Madison from Film in Revolt spoke with Alena Lodkina about her feature debut Strange Colours; a visually captivating meditation of Lightning Ridge. Following outsider Milena’s first encounters with the town’s handful of unique members, Strange Colours takes a documentarian approach to fiction. They spoke about her filmmaking process, micro-budget filmmaking and the importance of an ambitious, trusting mentality.
So, first of all, congratulations on being the first Australian to make it into the Biennale College Program! Can you give me some insight on what this process was like and how it impacted the film?
It’s a really intensive skills development program, so, it’s competitive! There are three rounds – in the first round, twelve teams pitch their ideas and workshop. And at the end of that, we have to pitch the project – we had a month to write the first draft of the script based on all the work we’ve done in the workshop. The crowns were awarded on the basis of the first draft. We were one of the selected projects, and from then on, it was like a crazy time – like nine months from having to deliver the final cut!
Wow, that’s so fast.
It was very fast, and for me, it was remarkably stressful. But also, I think the thing I learnt the most was trusting my intuition and having faith that deep down you know what needs to happen in your project and sometimes the pressures and the restrictions can really force the right decisions.
What was your biggest obstacle – budget or time?
Definitely the time felt like the greater obstacle. The budget was £150,000, and you’re not allowed to seek any other funding. The college is set up to promote micro-budget filmmaking around the world – they’ve got an idealistic [view], [promoting] that you can make films in this way, and that there’s a place for micro/low-budget film. I knew from the start that I wouldn’t have any money to do this film on, so I was quite prepared for that – the money was a bit of a luxury because I was prepared to self-fund. But, at the same time, it was a challenge. But time was [too]; just mentally. [it was] really difficult working knowing that you can’t sit and think. In retrospect, it helps.
I absolutely loved Strange Colours. The people in this film were so captivating and very unlike the typical characters you see on screen. Do you think using non-professional actors helped you to achieve this authenticity?
Absolutely yeah! I think that the feeling of that truthfulness and realness to the film is a hundred percent to the merit of the cast – the best thing I did in the film was casting the film. The film was complete as a study of the place – kind of anthropological; it had a documentary inquiry at its heart. And so, [due to] the cast, I had everything – and just the feeling of these people and their faces and letting them occupy the space freely. The whole script was conceived to allow that to happen. So the three main actors were not people from Lightning Ridge; they were people that I found through auditions or other – I approached Danny from Melbourne. The rest of the cast were people that I’d met through working on a documentary in Lightning Ridge. So they kind of they played more or less versions of themselves. The way that I liked working was writing scenes with particular people in mind and then talking about the scene – so, rehearsing and recording the rehearsals and then feeding whatever came out of rehearsals and improvisation back into the script. It was fairly prepared; a thought-through process that allowed us to reach a mutual point, I think where we understood what needed to happen.
Visuals seem to define this film – the location is stunning! Did the story build itself around the location, or the other way around?
Yes, the story built itself around the location. That particular location, which is Lightning Ridge, is an old mining community and I’ve been going there for about four years prior to starting the shoot and filming; interviewing some of the guys, not quite sure where I would take the project. It really took shape during the Biennale College process, but it probably was possible for the process to shape so quickly because there’s already just so much work put into the research and I understood the kind of people. You know when you go to a place like that, and it’s so remote and it’s such an unlikely place to end up. So for an outsider, you’re kind of asking for the urban dweller and you think “how does anyone end up out here”; why do people live here. I guess I kept asking myself that because it was so fascinating. And there are no easy answers. I think that the film explores both questions.
On a more specific note, there were also particular locations that I just knew that I wanted in the film, and whole scenes were kind of constructed – like that swimming scene – or, you know, we just had to have these particular areas or this particular pub or this lake because we know we can film there for free, and it just looked great.
Surrounded nowadays with so many styles and approaches to film, what film had the greatest impact on you during your youth?
Probably films that I kept – there were a few – but one of the films that I kept coming back to – two films actually – were Casa De Lava by Pedro Costa, and Stromboli by Roberto Rossellini. They were both a reference point for me because they were both films that work with communities – remote, isolated communities – and have a female protagonist who is kind of lost in these out-of-the-way places. Casa De Lava is an island off the coast of Africa and Stromboli is an island as well, in Italy. They’re kind of very magical, and just in practical terms of studying how you can combine documentary approaches in a film. Yeah, so definitely I had those two films in mind but also, you know, we looked at Westerns, Old Westerns for the kind of Wild West feel. Sorry, that’s too many!
No, not at all – that’s great!
So to finish up, what advice would you give to young people wanting to make an entry into the film world? Are there any past experiences or jobs you’ve had which have helped you build up to where you are today?
I think for me, I’ve been very lucky, obviously, and also haven’t compromised much. I have preferred to work in cafes, waitressing, or retail jobs – like up until now – that would allow me to take time off when I needed to, or have the freedom that I wanted to have to work on my projects. My main advice for you is to watch films and read books and be curious about what’s going on in the world and anything around you, and to listen, and to be attuned to the world. Also just to have courage and not compare yourself to anyone else, and make sure that you are honest to yourself and that’s probably the best advice that I have.