INTERVIEW with Alex Dymalovski
Can you explain to the audience your career?
I just finished university where I was studying film and television, so whilst I don’t have much experience in a career of film, I have been doing theatre for the past few years as well and have put on my own productions that I’ve either written, directed or acted in.
How many years have you been making movies?
I’ve been making movies for as long as I can remember, I would also make little films with all of my toys at home and then use my mum’s computer to edit them on iMovie, though it wasn’t until I was 12 that I started wanting to do it as an actual option for a career, so I convinced my school to start a film club to which I made my first short film when I was 13, which will never see the light of day if I have anything to say about it!
Why did you start making movies?
I started making movies because I love entertaining people, and whilst I also do this in other ways such as through theatre and performing, there’s something about the process of putting something onto screen for everyone to watch that just can’t be described in words (other than terrifying when it’s a rough cut!), and I think the language of cinema is just so universal that it provides the opportunity for everyone’s story to be told.
Tell us a little about your project. What will the audience be able to see in your film?
My film is my attempt to try and recreate theatre through a filmic lense. In high school I studied epic theatre and Bertolt Brecht, and I wanted to try find a way to incorporate this unique method of 4th wall breaking into film as it was something I don’t think had been done before other than in Lars von Trier’s ‘Dogville’, which was a main point of inspiration throughout my process as well as different Brechtian shows such as ‘The Threepenny Opera’.
Why did you do this project?
In high school I had written a play that was a similar presence that I never got to put on due to covid, and then when I went to uni to study film, that play came back to me in a new way, so I decided to write it as a short film. Then we I got the chance to make a grad film as my final project, I decided on this script because of my love of theatre and because of the lack of comedy in most university films that you see, to which this film was an antithesis of those types of films that see comedy as an inferior art form, whereas I believe that in the right hands, comedy can be used as a great source of both joy and commentary.
One of the problems some directors encounter is directing actors and dealing with some actors, especially in the amateur world. How do you see this topic? What kind of work do you do with them?
Having come from a theatre background, I tend to work with actors as if we were doing a theatre production instead of as a film, which particularly worked in this film due to the specific angles of the 4th wall breaking where every shot was planned directly with the blocking to have this relationship in mind. But I also think something that’s important is breaking down the script with your actors, there were some rehearsals where we spent more time breaking down the ideas of the script and how they’ve been represented in other forms than we did acting, and I think that helped a lot in the long term as it made sure we were all on the same page with the type of story we wanted to tell.
A good movie takes care of all departments. But normally we can not allocate all the resources to have a good photography or spend a lot of money on sound post production or budget to hire actors. In your project what % have you allocated to. I don't just mean money but time as well. Of 100% of the time/money, what % did you dedicate to each department?
-Direction:
-Photography
-Sound
-Postproduction
-Work with actors
-Art direction/locations:
Thankfully because this was a university project, a lot of what would normally be very cost-consuming we were able to get either for free or for very cheap, such as gear, crew and location (we were lucky that my uni happened to have just built a new soundstage that I repurposed as a blackbox theatre for the sake of the film). So most of the budget ended up going towards the production design due to both the multiple costume changes that occurred throughout as well as the small details with the props and set that were present throughout the film.
In terms of time, we spent about 6 months in development/pre-production, shot for 3 days and then spent 5 months editing including sound and colour (this was due to us having a specific schedule to work off as well as having to balance other uni work), though I made sure to have plenty of rehearsal time with the actors prior as well as multiple meetings with my DOP, production designer and producer to make sure everything was working together as coherently as possible.
If you could go back, what would you change about this project? (1 thing only)
There was this one visual gag that I really liked with the picture frames where instead of having a photo in it, it just says the words, ‘Insert photo here’, and it was originally seen clearly in the background of a few shots, but we ended up using a different take instead where the performance was better but the frame wasn’t in frame, so now it only appears for a few moments near the end, so if I could go back, I’d find another way to have that photo be shown, even if it meant moving it to a different frame, it was just one of my favourite jokes me and my production designer came up with in pre-production.
What are you happiest about this project?
My main actress, to this day I thank the heavens and stars that I found her out of pure luck and faith. She brought her role to life in a way I am so grateful for and many people have said she is definitely one of the highlights of the film and I am very keen to hopefully work with her again.
Make a wish to the movie gods. What do you ask?
Let people die. Life is unpredictable so films should be too. I know people like the three-act structure of ‘good guy wins the day’ and ‘happily ever after’, but I’m the most entertained when something happens that you don’t except, but still feels natural, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve watch a Hollywood blockbuster and just when the villain looks like they’re about to win I yell out, ‘Come on! Do it! Kill them! You don’t have the guts movie!’ I know that probably sounds psychopathic, but it rarely happens, so I’d just like to see some more films where risks are taken outside of that typical three act structure that Joesph Campbell got us all used to (fun fact, an earlier draft of my film involved the main character burning a copy of The Heroes Journey, but my producer said we weren’t allowed fire on set, and that is still the only valid reason anyone ever gave me to why it shouldn’t have been in the film)
What movie would you have liked to direct?
I’d like to direct a movie musical, I think many movie musicals these days are ashamed of that musical elements due to the apparent distain modern audiences have for them, so they try to modernise it to appear to the ‘Tik Tok generation’, whilst the ones that have been most acclaimed over the past few years are the ones that understand the essence of musical theatre and translate it to the screen with respect and passion (Such as ‘Tick, Tick Boom!’ Or Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’), so I’d like a chance to make a movie musical that is true to the nature of musical theatre.
What kind of cinema do you like? Genre, directors, actors?
I’m a big fan of comedies and musicals, I believe they are the two genres that are the least respected form of film in parts of the world, and I find that such a shame due to the joy that they can bring audiences, as everyone loves to laugh and listen to music, but for some reason whenever it’s through a filmic lense no-one takes it seriously
Imagine that all the movies are going to be lost. If you could save 3 movies, what would they be?
Mamma Mia, because that’s my mum’s favourite film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 because that’s my favourite film (I was still in high school when superhero movies were at its peak, and the GOTG films have always been my favourite, with the 2nd one holding a dear place in my heart), and Top Gun because that’s my dad’s favourite movie (I know there are films that are objectively better and probably more deserving, but these are the films that I connect with the most personally)
If you have more projects underway, can you give us a bit of information?
I’m currently have a few projects under way with my production company my friend and I started, ‘Level 1203 Media’. We have a TV Sitcom that’s about to air its pilot in Australia that we’re currently working on getting funding for to greenlight a full season, and as well as a few short films, we’re currently in development of writing a feature based off a play that premiered here in Melbourne last year that we’re acquired the rights to, it’s a wonderfully written play that I believe will translate to screen brilliantly and that should connect with audiences worldwide, and scratch an itch within the horror genre that hasn’t been properly represented in many years.