A good proportion of last year's Escalator films had women in key team roles, so we thought we'd catch up with some of the women and their projects, which are currently in production, or post.
The NZFC's ESCALATOR initiative offers four teams of talented, visionary filmmakers a fast track to making a first feature film, with one limitation - that the film must be made on a budget of up to $250,000. ESCALATOR is about creative filmmaking ideas explicitly conceived with low budget production in mind. It is most definitely not about squeezing a bigger budget idea into a low budget framework. Last year was the inaugural year for Escalator, with this year being the second that the initiative has run.
We spoke to the team behind Existence, described as a 'salvage punk Western set in a post-apocalyptic future' to see where there were at with the project, and what winning Escalator has meant to them.
We hope to bring you interviews with the women involved with another couple of films over the next few enews.
The women in the Existence team are:
Juliet Bergh, Writer/Director
Jessica Charlton, Writer/DOP
Mhairead Connor, Producer
Melissa Dodd, Producer
What has winning Escalator meant to you?
Receiving a greenlight for Existence meant that the previous few months of incredibly hard work and momentum in development and the application process could continue into production at speed for this awesome project that we all felt very strongly for.
So often as film makers you pour your heart and soul into something, only to have to put it on hold indefinitely or until it can become possible. However, the Escalator scheme meant that we could keep going with this energy and passion and watch it grow into the film we now have in the can. It's very exciting and scary!
Where in development is your project currently?
Existence is now already in post-production after a 24-day shoot in Wellington during April/May 2011 with a team of wonderful of technicians and a stunning cast. It's early days for our Editor and Director to do a rough cut assemble, to find the story and the film we shot in production.
What advice would you give to other women creatives thinking of trying for next year's Escalator?
Just do it, get your ideas down on paper and trust your instincts. The three ideas that go on the page, the methodology, thought process and getting it down on the page are just the start of something really creative and cool. It's such a great learning experience and training to be able to attend bootcamp and develop something in such a timeframe, so that even if you don't end up going into production, you will still get a lot out of it. Moving into production at this level is a great stepping-stone into feature film production - why wouldn't you be in to win?
The call for Escalator 2013 will go out towards the end of the year. In the meantime, check out this article also run recently about Escalator by Film Business Asia.