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| Reference Type |
Encore
newspaper
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| Title |
mUmBRELLA |
| Chapter/Web article title |
South Solitary: no film is an island |
| Author(s) | Miguel Gonzalez |
| Section |
News |
| Town |
Chippendale |
| State |
NSW |
| Country |
Australia |
| Publication Date |
28-07-2010 |
| Citation Date |
02-05-2012 |
| Site URL |
http://mumbrella.com.au/south-solitary-no-film-is-an-island-3851 |
| Comments |
This news article and website is a wonderful resource, it allows any person to read in-depth articles about numerous issues. Mumbrella is a discussion of everything under Australiaâs media and marketing umbrella, hence the clever name. It is organised into editorial strands: News, our Dr Mumbo diary, Opinion and our video content. It also offers free listings including Jobs, Events, Freelancers and a business Directory. However in discussing this article the audience targeted is those who wish to know more information about the film than the general synopsis and reviews, it is well researched and provides extensive information on the director. It brings to the attention issues that face Australian film makers and the motivations behind the film.
The article is important for readers in that it gives a greater degree of knowledge of the difficulties of Australian production and an insight into Australian film making. The information is important to my discussions as shows passion for making a film on this issue, it shows to unique ability of Barrett to put her own brand on things and strip the movie right back to highlight the raw Australian environment in order to contract and ironically reflect the characters personalities. The article touches on the issues of funding within the Australian industry and gives an reasoning behind the slowness of the film as well as the audience the film was directed at. The article is not influenced by any theory and is simply a discussion/interview which wonderfully reveals the film making processes.
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| Synopsis |
Director Shirley Barrett didnât get to shoot South Solitary on her dream island, but she found that Plan B is sometimes better. Miguel Gonzalez writes.
Eight years ago Barrett stayed at the first cast concrete lighthouse in Australia, Green Cape, in southern NSW â it now provides accommodation for visitors. She was there doing research for a film she had written, about whaling in the early 1900s. Eventually Barrett came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that the project would ever be made, due to its cost and the VFX it required. Barrett then started reading copies of the lighthouse log book, which described local shipwrecks and how homing pigeons were so well fed and lovingly tended to that, when they were required to fly home, they simply refused to do it. Barrett had found a new idea for a film.
âA small group of people who have to live together in an isolated environment is interesting dramatically from a writerâs perspective, and I thought it would be fairly affordable to make,â said Barrett, who started researching life on Tasmanian ighthouses such as Maatsuyker, Tasman and Deal Islands. She was particularly interested in the time before radio communications, when staff lived in very isolated conditions.
Barret conceived South Solitary as the story of an unmarried 35-year old woman, Meredith (Miranda Otto), who arrives at a remote lighthouse island to assist her strict uncle (Barry Otto), the recentlly-appointed keeper planning on bringing some discipline to the operation. An error of judgement leaves Meredith with a withdrawn assistant (Marton Csokas) as her only companion.
Barrett admits she was embarrassed about âhow pedestrianâ her first draft was, because the characters were not ârightâ, particularly the protagonist. When she finally gave Meredith her fighting spirit and had a script she was happy with, Barrett took it to producer Marian Macgowan.
âWe started looking at locations the minute we acquired the option in late 2005. Before we could cast or budget we had to know where and how we were going to shoot it,â explained Macgowan. âShirley was very keen to shoot it on the islands that sheâd written about, at Maatsuyker, but I could tell already that there would be logistical problems.â
YOU CANâT ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT
The film was originally budgeted at $19m, which would allow them to shoot at Maatsuyker Island, a location only accessible by helicopter that would require cast and crew to be accommodated on a ship that would sit off the coast. The shoot would also be longer due to the poor weather conditions. At that stage, South Solitary was structured as a co-production.
âThat higher budget was cast-dependent, and getting cast attached to films is extremely difficult. We had high profile actors [Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Bettany], and itâs not that they were better [than the final cast]; it would have simply been a different interpretation, a different film,â explained Macgowan. âIn my time Iâve learned that, in a sense, it always works out for the best, or what you think will be impossible to deal with always has a solution. Thereâs always an outcome; all you can do is make the best decisions at the time with the resources you have available.â
When Macgowan found they would not be able to raise $19m, she reduced the budget to $10m, but further adjustments were required.
âWe restructured the financing in the middle of 2009, and we needed to cut $3-4m out of the budget. The cash budget was around $6.5m, but the actual budget was a bit higher,â she explained. The project was funded by Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Screen NSW, Omnilab Media, an advance from distributor Icon Film for Australasia, and private investment.
With a much more modest budget, Barrett had to make concessions and shoot on the mainland, not far from Portland, Victoria.
âI was pretty broken-hearted about that at first, but when I got to Cape Nelson and saw what it offered us, it became really exciting because it was down to our craft to get it to feel like an island,â admitted Barrett.
Barrett had lost her dream location, but the new one provided something she did not expect: an original haulage mechanism that was used to ship supplies up the cliff. It was intact and very close to the lighthouse.
âIt was a gift from the gods. I canât tell you how fortunate we were,â said Barrett.
The fact that it was a period film was not a crippling cost, because the production didnât have to dress up streets or lots of extras due to the storyâs isolated setting.
âThere are no cars in our world; itâs a fairly straightforward process. The cottages were built in the 1800s, and they are the same now they were then,â said Macgowan.
The film was shot entirely on location, combining the Cape Nelson lighthouse cottage with the interior of the Cape Otway lighthouse.
âThe only elements we built were the pigeon house and the outhouse, everything else was there. We just had to create the broken-down world around us,â explained Barrett.
According to the director, production designer Paul Heath and costume designer Edie Kurzer were able to create a low cost look which was authentic and rich in domestic detail.
âMy main fear with the visuals was that it would start looking like a glossy 1920s pastiche, which I certainly didnât want. I wanted it to feel real. I didnât want everyone to have the latest couture; I wanted it to feel like Meredith sewed her own clothes.
âIt was about conveying how difficult it was to live there and the interior of the cottages had to be like the most austere kind of rental locations, with only a kitchen table and a few other things. The challenge I love in period films, especially this one, is researching the details of domestic life and the lighthouse operation. I found that fascinating and luckily so did my team,â explained Barrett.
Barrett and DOP Anna Howard looked at the possibility of using the Red One camera, but ultimately felt that film possessed a âsubtle qualityâ that lent itself to a story thatâs set in another time.
âWe shot on Super 16 and itâs been blown up to 35mm. It was the right decision, and it also gave us the chance to use small cameras, which was really helpful, being in such confined spaces.
âThe film acquired its look without us deliberately going for it. Anna and I didnât want it to look like it had been treated to get that old film feel, but because we shot on Super 16, we had to go through a process of reducing the grain before we blew it up to 35mm. That process in itself softened the tones a little more. It evolved on its own to look like that,â said Barrett.
There is a climatic violent storm in South Solitary; a combination of practical and CGI effects. That part of the shoot was frustrating for Barrett, not only due to the unseasonably good weather, but also because the area surrounding the lighthouse was so barren that there were no elements â such as trees â to visually show the strength of the wind.
âWe didnât have a big budget and we had to be sparing in our use of CGI. Most of the storm is conveyed with sound, and I believe the combination of real effects, CGI and sound has been really effective,â said Barrett.
The Labâs VFX supervisor Soren Jensen led the team that created the CG elements of the storm, including debris and the hail that hits the lighthouse window, in addition to rough seas, a steam ship and antique lighthouse lamps. The Lab was also in charge of the grading, done by Al Hansen with help from Vincent Taylor.
AN EXPERIENCED AUDIENCE
South Solitary opened this yearâs Sydney Film Festival, an honour that was double-edged for Barrett.
âItâs not the paciest film in the world; it takes its time to unfold and that might be hard on an audience which has already sat down through a few speeches. I felt very honoured, but in some ways it was a tough opening,â admitted the director.
Macgowan says the filmâs core audience is women over 35, âa demographic that responds very well to our cast.â When asked about its audience, Barrett hesitated for a moment.
âI always feel a little disappointed when a love story, which is all about longing and a slow burn is resolved too neatly and too completely. I wanted to torture the audience a little, but still give them a little hope. Itâs a film thatâs satisfying to a female audience, but there are a lot of men that responded well to it too. It is also a film that a slightly older audience would respond to, because you must have a few years on you and a few disappointments in life to get the full measure of the feeling of this film,â argued Barrett.
The filmâs sales agent is E1 Entertainment, but Macgowan declined to comment on international sales. It will be released in Australia on July 29.
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