My fascination for film began in my teenage years, though I did not recognize it at the time. I was an extra in plenty of soap operas and even fully fledged feature films and starred in a short film that did not make it further than a premiere at a house party. Despite these fun experiences, I chose a “sensible” science career over my artistic interests. But film making came back to me in the form of screenplay writing. I have been writing screenplays for more than a decade now as a hobby. From The Altai Trail featuring a grieving father who has lost his son and goes on a horse hunting expedition in Mongolia (top 10 Final Draft Big Break) to The Empress showing the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Australia (top 10% Nicholl Fellowship), to Casper describing the journey of a neglected and abused teenager and based on the German story about Kasper Hauser (quarter finalist Page Awards). Learning about screenwriting I often heard the advice that every screenwriter should make a short film to get attention, and eventually I did go back to filmmaking in the limited surroundings of a granny flat and during several nights before Christmas. The results are nothing I want anyone to see, but it definitely was a mountainous learning curve for my filmmaking ambitions. After several feature screenplays, I wrote a short screenplay about a mother-daughter conflict, somewhat as self-therapy. Neither really worked, but there was something to the story that stuck with me. I rewrote the central conflict as a short theatre play and had my debut as a theatre director. The Armidale Drama and Musical Society has a long running short play festival which allowed me to dip my feet into this extraordinary artistic field and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Since my director’s debut, I took the stage play and rewrote it once again as a screenplay. I also wrote it with places around me in mind, seriously considering making it. After some rounds of feedback, I was happy with the story but had no time to make it. Eventually, I took some time off my day job to refocus what I was doing with my life and to prepare my relocation back to Europe. On my last day at work, I bumped into a photographer/cinematographer Mike Terry (check him out, he is awesome), and asked him whether he had ever done a short film. He said yes, we met for coffee, and I told him about my vision. I’d like to say that the rest was history, but we are not there yet. The real work was only about to begin. Before you leave, here’s the title and a short log line of my short film: “Death and other Vanities” The death of her father brought Belinda to a tipping point in her hectic life and her mother, a hoarder, is no help as she is struggling herself to hold her life together. On Belinda’s birthday, of all days, their all too fast and too slow lives collide.
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March 2023
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