TropfestShooting for Success Part 1

In the first of this 3-part series on the winners at last years inaugural Tropfest in New Plymouth, we
look at first-time filmmaker Tess Novak and her short A Kiwi Legend.

By Tui Ruwhiu

Tess Novaks short film A Kiwi Legend took the audience award at the 2013 Tropfest NZ Short Film
Festival. The Tropfest Signature Item (TSI) for that yearan item that must be included in some way,
shape of formwas gumboot. Tess jumped in gumboots and all on the TSI, with it becoming the
storyline and central symbol for her short. A host of personalities including Sir Colin Meads and
Denise LEstrange-Corbet wore them, threw them and waxed lyrical about them.

Essentially a mockumentary driven predominantly by talking heads, A Kiwi Legend was popular
with young and old alike, as iconic kiwis parodied a New Zealand icon. At the time of writing, it sits
second in terms of number of views on Tropfest NZs YouTube channel (here) next to outright
winner, Cappuccino Tango.

The Script
Tess was doing a double degree focusing on Film, Theatre, and Marketing & Information Systems at
Victoria University and was keen to engage in an extra curricular project. On a trip home to Taranaki
in January 2012, she went along to Tropfests stunning venue at the outdoor TSB Bowl of Brooklands
to watch the 16 latest Australian finalists that were shown to launch Tropfest in New Zealand. Script
ideas started churning in her head when she heard the TSI was gumboot. An outline for the script
was written in the car on the way back to Wellington. Soon after, Tess spent a day coming up with a
rough first draft. The script evolved slowly over the next few months. It went through several drafts
leading up to the shoot, with readers including her lecturers and the General Manager at Peter
Jacksons Wingnut Films.

The Team
Tess enlisted the assistance of Keith Finnerty of New Plymouths Cat and Mouse Productions to
shoot and edit the film. Keith recommended Dave Carnachan of local post house King Street Creative
to do the audio post. Tess got her school friend Millie Lynskey to come on as co-producer. Later,
thanks to an introduction from another of her lecturers, Tess was able to secure Wellington
composer Tom McLeod to do the score. Tess had brought together a well rounded team that
developed a real camaraderie and had a lot of laughs and fun across the duration of the project.

The Talent
Keith had told Tess when she pitched him the idea that he would only do it if she approached
professional talent to fill the roles. Tess had written stereotypes for the characters, so she went
about matching personalities to them. Cold calls, friends of friends of friends, her co-producer Millie,
actors agents; she tried them all. A cold email through the WORLD website led to her securing her
first cast attachment, The Fashion Designer: Denise LEstrange-Corbet. With a known personality on
board a domino effect ensued, making it easier to get others in. Availability was a real issue dealing
with personalities who have busy schedules. Some dropped off. After five months of constant
pursuit, she had secured all but one of the final cast who would eventually appear in the filmThe
Farmer: Sir Colin Meads, The Comedians: Dai Henwood and Steve Wrigley, The Rugby Players: All
Black Beauden Barrett and his brother Kane, The Super Athlete: Valerie Adams, and The Actor:
Melanie Lynskey. Rehearsals were limited to a few run-throughs on the day before the camera
rolled.

The Sponsorship
Tess needed sponsorship to help cover the significant costs involved. Although she only paid her cast
koha (donation), money was needed for props, travel back and forth to Auckland, the shoot and
post. She insisted on paying fees to Keith and Dave as they were making the major contributions
with time, and production and post production equipment. Tess also had to pay for an LA-based DOP
to shoot Melanie Lynskey. Her and Millies marketing skills came in real handy, helping to lock in a
couple of major sponsors and a number of others that covered almost all the hard costs in the
budget, with the difference being made up from Tesss own pocket.

The Shoot
The six day shoot for A Kiwi Legend kicked off in August and finished in October with sporadic days
to match cast availability. Not everything went smoothly, with one actor having to be replaced
because of a no-show. This required a rewrite of part of the script. The most difficult element of the
shoot for Tess was getting Melanie Lynskey shot in LA. Being a first timer and not having any LA
connections, Tess trawled through a huge number of film crew directories and consequently
people's individual sites to find a DOP that had a similar shooting style to Keiths. Thinking that she
should do things by the book, Tess sought a shooting permit to film outdoors. Thats where the
problems really started. Permit bodies in LA differ depending on the location. The permit fee Tess
was looking at was US$2000. To avoid having to pay the fee, Tess decided to shoot in a hotel room.
But no, permits are needed even to shoot in a hotel or someones house in LA. Then Tess learned
about an exemption for crews of three or less who work with minimal equipment and cause little
impact. She then spent hours talking to Film LA and the City of Los Angeles seeking the exemption. It
finally came through. The hotel room was booked for two hours and Tess directed the shoot on the
day via SKYPE from her Wellington student flat.

The Post
Picture post production started straight after the shoot, with Tess and Keith working on a rough cut.
The first edit highlighted the need for a couple of minor pickups, but allowed Tom the composer to
get going. The editing, grading and audio post were completed across a month, working around her
university schedule, and Keiths and Daves workloads. Tess hand-delivered her film to the New
Plymouth office of the Taranaki Festival of the Arts Trust who runs Tropfest three days prior to the
deadline.

The Afterlife
Tess hasnt actively pursued getting A Kiwi Legend out to other festivals, although it has screened
at the New Zealand Short Film Festival in Sydney and Brisbane. Tropfest NZ arranged for all the 2013
Tropfest NZ finalist films to screen on New Zealands Rialto Channel on SKY. A number of the 2013
NZ shorts were packaged together with a selection of Australian shorts by Tropfest International and
screened on Australian channel SBS.

The Career
With A Kiwi Legend under her belt, Tess leveraged off her film to get a two week internship with
Australian producer Helen Bowden at Matchbox Pictures in Sydney. An opportunity then arose for
Tess to work on Helens mini-series Devils Playground, starring Toni Collette. She applied for and
received a New Zealand Film Commission Trainee Producer Internship Scheme, which cemented the
job for her. Once the three-month internship was over, Tess was able to continue on the production
as Producers Assistant. She will finish up mid November. Thanks to a colleague on the Devils
Playground, she will move into a job as Post Production Runner on the next Mad Max feature. That
will give her a few months more work, which will take her into the new year. Tess is pursuing
opportunities to move onto once shes finished on Mad Max. For the foreseeable future, shes
happy to make Sydney her home while she focuses on building her skills, confidence and production
resume.

Thoughts to Share
For Tess, Tropfest was a fantastic opportunity to make a film and get it seen. As her first short, A
Kiwi Legend was a massive learning experience for her that made it all worthwhile. She feels that as
long as you are confident and working with people who share the same vision for the project, you
will have a lot of fun even through the trying times. Tess is a Tropfest convert who encourages
anyone interested in filmmaking to have a go. Why dont you.

Further information:
Tropfest NZ Short Film Festival screens in New Plymouths outdoor venue the TSB Bowl of
Brooklands on Sunday 16 February 2014
Deadline for films submissions is Monday 6 January 2014
The Tropfest Signature Item for 2014 is GLASSES, which is open to interpretation. Any glasses
accepted.
Details available on the Tropfest website at www.tropfest.co.nz
Follow Tropfest NZ on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Tropfestnz