lifelike

Synopsis

Nathan meets Jezza, but can he lead her to a better life before she leads him to a worse one?

Credits

Facilitated by Wollongong City Employment and Training with funding coming from that organisation and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and BlueScope Steel

Cast: Sally Palmer, Sean McInnes, Samuel J. Craig, Hester Gascoigne, Scott Nagy, Chris O'Neill, Naomi Jacobs and Kim Schreiber

Camera Operator: Len Glasser

Editor: Michael Sarain

Writer, producer and director: Simon Luckhurst

Duration

24 minutes

Budget

Approximately $16,000. Mission Australia, Kennard’s Hire, NSW Police (Media Unit), Sony Australia, Napoleon Academy of Makeup (Sydney), Harrigan Ford, Port Kembla Foreshore Park and Wollongong City Council make in-kind contributions.

Music

Music for the film was provided by the Chucky Munroes, A Slow Rip and Julia Clark.

Notes on the Film

I had been researching another project, which had brought me into close contact with many people some of whom were homeless, or substance abusing, or both. As happens, ideas were filed away for the future.

The script that eventually emerged from meeting these people was originally called 'Dark Time', but I felt it was a bit, too, well, dark.

Lifelike was possibly the most developed film I had made at that time. Many of the participants of the Work for the Dole project were highly film literate. Each reading of the script produced more questions from them which meant I had to find more answers. It was a great process and the final draft of the screenplay owes much to the interest of the project's participants.

It wasn't only dialogue, structure and characterisation which were analysed. With increasing numbers of people using the drug methamphetamine, or ice, we found a suitable focal point for our fictional group of homeless people to revolve around.

We shot over four-and-a-half days in locations around Wollongong and edited at WCET. It says something about the interest the film generated that the first scene we shot (which is also the first scene of the movie) had more than sixty people involved in front and behind the cameras.

Watch the movie

Or go to http://www.vimeo.com/7198068



Images

Naomi Jacobs, Chris O'Neill, Scott Nagy and Sean McInnes	Chris O'Neill and Constable Megan Ainsworth of NSW Police
Sally Palmer and Hester Gascoigne	Naomi Jacobs, Scott Nagy, Sean McInnes and Sally Palmer
Sean McInnes	Sally Palmer and Sean McInnes
Sean McInnes	Sally Palmer and Naomi Jacobs
Kim Schreiber, Baily Cheesewright, Scott Nagy, Hester Gascoigne, Sally Palmer and Sean McInnes	Sean McInnes and Sally Palmer
Samuel J. Craig and Sean McInnes	Sean McInnes
Sally Palmer and Sean McInnes	Ashleigh Jago, Sally Palmer and Sean McInnes
Samuel J. Craig	Damo's knees special effects by Sathya de Leeuw and Mehtap Oncu from Napoleon Academy of Makeup
Sally Palmer, Chris O'Neill and Scott Nagy	Chris O'Neill