Welcome to Oz Indie Cinema.
Just ten months ago, a friend asked me to be an extra in his movie Cult Girls. I was totally blown away by the experience of there being an armourer with real guns, stars like Jane Badler, a crew of make up artists, big lights, cameras, dollies and gibs and a horde of extras.
At first, I thought it was something unique, but pretty soon, I was being invited onto more feature movie sets like The Last Hope, The Perfect Nonsense and The Manifesto Chronicles: The Betrayal. I couldn’t believe that so many feature movies were being produced in little ‘ole Melbourne. I also got invited to some film festivals where I saw recently finished feature movies such as The Sheborg Massacre, Red Sky Candidate 5238 and Mondo Yakuza.
The quality of the indie movies coming out of Melbourne is very high, although the budgets are sometimes shoe string. This means that the people behind these movies have to be extremely creative and innovative. I’m often amazed at how some of these directors manage to make movies that look like they have multi million dollar budgets for just tens of thousands of dollars …… but in a place like Melbourne, where talent and enthusiasm abound, I suppose it’s more a case of finding out the details and secrets because the raw materials needed are already there within the people themselves.
I’m hoping to interview some of these talented people over time and bring you their stories. Let’s go on a journey of discovery together and uncover their secrets and find out just how their minds work. Each week, I will endeavour to bring one new story.
Enjoy!
David Black
Oz Indie Cinema 