Interview: Goodfellas – Rialto 48 Hours 2013 Grand Finalists
Filmmaking squad Goodfellas has been competing in the 48 Hours competition for over half a decade, impressing audiences and critics alike. With their crime short Broken Silence, the lads have made their way into the 2013 Grand Final once again. We got the chance to ask the talented crew a few questions.
The Grand Final is held at the mighty Civic Theatre in Auckland on Tuesday night, July 16 8:00pm.
Hello from Flicks and congratulations on scoring the Runner-Up position at this year’s Auckland Rialto Channel 48 Hours final. What is your 48 Hours film Broken Silence about?
Broken Silence is a story about revenge. A man, Vic Meyer, is haunted by the memories of an attack that was made on him and his wife. One of the three men responsible for the attack, Daniel, has just been released from prison. Vic has waited for the three attackers to be in the same place at the same time so he can exact some payback. But when he discovers that Daniel has turned his life around, it makes his decision to take revenge a bit harder.
How does the making of ‘Broken Silence’ compare to your previous 48 Hours experiences?
Broken Silence is definitely our darkest film. We have made a lot of comedic films but felt that we wanted to do something different this year. Some of the dark material was difficult to approach but we’re happy with the end product.
Last year’s short ‘Daylight Robbery’ was a one-shot crime film that required a unique approach. Could you tell us about this particular method and how hard it was convincing the team to do it?
When we drew the “one-shot” film we asked Rhys Duncan, probably New Zealand’s top Steadicam operator, if he could shoot it for us. He was keen but the downside was that he wasn’t available until Sunday afternoon, so we took the risk and started filming about 6 hours before our 48 hours deadline was up.
The outcome was a mixed bag. The film looked great but because of the time constraints, I felt that we were only just starting to find our stride when we had to stop filming. A few more hours would have given us a much better film, but that’s the nature of the competition.
From your previous entries, what would you consider the Goodfella’s golden year?
Our most successful year was 2010 when we made Carousel which was probably our best film to date and we finished 4th overall. However, our first film, In Search of Bigfoot, was the easiest and most fun to make. It was just me and the three actors, out in the forest, with a camera and a bad gorilla costume making up the story as we went along. It turned out to be a real crowd pleaser.
What is the best piece of advice you could give to a newbie 48 Hours team?
It’s all about teamwork and being prepared. We have a small team which means that we will never do things on a grand scale with lots of costumes, special effects, locations etc. But we focus on story and character and keep it pretty simple.
They give you a whole bunch of V energy drinks and it’s a good idea not to drink them all on Friday night because you will crash pretty quickly. Save it till you really need an energy hit on Saturday night and during the Sunday editing.
Got any classic 48 Hours horror stories?
No major problems when we’ve been out filming but last year there were two major sound effects missing from our final film which made it very hard to watch with an audience. We were tempted to add them live in the cinema.
With ‘Daylight Robbery’, ‘Carousel’, ‘Fanatics’ and ‘In Search of Bigfoot’ each getting in with the Peter Jackson Wild Card, how does it feel knowing Sir Peter’s got your back?
After Thursday’s announcement we now have five! The Peter Jackson Wildcards have always been the highlight of the competition for us. Just to know that he watched them and has seen our work is awesome.
Does that mean you’ll be in ‘The Hobbit’?
Not many roles for Samoans in The Hobbit but Jerry does look like an Orc so they would save money on make-up…
Are there any non-48 Hours related film or television projects you’ve got in the works?
I’ve had a film script in development for 6 years now. I’m hoping that this year will be the year when it takes the next step but it’s a long hard road to get a film funded. We applied for funding last year for a ‘Goodfellas’ project but we missed out. Jerry is also working on some short film scripts. We’re directors for hire but it would be nice to work on our own projects as opposed to others. That is what makes the 48 Hour competition so great. Every year we get together and make something we can call our own and have some fun along the way.
