Interview; Alister Grierson, Part 3

James Cameron, Alister Grierson, & Screenwriter/
Adventurer Andrew Wight

What’s up next Alister, now you’ve finished this?

I don’t know. I’ve been so buried in this; we only finished it a month ago. We had a quick break over Christmas then we headed straight back to L.A for promotions.

It’s being released in the States the same time as Aust I read?

It is, we’ve been very fortunate, and we’ve got huge support. We’re opening on about 4,000 screens in Europe and the rest of the world, and about 3,500 in the USA. So, Universal is really pulling out all stops for us.

That’s an amazing feat for Australia? Especially, because the majority of the cast is Aussies?

I agree, I hope so, and I hope when Australians see the film they realise the technical achievement that it is. Because it’s no mean feat doing what we’ve done, not to mention pulling it off on budget, and on time. Not that people see that when they’re in the cinema but I think people are going to be really surprised by the picture because of its scale. It’s not often you make Australian movies where your as ambitious as we were, to the scale of what you see on screen, I really think we’ve pulled it off. Certainly so far the response has been very positive, and people have been surprised on what the film is trying to achieve. It’s a really interesting film, it starts off as this ‘boy-zone’ pic, it’s almost tongue and cheek, though very quickly they discover it’s not the movie they thought it was going to be. By the end I believe we’ve really challenged them emotionally and mentally. We deal some pretty heavy subject matter and it can be quite confronting.

On the budget, I read it was 30million dollars, was the entirely funded by the states?

It is 100% funded through America?

What then would you say about the Australia film industry and funding from our government, would you say that the Australian film industry is under funded?

I think hopefully we can be a model for people who want to make larger scale films, and who that you can have partnerships with financiers all around the world – which is what happens the majority of the time anyway with films, even for independent films. Our film was 100% funded through one financing body, a company of film producers who looked at the concept of the film, the caving, the 3D, they loved the fact that Jim was a big part of setting the film up and the story telling, the making of the film, and supporting us through the process; it was a big gamble, and they put a lot on the line to support us, which is very stressful, particularly when making a film as complex as ours, where you have to build these environments – the engineering of sets, shooting underwater, the dangers of this film; if things went wrong, it could have gone very wrong, very quickly – it’s a big gamble 30million dollars. But to their credit, they did it, and I’m hoping that through the film, we encourage more filmmakers to be more ambitious with the stories they want to tell.

It seems Australia is turning that way doesn’t it, with ‘Tomorrow when the War Began’ and also this one?

I hope so, I hope people recognise that there’s room in the market place to have a whole array of different styles of films; through to genre, to the stuff we do really well, which is melodramas. Films like ‘Animal Kingdom’, I certainly don’t ever want to push those films as side, I think they’re the backbone of the industry, but, I think we can be more ambitious!

Once more; no projects on the horizon?

I’m looking for work! So, if you’ve got anything let me know!! 

Interview; Alister Grierson, Part 1

If you refer to the one and only James Cameron as 'Jim'... you're well and truly on your way to a blossoming career in the film industry; For the next few days we're plucking the depths of Alister Grierson's mind, director of James Cameron's new 3D pic - 'Sanctum'! 

Andrew Wight, the screenwriter, is a renowned explorer and daredevil; do you share similar character traits?

If you embark on an adventure such as ‘this movie’, you have to be a dare devil in some way of the other. It was a very challenging shoot as you can imagine. Andrew’s been a caver and a diver for most of his adult life; I’m much more of the latte sipping adventurer… of Melbourne. But as apart of the prep for the film I actually learnt to dive and I did some cave diving with Andrew, which was very exciting. To try and get a sense of being in those ‘worlds’ and they really are quite extraordinary. It is a very challenging environment to shoot in. 

What attracted you to the project, what caught your eye about the story?

The script wasn’t presented to me as a job offer, it was something that I happened to stumble across – what was really clear in the script was that it had been written by people who really knew what they were talking about, they generally knew these worlds. The language of the film, the way that the characters spoke to each other, the way that the world was described – it was very, very clear that the people that were going to make the movie knew these worlds intimately. So, I ended up pursuing it, and trying to find out who was trying to make this movie and see if they needed a director. I then discovered there was a James Cameron connection and they wanted to shoot it in 3D. This really blew me away as a concept, because it is so perfect for 3D, that kind of environment. So I pushed really hard to get the job and fortunately that liked ‘Kokoda’, my first film, and the connection it shared dramatically with the script. They also saw how tough it was to make ‘Kokada’, out in the jungle, with a tight budget, and a 24day shoot. With this film they had very much the same attitude, a difficult shoot, and they needed someone who could translate a small amount of money into a big amount of money, and I think that is one of the successes of this film.

What affiliation did Wight have with James Cameron prior shooting the film?

They’ve been working for ten years. Andrew was one of the producers on Jim’s first 3D documentary – ‘Ghost of the Abyss’. It was sort of through a ten year period that Jim was developing a whole new camera system, with inevitably ended up being a fusion Camera system which they used on Avatar. Jim after Titanic was very keen to do some adventuring, he fell in love with the ocean, and wanted to capture the world in 3D, shooting sharks, alligators, birds, this underwater world in 3D. They needed someone who had an experience running expeditions, and that’s where Andrew came in, he had been doing underwater diving expeditions and shoots for the last ten years. They ended up doing, ‘Aliens of the Deep’ etc building a very strong relationship over that time. 

The film is 70% based underwater, how difficult is it exactly to shoot underwater? How’d you get around this?

The biggest challenge is communication and safety. So, what we did is we had a really comprehensive approach to working underwater. The structure of the day would be:

1.   Arrive at work, get kitted up and go for a dive with my cinematographer, Andrew, and anyone else basically that wanted to come with us. We’d dive the step and block out the night’s work. Andrew would often operate as the stand-in, he’d do the action of the actors, and we’d look at the action from different angles and get an idea of how to shoot the scene.

2.   We’d then jump out of the water and head over to the scale model of the set, sitting beside the pool. I’d then do a brief to everyone, inclusive of actors, stuntmen, safety, cameramen, grips; about what the days work was going to be and I’d block through what we were going to try and capture during the day. We had to make sure that we were never going to over reach what we were trying to achieve in a day.

3.   We’d then go to the car park and block through exactly how we’re going to shoot underwater; everyone once more included – by this stage it was about dinnertime.

4.   We’d then have a break, and by this stage it was usually about 11 o’clock at night. As we wanted to block out all unwanted light, even though of course we were shooting in a cave with ceilings etc, it was still ideal to shoot at night…we’d jump in the water and start doing it!

It is very laborious as you can imagine, for each diver in the water you’d have at least another three in the water for safety, lighting, or shooting, you can imagine what it’s like getting twenty people into position – it takes a lot of logistics! My DOP would be sitting next to me out of the water and we’d monitor everything happening under the water through surveillance cameras. I could talk to everyone through universal coms that carried my voice through the water…so I use to drive everyone nuts! Jules the cinematographer could talk to his team with direct coms into their ears! 

(More Instalments to come!!) 

Interview; Kieran Davey

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

Season: 12-29^th January 2011

Presented by: Brisbane Arts Theatre

Directed by: Miranda Selwood

BTK had the opportunity to chat with Kieran Davey (aka, MAN 2) before his big opening night this Thursday, January 13^th! 

Fresh into 2011, Brisbane Arts Theatre is well & truly love struck. Opening their season with Broadway’s accredited phenomenon, ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – officially the second longest running off-Broadway musical (meaning the piece is defined outside of the common definition of ‘Broadway’). A musical comedy, the piece is high-energy from beginning to end. Performed by four actors, the play examines love, through snippets of suburban life – with each actor taking on a very demanding ten roles, from the forty or so characters!

What’s the general breakdown of the play?

The show’s a musical. It’s an exploration of relationships from start to finish, from dating to marriage, to divorce and beyond. The cast is only four people, everyone plays a whole bunch of characters, and it’s a very high energy & fast paced production!

How’s all the preparation going for the opening night?

It’s going well. We’ve had a couple of dress rehearsals and we’ve had our tech-run, all the costumes are together - it’s just about getting it down to a very slick show. With all the character changes everything needs to be tech-perfect. It’s certainly the most demanding and fast paced show I’ve ever done!

What character will you be playing in the piece?

It’s tricky, because it’s a cast of four and there are forty characters in the show. My official title is ‘Man 2’, but I’m covering all sorts of characters. We all do, all four of us have to take on twelve and up characters sometime.

You’ve trained in music theatre before?

I have taken lessons before. It is certainly something that I enjoy very much. I would like to think I’m quite at home on the stage singing!

This must be a golden opportunity for your acting portfolio. Are you inviting the agents?

That remains to be seen, certainly I’m very proud of the show. I’ll be getting everyone I know to come down and check it out. But, we’ll see how it runs in the first week before we start inviting out the cavalry!

Forty characters, you must have a favourite?

There’s a Jewish father who is attempting to guilt trip his son into getting married. I team up with the son’s mother as well, and we effectively degrade him in front of his ex-girlfriend, smashing his presence all for the fun of a reaction! Though it’s tricky, no scene runs for more than five minutes and you change constantly between characters – so it’s hard to establish characters at all, they’re all very different!

Which character do you find the hardest to perform?

One of the characters I’m playing is a serial killer, which is very much a ‘full-on’ roll! You have to go psycho on-stage, then directly following the scene I play a clergyman! So, the energy in each piece is really different, you have to portion that out appropriately, which is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the show. Being able to adapt from character to character, and portion that out at the precise moment.

What techniques is the director, Miranda Selwood, using to achieve all the character changes & make everything flow?

She has really left a lot of the characterization up to us, which is a real gift. You don’t often get that chance to have that much control. Because it’s an American production we are doing American accents, so a lot of the changes are through accent & voice, adding a whole ballpark of challenges. Sometimes the change is obvious; the character presents its own physicality, its own voice, and sometimes you have to consciously make the effort to segregate characters. It has certainly been a challenge and one I believe we’ve risen to!

What sort of themes/issues is the play trying to comment on?

The play is effectively trying to be an honest exploration of human relationships. It certainly doesn’t want to take sides – there are both good and bad characters, funny and tragic characters, which a lot of people take for granted. It’s a comedy, but there are some very poignant moments!

What is the pieces final statement?

Ultimately, the show just wants to portray people honestly. Whether it’s through comedy, or through more poignant characters, it just wants to be honest. And I think it does that very successfully!

Do you believe musical theatre is the appropriate medium to express this?

Absolutely, music has always been a very expressive art form. And musical theatre is taking that one step further to clearly tell a story, approaching the narrative form through the power of music!

Check out the Brisbane Arts Theatre Website for any performance details!

Website: Brisbane Arts Theatre

Production Page: I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

Interview by: Benjamin