Re-Living Off The Land – Simon Best : Movie Interviews

Australians are not, nor will they ever be capable of producing a decent motion picture. We have known this for quite some time. Curiously though, there are still people willing to try. To find out why this is, Dave from Fawkner spoke with Simon Best, co-writer & co-director of new Aussie flick – Re-Living off the Land.

Simon Best. Thanks for joining us.

No problem. Thanks for having me.

Tell me Simon…when did you decide you wanted to become a filmmaker?

I had this childhood condition, you see, where basically it made me really bad at sport and physical activity, and so instead of spending my youth riding my BMX and going on adventures in the local woods, I stayed in doors watching movies about kids riding BMX bikes and going for adventures in the local woods. It was then I knew I wanted to become a filmmaker. Or a BMX Bandit. Then after my home-schooling finished and I couldn’t find gainful employment my path was set.

Right. So tell me about Re-Living off the Land.

Sure. But first let me ask you, when you were a teenager kid did you ever want to make a movie?

Fuck no.

Oh, okay. Well, many kids did I’m sure, and my friends and I were among them. After a couple of teen-angsty existential short films we tried to make something someone would actually watch, and that could be made on $2.50 and a shoelace. We decided to make a horror movie –but there was one problem.

Did it have something to do with the shoelace? I’m still confused by that.

The problem was that the movie was crap. And we realized we weren’t very talented. So after filming for a single day, we gave it up. Years later we re-discovered our footage and we thought to ourselves how funny it would have been if we had actually finished that movie, and so then we thought…

Yes, yes, so instead of actually finishing the film, you made an oh-so-clever movie about what it would have been like if you had gone back and finished the film. Like an alternate reality, or parallel universe, or Superman’s bizarro world. Or …

Um, well, yeah. Pretty much. But you already knew that from the promo material we sent you.You’re meant to pretend you don’t know this stuff and seem interested because you’re the audience’s voice here.

Sorry…I’m new at this.…umm… tell us more or something.

Sure, in this alternate reality, as you put it, we have Paul, the “star” of the film, who rediscovers the footage. With his dreams of success still unfulfilled, he is suddenly very keen to track down his old friends and give the project another crack, and then…

Sorry to interrupt, but it sounds a little like you’re just reading this from a prepared statement.

I have no idea what you mean. Where was I? Playing the homicidal farmer is Ben, who’s excited about revisiting the good old days, but he’s moving overseas in three weeks, making the shooting schedule very tight. Then there’s Wally probably the only actually talented member of the group. Unfortunately, he has mysteriously disappeared, replaced at the last minute by Graham, a dude from Paul’s office who has no acting experience – at all. Then there’s me. Simon, the director, still works at the video store in the suburb where they all grew up, and has given up on his dream of making movies, and…

That’s pretty lame. And also, you just referred to yourself in the third person which is even lamer.

Yeah, but that’s because I’m playing a fictionalized version of myself, remember. Try to keep up. Anyway, George Lucas once said that films are never finished, they’re just abandoned. ‘Re-Living Off The Land’ is about how some films – as well as friendships – are abandoned for a reason, and perhaps better left unfinished.

Deep. Man, those new Star Wars films were cool. The best blend of cartoons and real-life actors since Who Framed Roger Rabbit? , if you ask me. Now, you’ve received a lot of criticism over the title ‘Re-Living Off the Land.’ Do you regret giving your film such a crap name?

Criticism? Criticism from where? This is the first I’ve heard of it.

Trust me. In the circles I run in people are also criticizing your use of the tired mockumentary format. Were you at all apprehensive about doing this?

What do you mean?

Well…there really hasn’t been a funny mockumentary since ‘This is Spinal Tap’, and considering that all Australian films are bad anyway, weren’t you a bit worried that you’d be making the worst film of all time?

Well, not at the time, no. In fact I can confidently say there are worse films out there than ours.

I haven’t seen one.

Oh, and I suppose you’ve seen every film that’s ever been made in the history of the world?

Yes.

That’s impossible, unless you’re like 168 years old. You wouldn’t have enough hours in your life to watch every film ever made.

Well I have. That’s how I roll.

You’re a frickin’ liar. And Re-Living Off The Land isn’t a crap name. It makes sense, if you have half a brain. We’re reliving making the film, get it? You know what’s a crap name? Dave. Who is called Dave, really, besides the boring guy in the office who collects taxidermy animals? The name is dead boring. Your parents might as well have called you Beige.

I’d appreciate it if you would leave my parents out of this thanks Simon. My father was a war hero and my mother was an orphan mute who died from typhoid.

Oh, well I’m sorry Dave. I didn’t know that. I got carried away. Us filmmakers can be overprotective of our films I guess, kind of like they’re our babies, you know? Dave’s quite a pretty name, actually, now I think about it.

Thanks man… let’s move on. One of the things I did like about your little film was Gotye. How did you get him on board?

Gotye was actually born Woulter de Backer, and he was that weird European kid at school that ate pies from bins, and went to nudist camps with his family on school holidays. Naturally we were great friends. When we started making the film he wasn’t Aria-Award-Winning Gotye, as he has legally changed his name to now, but he was just one of many young kids around the country making music in their bedroom with stars in his eyes. After he became well known he tried to have his performance digitally removed from the film, but lucky for us he had signed away those rights for a packet of Belgian chocolate truffles I found at The Reject Shop for $2, so that leaves us free to trade on his name as much as we like.

In addition to the court injunction there have also been reports of death threats made by Mr Gotye against yourself and the film’s co-creator, Paul Murphy.

Gotye makes about four or five death threats a day so I try not to take it too seriously.

Fair enough…on a more positive note…Re-Living off the Land is going to be screened on channel 31 this month. Quite a coup! You must be excited?

Yes, we are proud to announce that ‘Re-Living Off The Land’, is airing on Channel 31 Melbourne as part of their Cheap Thrills program – the name could not be more appropriate. It airs Saturday February 13, 2010 at 10pm. We are very thankful to Channel 31 for having such a forum for independent movies such as ours. For tips on tuning Channel 31, check this link here, which I have memorized: http://www.c31.org.au/tune_in/tuning_in_to_c31.

Are you at all annoyed that it’s not going to be on a channel that people actually watch?

We’re aware our audience will be largely made up of arts students and drunk people who accidentally stumble upon us while they’re looking for Norwegian soft porn on SBS. We’re okay with that. That’s who we made the film for.

Generally, I thought the acting in ‘Re-Living Off the Land’ was extraordinarily poor. Having said that however, I thought that young Matthew Brick gave quite a solid performance. Care to comment?

If by “poor” you mean, it didn’t seem like we were acting at all, then I thank you. Most of us were playing ourselves and so it is only natural that our performances seem so natural too. I do agree that Matthew Brick as ‘Graham’ is a revelation however. Tradie by day, acting dynamo by night, it’s only a matter of time before he gets scooped up by Hollywood . I actually think Avatar would have been a better movie with Matthew in it. Playing all the parts.

That’s interesting because I thought the same thing only with Glengarry Glen Ross. So what’s next? I suppose you have some project that’s destined to be lauded by the street press but ignored by everyone else. Something with Noah Taylor perhaps?

There’s a few things in the pipeline. I’m pretty much going over all my old ideas that I previously thought were too crap, and adding vampires. That seems to work for people. I’ve also written a buddy comedy that teams up Richard Grieco and Richard Gere as an odd couple that go on some type of an adventure, or something. Well, I’ve written the premise anyway and the title is cleverly going to involve the word ‘Dicks’ in some sort of pun. Grieco is interested but Gere’s agent hasn’t returned my calls. By the way, did I mention Re-Living Off The Land features Gotye? Can you make sure that’s bolded in the interview?

I can’t promise that. Well I’m out of questions and a crazy bag-lady behind me needs to use this payphone. Is there anything you want to add?

Well, just that we have a website. http://www.relivingofftheland.com/

Re-Living Off The Land airs on C31 on Saturday the  13th of February. Get a sneak peak here…