Clairsy & LisaHow To Make It In WA-Director Jordon Prince-Wright: 'I Was Originally Going To Work In Customs'.
Local young director Jordon Prince-Wright joined Clairsy & Lisa for How To Make It In WA this morning. He’s made a WW1 movie called Before Dawn which is getting world-wide praise and rave reviews and tells the guys what it took to go from WAAPA student to film director in just a few years and his advice to other young film makers.
Cleary and Lisas, how's it make it in wap in this son, I'll make you a start.
This has been fabulous And today Prince Wright is joining us Good Morning, director w read film director of the movie Before Dawn, amongst other things. Before Dawn is coming out on Netflix tonight, Slash Tomorrow. You were just telling us and this is not the usual thing that happens in the States.
It was meant to have what a three week cinema It was meant to run.
Only three week cinema run, ended up doing eleven weeks in the cinemas and the States.
That's high praise.
Yeah, and it's gone pretty much equivalent in Europe. It's just gone mental over there, which is Frantaic.
Well, I'm not surprised because it looks amazing.
What a great reason.
It is a Anzac story.
Yeah, and it's an Anzac story that needed to be told. And I read the diaries back when I was in high school. Yeah, and going through those diaries, and you know, everybody knows the story of Gallipoli, but they don't necessarily know the story of the Western Front, And so reading those diaries and just seeing the sacrifice of what those men and women went through back then. I was like, nah, this, this has to be told, This has to be put on the big screen. And so all the films are previously done have been leading up to this, and the purpose of this was an awareness piece and little did we know would go this gangbusters around the world.
It is incredible now. Ian Hale from the Backlock movie Cinemas of course in Halo Films, he spoke to us what a couple of years ago, last year and a half ago, about you, and he said, there was this kid who wrote to me, how old were you when you wrote?
Thirteen years old?
When I wrote to him and said, oh, yeah, I want to be a movie maker, and you know, and little did I know what was actually involved.
In my Yes film.
Yeah, but no, I wrote to him and he wrote, he wrote back to me. He was sort of encourageble he's still oh yeah, he still got the letter today and I still got the letter he wrote.
Back to me, dines out on you a lot.
It was quite funny though, because I remember going to him with the Western that I did and he's like, yeah, you know great, make it so encouraging. And we won awards in LA and I got to meet a lot of people like Jack Thompson I got to meet when I was in high game advice and long story short within you know, when we started with the war film. Because we've made all these films to date, but now you're going to go to this whole next level, you know, a Hollywood level. You're going to need a significant amount of funding. Six months later, went back, told him I did it, and he's like, well, I don't have a choice.
Now, I guess we'll have to be.
Able to do it.
Yeah, now you went to Whopper.
Yes, I went to ECU and got to the units of Whopper and whatnot, and what you learn there is incredible, you know. And now ECY is moving into the city, which is fantastic. So it's really yeah, it's really exciting that we've got, especially at the studio that's been built here as well, Like there's plenty of opportunities for upcoming talent and artists to actually you know, explore because you know, Australia's all really loves the sports, but there's also incredible artists here, you know, and you see that that around the world. In fact, the recent awards that have just come back from in the Netherlands, which was the Settimius Awards. We one night, we're just sitting in a restaurant started chatting to these Aussies and they were all from Whopper. They were in some musical theater show over there. So it shows you Aussies are really taking over the art scene around the world.
How excited are you about Malagamo, because it's going to be a big set up up there. As a filmmaker, you must.
Be, Oh, definitely, And I think it's really good that the government's got behind this and like before Dawn, it was an independent production and it can actually be you know, without being.
Too political about it.
It is hard to get funding sometimes from the government to make films, even if it's an ANZAC film. But to say, hey, look we've actually now got the studio that's being built there, and hopefully that we have that support, that the local artists here in Way get to actually be involved in that and we actually get to and it's not just overseas or over east so to speak, and we actually get those jobs here to be Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens there. But I know the local scene we're super excited and yeah, there's gonna be a lot more opportunities to come.
And the whole movie can all be done in the one stage rather than having you know, some bits there and then post production somewhere else. Entirely as a director, you know why w WA is really taking off because of our incredible locations.
Yeah, I mean before Dawn, we filmed a World War One film in Esperance, you know, so, and then we had Q where was all the outback scenes. So we have got magical locations here. And I guess also, yeah, with the studio go back to it saying about doing stuff.
We had to have.
Studios over east, but we even had studios in India assisting us out because there wasn't that capability here in Wa. So we've got everything up to the stage of post production, but nothing beyond that. So then you know, other than places like inns, that the backlot and that sort of thing. So for us, it was one of those things going Okay, well we've got the magical locations, we have to source overseas.
But yeah, look before.
Dawn, you know, we brought in thirty tons of wood to Esperance, and one thing that stands out with doing stuff like that on such a massive scale as you're making a Hollywood film with a limited budget.
How do you do that while it's.
The community and WA has that community that really want to get behind you. And Before Dawn and all the films that I've worked on in WA would not have been possible without that community support.
Yeah, Jordan Quentin Tarantino is an interesting cat, right, So he was the guy who you know, the movie freak almost born in the wrong era and he was working in the video shop and became a monster success as a filmmaker. Were you born in the wrong era? What were you doing as a kid watching Steve John Wayne movies? Definitely definitely was born in the wrong era.
My old man he used to go to video easy and order in black and white. The Stage Coach was one of my favorite films with John Wayne. And they used to say to you know, dad, oh, this is for his dad, you know granddad, AND's like, no, no, this is for my son who's like four years old watching this. And you know, so in Facts when you guys were just playing Michael Jackson then on the radio before everyone's texting me going, this is quite ironic, because you know you're an eighties fan and you're about to go on the radio and they're playing eighties before you jump on it, like, yeah, I was born in the wrong era. But that also is great in the sense that when making films, I prefer to do it the old school way, like, let's do least amount of CGI, let's focus on the story, the characters, and really bring that old school filmmaking. So that way, well, that way, you know, five ten years from now, you can watch that film again and it hasn't outdated so quickly.
I just recently watched Twelve Angry Men for the like hundred a million time in my life, and that is.
A classic example. You know, no cg on that and it's really really good. Did you what was it? Always I want to be a director.
I want to be the guy that's sitting in the chair directing the whole thing.
Oh, it's a good question. I don't think so. I think this is just the way that it's kind of played out. But in high school it was like I was originally I was going into customs, originally border security, watching the TV shirt.
But I always was.
Running around as a kid making like films and just filming stuff, right, Okay, And then I hit high school and I went to Swan Christian, which was a great school there, and they had this media department.
And I came home when.
I was thirteen and year eight said Tom and Dad, yet, I'm going to be a filmmaker. And of course they went arts, you know, verse the government paid job. You know, this is going to be interesting, you know. And I was like, no, I'm going in the arts industry and I'm going to do it. And the more I started working on I guess the craft in high school because when you're in high school, you're just having fun. Same when you're at UNI, you're just making mistakes, and you know, learning from those mistakes because it's that mistake is not going to cost you ten twenty thirty thousand dollars like it would on a big set. And I just fell in love with the craft. And now I look back on it and I think I was always born to do it because as a kid, I was watching the old school, old school films.
Yeah, they've only got themselves to blame because they started you off.
With exactly and you're born to do it.
Was like Ben Affleck and Matt David, you know, and.
It's so funny because even with the trench, there was all the post holes, the postthold digger that needed full the uprights that I'm doing, and there was three hundred odd plus and so that was my dad was going around drilling all those and now and then hit the post hole digger would whack him on the hip. You know, you'd go, you know, well it's your fault, dad, you know. Yeah, And then sometimes be like, oh, this is broken down. All that's broken down, all this needs fixing. It's like, well, that's going to help out with that. So it's a very family orientated set. And you know, before Dawn and all my films have only really been possible because of the support from the family and the cast and crew, which is very much a family as well.
Is yelling cut the best feeling in the world. Well, action, I think, but you you don't do action, do you. That's someone else that does that, isn't there?
So I like saying an action, yeah, and the reason why you got and action is because you got and and then the actors then we're going.
But the cut sometimes sometimes I call cuts.
Sometimes it's the first day and all the casts they caught on pretty quickly. If I picked because everyone has caps. That's something we do on productions. We will get custom caps. And if I lift my cap up and scratch my head, the actor said, we know we're going again because Jordan's not happy We're going again.
Look at and what came from? Speaking of the set, what came first?
Was it a chair with director in on it, that brilliant Before Dawn jacket you got on producer.
Yeah, this was actually one of the executive producers got me this.
We got we had jackets and caps and all that, and again it's making it kind of that everybody's part of that onset community. But I did actually have a director's chair on Before Dawn, and I sat on it on the last day when the documentary, which is also going to be coming out sorely, they interviewed me in that But for the whole eight weeks on set, I never sat in that chair.
I was in the trenches.
I wanted to be in there in the marden web. But yeah, hey, look, you'll see me sitting in it in the documentary The Making of Yeah, which is a making of Before Dawn, and I just found out this morning that it's been selected in the International Australian Film Festival.
I heard in the amount of time you were sitting out there you got nominated for something.
Yes, so Ben Scotford, he's the director of that, so he pretty much followed us around in the first stay with every film set.
Anything.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong on the first day and he came up to me, so I want to make a documentary and go for it, And honestly didn't think much at the time, and then now I sit down and watch it and it just shows you again the dedication of everyone involved to go, Look, this isn't just a film we're putting forward here. This is an ANZAC film and that's you know, that's the one takeaway from this is that this was a story that needed to be told and we're just so thankful that w A got behind it and the sponsors from across Australia so that we were able to tell this remarkable story on the silver screen.
So you and your team in the moment, yeah, exactly real.
John can ask who your favorite directors are. Do you have? Is there anyone that really you know, stands up for me?
Ron Howard?
Oh yeah, yeah, And it's not because he's got the same hair color not at all, but it was because it seems like everything that he just toasted is human writing. It just knows how to tell story. And I've got to do the masterclass with him as well.
Yeah, and that was unreal.
But for him it's you know, he's just I don't know how he does it, you know, and learning his craft and okay, well how do everybody can say, oh, I love Steven Spielberg, Tino and all that, but Ron Howard can just be brought in Like with Solo, you know, he was brought in towards the end, well not towards the end, but he was born.
In second et cetera.
And yeah, and he just said to the actor, go get acting classes, you know, and he had that power to go, well, no, I know what I'm doing here. And he's very much an actor's director, which is what I love doing. And like with Before Dawn, being in those trenches, I don't want to be sitting in a tent and you know, telling him from afar what to do.
I want to be in there, feeling it and being one of those characters, the footy coach on the bench, you know. Yeah, that's the best way to put it.
Yeah, he makes with Cuba Gooding Genu Mae because I follow you're on social.
Yeah, that was quite a surreal moment because again, like going back to my childhood, I watched Lightning Jack.
Cane with.
Yeah, and he was in that and yes, I got to meet him at the yeah, the wards in Europe and got chatting with him and I'd mentioned Lightning Jack Kine and he was blown away like he used to, like I forgot I even did that film, but he did actually have great things to say about Australia and he's like, you know, he said, I'd love to make a film in Australia again. And so yeah, through him, I'm chatting with him about a few other things. And yeah, because I'm off to work with a major studio shortly.
And can we say which major studio that is? It is at all? Yeah, that's majorist of Mojor studios. That's amazing. So the reason we've been doing this series is because there has never been a greater time for everyone who's ever harbored any thoughts of in you know, just in any small or big way of being in the movies. What's your one tip for people, especially you know, younger ones that are thinking, oh, what do I do? How do I put myself in the right place for me?
It's making sure you surround yourself with good people. That's probably the biggest thing. So if you've got a good behind you, like you know, obviously I'm the face of everything, but I'm only sitting here because of the people that have back to me to get here. So if you've got people that are supporting you and they're going to do that, that's that's.
What you need. You need to build that team. But also just making stuff.
So you know, even though between before Dawn Walt Disney and then I've got something else happening with Apple TV towards the end of next year, but we've got two feature films we're bringing to wa so we'll kick off pre production for that next year. But in between all that, there could be three or four weeks gap of nothing, or it's just like go film something, you know Instagram, now film something, but be creative with it. You just don't know what's going to happen or who's going to see it. And it's from the short film not their Boots, that I did when I was thirteen or fourteen that I entered into some awards and then met this guy named Jack Thompson.
Of course, you know, I've watched you in that Snowy River movie.
You know, but when you're that young, you don't realize that that small step could lead to something bigger.
So it's just amount of constantly making stuff.
Always beyond yeah, always, You've always got to be working, You've got to be networking and yeah, and like I said, you know, I'm just incredibly grateful and very lucky with the team that I've got that where we've got to now and with the next films that I'm bringing back to wa you know. They one of the conditions was, well, Tho's two conditions. It has to have community involvement. And the second condition is I want to have my team on it, because you guys are investing and wanting to fund this film, but you're not doing it based on me. You're doing it based on the entire film crew and cast that.
Built to the whole family. And maybe a bit of a sit down to be humble, maybe handed industry too. Yeah, yeah, yeah it can be.
And in fact, the people that I get to speak to and I actually decide, yeah, I'm going to cast you or you know you're going to be on set. They're usually the ones that are really humble and to have a bit of a laugh and are in it because they love it, not in it because oh where's this going to get me next?
Good?
Well, Jordan are your body of work already is incredibly impressive, and yet I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you so much for coming in for a chat today, day before Dawn is out on Netflix, Tonight's slush tomorrow, tomorrow. It's your weekend taking care of anyway, so I can't wait to see that.
Thank you so much, no worries, Thanks for you toming me.
I'm looking forward to seeing that. Dot Oto, Yeah yeah, keep an eye out.
