Setting Sun Film Festival 2019 – Tech, Support
Amanda is just trying to get the internet working but hits a roadblock in the form of a sexist IT support worker on the phone.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Nic Barker
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Tech, Support was born through the discussions I'd been having with the film's two leads and co-writers Jordan and Darcy, about subtle micro-aggressions that occur in everyday, banal situations. I experiment a lot with improvised dialogue in my work so I thought it would be a great idea to just grab a camera and have these two brilliant performers riff on a specific scenario and construct what we could out of the resulting scenes.
We wanted to contrast the act of hostility toward our main character with their sceptical partner defaulting to not siding with her. This allowed for a fascinating push/pull between the comedic timing of our actors in this scenario whilst also injecting dramatic tension. The scale is small in this film but that's what I hope makes it so specific.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
We like to think Tech, Support is a film that not only makes you laugh but also starts a conversation. I've always loved cringe comedies in film and TV, such as the work of Ricky Gervais and Larry David, but we also feel like we wanted to address the ways men try to subtly marginalise women in everyday situations, and call that out. I think the performance of Jordan Barr is the main focal point of this short. Jordan is hilarious, truthful, biting, confident and vulnerable all at once in this role - this is her film really and I'm so proud to have been a part of it.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I think I've always been a fan of grounded, realistic stories of the everyday, but I draw on the experiences of the people around me and things I reflect about my own life to inform my stories.
I suppose what I hope to facilitate through these improv-based, grounded stories is creating situations that feel relatable, plausible and authentic whilst saying different things about experiences that happen to lots of different people. I'm interested in hearing those stories, understanding and processing them, and feel they inform what I create in ways I could never generate in a vacuum.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
For starters, there was no script, just a baseline kind of 1-2 sentence idea that I'd had, and started to discuss it with the two leads Jordan and Darcy. We just decided to bring together the gear we had and just riff on this idea in the townhouse I was renting at the time - so I operated the camera, recorded sound, directed, the works. It was as bare bones as could be but that created a really small, intense collaborative atmosphere and we got great material.
After that, I kind of slowly constructed the story from all the raw footage in the edit. It was a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster kind of a thing, picking out the best moments from 30-45min improvised takes and smashing them together until you find a flow. It's risky because you never know if you have quite enough material when you're on set, it's very instinctive in that way. Thankfully over the course of multiple draft edits, we constructed the story and structure as it appears in it's finished form.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Really positive! We made our world premiere at the Peninsula Film Festival in February which was amazing, and have racked up several other selections since. I love seeing the film with a crowd, they cringe and groan and laugh at all the right moments. It's tremendously gratifying!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
We went into this film with a pretty strong point of view of what we were trying to say, without spoiling anything. It was fairly unambiguous in our minds. What has surprised me is the level of conversation and debate that sprung up after screenings, there have definitely been audience members reading the text of the film to support the polar opposite argument that we were going for. I don’t agree with that reading but now that the film is released and out there, the interpretation no longer belongs to those who created it - rather, those who view it and make up their own mind. But that definitely threw me when it came up once or twice.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Well, firstly we’ve got an upcoming screening at the Setting Sun Film Festival on May 4th at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville, which we’d absolutely love to pack out with as many people as possible! Further on from that we’ll be launching the film online later in the year, so it would be fantastic to build awareness for that so we can find an audience that might get something out of this little film we made. I think there’s a discussion to be had about how we listen to each other and appreciate the experiences of others, and I hope that by building that awareness we can further that discourse.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We’d love to have film festival directors and producers discover this film for so many reasons. I think there’s probably a certain stigma about the minuscule size of our production, however, I think producing these small stories in the way that we did allows for a very exploratory process resulting in unique films. The idea of this film getting seen far and wide is very exciting to us, not least because we just kind of went and made something - there’s a lot to be said for filmmakers either starting out or to stay sharp just kind of picking up a camera and going for it. It’s very liberating, though of course, it has to be project appropriate.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
The best reception we could ever dream of for this film is twofold - obviously it’s a comedy after all, so laughs are the best; but I think if we can get people thinking and chatting about the story of the film, reflecting on interactions they’ve had in the past where they might have behaved in ways undesirably similar to Darcy’s character in the film, realising the impact that has - I know that’s a bit of a ramble, but if we get that sort of reaction I’d be absolutely thrilled.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I think I may have mentioned this earlier but the question we’d like to raise to audience members is this - do you speak differently to different people, and how/why? What about them makes you treat them differently, and what assumptions have you already made about them when the interaction begins? This is the question we’re tackling on a macro scale in Tech, Support - comedy I think has always been a great way of raising questions big or small, in a way that’s easily palatable to audiences.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I've just completed my new short, Cheapskate, another improv-based dark comedy that will be hitting festivals later in the year. I’m really proud of it and can’t wait to get it out there. You can also check out my previous work at nicbarkerfilmmaker.com
Jordan has a ton of standup gigs going on across Melbourne, she’s absolutely hilarious and a brilliant performer. You can find her on Facebook or via her Instagram at @j.barr_
Interview: April 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, 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
Tech, Support
Amanda is just trying to get the internet working but hits a roadblock in the form of a sexist IT support worker on the phone.
Length: 6:31
Director: Nic Barker
Producer: Nic Barker
Writer: Nic Barker
About the writer, director and producer:
NIC BARKER is a prolific and multi-talented filmmaker in Australia, responsible for over thirty narrative shorts and the 2017 feature film, Short Distance. Jumping between traditional scripted narrative and more freeform, improvised storytelling, Nic’s actor-first approach has yielded significant acclaim for the short films Pint, Dead Sharks and Tech, Support. These films are characterised by dark, sometimes painfully awkward comedy, an intense focus on naturalism and sharp, dynamic editing, all of which contribute to an ever-evolving storytelling style.
Key cast: Jordan Barr as Amanda, Darcy Kent as Sean/Lyle
Looking for: journalists
Facebook: Nic Barker
Instagram: @nicbarkerfilm
Website: www.tiredfrogfilms.com
Funders: Australian Cultural Fund
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Setting Sun Film Festival, Saturday May 4th 7pm at The Sun Theatre in Yarraville as part of "The Bridge" session of short films