Some brief notes by Kath Akuhata-Brown from Rolf de Heer’s Te Ao Marama sessions…
“In the Greek tragedies you don’t know what the gods had for breakfast. Let that be your first lesson,” said Australian director Rolf de Heer.
“Nobody wants to watch a kettle boil on the stove”, he groaned. Perhaps Mr de Heer has sat through too many pedestrian films because he hammered that one home a few times during his recent Script to Screen Seminar and Master class here in Auckland. I’m almost positive he said it again to the unfortunates selected for a day long advisory session with him. As I left them in my living room and departed down the stairs, I’m sure I heard the film making guru raise the Greek Gods again.
Do the right thing.
When working with low to no budgets you’re going to be relying on the goodwill of your team and the community in which you’re working. Do the right thing by them all. Don’t exploit anyone, take responsibility for the wellbeing of the film by being responsible for the wellbeing of your teams. This will ensure a film making career path of integrity. In the case of Rolf’s own film Ten Canoes, any money that the film makes now, a large percentage of it goes back into the community, this is occurring after the crew and actors have been paid. As for the director, he only gets enough to keep himself in pencils.
If you buy anything, buy a decent pencil.
Rolf de Heer has won a few literary awards for his scripts most of which were written on index cards with pencil.
He was appalled that nearly every single person in the master class used final draft.
“Don’t let the computer write your script, take control of your work.”
“When you write your script on the computer it should just be about organizing it. Check your grammar and spelling and for god’s sake don’t talk about your story until it’s ready.”
“In fact I learnt this lesson from Trevor Griffiths a few years ago. A writer should be the God of the world they’ve created. If an investor reads a script filled with typos, bad grammar and spelling errors they’re going to lose faith that the writer knows what they’re talking about and… they won’t invest. Don’t use the computer spell check it’s rubbish.”
Read good literature.
Every writer should be reading good literature. That one is a no brainer really.
Get rid of that bloody video split…
Yes, finally, someone who is making sense I thought to myself, those things are rubbish and if you continue to use them you’ll find yourself in the same situation I found myself in after a shoot in the early 90s, bloody studio shoot- off in the back of shot, couldn’t use the footage. If you have them on set leave them for the make-up and wardrobe teams to relax and gossip around.
Take risks!
Rolf de Heer has taken many risks in his career and he continues to take more, all for the love of telling stories.
“In low budget film making you have to risk… learn to calculate the risks! Stop and think. Learn to measure your risk and don’t be afraid to sell it. If you build your case well enough you’ll get it through. You have to ask yourself – What can make this a compelling package?”
Don’t get storyboard artists – do it yourself.
“You have time to make sequences that will cut together beautifully. Storyboarding is hard work but makes a difference to the cinematic qualities of your film.”
The Treatment
This was my favourite one.
“The thing about treatments is they’re for raising money but really, if you’ve got time to write a treatment, you’ve got time to write the script and … why give other people that power over your work. You can’t tell from a treatment what the script is going to be like.”
There was one occasion though after making several films Rolf was asked to write a treatment. He’d never written one but for the sake of ensuring the film was financed, he went through the process.
The lesson in this is – do what you must to get your film made. If the process requires a treatment, write it. If however you can move forward without any development funding, always choose that path first.
Turning liabilities into assets
Rolf has found himself in situations that might have led to some major headaches. But being creative isn’t just about turning out a great script, it’s also about being creative with problems.
On location for Bad Boy Bubby most of which was shot in between paying jobs, Rolf and the crew turned up at the prison to discover – there’s no courtyard. The script required a Scottish Bagpipe band to be playing, so, they all squeezed in to the hallway outside Bubby’s cell. You’ve seen the film so you’ll know which scene we’re discussing here. The decision resulted in a beautiful magical realism moment. If you can’t remember, go get the film out…
