[Release from ScreenWest]
Filming has just wrapped in Western Australia on a ten-minute screen adaptation of Tim Winton’s classic short story, The Water was Dark and It Went Forever Down.
The film, which is being funded by a $30,000 grant from the Film & Television Institute (FTI) and ScreenWest, was shot at three WA locations: Lancelin, Ledge Point and Penguin Island.
Two Perth actors, Anna Brockway and Madeline Wallman perform the mother and daughter roles in the film, which sets out to capture the powerful imagery in Winton’s story about how a young girl tries to escape from the drowning influence of her mother. The girl swims to an island inhabited only by birds. It is there she realises that only the strong survive.
Producer, Kate Beverley, a former Producer Intern at ScreenWest, had a previous short film, Snow, selected in official competition at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The joint directors of the film are brother and sister team Miranda and Khrob Edmonds, who have already made a low budget feature film together. Kate and Miranda attended the same Perth high school and then went on to study post graduate film degrees at the Victorian College of Arts (VCA) in Melbourne.
"We feel it is an honour to be able to bring a uniquely WA story to the screen and we are delighted to have put together an outstanding film crew to help us do it," said Kate.
Film & Television Institute CEO Graeme Sward said, "This is a fantastic film project for WA and FTI is proud to assist such a strong team of independent local filmmakers".
Director of Photography Katie Milwright’s last feature film, Corroboree, was accepted into the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and every major festival in Australia. Production Designer Emma Fletcher has come off the Lockie Leonard television series and was also the Art Director on the Western Australian feature film Last Train to Freo. Stills photography is courtesy of Tungsten, who produce some of the world’s best surfing photography. Extra safety precautions were taken on the film shoot as the script required swimming, underwater cinematography and a challenging special effects scene.
This is the first Tim Winton short story to be filmed in WA and is taken from his collection titled Minimum of Two.