Fresh out of film school, director Elyse Hickey and producer Tamara Small have already secured a WASA for their tertiary short “Mia.” Brains caught up with the girls post win.

Congratulations on your win for best tertiary film at the WASA, what was it like receiving the award on the night?

Elyse: When they were announcing the nominees I was terribly nervous and tense. When they announced our film I was ecstatic. I couldn’t get the smile off my face for most of the night. Going up to the podium I was shaking and I could barely remember the speech that Tamara had prepared for us. When we went backstage I was shaking so much and, as much as the photographer wanted me to smile for the official photo, my lip wouldn’t stop twitching!

Tamara: It sounds cliche, but the whole thing seemed like a blur. We were both freaking out right before and then Mia was called out, suddenly we were walking down to the stage and it took forever to actually get there! Afterwards it was like ‘What just happened?’ and we were holding an award.

What are your future plans?

Elyse: For the film, we want to enter “Mia” into as many festivals as possible.
For myself, I’m going to spend a year in Italy teaching English and working on my scriptwriting. I also want to see what else is out there in terms of film businesses. Compared to what is offered in WA, European films are quite dynamic and unique and I look forward to learning about alternative film styles and just generally experiencing a new lifestyle.

Tamara: I have many goals that I want to achieve in the future. Ideally I would love to be making films in either the U.S or Canada. I’ve even considered moving interstate to pursue career options there. But for the moment just having my degree behind me, and now a WASA award, I feel is a great achievement.

Zoe Hooper (lead actress in Mia) was just 12 years old when she received her WASA acting nomination, how did you help with her with performance?

Firstly, I love working with children, and Zoe was such an enthusiastic young girl that it was quite easy to create a good rapport with her. I did a lot of research into child friendly acting techniques and games to ensure rehearsals were interesting and engaging. I also spent a lot of time developing trust and camaraderie between Zoe and Nixon in order to reflect Sam and Mia’s close friendship on screen.

Some directors have a trademark visual style, how would you describe your style?

I think that, being quite young, I am still developing my visual style and so this is a very difficult question to answer. I am very fond of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s visual style. I like his distinct use of colour, hyper real production design, abstract camera angles and use of wide-angle lenses. However I am also a big fan of Roberto Benigni’s more realistic visual approach. With more filmmaking experience and with age also, I will come to better distinguish myself in terms of a personal visual style.

Tamara, what appealed to you about the script?

The thing that appealed to me straight away about the script was that I could visualise the story and could picture how it would look as a film. I think deep down there was something in the character of Mia that I could relate to, thinking about my own childhood and that sense of adventure.

What’s the toughest part about being a producer?

It’s definitely not an easy job, but probably the toughest element is balancing the creative side of producing with the business side. You have a creative voice in the process but you also have to rationalise out those decisions and make sure you have the right resources in place. The one thing I learnt when working on Mia was to take on difficult tasks even though sometimes it’s tempting to take the easy option and say that it’s too hard. I think it also helps when you have a director who is working with you to problem solve those tasks to make it happen, it’s all about teamwork really.