Burleigh Smith interview
Yay! Burleigh Smith said yes to an interview. And Perth has an indy rom com feature in the works. And PAC will be reading Mr. Smith’s script in March. And the neighbors have stopped their eight hour hammering of the drill with a compactor marathon. It’s all going to be alright.
If you are yet to see any of Burleigh’s stuff, be sure to watch the YouTube embed below, then read the interview, then join in the enthusiasm.
“What do you do?
Write, direct and act!
Screenwriting is my favourite part of the process and is where I am most creative.
To me, directing and acting is routine. I have a very simplistic visual style. I’m happy just to set the camera up on a tripod and cover the scene in one or two shots.
I really don’t like fancy camerawork and fast-paced editing. It doesn’t really serve my stories and it draws out the post production process. I edit my own work too. I don’t enjoy it but I’m too precious to let anyone else cut my work.
I rarely seek input from others in terms of screenplay. I know the stories I wish to tell and the most effective ways in which to do so. I ought to – I’ve spent my life watching thousands of films from all over the world.
I’ve worked with some of Perth’s top directors of photography and am always willing to receive input from them in terms of shots.
To me, acting’s really about delivering lines in the most naturalistic, understated manner possible. I work with actors who don’t really need directing. Sarah Louella and Ben Young are both excellent.
What are you doing next?
I’m writing and shooting my first feature later this year. It’s titled “Gemini” and it’s a romantic comedy where I play a man with bipolar disorder.
Can you describe your writing/pre-prod process?
I think about my various screenplays constantly and I am forever writing down ideas on scraps of paper and putting them into folders. When the ideas are developed, I sit down and write.
The folder for “Gemini”, my feature, is packed with hundreds of notes that I’ve amassed in the past eighteen months. I never suffer writer’s block because I only write when I’m ready. It usually only takes a couple of weeks for me to write a short and three or four months to write a feature. And I usually only write the one draft.
Preproduction is just organising. Not much fun. Organising a cast and crew, locations, costumes and props. Getting permission, hiring equipment, dealing with last-minute dramas. Fun and games.
I often work with the same group of people. Mat de Koning is a close collaborator, Greg Higgs, Brendan Dee and Laetitia Belen are often involved too because they’re good. So many others have let me down in the past and so I can never entrust them again!
I’ve shot on a variety of formats, including 8mm, 16mm, SD and HD. Will probably be shooting my feature on RED. But to me, the camera is just a tool. It’s the story that matters most.
I’m hoping to screen my feature at the Perth International Arts Festival in 2011.
Perth….are we all doomed to boil to death here?
I love Perth and don’t have many complaints. If I did, I’d move elsewhere. I’d love to see sensible allocation of government film funds but that’s too much to hope for.
There are some interesting young filmmakers in this state. I’m expecting big things in the future from de Koning, Templeman, Hilditch, Webb, Jack, Young, Inglis and McCann, to name a few.
