bell tower photo c/o flickr user timparkinson

Perth Indy Features Keep Falling On My Head
I guess that means my eyes will soon be turning red.
Watching them’s for me
‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain of features by complainin’
Because they’re made for free
Nothings paid in the way of fee’s

[trumpet]

Yep, it’s raining outside but that hasn’t put the damp on the flood of features that will be pouring out this year from Wet Australia.

Below is a sure-to-be-incomplete list of West Aussie indy features that are in the works.

Drop a comment here or on Facebook if something has been missed.

Playthings – Will we see it by year end, Wade? Contributor to Brains? Wade K. Savage* has his feature PLAYTHINGS rolling along nicely.

The Near Death Experience – Kane George Jason* is getting his feature TNDE up and running with a 2011 release goal.

Gemini – Burliegh Smith has a rom com feature in the works, aiming for a early 2011 release.

House of Blue – Kenta McGrath‘s feature length doc has been completed and LBP has a feature in pre-production.

Redback – Loren Johnson’s feature length thriller wrapped last week. Expecting more soon.

Esoterica – Nakatomi Pictures have completed production on their feature.

Congoro – Matt Z’s feature, finished, but not.

*Phil Jeng Kane is another of the three name film guys in this city. Does the K in Wade K., stand for Kane? Remind me to ask him.

8 Pier Street, home to Little Boy Pictures and lauded filmmaker Kenta McGrath. Situated amongst the hussle and bussle of Perth’s CBD, Brains stopped by for a catch up with McGrath.

What’s in production for Little Boy Pictures?

Production wise nothing yet…we are wrapping up post production on a feature documentary called House of Blue. It was shot back in December 2005, but it was a film that we needed to mull over, five years later we are finally ready to finish. We have a feature film still at script level and a feature film in pre-production.

You’ve shot on both film (Welcome to Pipe Mountain) and digital (Three Hams in a Can, House of Blue). Do you want to weigh in on the film versus digital debate?

I think it’s a very interesting debate, I’m really undecided about it. From my past experience I much prefer to shoot on film. First of all the general aesthetics, I like the look of film, when you shoot on something as expensive as film it really brings out the best in you. With video it’s so disposable, it’s so cheap, there’s a tendency to just keep doing it again and again. Whereas with film every second is dollars ticking over. It forces you to make tough decisions. This is mainly to do with low budget films, if you are working with a Hollywood budget, of course you can buy all the stock you want, but with low budget films it can really raise the professionalism of your crew, and improve the decision making of your crew.
Video is very interesting, what I don’t like at the moment is people who use video but try to make it look like film. Video has a lot of other possibilities, which many Australian filmmakers haven’t really tapped into, yes it’s cheap but for example if you shoot on a tiny camcorder, that camera can fit into any small space, which a 16mm camera cannot do. They are so unobtrusive and so ubiquitous. You can get really truthful performances, I think digital cameras can be used to make films that can only be shot on digital. There’s an Iranian film called “Ten,” the whole film is a scene in a car, you have two digital cameras on the dashboard. It’s a film that could not be shot on film, first of all, logistically you couldn’t fit a film camera on a dashboard it’s too big, and you couldn’t get that type of performance from the actors. It doesn’t matter if they are professional actors, digital cameras can be so unobtrusive you don’t even notice them. People haven’t quite exploited what digital can do yet.

What filmmakers are you influenced by?

There are filmmakers who I absolutely love and will for the rest of my life, but I wouldn’t necessarily reference them in my work. Influences can range from certain films, a song that I’ve heard or a story that someone has told me. Most of the time it doesn’t have much to do with other films at all. But having said that, I like how certain filmmakers approach film and I try to adapt what I learn from them.

You write and direct, as a writer, what are your processes from idea to script?

Generally scripts that I’ve written have been really really sparse. All the scripts that I’ve written have been with Hugh Thomson, who shoots most of my stuff. Hole in the Ground is the same, it’s a forty minute film but the script is only 10-12 pages. I only see scripts as a template.
The process, we come together first and write down 6-7 general ideas for films to be made. Then we choose two or three of them, we alternate working on them, sometimes ideas from one film will find it’s way to another. We just shout out ideas, we don’t really write films which are narrative driven, or plot driven should I say.

I notice recently that a lot of filmmakers in Perth work in pairs. Is that common in film?

Yeah, I never noticed that but that’s totally true, you’re right. Umm.. it’s certainly common.

Is it easier to work with a partner?

Yeah I definitely think so, I mean… Well you can’t make films by yourself. It’s definitely easier, especially in script writing, I find writing by yourself to be almost an impossible task. Other people love it, they just lock themselves up in their bedroom eating Maggi noodles all day and write a script. I can’t do that, I’ll constantly need bouncing back and forth. Yeah, I think with scriptwriting having a partner is extremely important.

If you aren’t already on the McGrath bandwagon…I suggest you jump on, I suspect seats will become a premium in the near future.

Who are you?
Matt Zappala

What do you do?
Act. Write. Edit. Direct.

What have you done?
I am a partner in the creation of a feature film, working title called “Congoro”. It’s a Action/Comedy about three screenwriters that are trying to write something brilliant in two days and as they come up with concepts the audience is visually shown how it all plays out. We made the film originally as a bit of fun and to see if we could make a “no budget” feature and have it look as hollywood and as commercially acceptable as possible with what was available to us at the time. I acted, Co-wrote and Co-produced that one with Daniel Parry.

Since the finish of Congoro we have had opportunities to sell the film and/or develop it further into a much larger project which is what Dan and I are currently doing, developing it further. With Congoro we had to write the script with very limited resources at hand and a very limited time frame. Now we have the opportunity to make the movie we always wanted too and by golly goshtown we’re going to do just that and film it too. I’ve co-written two feature scripts, three if you include Congoro, while also working on a script of my own.

I’ve worked on a few short films as Writer, Editor and actor such as “Tijuana Sunset” . For me, TJ was something I’ve wanted to do since I started doing this stuff. Grab some guns, go out somewhere, and just shoot the shit out of anything and film it in the coolest way possible. Gotta thank Bender for that one .

I also just wrapped on my first directorial piece. A short film called “Surfaced” starring a very talented and equally sexy Matt Elverd and a crew that if I went without I would not have such good looking footage and happy memories.

What are you going to do?
I am going to continue development of the script I’m co-writing with Dan until it gets made. At the same time I am going to continue working on my own feature film script and develop my skills more as a director with another short film or two before doing something…Bigger.

The short film “Surfaced” was basically a venture to see if I was able to handle directing and I feel that it was a very successful venture and something I very much want to continue doing. I have a goal to achieve over the next two years and one way or another I will achieve it.

I’m also thinking of doing a Zumba class.

Where can we find you?
I troll a lot so you can find me on facebook or you can hit me up at my hotmail mattzappala@hotmail.com

Alternatively you can get a massive 30k spotlight, assemble together a “Z” and point it into the night sky.

Any last words?
Not yet, I’m only getting started

Burleigh Smith:

Screenplay reading last Wednesday evening went well. Some seventy or eighty people showed. All ages, from early teens to late seventies. Actors did a good job, audience responded well, I was happy. Only a couple of walkouts, including a new film student of mine. Looks like I have the task ahead of me to teach him good taste! And maybe some manners.

Feedback pages were quite positive. Some wanted more violence, others wanted less violence. Some wanted more profanity, others wanted less profanity. A local filmmaker took great delight in tearing the screenplay apart. His criticisms were largely trivial or poorly-considered. I suppose he didn’t appreciate my criticisms of his screenplay, which was read at an earlier Script Lab. Only difference was that my criticisms were tactfully-worded and well-thought out.

I could see some people were unsettled by the descriptions of the bullying. I imagine bullying is something that has affected most. One forty-nine-year-old gave a detailed account on the feedback form of his horrifying experiences at school. Not sure how to feel about this.

I really appreciate the opportunities these PAC Script Labs offer local writers. It’s the chance to get your writing in front of an audience before the trouble and expense of making the film. A big thank you to Annie Murtagh-Monks.

Burleigh Smith.

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.

If you’re in hurry then you might want to bookmark this post and come back later with some popcorn, because we got a lotta action for you. Stuart Bender’s stuff is best described as ‘die hardcore’, a freshly coined term to describe the getting ever better YouTube action genre. You can find his work on YouTube and Vimeo. Here’s a little taster…..

BRAINS?: Hi, and who are you?

STUART BENDER: I’m a filmmaker working in the genre of short action films. I do two types of films; test films and actual narratives. The first type is a series called “A Shitload of Action” and I’m editing #9 at the moment. These films allow me to set effects challenges for myself to overcome.

For example, on A Shitload #7, “How the hell will I do an explosion inside a house convincingly?” Then on Shitload #8, “Ok Bigshot, you thought you did well with that explosion? How about a HELICOPTER this time?”

The other films, the narrative films, then absorb those effects once I get them right. I also set narrative or formal challenges; eg: Can a film make narrative sense without any dialogue? (Loverboy), Can a film-noir contain a modern action film sensibility? (Asphalt and Lace).

The guns are replicas that are easy enough to get from army surplus shops. It looks fucking stupid on set because people are essentially “playing wars,” but then it’s so satisfying when I’m in post-production compositing gunshot effects and it suddenly becomes believable machine-gun fire etc.

People have talked about using guns with blank ammunition etc, and I can see advantages there in terms of actors’ performance. But actors can also fake it well enough, and replicas make things faster on set.

If I did it with blank firing weapons; I’d need an armourer who would inspect the weapons before and after each take, actors would need to stop and wait for that to happen, I’d also need to PAY for the armourer’s time, the weapons and the ammunition, and I anticipate we’d need to inform every neighbour.

What do I gain by doing it in post? A faster shooting schedule, and hours of enjoyment when I sit down and work on the effects in post.

My shootouts are filmed in what I’d call a “Gonzo decoupage” style– put this guy behind a car, film him from a range of angles firing and taking cover, then he dies; next guy behind the column, same thing; next guy behind some pile of barrels or whatever, same thing.

I’ve seen the same films my audience has, so I know how the shots are meant to be cut together later on, and because these things have to be cut so fast it makes sense to roll camera for a minute or so and just snatch a bunch of decent angles.

BRAINS?: Could you walk us through a few of the films?

The films are available in various places; youtube will give you all the “A Shitload of Action” films… except #4 which has been a casualty of censorship, and #6 because it doesn’t exist.

“A Shitload of Action 5: Hostage Holocaust II” is a good place to start.







From there it would be logical to look at “Loverboy” which is an attempt to use the effects within an actual narrative:







The team I work with is expanding all the time; which is something I feel incredibly grateful for. The majority of what’s been done so far has been produced by Chris James, and along the way I’ve gathered a really enthusiastic team. Some of the key people in the core creative team include [cinematographer] Murray Christian and [production designer] Juliette Dujardin.







“Asphalt and Lace” came out of my obsession with Mickey Spillane’s novels featuring Mike Hammer. One of the reasons Spillane’s my favourite hard-boiled writer is that I’m fascinated by the fact they’re private eye novels where we never see the protagonist actually deal with a case. We might catch Hammer as he’s on the way home from finishing a case, and because it’s pissing down with rain he stops to get something to eat… and just so happens to be there when roughnecks arrive to hassle some girl.

I believe in a short film you don’t have enough time to develop character or story in ways that will feel satisfying, so it’s the perfect genre to experiment with different means of telling a narrative.

The film started with Chris and I having a discussion about those kinds of ideas; after which I wrote the treatment as a short story and then together we fashioned it into script form. At that point the other creative people joined in; Murray and Juliette.

I think Murray Christian’s major task was lighting the thing well, without money, and with a short shooting schedule. I’m really happy with his lighting on this piece — especially because he constantly wanted to work in some soft lighting and had to deal with me saying “No! It needs to be stronger. More harsh. And don’t put any fucking scrim on those lights either!”

We shot the film on HDV in a two-day shoot. There were a few pickup shots later on, like climbing onto my roof, setting fire to a road and doing close-ups of a scalpel into a shirt but those were things that came up during the lengthy post-production process.

The edit itself was fairly quick, but because of the amount of effects I probably spent three or four months, most nights of the week, working in After Effects to put the thing together.

After that, Wendi Graham worked on the sound in post which I think really makes the film hang together. One of the best things she did is layer different rain sounds throughout the piece, and I can still remember the first time I heard the way the rain and wind whooshes up when the protagonist pushes open the high-rise window.

I’ve just directed something written by Matt Zappala which has been so satisfying because he’s got a great knack for snappy dialogue, and he writes FAST. As the director this kind of script is great because I can take the dialogue scene that reads as “cool dialogue” on paper, and add some kind of sexual subtext (eg: tie the girls up) or certain kinds of suspense (eg: the good guy is making smart-ass comments becuase that will distract the baddie from the girl-hostage enough that she can get free). I’m really excited about the next thing we might work on!

Brains?: Where can we find you online?

Stringer: You can find me at www.jasonstringer.com. I’m also the webmaster of The Exorcist Fansite www.captainhowdy.com, which has led me to meet the great Paul Schrader in Rome… but that’s a story I like to tell over a drink after you’ve shaken my hand.

Tell us about the film.

Her Party was shot as part of the Film & Television (FTI) Advanced Diploma of Screen course of which I graduated last year. I had to pitch to a panel to win the chance to direct that story.

It was shot by the lovely and talented Devina McPherson on Sony’s Z1P camera. With my Producer Taryne Laffar, I was able to hand-pick my crew from my classmates. Roles such as Director of Photography and First Assistant Director were pitched to us for selection, while others were chosen based on past experience. It was edited by Gemma Gittens on the AVID system at FTI.

We were allowed a week to shoot the film, but it was petite enough to wrap it up in two days. The hardest part was the rain and wind. Weather always seems to interfere with any film shoot, doesn’t it? It was a very relaxed set and we all got along fine.

One of the things I worried about as a director was giving actress Penelope Andrews the time and space she needed to give the performance she does in the closing scene.  During pre-production and in every brief during production I explained to the crew that we’d be shooting that scene last – the last thing we’d shoot for the whole film. I didn’t mind chitter-chatter and laughter ordinarily but when it came time to shoot that last scene I had continually asked for silence and complete respect for Penny.  The wonderful crew handled it perfectly and Penny and I were able to operate the scene as if no-one else was there. It remains one of my favourite directorial moments so far.
 
Looking ahead, I have three projects I am excited to be involved with.  I will be directing a new short film I wrote called THAT YEAR THEY WERE BRIDESMAIDS around August, we’re starting pre-production at the moment. I’m producing a short film called SMILE, being directed by fellow FTI graduate Danny Clark.  I’m also in early pre-production on a documentary being directed by another fellow FTI graduate, Stephen Parry.
 

Just don’t not do it

The future for W.A. film is bright. I’m serious and I’m not on drugs – at least not at the time of writing. Sure things could not be worse right now but in the process of making a completely independent feature over the course of the last year (check it out – at IamBish.com) I’ve discovered that we are living in a state filled with the most supportive potential crew and extras an indie director could ever hope for. We are perfectly placed to ride a massive wave that will change the way we make, distribute and view films forever. And as the price of making films just keeps dropping we are about to reach a tipping point where those with a story to tell and the guts to take a financial risk (a much smaller one than ever before) can no longer be held back by the lack of investors and the bumbling of the funding agencies.

My goal is to see the opening of an indie studio in Perth by the end of the decade and the opening of a major international studio by 2015 and with the will, and the get up and go that all WAhetains inherently possess it is so totally doable.

May the force be with yous.

Dave Bishop

Damn right. Go here and help out: play it forward bitches.

And if you know of any other features on the go then let I know.

Percentage of Australian feature films which were the first, second, third, fourth or more fea­ture film for the filmmakers involved, 1970s to 1990s

Source: Australian Film Commission.