Summer Coda: Oh, those summer nights!
Richard Gray’s directorial debut Summer Coda became the first film at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival to sell out. It was a heartening affirmation for Gray, who poured his heart into making the film. He told Hansika Bhagani that it was all well worth it.
Summer Coda came second in Movie Network’s Project Greenlight competition in 2005, but that success was quickly followed by years of struggle and rejections at the hands of national and state film funding bodies.“We had a good opportunity after Project Greenlight to progress the project faster than you would normally. We got so close to getting it up so many times, so it’s felt like a longer journey, but it’s definitely been worth it,” said Gray.
Set in the orange groves of Mildura, along the Murray River, the story revolves around Heidi (Rachael Taylor) who returns to Australia to attend the funeral of her estranged father. On the way she meets Michael (Alex Dimitriades) – an orange farmer struggling with his own familial loss. As she joins Michael’s rag-tag bunch of orange pickers, Heidi discovers love, learns to cope with her father’s bereavement and discovers secrets along the way.
Crucial to the story is the town of Mildura, which features heavily as the location of the orange farm and backdrop to the burgeoning romance. For Gray, it was a treat to film in the country town where he’d previously shot the TV cooking series Stefano’s Cooking Paradise, and a place he looks forward to returning to. “I’d love to make another film in regional Australia, it was so much less stressful than shooting in the city, having people around you that aren’t just wanting to be paid, that just want to help and support, because they can see the benefit. It was a really positive experience,” he said.
One of the key benefits of filming in Mildura, Gray said, is getting more bang for your buck – which is particularly important when your film is privately funded (although Film Victoria did provide post-production support).
Despite the great “leg-up” he got for the screenplay at Project Greenlight and the high-profile connections he made through the competition, Gray conceedes it was difficult getting the project off the ground. “I thought filmmaking in this country wasn’t so hard in 2005 when it looked like we were going to make the film after only a couple of years out of film school. But it took five years got to make it, which is probably more true a reflection of how long it takes,” he said. The project’s intended timeline suffered through continual knockbacks by the former Film Finance Corporation, but Gray said he doesn’t hold any grudges. “I was very young, and there’s a lot of mouths to feed in Mordor and not everyone’s film can get made. We just couldn’t get it up, and it was probably due to my inexperience,” he recalled.
But his persistence and passion for the film won out. “We wanted to make the film so badly. We had distribution, sales and a cast but we just couldn’t seem to get the greenlight. So we went at it another way” he said.
Helping secure finance for the production were producers Marc Goldenfein and John Finemore, and executive producers James Hoppe and Bryce Menzies.
“We raised 100 percent of the shooting budget privately. The only way we could do that and make our dollars work for us was to combine it with a tremendous amount, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inkind support” explained Gray.
One of the most important supporters was Virgin Blue, who assisted with flights for cast and crew to the regional location. “Once they found out we were telling such a landscape, scenic film and that they flew to that territory, they were very keen to support us,” said Gray. A deal was also made with Mildura Brewery, and cast and crew were kept happy with slabs of cold beer provided in the 40C heat they were shooting in. Goldenfein adds that support from sponsors was instrumental to the project at a time when film investment was looking less and less attractive to other investors. “The key was speaking to people who have a passion for people, projects and the arts”. That included companies such as Bearcom, Ducale Coffee, MAC makeup, Tasco, Coates Hire, Hutchison Motors and local businesses and individuals from Mildura.
Having taken the road less travelled, Gray is insistent private investors in the film will be well looked after in order to encourage them to continue their investment in other Australian films. “Nobody gets paid before the private investors get paid back, and so if they make their money back, they’ll go again.” he explained.
YOUR MONEY’S WORTH
The ambitious journey toward production has paid off in the film. The film was intended to be a small story with big production values which will, for Gray, hopefully turn Summer Coda into “a big commercial experience”.
Gray and DOP Greg De Marigny wanted to retain a classic European filmic look despite shooting not on film, but on the Red One. “We both like a lot of tracking and dolly work and we wanted it to be a beautiful-looking widescreen film. Sometimes when you use digital the classic methods of photography go out the door a little bit, so we tried to focus on filming just as if we were filming on 35mm and hopefully that’s come across” he said.
The director sees the design value of Summer Coda being compared to films like Sideways and Stealing Beauty, “They’re films that are beautiful, they feel like smaller films but you still get your money’s worth as far as production value and that’s where we see ourselves,” he said.
Although they’re adamant the viewing public will get their money’s worth, Gray and Goldenfein are reluctant to admit how much they actually spent on the film.
Goldenfein insists, “Cash will only go so far” and in an Australian context, the discussion of film budgets is overblown, “Conversations about budgets in Australia are generally negative. If a film has a high budget it might be perceived as irresponsible, which then generates negative feedback. Alternatively, if we had made the film for a tiny budget then people might say ‘Oh god, not another low
budget Aussie movie’”.
As well as the wide scenic beauty of Mildura which Gray hopes will be a selling point for international audiences, he hopes the film will hit the mark locally.
“It’s so hard, but we’re hoping we’ve got the right level of adventure and cast to really make that happen. We’re really trying to pump up the younger audience with some funny adventureous stuff. We’ve got Susie Porter and Jacki Weaver for the slightly older audience and at the heart of it a really endearing love story” he said.
Summer Coda releases in cinemas nationally on October 21 though Jump Street Films and Sharmill Films.
