creative media, and the theatre is perhaps a natural fit for creative film, video, moving image. The fabulous Tracy Bourne has a show coming up in the...
Use your intuition!
What project will you do next Jill? "I want to do something that is really hard. I'd like to tell a story that is important, is real, and edit it in a way that is...
Daisy-chaining Robots
Over the last three months it has been such a joy to train people in the use of the fabulous ArtsAtlas, an online portal for artists to showcase their work, find their...
Mrs Ly Man May – celebrating her ghosts
Women of Ta Phin 3: Mrs Ly Man May - A series of images and tales from Viet Nam. This is our Ta Phin homestay host Mrs Ly Man May. She opens her home for visitors like...
Ly Lo May – this means girl
Women of Ta Phin 2: Ly Lo May - A series of images and tales from Viet Nam. This is Ly Lo May, a young woman living in Ta Phin whose positivity is contagious. We met Ly...
Mrs Ly May Chan – sharing her culture to protect it
Women of Ta Phin 1: Mrs Ly May Chan - A series of images and tales from Viet Nam. This is Mrs Ly May Chan, the women's leader of Ta Phin village. She knows everyone in...
What Lies Beneath?
Got the brief for this group show and immediately thought about Alice in Wonderland. I'd been singing the lyrics to the Grace Slick song 'What Rabbit' for weeks, and it...
Crazed amplified somnambulist
Creativity is like El Nino and La Nina – interplay of idea drought and flood. Framing visions to a personal, political or spiritual context. We all have a number of...
Framing the past
While discussing music over the weekend, I recalled the work of Pete Frame who created "Family Trees" of the movements in, out and between various rock bands and scenes...
Love Claire
Here's a letter from someone I trained a million years ago... Lovely to hear from you Claire. Dear Erin, Many, many years ago before my age of my “computer...
MIFFtales #2 Mr Campi
Now that the MIFF madness is done and dusted, time to reflect on some of the amazing people I met... and interviewed for MIFFtales. I had the absolute pleasure of...
MIFF Opening Night
We are screening yum's project MIFFtales throughout the Melbourne International Film Festival so managed to wrangle some tickets to Melbourne night of nights.... MIFF...
MIFFtales #1: Mr Scheff…
The first thing I was told by Scheff's partner was: "Oh for god's sake don't call him Edwin, he won't know who you are talking about, call him 'Scheff'." What a...
A very yummy MIFF
and if I was just announcing it I'd start by saying "Wow have I got news for you", while its no longer news as such it is still exciting. we are producing a project for...
Foolish and hungry
Love him or loath him you can't deny Steve Job's impact on our techy type world as the driving force behind amazing successes Apple and Pixar. I'd have to say I'm a bit...
so long, farewell. auf weidersehen, goodbye…
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” - Semisonic’s song Closing Time today is my last day as a yummy... kinda sad really but exciting at the...
Arresting Audiences
I went to a really interesting summit from Film Vic about audiences which was pretty unique as it hasn't really been discussed in such a way before. Usually media...
Underground Cinema
Last weekend a mate and i traveled back in time (1940s) to attend the latest underground cinema and it was totally fabulous... we had our fur capes, wide-legged pant...
cloud data
The weather project is up and running at Space 22 in ballarat, at 22 main road. it's a fabulous artist run space in the heart of our little city 'the rat'. what's up...
shilling wall achievement award
at the recent annual dinner for the Victorian ICT for Women our erin, creative director extraordinaire, was presented with an award recognising her significant...
gertrude street projection festival 2010
yum is very excited that erin, our creative director will be presenting work at this year's Gertrude Street Projection Festival. all along Gertrude Street, between...
what’s normal anyway?
We got a group of artists and mentors together to produce a pilot for a TV show... it was a creative process that developed an extraordinary idea that was so simple, so...
they came, they saw, they BLENDed
wednesday the 24th of march saw the yum crew host Commerce Ballarat's BLEND event. this is an opportunity for Ballarat locals under 39 in business and leadership to get...
yum font on DaFONT
Well after a few weeks of twiddling our thumbs wondering when DaFONT would approve our font submission we finally received an email advising us of the good news...
Don’t mess with me…I’m Sarah Sconner *ggrrrrr*
They came, they saw, they pushed each other over quite a bit. And so it was for the Ballarat Roller Derby League's first ever bout, The Derbytante Brawl. It was a...
Sanctuary & the national apology
Alchemy Community Theatre (yum is supporter), just finished stage one of Sanctuary, a theatre performance with multimedia projections based on the lives of care...
semaphore is live
semaphore is a sumptuous eclectic mix of media based by photography. the works explore issues of communication, signal and signage. it is the work of emma stoneman and...
biz of the year
well the champers were on hand, okay it was red, and the atmosphere was packed with noise, colour and a palpable excitement. and that was all just at our table... and...
semaphore – we want you
where you going? what you doing? what's the message? tell me by @semaphore_art or comment below... semaphore is an expose of communication as a sent message. responding...
sitting down and sipping wine isn’t hard… or is it?
a lot harder than you think! i sit on a stool, glass of wine next to me and i'm looking out the window enjoying the view at Main Bar. it's freezing cold outside and i'm...
screen sirens song
last night the billboard in main road busted into life screening shorts for the portable film festival launch... meanwhile inside the warm funky environs of the main...
portable film festival: screen sirens
yum will illuminate the main bar with a unique projection event on sunday august 2nd for the Portable Film Festival's International Screening Day. grab a slice of pizza...
art squads are now
regional arts Australia had a forum in ballarat last week to discuss issues that relate to government policy and the arts - ie - that arts is no longer its own...
i heart heide!
In pusuit of creative breathing space, Erin and I took a wee trip down the highway and thru the 'burds to one of my favorite place on the planet...the Heide Museum of...
ballarat podtours
The last few weeks has seen the end of yet another series of PodTours for the City of Ballarat. With three now finished, Art Podtour, Prime Ministers PodTour, and Sturt...
first ever yum wrap for sae ra
"So this is my first ever yum wrap... and what a daunting task! I have no clue what I'm supposed to write but I thought I better start with a bit of an introduction of...
the end of an era
It was the best of times…it was the worst of times…and so ends my traineeship with yum productions. The best? Working on digital storytelling projects with the...
playtime with Design Victoria
as the yum creative director its playtime for me, so I love to get out and talk about what yum does and I had the opportunity to do so recently at a Design Victoria and...
finding a great image
Passion is finding a great image and being able to do that, as work is a joy. Recently I've been working with a client who gave me a full back stage pass to tell their...