by FilmInk staff
Taking the Kelly Reichhardt route of working in tertiary education whilst making films on the side, Newcastle-based filmmaker Stuart McBratney’s latest, Strangers in a Car Park, releases in North America this week.
Stuart McBratney enjoys talking about cinema, but he’s just as passionate about teaching. “You can’t teach someone to make a film based on a vibe,” he says. “You’ve gotta be able to explain how to generate creative ideas, how to frame a shot, and how to write a satisfying ending.”
McBratney lectures in screenwriting, cinematography, and short film production at the University of Newcastle, where his creative research field is filmmaking.
“Teaching forces me to articulate what I’ve been doing instinctively,” he explains. “By explaining it to students, I’ve developed systems I now use in my own work. I’ve learned as much from teaching as from making movies.”
He laughs and quotes Dennis Hopper’s character in Apocalypse Now: “You can’t go into space with fractions. What are you going to land on, three-eighths?”
For McBratney, that line captures his philosophy. Instinct and inspiration are the starting point, but they only work when combined with structure and craft.
Across four features (Spudmonkey, Pop-Up, Don’t Read This on a Plane, and Strangers in a Car Park) and the SBS TV series Back in the Soviet Bloc, McBratney has refined a process grounded in curiosity and reflection. “Each project has its strengths and weaknesses. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but they’ve all taught me something. The biggest lesson is that story matters above all else, and that directing is mostly about finding great actors and giving them space to do their best work. Great acting or beautiful images can’t save a weak script, but a strong script can survive almost anything. Look at Clerks, one of my all-time favourite movies. No one cares that the cinematography or acting are amateurish, because the screenplay’s so brilliant.”
He smiles when talking about writing. “People often rush their scripts, but good writing takes time. You have to live with it and let it evolve to figure out what it’s really about. I’ve been working on a horror screenplay for about 18 months with my co-writer Ominurul Najihah Kamis, and we’re still refining it. It started as a pure genre piece, but over time it’s become something more personal. We aim to start shooting soon, and only now are we nearing a final draft.”
Before his feature work, McBratney directed hundreds of TV commercials for everyone from kebab shops in Bundaberg to clients like Honda, McDonald’s, and the Australian Government. “Making ads teaches clarity. You’ve got seconds to make people care. When done well, the hook pulls you in. It’s like a good melody – people want more. In an ad, the story is told in 30 seconds, but the principle is the same for a feature. Give every scene a hook, and people won’t look away.”
Strangers in a Car Park is set over one tense night and follows a cleaner who recognises a local hero as her attacker, leading to a confrontation in an underground car park. “I liked the idea of four strangers in one location, with their backstories gradually unravelling the truth,” he says. “We shot mostly at the University of Newcastle. I love the brutalist architecture of the multi-storey car park at Callaghan campus. Some people consider it ugly, but to me it’s cinematic. Those long lines, high contrast lighting, and the texture of the concrete look amazing. We also shot around Newcastle’s beaches which was a nice contrast. By sheer coincidence, there was a show near one of our locations, with rides and fairy floss and those games where you win toy animals, so we spent fifteen minutes filming there guerilla style, and it really boosted the pace after a dialogue scene. I like to be prepared, but stay open to improvising.”
Reflecting on his work, McBratney notices a thread. “Most of my stories are about success and loss. They’re about people who finally get what they want, then lose it, then need to find meaning elsewhere. Maybe that’s me working through my own experiences. I decided at seven that I wanted to make films, and it’s taken a long time to get close to my goals. It’s been hard work, but that’s what makes it gratifying. When something comes easily, you don’t really get satisfaction from it. Finishing a film after years of blood, sweat and tears is incredibly rewarding. I think I’m addicted to that moment when you say, ‘That’s a wrap!’”
His next feature, The Water Village, marks a return to the genre that first inspired him. “As a teenager I was obsessed with horror and would rewatch Evil Dead, Suspiria, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on VHS. After film school, I thought I needed to make serious films, hence it taking five movies to make a horror, but I’ve realised great genre films can be serious too. The Water Village will be filmed in Brunei and follows an army veteran in rehab who uncovers something sinister. But it’s not just about ghosts and gore. It’s about a broken man searching for purpose when he’s lost all sense of meaning.”
Despite growing recognition overseas, McBratney keeps his goals modest. “After screening Pop-Up, a friend who’d experienced major upheaval told me that one of the characters resonated with him. He said that he felt like I’d made the movie about him, despite the character being a Romanian immigrant with a birthmark who makes pop-up cards. That meant the world to me. If something I make reaches someone like that again, I’ll feel like I’ve done my job. And maybe one day my films will actually get released here in Australia! In the meantime, I’ll keep teaching at uni, because I like the structure and I enjoy encouraging the storytellers of tomorrow. If I only made movies, I reckon I’d feel a bit lost.”
Strangers in a Car Park will be released across the US and Canada on 11 November 2025. The soundtrack, Strangers in a Car Park (Music from the Motion Picture), featuring ten songs by various artists and ten instrumental tracks, is out now on all major streaming platforms.
