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EVIE and GOOD NIGHT – Reflective

Words by Kate Separovich

I love producing, but deep down I’ll always have the heart of a crew member. In 2018 and then again in 2020, I made two short films EVIE and GOOD NIGHT where I not only Produced, but Production ‘Officed’, and Production Designed. Now as both projects start their festival runs, I get to humblebrag about how great our WA crew are!

Our very first production meeting with Meredith Lindsay, our DOP, and Josh Haines, our Art Department assistant, took place in one of the film’s locations. I adore Mega’s work and the cool calm and collected vibe she has on set. Mega bought with her an amazing team of Camera, Lighting and Grip personnel in Paolo Feliciano, Dan Stone, Gemma Hall, Tim Green and Matt Gardner. These brilliant folks worked so hard in the intensely hot days we had.

Breaking up the shoot so much meant each day’s shoot ended up being it’s own short film. We spent time with Chanel Bowen in Pre-production crafting a flexible schedule that could work when split out. Then when Chanel unfortunately couldn’t make a shoot day, we were able to call on Stuart Morrice to help out on the day and keep us on track!

Texx Montana was our brilliant Costume Designer, who I’m sure won’t be embarrassed if I say she has a real talent for ageing. Her art finishing skills lead to an attachment on Dirt Music (and currently Mystery Road Season 3), but here it was great to see her shine as a Designer!

Kate Anderson, the delightful joyous Hair and Make Up designer, squealed in joy after reading the script and asked if she could test out some new make up SFX techniques for our gross festering wound. I mean, how could anyone say no to that! I am just so proud of this creative team – especially now that Kate Anderson, Texx and I have been nominated for the 2021 WASCA for Outstanding Achievement in Design!

To our incredible, always growing, sound team; Tom Moore, Andy Parnell, Tara Guerrini, Andrea Colbert. Thank you for capturing such great audio in the ‘remote looking’ locations – despite a whole bunch of cars driving down the road (and the occasional excited producer) which made for very challenging mixing, we really made the most of each location.

I am so very proud of all the crew who, deservedly, are being applauded internationally and interstate. WA crew work hard, happy and holistically, in quite often some of the toughest locations in the world. I’ve felt the pain in the past of being made to feel like ‘we aren’t good enough’ because we are the wild west. I hope a short film like EVIE can still show international and interstate audiences what we are capable of here. I feel it’s my duty to advocate where ever I can for our WA crew, to build experiences, to be recognised for projects – and be sought after because we are THAT GOOD.

EVIE premiered at SITGES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL and has just won two Best Short film awards. We have more great festival announcements coming up soon including our Australia Festival Premiere. You can follow us on facebook or Instagram @aussiedinofilm.

In 2020, after vowing I would never do it again – I yet again, Produced, Production Office’d and Production Designed the short film GOOD NIGHT with David Vincent Smith. Something I think is really lost on inexperienced directors (not DVS of course!) is how much value crew provide to a production. Crew spend far more time on set than a single director will over the course of a year, and gather far more experience from the different productions they get to work on. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve thought about saying to a director – “just listen to the people who have more experience than you” – I’d be able to finance my own films!!

We strategically kept our team really small and mobile and filmed in just two days. Texx again came on board for Costumes, and we had the amazing Liz Gruska come on board to do Make Up. Raz did our Cinematography and Scott Montgomery did our sound. How lucky are we having this calibre of crew in WA?

We had our premiere at the San Jose International Film Festival, have screened at LA International Film Festival, and again have news coming soon for our Australian Festival Premiere.

I am so proud to be a West Australian Producer and can’t wait to be making projects where I can return all hard work and support that my fellow crew members have given me over the years.