Hi! I am co-writer/ co-director and I also play the lead female support role in the movie (hopefully this partially alleviates any curiosities you may have as to who the writer of this blog may be). I'm film-school university educated at the prestigious Victorian College of the Arts, a 2015 graduate. The degree focused heavily upon writing, directing and editing for film.
VCA is known as the best undergraduate film school for a bachelors degree in Australia and is not easy to get accepted into. I speak for myself, but do not hesitate to mention that a lot of filmmakers enter the degree with exceedingly high hopes/ dreams of becoming the next 'big thing' in Australian cinema. And I'm sure the university holds similar hopes for its students as well. As an entry level student I'd produced, hosted and edited a twelve part mini series, (The Theatre Thespians), through the now defunct Montague Road Studio of (the then having recently digitalised) community TV station: 31 Digital. I had also been involved in the making of a short or two before film school.
My highest claims to filmic 'hollywood' fame are as follows;
a film school alumni who graduated the same year as me won Tropfest circa 2016
one of my first year films starred an actor wearing the leather vest worn by Hugh Jackman in his early days when he played Gaston at Melbourne Theatre Company in a production of Beauty and The Beast, (all thanks to the MTC costume department!) and,
the grandson of the influential Australian film director, Charles Cheuval, spoke on The Theatre Thespians.
Though, graduates from the VCA film school have been known to go on to lead successful careers. This has include: the directors of Animal Kingdom, Urban Legend/ Valentine and Nicole Kidman among others...
Throughout university and during the years that followed I have been involved in the making of innumerable shorts and some features.. some that have received accolades, others that have not. Still impassioned and ready to work hard at a career in the industry, those dreams of Hollywood blockbuster success (hahaha) have somewhat, if not completely, dissipated. Though I do still dream of holding a place in the industry as a filmmaker; one that reaps the personal benefits of financial remunerations and one that allows a certain approach to, and philosophy of, filmmaking that is not necessarily that of the mainstream. So I guess you could say Australian Werecat, as B-grade as B-grade Australian horror can be, is a part of that dream.
Australian Werecat, 2 years in the making....
This movie is a beast with a life of its own, but even so, there are strong elements of the 'making of' and actual video content of the movie that have been very carefully designed (well duh!). One big decision I made was casting myself in the lead support. As a character with alot of screen time it seemed to make logical sense to designate and wholey give myself to the role- I'm always available and ready to film and thus far- whether or not I'm a great actress is a matter left to contention (though I did study acting electives at VCA)- the decision feels to be have been made well. This movie is moving like a slug. Everyone involved has busy schedules and with little to no financial backing Australian Werecat is sidelined as a back project for the majority of its cast and crew. This is the way passion projects go... everyone needs to win their bread first and foremost! Irregardless of tight schedules and limited availability: if all comes to all we'll have made the best worst movie in the history of movies about werecats.. and from what I can tell that's very few so thereby our chances improve (more about filmic references later)! See below a photo of me looking through the eye piece of a Arriflex 16mm camera on a film I wrote, directed and edited in 2013. Some screenshots from the film are below too to give you a feel for an evolving visual style as a filmmaker at the time (ha). I've since used this filmic style to develop a mis en scene for dream sequences.
I guess it seems odd to make films using such old equipment, (re: the above), but I've gotta admit I feel privileged to have been amoung the last year of VCA students who had access to and shot on 16mm. After deferring a year in 2014 and returning in 2015 to finish the degree, the dynamic nature of the contemporary film and TV industry had become very demonstrable! One student in my final year shot their entire film on an iphone with accessories including interchangeable lenses. This film, “Woof”, screened successfully at film festivals including Munich Film Festival and Flickerfest where it one best short. It's great to recognize how accessible the modern day film industry can become when working with smart phone technology in place of traditional cinematography cameras, however, here is also where we shepard out a era.
So here's cheers to the making and completion of Australian Werecat and lets hope to see it finished before we're all old and grey and any nation known as 'Australia' perhaps ceases to exist....