Last year when I was brainstorming ideas for my final VCE media film, I had two that were pitted against one another. The first was a look at a day in the life of a transgender student, framing the audience to view it through their eyes and truly question their own prejudices. The second was a very short film, set to the song ‘Valtari’ by Sigur Ros, in which a young girl came to terms with the death of her mother. While the second was much closer to home and I storyboarded the entirety of the film in under an hour, scriptless (no dialogue, though I now realise even for silent films scripts are vital.), I ended up choosing the first as I felt it would be more powerful in terms of the intended audience. My year level at the time was really transphobic and my trans friends were suffering from death threats, and I felt this would be a major ‘screw you’ to all the kids who thought that what they were doing and saying was okay. They were all also conveniently in my media class, and I knew there would be a mini film festival where we showed everyone’s finished product to the class, so I stand by my choice of idea for the time. It was well worth it.
Passive aggressive revenge and terrible people aside, ever since I storyboarded ‘Valtari’, I’ve been waiting for the right time to produce it. I wanted to have enough skill and experience to do it justice, as I’m a perfectionist and this was a very personal story that essentially projected my life onto the screen. I’ve since lost the original storyboard, but the memory of it is vivid and clear, and I’ve remade it. I’m considering lengthening it beyond the initial 2 minute maximum predicted screen time to create a more fleshed out story, but I’m working on it.
I recently put out the feelers on a Melbourne filmmakers and actors group on Facebook to find any actors that would be interested (though as I’m barely through pre-production it would take some time before production began), and the results were less than great. I’ve learnt that actors will literally put their hand up for any role even if they’re entirely not suited to it. I asked for no crew, simply an actor who was a 35 year old ‘motherly’ looking (or around that age) woman to play a mother, and they needed to have a small child (newborn-toddler age) that could be in it too. I figured if I needed a baby, nobody would be keen on handing their child over to some random woman to lift into the air as they would be in the scene I envisaged. I got a male film uni student message me his interest, I had a twenty year old ask to be the mother, I had a sixty year old woman also express interest, another man wanting to act, and a gaggle of others who looked nothing like mothers, and to be frank none of them looked at all like what I wanted. Perhaps harsh, but when you’re creating something the actors can really make or break it.
I think I’ll stick to casting friends and family who I know look like what I want for now, until I can actually pay to hire great actors that actually look and fit the part.
