By FilmInk Staff
Adelaide writer/director Peter Ninos has used the infamous Titan submersible tragedy as inspiration for his debut feature film Locker.
“I was hanging on every report,” says writer/director Peter Ninos of the bizarre and ultimately profoundly tale of the Titan submersible, which was destroyed on the ocean floor after a stunning array of oversights, killing everyone on board. As the world hoped and prayed for those on the Titan, it was eventually revealed that they’d been dead the whole time.
Peter Ninos takes this as his narrative launching pad, crafting a tight, claustrophobic drama of desperation and despair.
The film follows Captain Marcus Graves (Vincent Donato), his son David (Matt Visciglio), social media influencer Jackson Rex (Marcus Catt), and Titanic enthusiast Alejo Miguel Delgado (Paulo Castro) as they embark on a perilous expedition to the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic. When their submersible, the Orion, malfunctions and becomes trapped on the ocean floor, they face a desperate race against time as their oxygen supply dwindles. Tensions rise, paranoia sets in, and the crushing depths of the Atlantic threaten their survival…
What were you doing during the entire Titan submersible event/tragedy?
“I have an alibi! I was doing a final pass on a horror film script for Screen Australia when the news about the Titan broke. I’m severely claustrophobic, so it got my attention straight away. By the second day of the news coverage, I was hooked, especially when I saw a live countdown clock speculating on how much oxygen they had left. Watching the memes on TikTok was also pretty eye-opening across the four days that the news unfolded. They were unapologetic, sadistically funny, and more than a little disturbing. I mean, the thing was being steered by a video game controller! If I’d made that up for the movie, no one would buy it. While it was eventually revealed that the Titan tragically imploded early on, this alternate story that had been spun, of a stranded crew on the ocean floor, ironically next to the wreck of the Titanic, with this maverick owner on board, sounds of banging on the hull, oxygen dwindling… I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.”
Can you discuss the budget for Locker? And, where that budget came from?
“The budget for Locker was $18,000 AUD. During pre-production, I made inquiries about funding from the traditional avenues, but the reaction was the same: the subject was too current and too controversial. James Cameron had flatly shut down the idea that he would be directing a film based on the Titan, so who did I think I was making a film inspired by it just months after it happened? There would be no investment funding for Locker; it was all out of pocket, from my savings from working in the industry as an AD or an editor. The cast and crew were all paid the same amount for the ten days of shooting, with the bulk of the money going towards set construction, camera hire, lighting, and catering by my resourceful sister Teena. Luckily, I was able to edit the film myself, with Thom Gardiner doing post sound and my cousin, Trent Ninos, creating the visual effects of the Orion sub.”
What does the title refer to?
“My partner actually came up with the title. It’s a reference to the maritime tale of Davy Jones’s Locker. When a sailor drowns at sea, it was said that his soul was condemned to the depths of the ocean, trapped inside the metal chest, or locker, where he kept his boots. Pretty fitting for a story about four people trapped in a metal submersible on the ocean floor.”
As an indie filmmaker trying to get your first feature up, was it always the case that you were looking for dramatic scenarios that could be made in one location?
“I knew that my first feature would have to be contained. Turns out it was contained quite literally. I never expected Locker to be my first film, but it happened so fast after the Titan tragedy, it all fell into place and turned out to be the perfect setup and scenario for a self-contained, single-location, four-handed thriller. It was also very different from the script I had been working on, which had lots of characters and heaps of locations. I really had to refocus for Locker. It became all about these four characters bouncing off the walls, and the challenge of creating dramatic set pieces where they literally never have two feet on the ground. It would’ve been very easy to lock the camera down and just repeat the same old wide shot, mid shot, close up routine, which can get very boring very quickly. With Kadison Noack as DOP, it was so much fun coming up with new angles and shots where we could cover big chunks of the script in one or two creative setups. Like having all four actors in a shot, two playing in the foreground, then focus pulling to the two playing in the background.”
Can you discuss the biggest challenges of making Locker?
“Three things instantly come to mind. The first challenge was building the set. I’ve always loved construction; my dad taught me a lot about it. The set was built inside a sideways rainwater tank and cobbled together with wooden pallets, corflute walls, and a fish tank simulating the Atlantic Ocean outside the porthole. Making the rainwater tank not look cheap was no easy task, but that was down to Kadison, who shot the set amazingly, hiding the imperfections and creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. Kadison also created a lighting map for the film, with the colours of the practical lighting changing depending on the power levels in the Orion sub, which helped give us visual variety over the course of the film.
“The second challenge was the physicality of shooting the thing. The set was built underneath my mum’s carport, so we had to contend with planes flying overhead and the heat (you’d be shocked at how hot it gets inside a rainwater tank). The set was tiny, and for most of the shoot, we had four actors, the DOP, and either Travis Williamson or Thom Gardiner on sound, all crammed inside. The actors also wore costume jackets (it’s supposed to be cold down there), and we had a few days where we had to deal with a heatwave. It was a juggling act – getting all the shots and setups without anyone overheating.
“The third, and biggest, challenge was shooting a feature film in ten days. My last short film was shot in half that time, and my web series The Big Nothing was shot in eleven days but ran for only forty minutes. We had to move fast, and that was made possible by the crew and the actors’ openness and dedication, Kadison’s lightning-fast camerawork, and my history as an AD and editor. There were challenges and compromises we had to make while shooting, and we came very close to not having enough coverage, but never to the point where everything imploded.”
Why premiere a feature film online? Is it a reflection of the current state of film distribution? Do you think that its online premiere will impede your ability to release the film through other platforms?
“I’ve been fortunate (and surprised) that three of my directed projects have had millions of views on YouTube. I’ve never done a Live Premiere, though, so I was curious to see how that would go for a feature. At the same time, I’m submitting Locker to festivals and markets in the hopes that it gets picked up. For me, YouTube is a way to share my work and connect with an audience in real time. Locker is just the beginning. I see it as a stepping stone, a chance to grow as a filmmaker and build towards bigger projects. My goal is to keep creating films here in Australia, learning from each experience, and pushing myself to tell stronger stories. It’s a competitive industry, with everyone scrambling for funding. I could’ve shopped Locker around for months (or years), hoping that one day it would get made, or I could just go out there and make it. I’ve always been hands-on with filmmaking and very impatient. In any other aspect of life, that’s not a good trait, but when making a movie, it’s a powerful motivator and the energy needed to get it done.”
Locker will have a limited screening live on the Phantom Earth YouTube Channel at 7 PM (ACST) on Sunday, March 2nd. 7:30 PM (AEST), 3:30 AM (PST), and 6:30 AM (EST) for viewers in the United States.
