Step up … Andrew Kavanagh hopes to make a full-length
film. Photo: Rodger Cummins
Sacha Molitorisz, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports
A prize for a
Melbourne filmmaker includes working with an acclaimed director to learn the
tricks of the trade, writes Molitorisz.
As usual, Rob Luketic is juggling projects.
''My schedule changes hourly,'' says the
director of Legally Blonde. ''There's a project in China I'm
considering, and there's one in New York … ''
Luketic has worked with Kevin Spacey and
Reese Witherspoon. He's so busy he rarely has time to return from his Los
Angeles base to Australia. Now, though, Luketic is especially excited by the
prospect of working with Andrew Kavanagh, a 28-year-old who only last year
finished his film and TV studies at the Victorian College of the Arts (which,
coincidentally, is also where Luketic studied).
Today, Kavanagh will be announced as the
winner of the SOYA (Spirit of Youth Award) in filmmaking.
As part of his prize, Kavanagh will be
mentored by Luketic, spending an extended stint on a film set with the
director. The details are still being finalised, given Luketic's mercurial
schedule, but Kavanagh is thrilled.
''It'll be a real eye-opener,'' says
Kavanagh, from North Carlton in Melbourne. ''Someone in his position has a lot
to teach someone in my position. I've never made a feature, though I'd like to
and am writing a script at the moment. It'll be really good to pick his
brains.''
Run by Qantas, the Spirit Of Youth Awards
have been rewarding talented creative types aged 18 to 30 for seven years. Each
winner receives travel to an overseas cultural event, and a mentorship.
The fashion winner is Michael Le Sordo, who
will be mentored by the people behind the Sydney label Zimmerman; the
interactive content and gaming winner is Harry Lee, to be mentored by the
digital agency Soap Creative; the writing winner is Andrew Bifield, whose
mentor will be Markus Zusak; and the visual design winner is Luke Brown, to be
mentored by Vince Frost of Frost Design.
A Hollywood wunderkind, Luketic was still in
his 20s when he directed Legally Blonde. He's thrilled to able to
mentor.
''I'm offering an internship on the set of a
film, and as well as that I guess I'll be a facilitator or introducer,'' he
says. ''This industry can be about relationships, and that can be so daunting.
''When I was in Australia trying to make it
happen, I wish [I'd had] a mentor. I had sources of inspiration, like Bruce
Beresford and Jane Campion, but I never had a mentor. The first time I was
flying to Los Angeles, Peter Weir was a few seats in front of me but I never
had the courage to speak to him.
''I'll talk about how do you get an agent,
how you develop a treatment, about having a plan for next five years. I'll talk
about the mistakes I've made, and perhaps not made, and how it all works. And
I'll debunk some of the myths.''
What mistakes has he made?
''I've done films for the money,'' he says.
''That's something I don't think I'll do again. People wave large amounts of
money in front of you and what are you going to do? But a movie like 21
I did because I loved it.''
Kavanagh won the SOYA on the strength of two
short films, At the Formal and Men of the Earth. Each cost about
$10,000 and was shot on 16mm, and both are proving popular at international festivals.
''They're explorations of modern and ancient
rituals,'' he says. ''They're both long shots that draw you into a situation
that you might be familiar with, then they jolt your perspective.''
Much like the jolt Kavanagh got last week,
when he received the call telling him he'd won.
''This is really exciting,'' Kavanagh says.
''It's still sinking in.''
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