CREATING

Producer Jonathon Green describes Daniel Nettheim's debut feature as a film about 'a guy who needs a root…and eventually gets one.' We look behind the scenes on the making of this uniquely Australian coming-of-age comedy.

Portraying the inner-city anxieties of a small group of twentysomethings, ANGST represents the feature film debut for a small group of talented young filmmakers with one collective intention - to make a movie for 15 to 25 year olds that is honest, uncompromised and above all else, fun.

Dean, ANGST's anxious leading man, lives in Kings Cross, loves horror films and works in a Kings Cross videostore. Anthony O'Connor, ANGST's 23-year-old writer, lives in Kings Cross, loves horror films and used to work in a Kings Cross videostore. While by no means an autobiographical work, ANGST's grounding in O'Connor's personal experience answers any question of the integrity of the film's representation of inner-city youth.

Frank and funny, ANGST tells the story of a group of horror film devotees living in Sydney's Kings Cross. There's Dean, a cynical, sexually frustrated videostore employee with a bad case of unresolved love. Then there are his flatmates Ian and Jade. Ian works in an adult bookstore, waiting for his break as a standup comedian, whereas Jade doesn't work at all. She's content to smoke pot and watch videos while she can still get away with it. Wandering into our characters' lives is street kid Mole, who challenges Jade's lifestyle by stealing the trio's trusty VCR, and the alluring May, a Goth chick who Dean develops an over-the-counter crush on.

The film, described by the filmmakers as a "twisted urban comedy" has its beginnings in the small Kings Cross video store where Anthony O'Connor worked. Out of this and other inevitable life experiences associated with being a 19-year-old living in the bohemian yet seedy environs of the Cross, O'Connor started writing the screenplay for ANGST.

Says O'Connor, "I was 19 years old, my first year out of school. And I had written a couple of bad horror movies, derivative versions of EVIL DEAD that everybody hated. I thought I'd write something more personal, which was about a frustrated horror movie writer. So I wrote a 90 page script called ANGST FOR THE MEMORIES - a title which was quickly changed. My mother suggested I take it to a screenwriting course, which I did. Daniel came up and said 'Can I read your script?' and after realising he wasn't trying to come onto me, he had a read and that was it."

An Australian Film, Television and Radio School (A.F.T.R.S.) graduate who had gained international attention for his acclaimed short films THE BEAT MANIFESTO (winner of two Australian Film Institute Awards) and THE THIRD STROKE, Daniel Nettheim was looking for a longform film project that featured characters of the age O'Connor was writing about.

O'Connor's lecturer Steve Worland (co-writer of the upcoming BOOTMEN) suggested Daniel take a look at the early-draft screenplay that was regularly cracking up his writing class. O'Connor and Nettheim met. Says Nettheim, "I think he was a little bit wary and suspicious at first because it is the sort of thing that doesn't normally happen. To use the cliche, here is a young guy, working in a video shop, writing a screenplay and then someone takes a serious interest in it. I think he was happy to go along with the development process with no real expectations but just for the benefit of someone being interested in it. I don't think that either of us necessarily thought that it would get to the stage of being financed. You have to have that dream to keep you motivated and to get you though all the rejections and knockbacks."

Enter Jonathon Green, a friend of Nettheim's and fellow A.F.T.R.S. graduate looking for a commercial project to produce as his first feature. Green met Nettheim at an A.F.T.R.S. pitch session, where Nettheim was pitching a short film, ODD JOBS. Green liked the idea and approached him, eventually producing ODD JOBS then THE THIRD STROKE. Says Nettheim "We work together well and enjoy each others company. Jonathon certainly pushed me once I graduated to find a project, and I was happy just to make another short film, whereas Jonathon is a bigger picture man."

Nettheim was content to make ANGST as a no-budget feature if necessary, but it was Green who, after reading the script, felt it deserved more. "Once I met the writer and saw the potential, I could see it was a fantastic script which needed some work, but had all the elements that were good in terms of being for a specific audience. I also thought it was the right project for Daniel to direct because it was pretty close to his sensibilities and he could make it something really special."

Adds Nettheim, "I really wanted to make a film about the 15-25 year old age group, and because Anthony was that age, and he knew the characters and the lifestyle so well, the script had an incredible amount of authenticity as well as very clever dialogue."

Nettheim had proved a deft handler of comedy in the past with his short films. "I enjoy getting something through to an audience, and when you are making comedy, you can actually hear an audience laugh and know it's working."

"I think there is enough glum and gloomy stuff out there at the moment. I liked ANGST's message of hope, which is basically saying when times are bad they will get better. Also, to hold on to your youthful spirit, and not become too caught up with your own problems."

Summarising the film's themes, O'Connor says, "It's about people in their first few years after high school trying to find their identity and place in the world. It's about small seemingly insignificant journeys that really are significant. Everyone wants to find happiness and have some sort of goal or dream. They want to be a functioning part of society. The theme is about wanting to be something, rather than be left behind."

Green jokingly describes the film as being "about a guy who needs a root…and gets one. ANGST is about being young, moving out of home, making your way through the world and dealing with all the hang-ups that happen in your early twenties. It's about the time between leaving school and getting a life. And these people are in the process now of becoming secure about who they are and that is where ANGST resides."

The ANGST screenplay went through seven drafts in total, with the New South Wales Film and Television supporting the project via script development funding, and ultimately as an investor. Green spent nearly two years shepherding the complicated and delicate funding process, with one key player falling out while he was on honeymoon. With the benefit of longtime support from Chris Oliver at the Australian Film Finance Corporation and Mike Selwyn at United International Pictures, ANGST finally won the backing of the A.F.F.C., Beyond Films International, U.I.P. and the New South Wales Film and Television Office.

With the budget in place, it was crucial to the success of the film that a talented, youthful cast be found. The challenge was finding actors who were not only the right age and profile, but who could work as a group in a complementary way.

"The problem with the age group we were looking at is that there was no-one who was the right age who had a marketable reputation." Nettheim explains. "We wanted to get the film out there and we wanted it to sell, but it wasn't going to be at the expense of compromising the believability of the characters."

Nettheim and Green auditioned almost every young actor in Australia, or at least it felt like it. After meeting literally hundreds of potential Deans, Ians, Jades, Mays and Moles, it was proving difficult to find the right combination of actors. Explains Jonathon Green, "With casting its not just about the individuals, it's about the mix. It's how the people fit together and whether you believe them together that's very, very important. We didn't lock down on anybody until we saw them together. There is a chemistry that does happen between people, and it is either there or it isn't, and they had it."

"Dean was the hardest role to cast, because he is a very specific character, you have to combine some physical qualities with some mental abilities that are a rare combination. We are very fortunate to have found that person in Sam Lewis. We had a few people who came close to getting that part and Sam came in and read for Ian. We all looked at each other and said 'This guy should be reading Dean.'"

The Adelaide based actor had just completed work on the horror film CUT, which co-starred another ANGST cast member Jessica Napier. Also cast was Justin Smith as Ian, Abi Tucker as May and Luke Lennox as Mole. Writer Anthony O'Connor managed to secure a cameo for himself as "Toaster Junkie."

With the same diligence that was expended on casting the film, Green and Nettheim 'cast' their crew to ensure the right energetic, youthful mix was achieved. Many, such as Director of Photography Tristan Milani and Production Designer Tara Kamath, were contemporaries of Nettheim and Green at film school.

"The average age of the crew is 28. We were very interested in having people who were sensitive to the subject matter and we wanted people who were committed to the project. And due to the youthfulness of the material it was younger people who responded. It worked really well, there was an atmosphere of fun while making the film. Given that it's a comedy, obviously that was important." says Green.

The cast spent considerable rehearsal time discussing personal experiences that were relevant to the story, dredging up embarrassing stories of their own "difficult" circumstances. Green, Nettheim, Napier, Lewis and Smith also spent a night in the loungeroom set, drinking beer and watching NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Says Justin Smith "The writing has its own style of dialogue which calls for a particular kind of performance. We got together before we started shooting and part of the rehearsal was really just hanging out, developing a rapport."

Adds Sam Lewis, "I'd worked with Jessica before, on CUT, so I knew her. I didn't meet Justin for quite some time as he was in Melbourne, but Daniel showed me a photo and I thought 'Cool. I could imagine us sitting on the couch.'"

"What made it easier is that the script isn't patronising. The writing has a truthful point of view and there is a lot of funny stuff in there that young people will relate to, that was easy to deliver."

The rehearsal period culminated in a live, non-stop performance of the entire screenplay for a recruited audience. While live read-throughs of screenplays are not uncommon, Jonathon Green isn't aware of anybody ever actually blocking the entire film on a stage and performing it from beginning to end, likening it to the world's earliest audience test screening. The process proved to be enormously rewarding, with some of the feedback from the audience, both during the performance and from a post-'screening' questionnaire, being incorporated into the screenplay.

Says Nettheim, "It was really helpful for the actors to see the story being played out in full, but it was also helpful for us to tweak things that still weren't working. It was all a part of being very thorough with the written material."

Adds Justin Smith, "It was a great thing to do because so much of this film is to do with rhythms and comic timing of moments."

Similarly, the sense of authenticity the team were striving for in writing and performance was a major driving force behind the design and look of the film, which was formulated by Nettheim with Production Designer Tara Kamath and Director of Photography Tristan Milani. Together they examined the work of a number of modern photographers to develop the film's visual style.

"We looked at a lot of photographic work, including that by a New York photographer called Nan Goldin and the German Wolfgang Tillman" says Kamath. There is an essential poetry in Goldin's pictures where domestic things, such as rubbish on a bedside table, can create a really moody atmosphere which we tried to adopt."

Kamath employed deep, dark tones in the design of the Kings Cross flat set, and dressed it with items that reinforced the story's authenticity.

"Dean is a horror buff, so we wanted to give the inside of the house the sort of dark feel of when you watch a TV all the time and never go out. And because we're pitching it at a certain age group and they're very clued up as to what's right and what's not, we had to get right what videos they'd be watching, what posters were on the wall."

Jokes Nettheim, "One week I realised that all the Production Designer and myself had talked about was bongs, dildos, vomit, pot and beer. The conversations were very in-depth. Such as about the consistency of vomit in terms of how thick it would have to be. There were incredibly elaborate meetings and procedures over really disgusting things."

Adds Green "Each day, for reasons of censorship and the eventual rating the film will receive, Tara would come into my office and wave a dildo at me and say 'Is this OK?' On one level it was very flattering."

With a six week shooting schedule and inherent logistical difficulties associated with shooting in and around Kings Cross, locations manager Annelies Norland found various other locations around Sydney to resemble the inner-city suburb. The Kings Cross flat interiors were shot inside a suburban house in Epping, with some exterior shots done on location around Kings Cross. Milani helmed two night shoots there using a small, inconspicuous crew. Much of the street scenes were shot handheld with a minimum of lighting and it was Nettheim and Milani's aim to "bring out the colours of the Cross really beautifully."

Nettheim wanted to capture the feel of Kings Cross which is Bohemian, more akin to the glory days of the Cross in the 1950s and 1960s, rather than the sleazy reputation the Cross is predominantly known for today. "Every city in every country has its version of Kings Cross, where every part of society can intermingle without fear or favour, where junkie and businessman walk in the same space. I didn't want to present the seedy side of Kings Cross because that's not the part that affects our characters. Because ANGST is a romantic story in a way, I wanted the environment to support that thematically - hence the choice to shoot in winter with foggy breath and diffused light and long afternoon shadows."

"I have lived in Kings Cross, and Anthony O'Connor grew up in Victoria St. So when you live there you become oblivious to the touristy, seedy side of it and it becomes background. You become more concerned with the day to day of getting on with your life."

Green, whose office is situated in the Cross, says "Everybody will recognise this place, even if they haven't been to Kings Cross. That melting pot atmosphere is symbolic of the range of opportunity that lies ahead for young people. You could go one way, you could go the other - it's up to you."

Shooting in this environment also presented unique difficulties for the crew. The filmmakers engaged a renowned local security guard who watched over them during the two-day location shoot. Green recalls that if anybody scary approached the set, "he'd just have to look at them and they'd scurry away like a cockroach in the sunlight. "

While the shoot continued Editor Martin Connor began working on an early, progressive cut of the film. Within two days of completion of the shoot, an early assembly was put together and screened for a small audience. Throughout the editing process Martin Connor, Green and Nettheim recruited audiences from nearby schools and universities to gauge target audience response.

Says Green "We had decided that we would always test ourselves right through the entire process. As much as we trust our own instincts we were interested in gauging the instincts of groups by running screenings for the target age group. It was a fantastic thing for us to see whether it was working, or whether it was sufficiently funny and engaging."

As the film makes its way towards national theatrical release ("Just before the Olympics, when the world is looking at Australian culture" says Green) the filmmakers anticipate the audience reaction. "I'd like the audience to feel excited, pleased and satisfied that the characters have taken them on a journey that has made them recognise something about themselves. And have had a good laugh, of course."

Concludes Daniel Nettheim "I want them to feel satisfied. More than anything satisfied that they have been on a journey. Satisfied that what was set up in the films opening has been paid off in its conclusion. Satisfied that they had got to know these characters and satisfied with what has happened to these characters throughout the course of the film. And I think also, ideally, with a happier, more optimistic view of life."