A short film-musical about the choice between following your dreams, and making next week’s rent.

Interview with Producer Alicia Easaw-Mamutil

Main image: "I feel resentment and resistance pouring out of my pores."

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

Thank you so much for showing an interest in our film! The songs for this film were conceived during a time when many of us closely related to the protagonist’s story of pursuing our creative interests without losing heart and focusing on more objectively responsible and financially stable career paths. One of the producers clearly remembers a tearful afternoon at the ad agency she worked for which was brightened by listening to one of Jake and Matt’s songs from a previous show. Jake in turn heard from her about how inspiring his musical work was when he himself was at a low point in his job at a call centre, and it became one of a multitude of reasons to keep working on this show, “On Hold.”

At the time, “On Hold,” was building to being a series of 12 demos with every part sung by Jake and accompanied by shockingly sophisticated ukulele chords and plucking. Once transposed by Matt for the piano and sent out to a couple of potential key creatives, the overwhelming enthusiasm to work on the film and heartfelt empathy for the story became the driving force to create and finish this film.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

It’s fairly daunting trying to sell an independent musical film on an average audience, who is at best, indifferent to the style. Audiences who appreciate or actively seek out musicals will be delighted and inspired by the film’s message, lyrics and wildly illustrative score. For everyone else, we have found that the message of seeking happiness has a clear relatability across fields and interests and the musical style plays a huge part in keeping the message in the audiences’ minds long after the film has finished.

Overall, while we hope to make people laugh with our conglomerate of modern Australian office archetypes, we believe it is the element of sincerity behind every musical number that makes this film appealing and gives us a memorable and endearing quality. The way in which the songs are used is relatively subversive. We feel that the art form of musicals is the most emotionally potent in terms of producing empathetic affect in an audience . We think this film does a wonderful job of demonstrating that and showing audiences of all tastes the musicals are capable of feats far beyond their assumptions. A common piece of feedback we have received for a number of our works is “I hate musicals, but I liked this one.”

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

The universal themes of conflict and ambition in careers and friendship come from the writer, Jake Nielsen’s personal experiences of working in a call centre. The originality and strength of his story coupled with his choice of a heartfelt representation through a musical style is used to heighten emotion and further connect with the audience more than your average comedy. On the surface, the characters deal with relatively modern concerns such as indecisiveness in their field of work and/or romantic life; but the timeless nature and existential root of these fears is what we feel our target audience will be drawn to when they see their everyday concerns displayed side by side.

On Hold - *"I don't want to be like that, I don't want to stuff my dream into a drawer."*

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

As with most good films or art in general, the script went through a number of changes, rewrites, workshops and refinement. Refinement is an appropriate word when talking about dialogue, as language has a way of settling with you, and finding its way into a more appropriate or subtle form of expression. Musically however, the songs have not only been refined but also grown, improved and expanded beyond our original intentions. As we wrote more, we realised we had the team, resources and chutzpah to orchestrate the songs and bring in more instruments to create a more traditionally satisfying musical theatre score.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

Some of the strongest feedback we have received actually came during the production of the film from crew members silently tearing up during takes and actors confessing that they were listening to the songs to encourage them in their work. The process of creation was definitely a form of therapy for the creator, Jake Nielsen, and it has been wonderful seeing collaborators and audiences alike experiencing their own personal strains of this experience.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

As we have only just completed the film, the majority of our feedback has come during production from our collaborators and the few people who have additionally viewed the film. The most surprising feedback manifested in the number of people from varying stages in professional practice who equally related to the story and eagerly jumped aboard the project to bring it to life.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

We are generally aiming to expand our audience for this film and encourage a following for this style of cinema. We are also looking to release a soundtrack to the film later in the year with the hopes of generating funding for a feature that would allow Jake and Matt the opportunity to flesh out the characters and ideas on a broader scale.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message

Honestly we are happy for anyone who relates to the story and is interested in aiding us in our future work.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

We would love to continue what we have seen in our small audiences thus far. Namely we would like this film to entertain and encourage people from all walks of life, not just the creative industry explored in the film.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

The tagline for the film, “Life’s on the line,” in the context of the film accurately sums up the overarching question of, “On Hold.” As in the production of this film, we are heavily concerned with the urgency of taking risks and expressing ourselves in the limited time we have. The film encourages a heavily cynical reflection on certain aspects of modern first-world society and we would love to tempt audiences to walk away questioning these aspects.

On Hold - *"Dreams will keep you up at night."*

Would you like to add anything else?

We would like to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who helped us bring this show to life. For this project to have begun with a group of people listening to the early demos in Jake’s bedroom, having our world premiere at Flickerfest 2018 was unimaginable at the time and would have been impossible without the countless hours of dedication from our cast and crew.

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

The writers Jake and Matt have written music and lyrics for “Miss Westralia” a musical about the life of the first Miss Australia, Beryl Mills. The show is Being performed as part of Perth Fringe world at His Majesty’s Theatre by Madeline Clouston, Noemi Kuros and Amelia Burke.

Our lead actor Madeleine Jones is currently co-staring in Muriel's Wedding as Ronda.

Interview: January 2018

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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. 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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On Hold

A short film-musical about the choice between following your dreams, and making next week’s rent.

Length: 29 minutes

Director: Jake Nielsen

Musical Director: Matthew Predny

Producer: Alicia Easaw-Mamutil, Grace Rein & Tom Montefiore

Writer: Jake Nielsen

Composers: Jake Nielsen & Matthew Predny

Jake Nielsen – Writer, Director, Co-composer

Jake Nielsen is a writer, director, lyricist, and composer who writes musicals for stage and screen. He is interested in setting existential queries to immersive tunes.

Matthew Predny – Musical Director, Co-composer

Matthew Predny is a musician, musical composer and musical theatre performer. He recently appeared as Richard Bailey (Charlie/Harry cover) in the Australian tour of Kinky Boots.

Alicia Easaw-Mamutil – Producer

Alicia Easaw-Mamutil works as a producer in film, theatre and advertising and currently manages the Youtube channel, “Friendlyjordies.”

Grace Rein – Producer

Grace Rein is a producer in film and music videos and currently works as a VFX Production coordinator in addition to producing personal projects.

Tom Montefiore – Producer

Tom Montefiore is a producer and digital strategist. After working within agency environments, Tom co-founded the digital agency - Three Point Films.

Key cast: Madeleine Jones and Jo Turner

Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): Looking for sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors and journalists interested in expanding our audience.

Social media handles: @onholdmusical

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onholdmusical/

Instagram: @onholdmusical

Funders: Pozible Supporters

Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?: The film will be screened at Flickerfest 2018 on Monday 15th at 8:45pm.