By Travis Johnson
In the new Australian short film, Eaglehawk, Eve (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) a young actress, impersonates Australia’s own Bigfoot – the Yowie. Employed by Yowie expert Frank (Wayne Blair), Eve spends her days ambushing thrill seekers and giving hope to the believers. She immerses herself in the world of her character, determined to pursue her craft. That struck us as an intriguing premise, so we reached out to director, Shannon Murphy, to find out more.
What was the genesis of this project?
“In 2009 I read an anthology of short stories called What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by a young American writer called Laura Van den Berg. I was attracted to how bleak yet wickedly funny the worlds were that Van den Berg was creating and her ambiguous endings haunted me. Where We Must Be is the short we chose to adapt. It seamlessly combined mythology with ordinary life – blurring lines of reality and fantasy. When we launched Dollhouse Pictures in 2014 it felt like a great project for us. It was also important for us to have a strong female creative team driving the film. Beginning my career as a theatre director has meant I am often drawn to emotionally ambitious stories. Also I’m half American, half Australian, so translating one culture into the other felt second nature.”
What genre would you say the film falls into?
“Gothic Realism.”
How did the story develop?
“I chose the writer, Marisa Nathar, and together we worked at pulling the original story apart, localising it, letting Marisa make it her own and then putting it back together again. Adaptations are challenging and Marisa really found her own voice in her incarnation of Eaglehawk, which is named after the town we shot it in. Bringing the story to the screen was an incredibly collaborative process for our team. I always work very closely with writers both in theatre and film. They are incredibly important people, the generators of story, so when you are in sync with them your direction is much richer.”
How does your acting background affect your working methods as a director?
“I grew up in Asia where I performed in musicals, I studied acting at the University for Florida and was in a feature film with the late, great James Gandolfini. But that’s the extent of my acting! It was always in pursuit of becoming a director. I directed my first play in grade four. I’ve always preferred to be on the other side, working with large teams and having the overall vision. I have been surrounded by actors almost my entire life. I love them; they are brave, forward thinking and inspiring people to work with. All my years of studying acting has made me able to rapidly analyse situations in rehearsal rooms or on set – I have a shorthand with actors because I know their language. Acting is all about listening – directing should be too, you must keep yourself open to the stories and feelings around you. I am drawn to stories about performance, and Eaglehawk is no exception. It is a story about a young aspiring actress who becomes all consumed by her craft, forfeiting personal relationships and her own physical safety.”
What would you say was the biggest challenge you faced during production?
“Shooting up until 24 hours before Christmas! Shooting in a forest that was getting cut down as we were filming in it! The usual stuff – the magical chaos of filmmaking.”
Tell us about Dollhouse Pictures and your involvement there.
“Well, we are a collaborative company so we work with many different people on each project. But at our core there are five of us – three of us focused on Eaglehawk. Krew Boylan performs in it and Jessica Carrera is our creative producer. As a company we share an ethos about the kind of work we want to make and we are constantly in discussion about future projects and our evolution.””
What’s up next for you?
“I’m currently directing the TV series Offspring. Then Broken, a play by Mary Anne Butler, and finally my experiential production of the opera Orfeo ed Euridice in collaboration with Silvia Colloca will be touring to Hamilton Island for Audi Race Week. Eaglehawk will have it’s premiere at Sydney Film Festival and I also have a few film concepts in development.”Shann
Eaglehawk screens as part of the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19. Head to the festival’s official site for tickets and info.
