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funding from [cable channel] TV1,” O’Brien
explains. “I pitched to them and they said,
‘here’s the money’, which is the kind of
thing that never happens – it’s a dream for
a filmmaker.”
Coober Pedy in South Australia provided
the arid and otherworldly landscape O’Brien
needed for his alien moon, and allowed him
to get the most from an $180,000 budget.
“The biggest chunk of our budget went
to accommodation in Coober Pedy,” he
says. “It was still quite cheap and gave
us everything we needed in diversity of
landscape.”
Having a fantastic location at his
disposal allowed the visual effects shots
to be seamlessly integrated in post-
production, using the same DIY method
Gareth Edwards applied to his first feature,
Monsters
.
“That was a huge inspiration for us,”
says O’Brien of Edwards’ film. “We’d
already written
Arrowhead
, but when I saw
Monsters
, I realised that someone else
had actually achieved that sort of model of
filmmaking.”
O’Brien drew upon his experience with
motion graphics in editing TV spots and
trailers to create the FX for
Arrowhead
.
“DOP Samuel Baulch [another former
JB employee!] and I did most of the visual
effects ourselves, about 300 shots during
post-production, and we wrote the film
around what we could do, like the simple
effects of putting planets in the sky. We
didn’t try and do too much that was beyond
our skill set.”
The result is a production that
transcends its budgetary constraints.
Arrowhead
also benefits from an
engaging central performance by
Underbelly
actor Dan Mor, as well
as the inspired casting of Shaun
Micallef, who voices the crashed
shuttlecraft’s computer, REEF.
“I wanted REEF to be an informational
computer, something that didn’t sound
Australian but a little more refined,” explains
O’Brien. “I didn’t want an Aussie ocker
voice; Shaun has a real sense of regality to
his voice.”
Arrowhead
is a remarkable achievement
for a debut feature and one that O’Brien
hopes will resonate with sci-fi fans. The
film’s universe lends itself to further
stories which he hopes can be told in a TV
series continuation, and he’s also currently
developing a new sci-fi feature.
The rise of Australian science fiction has
begun.
1 2
We don’t just want to make films in this genre
here, we want to watch them too
M
ention homegrown science fiction
films and the post-apocalypse
world of Mad Max immediately
springs to mind. But when it comes to sci-fi
involving space travel, creatures and alien
worlds, Australian cinema is severely
lacking – a fact Jesse O’Brien was
determined to change.
“Genre in Australian films is always
hidden in a drama with science fiction
elements,” he notes. “It’s very hard to find
a film that just boldly says it’s a science
fiction movie with spaceships, space
helmets and monsters. We wanted to
make something that was unashamedly
sci-fi, while still being a real movie.
“We don’t just want to make films in
this genre here,” he adds, “we want to
watch them too. So we had to make one
ourselves.”
Arrowhead
is set on a desert moon,
where an escaped prisoner of war
finds himself marooned and bizarrely
transforming following an encounter with a
symbiotic alien life form.
The project was conceived as a feature
but began life as a short film, with O’Brien’s
housemate Ryan Stevens (who was
working at JB Hi-Fi at the time, the director
reveals) serving as production designer,
composer and actor in the short.
“We built the spaceship set in our living
room and [the short] became a tool
that we used to try and crowdfund
the feature, which ultimately
didn’t work, but it did give
us exposure that led to
PLANET
COOBER PEDY
The remote South
Australian opal mining
town is a ready-made
alien landscape for sci-fi
filmmakers.
RED PLANET
Add a colour filter and it's the
surface of Mars, where belligerent
stars Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore
came to blows off-screen.
MAD MAX BEYOND
THUNDERDOME
As post-apocalyptic as Broken
Hill and the ideal location for
Bartertown – and a place where
two men enter, one man leaves.
PITCH BLACK
Not the kind of place you want to
be caught during a total eclipse,
when hungry monsters awaken.
Unless Vin Diesel is around.
•
Arrowhead
is out now