Fantasia Film Festival - Overtime
It’s getting late on a Friday night and Ralph is keen to get out of the office, but the boss won’t let him. No big deal, right? It’s just that the full moon is rising and Ralph is kind of a werewolf.
Interview with Producers Craig D. Foster & Emma McKenna and Director Craig D. Foster
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Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Craig: Emma has wanted to make a werewolf film for ages. I think it’s because she had a childhood crush on Michael J. Fox.
Emma: I’m pretty sure it was Craig who had the crush on Michael J. Fox.
Craig: It’s true. That man is beautiful. I didn’t like Teen Wolf though.
Emma: We wanted to make something genre and fun. It’s very much an audience-first movie.
Craig: It’s the most fun I’ve ever had making a movie. I think that’s the best reason you can have.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Emma: Because you haven’t seen a werewolf film like this.
Craig: The film grabs you by the balls, it’s scary, but it’s also funny. So imagine laughing while someone has your balls.
Emma: Women will love this film too!
Craig: The balls of course are metaphorical, the kind of universal balls that both men and women have.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Craig: Really, deep down, aren’t we all Werewolves?
Emma: No, not really.
Craig: She’s probably right. The film does explore however the theme of boundaries in friendship. Ralph (our main character) wants his life to be a certain way, but his friends and colleagues think they know what’s best for him and they behave accordingly without much regard to how he feels.
Emma: Also, there’s the universal theme of time. Everyone, at some point in their lives, has needed to be somewhere really urgently but has been frustratingly held up at every turn.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
Emma: We were in development and pre-production for a long time. But the script didn’t change dramatically.
Craig: We were focusing our efforts on getting the minutiae right. We did a lot of early story boarding and planning. So the evolution of the project was it becoming more and more slick.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Emma: Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. We premiered to an audience of 3000 at the St Kilda Film Festival and the audience went wild.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Craig: We’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised as to how well the film has been embraced.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Emma: This film is a crowd-pleaser. It’s lots of fun, but also dark and scary. We want as many people to see it as possible. That’s ultimately why we make movies.
Craig: I really want the world to understand the internal struggle and conflict of Australian Werewolves.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Craig: Anyone that can give me a job.
Emma: All of the above really. We’re very open to selling Overtime if there’s interest, but our focus is to get the film as much attention as possible. So film festival directors and journalists would be highest on the list I suppose. We’re also very keen to meet potential collaborators for future projects – we have a number of feature film ideas in development.
Craig: The real message of the film is that I want a job making movies.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Craig: I’m writing this just 24 hours before the Canadian Premiere of the film at Fantasia in Montreal. It will be the first time that I see a non-Australian audience reaction. I’m hoping that it plays as well internationally as it does in Australia.
Emma: We feel we’ve made a rather unique and original contribution to the werewolf genre. We hope the world agrees.
Craig: Mostly, we just want people to be entertained.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Craig: Is it true that werewolves get horny before they transform?
Would you like to add anything else?
Craig: Nah.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Emma: Craig and I are developing a feature project to follow up Overtime.
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Overtime
Length: 8:30
Director: Craig D. Foster
Producer: Craig D. Foster & Emma McKenna
Writer: Craig D. Foster & Emma McKenna
Key cast: Aaron Glenane, Adam Dunn, Ainslie Clouston, Arka Das
Looking for: Film Festival Directors, Journalists, Buyers, Distributors, Agents, Producers (for future collaboration)
Funders: Screen Australia
Made in association with: Metro Screen
Release date: 2016