So last Week (Monday the 11th of April, 2016, 11.29am to be specific) my interviewee cancelled on me. I had chosen an ex-workmate who I had worked with in hospitality for 3 years and had built a solid friendship. He was a woodfire pizza maker who has moved from Italy to find work in Australia, so he could send his family money during the recession in Italy. He is a young man who is struggling with assimilation into Australian society, a very different social scene from the lifestyle in Italy.
I wanted to pick his brain on his expectations of Australia, what has surprised him, what has disappointed him. There would be some aesthetically pleasing shots, as he can do impressive tricks with the pizza dough. I had images of flour being thrown in slow motion, Italian opera soundtracks and expressive movements. It was going to be la dolce belvedere! (I dropped Italian in year 9)

I gave him a phone call after we were briefed with the project and brought up the idea. He was very interested and we set up a date to have a run through. I received permission to film from the restaurant owner and arrived on Friday ready to film. As soon as I set up camera, the sight of it hit his eye like a big pizza pie and he backed out completely. I thought it was stage fright. He did not understand that I wanted to film the interview. He thought I was doing a written piece. I soon found out that this individual had been in some low-key crim*nal activ*ty in the past and was very apprehensive to have his image on the internet.

We came to the conclusion that I would be allowed a voiceover but no face, and I agreed. This was going to be pretty difficult to stage but it was better than losing my subject. The pizza man said it might be better to reschedule, and to give him some more time to think it over.
From then, he never returned my calls.

With 1 week until the project was due my interviewee was ghosting me on another level.
However, I would like to dedicate this post to the gracious generosity and understanding of the parents of media students. In 30 minutes after the cancellation I managed to wrangle up another interview with an old, ever faithful subject: my dad.