Miniature Mayhem | Best Reality TV Martini Awards 2024 Winner

JMC Academy 2024 Martini Awards Winner for Best Reality TV
Miniature Mayhem
Created by TJ Brinkman
Producers
TJ Brinkmann
Isabel Rolfe
Director
Billy Workman
CAST
Ketta Olopai
Kynnan Walker
Skitz
Phoenix
Tom
Aria
John
Max
Director of Photography
Jack Schusser
Camera Operators
Jared Davis
Craig Downs
Alex Beecheno
Paige Van Dijk
Gaffer
Alex Beecheno
Production Designer
Paige Van Dijk
Sound Recordist
Walamai Iamalaw
Runner
Nathan Byrnes
Editor
Billy Workman
Colourist
Billy Workman
Score Composer
Nathan 'Nayth' Marshall
To the amazing cast, who are not fully credited for this production - I deeply and sincerely apologise, your involvement is essential to this production and unfortunately due to several circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to completely source your full names for proper accreditation. Without your artistic skill, this project would not exist.
Please contact me, and I will rectify this as soon as possible.
I volunteered to be director and editor of Miniature Mayhem to seize an opportunity for a challenging workload for myself, and allow myself more creative freedom and liberty in a production than I had ever had. MM is a reality show, inspired by shows such as Lego Masters or MasterChef, challenging Warhammer enthusiasts to paint Warhammer miniatures as quickly as possible. However, the production quickly snowballed into a very messy and stressful endeavour for the cast and crew. It’s a feat of effort on everyone involved regarding how successful this production eventually became, and how much we had captured in terms of footage.
Miniature Mayhem was shot on location in a Warhammer retail store in Mount Gravatt. We had arranged shooting schedules, a lighting plot, props, and painting supplies in preparation for a smooth shoot. Early on, before the cameras started rolling however, we were instructed to completely change what we had set up and prepared for, delaying shooting significantly. When it came time to shoot, the crew had spiralled into significant conflicts amongst each other, and morale was down the drain. Tears were shed, anger and frustration were mounting, and in the centre of it was our producers and I experiencing anxiety attacks. However, partway through this shoot, something within me snapped, and I eventually wrought control back, organised our crew and successfully shot everything we needed. It felt like a major accomplishment, and everyone within the cast and crew should be greatly proud.
It was my idea for us to shoot throughout the entire competition in real time, with three people simultaneously recording without cutting, gliding around the contestants. They captured moments of interaction between the contestants, extreme close-ups of precise details being painted on the Warhammer figures, and our two incredibly charismatic hosts commenting on the action and interacting with the hosts. As a result, the footage we wrangled was very lengthy, totalling to about eight hours and thirty minutes of footage, which I combed through for the best moments to construct a concept piece of about four minutes. As a result, Miniature Mayhem feels far higher in its production value than it had.
Post Production took a significant amount of time for several other compounding reasons. For a start, I had been battling with homelessness and inadequate living conditions throughout the entire production cycle. Footage had been lost in the wrangle, and eventually found again by sheer luck. Later on, one of the hard drives I had been editing with had corrupted, and the entire project file and footage were lost, with nothing but a backup and a previous draft I had uploaded privately to KZbin as my basis for a reference when proceeding with the next cut. I had edited on a laptop that was slowly dying despite being near brand new.
I eventually got a room, edited and picture locked on a much more powerful and efficient desktop, before unfortunately being evicted so quickly afterwards, and moving across Brisbane to an even more inconvenient location. By this point, all that was left was a colour grade and sound design, and an ever-nearing deadline for the Martini Awards. I also hired a composer for the amazing score which elevated the entire production.
Though Miniature Mayhem turned out to be an utterly Sisyphean nightmare, reflecting on the entire production I am beyond proud of every single person involved. The insurmountable odds of the circumstances in which this had been made have slowly been carved away into a gold statue of an artist’s hand. A hand I hope to shake with every single crew member alongside me.
A special thank you to Jack Schusser, my amazing director of photography,
Nayth Marshall, who did the incredible score
and Nathan Byrnes, for his kindness and honesty on set
I am now writing this from the comfort of a bedroom in a house I have acquired for myself, kicking back, and relaxing after a successful job well done.
This nightmarish odyssey is over.