News location:

Canberra Today 15°/18° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Arts / The ‘Competition’ heats up

Ian Croker and Tony Turner in “The Competition”.
Ian Croker and Tony Turner in “The Competition”.
PACKED with Canberra talent, the new feel-good, full-length musical, “The Competition”, is to be finally released publicly on December 11.

Finally, because for director and screenwriter Simon Weaving the process of getting together a full-length feature film has been tough.

Scripted in 2009, “The Competition” was shot in 2010 and has been in post-production since, with editor Douglas Kirk working on it two nights a week.

The charismatic Leah Baulch plays aspiring singer Steffie, Andrea Close plays a TV studio executive and comedian Jay Sullivan plays her much-bullied secretary.

Tony Turner and Geoff Borney as the judges in “The Competition”.
Tony Turner and Geoff Borney as the judges in “The Competition”.
Veteran actors Geoff Borny and Tony Turner play the TV show judges, while Jess Brent and Ian Croker play character roles – “you can’t make anything without Ian Croker,” Weaving says, referring to his earlier short film, “Waiting for Robbo”.

“We wanted to be able to make a film with likeable characters,” Weaving says.

“Too many Australian films are about people taking drugs and miserable lives.”

By contrast, “The Competition” is about a reality show that comes to a small town that is home to 52 bands.

It’s been shot in Gunning, where actor Max Cullen lives. “Max helped our location scouts with introductions after they drove through Gunning and noticed a hotel, motel, cafe, garage and hall all lined up for them,” Weaving says, explaining that most of the creatives commuted from Canberra.

Since Weaving arrived in Canberra with his family in 2006 he’s been noticing the amount of talent here, but you can’t make a film without good technical back up. So when he discovered that top cinematographer Richard Michalak had grown up here, he got going.

Chanel Cole in “The Competition”.
Chanel Cole in “The Competition”.
“Everyone on both sides of the cameras have come from the ACT,” Weaving says, citing musicians Owen Campbell, The Fuelers, Alchemist, Julia & the Deep Sea Sirens and Chanel Cole, a former “Australian Idol” contestant.

Using Canberra musicians and the skills of musical director and guitarist Greg Stott, they’ve had music “donated” to the film under a points system that will see any dividends paid to those who participated.

Stott is in the process of putting together an original soundtrack, which includes songs by Weaving and Stott to help “carry a bit of the story”.

Weaving is optimistic; a sales agent, House of Film, has been appointed and the movie has been submitted to the Berlinale’s “Generation” list for 2015. Dendy Cinemas has come on board with a gala opening and a public screening season.

He says the wonderful thing is that “everybody who worked on this film has done it for the love of it”.

“The Competition”, Dendy Cinemas, public release December 11, gala screening 6.30pm in Cinema 2, December 3, bookings to dendy.com.au

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews