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Pink Ambition
With Orson Welles-ian aspirations, a young Melbourne filmmaker is now spreading the word about his award winning creation.
With no formal training, no government funding and no exposure to the filmmaking industry, Melbourne's Vi Truong (aka Tez Frost) has managed to complete a feature film, and what's more it's winning awards and has picked up distribution.
Over the last three years, Mr Truong has been actively working on his independent feature film, Pink Teddy. The movie follows Jeff, caught for fraud, but given the opportunity to stay out of trouble if he investigated his boss.
Pink Teddy recently won the Aloha Accolade Award at the Honolulu International Film Festival and was also selected as an Official Finalist at the Las Vegas International Film Festival earlier this year.
Mr Truong says he felt ecstatic about winning the awards as he had entered many film festivals. "I did travel to Honolulu for the award ceremony but I couldn't make it to Las Vegas. By then I thought, feeding off raw passion, I've made my first feature film by the time I reached 26 and have won two international awards. Who would have thought?"
The film was self financed and made on minimal budget. Truong is not from a filmmaking background and has had no experience in the filmmaking industry except for a few weeks at a summer filmmaking course. He says that at the Melbourne University Summer filmmaking course he learnt a great deal about what not to do. "I was told by many lecturers that you should not get into filmmaking unless you are passionate about it. That's not true. You should not get into filmmaking unless you are absolutely obsessed with it," he says.
His goal was to have a feature film done by the age of 26, like Orson Welles. "I had to get a script together really quickly. I read somewhere that I should write about what I know, so I based the story around my workplace.
"Even though the film was my number one priority, I did work a full time job and I always made time for family and friends because they are the reason I wake up in the morning."
He says that he wrote, directed and starred in the movie through sheer passion. "This is a journey I wish to share with everyone. Not just filmmakers, but for all those who have goals and dreams they want to achieve," he says.
Pink Teddy has recently been negotiated into distribution through Galloping Films. They are a Brisbane based distribution and production company who have participated in 37 international film and television markers and conferences since 2002.
Truong said that he contacted thousands of distributors and producers from all around the world. "Eventually one responded," he says.
When asked what his greatest piece of advice would be to budding filmmakers he said to Google ‘motivational quotes' and every filmmaker should have at least a dozen quotes up their sleeves. "Besides all that, I say that success is a journey, not a destination."
For more info and to see the trailer for Pink Teddy go to www.pinkteddymovie.com.