With such a small amount of “free” time available to us all, its not very often that we take the time to do things purely just because it “seemed like a nice thing to do”. Which is precisely what multi-award winning Director, Roger Spottiswoode did when he decided to make the 5-minute El Toque de un Beso (The Touch of a Kiss).
As Spottiswoode’s first short-film, it’s a wonder that it was ever made at all. With credits to his name including Tomorrow Never Dies, Turner and Hooch and Shoot To Kill, it was by chance that Spottiswoode stumbled upon the opportunity in the first place. Having spent the previous nine months post-producing the soon-to-be-released Children of Huang Shi (The Children of the Silk Road) at Digital Pictures in
“Digital Pictures and their Head of Post Production Pamela Hammond, were so wonderful throughout the project Children of Huang Shi, I wanted to make a film using all the skills and talent I discovered in Melbourne and make something that portrayed my experience of the city” commented Spottiswoode.
The film was shot in one night at tiny Spanish restaurant/bar Kanela in Fitzroy. The “cast” and crew arrived, no-one was paid and everyone just got on with it. Pamela Hammond, John Bowring and crew from Lemac, Doron Kipen from M& E and Lenny de Vries, a friend and producer herself went along on the night.
“There were some very talented people involved from the Flamenco artists led by Johnny & Richard Tedesco, to the amazing editors Nigel Karikari and Ian Carmichael who all worked for free! The generosity of everyone involved was just extraordinary but it was nice for everyone as well. I believe we all gained something from it and it was such a pleasure working with Roger,” de Vries said.
Being his first short-film, El Toque de un Beso was a great exercise for the director.
“When you only have a few minutes screen time, every shot has to count and reverberate on several levels. As a result, those five minutes are very, very intense. So charged and enormously compelling. I’m so grateful to everyone who got involved and now I just hope that the people who see it, enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it,” he said.
The film premiered at The St Kilda Film Festival in