INSIDE ‘THE SHELL’ the short film

  by Heather, the screenwriter and producer.

 The idea to make a short film came from Yanni, a high-profile, local photographer. Yanni knew I was a writer and playwright and invited me to send him a script. A month later I sent him the outline and a first draft of the script for the film thinking he would feel that it would be too hard to make with; all the actors, costumes, outdoor scenes, an antique boat, a motorbike and a caravan. Where would we get all of that from?

 We had a meeting and at this stage it wasn’t clear, to me at least, who was going to be doing what. Yanni stated he had an interest in directing and that planning schedules wasn’t his strong point, so with my teaching background and having co-produced a couple of short films before, I elected to be the producer and he, the director, which we were both happy with. So, I began my search for a costume designer, production designer, an antique boat, a caravan, a bikie with a bike (in truth, Yanni found John), an artist for the miniature, the other actors and a crew.

 I already had the shell, which belonged to my mother, and she and my brother are the inspiration for the story. Much of the story is a metaphor but there is some truth in there too.

 There’s a local historic aspect to the story and this meant a lot of props and costumes. We were really fortunate as we were able to source the one- hundred- year old wooden boat from local professional wooden boat maker, Wayne Parr. This presented a rather unique problem; I needed to find very competent sailors/actors who could handle an open sixteen-foot yacht. I also needed to assure Wayne that the four young men were competent sailors. I was able to do both, being a member of a yacht club.

 I involved people I know and trust, for the most part, or who came highly recommended, to be part of the film. All of my immediate family were involved including; my husband Simon and my brother Paul who were crew, my two sons; James became my sounding board for the script and his partner Kayla  acted in it, as the 30 year old woman, and my other son Tom acted as one of the sailors. Their cousin, Andrew, plays Matthew Flinders as firstly he can sail and secondly as he looks like Flinders. A former drama student of mine, Aimee Tykkynen became our costume designer. Some good friends, including Darrell Todd, and Yvonne Jago were happy to be involved as crew in one way or another.

 In truth the delight for us was that the making of this short film became a community project being filmed on the Mornington Peninsula and involving locals.

 From my perspective, it’s been a rewarding and positive experience. We built an amazing team of crew and actors and everyone got along so well. In particular, Yanni and I worked closely with Aimee throughout as the costumes were such an integral part of the visual story. We didn’t hit many bumps in the road and we kept saying how so many aspects to it were serendipitous and that it felt like this film was ‘meant to be’. When I saw it for the first time, with my son James at Yanni’s, even though I wrote it and produced it, I was so surprised about how deeply affected and moved by it I was. I found myself choking back tears, but maybe some of them were tears of relief, as, as fun as it was, it is very time consuming to make a short film and organise so many aspects to it.

Some of the cast are professional actors with a lot of experience, however, some of the cast are not actors and have limited acting experience. For these non-professionals, the fact that there was no dialogue worked to both their and the film’s advantage. It was really an experiment to see if we could tell a story using music, sound effects and visuals. The lack of dialogue enables the film to cross cultural boundaries easily with no subtitles as it’s a very human and timeless story about the unconditional love of the mother for a child. I like to play with the audience with my writing and enjoy the set-up of the audience’s perception of characters. By the end of the film, those perceptions are challenged, right up until when you see the very mature mother riding freely on the back of the motorbike behind her son who has finally, after a long absence, returned to her on her birthday.  

I’d like to thank Yanni for this opportunity. I really enjoyed both writing and producing the film and collaborating with him and everyone involved.

 Both Yanni and I lost our mothers to cancer and we dedicate ‘The Shell’ to them. We hope you enjoy ‘The Shell’.

Heather Forbes-McKeon