recognition TVs can listen in on people’s
conversations, and deliver these recordings to a
third party without the user even knowing about it.
So yeah, if we don’t start objecting to this kind of
privacy invasion then there’s really nothing to stop
our existing technology from turning biological
once nanotechnologies and beyond evolve.
The film has professional and non-actors in it –
how has it been working with such a mix?
I like to have a sense of realism in my films and
often I find actors, even on larger budget films, are
really playing themselves over and over again and
not so much the character, which for me is the most
important part of a movie. We selected the actors
very carefully because in many cases, they weren’t
acting at all, but rather the performances became
fluid and real. You can see this when Frank
(Collins) who is a seasoned actor and Zozie
(Prudence) who’s never acted before in a narrative
context emerge on screen together. When they both
went into character, it was like watching someone
else’s conversation instead of a process of merely
reading the lines. Both of them instead delivered
performances that became quite real and believable.
Another example is Phil (King James) who plays a
heretic, where after a few takes actually started to
creep me out with his performance. I guess because
I know Phil very well, when he turns into a ranting
psycho killer it’s a little unsettling to watch because
I know he’s the complete opposite in real life, and
that just makes a good story even better.
Many of the locations seem to be decayed and
destroyed. Where did you film?
I wanted the locations to be a kind of silent
character in the movie, but at the same time didn’t
have a budget to go travelling around the country or
overseas. We set the boundaries to keep all filming
in Victoria, where I live, and it had to be places
where we could pack the crew and actors in the car
and be in driving distance at all times. We started
out in the Bellarine Peninsula and Geelong regions,
then found other amazing locations in the Wimmera
district in northwestern Victoria, especially around
Donald and Birchip, and of course later on when we
discovered Wonthaggi and Tooradin in the
southeast. The nice thing about filming in these
parts is that the locals always came out to help us,
which for me was like adopting an entire town
through the movie. We met a great guy up in
Donald named James Goldsmith who introduced us
to the folks and scenery I could never have gained
access to otherwise, which really made the process
of storytelling through landscape possible. I don’t
think we could have made such a convincing film
without James. Plus they make really good jam