In the national finals of the V48 Hours film making competition it was announced on C4 on Thursday night, that Gone, the entry set in Raglan, had after winning the Hamilton regional award, gone on to win the all-girl category in the national competition. The Reel Good People team consists of Micah Puklowski, Tara Proctor, Ezra O’Connell and Janet O’Connell.
12 May 2010 interview with Micah Puklowski, who won the 2010 Hamilton V48 Hour Regional Finals with team Reel Good People and Gone.
Can you describe the process of making Gone?
Friday night we got the elements and the ‘time travel’ genre. We discussed ideas over Hell Pizza for about 2 hours and then decided on our storyline. Lead actress Ezra O’Connell (a Media Arts Certificate student) was going to be stuck in a time loop trying to save her younger sister Sydney Manson (her real sister, Janet O’Connell).
I knew I wanted to include some form of a car crash and have a complete circular narrative and so the twist would be her attempt to save her sister’s life would be the reason she dies…we were aiming for drama and a big climax with the crash, to wow audiences.
We drove to Raglan, slept and got up bright and early to start shooting with the sun at 5.30am. Unfortunately for us we had to wait an hour for the sun to rise, sitting in the dark eating chips and drinking V, trying to stay motivated. We shot for 12 hours in five locations around Raglan with breaks in between each scene for food, costume and make-up changes and were done by 6pm Saturday.
Tara Proctor (my producer and a Wintec Interior Design student) and I drove back to Hamilton, where I spent the rest of my time editing, sound mixing, scoring and completing our film. After 45 hours it was finished and after making a few last-minute changes, stressing when my final cut wouldn’t print to tape, I grabbed the back-up dvd and headed for the finish line, sick and tired but happy.
How did you feel to hear you’d won?
We were so excited to be nominated for 6 awards and hoped to win at least one, like Best All Girls Group, so to win four was totally amazing. It wasn’t until later Friday night after the awards when it really hit me and I was like, wow, high five, we just won best picture!
How many times have you entered V48 Hours?
This year is my fourth competition, but third leading my own team of Reel Good People. It was the second time Ezra and I have been in a team together and Tara and Janet’s first year. Last year my team also made it into the Hamilton finals so this year I was really determined to learn from that experience and try to make a film that was a complete story and didn’t just end (which can easily happen with the time factor).
What will your next project be? Are you able to use the prizes you’ve won?
Currently we are hoping to buy a new hi-def camera to use on our future projects, which we have begun brainstorming for. We’ve already decided on making another few short films during our Wintec holidays to help lead up to hopefully making something to enter in some international short film festivals.
You’re currently a Master of Arts student at Media Arts – what is your study focussing on?
For my Master of Arts project this year I am adapting a New York Times best-selling novel ‘Impulse’ by Ellen Hopkins into a feature length script.
Any links to websites/showreels?
My You Tube page has a reel from last year and a few projects including an edited down version of my 2009 48hr film: http://www.youtube.com/user/reelgoodpictures
Anything else you’d like to add?
We were sponsored by United Video Frankton. And final words would be “good luck to all the teams in the Finals next week!”
Media Release: Wintec Media Arts, 12 May 2010