Hi, my name is Bradley Gillow.
I’m a young filmmaker from Australia and I’m currently directing a film called TO
CATCH A BUNYIP.
When I was a kid I’ll always remember seeing a camera around because my Dad used to video
tape all of my baby videos.
I don’t know, it was something that I always thought was interesting you know the phrase
A Picture Paints A Thousand Words.
I like to imagine that film does that a thousand times more than photography.
That kind of sparked an interest for film for me.
By the time I was six I was just watching movies constantly and the films that I would
watch the most were adventure films.
TO CATCH A BUNYIP is basically a film about this young girl Emma who goes to the Billabong
every day because she believes that the Bunyip lives there and she wants to capture it for
its magic (she believes that Bunyips have the power to regenerate life).
She wants to get the magic because she wants to help her sick Mom Jess who suffers from
Parkinson’s Disease.
Her older sister Abbey clashes with Emma because she doesn’t believe in Bunyips and that
what Emma is saying is nonsense.
She wants to have Emma share more responsibility.
What made you want to tell this story?
Bradley: This film that I’m making is a personal story that I’ve wanted to convey
for about three years now because my Mom had Parkinson’s Disease and it had a significant
impact to the way that I was growing up as a kid.
When I graduated from high school my Mom passed away from her 12-year battle with Parkinson’s
Disease.
And for about two years I was depressed because I wasn’t really sure where my life was going
after that.
I wanted to make this story to convey my feelings on that experience as well as sort of an outlet
for me to get over those feelings and move on.
The reason why I incorporated Bunyips, there was a film that I watched when I was a kid
called Dot and the Kangaroo, that was a film that I used to watch with my Mom.
And I wanted to turn this bad situation into something more light-hearted so I immediately
thought of that film.
That film happens to feature a Bunyip.
I wanted to enjoy my inspiration from that memory in particular and make a film where
it comes from a very bad place into a more light-hearted adventure film.
The story is not so much about the Bunyip but rather the family.
Yet the Bunyip is all a part of this and is the link to the family.
You don’t see the Bunyip per se, but I’ve written it in a way that it’s left for interpretation
whether the Bunyip exists or not and it’s something for the audience to decide on.
This is the first short film I’m directing.
I’ve done directing in the past where I was not 100% sure what I want or what I’m
going for but with this I have this clear idea in terms of every small detail from production
design, cast, locations.
I feel pretty confident as a director to do my job well.
I’ve spent so much time just thinking to myself all the small details of how the scenes
are going to play out, how the shots are going to look, how the performances are going to
play out during the scene.
Obviously there are going to be issues that are going to pop up while filming but I think
I have enough preparation to be ready for the shoot and because of that I think that
this will turn out really good.
In terms of the production of this film, so far it’s been pretty challenging to say
the least because I wanted to have this film set in the 1970’s.
The probably with that is there’s not a lot of locations that are still in that era.
So I was very worked up about finding the right location that worked.
I feel like I’m finding places that are perfect it’s just that it’s taking the
time to find the right place that fits within the film that would also have the right
paints, textures and I think it’s worth the wait of finding the right location rather
than shooting over at a mate’s place because it shows that there’s a lot of attention
to detail.
During the course of our production it felt like I was reliving those moments when my
Mom passed away because the way that I wrote it was such a vivid part of that experience
and it was during those memories where I felt alone during the course of our writing, developing
the story, finding locations, casting it felt like I was very much in the moment of that
pivotal day and when I pitched the film that same night my Nan passed (who is my Mom’s
Mom) and it felt like I was reliving pretty much those days.
But it’s good in a way because I believe with that I think I’ll be able to direct
my head-of-departments and my actors to bring them with me in those days.
I’m definitely sorting things through and I have a really strong team behind me who
makes this film run smoothly as well.
It definitely helps me knowing that they’re there for me as well.
As I said before this story is about family rather than the adventure that the protagonist
is having.
So for me it was important to find people that looked relatively the same.
The youngest girl Eva is brilliant.
Eva was the second girl we auditioned for the protagonist role of Emma.
I immediately told the producers that she was the one and we pretty much casted her
straight after that.
One of the characters in my film (Jess) I wrote her to intentionally have Parkinson’s
disease and this character is very important to me because she is based on my own Mom and
I wanted to get my feelings off my chest into this one character that means a lot for this
story and for myself.
I wanted to find someone who was really good at body performances and someone who was willing
to study how Parkinson’s affects you mentally as well as psychically.
And we came across Mel and she was very genuine and it felt like she was perfect.
The rest of the cast was great, as well to help sell the idea that everyone is a family
and I believe they’re perfect.
This film is sort of independently raised at the moment out of my Mother’s inheritance
because I believe that might as well use what she gave me to help make her film.
The end goal with this film (like I said before) I kind of want this film to be viewed as as
a quintessential film for Parkinson’s disease where the patients can watch and it’s something
that they can relate to.
I think the most important thing about this film starts with the story because that’s
pretty much the blueprint of any film and if you don’t have a good blueprint than
you don’t have a good film.
I made sure to make the script as tight and as vivid as possible so when someone reads
it they get a good sense on how everything is going to play out and I made sure that
I’ll leave room for actor’s interpretations so that they can get into their roles more
and it doesn’t have to be dialogue fro the script but something that comes from themselves
personally.
I feel like I’m not in the position to give anyone advice because I’m still learning
but make films that you personally want to make.
I don’t think you have to personally experience something to make a good film.
If you’re willing to put in time and effort to research into a particular idea I think
if you believe in that film then it could be possible to make it happen and make it
a really good film.
One more question.
Bradley: Yes.
Sure.
Are Bunyips real?
Bradley: I like to think so but I haven’t seen one.
I’m sure they’re out there…somewhere.