Original subtitles

[dramatic music] [muffled talking on TV]

- All the years I was growing up

the only thing I ever wanted to do was make a movie

and somewhere along the line

I got confused and made television.

And now I'm 38 and I'm old.

And parts of my life have just fallen by the wayside.

I sleep on the floor of a warehouse.

And I do nothing but work.

And I don't understand why.

But what I don't want to be is the guy who dies

not having done what they should've done.

So I'm gonna make a movie,

about an aborted fetus that survives its abortion.

It grows up and kills its family.

[suspenseful music]

[groovy music]

Slowly in my life I've been

losing things that aren't important.

A relationship and a house

and I don't know where they've gone.

They've turned into VHS tapes and ideas for films.

For money I do lots of random jobs.

[yelling]

Sometimes I get to go and do acting for my friends

who are making comedy shows.

Me being an actor in this country

is a bit like being a clown or an apparent guy

who's not working right because he looks like me.

I was once a plate or a tray in a scene

'cause someone thought that was funny.

And that's not a life or a career.

And I don't enjoy it.

[yelling]

Sometimes I'll get a job as a director.

Double the Fist was a good project

that I actually wanted to do,

but most things that I get to do now,

it's other people's ideas and other people's creative input,

but I know I've got lots of great ideas for movies

and that's what I've always wanted to do.

I feel very focused and healthy.

I get up every morning at 6:30

and I go to the gym and I swim.

In the last few months I've lost 30 kilos

and I feel very active and fit and ready for the film.

I'm also getting circumcised.

So I feel like a young boy coming of age.

[synthesizer music]

Well, let me start five years ago

when I first had a thing called phimosis,

which is a tightening of the foreskin around the penis.

And it doesn't go down, it won't retract.

And sometimes it becomes extremely painful

at the times you don't want it to be painful.

So I haven't had,

sex for five years and I'm on the public health system

and I've been waiting for

about 14 months to get an operation.

My mom and me.

My other brothers became normal people.

And they've got their own card.

I'm still like a kid.

I feel totally different as I change the way I look

and not being a friendly, affable, little cuddly dude

who's like a boy making TV.

I feel like I'm growing up and becoming someone

who does what they should do which is make films.

And not cry when they ejaculate.

[laughing]

Looking forward to that.

[synthesizer music]

Most horror films cost at least a million dollars to make.

I'm hoping to make this one for $82,000.

It's mostly made up of my money

and a bit from private investors.

I know the script's good.

I spent two years on it.

Every famous American actor who read it,

they all said, yeah, that's a great script.

Good news is I have recently signed

the lead actress, Dee Wallace, from E.T.

and the Howling and Cujo and The Hills Have Eyes.

And she's worked with tons of famous people.

She worked with Peter Jackson on The Frighteners

and Wes Craven and Spielberg and it's pretty exciting

that she's gonna be doing the film role

for a reasonable price

and she's a got a lot of exciting and positive energy

so I'm flying her out on business class.

[laughing with a snort]

Oh man if I fuck this up I am gonna lose 11 grand.

I don't know why I'm looking at you.

You want this to happen.

You're not gonna talk me out of it.

You love this.

Well, that's all done man.

- How do you feel? - I feel relieved.

I mean that's been hanging over me

and I hope now that this locks her in, you know,

that this is the moment where I'm on my way.

[dog barking]

I've got all the stuff in the back of the car.

- Okay.

- [Craig] Yeah, I've got my parents involved.

My whole family are gonna take time off work

and come down and my dad helps out with location rekkies

'cause he likes going for drives.

- We're not going to get pies this afternoon, love.

We'll have to wait and maybe get

a coffee at Macker's all right?

- [Craig] My dad is not normally a reader,

but he read the script 'cause he's really interested.

And went through the script with a pen

and wrote notes all through it.

- The whole part up to that point in your movie is great.

Now I take over here. - Okay.

- We've a got a scene at the woodpile.

Cute Pie takes a nut out of the jar.

Her body falls to the ground in two symmetric pieces.

Instead of cutting her in half at this point

he reaches out with his hand, reaches the top blouse

and pulls it off. [laughing]

Because she's-- - She's seven years old.

- Yeah, she at this point is trying to run away you see?

As he looks around to see who is there

it is Cutie Pie coming out of the forest,

cold, bewildered, and bloodstained in her underclothes,

but alive and safe.

[chuckling]

- Why is she in her underclothes?

- You're not doing it like Kill Bill are you?

Shew!

- What, where there's lots of Blood everywhere?

- Squirts and--

- [Craig] Well how do you want people to die?

- Well, gently. - Don't see it?

[chuckling]

So in my script there's a story element

to do with a character having Down syndrome

and this guy finds out that his mother

terminated the next child

because it had a likelihood of having Down syndrome

amongst other things.

And so he has to confront his mom.

I wrote the character for this actor Jerry.

Hey man.

You standing at the window?

- Yeah.

- Jerry's worrying about having called himself,

or labeling himself as having Down syndrome

'cause in the past he's not wanted to.

He just wanted to be labeled as you know a guy

and not have that label attached to him,

but I've told him, but that's what's in the script.

So it's a little weird, 'cause if I don't address it

and it's in the script, that's what

the script's written around a lot of so I gotta,

I don't think he wants to say it and I said,

well let's talk about it.

- Up there. - Whoa, what's this?

- Oh, that's my red belt in karate.

- Oh. - Yes.

I do karate every Thursday. - Oh I didn't know.

- Yeah. [shouting]

- Okay, that was very close.

In the film your character is just--

- Strong.

- Strong, he's cool, everyone likes him.

- Handsome.

- Yeah, he's handsome. - Yes.

- Well he's very good looking.

- Yes. - Okay.

And normally in horror movies

they don't treat disability that well.

- No. - It's scary.

- Yeah. - So all that stuff.

I don't want to even deal with that.

I just want to say he's a guy in the house.

But the scene where you've got to go into

that room with the gun and talk to the mom.

- Yes. - You do have to be upset.

- Yes.

- You're upset because you think

maybe your mom didn't want you.

- No.

- Now I know in real life you know that Anne loves you and--

- Yes I do.

- And she's seen that you've had a great life and she's like, oh, no problem.

- Yes.

- But your character won't know that.

- Yeah, like in real life what you just said,

that Mom loves me no matter what, who I am,

but there's something, something or someone is in the way.

- In the movie? - No, no, not in our movie.

- What, in your life? - In my life.

- [Craig] Who's in the way of you and your mom?

- Well I don't want to say it.

- Yeah, I don't know what's happening.

What is this a personal problem?

- No, well--

- This is an issue that's around the house.

- Oh, no, no, see, it's not an issue,

but it's an issue for me in general,

but I don't want to say it on camera.

- Oh, okay, well we-- - If you don't mind Gary.

- [Gary] If you're shy I'll turn off.

- Yeah I think there's a lot of scars for Gerard

and so naturally the conversation

about Down syndrome moved into that.

At the end of chatting with Gerard he was okay.

I mean he was extremely positive and okay.

[tense music]

[groovy music]

I've got a location which is great,

but now I've got it I need to see

what the location looks like at night,

but I don't want to pay $700 to hire it for a night

so I'm gonna kind of sneak down and have a look at it.

The only time we can do a rekkie

and know what the lights look like is if someone's hiring it

so I made sure that someone's hiring it

and now we're going to go in and take some photos

of what it looks like at night.

If anything goes wrong we stick together

and we try to lose him. [laughing]

- [Man] But we're on his fucking camera, man.

[chuckling]

I don't know if you understand how this technology works.

[chuckling]

- I don't care man.

I'm not getting busted 'cause of the documentary.

I've got six grand on this house.

I've already paid a deposit.

I don't want to get busted 'cause you're walking around

with a light and a massive camera

and the headphones and shit.

If you fall over we're gonna keep going

and you just keep lying in the dark until we get back.

[tense music]

It's very important that I don't get busted

because then I'll lose the location

and it's took me three months to find that location

so we're going to do it very covertly.

That's a powerful light.

We're real fucking close to the house now Gary.

- Okay, hang on. - Okay, just so you know.

And in case you didn't want to shine any big fucking lights.

[camera shutter snapping]

[branches rustling]

Get down.

[door creaking]

Oh fuck.

[suspenseful music]

- [Man] Man-- [muffled talking]

- [Craig] Turn the lights off so they can't see the back Gary.

- [Man] No, no, your car lights

so they can't see the numbers--

- [Craig] I can't see shit.

[chuckling]

Okay. [chuckling]

Let's just get the fuck out of here.

[suspenseful music]

So even with the investor I've got

I now need $106,000.

The cash amount I need has gone up

$60,000 in the last two days because I did a budget.

And because I hadn't done a budget for 10 months.

So I'm an idiot, a bloody idiot.

I've got the airfares and I've got

the house and the accommodation.

It means I can't pull out. [chuckling]

So we're going to McDonald's. [chuckling]

We're going to McDonald's because I'm depressed.

I've got problems with the budget.

Mm.

So I'm trying to eat the pain away.

I also found that I was $3,800 down in my rent.

They're currently making more than me. [chuckling]

Okay.

What was your question?

Why fucking, why would you start shit with me?

I'm trying to calm down.

That's why I've come here.

Body wrap bandage, eight inch roll, $83.16.

Accu-Cast Alginate, $132.82.

I have to pay this receipt to the guys,

the makeup boys who used their own money to buy stuff

so I am about to transfer the last,

of my money to them to pay them back.

I have $288, or is $256?

[dramatic music]

So that's exciting.

My family is a working class family.

Mom and Dad don't have much money.

One of my brothers has done the right thing with his life.

He saved money, bought some land,

then he turned that land into an apartment,

sold the apartment and he's got money in the bank.

And he wants to buy a house.

Every time I visit my family

Dad goes Todd you should give money

to Craig to make his film.

And you know Todd's just, Todd doesn't respond,

which is one of Todd's excellent skills.

I'm at St. Clair at my family's home

and tonight I'm going inside to talk to Todd

about, [chuckling] him lending me money.

Mom said yeah it's okay to talk to him

and that I should come out and chat.

- Here we are. [chuckling]

- How you doing, cool. - I'm okay.

- I like your pajamas. - Yeah, you like?

- Yeah. - Hey Gary.

- [Gary] Hi Todd, how are you? - I'm all right.

- [Todd] You want me to change my pajamas?

- I don't know, I don't think so, if you're happy in that.

- Sitting right in my pajamas. - Yeah.

What, do you want to get changed?

- No. - You can get changed.

No, Todd's great, he's a joker.

His favorite film's Falling Down with Michael Douglass.

[chuckling]

He's great.

I pitched Todd the deal.

I said here's what's going on.

- Oh, that's all right. - Sorry.

- [Craig] Mom and Dad left us alone, which was nice.

So normally a movie like this if it was made with--

- Excuse me.

- Thanks Dad.

What are these biscuits?

- [Dad] Sour cream and onion.

- Sour cream and onion with a cup of tea.

Oh it's good Dad.

So you can think about it. - Yeah.

- And let me know if you want to invest, you can invest.

If you want to loan you can loan.

And if you don't want to do anything

you can just not do anything. [chuckling]

Is there anything you need to ask or want to know?

- So is it you don't have enough money to make the film or?

[chuckling]

- Yeah, what I'm saying is if I don't have cash soon

I'm in a lot of trouble.

[chuckling]

I spoke to Todd about it Mom and Dad so I told him.

- [Mom] Now how short are you of money?

- Thanks for asking Mom, I'm short-- [chuckling]

Look, the figures vary between 80,000 and 100,000.

- That you're short?

Well when we get back we'll give you 20,000.

- To borrow, or do you want to invest in it?

- [Mom] No.

- [Craig] Just a loan.

- And we get a loan, we'll get a loan.

- You'll get a loan? - Yeah.

- What from the bank? - No.

- No hang on. - It's all right.

- No, no, no, no. - Because--

- You don't have to get a loan from a bank.

- I mean they know that we've got the house.

- [Craig] So they do know that.

- We also have a car that is only new too.

[Craig chuckling] So--

[chuckling]

- Yeah, yeah. - Great.

All right let's do it.

Let's shake.

- Oh, a handshake?

- Well, it doesn't mean the deal's over.

It just means I was gonna say goodbye.

- Bye.

[chuckling]

- All right, thanks Todd, goodbye.

- That was-- - All right.

- All right. [chuckling]

I'm not, ah fuck, okay.

Goodbye. [chuckling]

Well, I have to-- - Oh you got--

- Yeah, if I can get out?

I guess it was weird to ask for $100,000,

but that's what I need.

I hope the movie's good.

What if the movie's terrible?

What if the movie's terrible?

It's about an aborted fetus

that returns and kills its family. [chuckling]

Of course it's gonna be terrible, fuck.

[dramatic music]

[plane whooshing]

[sighing]

All right.

So I got a phone call from Dad.

No, I called them because I sent through

the contract for Todd and Dad couldn't get

any money from the credit union.

Because they're pensioners they just won't,

you can't borrow any money,

what the hell are you guys talking about?

So they got knocked back.

And there was a great moment where Dad said,

"All right, well we can't give you the money."

I went, "That's okay."

And he goes, "So what are you gonna do now?"

[chuckling]

"Well, what are you up to now?"

And I just couldn't talk because I was thinking fuck,

now I gotta find $20,000.

[plane whooshing]

[tense music]

I feel a little spaced out and weird recently

just 'cause there's a lot of money I need to get

and a lot of money I owe,

and it's a little stressful.

And I got circumcised which hurt a lot

and means I can't, I can't,

when I get an erection it hurts 'cause I've got stitches

in my penis so I don't,

that's kind of been in the background building up,

a lot of that weakness and,

I can't get no relief. [chuckling]

I don't know how to be polite about saying I feel fucked.

I feel nervous and worried and,

you know what it's like?

There's a building collapsing and I'm running from it

and it hasn't got me yet

and I feel like, well, I'm okay, I'm still alive,

but then the time will eventually come

where it will go whoosh and I'll realize

just how big a mess I've created.

The film has to go ahead.

I'll lose 45 grand if I stop now.

I don't know what he's doing, Todd has to give me the money.

I have no other options.

[birds squawking]

- What's that? - Is that a GoPro?

- [Craig] Yeah.

- What is it? - A GoPro.

I'm turning camera.

Well I wanted to film me asking Todd

and see what happened,

but it just took forever to get into the conversation

and I also wanted to protect Todd

from feeling obliged because he was being filmed.

[synthesizer music]

Thank you, sorry I'm late.

There it is.

You can check it. - Okay.

- But it's the one I sent last night.

It's always hard to read Todd, if it's okay,

but he seems okay and I was trying to push Todd

to say well go up to 80 Todd and Mom didn't like that.

I think he thinks that, well, because it's brothers

he may not get it back.

Maybe deep down I'm like, oh a little less pressure,

but I'm determined to get it back to him

because I want to teach him a lesson.

[Craig chuckling]

- [Gary] How are you feeling Todd?

- A bit drained I think. - Drained of money?

- Yeah.

- You get free poppers though.

I forgot that, you get a free popper when you go in.

So that's good, you just got a popper for $60,000.

- Mm-hm. [chuckling]

[rock music]

[muffled chattering]

- I got a hot crew.

It's like The A-Team, but they're even more weird.

Let's start with the DP.

If you're gonna get someone to shoot it

you need Doug Burgdorff 'cause that guy is a madman.

- Is there a chair I could stand on?

- I can't think of a better guy to shoot my film.

[booming]

I've got the Double the Fist team back together

because I like them and we've worked together since

and I've got Ron Fox, little Ronnie Fox,

my brother from the show, he's back.

- Nice timing my brother.

[chuckling]

- Let's go.

- Brian Moses is a smiling assassin.

He's excellent at tricking you and making you do things

and he's gonna be first AD.

He's also never done a first AD job before.

- Does that mean you want me to do the schedule?

- No, no, I'll do the schedule.

- Okay. - I'll do that.

You don't have to do that.

You can come and look at it and see--

[chuckling]

- No. [chuckling]

No, no.

- You may not need to see that.

- I don't need to do that.

- We've got the Mephisto, Doug Bayne, lighting, gaffer.

He's never done that before. [chuckling]

He's working off a book

and he's walking into hardware stores.

That's how I want my lights to look.

Doug is gonna nail it.

- Usually I do animation.

I do visual effects, I do titles.

I don't often go on set at all.

All my work happens on a computer in the dark.

I'm sort of like the opposite of a lighting person.

- And they're all gonna be fantastic

'cause they're people who I've

worked with in intense situations

and subconsciously I've gone back to them

'cause I know that we have

gotten through intense times together.

[dramatic music]

Yes, you've got a placenta in your freezer?

Oh, no, no not at all.

It's me and I've got a passion for it, so yeah.

I'm so ready to touch your placenta.

Yeah, with gloves, it's written down here, use gloves.

Okay, thank you, and congratulations.

What is this shirt?

- Where did we get it, I think--

- I dyed it, so yeah. - Oh you dyed it?

- Yeah. - Oh wow.

[grunting]

[muffled chattering]

- Oh shit.

Oh shit. [clanging]

Sorry Craig.

- Oh, it's,

you need a, you need--

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- I got that.

Yeah, how's your face, are you okay?

- Oh, thank god for that. - Yeah?

- Yes, I'm good. - Okay, all right.

I'm Gerard, how are you? - Nice to meet you.

- Did you eat some cake? - Yes I did.

- Did you have some Bundy, Bundaberg?

- Ah, yes, yes I did. - Yeah?

Is it good or has it gone down?

- It's gone down, yes.

[Craig chuckling]

- Did you drink a lot of it? - Oh, no, no, no, no.

- No?

Are you a bit drunk, a little bit?

- No, no, no, no, I'm not drunk.

- I don't mind, I don't care.

What time do you think your mom thinks you should get home?

- I don't know.

I didn't bring my iPhone on me.

- Okay.

But have some coffee and Listerine.

- Yeah. - Yeah, all right, great.

But we'll do some lines together in a minute

'cause we should rehearse that final scene.

- Yeah, sure. - Yeah, is that good?

- Yeah. - All right, great.

I'm gonna just keep doing some stuff.

[chattering]

[laughing]

- Cut. - I didn't know.

And now facing the wall.

Okay, good. [camera shutter snapping]

And turn your head towards me, yes.

- Now is it okay that she just has one outfit?

'Cause I mean is it gonna get, you know,

bloody and take two and she needs like a fresh--

- Well, I never imagined that her death would require it.

Do you have an NRMA?

No, no.

Do you think your parent's would've ever got an NRMA?

Insurance, yeah, it's video, hang on.

Jerry I might do some rehearsing

with you now is that all right?

- Yeah. - Yeah, thanks man.

It might be inappropriate.

The other people don't want to watch it.

- What if I change that one and put another one on?

- Yeah you can put another one,

but maybe not from the adult section.

- Yes, I know, but I'm used to that.

- No, I know, but it's not about

whether you're used to it,

it's about whether everyone wants to have it on when--

- Yes I know, I know. - Okay.

All right, thanks man.

So I reckon just watch some comedy stuff and then-- - Okay.

- Okay.

So yeah, yeah just stick to horror or comedy

or any other genre. - Yeah, all right.

Yeah, I've got it. - All right, all right.

- Okay.

I picked the right one.

Gary, cut.

[energetic music]

- The first day of shooting we've got the downstairs area

of the warehouse where we're shooting the bad guy's lair.

And then we're gonna drive for about an hour

for the second half of the day

which is the interior abortion clinic.

We're gonna shoot downstairs now

and then we'll be out of here by three.

- Okay. - Rolling now.

This is down in the basement,

this is scene one, and this is take one.

You on that?

[slap thwacking]

And action.

This is meant to be an easy day

because eight non dialog shots is all I wanted that morning.

Cut, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, great.

But I had no idea that because it's a movie,

because things are different now

because as soon as you introduce one element,

like a proper camera with a monitor

you've got leads and someone has to move those leads.

Everyone needs to start coming on to make it not shit

and I didn't have everyone there.

So I just kept going on and on

and at some point we were running two or three hours late.

I don't know about any wide shot here.

I just want to see this guy's face.

I'm not normally a person who likes to storyboard.

I like to just work it out on the day,

but at the same time I couldn't express it

because there wasn't words and it wasn't a scene,

it was just a moment.

Yeah, I just want to get this guy now.

- Okay, great. - Yeah.

[phone ringing]

Yeah, keep going.

Yeah, I'm still, we've gotta get there before four

'cause other people will get there.

So we'll be there at four, yeah?

That means we've just gotta stop what we're doing here

'cause we can't lose this clinic

and people are meeting us there to shoot.

- Okay. - So we've just gotta stop this.

I'm sorry. - Literally?

- Literally stop shooting in this space

and we'll have to pick this up some other time this weekend.

- Okay. - I'm sorry.

I'm sorry Alistair. - That's fine.

- [Craig] When the time came and we were meant to drive out

I remember checking my phone and going,

oh, it's way past that time.

I can't make it, you know what I mean?

I can't keep going because I

can't think about even anything.

- [Man] Okay, cool.

- [Craig] So I just need someone who can do things as well.

- All right, all right. - You should've said man.

- [Craig] I didn't know, I didn't know till now.

They're all waiting for me to make a choice,

but I can't think 'cause I gotta

do all this shit, producing shit.

I'm thinking of canceling this to get it another time.

- Yeah, okay. - Anyway, the point being,

I don't think we're running very well

and I, just like I think I've made a mistake

in not having this fully crewed properly.

I just kind of think what might be better

to do is keep working here.

- I'll need half an hour to black everything out.

- I'm sorry man, yeah. - No, it's not bad.

It's fine. - I'm sorry.

Arms up.

I thought it was gonna take three hours.

It took nine hours.

'Cause I couldn't even wrap my head around

simple moments in the script.

That's when I was thinking, fuck,

you should just be the producer

and get someone else to direct it.

It was like a cataclysm.

I felt, yeah go on, what's your question?

- [Gary] Do you think having a first AD might help?

- Are you a fucking idiot?

Yeah, of course it might help.

I reckon a second and a third AD

and two production assistants.

And a sound recordist, and boomie.

They'd all be fucking great.

- [Gary] So why was there not a first AD here today?

[chuckling]

- Because Brian called me last week

and said do you think you'll need anyone and I said no.

And he said, okay, well, I'll work.

And I go yeah, okay.

So I made a mistake.

And now we're down on the first day.

We're half a day down on the first day.

[plane whooshing] [dramatic music]

- I was already nervous about the schedule

before they shot anything.

And when I heard they only managed to get half the scenes

that they needed to get on that first day

it was almost like my worst nightmares had come true.

He had big action sequences

and he had 15 minutes to complete the whole thing

and I started to think how on Earth are we going to cope

with the rest of this grueling schedule?

Your schedule of this is an eight hour day

was a complete fiction.

It wasn't scheduled properly with dinner breaks

and moving from location to location.

- [Craig] Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a 10 hour day.

- We're pushing 12 most days. - 12?

[chuckling] - So just so you know

there's no room for error and people are gonna start

getting pissed off when 12 hours goes to 13, 14 hours.

[groovy music]

- We got an email from Dee's agent today

and, [sighing] he said where's the SAG paperwork?

Well, okay, I don't completely understand how SAG works,

but they are the actor's union in America.

Apparently if you're in the club

the club has to give approval for you

to go anywhere around the world to appear in something.

The problem is she's gotta get on the plane in two days

and Bryan's of the opinion that if she gets on the plane

we've got her, we've trapped her.

- [Man] What I think we should do,

Doug was saying it takes six to eight weeks

for that paperwork to clear.

I think what we tell SAG is

the shoot's in six to eight weeks.

- No.

- So we shoot the film-- - No.

- [Man] But we make sure she's covered.

- But I don't think we can lie.

I mean Dee's manager did say to me at some point,

oh yeah, so are you gonna follow SAG's rules?

And I went well, yeah, we're following MEAA,

our union's rules, so I assume everything

will be fine and he went, yeah, okay,

not understanding that what he was actually saying

was you need to register with SAG, give them money,

and make sure that you're doing the right thing.

The Australian union, MEAA, looked over everything

for me to get the visa and no one told me

that I had to register with SAG for their approval.

I just assumed that our union had something worked out

and if they were happy then it was all okay.

I realize what a bad position this puts you in.

- You're asking her to break her union's rules

so I would make it as,

you know get her up to speed on the stakes,

and just maybe that you're inexperienced so it's excusable.

I mean, appeal to her on a personal level,

'cause this is your life's dream to make this movie,

you're finally making it, and at the last hour,

it could all crumble.

[chuckling]

Sorry. [chuckling]

- Jesus. [chuckling]

- A month ago I was about to help out on this film,

proper actors, the whole deal

and I get a call at the last minute,

like the day before I'm supposed to help shoot

and they said they got shut down

'cause they didn't follow SAG rules

and the whole production moved to Bulgaria.

- I want to keep the car over there.

I think I've reached a point where I don't care now,

but this thing's happened with Dee and her agent.

I care if she doesn't turn up,

but what have I got till Sunday

to find another actor if Dee doesn't make it?

But I know I have to look at what we're doing tomorrow

or everything that we're all doing is worthless.

[rain pattering]

Okay, so overnight Bryan got a phone call

from Dee's manager who said you gotta talk to SAG now.

So I gotta fill out this form to get the,

get the thing approved from,

I don't even know what the fuck this is now.

It's a SAG agreement shit thing for Dee.

If they ask for a $10,000 bond

I'm fucked 'cause I have no cash left.

The thing with Dee is not resolved,

but because I don't want to get further behind

I have to start shooting.

[energetic percussion music]

- This required a drive 30 kilometers into the bush.

We then had to stop, get out of our cars,

where he'd organized a local guy with

a big four wheel drive to come and pick us up.

[engine rumbling]

It was like a rollercoaster ride at Disneyland,

but with the actual possibility of death.

- [Man] Well thank god the $150,000 camera's in there.

[chuckling]

- Let's not worry.

Let's not focus on any of the negative stuff.

- And the fear was because it was raining

the river we had to cross was gonna come up

and we wouldn't be able to get back to continue shooting.

And so there was like five or six runs

trying to get us up there.

Is my nose bleeding?

It bleeds when I stress. - Oh shit.

No, it's okay. - Oh thank god.

- Here's a tissue. - No it's good, it's good.

I just thought blood started to poor out of my nose.

Talking about the first day.

[Gary chuckling]

[chattering]

- [Craig] It was a scary start because it was

such a weird location. I was like well maybe everyone

around me thinks because this was hard

to get to it's gonna be worth it.

- Have you put any slates on so far?

- [Doug] We have yet to do a single slate.

- Okay cool.

I'll setup one. - Brilliant.

But we'll look for our first shot.

Scene 41, take six.

Slate one, one.

[chuckling]

All right, let me know when you've set back up.

- I'm set. - Set, sound set?

And action.

- [Man] Excuse me, sir.

- Cut.

Great, that's that shot.

Let's get around onto him so we can see what Tony's doing.

- Hey. - Sir.

- [Man] Wound up here again?

Just get the fucking hell out of here.

Rick and I ought to put you out of your misery.

[laughing]

- Go Cletus. [screaming]

- All right, Craig, let's go for indoors now.

It's a really quick setup pretty much, right.

So we've got a bloody dick in a sink.

- Bottom up, rather.

- [Woman] Like that?

- That drama with whether or not Dee

would be coming out to make the film

was pretty stressful when we're already on set.

All right, that's awesome, that's awesome.

Cool.

You're a champion.

Good news.

It looks like Dee is coming, it's not a problem.

SAG Afra and the MEAA have been talking.

Oh, I thought it was yes?

I thought it was like hey we're good to go

'cause everyone's happy, SAG's happy, MEAA's happy.

They're not?

The production was coming off as a little bit too amateur

and so there was a danger that SAG might just go

you know what this whole thing shunky piece of shit,

we are not gonna support this.

Oh god. [chuckling]

We should be ready to cancel her ticket

and get as much money back as we can.

It's like 6,000 bucks or something like that.

- Okay.

[thunder rumbling]

[chattering]

So what I want you to do is open your hand, you right hand.

Open it up and pop it here, yeah?

Yeah, and just go get out of here.

Pop your hand there.

- [Gerard] Get out, get out you bastard.

- Great. - Get the fuck out.

- [Craig] Thank you.

- [Gerard] Never set foot in this door again.

- Okay.

You look at me okay, I'm the bad guy, yeah.

- There. - All right, 29 one.

- [Craig] And action.

- Get the fuck out of here.

Get,

get off of my property!

Get the fuck out.

- [Craig] Cut, beautiful.

Will you let me, can I come in please?

- Well that's it? - Yep.

- Would you go inside? - Yeah sure.

- [Bryan] Just make sure he doesn't lock the doors.

- It's stuck?

Okay, we'll send somebody around.

Oh, nope, it's all right, someone's coming to help.

- Get the hell out of here. [chuckling]

- Yeah, yeah, wait for it, wait for it.

It's hard for me to describe Gerard actually

'cause I'm so used to him.

And I just don't think about it,

I just think of him as another character,

but someone who talks a bit too much.

But I always think of him as just a fascinating person

and everyone's like, wow, this guy.

[chattering]

I see what you're doing right now putting that in the bin.

A reminder that's the only Red Bull for tonight.

- You see, I told Mr. Moses that I had the one.

- Yes.

- 'Cause I told him that my Craigie,

my handsome and good looking Craigie--

- Not working. - Said just one.

- That's his dilemma, you know he's an interesting character

because he responds to pleasure and the pleasure of things.

It's like a teenager, like when you're a kid

and you get told when I leave home Mom

I'm gonna eat McDonald's every day.

He still holds onto that dream.

For every 10 minutes he's like, going fuck muffins are good.

And then he's just straight into them

without thinking about the consequences.

- Gary.

- But he's also real smart

in that he's doing it when no one's looking.

Like he's smart enough to know

all I have to do is get to the kitchen

and check every cupboard.

The nearest one is at least half an hour or an hour away.

- [Bryan] Oh, have you seen that email?

- [Craig] I haven't looked at the emails yet.

- So we got the all clear, 100% all clear, good to go.

- From SAG? - From SAG Aftra.

- Bullshit. - Yep, done.

- [Craig] How?

- There is one thing, you're gonna have to fork out

some more cash, just over $3,000.

- No. - Yeah.

- Are you serious? - Yeah.

So 3,500 US ended up being about 4,500 Australian.

I'm not exactly sure what the fee is,

but it was 3,500 US dollars that we needed to pay

to grease the wheels and lock Dee in

for the rest of the shoot.

- Yeah, it was a shake down, but what can you do?

I gotta chase some more money now.

'Cause I got like a full grand left in the bank and--

- [Bryan] Let me cover that fee for you.

- How? - With my money.

- As an investment? -That'll be my investment.

- You're gonna invest with it? - [Bryan] Yep.

- Bryan Moses is going to invest in the film?

Wow.

- Just like I said I would--

- Thanks man. - If you needed it.

And I think now it's your hour of need for me to step up.

- Thank you, thank you.

It was great news, then there was pretty bad news

that I needed to pay three grand

and great news that Bryan paid that three grand.

You still got this buttered one man from--

- Oh yeah. - Yeah.

- Yeah, here you go. - No, no, I don't want it.

- You sure?

- Yeah, well why were you touching that one?

You can have this one. - Oh, sorry, okay.

- Do you want this one?

- Yeah, but we can always go halves you know?

- Oh I don't know if I'll eat a whole half,

but which half, that way, or this way?

- That way.

- Do you have a knife?

I'll just rip it okay? - Okay.

Thank you. - Sure man.

Hang on, are you supposed to eat this?

- Oh yeah.

- I thought you were gluten free?

- Yeah I am.

I am, but I don't care. [chuckling]

- All right, well I don't care then if you don't care.

- Okay. - But what if your mom,

I'll just, I'll pretend I don't know.

- Okay. - I don't know anything.

- Okay. - All right, great.

Cheers, so if you take it, you can take it.

- Okay.

[Gerard sighing]

[chuckling] [upbeat music]

[chattering]

- She is a lady of big importance in the industry

and she deserves a sign.

I do have a favorite tie,

which happens to be the one with the airplanes

and some of the places I've been around the world

and I thought I'd wear that today

and she can look at me tie

and tell me where she's been.

Later we can have a bit of chat about it.

I like The Howling and Cujo.

They're all excellent movies,

but my favorite's E.T.

In fact every time I gotta ring somebody

I say E.T. phone home.

- [Woman On Loudspeaker] Departing in eight--

- That looks a bit like Dee Wallace in the white.

I better be careful I don't give her a bear hug.

She might slap me across the ear.

Good morning.

I'm Robert, I'm Craig's dad. - Hello Robert.

- So nice to meet you.

The first thing she did when she saw the sign

I think we all got a bear hug for a memory

and I thought whoa this is great.

I think I felt a bit like I was

in the movie Driving Miss Daisy or something.

I just wasn't sure what to expect.

Suddenly I've become a chauffer to drive around

one of the most famous horror movie stars in the world.

And that was a bit daunting.

I was actually the getaway driver

in a short fest movie that Craig had

called Life in a Datsun.

And I had plenty to say in that movie.

By the time we got out of the airport

the timeframes were really, really narrow,

but somebody had made an appointment

to have an interview on live television

at channel nine in Sydney.

- And since starring in E.T. Dee Wallace

has gone on to appear in over 90 television shows

and hundreds of horror movies

earning herself the title

of one of the original scream queens.

[Dee chuckling]

You're in Australia for a number of reasons at the moment.

Better tell us all the different things

you're doing while you're here.

- Oh, if I can remember them.

Well I'm down here to do a wonderful movie

called Red Christmas for Craig Anderson.

I'm very excited about it.

It's a very well written script

and I'm really glad to be a part of it.

- It was very good because Dee

was actually able to elaborate on Craig's movie,

Craig Anderson as the director,

and that was well worth the whole trip to channel nine.

Of course I'm proud.

He's a good kid.

I'm proud of Dee as well.

Well done.

- Lord, I think I got everything in.

- Well done folks.

You've done wonders.

Thank you for that.

That was a great plug, thank you, well done.

- Thanks so much.

- Gonna be wonderful when she meets Craig.

I can't wait to see the reaction

on both of them so all good stuff.

So excited.

[rain pattering]

[instrumental music]

- The day of her arrival I went to Kmart

and I just bought 10 boxes of chocolates

just to put everywhere.

Yeah, I was trying to compensate

'cause I was just terrified

that she'd turn up and go what the fuck?

'Cause I went to that place to have a shower

that morning just to run it through.

There were dead bugs on the sink.

There was a spider's web in the shower.

The towels looked disgusting.

- Dee Wallace is gonna be joining us for dinner tonight.

She's pretty keen to check out the set,

see what's happening, meet everybody.

So we want to be super pro

and make her feel like she's in safe hands.

Everyone just one more thing with Dee,

please don't mention E.T.

Seriously I think she's had enough of those questions.

- I can assure you she's great.

- Okay. - We talked a lot.

We've done a lot of things.

We've talked about her business in LA.

And I'm gonna try and help her next year.

I've got things in that business.

- Sorry, you are? - Yep.

- [Craig] What do you mean

you're gonna help her? [chuckling]

- 'Cause I was in marketing.

Yeah, there's a few things in the background,

but don't worry about it, it's all good.

We've already been to the bottle shop

and bought two bottles of wine today.

- [Craig] Oh.

- Got a cafe latte on the way up

and relaxed and done a few things.

- Where did you get the latte from?

- McDonald's, we had a good time, yeah.

- [Bryan] Hey Craig.

Speaking of over the pond.

- He took her to McDonald's.

- She loves McDonald's right? - I don't know.

All right, go on.

- I assume she asked to go to McDonald's.

- I don't know what business deals he's got going.

He works in the hardware industry, he used to.

And she's selling a soft toy like for children.

Like I don't know what.

It's just weird, and I wonder

how much of it is true, you know?

I wonder how much is, she would go, yeah,

can you ask your father not to talk to me again?

- [Woman] She's a little overwhelmed

by how crazy this all is.

You know what. - Yeah, right.

- [Woman] Like everything.

- Oh, I fucking should've gone to get her.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- Not Dad, not fucking Dad mate.

- Yeah, okay. - Fucking guys.

- [Woman] Now come on, it's all okay.

- It's all right. - It's not all right.

- [Woman] Oh sorry, I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to freak you out.

- Well don't freak me out then, don't talk to me, just...

I did mean to give her a Skype call before she came

to talk this through, but then there were

just so many scary moments before leading into it.

Moments where it's just like, oh it's gonna fall apart,

that I thought it's never a good time to call

and say, hey, you're coming into something

a bit unlike what you're used to.

But I don't think she had a frame of reference

as to what something low budget really is.

- So this is the placenta.

It's frozen at the moment and we need to thaw it

because it will be used in the child birth scene

in about two hours time.

- Where's Moses? - Through the door.

- [Craig] Can we shut the door to the laundry?

And tell everyone not to talk about the placenta to Dee?

- Yes. - Thank you.

Great directors like Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

I mean by the time they worked with her they had budgets.

Spielberg's dad didn't take Dee to McCafe.

Yeah, I just gotta get dad away from Dee

so she doesn't get angry.

I was terrified that she was gonna go,

what the hell is this rinky-dink production

and walk out and call her manager and sue me.

Hey Dee.

- Hi baby. - Hey there.

How are you?

- Holly hell. - Hi.

You need an umbrella?

You all right? - How are you?

Yeah, take 'em off I'd say.

A lot of the stuff on the production

is terrifyingly saying hey Craig

might not be a proper director.

- Okay.

I'm just gonna check on the placenta.

The placenta's a big secret on the set right now.

We're not allowed to talk about it.

It's still quite hard in the middle.

I think we're gonna be okay.

We're a few hours from using it, so.

Oh, god I felt something drip on me

and I thought it was that.

- [Bryan] Dee, meet the whole cast and crew.

Cast and crew meet Dee. - Hi.

[chattering] - Dee might hate this.

I remember the other day she goes, I've done some bad films,

but sometimes you gotta keep your grandma out a home.

[chuckling]

And so in the back of my mind

I'm thinking fuck, what's she doing?

Is it like, 'cause her daughter just got married

and I'm thinking is she thinking sometimes

you just gotta pay for your daughter's wedding?

[chuckling]

- Just get a sense I think. [laughing]

- Yeah right. - Salad?

- I wanted to do this script

because it was a challenge.

Quite truthfully I didn't know

if I could still handle the lead in a film like this

where it was all me and all action.

The part of Diane just offered me

an opportunity to play a lot of colors

and a lot of different arcs

that I don't always get to play anymore,

especially after E.T. everybody

just really took me in as the sweet vulnerable mother.

I'm sure as they lower my casket into the ground

they will be playing the theme from E.T.

I know the importance of referring to it.

It's one of the biggest things

you can identify yourself with

and then I've done 160 other projects, you know,

and four series and 400 commercials

and so it's like, okay, let's move on, why am I here?

[whimsical music]

- [Craig] So everyone what we're about to do now

is pull out a real placenta.

And we're about to have, I've been told,

an intense chemical smell like formaldehyde or an alcohol

so don't breathe it in too much.

- Okay, ready? - Yeah.

- God. - I'm just scared Craig.

- It's not fireworks man. - Oh boy.

- Okay, there we go.

So you've got the cord, that's perfect.

- Show me where your legs sit, okay.

- I'm sure the effects guys could've made something.

I'm sure they could've.

[instrumental music]

[knocking on door]

- [Craig] Dee is the dilemma of the outside world

coming into this production.

Hey Dee, hey.

Isn't like a friend who I knew

who then went, yes I will help you out,

and that is scary.

- I can't do it.

- [Man] Here, why don't we just tape that open?

- [Man] Yeah.

- [Man] Hey, everyone so this is--

- [Craig] Well, a lot of the actors bend around the words.

Dee thinks about what her character would do

and starts to rationalize from there.

I don't know if it's tension, but it freaks me out.

It scares me because I'm not ready for that.

- [Man] Could I say what's your name, then she says Diane?

- I would never tell him. - Yeah, I can't see that.

- Who the fuck wants to know is what I would say.

- Yeah. [chuckling]

- It would help me if he could start to fall

because there's no way I would--

- [Craig] Let this thing in, yeah.

- I can motivate it if he starts to collapse.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Sam. - Yeah.

- [Craig] I want Diane to read you as someone

who has an intellectual disability.

- I've learned to not think,

but to feel if this is really happening what would I do?

If I feel a moment is false I just, it doesn't feel good.

I don't want to do it.

- [Craig] So Diane has to make a choice whether or not

to slam the door on this thing that looks like a bad guy,

but is acting very much like someone who needs help.

[tense music]

- Two ding dongs and I go? - Yes, thank you.

- The only thing that I could justify

is if literally he started to pass out

because that's an automatic instinct

that people go to catch people.

Would you like to come in and warm up for a moment?

- Yeah, I would like that. - Yeah.

[chattering]

- It was a bit touch and go convincing Dee

that this is a real scene that should happen

just cause it's fucking stupid

and Cletus looks like what he looks like so.

She opens the door and let's him into her Christmas dinner.

You know, it's fucking stupid,

but it's the movie you know?

Quite on set, shooting.

And action.

- You're a disgrace. - Get out!

- Get him out of here! - You get out, get out!

Get out!

- [Craig] Cut.

- I'll be okay. - You all right Jeff?

- [Jeff] Yeah, I just had a little knock there.

- [Craig] Jesus.

- You okay? - Jeff?

- [Jeff] Yeah I think so, I just landed square on it.

- Dee, you all right?

- I'm okay. - Ankle?

- His boot got me. - Oh man.

- Jeff, is it broken? - Did you just break a rib?

- I don't know, I heard something crack.

- [Craig] Yeah, I heard something crack too.

- It was the chair though.

- That chair thing shouldn't have happened.

That happened because we didn't rehearse it

and actors got into the emotion too much.

- [Craig] I started the shoot with this very

unnerving tension of who's gonna hate this?

This is a backwards experience for people

who are very professional.

Some people that are extremely well paid for what they do.

Who's gonna snap?

[dramatic music]

- Making a low budget feature film

is as simple as chopping wood with an ax.

Just gotta line everything up,

make sure you've got good quality wood,

and a nice sharp ax,

and it's just a matter of getting the swing going

and before you know it.

I don't know where to go with this metaphor.

[grunting]

This is the worst day.

People with no sleep.

I've had people in tears today,

crying, saying they can't help anymore, they're over it.

Everyone's brains turned to mush

and I think everyone just wants to be out of here.

I don't blame them.

[insect buzzing]

- [Craig] Quiet on set.

And action.

- Dear lord.

We know it was a sin for Diane to try and abort him,

but Lord you kept him alive.

And you brought him here today.

- When I mention Down syndrome

it makes me want to shoot myself.

And I hate Down syndrome, hate it, hate it, hate it.

I want to get rid of it

and I feel ashamed because I've got Down syndrome.

- Go, run to the front door.

Gerard, that was great man, that was great.

You okay buddy?

You hot, you want to take this off for a bit?

You're feeling hot, yeah?

Burgdorff, I'm real happy with performance.

- Can we do it again? - In a different lens?

- One more, one more. - No, no, no, no, no.

- [Craig] We'll see, let's see, let's go and see a bit.

- No, Craig. - Yeah?

- I thought about him. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I thought about him--

- [Craig] Yeah. - But I don't want to think about him.

- Okay. - He's gone.

- [Craig] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's always had a weird relationship with his father.

It's okay.

When I was at his house I said to Jerry

we'll talk about your father when we do this scene.

- I do want you to mention him.

- You don't want me to? - I do.

- You want me to talk about him and stuff?

- Yes, I do. - Are you sure?

- I'm positive. - For your acting, yeah?

- Yes.

- [Craig] If he wants to use that I'm going to help him with that.

So I sat off camera and said horrible things.

What does he think? - That I'm nothing.

- [Craig] Why?

- Roll up. - Slate.

- That I'm a bad son. - A bad son?

- To him. - 103, two.

- Are you the youngest son? - Yes.

- [Craig] And he thinks you're a bad son for that?

- Yes. - Yeah.

- He blames me for everything. - Yeah.

- Called me a bastard.

- Yes.

And now you know that your mom aborted your brother

'cause he had Down syndrome and it makes you sad man.

It makes you angry.

Yeah.

[sighing]

Look at Dorine.

Look at her.

[sighing]

Look at Dorine.

Look at Dorine.

Get angry.

You've got a gun man.

[sighing]

Go, go to the front door man.

Jump up and run there.

Anger, go!

[cheering] [applauding]

- I keep saying to myself why am I different?

What I want is to be listened to and be heard.

I only want to listen to me.

I want to be heard.

I want to be seen.

Not just some other person.

I want a voice, a clear voice

so I don't stammer and stutter.

I don't want to stammer and stutter because it's who I am.

It's who I am.

I don't understand why, why he did it.

- What do you mean why?

It's just his values, I guess he just did,

you know, that's what he thought.

[blowing nose]

Would you like another tissue perhaps?

No, you good?

- Where's Mr. Moses? - Mr. Moses--

- I need a hug. [chuckling]

- Specifically from Bryan?

Okay.

- Mr. Moses gives the best hugs.

- I didn't know this. - Yep.

- [Craig] All right.

- I wish I was as good an actor as you.

- [Gerard] Thanks.

- [Craig] Yeah, that was great.

Hang on.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. - Hey.

But I think I'm over, hey. - Okay.

Okay, let's break up the butt slaps.

- Okay. - Okay.

[sighing]

Oh, yeah.

Welcome back Jerry, he's back. - Yeah.

- And he's ready to rock. [chattering]

- What I always wanted in life is to be an actor.

I would get involved in the performance because I enjoy it.

- [Gary] Even if you have to dig deep into your emotions?

- Even though I dig deep into my emotions

because my emotions, [sighing] it's important.

I want to show the world what I can do.

- We shot some emotional scenes tonight with Gerard

and it was great, but everyone is just buggered

and, [yawning]

just in survival mode, everyone's just really tired.

It's very exciting that people are here

for no money at 4:30 in the morning helping me

living out my dream, it's like Make-A-Wish Foundation.

[frogs croaking]

As this guy stands up.

And I thought it would be great to have--

- [Dee] Well, wait, talk to me this beat over here.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Dee] I need to know,

I register it's Jerry. - Yeah.

- I would go to him. - Mm.

- Yeah, you don't want-- - Yeah, I know, I know.

She knows what she's doing.

She's the lead so it makes sense

that she gets to think through everything

and we work it out together.

So we could definitely have you go down.

- [Dee] Well I think you're missing a huge

emotional opportunity here. - Yeah, yeah.

If she didn't feel something was true

I had to listen to that because she made it more realistic.

[screaming]

- [Man] Scene 289, slate 196 one.

- Jerry?

Jerry.

Oh, my baby, oh my baby, I'm sorry. [crying]

[sobbing]

- Just lifted everything I think.

Made everyone go, oh yeah, this is a great film,

we're gonna be all right.

This woman who's the main character, you know,

can act really well.

Yeah at the beginning I was very worried

that maybe I shouldn't be the director,

but as things moved through

and I got to work on scenes with the infrastructure

to help make that easy I started

to feel very comfortable and at ease.

Quiet on set.

And action.

Cut. - Sorry.

[chuckling] - What, what, what? It was great?

- One take is a good thing for me

unless I feel like I didn't get it

and then I'll ask for another one.

I mean Spielberg didn't do very many takes ever

that I can remember.

A good director sees the magic

and sees the connection and knows when it works.

He's not always second guessing himself.

[instrumental music]

- Dad likes filmmaking.

He likes doing this stuff.

And he's not an actor but he wants to be.

He such a character.

- You punk.

I know what you're thinking. - What?

- Is it loaded? - Yeah.

- Or has it only got one shot, punk?

What do you think? [chuckling]

Hey.

Make my day.

[chuckling]

Woo hoo. [chuckling]

- One day something fell over, like a painting off a wall.

And so Dad goes, who you gonna get?

Who you gonna get, I mean what are you talking about Dad?

And he goes Ghostbusters.

He can not quote a movie correctly ever.

- Are you looking at me?

Are you looking at me? [chuckling]

Are you looking at me? [chuckling]

- And then there was the sheriff role

and I thought well, Dad can do that.

The whole gag was that he pulls up, steps out and dies.

And then Dad kept going no,

maybe he should say some lines before he dies.

I go, well, who's he saying lines to?

What would you say?

You turn up to this house and you look around

and what's your first thing?

- Oh shit.

[chuckling]

- Yeah.

- Look and then go oh shit. - That's great, yeah.

That's great. - Yeah?

- Yeah.

I think at some point he was trying to convince me

that we should see the sheriff at a cafe or at a diner

to stop and get donuts and coffee and then his drive.

Let me know when you're going.

- Just let me know when you want it.

- [Craig] And go, blood.

- I tried to put myself in that situation

of where I really am dying

and what would might be, the reaction be

in those few split seconds?

I would be cranky, I would be emotional,

I would be, oh no, this is not happening.

[chuckling]

- [Craig] All right, you okay Dad?

So on the third take I said all right Dad,

can you really scream this time?

And he went hardcore.

[screaming]

And it looks great.

Yeah, Dad nailed it.

- I'd like to read my letter. - Cut, thanks, good job.

All right, great stuff everyone, thank you.

- Could you hear the fly? - I can always hear the flies.

We've had flies for the last two days.

It's always fun.

[whimsical music]

- Yeah. - Oh my god yesterday--

[fly buzzing]

- They're there. - Fly.

- [Man] Hold still, it's right there.

[chuckling]

- Got him!

All right, it's two to three.

- Dee. - What?

- I love that you're washing the dishes,

but could we get your for rehearsal?

That pesky little rehearsal, I know.

- All right, if I must.

- Quite a shame you've gotta go back to the states

because you could've come to our place

and cooked some meals with me.

[chuckling]

And we would've had some nice meals in town with you. That would've been nice.

Dee and I have a working relationship now

where we understand each other.

So when I'm at home I do all these crazy things

and surprise people and I thought,

well we are acting down here

so why don't I do a little ad lib bit of acting.

Just down.

[yelling] - Oh.

- Just kidding. - Shit!

[laughing] That's not fucking funny.

- I'm sorry.

What, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

- We actually did think you cut yourself.

- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry everybody.

I'm sorry, I won't do that again.

No, I will never do that again.

- Have you ever seen The Frighteners?

- Yes I have. [chuckling]

I know the film you're talking about.

[chuckling]

[chattering]

- Some please. - Yeah.

[chattering]

So it kind of feels like we've gotten there.

It's been 330 scenes in 15 days of shooting in the house.

10 deaths, violence, gore, a car crash,

an international star,

some very big Australian actors,

a bunch of comedians in 15 days.

- [Bryan] I sill don't quite understand

how we managed to do it.

I guess Craig and the Dougs

just created this awesome little unit

backed up by Gav, the sound guy who's just amazing,

but these guys were just able

to like shoot, shoot, shoot.

And Craig knew exactly what he wanted.

[chuckling] - Cut.

- [Bryan] That's a wrap on Dee everybody.

[cheering] [applauding]

[whistling]

- Thank you so much Dee.

- Woo!

[whistling]

[cheering]

- You're making fun of me.

- No I'm not making fun of you. No I'm not, I'm copying.

- I thank everybody because I just feel like

a part of a family here.

- [Man] You are part of a family here Dee.

- I haven't handled this tour de force

emotional, physical, kind of ride in some years.

I just really thank god that I said yes.

It's truly renewed my faith in myself as an actress.

And reminded me why I want to do this.

Well, it's been a fucking hard ride.

[laughing]

[cheering] [whistling]

I feel like Craig's got it in the can,

but after a 40 year career

I know that it doesn't really matter much what I feel.

- It feels weird.

I don't know if it's a relief.

I'll find out when I edit.

I'm sure I'm about to find out

a whole bunch of horrible stuff that doesn't work right.

[jackhammer pounding]

I am at a point in my edit

where I've done a lot of rough assembling.

Slowly cutting and moving things into the right order.

The problem is it's kind of hard to focus

in the warehouse 'cause it's so hot

and there's been construction across the road

for days now and it's kind of making me go mental.

[groaning]

Okay.

So I booked a cruise, to go on a cruise and do some editing.

[upbeat music]

- [Gary] Why edit on a cruise ship?

- Yeah, but I made a film about abortion

like well who knows what the fuck I'm doing?

I'm going on a cruise ship to edit

'cause I wrote some of this on a cruise ship.

It was actually cheaper for me to go on this cruise

than it would be to pay my normal rent for the week

and I get free food.

And there's definitely no one on board

that I want to talk to.

- [Gary] You don't look very excited Craig.

- I am, I'm very excited, no one can see,

but I just can't wait to get in my room and edit.

- [Man On Loudspeaker] A very good afternoon

ladies and gentlemen.

We would like to inform all our guests

that the stations are now ready.

- But it turns out I'm on level six and my room is 666.

[chuckling]

Oh, whoa.

This is my edit suite.

It's my laptop from home.

And I can use this monitor which came with the ship.

So I'm gonna work on getting the rough assemble

into a cut that I can show people.

- Well okay. - Yeah.

- [Jeff] What time your flight get in?

- Oh.

- It's gonna end up a 30 minute film.

Seven minutes in and I've lost a minute and half.

Like it's good sitting in my room,

but a lot of the time I would take the laptop

to the quiet levels of the ship

and do some editing up there.

[groovy music]

There's a few things I've seen

where I'm a bit worried.

Things where I've gone,

oh well I'll grab this and I'll grab that,

but then I've realized, hang on,

oh I don't have another angle on this

or I don't have the right coverage of something.

Joe.

And this is the scene where he's left the shed with his gun

and he doesn't have it in this shot.

[baby crying]

The baby, it looks big,

'cause I know it's a three month baby.

So I'm hoping no one picks that up.

Dad.

- Shit. [chuckling]

- He looks at the camera.

I'm going to have to find another take

'cause I'm pretty sure he looks at the camera as he's opening the door,

but that means the other takes are even more wacky.

Even though everything looks really nice

it doesn't mean anything if the story doesn't work right.

I decided I'd ask some of the passengers

to come back and watch my movie.

And by that point the table had gotten bigger

because they'd made better friends than me

during the day time doing, you know, turtle touching,

whatever they were up to.

So I ended up with a big group of six

coming to watch my film.

It goes for 85 minutes.

I said please speak your mind whilst watching the film.

If you see something say something,

as like a terrorist alert.

- Get the fuck off my property!

[screaming]

- Oh, right in the dick.

- [Woman] Why's he going in the laundry?

- He wants to get involved. - No watch.

- [Man] What a pervert.

- Yeah creep. - Little creep.

[Craig chuckling]

[gasping]

- Would you like to come in and warm up a little bit?

- God. - Why would you invite him in?

- [Woman] Are they seriously?

- Run you dickhead.

Oh.

- [Both] Whoa.

- I thought that it was gonna go horribly,

but it didn't go that bad.

Another thing that made me feel really good

was that they were talking about the film

as if some weird dude sitting on the bed

next to them hadn't made it.

[suspenseful music]

- Oh god. - He's a fat cop.

- Ah shit.

- [Woman] Are you fucking kidding me?

- This is the best they could do?

This useless prick.

- And he wasn't talking about me.

He wasn't going is this best actor you could get?

They totally were in the film

going is this the best the police force could send?

And one of them said who's this fat cop?

- Sheriff! - It's the sheriff.

[screaming]

[gasping] [applauding]

- No! [chuckling]

- [Woman] I knew That that could come in handy.

- [Woman] All done.

[applauding]

- It felt like this is an actual film.

It's not like a bad attempt at a film.

There was a great moment where they pointed out

that if you were having sex with a pregnant woman

you'd have to do it doggy style.

- She was laying-- - Hey, if, I'm gonna say--

- She was laying on the washing machine.

- If I was banging a pregnant chick

she'd have to be facing that way.

[Craig laughing]

- [Craig] Okay, we're having a demonstration

of how the pregnant sex scene should've happened.

- Yeah, but she was leaning back.

She was leaning back.

[Craig chuckling]

- [Craig] So the first screening went really well.

Probably a little too well.

It was more like a party.

So I wanted to do a second screening

to make sure that the film was hitting

the marks it should be hitting.

So I ended up with these two sisters

and the comedian from the cruise line

come to my room for a second screening of the film.

- Now get the fuck off my property!

[screaming]

- [Craig] I must admit after showing it the second time

to that group I was a little less excited.

But then they did point out

a lot of things that didn't make sense.

- You've made a choice to have him read the letter,

not one of the other members

of the Christmas party read the letter.

- [Craig] Yeah.

- Which means that you've gotta really focus

'cause it's very hard to understand when he talks.

- [Craig] Uh-huh.

- The sister of the pregnant girl

taking too long to come around to like her sister.

You know she's in pain and agony,

just lost her husband or partner.

- The role of the bad guy.

The level of fear generated by that character

was consistent and then it was very inconsistent

in the second half, does that make sense?

- And you forget when you're the only guy

doing the edit that you know what's supposed to happen,

but they only see what they see.

Unrealistic chopping in half.

The pregnant belly looks fake.

The ripping of the dick off, how did that happen?

Does he have a whiplash tongue?

They were good questions that made me feel like,

yeah Craig, it's not just a party.

If you don't fix these things

normal people might just go, this is rubbish.

I don't know what's happening.

And I've just got tons of work to do now.

[tense music]

Goodbye TV is what I said at the beginning,

but, [sighing] I'm taking another job

so that I can pay for all the things

that keep popping up in post

and also to start paying Todd back.

So from nine till six I sit at a desk

and I read transcripts and organize interviews.

And then as soon as I can I drive back

to my office in Marrickville

so that all night I can do what I love

and that's make Red Christmas.

[synthesizer music]

Two days later the festival organizer

contacted me and said, we love it, it's in.

Dee Wallace is amazing.

And this is where a lot of buyers from around the world

in horror and fantasy genres and studios will come.

You can make a career if you go to this

and everyone likes your film so I had to tell my boss

I can't be there for two weeks.

[chuckling]

That did not go down well.

I really needed this job.

[sighing]

But today I have to quit

in the hope that the film does all right.

It's one of those things where you go

well I'll quit my job and I hope I can be a filmmaker.

For the rest of the time I was gonna work there

I was gonna be saving $30,000 to give to Todd.

It's not a fun choice.

It's not a game of hypotheticals.

I'm about to lose the money I owe my brother.

I tried to quit and as soon as I brought that up

my boss and everyone went okay,

and tried to work it out.

So the upshot is I'm not fired

and I've just gotta work my ass off

to make this TV job work

and at the same time get my film done.

So I'm gonna stay here till seven or eight tonight,

then drive home and do ADR with Sam,

and find the selects and go to bed at like two

and then wake up and come here at seven and start again.

- Of course they are.

- [Craig] I keep thinking of Lethal Weapon,

the quote, "I'm too old for this shit."

I don't sleep in seven months since shooting

that I've been doing this night, day, night, day, night, day

and I'm like, I just, I can't do it anymore.

So I've just realized there's a lot of bad things going on.

- I don't care what Mom says, it's a meringue

so it belongs in the fridge. - Yes--

- It screens in six days and before that happens

this has to be finished, color grading has to be finished,

I have to put the titles back on.

It could go bad.

I don't want it to go bad so I'm not talking about it,

but at the moment the film

may not be ready for the festival.

So...

These are nice though.

[percussion music]

- All right. - Three, two, one, fall.

[phone ringing]

[baby crying]

- [Man] Look it.

- Get out!

- I've finished the film pretty much 20 minutes ago.

You know I haven't even listened

to the score all the way through or the sound mix.

We just did it in chunks and then exported it.

The color graders kept using a term, QC.

And I go what's QC, and he said

quality check, quality control.

I still don't know what it is.

And he said have you watched the whole film?

And I went no.

He said well maybe you should've watched it all

before you put it out into the cinema. [chuckling]

I'm definitely confident that

I've made a film that is a horror film,

which is excellent because that's my primary goal,

to be able to walk around my VHS collection and to put it in

and if it was this film, I would go, yeah that's a film.

My secondary goal is to go, oh I hope it's a good one.

[groovy music]

So before I made the film I'd heard one or two stories.

Babadook sold for a million dollars

to all territories around the world.

And then Deathgasm, that sold to a lot of places

and it's made $2,000,000.

Best case scenario is a big company takes my film,

Lionsgate, Dimension, Blumhouse,

'cause they'll just give me money up front

and I can take that money,

give it back to everyone who worked on the film

and if there's any left over make a new movie.

[percussion music]

[chuckling]

- I saw this film as a work in progress.

I did not see the finished version.

As a work in progress it blew my mind.

It's kind of a very, very sick comedy.

Very much a horror film and also

very politically astute and transgressive.

I'm pretty excited to see what's going to happen

now with a human audience tonight.

Without further ado please give it up

for writer, director, fresh from the streets

of Australia to be here tonight, Craig Anderson!

[cheering] [applauding]

- Hello.

- [Audience Member] Woo!

- I've got nothing else to say,

but I would like bring out a very special guest

who happens to be in the movie, Miss Dee Wallace.

[cheering] [applauding]

- I'm so happy you're here.

You're gonna love this.

It's a great ride.

Thank you so much for that wonderful ovation.

Thank you. [cheering]

[applauding]

- On the night of the premiere the cinema wasn't full.

And then there was a man who was in his 60s

sitting towards the front

and in about 10 minutes in he stood up,

slowly just walked out.

I'm just watching this fucking dude,

going well what is this guy, who is this guy?

He had a briefcase with him too.

And I thought he's a fancy guy.

Maybe he thought it was just gonna be moody scary horror.

I remember him walking out

just before he gets the dick ripped off.

[screaming]

And I'm like who was that guy?

And what was wrong with the film at that point?

And that's when I just kept focusing on the shakiness.

- Jerry.

- [Craig] All I remember thinking was why is it so shaky?

[muffled chattering]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't really remember anything about the night.

I don't think I did a good Q and A.

And then afterwards Dee had to do autographs

which I felt bad for 'cause I was like fuck,

I'm like a guy who's now made this poor woman

have to come out and sign DVDs of E.T.

- [Man] I thought it was very intense.

- P-H-I-L.

- L-L-I-P?

- I was feeling very sick throughout and bad,

but it, I think, you know, Dee thought it went well,

but you know it's hard to tell too

because all your friends are here now

and they'll just say it was good, so.

Yeah, I kinda think that's it.

That's it.

Back to Australia.

[chattering]

[dramatic music]

[blowing nose]

You only ever hear the good stories.

So you look at a festival program,

there's 200 films there,

you don't hear 199 stories of people going,

hey guess what, this film went

to the festival and no one cared.

Okay, so last night I got drunk.

I sent off all of these emails

to the top 19 distributors on my list

'cause I haven't done it for months

I think because I've been scared to do it.

Because I was thinking, yeah,

if they knock me back then that's it.

And now I have to check my emails

to see if anything came through.

No responses.

I'm depressed because I can't work out

how to get out of this.

I've got a movie, it's not bad,

it got reviewed, it got into festivals.

What the fuck do I do now?

The dream of having tons of money

to pay everyone fairly who worked on it, that's gone.

I once had a dream before that dream

which was I'll make enough money to make a new film.

I'll make half a million dollars off this film

and then have that to, that's gone, that's rubbish,

let alone the dream of not working in television anymore.

[sighing] And then this is it.

[sighing]

I guess that everything that's not work is this room.

This is an office.

You just gotta weigh up your costs,

not your costs, your life if you want to do this

more than have a family and a house.

[dramatic music]

Living here is like a prison

because it makes me focused on nothing else.

No normal person stuff.

Feels temporal, like I've still got something to do,

like don't be happy, don't relax. [chuckling]

Sleep on the floor and then get up and put it back

and then I've got an office, that's my space.

I don't want to feel complacent.

- As he lies close to the ground

with a dog bowl beside his head

and a garbage bin right there,

his computers whirring at him,

I know for myself I would be going

what the fuck am I doing?

And I know Craig does have moments like that.

That's part of the reason why

I was hoping this film would be a real success for him

because it would give him a chance to move on

and get out and actually have

some feeling of success, not just,

not just for the film, but for himself.

- Hey.

How are you? - Good, how are you?

- [Gerard] I'm good.

- [Craig] You eat the rest of it Jerry.

He's had enough now.

- Mm.

The last film I saw.

So I saw one, and it's horror.

- Horror. - Horror.

- What was it? - I'll show you.

- [Craig] What, are you gonna act it out?

- Yes.

- My family.

My family.

Oh shit, sorry.

Sorry, I can't believe I farted.

[chuckling] Anyway.

My family. - Oh fuck.

- My family.

[grunting]

- Saw? - No, no.

Will you?

- Okay.

I might not have seen this movie.

[panting]

- I'm going to get out.

I'm going to get some help.

Saw. [chuckling]

There was a bald headed man in a--

- [Craig] It's excellent to hang out with Jerry

because he makes you forget about bigger troubles

and to focus on just the immediate joy

of life and hanging out.

And we decided to watch the movie together.

- I love this cat fight over the bloody lemon meringue pie.

[dramatic music]

It was excellent.

I watched this film that I hadn't wanted to watch for months

and I watched it and I went, hey, that's a good film.

That's a film I would tell people about to watch it.

And then I went well that's your film idiot.

You've got really good reviews, it's getting into festivals,

why aren't you selling it?

[dramatic music]

The point of a movie is you share a story with people.

It's storytelling.

That's what I like to do and so having a movie made

that doesn't have a place in the world

that just sits on my computer

or on the internet isn't finished.

It needs to make contact with other human beings to see it.

[birds squawking]

In my mind the American Film Market is the last chance

to sell the film to a big place.

So I just left the fancy hotel

and the next door hotel

is where there's the filmmakers' lounge

and I thought I'd come in here

and hang out with other filmmakers.

There's just one other guy sitting on a laptop.

[chattering]

On the first day of the American Film Market

I went to an orientation conference

and the guy who sets up the market was on stage talking.

And the upshot of what he said was

this is a place where people do deals

and sell things amongst themselves and to territories.

If you're a creative producer who has made their own film

and wants to come here to sell it you shouldn't be here.

So I was a little upset,

but I realized, well, this is the best place

to find out how it actually works.

For the entire conference I sat there taking notes

and learned how movies are made.

They're not made by psychopaths using their brother's money

and then hoping that the world will want to see it.

They're made by people who know the market.

And it was like an epiphany that came out of nowhere

saying this is why no one's buying your film

because you haven't made a film

that is sellable to a big place.

[dramatic music]

In my case I really wanted to make films

for the rest of my life.

I thought that meant if you made one good film

you'd get a bunch of money and you'd keep making films,

but that is bad logic.

I think that as a director I'm good,

but as a producer I didn't know anything.

If you want to make a movie

that people will watch in cinemas and enjoy

and will become a thing you need the system.

I had to become more realistic and go all right,

so what's the traditional path?

And that's when I realized I needed a sales agent.

Okay, that would be nice.

Yeah, figures would be nice.

The one that I picked, sent an email

to this morning is Devilworks.

I like you guys. [chuckling]

I think you're very nice to talk to.

I think that's a good thing.

They tick all the right boxes as to the echelon

of sales agent I should be dealing with.

They're reputable.

I'm gonna start working with them.

Berlin in February, which is a couple months away,

will be the first festival

where Red Christmas will be for sale.

- [Woman] Have a good evening, thank you. - Great thanks a lot, bye bye.

- Bye. - Bye.

- Have a good evening. - Good eve, bye.

So from the end of first quarter next year

I should start to get money coming back in.

I told Todd yesterday when I saw him

I'm gonna go with this sales agent,

they'll start selling it, money will come in,

and as it comes in I'll pay you back.

And he went, okay. [chuckling]

[dramatic music]

I guess when I started out I thought

can I make a good film by myself?

The answer is yes.

Yeah, I'm very proud of Red Christmas.

It was received well critically.

People really like it.

But I think on my next project

I'm gonna have to adjust the way I do things.

I have to collaborate and I'm gonna definitely

make sure it's a sellable film

'cause that's how you reach an audience.

But I feel like now I've moved on

and I know what's supposed to happen.

And the stuff that I've learned

has assisted me to become someone who's

not afraid to do anything now.

[upbeat music]

I'm definitely going to keep making films.

It's a thing that makes me happy so why wouldn't I do it?

No matter how hard it is.