Flies In the Soup - Shane Abbess

Hi All,

I'm back! With interviews! I've decided that rather than letting my interviews languish on my hard drive once they're out of contract, I'll put them up here. So you can expect to see a few of them popping up here from time to time. I've mostly interviewed Aussies, but there's a healthy sprinkling of others in the mix as well. So without further ado, feast your eyes upon my first ever interview with Aussie writer and filmmaker, Shane Abbess, which first appeared last year in Aurealis #79.

Interview: Shane Abbess

By Chris Large

It’s no secret that Australian films struggle to gain traction internationally – particularly in with respect to fantasy and science fiction – but that seems likely to change sooner rather than later.  Australian writer and director, Shane Abbess, has spoken frankly on what is being done to improve both the appeal of Aussie film and its global reputation. Shane is best known to audiences as the director of Gabriel (2007), a film he co-wrote with Matt Hylton Todd, set in purgatory.

Welcome to Aurealis, Shane. Throwing you in the deep end, I’m going to quote you as having said “...one of the fundamental flaws in Australian cinema in the past few years is that we haven’t been able to connect with an audience, especially internationally. We shouldn’t be making films to satisfy funding criteria or industry peers, it should be about the audience and what they want...”

I made that remark back in 2008 and it’s interesting to see how it’s all evolved since then. I believe we are actually trying very hard right now – perhaps harder than ever – to broaden our scope and deliver a more appealing range of stories, but the measures of success of a film, and the delivery mechanisms available seem to be the things now that we need to address. The government funding bodies have been doing an amazing job of stepping up and listening to what’s needed and will support filmmakers who show the right kind of initiative or have proven success.

I’m seeing all sorts of films come through now, from very brave genre indies, to larger scale dramas, but the market just doesn’t exist like it used to. DVD/Blu-Ray is forever on the decline, piracy is worse than ever and people want more for less when they hire – especially with the new subscription-based entertainment options. So it means studios go MASSIVE and that floods the cinemas, while the mid-ground films are all fighting for your attention in a very cramped space. So when an Australian film ‘underperforms’ at the box office, I’m always skeptical, because that’s not where the audience is nowadays for films that aren’t tentpoles. They’re at home, waiting for it direct, especially overseas. So I think we’re actually moving in the right direction now. We just need more access here [in Australia] to things like Apple TV etc.

Netflix coming here is great and I also want to see a really short window from cinema to VOD [Video on Demand]. I’m a big supporter of day and date release on everything, which is why I’m pushing for it on Infini. So however you want to experience it, you can. As far as overseas goes, we’re actually kicking ass. You just never read about it here. Movies like Predestination, The Babadook, and Wyrmwood received a mediocre response here but are smashing it overseas. The same thing happened with Gabriel.

With that in mind, and with the benefit of hindsight, how should burgeoning Aussie filmmakers hoping to compete in an international market, go about sourcing investment for their projects?

Do something bold. Fund it yourself. Know the value of every dollar you earned and borrowed to put on the screen. Then you’ll always be able to answer the question: ‘Is this worth doing?’ It’s harder now than ever to be an independent filmmaker in terms of seeking finance but it’s also a wonderful time technologically. Find the medium and go from there. Be very clear on your audience going in, and how you’re going to sell it.

As a writer I identify with the emotional rollercoaster of pushing ahead with a project with no guarantee of a positive outcome at the end of the process. But writers need only motivate themselves. Your job is to herd hundreds of people toward a single endgame. How do you do it?

By relying on people’s pride and passion. Everyone has a reason for doing something, hopefully besides money. Find what it is. If you give people the love, recognition and ultimately the arena to be the best they can be and believe in themselves and their art, you can make magic out of very little. It’s always just people coming together for a common cause and that has to be worth it. No-one wants to play on the losing team. You always have to have a shot at the grand final. 

Your upcoming sci-fi film Infini has proven cause for excitement among fans of the genre. Right now the teaser trailer is all we have to go on. The atmosphere is dark and tense. The characters are far from their happy places. There’s a lot of shouting going on which is generally a sign things are going pear-shaped. It looks for all money to be a film in the vein of Alien, or perhaps Event Horizon, but you’ve said that Infini isn’t a horror flick, that it’s something entirely “unexpected”.

Infini is a beast unto itself, featuring unconventional narrative, high-intensity performances, and an approach which is unusual in the genre. It doesn’t care what you want it to be. It just is. The general response to it is that you don’t know where it’s going to go next and it’s very intense – not scary, but intense – which is how we allowed ourselves to experience it while making it. Some people will like it, some people will hate it, some won’t even understand it and that’s great because it’s trying to do something. It doesn’t play safe at all.

How are you handling expectations surrounding Infini?

I don’t really have any expectations for it – good or bad. I just know that the team and I are really proud of the work we’ve done and are grateful for the opportunity to have been let loose in such a way. As Sam Mendes said in a recent interview, ‘There’s no right or wrong. Just more or less interesting.’ I already know from the test screenings that Infini is a trip for those willing to go on it.

Ultimately I learned not to worry about expectations though after Gabriel, which was slammed on release in Australia but went on to have great success and gain a healthy cult status worldwide. If you know your audience going in and stay true to it, you’ll find them eventually.

There’s a gravity to Infini’s environments which tentpole films seem to lose once they take that flying leap down the CGI slip n’ slide. While there’s no doubt that when done properly CGI can be awesome, do you agree its allure has been tarnished of late through overuse?

I believe the best era of cinema was pre-CGI, so even though I love it, I also love the older principles of filmmaking and not having people say ‘Wow, what a great effect’, when they shouldn’t be aware of any of that. Real, and in camera, is the best way to do it which also gives meaning to the CGI elements because then they’re crucial to the story at that point. Not just there because they can be. 

You’ve said of Infini, “'This movie became like an illness of the mind for myself and many others. We pushed ourselves as hard as we could and at some point in there, I realized we'd crossed a line we couldn't come back from. So we didn't.” Travelling down the same dark paths day after day, physically or emotionally, can leave permanent scars on a person’s psyche. Is that how you feel about Infini?

I do. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk about everything that went into creating the energy required of Infini because it’s pretty insane. I think the cast and many of the creatives would agree. We wanted to see how far you could go to find a moment or experience a truth in all of this, and a lot of it isn’t even on the screen. It’s more just baked into the picture’s soul. You think about the reality of the situations these characters are in and it’s terrifying.

In order to make that more than just a word or a notion, you have to expose yourself to truths and moments – the reality of it – which is something we spend our lives running from traditionally. This was an infection of the mind and the soul. It took some of the cast literally months to recover. I’m still not sure where I ended up... I know I’m different though. Happily haunted.

Once a story’s told it no longer belongs solely to the teller, a degree of ownership rests in the minds of the audience.  How do you feel about giving up ownership of something you’ve clearly poured so much of yourself into?

I love it. I give so much of myself to the process, we all do, that by the time it’s done. IT’S DONE. It’s not for us anymore. I love that an audience takes it and the experience is always evolving.

And we can expect Infini to hit screens in Australia…

It’ll be out May/June in theatres worldwide. Hopefully VOD same time too! E1/Hopscotch are distributing here. Dates are locking in now.

You’ve been working hard to add those finishing touches to Infini, but do you have any other projects on the horizon?

We have a high-end television series based on the world of Infini in development. Film-wise it’s down to the wire on three actually, pending casting schedules: one being Lucifer, the next installment in the Angel Saga after Gabriel, 7^th Day which has been around for a long time, and another which shall remain nameless!

Hmm, a nameless project. Intriguing. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for that. And an Infini-based television series in development prior to the release of the movie. Clearly there’s a lot of faith surrounding this venture and I for one can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.