This is the one that started it all.
Back in 1996 I was fresh off the boat, I had a friend John Plahn who was keen to make films and it was the early days of Tropfest fever, anyone could be a film-maker.
Well, we missed Tropfest that year, but no matter. Later in summer John called himself a Producer, got a fellow dreamer Louise Charman to write a script and direct and me to act, compose and provide a location for a short film.
We made the film over a weekend (kit hire was cheaper over a weekend) and AFI-award making cinematographer Anthony Jennings was our film-making guide and guru.
It was cut on Media100 by Christopher Newling and that was when I had the damascene moment that led me to become an editor. I had been using Cubase and Logic on Apple Macs to make music, but here was the fourth dimension, the language of dreams.
So we finished the film, and had a VHS copy, what to do with it? Well you enter short films into film festivals don't you? John noticed that the Sydney Film Festival 1996 had a closing date in a couple of days so he dropped the VHS off with them in Glebe Point Road.
Of course it got accepted, doesn't everything? And we weren't surprised when it was scheduled to be shown at the State Theatre on the main Sunday, supporting the big Aussie film of that year 'Love and other Catastrophes' and to be followed by Mike Leigh's latest.
We of course got our tickets free, when we turned up I was surprised how big the place was, and it was full. The film starts with a black screen with me talking, this was a discerning audience and they followed every word, you could hear the laughter rippling through the auditorium as they registered every joke. And they all cheered at the end!
As we left, I saw Mike Leigh in the foyer and he gave me a look of recognition, this film-making stuff was great, I was hooked.
Of course I've spent the last 15 years trying to reproduced those moments and not even come close, I work in the film industry nowadays rather than IT. I married the focus-puller on the film, and I'm still friends with most of the people who worked on it, none of us has cracked the big time yet although most of us are still trying (although the best man at our wedding, Jon Thum did win an Oscar a couple of years later
imdb.com/name/nm0862039/ )
Good times.
MSP
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