The Australian film industry has recognised Tropfest as a place to nurture young talent. It's a stepping stone between amateur and professional.
Cocteau is someone who has made such a profound impression on me that there's no doubt he's influenced every one of my films.
And the fact that I see so many films really seems to amaze certain people.
The only reason I ever do an independent film is that I believe in it, and I think it has something special to offer. I'm certainly not doing it to be a millionaire.
When I'm shooting, really the audience I'm thinking the hardest about is that first test screening audience who I want to like the film and that first opening weekend audience.
Sometimes you learn more from films that aren't terribly successful and, indeed, sometimes you learn more from real disasters than you do from the ones that succeed.
You finish a project and start looking for something that might interest you. A lot of the films I've made are a reaction to something I've done right before.
I even agree with the new digital ways of filmmaking, where you don't even have physical film in the camera, but to be honest, I wouldn't want to use it.
In my first film, Five Corners, I played a very scary, violent crazed character, and it exposed me to a lot of directors.
I'm always aiming for some magic in films if I can find a mystical quality either in a song or in a moment or a character's intention.
I'd like to do a piece of Shakespeare. Any upcoming Shakespeare film. Just a bit to say I did a classic.
Films must all have the same structure. All of this to guarantee box office bonanza, which of course it never does, but that's another discussion entirely.
Between Twitter and Facebook, early word of mouth for a film can destroy it immediately or take something you've never heard of and make it a huge hit.
Let's say there are things about 'G.I. Joe' that you specifically expect and some things that need to be in the film at certain points, whether it be relationships or certain costume aspects.
You want to know if anyone's going to go see your film. You shouldn't worry about it or get hung up on it. So yea, you kind of monitor it.
I remember being inspired myself when smaller films, whether it's 'Beasts' or 'Winter's Bone,' wound up in the Oscars lineup.
Films exhaust me, they do, and I often want nothing more to do with them, but I'm continually surprised at the resurgence of the impulse to come back and do it all over again.
I'm trying to interpret the film through the director's head, but it all comes out through me. So, a composer is kind of like a psychic medium.
I like Soderbergh, Spielberg, Lucas. There's a lot of talented guys out there obviously, and if you're a fan of films, you have to look at that stuff and learn from them.
I like films better than the theater because you have to spend so much energy projecting your voice from the stage in the sheer effort to be heard.
I've been lucky enough to do theatre, film, and television for a career. Unless I get offered a job as an astronaut, I won't stray too far from it.
