Part 1: Wrapping it up with a Bow – The 2nd AACTA Awards Luncheon, presented by Deluxe

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Winners at the 2nd AACTA Awards Luncheon, presented by Deluxe, Monday 28 January. Photo: Belinda Rolland

The statuettes have been presented, the winners have been toasted and the laurels have been sent out to each winning production. While the 2nd AACTA Awards may be fast receding behind us, there’s now the task of looking through all the wonderful photos and priceless video footage from the two Sydney events, and making sure they’re labelled and saved for posterity – and shared with screen industry and audience members alike.

In this, the first part of our AACTA Awards wrap, we shine the spotlight on the 2nd AACTA Awards Luncheon, presented by Deluxe and held in Sydney at The Star Event Centre on Monday 28 January.

The luncheon was hosted by the ever-entertaining Adam Elliot, who memorably appeared in one segment dressed as a gold-clad human statuette. Other presenters included Diana Glenn, Jane Harber and Jimi Bani as well as acclaimed actors Damon Herriman, Daniel Henshall and Felicity Price. Also taking to the stage were The Sapphires stars Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens.

A highlight of the luncheon was the special presentation of the Raymond Longford Award to Producer, Al Clark.

The 2nd AACTA Awards Luncheon, presented by Deluxe also recognised the talent and innovation of artists and craftspeople working across television, documentary, short fiction film, short animation and feature film categories.  Here’s a quick rundown, with clips from our YouTube Channel:

DOCUMENTARY

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
Storm Surfers 3D. Ellenor Cox, Marcus Gillezeau.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY UNDER ONE HOUR
Then The Wind Changed. Jeni McMahon, Celeste Geer. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Go Back To Where You Came From. Rick McPhee, Ivan O’Mahoney. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION IN A DOCUMENTARY
Fighting Fear. Macario De Souza. FOXTEL - Movie Network

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY
Fighting Fear. Tim Bonython, Chris Bryan, Macario De Souza, Lee Kelly. FOXTEL – Movie Network

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY
Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta – Episode 1. Sam Wilson. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SOUND IN A DOCUMENTARY
Dr Sarmast’s Music School. Dale Cornelius, Livia Ruzic, Keith Thomas. ABC1

 

SHORT FILM

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SHORT ANIMATION
The Hunter. Marieka Walsh

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FICTION FILM
Julian. Robert Jago, Matthew Moore.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY IN A SHORT FILM
Transmission. Zak Hilditch.

TELEVISION

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION SERIES
Agony Aunts. Adam Zwar, Nicole Minchin. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST TELEVISION COMEDY SERIES
Lowdown – Season 2. Nicole Minchin, Amanda Brotchie, Adam Zwar. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE IN A TELEVISION COMEDY
Patrick Brammall. A Moody Christmas. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CHILDREN’S TELEVISION SERIES
The Adventures Of Figaro Pho. Dan Fill, Frank Verheggen, David Webster. ABC3

 

FEATURE FILM

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Sapphires. Warwick Thornton.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST EDITING
The Sapphires. Dany Cooper ASE.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SOUND
The Sapphires. Andrew Plain, Bry Jones, Pete Smith, Ben Osmo, John Simpson.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
Not Suitable For Children. Matteo Zingales, Jono Ma.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Sapphires. Melinda Doring.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Sapphires. Tess Schofield.

A gallery of gorgeous photos of winners from the luncheon can be found here on Facebook or on our Instagram account, but for a taste, here’s a gallery of selected shots from the event:

For full details of the 2nd AACTA Awards Luncheon, presented by Deluxe, see the AACTA website here.

Coming next: Part 2: Wrapping it up with a Bow: The 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony.

Troubled Mothers, Gold Coast Garishness and The Sound of Music: P.J. Hogan on the making of MENTAL

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Writer-director P.J. Hogan (centre) with cinematographer Donald M. McAlpine on the set of MENTAL.

By Rochelle Siemienowicz |

When writer-director P.J. Hogan burst into public consciousness in 1994 with his first feature film, Muriel’s Wedding, he not only launched two newly minted Australian stars (Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths) but, along with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, helped to fuel a fervent ABBA revival.

With an unflinching eye and keen ear for the Australian grotesque, Hogan managed to blend garish colours, iconic music and hilarious black humour with genuine pathos and moral complexity. It was a successful recipe that took the film to Cannes, Sundance and Toronto, and won Muriel’s Wedding four AFI Awards, a BAFTA nomination and an American Writers’ Guild nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Proving that his talents could travel outside a Gold Coast location, Hogan’s first American film, the zany and unconventional My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), starring Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett, went on to become one of the highest grossing romantic comedies of all time and was nominated for three Golden Globes. His other American films have included Peter Pan (2003) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) and telemovies Dark Shadows (2005 ) and Nurses (2007 ). But now Hogan returns to his roots with an Australian film that looks like the Muriel’s cousin, complete with Toni Collette in a starring role.

Set in the Gold Coast town of Dolphin Heads this time (rather than ‘Porpoise Spit’!) Mental tells the story of the Moochmore family which consists of five loopy teenage girls, their depressed and ‘mental’ mother Shirley (Rebecca Gibney), and their shady local politician father Barry (Anthony LaPaglia). Into their rather sad and frazzled lives comes Shaz (Collette), the demented babysitter, picked up from the side of the road as a hitchhiker, she’s both brilliant and terrifying. The soundtrack this time is laden with tunes from the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein score for The Sound of Music.

Muriel’s Cousin?

Hogan is matter of fact about the similarities between this latest film and his breakout hit all those years ago. “Like Muriel’s Wedding, Mental is based on events from my past,” he says. “It’s not surprising that they seem related. I always say that they share DNA. While not being the same story, they’re definitely from the same person.”

As far as the lurid Gold Coast location goes, this is where Hogan grew up. “We used a lot of the places that I remembered from my childhood that were still there. And if they weren’t still there, they were replaced by edifices even more garish, so there you go!” he enthuses.

Hogan, who turns 50 this year, is wiry and intense with bright brown eyes. He’s likable and funny and he laughs a lot, often at his own expense. But it’s clear he’s driven by his own demons and visions, many of them stemming from his personal family-of-origin story. He’s the first to admit he comes from a dysfunctional family, and that Mental is based on his own tragedies.

“The beginning of the film is almost as it happened,” he explains. When I was 12, my mother had a nervous breakdown. My dad, who was a local politician and running for re-election at the time, just said, ‘Nobody is going to vote for a bloke whose wife has gone crazy,’ so we had to keep it quiet. And he picked up a hitchhiker off the side of the road. He trusted her because she had a dog. And I remember we returned from school one day and there was this strange woman on the couch rolling a cigarette, with her dog by her side and a knife sticking out of her boot. She said, ‘Bit of a mess in here innit?’ As a writer, I didn’t feel the need to improve on that!”

Vulgar, fearless and unconventional, Collette’s Shaz is the twisted heroine of the film. Did her real life counterpart turn out to be such a positive influence on Hogan and his siblings? ”She really did sort us out,” he answers. “We were a bunch of ratbags. My mother really did have a nervous breakdown for a reason, and we were a part of that! Shaz was very inspiring. To this day she remains one of the most original and inspiring people of my life. But she was crazy. And I mean, certifiably crazy, and we discovered that later. Like a lot of people who are crazy, she walked that line between crazy and genius. She thought about things in an original way. She’s probably still out there, living with another family, changing their lives right now!”

It’s hard to find a completely ‘normal’ person in Mental. There’s depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorders, obsessive compulsion and a plethora of other unlabeled dysfunctions. In fact, one of the film’s themes is the idea that nobody is perfectly normal. Hogan agrees. “I don’t know what ‘normal’ means. My mother tried to be normal all her life and went mad in the process. Because what’s normal? It changes all the time. Normal is having a clean house. Normal is getting your kids into the right school, or even having a vegan diet. It’s a big issue for me because not only my mother had issues with depression, but my sister is schizophrenic, my brother is bipolar, so my family bats in the big leagues! It was very important for me that it not only be funny, but that it be compassionate.”

Troubled Mothers: from Betty Heslop to Shirley Moochmore

Certainly one of the most memorable characters in Muriel’s Wedding turned out to be the long-suffering people-pleasing mother of Muriel, Betty Heslop, played so beautifully by Jeanie Drynan. Despite having only a few scenes in the film, she was the tragic heart of the story, and in Mental, the troubled mother figure, played by Rebecca Gibney has echoes of Betty, but with a happier story arc, and a singing role.

The hills are alive, with the sound of…madness! Shirley Moochmore celebrates a manic shopping spree in MENTAL.

“I traveled the world with Muriel’s Wedding and the character that affected people most profoundly was Jeanie Drynan’s,” says Hogan. So many people asked me ‘Why did you have to make her die? Why did her ending have to be so sad?’ They all told me she reminded them of their own mother. I even met with people in India whose own mothers reminded them of Jeanie Drynan! Jeanie Drynan’s character was based on my own mother – and she didn’t have a very happy ending. So when I came to do Mental I decided to give my mother a happy ending.  I thought: ‘what if this time the Shirley character wins?’. And that’s what happens. She comes out on top and she gets some brass and I think Rebecca Gibney is marvelous in the role.”

The casting of the central roles is certainly notable. Toni Collette seems a natural fit for Shaz, especially with her history in Hogan’s first hit, and he admits that “this is one of the few times that I’ve written a role with an actor in mind because when I was working on the story I started to hear Toni’s voice saying Shaz’s lines.”

‘I couldn’t give that role away with a toaster! But Liev Schreiber saw what it could be.’

P.J. Hogan on set of MENTAL with actor Liev Schreiber.

But what about the casting of respected heavyweight American actor Liev Schreiber as the comedically menacing Trevor the shark hunter? It must be admitted that Schreiber’s pitch perfect Australian accent and macho presence in the film almost steal the show, but what led Hogan to think of him as a possibility? “I couldn’t give that role away with a free toaster! Nobody wanted to do it,” says Hogan, “because on the page Trev does not have much screen time. And actors, I don’t care who they are, they’re page-counters. They’ll finish reading the script and ask, ‘am I furniture, or am I a part?’ And often that becomes mathematical – if I’m not in it for more than 10 pages, then I’m furniture.’  But somehow the screenplay ended up in the hands of Liev and he saw what the role could be. I had never thought of going offshore for that role but Liev understood this guy. He contacted me through friends, and he wanted the part. And I said, ‘we have no money’, and he said, ‘I’ll do it for whatever you’ve got’. Of course we discussed the accent. I’m not a big believer in Americans coming in and trying to do the Australian accent, because it doesn’t usually work. It’s a very difficult accent to do. But I knew that Liev – having seen him on stage – is a master of accents. And of course he’s married to an Australian, and he felt that he could do it. I don’t think he would’ve done the part if he wasn’t convinced he could pull it off, and he did spectacularly.”

The Don behind the camera

MENTAL is cinematographer Don McAlpine’s first foray into digital cinematography – and he’s not turning back.

Mental is shot by legendary (and Raymond Longford Award-winning) cinematographer Don McAlpine, who also shot Peter Pan for Hogan nearly a decade ago. This new film boasts the honour of being McAlpine’s first experience with digital cinematography. “I didn’t want to do it digital,” admits Hogan, “because I’m a film guy, which makes me spiritually older than Don is. I’ve never really liked the look of digital film. But I left it to Don, and I thought after so many decades of shooting film, if Don wants to go digital, then he knows how to do it! And if you talk to Don, then you’ll know that he will never go back. He has now become digital’s biggest champion. He loves it. And this is the guy who did My Brilliant Career and Moulin Rouge – one of the greatest Australian DPs – and he’s not going to go back to film.”

A Mental nod to the Von Trapp Family

Asked what the most difficult aspect of making the film was, Hogan answers, “just making the thing, and making it on a low budget. I never really like talking about budgets because whether it’s low or high, I don’t like that to be the focal point – but I will say that Mental cost more than Muriel’s Wedding but only because with that film (Muriel) ABBA gave us the rights for free to use their music. A lot of the money here went towards getting Rodgers and Hammerstein’s music. Luckily as a filmmaker I’m known for having a very good reason for using particular music in my films. Rodgers and Hammerstein are understandably very protective of what they own. They read the script and I had a talk to them and they agreed to allow me to use it. But that doesn’t mean that they’re a charity, so we did have to pay.”

Still, it was essential to Hogan that this particular music formed the backdrop to the film – and the scene involving Anthony LaPaglia’s rendition of ‘Eidelweiss’ has to be seen to be believed. “I just love the movie The Sound of Music,” says Hogan. I was introduced to it in re-release by my mother, who adored it. I couldn’t understand why she always cried when the father sang ‘Eidelweiss’ – it wasn’t until later that I realised why, and that to me was very important realisation: the sound of music is a very entertaining movie but it is a burden as well, to try to compare your family to the Von Trapps!”

Filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse (centre), one of the producers of MENTAL, on set with husband and long time collaborator P.J. Hogan.

Mental  is now in general release in Australia.

Mental – Key Cast & Crew

Writer/Director: P.J. Hogan
Producers: Janet Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Todd Fellman and Jocelyn Moorhouse
Executive Producers: Gary Hamilton, Bryce Menzies and Lee Soon Kie
Key Cast: Toni Collette, Liev Schreiber, Anthony LaPaglia, Rebecca Gibney, Kerry Fox, Caroline Goodall, Deborah Mailman, Sam Clark, Lily Sullivan, Malorie O’Neill, Nicole Freeman, Chelsea Bennett, Bethany Whitmore.
Director of Photography: Don McAlpine, ASC
Production Designer: Graham Walker
Editor: Jill Bilcock
Music: Michael Yezerski
Visual Effects Supervisor: Ben West
Costume Designer: Tim Chappel
Casting: Christine King

‘Every second is history, every moment is history.’ Cate Shortland on LORE

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Cate Shortland (centre with notebook) on location in Germany for LORE.

The first thing you notice about Cate Shortland’s German language feature Lore is its stunning physical beauty. Each moment seems to vibrate off the screen with living, sensuous beauty. Whether it’s wet hair dripping down pale young shoulders, sunlight filtering through forest treetops, or trembling fingers stroking an SS badge on a soldier’s uniform, each  image is intimate, personal, and yes, gorgeous. Even when the story itself is painful or ugly. The viewer is reminded of Shortland’s first feature, Somersault (2004), a film so intimately, unashamedly female and sensuously pretty that some critics failed to see its intelligence, and expressed outrage when Somersault claimed a record-breaking 13 AFI Awards in 2004.

It’s unlikely anyone will fail to see the intelligence and seriousness of Lore, which was announced last week as Australia’s official entry into the Best Foreign Film category in the 2013 Academy Awards.

Cate Shortland, who studied fine arts and history before she went on to receive a graduate diploma in directing from AFTRS in 2000, is unpretentious and humble when she explains her philosophy on beauty: “When I’m making films, I just get really bored if I’m not excited by the image, so I wouldn’t even bother to shoot something that I didn’t find exciting in some way. It’s just how I work. But it’s certainly not like that when I’m watching other people’s films. For example, I watched The Descendants the other night, and I actually really loved it, and what I loved about it is the simplicity of how it works. [Making films beautiful] is just my personal way, the way I work, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the opposite way of working. On Lore, [the cinematographer] Adam Arkapaw also has a very strong visual instinct, and so did Silke Fischer, the production designer, so that was a very good mix.”

Make no mistake, the facts of the story depicted in Lore (based on Rachel Seiffert’s novel The Dark Room) are not pretty, and for all its visual pleasures, the tale is one of devastation. Teenage protagonist Hannelore ‘Lore’ (Saskia Rosendahl), the child of Nazi officials who’ve been imprisoned by the victorious Allies, begins to discover the ugly truth about her once-orderly world and the Aryan beliefs it rests upon. She’s forced to grow up quickly, taking her four younger siblings (including an unweaned baby brother) on a dangerous six-week 900km journey across disintegrating Germany to find safety with their grandmother in Hamburg.

Along the way the children meet up with Thomas (Kai Malina), a Jewish refugee from a death camp. There’s an attraction between the proudly Hitler-loving Lore, who is just coming into her sexual power, and the mysterious Thomas. Desire is mixed with racist revulsion, and complicated by the demands of survival, adding extra layers of tension to a journey that crosses vast distances, both physically and spiritually. It’s a WWII story we’ve never seen before.

When we meet for this interview, Shortland has just returned from Switzerland’s 2012 Locarno Film Festival, where Lore won the Audience Award. She’s doing a quick round of Australian publicity before heading off to Toronto, where Lore screens in Special Presentation. She’s  pleased with the way things are turning out for the film – especially for the young actors and crew involved, and she’s particularly gratified that the 8000-strong predominantly German speaking audience at Locarno loved the film so much that they endured the rain at the outdoor screening in order to see the film to its conclusion.

But festival acclaim and awards are nothing new for Shortland, whose lyrical short films, including Joy, Flowergirl and Pentuphouse marked her as a young director to watch in the late 1990s. Somersault screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2004 before going on to sweep the AFI Awards and the IF Awards – among many others. And then, it seemed, Shortland went to ground. Her name appeared occasionally in television credits (as director for The Secret Life of Us, Bad Cop, Bad Cop and ABC telemovie The Silence, and most recently as writer of the ‘Rosie’ episode of The Slap), but it seemed as if she may never make another feature.

“I think I was overwhelmed after Somersault,” she says carefully. “And I really wanted to have a family and filmmaking wasn’t my first priority.” Shortland and her husband director Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man, Dead Europe) spent a number of years back in his homeland, South Africa, and have two adopted African children, now aged 17 and four. “We live in a tiny house in Marrickville [in Sydney's inner west] and we have three tiny bedrooms and one kitchen/living space,” she says. “We’ve set up the wi-fi so it only works in that one tiny room and it’s great. We all live there together and we’re really close. That might not always be the case, but I hope it stays like that! We lived in Germany for eight months while we were making the film and my son Jonathan even worked on Lore as the video operator, so we’re all in it together.”

Cate Shortland, husband Tony Krawitz & their son Jonathan Shortland-Krawitz at the Sydney Film Festival premiere of LORE. Photograph by Cynthia Sciberras.

It’s not just family commitments, however, which have kept Shortland from the world of feature filmmaking. ”I look at a director like Michael Winterbottom and I’m so impressed by him doing a film almost every year, and doing such a beautiful job on all of them, and they’re all such different projects. He’s a genius. And not to compare myself in any way to him, but I’m not like that. I’m just the opposite. Something has to be really under my skin before I really want to do it, and I only did Lore because I fell in love with it.”

There’s no question that an English-speaking Australian director would have to be truly passionate to take on a project like Lore - shooting in a country and in a language other than her own, covering vast outdoor territories and working with a German-speaking cast, many of whom were children. But she’d fallen in love with the complexity and intimacy of the story and its questions about what it meant to be the child of a perpetrator of terrible crimes against humanity.

Shortland was adamant that the actors needed to be speaking their native tongue. The script (co-written by Shortland and Robin Mukherjee, and translated by Elisabeth Meister) underwent numerous drafts and rewrites. “I did the last two drafts of the script and I changed it quite a lot from what it initially was, so I knew it really intimately, back to front,” she says. “Then we went to a German translator in Sydney and that also changed the dialogue. Certain situations also changed when we translated it, because it needed to feel real to German language and German culture.”

Lead actress Saski Rosendahl speaks fluent English but Shortland needed to undergo a more complex communication process with the younger actors.

Contrary to popular wisdom, Shortland actually found it easier working with the child actors than the adults. “With the children, I’d had three weeks with them in rehearsals. The younger kids don’t speak any English – or they speak really minimal English, but [lead actress] Saskia [Rosendahl] speaks quite fluent English. We had a dramaturg helping us, and because we were all really familiar with each other, that process was not as difficult as I would have imagined. With children you’re just looking for a really truthful performance. But it was when I was directing the adults that it was much more difficult, because I didn’t know them as well, and nerves come into play.”

Shooting predominantly outdoors, across five German territories, also sounds rather challenging. “In one way it was a nightmare, but in another way, it meant that we got this incredible shift in the landscape, because we shot from the Black Forest to the North Sea, tracing the real journey that the kids would have made.”

Shortland credits producer Liz Watts for suggesting they employ Australian director of photography, Adam Arkapaw. “Liz really encouraged me as she thought that having an Australian DP would be fundamental actually, to my being able to cope in such a –  I suppose it sounds clichéd – but in such a foreign environment. I remember her saying: ‘Just hearing that accent, Cate, will be a good thing, when you’re in a bit of a crisis.’ And she was completely right in that. She had worked with Adam on Animal Kingdom, which I really loved. And then I saw Snowtown and Snowtown for me was just so fresh in terms of what Justin Kurzel and Adam achieved. I was really excited to meet Adam. He brought so much to the film, an immeasurable amount to the film.”

Shortland was keen to shoot on 16mm. “They shot Snowtown on 16mm and I loved the look of that. I was really reticent to shoot this film on digital, because of the clean look of digital. I really wanted a film grain.”

Shortland and DOP Adam Arkapaw were keen to shoot on 16mm to achieve a film grain rather than the clean look of digital.

Other Australian names populate the credits of Lore, which is an Australian/German/UK co-production. Among them are editor Veronika Jenet, sound designer Sam Petty, dialogue editor Yulia Akerholt, gaffer Michael Adcock, key grip Glenn Arrowsmith and many others. As a co-production, each department is a mix of German and Australian crew, with key German roles including composer Max Richter, production designer Silke Fischer, costume designer Stefanie Bieker and makeup and hair supervisor Katrin Westerhausen.

This begs the question, how does the filmmaking process in Germany differ from the process here in Australia? “There are many aspects which are the same,” says Shortland. “Working with the different heads of department like the production designer and the costume designer was a similar process to what I’m used to because you’re working with artists, and you’re working from an instinctual point of view.  But the way that the crew work is quite different, because they have almost two First ADs [Assistant Directors]. They have one first AD that works with the director, and then they have one First AD that works with the [production] office and they’re both on set. And there always seems to be this conflict of interests. They’re all meant to work together, but there were so many chains of communication and… it felt slightly… it felt like in Australia, the process is more streamlined.”

Shortland is keen to point out the professionalism and tireless dedication of her German heads of department. “I made such beautiful friends with some of the people I worked with. I had all these ideas in my head that were pretty clichéd and I was pretty worried about working with the German Heads of Department, but the actual teams worked really hard, really, really hard and were really professional. It was just more the whole structure of the shoot seemed very odd at times. There were a lot of jokes going around about the war. Some of the Australians were always saying under their breath: ‘I know why we won the war!’ because they felt like they had their organisation down pat. It sounds very parochial and very nationalistic, but I do think our [Australian] film crews are really professional and very streamlined. We’re known for that, and when you see the way they do it in another culture you realise our crews work really efficiently and they do a hell of a lot.”

Numerous outdoor locations across Germany and  working with very young actors were just some of the challenges in shooting LORE.

Shortland is impressed however, with the way “Germany as a culture has really interrogated their history and the horrible, disgusting, inhuman things that happened in that period. They feel immense shame and horror about that. But the way they dealt with it, they can be really proud of, and that’s kind of what Australia hasn’t done. I feel really sad for us as a country, because I feel like we could benefit so much [from interrogating our history] and then there wouldn’t be this horrible anger and fear that 99% of the population have about our Indigenous population and Indigenous history.”

Asked what she’d like Australian audiences in particular to take away from the film, Shortland says: “If anybody watches the film, hopefully they might think a little bit about what history means as an active thing, rather than as a recessive thing that you put behind you; the idea that history is something that you’re actually living in, because every second is history, every moment is history.”

As for what’s next, Shortland is enjoying the writing process and the collaborative nature of television work, where the weight of the entire production isn’t on her shoulders. “I’ve been writing and I’m absolutely loving that. I’m loving that whole process. I love the writers’ room where you’re a team. That was what was so great about writing on The Slap, because we were really a tight-knit team and there was just so much support for each other as writers, and everybody shared their ideas.  Now I’m working with Matchbox again on Gallipolli and on another series they’re doing. It’s fun, we laugh a lot. I love collaborating with all these brainy people.”

Lore is released nationally in Australia on 20 September.

Lore: Fast Facts

  • Lore is an official Australian/German co-production – approximately 30% Australian, 60% German, 10% UK.
  • The shoot took place in Germany from 19 July 2011 – 14 September 2011. Locations included Gorlitz, Baden-Wurttemberg, the Black Forest region, Hessen and the Schleswig-Holstein region.
  • Post-production work was done in Sydney, with a total 14 weeks editing, 10 weeks sound editing and mixing. Visual FX were completed out of Glasgow, Scotland and the music was composed in Germany and recorded in the UK.
  • Lore is released in Australasia through Transmission Films and in Germany through Piffl Mediem Gmbh. The international Sales Agent is Memento Films International.
  • Lore  was announced as Australia’s official entry into the Best Foreign Film category in the 2013 Academy Awards.
  • Lore is one of the Feature Films in Competition for the 2nd AACTA Awards.

Links

Why I Adore… Reality Television

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By Emma Ashton | 

Reality television has always been the unruly child amongst television genres – passionately loved by some, but barely tolerated by others, many of whom hoped and predicted that viewers would move on and it would eventually die out and never be heard of again.

Much to the chagrin of many, this naughty (and rumoured to be illegitimate) child, through sheer force of personality, continues to demand attention.

In the past decade, reality television shows have dominated ratings, created many stars, unearthed hidden talents, reinvigorated flagging careers, and provided much media chatter – both of the superficial and the deeply intellectual and sociological kinds. In fact, there’s no ignoring reality shows in any discussion of contemporary television programming.

In the beginning…

The beginning of the 2000s was the start of reality TV as we now know it. In Australia the networks bought up overseas formats like Big Brother, Survivor, The Mole, Dancing With The Stars, and Idol, producing local versions and variations.

The first big hit was the first series of Big Brother Australia, broadcast on Network Ten in 2001. This was the Australian version of the Endemol format, which originated in the Netherlands and now has franchises all over the world which follow the basic format: a diverse group of (usually) young people are confined in a house, with their interactions monitored like lab rats, and regular evictions eliminating all but the winner from the house.

The first Australian series captured the imagination of audiences (which averaged 1.4 million in the three-month period of series 1) and continued on yearly until the three-year hiatus after the low-rating 2008 series. (Big Brother has recently been revived for a ninth series, currently screening on the Nine Network.)

The first season of AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR aired on the Nine Network in 2002.

In the early days, an important part of the voyeuristic pleasure of Big Brother was the ability to watch the action live on the new-fangled invention, the internet. Viewers could then interact with the show by voting to eliminate contestants through SMS, and also by talking about it online in fan forums.

The rise of reality TV thus coincided with the rise of social media, which enticed viewers to watch shows live in order to discuss them in real time. This was something the critics and naysayers had not counted on: the explosion of social media and the perfect way it married with reality television programs.

After Big Brother, other international reality formats quickly found their way onto our screens, including the first series of Australian Survivor (Nine Network, 2002), Australian Idol (Network Ten, 2003), Dancing with the Stars (Channel 7, 2004), Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8, 2005) and many others.

The Masterchef phenomenon

It was Masterchef Australia which finally forced the industry and the critical viewer to give the reality genre some respect. The first series of this show hit our screens in April 2009 (Network Ten) as a replacement for the dead Big Brother, and it showed that a cooking show could pull in huge viewing numbers night after night. Ratings averaged more than 3 million viewers a night, peaking at 4.11 million in the final episode.

Julie Goodwin and Poh Ling Yeow – winner and runner-up for MASTERCHEF Series 1, 2009.

Other networks were desperate to find a reality show that would get people tuning in. Channel Nine achieved this with The Block (revived with great success in 2010) and most recently The Voice (2012); as has Seven with My Kitchen Rules (first season 2010) and The X Factor (first season 2005, revived in 2010). In fact, it should be acknowledged that Seven persisted with those latter two shows despite slow first seasons, eventually turning them into mega hits.

In 2009, viewers who had previously hidden their love of reality TV, along with new viewers who’d just discovered it, were suddenly talking about Masterchef, passionately involved in whether their favourite contestants would win or be eliminated. The success of this program showed that reality TV was not going away, but instead was a force to be reckoned with. Viewers who had finally crossed to the “dark side” were now willing to test the water with other shows in the reality genre.

Indigenous? Muslim? Middle-Aged or Mumsy? Please apply

Personally, what I love about reality TV is its diversity of casting. For the first time in primetime history, there were people from different backgrounds, ages, sizes and sexuality on our television screens, and look at how we have embraced them! It could be argued that this has paved the way for more risks to be taken in casting within drama series, other television formats, and even feature films.

Winner of BIG BROTHER, Series 4, the Fijian-born Trevor Butler and runner-up Bree Amer, 2004.

Who can forget Trevor Butler, of Fijian background, winning one million dollars on Big Brother 2004 and going on to have a media career? Or Casey Donovan, who won the reality singing show Australian Idol 2004 at the age of 16, voted for by viewers who did not care about her Aboriginal ancestry or her size? The hugely talented Indigenous singer Jessica Mauboy also obtained her start on Australian Idol, where she was runner-up in the 2006 series. Without this start, it’s possible she’d never have been discovered, and we wouldn’t be enjoying her talents in feature films like Bran Nue Dae and most recently, The Sapphires.

Journalist, television host and radio broadcaster Chrissie Swan may never have had a media career without the kick start she got from appearing as runner-up in the 2003 series of Big Brother.  Nine years on, she still battles criticisms for her weight, her parenting and her refreshing candor, but she forces the industry to treat her with respect because of her popularity with audiences, a popularity which culminated in her winning the Most Popular New Female Talent Logie Award in 2011.

Jessica Mauboy, runner-up in the 2006 series of AUSTRALIAN IDOL and now gracing cinema screens in THE SAPPHIRES.

Amina Elshafei, who was open about her Muslim religion on the 2012 series of Masterchef Australia, was loved by the audience. She showed that a Muslim girl, wearing a hijab and avoiding pork, can be sassy, talented and ‘Australian’. As did Mo and Mos (Mohammed El-leissy and Mostafa Haroun) who were the extremely funny bumbling team on the first season of The Amazing Race Australia. Australian born Muslims of Egyptian background, these two friends were one of the reasons the 2011 show was such fun to watch.

Reality singing TV shows were initially considered an illegitimate way for a person to enter the industry as they had not done the “hard yards” in the music circuit. However shows like Idol, The X Factor and The Voice gave talented singers the opportunity to showcase their skills when previously they may not have had the right ‘look’ or the necessary connections to get ahead in the industry.

Without Australian Idol, would record executives ever have considered signing up 2003 winner Guy Sebastian? A Sri Lankan/Malay boy with an afro, who was not shy about talking about his belief in God or the fact that he was a virgin, he was not exactly made in the traditional pop star mould, yet he continues with chart success and as a judge on The X Factor.

Winner of the 2012 series of The Voice, Karise Eden has a big, gravelly voice and a troubled background, growing up in foster care with low self esteem. It’s highly unlikely that she’d ever have succeeded in getting a demo tape onto a recording executive’s desk without The Voice. And fellow contestant Darren Percival’s demo tape would have been stamped “too old” and “been gigging too long”. Through The Voice, however, he was able to reach his audience – the mums at home who don’t have the time, money or energy to get out to live shows.

The award-winning hit, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, Series 1, SBS1.

Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS, 2011) brought the genre respect by highlighting the important and contentious issue of refugees. The program used the tricks and conventions of reality TV productions, placing the cast of six ‘ordinary’ Australians outside their comfort zone and pushing them to their emotional limits. The three-part series took its Australian participants on a confronting 25 day journey which saw them challenge their preconceptions about refugees and asylum seekers. The resulting show, along with its discussion forum and social media frenzy, increased viewers’ understanding of global issues, increasing our empathy for the plight of dispossessed people. The series garnered a number of awards, including the coveted Golden Rose for Best of 2012 at the Rose d’Or Awards ceremony in Switzerland, the TV Week Logie Award in 2012 for Most Outstanding Factual, and two awards at the 2011 United Nations Association of Australian Media Peace Awards for best television documentary and for its promotion of multicultural issues.

Now with the second series of Go Back to Where You Came From (currently broadcast on SBS1), the same production team have created a celebrity version of the show, with participants including former hardline Liberal politician Peter Reith and former ‘shock jock’ Michael Smith. This is attracting similar accolades from the press and audiences.

In a society where education, race, gender and socio-economic background strongly determine opportunities, reality TV has surprisingly allowed these barriers to be challenged and crossed, changing our cultural perceptions and norms in the process. This can only be a good thing.

Connection, emotion and fantasy – why reality works for me

Another aspect of the reality genre which I love is watching people receive the opportunity to transform their lives. It may just be with the big cash prize, but also in other ways.

Would winner of Masterchef Australia season one, Julie Goodwin, a middle-aged stay-at-home mum, ever have dreamt her life would change so much when she auditioned for the show? Anyone bored with the humdrum of their everyday life would cheer her on for jagging a Woman’s Weekly column or her television cooking show. It is not just the winners, however, who change their lives. The vast majority of the Masterchef contestants have changed their lives as a result of being on the show.

South Australian winners of MY KITCHEN RULES, Leigh Sexton (left) and Jennifer Evans – who was initially seen as a ‘villain’.

What really draws love, however, is being able to emotionally connect with the contestants. Like modern day Vaudeville, these shows cause us to fall in love with some, and fervently dislike others. In fact, some contestants are set up to be villains, and this need not be seen as a  negative, as the savvy reality TV contestant realises this role will get them more air time and a higher media profile. In fact, the villain can even transform into the hero. For example, this year’s My Kitchen Rules winner, Jen (Jennifer Evans), started off being quite disliked for her forthright views, however she forced the audience to treat her with respect, due to her superior cooking skills and her entertainment value.

I also love the fact that I can be personally involved in reality television shows through voting and social media interactions. Yes, we viewers are sometimes manipulated by the editing, but it feels good to be supporting the people we like.

Another aspect I enjoy is the sheer quantity of fresh faces that appear on our screens with each new show. As each new series starts, I can’t help but  wonder who will be the star, who will have the talent? Which contestant will I hate, and which ones will  make me laugh?

Hosts with the most – to gain

I also love seeing the fresh (or re-freshed) faces of the cast of judges and hosts who front these shows. At one point it may have been considered a career dead-end – though faded 80s rock stars must have been grateful for the boost to their retirement funds. Now, however, these are prized jobs. Media identities know that if they can appear on a top rating reality show, they may just reinvigorate careers, find whole new fan bases, sell merchandise and showcase another side of themselves.

Revived careers – the judges for THE VOICE AUSTRALIA, Season 1: Joel Madden, Keith Urban, Delta Goodrem & Seal. 2012

It was no coincidence that most of the coaches on The Voice had singles, marketing campaigns and ticket sales commencing at the time the show was broadcast. Delta Goodrem had not had a hit for five years and now she’s everywhere. Within Australia, Keith Urban was considered a niche talent, more famous for his movie star wife, Nicole Kidman, than for his own talents. But with The Voice he cemented his identity as a likeable and approachable talent within the mainstream.

Deserving Respect – a new Award for reality TV

One of the chief criticisms leveled at the genre has been that it steals jobs away from real actors and from creative talents involved in scripted drama, as well as leaching resources from hard news and traditional documentary formats. These are probably issues for someone other than a rabid reality fan to answer!

However, it must be acknowledged that the popularity of reality productions (many of which are more popular here in Australia than their international counterparts) has meant that they are a huge employer within the local industry and a training ground for many new talents both behind and in front of the camera. Live television events, such as those orchestrated by reality television shows, seem to be the future of free to air television, and one of the few formats resistant to time-shifting, illegal downloading and audience fragmentation.

The reality TV genre is broad and continually evolving. Reality television shows have given Australian viewers many of the iconic television moments of the last ten years, and it’s clear now that this genre will continue to thrive in the competitive television landscape.

As an obsessive fan and prolific commentator on reality television, I must say that I’m thrilled to see this much-maligned form of entertainment – which is such an important aspect of the yearly television schedule – now being acknowledged with its own Award by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The people involved in producing, commissioning and working on reality television shows certainly deserve to have an award that recognises excellence within their genre, thus giving legitimacy and acknowledging excellence within these formats.

I’m eagerly looking forward to November, when we’ll find out which shows have been nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Reality Television Show. Bring it on!

About the author:

Emma Ashton is Editor/Publisher of Reality Ravings (www.realityravings.com). You can also follow her on Twitter @RealityRavings where she’s sure to be tuning in live and tweeting about the latest reality offerings on Australian television.

Engineering the Perfect Storm: Producers Marcus Gillezeau and Ellenor Cox on promoting and exhibiting Storm Surfers 3D

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Storm Surfers 3D takes the audience into a world where waves the size of buildings are surfed by legendary board-riders, Tom Carroll (two-time world surfing champion) and Ross Clarke-Jones (big wave pioneer). The two men, now in their 40s, are old friends, born out of the 1980s generation of pro-surfing. They team up with surf-forecasting guru and meteorologist Ben Matson to track the biggest waves in Australia, embarking on a potentially lethal adventure that takes them from Sydney to Tasmania, Western Australia and eventually on to Hawaii. Their friendships, their bodies and their courage are tested along the way.

This sounds like the perfect use of 3D technology to create a BIG cinema experience; one which will appeal to surfers as well as thrill-seekers of all kinds. The film is the latest installment in a project that began as a successful television series which has sold to more than 70 countries, been viewed by more than 20 million people and had 1.5 million views online (www.stormsurfers.tv), thus generating a massive fan base.

In a coup for producers Marcus Gillezeau and Ellenor Cox and directors Chris Nelius and Justin McMillan, Storm Surfers 3D has been selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, in the Real to Reel program, which features documentaries on hot topics or which provide intimate access into dramatic lives.

Here in Australia, in association with Madman Entertainment, the film has just commenced its event-style tour in a series of one night screenings, starting on 14 August in Sydney and traveling to all capital cities and selected regional centres. Tickets are being sold through the film’s website here.

On the eve of the film’s release, we asked producers Marcus Gillezeau and Ellenor Cox (Scorched), experts in the field of All Media production, about this unique exhibition strategy and the promotional methods they’re employing to build a tsunami of support.

AFI | AACTA: Congratulations on being selected to screen at Toronto. What do you think this means for the success of the film theatrically?

Gillezeau & Cox: It’s a huge honour for Storm Surfers 3D to be invited to such a prestigious festival as Toronto and is great timing for us given that we are releasing theatrically in Australia from August 14th. It has also enabled us to secure significant interest from US agents and international sales agents, again at a perfect time for us in our release strategy. What it also says to the general public is that Storm Surfers 3D is much more than just a surf film – we’re finding that this is coming through consistently in the film reviews and is a great boost to us on that level.

AFI | AACTA: You’ve chosen to exhibit this film as a series of one-off special events. Can you talk about that decision, and why this kind of film is suited to that form of release pattern? Is it financially viable?

Gillezeau & Cox: It’s certainly not the traditional model but then so much about Storm Surfers 3D is ‘out of the box’! In Australia we were super conscious that exhibitors would be sceptical about the box office success of an Australian documentary ostensibly about surfing. We also know that our core audience are mainly non traditional theatre-goers i.e. blokes aged 30+. We knew that if we went out in normal release and didn’t nail it in the first weekend, that despite great word of mouth, we’d have little presence thereafter and would have blown the opportunity to develop an ongoing relationship with the exhibitors. What we’ve chosen to do instead is a series of one-night-only screenings with Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll in attendance. We are promoting it in a similar manner to a rock concert and our core audience are responding the way that we had hoped they would and are already buying tickets. In many locations we have sold out these sessions already, and are now working with the exhibitors to open up more screenings, albeit in a limited release manner, but for an extended period. We believe that over the long term this is the best way to make this box office release financially viable.

AFI | AACTA: How do you go about creating the publicity and promotions strategy for such a release? How important is social media?

Gillezeau & Cox: Social media is crucial to us and the bulk of our P&A [publicity & advertising] budget is being spent on digital marketing. We have dedicated staff who focus on nothing but creating an ongoing dialogue with our online fan base. We also access the databases of clubs (i.e. Surf Life Saving) and sporting associations to spread the word. It’s incredibly rewarding to have this relationship with our audience over such an extended period and we reward our most ardent supporters (we call them our ‘gromments on the ground’) with free tickets, limited edition merchandising and time with Ross and Tom, in exchange for securing us significant ticket sales in their local areas. We also control all the back end on our website which is the main portal to the ticketing sections of all the cinemas and can make instantaneous changes to showcase new sessions and online material as it comes online.

Producer Marcus Gillezeau (in red jacket) securing a deal on his iPad on South Coast Bombie mission. Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones in wetsuits.

AFI | AACTA:  Your film is supported by extensive multimedia augmentation -  web series, game, ebook, branded content series. Can you explain a little about how these work to support the documentary and build its audience?

Gillezeau & Cox: Storm Surfers 3D is indeed a multi-faceted beast! Download our game or 140 page eBook now from iTunes; head to our website or Facebook page to enjoy 20 behind the scenes webisodes; stay tuned for the release of our soundtrack album next week! We have worked very carefully to ensure that our main message at present to our audience is: Buy your tickets now! We have dovetailed a very separate and targeted PR campaign around this, which showcases our other assets and hopefully brings a new audience to come and see the film. Our game took 18 months to develop and is a serious ‘gamers’ game! Our PR in this area is focused on first getting [game players] to engage with the game and then get enticed to see the movie.

AFI | AACTA: Through your production company, Firelight Productions, you are known as leaders (and International Digital Emmy® Award winners!)  in the all-media area. What do other producers in Australia stand to gain or lose from more fully utilising multiple-platforms?

Gillezeau & Cox: We are fascinated by the creative freedom that storytelling across multi-platforms allows us. It is a highly creative aspect to producing – not just from a financing point of view, but in its execution and delivery as well. It’s incredibly challenging however to be managing the creation of so many assets at the same time [and] needs appropriate time and budget to do this. In terms of what people stand to gain from this – it’s a no brainer – we need to reach our audiences nowadays where they entertain themselves – and this isn’t just in the movie theatre but instead via the iPhone on their way to work or their intray when they’re supposed to working! It’s the future and it’s a very exciting and creatively rewarding place to be exploring!

AFI | AACTA: Thanks for your time and best wishes with Storm Surfers 3D!

Storm Surfers 3D is now touring Australian locations. Visit the website for tickets and venues.

Trailer

Australian films at the 2012 Melbourne International Film Festival

Posted on by Bradley Dixon
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The Sapphires

The Melbourne International Film Festival has a long history of supporting Australian film, and in 2012 the festival again screens a wide variety of local fare in its Australian Showcase stream, from internationally-lauded blockbusters to low budget indies.

And in addition to offering local filmmakers a chance to have their film screened to supportive Australian audiences, MIFF supports the Australian film industry further through its MIFF Premiere Fund, which has financed a diverse range of feature films and documentaries since its inception in 2007.

Australian films will both open and close the festival in 2012, with Wayne Blair’s 1960s-era musical drama/comedy The Sapphires adding a touch of glitz, glamour and soul to the opening night gala last week. A joyous crowd-pleaser all but guaranteed success (after being picked up for international distribution by the Weinstein Company at Cannes), The Sapphires celebrates Aboriginal culture, family bonds and the irrepressible power of soul music with a delightfully sassy script and extravagant production and costume design.

There are dozens of Australian feature films playing at MIFF this year, from introspective dramas to psychotic horror-comedies to Bollywood musicals. Some of these titles are sure to appear in upcoming AACTA Awards seasons. Join us as we profile the Australian features on offer to thousands of eager cinephiles during the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The Melbourne International Film Festival runs from August 2 to 17 at various locations throughout the Melbourne city centre.

Features

100 Bloody Acres

100 Bloody Acres

Reg and Lindsay are having trouble sourcing the “secret ingredient” for their organic fertiliser – human remains sourced from car crash victims. When a trio of young music festival-goers find themselves stranded at their front door, the two businessmen have a devious idea – but struggle to bring themselves to go through with it.

One for the schlock fans, 100 Bloody Acres is produced by Julie Ryan (RED DOG) and Kate Croser, with Damon Herriman, Anna McGahan, John Jarratt and Angus Sampson adding a touch of crackle to the cast of this grisly, comedic horror flick. They’re not psycho killers… they’re just small business owners.

Being Venice

Being Venice

The first feature-length film by New Zealand-born filmmaker Miro Bilbrough follows the eponymous Venice (Alice McConnell) as one man leaves her life and another re-enters it. The former – her boyfriend – announces that he needs some space and promptly leaves the house they share, while the latter – her estranged ex-hippie father Arthur (veteran comic actor Garry McDonald) – worms his way into staying on Alice’s couch while visiting from New Zealand.

Being Venice was warmly received at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year, described by Frank Hatherly of Screen Daily as “thoughtful” and possessing “something of a European sensibility” in presenting Venice’s struggle to make sense of the male relationships in her life.

Dead Europe

Dead Europe

The first announced of MIFF’s “surprise screenings” on the last day of the festival, Dead Europe is the latest in a string of adaptations of Christos Tsiolkas novels, directed by director Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man), adapted for the screen by veteran television writer Louise Fox, and starring acclaimed young actor Ewen Leslie in the lead.

Described by Gary Maddox in the Sydney Morning Herald as “a bruising blast of intense drama”, the film is a deep, densely wrought examination of Europe, “the continent of lost souls”, and the burden that children of “cursed” peoples must bear.

Errors of the Human Body

Errors of the Human Body

Described as a “psycho-scientific thriller” developed while director Eron Sheean was artist-in-resident at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, early reviews of Errors of the Human Body have noted the scientific authenticity with which the film’s plot is realised.

A German-Australian co-production directed by an Australian based in Europe, with a cast including Karoline Herfurth (Germany), Tomas Lemarquis (Iceland), Rik Mayall (United Kingdom) and Michael Eklund (Canada), it’s a horror film set on the cutting edge of science and technology, dealing with the ethics of biological and genetic science.

Hail

Hail

Melbourne local Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s work straddles both art cinema and mainstream filmmaking, with over a dozen short fiction films to his credit as well as three highly-acclaimed documentary features.

Hail shapes the extraordinary life experience of artist and ex-convict Daniel P. Jones into an experimental, autobiographical dramatic tapestry. Jones’s own words – transcribed and edited from interviews with the director – form the basis for the film’s dialogue, which is spoken by “characters” being played by their real-life counterparts. The resulting film is not strictly a drama and not strictly a documentary, but an exploration of hope in the face of oppressive adversity.

Jack Irish – Bad Debts

Jack Irish – Bad Debts

MIFFsters will be treated to the first of two Jack Irish tele-features scheduled to air on ABC TV in late 2012, boasting a stellar cast including Guy Pearce, Aaron Pedersen, Colin Friels, Shane Jacobson, Marta Dusseldorp, Steve Bisley and Roy Billing.

Guy Pearce is Jack, an old-school former criminal lawyer turned part-time private detective and debt collector, whose line of work has won him some rather colourful friends and acquaintences over the years. When one former client turns up dead, Jack burrows deep into Melbourne’s seedy underside to get to the bottom of it all.

Based on the eponymous series of crime novels by Miles Franklin Award winner Peter Temple, Jack Irish: Bad Debts will be followed by Jack Irish: Black Tide.

Last Dance

Last Dance

David Pulbrook (a veteran, AFI Award-winning editor) makes his directorial debut in this tightly-wound drama, set in the immediate aftermath of a synogogue bombing perpetrated by the Muslim Sadiq Mohammed (Underbelly‘s Firass Dirani). Seeking shelter, he forces his way into a flat occupied by a Holocaust survivor Ulah (Julia Blake), and thus begins a hostage drama which forces both Sadiq and Ulah to confront their own pasts.

Mental

Closing out the festival is Mental, a so-called suburban dramedy which reunites director P.J. Hogan with Toni Collette for the first time since Muriel’s Wedding was released in 1994.

Anthony LaPaglia is a philandering small-town politician shocked to discover that his wife has been institutionalised and has left him to take care of five children – none of which he has any particular interest in getting to know. By serendipity, a “charismatic, crazy hothead” (Collette) finds herself thrust into the household as the girls’ nanny, and slowly but surely transforms their home into something resembling normality.

Save Your Legs!

Save Your Legs!

A new addition to the MIFF calendar this year is the mid-festival gala event, turning the middle weekend of the festival into yet another party – if the opening and closing nights weren’t enough. A decidedly more relaxed affair than the glitzy opening night, the mid-festival gala will see the upbeat Bollywood-influenced musical comedy Save Your Legs! screened.

The Abbotsford Anglers, a D-grade local cricket team more interested in the shots on offer at the bar than those being made on the cricket field, make one last thrust for glory by going on an ill-conceived cricketing tour of India which ends in disastrous on-field results but more than a few laughs.

Starring Stephen Curry, Brendan Cowell, Damon Gameau and many more (plus a cameo by cricket legend Sir Richard Hadlee), Save Your Legs! is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Documentaries

Coniston

Coniston

In late 1928 upwards of 100 innocent indigenous men, women and children were brutally murdered to avenge the death of a white dingo trapper named Fred Brooks, who was killed by Aborigines after “taking liberties” with the wife of a Warlpiri tribesman.

One of many films presented in partnership with Blackfella Films, Coniston is a combination documentary-dramatisation of the Contiston massacre as told by Warlpiri, Waramunga, Anmatyerr and Kaytetje people. Based on a shameful episode of Australian history – the last large-scale massacre of Aborigines by whites – is an important exercise in educating modern audiences.

Croker Island Exodus

Croker Island Exodus

Also blending the documentary and dramatic forms is Croker Island Exodus, based on the true story of a Methodist mission on Croker Island off the coast of Arnhem Land.

After the bombing of Darwin in 1942, the Australian government evacuated all white women and children from the far north of the Northern Territory, including Croker Island. The (white) missionaries refused evacuation, not wanting to abandon the 95 aboriginal children in their care, and instead embarked on an epic 44-day, 5,000-kilometre journey to Sydney by boat, truck, canoe and even by foot.

First-time feature director Steven McGregor combines dramatic reconstructions with interviews of three of the children who made the journey, now in their 80s, who reflect on their childhood as part of the Stolen Generation and their remarkable journey to sanctuary.

The First Fagin

The First Fagin

Is Fagin – the grotesque thief/landlord in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and one of literature’s most enduring characters – based on Ikey Solomon, a real-life 19th century English criminal and escape artist? That’s what The First Fagin, directed by the trans-continental team of Alan Rosenthal and Helen Gaynor and narrated by the great Miriam Margolyes, sets out to discover.

Exploring the expulsion-happy criminal justice system of the 19th century as well as the life and reputation of Solomon, who was sentenced to be deported to Australia but for reasons unknown never made it to his down under prison, The First Fagin is one of many docu-drama features playing at MIFF this year. Tracing Solomon’s movements from England, through continental Europe, the United States and finally to Australia – where his wife had been deported – the film is a fantastical portrait of a man whose influence on culture is still being felt.

Lasseter’s Bones

Lasseter’s Bones

Beyond Our Ken, Luke Walker’s exploration into Kenja Communications – the “self-empowerment” group and alleged cult run by Ken Dyers and his wife Jan Hamilton – stirred up significant controversy when it screened at MIFF in 2007, and was nominated for an AFI Award in 2008.

His follow-up, Lasseter’s Bones, trades quasi-religious fanatics for an outback legend stretching back over 100 years, based around the existence (or non-existence) of Lasseter’s Reef, an enourmous gold deposit reportedly discovered and subsequently lost by Harold Lasseter in 1897.

With the help of Lasseter’s eccentric elderly son Bob, who continues to search for the fabled river of gold to vindicate his father, Walker attempts to get to the bottom of a legend which has taken on a life of its own – and taken one over, too.

Make Hummus Not War

Make Hummus Not War

A documentary about a different kind of war in the Middle East, Make Hummus Not War is about, well, hummus. Specifically, which culture can lay claim to ownership of the chickpea dish, which is steeped in thousands of years of contentious history and is one of the oldest prepared foods in human history.

Veteran filmmaker Trevor Graham, who won an AFI Award in 1997 for his documentary about the life of Eddie Mabo (Mabo: Life of an Island Man), traces the history of this unlikely dish and its symbolic importance to the Arab people of the Middle East. A lawsuit brought against Israel by Lebanon in 2008 about the heritage of hummus inspired Graham to delve a little deeper into what place hummus holds in Middle Eastern culture, and maybe, its role in Middle East reconciliation.

Paul Kelly: Stories of Me

Paul Kelly: Stories of Me

Australia’s unofficial troubador laureate Paul Kelly has been capturing the Australian condition through his folk/rock/country music for decades, and has been called “one of the greatest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise” by Rolling Stone editor David Fricke.

Paul Kelly: Stories of Me charts Kelly’s life, loves and losses, painting an intimate picture of a private man living in the public eye. The film, directed by Ian Darling, offers an exclusive insight into the man behind the fame, his creative processes and his remarkable catalogue of music.

Stay tuned to the AFI | AACTA blog as we post further updates throughout the festival.

On the Box: Australian Television 2012 – Part 2

Posted on by Simon Elchlepp
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By Simon Elchlepp

In Part 1 of this article, we scanned some of the Australian Dramas, Mini-Series and Telemovies set to grace our small screens this year. Now it’s time to look at the funny business – Comedy and Light Entertainment – as well as at Reality TV and some kid’s programs we’re looking forward to seeing.

Comedy & Light Entertainment

Andrew Denton and his new game show RANDLING

For many viewers, Wednesday nights are a regular couch-date with ‘Aunty’. This may well continue with the premiere last week (2 May) of ABC1′s new Wednesday night line-up.  First there’s the hotly anticipated word-based game show Randling (8.30pm), featuring multi-AFI Award winner Andrew Denton’s return as show host. Following this battle of wits and words, AACTA Award-winning series Laid (9pm) returns in its second series, with Roo’s world turned upside down in another flurry of hilariously awkward situations. It’s all capped off by Agony Aunts (9.30pm) in which Julia Zemiro, Myf Warhurst, Judith Lucy and other high profile Australian women give men advice on how to navigate the difficult terrain of the modern relationship.

Here are some others we’re looking forward to:

Shaun Micallef Is Mad As Hell (ABC1, from 25 May 2012, 10 x 30min)

Shaun Micallef of SHAUN MICALLEF IS MAD AS HELL

Satire is notoriously difficult to get right, but Shaun Micallef’s satirical look at Australian news in 2007/08’s Newstopia was one of those shows that succeeded. Now Micallef is back for more in Shaun Micallef Is Mad As Hell, and the Newsfront­-inspired title promises a piercing look at how our media report about the world around us and shape our view of it. The ABC calls it “a half-hour weekly round-up, branding, inoculation and crutching of all the important news stories,” and in the absence of any Gruen Transfer this year, Shaun Micallef Is Mad As Hell could be just the media-skewering show we’ve been looking for in 2012.

Hamish And Andy’s Euro Gap Year (Channel Nine, first half of 2012, series)

Hamish Blake and Andy Lee of HAMISH AND ANDY’S EURO GAP YEAR

Some people are lucky enough to enjoy not just one, but two gap years. After Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year unleashed the two larrikin comedians on an unsuspecting USA, in 2012 it’s Europe’s turn to brace itself for a visit from Hamish and Andy. With a disused pub in London as their studio, Hamish and Andy’s Euro Gap Year will screen on Nine leading up to the Olympics. Sport will not, however, be the focus. Instead Hamish and Andy will travel the continent and visit Bosnia, Russia and France, among others, to introduce Australians to the curious yet endearing characters and customs of Europe’s various countries, which apparently include  ’bus pulling,’ ‘ice-swimming’ and ‘festivals of snails’.

Lowdown Series 2 (ABC1, 2012 TBC, 8 x 30min)

Paul Denny, Dailan Evans, Adam Zwar and Beth Buchanan reunite for LOWDOWN SERIES 2

There are few things on the telly that are as satisfying as a satire which sets its aims on a mock-worthy target – and hits the spot. And so fans of Frontline and The Hollowmen will greet Lowdown’s second season with open arms. Adam Zwar returns as the Sunday Sun’s star entertainment reporter who compensates for his lack of a moral compass with a keen sense of which stories will drive up circulation. From exposing political sex scandals and violent actors, to outing gay sportsmen and setting up cheating TV chefs, Alex will do what it takes to save the Sunday Sun’s declining figures. Lowdown Series 2 reunites AFI Award winners Adam Zwar, Kim Gyngell (as the Sunday Sun’s editor) and series producer/writer/director Amanda Brotchie to poke fun at the tabloid press.

Sporting Nation (ABC1, 2012 TBC, 3 x 60min)

John Clarke ready to entertain us with SPORTING NATION

All those disappointed by the sad news that there’s no The Games: London Calling will be delighted to hear that 2012 will not pass without John Clarke having another go at the follies of organised sport. As has been well documented, Australians tend to be somewhat crazy about sports, so it’s time to find out why we take it so seriously. Meeting legendary sporting heroes, sports fans, sporting sages and sporting cynics, Byron Kennedy Award winner Clarke discovers that the story of Australian sport has all the elements of great drama – a rich golden age, a crisis that threatens its very existence, and a re-emergence against colossal odds. And it’s based largely on fact.

This Christmas (ABC, second half 2012, six-part series)

The Moody family from ABC comedy THIS CHRISTMAS

There’s hardly any time of the year that is riper for comedic potential than Christmas. No matter how far you’ve run to escape your family, the fights, bad gifts, boring uncles, overbearing in-laws and shocking family secrets, it will all catch up with you during the Merry Season. Each episode of This Christmas is set a year apart, as Dan (Ian Meadows) visits his dysfunctional family every year at Christmas. AFI Award winners Phil Lloyd (At Home With Julia) and Trent O’Donnell (The Chaser’s War on Everything, Laid) have mined similar territory before with Review with Myles Barlow – Christmas Special and will know how to milk this comedic setup for all it’s worth to generate plenty of laughter.

Josh Thomas

Please Like Me (ABC1, 2012 TBC, 6 x 30min)

This Christmas isn’t the only ABC comedy series of 2012 that will look at all the entanglements and embarrassments that family life brings with it. Well-known to comedy buffs through his stint as Generation Y team leader on Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation, comedian and Logie Award-winner Josh Thomas writes and stars in Please Like Me. For Josh life is just kicking off, now that he lives in a share house and makes his steps towards being an adult and turning twenty-one. But then he’s forced to move back home to care for his divorced mother and grow up a bit quicker than he expected to. For AACTA and AFI Award-winning director Matthew Saville, Please Like Me marks his return to comedy after his work on We Can Be Heroes, while the show’s cast includes Debra Lawrence, David Roberts and Caitlin Stacey.

Also tracking:

An as of yet untitled Jane Turner and Gina Riley project on Seven (maybe more Kath & Kim following their upcoming feature film Kath & Kimderella?); ABC2’s multiplatform comedy The Strange Calls about a hapless city cop (Toby Truslove) who is demoted to night duty in the sleepy beachside village of Coolum; Myf Warhurst’s Nice on ABC1, which sees the former Spicks & Specks presenter take a nostalgic journey through popular taste, cultural icons and her own childhood.

Reality Television

If there’s something Australian TV viewers can’t complain about, it’s a dearth of reality TV formats. In only a few years, reality TV has seen a meteoric rise in popularity on Australian television screens. Buoyed by the success of MasterChef’s first season back in 2009, reality TV has now become the most watched TV genre in Australia, bumping sports broadcasts to second place. No wonder then that reality shows have become a crucial part of Australia’s television output. Reflecting this growth, and the industry talent and innovation within the genre, AACTA has announced a new Award for 2013 – the AACTA Award for Best Reality Television Series. Here’s a quick scan of just some of the shows on offer this year.

The Voice (Channel Nine, from April 15 2012)

There have been many talent casting shows in which singing hopefuls try to convince a panel of judges of their musical skills – but very few have been as strikingly successful as the Nine Network’s The Voice. With a jury that includes Keith Urban, Delta Goodrem, Seal and Joel Madden, chances for the show’s success were always good, but few would have predicted that The Voice would turn into the ratings juggernaut that it has become. With the show entering its final stage of live competitions and the start of audience voting, you can expect The Voice to continue dominating ratings and watercooler discussions.

Judging THE VOICE: Keith Urban, Delta Goodrem, Joel Madden and Seal.

My Kitchen Rules (Seven Network, January 31 – February 23 2012)

Following two successful seasons, My Kitchen Rules truly took off earlier this year and successfully challenged the MasterChef empire. Adding a team from New Zealand certainly increased the sense of competition and you can be sure to see more teams in 2013 turning their homes into an instant restaurant to serve dinner for the judges and the other contestants and aiming to impress with their culinary skills.

Manu Feildel and Pete Evans – judges of MY KITCHEN RULES 2012

Australia’s Got Talent (Seven Network, from April 16 2012)

First screening in 2007, Australia’s Got Talent has truly established itself as one of Australia’s most enduring reality TV shows. Amidst a sea of competitors that focus on singers, dancers or other artists battling it out for the sympathies of juries and audiences, Australia’s Got Talent sets itself apart and gives all self-made performers – be they singers, magicians or comedians – a chance to shine. Judges Dannii Minogue, Brian McFadden and Kyle Sandilands make their return for the show’s sixth season.

The Block (Channel Nine, from April 16 2012)

Before MasterChef or Australia’s Got Talent, there was The Block, the Nine Network’s reality show for all hobby renovators. After a six-year break, The Block returned in 2010 and has been going strong ever since, and has already been confirmed for another season in 2013. Set in Dorcas Street in Melbourne (just a few blocks down from the AFI | AACTA’s Melbourne offices!), The Block‘s current season once again taps into our national obsession with giving our homes a face-lift and demonstrating our DYI skills.

MasterChef  (Network Ten, May 6 2012)

Originating in the UK, MasterChef‘s brand of reality competitions arguably kicked off the current reality TV craze. Much has changed though since those early days when the show dominated the field, and competition is fiercer than ever, not least after My Kitchen Rules‘ success earlier this year. After season 3 of MasterChef  came in for some criticism for its tough challenges and tests, in 2012 the show promises to return to its basics: celebrating its contestants and their ambitions.

Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston – the testing trio of judges on MASTERCHEF.

Next Stop Hollywood (ABC1, 2012 TBC, 6 x 30min)

Next Stop Hollywood puts a spin on the format that is bound to appeal to film and TV fans. The show follows six aspiring young actors from Australia as they try to make their mark during pilot season – the frenzied period in LA when network television pilot shows get the go-ahead and casting begins. All of these young talents will have to fight to make it in the cutthroat US system. Produced by AFI Award-winning production house Matchbox Pictures, Next Stop Hollywood finally puts the cameras of reality TV onto the industry itself and promises to deliver captivating insights.

Aspiring Australian actors try to make it big in NEXT STOP HOLLYWOOD

Bollywood Star (SBS, from June 2 2012, 4-part series)

The popularity of Bollywood movies has exploded in recent years and more than a few have filmed in Australia. There’s no question that the films’ exuberant  and colorful dance numbers and songs make for enthralling viewing. To deliver not just another singing and dancing competition, SBS had the bright idea of tapping into our fascination with Bollywood movies with their new reality show Bollywood Star. The show will follow the search  for an Australian Bollywood star: an unknown who will go on to win the prize of a lifetime – a coveted place in the next movie by renowned Bollywood producer and director Mahesh Bhatt.

Bollywood meets iconic Aussie landmarks – BOLLYWOOD STAR.

Children’s Television

The Flamin’ Thongs (ABC3, 2012 TBC, series)

Whale Bay is home to Australia’s least visited tourist attraction, the Giant Thong. But that may be about to change, for all the wrong reasons. Behind this animated series are AFI Award-nominated director Colin South (Dogstar, The Circuit, Stone Bros.) and writing team Bruce Griffiths and Simon Dodd, both veterans of Good News Week and each with four AWGIE (Australian Writers’ Guild) Awards to their name.

In Your Dreams (Seven Network, 2012 TBC, series)

Noel Price, one of Australia’s most prolific producers of first-rate children’s television, returns with In Your Dreams. Having produced children’s TV classics such as Blue Water High, Don’t Blame the Koalas and Spellbinder, two-time AFI Award winner Price sets In Your Dreams in both Australia and Germany. Price’s previous series, the country-hopping A gURLs wURLd, already looked at cultural differences and In Your Dreams takes this one step further, as Australian teenage twins Samantha and Ben Haselton discover what ‘culture shock’ is all about when they spend the summer with some eccentric, aristocratic and accident-prone relatives who live in a remote German castle.

Conspiracy 365 (Movie Network Channels, Family Movie Channel (FMC), 2012 monthly, 13 x 60min)

Conspiracy 365 is an action thriller adapted from Gabrielle Lord’s best-selling young-adult book series. It follows the life of teenager Cal Ormond (AFI award winner Harrison Gilbertson) as he ‘searches for the truth behind a deadly family secret’. Joining Harrison on the Melbourne shoot are Marny Kennedy (The Saddle Club), Taylor Glockner, Rob Carlton (Chandon Pictures, Underbelly), Julia Zemiro (Charlotte’s Web, The Wedge), Kate Kendall (Stingers), Ryan O’Kane (City Homicide) and David Whiteley. With the story unfolding as monthly instalments over the course of 2012 and the final episode to air in January 2013 now is still a perfect time to join the fun.

Marny Kennedy, Harrison Gilbertson and Taylor Glockner from CONSPIRACY 365

Mako Mermaids (Network Ten, TBC, 26 x 30min)

Reef Doctors (see part 1 of ‘On The Box’) isn’t AFI Award-winning producer Jonathan M. Shiff’s only new show to be shot in the tropical waters of Queensland. After three successful series and an AFI Award win in 2008, H2O: Just Add Water see a continuation of sorts with big-budget spin-off Mako Mermaids. The $12.3M series focuses on three mermaids who are charged with the task of protecting their magical Mako Island from trespassers, only to be thwarted by the arrival of 16-year-old land-dweller Zac, who forms a special connection with the island and is granted a fish-like tail and amazing powers. Filming on Mako Mermaids has only begun this week, so we’ll have to wait and see if this promising new adventure series will air this year – but in any case, we’re looking forward to it already.

More mermaids for H2o’s Jonathan M. Schiff. MAKO MERMAIDS has just begun production.

That’s it for our quick wrap-up of Australian television. Feel free to tell us below what you’re looking forward to most. And if there’s a particular show you think we’ve missed out on, tell us that too or email our editor (editor [at] afi.org.au) with details.

You may also be interested in On the Box: Australian Television 2012 – Part 1.

On the Box: Australian Television 2012 – Part 1

Posted on by Simon Elchlepp
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By Simon Elchlepp

Now for the fourth year running, we preview some Australian television highlights coming up in the year ahead (you can find our stories from 2009, 2010 and 2011 to revel in a bit of TV nostalgia). As it’s already April, some of 2012’s highlights have already come and gone, but there are still plenty to look forward to. In fact, 2012 shapes up to be a particularly interesting year on the small screen, for while there are many continuing series building on successes of past seasons, there is an impressive number of original productions due to screen this year. The ABC, in particular, has increased its drama and comedy output dramatically in recent years, while the commercial networks seem more prepared to take the plunge on ‘event’ telemovies and mini-series than in previous years. What’s also notable is that Australian TV producers and writers keep mining the nation’s rich history for their inspiration, unearthing stories from both familiar and lesser known periods of Australia’s past.

The trend also continues for networks to offer more viewing flexibility, with online viewing services like the ABC’s iview, SBS’ On Demand and Network Seven’s Plus7, constantly improving the audience’s ability to catch up on viewing at times to suit their own schedules.

John Waters and Asher Keddie – OFFSPRING SEASON 3.

As in 2011, we’ll focus on the television categories celebrated in the AACTA Awards: Drama, Comedy & Light Entertainment and Children’s Television. Some shows that have premiered recently, or will do so in the next couple of weeks, are Randling - six-time AFI Award winner Andrew Denton’s long-awaited return as show host, as he presides over a battle of words between teams that include witty wordsmiths such as Julia Zemiro, Rob Carlton, Angus Sampson and Robyn Butler (from 2 May, ABC1); Laid Series 2, which sees Roo (Alison Bell) having her world turned upside down when she is introduced to her opposite – Marcus, who doesn’t kill everybody he has sex with, but heals them (from 2 May, ABC1); and  Offspring Series 3 (now showing on Wednesday nights, 8.30pm, Network Ten), in which Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie) faces more messy family challenges. We’ve also just seen the impressive telemovie Beaconsfield on the Network Nine.

As always, we can’t include everything, but here’s a taste of Australian content that’s still to appear on your telly in 2012. In Part 1 we’ll look at the Drama offerings. Next week, in Part 2, we’ll focus on Comedy & Light Entertainment and a couple of new Children’s shows set to debut this year.

Drama: Series, Mini-Series and Telefeatures

Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms (Network Ten, from May 15 2012, six-part mini-series)

One of the darker spots of Australia’s recent history is the Milperra massacre, a violent clash between the Bandidos and the Comancheros motorcycle clubs on Father’s Day, Sunday 2 September 1985 that left seven people killed and 28 wounded. Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms aims to shine a light on how this deadly conflict could built up in the bikie gangs’ tribal culture with its particular code of honour. The show’s strong cast reads like a who’s who of Australian male TV stars including Todd Lasance, Luke Ford, Anthony Hayes, Damian Walshe-Howling and Callan Mulvey, with two-time AFI winner Susie Porter and Maeve Dermody in other roles. Veteran TV producers Greg Haddrick and Roger Simpson and director Peter Andrikidis together have a whopping 13 AFI Awards and 32 AFI Award nominations to their names, so it’s safe to say that this project is in good hands.

L-R: Anthony Hayes, Matt Nable and Callan Mulvey rev it up in Channel Ten’s BROTHERS IN ARMS.

Dangerous Remedy (ABC1, 2012 TBC, telemovie)

Jeremy Sims will take the lead in ABC1′s DANGEROUS REMEDY.

The story of Melbourne GP Dr Bert Wainer is that of a long, hard struggle on two fronts. As Australian social mores rapidly change in the late 1960s, Dr Wainer, moved by the death of a young woman, embarks on a campaign to overturn laws that make abortion an offence punishable by up to 15 years in jail. But soon he’s not only up against the legal system, but also against an illegal abortion ring involving highly paid doctors, backyard abortionists, high-ranking police and power-broking politicians. As producer/writer’s Kris Wyld’s next project after the AFI and AACTA Award-winning East West 101, Dangerous Remedy promises to be another slice of first-rate Australian TV drama, brought to life by a high-profile cast that includes Jeremy Sims (as Bert Wainer), William McInnes, Susie Porter, Maeve Dermody and Gary Sweet.

Devil’s Dust (ABC1, second half of 2012, two-part telemovie)

For more than a century, asbestos was one of the most commonly used building materials, and it took decades to recognise its devastating health impacts. In Australia, a decisive part of that struggle were the actions of three men, recreated in the telemovie Devil’s Dust. These central characters are: Bernie Banton (Anthony Hayes), who takes legal action against James Hardie after contracting cancer from his years of working with asbestos; Adam Bourke (Don Hany), who becomes aware that James Hardie is selling a product that causes the death of thousands of people; and Matt Peacock (Ewen Leslie), the ABC journalist who reveals evidence of the link between asbestos and cancer, and then devotes his career to exposing the shocking truth and bringing justice to victims. Two-time AFI Award-winning writer Kris Mrksa and producers FremantleMedia Australia bring the moving story of this still ongoing national tragedy to the small screen.

Anthony Hayes as mesothelioma sufferer Bernie Banton in DEVIL’S DUST.

Howzat!  (Channel Nine, 2012 TBC, two-part mini-series)

For a while, discussion around Howzat! The Kerry Packer Story focused mainly on which network would screen this ‘sequel in spirit’ to ABC’s Paper Giants, and whether Rob Carlton would reprise his AACTA nominated and Silver Logie-winning performance as Kerry Packer. Now that both questions have been answered, it’s time to take a closer look at the actual production. And what we can see so far looks like a highly entertaining trip back to the late 1970s when a young Kerry Packer took on the cricket establishment. Then owner of Channel Nine, Packer set up a rebel competition, the World Cricket Series and ushered in the era of one-day cricket played under lights. Lachy Hulme, also appearing in Beaconsfield and recently seen in Any Questions for Ben?, The Killer Elite and Offspring, continues his strong run and portrays Kerry Packer, backed by a supporting cast of moustachioed stars including Brendan Cowell, Damon Gameau and Matthew Le Nevez.

 

Matthew Le Nevez plays Dennis Lillee, Damon Gameau as Greg Chappell and Brendan Cowell as Rod Marsh on set of HOWZAT! 

Jack Irish – Bad Debts / Jack Irish – Black Tide (ABC1, 2012 TBC, 2 x 90min)

Rain. Wind. Pubs. Beer. Sex. Corruption. Murder. That’s Melbourne in winter for you, according to Peter Temple’s Ned Kelly Award-winning series of Jack Irish crime novels. Jack is an expert at finding people who don’t want to be found – dead or alive – and doesn’t mind stirring up a bit of trouble. He’s a former criminal lawyer, part-time investigator, debt collector, cabinetmaker, mug punter, and sometime lover – and the producers couldn’t have found a better actor to portray this complex character than Emmy Award-winner Guy Pearce. But while Pearce is certainly the big name on the roster of Jack Irish, he’s surrounded by a supporting cast that reads just as impressively: Damien Garvey, Anthony Hayes, Shane Jacobson and Roy Billing co-star, directed by one of Australia’s most promising young TV directors, AFI Award winner Jeffrey Walker.

Lawyer, punter, debt collector and sometime lover – Guy Pearce stars as Jack Irish.


Mabo (ABC1, June 2012, 117min)

Jim Bani and Deborah Mailman as Eddie and Bonita Mabo.

The life of Eddie Mabo has been the subject of several documentaries, most recently in Rachel Perkins’ groundbreaking series First Australians. Now Perkins, fresh from the success of Bran Nue Dae, returns to tell Eddie Mabo’s story in this telefeature. At its heart is the love story between Mabo and his wife Bonita that sustained their momentous struggle to change the face of Australia. In the lead role, Jimi Bani (The Straits, R.A.N.) is surrounded by a stellar supporting cast that includes Deborah Mailman, Colin Friels, Miranda Otto, William McInnes and Ewen Leslie. The talent assembled behind the camera is just as impressive: Byron Kennedy Award winner Perkins works with a team that includes multiple AFI Award winners Anthony Partos and Sue Smith. Expect this to end up on a lot of ‘best of year’ lists by the end of 2012.

The Mystery of the Hansom Cab (ABC1, second half of 2012, 120min)

Period crime series are hot right now on Australian TV screens. A trip into the prohibition era revitalised Channel Nine’s Underbelly series and the 1920s glam and swagger of the ABC’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries endeared the series to many TV crime hounds. Now the ABC follows up its recent success with The Mystery of the Hansom Cab, a telemovie based on the first detective novel ever written in Australia in 1886 by Melbourne barrister’s clerk Fergus Hume. A milestone in the development of the literary crime genre, The Mystery of the Hansom Cab has been filmed three times as a silent movie and now returns to the small screen courtesy of producer Margaret McDonald and director Shawn Seet, who has shown a sure hand with such material as Underbelly: Razor.

Reef Doctors (Network Ten, 2012 TBC, 13 hour series)

In the current wave of crime and medical dramas that has swept Australian TV screens in recent years, family-oriented action fare has taken a bit of a back seat. That’s about to change with Reef Doctors, a 13-part drama series starring Lisa McCune in her first role since Sea Patrol wrapped last year. McCune stars as a single mother and leader of a team of doctors that serve the remote Hope Island Clinic, looking after residents of a small island community on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as tending to holiday-makers and thrillseekers. Reef Doctors also marks McCune’s first foray into producing and she is joined by two-time AFI Award winner Jonathan M. Shiff (Elephant Princess, H20 Just Add Water, Cybergirl), one of Australia’s foremost producers of family TV entertainment. Rohan Nichol, Matt Day and Richard Brancatisano complete the cast of this Australian-German co-production.

Rohan Nicol and Lisa McCune in REEF DOCTORS.

Puberty Blues (Network Ten, second half of 2012, series)

Claudia Karvan and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor – PUBERTY BLUES.

Like Bruce Beresford’s 1981 classic movie of the same name, Ten’s new series is based on the novel by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. It recently made headlines for its top-flight cast that includes Claudia Karvan, Susie Porter, Dan Wyllie, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Rodger Corser and Ashleigh Cummings. More AFI Award winners are found behind the camera, with Southern Star duo John Edwards and Imogen Banks (Offspring, Tangle) producing and Glendyn Ivin and Emma Freeman (Hawke, Tangle, Offspring) directing. It will be fascinating to see what this impressive team of creative minds will bring to the re-telling of the story of two Sydney teenage girls trying to fit in with the local surf gang. Early word has it that the series will not only portray the two girl protagonists, but also their families and friends in greater detail.

Redfern Now (ABC1, second half of 2012, series)

Redfern Now looks like it might become a landmark series in more than one sense. It is crafted by seven Indigenous Australians under script guidance from three-time BAFTA Award winner Jimmy McGovern, with over 250 Indigenous Australians to be employed in various roles including producers, directors, writers, actors, production and post-production staff. While this will provide career opportunities for creative Indigenous Australians on a massive scale and have an impact on the whole film and TV industry, what will transpire in front of the camera should be just as interesting. Produced by Blackfella Films (First Australians, Mabo, The Tall Man), Redfern Now will tell “the explosive and dramatic stories of six households in Redfern [...] one of Australia’s most famous suburbs – an area full of contradictions; [an] Aboriginal icon, centre of black struggle, and a real estate goldmine”, according to McGovern.

Tricky Business (Channel Nine, from May 14 2012, series)

When the first Tricky Business promo was released, it didn’t take long for some to compare the series to Packed to the Rafters. Ultimately, only once the first episode has screened will we know how similar or different both productions are. What’s clear already is that the show boasts a strong cast that includes two-time AFI Award winner Shane Bourne, Gigi Edgley, Debra Byrne, Kip Gamblin, Antony Starr and Tomorrow, When The War Began star Lincoln Lewis. Tricky Business focuses on a family that runs a debt collection business. Channel Nine’s Head of Television, Michael Healy, promises a show with “a very strong balance between family and procedural.”

A complicated family with a business in debt collection – Channel Nine’s TRICKY BUSINESS.

Underbelly: Badness (Channel Nine, second half of 2012, eight-part mini-series)

Last year’s Underbelly: Razor arguably revitalised the long-running Underbelly franchise by injecting it with a good dose of 1920s glamour. But after that trip into the past, the question is whether there’s any historical ground left for the series to tread? Returning executive producers Des Monaghan and Greg Haddrick seem to have found the answer: Underbelly: Badness jumps closer to the present day than any previous Underbelly series. Set in 2001-2011, this latest series focuses on Sydney underworld figure Anthony Perish and how he was brought to justice after ten years of police investigation. Production company Screentime have landed a casting coup, as AACTA Award nominee Jonathan LaPaglia will return to Australian TV screens as Anthony Perish, after his much lauded turn in The Slap. The cast is completed by Matt Nable, Josh Quong Tart, Ben Winspear, Leeanna Walsman and Jodi Gordon.

 

Underground (Network Ten, second half of 2012, telemovie)

For 2012, Network Ten has lined up a roster of productions that are likely to generate plenty of discussion around the water cooler. Apart from Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms and 70’s tale of teenage rebellion Puberty Blues, there’s Underground. Few people have received as much media attention and polarised the public as strongly in recent years as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. And so you can bet that this telemovie about a young Assange and how he allegedly hacked the CIA website is bound to make waves. After weeks of intense online speculation, Ten have recently announced Underground’s impressive cast, headed by newcomer Alex Williams and including stars and AFI Award winners Anthony LaPaglia and Rachel Griffiths. The production will be directed by Robert Connolly (The Slap, Balibo, The Bank).

Wentworth (Foxtel, 2012 TBC, series)

One of Australian TV’s undisputed classics is Prisoner, which ran for seven years and has garnered a cult following around the world (the fact that there’s a 174 DVD box set with all 692 episodes out there speaks to the series’ everlasting appeal!). So Foxtel has some big shoes to fill in with its contemporary “re-imaging” of Prisoner called Wentworth. Little is known about cast and crew at this stage, but Foxtel Executive Director of Television promises “a dynamic and very confronting drama series, developed and stylised specifically for subscription television audiences.” Produced by Jo Porter (Packed to the Rafters, All Saints, Always Greener), Wentworth will follow the story of newly arrived prisoner Bea Smith and her rise through the ranks of the all-female prison hierarchy to the position of “Top Dog”.

Winners & Losers (Seven Network, 2012 TBC, series)

Currently, we don’t know much about the second season of Winners & Losers other than the fact that it will return to TV screens in 2012. But that bit of information alone will be enough to excite fans of one of 2011’s biggest ratings winners. The final episode of season one brought some big changes to the lives of Frances, Sophie, Bec and Jenny, which gives series creator Bevan Lee (Packed to the Rafters) “a new launching pad for season two.”  Filming on season two began on August 23 last year and we look forward to finding out what’s in store for the four girls at the heart of Winners & Losers.

What will this year hold for the four friends from WINNERS AND LOSERS?

Also tracking:

ABC’s Rake returns for a second series, while Seven Network has a new drama called A Place to Call Home from Packed to the Rafters creator Bevan Lee in the making. Some of Pay TV’s biggest 2012 shows have already been released, but you can still catch up, for example on Tangle in its third year and Conspiracy 365.  Costing $13m, the latter checks in as Australian Pay TV’s most expensive production to date.

Stay Tuned…

Next week, in Part 2 of this story, we’ll be checking out Comedy and Light Entertainment, including Hamish And Andy’s Euro Gap Year, Lowdown Series 2, Next Stop Hollywood, Please Like Me, Shaun Micallef Is Mad As Hell, Sporting Nation and This Christmas, as well as some children’s television picks.

 

Sophie Hyde – Releasing Life in Movement

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Documentary filmmakers in Australia have always needed to be energetic and creative in order to find an audience for their work – even more so if they’re trying to get their films off the festival circuit and into a general theatrical release. But South Australian writer/director/producer Sophie Hyde, along with her Closer Production teammates (Bryan Mason, Matthew Bate, Rebecca Summerton), is certainly at the forefront of hands-on promotion and distribution of her work. Life in Movement, released around Australia yesterday (12 April) and also available to view as part of Qantas in-flight movies, is a pleasingly poetic and intimate portrait of dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke. A feature-length film, gorgeously shot and skilfully edited, with an ultra-cool urban soundtrack, it’s a portrait of Liedtke’s life, her work, her untimely death, and the ensuing grief among those who knew her. Yet according to Hyde, the film is a tricky one to sell to audiences, requiring a strategy that harnesses the enthusiasm of those who have already seen it.

Writer/director Sophie Hyde, centre. With Bryan Mason, right, and Jonny Elk Walsh, left. AACTA Awards Luncheon, January 2012.

Nominated for two AACTA Awards earlier this year, Life in Movement was a very personal project for Sophie Hyde and her partner in life and work, Bryan Mason. Together the pair wrote, directed and produced the film, with Mason also performing cinematography and editing roles. (Incidentally, Mason also won an AACTA Award for his editing on another Closer Productions project, Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure). Life in Movement premiered in March 2011 at the Adelaide Film Festival, and was a hit at other festivals it toured. But festival audiences are known to be uniquely supportive of Australian films – a stance not always mirrored outside of festivals.

With a view to releasing the film, Hyde and Mason were keen to pick up tips at the inaugural AACTA Awards Luncheon in January, from fellow guests Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond, the pair who had successfully self-distributed Mrs Carey’s Concert. A veteran documentary maker and self distributor, Connolly, together with Raymond, tapped into word of mouth popularity for their hard-sell film about a high school music department. The result was stunning, with the film grossing almost $1.2m and becoming the fourth highest grossing Australian documentary ever.

“Bob and Sophie did such an amazing release with Mrs. Carey’s Concert,” says Hyde. “They put so much energy into that release and it paid off. They’ve been really supportive of us, and of all the documentaries in competition last year and they talked to us about their experience working with music schools [to fuel word of mouth]. I think our idea of [harnessing] ‘champions’ probably came from the conversation with them.”

The ‘champions’ Hyde speaks of are those fans of the film who’ve signed up to help spread the word. In return these champions receive regular email updates, exclusive footage and fizzy ideas to assist in group bookings, promotions and discounts.

“The thing about Life in Movement is it’s really hard for people to get a hook on what it’s about,” says Hyde. “People look at it and go: ‘Oh, yeah, it’s about dance and it’s about someone who died’, and there’s not that straight, immediate interest in the concept. That first spark of interest is hard to ignite. But what we find is that people who have seen it really want to talk about it with others and they want other people to see it. So the champion idea felt like the right thing to do – formalising that impulse. We have almost no money to release the film, so if people like it and want to talk about it, then that’s really great for us. I only wish we had thought of the champions idea when we first released in festivals last year, because we’ve only been building the champions list up over the last few weeks, and it would have been better to do it earlier.”

In hindsight, Hyde also sees other drawbacks in trying to drum up new interest in the film so far after its initial festival buzz. “The film had quite a lot of press over the year that it was in festivals in Australia, and so a lot of media are saying ‘okay’ to reviewing it but they won’t do another feature on it now. But you know, when you’re first releasing at a festival you just have to go for it and get as much interest as possible while you can, and you can’t hold off. We may never have gotten a cinema release without that initial engagement.”

Tanja Liedtke. Photograph by Julian Crottism.

Life in Movement is being jointly distributed by Closer Screens (a subsidiary of Closer Productions) and the Brisbane-based Antidote Films (formerly Gil Scrine Films). “We’re trying to be a bit more in control of the rights of our films,” explains Hyde, “so we are co-distributing the film.  Antidote do a lot of the dealings with cinemas and we do a lot of the grassroots campaign.”

Made for an astonishingly tight budget of $308,000, Life in Movement was funded by the Adelaide Film Festival Fun, the South Australian Film Corporation’s Educational Content Fund, and Screen Australia’s Special Documentary Fund (now Signature Docs). There were also small donations from private investors and the Tanja Liedtke Foundation. Hyde laughs as she remembers trying to make the budget stretch. “It was crazy. That’s the total budget including development funding. We shot a lot of the film on development money, because we had to, and it took us four and a bit years to do it.”

Partners in life and work, filmmakers Bryan Mason and Sophie Hyde.

Those four years began the day after the sudden death of Tanja Liedtke, a 29-year-old dancer and choreographer who had just made big news in the Australian arts community for her unexpected appointment as artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company. For Hyde and Mason however, the obsessive, driven and sometimes tortured Liedtke had already proved herself as a fascinating and accomplished artist, with two highly regarded productions under her belt – 12th Floor and Construct.

“We had already been working with Tanja,” says Hyde, whose career has ecompassed extensive experience in filming performance and dance (including the Necessary Games trilogy of short films with Restless Dance Theatre). “We had an idea years before to do a documentary about Tanja. So we had some footage that we’d already shot for that and for some other work we’d done with her. And then on the day Tanja died, Bryan [Mason] was just adamant that we were going to make a film. And we worked on it straight away.”

The filmmakers were also incredibly fortunate that their subject had been an avid recorder of her own development and work, filming herself from her early awkward years at school, through to her elegant and quirky dance pieces.  ”Using a video is something that a lot of dancemakers do,” explains Hyde. “Some of them probably just film their shows or rehearsals and then have a look back at it. Some of them film phrases, like, a movement, so that they can remember it. I think Tanja was kind of at the extreme of using video because she had a camera from when she was a child, and she would use it whenever she had an idea or a response, and there was so much footage. She used the camera through every stage of her process, whereas most dancers probably use it at very particular moments.”

Self portrait by Tanja Liedtke.

Of course having so much footage can be both a blessing and a curse for the poor editor who has to shape it into 90 odd minutes of coherent beauty. “It was really hard to edit this film,” agrees Hyde. ”Bryan is the editor and also the co-director and he spent a long time in the suite without me, kind of trawling through footage and piecing things together and trying to put it in a linear structure of Tanja’s life.  And that took a long long time, finding the structure, finding the right kind of way in and out of it. There were  really long nights in the edit suite for both of us. It was hard, really, really hard. But it was amazing to do. It was a creative experience like the one Tanja’s going through in the film. I think we kind of replicated that experience ourselves, digging down into this work and trying to make it work and becoming a bit blind to everything else at periods of time. Yeah… 3am in the morning, you know, delirium. Our daughter was asleep in our house with us editing in the studio out the back!”

Out of the shed and into the world, Hyde is now keen to reach out and connect the film with an audience, one she conceives as including “both people who understand what it is to be a creator, as well as those who haven’t had that experience.” She’s keen to point out that it’s not just  a film for dance fans and dancers, and that “a lot of people who really love it are very young, and one of the things they connect to is the great music and soundtrack by DJ TR!P that really ads to the whole experience.”

For Hyde, who identifies as an ‘artist’ herself, albeit a very collaborative one, part of the process of connecting with viewers and mobilising champions, includes an active presence in social media – from Twitter to Facebook and now, Pinterest.

“At first I didn’t really enjoy it and wasn’t sure what it would mean,” she says. “But recently I’ve realised I really, really want people to see my films. I know that sounds like a funny thing to say, but for a long time you’re just focused on making work, making the film. And then I suddenly thought, ‘I want people to actually see it!’ And I don’t want to just rely on somebody else. There’s that old idea that you hand over your film and someone else will release it, and maybe they’ll do an okay job of it, but maybe they won’t. Something shifted in me when I realised that social media isn’t about hassling people and saying, ‘Here I am, promoting my film’, but instead it’s about trying to engage a bit more outwardly; be a bit more open rather than head down, which I can be a lot. Now you can share your own work, and you can talk about someone else’s work too, and people are much more conversational now on social media. I enjoy Twitter and I’ve just started on Pinterest. I love that idea of just looking at images and sharing them with people. There is something beautiful about that.

Life in Movement released in Australia on 12 April.

Links  & Further Reading

Life in Movement website | Facebook | Pinterest|

Sophie Hyde is on Twitter @sophhyde.

Watch a clip of Twelfth Floor choreographed by Tanja Liedke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYxTA4lEpM

AACTA Member Spotlight: Adam Howard, Visual Effects Supervisor

Posted on by Lia McCrae-Moore
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Howard on set of RUSH HOUR 3

Inspired at school by a dedicated and committed art teacher, Adam Howard is now one of Australia’s most prolific and experienced Visual Effects Supervisors. Starting his career at the ABC in Melbourne and at AAV (now Digital Pictures), with shows like the acclaimed children’s series Round the Twist, he moved to Hollywood 21 years ago, where he has since worked continuously, performing  wonders with technology to create convincing renditions of supernatural worlds, places and people. With four Emmy Awards and a credit list that includes everything from Star Trek, MacGyver, Lois and Clarke to Titanic, The Social Network, Harry Potter, X-Men and The Twilight Saga, Howard has assisted Hollywood giants such as James Cameron, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to realise their own screen dreams. In this expansive Q&A with Adam Howard, he talks about getting his foot in the visual effects door in LA, and urges all those upcoming “tech-heads” to follow their passion as “crazy dreams CAN and do come true.”

Howard loves the collective filmmaking process and the magic that can be created with new technologies, but at the same time admits that part of the art of visual effects is knowing when to capture scenes the old-fashioned way – in camera. A diehard fan of Peter Weir’s classic Picnic at Hanging Rock, Howard remains in awe of the haunting simplicity and beauty of Weir’s Australian classic.

Adam Howard is one of our newest AACTA members, and we’re proud to welcome such accomplished filmmakers into the new Australian Academy. In coming months, we look forward to sharing more of these profiles with you as we turn the Member Spotlight onto more performers and practitioners – both those working at home, and those like Howard, who fly the flag abroad.

Note: If you would like to propose yourself or a colleague for the AACTA Member Spotlight interviews, please email membership@afi.org.au.

AFI | AACTA: How long have you been living in LA? Was it your work that first took you there?

Adam Howard: I have lived in California for the past 21 years.

I first came to LA with the dream of working on Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver. They were two of the biggest shows on TV at the time.  It was a bit of a pipe dream but I went for it anyway.

I had been trying to meet the head of the biggest post production company in LA, The Post Group for about two years but it was difficult doing it from Melbourne, pre-internet and pre-email. I had been talking with his client, who was the head of post production at Paramount Pictures, as I thought that might be a good way to get to meet with him. I called his client one day and he said, “look this is all well and good but you are so far away [in Australia] and I just don’t think I can help you”. I told him, “I am on Melrose Blvd about five minutes away from the studio.” He was very surprised, and told me to come right in. When I got to his office he asked if I had a [show]reel. I did have a reel, which I had created as a short film at AAV in South Melbourne [now Digital Pictures]. I asked him if he wanted to see it and he said, “no”. He then picked up the phone and called The Post Group’s assistant and told her that he had a guy in his office who had the very best demo reel he had ever seen! I nearly died.

I met with The Post Group but they told me that the could not hire me. A bit disappointed after all that effort, I went on to meet with Richard Edlund at Boss Films in Marina Del Rey. He liked my reel and said that he was planning to start a small “digital effects” department and that if I was ever back in LA he would give me a job. At the time, digital effects in Hollywood were in an extremely early stage of development and were only really being used for TV. I realised that the experience I’d had at ABC-TV and AAV with digital paint, effects and animation was going to be pivotal to my getting a job in LA.

Howard on the set of Star Trek The Next Generation

Howard on the set of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION

So I went back home and after a short time, packed my  bags and made the move to LA. Unfortunately Boss had not made the move to digital quite yet and I ended up working for ABC Television in Hollywood. Seven months into my stay at ABC, the phone rang and it was the old head of The Post Group. He told me why he had not hired me. He was leaving The Post Group to start his own visual effects company called Digital Magic and he wanted me to join the company as the assistant to the senior animator on… Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver.

I started the following week and at the end of the first month there, the senior animator (who has sadly since passed away but who became a dear friend over the years) told me that he was leaving to go to Industrial Light & Magic to work on Hook. The following Monday, my boss came in and told me that I was now the new lead animator on Star Trek. About a year later I also became lead animator on MacGyver. So you see, crazy dreams can and DO come true!!!

AFI | AACTA: You were born and raised in Melbourne. What do you miss most about Australia?

Adam Howard: My family. My Mum and Dad live in Deepdene and my brother is also in Melbourne. My kids were both born in LA but they now live in Melbourne too.

The one thing that is really lovely to hear is when friends and co workers from the States go to Australia to do film projects either in production or post production positions, they always come back saying how much they love the country and the people. Aussies just have a truly beautiful way about them that is unlike anywhere else in the world. They are funny, warm and always make people feel at home.

AFI | AACTA: What first inspired you to work in visual effects?

Adam starring in NHK

Howard as a child star on the Japanese television show NHK

Adam Howard: I lived with my family in Tokyo Japan for three years between the ages of five and seven. I remember watching a kid’s TV show where there was a costume character man with a donkey’s head. The camera was on the ground in a sports stadium looking up one of the stairways between the seats of the stadium and this character was trying to run from the top down to the camera. He would get half way down and then pop back up to the top. He kept getting more and more frustrated every time his efforts were thwarted and I remember thinking…“I have no idea how that is happening but I want to do it”.

Shortly after, I ended up as a child actor on NHK in Tokyo, which was a blast. Then of course the big influence, was Star Wars. I doubt that there are many people working in visual effects from my age group who were not influenced by George’s amazing films. They just opened up the world to a whole new scale of storytelling and demonstrated how technology could be used to create visions on a much vaster scale than they had ever been created before.

AFI | AACTA: What do you enjoy most about your craft?

Adam Howard: Storytelling! It is all about the story. An old friend of mine, Linwood Dunn, was basically the creator of visual effects compositing when he created the Acme Dunn Optical Printer back in the early 20th century. He created the optical effects for King Kong, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane and West Side Story…Yes he was a legend! He once told me when I asked him what I should do [in order to have] a long career in visual effects…“You only have one job in this business and it is to serve the story. The minute someone looks at a shot and says, ‘Wow what a great visual effects shot!’, you’ve failed. You have to spend your entire life doing shots that no one will ever notice. It’s always about telling the story.”

I have lived by those words ever since and they have served me well. Thanks Lin.

AFI | AACTA: What does a typical working day look like to you?

Adam Howard: It really depends on the stage of the project. In pre-production a lot of time is spent in the office working out exactly how to pull off a shot and working with the director on pre-viz [pre-visualisation] to help tell the story the best way we can.

Once on set, it is really no different than everyone else’s day on the set – long hours, little sleep and high stress. But with everyone’s creativity running at full steam it is a wonderful experience. Some of the most fun days are the ones when a shot that has been planned for months has to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances, and you have to think fast and on your feet. There really is no substitute for experience in those circumstances.

Once we get to post-production, it is just about making sure that everything looks right and that you are giving your crew good, accurate and helpful direction. I think having sat in the artist’s seat for so many years has helped me as a Supervisor. Post-production crews on shows I have supervised can range from a small handful of people to a few hundred. I always appreciated directors and supervisors who took the time to really explain what they had in their mind’s eye, and I try to do the same when I am with my crews – down to the tiniest details.

Howard on location TWILIGHT BREAKING DAWN

Howard on location of TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN

Someone asked me once to describe what exactly it is that I do. Imagine that you have to show someone a photograph of a car parked in the middle of a busy bustling city but all you have to start with is an empty page. You have to create the car, the light on the car, the glass, the shadows, the reflections. Then you have to do the same thing for every other object in the photo. Not just the big things like buildings, the sky, trees and people, but also the tiny things like the rust on a water down spout, dirty smudges on windows, bird droppings on the ground, cigarette wrappers in the gutter. It might sound ridiculous but it is all those tiny details that are the things that fool a human brain into believing that what they are seeing is real. Now, do 24 of those images every second and make it feel real and you are on your way to making something feel totally believable.

AFI | AACTA: If you had to name three people who have had a significant impact on you over your life, who would they be?

Adam Howard: Well unfortunately I cannot name just three. There have been hundreds of people who have had a significant impact on my life but there are seven who I would like to mention in particular.

First and foremost is Rick Rowton. He was my art teacher at Scotch College in Melbourne. Rick had come from teaching art in the prison systems of Victoria to teaching us. What he brought with him was a mind that knew no boundaries in art. To him, everything was art and he let us all explore everything until we found the things we were passionate about doing. He was the one who recognised that I should be focusing on art studies and he helped my parents point me in the right direction. I will be forever in his debt. I consider him to have been my greatest mentor and a true friend. Sadly, he passed away many years ago and I never got to thank him personally.

Second and third: George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

I can’t separate them as the films they made together helped shape the way I approach filmmaking. They are master filmmakers and I have been blessed to not only be inspired by them but also work with them on a number of feature film projects when I was working at ILM [Industrial Light & Magic].

Fouth: Harold Freedman.

Harold was the State Artist for Victoria and I was lucky enough to work with him on a couple of the big mosaic murals he did for public spaces in and around Melbourne. The main one I worked on was The History of Fire mural which is on the side of the Fire Brigade building in East Melbourne. I laid out a large amount of the fire in that mural along with David Jack and Joe Attard. Harold taught me everything I know about colour. The glass in those murals was my first real experience of mixing colour with pixels. They were just very large ones but the principal is the same. Up close it all looks like a bit of a mess but from a distance it makes a single, cohesive image.

Fifth: James Cameron

I worked with Jim on two of his films, Titanic and Ghosts of the Abyss. I also worked very briefly about seven years ago on some very early tests for the characters in Avatar. He tells stories on a grand scale and never takes no for an answer. The other thing about Jim is that he is one of the smartest people I know. When he asks you to do something, it is because he knows it will work. He is fascinated by the entire filmmaking process and brings that enthusiasm to his productions on every level.

Sixth: Jim Henson

I met Jim when I was about 19 and he offered me a job on The Muppet Show, if I ever made it to New York. I never took him up on the offer but imagine if I had! My entire life could have been very different. He inspired me to be unafraid of breaking the rules. The Muppets are a truly brilliant creation. He was able to tell stories to people of any age and nationality without the restrictions of language and have every one of those people understand exactly what he was saying. Not many people in this business can lay claim to that. He let people learn how to laugh all over again. That is an incredible gift to the world and he is sorely missed. He had the most incredible imagination, something I doubt we will ever see the like of again.

Seventh: Linwood Dunn

Of course. He was the original visual effects guy. He showed me what was important in this business and helped me understand how to go about doing it.

AFI | AACTA: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced during your career?

Adam Howard: Time away from family and friends. As the business has evolved, more and more production is done away from home due to tax incentives (in part) and so we have to go where the work is. I have been very lucky to travel all over the world doing this job but it is always good to come home at the end of the job.

AFI | AACTA: What have been the highlights?

Adam accepting an Emmy

Howard accepting 1 of his 4 Emmy Awards

A few things. The people first! Film crews and visual effects teams are a whole breed unto themselves. Thrown together from all walks of life and nationalities and in a very short time you become a family. It really is like that too, I’m not just saying it. I have stayed friends with people who I have worked with throughout my entire career. You spend so much time with people on a film, you end up with a very personal bond that lasts forever. Winning the Emmy Awards was amazing. I was nominated twice in my first year in the States and won both of them. It’s pretty hard to beat that. Another highlight was going to the Academy Awards the year that Armageddon was nominated for Best Visual Effects. We didn’t win but it was a blast just to be there and walk the red carpet.

AFI | AACTA: Has the nature of your work changed dramatically over time due to the advancements in technology and 3D imaging?

Adam Howard: It certainly has. When I first started in the business at ABC in Elsternwick I was working in the Graphics Department. We made all the graphics for all the shows and it was all handmade. There were no computers, there was no Photoshop and most importantly no internet. We had to do research and we kept every magazine we could get our hands on for photo reference. Then came the Quantel Classic Paintbox. I was one of the first group of paintbox artists in the world and I remember saying to the head of the department that I felt this was the next major industrial revolution staring us in the face. I was only about 17 at the time but it was just so obvious that this tool had the potential to have a huge impact on the way we did everything.

Adam with the Harry Potter cast and crew

Howard (3rd from the left) with the cast and crew of HARRY POTTER

Since then, of course, we have now come to live in a world unimaginable without computers. Visual Effects that would either have been virtually impossible or cost way too much to be practical can now be done at home. It is amazing how times have changed. It is always wonderful to see new technologies and new ways of thinking coming forward in this business. I think because we work in an industry which thrives on creating fantasy, we get the opportunity to try things that have not yet been invented and make them happen. Just look at the Star Trek communicator and modern day cell phones. They are one and the same. Buck Rogers’ fantastic laser beams are now standard in every DVD player.

On location of Unknown

Working with Greenscreen on the set of UNKNOWN (2011)

With all this wonderful advent of technology though, I think it is really important to remember as filmmakers that not everything needs to be done with a computer. Sometimes the very best way to get a shot is to spend the extra time to get it in camera. I had that come up just recently when we shot Unknown in Berlin, with Liam Neeson and director Jaume Colett-Serra. The car chase through the centre of the city could have been a huge green screen shoot but we all decided collectively that the best way to do it for the highest quality “look” was to pull out every different kind of camera and car rig around and put them to work. It made for a truly thrilling sequence, partly because the actors were actually travelling the streets of Berlin so their reactions were absolutely real.

AFI | AACTA: You’ve won four Primetime Emmys for your work on Star Trek and have been nominated for Enterprise. What does it mean for you to have won these awards specifically for your craft?

Adam's Emmy Collection

Howard's Emmy Award collection

Adam Howard: When I was growing up in Melbourne there were two nights of the year when I was always home watching the TV. Emmy night and Oscar night. I always wanted to go just to stand out the front and watch the crowd go into the ceremony, so to be nominated and then win was beyond a dream come true. I have been very lucky indeed. To be recognised for doing what is regarded in the business as the best work for the year is an incredibly humbling honour.

AFI | AACTA: What advice would you give upcoming Australian Visual Effects Supervisors wanting to make it in Hollywood?

Adam Howard: Never stop learning. Never give up. Never stop pursuing your dreams. Anything and everything is possible if you set your mind to it. Make lots of friends in the business in every facet of the business. This is truly a team effort.

AFI | AACTA: Do you see yourself returning to work in Australia in the future?

Adam Howard: I would love to work in Australia again. It is so exciting to see the wonderful and brilliant work that keeps on coming out of Australia. Australian film crews are regarded as some of the best in the world and it would be a great thrill to do a film there.

AFI | AACTA: What is your all time favourite Australian film? Why?

Adam Howard: Again, there are many but if I had to pick just one, it would be Picnic at Hanging Rock. Peter Weir is a genius. He created a film that is truly terrifying and yet all that scares you is purely in your mind. It is also one of the most hauntingly beautiful films to watch, thanks to Russell Boyd’s magnificent cinematography. Combine all that with David Copping’s wonderful art direction and Gheorghe Zamfir and Bruce Smeaton’s score and you have a true masterpiece of filmmaking.

It was a great thrill for me to work with Peter Weir on Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He should be revered as one of Australia’s film treasures.

AFI | AACTA: Thank you for sharing your time with us.

Inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards Ceremony Winners Announced!

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Last night, AACTA President Geoffrey Rush was joined on stage by internationally acclaimed Australian actors including Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Mia Wasikowska, Jonathan and Anthony LaPaglia, Jacki Weaver and Rachael Taylor to honour the year’s best achievements in Australian film and television at the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards Ceremony, held at the Sydney Opera House.

The Ceremony also featured some of the most popular names in Australian entertainment, including performances by Olivia Newton-John, Tim Rogers and Megan Washington.

Winners announced at the Samsung AACTA Awards Ceremony are as follows:

AACTA Award for Best YOUNG ACTOR

  • Lara Robinson. Cloudstreet – Part 1. FOXTEL – Showcase

Alex Dimitriades, winner of Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama, for his performance in THE SLAP.

TELEVISION

AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series

  • East West 101, Season 3 – The Heroes’ Journey. Steve Knapman, Kris Wyld. SBS

AACTA Award for Best Telefeature, Mini Series or Short Run Series

  • The Slap. Tony Ayres, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon. ABC1

AACTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Television Series

  • The Gruen Transfer, Series 4. Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby, Jon Casimir. ABC1

AACTA Award for Best Direction in Television

  • The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Matthew Saville. ABC1

AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television

  • The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Brendan Cowell. ABC1

AACTA Award for Best LEAD ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA

  • Alex Dimitriades. The Slap. ABC1

Sarah Snook, winner of Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama, for her perfomance in SISTERS OF WAR.

AACTA Award for Best LEAD ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA

  • Sarah Snook. Sisters Of War. ABC1

AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama

  • Richard Cawthorne. Killing Time – Episode 2. FOXTEL – TV1

AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama

  • Diana Glenn. The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. ABC1

SWITCHED ON AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST TELEVISION PROGRAM

  • Packed To The Rafters. Seven Network

SWITCHED ON AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE IN A TELEVISION DRAMA

  • Asher Keddie. Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo. ABC1

Cast and crew members from RED DOG, winner of the AACTA Award for Best Film.

SAMSUNG AACTA Award for Best FILM

  • RED DOG. Nelson Woss, Julie Ryan.

AACTA Award for Best DIRECTION

  • Snowtown. Justin Kurzel.

AACTA Award for Best Original Screenplay

  • Griff The Invisible. Leon Ford.

AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Snowtown. Shaun Grant.

Daniel Henshall, winner of Best Lead Actor for his performance in SNOWTOWN.

AACTA Award for Best LEAD ACTOR

  • Daniel Henshall. Snowtown.

AACTA Award for Best LEAD Actress

  • Judy Davis. The Eye Of The Storm.

AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor

  • Hugo Weaving. Oranges And Sunshine.

AACTA Award for Best Supporting ACTRESS

  • Louise Harris. Snowtown.

Judy Davis, Winner of Best Lead Actress, THE EYE OF THE STORM

Highlights of the AACTA International Awards Ceremony, held on 27 January in Los Angeles, were also screened at tonight’s event, with six winners announced across five categories:

AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay (Joint Winners)

· The Ides Of March. George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon

· Margin Call. J.C. Chandor

AACTA International Award for Best Direction

· The Artist. Michel Hazanavicius

AACTA International Award for Best Actor

· Jean Dujardin. The Artist

AACTA International Award for Best Actress

· Meryl Streep. The Iron Lady

AACTA International Award for Best Film

· The Artist. Thomas Langmann

AACTA congratulates all inaugural Samsung AACTA Award recipients.

Video highlights and photographs from the Ceremony will be available at www.aacta.org by the end of the week.

Congratulations to the First Winners!

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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Winners of AACTA Awards at the Samung AACTA Awards Luncheon. Photograph copyright Peter Jensen,

Congratulations to all the winners announced at Sunday’s Samsung AACTA Awards, presented by Digital Pictures.

The first ever winners of the golden statuettes were presented with their Awards at a luncheon, held at the Westin Hotel in Sydney, on Sunday 15 January, 2012.

You can access the full press release, with complete list of winners here on the AACTA website.

You can see photos of the winners over on our AACTA Facebook page here.

Or watch video clips of the winners being interviewed at the media wall, right here on our Youtube site.

Focus on the Television Nominees: Part 2 – Direction and Screenplay

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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In Part 1 of our Focus on the Television Nominees for this year’s Samsung AACTA Awards, we profiled the producers who are nominated this year for Best Television Drama Series and Best Telefeature, Mini Series or Short Run Series. Here we look at the nominees for the AACTA Awards for Best Direction in Television and Best Screenplay in Television.

Here we turn the spotlight onto the writers and the directors nominated in the television categories. It goes without saying that they’re integral to the stories we enjoy watching on the small screen, and yet they’re often in the shadows. It is perhaps unsurprising that the nominees this year in these categories are almost all seasoned professionals with rich, long credit lists – and many an AFI Award on their collective mantlepieces. Read on to find out more.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION IN TELEVISION

And the nominees are:

• Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo – Episode 1. Daina Reid. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 1 ‘Hector’. Jessica Hobbs. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Matthew Saville. ABC1
• Small Time Gangster – Episode 1 ‘Jingle Bells’. Jeffrey Walker. FOXTEL – Movie Network

Since leaving her acting and comedy days behind her, director Daina Reid has quickly established herself as an in-demand director of television (including episodes of City Homicide, Rush, Offspring and the upcoming Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries). Last year, Reid also directed her first feature film, the romantic comedy I Love You Too. (Our 2010 AFI interview with Reid  ‘From Actor to Director’ is here.)  With Paper Giants, Reid brought a snappy pace, a great sense of timing and a finely tuned eye for performance to this fact-based girl-powered story. This is Daina Reid’s second AFI | AACTA nomination – her first nomination was in 2008 for her work as director on Satisfaction, Series 1.

Jessica Hobbs is an accomplished director of high quality television drama, with credits including Heartbreak High, Curtin, Tangle, Spirited, My Place, and of course two episodes of The Slap this year – the stage-setting first episode ‘Hector’ for which she is nominated, and the second episode, ‘Anouk’. Hobbs is also an executive producer on Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. She was nominated for her first AFI Award in 2004 (Best Short Fiction Film – So Close to Home) and has twice won the AFI Award for Best Direction in Television – in 2005 for Love My Way, and in 2006 for Answered by Fire. Jessica Hobbs is also one of the honorary councillors (Directing Chapter) in the newly formed Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA).

Like Jessica Hobbs, Matthew Saville is also nominated for his direction of episodes of The Slap  (‘Harry’ and ‘Sophie’). With a background in graphic design and advertising, Saville first came to notice in the 1990s when his short films revealed him to be a highly literate and original writer-director. Franz & Kafka won the 1997 Melbourne International Film Festival’s Best Australian Short Comedy award, while the melancholy comedy Roy Hollsdotter Live earned Saville an AFI nomination for Best Short Fiction Film in 2003.  His other television credits include The Secret Life of Us, The Surgeon, Tangle and We Can be Heroes – the latter for which he was nominated in 2005 for Best Direction in Television. In 2007, Saville was nominated again, for both direction and screenplay for his debut feature film Noise, but he won that year for another project – the telefeature based on the life of Graham Kennedy, The King. Click here to view a short video interview in which Saville talks about his recent work on The Slap. (We should probably also mention that Saville is director of all six hours of the AACTA nominated mini series Cloudstreet.)

At the tender age of 29, Jeffrey Walker has a huge IMDB listing, explained in part because of his early career as a very successful child actor. He appeared in shows like Round the Twist, Blue Heelers and Ocean Girl. At the age of eight he appeared as the ‘young Martin’ in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s Proof – a fact we realised when he turned up to our 20 year anniversary screening of the film in Melbourne! Walker received the 1997 AFI Young Actor Award for his work in The Wayne Manifesto, but has since changed careers to directing after getting a start as an assistant producer to prolific children’s television creator Jonathan M. Shiff (who happens to be nominated this year for H2O: Just Add Water, Series 3). Jeffrey Walker’s directorial credits in television include: Rake; Wild Boys; the upcoming Jack Irish telemovies, starring Guy Pearce; and of course Small Time Gangster for which he is here nominated. Walker was also nominated in 2010 for Best Direction in Television for his work on the acclaimed teen series Dance Academy.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY IN TELEVISION

And the nominees are:

• Cloudstreet – Part 3. Tim Winton, Ellen Fontana. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Laid – Episode 3. Kirsty Fisher. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 1 ‘Hector’. Kris Mrksa. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Brendan Cowell. ABC1

Tim Winton is a best-selling and much awarded writer of novels and short stories, many of which have been adapted into films, plays, or television series (That Eye the Sky, In the Winter Dark, the Lockie Leonard series, to name just a few). But it is Cloudstreet, the vast and rambling family saga novel, set in Perth from the 1940s, for which Winton is best known. Published in 1991, and winning the Miles Franklin Award in 1992, the book was voted Australia’s favourite book by ABC audiences in 2003. Now the novel has been adapted into a three-part six-hour mini series by Tim Winton, working together with US screenwriter Ellen Fontana. The producers of Cloudstreet have put together a great series of interviews and videos about the process of adapting the book, including great footage of Winton talking about why he was the least ‘attached’ person to adapt it – the person least likely to treat the book as a ‘sacred text’. You can find the interviews here. This is the first AFI | AACTA nomination for both Tim Winton and Ellen Fontana.

Screenwriter Kirsty Fisher wears a lot of hats when it comes to her role on comedy series Laid. Not only did she write the script, but is credited as co-creator and co-producer alongside her creative partner Marieke Hardy (Liz Watts of Porchlight Films is executive producer). Fisher has been working in television for many years as a script editor and screenwriter, with credits including H20 Just Add Water, Winners & Losers and Silversun. This is her first AFI |  AACTA nomination. You can read Paul Kalina’s Age interview with Kirsty Fisher and Marieke Hardy here.

Kris Mrksa is an AFI and AWGIE Award winning screenwriter whose credits include East West 101, Underbelly, Packed to the Rafters, Carla Cametti PD and The Secret Life of Us. He also co-wrote the telemovie The King (with Jaime Browne). Mrksa won his first AFI Award in 2001 for Best Screenplay in a Short Film (Sparky D Comes to Town), and his second AFI Award in 2009 for Best Screenplay in Television (Underbelly). This year he is nominated for his work on the first episode of The Slap – ‘Hector’. He also wrote the ‘Manolis’ episode – which anecdotally is for many audience members and readers a favourite section of both the novel and the series.

Brendan Cowell is an award winning actor, playwright and screenwriter. On television he has played hilarious handyman ‘Todd’ in SBS comedy series Life Support and the self destructive chef  ‘Tom’ in Foxtel’s Love My Way, while on film, he has played the central roles in Noise, Beneath Hill 60, I Love You Too and the upcoming comedy drama about amateur cricketers, Save Your Legs – on which he is also screenwriter. Cowell has written a number of plays and a novel, as well as episodes of Love My Way, and of course two episodes of The Slap – ‘Harry’ and ‘Richie’. He is nominated for the former. (Interestingly, Cowell also appears on screen in the ‘Richie’ episode where he plays ‘Craig’ – Richie’s lovable ocker dad.) Cowell has been nominated twice before for an AFI Award – in 2007 for Best Lead Actor in Noise, and in 2010 for Best Lead Actor in Beneath Hill 60.

To see video interviews with both Kris Mrksa and Brendan Cowell talking about their work on The Slap, click here.

So there they are: the directors and the writers who are up for AACTA Awards this year for their work in television. The winners of these two awards will be announced at the Samsung AACTA Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 31 January 2012, and broadcast on the Nine Network.

Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll take a closer look at the nominees for Best Lead Actor and Actress in a Television Drama, and Best Guest or Supporting Actor and Actress in a  Television Drama.

Focus on the Feature Film Nominees

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On Wednesday last week (30 November 2011), the newly established Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) announced all nominees for the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards, which will be held in January 2012. You can see a full list of the nominees here on the gorgeous new AACTA website.

Entrants, industry guests and media were present at Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) for the announcement of the nominees. The internationally awarded animator, writer and director Adam Elliot was the genial and very funny host of the procedings. He was joined on stage by actors Alexandra Schepisi, Daniel Henshall and Claudia Karvan, who announced the nominees in various categories. These three also happened to be nominated for their own work this year: Schepisi for her role as the sparky nurse in The Eye of the Storm; Henshall for his chilling performance as a serial killer in Snowtown; and Karvan for Spirited, Season 2, the Foxtel drama series on which she is producer and writer, as well as the star. A gallery of photos from the event can be viewed here on the AACTA Facebook page.

Claudia Karvan, Daniel Henshall, Alexandra Schepisi, AFI | AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella and Adam Elliot at the Samsung AACTA Nominations Announcement, November 30 2011.

The announcement of all the nominees confirmed the strength of Australian film and television in 2011. Highlighting the reach and diversity of production this year, the nominations are spread across 14 Feature Films (out of a possible 21), 14 Documentaries, four Short Animations, six Short Fiction Films and 23 Television Productions.

The AFI and AACTA congratulate all the nominees. We will be giving them all some ‘blog love’ in the coming weeks leading up to the Samsung AACTA Awards in January. Right now, however, it’s time to put the spotlight on the Feature Film nominees, with a view to round two voting, which is now open to all AACTA members until Wednesday 14 December, and involves AACTA members voting on all these Feature Film nominees, with the exception of the Best Young Actor and Visual Effects categories, which are decided by Jury.*

THE FEATURE FILM NOMINEES – INAUGURAL SAMSUNG AACTA AWARDS

The six Feature Films nominated for the prestigious Samsung AACTA Award for Best Film (in alphabetical order) are:

  • The Eye Of The Storm
  • The Hunter
  • Mad Bastards
  • Oranges And Sunshine
  • RED DOG
  • Snowtown

In a result that confirms the AFI members are in close concert with the professional AACTA members, the same six Feature Films are nominated for the AFI Members’ Choice Award, though in different order of preference.

Throughout the year, we’ve covered many of these films with interviews and Q&As during their time of release. Below are the nominated films, with details of which awards each film is nominated for, along with ‘Further Reading’ links to any editorial content we’ve published relating to those films.

The Eye Of The Storm is nominated for twelve AACTA Awards: Best Film; AFI Members’ Choice (Antony Waddington, Gregory Read, Fred Schepisi); Best Direction (Fred Schepisi); Best Adapted Screenplay (Judy Morris); Best Production Design (Melinda Doring); Best Costume Design (Terry Ryan); Best Lead Actor (Geoffrey Rush); Best Lead Actress (Judy Davis); Best Lead Actress (Charlotte Rampling); Best Supporting Actor (John Gaden); Best Supporting Actress (Helen Morse); Best Supporting Actress (Alexandra Schepisi). Further reading: Interview with director Fred Schepisi.

The Hunter is nominated for fourteen AACTA Awards: Best Film (Vincent Sheehan); AFI Members’ Choice (Vincent Sheehan); Best Direction (Daniel Nettheim); Best Adapted Screenplay (Alice Addison); Best Cinematography (Robert Humphreys); Best Sound (Sam Petty, David Lee, Robert Mackenzie, Les Fiddess MPSE, Tony Murtagh, Tom Heuzenroeder); Best Original Music Score (Matteo Zingales, Michael Lira, Andrew Lancaster); Best Production Design (Steven Jones-Evans); Best Costume Design (Emily Seresin); Best Lead Actor (Willem Dafoe); Best Lead Actress (Frances O’Connor); Best Supporting Actor (Sam Neill); Best Supporting Actress (Morgana Davies); Best Visual Effects (Felix Crawshaw, James Rogers). Further reading: Director Daniel Nettheim interviewed .

Mad Bastards is nominated for five AACTA Awards: Best Film (David Jowsey, Alan Pigram, Stephen Pigram, Brendand Fletcher); AFI Members’ Choice (David Jowsey, Alan Pigram, Stephen Pigram, Brendan Fletcher); Best Original Screenplay (Brendan Fletcher, Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait, John Watson); Best Sound (Phil Judd, Nick Emond, Johanna Emond); Best Young Actor (Lucas Yeeda). Further reading: Trespass interview with director Brendan Fletcher.

Oranges And Sunshine is nominated for seven AACTA Awards: Best Film (Camilla Bray, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning); AFI Members’ Choice (Camilla Bray, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning); Best Editing (Dany Cooper); Best Costume Design (Cappi Ireland); Best Lead Actor (David Wenham); Best Lead Actress (Emily Watson); Best Supporting Actor (David Wenham). Further reading: Lead actress Emily Watson interviewed.

RED DOG is nominated for eight AACTA Awards: Best Film (Nelson Woss, Julie Ryan); AFI Members’ Choice (Nelson Woss, Julie Ryan); Best Direction (Kriv Stenders); Best Adapted Screenplay (Daniel Taplitz); Best Cinematography (Geoffrey Hall); Best Editing (Jill Bilcock); Best Original Music Score (Cezary Skubiszewski); Best Production Design (Ian Gracie). Further reading: An interview with director Kriv Stenders.

Snowtown is nominated for ten AACTA Awards: Best Film (Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw); AFI Members’ Choice (Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw); Best Direction (Justin Kurzel); Best Adapted Screenplay (Shaun Grant); Best Cinematography (Adam Arkapaw); Best Editing (Veronika Jenet); Best Sound (Frank Lipson MPSE, Andrew McGrath, Des Kenneally, Michael Carden, John Simpson, Erin McKimm); Best Original Music Score (Jed Kurzel); Best Lead Actor (Daniel Henshall); Best Lead Actress (Louise Harris). Further reading: A round-table chat with with actors Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris and Lucas Pittaway.

Completing the slate of Feature Films competing for the country’s most esteemed screen awards are eight other feature films:

Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole is nominated for three AACTA Awards: Best Sound (Wayne Pashley, Derryn Pasquill, Polly McKinnon, Fabian Sanjurjo, Phil Heywood, Peter Smith); Best Original Music Score (David Hirschfelder) and Best Visual Effects (Grant Freckelton).

Sleeping Beauty is nominated for three AACTA Awards: Best Cinematography (Geoffrey Simpson, ACS ); Best Production Design (Annie Beauchamp); and Best Costume Design (Shareen Beringer). Extra reading: Director Julia Leigh talks about creating ‘A Sense of Wonder’.

Face To Face is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Supporting Actor (Robert Rabiah).

Griff The Invisible is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Original Screenplay (Leon Ford). Extra reading: Quick Quizzes with writer-director Leon Ford and lead actress Maeve Dermody.

The Loved Ones is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Original Screenplay (Sean Byrne). Extra reading: ‘Pink Glitter and Blood’ – an interview with writer-director Sean Byrne.

Red Hill is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Original Screenplay (Patrick Hughes).

Sanctum is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Visual Effects (David Booth, Peter Webb, Ineke Majoor, Glenn Melenhorst).

Wasted On The Young is nominated for one AACTA Award: Best Editing (Leanne Cole). Further reading: an interview with editor Leanne Cole as part of our 2010 focus on editing. A Q&A with writer and director Ben C. Lucas.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch the competition between these fine films. Remember, if you’re an AACTA member, your vote on these nominees determines the winners, so don’t forget to excercise your voting priveleges before the close of round 2 voting on Wednesday 14 December.

* For further information on voting, please see the voting section of the AACTA website.

Cinematographer Don McAlpine honoured by AACTA

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Last week Australian cinematography legend, Donald M. McAlpine (ACS/ASC), was announced as this year’s recipient of the AACTA Raymond Longford Award. You can watch him receiving the news about the award from his old friend Jack Thompson  in the clip below. And yes, he was genuinely surpised! No acting required.

McAlpine’s career spans more than 50 films made over 40 years, and includes Australian classics such as Don’s Party, My Brilliant Career and ‘Breaker’ Morant, through to international blockbusters such as Predator, Patriot Games and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career including an Oscar® and BAFTA nomination for Best Cinematography for Moulin Rouge!, a BAFTA nomination for William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, working with Baz Luhrmann, as well as three AFI Awards.

Don McAlpine filming 'Mental', for writer/director P..J. Hogan.

McAlpine, now aged 77, is still working at full speed and continues to adapt to new digital technology. With his lifelong partner, his wife Jeanette, at his side, he has just completed filming for P.J. Hogan’s latest feature film, Mental, starring Toni Collette, Liev Schreiber and Anthony LaPaglia.

Upon being told of the Award, Don McAlpine said, “I accept the Raymond Longford Award as a great personal honour. I am thrilled with the honour it implies to the art and craft of Australian cinematographers.”

You can watch the ABC News story on Don’s win, here.  Note how he says he “loves every minute of it” – and that his favourite work is Baz Lurhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. It’s a nice choice. Who could forget that luminous and magical scene with Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes looking at each other through a fish tank?

Or why not listen to Don being interviewed by Fran Kelly on Radio National, here. Listen out for the part where he talks about filming Julia Roberts’ smile, and the secret of her success.

McAlpine will be officially awarded with a special presentation at the Samsung AACTA Awards Luncheon on Sunday 15 January – the first of AACTA’s two awards events, both of which will be held in January to fall within the international screen awards season. The Luncheon will include special tributes for McAlpine by fellow screen luminaries Bruce Beresford, Jack Thompson and P.J. Hogan.

For more information about Don McAlpine and the AACTA Raymond Longford Award, visit the AACTA website here.

A new kind of intimacy: Tony Krawitz, director of The Tall Man

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Tony Krawitz

Tony Krawitz, writer and director of 'The Tall Man'.

Tony Krawitz is best known within the Australian film and television industry as the young South African-born writer and director of the acclaimed short feature Jewboy, a stunningly accomplished piece about a Chassidic taxi driver working in Bondi and experiencing a crisis of faith. The film premiered at Cannes and won three AFI Awards, including two for Krawitz himself – for Best Screenplay in a Short Film and Best Short Fiction Film (shared with Liz Watts). An AFTRS graduate, Krawitz has since been working predominantly in local television drama (including City Homicide, All Saints, The Silence and The Surgeon), but what’s putting him in the spotlight right now is his first foray into documentary, The Tall Man. Already, the film has premiered as an official selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and has been announced as one of the four Nominees for the AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary – and that’s all ahead of an Australian theatrical release on 17 November.

The Tall Man is produced by Darren Dale (company director of Blackfella Films, Australia’s premier Indigenous production company and long time producer for SBS) and based on the non fiction book by Chloe Hooper. It’s a sobering but gripping examination of the case of Cameron Doomadgee, an Indigenous man living on Palm Island in Far North Queensland, who on 19 November 2004 reportedly swore at a police officer, Senior Sargeant Chris Hurley, and 45 minutes later, lay dead in a police cell, with massive internal injuries likened to those of a fatal car crash victim. The outraged Palm Islanders rioted and burnt down the police station, but subsequent investigations never resulted in a conviction of the policeman. What they did result in, was a galvanising of the entire Queensland Police Force, who came out in support of their fellow officer, amidst accusations of collusion and mishandling of the case.

The Tall Man investigates these events and the legal case around them, but the focus is firmly on the people whose lives have been most affected by the tragedy – Doomadgee’s family, friends and the island’s community. In the interview below, Tony Krawitz talks about the process of gaining trust, exploring grief, and attempting to grapple with the paradox that Palm Island is both paradise and prison to those Indigenous people who live there.

AFI: Congratulations on your film’s nomination for Best Feature Length Documentary. One of the striking things about the film is its visual beauty despite the harshness of the story (and we should mention Director of Photography, Germain McMicking here). Can you talk about the look you were aiming for?

Tony Krawitz: The look came about organically through doing the research. Palm Island is just such a beautiful place. And yes, the story is such a sad tragic story that we thought it would be an interesting counterpoint to show the beauty. It’s kind of ironic that it looks like a picture postcard and yet something so bad happened that day. Also the film is so upsetting at times that we wanted to show the positive aspects of life on the island as well – those amazing kids and their grandparents, having karaoke nights and good times.

AFI: What was the significance of the scenes of a man on horseback that recur throughout the film? Are there a lot of horses on Palm Island?

Tony Krawitz: Yes, there are a lot of wild horses – maybe thousands on the island. We drove to the top of the mountain one day and there were about 50 horses up there, a whole big family of them. And some people keep them. Otherwise, they let the horses roam free and they know certain ones, and some afternoons after school kids just go and lasso a horse and go riding. So it’s got this great freedom to it. But in terms of structure, that guy riding on the horse symbolises the great sense of freedom about Cameron Doomadgee. The people who knew him describe him as quite a free spirited person.  He loved horse riding, and loved going to the neighbouring island and hunting and fishing for days at a time, and diving, and all those kinds of things. Seeing a man looking free on horseback just reminded me of Cameron and what I’d heard of him. It’s just that mix that people talk about on Palm Island – of being really free because it’s like country life, away from the city – and then feeling completely trapped because they are on an island, and feeling like they’re under the control of the police.

The Tall Man publicity still

Wild horses roam free on Palm Island - a place that is both paradise and prison. Image from 'The Tall Man'.

AFI: How closely did you follow the Chloe Hooper book upon which the film is based?

Tony Krawitz: I’m not sure how close it is anymore, because I know that book backwards. I’m a big fan of the book and the film is quite similar in a lot of ways – obviously the events are the same. The big difference is that Chloe was at a lot of the events, so in the book she’s describing being in the courtroom day by day, what each day is like, how people are feeling, and it’s happening in the present. Whereas in the film, all the people we’re interviewing are looking back at the events and commenting on those events. It’s in the past.  That’s one of the biggest differences. In my mind they complement each other.

AFI: What was the shooting schedule like for this film? How much time did you spend on Palm Island?

Tony Krawitz: I don’t remember exactly because we finished shooting at the end of last year. We went there about five times. We went there quite a lot. Sometimes we just went there so people could get to know us more and find out what we were doing. We filmed over at least a year.

AFI: Were people happy to talk to you? Were they glad this film was being made or were they difficult to win over?

Tony Krawitz: Everyone was happy, especially the family. I’m a whitey, so the company that hired me was an Indigenous film company, and they work obviously in Indigenous communities a lot. So everyone knew this was going to be a film made by Indigenous people, but with a white director on board. Most people just felt that nobody in the media had really spoken about Cameron as a person, with a life and a family, but that they’d just spoken about his death and the day that led up to that. They were really happy that the film would talk about those important events leading up to the tragedy and that day of his death, but that it would also be a celebration of his life.

Darren Dale producer of The Tall Man

'A man who needs four mobile phone batteries' - producer Darren Dale.

AFI:  Can you talk a little bit about your producer Darren Dale and how you came to be working with him?

Tony Krawitz: Darren and I met through mutual friends over the years and I’ve  known him through workshops with young Aboriginal filmmakers. So we’ve known each other for some time but we hadn’t worked together before. He just called me up one day and asked me if I was interested and gave me the book to read. He is quite extraordinary. He’s one of the busiest people I know.

AFI: His credits are quite extensive – including short films for Warwick Thornton and Beck Cole, and First Australians for SBS and producing the Message Sticks festival…

Tony Krawitz: He’s great. He needs four extra batteries for his mobile phone – especially when we were up in Palm Island! He was dealing with a lot. It was a really small crew and very hard work. But as much as it was a very tragic time, we also had an incredible time of being with the family who were just so gracious with us – inviting us to their house, taking us fishing, daily life stuff that wasn’t just about the filmmaking.

AFI: Had you been involved in documentary filmmaking before?

Tony Krawitz:  I made a short seven minute documentary at university, and then I researched a documentary that never got made. So I’ve always been interested in making documentaries, but this is the first long one I’ve made.

AFI: You’ve made a short feature and lots of television, but how was this particular film different from your other experiences as a director?

Tony Krawitz: It was really great actually. It’s quite a profound experience to have strangers tell you their stories and invite you into their homes. There’s a level of intimacy that’s quite different to working in fiction. With this particular story it was tough because you’re dealing with people’s grief. It’s not like the subject matter is really easy – you have to ask people really tough questions. But it was a privilege.

AFI: In past interviews you have spoken about how you grew up in South Africa and the situation of the Indigenous people in Queensland reminded you of apartheid South Africa. That’s a pretty strong criticism.

Cameron Doomadgee from The Tall Man documentary

Cameron Doomadgee as a young man (right, in Australian flag t-shirt), from Tony Krawitz's documentary 'The Tall Man'.

Tony Krawitz: Yes. That’s what Aboriginal people were saying to me too, so that’s not just me making it up. Also from reading Chloe’s book and talking to Aboriginal activists or people who have to deal with life in remote communities, it’s clear that Australia is a tough place for Indigenous people. For me as an outsider to it, it reminded me of apartheid. I grew up in a privileged position under apartheid, but I was back in South Africa recently for two years, which was really interesting. South Africa and Australia share a similar colonial history, and when you look at the history of a place like Palm Island, you discover that it was a bit like a penal colony. It was set up for recalcitrant natives in the 1920s, and people were in dormitories. When I was interviewing older people in the documentary, who grew up in the dormitories, you see that people are still living with the after-effects of colonialism and they’re on this island where they feel like they’re living under a police state. You can argue the actual specifics of apartheid and apartheid law and how it’s different to the situation of Indigenous people  – you can argue the nitty gritty of it – but the overall feeling that people have has striking similarities.

AFI: One of the points the film makes is the huge power of the police. And when the police collude, it’s very difficult to fight that, and whether you’re Aboriginal or white, you could be in that position of powerlessness.

Tony Krawitz: Yes, and that happens. In Far North Queensland it’s so common for Aboriginal people to talk about things like being pulled over by the police just because of the colour of their skin. The only people who wouldn’t talk to us for the documentary (apart from the police!) were Aboriginal people who were too scared to talk to us because they thought the cops might see them and beat them up one dark night! So that’s a real kind of fear up north.

AFI: Are you concerned about how the police will view the film?

Tony Krawitz: It will be interesting to see how the police react to it. We’re not uncovering new evidence. Everything in the film has already been spoken about. It’s not an investigative documentary in that sense, it’s more about going through the emotional side of the case. So we’re not trying to make [policeman] Chris Hurley out to be some kind of demon, just to show him as a flawed human being, as we’re all flawed human beings.

AFI: The sound design and the score for the film are really atmospheric, creating both a sense of beauty, sadness and menace. Sam Petty was the Sound Designer, and Antony Partos and David McCormack did the music. You’d worked with them before?

Tony Krawitz: I’ve worked with Sam a lot. But not Antony and David before. It was quite hard in a way – we just wanted to make the people who are the subjects of the film the focus and not go too heavy on sound design or music. We didn’t want to make it too overly emotional. I was just lucky to be able to collaborate with them. I think they did a great job. We wanted to find a balance to not let the score be the main thing – finding a way to add to the experience, but still giving the interviewees the space to say things in their own words.

AFI: Right now you’re working on shooting a feature film adaptation of Dead Europe, Christos Tsiolkas’s novel. That’s quite a full-on book! 

Tony Krawitz: Yes it is pretty full on! And really hard to adapt. Right now I’m in the office and there are people running around madly getting ready for it. We start the shoot in Sydney for the Australian parts of the story and then we go to Europe, but it’s all very exciting and it’s a great challenge.

AFI: We look forward to seeing it. Best wishes for The Tall Man too, and thanks for your time.

The Tall Man releases nationally 17 November through Hopscotch.

The Tall Man is one of the four films nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards, with winners announced January 2012. Click through for A Closer Look at the Nominees for Best Feature Length Documentary.

Riding the Storm: An Interview with Fred Schepisi

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By Rochelle Siemienowicz

Flicking through the incredible photo archives from past AFI events, you’re bound to come across some wonderful photos of Fred Schepisi attending, and winning awards, at long-ago AFI Awards ceremonies. A particularly memorable image (see below) from 1976 shows Schepisi holding the  AFI Award for Best Film for The Devil’s Playground. And while you may mock the design of the statuette that year (just look at the thing!) there’s no doubt that Schepisi is one of our most serious filmmakers, a true pioneer and veteran of the Australian new wave. Still going strong at the age of 71, his work includes important Australian films like The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) and Evil Angels (1988), and US films like Roxanne (1987), Russia House (1990) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993), as well as the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated TV mini series Empire Falls (2005) .

Key Art Eye of the StormIt’s been 23 years since Schepisi last directed an Australian film, though this hasn’t been for want of trying. Many a project has almost come to fruition, but has then fallen through in the final stages of financing limbo. Happily, Schepisi’s return to the Australian landscape looks like a triumphal one, with his latest feature film The Eye of the Storm, pleasing both critics and festival audiences ahead of its Australian release today (15 September, 2011). Screen Daily has called The Eye of the Storm ‘a classy production with a distinctly European feel’, while The Hollywood Reporter praises it as ‘intelligent and visually sumptuous’. The programmer’s notes for the Toronto International Film Festival (where the film screens this month in special presentation), aptly describes it as ‘cinematic chamber music…filled with the wisdom about what happens when a parent dies’.

An adaptation of Patrick White’s novel of the same name, about a dying Sydney matriarch and her two squabbling middle-aged children, The Eye of the Storm is certainly a ‘classy production’. Beautifully lensed by Director of Photography Ian Baker, with a score by Paul Grabowsky, the film features impeccable production design by Melinda Doring, recreating the upper crust world of wealthy 1970s Sydney. But the most visible ‘class act’ in the film comes from the trio of seasoned powerhouse actors in the lead roles. Charlotte Rampling plays the formidable and sexually voracious mother (both in her older and sprightlier years) and Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis play her vain, insecure and desperate-for-love offspring. For all its tragic elements, the sharp wit of the screenplay and the sly performances make the film more of a comedy. It’s a sparkling drama for grownups – the kind we crave in these days of teen-bait blockbusters.

A powerhouse acting trio: Judy Davis, Charlotte Rampling and Geoffrey Rush.

Fred Schepisi recently gave an illuminating and extensive interview to the AFI, and you can read it below. He gives clues as to why he’s well known as an actor’s director. (Remember, this is a man who has directed two actresses in Oscar® nominated performances – Meryl Streep in Evil Angels, and Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation). He’s also candidly critical about what he sees as the ‘international disease’ of trying to make intelligent films on extremely low budgets. Looking back over his extensive career, he also reflects on the the fact that although increasing years bring greater confidence and equanimity, it’s still a case of starting from scratch with each new project. Fortunately, he finds this exciting rather than daunting.

AFI: You have a marvelous cast in this film, particularly with the three leads – Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. Were these always the actors you had in mind?

Fred Schepisi:  When you’re putting a film together, you have your dream list of actors, and we pretty much got them. What am I saying? We didn’t ‘pretty much’ get them. We did! And not just the leads, but the rest of the cast too – Robyn Nevin, Helen Morse, John Gaden and all of them.

AFI: Your daughter, Alexandra Schepisi, has a central role in the film as a pretty young nurse who becomes the lover of the much older character played by Geoffrey Rush. Did this pose challenges for you as a director?

Fred Schepisi:  Yes, it was challenging, but more in the casting stages . The last time I directed Alex she was 18 months old, and she was the baby who was shot in Jimmie Blacksmith – we didn’t let her see that obviously, until she was much older! In this case, it was a difficult decision. I didn’t want to put her in a hard position and I didn’t want to put myself in a hard position. The main creative people on the film tested her, along with a number of other actors, and they said I’d be mad not to cast her. We had all these rules about how we would behave on set – that she wouldn’t call me ‘Dad’ etc., but that shit went out the window after about three days. It didn’t really matter. It became like any other working relationship. Although, I did notice that Geoffrey was very careful in the love scenes!”

Geoffrey Rush and Fred Schepisi on set of The Eye Of The Storm

Geoffrey Rush and Fred Schepisi on set of 'The Eye Of The Storm'.

AFI: Many actors who’ve worked with you have commented that you’re very calm to work with – a very calming person on set – and that this is unusual for directors.

Fred Schepisi: It shouldn’t be unsual! I don’t know if I’m calm, but the actors have a very difficult job to do. Ian Baker, the Director of Photography on this film, is aware of this too, and he’s incredibly good. I let him do this bit; he trains the crew to know when to start quietening down and when to let the focus shift from the stuff they’re doing to the actors, to create a situation where the actors can give it their best. You’re trying to create a situation where the actors know they won’t be pressured or embarrassed. They should never be made to feel that there are time constraints – though they do feel that, naturally. The actors have a real job to do. They’ve got to pull something out of the air, out of nowhere, and they’ve got to be that person. And my job is to help them get to that place – either by talking or not talking, by standing next to them and vibrating sometimes, or giving them a smile or not. Everybody requires something different. I don’t think you should work any other way. The whole business of standing off behind a monitor and shouting instructions, that’s not me at all!

AFI: This is the first screen adaptation of a Patrick White novel. Is there a good reason for that?

Fred Schepisi: I think there was a play that was done – The Night, The Prowler – but this is the first feature of a novel. Patrick White’s work is rich and complex, and some people find it difficult. But he’s got a lot of ideas, a lot of richness and unusual styles. His stories are very large, but they’re very good. He’s our only Nobel Prize winning author and there’s a reason for that. I certainly got a greater appreciation for his talent by going deeper into this particular book.

AFI: Can you talk about the adaptation process, and what’s been left out or emphasised from the novel?

Fred Schepisi: Well, the novel is 600 pages, so if you think about it in film time, you can only really use about a 100-page length. Patrick White goes off into reveries and follows characters all over the place. What the screenwriter Judy Morris did – and she did a brilliant job too – is distill it down to the essence and get it focused on the family, which is the main drive, and then support that in a way with the other characters so that you get some of the complexity of the novel.

AFI: In the press notes for this film, you are quoted as saying that people working in Australia get used to working on lower and lower and lower budgets, and that they start to unconsciously make excuses for the quality of the work. In contrast, you talk about how your investors understood that The Eye of the Storm needed to have a certain budget to tell the story properly. Would you care to expand on that?

'To tell some stories properly, and really energise them, takes money...and this is a period film which always costs more to create.' Fred Schepisi

Fred Schepisi: Trying to make intelligent films on extremely low budgets is a worldwide disease. To tell some stories properly, and really energise them, takes money. In this case it’s a story set in a rich person’s world, so you need a certain budget to do that. Some low budget films are great, but every film can’t be like that. I wanted to make a film of a certain quality, with a certain film grammar – a film with a lot of locations, some CGI and it’s also a period film [set in the 1970s], which always costs more to create. Sometimes you just have to pay for it.

AFI: What kinds of excuses do you think are made in terms of low budget films?

Fred Schepisi: I’ll tell you two things. I remember years ago somebody making a film – I won’t name it because that would be nasty – but the acting was dreadful, the editing was dreadful. Well, the editing was dreadful because the coverage probably wasn’t there in the first place. The producer kept saying, ‘It’s really good for $1 million.’ And my answer was, ‘No, it’s not. If you don’t have real performances, you don’t have a real film. You don’t have anything. You’ve just wasted $1 million.’ It’s not just an Australian disease, it’s a worldwide disease where there are lower and lower budgets for intelligent work. Now, if you’re George Clooney and you’re making Good Night, and Good Luck, well that’s different. And you’re not having to pay for George Clooney! I’m not knocking it – that’s a great film, but it kind of distorts things and the money people look at that example and think that’s what’s possible. It gets worse and worse, and it’s universal. However, there is a particular form of the disease here in Australia. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked, ‘When are you coming back to Australia and sinking your teeth into a nice, low-budget movie?’ Now when did low-budget become synonymous with art? It’s not! Low-budget is suffering, and doing it on the cheap and not paying properly for people’s time, and only making films about certain subjects. Sometimes it takes a certain budget to reach a certain quality.

AFI: Are you allowed to say what the budget was? The IMDB figure says $15 million. Is that anywhere near the mark?

Fred Schepisi: Okay. Yep, that’ll do. Really, in a way, physically it was a lot less than that, but that’s ok.

AFI: Your struggles to get certain projects up have been widely reported – and you even said that if you wrote your autobiography you’d call it…

Fred Schepisi: …The Films I Didn’t Get To Make! Yes. That would be a boring book. I once gave a talk at the Hawthorn Football Club, some big lunch. I made the mistake of telling them what it was really like, making films. It wasn’t what they wanted to hear. I thought they were business people so they might be interested, but they weren’t.

AFI: How do you cope with the setbacks, the news that something isn’t going to happen after all?

Fred Schepisi:  You try to steel yourself and protect yourself against disappointment and you try not to hope too much, but there are times when you’ve passed the point and made an emotional commitment and financial commitments, and when it goes wrong, that really, really cuts deep and it takes you a little while to recover from that. But you do get over it.

AFI: Does the whole process of making films get easier with experience?

Fred Schepisi: You learn how to avoid panicking when various things happen, and when something seems like an impossible task, you know you will prevail, because you have prevailed in the past. Unfortunately, you can rarely apply the specific experience learnt in one project to the next one. Each film has its own world and that dictates the style and logic of it, so you have to start from scratch. But I like to be nervous and uncertain, and actually learn something new. I actually like that challenge.

AFI: What is the most pleasurable phase of making a film for you?

Fred Schepisi: They’re all different. I tend to think of each section as an end in itself. Getting the script right. Then there’s the pre-production – casting, getting everything right, rehearsing. Rehearsing for me is also going into the wardrobe and being with the actors when they’re trying things on, because the clothes are so important to the character. And there’s the location surveys. In those early stages, everything seems possible, and then you gradually narrow things down. And then there’s the shooting which is incredibly pressured, but a lot of fun. I like the interraction, the intensity of it. I like the time spent with the actors, and the time spent with the crew – who seldom get the credit they deserve. They’re there with you, working towards the same end, and they enlighten you, help you see the jewel from another facet, if you like.  The electricians, the grips, the hair and makeup, the DOP, you’re all working together. I love that.

AFI: Can you talk about working with your editor, Kate Williams? This is her fourth film editing for you, so you must have a good rapport?

Fred Schepisi: Sure, yes! I make a lot of editing decisions when I’m shooting and preparing, but it’s very organic. You make the most of each scene, and every scene belongs to every other scene. I’m constantly talking to the editor and going through the rushes. It’s a very ongoing process, so you require a lot of patience and input from your editor. Sometimes they don’t agree with you, and sometimes you get into the odd wrangle, but it’s a good wrangle!

AFI: Sometimes you need people to argue with you?

Fred Schepisi: In a way I want everyone to do that, but I want them to do it knowing what the intention is. And in the end, there has to be one guiding voice. And guess who’s voice that is? It’s the director’s!

AFI: Thanks for being so generous with your time.

The Eye Of The Storm is in national release through Paramount/Transmission from 15 September, 2011. You can also visit Fred Schepisi’s website for wonderful pictures, links and interviews. The Eye of the Storm is one of the 22 feature films in competition for the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards.

Fred Schepisi at the AFI Awards

1976

Fred Schepisi in 1976, with AFI Award for Best Film for 'The Devil's Playground'.

Won – AFI Award for Best Direction – The Devil’s Playground
Won – AFI Award for Best Film – The Devil’s Playground
Won – AFI Award for Best Screenplay – Original or Adapted -The Devil’s Playground

1978
Nominated – AFI Award for Best Director – The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Nominated – AFI Award for Best Film – The Chant of Jimmie Blackmith
Nominated – AFI Award for Best Screenplay, Adapted – The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

1989
Won – AFI Award for Best Director – Evil Angels
Won – AFI Award for Best Screenplay, Adapted – Evil Angels (shared with Robert Caswell)

1991
Won – Raymond Longford Award

For more information and pictures of past winners of AFI Awards, visit this section of the new AACTA website.

Video Highlights from the launch of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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The new Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts was  launched on Thursday 18 August, overlooking the stunning Sydney Opera House – which will be the iconic venue for the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards in January 2012.

Also announced, the identity of the founding President of AACTA, Mr Geoffrey Rush. The beautiful new statuette, designed by sculptor Ron Gomboc, has also been unveiled, held aloft, and much admired. Isn’t it beautiful? Don’t you just want to hold it?

Below are some video highlights from the night. We invite you to share in the excitement and raise a toast to celebrate a brand new era in Australian screen history.

In this first clip, see stars walking the red carpet and working the media wall; fireworks exploding over the Opera House; and the announcement of the new President, Geoffrey Rush.

Below, the always inspiring AFI Patron, Dr George Miller, gives a wonderful speech, praising the AFI for “being a home” for the screen industry for the past 53 years, and introducing the new President as an examplar of the pursuit of excellence for which the Academy has been formed.

The undoubted highlight of the evening was Geoffrey Rush’s hugely entertaining and funny speech, where he made his first pronouncements as ‘Prez’ -  “You’d be an idiot if you didn’t recognise that Australian artists, both in front of and in so many categories behind the camera are among the world’s finest.” He holds the golden ‘baby’ and calls for a ‘competish’ to name the beauty. A must-watch clip:

And finally, some of the most important news of the awards calendar, the announcement of the 23 Feature Films in Competition for the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards. Here’s a trailer compilation that’s sure to make you keen to see the ones you’ve missed, and revisit the ones you’ve seen already:

These 23 feature films, along with the nominees for Best Short Fiction, Best Feature Length Documentary and Best Short Animation will be shown on the big screen at the AFI/Samsung AACTA Festival of Film to be held in Sydney and Melbourne from early October.

For more information about all of these developments, visit the sparkling new website: www.aacta.org

For a gallery of photos from the AACTA launch, visit the AFI Facebook page here.

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/AustFilmInstitute#p/a/u/5/nN8oS2M7n1A]

Launched! The Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA)

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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The new Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts has been launched with fanfare, overlooking the stunning Sydney Opera House – which will be the iconic venue for the Inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards in January 2012. Also announced, the identity of the … Continue reading →

‘The chance to work on a broad canvas’ – Kriv Stenders on directing Red Dog

Posted on by Rochelle Siemienowicz
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There’s no doubt that Kriv Stenders is a multi-talented writer, director and cinematographer. His films include Lucky Country, Boxing Day, Blacktown, The Illustrated Family Doctor and award winning short film Two/Out.  What these films have in common is a certain bleak intensity, a combination of powerhouse performances, tight scripting and the inventive use of micro-budgets. So how did Kriv Stenders come to direct Red Dog, a sunny upbeat crowd-pleaser with a cute doggie, an energetic soundtrack and heartwarming plot? ”It’s very, very different from anything I’ve done before,” agrees Stenders, on the phone from Jakarta, where he’s shooting a television commercial, “but I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while. You come to a certain point as a filmmaker, where you want to reach as large an audience as you can, and this was a chance to work on a really broad canvas, and I took it on as a challenge.”

Kriv Stenders on the set of Red Dog

Director Kriv Stenders on the set of Red Dog.

Based on the 2002 short novel by UK author Louis de Bernières (Captain Correlli’s Mandolin), Red Dog  is based on the true story of a famous wandering kelpie, who was adopted by the new mining community established by Hamersley Iron in West Australia’s Dampier in the 1960s. The cast of Red Dog is headed up by a pair of bright and sparkly stars – US leading man Josh Lucas, and our own Rachael Taylor as his love interest. A supporting cast of Australian talent includes Noah Taylor, Loene Carmen, John Batchelor, Luke Ford, Arthur Angel and Rohan Nichol. Produced by Nelson Woss (Ned Kelly) and Julie Ryan (Ten Canoes) and written by US screenwriter Dan Taplitz (Breakin’ all the Rules), Red Dog also boasts Geoffrey Hall as director of photography, Jill Bilcock as editor, and Ian Gracie as production designer.

In the interview below, we chat to Stenders about making his first ‘family film’, about collaborating with a giant mining company, shooting on the Red camera, and learning to trust his filmmaking team.

AFI: Congratulations on Red Dog. This is the first film you’ve made that you could take your kids to see. Would you call it a children’s film?

Kriv Stenders: I wouldn’t say it’s a children’s film at all. I’d really say it’s more of a family film. So it’s for everyone – children, parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, everyone! We wanted to make a film that was as broad in its audience appeal as possible. You can do that with a central character who is a dog, because people’s relationships with dogs are very special.

Rachael Taylor and Josh Lucas in Red Dog

Rachael Taylor and Josh Lucas as young lovers in Red Dog.

AFI: Are you a dog lover?

Kriv Stenders: I’m a cat and a dog lover. I’m AC/DC!

AFI: You talk about wanting to reach a broad audience. That’s not something that’s evident with your previous films, so why this change in approach?

Kriv Stenders: The whole industry, the whole market has changed so radically over the last ten years. Now you really have to know why you’re making your film and who it’s for, and you have to realise that audiences are finite.

AFI: Do you feel like you weren’t making a film for audiences with your previous films?

Kriv Stenders: I was making films for a niche audience. But niche audiences used to be a lot healthier than they are now. When you make edgy material these days, it’s just harder for it to get seen. It’s harder to find that audience, especially in Australia, because there are so many more films out there competing for attention. DVDs and Internet – all of that has spread people’s interest now, whereas before, niche films found it easier, I think, to gain an audience. So it’s just the basic mathematics and the basic hard realities of the film market.

Rachael Taylor and Koko in Red Dog

Koko charms leading lady, Rachael Taylor.

AFI: This is certainly a larger budget than you’re used to working with isn’t it? [Widely reported to be around $8 million]

Kriv Stenders: Sure, yeah. But I think you never ever have enough money! For the scale of the film we were making it was really tight, and we really pushed the envelope a lot on what we could achieve with the money that we had. But again, we had a great crew, an amazing team who just pulled off miracles. In a way, every film should be like that. You should always be working hard to put every dollar on screen. And that focus is what you’ve got to maintain throughout.

Working hard to put every dollar on screen.

AFI: This film has close ties to the mining industry in Dampier, where it is set and partly shot. Rio Tinto is one of the investors?

Kriv Stenders: They basically gave facilities investment. They gave us incredible, extraordinary access to the sites and also provided us with things like accommodation. With that accommodation came food. So it was a substantial fiscal investment – not a monetary one but a fiscal one.

AFI: What would you say to critics who might argue that this film is a massive public relations exercise for mining in Australia?

Kriv Stenders: [Rio Tinto] really are Dampier. Hamersley Iron set up the town and was bought out by Rio, but historically they were the company we were making a film about. So it just makes sense that we were able to connect to their systems, their infrastructure and their history. What we tried to do with the film is actually make Australians aware of the history of the place and of the industry. And people can criticise it all they want. I mean the film isn’t really about that. It’s about the formation of a community, and an incredible part of our history. It’s an extraordinary part of the world and it’s not going to go away. The more knowledge we have about it, the better. We’re simply providing people with more of a context.

Red Dog on train

'Koko is the star. He's the actor,' says Stenders about his lead performer.

AFI: Working with animals is notoriously tricky, You used a number of dogs, with the now famous ‘Koko’ as the main player?

Kriv Stenders: Koko is the star, he’s the actor. He did all the close-ups, he did the hard work. We had to have some other dogs for things like long shots and for other pragmatic reasons, but Koko is really the dog. We spent about six months casting the film, and we looked all over Australia. We found him at a breeder’s place in Bendigo. You cast dogs exactly like you do actors. They’ve got to have that fire going on behind their eyes. They’ve got to have that ‘X factor’, and they’ve got to know what they’re doing.

AFI: You’ve talked about using editing to craft the dog’s performance, and using very limited CGI to do things like erase the dog trainer from the frame. Can you talk a little about working with editor Jill Billcock? Was it a new experience for her to be working with an animal performance?

Kriv Stenders: Yes, it was. And she did an extraordinary job. It was such an honour to work with her, she’s an extraordinary filmmaker in her own rights, a really amazing and creative person. Although Koko certainly had a personality and was delivering something, Jill was really able to sculpt it, refine it and focus it in a way that I could never have imagined. I think that a lot of the emotional impact and emotional power of the film is basically the result of Jill’s incredible work.

Koko in Red Dog

Editor Jill Bilcock was able to sculpt and refine Koko's performance.

AFI: You have a background as a cinematographer and a reputation for working well in intimate spaces on low budgets. Yet this film is very big and open, showcasing the wide landscape. Can you talk about working with your DP (director of photography) Geoffrey Hall?

Kriv Stenders: I’ve known Geoff for about 30 years and we’ve worked together on commercials, so we have a lot of history, which helps. This is the first film that we’ve made together. Geoff is one of this country’s finest DPs. He’s incredibly experienced and talented. We wanted to really create something classical, like a lot of those great Australian Outback films before, like Wake in Fright and the Mad Max movies. We wanted to acknowledge those, but at the same time make something that was unique to the world and unique to the story. We shot on the Red [digital] cameras, but Geoff made the Red look extraordinary. In fact, people who’ve seen the film couldn’t believe we shot it on Red and said they’ve never seen Red look so good. It looks as if we shot on 70mm.

AFI: Was it always the intention to shoot it on Red?

Kriv Stenders: Yes, because we couldn’t have shot it any other way. I mean with the dog as the central performer, and needing to have extra coverage, shooting in digital obviously gives you so much more freedom and liberty to shoot without having worry about film stock. And it allowed us to shoot with more than one camera. With our budget, if we shot it on film we wouldn’t have been able to do that. So the Red was the perfect system for us. With the Red, the 4K resolution that you get is actually still better than even the Alexa camera, despite what people say. Technically the Red is probably still the best digital camera around in the marketplace.

Josh Lucas and Koko in Red Dog

Shot with the Red camera, Stenders and DOP Geoffrey Hall wanted to create a look that paid homage to Australia's other great Outback films.

AFI: As a filmmaker, what is the biggest thing you learnt on this project?

Kriv Stenders: I think the biggest thing I learnt was to really, really trust my team and be open to as much collaboration as possible because every day, everyone has a good idea. That includes the cast and everyone. It was just great fun relaxing a little bit and finally being just in the director’s chair! On my other films, I’ve always been standing up or operating the camera or trying to do lots of other things as well. I really learnt to trust my team here, which is really a major part of the filmmaking process.

AFI: One last question. While you were shooting in Dampier, did you encounter real life stories about this famous dog?

Kriv Stenders: Funnily enough a lot of people we bumped into hated the dog! There were people who would say to us, ‘I can’t believe you’re making a film about that mongrel! He was a nasty, horrible dog.’ But he was also loved. The film is about storytelling and it’s as much about the myth as it is about the real. Thirty years later people still talk about this dog. He’s still bringing people together. And that’s extraordinary.

AFI: Thanks for talking with us, and best wishes with the film.

Red Dog releases nationally 4 August. Watch the trailer below.

AFI GIVEN GO AHEAD FOR ‘AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY’

Posted on by Leonardo Jimenez
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The Australian Film Institute (AFI) has announced that it will launch an ‘Australian Academy’ in order to improve national and international recognition of Australia’s screen practitioners.

Industry Consultation Forum - Sydney

Industry Consultation Forum - Sydney

The move comes following overwhelming support for the AFI’s proposed changes, with key industry organisations and 84 percent of screen industry members surveyed supporting the core principals of the Academy.

AFI CEO Damian Trewhella says, “The ‘Australian Academy’ will draw upon some of the well recognised and understood elements of the AMPAS (USA) and BAFTA (UK) models, while tailoring these to meet local  industry needs and traditions, and to ensure that our Awards are still distinctly Australian.

“By drawing on international models, we anticipate greater recognition both here and abroad for Australia’s most talented screen practitioners.  We envisage that this will lead to greater opportunities for those working in the industry, as well as greater audience recognition and connection with Australian screen content.”

The Academy, which is yet to be named, will comprise of accredited professional members only. Trewhella also confirmed that the AFI would retain its name in recognition of the strong heritage of both Australian screen culture and the Institute itself, and all past AFI Awards nominees and winners will be recognised under the new Academy.

One of the key changes to take place under the new Academy is the establishment of an “Honorary Council” consisting of key industry members, including representatives from each of the crafts and Guilds.

The Honorary Council will explore new ways to identify and recognise excellence in each industry craft, as well as ways to increase the national and international prestige of Australia’s film and television awards.

According to AFI Chair, Alan Finney, “A key driver behind the proposed Academy and Honorary Council is a desire to be inclusive of and to better represent all screen professions.  Ultimately we want to foster a community which connects those working within the industry, but which also connects our screen enthusiast public with the industry and the fantastic content being creating.”

The move follows a 12 month AFI review that culminated in an industry consultation period last month. Areas identified for further discussion include the need to explore ways in which the industry can better support students and early career industry professionals, and greater inclusion of new media within the industry.

Clarity regarding general membership entitlements were also raised, with Trewhella commenting:

“Connecting with the ever-important screen enthusiast community remains an integral part of the AFI remit, and we are committed to nurturing our general member base and the Australian public by continuing to engage them with great Australian content.”

When asked about the timing of the new Academy, Trewhella said:

“Based on the overwhelming industry support we have received, we are now confident that we are moving in the right direction, and therefore that we can move briskly to establish the initial phase of the Academy.

“However, we also recognise the ongoing duty to continue to work with industry leaders to ensure that the policies of both the new Academy and the AFI are as relevant as possible to the interests of our talented screen industry and the demands of its audiences.”

Why I Adore… Thank God He Met Lizzie

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By Sarina Rowell

I am never sure whether it would make a person feel good or bad to hear that either they themselves or something they have created is thought to be severely underrated. Yes, naturally, being classed as underrated would be better than being classed as overrated, but the trouble is that it indicates a dearth of applause that the person in question may not even have realised was their, or its, lot. So, at the risk of causing offence should anyone involved with the motion picture in question be reading this, my vote for Most Underrated Australian Film goes to Cherie Nowlan’s Thank God He Met Lizzie.

In terms of its reception, it’s my belief that Thank God He Met Lizzie suffered from not being what it wasn’t – namely, something that featured Loene Carmen playing a junkie.

I first saw this work at Sydney’s Cremorne Orpheum in 1997, and the trouble with going to the Orpheum was that you always felt slightly ripped off if you weren’t treated to the man playing the olden-time organ, even though you hardly ever were treated to the man playing the olden-time organ. In fact, I think I can only ever recall once being graced with his presence, before a teeming Saturday-night screening of Fatal Attraction. Nonetheless, I remember that when I saw Thank God He Met Lizzie, my good humour quickly returned during its opening scene, when a party guest, apropos of nothing, says to another, ‘You know who I really hate? Prince Andrew.’ This line didn’t make me so happy because I had a particular prejudice against this unfortunate royal, mind you; it made me happy because of the unexpectedness of it. And it is this kind of unexpectedness that makes the film so pleasurable and so profound, with a story that is both as simple and as complicated as stories get.

Guy (Richard Roxburgh) is thirtyish and single, and desperate to be in a serious relationship with a woman, something that he spectacularly fails to accomplish by going to parties and being set up on dates. One morning, however, while out running, he sees a pregnant cat in distress and, while seeking assistance, ends up at the expensive doorstep of a glamorous doctor, Lizzie (Cate Blanchett).

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

After a brief courtship, they decide to marry, resulting in an elaborate wedding. However, even though Guy is besotted with Lizzie, he finds himself thinking constantly about his previously most significant affair, with Jenny (Frances O’Connor).

Now, Lizzie and Jenny, and their respective relationships with Guy, are of such opposite natures that this triangle could, in lesser hands than those of this particular writer (Alexandra Long), director and actors, feel contrived and unconvincing. Namely, Lizzie has a father who is a surgeon and a mother who would be able to hold her own with terrifying socialite Charlie in Sons and Daughters, while Jenny comes from a cheerfully eccentric working-class family; Lizzie is elegant and hyper-controlled, while Jenny is charming but chaotic; Lizzie is a blonde, while Jenny is a brunette. Lizzie and Guy got together in the sort of romantic way that is tailor-made for being recounted in a father-of-the-bride speech; Jenny and Guy got together because she purposely rammed her pool cue into him at a pub, and later staked him out at a party, after which they had sex for the first time, in a car.

While Lizzie upsets Guy in big ways, she seems much less likely than Jenny to upset him in the small ones, and that is what makes the difference in day-to-day life

Whatever differences the women have, though, Guy becomes equally disillusioned with both of them, although the process is much faster with Lizzie. His relationship with Jenny had curdled over years, turning from affectionate banter and high old times in the bedroom into his becoming chronically irritated at the way in which she never shut up, wouldn’t wash fruit before she ate it, read over his shoulder and left her dirty clothes on the floor, while she resented this pecking, and was hurt by his reluctance to get marry and have children with her.

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

Regarding Lizzie, though, Guy quickly makes several unpleasant discoveries during merely the course of their wedding day, among them that, while he had believed his meeting with her was preordained and their relationship some sort of miracle, he was really just part of her plan to be married by thirty. Then, once the newlyweds are ensconced in their hotel room, she deals him the worst blow of all.

Aside from anything, Thank God He Met Lizzie is often very funny, as when Lizzie assures her husband-to-be that the priest who will marry them has a great sense of humour and Guy replies, ‘They all do now; it doesn’t prove God exists’. And there is the nuttiness of Jenny’s father (Roy Billing), with his ‘tune I penned in an idle hour’ (a bizarre ode to the Sydney Harbour Bridge); his refusal to accept Latin’s status as a dead language; and his obsession with the Republican movement and statistics about Queen Elizabeth’s use of public money. And then there is the wedding MC, Darren (Jonathan Biggins), referring to himself on his business card as a landscape gardener and ‘specialist in human relations’. It is, of course, also small, exquisitely surprising moments that make it a deeply sad film. When Jenny and Guy finally break up, and he says, ‘The magic’s gone; we can’t get it back’, we are expecting her to insist that they can. Instead, though, she replies, ‘Why would we want to do that?’ This line makes no sense in one way, while also making total sense, in telling us just how much Jenny wants to cling on to whatever it is they still have, whatever state it’s in.

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

Click to play this clip on the Australian Screen website.

It is this kind of unexpectedness that makes the film so pleasurable and so profound, with a story that is both as simple and as complicated as stories get.

And this brings me to why, most of all, I am crazy about Thank God He Met Lizzie, and that is the extent to which for the past fifteen years or so it has really made me think about its characters, their existences and the wisdom of their actions both within and without the ambit of the film. Namely, I’ve always imagined Jenny having a truly septic time with men throughout her thirties but meeting the honest-to-goodness love of her life in her forties. In the case of Guy and Lizzie, it is equally possible to imagine them undergoing a bitter divorce; staying together semi-miserably for the sake of the children whom we see briefly in the final scene; or, who knows, perhaps even ultimately being happy together and only parted, and reluctantly so, by death. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve devoted to debating whether Guy was wrong or right to exit from his relationship with Jenny and, yes, on one hand, his having done so is deeply upsetting, especially his lack of appreciation of her spirit and originality, and of how genuinely mad about him she was; on the other, he had fallen out of love with her and, quite possibly, was only ever as much, or as little, in love with her as he was with Lizzie. At the end of the day, just because we, the viewers, are in love with Jenny, it’s not fair to expect Guy to be. As well, the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about Jenny the more serious his relationship with Lizzie became doesn’t mean anything. I’ve known men who have wept and wailed about exes whom they came to appreciate too late, but all this carry-on didn’t mean they should still have been in those relationships; it was much more to do with the past itself, due to its certainty and, thus, its safety, seeming wildly attractive to them. And, not only had Guy’s and Jenny’s relationship reached the terminal stage, the fact is that Jenny, winsome though she is, didn’t bring out the best in Guy; in fact, she brought out the worst, so that when he was with her, he was fussy, nagging and mean. He is actually a much nicer man when he’s with Lizzie and, yes, he may well have become a lot nastier later in their relationship, but while Lizzie upsets Guy in big ways, she seems much less likely than Jenny to upset him in the small ones, and that is what makes the difference in day-to-day life, let’s face it.

U.S. poster for the film, renamed The Wedding Party.

U.S. poster for the film, renamed The Wedding Party.

In terms of its reception, it’s my belief that Thank God He Met Lizzie suffered from not being what it wasn’t – namely, something that featured Loene Carmen playing a junkie. This seems to have made for a widespread assumption that it was going to be either a bland romantic comedy based around improbable wish fulfilment or a quirkfest based around improbable wish fulfilment, or some vile combination of the two. I’ve known people who have become fans of the film only after having deprived themselves of it for many years because they would rather have cooked and eaten their own feet for breakfast than seen either a bland romantic comedy or a quirkfest, while anyone who saw it and were expecting, and wanting, another Muriel’s Wedding would, I imagine, have been taken aback at what a downer it is and so not given it the positive word of mouth that makes for a hit. But I defy anyone not to be affected by one of Thank God He Met Lizzie’s final lines: ‘The trouble with happiness is, you don’t know when you have it; you remember it.’ And, the thing is, I don’t actually even agree with that statement, but I’ve spent an hour and a half watching characters so beautifully constructed and acted that, no matter their faults, I just can’t stand the thought that, wherever they are now, their best days might be behind them.

 

About Sarina Rowell: Sarina Rowell is a writer and freelance book editor based in Melbourne. She was co-editor of, and a regular columnist on, Tony Martin’s humour website The Scrivener’s Fancy, and a columnist on the ‘Melbourne Life’ page of The Age, and has also written for The Drum and The King’s Tribune. She has her own website, Imagined Slights, and tweets at @imaginedslights.

Join in our live Facebook chat with AACTA Award nominee Felicity Price

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Felicity Price is an actress and writer whose involvement with feature film Wish You Were Here is extensive. Not only did she co-write the script with her husband, director Kieran Darcy-Smith, but she stars in the lead role as Alice, a pregnant mother and wife whose carefree getaway to Cambodia goes horribly wrong. It’s a powerful film and a powerful performance, and Felicity is nominated for Best Lead Actress, and Best Original Screenplay (with Darcy-Smith). Join in our live discussion to chat about her creative processes and about the collaborative process of film writing and shooting.

How does it work? First, make sure you’re friends with us on the AACTA Facebook page. Click here to join our Felicity Price event page and when you join it will be added to your Facebook calendar. We’ll post event photo (above) to our FB page just before 12 midday on Tuesday. You can then comment on the image the way you would with any photo, and Felicity will log in to answer. Simple!

For background reading – and to remind you about the film Wish You Were Here, you can read this interview with Felicity and Kieran Darcy-Smith.

The winners of the 2nd AACTA Awards will be announced on 28th and 30th January. The winners of the AACTA Award categories in which Felicity is nominated will be announced on Wednesday 30 January at The Star Event Centre in Sydney, and broadcast on Network Ten at 9.30pm. Be watching on the night to catch all the action.

 

Join in our Live Facebook Chat with AACTA Award Nominee, Puberty Blues’ Brenna Harding

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You know her as ‘Sue’, the blonde and slightly less ebullient of the terrible twosome (along with Ashleigh Cummings) at the centre of the Ten Network/Southern Star drama series Puberty Blues. Just 16 at the time of filming the first series, Brenna Harding has been nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Young Actor – and the series itself is nominated for Best Television Drama Series – with the winners being announced on Wednesday 30 January at the 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony, broadcast on Ten at 9.30pm.

Brenna has also appeared in My Place, Packed to the Rafters and short films Shelling Peas and The Road Home. Join us on the AACTA Facebook page on Sunday 27 January at 4pm for a live chat with Brenna about her performance as a naughty-but-nice teenager living in the 1970s in Puberty Blues. We’re also keen to ask her what it’s like having Dan Wyllie and Susie Porter playing your parents.


Why I Adore… TANGLE

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By Sean Lynch

In this latest edition of our Why I Adore series, comedy writer, performer and presenter Sean Lynch waxes lyrical about his love for the John Edwards/Southern Star universe of Australian dramas – most recently brought to life in AACTA nominated drama series Tangle, starring Justine Clarke, Kat Stewart, Ben Mendelsohn and Matt Day.

Tangle maze

The search for truth

If I’m being 100 per cent honest with myself – and it’s rare that I am (as far as I know, I’m a 74 year old Asian woman) — the reason I adore Tangle isn’t so much because of its own stand alone perfection, as it is for its association with sister series Love My Way and, to an extent, the entire John Edwards adult drama universe (from Secret Life Of Us through to Puberty Blues).

Justine Clarke, Lincoln Younes and Eva Lazarro in Tangle.

Justine Clarke, Lincoln Younes and Eva Lazarro in Tangle.

It’s very much the same reason I adore Woody Allen films: you can change the title, character names and packaging all you want, but at their core they’re all part of the same story; all searching for the truth at the centre of characters and ideas created by their writers long before the product in question was even considered.

Where Puberty Blues takes us on a journey from the ages of 10 – 20, Secret Life explored the perils of 20 – 30, and Love My Way looked at 30 -40. With Tangle, Edwards and company take us through the complications of being 40 – 50.

Tangle follows Ally (a pitch perfect “woman who has settled” Justine Clarke), who is married to Vince (charming rough-nut Ben Mendelsohn) and their two children, Romeo (Lincoln Younes) and Gigi (Eva Lazzaro).

In the first series of Tangle (aired on subscription television channel Showcase in 2010) Vince’s best friend Gabriel (Matt Day) has secretly been in love with Ally since their high school days, and when faced with the ultimate moral dilemma (love versus loyalty), Gabriel finds that he is unwilling to cover for (one of) Vince’s affairs with a local school mum.

Mixed in with all of this scandal is the fact that this school mum’s daughter Charlotte (Georgia Flood), is involved with Romeo and his cousin, Max (Blake Davis). Did I mention that Max is the result of an affair between Tim (Joel Tobeck) and Ally’s sister, Nat (Kat Stewart)? Tim and his wife Christine (Catherine McClements) are raising Max as their own, but boy, you wouldn’t know it half the time!

Two 'mums' competing for a son's love. Catherine McClements, Blake Davis & Kat Stewart in Tangle.

Two ‘mums’ competing for a son’s love. Catherine McClements, Blake Davis & Kat Stewart in Tangle.

What we have are three families colliding, connected via a web of love, sex, money and politics – almost to the point of suffering from soap opera syndrome. The number of “Tangles” in question becomes almost TOO coincidental to really be believable at some points. But with characters this well written, that’s just part of the fun.

Recurring themes, continuing pleasure

A talented young cast bring teen storylines to life, in contrast to the 40-something dramas of their parents.

A talented young cast bring teen storylines to life, in contrast to the 40-something dramas of their parents.

Edwards does like his archetypal characters and setups, and Tangle is full of them right from the outset: the uptight passive aggressive woman with control issues (Asher Keddie’s Julia Jackson in Love My Way versus Tangle’s Catherine McClements’ portrayal of Christine Williams); the heroine finding solace with her ex’s brothers (Brendan Cowell’s Tom Jackson in Love My Way versus Tangle’s Kick Gurry as Joe Kovac); a troubled born-out-of-wedlock child dealing with the concept of multiple parental figures and family units (Alex Cook’s Lou Jackson and Sam Parsonson’s Dylan Feingold in Love My Way versus Blake Davis’ Max Williams in Tangle); burgeoning teenage homosexuality (Dylan versus Max); the lingering effects of grief after a sudden death (Love My Way’s tragedy versus Tangle’s own dramatic death)… and that’s hardly the end of the list.

For many, this type of rehashing could be seen as little more than weak writing, a creative lull or even a quick cash-in by producers after the success of a break out hit (which Love My Way certainly was). However, it’s for this exact reason that I adore Tangle.

By “starting from scratch” with Tangle, the writers can continue to explore these deeply flawed, endlessly interesting characters without tainting the legacy of Love My Way. Yes, the stories of the Tangle universe could have VERY easily played out as Seasons 4 – 7 of Love My Way. But this “reboot” meant Love My Way couldn’t ever veer into the territory of “jumping the shark” or, more importantly, having its audience simply grow weary of the characters’ relentless, increasingly unlikely dramas.

It’s very clear the aforementioned situations have unfolded in the real lives of the writers. They pop up far to often in multiple shows for them not to have been based in experience. So, not only are viewers getting a voyeuristic peek at someone else’s’ dirty family laundry… we are also part of these writers’ decade-long cathartic therapy sessions as they try to come to terms with the guilt, pleasure and pain of the events in question. It’s all there on the page. It’s the ultimate fly on the wall experience if you are willing to join the dots and watch several TV shows as if they were one.

Pitch perfect dialogue: understand the rhythms, understand the culture

Tangle is also an impressive an achievement at the dialogue level. Aussies have quite an ear for our own voice, not simply for the literal sound… but the rhythms, the cadence, the intricacies of how words run together.

Matt Day and Kat Stewart having a moment in Tangle.

Matt Day and Kat Stewart having a moment in Tangle.

What may sound perfectly normal and award winningly insightful on paper almost NEVER translates when performed in an Aussie accent. Audiences subconsciously detect something’s not right between: “I love her” and “I love ‘ah”. On paper, it looks stupid and wrong, but it’s the difference between honest and believable portrayals of Australians onscreen and the kind of stilted, clumsy dialogue that leaves actors struggling (a perfect example of which can be seen in Tomorrow When The War Began. Excellent actors speaking words and rhythmic structures that young Aussies simply DO NOT speak in).

In this regard, producer John Edwards and the writers he employs, have been able to rise above the pack. It is no coincidence that Edwards has been behind the most highly regarded Aussie productions for over a decade, because he and his superb writing teams stick to a simple rule: understand the rhythms, understand the culture.

As usual, in Tangle the dialogue and performances are spot on. Everyone delivers here, their performances are nuanced and genuinely believable. These are people you have met; these are conversations you’ve had.

For the love of Ben Mendelsohn

Tangle Ben MendelsohnThere’s a great ensemble cast in Tangle, but the real star is Ben Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn has long been a staple of Aussie productions (and most recently cracked into the USA with Animal Kingdom, The Dark Knight Rises and Killing Them Softly) but never have we been subjected to such a long-lasting dose of his skills as seen in Tangle.

As Vince Kovac, Mendelsohn owns every single scene of the show, even the ones he isn’t in. No matter what the situation, Vince’s sinister, threatening (and oddly charming) vibe exudes throughout every scene, infecting the lives of everyone in both direct and indirect ways.

As a performer, Mendelsohn takes the dialogue into unexpected territory. A fine example of this is towards the end of the last episode of the first season in which Matt Day’s Gabriel finally works up the courage to express his love publicly for Vince’s wife Ally. (Gabriel is everything Vince is not, and vice versa: Romance vs Lust, Brain vs Brawn.)

As Gabriel paces back and forth, spilling his guts melodramatically – Mendelsohn’s Vince sits silently, still, like a lion assessing his prey. He mutters silently, almost as if Gabriel hasn’t earned the respect to hear his words: “You snake in the grass… Me and Ally are bound in ways you can’t even imagine”. In the hands of anyone else a confrontation like this could end up as a fairly stock standard Home & Away level exchange – but Mendelsohn takes it to such a dark, deeply disturbing place. You can see the Tim Burtonesque spooky forest which consumes his mind through his unflinching eyes. It’s raw and gripping and utterly perfect.

A continuing puzzle, an endless universe

Ultimately, why I adore Tangle is simple: it’s only a tiny part of a much bigger puzzle, a picture which will unveil itself in many forms and in many ways in coming years (assuming networks are smart enough to continue commissioning these productions). Tangle is simply a chapter in an ever growing, wonderfully nuanced John Edwards saga that I can only hope and pray continues to expand outwards like this strange old star-littered place we call the Universe.  It doesn’t hold all the answers – it doesn’t even answer all the questions it raises – but just like the lives it depicts… not everything can have a neatly tailored beginning middle and end. All we can do is just acknowledge we are on a journey and – as Happy Gilmore teaches us – “play the ball as it lies”.

… Also, I really just want to be cast in a John Edwards show. Is that too much to ask? So make that happen AFI, that’d be swell.

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Sean lynch candy aisleAbout the author:

Sean Lynch is a comedy writer/performer, film critic for various publications throughout Australia and Head Editor at WatchOutFor.com.au and WebWombat.com.au. He was one third of the Aria Nominated (Best Comedy Release, 2006) comedy trio The Shambles, a regular presenter on Channel Ten’s The Circle and most recently gave an Academy Award-worthy performance in his gripping portrayal of “Balloon Guy” in Working Dog’s Any Questions For Ben?. You can follow him on twitter @thatlynchyguy but don’t follow him on the tram or at the supermarket, unless you are offering to pay for his groceries or Myki fines.

Note: Tangle Season 3 is one of the four nominees for the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series, competing with Puberty Blues, Rake – Season 2 and Redfern Now. The winner will be announced at the 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 30 January, and broadcast on Network Ten at 9.30pm. 

If you enjoyed this piece, you may like Why I Adore… Love My Way, by AFI | AACTA Editor Rochelle Siemienowicz.

Join us for live Facebook Chat with AACTA Nominee Susan Prior (Puberty Blues)

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Susan Prior played downtrodden wife and mother Yvonne Hennessey in Channel Ten’s Puberty Blues Season 1, but we saw her shedding her inhibitions in the final episode, and look forward to her character’s progress in future eps! Join AACTA nominated actress Susan Prior here for a live Q&A at 3pm today (Thursday 24 Jan, 2013).

The Hennessey family - played by Rodger Corser, Susan Prior and Sean Keenan.

The Hennessey family – played by Rodger Corser, Susan Prior and Sean Keenan.

Susan’s extensive film credits include Careless Love, Not Suitable for Children, Animal Kingdom, A Cold Summer, and the Academy Award nominated short film The Saviour. Her television credits include Rake Season 2, All Saints and Water Rats, and she is also an accomplished theatre actor. We look forward to chatting, and would love you to join us.

Susan is nominated for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama for Puberty Blues. The other nominees in this category are Shareena Clanton (Redfern Now), Mandy McElhinney (Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War) and Laura Wheelwright (Underground). The winner will be announced at the 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 30 January 2012, televised on Network Ten from 9.30pm.