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Ronan’s Escape WINNER OF 10 INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARDS, RONAN’S ESCAPE IS A STUNNING SHORT FILM SET IN THE RURAL WHEAT BELT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA THAT PROVIDES A CANDID INSIGHT INTO THE LIFE OF RONAN, A 14-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO HAS BEEN BULLIED AT SCHOOL HIS WHOLE LIFE. WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY A.J. CARTER, A DIRECTOR, PRODUCER & CINEMATOGRAPHER BY TRADE. A.J. STARTED WORK IN TELEVISION AT THE AGE OF JUST 16 AS ASSISTANT PRODUCER FOR THE CHANNEL 7 KIDS SHOW ‘A*MAZING’ HOSTED BY JAMES SHERRY, MAKING HIM THE YOUNGEST PERSON IN AUSTRALIA EVER TO FILL SUCH A POSITION. HAVING WORKED AT EVERY MAJOR TELEVISION STATION IN PERTH (2, 7, 9 & 10) SHOOTING NEWS, CURRENT AFFAIRS, SPORTS & LIFESTYLE PROGRAMS, A.J THEN STARTED FREELANCE CAMERA, RIGGING MANAGEMENT & PRODUCTION LOGISTICS WORK FOR GLOBAL TELEVISION. AT THE AGE OF 18, A.J. HAD SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVED ON SCREEN CREDITS IN OVER 200 TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS. SCRIBE CAUGHT UP WITH A.J. TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HIS WORK AND THE FILMING OF RONAN’S ESCAPE IN WA’S WHEAT BELT…
How did you come up with and develop the idea for Ronan’s Escape? Ronan’s Escape was a short film I wrote several years ago. It was based on a vision I had one evening after I stumbled across a never-released song titled, ‘The First Kiss’ by The Veronica’s. The song is solely instrumental which allows for a completely individual interpretation of the harmonies. I was mesmerized by the tune and must have listened to it dozens of times that evening and somehow, over the space of 5 hours, this script just developed in front of me. It started out as scribbles on a piece of scrap paper and eventuated into a 14-page script. I have always been inspired by music. I could easily write an entire screenplay based on the influences of music. What have you gained from the experience of filming Ronan’s Escape? Ronan’s Escape has been an amazing experience to be a part of. I think the biggest challenge in the film for me as a director was venturing to the unknown in working with such young actors. So
much of their performance is reliant on the director communicating well enough with the child so they understand fully what emotions and challenges their character is facing in the scenes. To do this, sometimes you need to develop your own unique ways of relating to the actor on their level and devise your own ‘system’ for communication that is workable on their maturity level. To successfully assist an actor in becoming their character on screen is a completely different system with an adult actor as to a young and inexperienced teenage actor. You need to dig deeper and probe past or current experiences, which are close to them so they can ‘feel’ what their character is going through. There were times on set where I would not allow David – who plays Ronan – to associate with the other student actors. I wanted him to sit by himself in between takes and eat lunch by himself so he genuinely felt like he was an outcast, which proved to be very helpful. You just need to adapt, not only from actor to actor but for the different age groups you’re working with. ‘Never work with animals or kids’ is
a general saying in the industry because there is always an uncontrollable variable inherent with both, but with Ronan’s Escape we had both. What are some of the highlights of working with this cast and crew? The cast and crew on Ronan’s Escape were amazing. For starters, nobody was there because they were being paid or it was ‘just another job’. Almost our entire crew who came on board were there voluntarily and because one way or another they could directly relate to the story in the script and felt their work on the film would help tell a story that needed to be told. What makes Ronan’s escape stand out as a short film? I think what makes Ronan’s Escape so different to other short films on the circuit is the film’s unique ability to form a personal relationship with everyone who watches it. It’s not a love story or a war film from which people’s emotions can be poked and prodded based on
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a single event or relationship, it’s a film about a subject which everyone one of us can relate to. You were either a bully, were bullied or were someone who stood by, watched and did nothing and this film submerses you in each of those situations on a personal level. Whether you can relate as a 14-year-old child currently dealing with bullying on a dayto-day basis at school, or a 50-year-old man whose mind is sent back 35 years to his school days. EVERYONE is somehow emotionally entwined within the story of this film and I think that is quite unique to have such a vast array of people who can connect with the story and characters at some level. How is a film like Ronan’s Escape important to Western Australia, and more specifically Perth? When I was originally writing the script, I could think of no other country or location I wanted the film to take place, Western Australia was always going to be where we shot. Imagine shooting in a dusty town 2 hours out of the most remote capital city in the world in the wheat belt of Western Australia, on a farm with no power, with a film camera, very little budget and a busload of school kids. You cannot even develop or grade the film stock here in Perth after you have finished shooting, you must express courier all the film stock in cooler containers to Sydney to have it processed. The whole idea of doing a short film of this magnitude in Western Australia was by no means an easy feat, but we made it happen under the harshest of conditions and we are all better filmmakers because of it. Both Director of Photography David Lemay and myself wanted a harsh rural feel to the film, almost with ‘aged’ light and the Australian wheat belt gave us that look. In addition to the fantastic financial support we had from Screen West and multiple independent investors, we have had such a wonderful response from the surrounding local communities of Boddington, Guildford and Helena Valley. Every school that volunteered
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their services to us were most excited at the prospect of seeing a ‘real’ film being made locally. Many of the schools we worked with offered facilities, sporting equipment, buses and even their own media students to use at our disposal. During the process of making the movie, Smooth Motion Films led by the film’s producer, Brad Major, have actually become quite involved with local community projects and we did several workshops in Narrogin to give the young members of the community a chance to see how films are made. In addition to highlighting the issues of bullying, we wanted to give something else back to the community and local film making workshops were a great way to show school kids in rural communities a possible career path they had otherwise deemed unreachable.
The devastating effects of bullying is the underlying message and forms the backbone of this narrative. It’s definitely an emotional rollercoaster with a notably controversial ending, but it’s a story I am extremely proud to have told… it needed to be told.
Summarise the film in your own words for the audience:
Have you had any personal experiences with bullying and youth suicide? What is the aim of the film’s message? The ending is quite controversial; can you tell us why you chose to end the film this way?
Ronan is a young boy growing up in a rural West Australian town. He is the social outcast of the school and has been for years. He sits alone at lunch and is always last to be included in any teams for sports or various school projects. We follow Ronan through the various activities of his every day school lifeone that is typical for a student bullied a school. At the beginning of the film we join Ronan sitting alone in the lunch yard when a bully finds the opportunity to indulge in his favourite past time, this being humiliating Ronan. After lunch, Ronan attends gym class, followed by the daily bus trip home, both of which see Ronan endure the gravity of what it’s like to not be popular at school. On this particular day, Ronan having enough of the bullying decides to make an unscheduled stop just short of his house. Against better judgment, the bus driver lets Ronan off and he makes his way through a wheat field and to the only place he can escape his daily tormenta majestic Australian gum tree proudly standing atop a windswept hill.
Why do you see the content of the film, as such an important issue/why is it important to bring the content to light? Ronan’s Escape is a close and personal story to the producers as we have all at some stage fallen subject to the films’ core theme of bullying. While not all of us have been bullied at school we have felt its impact even in the workforce as adults meaning the consequences of bullying are much further reaching than most would acknowledge.
I think I was lucky in my schooling years. I went to a private, all boys’ school that did have an anti-bullying campaign, but at the end of the day there is only so much teachers and parents can do. Bullies are smart but they are also cowards, they don’t push other kids around in front of parents and teachers, so a lot goes unseen without any action from the parents or teachers who are reliant on the victim actually speaking up. I myself was never the victim of constant bullying. I was kind of the kid who didn’t care too much for what was going on at school and was more interested in making films! I was however, as most of us are, subject to random verbal attacks throughout my schooling life and the odd kid giving me a hard time, but nothing major. I am guilty of watching many of my school peers bullied and admit that I didn’t do anything about it. I think it’s too easy to watch it happen to other kids and not intervene with the fear of the bullies turning on you.
The subconscious motive behind the controversial ending of Ronan’s Escape is derived from my guilt of not doing anything at school. Bullying happens every second of the day in every corner of the world both at schools and in the work place. The only way we’re going to combat the situation is hitting home hard with a real story with real repercussions and with not ‘sugar coating’ the ending. The subject is dealt with too lightly in schools and I always intended from the beginning to have a controversial and REAL ending to the film otherwise there was no point in making it. Too many educational videos on bullying and even films associated with bullying present the audience with that happy ending they forever crave, but that’s just not how it is in the real world. It’s amazing how much inspiration for Ronan’s Escape we received after our research into bullying uncovered hundreds of cases in Australia alone where suicide was the final instalment of a tormented child’s life affected by bullying. It’s about time a film like Ronan’s Escape utilized the ‘shock’ factor to showcase how serious bullying is and what affect it can have on the victims.
EVERY PERSON WHO WATCHES RONAN’S ESCAPE WILL FORM THEIR OWN PERSONAL OPINIONS ON THE STORY BASED ON THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS FROM THEIR OWN PAST EXPERIENCES – NOT MANY FILMS DO THAT.
What is something that will make potential audiences want to watch? Ronan’s Escape is a story told as accurately and as raw is it gets. The script has not been enhanced or modified to meet the stereotypical Hollywood ending that Hollywood and most audiences demand. It’s the truth – as graphic and disturbing as it is. If you want to tell a story to an audience with the intent of conveying a message or changing people’s views on a topic, why would you mess with the ending? That’s the whole
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problem about bullying in the schoolyard and the workforce; everyone tends to dumb down what’s really going on – ‘oh it’s a phase, silly kids, they grow out of it’ etc. Ronan’s life was testament to how this kind of attitude is becoming less and less acceptable with society. If kids as young as 12 are killing themselves, it doesn’t take a scientist to realise this is a major problem in nearly every school in the world which needs some serious addressing. The best way to start is acknowledge the problem and this film does just that by hitting home hard with the audience about the repercussions of school bullying. We didn’t make the film to win awards at festivals, we made it to tell a story, highlight a problem and provoke audience discussion on the subject of bullying. We have only just begun our world wide festival circuit to screen the film to as many eyes around the world as possible and we’ve been very lucky that the first international film festival we were accepted into, we won Best Short Film! (Sedon International Film Festival). Did you ever think it would be as popular as it has? The film has become an online phenomenon! No! It’s been an absolutely incredible response. This is not a one hit wonder 2-minute comedy sketch that had its day and disappeared, it’s a serious, 16-minute dramatic film which has captured an incredible audience and now fan base. Even during filming, as we locked away shot after shot into the film camera, we knew and felt we had something special. But it wasn’t until we sat down with 340 other audience members/critics etc. at the premiere screening at Hoyts and watched the reactions of the audience that we really knew it. Connecting with an audience is a very difficult task to achieve, even more so when it’s a short film and you have only 16 minutes to do it in. After we ran the film for a year through the film festival circuit, I decided to release it for free online via YouTube. (There are nearly 1 million hits on it as of September 2013) There is a huge market in schools for this film to be used as an educational tool; however there are millions of students and children around the world whose schools will never screen the film. I didn’t want the film to be limited only to those schools who had the foresight to use it as an educational tool, I wanted the film to be available to every child in the world to view, no matter their background, social status, religious beliefs or race. In the first year the film averaged between 1500-3000 views a day. We have received hundreds of emails from children, parents, teachers and even
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entire school classes from every corner of the world so we know it’s getting out there and having an impact on people. You just need to scroll through the thousands of comments on the YouTube page to see how much this film is truly affecting people and raising awareness of school bullying. We’ve even had comments online from real life school bullies who have openly admitted to being a bully but they never understood how badly they were affecting peoples’ lives until watching the film. Some have even vowed to never bully again. To have this incredible impact on so many young people around the world, many whose stories we will never see or hear, is just an incredible experience. We are now currently in the works to take the film one step further and are building an Anti-Bullying DVD educational kit. The dream of having the film accompany a well written curriculum and screened in schools all over Australia, USA and the world is becoming a reality. We are working with world renowned anti-bullying expert Dr. Claudio V. Cerullo and www.TeachAntiBullying.com as we speak. They have analyzed the film and have produced an incredible curriculum which accompanies the film and turns Ronan’s Escape into a very powerful educational tool. It’s very streamlined, and easy for teachers to screen the film and orchestrate an extremely effective anti-bullying discussion within the confines of a single classroom time slot. And because the curriculum begins with the screening of the film, it grabs every student’s attention right from the beginning. It’s something every school should look at including in their antibullying campaigns and has the potential to save lives. We aim to begin rolling out the kit towards the end of 2013. We will have information up at www. RonansEscape.com when it is available. The film was very well received at the film festivals around the world, what are some of the more notable awards and experiences you’ve had?
The film made its way through a year on the film festival circuit and did extremely well. We all joked that Ronan’s Escape has been “the little film that could”. We screened at a total of 19 International film festivals, were nominated for 13 awards of which we won 10, including multiple Best Film awards. In truth, every award Ronan’s Escape brought home for our crew was equally as special. It gave me so much joy to report back the wins to our 100+ volunteer crew members who made the film possible and show them how much difference they had made; to validate their belief and dedication to the film and myself right from the start. One of the most important was the Australian Cinematographer Society (ACS) award or Best Cinematography. My Director of Photography David LeMay worked relentlessly under our tough time and budget constraints to make sure the film was shot and delivered beautifully, and it was important his efforts were acknowledged on a critically acclaimed level. But if I had to choose one, the most notable award for me personally was winning Best Short Film at the 17th Annual Sedona International Film Festival. It was the very first award we had won for Ronan’s Escape just 7 days into our festival circuit, and my first award as a writer/director. What are you doing now? On the business side, I have now formed a new company ‘Smooth Motion Media Group’(www.smoothmotion.com) based out of Hollywood, California that harbours two production companies, Dark Arts Entertainment, which will produce our feature films, and Primordial Entertainment which runs our television division. I also locked my first feature film called ‘Prisoner Zero’. It’s a crime thriller set in Mexico with a very intricately layered script with lots of twists and turns. It’s actually quite the opposite of Ronan’s Escape! We are scheduled to
go into production in 2014. I am also in development for two other feature films, and we are in final negotiations now for our first U.S television show too. Exciting times ahead! FINAL WORD Ronan’s Escape was a mammoth collaborative, which was only made possible because more than 170 crew members donated their time to work on the film. The nature of the script and it’s unique screenplay which somewhat defies traditional storytelling techniques, secured many of the crew to be a part of this film. However, it was also the sheer relentless drive inherent in W.A filmmakers, which was the real key to putting the script onto the big screen. This film was not just made to convey a very important message, or solely to provoke discussion around a topical theme; it was also made to test us as filmmakers under one of the harshest filming climates in the world and with limited resources. Perth is by definition, the most remote capital city in the world, then, travel a further 2.5 hours out of the city and into the wheat belt of Boddington where more than half of the film was shot on location. Take with you more than 40 teenage school kids as extras and try and feed them, throw into the mix a few
eskies with ice to keep the film stock cool in 38 degree weather and you have Ronan’s Escape. This film enabled more than 170 Western Australian film makers the chance to work on a traditional film set, shoot real film and be a part of a production that wasn’t filled with HD cameras, replay monitors & hard drives. In this new world of High Definition cameras which have mostly replaced the traditions of shooting on film, it’s becoming less and less often that film makers, especially in Western Australia, enjoy moments of
silence graced only with the gentle flicker of film passing through the camera on set. But Ronan’s Escape afforded many of those moments. CONTRIBUTORS: A.J Carter
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