Ella Macintyre Shorts 2012 Interview

Ella Macintyre Shorts 2012 Interview

Australia's love of home grown drama is reflected in the program for this year's SHORTS Film Festival (April 28 - May 5) with a third of the 60 films to be screened dedicated to the drama genre.

The drama's storylines and settings though are diverse with tales of an over the hill boxer, a conflict at a suburban skate park and a man struggling with life in the outback among the films being shown over the week-long festival.

Other genres featuring strongly at SHORTS are comedies, animations, documentaries, science fictions and thrillers.

The Festival will be held for the second year at the Norwood Concert Hall thanks to the support of the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peter's.

SHORTS Film Festival Director David Ngo says this year's program has the makings of one of the biggest and best festivals in its 9 year history.

"It is going to be a great week. We have films screening from all over Australia and a few from overseas and they're all of a very high quality. I expect it is going to be our best festival yet," said David.
"The social atmosphere for which the festival has become popular will continue with the opportunity for people to eat, drink and talk about the films with not only each other, but with many of filmmakers themselves."

This year, the SHORTS Film Festival received more than 200 entries from across Australia and the Asia Pacific.

The top 60, to be screened during the festival, were decided through a series of judging sessions held in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Judges included film producers, directors, actors and media.

The SHORTS Film Festival will also continue its artistic tradition, started by its patron David Bromley, of showcasing the talents of a South Australian painter.

Datsun Tran has taken on the role of Artist in Residence at this year's Festival and has created a piece entitled "Witness" to help raise funds to support the running of the event.

"I've had an interest in film as far back as I can remember, so I was really excited about the opportunity to create a piece for the 2012 Shorts Film Festival, "said Datsun.
"My painting gives you a peek into the world of the filmmaker."

Datsun's painting can be viewed in the offices of the major sponsors of the festival before being taken to Norwood Concert Hall for festival week.

For filmmakers, the SHORTS Film Festival still boasts one of the largest prize pools in Australia worth over $50,000.The winner receives an all expenses paid trip to prestigious international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Sundance or Annecy.

The Black SHORTS Award will also make a return this year. Sponsored by Beach Energy, this award encourages more indigenous films to be made, with the winner receiving $10,000 to help develop their filmmaking career.

This year, SHORTS in conjunction with the Norwood, Payneham and St Peters Council, will also help to encourage the next generation of filmmakers through a series of master classes to be held as part of National Youth Week (April 13-22).

The master classes will be run by four film industry leaders on the topics of Getting Started, Sound Production, Editing and Producing and How to write Festival Friendly Short Films. Further information on the master classes is available from the SHORTS Film Festival website.

In addition to the support provided by the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters, the festival welcomes Flinders University as Principal sponsor along with major sponsors Finlaysons Lawyers and Beach Energy.

Tickets are on sale and are available from the SHORTS Film Festival website. Prices range from $12 to $30.
For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.shortsfilmfestival.com

Interview with Ella Macintyre

Ella is the Writer/Director of short film comedy 'Choking Hazard' which is one of the top 60 films that will be shown throughout the week of the festival (April 28- May 5).

Question: What inspired you to enter your short film into SHORTS 2012?

Ella Macintyre: The film was made as a third year project at University and I wanted to enter it into SHORTS 2012 because I had been to the festival before and seen the type of films that they play and I liked their line-up. SHORTS 2012 presents a great opportunity for me to have people see Choking Hazard especially because SHORTS 2012 is so different from other festivals as it is at a different venue with a really nice vibe.


Question: Can you share with us what your short film, Choking Hazard is about?

Ella Macintyre: Choking Hazard is a two and a half minute short that is a conversation between a brother and sister who are at a restaurant where the brother gets a fish bone, in his mouth and nearly chokes which prompts an argument on the best way to help someone who is choking. There is a twist at the end too, which I won't give away!


Question: What inspired you to write and direct Choking Hazard?

Ella Macintyre: Choking Hazard is inspired by a conversation my family and I had where no one could agree on the best way to help someone who is choking as there are false truths about how to help someone or what hurts them more than helps them.


Question: How has Choking Hazard been received by your audiences, so far?

Ella Macintyre: It's been good; it's always nice to see the film with an audience and to get the laugh at the end which is a mood booster! Choking Hazard was shown at a comedy festival in WA and I wasn't able to get out there but it was screened with other black comedies and the audiences response was great.


Question: Can you talk about the process of creating Choking Hazard?

Ella Macintyre: I created Choking Hazard as my third year project at University and I believe Kodak donated three rolls of film for our class to make three short films and we didn't have a lot to work with which is why they had to be short and we decided to write them within the class. I had a short script that I wanted to see made and it was nice to be able to shoot Choking Hazard on film because that's not an opportunity you get, these days especially as an emerging filmmaker because it is quite expensive to develop.


Question: Where and with who was the short filmed?

Ella Macintyre: The class was broken into smaller groups and we shot Choking Hazard on location at Campus. We made a Ballroom look like a restaurant as best we could and it was really good fun and quiet low stress to work with actors, I had worked with before.

I had worked with Cameron before, who plays the brother and I was friends with Lucy who played the sister. I actually had Cameron in mind when I was writing Choking Hazard and I thought Lucy would be a good match as well because she has a humour that I like and I knew what she would respond to as a friend. The other actor has been working in Adelaide for a while and the producer of Choking Hazard knew of her.


Question: What or who originally inspired you to begin creating short films?

Ella Macintyre: I really love television, storytelling and films and I wanted to learn skills to produce and direct my own projects. At University I had a good mix of hands on, production and theory as well with my course.


Question: Are you currently working on any other short films?

Ella Macintyre: I am. I finished my honours last year where I finished another short film which has the same theme as Choking Hazard, a comedy with a twist at the end.

I am in the process of another project where we have just realised a small trailer online for Wastelander Panda which is a highbred Panda who lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You can view the trailer at http://vimeo.com/35546493. The trailer went viral in the first couple of days and we just finished a possible marketing/funding campaign and received $24,000 which will allow us to do a few more episodes of Wastelander Panda. I was the Producer of Marketing and Distribution on this project.


Interview by Brooke Hunter