Please tell us about yourself. How did you start your career, and how did you get into the world of cinema? What are some of the projects you worked on, before Honest Police?
My career began at college. I studied at the Actors Workshop in Brisbane. I studied an Advanced Diploma of Film, TV and Theatre Acting. Since I graduated, I was lucky enough to find and write my opportunities. I’ve made short films with students, commercials for major companies and waiting rooms and a web series.
As an artist, who or what are your influences? In other words, what made you fell in love with cinema and with telling stories?
Watching movies when I was a kid with an open mind and thinking about the people that wrote the scripts and ideas. I thought that they had a vivid imagination to write long scripts and create their exciting and interesting worlds and characters. I think that you appreciate a movie more when you are young because you are not familiar with the production process and all you care about is the visual spectacle.
What is your vision as an artist? What types of stories you endeavor to tell through films?
I prefer original ideas that people have not told already. When I watch movies with an original idea, I often think “I wish I had thought about that original idea first”. They beat me to it. I also like remakes. When they do an interesting version of an idea, book or movie. For instance, they made Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder then they made another version entitled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp.
How did you come up with the story? What made you want to write and make Honest Police? Please tell us about the process.
I heard a woman mention on a TV show that when you cheat on your partner, you’ve done something wrong morally not legally. That made me think about my idea, Honest Police. What if you were arrested for small offences that people don’t actually arrest you for. Lying to people, forgetting to put your seatbelt on and cheating on your boyfriend or girlfriend. People never arrest you for all those bad decisions and moments in your life.
You play the protagonist (Kevin) in the Honest Police. I am sure people would want to know more about the production and your process of working both behind and in front of the camera.
Behind the camera, I had to find enough actors online then they tell me the days they are free to shoot then I can make decisions and shoot the scenes. It involves a lot of driving to all the locations, calling the actors and crew and making decisions. Slowly we put it all together when we shoot and finish one scene after another until we shoot the last scene and then that’s a wrap.
What is the most challenging aspect of making a film? Since you have experienced working in different fields, what were the challenges you faced?
The big challenge we faced was the pandemic. Luckily, we had shot most of the scenes in 2018 before our first lockdown. I had to worry about my work because they were thinking about vaccine mandates and I prefer to work without the vaccinations. We had to shoot scenes and work our day jobs and learn about the virus. Infections, number of cases, vaccines etc. It’s a lot to think about every day.
How was the film received at film festivals around the world? Please tell us about your festival run.
We’ve already submitted to a few festivals. The first film festival that accepted my short film was in Kampala, Uganda and we were very fortunate that they seemed to enjoy our wacky short film project. I couldn’t travel at the time. They organized a live streaming for all the people that submitted their projects. They live in all corners of the globe. It was a fantastic experience to submit my project and find out that people enjoyed it on another continent.
What project(s) will you be working on next?
Next, I’m working on a project about nerds. They go to the comic book store, they watch movies and they want to talk to girls. I prefer to write about smart characters that are in a bad situation and they need to figure things out to survive or achieve goals.
Comments