Michael McCall in a scene from Wade K. Savage’s Barrow.

Ahead of the 26th Annual WA Screen Awards on Tuesday, 14 July, Cinema Australia will be taking a look at three films nominated in the category of Best Short Film – The Fan, Tango Underpants and Barrow.

You can find our feature on the categories forth nomination, Factory 293, here.

BARROW:
Article written by Peter Gurbiel (Writer/Producer) and Wade K. Savage (Writer/Director)

The Concept

Wade: Pete and I had just finished making The Owl and wanted to move onto something that we could turn into either a feature film or a TV series. I had been kicking around this idea of a young female entomologist and I thought her origin story would make a great short.  I love ‘Silence of the Lambs’ so I wanted to write a character that could be compared to Clarice Starling.

Pete: After Wade’s initial pitch there were two key elements that stood out to distinguish the production from other short films – firstly, a distinctive, strong female lead was at the centre of the narrative, and secondly the opportunity to play with time and narrative structure in a unique and compelling way were the big ticket items around which we would focus development.

Wade: We thought it would be a good for the Film and Television Institute’s “LINK” funding program, so we threw about ideas early on, on how we saw the film coming together. Balancing something nuanced with something entertaining was key – as well as producing an enticing narrative.

Pete: The film needed to be two things: one – it needed to be entertaining and accessible for broad audiences. And the other – it needed to push the boundaries in terms of both story and also technical execution. And looking back now, we’ve managed to nail both of those on Barrow.

Developing and Writing Barrow

Pete: It’s always a great pleasure working closely with Wade, but Barrow has been an even greater joy as a return to his love of genre storytelling. The initial pass of the script was dripping with heavily researched detail focusing on forensic entomology and contemporary procedural practices, and it’s not surprising that many of those details remain in the final cut of the film.

Wade: Writing with Pete always gives me a lot more confidence with my own writing, because I just know how damn good he is. His script for The Owl was beautiful and I knew that this project allowed us to collate both our styles.  It was fun, because I was able to go back to my horror roots a little more. Carly’s also a fascinating character to write, with a depth of complexity rarely seen in a lot of female characters today.

Pete: Building a world where time is a constantly fluctuating element of the central story was a major structural challenge, and is perhaps Barrow’s most distinctive technical feature. Flashbacks can often interrupt pacing and pull audiences out of films, but we worked really hard to bleed the past into the present, and create an immersive journey for both the characters and the audience. A large part of this was writing and designing key set pieces that could be captured in-camera with the budget and schedule limitations that we had, and working practically also has an old-school aesthetic of it’s own and a craftsmanship that we think savvy audiences will really appreciate.

Wade: When you spend long enough in the indie sector, you are always writing for what’s possible. Even with a budget behind us, we knew the kind of images we wanted to capture would be difficult. We were also weened on a generation of filmmakers who did everything practically, so we have a natural aversion to heavy CGI VFX. That means, we had to write scenes that could be created in-camera.  From a director’s point of view, I really wanted to see if we could balance our natural performances with our more exciting moments. I think we accomplished both.

Emma (Caris Eves) and Carly (Amanda Woodhams).

The Shoot

Pete: We were working on a six day schedule, across 24 scenes. However, unlike most shorts there are few locations that are repeated in Barrow. And on the couple of times we did revisit the same location in the script, it was twenty years apart and may as well physically have been a different location altogether in terms of set dressing or design, such was the amount of work required to prep each sequence.

Wade: Barrow was a very technical shoot for me. We had a selection of key scenes that all required very particular variables to get right. We also had a large amount of locations, some of which we had to change or move to in the same day. Both our DP and Production designer were amazing in this regard. Our first Damian Giglietta did a great job, and Pete was incredible putting it all together.  It’s easily one of the trickiest films I’ve had to shoot, but the results are breathtaking.

Pete: During pre-production we focused intensely on logistics and location changes, particularly for the advanced art department schedule to ensure that they remained a step ahead of the main shooting crew. The key abandoned house set featured in the film was actually shot over five separate locations, including a unique set build for the film’s climax, and is a testament to the teams led by Production Designer Alana Starcevich and DP George Davis in matching the separate sets and locations seamlessly.

Wade: The thing I was most pleased about during the shoot was the fact that we were able to balance our time for technical sequences and performances. Working with performers is my favourite thing to do on set, and both Amanda Woodhams and Caris Eves were absolute pros. They were troopers during some tricky scenarios, and they really brought their “A” game. I also got the chance to work with the young and very talented Violet Ivers-Bradley. Despite it being her first film, she did great.

Post Production

Pete: Having designed the film from the ground up to be realised as practically as possible, we saw the benefits throughout the post pipeline with everything we needed already in the can. On the exteriors there was some sky replacement and the expected matching of shots in the grade. There was additional detailed work to help distinguish the present from the past, and there was some delicate colour matching of hair and skin tones between our lead actress and the actress playing her younger self a couple of decades earlier in the story.

Wade: I worked early on with editor Lawrie Silvestrin ASE going through the script, so we had a very good idea on how the film would come together in post. There was always a fine balance on the style of the edit, especially so when dealing with the past and the present. As we had a finale sequence which brought the whole film together, we spent a lot of time getting it just right.

Pete: It was wonderful seeing the images coming together for the first time in the edit, and after the initial assembly to take a deep breathe and realise ‘It works!’ All the elements were playing together nicely, and vindication that we squeezed every cent and opportunity out of the budget to get those production values on screen. It’s a beautiful looking show.

Wade: We also spent a lot of time getting the score right. I really put Dave Richardson and Steve McCall through their paces on the score, as we had to smash the right notes in the right places where we could. In the end, it really benefited the end product. Coupled with the mix by Kim Lord and colour timing by Noah Norton we produced a really beautiful looking and sounding film. I’d have to say it’s our best so far.

Things death was a lonely one.

Now

Pete: We’re really looking forward to seeing how the film competes on the festival circuit. Already we’re noticing a trend of heavy vfx films with the budgets to match that are up for awards alongside Barrow, and while it’s inevitable that vfx tech and opportunities continue to open up to emerging filmmakers, we’re excited to watch audiences respond to bold and challenging storytelling and pushing their expectations of what can be realised on screen. It’s worked for us before, and it’s becoming a real trademark of the way we do business.

Wade: Pete and I pride ourselves on making nuanced beautiful films that are both gripping and entertaining. I wholeheartedly believe we’ve outdone ourselves with Barrow. We had a lot of fantastic help along the way, so we can’t wait to see what results this film can muster. I’m also happy that we are creating such a strong and unique filmic legacy together. Our work has a very particular style and that comes through in every frame of our films. I can’t wait to see how audiences respond to Barrow.

You can find out more about the film at http://www.facebook.com/barrowfilm.

Information on the 26th Annual WA Screen Awards can be found at http://www.fti.asn.au.