September 2009 Archives

By Amy Costello. Images by Mahmudul Raz.

On Sunday 13th September I went along to an advanced screening. It was a great night. Many industry people attended, the wine flowed and cast and crew were there - even Merlin, a scrappy little dog that totally steals the show.

Here are some social pics:

By Amy Costello

All emerging WA filmmakers must go and see Stone Bros! It is hilarious. Also, the film was shot in WA and is the first indigenous feature-length comedy.

On Sunday 13th September I went along to an advanced screening. It was a great night. Many industry people attended, the wine flowed and cast and crew were there - even Merlin, a scrappy little dog that totally steals the show.

The experience of the film creates the exact effect that the Stone Bros. writer and director Richard J Frankland intended: the warm glow of a belly laugh, a feeling of community and a message to take away that is unique for you. Perhaps this is why people have told him this movie will do more for reconciliation than any politician?

Richard has received a hugely positive response from audiences so far, "people kept punching me and laughing! So I guess that's a good sign."

After the screening there was a Q&A with Richard J Frankland, Producer Ross Hutchens, and actors Luke Carroll and Leon Burchill, who had all just arrived back from the film's exciting premier at the Cinefest Oz festival in Busselton. They told funny stories from the filming and teased each other like family. Lead actor Luke Carroll said his favourite part of the filming was working with Leon and Richard because they made him laugh all the time. The filming process sounded very hard. At one point the crew filmed a wedding scene where the cast had to run around buildings in 45 degree West Australian heat (in full costume)!

Afterwards I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Richard J. Frankland for a few words of advice for emerging filmmakers. It turns out there is more to Richard than telling jokes and spinning a good yarn. He has a solid philosophy to life and filmmaking that I believe seeps into this story and makes it the special movie that it is.

He urges filmmakers to find the good in themselves and concentrate on that because that will create good in others, "When you've got art you've got voice. And with voice comes freedom and with freedom comes responsibility. A facilitator of voice - which is what a storyteller is - should always be mindfully responsible. You are not a voice. You are a facilitator of voice. As such you have great responsibility."

 

Richard (right) with star Luke Carroll.

Where do you find story material?
I find it from all around me from stories that friends tell, from personal observations... and experiences.

Where did you find inspiration for Stone Bros? Did you think you would make a road/buddy movie?
No, not really because at that time the likelihood of me making a feature film was pretty remote. I was very fortunate to be a bit of a joke teller so I used to tell stories at my house and friends would come around and we'd drink beer and talk and I'd tell stories and they'd laugh or cry and this story was one of the ones that came out.

What sort of audience did you have in mind when you wrote the script?
I didn't really have an audience in mind when I first wrote it. Later on we started defining it and what surprised me was when we did script readings the broad age group and cultural groups that turned up and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some people say the target audience is young people, but in reality you look and there's people of all ages cracking up laughing.  I think it's more designed for just to be a good story that a family could enjoy. And that's I guess what's happened.

I was sitting there last night and I was sitting near the stairs and people kept punching me and laughing! So I guess that's a good sign.

What experience/feeling do you want people to take away from the film?
The first one is a warm glow of a belly laugh. And that feeling of community where you laugh with other people, even though you don't know them. You look across the room and you know they've been laughing with you. A conversation generally starts.

So the good time is the first thing. The second thing I want people to walk away with is to find their own message in the story. I think there are enough messages in there for people to walk away with something that's definitive for them and their personal experience.

You spoke last night about the magic of storytelling. How does this translate to a comedy?
Out of tragedy comes great comedy at times. So I think that one of the mechanisms that I use in all my films, and not just comedy, is to humanise what's been dehumanised. The second that you humanise something in the story people can get ownership very easily. And that's what you want. You want to get people to own it and love it.

How do you know your jokes are going to be funny?
I bounce them off people! I pass them around lots of friends. Some things I find funny that someone else may not. And when you work cross-cultures that can be difficult too. So I always bounce my scripts of people of different cultures and backgrounds -and ages. 

With this script in particular I had friends ringing me up at 11 o'clock at night, 'Sorry I'm ringing so late but I've been reading that script and I fell out of bed laughing! And my partner's two rooms away - she stole it off me and she's reading it and she's laughing!' Yeah, so it's a good sign when that happens.

Do you have any personal favourite moments from the film?
My enjoyment in the film is sitting there at the front looking back at people's faces when they're laughing and letting the laughter wash over me.

I laugh for different reasons because I remember shooting the film so I laugh at a lot of the behind-the-scenes.

I laugh at the reversing scene where people first meet Regina the transvestite. I laugh at when people go (gasp!) when they first see the spider.

It's just to hear that warm glow in the room where there's no issue of race. There's people laughing together and that's a golden thing to be a part of.

This is a very groundbreaking film - what sort of response have you got from people?
'This film will do more for reconciliation then any politician.'
'It's going to change the nature of the country.'
'It's going to contribute and change the nature of the film industry in the sense of where we can go now.'
'I want to make a film like this. I wish I could'.
'Bloody good film/belly laugh/I nearly wet myself!'

There's been all these kind of things. Lots of positive things. I've only heard - touch wood - positive.

So now indigenous filmmakers can say, 'I can do that too, now'?
Yeah, there will be an action, a drama, a horror... There will be just good stories. And that's what we need. The more stories the better and what we do is lay the foundations for a cultural identity with the nation that encompasses everyone and it's not exclusive to the 'boy's club' or anything like that.

What advice do you have for emerging filmmakers?
When you've got art you've got voice. And with voice comes freedom and with freedom comes responsibility. A facilitator of voice - which is what a storyteller is - should always be mindfully responsible. You are not a voice. You are a facilitator of voice. As such you have great responsibility.

What if your script is self-indulgent or controversial?
I believe in what Oscar Wild said in relation to controversy: Agitators and stirrers are a meddling bunch of people who go down to perfectly content levels of society and sow seeds of discontent, thereby shaping a better civilisation of humanity which is why they are absolutely necessary.

What I guess is - not to be complacent in your writing - not to let your ego get hold of you and for you to think you're voice. The reality is you'll always see a much further if your not looking at yourself. It's OK to scrutinise yourself but do it for the right reasons. I think a story belongs to everyone.

What about advice for emerging writers? There are so many traps to stop you from writing...
Life will always present the opportunity to procrastinate but it rarely presents the opportunity to write, so when you've got it, grab it because it's like diamonds.

Find the rhythm of the story.

Don't be frightened to step into your characters shoes and live it.

Write for the moment. I write for the moment and then put it all together. I may not write things in a chronological order, then basically stitch things together.

Pick your times. I get up a four o'clock in the mornings and write because it's a quiet time. If I'm in the office I sometimes get distracted and churn out ten poems. And if you're feeling a story coming out - write! Always carry a pen and write on napkins or whatever's around.

Last night you talked about your philosophy on feeding your negative side - can you explain that philosophy?
I believe that everyone has basically two people inside them - or a multitude of people - a good and a bad. We can feed the bad by gossiping and acting out in a negative way. Or you can feed the good by being positive. And they're fighting, this good and bad. The one that will win will be the one that you feed. It's very important that we find the good in ourselves and concentrate on that 'cause that will create good in others. It's that simple really.

We've all been naughty... It may be naughty out in public, it may be naughty in the home. We've all gossiped. It's not about being perfect. It's about striving for perfection.

Be positive in your manner. And treat people with a good sense of right and wrong as you'd want to be treated with a good sense of right and wrong. Even if they treat you wrong, find a way to move beyond it.

That's similar to so many religious beliefs. Do you come from a religious background?
No, I'm not religious. I believe in a creator in my cultural shape and I believe we should encompass all the good principles of the cultures that we can... and develop a new culture that we all belong to.

Last night the FTI Cinema hosted a sneak preview of Electric Pictures'
production of 'Skippy: Australia's First Superstar'. Directed by
Stephen Oliver, this is an engaging and often humourous look at the
crime-fighting marsupial who captured the attention of children and
adults the world over.

You're humming the theme song in your head right now, aren't you?

When I think of Skippy, I remember afternoons in front of the telly
with a chocolate yogo. I remember my brother and I thinking we could
fill our backyard with kangaroos if only we could whistle with gum
leaves. And my grandfather ALWAYS referred to Skippy by his full
name: Skippy The Bush Kangaroo.

Last night I discovered that I'm not the only one with fond memories
of that talkative critter. Skippy was broadcast all over the world
and remains one of Australia's most successful exports.

This film tracks the development of the series, the grueling
conditions the cast, crew and kangaroos were put under to complete
three concurrent series of the show and the impact it had on
television production in this country.

It's well worth the trip down memory lane.

'Skippy: Australia's First Superstar' screens on ABC1, Thursday 17
September at 8:30pm

By Liz Sideris

'Anvil: The Story of Anvil' previewed last night at Luna Leederville to a expectant crowd of both Heavy Metal music fans and documentary lovers. Liz Sideris writes:

I'm not into Heavy Metal, and I hadn't heard of Anvil until December when 'Anvil: The Story of Anvil' was listed in The Times' Best Movies of 2008. But after seeing this movie, I feel like a fan.

The movie starts with a selection of hard rockers discussing the influence 'Anvil' had over the heavy rock scene. The Canadian band experienced brief notoriety in the early 1980's with their release "Metal on Metal" and fronted by a guitarist who could impressively play guitar with a dildo. But all too soon they vanished from the world at large. The two founding members of the band, Steve 'Lips' Kudlow and Robb Reiner, have kept the band together, regularly gigging in their home town of Ontario to a hard core group of fans including 'Cut Loose' and 'Mad Dog' whilst holding down day jobs and raising families.

Following Lips' 50th birthday, the boys start to ponder their future in music. Shouldn't they have made it by now?  Is it realistic for guys in their 50s to still dream of being rock stars?  An unexpected proposal comes from one European fan, Tiziana Arrigoni who offers the guys a European tour. It looks great on paper - she's arranged for them to headline a festival and play a number of dates across many countries.

At the heart of this film is an immense passion. Robb and Lips love heavy metal. They love their band and their fans and their fans love them. We meet their ultra supportive families - wives, children and siblings - who are unsure if after 30 years the guys should give up or continue. These guys have spent 30 years waiting for fame to come to them. In this film we see them decide to go out and get it. Promoted as the real life Spinal Tap, this film makes you laugh almost as much, but in the end, you just want to see them make it.