“Jumper” is a dark comedy about a corporate bitch who tries to convince a jumper not to jump on her brand new car.

After directing “Double Shots”, an intimate, psychologically realistic drama with no post-production trickery, “Jumper” felt like doing an event movie. Making “Jumper” was all about creating an illusion. People have to believe that the characters (or even better: the actors) are really standing on the ledge on the roof of a 9th story building which they never did of course. To create a film like “Jumper” with no budget without making it look like a cheap student film was the biggest problem. We used a table, forced perspective, simple compositing in After Effects and the wonders of montage to make the story believable for the audience.

I was very keen on making an action chase scene but couldn’t think of any real reason to do it, let alone a plot. I then started getting the idea of having kids playing war games, but treat it for real. I then came upon the idea of seeing the kids the way they imagine themselves in their games, as adult heroes and villains, but still using toy guns. However, the plastic guns and water filled balloons have real sounds and effects.

Like “Fester! Fester!”, “Bang! Bang!” was made for another 50 Quid Film Festival. However, the 3 minute time limit perhaps proved too much of a restriction and I think sadly a lot of ideas had to be dropped from the film which perhaps lost the overall feel and direction of the piece. Perhaps a future remake will be on the cards to get it right!

Bugger Off was made as a final project for the undergraduate production degree at Macquarie University. The principal motivating force behind the film was to try to create something within one location to allow the creative team the time to explore a number of different styles and cinematic techniques without worrying too much about shifting the production from one place to another. One location was also important as the production had no budget.

Bugger Off works as a whole but can also be viewed as a series of creative exercises the production team set for themselves to test their technique at the end of their course of study. The team behind the film have continued to work together since Bugger Off and created a number of films that have utilized the techniques first learnt/explored in the production of Bugger Off.

Festivals Screened:
Macquarie Focus Screenings