Moved Blogs

www.kanownathefilm.wordpress.com

Hi Everyone

I've moved my blog to the link above because of my continual frustration at not being able to see statistics on the number of visitors to my blog.

All new entries will be appearing soon and both my blogs will be combined for the time being.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Regards

Chris Richards-Scully

Location Reccie

Richard, Michael and I went down to Bassendean Oval this afternoon for a location reccie.  It is such a cool location, very much the old school suburban football ground from the glory years of the WAFL.

The location offered up a number of excellent areas where we could stage the action from script and if we don't get access to the interiors (I know Michael will get us access), then we could shoot the whole thing outside.

This is a photo of Richard playing the coach on locaiton.

Preproduction

We've been frantically trying to put together a list of possible cast for the trailer, calling on lots of actors we know in the hope that they will come and play.

Some crew have been sourced, but more to come.  

We had a little hiccup with Swans in that we might not be able to use the inside of any building.  

Day 3?

I've lost track of the timeline, but that's OK I'll just update you on the happenings to date.  

Michael Facey has come onboard as Producer and will be working closely with Richard and I to get the Pilot completed.  Michael is a really dedicated young producer, or I wouldn't be working with him.  

Many emails went flying between the three of us last night, in an effort to nail down some definite cast and also generate ideas.  Richard has many contacts and Michael knows a lot of the WAAPA crew, so between us I was hopeful.  Today I secured David (iinet) Smyth and sounded out Igor Sas.  Richard contacted Rhoda Lopez and by chance she will be in Midland on that day of the shoot, so hopefully that will work out.  Emails have gone out to more actors, but we are still awaiting confirmations.

Michael has managed to secure Bassendean Oval and hopefully Swan District FC will come to the party as well.

We now have an Editor and a Gaffer... Dave Le May will be getting back to me with his availability to DOP, depending on an interstate trip.

Everyone is working very hard and I am confident we will make a good film!

Day 2

Lots of communications and Richard has delivered a seven page script for the Pilot, that only needs to be a maximum of three minutes.  We have enough material from when we were developing the idea before, but it is now a question of the tone of the piece.

Much to do...

In and Under

It has been a while since my last post and I apologise for the delay.  Camille has since got back in touch with me and it appears that we have agreed to disagree on the script and I will now be moving forward in search of a new Producer and funding possibilities.

Dustin called today, he is submitting something into the One 80 Project and he would like to put me down as the Director.  Absolutely I replied.  I have taken a look at the trailer and it looks pretty solid.  It will now be up to the supporting material he can come up with.

He has inspired me to look at what I might have in the vaults.  Richard and I have been developing a TV series that I think would be a perfect fit for the competition.  He agreed and we are going to attempt to also put something in.  The catch is, there is only 21 Days until the competition closes.

So for the next 21 Days this Blog will be focusing on our attempt.

Decision Time

Sorry about the lack of postings, but I've had another challenge to face.  It became apparent after the last script meeting that the new Producer wasn't on the same page as me.  This was obvious when I received 2 pages of notes about the first 3 pages of the script.  The notes also portrayed a lack of understanding of what I wanted to achieve with this script.

Also as you have become aware from previous 'posts', I was beginning to doubt that we could pull a crew together and make the film for the budget that we have.  I had to do a lot of thinking and also had long discussions with Richard and Dustin about the film.  It was quite obvious that I couldn't make this film in its current form without compromising the vision due to costs and a differing vision with the Producer.

So I have decided to cancel the December shoot with view of taking the script and applying for funding to make it through one of the initiatives from either FTI or Screen Australia, depending what I may be eligible for.

Unfortunately Camille is in Taiwan and out of contact for the moment, but I have sent her an email endeavoring to explain my concerns.  I am still waiting for her to resurface to get a response, but I am not hopeful for it being positive. 

It's probably back to the drawing board and renewed search for the 'right' Producer, but I am confident in the quality of the story and the talented cast we have involved.  

Things happen for a reason and this project is not dead and buried, it will be made... the question is how and when.

Stay Tuned! 

Money!!!

I've had a couple days being very concerned about how we're going to afford to make this film. Unlike the way it was a couple years ago, it is harder to get crew to do things for free. Normally I would just go and find young, recently graduated film students to fill the void, but the people Camille has been talking too and talking about, are professionals. Admittedly some have already committed to Kanowna, but there are still some very important roles we need to fill.

It's hard not to worry about these things because you want to make it the best you possibly can. As the Director you could say; "don't worry, that's the Producer's job". I'd agree and if we had a budget I'd agree more... anyway, I should stop worrying.

Still waiting for feedback on the new draft from Camille. I don't want to send it out to everyone with the footnote, "there may be changes". Everyone knows there will be, but I want to get it as close as possible.

Things are looking hopeful that we will soon have Kingsley Reeve onboard as the Sound Designer. He is the most popular theatre sound designer in Perth and wants to move across to film. Ash speaks very highly about him and I value his opinion. We still have to meet, but I'm positive.

2nd Draft

The second draft of the script has gone out to the Producer today. I want to await any feedback from her before I release it to everyone else. It hasn't changed in structure very much at all, but addresses some plot points and timing issues.

Production Meeting

We had our first production meeting last night with Camille, Michael Facey and me in attendance. It was the first time we've started to discuss logistics and every other production component that will effect our Production. I also met with Dave Le May who is a local DOP to discuss the film. We are still not sure who will be the DOP as there are many issues to be sorted, many relating to costs. It is going to be fantastic to one day have the money to work with the technicians you want to work with.

Chomatsu is still proving to be the difficult one to find, but some new possibilities were presented today.

I met with Emma Fletcher on Monday night and she is onboard as Production Designer. Emma has an affinity with that period of history and her initial thoughts about the look were exactly in the direction I wanted to go. I'm really looking forward to working with her.

I've been struggling through the script again today, but I think I've nailed the next draft and will be sending it out very soon. Richard Hyde has once again been a great help.

Script changes

Richard and I had a long script meeting yesterday evening and I stayed up till late trying to implement some of the possible changes. I've been struggling with the writing because you think it all works and then someone picks a hole in the plot or it's not really saying what you wanted it to say, then you question what is it you're saying anyway! Phew!

Anyway, I've been struggling with endings and the final climax, but still not 100% there. What I need is some time just to mull over the options with a clear head.

Brown & Osarno

OK, I can now tell you all who I have got as Osarno.  As you already know, we have Dustin Clare for Trooper Brown and playing beside him will be Peta Sergeant.

Peta is a NIDA grad and has recently finished playing Heather on the TV series Satisfaction, which screens on Foxtel.

Peta is a fantastic talent and I very excited to have her acting with Dustin.

Re-Write

Spent the evening re-working the script. Of course when you try to make slight changes, holes in the plot, sequence or whatever slowly emerge and you've got to think things through whilst trying to stay true to the vision. It got quite late and I lost a bit of focus so am not sure if it really works. Richard has got the new version and is going to take a look at it this today. Also got some interesting feedback from Grando who hopefully will be available to 1st the film. Grando is a good Producer and I value his feedback. He raised some interesting and valid points which I will have to think about.

Am meeting a possible for Osarno tomorrow afternoon and will give you an update after that.

Also got FANTASTIC news today, that Dustin scored the role he was going for (Sorry NDA's in place)... anyway, it is good for Kanowna and great for him. I'm really excited for him! Onya Dusto!

We have an editor

Not too busy today. I spoke to the potential actor for the role of Osarno and we are hopefully meeting this weekend. I also was contacted by a DOP I am keen to talk with about the film and we have organised to meet next Tuesday evening. Because of budgetary concerns we need to look more at recruiting locally for crew, cast etc... Even the Chomatsu character may need to come from Perth now. It is very difficult to do a film on such a low budget.

Anyway, some good news. Lawrie Silvestrin who edited my last film 'Iron Bird' has agreed to come on as editor. We will work from his home studio and only at night and on weekends to edit the film. Hopefully this will be ok, but he is not sure how shooting on the Red One will impact on the Post pathway and his home system might not be able to handle it.

Lawrie made a nice commented that he really enjoyed the Iron Bird process and enjoyed working with me. He also enjoyed the types of films I like to make and how they never fitted within the traditional Australian film subject matter which was refreshing and fun to work on. It was nice to hear that and I am really looking forward to working with Lawrie again.

Kurosawa anyone?

Another busy day on Kanowna.  I still have to do the rewrite and I can't seem to find the time.  "What am I doing blogging"?  I hear you ask...hmmm.

Lots of emails again and I made quite a few calls to film buddies who I'd like to work on the film.  Responses have been positive and I am just waiting on a few to read the last draft of the script.  We are a little in limbo waiting to hear Dusto's availability, but we should hear tomorrow hopefully.  

I have been searching through my collection of early Japanese films as I think that will be my coverage style as a homage to Kurosawa, but then it is still early days on that front.

Kanowna (short film)

Dustin wanted an image to put up on his website that might be able to represent 'Kanowna', so I rummaged through my photos and found this one that I took whilst working on 'Blood in the Sand'.  It is on a station about 40Km's from Cue.  The isolation and harsh beauty of the image seemed right, so I added the title and there you go!

35 emails

A frantic day at the Office with emails flying back and forth.  Camille is really working hard at trying to pull this Production together.  The character of Chomatsu is a priority because we don't really have any leads on hims as yet.  A couple local names were thrown around like Shai Yammanee, but it is still early pie-in-the-sky thinking and just trying to formulate an idea of who Chomatsu is.

We're even investigating Chinese possibilities, although I don't know how we'll be able to afford them, but I'm just the Director.  Here are some faces that have been looked at, as I said, nothing definite.

Initial Crew discussions have begun and a budget is being formulated... scary!

Script work

Wow, just had a 2 and a half hour script meeting with Camille and Richard.  We worked through from page 1 to the end in a very detailed way.  I can see it was very important so that we as a team can understand exactly what I am trying to say and exactly what the script is doing.  It was fantastic to have Richard at the meeting as he breaks concepts down in a very understandable way, which addresses thematics and story.  I find his input invaluable.  Camille approaches the script from a very audience perspective and it is also great to have her input, as it makes you explain the concepts with view of the audience and it challenges what you thought you had written.

Extremely valuable evening and very exciting at the same time... We're going to make an excellent film.

Have a new Producer.

We've now got a new Producer onboard, she is Camille Chen from Konnect Films. Camille has spent years working as a Television Commercial Producer and is now living here in sunny Perth. She is really keen and likes the project very much. To show you how interested she is I have received pages of feedback notes on the script already.

Looks like we've also got young Producer Michael Facey on board as a Production Manager in support of Camille. I knew Micheal as a student from my TAFE teaching days, he's a good fella and a hard worker. I'm very happy to see him join our growing team.

I will be meeting with Camille and Richard Hyde this evening to discuss the feedback on the script and get everyone's input before I deliver the final draft of the script this week.

Much to do, many people to meet with. Things are looking up!

Producer Jumps Ship

Sorry about the delay in a new post, but it has been a difficult couple of days.  On Monday I got a phone call from the Producer basically saying he didn't want to produce the film anymore.  He used the excuse that I had such a good team and he didn't know where he could fit in and that between Dustin, Clarke and myself, we could produce the film and maybe he would come in towards the end with 5K to help us finish and then get an EP credit.

I shot this down immediately.  The only reason I even considered making another short film was because he wanted to Produce a film and he had the resources to fund it.  I also believed that he was a determined and driven individual who would make a good Producer.  I made it clear that neither of us wanted to Produce and we depended on him to take up that role.

Anyway, his excuse was pretty lame and I was bitterly disappointed by this development.  In the end he said "Give me a week and I'll have to think about it and get back to you." 

I couldn't believe it!

Much has transpired since then and I will get to that soon.

Stay tuned!

Slap in the face!

Stay tuned!

Schedules...

It's all about schedules now.  The DP I have been talking to will be shooting a feature in January, but is possibly available in mid-December.  Dustin will hopefully get word about a new role this week, which may involve being in production in January also.  Well, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment, so I'll have to see how things pan out.  We may need  to look at another DP, but I really would like to work with this guy again!

It's hard to lock people down when you're not paying them!

I will probably not be able to visit Gwalia this weekend, but hopefully I'll get there the next one.

Early explorations...

I'm still working on finding a Production Designer and a 1st AD.  Now have 2 possibilities  for Production Designers, but I will need to meet with them both before

making any final decisions.  One of them is less experienced than the other, so maybe there could be a way they might work together.  

Kyle Colhoun has been busy exploring fonts for a possible Kanowna title, its still early days but I don't want to be too traditional, that said I don't want to be too unconventional.  Here is the first few examples.

I spoke with the people at Gwalia who are excited about the possibility of a film being shot at their town, even a low budget short film.  Hopefully we will get up there next weekend to take some pictures and check out the suitability.  The second image is some of the old shacks there.

Ballistic!

The boys have gone ballistic today searching out possible location leads in Victoria.  The found a couple fantastic locations at Little River and Kattemingga.   The catch is if we try to film over East it will need to be in December, I couldn't leave Perth in January as it would be too close to the arrival of 'the bump'.

I searched around for more leads in WA so that I could provide the gang with a style guide and I discovered a place called Gwalia which is North of Kalgoorlie and South of Leonora.  

If you want to check it out go to the following website:

www.gwalia.org.au

On a casting note, the female lead that Dustin was suggesting has since read the script and apparently likes it very much.  I hope to meet with her in Perth very soon.

Monday...

There was much activity on the Kanowna front today, with Composer Ash Gibson Greig committing to the film. I have collaborated with Ash on two films, the first being 'Going Down in Flames', a WAAPA film which also starred Dustin Clare. It was my first collaboration with both of these wonderfully talented and creative people, which continued on to my last film 'Iron Bird and will now continue with 'Kanowna'.

Dustin has been busy suggesting possible female leads and hopefully one of those leads will work out. Azriel has been busy on the Producing front and will shortly upload the synopsis onto his website.

Kanowna (short film) - background to the project

Kanowna

In a dusty dry cemetery in a little known corner of Western Australia there is a plaque that tells a tragic tale from our gold mining past, but this tale isn't one you'd expect.  It is a story of the loss of a newly born baby, a double murder and a gunfight.  It is 1902, the major participants are Japanese and the place is called Kanowna, which in the Indigenous language means "place of no sleep."

Intrigued by this little known event I began to ponder about the circumstances of the people in the dry, dusty and unforgiving heat of 'that' place and of the widespread racism of the time.  I asked the question, "Why have we ignored the part in Australian history played by people of non-European ancestry?"

The majority of films I have made have been an unconscious attempt to tell these stories, to explore the complex relationships and perhaps in a small part to redress the imbalance.

Kanowna is a story of love and the barriers that faced ordinary people in the extraordinary place.  I wanted to explore the impact of cross cultural relationships and expectations in that time.  The Western Australian goldfields would have been a harsh and intolerant place with dire consequences for those who stepped outside the social structures, so into this world I ventured with Chomatsu, Osarno and Trooper Brown.

Kanowna is now a ghost town, only empty street remain, but the spirits don't sleep.

Chris Richards-Scully

copyright 31/08/08

Who's onboard so far

Producer:

?

Actors:  

Dustin Clare - Trooper Brown

Clarke Richards - Trooper Clarke

I know, but we've only just started!

Chris Richards-Scully, Clarke Richards and Dustin Clare

Me, Clarke and Dustin in LA and just about to get into the car to drive to the 2007 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival.

Kanowna (short film) - Let's go

I must say it was a nervous wait for a reply from the Producer.  Thankfully he enjoyed the script and really understood where I was coming from with it.  Discussions then turned to production, who would act in it, where would it be shot, what would we shoot on and how much would we need to make it.

I hadn't thought through much of this so it was time to put the feelers out, see who else wanted to play and see where how we could make it.

Very exciting!  Richard said: "Well I guess you're in pre-production?"

I guess I am!

Kanowna (short film) The Script

So the script I had was only half ready and obviously I couldn't present it in that form.  So I jumped in and started writing again.  Kanowna is the first script I have written in 10 years, the last was my graduation film from TAFE which was too long, not very subtle in its messages and probably too obtuse.

It was a great exercise for my development as a writer and my process.  I started with a feeling, an emotion that I imagined what the film would be.  I then proceeded to a scene breakdown which progressed through the structure of the story.  Once I was happy with the structure, I then filled it out, making adjustments and re-arranging things as I felt necessary.

Then I gave it over to Richard Hyde, who I have collaborated with on a number of projects and he did a script edit.  Not much changed, he suggested changing the sequence of a couple scenes and deleting one or two.  The biggest changes were suggested in the dialogue where I was tending to state subtext.  We met and discussed the changes and I was very happy with his suggestions, with only a couple adjustments of my own.

So in a week we had a fully fledged 1st Draft.

Kanowna (short film) the initial connection

I recently saw an ad on the ScreenHub website looking for a Director to direct a short film.  For which I responded to and was happy to get a response from the Producer, who happily and enthusiastically forward the intended script to me.  Upon reading it, I felt that it needed too much work in its present shape for which I was reluctant to do, I also felt that I didn't have enough connection to it to make it work.

I was however, very impressed with the enthusiasm of this Producer and suggested that we might work on something else, to which he "in principle" agreed.  I gave him an honest opinion of the previous script and advised that I would get my preferred script to him asap.