Making the Movie

We do hope other towns will be inspired to make their own story films so these notes are meant to reveal how we went about this one. Of course, if you are a town that's really keen, emails or phone calls are always possible.
 ...Start here to get the basics.

What's special about Even Emus Need to Dance? We built the story around a community which already has what Susanne Haydon calls, strong social capital. This means people say 'Hi!' to each other in the street, even stop for a chat as you see in Even Emus.

It was key that we used the real people of Maleny. There was no talent parachuted in except for Sue, the lead who comes from nearby Beerwah, but qualifies for inclusion because she's a regular at Maleny Film Society screenings and was spotted there by the director. From these real people we collected bits of their life stories which were then woven into the established story thread, a storyline chosen to be true to the town and not an imported drama.

No scripted dialogue was used to tell the story, and there were never any rehearsals. While the cast had a vague idea of what the story was about, they never knew in detail, nor had had any idea of the significance to the overall plot of a scene in which they might appear.

The actors were told at the last minute what their next scene was about and roughly what they should be saying to each other to make the scene work. By being cagey and with last minute revelations, we kept a spirit of surprise, took off pressure, and allowed scenes to play as real, since in a way, for the actors, they were real.

This 'just-in-time' dialogue method is probably the greatest innovation of this bit of film making. That and the principle of no rehearsals. It all sounds very risky, but by mobilizing people's inventive faculties and then steering them to the right feeling at the right moment, it seemed to work. Of course this all depended on trust being established early between the actors and the director.

Our production methods were not fiercely product driven. Sure, we wanted a good film. But it was equally important to us, for instance, that someone who really wanted to be in the film, got a chance to act.

So, in such a case a part was created especially for that person. I guess we believe that the process is also the product, and take pride in the fact that everyone loved making Even Emus, as you'll glean from the end credit roll.

We kept the production very small, in part out of some necessity since this was all volunteer work. But a tiny crew, mostly two on location and one buzzing around, meant there was no time wasted on power trips and misunderstandings. For better or worse, it was agreed that director Mike had creative control.

Probably equally important was ensuring that the actual recording process, the camera and sound collection were quite unobtrusive and non-threatening. Actors never had to wait, never had to move to certain places for the camera or sound. The camera always adjusted to what they did: not vice versa as is usually the case. This meant that the actors needed none of the usual professional actor skills of hitting marks, of being able to do numerous takes, of being able to concentrate surrounded by a crew of 60, which is the usual situation for the professional.

There was no make-up or costumes as such. No prima donna-ing or power posing on the part of the cast. Actors could wear what they liked from their own wardrobe but once established for a scene, their clothes could not change.

In the spirit of Maleny itself, a well established co-operatives town, we worked very much on trust, empathy, respect and caring for others. These were prime drivers on location, sometimes at the expense of the story. This might help explain why the conflict in the film's story itself, is way down on the typical professional drama script. A low key, peaceful shoot may tend to best tell a low key peaceful story.

Mike had great help on set from Jessie Begun who was assistant director, continuity and general confidant, while Susanne Haydon, the co producer and Maleny prime mover, was making magic behind the scenes, liaising ahead, making sure that things went smoothly from location to location.

I am convinced any town can produce equally credible performances if the story line makes sense, if the actors are typecast - that is playing characters who are like themselves and if the technical side is smooth and unobtrusive.

Actually, it is this latter prerequisite which might be the stumbling block elsewhere. The director/camera person must know almost intuitively how to position the actors in the frame so that they will look good and the material will cut smoothly. It is mainly the camera, always hand held in this case, moving around freely, allowing the actors lose themselves in their 'real moment' scene, which creates what's called the blocking. It's the camera/director who must intuitively decide in a flash how many times to repeat the action to get the coverage necessary for the scene to cut, all the while knowing that the freshness drops off with each take.