Richard Jamze and Natalie Rose’s journey from indie underdogs to emerging filmmakers is nothing short of inspiring.

The filmmaking duo recently released their debut feature, Santa Hunters, a Christmas comedy that begins as a lighthearted romp but transforms into a heartfelt story about dreamers defying doubt. The mockumentary follows three hunters, Kris (Chris Slater), Eve (Janelle Bailey) and Nick (Andrew Lowe) as they each try to catch the jolly man himself, Santa Claus.

Made on a shoestring budget, Santa Hunters is a testament to the pair’s determination. They not only wrote, directed and produced the film themselves but also shot, edited, and completed nearly 200 visual effects shots on their own. They even catered for the production.

Remarkably, just two weeks after wrapping Santa Hunters, the pair jumped straight into their second feature, How Quickly Clouds Move, directed alongside Armin Dzafic. This Australian-European-Bosnian drama stars Dzafic, Karlo Bilic, and Milijana Cancar, and is currently in post-production.

With a premium limited series and two new feature films in pre-production, there seems to be no stopping Jamze and Rose.

“These characters are doing the same thing we are. They’re surrounded by people who don’t necessarily believe in them or don’t think it’s plausible to pull off what they’re doing, but they’re pursuing it anyway.”

 

Interview by Matthew Eeles

To me, Christmas is a reminder of who we are and where we’ve come from, which is also one of the main themes of Santa Hunters. What does Christmas time mean to each of you personally?

Natalie Rose To me, Christmas is just a weird day. I always felt like the movies never touched on the kind of Christmases I experienced, where it was a lot of anxiety and confusion. I do have a big family that I love, but I’ve always felt a bit different from them in some way. I was excited to make a Christmas film that represents my experiences of Christmas while still getting to the heart of what Christmas is about. Our film ends by acknowledging that Christmas is for family and that it’s about connection, but Santa Hunters tells it in a way that’s a bit more authentically messy to me.

Richard Jamze We talked a lot about that, that there’s a specific mess to Christmas that you don’t see a lot of in Christmas films, outside of Die Hard, which remains the best Christmas movie of all time. [Laughs]. Santa Hunters is about showing a different side to Christmas. We were very deliberate in setting people up for what they expected to watch and then pulling the rug out from underneath them, taking these characters on a deeper journey than maybe you’re anticipating, and authentically showing that messy time of year for what it can be.

You’re right, and the trailer is deceiving too. Your central characters in this film are all hunting down Santa Claus. What early childhood memories come to mind when you think of Santa?

Richard I held onto the belief for maybe a little too long. [Laughs]. I really wanted to believe in Santa Claus. It was just a nice time for the family growing up that way. Movies were a big deal in our house, so we always had Christmas traditions of watching films, and it was always a lovely time for us to gather together and watch movies. Home Alone was a big one. Die Hard was in there. Mum always used to throw massive gatherings for Christmas, and regardless of the number of people attending, it was always a huge event with copious amounts of food. Christmas is always a lovely layover from the world outside, especially during school years because there’s such an extended break.

Natalie I grew up in a very Christian household, so my parents laid the groundwork early on that Santa is not the main point of Christmas, and I found it so embarrassing. I always loved Christmas lights and I always wanted Christmas lights, but my mum refused because a friend’s house burned down, so that was a stressful thing for her to consider. We came home one day, and Dad had put Christmas lights up, but what he did was create a huge crucifix of Christmas lights on the front lawn between three palm trees. He made this massive cross, and that was it. [Laughs]. There was no Santa, there was no reindeer. There was just a giant multicoloured crucifix on our lawn, and I was so embarrassed because we were the weird family doing weirdly aggressive Christmas lights. [Laughs]. I was always so annoyed because I was like, “That’s the wrong holiday. Christmas is the birth; Easter is the crucifix.” [Laughs]. I always wanted to believe in Santa Claus and celebrate Santa. I guess that’s why I could never really make a more traditional Christmas film because I never had that growing up.

As well as artistic collaborators, you’re partners in real life. What are some of the pros and cons of making a movie with your partner?

Richard How much time have you got? [Laughs]. It is a blessing and a curse in the best ways. Nat and I are childhood sweethearts, so we’ve been together for 12 years.

Natalie Twelve years this year, yes.

Richard We met in high school, and it just felt right. We were really lucky, and we had started working on art projects as far back as school, so we’ve been doing this for a while now. The natural evolution of that was doing a feature film. We made a bunch of short films together beforehand. We both went to different universities and worked separately for a while with our respective peer groups. But after that, it was an interesting time. It sort of ties in with the reason we made Santa Hunters, as I started to notice that our peer group was starting to drift apart. We weren’t making things quite as frequently, and I didn’t want that to happen. So Nat and I looked to each other. We wanted to take the leap and jump into a full-length feature. So that’s how it started. But as far as pros and cons go, it is great because the person that you’re working closest with is always there…

Natalie But then the con is that the person you’re closest with is always there. [Laughs]. On the one hand, there’s a non-verbal communication because we know each other very well, and we’ve worked together for so long. I can very easily intuit what Richard is thinking or feeling, and we can problem-solve together really well. But at the same time, there’s no impartial third person because you are dealing with the problems of making and creating together, but then you’re also going to have an argument about whose turn it is to wash the dishes or something like that.

Richard It was rare, but one or two mornings we’d get into a bit of a tiff or something, just normal everyday stuff, probably dishes, and then there’d be a moment of silence and we’d be like, “All right, well, we have to go to set now.” We had to be united to create something while putting our entire selves into it. Film sets are exhausting anyway, so the fact that we were both doing the same hours and then we’d go home together meant there was no reprieve. All that said—and I think Natalie would agree—I wouldn’t want it any other way. We’re very aware that it’s an extremely lucky thing to have been together as long as we have already, but also to be with someone that you get to make stuff with and work together with. I know it’s very rare for a couple to do that. It’s more common to part ways for eight hours a day and not really know what the other person is doing. So being able to work together is pretty cool.

Australia is fortunate to have many filmmaking duos working at the moment, which is so great to see. Is making movies together something you’d like to continue to do?

Richard One hundred percent. We have multiple movies written. We’re planning five to seven years ahead. So yeah, till death do us part, man. [Laughs].

You mentioned university and studying, but what’s your education into filmmaking, respectively?

Natalie I went to The University of Queensland. I studied writing and film and TV studies, and I took as many drama electives as I could fit into my schedule. So I never had direct film school experience except that being partnered with Richard, I was always helping out. I would go to sets, and I was very involved, even though I didn’t go to film school.

Richard I have a very stock-standard, traditional story of wanting to be a filmmaker from a young age. I started making movies on a camcorder. I took all the film classes that I could. I was very lucky that my high school in Townsville had a film class, so we were able to make movies. I went to Griffith Film School in Brisbane, so my pathway into film was much more traditional. And the great thing about that is the people we were working with on Santa Hunters, and even on the next movie and the movies we’re planning to make going forward, are mostly from that cohort that we met at the time. So it’s pretty much the same gang that we keep coming back to and working with over and over.

Do you have the same taste in films?

Richard We have very different tastes.

Natalie Completely different. [Laughs]. Almost opposites. We appreciate each other’s tastes, but if it was up to me, we would not watch the same film. But I enjoy the films Richard picks a lot.

Richard It’s often one of us being like, “No, we’re watching this movie. We’re going to sit down, and it’s going to be awesome!” [Laughs]. I tend to lean towards Criterion, arthouse, very intense movies sometimes. Some of my favourite directors are Kelly Reichardt, who made Meek’s Cutoff, which is a personal favourite of mine, Wendy and Lucy, and Old Joy. I love slow cinema; it’s a deep love of mine. Our last short film, Miss Nothing, is very much in that tone. Sofia Coppola is another favourite.

Natalie I’ll watch pretty much anything, and I’ll watch it to the end. I don’t like quitting. [Laughs]. A few weeks ago, I was so excited to find out that Richard had never watched Stepbrothers, so we got to watch that together.

Richard That’s very different from what I usually watch. One of the movies we’re working on at the moment is a Western Hollywood-style musical, and that was something I didn’t grow up with at all. Natalie has been giving me an education on classical Western Hollywood musicals. We watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers recently. It was exactly that scenario of like, “Oh, I dunno if I’m going to enjoy this.” And she said, “No, you’re sitting down, and you’re going to watch it.” I get to the end, and I’m like, “This is a masterpiece!”

Natalie Yeah. It’s genuinely one of the best. I’m not as into the filmmaker side of movie watching. I’ll enjoy anything if something has my interest. So I can’t really name directors specifically or genres, but I’ll really give anything a go.

Richard She keeps me off my high horse. She stops me from being unbelievably pretentious. [Laughs]. I think we balance each other out in a really nice way.

It certainly sounds like it. How did Santa Hunters come about?

Natalie Years back, I came up with the idea, and I can’t remember exactly why, but I just liked the idea of exploring belief and specifically how far belief can take you—even belief in a really ridiculous thing. Adults trying to find Santa Claus with the belief that he’s in some way or form real, and findable, was so inherently unbelievable. It kind of undercuts the intensity of belief in something and passion for something, and I think it’s a great vehicle to explore that theme. In the same way that I think it’s a ridiculous notion to say, “I’m going to be a filmmaker,” it’s equally as ridiculous to say, “I’m going to hunt down Santa.”

Richard Our way in was when we clicked and thought, “Oh, these characters are doing the same thing we are.” It’s really not that different. They’re surrounded by people who don’t necessarily believe in them or don’t think it’s plausible to pull off what they’re doing, but they’re pursuing it anyway. And that was a moment that it clicked, and I was like, “Okay, I know how to make this movie now.”

Was it always going to be a comedy?

Natalie In my opinion, it’s not a comedy, but that’s because I don’t really identify with a genre comedy. I find so many things funny. I will honestly say I’ve never told a joke in my life, but I’m a very funny person. I don’t think there’s a formula to comedy. I don’t necessarily think you can extrapolate it out into some sort of teachable or definable genre. I think this film falls into comedy because it has a lot of funny moments, but so does life. And I would honestly never say that I’m a comedy writer because it’s such a loaded genre.

Richard Our approach was to write something where the characters are dead serious, and it’s their commitment that makes it funny. I think that’s what works best in taking this film from humour to drama. You sit with them long enough to realise they’re dead serious. You stop laughing at some point and begin to pity them instead. That was how this film came about. Interestingly, we had some insight that it would be funny because the original version of the script was a play that Natalie wrote for her third year in drama school. Am I right that you had to write something and then someone else was to direct it?

Natalie Yeah. In semester one of third year, we were assigned to write a 10-minute play, and I’d already had the idea for Santa Hunters. I’d tried to write it, but I found it really hard. The reason I went for Santa Hunters was because I loved the story and wanted to tell it, but I was finding it so difficult that reinventing it as a play cut to the core of the characters I wanted to explore. I did the assignment, and it was good in the first semester. In the directing course in the second semester, plays from the first semester were selected. So you see it through to the end. I wasn’t able to do that course because I’d maxed out my drama electives and had to do a grammar syntax-style class. I couldn’t fit it in. A friend I’d met in the first semester ended up directing the play, and she’d chosen specifically to do Santa Hunters.

That’s a unique opportunity for any filmmaker. What a treat to have it played out in front of you in a theatre format.

Richard It was very, very cool. It was a really fun night. It was bizarre to watch it happen live in front of people. I could see people laugh, which was kind of strange. [Laughs].

Natalie Even just the fact that it had been taken over by someone else—it was a fully hands-off experience for us. We did not have any say in how it was going to play out, and it still worked.

Was it always going to be filmed as a mockumentary?

Natalie Yep.

Richard From the start. It just felt right. And we also knew that for the budget we had, we could pull it off. Putting my producer hat on, I was confident that we could pull this off. I also shot this myself, which is another story, but we knew if the camera work was a little sloppy, we could just say it’s part of the documentary.[Laughs].

Natalie It also captured the spirit of making it thematically within the genre of documentary. And I loved mockumentary already. I loved Kenny and I loved Razzle Dazzle, which is a lesser-known mockumentary from Australia. So these are two huge influences.

Even though Santa is the perceived enemy here, we learn throughout the film that the real enemy is the characters themselves. Tell us about developing these three lead characters throughout the writing process.

Richard It was really interesting because we started with that play. It was a 10-minute play with three characters, so they all had about three minutes to say their piece. And so we had a lot of time to expand and deepen each character. It took quite a while. In the original draft, we didn’t have supporting characters for each main character. As we explored each person, we found someone to pair them with naturally that worked really well. So it took a long time. We did a lot of character sheets and explored who the characters were and all the standard story structure of what are each character’s wants and needs. And also just a lot of writing and rewriting. It was really us just writing and rewriting the script for a long time. I think there are more pages that we deleted than there are in the final script.

There’s a real emotional depth to these characters. It’s evident how much work went into creating and developing them. Did the characters change once the film was cast, or is what we see on screen as it was written?

Natalie They changed hugely. Originally, Kristopher was a 70-year-old, very brittle man who was definitely not going to survive an Arctic journey. But because we cast our friend Chris as Kristopher, it was just too perfect to not have him in it. So that aged him down. And then Evelyn was a really difficult character for me to write, and I felt a lot of pressure because she’s the female lead. She’s not just the supporting character. She’s got to drive the story, but I also didn’t want to sugarcoat it. I wanted her to really make some strong choices to the point where at the end of the film, she’s a completely different person. She’s gone beyond anything she would have imagined. But honestly, Nick was the easiest and the most consistent character. We did have a few different versions of Nick, where it was like maybe he stands out as the American, and maybe he’s got a really big house or he’s got a lot more money to put towards his hunt. But as a character and his motivation, it was very easy with Nick. There’s a lot of direct reference to Nick and our North Queensland upbringing.

Richard I should flag that Chris, Natalie, and I met when we were going to film school. He was in the same cohort as us as a mature-age student. He worked for Qantas for something like 40 years, retired, and decided he was going to pursue his lifelong dream. So it was very much in line with that, and we sort of hit it off in film school. He had just done his first theatre performance, which we went to see—a live, interactive play. And he was phenomenal. He was so good. I don’t know if you’re aware of CrackerMilk, but they’ve got a YouTube channel now with over a million subscribers, and they’re doing really well. Chris has a role in that, and he’s starting to hit the big time. So when people watch the trailer, they recognise him, which was not our intention at all. His casting was prior to that, but it was pure happenstance. And when we saw him on stage, we realised that he could really act. The cast was awesome. Once we got them together, we definitely did some rewriting to fine-tune these characters for those actors.

I tried not to have a favourite, but Chris’ performance was a real standout for me. Can you tell us about casting Janelle and Andrew?

Natalie We knew that it was going to be hard. I fell in love with Janelle, who plays Eve, because we saw her in a performance of The Rabbit Hole.

Richard Which Chris recommended.

Natalie Yeah, they had worked together before. We saw Janelle perform, and after that, we were standing outside of the theatre chatting, and I was talking to her about acting and she just lit up. She was just so enthusiastic, and there was this beautiful purple light on her, and she was just effervescent as she was talking about how passionate she was about acting. And I thought, “That’s Eve. That’s the level of passion and reverence Eve has.”

Richard I think we literally got in the car afterwards and turned to each other with the same thought, “Do we ask her to audition? She seemed like Eve.”

Natalie She very much fell into Eve’s character easily, I think.

Richard Nick was super interesting. We did traditional casting calls and we had a lot of people read for Nick, and that was really tough. We couldn’t find anyone who quite nailed what we were going for. We did callbacks and all kinds of stuff. And one day Andrew’s audition came in, and it was exactly what we pitched, right down to the fact that his daughter in the background was yelling and screaming, and he was just powering through. He did not stop the audition. He had a one-year-old at the time, and he just powered through the audition.

Natalie He embodied it so beautifully.

Richard Yeah, it was incredible. It’s a great feeling when you find the right person and you’re like, “Yep, that’s the one. Let’s go!”

Do you have a favourite character?

Richard They’re definitely like children to us in a weird way. For me, it’s probably Kris too, only because he opens and closes the movie, and he’s sort of the backbone of the film for me. And it’s interesting—I assumed that that would be the case for everyone simply because he sort of holds the movie together to me, but it’s not the case in the test screenings we’ve done. There are people who prefer Nick; there are people who prefer Janelle as Eve. There are even people who like Andy more than anyone else.

Natalie I could not possibly answer that. Every one of them breaks my heart perfectly. Even the supporting characters are phenomenal. I think on the page, I would’ve easily been able to pick a favourite, but knowing the film as it stands now, they were all so perfect.

As far as sets go, the film has a lot of coverage, but the real standout is Kristopher’s venture to the Arctic. Would you say bringing those Arctic scenes to life was the most challenging part of this film?

Richard Yeah, for sure.

Natalie Logistically, it was a challenge to find snow.

Richard There were many phone calls to New Zealand and Tasmania and Canberra because we were committed to the idea of doing it for real, getting as much in-camera as we could. And not just because we thought it was going to look better, but especially at this budget level—we couldn’t spend money on visual effects. If we could afford VFX, it wasn’t going to stand up compared to us finding somewhere with a lot of snow and filming it. And we just got crazy, crazy lucky because Chris could get himself a really cheap flight down to Canberra, which is where we ended up filming.

Natalie Mount Perisher happened to have the heaviest snowfall that year.

Richard As we were going there, it looked like there was going to be no snow at all. And then the day after we arrived, it was this monumental downpour of snow. We just looked around like, “Alright, I guess this is our sign that we need to be making this movie.” It was crazy.

Natalie That was just Chris, Richard, and I, so it was very bare-bones.

Richard There’s a super wide shot where Kris falls over in the snow. That’s actually Natalie as a body double for Chris. [Laughs].

Natalie Yeah, that’s me. [Laughs].

Richard That shot is digitally enhanced too. I have a background in visual effects, so I did a big matte painting where there’s a road with a bunch of people driving up and down.

Natalie Yes, it’s beside a car park. And some people honked at me.

Richard I think they genuinely thought she had a big fall, and people stopped and honked.

Natalie Also, Kris’ Arctic cabin scene—that was a nightmare to find a cabin that was accessible and available that looked like it was in the Arctic. So we ended up building that out of pallets and we put it up in our living room. I got the pallets from work, and it’s actually in our garage right now. [Laughs].

You’ve already shot your next film, How Quickly Clouds Move. What can you tell us about that?

Richard So Armin Dzafic, a good friend of ours, brought us this script towards the tail end of making Santa Hunterscalled How Quickly Clouds Move. I loved it straight away. It is very much in that arthouse niche, so I fell in love with it very quickly. And we workshopped it with him and got it into a place that we were all really excited about. And then we started looking at cast, and we managed to find a really amazing cast as we submitted Santa Hunters. And we worked out that the schedule was going to be that we would finish Santa Hunters then shoot for two weeks straight immediately after. So we literally had no break. We went straight into this next movie, which was awesome. It was really lovely to do. This time we got a DOP, which was a smart move. So the film looks wonderful, and it’s this really beautiful little arthouse movie about long-lost childhood friends reuniting. The film has this European twist to it because Armin’s family is from all over Europe and Bosnia. So it’s this really lovely story. It’s like an Australian-European-Bosnian movie that we haven’t quite seen on screen before. That was the thing that really excited us about it. We directed it with him because he wanted to star in it. So there are three directors on that one. I also produced at the same time, which I didn’t think I would enjoy as much as I did.

Natalie, what was your experience on How Quickly Clouds Move considering you didn’t write it?

Natalie It was really freeing because there was no preconceived notion. Obviously, we’d written Santa Hunters for so long, and we had the idea well before that. So to just be thrown into this whole new story was exciting. It was just so liberating, and it got me to focus more on serving Armin’s story rather than necessarily focusing on my perception of it. So it was really beautiful to do with such a close friend, honestly.

Richard Yeah, it’s lovely. We’ve just seen the rough cut, and it looks phenomenal.

Santa Hunters is out now via Amazon Prime.