In this week's episode we chat to Paul Ireland, director, and Damian Hill, writer & star of the new independent feature Pawno. The film recently screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival and will soon be screening again at Cinefest OZ.
On what the film is about:
Damian Hill - “All set in one day, set in barkly street in footscray. Based about 40% at an aging pawnbrokers. It’s about 12-14 characters which come in and out."
Paul Ireland - “Their lives intersect and clash throughout the course of the day, and we’ve got a beautiful little love story running through it. it’s about life and hope. It’s got a lot of heart.”
On writing:
Paul Ireland - “If when you read a script, and if you just take out all the names at the side of it, and you read down it, and it’s all sounding the same, well you’ve not got the characterisation there. So if you hear it singing a different tune, then you know there’s different characters coming out.”
On how he ended up directing:
Paul Ireland - “I’m just crazy… There was no money yet, or anything. And I went 'I’ll direct it' and I could see his (Damian’s) face going, 'What?'"
On directing and preparing:
Paul - “If it’s cast really well and you get good actors, that’s 70% of your job done there really. Then I rehearsed a lot for a couple of weeks beforehand, all the pawn shop stuff. So I blocked all those scenes out beforehand roughly. We were building the shop, so I’d stop the building to do rehearsing and bring the actors in. So I blocked it all out and when it came to film it, it was already there. It cut down time.”
On working with actors:
Paul - “Trust them, trust an actor's instincts. Believe in them and collaborate with them, the whole things a big collaboration for me really. Listen to them and ideally have your vision of how you see it at the end and make sure you get that vision at the end, but do it working with them.”
