TRUE ESTATE
He's been saving half his life, but can he afford Justine ?
TRUE ESTATE
He's been saving half his life, but can he afford Justine ?
TRUE ESTATE (English) (Français)
TRUE ESTATE TRAILER (English) (Français)
Press Kit
Title: TRUE ESTATE
Date of Completion: February 2016
Country: Australia
Shooting Format: RAW video
Running time: 6mins 11 secs
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Ratio: 2.35:1 letter-boxed in 16:9
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
True Estate is a character study of a middle-aged man, who since childhood has been taught money and property guarantee survival. But what has he to offer as a person? Having had no time for a social life, this lonely man is ready for love and marriage. The object of his desire is Justine, and he has made everything ready.
I wanted to shape the film around a performance and much of the action was developed in rehearsal. It was instructive to see how Matthew opened up the monologue, building space for both action and reflection.
Q&A
How would you describe True Estate as a film?
True Estate is a film in service of a monologue. The monologue is the character’s self-rationale but also hides an admission of doubt. The character of the Man does not look us in the eye. He rehearses his life as if it were a stage play, preparing for a moment which may never come. He consoles himself with a rundown of his business acumen. But he may not be telling us the whole truth.
Considering the script is essentially three pages of dialogue, what challenges did you face staging it?
The biggest challenge was to discover the right way to stage the monologue so that it would seem urgent and intimate. In earlier drafts of the script, the film was set inside a taxi, the audience his passenger. We filmed a camera test a few years ago but the setting did not inform the story.
What if the Man's possessions became the very things which stood in his way? This is the basic premise of the film, which I finally understood. Therefore the film's location became the Man’s ‘investment property’, a serviced apartment on the upper floors of a tower at the city’s edge. This apartment for the Man is a hiding place where he feels safe. “It's like I disappear”, he says. This location conveys the isolation and pathology of a lonely man. It is also a nest he has feathered to attract a mate. But it may become his prison.
What was the biggest discovery of the film ?
The rehearsal process. Knowing the point at which a script stops and performance begins. Learning the text must be rediscovered in action and behaviour. The actor inhabits the dialogue as moments in a story-journey. I would say half the shot ideas came out of the rehearsals. They were solutions to the problem of representing each action for what it signified emotionally. I think if a shot idea is not employed in the service of an emotion, it runs the risk of becoming an abstraction which repels the audience.
What did the rehearsals reveal about the character of the Man?
In rehearsal I noticed how vulnerable the character of the Man was as he spoke about his father. At one point Matthew asked me if I thought the Man’s father was still alive. I decided he was. But I did not know why. The decision seemed arbitrary. Later I realised Matthew was establishing a certain fear or tension in the character, created by the overbearing influence of his father. Thus, in the performance of the scene in the middle of the film where the Man speaks about his father, he reveals an almost childlike regression. I chose to film Matthew from the side, backlit, lying down. The body of the self-made man is reduced to a shadow. The idea of a father watching his son in many ways became the motivation of the camera’s point-of-view.
What camera did you shoot with and why?
The film was shot using the Canon EOS 7D with the open source firmware crack Magic Lantern installed, which enables the camera to shoot RAW video. We were excited to be able to test the RAW module for ourselves. A screen ratio of 2.35:1 gave an image resolution of 1728x736, which allowed us to shoot continuously. It was a great initiation into the RAW workflow. The shoot took place over one night in a serviced apartment in Southbank, Melbourne.
Press Kit
Title: TRUE ESTATE
Date of Completion: February 2016
Country: Australia
Shooting Format: RAW video
Running time: 6mins 11 secs
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Ratio: 2.35:1 letter-boxed in 16:9
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
True Estate is a character study of a middle-aged man, who since childhood has been taught money and property guarantee survival. But what has he to offer as a person? Having had no time for a social life, this lonely man is ready for love and marriage. The object of his desire is Justine, and he has made everything ready.
I wanted to shape the film around a performance and much of the action was developed in rehearsal. It was instructive to see how Matthew opened up the monologue, building space for both action and reflection.
Q&A
How would you describe True Estate as a film?
True Estate is a film in service of a monologue. The monologue is the character’s self-rationale but also hides an admission of doubt. The character of the Man does not look us in the eye. He rehearses his life as if it were a stage play, preparing for a moment which may never come. He consoles himself with a rundown of his business acumen. But he may not be telling us the whole truth.
Considering the script is essentially three pages of dialogue, what challenges did you face staging it?
The biggest challenge was to discover the right way to stage the monologue so that it would seem urgent and intimate. In earlier drafts of the script, the film was set inside a taxi, the audience his passenger. We filmed a camera test a few years ago but the setting did not inform the story.
What if the Man's possessions became the very things which stood in his way? This is the basic premise of the film, which I finally understood. Therefore the film's location became the Man’s ‘investment property’, a serviced apartment on the upper floors of a tower at the city’s edge. This apartment for the Man is a hiding place where he feels safe. “It's like I disappear”, he says. This location conveys the isolation and pathology of a lonely man. It is also a nest he has feathered to attract a mate. But it may become his prison.
What was the biggest discovery of the film ?
The rehearsal process. Knowing the point at which a script stops and performance begins. Learning the text must be rediscovered in action and behaviour. The actor inhabits the dialogue as moments in a story-journey. I would say half the shot ideas came out of the rehearsals. They were solutions to the problem of representing each action for what it signified emotionally. I think if a shot idea is not employed in the service of an emotion, it runs the risk of becoming an abstraction which repels the audience.
What did the rehearsals reveal about the character of the Man?
In rehearsal I noticed how vulnerable the character of the Man was as he spoke about his father. At one point Matthew asked me if I thought the Man’s father was still alive. I decided he was. But I did not know why. The decision seemed arbitrary. Later I realised Matthew was establishing a certain fear or tension in the character, created by the overbearing influence of his father. Thus, in the performance of the scene in the middle of the film where the Man speaks about his father, he reveals an almost childlike regression. I chose to film Matthew from the side, backlit, lying down. The body of the self-made man is reduced to a shadow. The idea of a father watching his son in many ways became the motivation of the camera’s point-of-view.
What camera did you shoot with and why?
The film was shot using the Canon EOS 7D with the open source firmware crack Magic Lantern installed, which enables the camera to shoot RAW video. We were excited to be able to test the RAW module for ourselves. A screen ratio of 2.35:1 gave an image resolution of 1728x736, which allowed us to shoot continuously. It was a great initiation into the RAW workflow. The shoot took place over one night in a serviced apartment in Southbank, Melbourne.
cast & crew
cast & crew
CALLUM PERRY
Writer/Director/Editor
Callum Perry makes videos, paintings, sculptures, screenplays and poems. He started making Super-8 films when young, dabbled in animation and worked in the computer animation industry, producing various art-based videos. He continues his studio practice, has held exhibitions of his work and self-published several collections of poetry. To view a selection of videos, writing and artwork, please visit callumperry.com
MATTHEW MOLONY
Actor-The Man
Matthew Molony is a Melbourne-based film, television and theatre actor. He has appeared in Daniel Keene’s The Cove (IF Productions) and Jane Miller’s Cuckoo (15 Minutes from Anywhere). Among his performances are John Proctor, The Crucible (Eagles Nest Productions) and Oberon, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Essential Theatre). Matt has appeared on television’s Neighbours, Round the Twist, Secret Life Of Us and in the feature film Rats & Cats (Tony Rogers). He is also co-founder of the production company, Le Poulet Terrible.
SIMON IMBERGER
Director of Photography
Simon Imberger is a Melbourne-based filmmaker and musician. He has been making films and music since the age of twelve and is a graduate of the VCA Film and Television school where he won the C. Robert Fine Memorial Award for Best Script From a Graduating Student. In 2012 he wrote and directed his first feature film The Curable which screened in various festivals. He plays guitar in the the alternative rock band The Sticking Place and is producing their first LP. While developing his next feature film screenplay he is currently in post production on a short horror film which he wrote and directed, which takes in locations from Paris, Copenhagen and Berlin.
ROHAN BAYLEY
Sound Recordist
Rohan Bayley is a musician, composer and educator who has been working in Melbourne for the past twenty years. Rohan was one of the last students to study composition at Latrobe University and has continued to explore new music. He plays a variety of instruments, with a particular focus on guitar and viola da gamba. Rohan is currently composing a piece for an ensemble which incorporates improvisation and dance.
Contact
Contact
MEDIA eNQUIRIES
Callum Perry
Producer/Writer/Director