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Interview |
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What has been the biggest challenge for you so far?
Having no training, no equipment, no budget and no recognition. Since we work six jobs between us, time is also a major obstacle.
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Tell us something about where you come from: Maia moved to Western Australia from Scotland when she was seven. She wasn’t all that inspired by Perth, and years later moved to London, where she was inspired to move to Melbourne to study and commit herself to the arts. In Melbourne she met Steph, who had also just returned from London, where she had not only picked up an unhealthy obsession with macaroni cheese, but had also reached a similar decision to study creative arts at Melbourne University. There the two became friends through a mutual appreciation of film, music, theatre, art, fashion, food and fun. They formed the production company D.I.Y ART in 2005, and have been making films ever since. They also both like making up their own words. List five words that describe you: 1. Philarious Who are some people you admire? Other than each other… Where do you get your inspiration? Most of our work has been a reaction to the types of films we’ve seen other young people making. Neither of us is particularly au fait with the underground avant garde German/Armenian filmmaking scene of the 1970’s, or the work of obscure Japanese feminist film theorists in post-war Sydney etc, so most of our inspiration is drawn from our own experiences and opinions. We are interested in the representation of women in the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera. Despite our involvement with film theory, we try to create films with broad appeal – not films that will only speak to film students, or movie buffs. At the same time though, we’re not interested in reproducing the formats and genres that are permeating popular culture at the moment – we’re sort of interested in creating hybrid films – arty but funny, kooky but smart. That said, our documentary animation films do draw from the work produced by Flat Black Studios and Aardman. How would you describe your work? Different. Funny. Colourful. Fast. Kooky. Happy. Cynical. Great. Clunky. Noisy. Laughable. Crazy. Pretty. Poignant. Heartfelt. Choppy. Fun. List your three favourite things: 1. Chocolate What do you do for fun? Dance around the living room like crazy people. Eat an entire roll of supermarket cookie dough raw out of the packet while walking down Lygon Street. Op Shop. Eat an entire family block of Cadbury’s in half an hour. Sing beautifully harmonised impromptu songs about people as they walk into the room. Eat an entire watermelon with a teaspoon. What's the most essential item in your creative process? Probably a meeting over a pot of tea where all of our stupid ideas can be laid out and sifted through and combined and polished up and placed in the middle of the table to be looked at, rejected, picked up again, turned around and refined until we have a basic idea of the type of film we want to make. Things that make us laugh are integral to all of our films. What are you working on at the moment? We’re making a documentary-animation on fraught, embarrassing moments. Each interviewee is rotoscoped in a distinctive way, and sections of their stories are told through other forms of animation as well. It is proving to be our most challenging and time consuming film to date. Do you have a career highlight? In all reality, becoming a SOYA finalist is definitely the highlight so far. The last film we made was about how hard it is for young people to break into the arts industry, and SOYA is a big step in the right direction. What's the next thing on the cards for you and your art? Any big plans? We’re currently saving for our own equipment – we’d like to set up a home editing suite and start a ‘virtual greeting cards’ business while producing more short films and video clips. We’d like to get into video jockeying for live music, and creating DVDs for local musicians. We’re also planning on establishing a local arts collective or meeting point online for young artists. Long-term goals include a feature film and/or television series. Noise is... Just what we were looking for. If you could be anybody else, who would you be? Someone with a budget. What has been the biggest challenge for you so far? Having no training, no equipment, no budget and no recognition. Since we work six jobs between us, time is also a major obstacle. How do you feel about being a SOYA finalist? So good! What will you do with your prizes if you win? We would definitely put all of the SOYA prizes toward our work: |
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