Soar

Directed by Tristan Bancks
Screenwriter Damon Herriman
Producer Jennifer Lusk
Casting Kari Harris, Prototype
Director of photography Annie Benzie
Editor Gregory J Thorsby
Production designer Amber Melody Bancks
Sound designer Zubin Henner

Cast
Rupert Reid
Damon Herriman

About the production

Soar was shot on Fox Studios Australia's 747 plane set, built for Mission Impossible 2 and now housed in the Hunter Valley; Fox were highly supportive of the production.

It was originally a hit play at Sydney 's Old Fitzroy Hotel and at the Adelaide festival and was subsequently turned into an ABC radio play. The film was shot by a Byron Bay crew and production team with a Sydney-based cast.

Director's statement

"The best production is the least production. 'Production value' is code for forsaking the story."
David Mamet

One set. Two actors. Two digital cameras. Few lighting setups. Minimal crew. Maximum spontaneity. This was the brief for the production of Soar, an example of how digital technology can be used to capture immediacy in a screen comedy in a way that a single-camera film shoot never could.

Our approach was entirely actor-oriented. So many times on a shoot, performances are relegated to a low priority because technical elements are impacting on the creation of the scene. Here, we had a very clever comedy script, proven in a live medium, and we needed to create a shooting style and mood on set that would allow the actors to feel as impulsive and free as on a stage.

Two digital cameras running simultaneously allowed us to cut between the characters' reactions on the same take without the actors being concerned with overlaps, which can be the death of good comedic dialogue. We ran the script from start to finish four times on the day of the shoot, only stopping to repeat a scene if there was a major problem with what we'd shot. This way, the actors built a sense of where their character was in terms of the overall story as opposed to getting bogged down in a particular scene.

I was looking for spontaneity in approach, both in front of and behind the camera and the hand-held Canon XL-1s allowed us to do that. There is only very minimal camera movement, but the hand-held does give an observational feel, which furthers the sense that we are watching a 'real' conversation, as opposed to a comedy where the jokes are 'flagged' and forewarned by the shotflow and shooting style.

Cast biographies

Rupert Reid - 'Simon'
Rupert's career has spanned extensively over film, television and theatre. He can be seen in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Other films include James and The Sugar Factory. Television credits include three years as series regular 'Jack Lawson' on Blue Heelers, plus roles in White Collar Blue, Water Rats and Heartbreak High. More recently, Rupert played the role of Henry Jaglom in Natalie Wood: Hollywood's Last Child, a telemovie made for the US. Rupert has worked with all the major theatre companies in Australia. Production include the Sydney Theatre Company's Life is a Dream, Melbourne Theatre Company's The Tempest, and Bell Shakespeare Company productions of Macbeth, Coriolanus and Twelfth Night.

Damon Herriman - 'Jack' and screenwriter of Soar
Damon has worked as an actor since he was eight years old. He worked extensively in television as a child in shows such as SaraDane, Carson 's Law, The Flying Doctors and For the Term of His Natural Life. For his ongoing role in The Sullivans he was nominated for three Logie Awards. His other television credits include Water Rats, All Saints, Murder Call, Brides of Christ, GP, O'Loughlin on Saturday Night, Elly and Jools and the remake of South Pacific with Glenn Close and Harry Connick Jnr. He has worked with all the major theatre companies in Sydney , including the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street, the Ensemble and the Griffin. He has appeared in the films The Big Steal, Praise and plays one of the Kelly gang in the recent comedy, Ned. As well as appearing in many short films, Damon has also made a few of his own. These include the Tropfest finalists They and The Date, and a 15-minute film, The Hitch.

Crew biographies

Tristan Bancks (Director)

Soar is 28 year-old Tristan's fourth short as director. His first short, Wax Strips, played widely in festivals and television in Europe, Asia and Australia. His second, The Long Wet, screened before the Australian premiere of A Beautiful Mind and later in fests in San Francisco, Sydney, Melbourne and other cities. His third The New Boots was shot back-to-back with Soar and is being released to festivals concurrently (Selection: St Kilda and Sydney International Film Festivals). Tristan's background is as an actor in theatre and TV. He worked for a number of years on Australian series Home And Away and has since been working in TV and theatre in the UK. Dust (dir: Ivan Sen), an SBS Independent film in which Tristan played Mick, won the Dendy award at the 2000 Sydney Film Fest; he also played Dean in Sen's Beneath Clouds. Tristan trained as an actor at Sydney 's Q Theatre and The Actor's Centre in Sydney & London. As a director, Tristan studied at UCLA over the Summer of 2000 and is completing a degree in English and Film Studies from the University of New England.

Filmography: Soar - director (2003), The New Boots - director/co-writer (2003 ), The Long Wet - writer/director (2001), Wax Strips - writer/director (1998).

Jennifer Lusk (Producer)

Jennifer Lusk is a producer of high-end live action and animation TV & Cinema commercials, music clips, short films and documentaries. She has produced and directed weekly TV music shows for cable, including promos and feature stories for cable and networks. In the UK, she has produced award winning TVCs, IDs and music videos for Bermuda Shorts, Mojo Working and Trademark.

Annie Benzie (DoP)

Annie has a wide range of experience shooting both drama and documentary. She loves the collaborative process and is looking forward to shooting her first feature.

Gregory J Thorsby (Editor)

Since 1999, Gregory J has been a writer/promo producer with TV1 – channel 1 on Foxtel. He has produced and edited a mass of promos, short films and music videos. In 2002, he recieved the gold Promax at the Australasian Promax awards for 'Best Entertainment Promo' and a silver at the 2003 Promax awards for best song.

Amber Melody Bancks (Production Designer)

Amber's background is as a designer and art editor on magazine titles (Vogue, GQ, Tatler) in Sydney and London. In LA, she worked in the art department on New Line Cinema's Fifteen Minutes and Spielberg's Minority Report. Amber completed a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication at University of Western Sydney, Nepean in 1995. Between films, she is designer and director of Byron Bay greeting card company, Amber Melody: Cards & Gifts For Inner Bliss!