St Kilda Film Festival - Ruby Tuesday
A backstage drama in a Frankenstein world that sees two young women choosing how far they’re willing to go for fame when a punk rock legend offers a recording deal in exchange for marriage.
Interview with Writer/Director Lucy Claire and Producer CJ Welsh
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Lucy: The film is about two young aspiring punk musicians who in their pursuit of fame try to sign a contract with a sociopath. We wanted to take a gritty, honest look at young female relationships and their competitive nature. Especially when it comes to love and status. As we follow Ruby and Tuesday we start to take a look at how far they go to pursue their dreams and the kind of people they are willing to become as a result.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Lucy: Come along for the ride, it’s a hell of a night out! Ruby Tuesday takes place in a world of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. The characters and their universe are equally terrifying as they are beautiful.
Ruby is an aspiring punk musician in a duo with her friend Tuesday. The girls are struggling to find work until Ruby catches the eye of punk legend Vince Von Viper who offers her a contract if she marries him. However Viper is something far more sinister as Tuesday discovers when she uncovers his six dead ex-wives.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Lucy: Ruby Tuesday is about the blind pursuit of ambition. It’s about following your dreams to the point where you lose your sense of self and are willing to let others manipulate you to push on forward. The world’s a place of give and take and you do have to come up and meet people half way. But I maintain the solid belief that you need to be happy with who you are at the end of the day. Ruby makes a lot of choices throughout the story, ones she struggles with, that are not always good. She then must learn to deal with the person she becomes.
The film also discusses the competitive nature of female relationships. I think it’s okay to recognise that jealousy is a tricky emotion to overcome. But we can always try to recognise our behaviour and that’s the first step to making an active effort to change how we treat each other. Hopefully in turn we can feel better about ourselves.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Lucy: We played around for a long time with how many bandmates Ruby would have. We worked out we needed someone to act as a moral compass for Ruby. This was how we came up with Tuesday. She’s a sisterly figure being a bit older than Ruby and somewhat wiser. For someone as reckless as Ruby, she very much needs Tuesday in her life.
CJ: The script evolved naturally as Lucy was able to focus on what she really wanted to say and experiment with the best way to do that. The film itself evolved most in the edit when we found that at least two more of composer Leanne Kingwell’s songs would be a perfect fit. The heart of the scenes didn’t change, but the way they were cut was influenced by this and the film is better for it.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Lucy: On the whole we’ve been given a very warm reception and it’s been a ball talking with the audience after the screenings. The audience has had very polarised views, either loving it or hating it. We've had positive feedback on the unique visual style of the film.
CJ: Overall it’s been excellent but of course the nature of heavily genre material means that it’s not necessarily to everyone’s taste.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Lucy: We’ve had some criticism over the nature of Ruby and Tuesday’s competitive relationship. Particularly when it comes to the ways in which they try to impress the self-proclaimed ‘King of Punk,’ Vince Von Viper. It seems as though they perceive us as condoning betrayal of a friend for a man. For me it was more about opening an honest conversation about how we are prepared to behave in competitive situations.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Lucy: Thank you for having us! We’re always looking to get the film out there to horror/thriller and music fans. Currently we’re getting the word out there that we are looking for more screening opportunities with festivals.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Lucy: We’re currently seeking more screening opportunities nationally and internationally. 85% of our crowdfunding came from Hobart, Tasmania (The director’s hometown). We’re currently seeking opportunities for us to screen locally.
CJ: It would certainly be nice to see more interest from Australian film festivals and we’re currently awaiting response from a couple. Distribution for short films is always tricky despite the modern audience’s desire for shorter material. I believe once word gets out about the film we’ll see more interest in showing it around the world.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Lucy: We want people to have a great time and enjoy the unique visual style of the world and the monsters that dwell within it. But we hope to get people thinking about what their own ambition means to them and to be honest with themselves about how they go about pursuing it.
CJ: From a producer’s perspective, I would love for audiences to see the film and recognise the fun possibilities inherent with genre film, and to start giving it more of a chance on TV and feature length projects coming out of Australia.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Lucy: What kind of monster are you prepared to be in pursuit of your ambition?
Would you like to add anything else?
Lucy: The original song Innocence Dies that we see Ruby and Tuesday perform was written and performed by local artists Leanne Kingwell and John Keskeridis.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Currently Lucy is undertaking a Post Production Internship with Vice Australia. Lucy and CJ are pairing up to produce another VCA horror short ‘Feast on the Young’ by Katia Mancuso.
Interview: May 2017
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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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Ruby Tuesday
A backstage drama in a Frankenstein world that sees two young women choosing how far they’re willing to go for fame when a punk rock legend offers a recording deal in exchange for marriage.
Length: 00:11:32:00
Director: Lucy Claire
Producer: CJ Welsh
Writer: Lucy Claire
About the writer, director, and producer:
Lucy Claire
Some parents sing their children lullabies. My father played me Alice Cooper and The Rolling Stones…. It might have rubbed off a little.
Lucy Claire was born in Hobart, Tasmania. In 2013 she received top marks for Media Production statewide for her short film Revolt. This led to her acceptance into the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014. Lucy spent most of her time at VCA developing her unique neo-noir style on short films such as The Wolf and the Butler, 100 and in her latest project Ruby Tuesday. Since Ruby Tuesday Lucy has also worked as a production assistant on Dancing the Invisible a documentary on the career of Australian Editor Jill Bilcock, which aired on ABC 1, 14 March 2017. Currently she is undertaking an internship in Post Production with VICE Australia.
CJ Welsh
CJ is a Canberra native now Melbourne based emerging producer, who recently graduated from a Masters of Producing at the Victorian College of the Arts, Film and Television School. He was awarded Producer of the Year 2016 and has three films selected for the St Kilda Film Festival Australia’s Top 100 in 2017, along with submissions to the national and international film festival circuit.
Prior to this his background is in mixed media, producing original online content tailored to niche audiences, such as Facebook marketing clips, a small but successful YouTube channel and an art installation of experimental shorts playing on iPods.
His professional experience also includes extensive sales and marketing, He’s worked as a Sales Manager for STA Travel and was influential in helping to establish the Tesla brand in Melbourne. He loves high-concept drama and his goal is to develop genre Film and TV concepts in Australia.