Australian Films

Beautiful Storm is a short film created to accompany an original music score composed by Yanni Dellaportas. All the audio, video and still images were captured in and around the Mornington Peninsula and the coastline of Victoria Australia on the lands of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people. Beautiful Storm is loosely based on the coffee table book of the same name, that Yanni published in 2020 that features 30 years of storm chasing photography taken around the coastline of Victoria Australia. However the film didn’t start that way. Yanni created the film to go with a piece of music he wrote and recorded under his pseudonym 'Bluzoid'. The music came from a volunteer commission he was given to create music for a dance based short film. The makers rejected this piece going with someone else’s but that didn’t stop him from fleshing out the original piano score into something more orchestral. Yanni is grateful to his musician friends Natalie Parker (tin whistle, flute and trumpet) and Sally Carter (violin) for their contribution in recording some of the melodies. The music sat on the shelf for a few years as it had no connection to anything and Yanni didn’t know how to release it. Eventually he decided to create a film to go with it, incorporating his thirty years of storm photography and moving footage that he shot over a period of ten years. Everything seemed to come together – the music, the film - all that symbolized Yanni's passion for storm chasing and our ever changing and extreme weather events as a result of climate change. It’s not a traditional narrative film with actors or characters or dialogue, but more like an instrumental music video, however it follows the three act story arc. Director Biography - Yanni Dellaportas is a professional visual and aural storyteller who resides and works on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, as a well-established photographer and digital artist. Yanni began creating and directing short films in 2018. Yanni collaborated with Heather Forbes-McKeon on the short film series ‘Dreamweavers’ (2021- 2023) as co-director, cinematographer, editor and music composer. Past credits include: ‘The Shell’ (2018), ‘Liquid’ (music video- 2018), Beautiful Storm (2023) and as co- director on ‘Dreamweaver – Jacquie Beddows’ (2022). He is currently collaborating as co-director on web-series of documentaries entitled ‘Dreamweavers’. Yanni’s award-winning photographs have been exhibited in fine art and photographic exhibitions across Australia. His work is widely recognised having been published in leading Australian newspapers, magazines, photo books and international novels. Since the 1990s his work as a photojournalist and innovative digital artist has kept Yanni’s work in the public consciousness. His photographs are immediately recognizable. From iconic landscapes to breathtaking thunderstorms, local wildlife or the people in his community, Yanni’s photographs are synonymous with quality and insight.