September 23, 2025 • 61 mins
Clarke Scott, an Australian writer, director, and commercial photographer, shared his unconventional path into filmmaking after leaving behind academia and corporate work. A chance encounter in the Himalayas reignited his creative spark, leading him to dive into the DSLR revolution and embrace filmmaking as both an artistic outlet and a practical career. His debut feature, 1000 Moments Later, was a fully independent production he wrote, directed, shot, and edited himself — a bold decision driven by his refusal to wait for permission or compromise his creative voice.
Clarke opened up about the challenges of independent filmmaking, from battling weather and limited budgets to convincing actors to join his project on back-end deals. He stressed the importance of patience, resourcefulness, and building a body of work rather than chasing quick wins like Sundance. For Clarke, the future of filmmaking lies in using available tools, leveraging local resources, and proving one’s ability to finish projects with vision and determination. His story is a testament to the power of grit and creativity in bringing films to life outside the traditional studio system.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
Clarke opened up about the challenges of independent filmmaking, from battling weather and limited budgets to convincing actors to join his project on back-end deals. He stressed the importance of patience, resourcefulness, and building a body of work rather than chasing quick wins like Sundance. For Clarke, the future of filmmaking lies in using available tools, leveraging local resources, and proving one’s ability to finish projects with vision and determination. His story is a testament to the power of grit and creativity in bringing films to life outside the traditional studio system.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight twenty one.
Cinema should make You Forget. You're sitting in a theater,
Roman Polanski.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle podcast.
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is
sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur How to turn
your independent film into a profitable business. It's harder today
than ever before for independent filmmakers to make money with
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If you're making a feature film, series, or any other
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(01:42):
just head over to www dot filmbiz book dot com.
That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest
host Dave Bullis.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
On today's episode, Clark is an Australian writer, director, and
commercial photographer. He just recently shot his first feature film,
A Thousand Moments, currently in post production.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
So here we go with Clark Scott.
Speaker 6 (02:08):
Hey, Clark, thanks love for coming on the show. I please,
so Clark, I wanted to ask you know, it's a
question I always ask everybody and that is your background
in filmmaking, so you know, I wanted to ask, you
know what brought brought Clark Scott into the filmmaking world.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
H Do you want the long answer or the short answer?
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Dave, I will take the long answer.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The long answer, all right, so it's actually pretty long.
I will I'll go backwards. Hows that sound? So? I'm
currently in post production on my first feature film called
One Thousand Moments Later. It was a tiny little independent
movie that I shot. I wrote, directed, shot, I'm doing
(02:55):
the editing. I'm doing basically everything other than acting. And
that came about because I'd spent a couple of years
writing and trying to get projects up through to the
point where I'd had producers reading scripts. And I'm from Australia,
from Melbourne, but I'd had I'd had a guy in
(03:17):
LA looking at some of my work and things. It
was just difficult. Things fell through. So I pulled the
bug because it was just moving too slowly for me.
And that's where the film came about filmmaking. Prior to that,
i'd worked in kind of commercial corporate video, industrial video
(03:47):
for about six years. So the whole filmmaking thing came
about because I was we're going to remember, I'm going
backwards in time, right, So twenty ten, I'm doing a
PhD in the of the Himalayas. I'm totally burnt out.
And the PhD was in philosophy. So I was taking
a fourteenth century Tibetan philosopher and his notion of the
(04:09):
self and passing that via six Western philosophers, including John
Locke David Human For those interested, the American Constitution was
actually came from John Locke's political philosophy. So, and he
was a British guy. I'm not sure how many of
your American listeners would know that. I had no idea,
(04:31):
but I was burnt out. And so I was walking
through the foothills of the Himalayas, and I was in
a place called durham Sala, that's where the Dala a
Lama lives. And I came across a guy with what
turned out to be a Canon five D mark two,
and he was from La. He was a small time DP.
(04:53):
He was shooting a documentary on the Dala a Lama
and I stopped, as you do like this, it's the Humalays.
There's no one around, and it's like, dude, who are you?
You know, what are you doing here? So we got
to chatting and that kind of opened up a whole
new world to me. Philip Bloom vinceit la foret the
(05:15):
whole five D Revolution was taking place at that very point,
so it was I don't know, it might have been nine,
so I was perhaps a little late. I think the
was it the five to Mark who come out in eight?
I think I can't remember anyway. And so when I
(05:37):
say it opened up a whole new world, it was
a whole new world for me. But it was also
a reconnection with my past and where I'd come from.
So as a young bloke, I went to music school,
a prestigious music school in Melbourne called Victorian College of
the Arts, and at the time it was it was
(05:58):
like Juilliard in a lot of ways, and I was
kind of earmarked for a career in that. So I
was from a young the time of a teenager. Young teenager,
I was doing all kinds of things. I was designing
my own my own clothing, I was playing in rock bands,
(06:18):
I was writing poetry and I was a very creative
kid that kind of got knocked out of me through life.
So just I guess following the advice of people who
I shouldn't have. They hadn't bet their best. They had
(06:39):
my best intentions in mind, but they wanted me to
do something that just wasn't right for my personality. So
between the PhD and this kind of creative phase of
my life where I was at music school, there was
a phase where I was doing web development and I
taught myself to code, and I kind of got into
(07:01):
a whole corporate world, but that I got burnt out
by that, and I'd had a love of philosophy all
at the same time, so I thought that rather than
continuing on in it, I'd go into a PhD and
then perhaps going to academia, and that kind of didn't
(07:21):
work because it didn't really suit my personality. So when
I when I came along and found this DP from
La with a Cannon five D, and then through that
going onto the internet and seeing Philip Bloom's work and
Vincent la Farret's work, my mind was blown. And what
it did allow me to do is it allowed me
(07:43):
to couple my love of being creative with the kind
of the geeky aspect of filmmaking. So filmmaking can be
quite technical, and there's the whole gear thing, so marrying
those two plus I really wanted to create stories of
(08:06):
the told stories of human potential, something that I'm keenly
interested in and something that I pursue in my own life.
But it helped me and what A thousand moments later
in essence is actually about. It's an exercise in that
it allowed me to do that but also have a
(08:30):
career where I could feed my family. So if that
the way I looked at it was if I go
ahead and I stop my PhD and I start this
other thing, and there's a whole bunch of things that
I have to learn at the if all of that fails,
at least I've got skills that someone can employ me for.
(08:50):
I can I can learn editing, and I can go
off and earn money cutting shitty corporate videos. And actually
that's what happened for the first couple of years. So
that's that's coind that's the that's the verbose version, Dave.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
I will always choose the long version if if I
ever get the option, because I always find the long
version always includes a lot of you know, interesting tidbits
and side roads that I always find fascinating. Because I
find one thing that happens to a lot of us
in this industry is it's not a clear path from
A to B. Usually it's from like A to B,
(09:29):
you have to go through all the other letters of
the alphabet and then come backwards and then come through
and then you can get to from A to B.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Stuff like you know, when you were just saying about
learning side going into the side jobs and and doing
all the corporate work and stuff like that, That's what
happened to me. I actually went into academia and I
ended up teaching classes that I wasn't getting paid for.
I ended up, you know, and finally, you know, you
get burned out. And finally April of this year, I
(09:56):
had to leave because I was like, this job is literally.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
I'm living and breathing it and I could never get
away from it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah. Yeah, I was surprised. Actually when I went into
the whole world of academia, I was two things. I
was surprised by, actually three. They worked incredibly hard for
not a lot of financial will turn like you know,
some of my professors eighty ninety hours and they were
earning not a lot of money, and that may be
(10:37):
an Australian thing. I don't know what it's like in
the US. But the politics and because of that, the
politics that that kind of environment fosters meant that. And
these people aren't sages, they're not better saphas, They're not
you know, their lives aren't embedded in notions of compassion.
Some of them are, but a lot of marred. So
(10:57):
there's a lot of kind of there was a lot
of backstabbing, I guess, just a lot of politics. And
I was really surprised by that. So the fact that
I burned out and didn't finish, I'm it's a regret.
I would have liked to have finished. But even if
I had, I would not have gone into into I
was going to say politics. I wouldn't have gone into academia.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah, where I worked a lot of politics.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
It was a smaller school, uh, and it was just
some of the professors would I mean, I'll give you
an example. There was a multimedia professor who taught editing
who knew nothing about editing. He would literally just send
them to me and never asked me about it. And
he would just say, hey, go talk to Dave and
you know, he'll help you out. Well, finally, I'm like,
(11:45):
you know, why are all these people coming to me?
And then they would say, well, all the students would say, well,
you know, doctor blah blah blah told us to go
talk to you. And meanwhile, he's at home, you know,
having dinner with his family, and I'm down there teaching editing,
and you know, you complain to people and nobody care.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It's a shame.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
But I think academia at the most part has pretty
much been eroded over the years because of that, because
of the of a political game, but also because there
used to be where they'd be working professionals and they
would be you know, they get their bachelors, go out
into the real world at the same time, work on
their masters, and then they would come back and maybe
(12:22):
get that PhD and then start teaching at the same
time the still out in the real world. I don't
think they do that anymore, at least for the most part.
At least I don't see that is. I think it's basically,
they get their bachelors, they jump on board as a
TA or something working inside the school, get their masters
and do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
For the PhD.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
So they have no real world skills, but they have
a lot of very fancy degrees, and that I think
that's the problem, and I think that's the reason they
play the political game, because anybody who's better than them
immediately has to be taken out because otherwise, what do
we need this guy for?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think Australian academa is probably a
little bit softer than that. That does not sound like
an enjoyable environment to work.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
So yeah, but you know, I wanted to go back
to what you were talking about, you know, you were
talking about, you know, the guys from l A were
you know, taking too long?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know, I'm sure you know, you know they were.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
They were probably it was probably a money thing, right
like they're probably trying to find fun financing.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yes, And no, they wanted to make changes in the
so I'm sure they were, But they're also making changes
to the script that I felt were more than unjustified,
and I didn't want to go down the road of
and I thought about it, I thought about moving to
(13:48):
l A. I didn't think about it for very long,
to be honest, but the changes were they just didn't
suit my Australian aesthetic, not to say that the LA
aesthetic is less sophisticated, but I just I wanted to
produce something that I was going to be proud of
(14:11):
as a body of work. Over time, and in the end,
I could see that I could very easily continue along
this path and I could move to LA and I
could potentially get something happening. But how's it going? What
kind of taste is that going to leave in my
lot in my mouth over the longer term. So I
(14:32):
made the decision just not to go that route and
to stay in Australia. And even if that meant that
I was going to end up producing much smaller films,
I'd rather do that and earn money in a way
that allows me to produce something that had that that
(14:55):
I'm essentially proud of. The quality because of the budget
will be less. That's just That's just true, and I
know that's true because I've gone through a thousand moments later.
We did essentially on my own coin. The actors worked
on the back end, so we were all it was
(15:17):
very do I and while we worked our asses off,
we didn't we didn't have we didn't have the crew
to allow us to produce something that was you know,
what's what's the what's the cliche that the the the
parts and the parts are greater than the some of
(15:40):
the parts are greater than the whole, or something like that.
I'm vaguing right now, but yeah, so that's that's what
I decided. I decided that I would pull back and
just stay where I am, be a little bit more patient,
because I think I was. I think it was sometimes
we can we can push really hard because we've feel
like it's got to happen tomorrow. And if you look
(16:03):
at some of certainly some of my filmmaking heroes, they
don't look at it that way. Someone like Terry Mallick,
you know, he goes off and he produces his first
couple of feature films and then hides for twenty years.
Was I mean, no one really knows other than his
close friends and family, no one really knows what he
(16:24):
was doing. And then he comes out and does a
thin red line. I mean, that's and it's probably the
greatest war movie ever made. So yeah, I wanted to
take a different approach. And one of the guys, the
Turk is directed by the name of Nuri Blajeelon who
(16:45):
did He won the Palm d'Or in twenty fourteen with
Winter's Sleep. I started researching his his career and the
way he went about things. So he'd gone in his
last film one the Palm d'Or. It doesn't mean a
lot of financial return or but it does mean a
(17:06):
lot of I mean it's the Palm d'Or. But where
he started. He started from very very humble beginnings, and
he started late like I did, so late thirties. The
I could really I felt close to him, so I
was confident in what I was doing in not going
(17:30):
to La. So but I think the guys in LA
that was surprised, to be honest, I think they were.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
You know, that's actually an interesting strategy, Clark, because that's
something that you know, other people too have used, other
guests they've had on the podcast, and that is, you know,
in your hometown, wherever that might be in the world,
you have advantages and disadvantages. Yes, you know, it's not
LA unless or less a question of you're in LA,
but unless you were born or L I mean, you know,
(18:01):
but but with the advantages I always talk about it,
are you know, if you live in a small town
and you know, a small town America in the middle
of America, and you know, you have a list of
people that you know. And because this the town is smaller,
you usually know a lot more people and usually are
able to get things, most likely for free or even
(18:24):
at a highly discounted rate, because they're going to say, hey,
look there's you know, I'm sure people in Melbourne you know,
and I don't want to ask you about this. We're
probably saying, hey, look there's Clark. You know, uh, you know,
maybe you you know in your neighborhood, or you know,
you know, the people knew you and said, hey, look
there's there's Clark. You know, he's making a film. He
needs a car of some kind, he needs this, he
needs a location. They may have been more willing to
(18:47):
help you out because you know, you're a familiar person.
And that's why, you know, whenever we you know, when
I talk with guests, but moving to l a uh,
we always talk about a strategy to it where they
always they either have meetings or connect a place to
stay a job already, you know, and it's sort of
like stacking the deck in your favor as much as possible.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Because we both know Clark.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Things will go wrong pretty quickly, as they usually do
in this world. But but you know, so that you know,
that is something I've seen before, and that's a strategy.
But I'm using myself because even filming here in Philadelphia, it's,
you know, the seventh or eighth most popular city in America,
and even filming around here, I've been able to sort
(19:28):
of finagle things free or cheaper because I'm a local
guy making a local film.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
If you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, I think
it comes down to this. Those that want to move
to la are probably looking to work in the film industry.
But if you want to mike films, there's absolutely no reason.
In fact, it can be detrimental to move to LA
if you want to be if you want to mic films,
(19:55):
stye where you are.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our spon, sir,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Write good stories, leverage the tools that we have available
to us now to create those films, and then go
out find an audience. Create an audience if you have
to find an audience, and then over time, take the
long game. Over time, you'll find that you'll create work.
(20:26):
If you're talented it because all of this is predicated
on talent. If there's no talent, there's no career over
long game, a talented person will naturally rise. It'll just happen.
But if you think that and that was a guy,
a guy by the name of Stuart MacDonald, who's a
fairly big director here in Australia. He's done TV, he's
(20:50):
done film, he's actually been to LA, shot some TV
in LA, come back to Australia. I knew him through
through philosophy and my interest in philosophy. He has a
similar interest. And he said to me unbeknowns of where
I was, so I was just some guy that he
(21:11):
was speaking to, although I knew him through philosophy. He said, Clark,
don't line up at the end of the film school
the film school line. There's a whole bunch of people
that go to film school. He was one of them.
Or want to work in the film industry, and that
line is really long. Do not do that. Go on
by a canon five D and make your own film.
(21:34):
That's the way to get to get in. And I
think that's true even if you do want to work
in So I think LA is probably harder. But if
I wanted to work in TV in Australia in Melbourne,
which I'd love to do, by the way, the best
way for me to do that these days is actually
to go and produce something of a certain kind of
(21:56):
quality under a certain amount of time and budgetstraints, and
then show that to the gatekeepers in TV via relationships
that I've created through the process of creative of creating,
of making a film, and then over time and do
that a couple of times and people will see that
they that you've you've got the You've you've got both
(22:17):
the balls to go and do something, the audacity to
do something like this, but you've also got the skills,
so not only the esthetic skills, but also the management
and communication skills and and also the skills of persuasion,
because you need to be able to go to an
actor and say, look, I don't have any money to
(22:39):
give you up front, but I can give you a
piece of the pie on the back end. That's just
an example, and that's what I did with mine to
two actors. But they didn't do it because just because
you know, just because of that, just because of who
I am, They read the script and said they read
(22:59):
the script, and it was an fairly undeveloped script as
well because of the way I shot it. But we
had meetings and they were convinced that I was the
kind of person that could finish a project and that
it would be of a certain kind of quality. So
they came on board for those reasons. So I was
able to I was able to get great actors for
(23:21):
my project through my ability to communicate with others. If
I take that as a package to a TV producer,
someone who actually has money to produce episodes of television
here in Australia, there's a good chance that all of
that information will go down a lot better than some
kid that's gone through film school, who is you know,
(23:44):
who's got a a great looking CV, but nothing other
than that. And I know that that's true because there
was an Australian Director's conference a couple of years ago
and that they recorded all of the sessions and I
was listening to it. It may have been three or
(24:05):
four years ago now, and one of the sessions they
had was breaking into TV and it was a whole
bunch of both TV execs here in Australia and producers
and the one thing that they all agreed upon was
that the road, the path to becoming a director in
episodic programming here in Australia was not necessarily your esthetic style,
(24:30):
but your ability to get the day done, to shoot.
If you've got to shoot four pages or excuse me, Dave,
six pages, then you've got that kind of genuine esque
ability to get a whole bunch of people together and
move them along through the day and to make the day.
(24:53):
And that's the one skill they all require, because then
they're going to hand over half a million dollars or
being dollars for a production to someone who who can't
make that happen. So that's the skill they're actually looking for,
and that, if you think about it, that makes total sense.
If you have a director who doesn't have those skills, uh,
(25:17):
you don't have a television program, you don't have a
product to sell. So from a producer's point of view,
that almost trumps aesthetics. So yeah, that was a bit
of a rant. Sorry, Dave, No, no no problem.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
You know people on this podcast tend to rant, Clark,
so please you You're it's it's par for the course.
I tend to bring that out in people okay, but
but but but no, I can I agree with you completely.
You know, I used to be a part of of
a screenwriting group and everybody who was who was in
it was a lot further ahead. I mean this was
years ago, but they were further ahead than I was.
(25:55):
And I remember the one guy had just got done
pitching to the Sci Fi Channel and he had he
said two things that he took that that I really
took away from what he said. He said, number one,
you know, when you're in those pitch meetings, they don't
care about what your dreams are. They only care if
what you're pitching to them will be profitable and viable
in that market. Number Two, when you go into a
(26:16):
Walmart or a wal or yah Walmart, or a best
Buy or you know anywhere, you know, you have that
physical shelf space that is, you know, everything has a
dollar amount to it. So he said, when they put
out you know, those movies, you know, like you know,
Zombie Headhunter eighteen, the reason that they give that shelf
space is because that's going to sell a certain amount
(26:39):
of units and they know exactly how many. Usually they
can make a you know, a prediction or you know
an estimate of how many units that's going to sell,
and they're able to you know, calculate that up and
then give that x amount of shelf space. And you know,
I started to take.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
That and realize, you know, this is so true. That's
why you.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
See movies certain movies and you don't see other movies.
It's because you know, they wanted to make sure that
they a viable product. And you know what you were
just saying. You know, obviously, yes, you know they're not.
You know, it's like what Dalls Simon's always says. You know,
they're not just going to give somebody fresh out of
film school one hundred million dollars and say here, go
make this movie and then you know it's gonna be
in every theater in the world and you're gonna make
you know, ten billion dollars. It just doesn't happen that way.
(27:17):
You know, you have to make a movie, you know,
even even if it's gorilla filmmaking, even if it's no
budget filmmaking where it's you know, you know, you yourself
and maybe you get some you know, higher some actors,
you get a movie gig, you get that and if
and if it's good enough, if it's slick enough, they'll
give you. Then you can tell producers, look what I
did for nothing, Imagine what I could do for ten thousand,
and then you sort of move up to fifty, then
(27:38):
one hundred, and then as you you can keep increasing
that process with more money, then they'll sort try, you know,
trusting you with the bigger budgets and the bigger crews
and all that stuff, and then you know, finally you
can you know, start start getting that those big paydays.
But but but you know, I agrew through completely Clark,
you know, That's That's where I'm at right now too,
is trying to convince well, I'm trying to actually rate
(28:01):
stuff right now. But then the probably to convince you know, hey,
you know, give me money. I'm not a complete idiot.
I'm a somewhat of an idiot clerk, but I'm not
a complete idiot.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah. I think we need to I think we need
to understand the game that's played and to not belittle
the game. So sometimes I hear and I'm not suggesting
this is what you're doing, Dave, but I do hear
younger people it tends to be complaining about the state
of the industry and I think if you're complaining about
(28:32):
the state of the industry, then you're actually two things.
You're missing a massive opportunity that has afforded us as
filmmakers these days, regardless of your age and the tools
that are available. But you're also you're kind of missing
the point of how the game is played. And that's
not to say that this is a business.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
You hear.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
The opposite is you hear people say, well, it's a
film business. When I hear that, I think you're a
marketing bullshit artist. I don't know if that translates well
to the American kind of vernacular, but you're, you know,
someone that's all marketing all it's all source and noose
(29:13):
substance the game and to even use the phrase of
the game, I'll change that up to the context in
which we live is such that our industry is and
works on the supposition that it is product based, and
(29:35):
the only way that we can get stuff made is
to is to give someone something in return that helps
them feed their family. It's called money.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
It doesn't have to be a dirty thing, so we
can either and I don't believe that you have to
live on either extreme either we you're one of these
people that say it's the film business, or you're one
of these people that is pure art and hates anyone
that's wearing a suit. I think there's a middle, a
(30:16):
middle way approach, to use a philosophical term from from India,
and the middle way is understand the context in which
you live, and then live as best as possible. So
within the context of filmmaking, understand that that it requires money,
and it requires it requires money in a way that
(30:39):
without it it cannot work. And there and then pitch
yourself with at the at the level at which you
want to make your art. So for me, going to
LA wasn't going to work because I would have to
I would have to produce and create stories that didn't
have the kind of a steady appeal that I wanted
(31:01):
to be able to show other people and say I
did this. So therefore I have to bring and even
the notion of levels that somehow that that's a better
level than you know, the LA films are better because
they're more money. I think is kind of weird because
some of the best films that I've seen are actually
(31:24):
made for a lot less money, and they're a lot
more important there. And they say a lot more important,
they're not. It's not popcorn but not popcorn movies, but
they do and they will live much longer in cinematic
history than a lot of films that come out of
LA So I think by understanding the context in which
we live and work, then we can better understand ourselves
(31:51):
and our own aesthetic and then move forward with confidence,
both from from a producer's point of view and which
is the kind of the suity side, the business side,
and from the artistic side, from the director, writer, cinematograph
from that side, so that you're not butting heads with
these two aspects of filmmaking, but you understand each side
(32:14):
of the story, and even anyone that has to write,
direct and produce their own material has to balance those
aspects out anyway. I know that's what it was like
with one thousand moments later, I had actors saying we
should be doing it this way, all that way, and
they don't know the story, they don't know how I
(32:34):
want to shoot it, but they also don't know how
much time we have. So there were some scenes that
I got once an in particular, where we did a
lot of tasks because the actor was just not getting
what I wanted and it was very very important to
me and to the film that she delivered it in
(32:56):
a certain kind of way, and she never never really
quite got there. But we ended up I spent probably
two days getting this one scene, and in the end
it was just it was she was super frustrated. But
that's actually that frustration. There was two things that happened, Dave.
Was the weather change on the second day, so we
(33:17):
actually got stormy. Whether there was a big storm that
was coming in, and she was backing into this storm
with this kind of a tirade of dialogue at her
at her husband. But because she was so frustrated by
the fact that she just wasn't able to get what
(33:37):
I was asking her to do, and it wasn't a
lack of skill, that was what I was asking to
do was actually really really fucking hard. Because she was frustrated,
frustrated with me, frustrated with herself. They came out in
the performance and it actually improved the performance. But the
only way we were able to get there was to
(33:58):
spend much more time than there was originally allocated for
that particular scene. But I knew that I could do
that because I knew the scenes after that. We could
get on the same day in a car and I
could just rip through them because I was also the cinematographer,
so I knew, okay, so we just go down this
road and then turn there. I can point the camera
(34:18):
this way, and I can do that. I can point
the camera that way while the actors are just we're
going from one one location to the next. So I
think by understanding the context in which we live, both
from a human point of view, I think that it's
true if you look at your own life, if you
understand the context in which you live as a human being,
(34:41):
then you're able to be a better human being. And
it's only when we live from through ignorance that ignorance
influences us in negative ways. So again another ant apologies.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Now, like I said, Clo, no worries at all.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
You know, I wanted to ask about one thousand moments later,
so you know, what was your what was the you
know when you started writing the script. I wanted to ask,
you know, I wanted to ask, did you know did
you subscribe to any sort of method when you write
or do you you know? So you know basically, because
obviously everything starts with the script, I just want to ask,
you know, how you put that all together?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Okay, So here's the thing. By this stage, I was
I was super frustrated. I'd spent a couple of years
writing a number of scripts, working with producers, and I
got to a point where I just I was deflated.
(35:45):
I was going to say I was ready to give in,
but that's not true at all. But I was certainly
deflated in my enthusiasm for working with others. And I
just recently found the Turkish director that I mentioned earlier
his work, and I I'd researched him and I'd emailed him,
(36:05):
and I was super enthusiastic about how he about his
life and how he went about things. And I basically
had a little bit of a man crusher on this guy.
I'm certainly a fanbo I love his aesthetic. I love
the way he moves the camera, but I also love
the way he goes about it. And that is the
way he does go about it. I used as a template,
(36:26):
and that is to say, I'm not going to rely
on anyone, no one. I will do everything and from
that point you then go out into the world and
you tell people what you're going to do. That enthusiasm
and that kind of resolve somehow shields it makes you
(36:49):
bigger than you really are, and people want to be
a part of that kind of magnetism. So I actually,
and I think roughly at the same time, I came
across the movie Blue Valentine by Derek c in France
with Michelle Williams and Ryan Ryan Gosling, who's the male actor. Yeah,
(37:14):
Ryan Gosling. Great film if you haven't seen it, it's
a beautiful little film. But look at the look at
the behind the scenes and going to how they got,
how they had, how they shot it. And I wanted
to use that kind of semi doco style because I
knew that I could, I could produce a film in
a similar way. So what I did was I I
(37:36):
used I actually used Aristotle's cathartic moment and the structure
of his dramatic storytelling as the bedrock from which the
story grew. And I also started with the theme, and
the theme is that love is a choice. So love
is not something that happens to us. It's in fact
something that we choose, and I then wrote an outline
(38:03):
that that essentially resolved that issue. And the way I
did it was, I went, okay, so I need two
actors like Blue Valentine. Let's put it in like, make
it a road movie, so I can I can get
I can use We've got to in Melbourne, We've got
to Victoria. We've got a road called the Great Ocean Road,
(38:25):
and it's this this road that winds around a coast
that is incredibly scenic. So by putting two people in
a car making part of it a road movie, I
can use the natural environment as part of the set.
So I'm getting production value from from where I've shot
(38:45):
the film. And that was something that that new Bella
Jealon had used. So I'm not really I'm basically just
copying others in a lot of ways. What do they say,
we we we stand on the giant, so we stand
on the shoulders of the giants that have come before us.
And I did just that. So I took aspects of
(39:07):
different filmmakers the way they got things done, and then
just uses those as both inspiration and templates from which
I would then work. And so I had this outline.
I then put a casting call out and made it
sound I mean, I told the truth, but it sounded
like a fantastic little story to be a part of.
(39:30):
But I didn't make it sound better than it was.
I'm just I spend a lot of time nuancing the
words so that I would get the right kind of people.
And I think I auditioned about eighty people all up
in the end. Actually it was one hundred and sixty.
It was eighty two men and eighty one women.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
But even though the audition process is pretty simple, because
as soon as particularly with Lily, as soon as she
walked in, I knew this was the girl. And the
reason why I knew this was the girl was that
she had food poisoning. Yet she still turned up. She
walked in and apologized. She looked like shit, She was
really crook. She had sweat pouring down her face, and
(40:30):
halfway through the interview, which didn't go for very long
because I felt sorry for her, she excused herself and
ran off to the toilet. But I knew it was
her immediate because anyone that wants to be a part
of a production that much, then they're going to see
it through. And of course I had to. I had
to make sure that she could act. She looked the part.
She looked great, the right height, right eye color, right, heck,
(40:55):
all of that stuff. But she could also act really
really well. So but she she won me over by
just turning up crook. So she had she had gusto,
which I loved. But to be honest, even when we
were into pre production, when I'd hired the actors they
were on board, I hadn't finished the script yet. I
(41:17):
was still writing the script actually as we were, right
as we were shooting the film. There's a there's a
few big dialogue scenes that I wrote in the days
before that were they're not just dialogue with two people talking.
They're actually a part of They function in a way
(41:41):
that tell the subtext of the story. And I did
it that way because two things I knew I could
do it. I knew the story well enough. I'd had
visualized basically every scene, every look, every turn that the
(42:01):
actors were going to do before I'd even written the script,
so I knew the outline. And this is something that
I heard Derek sin France, this is what he does.
He he visualizes the film every like, every cut, every shot,
every cut, and he's got a detailed visual outline in
(42:23):
his mind before he's and he's writing at the same time,
so the outline kind of gets fleshed out, if you like,
over time through this process. And I'm a very visual person,
and I find myself writing in a similar kind of way.
And I've heard other writers write in similar ways when
(42:45):
it's in when they write pros, they write books, but
they'll write via an outline. So so we did that,
and what that meant was that that I I knew
the film inside out, and then it was just a
matter of finding interesting ways and interesting locations to embed
(43:07):
that story in. And we did that Chris and I
the actor who helped me a little bit with the
producing side. We've done a scouting location. So I had
this one scene where after a little bit of a battle,
they come along and then she's It's a moment in
(43:29):
the film that's supposed to be slightly comedic, but its
function is to just release a little bit of tension.
So storytelling and movies are kind of like jazz. Rather
it's tension and release. It's low music. So there's this
really tense part and then there's this kind of letting
go of that, and then a slight comedic moment before
there's another piece of tension. And in this I needed
(43:52):
to find a certain kind of location. So we went
for a drive down the Grayson Road and we just
drive around for a day and I made notes, took
a couple of photos, and then when we were shooting,
we just drove to where we thought that would work.
And if the weather was good, great, If the weather sucked, fine,
that problems. I'll shoot in a different angle and then
(44:15):
try and cut it all together. So that's seemed to
work really really well. So you know, that's excellent. You know, well,
you know, you find the process that actually is going
to work for you. You find a process that you
know is indicative to the project.
Speaker 6 (44:30):
And I mean, I think that's you know, a key
that a lot of filmmakers miss is that they they
they try to emulate too many people that that may
have either more time, more money, more people, whatever. But
if they could just you know, find that process, you
know that that that can that fits in within their
budget and fits with and is you know, fits with
the project, they would have more success.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
I mean I've done that myself as well, where I've you.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
Know, tried to emulate too much and try to do
too much with with with not having the proper sort
of foundation set, if you know.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
What I mean totally. If you're gonna watch a bunch
of film school kids or young kids try and produce,
try and create a feature film that's sci fi, it
will probably suck because they just don't have the means
of dolls that it takes to make the special effects
not look laughable. I've never seen one sci fi and
(45:25):
I love sci fi, but I'm not a sci fi geek.
So there's probably people out there going, what an idiot?
That's just roll. But from my point of view, it
never works. And but what does work if there's a
there's actually a really good behind the scenes of the
film brick I'm vaguing on. I know the guy first.
(45:47):
The guy's name is Ryan I can't remember his surname.
He's now directing Star Wars, but he's Ryan Jars, Ryan Johnson.
That's him. A great guy. Really, you should try and
get him on your podcast or maybe because he's doing
Star Wars now, he's too busy, but he's incredibly approachable
on social media. He's done some great films, but his
(46:11):
first film, Brick, Uh, there's a there's a fantastic behind
the scenes on that, and you'll see that he's done
the same thing. Use the sets, use the locations you
know from your local area that will add value production
value to your and that you can get for free.
Right because you can do you can use it. If
he used a car park from his school, he used
(46:33):
his school, his high school in fact, because he knew
that area. And the film. The film is great and
it has a it has a kind of a film
you are kind of vibe to it. I think the
first time I saw it actually was on television, late
night television here in Australia, and from there I then
researched and found this dude and it's amazing. Some Yeah,
(46:57):
so that's both. He's just he'm I've done exactly what
he did. He's probably got more talent and skilled than
than I have. Certainly had more money because Brick's still
the bricks still cost money, but it was done in
a time prior to DSLR. So I think if he
(47:18):
was around today, he wouldn't he wouldn't be making excuses.
He'd he'd be the kind of guy that just go
out and ah and use the tools to his advantage.
So rather than so a DSLR can be or you
know the new Sony is is I shot thousand moments
later on an A seven s. Use the aesthetic of
(47:41):
the of the equipment. You've got to enhance the story,
not try and create a me and dollar looking film
on something that's never ever gonna look that good. It's
just not so.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
Yeah, you know, you brought up the films to train too.
US five piece.
Speaker 6 (48:01):
There were some film students that I knew who were
trying to do a time period piece and they were
trying to raise five thousand on Kickstarter, and they they
asked me what I thought of it, and I said, guys,
you will spend five thousand dollars on costumes alone, and
that will only be for half of the of the cast.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
I said, one costume.
Speaker 6 (48:22):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the because you're doing something from
the eighteen hundreds, everything was a lot heavier. It's you know,
all of this stuff that and and just to get
and I've I've dealt with those rental houses before. Who
weren't those kind of costumes and I mean it's not
like because I think they're they're thinking that they could
just skirt by by getting some like cheap replicas, you know,
(48:42):
but and I told them, you know, people are going
to be able to tell that.
Speaker 5 (48:45):
You know, people are going to be able to tell
this stuff.
Speaker 6 (48:47):
And if it looks chintzy and cheap, you know, if
the aesthetic looks tension cheap, the production value looks tension cheap,
it's going to come up.
Speaker 5 (48:53):
It's going to come through.
Speaker 6 (48:55):
And I said, you know, you could create a better
movie setting it in today's world and just you know,
using what you have access to and creating something that way,
and then you could move on and do something else,
you know, when you need you have a more audience,
more of a budget, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Just tweak the story like you could do. You could
make them speak like use the costumes of today, you
get them to use their own clothes, but make them
speak as if they're from the aid and hundreds and
tweak the story so in an interesting way to leverage
what you've got on you right now, That's that's to me.
I'd be more interested. I imagine a film. Of course,
(49:31):
the story's got to be good about a bunch of
people from the aiden hundreds. But but you know, somehow
they're their clothings or modern I mean to me, that's
far more interesting already. The only people that can do
period are people who have the budget. Down to abbey
is down to an abbey, and it's never ever going
(49:54):
to be shot without means and means of dollars behind it,
because it just would not work.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 5 (50:11):
Well, and we were talking about Brick.
Speaker 6 (50:13):
You know, Brick was set in modern times, but everyone
talked like they were from the nineteen thirties or forties.
You know, there was like a you know they kind
of kind of speech. So, you know, I wanted to
ask you a thousand moments later. You know it's it's
in post production right now, correct, card, That's correct? Yeah,
So do you do you have a time? Do you
do you know all that you have an estimated time
(50:33):
to be when it will be released.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I'm hoping to release it or submit it to a
couple of film festivals, and then I'm going to self.
I'm not going to sell it, even if someone was
willing to buy it. I'm going to release it on
iTunes and basically do a digital release after a series
(50:56):
of a film festival run, so that you know, with
film festivals that's a little bit of you're basically just leveraging,
leveraging them for marketing. So again looking at the long
term game here. My thought behind this strategy is this,
if I can get the film into a film festival
(51:18):
with a little bit of prestige, I can then use
that on my CV. And it's really that's the only thing,
the only reason why I would do this if it
can get into a Sundance. And the likelihood of getting
into a Sundance is just ridiculously slim. It's ridiculous to
even mention the name Sundance, but I'll do it just
for an example, if a thousand moments later was able
(51:41):
to get into Sundance, I could then go to a
producer and say, here's a screener for the film we
are in Sundance. Here's my name, here's my CV, please
give me. And here's another project. Here's another script. This
is the thing I want to do next. Can you
help me? Someone is likely more likely to help at
(52:04):
that point than if it's not in Sundance, so we
can you know, Sundance, slam Dance, There's there's a bunch
of film festivals that I can use to help me
step up on my next with my next project, and
then and after that, then I will release it via
(52:27):
iTunes the digital platforms and try and recruit recoup the
money that I spent, which wasn't a lot. We're talking,
you know, thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands of dollars,
certainly not hundreds of it's probably including my time, it'll
be tens of thousands, but not hundreds of thousands. I'd
(52:47):
like to be able to recoup that money and and
then pay the actors for their time.
Speaker 6 (52:52):
So that's what I'm looking to do. Yeah, you know,
I guess I had on here. Jason Brubaker always would
talk about that as well. He'd always say that, you know,
getting into Sundance is not a financial or distribution plan,
because a lot of filmmakers would say that, you know,
that would be their pitch to investors or even to
anybody else, would be Hey, you know, we're gonna get
this into Sundance. We're gonna sell it for a mill
(53:15):
and then that's how we'll recoup the budget, And he said,
that's not realistic because you know, every year Sundance has
more entries than it had the year before, and you know,
they have all sorts of movies coming in, and it's just,
you know, it's a it's that golden ticket type of
thinking that he always tells people not to do. And instead,
just get a website, put a big buy now button
(53:36):
on the website, and you could sell your film through
your own website.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Sure, And not only is it, I mean, it's just
that's not half Sundance works anymore, and it hasn't for
quite a while. So anyone that's signing that to investors
is trading in their investors, because that's not how the
business works anymore. The business has fundamentally changed out of
the last five years, and even out of the last
(54:00):
two years. You just look at the digital platforms that
are available now compared to two years ago. We are
in a totally different environment. So anyone, anyone that wants
to lay down some coin on the potential hope that
you even get into Sundance, let alone someone gives you
a million dollars, No, it does not happen that way.
And you've just you Anyone that understands the way distribution,
(54:23):
even traditional distribution works, will know that the possibility of
recouping money is so slim. I'm sure. Look, I'm sure
I'm probably overstating that the facts. I'm sure someone will say, Clark,
you're wrong. Here's an example. Sure, okay, but how many
(54:46):
films are played at Sundance, let alone are submitted? Well,
what's what are the numbers? There are three thousand feature films.
Speaker 6 (54:56):
Unless year they had fifteen thousands. So so yeah, and
you know every it gets more every year.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (55:07):
You know, Clark, we've been talking for about you know,
fifty minutes now, Uh, you know, just in closing, is
there anything that you know we didn't discuss that you
want to just to talk about or is there anything
you want to sort of say to put a period
at the end of this whole conversation.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Not really. I think we've we've we've gone into we're gone,
we've we've dived deep evenly.
Speaker 5 (55:31):
Dave, Yeah, well we have dove pretty deeply.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
So yeah, no, No, I'm I'm cool man, all right.
Speaker 6 (55:39):
Excellent, Clark. Where you'll find you out online?
Speaker 3 (55:42):
Our best place is Clark Scott. That's Clark with an e.
Clarkscott dot org. From there all my social media links.
There's a newsletter the links to one thousand Moments Later
website where people can there's a newsletter there also with
the film where once I do release it, I've got
(56:06):
a load of behind the scenes things that I've produced
for and bonus content that I've produced for the film,
so you can you can hire. And here's here it lies,
the real benefit of the age in which we live.
I can, on my own bat in a day, whack
(56:27):
up a website, throw up a website and a buy
button or a higher button, and as long as I've
produced content for it, I can give people an option
to just hire the movie for forty eight hours or
buy it for download. They can buy that and behind
the scenes or I've got three packages. The full package
(56:51):
I go into. It's basically as essentially a course in
how to produce your own independent film. And I do
that for like fifty bucks. So for fifty bucks, I'm
opening the door to my entire process from the screenwriting
how I used Aristotle's cathartic moment and his structure to
(57:11):
to create the dramatic and thematic essence of the film,
through to screen casts of how I edit interviews with
the actors I've got. I recorded the voiceover session with Chris,
so you get to hear him stumble through the voiceover
(57:33):
and me give him points and notes, director's notes on
you know, we need to do this and that, and
it's totally unedited. There's no in that at least there's
there's there's no no editing. So and I can do
that for virtually no real upfront costs because I've got
(57:56):
all the skills and all the equipment and all the
all the tools at my disposal in order to create
all of that, and then I can just put it online.
And the way I look at it is that if
people if they if people want to buy it, then
it's there. If they don't, no problem, and that will help.
It helps both me, but it's also that allows me
(58:18):
to give something back. If I use the word of
the universe, it sounds kind of new aging, but I'm
just I'm giving something back to whatever it is that
allowed me, that allowed me to be born and be
sitting here right now talking to you, and that with
that from that place of generosity, I'm hoping that over time,
(58:44):
people will just I mean, there will be some people
listening to this now. In fact, if they've got this far,
they're probably thinking, there won't be too many people who
think that I'm an absolute wanker, but there will be
people who go, I don't like the way this guy talks.
I don't like he's aesthetic. But there are and they're
not my people. My people are the ones that look
(59:06):
at my work, that look at my aesthetic, that look
at the approach that I've taken, that I've taken, and
they go, this guy is fantastic, just the way I
looked at Nari Bala Jilon and went, man, I fucking
love this guy. He is so ballsy. He you know,
the first film he did, he used his own money
(59:27):
and he did everything himself, and I love that approach.
I got really excited and inspired me. So by me
putting this stuff out out there, I'm helping others. I'm
being generous because it's a hell of a lot of
work for fifty bucks. I'm not going to make any
money back, but what I will do is create connections,
(59:47):
and I believe that those connections, fundamentally are is the
foundation of a good life. You cannot have a good
life without other people in family, friends, et cetera. So yeah,
I'm sorry, Dive. I ended on a rant, right, that's
(01:00:08):
no problem at all.
Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
I will I think you're rot you know, you bring
it out right, you really do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
It's what I do.
Speaker 6 (01:00:15):
I'm sorry to mean to cut you off.
Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
Yeah, you're right, and I guy for it.
Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Yeah, I was just gonna say I do. I just
have a tendency to bring that out in people. Clark Scott,
I want to say thank you very much for coming
on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
My pleasure to Dive, great to speak to you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
dot com. Forward Slash eight twenty one, and if you
have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
really helps us out a lot, guys. Thank you again
(01:00:47):
so much for listening to guys. As always, keep that
hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe out there,
and I'll talk too soon.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
Indie film hustle dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
That's I N D I E F I L M
h U s t l E dot com.
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight twenty one.
Cinema should make You Forget. You're sitting in a theater,
Roman Polanski.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle podcast.
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is
sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur How to turn
your independent film into a profitable business. It's harder today
than ever before for independent filmmakers to make money with
their films from predatory film distributors ripping them off to
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just head over to www dot filmbiz book dot com.
That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest
host Dave Bullis.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
On today's episode, Clark is an Australian writer, director, and
commercial photographer. He just recently shot his first feature film,
A Thousand Moments, currently in post production.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
So here we go with Clark Scott.
Speaker 6 (02:08):
Hey, Clark, thanks love for coming on the show. I please,
so Clark, I wanted to ask you know, it's a
question I always ask everybody and that is your background
in filmmaking, so you know, I wanted to ask, you
know what brought brought Clark Scott into the filmmaking world.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
H Do you want the long answer or the short answer?
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Dave, I will take the long answer.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The long answer, all right, so it's actually pretty long.
I will I'll go backwards. Hows that sound? So? I'm
currently in post production on my first feature film called
One Thousand Moments Later. It was a tiny little independent
movie that I shot. I wrote, directed, shot, I'm doing
(02:55):
the editing. I'm doing basically everything other than acting. And
that came about because I'd spent a couple of years
writing and trying to get projects up through to the
point where I'd had producers reading scripts. And I'm from Australia,
from Melbourne, but I'd had I'd had a guy in
(03:17):
LA looking at some of my work and things. It
was just difficult. Things fell through. So I pulled the
bug because it was just moving too slowly for me.
And that's where the film came about filmmaking. Prior to that,
i'd worked in kind of commercial corporate video, industrial video
(03:47):
for about six years. So the whole filmmaking thing came
about because I was we're going to remember, I'm going
backwards in time, right, So twenty ten, I'm doing a
PhD in the of the Himalayas. I'm totally burnt out.
And the PhD was in philosophy. So I was taking
a fourteenth century Tibetan philosopher and his notion of the
(04:09):
self and passing that via six Western philosophers, including John
Locke David Human For those interested, the American Constitution was
actually came from John Locke's political philosophy. So, and he
was a British guy. I'm not sure how many of
your American listeners would know that. I had no idea,
(04:31):
but I was burnt out. And so I was walking
through the foothills of the Himalayas, and I was in
a place called durham Sala, that's where the Dala a
Lama lives. And I came across a guy with what
turned out to be a Canon five D mark two,
and he was from La. He was a small time DP.
(04:53):
He was shooting a documentary on the Dala a Lama
and I stopped, as you do like this, it's the Humalays.
There's no one around, and it's like, dude, who are you?
You know, what are you doing here? So we got
to chatting and that kind of opened up a whole
new world to me. Philip Bloom vinceit la foret the
(05:15):
whole five D Revolution was taking place at that very point,
so it was I don't know, it might have been nine,
so I was perhaps a little late. I think the
was it the five to Mark who come out in eight?
I think I can't remember anyway. And so when I
(05:37):
say it opened up a whole new world, it was
a whole new world for me. But it was also
a reconnection with my past and where I'd come from.
So as a young bloke, I went to music school,
a prestigious music school in Melbourne called Victorian College of
the Arts, and at the time it was it was
(05:58):
like Juilliard in a lot of ways, and I was
kind of earmarked for a career in that. So I
was from a young the time of a teenager. Young teenager,
I was doing all kinds of things. I was designing
my own my own clothing, I was playing in rock bands,
(06:18):
I was writing poetry and I was a very creative
kid that kind of got knocked out of me through life.
So just I guess following the advice of people who
I shouldn't have. They hadn't bet their best. They had
(06:39):
my best intentions in mind, but they wanted me to
do something that just wasn't right for my personality. So
between the PhD and this kind of creative phase of
my life where I was at music school, there was
a phase where I was doing web development and I
taught myself to code, and I kind of got into
(07:01):
a whole corporate world, but that I got burnt out
by that, and I'd had a love of philosophy all
at the same time, so I thought that rather than
continuing on in it, I'd go into a PhD and
then perhaps going to academia, and that kind of didn't
(07:21):
work because it didn't really suit my personality. So when
I when I came along and found this DP from
La with a Cannon five D, and then through that
going onto the internet and seeing Philip Bloom's work and
Vincent la Farret's work, my mind was blown. And what
it did allow me to do is it allowed me
(07:43):
to couple my love of being creative with the kind
of the geeky aspect of filmmaking. So filmmaking can be
quite technical, and there's the whole gear thing, so marrying
those two plus I really wanted to create stories of
(08:06):
the told stories of human potential, something that I'm keenly
interested in and something that I pursue in my own life.
But it helped me and what A thousand moments later
in essence is actually about. It's an exercise in that
it allowed me to do that but also have a
(08:30):
career where I could feed my family. So if that
the way I looked at it was if I go
ahead and I stop my PhD and I start this
other thing, and there's a whole bunch of things that
I have to learn at the if all of that fails,
at least I've got skills that someone can employ me for.
(08:50):
I can I can learn editing, and I can go
off and earn money cutting shitty corporate videos. And actually
that's what happened for the first couple of years. So
that's that's coind that's the that's the verbose version, Dave.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
I will always choose the long version if if I
ever get the option, because I always find the long
version always includes a lot of you know, interesting tidbits
and side roads that I always find fascinating. Because I
find one thing that happens to a lot of us
in this industry is it's not a clear path from
A to B. Usually it's from like A to B,
(09:29):
you have to go through all the other letters of
the alphabet and then come backwards and then come through
and then you can get to from A to B.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Stuff like you know, when you were just saying about
learning side going into the side jobs and and doing
all the corporate work and stuff like that, That's what
happened to me. I actually went into academia and I
ended up teaching classes that I wasn't getting paid for.
I ended up, you know, and finally, you know, you
get burned out. And finally April of this year, I
(09:56):
had to leave because I was like, this job is literally.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
I'm living and breathing it and I could never get
away from it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah. Yeah, I was surprised. Actually when I went into
the whole world of academia, I was two things. I
was surprised by, actually three. They worked incredibly hard for
not a lot of financial will turn like you know,
some of my professors eighty ninety hours and they were
earning not a lot of money, and that may be
(10:37):
an Australian thing. I don't know what it's like in
the US. But the politics and because of that, the
politics that that kind of environment fosters meant that. And
these people aren't sages, they're not better saphas, They're not
you know, their lives aren't embedded in notions of compassion.
Some of them are, but a lot of marred. So
(10:57):
there's a lot of kind of there was a lot
of backstabbing, I guess, just a lot of politics. And
I was really surprised by that. So the fact that
I burned out and didn't finish, I'm it's a regret.
I would have liked to have finished. But even if
I had, I would not have gone into into I
was going to say politics. I wouldn't have gone into academia.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah, where I worked a lot of politics.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
It was a smaller school, uh, and it was just
some of the professors would I mean, I'll give you
an example. There was a multimedia professor who taught editing
who knew nothing about editing. He would literally just send
them to me and never asked me about it. And
he would just say, hey, go talk to Dave and
you know, he'll help you out. Well, finally, I'm like,
(11:45):
you know, why are all these people coming to me?
And then they would say, well, all the students would say, well,
you know, doctor blah blah blah told us to go
talk to you. And meanwhile, he's at home, you know,
having dinner with his family, and I'm down there teaching editing,
and you know, you complain to people and nobody care.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It's a shame.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
But I think academia at the most part has pretty
much been eroded over the years because of that, because
of the of a political game, but also because there
used to be where they'd be working professionals and they
would be you know, they get their bachelors, go out
into the real world at the same time, work on
their masters, and then they would come back and maybe
(12:22):
get that PhD and then start teaching at the same
time the still out in the real world. I don't
think they do that anymore, at least for the most part.
At least I don't see that is. I think it's basically,
they get their bachelors, they jump on board as a
TA or something working inside the school, get their masters
and do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
For the PhD.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
So they have no real world skills, but they have
a lot of very fancy degrees, and that I think
that's the problem, and I think that's the reason they
play the political game, because anybody who's better than them
immediately has to be taken out because otherwise, what do
we need this guy for?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think Australian academa is probably a
little bit softer than that. That does not sound like
an enjoyable environment to work.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
So yeah, but you know, I wanted to go back
to what you were talking about, you know, you were
talking about, you know, the guys from l A were
you know, taking too long?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know, I'm sure you know, you know they were.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
They were probably it was probably a money thing, right
like they're probably trying to find fun financing.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yes, And no, they wanted to make changes in the
so I'm sure they were, But they're also making changes
to the script that I felt were more than unjustified,
and I didn't want to go down the road of
and I thought about it, I thought about moving to
(13:48):
l A. I didn't think about it for very long,
to be honest, but the changes were they just didn't
suit my Australian aesthetic, not to say that the LA
aesthetic is less sophisticated, but I just I wanted to
produce something that I was going to be proud of
(14:11):
as a body of work. Over time, and in the end,
I could see that I could very easily continue along
this path and I could move to LA and I
could potentially get something happening. But how's it going? What
kind of taste is that going to leave in my
lot in my mouth over the longer term. So I
(14:32):
made the decision just not to go that route and
to stay in Australia. And even if that meant that
I was going to end up producing much smaller films,
I'd rather do that and earn money in a way
that allows me to produce something that had that that
(14:55):
I'm essentially proud of. The quality because of the budget
will be less. That's just That's just true, and I
know that's true because I've gone through a thousand moments later.
We did essentially on my own coin. The actors worked
on the back end, so we were all it was
(15:17):
very do I and while we worked our asses off,
we didn't we didn't have we didn't have the crew
to allow us to produce something that was you know,
what's what's the what's the cliche that the the the
parts and the parts are greater than the some of
(15:40):
the parts are greater than the whole, or something like that.
I'm vaguing right now, but yeah, so that's that's what
I decided. I decided that I would pull back and
just stay where I am, be a little bit more patient,
because I think I was. I think it was sometimes
we can we can push really hard because we've feel
like it's got to happen tomorrow. And if you look
(16:03):
at some of certainly some of my filmmaking heroes, they
don't look at it that way. Someone like Terry Mallick,
you know, he goes off and he produces his first
couple of feature films and then hides for twenty years.
Was I mean, no one really knows other than his
close friends and family, no one really knows what he
(16:24):
was doing. And then he comes out and does a
thin red line. I mean, that's and it's probably the
greatest war movie ever made. So yeah, I wanted to
take a different approach. And one of the guys, the
Turk is directed by the name of Nuri Blajeelon who
(16:45):
did He won the Palm d'Or in twenty fourteen with
Winter's Sleep. I started researching his his career and the
way he went about things. So he'd gone in his
last film one the Palm d'Or. It doesn't mean a
lot of financial return or but it does mean a
(17:06):
lot of I mean it's the Palm d'Or. But where
he started. He started from very very humble beginnings, and
he started late like I did, so late thirties. The
I could really I felt close to him, so I
was confident in what I was doing in not going
(17:30):
to La. So but I think the guys in LA
that was surprised, to be honest, I think they were.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
You know, that's actually an interesting strategy, Clark, because that's
something that you know, other people too have used, other
guests they've had on the podcast, and that is, you know,
in your hometown, wherever that might be in the world,
you have advantages and disadvantages. Yes, you know, it's not
LA unless or less a question of you're in LA,
but unless you were born or L I mean, you know,
(18:01):
but but with the advantages I always talk about it,
are you know, if you live in a small town
and you know, a small town America in the middle
of America, and you know, you have a list of
people that you know. And because this the town is smaller,
you usually know a lot more people and usually are
able to get things, most likely for free or even
(18:24):
at a highly discounted rate, because they're going to say, hey,
look there's you know, I'm sure people in Melbourne you know,
and I don't want to ask you about this. We're
probably saying, hey, look there's Clark. You know, uh, you know,
maybe you you know in your neighborhood, or you know,
you know, the people knew you and said, hey, look
there's there's Clark. You know, he's making a film. He
needs a car of some kind, he needs this, he
needs a location. They may have been more willing to
(18:47):
help you out because you know, you're a familiar person.
And that's why, you know, whenever we you know, when
I talk with guests, but moving to l a uh,
we always talk about a strategy to it where they
always they either have meetings or connect a place to
stay a job already, you know, and it's sort of
like stacking the deck in your favor as much as possible.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Because we both know Clark.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Things will go wrong pretty quickly, as they usually do
in this world. But but you know, so that you know,
that is something I've seen before, and that's a strategy.
But I'm using myself because even filming here in Philadelphia, it's,
you know, the seventh or eighth most popular city in America,
and even filming around here, I've been able to sort
(19:28):
of finagle things free or cheaper because I'm a local
guy making a local film.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
If you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, I think
it comes down to this. Those that want to move
to la are probably looking to work in the film industry.
But if you want to mike films, there's absolutely no reason.
In fact, it can be detrimental to move to LA
if you want to be if you want to mic films,
(19:55):
stye where you are.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our spon, sir,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Write good stories, leverage the tools that we have available
to us now to create those films, and then go
out find an audience. Create an audience if you have
to find an audience, and then over time, take the
long game. Over time, you'll find that you'll create work.
(20:26):
If you're talented it because all of this is predicated
on talent. If there's no talent, there's no career over
long game, a talented person will naturally rise. It'll just happen.
But if you think that and that was a guy,
a guy by the name of Stuart MacDonald, who's a
fairly big director here in Australia. He's done TV, he's
(20:50):
done film, he's actually been to LA, shot some TV
in LA, come back to Australia. I knew him through
through philosophy and my interest in philosophy. He has a
similar interest. And he said to me unbeknowns of where
I was, so I was just some guy that he
(21:11):
was speaking to, although I knew him through philosophy. He said, Clark,
don't line up at the end of the film school
the film school line. There's a whole bunch of people
that go to film school. He was one of them.
Or want to work in the film industry, and that
line is really long. Do not do that. Go on
by a canon five D and make your own film.
(21:34):
That's the way to get to get in. And I
think that's true even if you do want to work
in So I think LA is probably harder. But if
I wanted to work in TV in Australia in Melbourne,
which I'd love to do, by the way, the best
way for me to do that these days is actually
to go and produce something of a certain kind of
(21:56):
quality under a certain amount of time and budgetstraints, and
then show that to the gatekeepers in TV via relationships
that I've created through the process of creative of creating,
of making a film, and then over time and do
that a couple of times and people will see that
they that you've you've got the You've you've got both
(22:17):
the balls to go and do something, the audacity to
do something like this, but you've also got the skills,
so not only the esthetic skills, but also the management
and communication skills and and also the skills of persuasion,
because you need to be able to go to an
actor and say, look, I don't have any money to
(22:39):
give you up front, but I can give you a
piece of the pie on the back end. That's just
an example, and that's what I did with mine to
two actors. But they didn't do it because just because
you know, just because of that, just because of who
I am, They read the script and said they read
(22:59):
the script, and it was an fairly undeveloped script as
well because of the way I shot it. But we
had meetings and they were convinced that I was the
kind of person that could finish a project and that
it would be of a certain kind of quality. So
they came on board for those reasons. So I was
able to I was able to get great actors for
(23:21):
my project through my ability to communicate with others. If
I take that as a package to a TV producer,
someone who actually has money to produce episodes of television
here in Australia, there's a good chance that all of
that information will go down a lot better than some
kid that's gone through film school, who is you know,
(23:44):
who's got a a great looking CV, but nothing other
than that. And I know that that's true because there
was an Australian Director's conference a couple of years ago
and that they recorded all of the sessions and I
was listening to it. It may have been three or
(24:05):
four years ago now, and one of the sessions they
had was breaking into TV and it was a whole
bunch of both TV execs here in Australia and producers
and the one thing that they all agreed upon was
that the road, the path to becoming a director in
episodic programming here in Australia was not necessarily your esthetic style,
(24:30):
but your ability to get the day done, to shoot.
If you've got to shoot four pages or excuse me, Dave,
six pages, then you've got that kind of genuine esque
ability to get a whole bunch of people together and
move them along through the day and to make the day.
(24:53):
And that's the one skill they all require, because then
they're going to hand over half a million dollars or
being dollars for a production to someone who who can't
make that happen. So that's the skill they're actually looking for,
and that, if you think about it, that makes total sense.
If you have a director who doesn't have those skills, uh,
(25:17):
you don't have a television program, you don't have a
product to sell. So from a producer's point of view,
that almost trumps aesthetics. So yeah, that was a bit
of a rant. Sorry, Dave, No, no no problem.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
You know people on this podcast tend to rant, Clark,
so please you You're it's it's par for the course.
I tend to bring that out in people okay, but
but but but no, I can I agree with you completely.
You know, I used to be a part of of
a screenwriting group and everybody who was who was in
it was a lot further ahead. I mean this was
years ago, but they were further ahead than I was.
(25:55):
And I remember the one guy had just got done
pitching to the Sci Fi Channel and he had he
said two things that he took that that I really
took away from what he said. He said, number one,
you know, when you're in those pitch meetings, they don't
care about what your dreams are. They only care if
what you're pitching to them will be profitable and viable
in that market. Number Two, when you go into a
(26:16):
Walmart or a wal or yah Walmart, or a best
Buy or you know anywhere, you know, you have that
physical shelf space that is, you know, everything has a
dollar amount to it. So he said, when they put
out you know, those movies, you know, like you know,
Zombie Headhunter eighteen, the reason that they give that shelf
space is because that's going to sell a certain amount
(26:39):
of units and they know exactly how many. Usually they
can make a you know, a prediction or you know
an estimate of how many units that's going to sell,
and they're able to you know, calculate that up and
then give that x amount of shelf space. And you know,
I started to take.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
That and realize, you know, this is so true. That's
why you.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
See movies certain movies and you don't see other movies.
It's because you know, they wanted to make sure that
they a viable product. And you know what you were
just saying. You know, obviously, yes, you know they're not.
You know, it's like what Dalls Simon's always says. You know,
they're not just going to give somebody fresh out of
film school one hundred million dollars and say here, go
make this movie and then you know it's gonna be
in every theater in the world and you're gonna make
you know, ten billion dollars. It just doesn't happen that way.
(27:17):
You know, you have to make a movie, you know,
even even if it's gorilla filmmaking, even if it's no
budget filmmaking where it's you know, you know, you yourself
and maybe you get some you know, higher some actors,
you get a movie gig, you get that and if
and if it's good enough, if it's slick enough, they'll
give you. Then you can tell producers, look what I
did for nothing, Imagine what I could do for ten thousand,
and then you sort of move up to fifty, then
(27:38):
one hundred, and then as you you can keep increasing
that process with more money, then they'll sort try, you know,
trusting you with the bigger budgets and the bigger crews
and all that stuff, and then you know, finally you
can you know, start start getting that those big paydays.
But but but you know, I agrew through completely Clark,
you know, That's That's where I'm at right now too,
is trying to convince well, I'm trying to actually rate
(28:01):
stuff right now. But then the probably to convince you know, hey,
you know, give me money. I'm not a complete idiot.
I'm a somewhat of an idiot clerk, but I'm not
a complete idiot.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah. I think we need to I think we need
to understand the game that's played and to not belittle
the game. So sometimes I hear and I'm not suggesting
this is what you're doing, Dave, but I do hear
younger people it tends to be complaining about the state
of the industry and I think if you're complaining about
(28:32):
the state of the industry, then you're actually two things.
You're missing a massive opportunity that has afforded us as
filmmakers these days, regardless of your age and the tools
that are available. But you're also you're kind of missing
the point of how the game is played. And that's
not to say that this is a business.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
You hear.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
The opposite is you hear people say, well, it's a
film business. When I hear that, I think you're a
marketing bullshit artist. I don't know if that translates well
to the American kind of vernacular, but you're, you know,
someone that's all marketing all it's all source and noose
(29:13):
substance the game and to even use the phrase of
the game, I'll change that up to the context in
which we live is such that our industry is and
works on the supposition that it is product based, and
(29:35):
the only way that we can get stuff made is
to is to give someone something in return that helps
them feed their family. It's called money.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
It doesn't have to be a dirty thing, so we
can either and I don't believe that you have to
live on either extreme either we you're one of these
people that say it's the film business, or you're one
of these people that is pure art and hates anyone
that's wearing a suit. I think there's a middle, a
(30:16):
middle way approach, to use a philosophical term from from India,
and the middle way is understand the context in which
you live, and then live as best as possible. So
within the context of filmmaking, understand that that it requires money,
and it requires it requires money in a way that
(30:39):
without it it cannot work. And there and then pitch
yourself with at the at the level at which you
want to make your art. So for me, going to
LA wasn't going to work because I would have to
I would have to produce and create stories that didn't
have the kind of a steady appeal that I wanted
(31:01):
to be able to show other people and say I
did this. So therefore I have to bring and even
the notion of levels that somehow that that's a better
level than you know, the LA films are better because
they're more money. I think is kind of weird because
some of the best films that I've seen are actually
(31:24):
made for a lot less money, and they're a lot
more important there. And they say a lot more important,
they're not. It's not popcorn but not popcorn movies, but
they do and they will live much longer in cinematic
history than a lot of films that come out of
LA So I think by understanding the context in which
we live and work, then we can better understand ourselves
(31:51):
and our own aesthetic and then move forward with confidence,
both from from a producer's point of view and which
is the kind of the suity side, the business side,
and from the artistic side, from the director, writer, cinematograph
from that side, so that you're not butting heads with
these two aspects of filmmaking, but you understand each side
(32:14):
of the story, and even anyone that has to write,
direct and produce their own material has to balance those
aspects out anyway. I know that's what it was like
with one thousand moments later, I had actors saying we
should be doing it this way, all that way, and
they don't know the story, they don't know how I
(32:34):
want to shoot it, but they also don't know how
much time we have. So there were some scenes that
I got once an in particular, where we did a
lot of tasks because the actor was just not getting
what I wanted and it was very very important to
me and to the film that she delivered it in
(32:56):
a certain kind of way, and she never never really
quite got there. But we ended up I spent probably
two days getting this one scene, and in the end
it was just it was she was super frustrated. But
that's actually that frustration. There was two things that happened, Dave.
Was the weather change on the second day, so we
(33:17):
actually got stormy. Whether there was a big storm that
was coming in, and she was backing into this storm
with this kind of a tirade of dialogue at her
at her husband. But because she was so frustrated by
the fact that she just wasn't able to get what
(33:37):
I was asking her to do, and it wasn't a
lack of skill, that was what I was asking to
do was actually really really fucking hard. Because she was frustrated,
frustrated with me, frustrated with herself. They came out in
the performance and it actually improved the performance. But the
only way we were able to get there was to
(33:58):
spend much more time than there was originally allocated for
that particular scene. But I knew that I could do
that because I knew the scenes after that. We could
get on the same day in a car and I
could just rip through them because I was also the cinematographer,
so I knew, okay, so we just go down this
road and then turn there. I can point the camera
(34:18):
this way, and I can do that. I can point
the camera that way while the actors are just we're
going from one one location to the next. So I
think by understanding the context in which we live, both
from a human point of view, I think that it's
true if you look at your own life, if you
understand the context in which you live as a human being,
(34:41):
then you're able to be a better human being. And
it's only when we live from through ignorance that ignorance
influences us in negative ways. So again another ant apologies.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Now, like I said, Clo, no worries at all.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
You know, I wanted to ask about one thousand moments later,
so you know, what was your what was the you
know when you started writing the script. I wanted to ask,
you know, I wanted to ask, did you know did
you subscribe to any sort of method when you write
or do you you know? So you know basically, because
obviously everything starts with the script, I just want to ask,
you know, how you put that all together?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Okay, So here's the thing. By this stage, I was
I was super frustrated. I'd spent a couple of years
writing a number of scripts, working with producers, and I
got to a point where I just I was deflated.
(35:45):
I was going to say I was ready to give in,
but that's not true at all. But I was certainly
deflated in my enthusiasm for working with others. And I
just recently found the Turkish director that I mentioned earlier
his work, and I I'd researched him and I'd emailed him,
(36:05):
and I was super enthusiastic about how he about his
life and how he went about things. And I basically
had a little bit of a man crusher on this guy.
I'm certainly a fanbo I love his aesthetic. I love
the way he moves the camera, but I also love
the way he goes about it. And that is the
way he does go about it. I used as a template,
(36:26):
and that is to say, I'm not going to rely
on anyone, no one. I will do everything and from
that point you then go out into the world and
you tell people what you're going to do. That enthusiasm
and that kind of resolve somehow shields it makes you
(36:49):
bigger than you really are, and people want to be
a part of that kind of magnetism. So I actually,
and I think roughly at the same time, I came
across the movie Blue Valentine by Derek c in France
with Michelle Williams and Ryan Ryan Gosling, who's the male actor. Yeah,
(37:14):
Ryan Gosling. Great film if you haven't seen it, it's
a beautiful little film. But look at the look at
the behind the scenes and going to how they got,
how they had, how they shot it. And I wanted
to use that kind of semi doco style because I
knew that I could, I could produce a film in
a similar way. So what I did was I I
(37:36):
used I actually used Aristotle's cathartic moment and the structure
of his dramatic storytelling as the bedrock from which the
story grew. And I also started with the theme, and
the theme is that love is a choice. So love
is not something that happens to us. It's in fact
something that we choose, and I then wrote an outline
(38:03):
that that essentially resolved that issue. And the way I
did it was, I went, okay, so I need two
actors like Blue Valentine. Let's put it in like, make
it a road movie, so I can I can get
I can use We've got to in Melbourne, We've got
to Victoria. We've got a road called the Great Ocean Road,
(38:25):
and it's this this road that winds around a coast
that is incredibly scenic. So by putting two people in
a car making part of it a road movie, I
can use the natural environment as part of the set.
So I'm getting production value from from where I've shot
(38:45):
the film. And that was something that that new Bella
Jealon had used. So I'm not really I'm basically just
copying others in a lot of ways. What do they say,
we we we stand on the giant, so we stand
on the shoulders of the giants that have come before us.
And I did just that. So I took aspects of
(39:07):
different filmmakers the way they got things done, and then
just uses those as both inspiration and templates from which
I would then work. And so I had this outline.
I then put a casting call out and made it
sound I mean, I told the truth, but it sounded
like a fantastic little story to be a part of.
(39:30):
But I didn't make it sound better than it was.
I'm just I spend a lot of time nuancing the
words so that I would get the right kind of people.
And I think I auditioned about eighty people all up
in the end. Actually it was one hundred and sixty.
It was eighty two men and eighty one women.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
But even though the audition process is pretty simple, because
as soon as particularly with Lily, as soon as she
walked in, I knew this was the girl. And the
reason why I knew this was the girl was that
she had food poisoning. Yet she still turned up. She
walked in and apologized. She looked like shit, She was
really crook. She had sweat pouring down her face, and
(40:30):
halfway through the interview, which didn't go for very long
because I felt sorry for her, she excused herself and
ran off to the toilet. But I knew it was
her immediate because anyone that wants to be a part
of a production that much, then they're going to see
it through. And of course I had to. I had
to make sure that she could act. She looked the part.
She looked great, the right height, right eye color, right, heck,
(40:55):
all of that stuff. But she could also act really
really well. So but she she won me over by
just turning up crook. So she had she had gusto,
which I loved. But to be honest, even when we
were into pre production, when I'd hired the actors they
were on board, I hadn't finished the script yet. I
(41:17):
was still writing the script actually as we were, right
as we were shooting the film. There's a there's a
few big dialogue scenes that I wrote in the days
before that were they're not just dialogue with two people talking.
They're actually a part of They function in a way
(41:41):
that tell the subtext of the story. And I did
it that way because two things I knew I could
do it. I knew the story well enough. I'd had
visualized basically every scene, every look, every turn that the
(42:01):
actors were going to do before I'd even written the script,
so I knew the outline. And this is something that
I heard Derek sin France, this is what he does.
He he visualizes the film every like, every cut, every shot,
every cut, and he's got a detailed visual outline in
(42:23):
his mind before he's and he's writing at the same time,
so the outline kind of gets fleshed out, if you like,
over time through this process. And I'm a very visual person,
and I find myself writing in a similar kind of way.
And I've heard other writers write in similar ways when
(42:45):
it's in when they write pros, they write books, but
they'll write via an outline. So so we did that,
and what that meant was that that I I knew
the film inside out, and then it was just a
matter of finding interesting ways and interesting locations to embed
(43:07):
that story in. And we did that Chris and I
the actor who helped me a little bit with the
producing side. We've done a scouting location. So I had
this one scene where after a little bit of a battle,
they come along and then she's It's a moment in
(43:29):
the film that's supposed to be slightly comedic, but its
function is to just release a little bit of tension.
So storytelling and movies are kind of like jazz. Rather
it's tension and release. It's low music. So there's this
really tense part and then there's this kind of letting
go of that, and then a slight comedic moment before
there's another piece of tension. And in this I needed
(43:52):
to find a certain kind of location. So we went
for a drive down the Grayson Road and we just
drive around for a day and I made notes, took
a couple of photos, and then when we were shooting,
we just drove to where we thought that would work.
And if the weather was good, great, If the weather sucked, fine,
that problems. I'll shoot in a different angle and then
(44:15):
try and cut it all together. So that's seemed to
work really really well. So you know, that's excellent. You know, well,
you know, you find the process that actually is going
to work for you. You find a process that you
know is indicative to the project.
Speaker 6 (44:30):
And I mean, I think that's you know, a key
that a lot of filmmakers miss is that they they
they try to emulate too many people that that may
have either more time, more money, more people, whatever. But
if they could just you know, find that process, you
know that that that can that fits in within their
budget and fits with and is you know, fits with
the project, they would have more success.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
I mean I've done that myself as well, where I've you.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
Know, tried to emulate too much and try to do
too much with with with not having the proper sort
of foundation set, if you know.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
What I mean totally. If you're gonna watch a bunch
of film school kids or young kids try and produce,
try and create a feature film that's sci fi, it
will probably suck because they just don't have the means
of dolls that it takes to make the special effects
not look laughable. I've never seen one sci fi and
(45:25):
I love sci fi, but I'm not a sci fi geek.
So there's probably people out there going, what an idiot?
That's just roll. But from my point of view, it
never works. And but what does work if there's a
there's actually a really good behind the scenes of the
film brick I'm vaguing on. I know the guy first.
(45:47):
The guy's name is Ryan I can't remember his surname.
He's now directing Star Wars, but he's Ryan Jars, Ryan Johnson.
That's him. A great guy. Really, you should try and
get him on your podcast or maybe because he's doing
Star Wars now, he's too busy, but he's incredibly approachable
on social media. He's done some great films, but his
(46:11):
first film, Brick, Uh, there's a there's a fantastic behind
the scenes on that, and you'll see that he's done
the same thing. Use the sets, use the locations you
know from your local area that will add value production
value to your and that you can get for free.
Right because you can do you can use it. If
he used a car park from his school, he used
(46:33):
his school, his high school in fact, because he knew
that area. And the film. The film is great and
it has a it has a kind of a film
you are kind of vibe to it. I think the
first time I saw it actually was on television, late
night television here in Australia, and from there I then
researched and found this dude and it's amazing. Some Yeah,
(46:57):
so that's both. He's just he'm I've done exactly what
he did. He's probably got more talent and skilled than
than I have. Certainly had more money because Brick's still
the bricks still cost money, but it was done in
a time prior to DSLR. So I think if he
(47:18):
was around today, he wouldn't he wouldn't be making excuses.
He'd he'd be the kind of guy that just go
out and ah and use the tools to his advantage.
So rather than so a DSLR can be or you
know the new Sony is is I shot thousand moments
later on an A seven s. Use the aesthetic of
(47:41):
the of the equipment. You've got to enhance the story,
not try and create a me and dollar looking film
on something that's never ever gonna look that good. It's
just not so.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
Yeah, you know, you brought up the films to train too.
US five piece.
Speaker 6 (48:01):
There were some film students that I knew who were
trying to do a time period piece and they were
trying to raise five thousand on Kickstarter, and they they
asked me what I thought of it, and I said, guys,
you will spend five thousand dollars on costumes alone, and
that will only be for half of the of the cast.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
I said, one costume.
Speaker 6 (48:22):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the because you're doing something from
the eighteen hundreds, everything was a lot heavier. It's you know,
all of this stuff that and and just to get
and I've I've dealt with those rental houses before. Who
weren't those kind of costumes and I mean it's not
like because I think they're they're thinking that they could
just skirt by by getting some like cheap replicas, you know,
(48:42):
but and I told them, you know, people are going
to be able to tell that.
Speaker 5 (48:45):
You know, people are going to be able to tell
this stuff.
Speaker 6 (48:47):
And if it looks chintzy and cheap, you know, if
the aesthetic looks tension cheap, the production value looks tension cheap,
it's going to come up.
Speaker 5 (48:53):
It's going to come through.
Speaker 6 (48:55):
And I said, you know, you could create a better
movie setting it in today's world and just you know,
using what you have access to and creating something that way,
and then you could move on and do something else,
you know, when you need you have a more audience,
more of a budget, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Just tweak the story like you could do. You could
make them speak like use the costumes of today, you
get them to use their own clothes, but make them
speak as if they're from the aid and hundreds and
tweak the story so in an interesting way to leverage
what you've got on you right now, That's that's to me.
I'd be more interested. I imagine a film. Of course,
(49:31):
the story's got to be good about a bunch of
people from the aiden hundreds. But but you know, somehow
they're their clothings or modern I mean to me, that's
far more interesting already. The only people that can do
period are people who have the budget. Down to abbey
is down to an abbey, and it's never ever going
(49:54):
to be shot without means and means of dollars behind it,
because it just would not work.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 5 (50:11):
Well, and we were talking about Brick.
Speaker 6 (50:13):
You know, Brick was set in modern times, but everyone
talked like they were from the nineteen thirties or forties.
You know, there was like a you know they kind
of kind of speech. So, you know, I wanted to
ask you a thousand moments later. You know it's it's
in post production right now, correct, card, That's correct? Yeah,
So do you do you have a time? Do you
do you know all that you have an estimated time
(50:33):
to be when it will be released.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I'm hoping to release it or submit it to a
couple of film festivals, and then I'm going to self.
I'm not going to sell it, even if someone was
willing to buy it. I'm going to release it on
iTunes and basically do a digital release after a series
(50:56):
of a film festival run, so that you know, with
film festivals that's a little bit of you're basically just leveraging,
leveraging them for marketing. So again looking at the long
term game here. My thought behind this strategy is this,
if I can get the film into a film festival
(51:18):
with a little bit of prestige, I can then use
that on my CV. And it's really that's the only thing,
the only reason why I would do this if it
can get into a Sundance. And the likelihood of getting
into a Sundance is just ridiculously slim. It's ridiculous to
even mention the name Sundance, but I'll do it just
for an example, if a thousand moments later was able
(51:41):
to get into Sundance, I could then go to a
producer and say, here's a screener for the film we
are in Sundance. Here's my name, here's my CV, please
give me. And here's another project. Here's another script. This
is the thing I want to do next. Can you
help me? Someone is likely more likely to help at
(52:04):
that point than if it's not in Sundance, so we
can you know, Sundance, slam Dance, There's there's a bunch
of film festivals that I can use to help me
step up on my next with my next project, and
then and after that, then I will release it via
(52:27):
iTunes the digital platforms and try and recruit recoup the
money that I spent, which wasn't a lot. We're talking,
you know, thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands of dollars,
certainly not hundreds of it's probably including my time, it'll
be tens of thousands, but not hundreds of thousands. I'd
(52:47):
like to be able to recoup that money and and
then pay the actors for their time.
Speaker 6 (52:52):
So that's what I'm looking to do. Yeah, you know,
I guess I had on here. Jason Brubaker always would
talk about that as well. He'd always say that, you know,
getting into Sundance is not a financial or distribution plan,
because a lot of filmmakers would say that, you know,
that would be their pitch to investors or even to
anybody else, would be Hey, you know, we're gonna get
this into Sundance. We're gonna sell it for a mill
(53:15):
and then that's how we'll recoup the budget, And he said,
that's not realistic because you know, every year Sundance has
more entries than it had the year before, and you know,
they have all sorts of movies coming in, and it's just,
you know, it's a it's that golden ticket type of
thinking that he always tells people not to do. And instead,
just get a website, put a big buy now button
(53:36):
on the website, and you could sell your film through
your own website.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Sure, And not only is it, I mean, it's just
that's not half Sundance works anymore, and it hasn't for
quite a while. So anyone that's signing that to investors
is trading in their investors, because that's not how the
business works anymore. The business has fundamentally changed out of
the last five years, and even out of the last
(54:00):
two years. You just look at the digital platforms that
are available now compared to two years ago. We are
in a totally different environment. So anyone, anyone that wants
to lay down some coin on the potential hope that
you even get into Sundance, let alone someone gives you
a million dollars, No, it does not happen that way.
And you've just you Anyone that understands the way distribution,
(54:23):
even traditional distribution works, will know that the possibility of
recouping money is so slim. I'm sure. Look, I'm sure
I'm probably overstating that the facts. I'm sure someone will say, Clark,
you're wrong. Here's an example. Sure, okay, but how many
(54:46):
films are played at Sundance, let alone are submitted? Well,
what's what are the numbers? There are three thousand feature films.
Speaker 6 (54:56):
Unless year they had fifteen thousands. So so yeah, and
you know every it gets more every year.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (55:07):
You know, Clark, we've been talking for about you know,
fifty minutes now, Uh, you know, just in closing, is
there anything that you know we didn't discuss that you
want to just to talk about or is there anything
you want to sort of say to put a period
at the end of this whole conversation.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Not really. I think we've we've we've gone into we're gone,
we've we've dived deep evenly.
Speaker 5 (55:31):
Dave, Yeah, well we have dove pretty deeply.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
So yeah, no, No, I'm I'm cool man, all right.
Speaker 6 (55:39):
Excellent, Clark. Where you'll find you out online?
Speaker 3 (55:42):
Our best place is Clark Scott. That's Clark with an e.
Clarkscott dot org. From there all my social media links.
There's a newsletter the links to one thousand Moments Later
website where people can there's a newsletter there also with
the film where once I do release it, I've got
(56:06):
a load of behind the scenes things that I've produced
for and bonus content that I've produced for the film,
so you can you can hire. And here's here it lies,
the real benefit of the age in which we live.
I can, on my own bat in a day, whack
(56:27):
up a website, throw up a website and a buy
button or a higher button, and as long as I've
produced content for it, I can give people an option
to just hire the movie for forty eight hours or
buy it for download. They can buy that and behind
the scenes or I've got three packages. The full package
(56:51):
I go into. It's basically as essentially a course in
how to produce your own independent film. And I do
that for like fifty bucks. So for fifty bucks, I'm
opening the door to my entire process from the screenwriting
how I used Aristotle's cathartic moment and his structure to
(57:11):
to create the dramatic and thematic essence of the film,
through to screen casts of how I edit interviews with
the actors I've got. I recorded the voiceover session with Chris,
so you get to hear him stumble through the voiceover
(57:33):
and me give him points and notes, director's notes on
you know, we need to do this and that, and
it's totally unedited. There's no in that at least there's
there's there's no no editing. So and I can do
that for virtually no real upfront costs because I've got
(57:56):
all the skills and all the equipment and all the
all the tools at my disposal in order to create
all of that, and then I can just put it online.
And the way I look at it is that if
people if they if people want to buy it, then
it's there. If they don't, no problem, and that will help.
It helps both me, but it's also that allows me
(58:18):
to give something back. If I use the word of
the universe, it sounds kind of new aging, but I'm
just I'm giving something back to whatever it is that
allowed me, that allowed me to be born and be
sitting here right now talking to you, and that with
that from that place of generosity, I'm hoping that over time,
(58:44):
people will just I mean, there will be some people
listening to this now. In fact, if they've got this far,
they're probably thinking, there won't be too many people who
think that I'm an absolute wanker, but there will be
people who go, I don't like the way this guy talks.
I don't like he's aesthetic. But there are and they're
not my people. My people are the ones that look
(59:06):
at my work, that look at my aesthetic, that look
at the approach that I've taken, that I've taken, and
they go, this guy is fantastic, just the way I
looked at Nari Bala Jilon and went, man, I fucking
love this guy. He is so ballsy. He you know,
the first film he did, he used his own money
(59:27):
and he did everything himself, and I love that approach.
I got really excited and inspired me. So by me
putting this stuff out out there, I'm helping others. I'm
being generous because it's a hell of a lot of
work for fifty bucks. I'm not going to make any
money back, but what I will do is create connections,
(59:47):
and I believe that those connections, fundamentally are is the
foundation of a good life. You cannot have a good
life without other people in family, friends, et cetera. So yeah,
I'm sorry, Dive. I ended on a rant, right, that's
(01:00:08):
no problem at all.
Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
I will I think you're rot you know, you bring
it out right, you really do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
It's what I do.
Speaker 6 (01:00:15):
I'm sorry to mean to cut you off.
Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
Yeah, you're right, and I guy for it.
Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Yeah, I was just gonna say I do. I just
have a tendency to bring that out in people. Clark Scott,
I want to say thank you very much for coming
on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
My pleasure to Dive, great to speak to you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
dot com. Forward Slash eight twenty one, and if you
have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
really helps us out a lot, guys. Thank you again
(01:00:47):
so much for listening to guys. As always, keep that
hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe out there,
and I'll talk too soon.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
Indie film hustle dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
That's I N D I E F I L M
h U s t l E dot com.
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