Crash - Short Film VCA Production Diary 2004

So I am finally here!
In a strange, bittersweet year, that I have likened to “crawling out of my 19 year hole, finally!”. I have survived, learn't and grown at VCA, and although I am not about to pen a Torch Song Trilogy for you, the process of writing this diaries will serve to remind me of the events of an all too brief moment in time as well as communicate the process. So I begin!

“CRASH” is my second VCA film project this year, and although I was quite satisfied with my first film, “Touch”, shot on Beta SP, I felt the need to really push myself, particularly
in the story-telling department, with “CRASH” I felt some measure of doing this.
Being my only second 16mm film project to date, it was important to me to do something powerful and evocative, that pushed my own personal boundaries and some
technical ones as well. On the eve of completing this project I look back at my notes to recollect on the process of making “CRASH”.
david moore 12th october 2004

20th March 2004
This morning I woke with a great urgency to write! I had one of my evocative dreams that was both potent and terrifying at the same time. I literally leapt out of my bed (which at this stage was a single mattress on a cold floor, so leaping was some kind of feat, so lets just say I crawled up, slowly, to my desk!) turned on my computer and wrote an 2 page outline entitled “Touch Footy”. I immediately liked the premise for this film, but the concerned that it may be too long for a 3 minute project, (the length of this brief) the only issue was, I am still in pre-production for my current VCA project entitled “Touch” which is not too far away (May). Although I really like the story for “Touch” I was really taken with the premise of this new story, so I immediately begin to wonder whether I should do this as my five minute film.
I had also written another outline for another piece of fluff entitled “Tina Ballerina” about a Ballerina who is stuck in a rut, and never gets out of her Tu tu, and sole ambition is to be a member of the Royal Australia Ballet, but can’t move on because she witnessed the horrible deaths of her parents on the way to ballet class when she was 7 (which is why she is stuck in the Tu Tu, her parents are both run over by a tram, a very melbournian way to go!) Ultimately she finally remembers the last thing her father says to her about dancing to her own song and of course she gets accepted. I guess I really felt that although “Touch” was a lovely film, I wasn’t pushing myself enough, but Tina was definitely not the way to go. I prepared both outlines for my supervisor, Hugh Burton to read.
26th March 2004
Today I had a script meeting with Hugh about “Touch” and I also presented my other two ideas “Tina” and “Touch Footy”. We discussed the two ideas and decided that “Touch” was still the way to go and that “Touch Footy” was a definite possibility for my 3 minute, 16mm film in September. So although I am very enamoured with “Touch Footy, I am trying very hard to push it out of my mind to concentrate on the pre-production of “Touch” beside the fact I am very aware of the similarities in the name, I decide that I need to think of another title for my second film.
19th MAY
Even though I am making “Touch” in a couple of days, I decide to pitch “Crash” at the crewing night tonight, I write my synopsis in a small notebook while one of the producing students (Gregory) is getting the audience to stand and do funny movements and sounds??? I am overwhelmed with interest, having 40 people approach me with interest and really like the premise of the story.
30th MAY 2004
Today I finally got to write the first draft of “The Crash”. The idea has been percolating since I wrote the outline and has developed a lot more. It involves a near miss car accident and incident involving the two boys and the kiss on the lounge ending in violence. I fall in love with this script immediately and I know its just the type of project that I can push myself on and do something worthy.
8 & 9th june 2004
I am doing continuity on Dustin’s film entitled “Apprentice”, fulfiling one of my crew roles. The film has the fine Australian actor, Tom, whom I very much admired in the feature “Australian Rules”. I get on like a house on fire and he asks me when I am doing my film, which of course I already have, so I start to tell him about “Crash”, he is very interested in reading a draft and so at the end of the shoot I give him a draft. This proved to be a sticking point with Dustin later down the track who accused me of poaching his actor on his set, which, it sort of looked like I was doing, but after a couple of drunken conversions at the Melbourne Film Festival Metro Bar Headquarters, he called ‘Unprofessional’ and forgave me whilst I apologised and ate humble pie.The things we do in the name of art, I ask you!
11th june 2004
I had a script meeting with Chris today, about “The Crash”, my first one, to my immense relief, Chris was extremely responsive to the story. He told me all the action was there, but the characters needed more depth and in particularly ‘what was it I was trying to say’. But, in his mind, it was a winner idea to proceed with. I am most encouraged and can go away on holidays to write another draft, I have plenty of time as I will be home for 4 weeks thanks to Hugh kindly re-arranging my online and mix so I could spend some much needed time with my wife and son, whom I haven’t seen for 9 weeks. I have written to all the those 40 people who approached me on crewing night, unfortunately the only 2 production managers where snapped up immediately, oh well will worry about that later.
22nd june 2004
I am home at last, 4 weeks of unadulterated domestic bliss. The first thing I do is write a new draft of “Crash” to explore the issues more fully. Its not there yet though, but it needs to go somewhere, but where I am not sure!
25th june 2004
My wife surprised me with the news that she has booked me on a 1 day film course with Writer/Director Tony Ayres. Tony has already been into the school earlier this year to do a talk about his feature “Walking on Water” that I dutifully went out and rented to watch afterwards (as I missed it on the big screen in Sydney) and enjoyed it very much. Just before I went into production on “Touch” we had a couple of days with Tony and some actors on Actor/Director workshops at VCA, where we got to spend more time with him and observe the way he works. I remembered watching on the DVD interviews with the actors from his film, the way they describe Tony as being extraordinarily sensitive in the way he works with difficult subjects. This piqued my interest, particularly with the subject matter of my current project, so when I rocked up to the course at the Byron Bay Screen Works, Tony immediately remembered me, and asked why I was there. I told him my wife had booked me and I thought it would be interesting seeing it was from a writer/director perspective, he just stated lightly that he had already taught me everything he knew, this of course was not true and after watching his VCA student film and his early written work, I had more of an insight into Tony’s talent. He invited me to have lunch with him (or maybe I propositioned him, can’t remember?), which I took as a sign to hit him to read “Crash”, and although he was extremely busy, because it was only 5 pages long, he agreed to read it, of course I just so happen to have a copy of it in my bag. The course was fantastic and I learn't a lot that day as well as the opportunities made
available to me.
1st july 2004
Tony has gotten back to me pretty quickly, which is fantastic, knowing how busy he is with getting his new feature up and going and about to fly to L.A. to see if Joan Chen will be in the film. His feedback was very succinct, he said that he loved the territory and found the premise of the story very good. I had a good ear for dialogue and a reasonable grasp of writing drama, but his problem was that he find the story very predictable, particularly with the character Phil, being really obviously a closet gay and the final pieta scene very melodramatic. Tony also offers to meet with me for a coffee when I get back in Melbourne to discuss a new draft. Yes! I take this feedback on board and start to think how I remedy this.
8th July 2004
I have written a new draft today, the third draft. I have thought about the story for the last 8 days since Tony’s email and it occurs to me that an interesting choice would be to switch the seduction, have the good looking Footballer, Doug the one coming onto Phil, the nerd, but still have it so that Phil is the one having the shit beaten out of him because the rest of the boys would never possibly consider Doug as being gay. I think its a brilliant idea (if I don’t mind saying so myself) and in my research of watching as many films as I can on this, and similar sorts of themes, it always, always seems to be the weedy, nerd who is gay, coming onto the good looking sports jock. I good reason to break the stereotype. I also get a film out that a friend told me about called “Get Real” a british film made in 1996 about the weedy gay guy scoring with the good locking sports jock and being betrayed for the sake of face, while he decides to come out. A good film, but another good reason to reverse the cliche. I send the script to Tony and promise to contact him when I get back in melbourne, also I send it to Chris, who responds most warmly to the idea, telling me he is mostly satisfied with my resolutions to the characters.
22nd july 2004
I fly back to Melbourne to do my sound mix for “Touch”, I also have emailed Tony saying that I am back and when has he got time to catch up. Likewise the first priority is too find a production manager, I ring up Dan Alleman, who is one of the Footscray film students that I have got to know from being on other shoots and ask him if he can recommend anyone, he promises to make a call or two for me.
26th july 2004
Today is my sound mix for “Touch” it goes remarkably smoothly and I have now completed the film component for my first project to my satisfaction. Dan rings me to say that a Production Manager he knows might be interested and can I email the script, he, of course, is familiar enough with the story from me banging on about it during the other shoots and says that he has told her about it and she is interested. I send the script.
27th JULY 2004
Funny little aside, but today I had to drive to Albury in NSW, a 6 hour return trip to get my car ‘Rodger’ registered, seeing the car still has NSW plates. In Victoria they don’t do pink slips and to get a road worthy certificate meant getting everything wrong with the car fixed, which would cost a bomb, so the simplest solution was to take a day off and drive to NSW. Fortunately they found nothing worth complaining about in the inspection and the car was re-registered and I even managed to have lunch with an old family friend that I haven’t seen in ten years. Pretty funny day!
28th july 2004
Today I finish a draft of my major script “Fallout” for a first meeting with Chris and drop it in a school for him to read before our meeting tomorrow.
30th JULY 2004
Today we had a narrative meeting to decide on the order of our films. I decide that I feel confident enough to go first, seeing I have been working on my story for so long and feel that Nicole will come on board and that Tom Budge has indicated he is keen to do the character Phil. I jump in the deep end as usual. And I went 2nd last time!
2nd August 2004
The Production Manager, Nicole, rings me today to say she has read the script and would very much like to be involved. We plan to meet on Friday and discuss preliminaries on Lygon Street at a Cafe. Tom Budge also says that the feature he is working on has been pushed back so he is available to do the role as well. OVER THE MOON! I send the script to Tim Metherall, whom I asked to shoot the film much earlier this year.
3rd August 2004
Today I get all the necessary forms I need from the drawer in the production offices and organise myself a production folder to keep my records. I have also heard from Tony Ayres, who invites me to his house to talk about the latest draft of the script.
4th August 2004
I decide to write another draft today to take to Tony’s tomorrow, changing a few details, the biggest change is the drop out of the near-miss car crash, as I decide the crash is the kiss and we don’t need to go there, but logistically this make things a hell of a lot easier.
5th August 2004
Met Tony at his house, he was very
generous giving me an hour of his time, he thinks the new script is great, but thinks I can make Phil’s character a bit more of a hero worshipper, so I share my idea that while Doug kisses Phil we cut to the image of Doug on the footy field being tackled, he loves this and suggests that we get Phil to be the videographer, which will lend to the homage thing. Its all looking good.
6th AUGUST 2004
I met Nicole today, we hit it off immediately. She confirmed that she was definitely on board but the only condition was that she wouldn’t not be there for the second day of the shoot as she had a holiday booked, beggars can’t be choosers so I happily accept. We discuss the need for footballers and a football field and locations for the house. I tell her about Tom Budge being interested and give her everything I have in the way of paper work including the red production hand book so that she knows the VCA way of working. She tells me she is also working on a 3rd production at the same time, this concerns me a little, but I figure my project is little compared to the other and she doesn’t seemed concerned. We agree to talk later that day about her following the football stuff up immediately. She calls me and arrange to meet out at Tullarmine, where Nicole lives, to look at a local footy field, so has also spoken to someone else in her course who does location scouting and briefed her on our needs, as well as talking to a stunt co-ordinator by the name of Chris Anderson. She’s great! I meet Nicole at Tullamarine later in the day, its not quite country enough for my liking, but it has potential and besides she has already arranged for us to borrow their jumpers and let us film a football match for me to intercut our own footage with. We also drive out near the airport, looking for the quite country lane for ‘The boys’ to be driving down, we find a physically quiet, dead end road, but sound wise its not, due to its proximity to the airport. I promise Nicole I will come back in the evening to see if it any better, I have been going to the Melbourne Film Festival screenings every night at the moment, with the pass the school bought us. I am having a ball seeing some amazing films.
9th August 2004 I finally hear Tim today, he is in Germany, he thinks the script is great and will be back in time to shoot the film, we discuss fee and agree on a meeting. Tonight I went to the location near the airport, it still very noisy from the planes, but visually its great, we could just shoot the outside stuff here and shoot the lines in the studio, but that means another location. Something to think about. I also need to start thinking about shooting, what I call ‘the really bad country car commercial’ that is part of the story they are watching on TV and so I start looking for an actress to play the bimbo in the ad, that should be an interesting one to sell!
10th August 2004
Spoke to Nicole today, she confirmed she had a continuity person on board and was also speaking to the respective football clubs about me filming their grand final this weekend. She also tells me I need to go to the Tullamarine Footy Club meeting thursday night to meet the club president and talk them through the project, I am a bit nervous about this because if I tell them its about a boy, kissing another boy, I KNOW they won’t be up for that. I am also looking for a car yard for my really bad car commercial and an actress, so I will go to uni and look at the volunteers actress book.
11th August 2004
On the way in this morning I passed the perfect car yard! Its called Bernie Smith’s Classic Cars and its not far from my house. They specialise in selling classic hotsters and hiring to professional TV, etc. I will definitely approach them. I have also found a very good looking actress for the ad in the book, I will need to think carefully about how to approach her as I don’t what to just right out and say “Hey do you want to be in a slutty car commercial for my serious film about boys who kiss” that may not go down to well either.
12th August 2004
Tonight I went to the Tullamarine Footy Club, there were no questions about the content of the film, needless to say I just told the president that revolved around football. They signed off the use of their field and gave permission to film the game this weekend. Nicole has been onto the other football team, the Doutta Stars and they also give there permission, I just have to find the club secretary before the match.
13th August 2004
I have come into college today to pickup the PD 150 to film the footy match tomorrow, this is the first time I have ever been to a football game and to film something myself.
14th August 2004
Blowing a gale outside today, and it is freezing, I am told the match will happen no matter the weather conditions, but needless to say it is snowing at Mount Macedon, so it is bloody cold. I rug up and head out, by the time I get there it is pouring and I have taken refuge under an awning, which immediately is not what I wanted as I needed track side viewing, but its just too wet and my fingers are so cold, that intermittedly I have to stop filming to try and warm them up. Its gotten to a point that the rain is so heavy it looks like snow through the view finder, so after 40 minutes of film, what I know if virtually unusable film, I give up, go home and crawl into bed to try and warm up, and I thought the Blue mountains (home!) got cold!
15th August 2004
Nicole has bought me a copy of the last years grand final on DVD for me to select footage from for the boys to watch on TV. She has contacted AFL films and they have been great, saying that if we just select the footage we want and the timecodes they will give us permission to use it, rather than paying for the use of master Beta tapes. I am buoying myself up to watch them as I could find anything more tedious than football, which causes no end of amusement to Nicole, who keeps asking me why I am making a film about football when I really dislike it, and I tell her its a device that I am using, not because I like it, but she still laughs.The location manager, Joan has called Nicole and said that she has found a perfect football field that look like country out near her house in Cheltenham, I say to Nicole that we will probably use the football field at Tulla, even though its not as good, this gets up Joans nose a little as she is a 60 year old retiree, so I placate with promises of petrol money. She also tells us that we can use her open plan house for the shoot, so I need to go round and have a look, my concern of course is it won’t look like a boys house, but I did always consider it being his parents house as I figured he is young enough to still live at home.
16th August 2004
I stopped today and approached the car yard about using it for the really bad car commercial. The man there, Noddy was his name, was thin in his late 40s early fifties, grey and looked like he had too many smokes and fights (considering he was missing his front teeth). I describe to him what we are doing and the need to make a commercial, to which his response simply “Near naked girl on a bonnet its going to happen!”. I get the number of the owner, Bernie and promise to call later that day. I have also approached the woman, who’s name is Georgina, about being in the commercial and tactfully describe the story to her and then ask her to be in a tasteless car commercial, she says that its sounds like fun! She’s perfect! Seeing Tim is overseas and Richard (Vette) is my camera assist I ask him to shoot the commercial for me, he is keen. I have also been looking for an opposite to Tom, to play Doug, I need someone who is physically different, classically football type stock, I ring a friend, Damien, who was the actor that was almost in my last film and he throws a few names at me, one of which is on my wish list, that being Fletcher Humpries. Fletch is a regular on All Saints, Always Greener, etc etc so I ask Damien if he can ring him, and he calls me pretty quickly, I give him the pitch and he is interested in receiving a script. Things are moving along nicely
17th August 2004
I send a new script to Tom today and a script to Fletcher for him to consider. I plan to hold auditions for Doug’s character next wednesday so I book a studio space.
18th August 2004
Today I had a production meeting with Nicole and Jeremy (Blumenthal) who is my first. This all goes smoothly and no issues are raised that aren’t being considered. I was meant to meet Georgina, the really bad car commercial actress, but she has to cancel due to work commitments, I think she will be fine, but its always good to meet someone before you work with them for obvious reasons. Nicole is harassing me about watching the footy final to give her the timecodes, I feebly agree to try and work myself upto watching it tonight. I have booked the equipment for my film shoot at the caryard next friday, and have popped in and met Bernie, he is all cool about the shoot, saying that it should keep Noddy entertained, as if he is some kind of pet to be amused! He signs the relevant permission forms.
19th August 2004
Today was our tour through the Cinevex plant to witness the processing of film procedure. It was pretty funny, they started by taking us into their Dolby cinema and showing us some really bad, loud film trailers, that sounded and looked very impressive but where the likes of cat woman and some John Travolta fire adventure where the man looks so overweight he’s lucky the ladder doesn’t break beneath him. Today is my son’s 11th birthday, I ring him and he is very excited with his presents and the fact that I am coming home tomorrow. I have to give Hugh a copy of the script for a safety report to be commissioned
20th August 2004
Home for 4 days with the family to celebrate my son and wife’s respective birthdays on the Gold Coast staying in the Magic Mountain Resort overlooking Noddy's beach, in a beautiful 3 bedroom apartment with heated pool, a minor splurge, but one, I tell me wife, we deserve, being the first time this year that we have been together as a family, just the 3 of us.
24th August 2004
I have arrived back in Melbourne after a fantastic couple of days away. Tonight is our screening of our first semester works in Federation Hall, we have all pitched in $50 towards the costs of food and drink, whilst the school has picked up the tab for the hall hire. I spoke to Tim today and we agree to meet on the weekend. The screening was fantastic, we had at least 200 people there and many, many people came upto me, even ones I have never met, saying how much they enjoyed “Touch”. It was very encouraging and our class bathed in our limited 5 minutes of glory, which was very nice. We all got very drunk (except for me of course, never could drink that much) and got kicked out by security at 11pm, leaving the place an absolute shambles. If Id known about the curfew, I would of started cleaning up, oh well something for the cleaner to complain about (and he did, he did!) We went to the Gin Palace afterwards and everyone pretty much got rolling (and I mean rolling) drunk. I left at 2am when Julius told me that a simple comment I made about feeling competitive against Justin, had completely blown out of proportion, with the class all hearing that I said, that Justin was my only serious competition in the class, which of course is complete and utter rubbish. I ask Justin about it, and he is a bit too far gone to discuss it so I leave feeling pissed off and hurt.
25th August 2004
We clean up a bit of the glassware in Fed hall and put the leftover booze away. I try to talk to Justin about last night, but give up to my disgruntlement, I just find that being the type of personal I am, I am honest and that anything I say is often turned against me, this gives me the shits completely and I wish I could just sew my mouth shut. Tonight is auditions, Fletch confirms he is coming and Tom is coming to read opposite him. I have been fielding out other potentials as well and have 5 guys coming, some through the St. Martins acting school. Fletch was very good and then we had this guy who was absolutely awful and Tom and I just stared at each other dumfounded at the same time. Then this guy from St Martins comes in, Kristian, he has never done film before, but he was a footballer and physically was perfect for the role. He had great vibrancy and persona and I am immediately drawn to him as well. Tom says he thinks that something is definitely there as well. I will contact Fletch in the next couple of days to see if he is interested, otherwise I will offer the role to Kristian. Was supposed to met Georgina again today, but I cancelled this time as Fletch needed to come earlier, also I briefly spoke to Tim today and we plan to go to the location this weekend for a recce.
26th August 2004
My darling wife’s birthday today, I ring her and she is very flat as her mother is still seriously ill in hospital and Finn didn’t wish her happy birthday, but that isn’t surprising. I want to get started on the shoot schedule and I have already started the storyboard. I have organised with Joan to come to her house with Tim this weekend to look. I am chasing this production designer that Nicole has organised for me, he is being a bit elusive, which is a concern, I don’t want to repeat not having one like the last film, where I ended up doing it myself. I still haven’t watch the DVD of the footy, Nicole is getting very cross with me. I pick up the camera equipment and plan to meet Richard and Julius who will be assisting me on the shoot tomorrow. Nat, who did makeup on “Touch” is also lined up and I just confirm the car yard is still ok, which they are. I still have not had a chance to meet Georgina, she has been on All Saints for the last 2 days and hard to get onto. I spoke to her and she didn’t sound too well, but confirmed she will their in the morning. I really don’t like the sounds of this and I ring Adam (Lee) who was in my last film to ask him if his girlfriend, Bec could stand last minute if anything happens, he says that shouldn’t be a problem.
27th August 2004
Georgina’s mother rings me at 7:30am to tell me that Georgina is too sick to move so I ring Adam and Bec is on board (thank goodness) she even has a cowboy hat, which I couldn’t find one. We meet at the car yard, its an awesome location and Tim has talked to Richard and they work out that its better for Tim to shoot it, seeing he is back, Richard is cool with this (he is such a great guy!). We find a bright blue pickup truck with flames painted on the bonnet and Bec (whom I madly drive into town to pickup) has brought a tasty pink crocheted bikini top and tight denim shots, she is made up in purple eyeshadow and looks appaling on the bonnet, the whole shot only takes an hour and we have a hysterically funny time doing it. I have a script tutorial with Hugh afterwards on “Fallout” and which ends up being half on production issues to discuss. I then meet Doug Gibson, who is an undergrad doing composing at VCA. He made it very clear to everyone earlier this year that he didn’t want to do unpaid work, but I invited him to our screening, of which afterwards he approached me and said he would love to help with my next film. For many nights now I have been listening to cds for the style of music I want to use, the one particularly like is Tori Amos’s Under the Pink. There is a song on it called “pretty good year” which is sensational, I particularly like how there a moment in the song where it goes from melancholy piano to the crash and bash of a band and back to piano, I can particularly envisage this working well with the fight scene. I play the song for Doug with the idea for that moment, I will slow down parts of it and speed up other parts, and only this song will play, he likes this idea and I promise to get him a copy of the album so he can have a listen. Doug says that he will line up the recording studio at VCA to do the music and pianist. I am off home to do the editing and titles of my really bad car commercial, it takes me about three hours to do the lot, I just need to organise Jeremy to do the voice overs for me, which I write a script based on what I see before me, that being tasteless, tasteless, tasteless!
28th August 2004
I have spoken to Nicole about this production designer who is on and off again, she is handling it. This morning I meet Tim at Joan’s house. On driving to it, I finds it is 40 minutes out and right near the huge Westfield's that crosses the Nepean highway, my immediate concern is sound from the Highway, but when I get out of the car, its so quiet! The house is beautiful and very modern, with full floor to ceiling doors and definitely open plan, but the only way it will work if its Phil’s parent place, which I think will be fine. Tim thinks its great and loves the light possibilities, the only other place is her nephew’s house that is a boys boy house, dark and messy, I consider this to be more along the lines of the script, but Tim talks me out of it and I must admit the open plan works well with the dolly shots I am thinking about. Tim and I go to a local cafe and talk the film through for the next hour. I then go home and finish the commercial and supers (titles) design for the commercial and burn a DVD to take to school to show Jeremy for voice overs.
29th August 2004
Today I finished my storyboards and my application for AFTRS scriptwriting, don’t ask me why, I’m a sucker for punishment.
30th August 2004
Today I handed “Crash” in for assessment and script awards and then had a budget meeting with Tracey and Nicole came in for that too. The budget was pretty much what I thought it would be around the $4-$5000 mark. I have booked the voice over booth and Hugh has given me a Dat tape for do the recording, a very tired Jeremy drags himself from doing one of his all nighters at the hospital to do the voice over for the commercial. Michael shows me how to drive the ADR booth and Jez and I spend the next hour pissing ourselves laughing doing many different versions of the voice over, from Little Johnny Howard to Apu the Indian, it was hysterical, had to pick myself up off the floor occasionally. I then get Michael to help me load the dat onto an offline and transfer it to a computer in the visual effects lab to burn off a cd to take home and put to my final cut pro edited version of the commercial, burn a new dvd to have ready for the shoot. All very smooth. I spoke to Keylighting about hiring the HMI’s I need for the shoot and got a quote.
31st August 2004
Today, we had Alkinos who is the director who made that awful film ‘Tom White’ come and do the beginnings of a three day actor/director workshop, as I am the only one stupid enough to volunteer him a script, it is workshopped quite extensively, which was both good and sometimes not so good. Tom Budge was one of the actors there as well. The most interesting thing to come out of it was the moment when the older actor, Nick, who was playing Doug, played the character very morosely, the subtext was immediately being that he has done something awful, liked raped a girl to prove that he is not gay. I love this connotation and it also solves the problem of the moment before the kiss. I had a 3 hour meeting with Tim at his house, about the shoot and showed him scenes from two films I admired the visual style of “Amelie” and “Erskineville Kings”, we talked through shot by shot and I pretty much decided I wanted a professional grip to help seeing we were talking about 4 dolly shots. When I got home tonight I rang the other auditionees and told them thanks, but no thanks, the one that was terrible wanted feedback, it was very awkward moment, I told him he used his hands and props to much!?!?! Sometimes I think it would be easier to just say you stank, but I’m too nice for that! Fletch got back to me saying he didn’t think he could play Doug as he may be overseas, but he still didn’t have confirmation so I told Kristian he had the role, of which he was very happy.
1st September 2004
I spoke to Key lighting about the price of getting the flickerfree HMIs, they need to be flickerfree because of the slow mo and ramping I want to do in the fight scenes, I think this should look great. Also Tim wants a prime 50mm lens for the shoot, so I have been speaking to Panavision about the hire of this. I have decided to expand the budget to include a professional grip so I ask Nicole to do some hunting for a guy called Fredo who does a lot of student shoots, she gets back to me pretty quickly to say he is booked. I go and speak to Hugh about did he think a pro grip would be useful, considering I have 4 decent dolly shots and he agreed and gave me the name of several, I also spoke to Libby, the foundation co-ordinator and she gave me the name of Jamie Leckie, who had just been at the school the week before doing a demonstration for the foundys. Nicole contacted Jamie and he wanted $1400 for both days, which was a bit scary, but half his normal price, I rang Jamie and he wouldn’t come down anymore, so I said I would speak to a few others and get back to him. I then spoke to one of the guys that Hugh gave me the name of and also a I guy that Tim has worked with before, he said he would do it for a grand for both days with an assistant, then rang back 10 minutes later to say he just got a booking so he was out of action, BUGGER! So I went back to Jamie, the other thing about Jamie is that he has heaps of blacks and seeing its a huge blacking out job on all those windows and his dolly is also a crane I bite the bullet and go with him and just hope to god he doesn’t get a booking, he also comes with an assistant. I book studio 3 for rehearsals next week and call the student co-ordinator, Chris Anderson about tonight’s stunt rehearsals, he is all cool with this and doesn’t want any extra money for that, which is great. At 6.30pm all the extras arrive, Tom and Kristian, a guy called Russell, whom I didn’t know was coming, he is Chris’s co-worker, he tells me that Chris actually lives in Queensland and Russell looks after the Victoria stuff when he is up there doing the Bollywood stuff, which keeps him very busy, he also does all the neighbours stuff in Victoria. At The stunt rehearsal, Tom and Kristian have major issues with the new script, particularly about my tossing and turning with the kiss scene, and the suggestions that it become more of a sex scene, which I went and wrote a draft with this change, but really not happy about it myself, and I ask them if we could discuss it when its just the three of us, which is cool. Tom says he will call me tomorrow.
2nd September 2004
The production designer dipped out on my today, something like this always happens before the shoot, I don’t panic about it because I have pretty much decided to use the house as is, because it looks like his parents would live there, but I will have to just remove the European stuff (as the owner and flatmate are German) to make the house look more like white bread Australians. The contracts for using the AFL footage come in, they are a mine field, as they clearly state if the footage used (from the AFL grand final that I finally forced myself to watch) was in any way detrimental, we would be liable, also there was a clause about the usage of the footage at public screenings. I talk to Hugh about it and he agrees that its a concern and I ring AFL films to discuss the film usage clause, this if fixable, but the potential of footballers screaming about being in a potentially gay film, may be a completely different kettle of fish. I send an email to AFL films to ask them to change the other clause and Hugh holds onto the other contract, to see if its worth getting a legal opinion on. I have some trouble today with the Panavision lens, as they have received the order through the school but want an insurance certificate, which they previously told me I didn’t need as VCA was an account customer, we are, but cash only! So I had to hunt up an insurance letter from the some guy in VCA admin, last thing I needed today, but I get it sorted after several calls back and forth between VCA and Panavision. Because Tim is shooting my film in the middle of 2 other visual effects students works, we hire the HMI’s for a week, making them cheaper, but just have to organise the transfer between each of them. I still have been trying to find a unit manager for friday, seeing Nicole is swaning off on holidays, I ask amongst other students and finally Aleksi, the Finnish exchange student in visual effects said he will help, but prefers to do boom, so I need to change someone else. I run in JW who is one of the foundation students and a costumer and he offers kindly to help me with costumes, he is already one of my extras, as he has a great mohawk. He also is going to help me dress the location, and get some stuff, all good so far. I set preliminary schedule to give to Jeremy, poor boy is working every night at his doctors job in emergency, and besides I really needed to tell the actors when and where they are required, also I spoke to Nat about the blood makeup to make sure we were on the same vein (ha ha) about this. Nicole asks if she can get a producers credit seeing she has been doing so much work, and I talk to Hugh about this, but because she has not been involved creatively with the story or the casting the answer is simply no, which she understands, but is not particularly happy about. I finally spoke to Tom about the script changes and he argues that if his character Phil is complaint with the kiss and ongoing beginnings of sex, it ruins the whole tragic ending of what happens to him. I agree with him and tell Tom I have already come to the same conclusion, we are all cool about this now and agree to work it the final dialogue changes next wednesday at our first and final rehearsals and I will do the final script changes that night.
3rd September 2004
Today we had a script workshop with David Rapsie who is a script assessor at the AFC, amongst other things. He talks in length about my story, saying that he found it very powerful and compact, but he didn’t believe that the kiss went far enough (this old chestnut!) and they should be undressing because a kiss can be broken up when they hear the guys coming in the door, the whole class agrees with him, he also went onto say that he found Phil’s character to compliant and passive and when he asked me about who Phil is, he tells me that none of what I tell him is in the script, so I take this on board. I do feel a bit ganged up by the class and must admit I am getting the shits with some of their gibes about crash, that having been going on for months now, which started when Chris McGill told someone (a student I presume) that “Crash” will be an award winner, groan! I have to ring all the actors to get their sizes for
costumes and have to got to the bank to start withdrawing the films budget. Tom has asked a friend to be an extra and I have asked Dan Brophy, who I know has been dying to be in it, but more as a lead, which there was no way he was right for that, unfortunately. Nicole rings me to say she needs a insurance form as it turns out we have to get council permission after all, even though the greenkeeper told us the football field that we are using is privately owned, the council disagree with this so we now have to get council permission at the last minute, Nicole is all over it and gets it sorted.
4th September 2004
This morning I pick up JW and we head to the location at Cheltenham to see what dressing we need to do. I don’t have time to look at the football field as I have to race JW back to VCA for his Foundation class. I get Joan to sign the location agreement and give her one for the grounds keeper to sign. I also stop at a large bottle shop and wander round looking at beer for quite a while, trying to choose the most generic looking cans that won’t be obvious which company and brand they belong to, seeing I am not going to ask permission to film the product. I choose a plain silver can, that once you have your hands around the label you can’t tell who’s company it belongs to.
5th September 2004
Redid some of the storyboards today.
6th September 2004
I met Dan and looked at his costume and get his signoff on agreements then I met with another extra, Patrick, who I found through Adam Lee. Patrick is a really solid guy of greek extraction, and looks fine to me, we where standing at the VCA front counter and I was getting him to sign the agreements,when he mentions that because its a footballer film, would it be a problem that he has shaved legs, at which he produces a bottom of his leg from his jean cuff. I have to admit, I was a bit taken back and Tracey was sitting right next to us at the desk, raises her eyebrows. So I tell Patrick, no, I don’t think it matters as we will be shooting mostly from the waste up, but asked was he in a show that he had to have legs shaved for, of which the answer was no, not sure where to take this I then I ask politely was he a athlete, a cyclist perchance, which is when he blurts out that he’s a stripper and Ms Clare nearly fell of her chair. I recovered, somehow, and thanked and he left at which point Tracey and I fell into helpless laughter. I remember that we needed a football and ring Nicole, who works at K-mart and she buys a cheapy. Funny day.
7th September 2004
Met Doug (composer) today, he confirms that he has the VCA recording studio booked to do the music and a singer lined up, we talk further about the story line so that I can get him clear on the motivation of where the music is coming from. Then I meet Jeremy and we discuss a few things, but he’s all fine, we then had a production meeting in studio 3, a lot of people was there which was a nice change, for most the VCA production meetings I have attended usually have hardly anyone turn up.Jeremy picked up the contracts from Joan for me and I take the finished contracts to Hugh who signs off on all the paperwork, telling me that it looks most organised, so I now have the requisition for the stock, we are almost there.I end the day by driving to the location and putting out 40 notices to neighbours advising of the film shoot, dates and times. Adam Lee rings me to say he can’t do the second day of the shoot, but I still have 4 actors that day so I figure I will be fine, I find it ironic though that Adam was the actor who saved my butt last time by coming on last minute because Damien had to cancel because he was doing a commercial, and now Adam is doing the same last thing to me, very interesting.
8th September 2004
Came in this morning and got straight into faxing call sheets to Jamie Leckie (grip) and Chris Anderson (stunt) and planning how much I need to get out of the bank for the next couple of days, when Rebecca from Doco comes up and congratulates me on my award, of which I respond I haven’t won one, Rebecca drags me to the door and I find that I have received a script award for “Crash”, so Chris was right after all. $500 worth of stock, that I’m not sure if I can use, as I already won a can of 16mm last term, but to be acknowledged is great. I send a text message to Tony Ayres who is very happy for me and I feel confident with what I am doing is right. I race off to the bank again and met Nicole one last time to just go over all the details, catering, food (Tom is deadly allergic to everything!) etc. Tonight I met with Tom and Kristian and for a few longs minutes I really was scared that I had made the wrong decision with Kristian, but by the end of the evening it was all cool. Because he has never done film, his performance where way to big, but with Toms help we pulled them down and I feel its going to be ok. Home to bed, tomorrow is the day.
9th September 2004
SHOOT DAY 1
Picked up Adam and headed straight to Joan’s house where the girls make up the other boys, because we are shooting this part on mini dv, we have a limited crew for the early call, the rest will be picking up the equipment at VCA and back at the house by 11am, when we are getting back. I never did get round to looking at the field, and it ended up being perfect, it really did look like it was in the country, surrounded by bush and no houses, fantastic. The football shoot was hysterical, firstly because it rained yesterday, the field was very muddy, I made a simple comment that the boys all looked very clean and 2 seconds later they where running and diving up to 6 metres along the ground in the mud, needless to say they look authentic by the end of that. It all went very smoothly, the only thing to happen was a dog from a local kept running onto the field to pinch the ball, and next thing we knew this mad women is on the field in her car screaming at her dog to return, very funny, very country, filmed it all,but when she left she left huge burn marks in the field which is something we promised would not happen, so Nicole got on the phone to the council to advise the council that it wasn’t us. The guys where all at the house and we shoot the dolly stuff, making one shot a dolly that wasn’t before, and that looked great that all was fine and I was very happy with the performances I was getting, but it was a bit nerve racking not having a split and just looking beginning frames and end frames, but I know Tim knows his stuff so I and left the shoot on schedule and very excited about it so far.
10th September 2004
SHOOT DAY 2
Today is the violent stuff, so our stunt guys are here and the extras, it took 4 hours to prep the kicking shoot, fortunately that’s how long I thought it would take so we never actually ran over schedule. It was interesting though, at one point, I choose to yell at the actors, when I say choose, I actually did! The were getting very silly over the 4 hours of prep for this shot and even though I had asked them several times to calm down, they actually started to get hysterical and my fears where that for one, they would remove Kristian too far from the feeling that he needed to be in and also that they would hurt Tom, who is lying on the ground with their boot laden feet only a fraction away from his body, kicking shock bags. Needless to say, yelling at them stopped the spiral of energy and the shot worked beautifully. It was interesting working with Tim, he is an excellent cinematographer, but I think because of his director training, it sometimes felt that his influence with direction started to impede and I got a bit cranky about this at times and asked him to just pander me by doing it my way, he got the point I think, but it was a very small part of a particularly long 2 days shoot with a difficult subject, lots of extras and logistics. Overall I was wrapped with the shoot, the performance, how smoothly it all went and on budget and schedule. So I know have to wait 3 days to get into edit, and this is going to be the real killer, I have several sleepless nights ahead of me as I do the usual of editing it in my head before getting into AVID.
13th September 2004
Today was the telecine! I had to return the lens to Panavision first and then off school. The footage was a bit late arriving from the lab so we got started on reel 1 and the footage looked great. Tim was there and he graded the TV footage a bit bluer and the DV footage on the TV looks awesome. The wonderful surprise was the ramping and slow motion stuff looked fantastic. As usual a whole heap of equipment disappeared on the shoot that I know have to find, which always amazes me when you only go to one location, will have to look for that. Nick did the post syncing with no issues in the afternoon and I now have my tapes ready to edit
DAY 1
Got in bright and early and started to digitise, it only took an hour, as there is obviously on half an hour of footage. By 1 o’clock I had a rough cut and Shan by assistant editor arrived and looked incredulously at me, but I must say there is so few cuts, it really wasn’t that hard. The professional editor, Anne, that the school hired to float around the suites, came and had a look that afternoon and at the end basically said “Wow, what do you want me to do?” But she did make a very good suggestion which was that currently, I returned to the image of Tom, all bloody on the floor from the beginning to the point of the beating and then again at the end, but I shouldn’t show it here again. I agree and remove this, cutting straight to the TV footage which is the final scene. Hugh came in and spent sometime with me tightening things up. Shan mentioned what Anne said to some of the other doco students and they are now calling me the one cut wonder, I did end up doing 5 slightly different versions before the final cut.
15th September 2004 edit DAY 2
Chris McGill spent 2 hours with me this morning talking through story issues about the cut and we tried a slightly different version with the kiss being interrupted right before by cutting to Doug playing footy on TV. I like this a lot,but I am also conscious that it breaks the momentum of the slow dolly push in, which really sucks you in. I start putting sound in and getting titles started. Couple of my class mates barrelled into edit and on the whole received the film very well.
16th September 2004 edit DAY 3
Last day of edit, still tightening and replacing sounds and offscreen dialogue and track laying. I have had some feedback that they didn’t like the idea of breaking the momentum of the kiss, so, although I really like it, I am still thinking about it. Tonight was the awards ceremony and I got nice piece of paper from Jenny, who was too sick to shake my hand!?! And then I showed some of the doco students and Michael Weisler from 3rd year the film, good response, but Michael also thought the football interclip would be more provocative after the clip. I run home out of time and still thinking about this moment.
17th September 2004
No-one is officially in edit 8 today and seeing I lost last night to the awards ceremony, Hugh reluctantly approved me to do a few more hours. I did the other version and Jo from my class looked at it, as did Kate, from the Producers, and they both like the new version, but then Bec from 3rd years didn’t. I begged Chris to come and talk the issues through, he agreed that both
versions work, but it was really up to the characters and how I wanted to portray them, particularly Doug. With version 1, because we break before the kiss, it makes him two dimensional because its works like a pause, a moment, to see himself as he is before deciding what he is going to do this. In version 2, he is one dimensional because its just about sex, and I decide this is the version I will go with because that’s the way I saw the character, although there is still that lingering ‘maybe in my head. I had to race off at lunch time and meet Nicole to give her some money and it was nice to just catch up with no pressing business. She told me that it was great working with someone who utilised her and that we communicated well, and my level of organisation helped. Its funny people keep telling me how organised I am, but I am convinced they are all wrong and I am the most disorganised person in the world, but I think this is fastidious autistic nature coming out. This arvo I met with the composer Doug and I gave him a copy of the video to write the score too. I then meet with Josephine to get her shot list as I am firsting her film next week, shortly followed by Jeremy's’.
18th September 2004
This morning I drive out to Joans house and she and he flat mate have made a cake for my arrival, which is lovely. I give her the $65 for the lamp that was broken in the first 5 minutes of the shoot and I look for the missing equipment, which of course is not there.
19th September 2004
Started translating all my scribblings in my diary to write this epilogue
20th September 2004
Came in with a list a mile long to do and find Brian Rogers waiting for me for the online, which in my diary was tuesday, so fortunately I was there, but it must of been on tuesday as some point, as I usually am pretty good with my diary (I have to be or I get completely lost!). The online takes only 2 hours, the only drag was that Tim wasn’t able to make it. We fix the credits and grade the front door shot that Tim tried to talk me out of using because it burn out, its better now. I have a chat to David Price in visual effects about titles for a film finish and he tells me that its all possible, but the machine is not working at the moment (of course) but that’s only because he hasn’t had time to fix it. I then speak to Hugh about the film finish and he gives me the name of Ian at Cinevex, I call him and he is busy and I am asked to call back because the receptionist won’t take a message from a student!?!, it is very hard not to respond with something like, I am a 37 year old company director who has dealt with far larger companies than you, but I decide to play the student game (groan!)
21th September 2004
I have started to send the timesheets out to the actors who didn’t sign theirs and I ring Kristian who says he will met me at school at 2pm. I get him to sign his paperwork and show him the film, he is thrilled with it.
25th September 2004
Tonight I went to Doug Gibson’s place and we spent a couple more hours on the music. Doug is an American student studying here in Australia at VCA and has a very nice place in town, so its very conveniently located to school. He had done more but I was still concerned the music for the bashing up scene was still to ‘up’, particularly when the camera pans up Kristians body to his face. This moment is so crucial to let the audience know that the character Doug, knows what he has down and that it will never be the same between them again. Doug played a little tinkle tinkle motif that he had be fiddling with and I immediately responded to this, funny thing was that he didn’t think he would even let me listen to that. It also worked over the football footage, so I am really excited about this, the last thing we played with was putting a long slow cello underneath. I love the cello and its potency for melancholy is fantastic so I think it will be great, but I am very aware of not having it too built up as I believe sparseness works
for Crash.
27th September 2004
I went to Doug’s place again and we had a listen to the changes that we discussed the other night. I am very happy with the direction it is going in and can’t wait for the recording session on Thursday. Doug has lined up all the musicians and the singer, whom I am still very much in two minds about whether its a mistake to have singing in the track, but we will do two version we decide, and make the call then.
29th September 2004
Picked up the proof sheets of the photos, tonight from the photographer, there are a few good shots, but generally I was pretty disappointed with them,even though I carefully discussed with the importance of matching the framing of the camera. She took mostly crew and set up shots and hardly any usable stills. Oh well, I got something to use.
30th September 2004
The first solution I have to fix today, is that the sound engineer, Myles asked for a quicktime file, rather than a video of the film, and of course the only way to do this at school is through the online. I saw Michael Butler and he referred me to David Price, who groaned loudly about it and asked for Myles number and they discussed, at length, what happened to the SVHS machine that the film school help set up there, and then he helped me create the quicktime file that I needed. This afternoon I met Doug and we had a practise with the performers in the music school as the recording studio double-booked and we will be starting an hour later. The music they played sounded great, but very mechanical and even, so I asked them to play it a bit more randomly when we got into the recording studio. Finally the hour arrived and I met the singer and I played her the Tori Amos track I liked and we talked about the direction I was thinking of, particularly the importance of no words, rather ambience sounds. I also discussed how I wasn’t sure whether I wanted the singing in the final version, so we would be recording the singing separately from band, she was all cool about this. Ainslie, the singer, I discovered had never been in a recording studio, nor down anything for a film before. It took sometime to set up all the musicians with all their instruments and levels, although it wasn’t a lot of music to be played, it really important for the emotional impact of the scene. I have wrestled with the idea of just doing a soundscape for the kicking scene, but I think my original idea of the doing the band and singer still holds, especially considering how stylised the kicking shot is with the ramping and slow motion, I think it is really effective. The bloody quicktime file didn’t work on the monitors after all that, so I got the performers to come in and watch it on the computer monitor, again I was really interested in the reaction of the 4 guys, particularly the youngest one, Aaron, the drummer. I think the giggling is actually discomfort with the subject matter, although I know they would probably deny this, I have come across it a few times on the shoot and in edit. I really like that I have made a film that provokes such a response, because it means its forcing them to think about it and is having a reaction. After playing the piece a few times, I ranted and raved about how even it was still and being that it was a scene of violence, they (the band) needed to really move with it, to improvise, make interesting sounds with their instruments, not to just perform the notes on the page. They really went with it and I was very happy. Poor Doug didn’t get a word in edgewise, but was very happy with my direction, as I kept referring to how I wanted it work with the narrative. When it was Ainslie’s turn, so was quite nervous and we did it a few times, it was sounding promising, but I asked her to, again, really move with the music, to take her hands out of her pockets and move her hips with the music. She had to turn the studio light out in order to do it, but it was great! We did one more take and it felt a bit forced in the end so Myles mixed the two together and after thanking Ainslie, we discussed whether it worked (the singing with the music) and all agreed that it did. I leave feeling very excited with what we have done and apologise to Doug for not letting him get much in, but he actually thanked me for being so forthright, agreeing that what I asked for was exactly what was needed and it was a great learning experience for him as well.
1ST October 2004
I head home for the last week of the school holidays, my wife, Michal is overwhelmed with the uni and her mother has just been re-admitted to hospital, for the last time, we fear. She has advanced ovarian cancer.
8th october 2004
As we feared, my mother in law died today. After a terrifying day that started with the hospital calling at 7am to say today was the day, my wife and her two sisters, (one sister, who just got off a plane from england, where she lives) sat and watched their mother die! I spent the day travelling between hospital and the home, where I was keeping an eye on our respective children. I was surprised how conscious mum was, even in these final stages, she still said hello to me in the morning when I arrived and when the priest came in to read her final rites, I could see that a part of her was horrified that this was happening. She was only 73 and her spirit was willing, but her body gave up after a two year battle with cancer, when she was given 6 months to live. She died at 5.20pm in the afternoon and we sat with her for an hour before we packed her bag and went home without her, leaving her gaunt body lying in the dark with the curtains drawn.
11th october 2004
Hugh tried to move my mix for me, but the date he proposed was the end of november, right on the day my wife’s graduating exhibition was on, so I knew I couldn’t do this, Michal told me to go back and do my mix, as planned on Tuesday the 12th. So last night I met with Doug and signed off on the music with the cello and got a CD of the recorded music which sounds fantastic. I organised with Hugh to get back into the online to fix my credits (needed to add the musicians and sound recordist name and a couple more thankyous) I also have to organise what to do about crew points as I now can’t work on Wills film, as I have to be back on thursday for Mum’s funeral. I am already to finish the film tomorrow.
12th october 2004
Today is the last day of the project. Got off to a slightly rocky start with the discovery of a buzz that came through on the OMF file from the offline, so we had to recapture the dialogue off the dats. Fortunately, as I had my sound logs and all dats there, it didn’t take too long, but we lost an hour. Because we shot on creaky floorboards, there was a lot of cracking to remove and unfortunately, to my ultimate disappointment, the camera noise is quite prevalent, and Neil (Sound Mix) did a lot a work to reduce this, but its still quite obvious to me, and the only way to totally fix it is ADR, which I am not about to do. So we didn’t really get into the fun stuff in the afternoon. I had a date with online at 2pm, to change my credits, which we do expediently, and I decide to add a memorial notice to the end of the film for my mother-in-law, which I feel is only appropriate considering all the support she has given Michal and I. We start to mix the music and it sounds great, both Hugh and Neil express their satisfaction with the choice of music and Neil says he thinks Doug has done a fantastic job, I am relived, as my fear was they would say it was overdone and too dramatic, but they disagree with my expression of this fear. I tell Neil, that Doug and I have be working on this music for sometime and he said that it shows. We add reverb to the end crying of Phil and it makes it quite haunting,the other interesting thing is the crooning of Ainslie is an surprising contradiction, as the film is quite misogynistic and its like a woman is crying for the sadness of this and their predicament. I am really happy with the final mix and look of the film. IT’S DONE! From March 20th to today is 7 months of hard, but extremely satisfying work

conclusion
Generally, I am really satisfied with the end result of “Crash”, besides a few technical issues, such as sound and I think I would of like to of graded the film less warm. But from a narrative perspective, I think the film does everything really well and the amount of story packed into a
5 minute film is quite astonishing when you consider all the issues I cover. I think the performance are really solid, Tom Budge did a great job, and Kristian did quite well too, considering he had a powerful performer like Tom to compete against, he held his own
for most of it and I think he has a promising career ahead of himself if he keeps working at it. Would I of done anything differently, always! But I think the issues are small, considering I shot with no coverage, and little or nothing to cut away to if anything stuffed up. I really like the ramping and slow motion, which is quite effective and the film sustains you for the whole five minutes, I think it all works, tells a sad, but powerful story and has audiences drawns on certain issues, loads to argue about and discuss, just what I like!

POSTSCRIPT
CRASH went onto to screen in 15 international festivals, including the San Francisco International GLBT Festival in 2005, which I was lucky enough to receive travel grant from Film Victoria to attend. It was nominated for Best Film in the school awards and best editing, winning neither. Its funny how things work, I never intended to make a film that is classified a gay genre, but by doing this I have had a lot of success with it, happily I can also say it did make it into some mainstream festivals as well. Unfortunately, to date, Crash has never screened in an Australian mainstream Film Festival. But it was a finalist in the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Film festival in 2005.
All rights reserved ©2005