Can you imagine what it would be like if all the Aussie film talent was able to make Australian stories?
I just wanted to do this all Australian film and we didn't want to give creative control to overseas 'cause whoever comes on my sets, whether you're sweeping the floor or an actor, it doesn't matter who comes up with the ideas, it's a collaboration.
There are a thousand weird untold stories in the Australian film industry, this has been one of them.
Three years after starting, by physically doing everything from raising the finance to special effects, we'd finally cobbled together our low budget film.
Then if your movie clicks with real audiences, you'll be sucked into some sort of Hollywood orbit. It's a devil of a place where the only religion that really counts is box office.
Movies are a complicated collision of literature, theatre, music and all the visual arts.
Making your first feature film is actually impossible.
It's because we are so flooded with American culture that we're startled when we see ourselves up there on the screen.
Now both my films have been number one at the Australian box office and it took about two years just to get the finance for this film, so if it's hard for me then God help everyone else.
The obsession required to see a feature through from concept to release is not a rational thing to do with your brief time on this planet. Nor is it something to which an intelligent person should aspire.
Australians don't have a preconceived notion of what things have to be... we can go on a fantastic journey.
We live in a time where government is not a leadership thing, it's more a business that's out there and running riot, so I guess the people have to go out there and say stuff.
