by Dov Kornits
One of the most hardworking cinematographers in the business, Judd Overton (everything from Dr. Plonk, All My Friends are Leaving Brisbane and a segment of the FilmInk Awards (!!) to more recently, doco Playing with Sharks, and series Young Rock and Killing It), takes it to the next level with his work on Nahnatchka Kahn’s Totally Killer, which sees modern teen Jamie (Kiernan Schipka) time travelling to the past to stop a serial slasher.
“When I heard about the movie, I was stoked: a time travel slasher set in an amusement park! So much visual potential to get excited about,” Judd tells us. “Once I had read the script a few times, it was clear that balancing the comedy vs. horror tone of the film was going to be the most important thing. We rewatched a lot of great horror films, like all the Halloween franchise movies and Nightmare on Elms Streets. We tested Anamorphic for the 1987 scenes and even graining up the image but didn’t want that patina to distance the viewers, so we went with a soft, warm look inspired by the old John Hughes like The Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink to give the audience a feeling of really being in the’ 80s.”
Judd Overton follows a long tradition of Australian cinematographers cracking the biggest movie industry in the world due to a strong eye, work ethic, and in his particular case, versatility, which is reflected in his diverse filmography, filled with short films, TV, documentary, low to mid budget features and everything in between.
“The climactic set piece in a Gravitron was something I had never seen before,” he says of Totally Killer. “It was a real ‘How the hell are we gonna do that!?’ moment, which really fired up our creative collaboration between the art department, lighting, stunts, and performers to bring it all to life. Natch [Kahn] had a clear vision of the sequence, and we planned it out methodically, so we knew exactly the shots that we needed and the time it would take. Luckily, the minute we wrapped the Gravitron, it went back on the road with the carnival.”
Totally Killer is streaming from October 6, 2023
