Two
Aussie female filmmakers break new ground by crowdsourcing microbudget action
stunts & practical creature FX
Denby
Weller & Miri Stone, Creative Directors, Silent Strike Productions (Pty
Ltd.)
Friday
16th August 2013 – SYDNEY – Australian filmmakers and adventurers Denby Weller
and Miri Stone have defied 150m cliffs and crashing ocean waves to make their
microbudget horror called BUNYIP. Their indie adventure continues in post
production as they work to bring their creature-feature to life on the big screen... www.thebunyipmovie.com.
Armed
only with the belief that nothing is impossible, Stone and Weller tailored the
project to make use of their real-life skills, with the intention to create a
cinema-quality story - on whatever budget they could raise for the shoot. The
product of their vision is still a work in progress, but with a cash budget of
$17,000, this adventure-thriller has already broken new ground in Australian
filmmaking.
Now
in post production, BUNYIP is a cross genre film aimed at a wide audience and
made possible by shooting on Canon 5Ds, 7Ds and underwater GoPros with a small
but dedicated cast and crew of talented emerging filmmakers and film school
graduates willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get the movie in the can.
Miri
says, “Truth be told, Denby was the one with the real rock climbing and hard
core survival skills -- as befits an action heroine in the making! Growing up
as a Scout hiking around New Zealand bush, I really had no idea what I was in
for when she told me her crazy plan to write a micro-budget creature-feature
based on rock climbing routes in the Blue Mountains... But it sounded like a
bloody good adventure -- so I was in (much to my parents trepidation)!
When
we asked Sam Lyndon, playing the thrill-seeking entrepreneur TANC, if he was up
for learning to climb for the role he asked with a glint in his eye when we
were next hitting the gym for training. That was when I realised I’d better put
my money where my mouth was and get my ass up that climbing wall... [thinks for
a moment]... But after peering over dozens of sea cliffs and Blue Mountain
faces on location scouts with my indie film partner’s life in my hands as she
checked out the route, I found myself equally terrified and thrilled. Rock
climbing and indie filmmaking have that in common I guess... they have a way of
hooking life-long addicts!”
Part
of a growing trend of filmmakers tuning directly into their audience on the
Internet, Miri and Denby caught the attention of indie fans in their 2012
crowdfunding and crowdsourcing campaigns. Believing that inclusion not
exclusion was the key, they ran a design-the-creature campaign which received
international submissions; online auditions eventuating in the casting of three
emerging Aussie talents to complete their 7 strong cast; and even posted the
screenplay online as it was being written to get audience feedback straight
into as the project developed.
But
it wasn’t until they hooked the interested of two seasoned ex-pat rock climbers
from the UK who run the Climbing Australia blog that these go-get-em filmmakers
got the expert support they needed to safely execute the stunts required to
make the big wall rock climbing sequences come alive on the big screen.
“There
are so many unwritten rules of filmmaking that we wanted to test. We figured,
if you could do the stunts for real then you might just have a chance at
getting away without needing this huge Hollywood machine behind you. So a lot
of what we did was trial and error... but we had the perfect team for it, and
Miri is the perfect partner, willing to trust other people's expertise and work
with it. Whenever we had a shot or sequence that didn't work, we'd just go back
to the drawing board and work out an alternative approach,” recalls Denby
Weller.
“As an actor, especially one who is so invested in the project, I
couldn't have hoped for a better director to collaborate with. The journey has
been completely extraordinary; we've grown so much and have really faced our
own fears on so many occasions. It's not often you work with people that you
literally trust with your life, and we did just that.”
For
now, Stone and Weller have turned their attention from the call of the wilds to
hunting down the funding they need to finish their feature in style -- which
they plan to raise as a combination of crowdfunding and private investment to
the tune of $100,000.
Meanwhile,
their crowdsourced “design-the-creature” competition winner, Kirill Nadtochiy,
and their SFX Supervisor and Producer, Alex-Michael Petty, have been
re-designing their creature into a full suit, complete with animatronics, to be
shot out on green screen in LA later this year.
Currently
residing in LA, Alex has just completed studying with some of the industry
greats like Kevin Brennan (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl; American Werewolf in London) at Cinema Make Up School and is in
discussions with Spectral Motion (known for the Hellboy films; Xmen: The Last
Stand, Attack the Block; Blade: Trinity) to build the animatronic components of
the BUNYIP suit.
When
asked about the experience of working on BUNYIP and how it feels to be ramping
up to build and shoot with some of film industry’s SFX legends, Alex says
"It's crazy that to think that I literally live in a dream world these
days. Not only do I get to make monsters and movies for a living but I finally
get the chance to work alongside a crew that I've admired and looked up to for
a very long time, and to me that is a dream come true."
This
willingness to return to the drawing board is a hallmark of this indie
collaboration. In their pursuit to keep the VFX budget down, Petty, Stone and
Weller, remain committed to exploiting the modern artistry of practical FX
movie magic.
If
you are called by the spirit of adventure, indie filmmaking or just want to see
a thrilling romp through the Australian bush as a bunch of techsavvy hipsters
are hunted by an as yet undiscovered predator, then get behind their
crowdfunding campaign:
...Some
legends have teeth...
For
more information about BUNYIP or to contact the filmmakers about post
production investment and
distribution,
please visit: http://www.thebunyipmovie.com
For
interviews contact Miri Stone (USA) +1.206.331.5806 or Denby Weller (AU)
+61.438.496.615
Official
website www.thebunyipmovie.com
Crowdfunding
site http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thebunyipmoviepostproductionfund
Twitter @thebunyipmovie / Facebook fan page
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