STACK NZ Jul #75

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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

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

PLANET COOBER PEDY The remote South Australian opal mining town is a ready-made alien landscape for sci-fi filmmakers.

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.

We don’t just want to make films in this genre here, we want to watch them too

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.

“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.

as the inspired casting of Shaun Micallef, who voices the crashed shuttlecraft’s computer, REEF.

• Arrowhead is out now

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